Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Timothy was alive.
Not at first, he'd been dead for three minutes, but luckily they'd been able to revive him. Simon and Kate had stopped dealing, relying on their more legal ways of getting money.
Maddie hadn't spoken to any of them since the party. Her main priority had been her siblings. Sydney was in her last year at Shadyside elementary and Jack was starting Pre-K.
Andrew was taking classes at Sunnyvale community college, and Bonnie had finally decided to get sober.
She didn't want her kids to have to witness it, and she'd decided to stay with someone from work. It inconvenienced Andrew and Maddie tenfold, but they knew she was doing it to get better. Things would get better.
Going back to school without Sam was weird. After an entire Summer spending time with her and Kate, Deena and Simon, going into her senior year without them felt wrong.
She still had Heather and Ryan, but after she quit her job at the mall (she didn't have enough time anymore), she didn't really see either of them much any more either. Heather and Maddie would walk home together sometimes, but neither of them went out of their way.
It was, well, simply put, it was lonely.
She would see Simon, Kate and Deena around, and they would look over at her occasionally. The urge to go over and reclaim her place in their group was almost overwhelming, but then she would think about her siblings. If something happened to her, Andrew would physically be unable to look after them and work.
It sucked, but it was what she needed to do.
It had been a month, and Simon still couldn't stop thinking about her. He'd been scared of this since he'd first met Maddie, but telling her how he felt had scared her off.
Kate had heard a condensed version of events from Simon, trying to corner Maddie and ask what happened. But Maddie had done a successful job of avoiding her. In classes they had together, Maddie would sit as far away from Kate as possible, in cheer practice, she would keep her head down and once coach called the end she was the first one into the locker room.
Kate had taken that as a sort of admission of guilt, feeling hurt that Maddie just cut her off without a word.
Maddie felt like a different person. She was going through the routine of someone else. Her mind so full of thoughts swirling around constantly that she could barely concentrate on what was happening right in front of her.
Get the kids to school, go to class, pick them up, do homework, make dinner, go to bed.
She was exhausted. She was barely sleeping, missing Simon so much that the only way she could get by was by wearing his sweaters. The smell of him so overwhelming, not strong physically, but laced with so many memories that most night all she could do was lie there as the sun moved along below her, eventually coming into sight over the horizon.
It wasn't only the loss of Simon though. Everything was different. Everything was wrong. Maddie didn't have time to work any more, so Andrew was either working or in class. Maddie spent her weeknights hunched over homework at the kitchen table, not being able to get it done until the kids were in bed.
She was drowning.
Sydney was quieter. She missed her parents, she didn't know what was happening. Her eleventh birthday came and went, her siblings celebrating with her as best they could.
Scott dropped by on her birthday. He was paler, his face more bony than they remembered, but he looked happier. He would send money, telling his kids that they were welcome to stay with him and Linda whenever they wanted.
They didn't want to.
It was a Thursday night, Andrew had just gotten home from work and had kissed his sister's hair before going straight to bed. Maddie had a physics test the next day, and a history essay due and she'd been working on it since she'd cleaned after dinner.
Andrew had tried getting his sister to loosen up, to have more fun. It killed him seeing her so stressed out, but this time, her mind was made up. Her family needed her.
Her eyes could barely focus, the sleeves of Simon's hoodie pulled over her hands as she slumped at the table. Her elbow was propped up, holding her head as she mumbled the words she was trying so desperately to get into her head.
Her eyelids felt heavy, and Maddie let her elbow fall out from under her, the cool paper of her physics textbook resting underneath her cheek before her eyes closed, overcome with exhaustion.
It wasn't her alarm clock that woke her for once, instead it was the opening theme for the six o'clock morning news. She'd slept nine hours. Her back ached and her textbook was stuck to her face, but that was the longest she'd slept in weeks.
She rubbed her eyes, her bones cracking as she stood up, coming to lie on the couch while her brain focused in on the news.
Her mom had taken time off while she got better, so the person reporting was someone Maddie didn't recognise. "Shadyside. Small town America. But among locals, a history of horror has earned it another name. "Killer Capital USA." I'm here with Sheriff Nick Goode. Sheriff, what can you tell us?"
Sheriff Goode nodded grimly. "There were seven victims. Ages sixteen to forty-two. The perpetrator's also deceased,"
Maddie sat up. They were outside Shadyside Mall, the front doors had been tagged with what was known as The Witch's Chant. There was a massacre at the Shadyside Mall last night. The mall that Ryan and Heather worked at. Her heart raced as she listened intently. They showed pictures of the victims on the screen and her blood ran cold. There on the TV in front of her, was Heather Watkins.
Heather was dead.
────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note rip heather you were given the drew barrymore in scream treatment in more ways than one 💔💔 the opening scene was so scream inspired they even got the same composer, it made sense that maya's character would be killed off first but it didn't make it hurt any less
also, if timothy hadn't OD'd then this book would have been very very different, i can tell you that, i've always had this plan after the end of act 3 to do a sort of "what if" act of how things could've gone differently cause this plot sort of is its own seperate entity i am merely the vessel (that's so lame i am so sorry, but it truly did feel like this plot wrote itself) 😎😎😎
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
