A soft groan escapes her lips as bright white light pierces through her eyelids that only moments before had held darkness. She slowly blinks her eyes open, the light nearly blinding as the last dregs of sleep weigh heavy in her mind. After a few minutes, she can make out the shape of two medical lamps positioned over her. She focuses past the lamps and the dull gray of the ceiling tiles fall into her line of sight.
Her heart pounds once she realizes she doesn't have any idea of where she is and the beep of a machine echoes her heartbeat back to her ears, the quiet ticking of a clock barely heard behind it. Her hands grip some kind of cloth, stiff between her fingers as she pulls herself up to a sitting position. The sudden smell of antiseptics meeting her nose makes her dizzy. Once the world stops spinning around her, she finally looks around at her surroundings.
Cabinets and medical equipment line the walls all around her. A glimpse of movement in the otherwise still room makes her turn her head to a window. Upon seeing a row of clipboards resting upon chairs, a sickening feeling in the pit of her gut alerts her to the fact that she's laying on a table in the middle of an operating room. Her heart pounds faster as she realizes she's wearing nothing but a medical gown and a chill goes up her spine as if she's being watched.
Her eyes scans the room looking for any means of escape and she breathes a sigh of relief to see a double door leading out. She throws her legs off the side of the table and her feet lands with a thud on the freezing cold floor. She pulls the tubes from her arms and pinches close the gown behind her, sprinting towards the door.
Swinging the door open she screams, feeling an sharp blade sliding deeply into the midsection of her stomach. Staring down at the white colored tile floor that is now spotted with red dots because of her blood leaking through her wound, Mia inhales a sharp gasp, lifting her head up, meeting face to face with the masked killer standing before her, twisting the knife in satisfaction.
Ghost face pulls the knife out of her stomach and she tumbles backwards, covering the bloody wound with a palm as the midsection of the gown dampens. Falling down on the ground Mia lies down on her back, eyes wide in fear as the killer trudges towards her then climbs on top of her raising the weapon above their head.
She reaches one hand out and takes off the mask.
Her eyes widen as she stares back at herself wearing the costume, holding the bloody knife in one hand. "There's a darkness in you that loves to kill. It's in your blood!"
"What happens next?" A psychiatric nurse by the name of Dr. Claudia Sinclair, the pale skin wrinkle gray haired woman that's in her early seventies asks her patient who's sitting across from her on a sofa reading a handwritten paper with shaky hands.
The patient doesn't respond.
"Mia?"
The traumatized teenage girl that was discharged just days ago from the hospital after having a panic attack looks up at the therapist with a emotionless look on her face.
"I woke up screaming two 'o clock in the morning." Mia crumbles the paper in her hand, exhaling a long breath.
With a dark blue pen, Dr. Sinclair scribbles down words on an important document inside a folder that has the patient's photo ID stapled to it. "How often are you having these dreams?" She crosses her thin legs, continuing to write.
Mia mumbles "too often," then sighs deeply. "My nightmares had become so bad that I be too afraid to fall asleep or be alone in the dark for long periods of time."
"Well, I can understand why. You've been through so much last year. You did what you had to do to save yourself and your friends. You're a hero, Mia. And sometimes being a hero, traumatic experiences do happen."
"I'm no hero," Mia scoffs in disbelief, hearing Ghost face voice in the back of her mind. "I'm a murderer. All I see when I close my eyes is her face when I shot her." She then points at her temples, glaring at her the elder woman. "She's in here and she won't go away,"
"Who's in there?"
Lowering her head, Mia mumbles out sadly "My sister who was once my best friend," wiping away tears from her eyes she then adds "the whole world has their own opinions about what happened when they don't know anything. They don't know what me and my friends went through last year. One by one, all of us were haunted like—like animals by those girls but the world still takes their side as if they were in innocent. Even idolizing them by airing that dumb tv show. Oh, and let's not forget about the books," she scoffs in disbelief.
The psychiatrist nurse nods and then closes the file. "What are people saying about you that's gotten you so upset, Mia?"
"Online, people are calling me a traitor for killing my own sister. Saying that I should be locked up for taking someone's life even though it was self defense and that I shouldn't see another sunrise ever again."
"Are you wiling to cope with all this?"
Mia shrugs slowly, staring at the carpet floor. "I'm trying but I don't know how to block all those mean comments out."
