"AS THE mall's lead custodial engineer, I ensure that all retail establishments come equipped with the StoreSafe 250." Martin led the small group around the mall until they reached GadZooks, where the water guns were kept. Phoenix knew the place, because she once worked there for a few days as a freshman. (she screamed at a customer and got fired, that's when she realized that she wasn't really fit for the horrors of retail.)
"This is the Cadillac of store gates. Now, the 250 prevents your standard smash-and-grab, graffiti, all while complying with the 70% visibility ordinance. Best part..." the man bent down, unlocking and pulling the gate open to let the others inside of the store. "Easy to operate."
Simon leaned closer to Phoenix, watching as Martin grinned at them. "I don't think he's aware that we aren't joking."
"Yeah..." she mumbled in agreement, sightly tilting her head up to look at the tall man. She and Kate were the same height, and she always thought that they were a tad bit too short, but being beside Martin made her feel like she was a bug about to be squished.
"And we can rig them for quick release?" Josh asked, still uncertain.
"Little grease, these things go down faster than a Sunnyvale cheerleader."
Phoenix tried to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing.
"So, Deena is the target now, so the killers will go after Deena's blood just like they did with Sam. And then we use that to lure them into the stores, and then..." Josh waited for Martin to close the gate again to continue.
"Welcome to the clink, motherfucker." Martin pushed the doors down, not missing a beat.
"The killers will be locked up, then it's us versus Goode." Josh smiled proudly. It was a plan that he and Phoenix discussed in the car while she was sitting on Simon's lap.
"OK, sure, awesome, but then what? Like how do we take out Goode?" Deena asked, being her usual pessimistic self.
"Are y'all serious about this?"
Nixie looked at him in the eye. "Dead serious."
"Once they're down, how quickly can we get the gates back open?" Christine questioned Martin, who seemed like he knew about everything about the Shadyside Mall.
"Depends, but—"
Ziggy glanced at Phoenix, as if recognition was flashing in her own eyes. When she finally thought of the perfect idea, she looked at the small group of teens. "We'll Carrie him."
"Why would we carry him?" Simon asked, confused.
"I think she's talking about the movie. Carrie. 1976." Phoenix pointed out, remembering how her father had the tape lying around.
"No, I was taking about the book." Ziggy pointed out with a frown.
"Oh, yeah. The book." Phoenix chuckled, taking Simon's hand away and dragging him into the store where the water-guns were held. "I was more kind of a movie girl."
Ziggy looked like she wanted to say something, hell, she was about to say something and explain why the books were so much better, but the girl disappeared into the store with Simon, already doing their parts of the plan discussed in the car.
But the woman realized something.
Niki liked the movies better, too.
....
"If we had a ton of guns," Simon started out, grabbing the water gun and aiming it at Phoenix as a joke. "The real ones, I mean. If we had those, this would've been so easy."
Phoenix smiled, cocking the empty gun down. The smile on her face died down when she came to a realization: the chance of them dying tonight was extremely high.
The girl looks at Simon, remembering that if she hadn't pulled him away, he would be gone right now. If she hadn't gotten a grip on herself that day with the milkman, she could've been gutted into pieces.
"If this doesn't work, I'm killing everyone in this mall and them myself." Phoenix mumbled, and even though she had meant it as a joke, there was a small part of her that was definitely willing to do this. If Kate died just for nothing, she wasn't sure if she would forgive herself. Hell, she wasn't sure if she would forgive anyone, for that matter.
"Don't worry," Simon mumbled, face now concerned. He took a few steps towards Phoenix and grabbed her hand, "We'll kill him. And Kate would be whacking her shit in heaven, or wherever."
"What if Kate went to hell?" Nixie joked, even though her tone was still flat and sad. It still hasn't caught on to her that Kate, her best friend, was gone.
"Then she'll be cheering us from there too." Simon replied in a knowing tone. His hands grabbed another water gun, a way bigger one, and placed it onto hers. "But for now, we need to kill this pig."
"Try not to get yourself killed, too." Nixie hissed, coking the empty water gun just to see how it felt like.
"Baby, I'm going to live forever."
Almost instantly after he said this, Josh came and scolded the two of them, ushering them to do their work instead of fooling around.
"He's so serious," Simon whispered, walking away from the store. The mall was extremely quiet, much comparable to it's bustling atmosphere they were so used to. "He's the one who hit you with his car."
"I can hear you!"
"I know!"
The two of them laughed, walking away from Josh who looked extremely pissed at the moment.
"I'll go get some stuff," Nixie called out, walking in the opposite direction while Simon did his own thing.
When she was done, Phoenix watched as Christine approached the hanging tree slowly, inhaling and exhaling steadily. She could only imagine how traumatic this must have felt for her— the same tree where her sister and her best friend died.
Suddenly, Deena placed her hand on her shoulder, and she gasped, quickly turning around.
"This is it," Deena whispered, looking up at the hanging tree.
"Yep." Berman agreed with a long exhale and started walking away, leaving Deena and Phoenix alone.
"I seduced this man— I danced down the perfumed path to Death; headed straight for Hell and attempting to take this good man with me."
