When Gale came to, her vision was still foggy. The first thing she felt was duct tape covering her mouth, as well as around her wrists that were tied behind the chair she was sitting on.
"Hey look, Stu. Seems like our old pal Gale is finally awake. Took her damn long enough."
She grimaced at the sound of the all too familiar voice.
"You're right Billy," Stu bent over, snickering as his mouth formed into shit eating grin when Gale jerked her head away from them. "Sleeping beauty looks like she really wanna say something, eeh?"
She closed and reopened her eyes a couple of times to get rid of the daze, just as Stu ripped the tape from her mouth in one go.
"You two little fuckers," was the very first thing Gale spat at them without hesitation, her frustrated words sounding as sharp as the knife Billy was carrying.
An arm was thrown around her shoulders, pulling her close as Billy thumped her on the shoulder with his free hand, tutting at her. "No need to be a bitch. We're all friends here, ain't we?"
"Oh, really?" Gale challenged sarcastically, looking at Billy whose lips morphed into a slow, pleased smile before she turned back to Stu and spat straight into his face.
He staggered away, wiping his face with his sleeve in disgust as the sadistic amusement was smacked clean off. "What the fuck? She fucking spat at me!"
"We only need you alive," Billy scowled before his fist connected with Gale's stomach so hard she went down to the ground with a shriek of pain. "Doesn't matter what state you're in."
"I'm not scared of you, you deranged Johnny Depp look-a-like," Gale chided, brave enough to meet the eyes of the man who has a clear lack of morals and unaware that all she was doing was digging herself a deeper hole.
Stu's face reddened as he smacked his hand against his forehead and burst into an uncontrollable fit of cackles.
"Johnny Depp look-a-like," Stu repeated amusedly, still chuckling to himself. "She's got you there, Billy."
Billy however was completely calm, unusually so, which made him all the more frightening. Billy's fingers twitched for action, wanting nothing more than to satisfy his deadly needs.
Stu knew the girl was in deep shit but Gale herself didn't, not until Billy's smile changed into a murderous sneer as he started kicking her repeatedly in the stomach.
"You've never learned when to keep quiet, you stupid–"
*kick*
"–annoying,"
*kick*
"–slut!"
Gale's mouth, on a rare occasion, snapped shut and her brows scrunched together in agony as she coughed and spluttered on the floor, semi-conscious.
Billy's demeanor went straight back to keeping cool and collected again as he ran his fingers through his hair while still looking bothered with that firm line between his brows.
Stu on the other hand just hopped onto the countertop, letting his chin rest on top of his fist as he watched on like this was his favourite television show.
Billy, still towering over Gale, gave her a disgusted glance from where she was lying.
His brown eyes shimmered as if something just struck him before he proceeded to cruelly taunt her, asking a question he already knew the answer to as his face broke out into an evil, bitter smirk. "Where's Deputy Douchebag? Not here to protect you this time 'round, huh?"
She just about had it with these two. The mention of Dewey was more brutal than the beating he just gave her, and hit her right where it hurt.
However Gale, being the fierce fighter she was, wasn't going to budge so easily.
Blood pooled from her mouth and nose as she tried to turn herself around, but Stu kept her in her uncomfortable position with his foot.
He laughed and bent over from where he was sitting, poking away at her small head from his perspective. "Gale caring about someone that's not herself? I didn't think I'd see the day."
She rapidly blinked in denial. "Shut up, freak! You're more stupid than I thought if you think this is gonna win (Y/N) over."
The smile creeping its way on Billy's lips looked anything but happy, it looked manic. He lifted the knife he'd been holding up to his mouth.
"You see, Gale..." Billy growled, the tip of the blade brushing against his lower lip while he stared at her with death in his eyes. "You won't live long enough to know."
-
"Hi, you reached the machine. Leave a message."
"Gale, this is the seventh time I've called. Please pick up," you heaved a sigh. Her absence for the entire day had your insides twisting painfully hard in worry.
You werr sitting in Kincaid's office, had been for nearly two hours now, flipping through the folder that had your name neatly written on it. It was filled to the brim with news articles and police reports, all about you.