"You know how some people read, write or perhaps listen to music or does yoga to you know meditate?" Dr. Sinclair asks calmly, seeing Mia trembling on the chair.
"Yeah?" Mia lifts an eyebrow curiously. "So?"
"What do you do that helps you ease your mind?" Claudia puts the notebook down on the small oval glass shaped coffee table that's in between them.
Mia looks down at her fumbling hands in her lap. "Ever since I was a kid, I loved to draw."
"Have you been drawing lately?"
Opening her backpack, the teen girl takes out a sketchbook and then gives it to the psychiatrist to take a look. "Whenever I can't sleep, which is most days—because I be expecting a phone call or him to show up behind me out of thin air, I um...I draw what's been on my mind lately."
"You said him. Who are you talking about? Wasn't the masked murderers your sister and her adopted cousin, right?"
Mia blinks rapidly, heart drumming against her chest as she squeezes her fists tightly while one leg bounces up and down rapidly because of her nerves. "I don't specifically know who he is but he helped Brittany and Kara. And he's the one who killed my best friend Clementine."
The woman's face forms a frown as she flips through the pages of the pencil drawings of the same portrait over and over. "And you call him Ghost Face, correct?" Mia nods, squeezing the crumbled up paper ball tighter in her palm. The small timer on the coffee table next to a pile of women's health magazines starts ringing, signaling their time is up.
Claudia sighs, turning the timer off and then holds up the sketchbook asking "Do you mind if I keep this?"
Standing on her two feet while shrugging her backpack on, Mia knits her brows worriedly. "Why?" No one else knows about that sketchbook and she wants to keep it that way.
"I just want to look further into it. That's all." Claudia watches the teen hesitate for a moment and then stands up, gently putting a hand on one of her shoulders comfortably. "Nothing is gonna happen to your sketchbook. I promise I will return it in good hands."
Sighing deeply, Mia gives out an "okay" then says goodbye and walks out the room, closing the door behind her, sliding her hood over her head.
Sitting behind her desk, Claudia opens a drawer, takes out a bottle of whiskey, pops it open then fills her coffee mug halfway. The sketchbook is wide open on her desk as she flips through more pages, sipping her drink, stopping when she sees a disturbing picture of a drawing of Brittany with a bullet in the head.
—
—
It's night time when Mia gets home and locks up. The temperature outside has dropped and the sky is the color of charcoal with no tiny white dots in the sky or the white full moon.
Inside her bedroom that has the walls covered in black and white portraits of Ghost Face and paintings of her deceased friends, Mia drops her backpack on the floor then flops down on her bed, reaching for her lamp.
The bright light illuminates the entire room. Sighing tiredly, she buries her face in her palms, shutting her eyes. The loud ringing of her phone scares her out of her thoughts. She takes it out her pocket, expecting it to be that psychopath calling but at her surprise it's just Namjoon.
"Hi, Joonie," She smiles, rubbing a hand across her forehead.
There's overlapping conversations in the background as well as the sound of silverware scrapping against plates and calming music. "Hey, how did it go?" Namjoon and Blake are on a date, dining at a five star restaurant when he decided to call Mia to check on her.
Mia blows raspberries, flopping backwards on the sheets with the phone against her right ear. "Um, okay. I guess." She lets out a yawn, glancing at the clock on the bedside table.
"Are you okay?" She can barely hear him.
"What? I can't hear you, Joonie—" the line disconnects between them. She dials him back but her call is automatically forwarded to the voicemail box. Sighing, she plugs the phone to the charger and then slides off her boots after untying them both. She's exhausted but her mind doesn't want her to sleep just yet so she sits at her desktop, opens a journal and begins writing down her thoughts.
—
—
A loud thud coming from inside her closet awakens her.
Opening her eyes, Mia's heart drops to her stomach as she lifts her head slowly off the desk, fully alarm. The light is on inside her closet and the door is halfway open. Loud movements patters around inside, knocking things over.
Mia grabs the knife from underneath her pillow, gulping and then slowly walks towards her closet pointing it in front of her while her feet tip toes across the carpet. Her palms are sweaty and her heart hammers against her chest as she gets closer and closer, one hand out reaching to open the door wider.
Pulling the door sideways very quickly, she swings the knife at the person but misses when they bend down to the floor, screaming as the knife stabs the top of a shoebox they were holding instead.
"I don't wanna die!"
"Julie?!" Mia glares at her with wide eyes.
