↳ ❝ [Chapter Thirteen-Everyone's A Suspect] ¡! ❞
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THE FRIEND GROUP WERE all sitting outside on the campus, sitting on the benches, chatting with one another as Mindy stood up, making herself the center of attention.
"Okay, nerds listen up!" Mindy said, making them all stop and turn to her. "As terrifying as this all is, I'm actually glad I get a chance to redeem myself for not calling the killers last time. It's fine. Okay." She sighed as she took a breath, preparing herself to begin her rant.
"Okay. From what I see it, someone is trying to make a sequel to the requel." Mindy began, as Anika raised her hand.
"Um, what's a requel?" She asked.
"You're beautiful, sweetie. But let's hold questions till the end." Mindy said, as Anika smiled at her.
"Stab 1 took place in Woodsboro. Stab 2 took place in college." Sam stated, adding onto Mindy's claim.
"So, do you think the killer's trying to copy the movie?" Sloane asked.
"That is one possibility. Heroes now in college: Check. Suspicious new characters brought in to round out the suspect list and/or body count: Check, check, check, check, check, and check." Mindy said, obviously referring to their newer friends, causing them all to be a bit confused by that statement.
"I don't like this." Ethan muttered.
"Me neither." Kit said, quietly.
"But, it can't just be about Stab 2." Mindy continued.
"Why not?" Drew asked.
"It would make sense if this were just a sequel. But we're not in a sequel, because nobody just makes sequels anymore."
They all looked as if they didn't understand what she was getting at, because they really didn't, as Mindy had somewhat of an excited grin on her face.
"We're in a franchise!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms up. "And there are certain rules to a continuing franchise."
Sam sighed as she looked down. "I had a feeling."
"Rule one: Everything is bigger than last time. Bigger budget, bigger cast, bigger body count. Longer chases, shoot-outs, beheadings. You got to top what came before to keep people coming back."
"Beheadings?" Chad questioned.
"Beheadings." Mindy repeated. "Rule two: Whatever happened the last time, expect the opposite. Franchises only survive by subverting expectations. If the killers last time were whiny snowflake film nerds with Letterboxd accounts instead of personalities, you can bet the opposite will be true here. And rule three: No one is safe."
Drew felt her nerves slightly risen at that last statement. Not for her, but for her friends.
"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 to good for Gale and Kirby. Oh, and that's not even the worst part."
"Seriously?" Drew muttered to herself.
"This is the part where she tells us the worst part." Chad said, pointing his pencil to Ethan and Kit.
"The worst part is franchises are just continuing episodic installments designed to boost an IP. Which means main characters are completely expendable now, too." Mindy said to them.
"Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Ellen Ripley, Sally Hardesty, Jigsaw, Tony Stark, James Bond—I mean, even Luke 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." Mindy said, clearly saddened by the last part. They remained silent as they had all looked at Sam and Tara, before Ethan broke that silence.
"Wait, any of us?" He asked.
"Yeah." Mindy nodded.
Ethan stammered at her confirmation. "Am I in the friend group?"
"No, you're just the guy whose our roommate who goes everywhere we all do, and chills in our apartment whenever he wants to, but, no you're not in the friend group." Sloane said, clearly being sarcastic, but Ethan just furrowed his eyebrows, not really understanding it.
"She's being sarcastic. You're in the friend group." Drew informed him.
"Wait, so, I'm like, one of the targets?" Ethan questioned, as Drew simply nodded as Ethan had looked completely worried as he looked up at Mindy.
"Am I gonna die a virgin?" He asked, causing everyone else to just look at him, clearly a bit baffled by the random overshare.
"That was a weird overshare." Mindy grimaced. "But it brings us to our current suspects: Ethan. The shy, dorky guy who no one suspects because he's so shy and dorky."
"Okay, wait. Why am I on the suspect list? Because, I'm randomly Chad's roommate?"
"Roommate lotteries can be juked. You could have fixed it to get next to us." Mindy accused him, making Ethan roll his eyes.
Mindy then turned to Kit, who was sitting right next to Ethan. "Kit. The quiet and mysterious friend, whose more often than not, a very likely suspect."
Kit furrowed his brows at this. "Really? What did I even do? Why am I on the suspect list?"
"Like I said, mysterious, quiet guy who likes to keep to himself. What would you possibly get out of being friends with someone as outgoing and social as Chad?" Mindy questioned.
Kit simply shrugged his shoulders at her reasoning, not really being able to argue with her logic as Mindy turned to over to Fawn.
"Fawn. The typical dumb blonde."
"Excuse me?" Fawn furrowed her eyebrows, taking offense to Mindy's statement.
"Usually meant to be there for the sex appeal, or for the purpose of being the first kill. But, on rare occasions, could be more liable to the plot, and what better way to be liable to the plot than to be the killer?" Mindy said.
