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chapter 4: ( sarah fier's failed lullaby )
❝ insane in the membrane, insane in the brain ❞
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They retreated back to Deena and Josh's house, making sure everything was locked and the curtains were closed. Beckham was pacing back and forth, not wanting to accept what she saw. This was the one time she wanted to be wrong about something.
"It was her. It was fucking her," she stated.
"Who," Sam questioned.
"That bitch that attacked us! That was Ruby Lane."
"What? That's impossible," Josh interjected. "She died like 30 years ago."
"Then, she's a fucking zombie, I don't know! But that was definitely her." Beckham plopped down on the couch, Simon following. While continuing their discussion, she used the appliances on the table to tend Simon's cut on his ankle.
"It doesn't make sense. It's not possible. Bullets didn't stop her," Sam chimed.
"Amazing observation," Kate replied hastily. "Why the fuck would you two go up to her?"
"I don't know," Simon exclaimed. "The bitch seemed normal! She was kind of hot too!" They looked at Beckham for her reaction, who simply shrugged.
"She was pretty hot."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but normal bitches don't bleed black fucking blood," Deena shouted back.
Beckham stood up after wrapping the gauze around his ankle. "And normal bitches don't just come back to life! That was Ruby fucking Lane and you guys said the killer at the hospital was Ryan Torres, who is also supposed to be dead. Coincidence? I think not!"
"Okay, okay, what did the girl look like," Kate cut in.
"Well, I already said hot. She had this scar over her eye and— I don't know, man! It was hard to tell while she was waving her fucking razor blade in my face," exasperated Simon.
Josh looked up like the puzzle was coming together. "A razor?"
"Yeah, for like old-timey shaving, or in this case, I guess, slashing her—"
"Wrists," Josh and Beckham finished and looked at each other. "She slashed her wrists," he said. "Was she singing something? Was she singing a song, like an oldie song?"
"Jesus, Rain Man. How the fuck do you know that?"
They moved down to the basement where Josh's room was and immediately took notice of the newspaper clippings and written notes hung up together, almost like an investigation board. He ripped off one of the articles to show them.
"Holy shit, that's her." Simon leaned down to look at the photo.
"That's Ruby Lane. She sang as she murdered her boyfriend, her friends, then she killed herself. Slashed her wrists," Josh informed.
Beckham slammed her hand on the table. "I fucking told you, no one believes me!"
Josh went back to his wall and pulled out more articles from various newspapers, laying them out for them to examine. "Ruby is one of Shadyside's killers, just like Skull Mask. I mean, Ryan Torres. Look, 1978. Sixteen years ago. 'Masked psycho murders kids at—'"
"Camp Nightwing," Kate finished. "Yeah, my mom's sister was there. That screwed my family up for a long time." They turned towards Beckham who went quiet at the mention of the massacre.
"Yeah, my mom was there too. She was one of the few that made it out." Simon had grabbed her hand under the table, squeezing it comfortingly as Josh continued.
"1950, Harry Rooker, local milkman slashed a bunch of housewives. 1935, Humpty Dumpty Killer. 1922, Billy Barker. 1904, Grifter guts girls, and on and on. It happens in Shadyside over and over. Normal people turn into psychos."
Simon looked down at one of the drawings of an older man with black eyes that resembled a bottomless pit. "Jesus. Look at this guy."
"That's the pastor, Cyrus Miller. 1666. He was the first one recorded."
Beckham took the drawing in her hands, staring down at it with mild horror. "I've seen him before. When I was younger, I used to have nightmares about him. He'd be in some sort of church and lured kids in to—"
"Cut out their eyes," Josh confirmed solemnly. Sam suddenly stood up and walked out, Deena following, as Beckham looked at him through her blurred vision and back at the drawing.
"The nightmares only stopped two years ago, but sometimes I think I can still hear him at night. It's like he'd whisper this incantation or something. Do you know what happened to him?"
"The towns folks found out what he did and he was killed. That's all they wrote down. But none of this is random. It's Sarah Fier." Upon hearing her name, their heads snapped up. "She's turning Shadysiders into killers."
"Do you really believe that," Kate questioned. "No one actually thinks that this witch shit is real." She glanced at Beckham who was staring down at the table with deep thought.
"Yeah, it's something babysitters make up to scare kids," Simon agreed, not wanting to believe it either.
"No, no. Just listen to me," Josh instructed. "1666. Sarah Fier was hanged for witchcraft, fact. But ever since she was executed, she's been possessing people, turning them into killers, to take revenge on the town."
"It's like the nursery rhyme," Simon pointed out. "'Before the witch's final breath, she found a way to cheat her death. By cutting off her cursed hand, she kept her grip upon our land. She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves.'"
"Yes, exactly. Don't you see what's happening to us? This is all proof. Shadyside isn't just some hotbed for psychos. All these massacres are connected to Sarah Fier. The witch's curse is real!"
Beckham shook her head while looking through the pages from 1666. "No, my mom, she kept this diary from one of my ancestors or whatever. But she knew Sarah, they were friends. I only skimmed over it, but she said Sarah wouldn't do anything like that. I don't know everything though." Josh seemed more interested in the new evidence, but there was no time to ask more about it.
"Fine. Let's assume that the witch has been possessing people for some sort of messed up vendetta. This isn't the same as the mall massacre. Something different is happening to us," Kate stated. "Something way worse. Okay, we have two of her killers after us and both of them are dead. Why is she so mad at us?"
"I saw her." The four teens looked up at the new voice. They looked up to see Sam and Deena standing at the doorway. "Last night, I don't...I don't know how, you know. I thought I hit my head. It was her. I saw the witch."
