'Hey, so you're still coming over right?' Tara Carpenter had been leaning on the kitchen island of her white suburban home, calling her girlfriend for the past 15 minutes as she got ready. 'Yea, I just got Mindy to cover for me in case her mom checks. I should be there at 10." Tara could hear Anastasia open her bedroom window, climbing onto her roof and proceeding to jump down.
All the sudden the phone rang behind Tara, Tara walked over to the phone. 'Unknown Number' once she read that she hung up, going back to the pasta and stirring it, then shaking her inhaler and bringing it to her lips. 'Okay, just hurry your ass up, the pasta is almost done.' 'ooo pasta? What kind?' Tara could hear the smile on Anastasia's face. 'Penne.' 'Did I ever tell you I love you?' Tara giggled slightly. The phone rang again. 'I'll call you back, someones calling the landline repeatedly.' 'is it wes again I swear i'll bet his ass just give me the word. Who even uses the landline nowadays anyways? ' Anastasia chuckled. 'Be safe, love you.' and with that Anastasia hung up.
Tara picked up the landline bringing it to her ear. 'Hello?' almost instantly Tara got an answer. 'Hello? Uh- is Christina there?' 'No she's away, but can I take a message?' Tara walked out the kitchen grabbing a teal and gold velvet ottoman. 'Uh yeah, I'm from group I- Oh shit!' 'of oh shit?' Tara mocked smiling. 'Look um just tell her I'm from the group... I'm Charlie, she's got my number." Tara laughed, climbing on the ottoman to grab the liquor cabinet key. 'Oh, she goes to a group?'
'Look I shouldn't have uh- just tell her that Charlie called.' Tara pulled her phone out of her back pocket. 'And I will do exactly that Charlie. Why don't you tell me what kind of group we are talking about?'
'That's- AA, NA?' Tara cut Charlie off, starting to text Anastasia.
- I think it's my moms new boyfriend
'Wow- you sound just like she describes you.' 'She talks about me?' Tara asks about getting a message from Anastasia.
Ana<3
- Seriously??? Color me intrigued
"Look , I don't think I can talk about that." "What does she say about me?' Tara replied curiously. 'Well she loves you very much.'
'cool. What does she love about me?' Tara found it hard to believe as she doesn't exactly have a good relationship with her mom, especially since her sister left.
'Umm- okay well.' Tara walked to the door picking up the mail, awaiting an answer. 'She loves that you're creative, you love art, tv and movies.' Tara cut him off once again. 'Okay well lots of people love movies.'
'Yeah but she says you love scary movies, and that you guys have that in common. She's proud of making a fan out of you.'
'She is?' Tara asked. 'She told me the other day. She said she wonders-' the caller's voice started to deepen and go gravely, but Tara paid no mind to it. Her second mistake after picking up the phone. 'What's your favorite scary movie?'
Tara answered rather quickly. 'The babadook. It's an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief. Plus my girlfriend and I met at a screening of it during some horror festival like 7 years ago' tara smiled fondly at the memory. Even though Anastasia thought it was lame and would rather watch 'get out' she still sat through the movie all 132 times Taras wanted to watch it. That's one of the many things Tara loved about her.
'Ha well isn't that a little fancy pants' the voice was gone. tara walked over to the pot and started stirring the pasta again. 'Well its elevated horror.' 'ah- wh-what's that mean? Elevated horror?'
'You know it's like scary, but with complicated emotional thematic underpinnings. It's not just stocky, cheesy nonsense with wall to wall jump scares.' 'hm that sounds kind of boring to me- have you ever seen a stab?'
'Once I think about a sleepover when I was like 12.' The voice laughed as Tara played with the knives in the knife block. 'You live in woodsboro and you don't know stab? I mean your mother loves that movie. She talks about it all the time in a group. How well do you remember the original?' Tara was starting to get a bit freaked out but pushed the feeling down, walking away from the knife block. 'I don't know I mean it was like super 90's I was like real over with it. Tara chuckled. 'Everyone had weird hair.' she continued.
'Do you remember the beginning?' 'not really, I mean it started with a kill scene right? They always start with a kill scene.'