"Okay, but, like you said, Fawn's a dumb blonde. You really think she'd be smart enough to pull something like this off?" Sloane asked.
"Well, it could easily be an act. It'd be a good way to get off the suspect list, if everybody thinks you're not even capable of being a suspect." Mindy said, as Fawn tilted her head.
She then turned over to Zayani. "Now, Zayani. The hopeless romantic lovesick girl whose too afraid to reveal her feelings to one of the main characters." Mindy said, subtly shifting her eyes to Tara, which Zayani noticed, making the girl roll her eyes.
"I do not have a crush on any of you guys." Zayani says.
"Yeah, right! You can deny it now, but we all know it's true. That being said, you could easily be the killer. Maybe the one you're crushing on doesn't share your feelings, so you'd fly into a blind rage and go on a killing spree. Or, you could be doing it to win the love of someone else. There are varying possibilities."
Zayani looked down at her hands, obviously offended by the accusations, but at the same time, finding them logical as Mindy turned over to Quinn.
"Quinn. The slutty roommate. A horror movie classic." Mindy said, smacking her lips.
"Sex positive, but...thank you?" Quinn said, slightly confused by Mindy's description of her.
"How did you come to live with Sam and Tara?" Mindy interrogated.
"I answered their ad online." Quinn answered as she looked over to Sam.
"Okay, say no more. You've already implicated yourself enough." Mindy said, raising her voice.
"It was an anonymous ad, Mindy." Tara told her, trying to reason with her. "And you know we vetted her. Plus her dad is a cop."
"And that makes it more likely that she's the killer, because having a cop dad is a great cover. Do you not remember how these movies work, Tara?" Mindy said, leaning closer to Tara.
"Is she always like this?" Quinn asked the others.
Drew simply shrugged her shoulders.
"And finally...Anika." Mindy said.
Anika smiled at her, blowing a kiss to her girlfriend, which Mindy gladly returned with a smile before her smile immediately faded.
"Never trust the love interest." Mindy said, causing Anika's loving smile to slowly fade into a more upset face.
"Okay! So, we have our rules and we have our suspects." Sam said.
"But wait. What about you guys?" Ethan asked, referring to the original group.
"I mean, I think it's pretty safe to rule out the six of us who went through this last year in Woodsboro." Mindy simply answered.
"Agreed." Chad smiled at Mindy.
"Um, not agreed." Quinn chimed in. "What if the trauma you all went through cause one or more of you to snap?"
Drew shifted uncomfortably at the possibility, and the accusations. She didn't really like the implications around her that she would go on a killing spree because of all the traumatic things she's experienced. And this is the second time this has happened while a killer was on the loose.
"Yeah. Or, the fake you got from the killings made you thirsty for more." Ethan added as a suggestion. "I mean, let's be honest here. Some of the theories on line about Sam are—"
"Don't you fucking dare."
"Shut the hell up."
Drew and Tara both cut Ethan off before he could finish the sentence, obviously not wanting to hear any of the possible poor judgments Ethan could've made about Sam. Ethan's eyes widened slightly, somewhat a bit shocked or in fear.
"Yeah, I don't really have a comment on any of this. I'm not going to put myself at risk here." Kit simply said.
"Agreed." Zayani nodded.
"Smart people." Sloane said, complimenting Zayani and Kit.
"Okay, but, Quinn's right, though. I mean, face facts—if we're all suspects, you're all suspects." Anika said, making them all look around at each other.
There was clearly tension that was present among the group. Nobody could really trust anybody. Not even the closest the ones there could trust each other. It's just like last time. Everybody's a suspect.
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DREW SAT IN HER room, thinking back on the conversation she had Fawn earlier. It had caused her to look back a little bit, as she flipped through the pages of an old scrapbook she had made when she was twelve years old. It contained all the memories she and her friends had made while in Woodsboro.
Her looking at the old pictures of herself, the oldest ones to be more specific, made her a bit more aware of how much she's changed over the years. And just how drastic that change was. It was almost as if she had completely morphed into a different person.
As she looked, Chad knocked on her door, making her look up from her book as she turned to see the jock leaning in the doorframe.
"Oh, uh, we're about to make dinner." Chad told her, and the brunette simply nodded.
"Okay."
The jock had noticed she was looking at her scrapbook, as he walked into the room. "Hey, is that you're scrapbook?"
"Yeah. I thought I could look over it again. Just to sit back and reminisce." Drew said, leaning back in her chair as Chad stood over her, bending down to get a better look at the picture.
"Yeah." He examined the picture of Drew when she was younger. She had slightly messy hair that were often put up into two pigtails, braces for her uneven teeth, and a pair of glasses, that made her eyes look slightly larger than they were. The girl was practically almost unrecognizable.
