after being changed tara and sereyah were both called into the living room. their happy state quickly left when they heard the things on the news. chad went to go get sam and as sereyah said two words, "fucking shit."
they listened to the guy in the news and everybody watched sam and tara's reaction. sereyah was nervously playing with her fingering standing because she had alot going on to be sitting down right now.
mindy recognized the dude who they were talking about, "holy shit, that's that chode from our film studies class. the one obsessed with argento."
sam cut the silence between them, "pack a bag, we leave in ten."
tara quickly got up to the statement, "sam, wait, wait."
"we're getting out the city." sam said going to their knifes.
cute boy spoke up confused, "what?"
chad realized he was there, "thank you very much suspicious new guy, but i think we got from here. have a good night, get home safe, go, go, go, go." he shooed him out the apartment and closed and locked the door.
he looked at sereyah standing there with her arms crossed in deep thought. before he could her something tara and sam moved to the living, "this might not have anything to do with us."
sam looked at her crazy, "are you serious!?"
"it's a big city! it's halloween everybody's wearing mask you don't know-"
sam tried to get her to understand, "tara, this isn't a coincidence. you knew him!"
"barely!" tara retorted.
"chad, mindy, rey, back me up." sam looked at the woodsboro kids.
chad tiptoed on it, "i mean, it is a little bit..."
mindy finished, "...close to home."
tara looked at sereyah for some support, "reya?"
everybody turned to her and she tried to find her words, "tara i...i don't thinks it's a coincidence."
sam looked down at tara, "see?"
tara tried to find a point, "quinn your dad's a cop right? can you call him and find out what's going on?" she turned to sam, "before you make the unilateral decision to abandon my college education and flee the fucking state!"
sam looked to quinn, "i'm calling him, now."
tara sighed, "thank you."
they were interrupted by sam's phone ringing and everybody tensed up chad out of habit grabbed sereyah pulled her closer to him. when he realized what he did he let go of her hips and murmured a small, "sorry."
sereyah just shook her head, "it's fine."
tara asked sam, "who is it?"
sam saw the name and declined the call.
ethan asked everybody, "why did everyone just freak out when her phone rang?"
anika sighed at the stupidity, "you gotta keep up, my dude."
quinn gave the phone to sam claiming her dad wanted to speak with her.
after tara and sam left sereyah went to bathroom. chad looked at the spot she was in and and took a deep breath. he was interrupted when mindy threw a piece of popcorn at him and he looked at her. she motioned to the bathroom telling chad to check on her.
chad made a face at her that she made back but turned to do what she said anyway.
he made it to the bathroom and lightly knocked, "hey! stupid question but um...are you okay?"
he heard nothing but a movement and the. the door opened. she said nothing but moved out the way to invite him in and he got the message. she closed the door and leaning against it and sighed.
chad asked, "what's on your mind?"
"i don't want to do this again. it's not fucking fair." she sighed with her eyes closed.
"hey, i know, but we're going to be fine! we're going to be fine." chad walked up to her a little bit closer.
"i don't think that's true. we lost so many good people last year year and i don't want to go through that again, chad. we don't deserve this." sereyah teared up thinking about anything bad happening to one of her friends. her family, since they are the only thing she has left.
"hey, hey, hey." chad mumbled as sereyah started to cry and chad held her close.
sereyah calmed down a bit at his touch and they relished in it a bit longer, "i don't deserve your comfort, chad."
chad likes her face to looo up at him, "i don't care what happens between us rey, i'll always be there for you. i said that and i meant it, okay?"
"chad-"
he want hearing it, "okay?"
sereyah gave up and nodded at him, "okay."
chad smiled at her, "okay, then. before everything you are my best friend and i'll be damned if something happened to you. any of you."
sereyah smiled and hugged him tighter not wanting to let go.
please don't take him.
after the rest who stayed back found out that tara and sam got attacked at the bodega sereyah's been checking up on tara. ghostface has gone completely haywire, attacking groups of people wasn't ghostface like. there's been random victims who didn't have to die at all, but a fucking bodega. the shit's crazy.
the group was now on campus trying to brainstorm their way into beating this yet again with mindy leading since she's the expert, "okay nerds! listen up!" she got started.
sereyah was seated between chad and tara. her and chad are in good terms and they haven't talked about the slip up they had not even one minute after they talked. not that they needed to, he knew how she felt now. well, not completely but he knows enough.
"as terrifying as this all is,i'm actually glad i get a chance to redeem myself for not caliijng the killers last time." chad let out a gun expecting that from his sister, "it's fine. okay...the way i see it, someone is out o make a sequel to the requel."
anika raised her hand, "um, what's a requel?"
"you're beautiful, sweety. but let's save the questions 'til the end." mindy told her.
sam thought about it, "stab one took place in woodsboro. stab two took place in college."
sereyah lightly thought back to knowing her aunt and her boyfriend were the first kills that time. she didn't know her but that sucks. she was interested with tara speaking up next to her, "you think the killer's trying to copy the movies?"