'Yeah that's right... It's a girl, at home.. Alone. She answers the wrong number and starts talking with the killer- makes her play a game. Would you like to play a game... Tara?' The voice was back, and this time it freaked Tara out. How did he know her name? Tara immediately hung up and started to freak out, locking the doors with a home security app on her phone.
Tara began to text her brunette girlfriend again.
- It was some psycho im locking the doors
Tara looked out the window making sure no one was outside then softly closing the curtains as a way to make sure no one outside would hear she was there. Walking away from the window she looked down at her phone.
Ana<3
-Tf?! Are you okay? I can call the cops
Just as Tara was about to reply the phone rang again, making Tara jump and turn around, breathing heavily and sparking up her asthma again. Tara was scared to move, that is, until she got a message from anastasia.
Ana<3
- You should answer it
Tara started to freak out even more.
- How did you know my landline was ringing?
-Ana?
She spammed, waiting a minute for an answer. She was hoping this was all just some random fucked up prank.
Ana<3
- This isn't anastasia
The phone kept ringing, every ring making tara more and more scared.
Ana<3
- ANSWER THE PHONE BITCH
Tara started to dial 911 but before she could she got another text.
Ana<3
- ANSWER THE PHONE OR ANASTASIA DIES
Prank or not Tara didn't want to risk her 'one true love' getting hurt. So she practically sprinted to answer the phone. 'This isn't fucking funny ana' 'i told you this isnt ana' a ding came from taras samsung phone, the one anastasia always made fun of
Ana<3
- video38562442
Tara clicked the video link to see Anastasia walking down the street in baggy mom jeans and a white button up sweater. Whoever was filming was in the bushes. 'Anastasia is looking fetching tonight. She really shouldn't leave her phone around for anyone to clone.' 'What do you want?' Tara asked, gritting her teeth. 'I told you I want to play a game. Stab movie trivia. 3 rounds. You call the cops, she dies. You get an answer wrong, she dies. She's walking on the street all alone, not a single house is even occupied. I can run and gut her in only 15 seconds. You want a warm up question?' the voice said, getting straight to the point.
Tara started to cry. The only person who she could confide in when times with her mom and sister were rough might be killed and it would all be her fault. 'I told you, I don't know these movies' Tara squeaked out. "Ask me about something I do know. Ask me- ask me about insidious, ask me about hereditary, the witch!' taras mascara was now running down her face. 'In the first stab movie... what woodsboro native was introduced as the franchise's main character?'
'I-it's Sidney prescott! It's Sidney Prescott and she lives on elm!' 'correct, you see you're gonna do great at this, okay question 1-' tara was quick to try and correct him. 'N-n-no i got that one right it should count'
'Anyone could have gotten that one right. Sidneys in all but the last one. Question 1- who wrote the original book that the stab movies are based on?' Tara panicked; she knew who it was but couldn't remember their name. Even though she is Anastasia's mom, Anastasia never really talked about her. 'Um-um the chick from tv!'
'That's your answer? 'The chick from tv' is not going to cut it tara!' suddenly the name hit tara like a piano is an old 1920's movie. 'Oh! It's gale weather! Its gale weathers you mother fucker!' Tara yelled into the phone. 'Correct Anastasia might live to see the sunrise. Question 2- who played the dumb bitch in the beginning of stab 1 who answers the phone and gets carved up by the killer?'
Tara didn't know the answer. She panicked, grabbing her phone from her back pocket to look up 'stab 1 cast' on IMDB. 'fuck you...' 'is that the answer you're going with? a non answer counts as an answer'
Tara kept scrolling but couldn't find who she was looking for. 'Times running out... tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock.' suddenly tara found her right under luke wilson. 'Heather graham!' There was a moment of silence. Tara was worried she had taken too long and now her girlfriend and best friend was dead, and she never got to say goodbye. Tara was taken out of her thoughts when the gravelly voice started again. 'Correct! You pulled that one out. Now the final question... who was the killer in stab 1?'
