MAYBE KNIVES WEREN'T THE BEST IDEA. Phoenix took the small ones and placed them in her pockets (despite knowing that this was a terrible idea and that she might accidentally stab her thighs, she didn't have any other choice) and held a long, butcher knife in her right hand.
She put another piece of chocolate in her mouth in an attempt to stop her hands from shaking. The glass windows in front of her were so wide that she could see every single thing coming from the front of the store, but the fact that someone might come any moment freaked her out.
You'll be okay, she reminded herself, taking in a few deep breaths. Sam is dying. Sam is dying. You'll be okay.
As she went to grab another piece of chocolate, a loud shuffling suddenly echoed throughout the room.
Peeking over one of the counters, her eyes widened when she sees nothing. That was definitely not a good sign.
Instead of freezing, Nixie walked further, now in front of one of the stock rooms. She knows the place like the back of her hand, at it was only now when she realized that there was an extra door that they always kept open in the back.
Phoenix just prayed to God that someone had shut it closed before they entered.
Her foot kicked something round, hollow, something which rolled away into the shadows. But she didn't care.
The door was open.
The sound of an ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the small area. It was the kind of scream that the ears just ignores but instead hits you right in the heart.
Kate.
As she was about to sprint to her friend, there was a sound. Someone was humming. Not singing, humming.
None of the killers they've encountered hummed.
The girl immediately went to her feet, running towards the exit of the storage room. Nixie couldn't tell where the steps were coming from. She quickened her pace, but the ground was uneven and she stumbled, crashing to the ground.
"Fuck." she mumbled to herself, letting a soft curse at the fact that the knives she stored in her pocket, in fact, wounded her thigh like she thought it would.
As she stood up, she started to run as limp as she could, ignoring the footsteps that were growing louder. Another creak, another shuffle, just down the corridor. Now only seconds away.
The moment she found the exit to the doors and just when she thought she was finally free, a man, his face disfigured, grabbed her by her shoulders and slammed her against a wall with so much brute force that she was sure her head was left bleeding.
The butcher knife fell down on the floor below her.
For fatal seconds, she stared, unable to think or move. And as she faltered, the jaws of the trap closed around her.
"No!" she screamed, thrashing around him as the man gripped her tighter. His deformed face slowly turned into a small smile as he put his face against her neck, licking her like he was some wild dog.
Her hands made it's way down to her pockets, grabbing the small knife she had stored. However, before she could do it, the man wrapped his disfigured hands around her neck.
His fingers curl around her neck, pressing, closing. The man's eyes burned with emptiness and anger as her lungs burn with pain. The long. skinny fingers felt like tendrils around her neck.
Her mouth falls open, a strangled scream leaving her. Do something. Do something. Phoenix tried digging her fingernails into his wrists, trying to dislodge him, but the man was too strong.
For a small moment, that was it for her. Combined with the blood-curling screams of her best friend that echoed and the pleads that came out of hers, she thought that this might be just it. Maybe this was how it was supposed to end all along. Maybe this was what she deserved for being a bitch to everyone but herself. To die alone in a storage room, crying and cold.
But maybe she deserved something more. Maybe, just maybe, she deserved something else... a date with Simon in her favorite pizza place. A girl's night with Deena and Kate, stuffing their mouths with donuts until they puked. To experience the moment when she finally moves out of Shadyside. Maybe a career in boxing. A boring desk job. A family of her own.
She didn't care what the future held for her, but there was one certain thing: she wasn't going to die tonight. Not in the hands of a pervy milkman, or the Camp Nightwing killer, or Ruby Lane, or Ryan Torres.
She wasn't going to die tonight.
Phoenix continued to gasp, getting a final sense of herself as she kicked him in his private parts the moment she saw him draw out a small knife. The girl doubted that he felt anything that bad, but time is crucial. Even the smallest distractions could save her life.
As the man regained himself, the butcher's knife was already in her hand.
And with the loudest yell, she had chopped the hand that held the knife off.
"Fuck. You!" she screamed, walking closer to chop his other hand away from his disfigured body. Black blood spurted on her shirt, but she immediately chose to run the other way, the butcher's knife heavy on her hand.
Kate had stopped screaming.
Phoenix limped forwards, struggling to run with her deep thigh wound until Simon appeared out of one of the storage rooms, his eyes wide in fear.
"Come on!" he wasted no time, grabbing her as he sprinted towards the other direction and to the place where Kate's screams had last echoed. "Go! She's right behind me."
