"you could absolutely break my heart
that's how i know that we're in love
i don't need the symbol of a scar
so put down the knife, we're not swapping blood"
---
y/n's pov
I sat between Mindy and Tara in the back of an ambulance early in the next morning.
Mindy's wounds had been tended to and now she was wrapped in a blanket. She was still in shock.
I stared at a blank spot on the ground in front of me and just hoped everything would just stop.
I just wanted Ethan.
"Chad." I heard his voice speak softly and I looked up.
Chad forcefully grabbed Ethan by the collar of his shirt and pushed him against the van that was parked near the ambulance.
"Where were you?" Chad interrogated.
"What? When?" Ethan spluttered.
"Last night!" Chad pushed Ethan again.
"What? I had Econ. You know this." Ethan explained hurriedly.
"Bullshit, man! You disappear, my sister almost gets killed!"
"Dude, I was in a study hall with a hundred other people." Ethan held his hands up in surrender. "You can ask any of them."
"Chad, let him go." I spoke just loud enough for them to hear me.
"Fuck, man." Chad's hands loosened and he stepped back.
"Oh, my God." Ethan looked over at the crime scene in the alleyway. "Who?"
"Anika and Quinn." Chad told him.
Ethan walked closer to the ambulance. "Mindy, I'm so sorry."
"Step the fuck back." Mindy warned, narrowing her eyes. "You're at the top of my list."
"I had Econ!"
Mindy looked up at Chad, who looked down at the ground.
I stood up and started walking towards him. Or limping, the running from the night before only making it worse.
"Y/N..." Ethan started and I just leaned forward, resting my head onto his shoulder. His arms found their way around me and he held me tight in a comforting hug.
"I'm gonna be right back." Tara said. I assumed it was to Mindy and listened as she walked away.
"Are you okay?" Ethan whispered into my ear as he kissed my cheek.
"I don't know." I mumbled back before lifting my arms to hug him back, doing my best to avoid hugging his backpack.
He let go for a moment to take off his backpack before he gently cupped my face in his hands.
"Ethan, it was so bad." I started to cry, my voice a whisper that I hoped the others wouldn't hear. I didn't need them to worry about me again, it would just add more to our problems. "Why does this keep happening?"
He sighed and wrapped his arms around me again, one hand holding my head to his chest.
"I don't know." He kissed the top of my head. "I don't know."
I felt like I could fall asleep in his arms. He just held me and comforted me, and that was all I needed.
I looked up at Ethan and saw how he was watching Sam and Tara talking with Quinn's dad with a curious look on his face.
"Hey, are you okay?" A familiar voice asked Sam as her high heels clacked against the ground. "I came as soon as I heard."
"Gale, I swear to God..." Sam started, her tone aggressive.
I pulled away from Ethan and turned to look at her.
"Truce, okay? I'm here for whatever you need."
I looked at Ethan as he watched the interaction, and took his hand in mine. He looked at me with a smile.
"Okay. Nice try." Sam didn't believe Gale.
"Really, I am. Okay, fine. Off the record, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you."
Sam and Gale both looked to Tara.
"I'm sorry I punched you." Tara apologized and I held back a smile.
"No, you're not." Gale said to her with a smile of her own.
"I'm not."
"You're the cop, right?" Gale asked Detective Bailey, who nodded. "I did some digging on your first two victims and I found something. I know where the masks are coming from."
"Show me." Detective Bailey spoke.
"Ladies." Another voice greeted as Kirby Reed approached the small group.
I knew who she was because I had learned a lot about the 2011 Woodsboro murders, mostly because I was alive at the time they took place.
I decided it took too much brain power to listen or watch, so I headed back to the ambulance and just sat down beside Mindy.
She looked at me and stared cautiously at Ethan as he sat down beside me.
---
"Jason and Greg were little Atlanta rich boys." Gale spoke to our group as she led us down an alleyway. "Apparently, they used fake names to rent this place."
I was walking with Ethan at the back of the group, my hand in his as we followed behind Chad and Mindy.
"How did you find it?" Kirby asked.
"It's called 'investigative journalism' for a reason." Gale stated. "How didn't you find it? Weren't you tracking them?"
"I went through their financial records dozens of times. This was not in any of them." Kirby told Gale. "Doesn't make sense."
