They were so young.
Too young.
Two teenage boys were stabbing wildly at one another, cackling like insane maniacs. Some invisible force kept your eyes from closing, from turning away from the sickening scene.
"You like us."
The three words echoed through every part of your soul.
"You don't get it, do you?"
"You're always gonna be ours! No way you're not."
"You'll get used to it–"
"–And love us back just as much!"
Your mouth flew open to scream but nothing came out. You were robbed of your ability to speak and even move.
"You're no innocent," the smaller of the two cooed in your ear, his teeth bare and razor sharp.
"You're always gonna be ours."
For the second time that week, you woke to the sound of the phone bleeping.
You stretched your body out and tiredly pried your eyes open, your vision slowly coming into focus as your eyes adjusted to the dark.
Your body felt scorching hot and glistened in droplets of sweat. It must have been a terrible nightmare you had, but you couldn't remember what it was about.
The small amount of light from the street lights coming through the window dimly lit your features as you flipped over to glance at the alarm clock standing just beside you, under the window.
2:27 AM.
Who in the world would be calling at this hour?
For a second you kept still, hoping whoever it was would just give up their prank call if you didn't pick up.
But minutes went by and the ringing still hadn't stopped. Hallie didn't wake up as you were fairly certain she was the heaviest sleeper on the campus.
Reluctantly, you pulled the covers off you, dragging yourself slowly out of sleep to lazily stride over to the phone.
You picked up and pressed it to your ear, greeting whoever it was in a mildly pissed off and hoarse voice with your eyelids feeling like they weighed a ton. "Hi...?"
Silence.
You tried again, your eyes drifting closed before you forced them back open. "Hello?"
(Hello?)
Only the echo of your own voice came as response.
A groan erupted from your throat before you pressed 'END CALL'.
Just as you were about to put the telephone back on the stand, it rang again.
You shifted, your eyebrows twitching to narrow. Growing increasingly uneasy and hesitant to pick it up this time, you did so anyway, only to end up getting the exact same result with eerie static coming from their side of the line.
So you repeated the action of hanging up, only to get the phone ringing for a third time.
Thoroughly irritated now, you picked up straight away, not in the mood to play along with whoever it was that decided 2 AM was a good time to get on your nerves. "Listen, asshole–"
"Oh? Is that your way to greet an old friend?"
Squinting your eyes at the gruff voice greeting you, it became increasingly difficult to try deny the goosebumps triggering on your skin.
Keeping your own words moderately low, you didn't hesitate firing the question you wanted answered. "Who am I speaking to?"
"You tell me, doll."
Rolling your puddles of (E/C), you took a peek at the device connected to the phone but you were stunned when it just read 'CALLER ID UNKNOWN'.
"Don't you think it's a bit late for prank calls?" You did zero effort to mask your annoyance as your fingers drummed repeatedly against your thigh.
Nothing but a dark, husky laugh came from the other end that made the very hairs on your body perk up. "What makes you think this is a prank call?
You widened your eyes as your ears cringed. Not for a second did your mind write it off as anything but an innocent joke, but now it definitely didn't come across as such anymore.
It made you start to panic, but you weren't going to show it.
"Why else would you call?" You decided to press, marching over to the bathroom for more privacy. Once inside, you lowered yourself into a crouching position and sat down, pulling your knees to your chest.
Another disturbingly long pause slipped in before the person, definitely a male, made himself known once more in what almost resembled a purr. "Because I wanted to hear your sweet voice again. Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
You roughly dragged your hand over your features, trying your best to ignore the feeling of your stomach tying itself up in a sense of dread.
Removing the phone from your face, your finger once again lingered over the 'END CALL' button. "Okay, buddy. I have to wake up early today so I'm going now–"
But you were stopped abruptly when the person sounded angry more than anything as he snarled venemously. "If you leave you're not gonna wake up, you hear me?!
His threatening words felt like a bucket of icy cold water had just been splashed all over you, sending a shiver up your spine.
Your annoyance alternated with fear, the feeling in your gut forcing you to stay in the call as you slowly brought the device back to your ear.