Standing to her feet, Julie drops the shoebox and then carefully takes the knife from Mia's tight grip. "Can I have the knife please? Thank you," And then walks out the closet, setting the weapon down on the bedside table.
"What the hell were you doing in my closet?" Mia panics, chest moving up and down frantically.
"I was looking for a cute shirt before you tried to stab me with a kitchen knife." Julie explains in a whiny tone while moving around the bedroom.
Mia scoffs, watching her pull open the drawers. "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for perfume. You have any?"
"I meant, what are you doing back here? Thought you were going home to your parents?" Holding a hand on her hip, Mia brushes some hair back from her face, heart rate slowly coming down.
Julie sighs deeply, closing a drawer. "I was gonna go back home to the farm that's in the middle of nowhere but then again I thought—well why would I do that? There's cute guys here, many restaurants that have delicious food, nice parties, cool people that goes to the same school as me and then, I also thought of you."
The two teenagers stares back at one another for a moment not really sure what to say next. Julie then continues talking. "Mia, I'm so sorry about what I said to you,"
"It's okay," Mia sits down on the edge of the bed.
Julie sits down beside her. "No, it's not. You've been through so much. You're a lot braver than you think. What those people said about you can go fuck themselves because you aren't an angel of death. You're a fucking survivor."
"Thank you," Mia twirls her mom's necklace around her throat. "That means a lot."Julie opens her arms, motioning for a hug and Mia cracks a smile letting her roommate wrap her arms around her.
The loud ringing of Mia's phone startles them both. Julie glances at the glowing device on the bedside table, grabs it and unplugs it from the charger. "It's lover boy," she hands her friend the phone then stands up off the bed, heading out the room.
Accepting the call, Mia puts the phone to her right ear. "Hi, Tae." She breathes deeply, flopping backwards across the middle of the bed. Overlapping conversations, car horns, music playing in restaurants and the sound of footsteps hitting the pavement echoes in the background as the young boy walks along the sidewalk early morning on his way to class.
"Hey, are you okay? I've heard what happened to Clementine. Kristen called me saying she's worried about you. I'm so sorry, Mia. I wanna be there for you," The college boyfriend maneuvers his way down the stairs, entering a tunnel that leads to the entrance of the subway.
Burying her face in the palm of her hand while the other clutches the phone, Mia sniffles with her eyes closed. "It's not safe for you to be here, Tae. You should stay there."
"Mia, is it happening again?" Taehyung stops in the middle of a horde of people waiting for the train to arrive at the station.
"Yes, it's happening again. Until the killer's been caught, promise me you won't come back here. Last year, I almost lost you and I won't let that happen again." She whispers hoarsely. A car horn beeps loudly outside in front of the house, startling her. Shuffling a hand through her hair, she stands up off the bed and then wanders to the window.
Taehyung groans lowly, not liking the fact that she's so stubborn. "You know I can't promise you that. I need to be there to protect you. You're my girlfriend!"
"I know you want to but right now I gotta protect myself. There's no use if you're here dead." On the curb of the sidewalk there's a red Tesla parked in front of the driveway with loud rock music blasting through the windows. Julie smiles widely stepping inside the room dolled up from head to toe in a short red dress and heels, hair straight down her back and shoulders. Mia says quickly on the phone "We'll talk about this later. I promise," then hangs up before her college boyfriend can say anything else.
"Hey, I'll be back later on tonight. If you need anything, call me." The roommate peeks out the window smirking, seeing the hot guy outside waiting for her.
"Who's that?" Mia questions, gesturing towards the car outside.
Julie bites down on her lower lip then says "Luke. He asked me out in class," with a nonchalant shrug while walking towards the door.
Mia scoffs with a smile. "What happened between you and Jimin?"
Julie stands sideways with her body halfway in and out the doorway. "Jimin and I are only friends. It was my decision for us to be just that after what Gwen told me in P.E class."
"What did she tell you?"
"Both of his exes were murdered. " Julie shudders, dragging her thumb across her throat, pretending to slice it.
Mia brushes some hair behind an ear, mumbling sadly, remembering her dear friend Anastasia who died in her arms last year on Halloween night. "Oh, yeah."