"It's hard to believe that this is you." Chad chuckled.
"Yeah." Drew muttered quietly, looking down at the picture. "It's like looking at a completely different person."
Chad had noticed her saddened tone at that, causing him to soften his eyes as he looked down at her. Drew had looked down at the picture, as she began to think on how much she's changed. She was unsure of whether or not that was the best thing for her or not, especially given she's changed around everyone, even her closest friends. She's not even recognizable anymore.
While, at first, she had been thinking about it, just not too much, this whole thing with Ghostface, and just looking at old pictures of herself caused her to feel like she's changed far too much. Almost everyone who knows her now knows her for this tough facade she's put up, but none of them know her for the person she was. The person she still is. Deep down.
Shes aware she's doing it to keep herself safe, but why does she feel like she has to keep up this exterior around her friends? Her family? The people she's supposed to feel safe with? She looked up to Chad.
"Do you think I've changed too much?"
Chad tilted his head at her. "Well, I do think you've changed a lot from when we had first met."
"Yeah. But, is that a bad thing?" Drew had questioned.
"Well, I think depends on how you look at it. I mean, from where I see it, you did it as a way to protect yourself. To keep yourself from being hurt. And, it's not really like you've changed entirely as a person. You simply changed the way you carried yourself. And, it's not like you erased everything else about yourself. You simply just made another part of yourself more known to others." Chad had said to her.
"Really?"
"Yeah. A lot of people you know, mainly back in Woodsboro, might've known you from what they've seen, or what they've heard from others, but I know you, Drew. The real you. Not the persona or character that you made up."
"You know me?" Drew quizzed. "Like, the real me? The person I was before all of this heartbreaker stuff happened?"
"Yeah. I know you love scrapbooking and photography. I know that you actually love watching horror movies with Mindy, but you pretend to hate it. I know you love arts and crafts. I know you're a softhearted person when it comes to your friends. I know that you really wish to help anybody you can, so they don't have to feel the same type of pain that you had to. I know that you're reserved, and like to keep to yourself, but at the same time, with gladly share parts of yourself with people you feel close to. I know that you put up this whole confident persona as a way to keep yourself from getting taken advantage of by others. And, I know that deep down, you're a very kindhearted and loving person."
Drew felt as if she had been read like a book. As if she was a long book that Chad managed to read the entirety of and fully summarize it all together. She hadn't known just how much Chad had observed her or how much he knew about her, despite how long they've known each other. She was so used to everyone knowing her by her mask she wore all the time, so, it was quite the shocking yet comforting experience to find that someone had known her for her true face. Someone who had seen her true colors.
"You really know me." Was Drew could simply bring herself to say.
"Yeah, I know you, Drew." Chad responded "I wish more people could. You are...an exceptional person."
Drew chuckled at that, feeling a bit bashful about the compliment."Oh, now you're just being nice."
"No, I'm serious. I think...I think that you're very special. In fact, you are very special. Not just to me, but to Mindy, to Sloane, to Tara, and especially to Sam. You have a special place in the hearts of all of us. So, I don't even think that you're special, but rather, I know that you're special." Chad smiled at her.
Drew couldn't help but feel comforted by his words. His words caused this warm feeling to build up in her heart, and not only her heart, but her entire body. She could feel as if she was dancing on the sun, but she instead of held scorched and burned by its fire, instead, she was being embraced by it. As if she was being hugged by it. This feeling became notable to her, coming to a conclusion of what this feeling was.
All of the bottled up and repressed feelings he had been harboring for Chad, finally coming up and reaching the surface. The feeling she's been fighting off for years and years. They were stronger than they've ever been before, meaning these feelings would be hard to fight. And, at this exact moment, Drew had given up on fighting this feeling, as she had completely surrendered to it.
They both looked at each other, their eyes meeting one another, as they both had completely absorbed one another's attention. They both looked at each other, as the glanced at each other's lips, before looking back up. There was a very small space between the two, as they began to move forward, about to close that said space.
As their lips had slightly connected, Sloane had entered the room, making them both immediately jolt back from each other as they looked over to see the girl, who had a wide, cheesy smile on her face.
"Sam wanted me to come get both of you. So you could help us make dinner." She said, as it had seemed as if she was trying to hold back her laugh.
"Okay. We're coming." Drew said.
"Okay." Sloane nodded as she continued to stand there, still smiling, as Drew and Chad looked at each, both confused before turning back to her.
"What?" Drew asked her.
"Oh! Nothing." Sloane snickered as she walked back into the kitchen, leaving Chad and Drew there by themselves, as they had looked at each other, a sense of awkwardness between the two of them.
"We-We should probably go." Drew said, an awkward smile on her face.
"Oh! Yeah, totally." Chad nodded, also having an awkward smile on his face as they both had left the room and entered the kitchen.