Scream

Chapter 4

Warnings:
swearing
death
descriptions of wounds

James heard screams but didn't realise they belonged to him until he felt Sirius's arms wrap around him and heard his hurried whispers trying to comfort him.

They were dead. Marlene and Dorcas were dead, just like Lily.

James heard someone else scream and turned to find Peter bolting down the hallway, away from Marlene and Dorcas's corpses. The others ran after him and James, sensing his friend in danger, snapped out of his own grief and ran after them.

They found Peter at the front door, franticly trying to pull the door open but to no avail. He turned his head when he heard their footsteps and looked at James in the eye as fear washed across his face.

"It's locked," he whispered.

No. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. James ran to the door, hoping that Peter just didn't put enough force into opening the door, but even as James pulled, pulled, pulled, the door didn't open. He heard rather than saw Remus run to one of the windows and turned to see the result.

They were also locked.

James recalled Fabian telling him one time that their parents were away a lot of the time, so they'd installed security measures on all of the windows. For some reason, they were activated, and they wouldn't be able to break the glass because Fabian had also told James that the glass could withstand a bullet without breaking.

"You won't be able to open it," James rasped. Everyone's eyes turned to him. "Security measures on all of the windows. The glass is too strong to break."

He didn't say it, but everyone heard the next words stuck in his throat.

They were trapped.

Frank fished out his phone and James let out a sigh of relief. They could call the police, and everything would be fine, and even if Frank didn't have any battery left, James knew for a fact that he did.

So why was Frank's expression so broken.? Why was he staring at his phone like all his dreams had just been crushed? Like there was no hope for escape.

"There's no signal," he said roughly.

No signal. No signal, no signal, no signal-

"Fuck," he heard Sirius mutter.

A silence descended upon the group, one full of hopelessness and devastation.

"What if the killer is still in the house?" Remus eventually spoke, voicing everyone's thoughts.

What if whoever killed Lily and Marlene and Dorcas was still here? What if they were planning James's death right then and there? They were trapped in a mansion with no hope of escape or rescue, with a murderer possibly in there with them.

Everyone was glancing around, as if the murderer was about to jump out and stab them then and there. James's mind strayed back to Regulus. He was somewhere in here, possibly still looking for him, or hiding away because he'd heard everyone's screams. He could be hurt. James needed find him, to make sure he was okay.

"We still need to find Regulus," James said, taking action. "This is a big fucking house, so I propose we split into pairs so we can search more ground quicker. Once we find Regulus, we can try and come up with a way to escape. Everyone okay with that?"

"That's how everyone dies in horror movies," Peter spoke up.

Sirius scoffed. "This isn't a fucking horror movie, Wormtail. This is real life."