TWENTY ONE - "WELCOME TO ACT 3, QUINN!"
Lyds Altieri sat alone in the front of the car, steadfast and utterly bloodied, wondering how the last 24 hours had escaped her so quickly. Her body was covered in battle wounds; flesh missing having been stolen from her skin, stab wounds, and even a broken nose. The girl had become all she'd never wanted to be, never her family, only ever the one she found, but instead she sat alone, having finally become what she'd most feared she would; an Altieri.
She'd never looked more like her uncle.
The blonde felt the engine purr to life and felt a person's presence beside her. She didn't question it, knowing exactly who it was, instead she turned onto her side, away from them, and lay her head upon her arm, tracing shapes in the condensation of the window.
C. M. S. T. K.
How had it all turned to shit so quickly? They were gone. They were all gone. And she was never going to get them back.
"Try to sleep." The person spoke, halting her hand. "I don't know how long we'll be driving for."
"Okay." She answered, wiping the water away.
And the living dead girl soon drifted off in her own embrace, dreaming about the horror she'd created.
***
"Oh Quinn!"
A screech filled the air, dragging, as Ethan's blade dug into the wallpaper, meeting the plaster beneath. Lyds stood at the helm of it, it's cursed handle grasped in her palm as she made her way through the entry point of hell.
This was finally it, her first kill as the niece of Ghostface. How full circle.
"Over here!"
The theatre was alight with screams and noise and Lydia's eyes aimed upon the killer before she'd even had the chance to hear her call. She knew she had to make quick work of the girl's death, before Chad or Ethan woke up again, or worse, died. Bailey could wait, he was Sam's after all. But Quinn was hers and hers alone.
She'd stabbed her, betrayed her, outed her, stabbed Mindy, faked killing Ethan. Quinn had committed an abundance of wrongs in a world of them, and Lyds was about to right them all.
You can do this.
She watched from a far as the Ghostface's head spun in her direction, hearing the piercing scream of the blade against the wall as Lyds dragged it to a stop.
Recognition and both horror instilled themselves in the killer's gaze. It was ironic truly, Quinn seeming so scared, despite the fact she had Tara pinned to the floor with a knife to her throat. The hunter was about to become the hunted, and she knew it.
Oh how the tables had turned.
"Quinn. I've been looking all over for you." Lyds smiled, her lips painted with blood and her arm still oozing it.
"Lyds!" Tara cried out.
"It's okay T." She shushed her, "I've got this."
"Don't come any fucking closer!" Quinn hissed, pressing the knife harder upon Tara's neck. "Where's my brother?"
"Richie died Quinn... Isn't that what this is all about?"
"No. No! Where's Ethan?"
"Oh him?"
"Yes, him-"
"Oh! Him!" Lyds let out a laugh, knowing her own untruths."Yeah! I fucking killed him."
Sorry Ethan. You gotta tell a couple lies to get what you want these days.
"No-"
"He got me pretty good." She rubbed her arm, "But I got him better."
"You're lying!"
"It didn't take much. Just a stab to the ribs and Ethan was done, I'm guessing it was the shock." The blonde shrugged, "You know I think it was actually in the same place you stabbed Chad! The ribs, right? And Chad! My brother! You remember him right?"
"It was Ethan who stabbed Chad there-"
"You Ghostfaces are all the same, after a while it all blends into one."
"Tell that to your fucking uncle." Quinn narrowed her gaze.
"You tell him for me."
"Huh?"
"Yeah." Lyds smiled, readying herself. "You're gonna see him."
"What? Mickey died-"
"Oh no, I didn't mean he was alive, silly! I meant when you see him in hell."
"Fuck you!"
"Lyds!" Tara cried again, but her friend was quick to quiet her, holding a finger to her lips.
"Come on Quinn! You wanna prove you're a good Ghostface? You wanna avenge your brother? Then let Tara go."
"I'd just be doing what you want."
"I mean, Tara didn't kill Richie, that was Sam! And she definitely didn't kill your other brother, because, well, that was me! So, I know who I'd be roughing up right now, and it wouldn't be her."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck it!"
It only took Quinn a matter of seconds to snap, like the psychopath she truly was. And it only took one of those seconds for her to release Tara and throw her back upon the ground in favour of her friend. And then she was running at Lyds at full speed and she could hear Samantha and Detective Bailey fighting on the balcony above her. The gunshots and the screams haunted her and the noises rang out in her ears as Quinn made first contact.
"Fuck!"
The murderer hit her like a tonne of bricks and the two girls went flying to the floor, grappling and swinging for a better grip on their knives. Tara could only scream out in horror as she watched her friend, looking as if she were a zombie, fight with a literal killer.
She'd never seen anything quite like it, and she wasn't sure if she ever would again.
"Fucking die!"
Lyds grabbed a handful of Quinn's hair immediately and swung her into the edge of one of the glass cases, it didn't draw blood but it was enough to leave the psycho dazed long enough for the final girl to get a good grip of her knife. That didn't seem to matter though, as in the end it was Quinn to draw first blood, instantly homing her knife in Lyds's abdomen the second she climbed back on top of her.
Quinn's first mistake was leaving the knife in there.
"Lyds!" Tara yelled.
