Dancing On The Razor's Edge, Together

IX. A Strawberry Smoothie with a Dash of Hemlock

4am, at the Shadyside mall. The traps had been set into motion, with the combined efforts of Shay, Ruby, Ziggy, Deena and Josh. However, owing to a favour that Josh had done for him back at the sheriff's department, the lead custodian of the mall, Martin, had offered his own help toward their efforts. Using glow in the dark paint, mixed with Deena's blood, their plan had its flaws, but it was simple enough.

Using the metal release gates that were in use at this point in the night anyway, the plan was to lure the killers who had been brought back to life once more, to hunt down Deena. Once they were in place and caged in the stores, the next phase was to wait out Nick Goode, who Ziggy had called back at her home before they'd actually left for the mall. As they were all loading their toy water guns which had been infused with the paint mixture, Shay looked around the group; she only counted five among them now. Her girlfriend had vanished, and worse of all, it had occurred almost completely under her nose. 

"Guys... Where's Ruby?" She asked, an audible quiver in her voice. The group looked between each other, which confirmed her worst fear.

"Huh? But how? She was with us when we got here, right?" Deena asked, her eyebrow raised.

"Whether she got lost, or she's going with her own plan, we've got bigger problems." Ziggy nodded, as two police officers approached the group, as his flashlight shone straight at Martin and Ziggy. Since Shay was hiding with the two siblings, she could only hear what was happening, on the other side of the flower display they were hiding behind.

"Put your hands in the air! Drop your weapons!" With that, the two placed their water guns on the floor, sliding them across to the officer. Before the other three had the chance to react, another officer shone his flashlight directly at the trio.

"Hey, I've got the other three! Put your hands up!"

"Sir, please, just let us explai-"

"Drop your weapons! Now slide them to me!" As the siblings complied, the officer began to speak into his radio, before he was stabbed brutally through the back of the neck by the Milkman. As the officer dropped dead, it got the attention of the now lone officer, allowing Ziggy and Martin to recover their guns, whilst he proceeded to unload the entire magazine from his M9 pistol until it audibly clicked. This only seemed to anger the Milkman, who slowly turned, almost as if on purpose, before shuffling forward to the other police officer, sealing him to the same fate as his comrade. 

With both officers dead, the gang set the first major part of the plan into motion; each person went off to their own store to manage the pulley system which was set up to the metal grates. Once the killer stepped inside the store, they would close the door, locking the killer inside, until they were ready for the next phase of the plan. Shay ran off to her assigned door, which was the smoothie shop that she and Ruby had visited on their first date. Holding onto the rope, she looked away from the shop, as without Ruby beside her, it only gave her bad memories. Then, from the dark hallway opposite the shop where she was sat, she heard it. And it made every ounce of fear in Shay's body rise to the surface.

"You always hurt the one you love, 

The one you shouldn't hurt at all..."

Shay looked up, and sure enough, there was Ruby. Horrifyingly, it was how she never wanted her to look again; her razor blade in her right hand, wrists slashed open, with her button-up shirt caked in blood, as she followed the blood trail on the floor, a light sway in her walk as she did so. When she was close enough, Shay held her breath, not taking an eye off Ruby as she walked past, entering the shop. Once there was suitable distance between Ruby and the door, Shay began to rapidly pull on the rope, which sent the door crashing down onto the floor. After this, Shay fell back to the wall just away from the door, tying a knot in the rope to keep the whole system in place.