CHAPTER ONE
“ARE YOU SATISFIED?”
“IT'S GETTING LATE,” DEWEY TOLD MCKENNA as he leaned against the kitchen door frame, watching his goddaughter clean up his dirty plates that had been wasting away in the sink for two weeks now. “Your parents are probably worried and you’ve probably got some homework to start.”
“It’s fine,” Mckenna chuckled lightly, sliding the clean plate into the cupboard above her head, taking a glance over her shoulder at the man. “My parents are out on some date or another and my homework for the entire semester has been done for months. Besides, your plates are so dirty, I’m scared there’s some sort of new life form breeding on them.”
“Well, if there is, I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Dewey laughed at her. Despite his lonely existence, he’d always get a little ray of sunshine whenever Mckenna came and visited him. Even if it was just for a few hours. “But once you’re done, I’m driving you home. You know it’s not all that safe out, especially at night.”
Mckenna nodded seriously. “I know.”
Of course she did. At only nine-years-old she had visited her older sister, Kirby, in the hospital after the Woodsboro Murders of 2011. She had been stabbed by Charlie Walker, the boy that had once babysat Mckenna twice a week. A few moments later, Charlie was killed by his girlfriend and Sidney Prescott’s cousin, Jill Roberts. A couple other Woodsboro teens were killed as well and Mckenna’s godmother, Gale Weathers, nearly died.
It had been a recurring theme that Ghostface would appear back in Woodsboro every couple years, but it would never be the same people. Linked motives? Possibly. Related? Perhaps. Many, many murders? Most definitely. Mckenna couldn’t understand why Dewey or her parents hadn’t left. Kirby had done herself a favor and left years ago. She’d text or call Mckenna every few months, just to check up on her, but usually it was static.
“So what’s this I hear about a girlfriend?” Dewey inquired suspiciously. He had never had a daughter of his own and he didn’t know if he ever would, but Mckenna was as close as he got right now. And he loved her. Which meant he had to be very selective over who he found appropriate for her to date.
Mckenna scoffed, rolling her eyes as she dried another plate. “There is no girlfriend. There is a friend who is a girl. Her name is Amber and she’s lovely.” She placed the plate in the cupboard.
“Are you sure?” Dewey pushed himself off of the threshold, pretending to pat down his pockets and look around the room. “I’m sure I’ve got a shotgun around here somewhere.”
“She is,” Mckenna assured him, sending him a humored glare. Dewey smiled to himself, stopping the act and leaning back on the threshold. “I think you’d like her.”
“If you say so,” Dewey shrugged. “But I do have a shotgun if she does anything to you.”
“And I appreciate it,” Mckenna stopped him before he could go any further, shaking her head with a faint smile. She placed the last glass into the cupboard with the plates before shutting the door and turning on her heel, the kitchen much cleaner now than it was when she arrived. “I guess I’m all done… but I don’t have to go right if you don’t want me to. We could watch a movie? A comedy. I know you don’t like horror.”
“As much as I’d love to, we’ll do it some other time,” Dewey told her happily, pushing her gently out of the kitchen and towards the front door. “Now, go on. Grab your coat. It’s cold out.”
“Okay, dad,” Mckenna teased. Dewey putting his hand on his hip, only making the joke funnier to the blonde.
As her laughter started to fade, she grabbed her coat from the stand, going to put it on when a buzzing came from her jeans’ back pocket. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion for a second before reaching for it, finding Amber’s phone ID on the screen. Without a moment of thinking, she answered it, bringing it to her ear.
“Hey,” Mckenna greeted, already feeling giddy. Maybe she had lied a little when she said Amber was just a friend. She was definitely at least a crush.
“Kenna? Shit…” Amber’s voice replied, sounding panicked. Mckenna’s giddiness drifted away quickly, her heart dropping to her stomach in fear. She didn’t even know what she should be afraid of, but Amber’s voice had never sounded like this. “Tara’s in the hospital.”
“What? What happened?” Mckenna questioned, worried, her fears being confirmed. Dewey noticed her anxious tone from the other side of the room as he went to grab his keys, turning to look at her, raising his eyebrow. Mckenna waved a hand, saying she’d tell him in a second.
“Some creep in a ghostface mask broke into her house,” Amber explained, her voice growing distant and closer as if she was looking around hurriedly. “She’s in a bad condition, Kenna. I think you’d better get to the hospital fast. Do you need a ride? I could come get—”
“No, it’s okay. You stay with Tara,” Mckenna interrupted her quickly. “I’ll get Dewey to drive me. I’ll be there in ten minutes tops.”
“Okay, okay…” Amber sighed in relief, her voice now speaking right into the phone. Directly to her. “Stay safe, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt too.”
Mckenna kept down a smile, not thinking it was the time to be bashful. “You too. I’ll see you.”