Julie feels bad for bringing up that horrific memory. She sighs deeply and then wanders towards her roommate, wrapping her in a comforting hug. "Make sure you lock up, okay?" Then pulls away from the warm embrace and steps out the room saying "Love ya!" Quietly, Mia listens to her footsteps echoing down the steps, the first floor of the house and then out the front door. Through the bedroom window, she smiles seeing Julie walk down the pathway and then climbs inside the car before it pulls off down the road.
A text message alerts on Mia's phone display. Silently, she reads it as a small smile appears on her face. Jungkook asked if she would like to play pool. A game them two loved when they were dating. Her thumbs taps rapidly on the phone screen as she steps in the closet, finding what to wear.
—
—
"Money shot! Money shot!" Liam cheers as him and Jungkook takes turns playing the game pool while everyone else stands to the side laughing and chatting. Well except Jimin who's sitting on the edge of the pool table glaring at Julie and Luke heavily making out in the parking lot in front of the building, hugged up against the Tesla. After having some alone time in the woods, they both decided to come to the restaurant too.
"Since when were they a thing?" Jimin scoffs, pissed that he blew his chance with Julie. Right beside him, Mia shrugs, sipping a glass of cola with ice cubes in it. Jimin rolls his eyes and looks away when Julie steps inside the building grinning from ear to ear.
Kristen smirks, wiggling her eyebrows at her and then they both laugh. "Cute boyfriend,"
"Oh, he's not my boyfriend just yet. We're only having fun." Julie's smile deepens as she waves at the cute boy smoking outside, chatting on the phone. He blows her a kiss then steps away.
"You know he's a player, right?" Jimin tells Julie who's chatting with Kristen and Mia.
Julie gets a thrill off teasing Jimin while brushing his hair back from his face with her left hand, cleavage exposed directly in his face. "Oh yeah? Then what are you? I've heard you were dating two girls at once." She shrugs, lifting both brows.
Jimin scoffs. "Bullshit. Who told you that?"
"Many, many, many people." Julie chuckles, taking another sip of her cold soda. The restaurant is loud with old rock music blaring out the radio as people clutters the floor and seats, chatting and eating their meals. Angrily, Jimin mumbles underneath his breath and storms off somewhere, ignoring the girls laughing at him. "He's so cute when he's angry," she talks in a baby voice, earning giggles from the girls.
As Julie starts another conversation about being in a brawl between two hot guys, Mia's eyes wanders around, landing on a dark pair of eyes across the table, gawking right back at her. Jungkook winks, flexing his right arm, showing his tattoos as he pokes his muscle.
Mia blushes and rolls her eyes, holding the glass cup in one palm as the other clutches the straw while she drinks. "I'm gonna um...use the restroom. Be right back," she skips away and her ex is not too far behind her.
"Good game, bro." Jungkook fist pump Liam then walks away from the group. Trudging down a hall, glancing around, searching for the girl he fell head over heels for, he almost jumps in the air when she pops out from behind the corner.
"Why are you following me?" She crosses her arms in front of her chest, back leaning against the wall.
Sheepishly, the ex boyfriend shrugs, words tangled up in his mouth. "I—um..I just wanted to see if you were okay being back here alone." He rubs the back of his head, looking deeply into her eyes as they stand chest to chest, lips inches apart.
"Thanks but I'm fine." She passes around him and pushes the door open to the ladies room, stepping inside. Sighing in frustration, Jungkook heads back to the group.
Standing outside around the back of the building urinating against the wall while his car headlights beams on him, cascading not only his shadow along the brick wall but also another figure dashing by, Luke talks to himself and laughs. The sound of the radio suddenly turning on startles him. Quickly, he finishes his business and zips up his pants. "Is that you, Jules?" He licks his lips, thinking about the sex they just had in the backseat.
Holding up one hand in the air, he shields the light from his face while trudging back to his vehicle, frowning not remembering leaving the engine running. "Baby, what you doing?" He bends down, searching for her through the window. The car is empty. Reaching a hand out, he turns the engine off and then moves out the car without noticing Ghost Face behind him.
The masked killer stabs him deeply in the spine, making him scream out in a pain while dropping to the floor. "Fuck!" With his back against the car door, Luke holds up a hand, begging for his life as the slasher stands tall before him, raising the knife. "No! Please!"
Along the brick wall Ghost Face's shadow shows him jabbing the weapon repeatedly in the guy's chest, deeper and deeper, cutting off his screams as his body limps and his blood pours all over the car window, the door and across the ground as well as the killer's mask. While the teen's body twitches, the killer stares at him, tilting his head sideways, watching the boy take his last breath.
