DARK PARADISE ⎯⎯⎯⎯ ETHAN LANDRY

xiv. the reveal

     ETHAN LANDRY SMILED wickedly at all of us as he rested them mask by his leg. I bursted out into gut wrenching sobs, my legs threatening to give out from beneath me. I looked at him in disgust as I covered my mouth. Though, he refused to even throw a glance my way.

     "Mindy was right," He gloated, "It was easy to juke the roommate lottery." I felt extremely sick as I listened to him talk so condescendingly. "I mean, all I had to do to meet you was room with the conceding, condescending alpha.. literally named Chad! Fuck it felt good to kill him!"

     "Oh, my God!" I yelled, grabbing onto the glass table next to me. My heart couldn't take this. I felt as if it would give out at any given moment. Ethan's eyes met mine and a flicker of guilt glazed over them but he turned his head back to Sam.

     "This was your grandmothers, Sam." He held up the Ghostface mask he had been wearing. "Nancy Loomis? Really runs in your fucking family, doesn't it?! Speaking of family.."

     "Wait for it," Bailey laughed menacingly.

     "..my names not Ethan Landry!" He announced. "Is it, Dad?"

      I wanted to die right now.

     They turned to look each other, both laughing hysterically.

     "Dad?" Tara questioned in disbelief.

"Wait if it's you two, that just leaves— Mindy?" Sam asked. I looked over to the other Ghostface in worry. Slowly but surely, they began to remove their mask. Ethan smiled over at them, still refusing to meet my eyes.

Quinn revealed herself from underneath the mask and I let out a quiet gasp. "Hey, roomie." She said in a sing-song voice, smirking at all three of us. "Didn't see that one coming did you?"

"Yeah, because you died!" Tara expressed in confusion.

"Kinda didn't," Quinn tsked, "Though, it was a good way to get off the suspect list. Stab Gale Weathers, stab Mindy on the train. That sort of thing." She tucked her mask underneath her armpit.

     "Yep, and I just made sure I was first on the scene so I could switch her body out with a fresh one," Bailey explained, wrapping an arm around both of his kids and bringing them in closer. "Little fake blood, a prosthetic. You'd be amazed at what a grieving father can get away with."

     Ethan and Quinn separated from their dad, one going one way the other going another. I watched as Ethan walked beside me, his hand brushing my own very discreetly. I yanked away from him, and he shut his eyes tight, gulping. He never wanted her apart of this.

     "I got Stu Machers mask," Quinn said, showing off the ancient mask. "He was my favorite."

     Ethan placed his mask onto Nancy Loomis' mannequin. "That's number three, that's two, which leaves.. your fathers," Bailey counted, pulling out the mask of Billy Loomis from the inside of his coat. "This is what we've been counting down to, Sam. I'm going to need you to put it on."

     "Fuck you!" She gritted, slapping the mask out of his hands. Ethan slipped in between the mannequin and a display table, wrapping an arm around my waist as he lean over me and cut Sam's arm. The knife fell out of my hand and I tensed in his hold, screaming at what he had just done to Sam.

     He pulled me to the front with him, his hold on me staying very limp so he wouldn't hurt me. "Ethan, please let me go!" I cried to him, grasping at his hand around me. His gripped firmed and he turned me towards him when no one was looking at us.

     "You have to be quiet, baby," He whispered lowly and turned me back around.

"What is this? You did this as a family?" Sam asked them all, holding the wound on her shoulder. My head hung low in disappointment. This betrayal hurts worse than hers, and I didn't think that was possible. Amber had wounded me in so many ways that I didn't think anything worse could happen. But as the man I loved held me in his grasp, a knife in his hand that had killed innocents, I knew that the worst is here.