She hung up and took a deep breath, dragging a hand through her hair as she pushed her phone back into her pocket. She turned to look over at Dewey, the man looking highly impatient to find out what had happened.
“Tara’s been attacked,” Mckenna told him, growing increasingly more concerned. “They were wearing a ghostface mask, Dewey. You don’t think…”
“Shit,” Dewey muttered under his breath, taking a moment to think about it. Had he been so naive to think that it was really over? “I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
“Okay, thank you,” Mckenna told him gratefully, already hurrying out the door.
Dewey grabbed his keys and rushed out of the house, locking up all eight of his locks on the outside just to be safe.
Mckenna wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she sat in the sunlight of the front of Woodsboro High, leaning her head back onto Amber’s knee, letting the girl stroke her fingers through her hair. School had just been canceled for the rest of the week at least which to everyone else was cause for celebration, but for Mckenna just meant she had to find other things to do with her time than sit around and study. She knew she wasn’t the most exciting, but she thought actually wanting to get somewhere in life was better than sitting around getting stoned.
The picnic benches were just slightly more comfortable than the school desks, the girl relaxing a little more with Amber behind her. They had been friends since Amber had moved here back in second grade, she was the one Mckenna talked to about Kirby and Dewey and how her parents are more invested in their romantic life to take care of her. She listened to her, she put up with her constant ramblings about Biology and Math and Psychology. She even said she liked it.
Beside her, sat Wes Hicks, the son of Judy Hicks, the new Woodsboro police sheriff. She took over after Dewey was told to retire, and Dewey insists he doesn’t hold a grudge. He says if anybody was going to take his job, he’d want it to be her. On the other side of her was Mindy Meeks-Martin, the niece of Randy Meeks, one of the teenagers part of the original Woodsboro Murders. She had her headphones in her ears and looked as if she’d rather be off listening to some sort of film podcast than sitting with them, waiting for her brother, Chad, and his girlfriend, Liv, to finally be let out of English Lit.
Wes looked down at his phone as it buzzed in his hands and his face brightened the tiniest bit. “That was Sam,” he informed the rest of them, making Mckenna raise her head in surprise.
“She’s coming?” Amber asked, just as surprised as Mckenna and also a little annoyed that she was stroking the girl’s hair anymore. Just another reason to be annoyed at Wes.
“She is her sister, I guess,” Mckenna shrugged, but it didn’t make it any less weird. Seeing as Sam had disappeared a couple years ago, completely ghosting Tara and their whole family, it seemed strange that she’d turn up now.
“Just watch everything get worse,” Amber said bitterly, gently moving Mckenna’s head back onto her knee, seeing the stress in the girl’s eyes. Mckenna took a deep breath, trying to let herself calm down again. With ghostface possibly being back yet again, Mckenna was starting to freak out a little bit. She needed to see Kirby or at least talk to her somehow, but her number kept changing and she couldn’t keep track.
“Listen, all I’m saying is that with everything going on right now I think it’s time we take our relationship to the next… most intimate level,” Chad’s voice could be heard, his arm wrapped around Liv as they both sat down on the opposite picnic bench together.
Mckenna raised an eyebrow at Liv and she explained quickly, “He wants me to accept his Find My Fam request.”
“It’s the smartest option with a would-be killer on the loose,” Chad told her matter-of-factly. “You know exactly where I am and I know exactly where you are.”
“Aw, you can stalk me like a jealous boyfriend,” Liv replied sarcastically.
“And you can stalk me like a jealous boyfriend,” Chad countered hopefully.
Mckenna’s laughter was quickly shortened by Amber dry heaving behind her, the dark-haired girl looking at the couple, sticking out her tongue in disgust. “Is this because you two aren’t having sex yet?”
“You actually bring up a very good point,” Chad pointed at her in agreement. “Not that I want to sound like a stereotypical jock trying to get into his girlfriend’s pants—”
“We couldn’t have that,” Mckenna commented, Chad nodding at her solemnly.
“Let’s just stop there,” Liv interrupted before the boy could keep talking, kissing him on the cheek.
“Don’t do it, Liv,” Wes frowned. “There’s a psycho out there. You make yourself harder to find.”
“Hold on a second, Amber and I use our Find My Fam app,” Mckenna stopped the conversation. “It’s completely safe. You really think one of us is the killer or something?”
“All I’m saying is: how do you know if Amber’s the killer or not?” Wes asked her seriously.
“Because she hasn’t killed me?” Mckenna retorted, moving her head to look up at the girl, a smile already on her lips as she stared at her. “You don’t want to kill me, right?”
“Of course not,” Amber assured her with her own smile, placing a hand on her cheek before Mckenna moved back to look at Wes.
“Are you satisfied?” Mckenna asked smugly.
“Not really,” Wes told her, moving on before Mckenna couldn’t even argue. “I think the best option right now is to delete social media, tape over your phone camera, disable GPS.”
