"Come on, Y/n! You gotta let me interview you for my documentary."
"Give it up, Mickey. She's never gonna agree." Randy told his friend from film class as the three of you strolled through the courtyard to meet up with Sid, Hallie, and Derek.
You laughed as Mickey held up his camera to record you, always carrying that stupid thing around. You weren't surprised to see him and Randy hit it off so quickly. They were both practically obsessed with movies... maybe a little too much.
"If you wanted videos of me on your camera, all you had to do was ask." You grinned. Mickey pressed his lips into a thin line to mask his own smile at your teasing.
"Okay. Can I take some videos of you?" He asked with a straight face. "Preferably while I'm asking questions and you're answering them."
"Not doing the interview, Mickey~" You declined, pushing his camera out of your face and doubling your pace until you were farther ahead.
Mickey immediately left Randy in the dust to catch up with you, hooking an arm around your neck to give you a playful noogie.
Randy took notice of the friendship that had quickly flourished between you two. Over time, he couldn't help but feel the interactions you shared with Mickey had grown into subtle flirtations. However, the second he brought it up to either of you, there was nothing but denial.
You simply found Mickey to be a great friend, but nothing more. When you first met, he had this familiar vibe to him that you couldn't quite place. It was strange, bothering you for weeks even until you realized who he reminded you of... Billy... Their personalities were hardly alike, but their auras were so similar. It kind of freaked you out at first, although you eventually got used to it.
"You're fucking up my hair, you butt-face miscreant!" You exclaimed, unraveling yourself from Mickey's grasp just in time to see a big crowd gathering in front of a podium where Chief Hartley stood to discuss the recent murders.
You spotted the other half of your friend group near the brick wall not far from the buzzing reporters, and you beelined straight to them with Mickey and Randy following close behind.
"Is that Gale Weathers? What is she doing in Ohio?" You pointed into the crowd, alerting your two Woodsboro friends of the famous news reporter's presence.
"Star of the Gale Weathers press conference. Based on the book by Gale Weathers. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Gale Weathers." Randy stated with his face close to the lens of Mickey's camera before turning to you and Sid. "This is huge."
"Be kind. She helped save our lives." Sidney said, her voice tight as a wire. You couldn't tell whether she was talking to you or herself.
"She had calf implants," Randy commented after a short inspection. "I'm gonna get closer."
Randy left to make his way towards the crowd while the rest of you decided to simply observe the chaos from afar. You sat down next to Mickey with a sigh, watching as Derek moved closer to Sidney. "Is that her?" He asked.
His brows furrowed with worry as Sid had already informed him all about her past issues with Miss Gale Weathers.
"Yeah." She replied in a whisper, looking back at the reporter.
Mickey suddenly nudged your shoulder, gaining your attention before nodding in the direction of the five sorority girls strutting up to the group. "Fuck," you muttered, stimulating laughter from the film student as he knew you couldn't sneak away this time.
"Hello, girls. Enjoying yourselves?" The blonde asked with a sickly sweet smile.
"Oh, hello, Sister Lois, Sister Murphy." Hallie kindly greeted the two heads of the Delta Lambda Zeta sorority.
"Hello, pledge." Murphy's smile only grew as she looked at you and then Sidney. "Hi, Y/n, Sidney."
"Hey." Sidney greeted awkwardly while you simply smiled at them.
"This must be flat-out hell for you both." The blonde's voice held concern, however, her expression feigned pity as the rest of the sorority sisters gave sympathetic nods. "How are you girls holding up?"
Of course, she didn't genuinely care how either of you was feeling. But getting the two survivors of the Woodsboro massacre—minus Randy—to join their sorority would skyrocket their popularity.
"I manage." Sidney answered, and you nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we're just peachy."
"It's really weird, isn't it? To think this fuss is all because of you two! I mean, not directly, but in some six-degrees-of-Kevin Bacon way." Murphy spoke with a concerning amount of enthusiasm.
You caught how Derek and Mickey shared a look, poking fun at how ridiculous she sounded.
"Now um... Hallie! Are you going to bring your friends to our little martini mixer tonight?" Lois, the other head, finally spoke up.
"I have a lot of work to do–" Sidney lied, but was interrupted by Hallie who placed a hand on her shoulder.
"We'll be there." Hallie assured, forcing a big smile. It's not like you could decline either after already agreeing to go. You'd just have to find a way to avoid the sisters all night.
"Oh, good." Lois spoke pleased. "Because Sid, Y/n, we have our eyes on you. You girls hang in there, and if there's anything we can do–"
"The Delta Lambdas are very sensitive to your plight." Murphy finished the brunette's sentence as if it had been rehearsed. The rest of the girls nodded, waving their goodbyes sweetly before taking off in the other direction.
"You gonna start to dress like that once you get in?" Derek asked Sid as the rest of the group was still reeling from that bizarre interaction.
"That's not gonna happen." Sid declared while Hallie and Derek began to laugh.
"The Delta Lambdas are the biggest bunch of fuckin–" Mickey was quickly cut off as Hallie took offense to his words. "Hey! I'm pledging Delta Lambda, thank you."
As your gaze left the sorority sisters, who were still walking away, your eyes wandered the campus. You did a double-take after noticing a man standing under a tree, looking utterly lost and confused.
"Sid." You mumbled.