"that is one possibility." mindy acknowledged the idea, "hers now in college. check. suspicious new characters brought in to round out the suspect list and/or body count. check. check. and check." she pointed to all the new people to the group.
ethan mumbled, "i don't like this."
mindy continued, "but it can't just be about stab two." she thought hard about this they noticed.
sereyah looked confused, "why not?"
"it would make sense if this were just a sequel, but we're not in a sequel, becasue nobody just makes sequels anymore." she paused waiting for somebody to get it, "we're in a franchise! and there are certain rules to a continuing franchise."
sam groaned, "i had a feeling."
"rule one: everything is bigger than last time. bigger budget bigger cast, bigger body count, longer chases, shoot outs, beheadings, gotta top what came before it to keep people coming back." mindy explained.
chad lifted his pencil and asked, "beheadings?"
sereyah lightly smiled at him. he's such a dork.
mindy pointed to confirm, "beheadings."
"rule two: whatever happened last time, expect the opposite. franchises only survive by subverting expectations. if the killers let time were whiny snowflake film nerds with letterboxd accounts instead of personalities you can bet the opposite would be true here. 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 bid for nostalgia. it's not looking good for gale and kirby. oh, and that's not even the worst part!" mindy grimaced.
chad sighed expecting that and tapped sereyah in the arm with his pencil, "oh, this is the part where she tells us the worst part."
"the worst part is franchises are just continuing episodic installments designed to boost an ip. which means main characters are completely expendable now, too. laurie strode..." she continued to name almost every main character that died in their franchises, "even like skywalker all died so their franchises could live on. that means it's not just the friend group. any of us could go at any time, especially sam and tara."
sereyah saw tara look and sam and she sighed and ethan spoke up, "wait any of us."
mindy nodded, "yeah."
ethan stammered, "am i in the friend group? am i like, one of the targets?"
mindy just hummed confirming.
ethan then stopped to think for second, "am i gonna die a virgin?"
chad looked at him with furrowed brows and sereyah put her lips together at the overshare. the rest of the group either liked at him weird or looked away.
mindy started awkwardly, "that was a weird overshare. but it brings us to our current suspects: ethan." she started with him, "the shy, dorky guy who no one suspects, becasue he's shy and dorky."
his eyes got wide, "okay, wait, why am i on the suspect list?" he asks nervously. "because i'm randomly chad's roommate?"
mindy didn't miss a beat. "roommate lotteries can be juked. you could have fixed it to get next to us." mindy said as if it was obvious.
mindy moved in front of sam and tara's roommate, "quinn. the slutty roommate. a horror movie..." she kissed her lips, "classic."
quinn didn't look too offended, "sex positive, but thank you?"
"mhhm." mindy hummed in suspicion, "um, how did you come to life with sam and tara?"
"i answered their ad online." which is exactly what she did.
"okay say more. you've already implicated yourself enough." mindy yelled.
tara spoke up from next to sereyah, "it was an anonymous ad, mindy. and you know we vetted her. plus her dad is a cop."
sereyah nodded in agreement to tara's statement but mindy shut that down real quick, "and that makes it more like that she's the killer, becasue having a cop dad is a great cover. do you not remember how these movies work, tara?"
they just shook their head sat her expecting this from mindy but quinn had to ask, "is she always like this?"
sam just brushed it off with a small nod because she definitely is.
mindy moved to her girlfriend, "and finally anika."
anika blew her kiss and mindy gave one right back just to ruin the mood when she said, "never trust the love interest."
anika's smile dropped and sereyah shook her head while. isn't added, "plus you could of fixed the roommate problem getting next to reya."
sereyah sighed, "mindy..."
mindy stopped her from talking, "uh,uh.uh." she shook her finger at sereyah and sereyah's brows furrowed at the weird action and looked at chad who just shook his head at her.
sam got them back on track, "okay! so we have our rules and we have our suspects."
she was cut off by ethan, "but, wait. what about you guys?"
mindy looked around, "i mean. i think it's pretty safe to rule out the five of us who went through this last year in woodboro."
chad eagerly points his pencil at mindy, "agreed."
quinn spoke, "uhm, not agreed. what if the trauma you all went through caused one or more of you to snap?"
sereyah spoke up, "your saying we almost got hunted down one by one, got plenty of injuries and future health problems, a bunch of dead friends, a lot of therapy bills, moved across the country, to do this shit again?"
ethan had a response, "what if the fame you got from the killings made you thirsty for more. i mean, let's be honest here, some of the theories online about sam are-"
tara quickly stopped him, "don't you fucking dare."
anika got the attention of of him, "okay, she's right, though. i mean, face facts- if we're all suspects, your all suspects." she put it simple which caused the five to look at eachother.
it was quiet for a second before sereyah said something she found herself saying a lot now, "fucking shit."
notes
are we easy for...trauma? lol