the new age - scream 2022

ii

Corey sat in the chair, hands covering her face with her hands as she watched Amber. "Jesus Christ, Amber, will you sit the fuck down?!" She yells, making Amber stop her pacing. "Fuck you, Corey!" She barks, sitting down next to Kiana.

"We've been here for 2 hours, and all you've done is move around and whine."

"Guys, come on. We're here for Tara." Kevin says. "This is not a fucking dick swinging contest. Fucking chill." The two stay silent, and Corey sighs, standing up. "I need a cigarette." She storms out of the lobby, walking outside.

"How do we know it wasn't Corey?" Amber asks. "Does that really matter right now?" Chad asks. "It does." His twin answers. "She was literally the last one to see her. She claims she ran to her house for snacks like that's a real alibi." Mindy says with a scoff.

"You guys can't be serious?" Kiana asks. "No, remember in 9th grade when she wrote that note say saying she wanted to bathe in Jake Holder's blood?" Kevin asks. The group nods. "She's disturbed, and literally obsessed with Tara. Maybe this is a fatal attraction scenario." Mindy shrugs.

"Who cares?" Kiana asks. "She just saw Tara bleeding to death and obviously she's stressed. Have some fucking sympathy." Amber looks at her girlfriend as she tries to calm her breathing.

"This is bullshit." Her eyes drift outside, finding Corey pacing with a cigarette hanging from her lips. Mindy goes to speak up, but Kiana stops her again.

"I swear to God if you say something about killer motive again, you will be checked in to the ER next." The girl holds her hands up with a huff and sits back.

Not long after Corey came back in, a nurse called for someone to speak to.

"I can-". "You can talk to-"

Amber and Corey glared at one another, but Kiana held Amber back from fighting as Corey went over to the nurse.

"Are you Corey?" The girl nods. "The paramedics told me you found her, correct?" She nods once more.

"After this, I'd like you to speak to Sheriff Hicks about what happened, ok?" Corey continues to nod. "Yes, ma'am." She mutters.

The nurse leads Corey down the hallway to an elevator. "You understand Ms. Carpenter was attacked, so we had to put her on an elevated floor."

"Of course." The elevator rises, and they reach a floor after a minute or so. When they reach they approach the room, a police officer is stationed outside. The nurse lets Corey in, and she audibly lets out a breath. She looked better than when she found her.

"Now, we have no legal guardian listed we could get in touch with. There is your mother, but she's on shift, and told us you could tell her this later" Corey nods.

"Surgery went well, no complications. Tara is resting now."

The nurse grabbed a chart, standing next to Tara's bed. "She was stabbed around 8 times, lost a lot of blood, but thankfully they found blood for her. The assailant broke her right ankle, and a knife cleanly ripped through her left hand." Corey looks around Tara's body for the injuries the nurse was referring to.

"If you'll excuse me." She mutters, leaving the room.

--------

Kevin was the first to notice Corey storming down the hallway into the lobby. "Hey, is she okay?" Corey doesn't answer, walking out of the automatic doors.

"What a surprise. She's running, again." As Corey leaves the hospital, she lights another cigarette while pulling out her phone. She typed a number, waiting until it was answered.

"Vince? Pick me up, man. Dude, come on...I'll pay you. How much?" She scoffs. "Fifty...ten plus the shit for the weed. Okay...alright, man." What she hadn't noticed was Amber having followed her out there, a sense of confusion in her mind.

The next day, Corey never came to school. No one knew why, but it was obvious that she was probably at the hospital.

Which she was, because she came right before the end of visiting hours, and the very responsible cop let her stay until the hours were over. She was allowed to come back in the morning, which she did, and she had stayed there all day as Tara fell in and out of conciousness.

At the school, most of the friend group, (Amber, Wes, Kiana, Kevin, and Mindy), were sitting at a table as the school day dwindled. "Why would anyone want Tara dead? I don't understand." Kevin says with a frown.

Wes approaches them, sitting down next to Kevin. He turns off his phone, pocketing it as he turns to the group. "That was Sam I was just talking to."

Amber rolls her eyes. "She's coming? Watch everything get worse."

Chad and Liv approach the group, sitting down next to one another. "With everything going on right now, I think we should take our relationship to the next, most intimate level." Kevin fake gags and Chad rolls his eyes, tossing a pencil at him. "Ow!"

"He wants me to accept his FindMyFam request," Liv explains.

"Fantastic idea, because no one can track that and find your real location," Kevin says sarcastically, making his boyfriend nod beside him. "Exactly! Don't do it, Liv. There's a psycho out there and you need to make yourself harder to find. Delete social media, tape over your phone cameras, disable GPS." The couple rolls their eyes.

"No, let me guess you and Kevin have matching pepper sprays and tasers." The boys stay silent as the group mocks them. "Thank you, Edward Snowden." Wes rolls his eyes. "Your mother just interrogated me about Tara's attempted murder, which was very fun for me," Chad announces.

"I'm sure she's asking everybody. Ghostface is back."

"The press still isn't saying Ghostface," Mindy says. "We all know it is. Corey and Tara both gave statements saying there was a voice changer and the mask. What if they wanna be sure?" Kiana adds.

"They'll figure it out by the second or third killing." Mindy says, making Kiana hit on her on the arm. "Jesus, Mindy, there wasn't a first killing. Tara's not dead." Amber says, disgust laced in her tone. Mindy sits back with a small smirk. "Hm. I mean she could still die."

"Mindy!" Kiana yells.

"What? The killer could come back for her." She says, making the group groan. "Look, just arm up like Wes said." Kevin says, making the other blonde nod. "Pepper spray? Check. Taser? Check."

"The ability to be a normal human being repellent? Check." Amber teases, making Kevin scoff. "You use that too, don't you? Maybe we could borrow some." Wes snorts, as Amber's face drops. Kiana giggles, kissing Amber's cheek. Liv and Chad laughed, until she spotted someone.

"Holy shit...is that Vince?" Liv mutters. Everyone looks over to where her gaze was. "That creep you hooked up with last summer?" Mindy pulls out her phone, not so subtly snapping pictures.

"Yeah, he worked with me and Tara. He's been stalking my Instagram the last couple weeks, and posting the creepiest shit." Liv explains.

"He worked with Tara?" Amber asks.

Chad pulls up his sleeves, showing his biceps. "About time to introduce him to Hobbs and Shaw." He flexes, making Kevin snort. "Maybe not the best idea to incite violence in front of the sheriff? Looks like he leaving anyway." They watch as Vince moves to the driver's seat of his car.

Amber looks down at Chad who winces, noticing bruises on his bicep. "Hm. Tara said she fought back hard, you've got bruises." Chad nervously chuckles. "It's from football practice." He says. "Oh, yeah, okay." Wes's phone dings, and Kevin looks over to see the text from Tara.

"It's from Tara, she's awake." Wes mentions that anyone can join him and Kevin as they go to the hospital. Everyone but Liv goes.