THE CHAIN, simon kalivoda

i. the mall massacre

Sydney never worked the late shift. She worked at her local mall, and her parents always shamed her for not doing so but this night they had never been more happy that she didn't.

Ryan Torres had gone crazy and killed multiple people at the mall last night, including Sydney's friend Heather. Sydney also knew Ryan, and it shocked her that he would ever do something so cruel but she knew that stuff like this often happened in Shadyside.

Kind people always just happened to snap.

"Syd! Come get your lunch or you'll be late for school." Her mother's voice called. Sydney groaned as she set down the notebook she had been scribbling in. Slowly walking out of her room, her mother held up a brown paper bag. "Hurry up! You know your brother was never this slow." Her mom rushed.

Sydney rolled her eyes. "You know my brother isn't here?" She reminded her, snatching the brown sack and stuffing it in her book bag. "I'll see you later tonight." She mumbled as she walked out the door and slammed it behind her.

Sydney put her backpack on her back, got on her bike, and rode to school. She didn't know how to drive quite yet and of course that drove her parents crazy. Her parents star child being her brother, Derek, who was adopted and not biologically their son. They most definitely loved him more though, and made that evident throughout Sydney's life. But he never did as much as Sydney did for the family, without Sydney they would probably never have dinner on the table.

Pulling up to her school, she locked her bike up and went inside. Bumping her way through the hall she made her way to the bathroom. Sydney often went to the bathroom first thing before class, finding it better to freshen up in that bathroom than her own.

Stepping in she found the bathroom doors painted in red with writing all over it. "Hello?" She called, suspecting someone was in there. Nobody answered so she shrugged it off and began messing with her hair.

A few minutes had passed and two familiar faces walked into the bathroom. Deena Johnson and Kate Schmidt had been friends with Sydney since forever. She didn't pay attention to them and they didn't seem to mind her. "She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves." Kate recited to Deena.

"She'll take your blood!" Someone shouted, emerging from the stall.

"Simon!" Deena gasped, clearly he had scared her. Simon Kalivoda was a big jokester in Sydney's eyes. They never had talked much other than when she was with Kate or Deena, but she did find him interesting.

"She'll take your head. She'll follow you until you're dead!" Simon continued, dragging on the "dead" part.

"So when I said hello you just ignored me?" Sydney asked Simon. Simon just smiled and shrugged.

"Wow! You guys are dicks." Deena said to them.

"It's just fun." Kate defended.

"It's sick." Deena corrected.

"What? The dude was wearing a Halloween skull mask!" Simon told her. "How is that not fun?" He questioned.

"People died. Heather died." Deena reminded them, looking over at Sydney. "The dude was probably just some sad sack who hated his life, just like the rest of us, except he decided, Hey why don't I get out of here for good? And, Hey why don't I take Heather and a couple other mall rats with me?" She said.

Sydney scoffed. "I don't think that's what happened." She mumbled. Sydney didn't believe that Ryan killed a bunch of people because he hated Shadyside. Ryan was the guy that would give Sydney a ride back home on his break because her bike's wheels were out of air. He wasn't as murderer.

Deena didn't hear her so she continued, "There's no angry dead witch who made him go postal. The only thing that made him go crazy is this town!" She dropped her backpack on the floor as Kate, Sydney and Simon stared at her in silence.

"Are you ok?" Kate asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Deena assured her.

"Seems like...maybe you got a little witch in you." Simon said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Or is this about...?" Sydney trailed off. She knew about Deena's ex, Sam, and how badly it had hurt her when they broke up.

Deena scoffed. "It's not." She said sternly, and turned back to Simon. "Dude, why are you even in here? This is the girls' bathroom." She reminded him.

Simon climbed up on the toilet and reached into the vents, pulling out a box. "Candy store." He said.

"You know we don't believe this witch shit, right?" Kate asked as she began fixing her hair. "It's just like fucked-up Santa Claus or something." She told Deena.

Sydney nodded. "My brother used to tell me that Sarah Fier would make me murder the family if I didn't do his chores for him." She explained. "It's a folktale." She shrugged.

Deena ignored them and handed Kate a box. "What's this?" She asked.

"I need you to give this to Sam tonight." Deena told her.

"Yeah, uh-uh. No way." Kate denied.

Deena looked at Sydney who just shook her head. "Come on, guys!" Deena begged.

Kate backed away from the box. "No way, Deena. We're not getting mixed up in your ex drama. Do it yourself." She said.

"I'm not going to the game. I quit band." Deena revealed to them.

"Since when?" Kate asked.

"Since who gives a shit!" Deena said.

"Was band the only extracurricular you had left?" Kate questioned her. Deena didn't seem to really care about that factor. "You still have your band uniform, right? You just wear that shit one last time." Kate tried persuading her as she picked up the box that Simon had before. "I've got something that'll give you the balls to face Sam." She opened the box to reveal drugs inside.

Deena and Sydney both looked inside of it, not expecting to see the drugs. "What? You're dealing again? I though you stopped after this dingus's brother OD'd." Deena said, clearly not happy about the situation.

"Timothy?" Simon asked.

"Timmy wasn't a real OD. He didn't actually die. They brought him back." Kate corrected, smiling at Simon who mimicked how Timothy was brought back to life.

"You're both morons. Syd you would be too but you aren't as stupid as they are." Deena told them as they all left the bathroom.

"Excuse me? Which one of us is valedictorian, again? President of every club this shithole has to offer." Kate reminded Deena. "I'm getting out of here. Off to claim my place among the stars, bitch." She bragged.

As they closed the door someone was shouting and running down the hallway. "Woo! The witch lives! Long live Sarah Fier!" He was dragging a fake body as other students began shouting and laughing along.

"If you guys keep joking about it, Sarah Fiers gonna posses you!" Sydney told them, making Kate and Simon laugh.

Deena rolled her eyes. "Don't start Syd."