Sidney followed your line of vision after noticing your surprise, her eyes widening slightly at the sight. "Oh my god."
Without delay, the two of you stood, leaving the rest of the group with puzzled looks as you quickly approached the man.
"Dewey?" You called out, checking if it was really him. The familiar deputy spun around at the sound of his name. Your smile only grew as you ran up to him, hugging him tightly.
"Hey!" Sid greeted excitedly as you pulled away so she could get her hug in too. "What are you doing here?"
"I was worried about you guys." Dewey's voice was softer than normal as they broke apart. "I heard about what happened, and I was on the next plane."
"Oh." Sidney's smile moderately dimmed.
"Can we talk? The three of us?" He asked, and you immediately nodded.
"Yeah, we can talk over by the gazebo." You pointed in the direction that wasn't far from where you were.
"Are you girls okay?" Dewey questioned after the three of you arrived, sitting down at the wooden table in the gazebo.
"We're fine, Dewey, or I mean things were okay until now." Sidney fidgeted with her purse. "But uh, theater's going great. I got my first starring role. We open in two days."
"That is great!" Dewey enthused, leaning closer as he held onto every word.
"Yeah, and I was thinking about joining a sorority!" You said with a grin. Sidney looked almost appalled whereas Dewey was at a loss for words, brows raising slightly.
"Joke." You clarified, laughing as they both appeared relieved. You were definitely not cut out for the Delta Lambdas.
"Whatever you kids are into these days..." Dewey quipped playfully.
"We've got some great friends now," Sidney revealed. "And uh, I'm seeing someone. Nice guy. Premed, no apparent psychotic tendencies."
You went rigid at the subtle reference to Billy. Dewey looked down at the table with a sigh, the memories of what happened rushing back. He lost his sister that night.
"I was just worried," Dewey said. "Look girls, if there is some freaked-out psycho trying to follow in Billy Loomis' footsteps, you probably already know him. Or... her or them. They're probably already in your life. They get off on that. I just want you two to be careful."
"What if it is Billy?" You asked suddenly. They both looked at you as if they hadn't taken that into account. "Him and Stu, I mean. They got away. What if it's both of them?"
"No one has seen or heard from them since that night, not even their parents... but that could be possible." Dewey admitted.
You stared down at your hands, anxiously picking the dead skin from your nails. That wasn't exactly true... you never told anyone about the note you found at prom. It was a constant reminder that they weren't just idly waiting around. These murders could have very well been the two of them, looking to create a sequel to their fucked-up story.
They wouldn't be coming back for just you. They were going to finish what they started, and that would mean killing Sidney.
"And if it isn't Billy or Stu? What are we supposed to do? Just cut everybody off? Crawl under a rock?" Sidney abruptly stood. All this talk of her psycho ex-boyfriend and the murders was making her antsy.
You remained seated as Dewey stood to follow Sidney to the gazebo steps.
"Just watch out. Keep an eye out." He pleaded, glancing over at you. "I'm gonna talk to Chief Hartley and the local police. I'm gonna hang around. I wanna make sure you're both safe... if that's alright."
"Yeah, we'd be honored." Sid said, a little smile breaking through.
"And Dewey?" The deputy turned as you called out to him. "Watch your back... literally."
Sidney snorted, and instantly shot a hand over her mouth to suppress her laughter. With Dewey getting stabbed in the back last year, and surviving... one could never be too safe.
"Alright," Dewey chuckled. "I can take a joke."
"That's good." You smiled sweetly before he waved you and Sid goodbye, heading off in the direction of Chief Hartley.
As you stood from your chair, a sudden ringing made your body jolt. You quickly pulled the cellular phone from your hoodie's pocket—your parents bought you one just before moving states in case of an emergency, though you were just glad to finally have a phone all to yourself.
"You go on ahead, I'm gonna take this." You told Sidney after spotting your friends making their way over.
"Kay," She nodded, exiting the gazebo to leave you to it.
You checked the caller ID whilst leaning back against one of the pillars, frowning when it read "Unknown."
You let out a huff before placing the phone to your ear, "Hello?"
There was no reciprocation to your greeting, only silence. Your brows pressed together to showcase your impatience.
"Hello?" You said again but was given no response. "I'm going to hang up now—"
"It wasn't me."
Your body stiffened at that voice, heart nearly skidding to a stop as you clutched the phone tighter. You hadn't heard that voice in so long... you found you'd almost forgotten the sound of it.
"Billy?" You whispered weakly, unable to mask the hopefulness in your tone.
"I just needed you to know... it wasn't us."
"Billy–" Your gaze flickered over to your group of friends chatting together. You stepped forward, glancing around to study the faces of the students on campus. "Where are you?"
The was another long bout of silence, followed by a click. The line had gone dead.
You dropped the phone from your ear, staring down at it in your hand as you tried processing what just happened.
After a year, you finally got to hear his voice. The feeling of guilt ensued as you couldn't deny how much you missed him. He killed so many people, people you cared about. He deserves to rot in hell, but the thought of that inflicted pain upon your heart.
You were conflicted.
All you could focus on now was the phone call, his words echoing in the back of your mind, "It wasn't me."
He must have heard your conversation with Dewey, and if that were the case, it meant that Billy was here. Both of them were. They were nearby, watching. Now ready to make their next move.
Neither you nor Sidney could be left alone...