“Ah, yes, thank you very much, Edward Snowden,” Chad rolled his eyes, siding with Mckenna. Wes gave him a tight-lipped smile in response. “Actually, your mother just interrogated me about Tara’s attempted murder, which was very fun.”
“I’m sure she’s asking everybody,” Wes said after a pause. “I mean, Ghostface is back.”
“We don’t know that,” Mckenna corrected him.
“Exactly, not even the press is saying that,” Mindy agreed.
Wes shrugged, slightly defensive. “My mom doesn’t want to cause a panic.”
“It’ll get out by the second or third killing,” Mindy announced. Mckenna felt the concern coming back, sitting up and rubbing her forehead.
“Jesus, Mindy,” Amber scowled, completely shocked at the suddenness. She placed a comforting hand on Mckenna’s shoulder. “There wasn’t a first killing. Tara’s alive.”
“Mm,” Mindy hummed, not convinced. “That means she could still die.”
“Okay, seriously?” Mckenna looked up at Mindy in horror.
“Or the killer could come back for her,” Mindy kept going, not being put off by everybody’s reactions.
“Fuck! Mindy, come on,” Chad tried to stop his sister, taking a glance at the blonde that was quite obviously growing more nervous by the second.
“I’m just telling you, arm up, okay?” Wes weaseled his way in again. “Pepper spray? Check. Taser? Check—”
“Girlfriend repellent? Check,” Amber interjected, causing Mckenna, Chad and Liv to laugh.
“I really don’t think you have a leg to stand on when you two haven’t even fucked yet,” Mindy added, pointing in between to Mckenna and Amber, the two girls’ eyes widening.
“Fuck you, Mindy,” Amber deadpanned, giving her the finger, Mckenna’s face turned a deep red as Chad practically laughed his ass off.
“Still not fucking Kenna,” Mindy sing-songed, taking one earbud out.
Amber looked as if she was about to jump out of her seat, but Mckenna leaned back onto the girl’s knee, stopping her from moving. The dark-haired took a few minutes, but her embarrassment slowly faded away as Mckenna allowed her to stroke her hair again.
“Oh, shit. Is that… Vince?” Liv broke the silence, her eyes looking wearily past the trees over Amber and Mckenna’s shoulders.
They all turned their heads in the direction she was staring at, a man that was mildly familiar looking right back at them as he leaned against his stupid-looking car. Just by his greasy hair and smirk, Mckenna knew he had just gotten worse since last summer.
“Wait, the creep you hooked up with last summer?” Chad questioned, already starting to get protective as Vince continued to smirk in Liv’s direction.
“Yeah, he worked with me, Kenna and Tara,” Liv said. “You remember him, right, Kenna?”
“Of course. He was a total creep,” Mckenna grimaced, remembering the amount of times he would change his shift times just so he could be near Liv despite her telling him nothing was going to happen after they slept together. “I don’t understand why you even slept with him.”
“Well, you wouldn’t because you’re already so far up Amber’s—” Liv began snidely.
“Wait. He worked with Tara?” Amber interjected, making Mckenna a little happy Liv couldn’t finish her sentence that was sure to cause another potential fight.
“He’s been stalking my Instagram the last couple weeks,” Liv sighed. Mindy pulled up the camera on her phone, taking a picture of Vince who caught it immediately and sent a cocky kiss at her. “Posting the creepiest shit.”
“Probably time to introduce him to Hobbs and Shaw,” Chad decided, tensing both his arms over at the man. Mckenna rolled her eyes.
“Maybe not the best idea to incite violence right in front of the sheriff,” Liv warned him, pushing him back a little. They all watched as Vince spat out onto the grass, sending Liv one last nod before getting into his car. “Looks like he’s leaving. Thanks anyways, boys.”
Chad chuckled as Liv hugged his arms, wincing slightly as the girl pressed on some bruises that lined his skin. Amber leaned forward over Mckenna’s shoulder, her hair tickling her cheek.
“Tara says she fought back hard,” Amber informed Chad ominously. “You’ve got bruises.”
“From football practice,” Chad defended himself with a nervous laugh.
“I’m sure it is,” Mckenna assured him sincerely, placing a hand on Amber’s thigh, getting her to stop interrogating all their friends.
“Ugh, fine,” Amber huffed, leaning back onto her elbows.
There was a buzz from beside Mckenna and she turned her head to see Wes looking at his phone again, almost immediately getting up from his seat. “Tara’s awake. She just texted. I’m… I’m going to the hospital. You guys coming?”
“Yeah, of course,” Mckenna nodded, everyone else agreeing quickly after. She grabbed her bag and took Amber’s hand, helping her off of the picnic table.
“Oh, uh… I can’t,” Liv told them all. “But I’ll meet you guys later.”
“All right,” Chad smiled, kissing her briefly before they all started walking towards their cars.
A/n
Hope you liked this chapter! They'll probably get longer the more we get into the story, but I'll start of short :)