scary love, s. kalivoda

𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝

TW! TALK OF SELF HARM! 

"It doesn't make sense. It's... it's not possible. Bullets didn't stop her," Sam rants, plopping on a cushioned chair.

"No shit, Sherlock," I say to the girl. 

I'm not very fond of Sam. I'm not very fond of people who like to fuck up the lives of my friends. Especially Deena. 

"Who the hell was that?" Deena asks Simon and I. "How the hell should we know?" Simon asks, locking the front door of the house. 

"The bitch seemed normal!" Simon yells, walking over to me. 

"I hate to break it to you, but normal bitches don't bleed black fucking blood!" Deena yells at Simon.

"Hey!" I yell at Deena. "She was hot! And normal! Until she attacked us with a fucking razor blade or some shit!"

"Wait... a razor?" Josh asks me. "Yeah, for like old-timey shaving, or in this case, I guess-"

"Wrists. She slashed her wrists. Was she singing something? Was she singing a song, like an oldie. Like an oldie song?" Josh asks us. 

Simon and I look at each other in fear. 

How does he know?

"Jesus, Rain Man. How the fuck do you know that?" Simon asks, reading my mind.

Josh gets up and runs to his basement. Kate, Sam and Deena follow while Simon helps me up from the couch. 

"Are you gonna be okay?" He asks me as we walk down the stairs. I nod. "Yeah. I'll probably have to run from some more psycho killers tonight so I gotta suck it up."

He stays quiet for a few seconds. 

"You're really strong, you know," Simon tells me. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. "I'm just doing what you guys are doing-"

"No," he shakes his head. "I just, I know how you feel about this type of stuff, you know, with what happens to your dad- It's just, I'm really proud of you for sticking with us tonight when you could easily just call it quits and go home."

I don't know what to say.

I don't think he understands how much that means to me, coming from him.

I smile at him. "I'd never leave you guys."

He returns the smile and nods his head. "Good to know."

We reach the bottom of the stairs to find Josh ripping a piece of newspaper off his wall.

He slams the piece of paper on a table the others are sitting at. 

"This is Ruby Lane," Josh starts, as Simon and I walk towards them. "The girl who attacked you guys."

"Holy shit," Simon mumbles, as him and I sit down at the table.

"She sang as she murdered her boyfriend, her friends, then she killed herself. Slashed her wrists," Josh tells us. "Why didn't I see this on the news?" Kate asks. 

"Because it happened thirty years ago. 1965. Ruby is one of Shadyside's killers, just like Skull Mask- I mean, Ryan Torres. Look," He shoves a newspaper article in front of us. "1978. Sixteen years ago. Masked psycho murders a bunch of kids at-"

"Camp Nightwing," Kate finishes. "Yeah, my mom's sister was there. That screwed my family up for a long time."

Josh shows us another newspaper article. "1950, Harry Rooker. Local milkman slashes a bunch of housewives," Another newspaper article. "1935, Humpty Dumpty Killer," Another newspaper article. "1922, Billy Barker," Another newspaper article. "1904, Grifter guts girls, and on and on. It happens in Shadyside over and over. Normal people turn into psychos."

I gulp, remembering what happened with my dad. How one day he was normal and the next day he killed my mom, and then himself. 

"Jesus..." Simon mumbles, staring at a scary photo of a man. "Look at this guy."

"That's the pastor. Cyrus Miller. 1666. He was the first one recorded. He, um... killed kids and cut out their eyes," Josh tell us.

Sam jerks out of her chair and walks out of the basement. "I'll go check on her," Deena says, getting up to follow the girl.

"None of this is random," Josh continues. "It's Sarah Fier. She's turning Shadysiders into killers."

"Do you really believe that?" Kate asked. "I mean, it's not the most far fetched thing, considering what's already happened," I tell Kate. 

"But, I mean, no one actually thinks that this witch shit is real," She says. "Yeah," Simon agrees. "It's something babysitters make up to scare kids-"

"No," Josh says, putting his hand on Simon's shoulder. "No. Just listen to me. 1666, Sarah Fier was hanged for witchcraft, fact. But ever since she was executed, she's been possessing people, turning them into killers, to take revenge on the town."

"It's the nursery rhyme," Simon realizes. "Exactly!" Josh yells.

Simon starts reciting the rhyme. "Before the witch's final breath, she found a way to cheat her death. By cutting off her cursed hand, she kept her grip upon our land. She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves..."

"Yes, exactly," Josh says. "Don't you get what's happening to us? This is all proof. Shadyside isn't just some hotbed for psychos. All these massacres are connected to Sarah Fier. The witch's curse is real!"

"Fine," Kate starts. "Let's assume that the witch has been possessing people for some sort of messed-up vendetta. This isn't the same as the mall massacre. Something different is happening to us. Something way worse."

I see Simon put his head in his hands. I put my hand on his knees and squeeze, reassuring him that I'm here. He lifts his head from his hands to move them under the table. 

I feel a hand intertwining with mine. 

We're holding hands.

This is weirder than the fact we're getting hunted by dead people. 

"We have two of her killer after us and both of them are dead," Sarah continues. "Why is she so mad at us?"

"I saw her," Sam says, out of nowhere. I flinch, my knee hitting the table. "Last night.. I don't know, you know. I thought I hit my head... It was- It was her. I saw the witch."

"That's fucking fantastic," I groan, throwing my head back, dramatically.

Just when I thought the night couldn't get any better.