CHAPTER FOUR
"expect the opposite."
JULIET HAD BEEN called dramatic. She'd been called an attention-seeker, a crybaby, a wimp. She'd been called everything meaning soft, a person who couldn't handle any form of unpleasant information. She could handle information; sure, she cried more than the average person, but she was an eighteen-year-old girl. She was allowed to cry.
However, due to the context of the situation, the girl's emotions were valid. She'd survived a psycho killer, the fifth of it's kind. The individual behind the mask was one of her friends, her best friend, which would forever leave an imprinted scar on the surface of her heart. The betrayal of a person in your teenage years, the years of growth and love, distorts the rest of your life.
She'd never had the feeling of the chase, thinking that in said moment, the moment they were running from a moving knife, they might not breathe again. They might not see someone else again, see themselves, or the pictures in their room, or the mascara on their desk. She'd had a knife pressed against her skin, the line on her upper arm shining bright on her tanned tone, but never the chase - and she never wanted to have to.
Now, however, as the girl sat on her bed, one shoe off and one shoe on, she realised she never had that choice. Her destiny was fate, it was planned, and it just so happened to land in the hands of another killer - one she most likely knew. That's what she hated the most about Ghostface, she always knew who it was. This time she didn't want to know.
She sighed, falling back on her bed. She was supposed to be meeting her friends at the college, Mindy having organised a get together in order to plan for the unhelpfully tragic event they were walking into. She knew her horror genre like the back of her hand, just like Juliet knew her way to the library and flower stalls, but that didn't help. It would never help.
After a minute or two of lying on her sheets, debating on whether or not to drop everything and run away or genuinely try to survive what was coming, she slipped her other shoe on and left the apartment. She didn't care that Tara, Quinn and Sam had already left, even if she was a bit scared of walking alone in the New York streets knowing a killer could be lurking around every corner. Someone else was, which she found out when she finally arrived at the gardens.
"So, what, you just left?" Ethan exasperated, a hand running stressfully through his hair as he stared at the three girls sitting on the bench.
"She'll be fine-"
"Yeah, that's what everyone says! Most of the time, they never show up," he argued, eyes scanning their surroundings in hope of catching sight of the girl.
"He's got a point," Mindy shrugged as she pushed herself to a stand beside the boy. Sam and Tara glared at her while Quinn continued to admire the trees behind them. "C'mon, we've been through this before. Never leave someone alone, guys!"
"I'm fine," Juliet said as she walked up to the group with a soft smile, watching as Ethan turned around with wide eyes. He visibly relaxed, his tenseness disappearing as his frantic searching calmed to a stop. "But, yeah, I don't wanna walk alone anymore if this killer's for real."
She walked towards the bricked garden, sitting on the edge with a sigh. "I'm sorry," Tara whispered as she softly grabbed the girl's wrist, running her finger down it with an apologetic smile.
"Don't be," Juliet beamed, cheeks lighting up in the sun. "It's not your fault I took so long."
Tara nodded, her smile holding firm, before she glanced away to the girl standing in front of them all. Ethan sat down beside Juliet, his hand dangerously close to her's on the bricks, as he quickly scanned her face. "You're not hurt, are you?" He asked worriedly. She turned to him with raised brows.
"No, no, I'm fine. Please, stop worrying," she laughed lightly as Mindy spoke in the background. She quickly glanced down, noticing his hand lying flat against the exposed brick, so, with a silent yet deep breath in, she plastered on a smile and placed her hand on his. Suddenly, she didn't have to think about smiling, because it was real. So was his, as moved to look down with blushed cheeks.
"Hello," Mindy sang, Ethan and Juliet looking up alarmingly to see everyone's eyes on them. "This is not the time to realise you're in love, so snap out of it!"
If it were even possible, the two young adults blushed even more, Juliet letting out a quiet laugh as she pushed her head into Ethan's shoulder in an attempt to hide herself away. Once again, the boy looked down at her with wide eyes, the girl not noticing as she focused back in on Mindy conveying her arguments. The boy glanced up, meeting Chad's eye with flaming cheeks, smiling when the older boy sent him a sly wink and threw his thumb up.
"Alright, as I was saying, the way I see it, someone is out to make a sequel to the requel," Mindy explained passionately.
Anika raised her hand with a hum. "What's a requel?"
"You're beautiful, sweetie, but let's hold questions 'til the end," she smiled with a tilt of her head, Juliet admiring the two with a proud grin. It was then that she realised her head was still on Ethan's shoulder, and her hand was still on top of his, and that he wasn't complaining about it. It gave her hope, that almost immediately washed away. It was Ethan, he couldn't possibly.
"Stab one took place in Woodsboro," Sam commented with a raised brow, eyes glancing over the small group huddled by the path. "Stab two took place in college."
"How did we not see this coming?" Juliet asked with a soft roll of her eyes, letting out a sigh as she mentally facepalmed. What hooked her back into reality was the movement beneath her hand. Ethan shifted his index finger, it looping around her own as it squeezed it comfortingly. She glanced up, expecting to see him looking down already, but found him to be merely gazing away at his other friends. She looked back down with a smile.
"So, we think the killer is trying to copy the movies?" Tara asked with furrowed brows, eyes finding Mindy.
"That is one possibility," Mindy nodded with straightened lips. "Heroes now in college . . . check. Suspicious new characters brought in to round out the suspect list and/or body count . . . check, check, and check," the girl appointed as her eyes landed on each individual 'new-comer': Ethan, Quinn, and Anika.
