redwood

final girl 😊

2019
it was a boring day in camp. no visitors had come in a while. cleo thought it had been 4 years. xavier made a bet with her, thinking it had been 10. alex, who had committed suicide to stay with cleo forever, thought it had only been 1 year since they'd seen a visitor. when one did come, the ghosts were practically jumping out of their skin. montana and cleo sat on the cabin porch, smoking cigarettes and drinking coke, watching the boys play football on the dock. they never expected him to walk through the camp. not willingly, at least.
"what's that?" montana asked him as he approached the porch.
"a phone..." he said as if it was common knowledge.
"no it's not." montana laughed. cleo ripped it from his hand.
"hey!"
"this is weird." she thought, accidentally snapping pictures of herself, handing the phone to montana.
"oh shit. that's rad." she inspected the phone.
"who are you?" cleo asked.
"can i keep this?" montana asked.
"uh, i'm bobby. and no, give me that." he took it from her.
"what are you doing here?" montana asked.
"i'm looking for my dad." he said. montana and cleo shared a look, realizing this was bobby richter.
"what year is it?" cleo asked him.
"are you serious?" he asked.
"just answer the damn question." montana barked.
"fine. it's, uh, 2019." he said. cleo thought she could cry.
"holy shit." montana had a blank stare in her eyes.
"what's it like out there? are the 80s still loved and admired? is aerobics still a thing? who's the president?" montana asked.
"uh...the 80s are coming back a little," he told them. montana's face lit up.
"aerobics are a joke, though." he told the girls. the light in montana's eyes faded. cleo frowned, disappointed in this new society.
"hey, you look like montana duke..." he pulled a book from his bag and showed the girls a headshot of montana.
"i am montana." she winked.
"no, montana died in 1984. and even if you were her, you'd be in your 50s." he said. cleo gasped at the thought that all the ghosts would be old if they had lived.
"yeah. i'm dead. a ghost." she smiled.
"what?" he asked. the girls led him inside the cabin, where they found a gun.
"shoot me!" she handed it to him.
"what? no!" he handed it back.
"fine." she shot herself in the skull. cleo whooped, clapping her hands. he screamed, stepping back quickly.
"my turn!" she pulled a knife, right as trevor came in.
"what's going on?" he asked her.
"this guy is a visitor. doesn't believe we are ghosts." cleo explained, ready to slit her own throat.
"oh cool! slit mine too." he told her. she nodded. she slit his throat, then her own. bobby screamed, running to the door. he opened it, where montana, trevor, and cleo waited.
"yo!" montana waved. he screamed again, falling back.

"let's tell him about 89." cleo suggested as the trio sat on a bed.
"right. that's the year it went really downhill." trevor thought.

1989
"god, honestly, i wish ramirez was here to murder all these groupies." cleo thought out loud, watching teen girls outside the camp with alex and xavier. trevor came around, telling everyone the festival had been cancelled, which was a lie. the trio watched the groupies leave snd the tour buses that had been there leave on trevor's instruction. he was hoping this would make margaret cancel and leave.

all of a sudden, margaret approached trevor.
"what the f- are you doing?" margaret yelled.
"thinking about how i can't wait to file for divorce." trevor thought.
"that's it! i'm so tired of you!" she whipped a gun out, shooting trevor multiple times. cleo, xavier, and alex, hid behind a tree, watching. he was over the property line. margaret marched off, smiling.
"what the f-!" cleo freaked out.
"oh no." alex pointed to montana, who was coming down the road.
"trevor!" she yelled, starting to run.
"tana!" he groaned.
"trevor, baby, stand up! walk! you have to!" she started to cry. the trio stayed hidden. trevor pulled himself closer and closer, but couldn't make it. didn't think he could, at least. cleo gasped when she saw who was coming.
"don't you dare touch him." montana warned brooke, bawling her eyes out. brooke disobeyed her, helping trevor up. instead of hurting him she helped him onto the property line, where he collapsed into montana's arms. the group watched as he died. he appeared behind montana, smiling. they embraced, but ended it so montana could turn to brooke.
"why would you do that?" she asked brooke.
"because i'm not like you." brooke said.

"in the midnight hour, she cries more, more more! with a rebel yell, she cries more, more, more!" cleo heard. she sat in a tree above the tour buses, watching as ramirez sang rebel yell on the way to the billy idol bus.
"woah, dude, you can't be here." a long haired man stopped him.
"are you with billy?" ramirez asked him.
"yeah."
"got any merchandise, any of billy's possessions for me?"
"no, but here's steve's guitar pick." the guy handed richard a pick. richard rolled his eyes as the guy walked off. montana came up to ramirez. they had a conversation, but cleo couldn't understand it. she only saw richard pull a knife to montana's throat.
"come on, ricky. you can't sing rebel yell and not be a rebel!" cleo heard montana say shakily. ramirez dropped the knife. montana led him away. cleo climbed down to follow them. that was her cue. she ran down a different path to a cabin where the rest of the ghosts waited. montana and ramirez entered, where she was promising billy was waiting to meet him. one of the ghosts closed and locked the door behind them as ramirez walked to the middle of the room.
"what we've been waiting for." xavier kicked his lips. the ghosts lunged onto richard stabbing him until he was gone.

2019
"why didn't you kill him offsite?" bobby asked.
"well, we can't leave. also, you don't understand. ramirez has the power of satan. he can't die. so, for the past 30 years, we take turns staying on watch and murdering him in a gruesome way everyday." montana explained.
"ramirez was out to kill you. it isn't safe for you here. so many of these ghosts want you dead." cleo told him.
"including you three?" bobby asked. they didn't say anything, but they smirked.
"i just wanna see my dad." bobby begged.
"sorry kiddo. we haven't seen him in years. when xavier and the fake jingles' stabbed him and sent him into that lake, something from the lake took him. we don't know what happened." trevor said.
"i am gonna find him. i don't care what it takes." bobby said bravely.

the four sat in the cabin, thinking of where richter might be, when ramirez bathed in, screaming.
"shit!" trevor yelled, grabbing the gun.
"bobby, run! go to red meadows asylum, they'll have all the answers you know!" montana screamed as the ghosts arrived, all preparing to stab ramirez. bobby was on his way out when ramirez got him in the back. bobby fell over. cleo helped him up as ramirez got montana on the porch. cleo helped him to the clearing, where he could make it on his own.

it reminded cleo of 1989, when brooke had been killed. or, they thought she'd been killed. everyday, she thought about brooke. she hoped brooke was going well. when ray helped her out of the camp, cleo had called 911 from the camp line. she was the one who helped brooke. and now she was the one who helped bobby. maybe she wasn't the final girl, but she didn't care. she had done enough.