Screaming ↣ Billy Loomis/Scream

0.2 >> the first casualties

Erin's electronic clock is flashing 1:53 AM, and we have ultimately disregarded it. I haven't had this much fun in a long time, and we were in a circle in our change of pajamas. They had easily forgotten that I had just made out with her brother, which I was thankful for, and I prayed I wouldn't be harassed about it for the rest of the week. I looked in Erin's full body mirror, pulling up my frizzed brown hair into a loose bun, falling back onto the twin mattress she had pulled out for me and Nic. All of a sudden, Erin's cell starts ringing. After she picks it up, after a few seconds on the line, she looks me in the eye. "Dae, it's for you." I knew it was serious, because Nic and her only use 'Dae' when they're trying to sugarcoat something.

"Dana? Sweetie? Is that you?" My uncle Brian says. I'm going to be living with him and my aunt Jen since my previous living arrangements were... changed. I can hear my aunt crying in the backround. I almost become drop dead sober. 

"Yeah, it's me. Is everything okay?" I say, concernedly. "Why is Jen crying?"

"Well... no. No it isn't." I can hear him choke up. "Goddamn, I don't know how to even say this."

"Just tell me." I clutch the cell harder. 

"We found Casey... Gutted and-- and hanging from a tree. As well as her boyfriend on the patio. All they found was a mask. They're... They're gone." He sputters out. I drop the phone. He's joking. He can't be serious. I scramble to pick the phone back up give a shallow 'bye' and start choking out a sob. No. Not her. 

"Ohmygod." I cry out, still giving sobs I can hardly breathe through. Erin and Nicolle quickly stand up, Rushing to my side. Erin takes my hand and Nicolle has her hand on my shoulder, giving me a hardened and questioning expression. "Not her, not her not her!"

"What happened!?" Erin raises her voice as I fall back, now on the floor. Gutted. Hung from a tree. My innocent cousin, Casey. 

"C-Casey! She's fucking dead!" I say, as the room goes silent. They wrap their arms around me, and we're all laying on the floor now. 

"We need to get you home, and none of us are in any condition to drive." Nicolle says. Erin tells her to get Billy, and he can drive us. Moments later, him and Nic re-enter the room, as Billy jingles his keys as to say 'let's go'. I get up, but my legs are jello, and I'm still sobbing my eyes out. I grab my hoodie and pull it on over my tank top, and wrap an arm around Erin. Shes rubbing my back and lifting me up, and I can feel everything around me shattering. I hardly even remember getting into the backseat of the car and driving in silence, like a death sentence.

All the while, a harsh reality set into me like knives in my back. I was never going to talk to Casey, or laugh with her, or go shopping with her or rant to her ever again. She was dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once we get back to my uncle & aunts house, there are cop cars surrounding it and two body bags being hauled into an ambulace. I cover my mouth, knowing one of them is her. in looking down, and I almost trip into the grass. The grass is stained with a trail of blood. Her blood. I run up to my uncle and aunt, hugging them. The three of us are a gross mound of tears and sweat, and a police officer came up to us and started questioning us.

My uncle confirmed that they had just gotten home, and yes, I had been at Erins, and no, we had no idea of who might be connected to the crime. Billy and Erin are side by side just looking at the scene in shock, then looking back at eachother, and Nicolle is by my side, giving me a side hug every time I start up crying again. Am I going to go back to Erin's? Am I gonna stay at the place where my cousin was just murdered? As if to know exactly what my blank stare and agape mouth are indicating, Erin comes up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, you're staying with us." She says. My uncle and aunt explain they're gonna head out of town for the night to stay with my Gramps & Grandma, and I nod. We pile back into the car, and I end up falling asleep on Erin's lap.