The girl blinked, taking a few steps away from the tree. The gun was still firm in her hand, she was still in reality, but the voices didn't stop. Her pained voice, how she was sobbing through it: "It was me. It was only me. I forced him to lay with me... I forced him to lay with me."
"Phoenix..." Deena started, still glancing at the tree. "When you were holding that padlock, what did you see?"
The girl looked at Deena. There was this some sort of unspoken thing between them, and none of them talked about the shit that they saw. All Nixie knew was that Sarah Fier was hanged because of Solomon Goode, but Deena didn't know anything about what she saw.
"I was this girl... Natsuko." she mumbled, the name unnaturally foreign in her lips. "She got hanged two days after Sarah Fier."
Phoenix didn't need to mention that it was her lover who had to hang her— it felt kind of like a personal thing she weirdly did not want to tell anyone.
"Hey!" Ziggy called out, throwing the two off their conversation. "You two gonna help me or not?"
Deena gave her a look, most certainly implying that they would talk about this later, and started to walk to one of the stalls to go prep herself.
Phoenix sighed, walking over to the hanging tree where Ziggy was setting the rope up. She wasn't really sure how she was going to help— and the fact that they were underneath the tree where her aunt (who looked exactly like her) died, was making it a whole lot more awkward than it already was.
"So... Carrie, huh? What made you think of that?"she asked awkwardly, leaning on the tree to go tie the rope up. She was too short for the damn tree, so Phoenix had to tiptoe to even hang the rope up.
"I just liked the books," Ziggy mumbled, sounding a bit down.
"Yeah, but there's definitely something wrong with Stephen King." The girl tied the bucket, and kept it close to the ground. "Have you read IT? The man is a weirdo."
Ziggy said nothing. Phoenix stopped attempting to make any kind of conversation after that.
Simon and Josh were busy with Martin, so Nixie had no choice to just sit with Ziggy and wait for everyone to finish. It was even more awkward than it was before, with Ziggy occasionally glancing at her every now and then.
Thank god Deena, Martin, Josh and Simon came back in a matter of minutes with all of the supplies needed, because she was about to blow her own brains off.
The group gathered at the hanging tree ready to discuss who does what and to go over the plan one more time. Eventually, after revising the plan and saying it over and over again, they all came to the conclusion that they were in fact, ready to kill Nick.
"Everyone says Shadyside sucks because it's full of shitty people,"
Phoenix looked up at Deena, who was apparently going to make another speech. She thought it was an absolute waste of time, but, hey, she didn't want to stop her either.
"That bad things happen here because we're bad, that we deserve what we have coming."
Phoenix looked at Simon, who she remembered almost got struck by an axe. She remembers Kate— her dead body in the bread slicer.
"That's how it was for Sarah, and that's how it's been for us."
The girl looks down, not meeting Deena's eyes. That's how it's been for Kate, too.
"But it's all bullshit. Okay, just because we're weird and smart and different doesn't mean they can feed us through their meat grinder. Not anymore."
She could feel Simon's hand slowly pressing hers. If this was a normal situation, she would've slapped it away, but the reminder of Kate's death was enough to break down her walls.
"It's been three centuries. No one else has gotten this far. It stops here...tonight. It stops with us," Deena took in a deep breath. "We're gonna kill this motherfucker.... For Sarah, for Kate..." she glanced at both Phoenix and Simon. The girl bit her lip in the mention of her friend. The voices came back once again. Kate is dead. Kate is dead. Kate is dead.
"For Niki, Cindy and Alice." she glanced at Ziggy, who had her head held down. Finally, she looked at Martin so that the man could feel included. "For all of us. For Shadyside. Now let's do this."
Somewhat motivated by the speech, the small group immediately sprung into action. Simon ran over to the back of the restaurant to fill a bunch of buckets with water, while Phoenix and Ziggy ran to a store to grab a bunch of knives to protect themselves, and a bigger knife for Deena. Everyone crouched around the girl while she cut deep into her hand and drew blood into the water.
"Simon and I can take care of the blood and the guns. You guys set up the traps." Phoenix said, running over towards the nearest store to grab the liquid that would make her blood glow. For some reason, she didn't want to take him off her sight— maybe it was because the images that still continued to hunt her till now.
The two worked in silence, filling the water guns so they would be ready when Goode showed up. It was a simple task, and it didn't take too much time, which led to the next thing they have to do— insult the hell out of Sheriff Goode.
Of course, Deena told them to stick to the original stuff— Goode is Evil, Suck it Goode, Psycho, but the two teens decided to have more fun. It wouldn't hurt anyone, right?
"Sheriff Goode has a small dick?" Nixie questioned, trying to hide the chuckle in her voice as she read what Simon wrote on the floor.
"Beat that," he smiled proudly, looking at his creation. Matin had already shut the lights off so they could see every single thing that was written.
Phoenix pointed towards the other side of the mall, where clad in capital letters were the words:
SHERIFF GOODE GETS NO BITCHES!
The bell to the front door suddenly rung, which was an indication that someone had entered the mall. Phoenix, with wide eyes, grabbed Simon's hand and dragged him over the counter, trying to keep quiet as they waited for whoever it was to show.
It was game time.