"Don't worry. I'm just really good at my job. You'll get there." Gale swiped a keycard and pulled open the doors.
After going up a small flight of stairs, there was another gate style door that Gale used the keycard to unlock.
"What is this place? What's with all the security?" Sam asked.
Gale flicked a switch and lights came on with a buzz.
"It's a movie theater." Tara stated.
"It's not just a theater. It's a shrine."
As we walked further into the large room, we could see different glass cabinets filled with both Stab memorabilia and actual items from the real killings.
"Woah." Mindy moved to the front of the group.
First Kirby followed, then Chad, then the rest of us.
"They've got the whole goddamn franchise." Mindy said loudly, her voice echoing.
Kirby had stopped in front of a blue flannel shirt on a mannequin, and I started wandering down one of the aisles.
I stared at a Woodsboro Police uniform with a large blood stain down the front.
The name badge said "Hoss", but it reminded me of Judy. For as long as I had known her she was almost always in that uniform.
Ethan had put his backpack down and was walking down a different aisle, looking around.
Chad wasn't that far ahead of me, looking at something in one of the glass cases.
"Chad?" Mindy spoke.
"Mmm?" He looked up and I did too. She was standing in front of a video store uniform.
"This was Uncle Randy's." She turned to look at it again. "They've got everything."
I stared back at the uniform before taking a few more steps. There was a ripped up white and bloody sweater next to the uniform.
"Is that-" Tara started talking to Kirby.
"The knife I was stabbed with." Kirby finished the sentence.
"You all have been through so much." Detective Bailey spoke next.
I walked back down the aisle and around to where Mindy was standing.
"Who drew all these?" She asked, talking to herself.
"Hey, how'd they get all this stuff?" Tara asked Gale. "I mean, isn't this evidence?"
"Well, cops like money, and evidence can get lost pretty easily." Gale answered and looked back at Bailey and Kirby. "Present company excluded, of course."
"Um, why am I here exactly?" Ethan asked from where he stood. "My alibi checks out."
"So I can keep an eye on you, roomie." Chad forced a smile and Mindy pointed from her eyes to Ethan, implying that she's watching him.
Ethan had a look on his face that was a mix of bewilderment and confusion.
I walked over to him.
"Just ignore them." I whispered.
"The killer must've found this place before he murdered Jason and Greg. And then he took the masks off the mannequins. All nine, from Stu and Billy to Amber and Richie."
Amber and Richie.
I looked up at where the Ghostface mannequins were and looked away immediately.
When I looked away, I froze. In front of me was a grey t-shirt on a mannequin, a blood stain dripping down the right side of the shirt.
In the small glass case beside it was a cellphone, a crime scene photograph, two other pictures, and a piece of paper with a drawing on it.
I recognized the crime scene immediately. The front door, the whole room. Blood was all over the floor and the phone was sitting on the ground a distance from the door.
The drawing beside it was of Wes. His name was scrawled at the top. Wesley 'Wes' Hicks.
In it, he was lying against his front door with blood coming from his neck, gushing down his shirt. There were annotations too. Descriptions of how the knife dug through his neck and came out the other side.
His school picture was beside it, a photo of Wes and Judy together I recognized from their fridge was pinned just below.
I hadn't seen his face in so long. I had pictures, but I hadn't looked at them. I didn't want to put myself through anything again. I was trying to be happy. I was with Ethan.
"Are you okay?" Ethan asked quietly, and I jumped slightly. I forgot he was next to me.
I looked back at him, then to the shirt on the mannequin.
That was Wes' blood. His shirt. His phone.
"So, somebody killed these chucklefucks and took over?" Chad's question echoed through the room.
"Someone who believes that Sam masterminded Woodsboro." Gale answered.
"If this were a normal Stab movie, this would be the killer's lair." Mindy said.
"Which means this isn't a normal Stab movie." Kirby concluded.
Tara went down the stairs of the stage and walked away, out of the room.
Mindy said down by the stairs, and Kirby joined her.
"Chad..." I spoke, calling him over.
"Yeah?" He came over and stopped beside me, his eyes following my gaze and stopping at what was in front of us. "Oh."
"That was his shirt, Chad." I told him. "That's what he was wearing when..."
Ethan took a step closer and held my hand. I smiled at him.