With her right hand still carrying the butcher's knife, and her left hand wrapped against Simon's, Phoenix sprinted beside him. Every time her foot hit the ground it felt like she was reliving the sensation of a knife being struck at her thigh, but she didn't care. Kate was in danger and she was her whole world, so it was time to run like it was the only thing she knew how to do.
As the two of them slowed down, Phoenix let out a frightened gasp at the sight that stood in front of her.
They were too late.
Kate's head had been sliced up in the bread slicer, and there was blood dripping out of every corner of the machine. The same person who was braiding her hair the other day. The same person who let her cheat off their exams: dead. Gone. Sliced into pieces.
Before they could properly digest the scene, Nixie heard something. Stomping. Growing louder and louder.
The girl quickly pulled Simon over towards the left, the boy dodging it at the last second.
As the Camp Nightwing killer recovered from the failed attempt of killing both of them, he started running over towards Kate, who was already dead and started axing the spot on her chest where the big "X" was marked.
The shirt. Only the shirt has blood.
"Simon, remove your shirt! The blood! The blood is on the shirt!" she yelled once they've started sprinting once more, throwing the weapon away. How didn't I think of this earlier?
When they were away from the Camp Nightwing killer, Phoenix leaned on the fridge, shrugging her t-shirt that contained Sam's blood.
Unlike Simon's thick sweater, hers was completely different.
While there were no more traces of blood on him, but her chest was still slightly stained with the faintest bit of red.
"Fuck. No, no, no, no," Simon mumbled to himself the moment he sees Ruby Lane and the Milkman advancing towards the two of them. They were slow, extremely slow, but he knew that even though Phoenix tried spitting on her chest to get rid of the blood residue, the smallest particles were still gonna be there. "There's another one?"
"Yeah. That psycho kept on licking me." Phoenix replies, still panicking.
"Shit," she mumbles after a small moment, her brain desperately trying to search for more ideas. "Simon. Throw our shirts into the other aisle."
Doing as she says so, the boy grabbed his blue sweater and her black shirt, throwing it as far as he could.
In a split second, the two killers advancing after them stopped moving. She thought the idea was genius, that they would go after the discarded clothes ... but she was absolutely wrong.
"Shit. Shitshitshitshit." The curse words were coming from her mouth repeatedly until she was struck by another idea.
Grabbing the three tiny knives in her pocket, she handed one over to Simon and kept two to herself. It was her who they were trying to kill, anyway.
"You need to hurt the hand that they use to carry a weapon," Phoenix instructed, holding the two knives tightly. "I'll take Ruby. Take the Milkman."
They stood against themselves, backs turned on each other, as they waited for the two killers to come near them. Phoenix felt like her heart was about to explode in a million pieces as the Ruby Lane started to sing once again, whilst the Milkman kept on humming a familiar tone.
They were growing closer... and closer... and closer.
Just as the two teenagers were about to attack, Ruby Lane and the Milkman disappeared into thin air.
"Help me! Go get the EpiPens!"
Simon and Phoenix stood frozen in the spot, knives dropped to the floor. There was a hysterical and terrified look on his face when Phoenix took his face firmly into her hands, clamping her eyes shut as she placed her forehead against his.
She was almost shaken off by Simon's vigorous quivering and she distantly registered that there were tears streaming down her own face too, but she didn't care because it was over. Kate was dead. They were both breaking, crying and sobbing against each other at the loss of their friend.
All she could do was pull his face into the crook of her neck and place firm close-lipped kisses on his head while the two of them sobbed and trembled, the sight of Kate still fresh in their minds.
Somewhere in the store, Josh and Deena were trying to revive Sam. But neither of them cared— Phoenix and Simon held each other on the bloody floor, each of them letting out a cry of anguish that would make someones spine feel oddly cold. It's such an animal sound, like a wounded canine.
But it didn't matter. It hurt. Everything hurt.
Because just like that, the girl who's smiles radiated like the sun, the girl who's contagious laughter always filled the air around them, was gone.
—
AUTHORS NOTE:
also, i know that the milkman wasn't humming in the series??? its just a thing i made up lol. the song at the top is what i imagined for the milkman to be humming
rip kate she was my favorite character 😭 the main reason why being that i relate a lot to her character and i see myself in her so :( rip
anyways, i couldnt get myself to kill simon oops but :( writing their reactions to kate's death hurt me so much