Juliet felt Ethan shudder against her. "I don't like this," he murmured, causing her to frown. She rubbed her thumb over the skin of his hand, feeling him relax beneath her touch.
"That's boring, though. It's too predictable," Juliet added, drawing the attention away from the three people sitting amongst them. Mindy grinned, pointing a finger in the girl's direction.
"Exactly, my sweet, darling Jules. It can't just be about Stab two. It would make sense if this were a sequel, but we're not in a sequel, because nobody just makes sequels anymore!" Mindy suppressed with wide eyes. "We're in a franchise!"
She threw her arms wide, waiting for someone - anyone - to say something, only being met with silence and helpless looks of despair. She sighed with a roll of her eyes, continuing nevertheless. "There are certain rules to a continuing franchise."
"I had a feeling," Sam mumbled with a hidden groan. Juliet let out a breath, her eyes focusing closely on the girl before them all.
"Rule one, everything is bigger than last time. Bigger budget, bigger cast, bigger body count, shootouts, beheadings, love. You gotta top what came before to keep people coming back," Mindy described.
"Beheadings?" Chad asked with wide eyes.
"Love?" Juliet asked with furrowed brows, picking her head up off Ethan's shoulder. He looked towards her with a slight frown, missing the contact already.
"Beheadings," Mindy nodded before turning to Juliet with a hesitant smile, "and that last one was directed for you two." She wagged a finger between Ethan and Juliet once more, the two letting out sighs.
"This is gonna be a constant thing now, isn't it?" Juliet mumbled, Ethan nodding alongside her.
"Yep," Mindy grinned. "Now, rule two, whatever happened last time, expect the opposite. Franchises only survive by subverting expectations."
It was at that Juliet stopped. Expect the opposite. The words flew around her mind, weaving in and out of the crevices in her brain. It could be a lot of things, the killer not being Sam's boyfriend, for example. It could also mean something else, Juliet would actually have to face the killer in a chase. That was the last thing she wanted.
"If the killer's last time were whiny snowflake film nerds with a letterboxd account instead of personalities, you bet the opposite will be true here," Mindy continued, unaware of Juliet's sudden spiral. "And rule three, no one is safe. Legacy characters? Cannon fodder at this point. Usually brought back only to be killed off in some cheap bit for nostalgia. It's not lookin' too good for Gale and Kirby, and that's not even the worst part!"
"There's a worst part?"
Chad chuckled as he leant over in Tara and Juliet's direction. "Watch, this'll be the part where she tells us the worst part."
Juliet squinted her eyes with a sarcastic laugh. "Very funny, Chad," she mocked as the corners of her lips begged to twist up. She let them.
"The worst part is franchises are just continuing episodic instalments designed to boost an ip. Which means main characters are completely expendable now too. Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Ellen Ripley, Sally Hardesty, Jigsaw, Tony Stark, James Bond . . . I mean even Luke Skywalker, all die so that their franchise can live on. That means it's not just the friend group, any of us can go at anytime. Especially you three."
Her finger was directed at the three girls: Tara, Sam, and Juliet. Juliet's heart plummeted even further, her breath flying through her lips shakily. Ethan looked down at her, brows furrowing with worry as he surveyed her unusual timidness, before her hand moved off his and she was standing.
"I'm gonna go for a little . . . walk, for a bit," Juliet said in a sigh as she glanced over the group before walking away.
"Hey- wait! You can't go alone," Mindy cried, watching helplessly as the girl only continued to walk away. "Ethan! Go, dude. Call us if anything happens," she said hurriedly, pulling the boy to a stand and pushing him in her direction before he could even mumble a protest. In a jog, he ran up to her, slowing down to fall into pace beside the girl with a worried frown.
"What's up?" He asked nervously.
"The sky," she muttered with a small smile, her eyes staying trained on the ground. He let out a small chuckle with a shake of her head before the frown regained control of his lips.
"No, but, seriously . . . what's wrong?"
Juliet sighed. "I don't know I'm just . . . this is gonna sound really stupid," she mumbled with a forced laugh, her eyes darting away to the trees they were passing. Ethan let out a breath, hands extending to stop the girl and shift to the side of the path.
"Julie, it's not stupid. There's a killer out there, your emotions are valid," he promised, head ducking low to look into her eyes that were shifted to the floor. She raised them, his hands still on either one of her shoulders, as she examined his face. All she could see was the reality, he was really, truly, caring.
"I'm scared, Ethan. I'm really, really scared," she whispered, a crack present in her voice as she stared across at him. "Mindy said that- that we should expect the opposite, so I could be killed this time! And she said that we could all die, so me and- and you could-"
"Stop, okay, just relax. You're not gonna die, and I'm not gonna die. Nobody's gonna die, Julie, okay? Everyone's gonna be fine," he said, forcing a small smile. She sighed, reluctantly nodding as she let out a breath. He took a moment to watch her before drawing her into a hug, arms wrapping around her neck as his chin pressed against her head.
"Do you want me to stay in your apartment for a while? Just so you're not alone?" He offered quietly, head still pressed against her own.
"Yes, please," she nodded into his chest, the boy softly smiling as she moved to pull away. So, he packed a bag and walked the blonde back to her apartment, leaving it on the living room floor as he journeyed back to the campus for his assessment. What he didn't know was what he would miss, and how much he would scold himself later for leaving the friends in the apartment building alone.