Scream

Chapter 3

Warnings:
death
brief description of dead bodies
mentions of blood

James walked back into the loungeroom where his friends were, Regulus trailing a few paces behind him. When James looked back, though, Regulus had already disappeared, probably in search of his friends, so James reluctantly sat back down on the couch with his own friends.

"Where's Lily?" he asked, noticing the red head's absence.

"Gone to the loo," Mary answered.

James smirked. Of course Mary would know where Lily is. She'd been madly in love with her for years, even before James had started dating Lily. They hadn't gotton along for a while, until James had managed to extract the secret from Mary and realised why she hated him. After that, James broke up with Lily, because while he still had feelings for her, he didn't love her like Mary did and knew Mary deserved to be with her.

Mary hadn't made her move yet though, still trying to hide her feelings from the girl that was obviously in love with her back. James had seen the way Lily looked at Mary when they were together. Another reason he broke up with her.

It was a while later when James spotted Regulus in the same room as him, talking to Barty and Evan. It was obvious he had just arrived there, because James would have noticed if he'd been there for longer. Taking out his phone, James sent a message to Regulus.

He watched as Regulus took out his phone and then read the message, grinning as Regulus looked around the room in search of James, finally landing his gaze on him. James felt like he was livewire when Regulus stared at him like that, and desperately wanted to whisk him away to an empty room.

Regulus texted something back, and before James knew it they were having a conversation together on other sides of the room, yet it was as if they were right next to each other. James smiled at something Regulus texted, about to type a response when he was interrupted by a blood curdling scream.

James's head shot up in the direction of the sound and then he was running towards it, praying that nothing bad had happened. He skidded to a stop when he found Mary standing in the doorway of a bathroom, staring at something with wide eyes and trembling hands.

Slowly, James walked behind her and looked over her shoulder, feeling his stomach drop when he saw Lily, sprawled on the floor with a pool of blood beneath her. Her shirt was drenched with blood and had holes in it where a knife had presumably stabbed her.

James felt his head spin, heard ringing in his ears as he stared at his friend, dead on the floor. How could this happen? How could Lily be dead? Who did this? Questions plagued his mind, but he was too busy trying to process that Lily was dead to properly think about what this might mean.

People were crowding around them. There were screams. Sobs. Someone shouted about a dead body and then everyone was running towards the exit. Mary left, a wailing mess as she ran, and James was left there, staring at the dead body of his friend.

Someone murdered Lily. There was a murderer in the house, and they killed Lily. Lily, the girl with the highest score in class. The girl James had laughed with, loved even, once upon a time. She was dead. Lily was dead.

James felt a hand on his shoulder and was brought back to reality, turning around to find Sirius's panicked face.

"We need to go, mate," he said, already steering James towards the exit.

James, disoriented, let him, and nearly left the house until he spotted Barty and Evan running towards the exit as well.

Regulus.

Horrified that he had forgotten him, James broke away from Sirius's grip and ran towards Evan and Barty, grabbing the latter's wrist so they couldn't escape him.

"Where's Regulus?" he asked.

The boys were too panicked to properly think about how weird that was, thankfully, so they didn't question why he wanted to know.

"I don't know," Barty said, tugging his arm free from James. "He said he needed to find someone."

With that, the two boys left, and James looked around the crowd of people struggling to exit the house, wondering where Regulus was. He was obviously looking for James, and James couldn't leave without knowing that Regulus was safe.

"Dude, what are you doing? We need to go," Remus said when they managed to find James again.

"We can't," James said. "Regulus is still here."

Sirius blinked, surprised. "Regulus is here?"

James nodded. "I saw him, but I didn't see him leave and Barty and Evan said he was still here."

Sirius glanced around, as if Regulus would be standing right behind him, but he didn't find him. "He's probably gone, James."

James shook his adamantly. "He's still here, I know it."

Before Sirius had time to say anything else Mary ran towards them, tear tracks on her cheeks and wide, terrified eyes staring at them desperately.

"I can't find Marlene," she sobbed. "I can't leave without her, but I don't know where she is, and I'm not sure if she's okay and- "

"Woah, Mary, calm down," James said soothingly, rubbing Mary's back. "We need to find Regulus, so we can find Marlene on the way."

Mary nodded, not even questioning why they needed to find Regulus, and leaned into James's touch, letting him comfort her as he shared a look with Sirius.

"Well, we'd better find them fast," Frank said. "Come on, follow me."

So the group of terrified, vulnerable teenagers made their way through the giant mansion, searching all the rooms on the first floor that they could find. James felt his heart racing and could only imagine the others were feeling a similar fear. His gaze found Sirius and a sudden urge to protect him rose inside James.

Sirius and James were best friends. Brothers. Soulmates. They're hearts beat in sync with one another. James couldn't let anything happen to him, nor the rest of his friends. He'd get them out of there, just as soon as they found Marlene, who was probably with Dorcas, and Regulus.

The house had gone silent, everyone else having fled it. James took the lead, slowly opening doors and peering inside them. It was when they reached the last hallway on the first floor that they found them.

Dorcas and Marlene, bloody hands centimetres apart, almost as if they were reaching for one another, eyes closed and faces peaceful.

They were dead.