Tara was suddenly confident her girlfriend would live. 'Oh! I know this one you fuck! It's Billy loomis! It's Billy Loomis and he's played by Luke wilson. And I got you asshole, I got it right!'
'Oh I'm sorry Tara but that's just not correct.' taras victory smile started to turn to a frown. 'What no-no-no it is. that is- that is right'
'The correct answer was billy loomis AND stu macher. There are 2 killers in the original stab, I'm afraid someones gonna die now.' 'no- no ana I'm coming!' tara hung up the phone, grabbing the biggest knife from the knife block and running to the front door muttering 'fuck' repedetly.
Once Tara got to the front door she unlocked and opened it only to be met with ghostface and a knife across her lower abdomen. Tara punched ghostface causing them to ram into the side of the door frame. Tara tried to close the door however ghostface managed to get their arm in between waving the knife around randomly until Tara finally got the door to close, locking it once again.
Tara applied pressure to her wound, still crying she grabbed her phone to contact the police through the alarm app. Ghostface started baning on the door, almost as if they were jumping to force half their body into it. Tara picked up the knife she had dropped pointing it at the door. 'The police are on their way asshole!' Tara screamed towards the door. The banging continued for a bit and was replaced with the sound of the systems disarming. Tara cried, grabbing her phone, arming them again. ~systems unarmed~ tara promptly armed them again. This exchange continued till her back was connected with the wall.
The landline rang again causing Tara to jump in fear. Tara then began to slowly walk towards the kitchen island to pick up the phone, crying. She slowly put the phone to her ear, putting the other in her pocket.
'Hello?' Tara shakenly breathed out. 'Bonus question tara.' tara looked around for any exits. 'Please stop.'
'Do you think I made it inside your house before you could re-arm?' All the sudden ghostface came out from the dark hallway grabbing tara and stabbing her on the other side of her stomach, a blood curdling scream came out her mouth. Ghosty's face then pushed her into the kitchen island, grabbing her by the hair as she tried to run, promptly throwing her to the floor.
Tara tried to crawl away kicking ghostface as they got near. Ghost face got back up walking to tara and stepping on her ankle breaking it into multiple different pieces with their heavy black combat boots. Tara began to scream in pain once again, this one worse than the stabs. Ghostface began to straddle her trying to stab her in the head. Luckily or unluckily for tara she threw her hand up to protect her face, the knife going straight through her palm. Once the knife was out tara kicked them again. Ghost faces hit their head on the kitchen island, falling to the ground.
Tara took this as her chance to crawl away. However, the ghost 's face was able to get back up, slowly walking towards tara. Running out of time he grabbed Tara stabbing her 1-2-3 times in the back.
Ghostface ran out just as the paramedics came in. Anastasia had seen the police cars zoom past her. Remembering the text messages between her and tara not even 8 minutes ago she began to panic. Once she rounded the corner she noticed the ambulance and cop cars were at Tara's house. She began to run to the house, the sight of her girlfriend on the stretcher made her burst into tears, trying to push past the police officers. 'Ma'am you can't go in there' one of the police officers said. Ugly crying she pushed past him 'That's my girlfriend you bald bastard!' She ran up to the stretcher holding the short brunette's hand, as people tried to pull her away she got one sentence in. 'Stay with me... I don't want you to leave.' Eventually sheriff Judy Hicks was able to pry her away. 'miss quinn? We will need to bring you in for questioning' without hesitation Ana nodded and followed her to the cop car. mascara running down her face, while the sirens fade out behind her. everything felt slo-motion.
(2335 words)
(un-edited)
Aila's Corner
hey y'all! first chapter is out! I don't know if this chapter will be considered long or short because it's the first chapter butttttt.
I hope this turns well because I already have ideas for a scream 6 book! I hope y'all like Anastasias character aswell. this is the first book I'm writing so feel free to give me ideas or criticism. also I love reading comments so if y'all have any ideas through out this book I would be so happy to read them and if you speak a different language or something and are reading this in another language if that's even possible. comment in your native language if its easier and I will translate it and try to reply in your language, I always enjoy learning languages! if there's any questions about me or this book, anything at all feel free to ask. <3
(if you read this words are now at 2491)