"Have anyone seen Luke?" Julie calls out as the group exits the building, heading home.
Mia spins around in a circle. "I saw him earlier but I don't know where he went."
"Omg, he ditched me!" Julie groans, stomping a foot on the ground. The bottom of her high heel clanking against the cement.
Unlocking the doors to his truck, Jungkook says to her and Mia "I could give you girls a ride home."
Mia looks at Kristen asking if she wants a ride too but she politely declines. "Liam's taking me home. See you tomorrow," she rubs her left shoulder and then walks away towards his car as he patiently waits for her with Jimin in the passenger seat switching songs on the radio.
"I can't believe he left me here. He's such an asshole." Julie grumbles, climbing inside the backseat while Mia sits in the front. The entire ride home is silent then twenty minutes later, the truck stops in front of Mia's home. Julie is the first to hop out. She thanks Jungkook for the ride and then stomps to the front porch grumbling on her way inside the house.
Unbuckling the seatbelt, Mia pushes the door open. "Thanks for the ride. Goodnight."
"Are we not ever gonna discuss the elephant in the room, Mia?" Staring through the front windshield blankly, Jungkook rests his palms in his lap. His phone vibrates in the cup holder.
Mia glances at the name on the display. "Ashley's calling you,"
"Ashley's not important right now," he glances at her sideways, eyes staring hard and longingly into hers as she closes the door, letting out a deep breath she didn't realize she was holding in.
"Fine, you want to discuss the elephant in the room after months of not taking accountability then so be it." She mutters, shrugging.
Jungkook knits his brows, feeling quite offended. "Taking accountability for what?"
"You know what you did!" She raises her voice, glaring at him.
"I didn't do anything!" He yells back.
Mia scoffs in annoyance. "You cheated on me."
"I didn't cheat on you. We were on a break, Mia."
"No we weren't." She shakes her head, shutting her eyes.
"Yes, we were. Before I left town for New Years you told me let's take a break because we weren't getting along."
"Okay, fine. We were on a break for two weeks and you already slept with someone else. But the worse part is you didn't even have the guts to tell me you met someone. I had to find out through one of your friends! Do you know how stupid I looked after hearing that on campus?"
"I don't understand why you're so mad when you broke things off with me," he points directly towards his chest.
Mia huffs out a breath. "Because, you moved on so fast like—like I meant nothing to you, Jungkook."
"I was hurting. You hurt me, Mia. No other girl has made me feel the same way you did. I admit that. But let's not forget how quickly you moved on as well." He argues back.
She wrinkles her brows defensively. "I didn't move on as quick as you did. I liked one guy and we barely talked until last year when the killings started happening. You were just dating anything you laid your eyes on. You chose Gabriella over me."
"No I didn't. I wanted to get back with you but you kept ignoring me."
"So, you dated her to make me jealous?"
"You're dating Taehyung to make me jealous!"
Groaning, Mia has had enough. She doesn't say anything else. Instead, she pushes the door open and hops out the truck while her ex boyfriend stares at her with a puzzled expression on his face.
Stomping through the grass, she rubs the hot tears out of her eyes ignoring him calling after her. Her heart wanted him to come after her but he didn't. He freaking didn't. Instead he speeds off down the street.
Entering the house, Mia slams the door, leans her back against it and buries her face in her palms, sobbing.
—
—
Inside chemistry class the next day, Kristen is sitting in one of the desk towards the back with her long toned crossed legs stretching against the back of a chair as she holds open a book in her palms, reading IT by Stephen King. Standing near the whiteboard, the teacher is holding a clipboard talking to another teacher. Other classmates are seated patiently waiting and chatting for the lesson to start after the final bell rings.
"What are you reading?" A male's voice startles Kristen.
Turning her head towards the body the voice belongs to, her mouth almost drops wide open and her eyes grows wider as the guy sits down in the chair next to her. Her voice comes out in a whisper as she closes the book. "Logan?"
Brittany's ashy blond haired ex boyfriend smiles widely, showing his braces as he leans back comfortably in the chair with his hands clasps in front of his stomach. Scratch marks all down the lower half of his right arm Kristen notices but she keeps quiet.
"Surprise, Kris." He chuckles darkly, giving her an eerie feeling throughout her whole body.