They devised a plan to go back to the sight of the car crash, where Sam first had a vision of the witch. They hoped that they could find some sort of clue to why they were being hunted or why Sam seemed to be the center of it all. Kate drove the ambulance to the woods again as everyone sat in the back. Deena and Sam were huddled together while Josh sat in the corner, handling all the equipment.
Beckham and Simon sat across from them in silence, rather finding comfort in each other's presence and touch at the moment.
"Sorry for not believing you before about the whole witch's curse," he said quietly. "I didn't think we'd be tied into this shit."
"It's fine. Not exactly how I imagined our weekend to go either," she chortled half-heartedly. "I really hope this all ends soon so we can go back to our crappy lives. I have an English report due Monday."
This time, Simon let out a tiny laugh. "That's the least of our worries right now. After this, I want to take you out to one of those fancy restaurants and we can celebrate the fact we survived."
"Is your idea of a fancy restaurant Burger King?"
He looked down at her to see the vivid smile on her face. "What do you think?"
Beckham quietly giggled while laying her head on his shoulder. She didn't want to say it out loud, but she was scared. She was scared that they wouldn't be able to figure out why the killers were after them, or why Sam saw the witch, or perhaps when they figured it all out, it'll be too late. There was nothing that feared her more than losing one of her friends. She couldn't live without them.
✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
Being in the woods now felt more terrifying than before. This time, they knew something was hiding amongst the trees in the dark and could come out at any given second. Their flashlights could only go out so far and the killers showed no mercy.
Beckham held one of the flashlights as they walked towards the crashed car.
"Okay, so I fell out of the car here." Sam got down to recreate what had happened. "I was crawling and my nose was bleeding. And then...I feel something." Her hand sunk into the leaves where they heard a metal clink. She pulled on it to reveal chains. She kept pulling until they came across a large lock.
Josh held it up to the light. "Fier. It's her. It's her grave."
"Oh no. No, no. This is bad! This is really bad!" Simon slowly backed away as Beckham set her hand on his shoulder to calm him.
"No wonder the witch is pissed at us. I'd be pissed too," Kate scolded. "Sam disturbed her grave."
"Now she's sending her henchmen after us," Josh sighed.
"Henchmen," Beckham repeated. "As in every one of those sickos on your wall is coming after us?"
He didn't answer when they heard a twig snap in the distance. "Did you hear that?" But when they looked out, there was nothing but stillness.
"Hold up. Hold up. She's mad because we disturbed her grave, right? So, let's un-disturb it," Simon proposed. "Just put the bones back, rebirth them, and put her to rest!"
"No, that's so stupid," Deena objected.
"That's genius," Josh considered.
"Yeah! In 'Poltergeist'!—" More twigs snapped making them gasp and turn back.
"Okay, let's just 'Poltergeist' Sarah, sing a lullaby, then get the hell out of here," concluded Beckham.
While they used a letterman jacket to wrap Sarah Feir's bones, Josh kept lookout. They worked quickly and messily as they started to cover up the jacket and bones with the leaves once more. Sam stood a few feet away, looking dazed as her nose began bleeding again.
"There, there." Simon leaned into the ground, patting it twice. "We're sorry."
"Did it work," Kate asked. There was no way of telling as they were met with the same silence. She looked at Josh and shouted, "Did it work?"
Heavy footsteps quickened towards them and the killer emerged from the woods, running straight at them. They quickly ran away back to the ambulance with the killer hot on their trail. He swung his axe once, hitting the window of the wrecked car which gave them more time to start the engine. Once everyone was inside, Beckham and Simon closed the doors and Kate drove off. Looking out the window, he stood in the middle of the road, not bothering to chase after them.
"That was the Camp Nightwing Killer," Josh announced. Beckham felt her face pale at the mention of the man that nearly killed her mom 16 years ago.
"That was a bust," badgered Kate.
"Yeah, maybe because it's not like the movies, okay?" Deena grabbed a cloth and handed it to Sam for her nose. "It's not as easy as putting bones to rest!"
"It should've worked. It always works," Simon exclaimed.
"Maybe it's her missing hand," Josh guessed. Beckham would've added on if she weren't cut off by Kate.
"Who gives a shit? It doesn't matter. Hey, how do I not die?"
"We! How do we not die! And I'm looking at you, witch nerd!" Simon pointed to Josh.
"I don't know!"
"They're not coming for us," Sam exclaimed over the chaos. "They're coming for me. I saw her again. The witch. She...I disturbed her grave. She wants me."
Josh nodded at sudden realization. "Yeah. Nightwing ran right by me. I jumped out of his way, it was like he didn't even see me. He went for her."
"Guys, no! Ruby attacked Simon and Beck," Deena recalled. "Skull Mask came after us at home. And while you guys were babysitting!"
Beckham shook her head as she finally pieced it together. "No, he didn't. Skull Mask didn't care about us. He wanted this." She zipped down Simon's sweater to reveal the white stained shirt. "Sam's blood."
"Yeah! From the crash when Sam puked period," Simon agreed. "It's 'Jaws', dude! A shark smelling blood! Beck's right! When we found Skeletor, he was all sniffy and weird with my shirt like a perv in a pantie shop!"
"Yeah, but he came to our house too," Deena argued.
Beckham's eyes fell to her white shoes where the toes were painted with red. "Deena..."
"Sam bled on her bones, now the witch wants more of her blood," Simon explained.
"Okay, so what do they do in 'Jaws'," asked Sam.
"Well, I'm pretty sure they didn't go skinny dipping with the goddamn bait," Kate snapped.
"She's not bait," Deena defended, but Josh had other ideas.
"Yeah. She is. Seriously, if we're right and they're after her, let's give these assholes what they want."