I was sitting down on the pavement outside while Mindy was getting her wound treated, and Sam and Tara were just standing with Chad. Everything started to blur; I couldn't hear them clearly or focus. It was like I was in a trance; I zoned out blankly, staring down onto the road. But suddenly, a distinct male voice made me snap back to reality.
"Guys?" My head quickly looks up to see Ethan walking towards us with a worried look on his face. We all notice him, and then Chad rushes to him and grabs him by the collar, pushing him onto the ambulance. My eyes widened at this confrontation.
"Where the hell were you?" Chad yells into Ethan's face and slams him onto the amulet again. Ethan, looking confused, asks, "What, when?" Chad slams him harder onto the ambulance again. "Last night!" Ethan defends himself: "I had economics! You know this," Ethan says, raising his hands in defense.
"Bullshit! "You disappeared, and my sister is almost dead," Chad says. Ethan looks genuinely scared and confused by this accusation. "I was in study hall with like a hundred other people; you can ask any of them," Ethan says defensively as Chad just stares at him and then releases him from his grip.
Ethan walks a bit closer, trying to get a glimpse of what happened, and notices a body bag. "Oh my god...Who?" Ethan asks worriedly. "Anika and Quinn," I say softly, sounding like I'm on the verge of tears. Ethan looks hurt when he sees how sad I am.
He then looks sypathically towards Mindy and says, "I'm so sorry, Mindy." He walks closer, but Mindy says, "Stay the fuck back; you're on the top of my suspect list." She says this, anger and bitterness lacing her tone. "I had economics!" Ethan says it defensively.
Ethan starts walking towards me, but I stand up and walk in the other direction, not ready for any more interactions. "Lauren, please trust me," he says as he desperately follows me like a puppy. I stop and turn to him, stepping a few steps back to make sure there is some distance between us.
"I don't know who to trust anymore," I say softly, choking on my tears. We stared at each other silently for a few seconds. Looking down, I take a deep breath, trying to compose myself as I wipe my tears. "Oh, Lauren, come here," Ethan says quietly as he opens his arms a bit.
I hesitatingly walk towards him slowly, and he embraces me. As he pulls me in, all my bottled-up emotions start to spill out as I sob into his chest. My arms wrapped around him so tight, as if I didn't want to let him go. "Shh, it's okay, you're okay," he whispers into my ear as he gently rubs my back and then goes to pat my head as comfort.
We stayed in that position for a while until I calmed down. Once my emotions were expressed, I pulled, but Ethan still held onto me. "Are you sure you're okay now? We can stay like that more if you need to," he says as he looks at me, checking if I'm really okay.
"I'm fine now; I'm still a little shaken, but I'm fine," I say, and I start to loosen my grip on his hand, but I grab him again and make him look at me. "Ethan," he says, staring at me with genuine care in his eyes. "Promise me. Don't leave me, please," I say pleadingly as I stare deeply into his eyes.
He grabs my face gently with both of his hands and looks down at me, saying, "I won't ever leave you, Lauren. I promise." He caresses my cheek and smiles slightly. Our little moment was soon interrupted by Sam saying, "Hey, we've got to go; Gale's got something to show us." We let go of each other and followed the rest of the group.
●・○・●・○・●
"They've got the whole damn franchise," Mindy says in awe as Gale switches on the lights. Gale brought us to an abandoned theater that had the names of our dead classmates who had died earlier on. We walk in to see a bunch of Ghostface stuff everywhere in glass casings, like a shrine.
We all separated and looked around. I noticed a picture in one of the glass casings; it was Amber and me posing for a picture at a party. We had matching costumes, too. I walked closer to it and touched the glass, remembering all the fun times I had with Amber.
"You okay?" Ethan's voice makes me turn around, and I assure him that I'm fine. "Just some memories I wanted to forget came back. Amber." I say her name softly, almost inaudible for others. I continued walking around the shrine, with Ethan still following behind me.
"You all have been through so much," I hear Detective Bailey say. "How did they even get this stuff, all this evidence?" Tara asks, and Gale answers her, but I didn't hear her properly. I was focused on looking at all of the stuff.
I notice how uncomfortable Ethan seems and how he looks at Chad. "You're here so I can keep an eye on you, roomie. And also because Lauren doesn't seem like she wants you to leave," Chad says a little teasingly, but I ignored it.
"The murderer must have found this place before they killed Jason and Greg. They also took the masks and costumes, from Stu and Billy to Amber and Richie," Gale says, and my body stiffens hearing Amber's name. Then we all walked onto the stage.
"So someone killed Jason and Greg and then took over?" Chad asks. "Someone who believes Sam was behind the mastermind in Woodsboro," Gale says, and all of us nervously look at each other.
●・○・●・○・●
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