Kristen stumbles on her words, remembering the last time she saw him which was almost two years ago. "Where have you been? Everyone said you ran away,"
The strange boy shrugs both shoulders, blowing out a long exaggerating breath while slamming his white binder down on top of the desk. "I didn't run away. I was sent away."
"Why? What did you do?" She questions him, sliding her feet off the back of the chair.
"I got sent away for doing dumb shit. But now I'm back and what's this I hear about this town being murderville?" He scoffs in disbelief. "My ex girlfriend and her fucking cousin killed your friends last year?"
Kristen nods. "Yeah. Lots of crazy shit went down while you were away doing whatever." Her mind reminds her what Kara had said that night in her bedroom last year on Halloween. "What happened that night when you and Brittany, ya know..left homecoming?"
Logan stares at her emotionlessly with darkness in his eyes then crosses his arms across his chest. "I don't remember much. We were both drunk that night. The only thing I can remember is us fighting, and she grabbed the wheel. Next thing you know, the front of my car hits a tree and I suddenly knocked out instantly. Few days later I woke up in the hospital and that's when I heard on the news she went missing."
"That's why she came out in the middle of the road," Kristen visualizes Brittany's body tumbling out of the woods before the jeep had hit her.
"What did you just say?" Logan frowns curiously.
Before Kristen can get another word out, her mind begins playing tricks on her by making her eyes see Brittany standing behind him smiling with the gunshot wound in her head, blood all over her rotten face. Dropping the book to the floor, Kristen screams, jumping out the chair, alarming the entire class. Everyone, including the two teachers stares at her dumbfounded.
"Woah, are you okay?" Logan stands up, reaching both hands out to her but she quickly grabs her backpack and black leather jacket then dashes out the door. Logan looks down at the floor and then picks up the book she left behind.
Running inside the girls empty restroom, Kristen stands in front of the mirror, sniffling and pushing her outgrown hair back with one hand, grinding her teeth together anxiously. Setting her backpack on top of the sink, she opens a pocket and takes out a prescription bottle. Twisting the cap off, her hand shakes as she tilts the bottle, pouring a tablet in her right palm, dropping it inside the sink when a loud giggle echoes behind her in one of the stalls.
"Shit," she breathes heavily, trying to grab it but it's too late because it slides down the drain. The giggling continues and she gets irritated immediately. Looking back over one shoulder she asks in a low tone "Hello?"
Her heart pounds when she hears Kara's voice. "I love you so much, Kris! I'm sorry! Please help me! It's so hot down here in hell!"
"Who's doing that?!" She cries out, spinning all the way around, glancing at each stall door.
The voice whispers "It's me."
For a moment it's silent in the room with an uneasy feeling floating around as she stares at the stall in front of her, seeing a pair of black boots stepping off the toilet lid. She screams when the door bursts open and the killer jumps out pointing the knife letting out a "ahhh" sound from underneath the mask while chasing her towards the exit.
Running full speed out the restroom with him on her tail, she jumps out into the hallway, not looking where she's going and then collides with another person, chest to chest.
"Oh my God!" Mickey, holds her by the shoulders, trying to calm her down by backing her up against the wall as she shakes violently, to frighten to even utter a word.
"Let go of me! He's gonna kill me!" Kristen breaks free and then sprints down the hall, rounding the corner, completely out of breath.
While Mickey stands in the middle of the hall looking very confused, Ghost Face sneaks out the restroom and then rounds the corner, vanishing just before she turns around, entering the restroom asking "Anyone in here?"
—
—
The bell rings.
"That's all for today. Class is dismissed. Remember your essays are due next Wednesday. Have a wonderful day, everyone." The teacher ends the lesson and sits down behind her desk while the students are exiting out the door, carrying their backpacks and school supplies.
Forgetting to zip her backpack all the way, Mia swings one strap over her left shoulder accidentally letting all her notebooks and binders fall out. "Crap," she brushes some hair behind an ear. Bending down to collect her things off the floor her body immediately freezes when seeing someone in front of her grabbing her supplies first.
Standing up, she puts her backpack down on the desk as Jungkook hands her the notebooks and binders all at once. She shoves everything inside, muttering a "thanks" then makes sure to zip the backpack completely shut this time.
Jungkook quickly stands up straight and gently reach one hand out, gripping her right arm before she could step away.
Mia spins around slowly to face him.
"Can we talk?" Jungkook pleads, closing the gap between them by standing very close to her as she avoids eye contact.
