𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐒𝐎𝐍- 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

26- Tag, You're It

Deena looks to Christine. "You don't have to do this." The older female looks at everyone else, who sports looks of concern and fear. "Yes, I do." She says, standing up and climbing over the counter.

Deena looks at the group, specifically to those who closed the gates to trap the killers. "Mount up." She finally breathes out, the four catching the cue and running out the back entrance. Deena, Mads, Kate, and Josh watched as the four others ran off to their positions.

The door to one of the entrances at Shadyside Mall opened as the bells at the top began to ring. The signal being that someone just entered. That someone? Nick Goode, Police Sheriff of Sunnyvale and the reason this curse began.

He looked at the arrows on the floor and began to follow them. His gun stayed cozy in his hand as he followed the trail of glow-in-the-dark arrows.

A menacing look stated upon his face as he walked towards where the tree stood in the middle of the mall. His footsteps faltered, however, as he saw someone he didn't expect to see in the mall.

Christine Berman stood in all her glory. He walked up closer to her and inspected her from head to toe. Not changing a day from the last time he saw her. He could feel the gears in his mind beginning to turn as his thought process wanted to ask what she was doing there. All of the memories from that summer started to flood in.

"Ziggy..." He said, almost breathless. She still took his breath away all these years later. Yeah, it was fucked up because he was dating another girl at the time, but she was breathtaking. He couldn't help himself from staring.

"Nick." She said nonchalantly. She could remember their argument from when he admitted his feelings for her.

~

Nick quickly defended himself. "Alright, first of all, Stephen King is, like, super popular. Second of all, why can I not like the weird girl." "Why not? What do you mean 'why not'? You're dating someone else!" Ziggy almost yelled. "I don't mean in that way! Why can't I like you as a person? Respect you as a person?" "Oh so, if I just asked you to kiss me right now, would you do it?!"

~

"What are you doing here?" Nick finally asks Ziggy. "Tag. You're it." She said coldly, pulling the rope and running away. Nick looked up to see a bucket being poured over him as he shielded himself from the watery green substance.

Martin, Simon, Elle, and Alexis quickly pulled the ropes from the bottom of the gates, releasing the killers. The killers all sensed Deena's blood on him and began to walk towards him. He quickly realized what was going on and ran towards Christine, grabbing her roughly around the neck.

"Deena!" He yelled out, hoping the teen can hear him and dropping a blade. "Get them away from me!" Christine screamed and tried to wiggle her way out of Nick's grasp. "If I die, she dies!"

Nick's gun pointed in all the directions of the killers who made their way faster towards the two. "Get away!" He yelled to the killers, who didn't listen to him. With Christine still screaming, Nick yelled once again, "Get back!"

The moment of dominance for him was short lived though, as a knife went into his back as he screamed in pain, dropping to the floor. Skull Mask stood above the two on the ground.

Ziggy began to run away, but Harry Rooker chased after her, grabbing her from behind. "Your blood is on her!" Nick yelled out a reminder to Deena. "Holy shit!" Josh cursed quietly. "It's on Ziggy!"

As Skull Mask tackled Nick to the ground, he raised uo his knife and was prepared to stab the sheriff. With quick hands reflexes however, Nick stopped the blade from entering his chest. As Nick was trying to stop the knife from entering his body, Christine was dragged to the ground by Milkman and was almost stabbed just like in 1978.

With quick thinking, Deena leaped over the counter, exposing herself. "DEENA!" Kate and Josh both screamed. She ran towards where Ziggy was fighting Milkman and watched in horror.

Seeing something glimmer in the side of her eye, she noticed a knife. The same knife used earlier. She quickly picked it up and sliced her hand open, exposing crimson red blood.

The killers immediately stopped whatever they were occupied with and looked towards the brown-haired teenager. When Skull Mask made his way off of Nick, he quickly ran for the back rooms. Deena could only watch and registered her brother's voice yelling to her.

"Go! Go! We got him!" Josh yelled out, waving his arm to signal her. Deena began to run in Nick's direction, knife gripped in her hand, but Milkman began to follow her. However, Skull Mask was faster and almost caught up to her.

That is...until he was smacked with a chair by Martin Franklin.

The others quickly began to make their way towards a store with a guarded gate as Deena looked back and watched. "Oh God, oh God, oh God! No, no, no!" Martin yelled, seeing the killers coming closer. "It's my shirt, it's covered in her blood!" Ziggy explained, yanking off her cardigan and sliding it towards the killers.

Martin and Simon slid down the gate that separated the group of eight from the rest of the killers. "Go! We'll handle them!" Elle yelled out to Deena who was standing at the door still. She got the message and opened the door, walking in.

As the door shut behind Deena, the emergency alarm was blaring and lights were flickering, only illuminating the room at certain points. She looked ahead and then behind her, to make sure no one was following her or watching her. As she looked down at the ground, she got a sense of familiarity towards it. She then realized this was the middle aisle in the tiny church house from 1666.

The trail ended towards a vent as she held out the knife for extra support. Deena stood over top of the vent and looked down, noticing a dirt trail underneath it. She got the feeling of remembering when Sarah had to do the same to escape Solomon three centuries ago.

Realizing she was on a time strain, she picked up the center part of the vent and pulled it off, setting the vent protector to the side. With the tuck of a knife and one final breath, she jumped down and saw a small crawl space ahead of her. 'Now would be a good time for that headlamp.' She thought to herself as she put the accessory on, blinking the light on. She began to crawl and make her journey towards Nick.

She was ready to kill that motherfucker.

-

The story part of this book is almost done! Holy SHIT!!! I'm....I'm actually astonished. Now I do plan to do separate things as well once I'm finished with the story, involving letters to dead relatives (Max Mayfield who??) but I'm super proud of how far this book has come from me writing this a week before I started school. It's been a fun ride! Hopefully, you guys follow me on tiktok (it's kalivda.wp and see that there's a certain character supposed to die in these next few chapters. So make your predictions here! See you guys in the next chapter!!