Basically a scrapbook of obsession, there were even little hearts drawn around your picture.
But you were rudely awakened from your day dreaming by the sound of the phone ringing.
Hoping it to be Gale you picked it up, pressing the horn against the side of your face, only to get bitter disappointment in return. "Hello?"
(Hello?)
"Who is this?"
(Who is this?)
The only thing you got was your own voice echoeing eerily through the other end.
"Gale, uhm, if it's you... Call me back, please. I can only hear myself," you muttered into the speaker before you heard a click, followed by the unsettling sound of deep and heavy breathing.
*Click*
"I only hear you too, (Y/N)."
You shrunk back into your seat at the sharp tone. "Who is this?"
"The question isn't who I am. The question is, who's with me?"
Your face instantly flooded with fear when you heard Gale's bloodcurdling screams in the background, followed by Roman's angry and pained yelling.
You shot to your feet and rushed towards the office door before the voice drew you back, the angry and warning tone to his voice making your stomach drop. "Don't do it! If you do one thing to attract attention, ONE thing, I'll drive my knife so deep into their necks you'll feel it from there. Now, tell me if you have a place where we can be alone?"
You managed to unfreeze yourself, gazing into the direction of the inner office. "Yes."
"Go there."
Hesitantly, you followed his order and took uncertain steps forward until you closed the door behind you, feeling trapped inside the room despite being the only one in it.
It fell silent on the other end of the phone, and after a moment the distorted voice came through. "Always hard being friends with you, isn't it? When you're friends with (Y/N), you die. But these friends don't have to end up with their guts strung up around a tree. The decision's up to you."
It surprised you just how devastatingly cruel he could be with his words.
You were trying with everything you could to keep a tight on your boiling anger so you didn't dare show him how much this was shattering you.
Blinking away the images in your head of all the people you'd lost, you tried to ignore the guilt eating away at you while keeping your voice as steady as you could. "How do I know their voices are–"
"Are real?" He goaded with that insidious tone you'd gotten so familiar with. "How do you know you're not hearing things? How do you know I'm not someone in your head? You just know. Do you wanna take the risk?"
Your stomach only sank further when your ears picked up Roman shouting your name, begging you not to go there before he got hit into silence.
"Roman!" Gale's voice echoed, sounding as if she was in agony herself.
"You're dead, Billy! Just stop this!" Your voice was laced with a slimmering anger that sounded like it was ready to boil over at any moment, but the threat was an empty one and you knew he knew this too.
It was pointless really, because telling Billy to stop being a maniac was like telling a tornado to stop blowing.
The deep laugh revebrating through the line hit your senses hard at the same time that Ghostface's dark promise sent a shudder down your spine.
"I don't want them, sweetheart. I want you..." he declared. "It's simple. You show yourself, they survive, you run, they DIE. So, how about it?"
You recoiled back from the volume of his cold, inhuman voice. Knowing Billy, the two would die either way, but it was your decision to willingly throw yourself into the lion's den in an attempt to save them.
Your heart cowered in your chest when the voice lowered an octave. "Don't you want to know more about your mother?"
What right did he have to speak about your mom? And what did he know about her that you didn't?
This was the same guy you declared your love to.
The same guy that you shared a bed with just days ago.
And the same guy that comforted you when you needed it the most.
It was hard to remind yourself what kind of heartless bastard Billy could be when nearly everything you saw in him made your heart melt.
Your frustrations were getting harder to control and you had so many emotions mixing together as you forced away the massive lump in your throat that made it hard to talk. "Where?"
"I'll call you when you're on your way. See you soon, (Y/N)."
That was the last thing you heard before the call ended, and you pulled the device from your ear to blankly stare down at it with your mouth dropped, forgetting what oxygen even was.
Once the static in your brain had cleared and it registered the fact both Gale and Roman had been taken hostage by your lovers no less, you resisted the urge to throw the damn thing and broke down crying. "Fuck!"
Your thoughts were a jumbled mess from how conflicted and hurt you were feeling.
You set the device back on the table and yanked open one of Kincaid's drawers, taking the liberty to dig around in it until you pulled out a fully loaded handgun.
It was time to visit some old friends.