The carpenter girl didn't hesitate to come to her friends aid, not for a single second, and it was only a moment that had passed by by the time she'd picked up a brick and bashed Quinn across the back of her skull with it.
The red head's teeth flew in every direction.
"You fucking bitch!" Quinn screamed only to be met by a harsh tug of her hair by Lyds.
Don't you yell at my fucking friend!
"Eyes on me, psycho!"
The Altieri girl was quick to plunge her own knife into Quinn's shoulder, and she twisted it with every morsel of strength she had left. In her murderous wake she tore the knife back, and once she had there was only a gaping hole left behind, and it poured blood upon her chest like a faucet.
Disgusting.
"Fucking bitch!"
"Toothless bitch!" Lyds yelled back, pressing her thumb into her eye socket with all her might. Quinn began to choke her, desperately, snatching her knife with her free hand and throwing it out of reach.
Fuck.
"Lyds! Let me-"
"Stay the fuck back Tara!"
"Yeah Tara, stay the fuck-"
"Shut the fuck up!"
That was the moment Lyds remembered Wes's pepper spray, and in an instant it had been withdrawn from her pocket and Quinn was blindsided.
"Fuck!" The killer cried out, falling backwards. "What the fuck is that? I can't see!"
"Wes's mom liked him to be heavily armed... It's pepper spray, bitch."
"Where the fuck are you?"
Lydia stumbled towards Tara in a heartbeat, Quinn's knife still protruded from her stomach and it was only when her adrenaline faltered and she felt a sharp pain did she finally remember it was there. She gave Tara a reassuring smile, despite her zombified appearance, and ripped the knife from within herself.
"Welcome to act 3, Quinn!"
Quinn was quickly on her feet, quite literally stumbling around blind as Lyds tiptoed in circles around her, stabbing and slashing wherever she deemed necessary and whenever she seemed fit. Quinn fought back with everything in her but she was a blinded and bloodied mess and a single stab to the abdomen wasn't enough to stop Lyds.
Nothing was.
The former Greystone girl would never have admitted it but she felt sick at the sight of her own hand. The idea that she could possibly ever cause such harm upon someone, especially someone she'd once considered a friend, hurt her deeper than she could ever begin to mention, much deeper than a stab wound. It was a mental scar that would uphold for life, but she knew it was what had to be done, it couldn't all be on Sam. Not like last time.
She had to be the one to end it.
To end her.
"Come on Quinn! I thought you were stronger than this." The blonde finally cracked, tears beginning to pour unbeknownst to the killer.
"I'll blind you! Make it an even fucking fight!"
"If only you could see me." She slashed her arm, the blood sprayed upon her cheek. "I'm sure that'd make things a lot easier."
"Fuck you!"
"That's exactly what your brother said before I killed him."
"You were supposed to love him-"
"And he was supposed to kill me! I guess we were both wrong."
"Are you crying Lyds?" Quinn smirked despite her pain. "I can hear it in your voice."
"Fuck. You."
And with that she shoved Quinn back upon the floor and sat on her chest, pinning her arms down with her knees as her own knife rose above her head.
Ethan would've smiled if he could've seen her.
Mickey too.
"Ethan's alive by the way." Were the last words Lyds spoke before she brought the knife down through Quinn's chest.
Over and over and over.
"Lyds..." Quinn begged
"No! Fuck you! You did this!"
"Lyds." Tara reached for her.
"You did this!" L cried out, sobbing. "I hate you! Fuck you! Fuck you!"
She stabbed at any flesh she could see, her chest, her neck, her shoulders. Nothing was off limits.
For Ethan.
"Fucking die!"
"Lyds!" Tara pulled at her shoulder, "It's okay-"
"She isn't dead!"
"Lyds! You have to stop."
"I'm good!" And she stood to her feet, still sobbing, still somehow bloodier than before. "Fuck! I-I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Tara took her hand. "You think you got her?"
"I think so..."
"The head. You have to get the head or they come back. That's what Dewey said."
"You wanna do the honours?"
"She's all yours."
The Altieri girl wiped away her tears and pressed the tip of her knife to Quinn's head, knowing soon enough, it'd all be over.
"Sweetheart." Quinn suddenly wheezed out with a laugh, and the anger within Lyds Altieri reignited itself.
Fuck this bitch.
"I'm keeping the fucking knife." She spat and with that she slammed the blade into Quinn's head, putting an end to her once and for all.
"Looks like you're down another kid." Sam's voice rang out from above, and that was the moment all hell truly broke loose.
Detective Bailey's gun fired, once, twice, and then him and Sam were falling from the balcony, and they crashed right down onto Mickey's shrine. Glass scattered in every direction and Samantha rolled right upon it, landing almost right at Lydia's feet, still somehow conscious.
The killer's niece almost laughed at the sight. Tara could only stare from beneath her arm.
"Fuck!" The Loomis groaned out.
"I got you." Lyds pulled her to her feet and together the three of them stared upon the unconscious Detective Bailey lay in the glass of Mickey's case.
"You okay?"
"Nope. You?"
"Never."
"Good." Sam nodded, understanding. "Wanna end this motherfucker?"
"You grab the mask. I'll grab the knife."