It almost seemed like whoever it was had this built in personality switch because after absorbing your scared, sharp intake of air, any previous hostility was thrown out of the window and the person returned to their cool demeanor.
You could hear the insane and demented smile plastered on your harasser's face. "How's your boyfriend doing?"
And just like that, any grogginess you still had was smacked straight out of your body.
You were most definitely wide awake now and gripped the phone tighter in your hand, not really knowing what to say, but was no need to because the person calling you took it upon themselves to tease you even further.
All you could do was listen intently to their mocking words that each felt like a hot dagger to the chest.
"Poor thing, you must feel so devastated..." he trailed off. "First Ryan, now Derek. No guy ever stands a chance with you, huh..."
Your heart thundered so loudly you could hear it in your ears as you bit your lip, terrified.
Derek and you had only broken up last night.
At first you were unsure if you'd heard correctly, but there was no need to have the words repeated.
The way the douchebag brought the topic up was as if he knew you well enough to know exactly which words to pick to slowly tear you apart and make you lose your bearings.
"Who..." You stuttered, trying to get some kind of jumbled words out. Your hands started to tremble against your chest.
Swallowing through the prolonged silence that was only broken through heavy breathing, he was patiently waiting for you to talk again. "Are you... The one that killed those students?"
You were unprepared for the honest, stone cold reply that didn't help with keeping your heart rate in check as you swore you'd never heard a voice go that deep and resentful in your entire life.
"No. I'm only gonna tell you this once so listen closely, (Y/N)," the static to his animalistic growl made you shudder, the gruff to it sounding like a rock being dragged over the pavement of a street. "That copycatting bitch is the least of your worries."
*Click*
You stopped breathing. You swore you stopped breathing.
Frozen on the spot and trying to comprehend what you just heard, you didn't realize you were crying until you felt the tears slipping down your neck.
-
Inside of an old large, tiered theatre a rehearsal was in process. Several actors were standing stage center running lines as stagehands worked on the set around them.
You were one of them. You moved around the stage, very animated and more alive than ever though you felt the polar opposite.
You were donning a Russian accent and weren't half bad at it. "Pain, yah, such pain. Pain."
There was an awkward silence as everyone looked at each other.
Finally, Lois, the bitchy sorority girl addressed you firm and sharp. "That's not the line. You jumped."
You pressed your hands to your forehead, laughing under your breath. "Shit. Did I?"
"About a page."
The director called in a five minute pause which you could more than use. You were way too distracted with your thoughts scattered all over the place.
The only thing you could focus on was the call from this early morning.
The actors broke up as you, frustrated, walked across a make shift bridge that took you across the orchestra pit and down the stairs into the house where Hallie sat, waiting.
Your bodyguards were sitting not to far away.
"That was good," she praised.
You kept your expression hard as your lip twitched. "Yeah, right."
The director, a man in his mid 30s, came walking over. "(Y/N), why don't you get outta here? We'll pick this up tomorrow."
You nodded without protest and grabbed your things to head off with Hallie before a familiar voice stopped you.
"(Y/N)?"
You turned around to find Randy moving through one of the aisles, who had been watching the rehearsal. Your chest deflated but you tried not to let it show on your face.
Hallie knitted her brows together. "Who is that guy?"
"It's okay. I'll meet you outside. I've got my entourage," you assured her.
Hallie backed off, heading up the aisle against her better wishes to leave you on your own with Randy.
You deadpanned. "What do you want?"
Randy shoved his hands into the pocket of his jeans. "I'm sorry, (Y/N). I never should have gone along with Gale. I know I'm stupid. I wish I had a good reason to give you but I'm just stupid. Don't be mad at me."
Your annoyance slimmered down over the sincerity in his voice. "You work for her now?"
"Well, yeah... She gave me a job, freelance. It got me outta Woodsboro. Listen, I knew it was a bad idea. I don't wanna make you remember things from... Then."
You looked at him long and hard, a smile slowly creeping on your tired face. "It's okay, Meeks."
Yeah, things between you were okay.
But you weren't.