DARK PARADISE ⎯⎯⎯⎯ ETHAN LANDRY

xiii. kirby?

MY MOUTH HUNG OPEN IN shock as soon as the words left Sam's mouth. Kirby, really? I didn't see that coming at all. Especially, since she shares a piece of the same trauma we all have. She's endured these things and knows what it feels like, so why the hell is she doing it to us?

     "Are you positive it's her?" I asked again for confirmation, not fully believing that Kirby would be capable of doing this.

     "Yeah," Sam breathed out in disappointment. "Bailey said that she got fired from the FBI two months for being unstable. That she's been crazy ever since last years killings."

     "Oh, my God," I put my free hand over my forehead and drug it down my face. "Where did she even go?"

     "I don't know. Haven't seen her since we went to call Mindy and Ethan," Sam gulped nervously, looking around us out of paranoia that Ghostface would pop out and surprise us at any given moment. At the mention of Ethan and Mindy's name my nerves worsen. I'd figured oke of them would've have called us back by now. I take out my phone just to make sure I missed it, but nothing but a Instagram notification was on the screen.

     There's a sudden whirring of a machine starting up, and Sam and I eyes are drawn to the film now being displayed at the front of the theater. Sam breaths heavily from beside me, scrunching her eyebrows together in pure confusion. A home filmed version of Stab is playing on the screen, 'Casey's Death Scene' illuminating our faces.

     "Holy shit!" Sam curses, grabbing my free hand to stop me from walking any further. We watch the film for a beat longer until we hear the sound of glass shattering and Chad wailing out in pain. Tara's yells follow his.

     We take off running in the direction their screams were coming from. The door in front of us burst open and we all four jump back in terror as it did. The pounding of my heart slows down as I realize it's just Chad and Tara, but it quickly picks back up when I realize Ghostface is laying on the ground not far behind us.

     Chad pushed everyone to keep going and we all ran back to where we originally were. "It's Kirby!" Sam exclaimed.

     "She's gone fucking insane!" I supported what Sam told them.

     "No shit!" Chad yelled back, going to try the metal door but stopped before Sam told him it was locked. "We're trapped!?"

"She made this whole theater a kill box. For us."

Tara and I lock eyes and then look up at an opening on the balcony. She grabs Sam and turns her towards it, pointing, "What about that? There's an exit door. Maybe it leads to the roof or something?"

"There's only one way to find out. Let's go, let's go!" Chad says, ushering us towards the latter to get to the top. I scream as Ghostface jumps out from behind the curtains, swinging their knife at us. We all ducked out of the way, falling to the ground. I hear Sam's knife clutter to the ground.

Ghostface swings the knife and Chads head, but luckily he ducks out of the way before it can make a connection. Instead, it slices the mannequin of Randy's head clean off.

     "Beheadings!" Chad shouted, remembering his sisters word from her speech at the fountain. Chad tackles Ghostface to the ground and then picks up a camera, "Smile for the camera, mother fucker," he shoved it into their face and it knocks them back down.

I grab Chad's hand and begin to pull us behind Tara and Sam who had ran behind the green screen. "This way come on!" Tara said, out of breath and ran towards a narrow hallway.

All of our bodies ran into the wall as we took a sharp turn. Chad, who was the last one, threw the camera at Ghostface, earning us a few more steps ahead. We made it into the room with the concession stand, and Chad threw the popcorn machine in front of Ghostfaces feet.