"I have to get to my next class," quickly before he can stop her, she rushes out the classroom. Not letting her get away so easily the ex boyfriend exits the room and catches up with her down the hall as she stands in front of her locker.
"About last night," Jungkook sighs deeply, feeling his chest ache. "Some of the things I said—."
Mia twists and turns on the combination lock before opening the locker, putting her binders and books neatly on the shelf. "It's okay. Don't overthink things. Besides, I have a boyfriend and you're dealing with someone, so we should keep things cordial between us from now on. Okay?" She gives him a fake smile then walks away, blending in with the horde of classmates cluttering the halls. Groaning, Jungkook bangs a fist against a locker then walks away, mumbling underneath his breath in frustration. The girl he loves is slipping through his fingers and he can't take it anymore.
—
—
Heavy rain patters against the windows, the rooftop of the house, flooding the streets and the pavement as night falls over the town with thick fog roaming the air.
Mia is sitting criss cross on her bed watching the rain pouring outside while one hand twirls around her deceased mother's necklace. A habit she's picked up on lately whenever she's deep in thought. She swings her legs off the bed and exits the bedroom, heading up to the small attic where her brother had moved the last remaining of Helen's belongings since he turned his office into a bedroom for Julie.
Pushing the door open after climbing the ladder, her footprints makes a trail along the dusty creaky floors as she turns the light on. Squinting her eyes, she hugs herself, rubbing her palms up and down her shoulders as goosebumps appears on her skin from the atmosphere being so chilly.
Kneeling down in the middle of stacked brown boxes, she pulls out Helen's favorite rock band t-shirt then hugs it tightly against her chest. A high school yearbook catches her eyes and she grabs that next. Opening it, she smiles while flipping through the pages.
After viewing Helen's school photos, she flips through more pictures, stopping when a familiar face grabs her attention. It's a picture of Jimin's father with a particular name underneath it and a red drawn heart around his face.
Kevin Park
Out the box, she grabs a picture frame of a group photo being taken many years ago of her mom and friends on a snowy mountain in front of a cabin. A young Helen, Kevin and another couple Mia has never seen before.
"Dad?"
—
—
"Can someone please get me some fries. I'm fucking starving and the cafeteria food is disgusting. I rather eat my own puke than eat that crap." Gwyneth groans, sitting up in the hospital bed dressed in a white gown with her arms crossed in front of her chest, glaring at the tv. Jimin and Cameron are both seated in chairs occupied with their phones.
Cameron's thumbs taps repeatedly on his phone as he plays a soccer game online with some friends. "You want some McDonald's fries, babe?"
"Yes. Go get them. I haven't eaten all day." His girlfriend demands, wincing at the sharp pain on the side of her stomach where she's been stitched up.
Jimin pauses the show he was just watching on Netflix and then stands on his feet, stretching out his limbs. "I could use a coffee. Would you like a small fry?" He eyes the petite girl up and down with a raised eyebrow.
"Large fries with light salt and two packs of ketchup." Gwen gives him instructions, tsking. Jimin gives her a salute then walks out the room.
"Grab me a McDouble!" Cameron yells after him.
As soon as he's out of sight Gwen huffs, leaning back against a pillow, glaring at Cameron. "Oh my God, Cam are you going to be playing that game all night?"
"Shh. I'm going to win!" Smiling widely, he cheers with a fist pumping in the air when his team player scores then whines dramatically when an incoming call interrupts the middle of the match. "Mia's calling me. She probably wants to talk to you."
"Shit, my phone is probably dead," Gwen moves around on the bed, trying to get comfortable.
Cameron accepts the call. "Hello?"
Mia shouts on the line. "Cameron, where's Jimin?!"
Cameron furrows his brows in confusion, wondering why she's yelling on the phone when he can hear her perfectly fine. "He went to grab some food. Why? What's wrong?"
Gwen asks "What's she saying?" while eyeing him across the room curiously as he stands to his feet with a panicked expression on his face.
"Jimin is the killer! You and Gwen get out of there! Now! It's not safe there!" Mia explains in a rush tone.
"Wait—what?" The line disconnects between them. He draws the phone from his ear, frowning at the dead battery flashing on the display.
"What did she say?" Gwen asks again but much eagerly.
Cameron repeats what Mia said to him on the phone. "She said Jimin is the killer."
All of the power suddenly goes out.