fear street - the gc

Chapter 3

The Shadyside school bus was packed full of students, blaring music and playfighting. You would think this bus was taking them to a zoo rather than a memorial, Jess thought as her and Sam shared a look of disgust before stepping onto the bus.

Of course, as they had both expected, all the eyes turned to Jess when they boarded the bus, burning holes into her skin, or at least that's what it felt like.

She didn't like being the centre of attention so she followed Sam to the back of the bus and sat down where they wouldnt be in the eye-line of the other students.

Because Sam was the head of the cheerleading team and Jess was the leader of the marching band, they had been forced to take the bus whilst Henrik, Caitlin and Gemma drove in Henrik's car. Any other day Jess wouldn't have minded taking the bus. It wasn't that bad beside all the noise and she could just hide up the back with Sam and talk but today all the eyes were on her and she hated it.

It remained that way throughout the majority of the memorial as well, people sneaking glances at her as she stood beside Caitlin with the rest of the band. She was thankful that Caitlin was glaring daggers at anyone who looked her way but it still felt weird to know people were talking about you.

After the band had played, Jess made a quick getaway, letting Caitlin talk to - or attempt to talk to - her crush, Steven. She hid in a hallway that she found not far from the football pitch, pulling out her phone and scrolling through Twitter, she kind of hated Twitter but she was also a little bit addicted.

A while later she heard footsteps coming from down the hall and she looked up to be met with the sight of Gemma. She smiled as the younger girl sat down beside her, Jess and Gemma had always been close but they hadnt gotten much of a chance to hang out since Gemma moved to Sunnyvale.

"Hi, I saw you leave and I was bored so I followed you" Gemma laughed, pulling a packet of M&Ms from her jacket pocket and pouring a few into Jess' palm.

"These things are so stupid, I don't know why they keep dragging us here. I mean people get killed in Shadyside nearly every week" Jess shrugged, tossing an M&M into the air and trying to catch it with her mouth and missing.

"Yeah, it sucks balls. None of these Sunnyvale assholes care" Gemma said. "But you're okay though? With everything that happened?"

Jess nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just lucky to have made it out alive" she said, honestly. "It just doesn't make sense to me, why would John kill Brittany then try and kill me?"

"Henrik is pretty convinced it's the witch" Gemma spoke with a casual shrug, as much as she thought the theory was stupid it did make a weird amount of sense.

Jess scoffed light-heartedly, she wasn't annoyed at Henrik for the theory, it was just a bit of fun, but she was growing tired of hearing him and Luna going on about it 24/7 as was the rest of the group. "You would think he would shut up by now, surely he realizes how crazy he sounds" she laughed.

"I dont know, it does sound kinda plausible if you really think about it" Gemma said, to which Jess raised an eyebrow giving her a look that said 'not you too' which Gemma laughed at. "I know you think it's crazy but like you said he was a normal guy and he just snapped, I mean think about how many people have went on killing sprees in Shadyside, I mean there was- there was Ruby Lane-"

"Well God forbid women have hobbies" Jess joked with a playful eye roll.

"Shut up" Gemma laughed. "Seriously think about it" She was about to carry on her story when they heard the whistle to signify the end of the game. When Gemma left the stadium Sunnyvale had been winning - as usual - and they hadnt heard any cheers from the crowd so she assumed the score was the same.

"Woohoo! Go Sunnyvale!" she joked as the two girls stood up, neither of them cared about the outcome of the game, Gemma was just happy she was technically on the winning side, even if she was originally from Shadyside.

"Shut up, you're literally from Shittyside" Jess joked as they made their way down the long corridor laughing.

On the ride home, Jess was laying down on the back seat of the bus, staring up at the ceiling as the other students on the bus cheered on their team. She swore she even heard Sam's voice in amongst the crowd but she wasnt really paying attention to them.

She was half asleep but the bright light that suddenly appeared behind the bus caught her attention and she sat up on the seat to get a better look.

She squinted her eyes as she peered through the dirty window on the back of the bus and could vaguely make out a familiar face behind the bright lights. It was Caitlin in the passenger seat of Henrik's car.

Jess laughed to herself and waved at them before calling Sam over. "Look at these idiots, they're going to get themselves killed"

"Probably the best option after that horrific game" She joked, pressing her face up against the glass the get a better look.

"That glass is dirty as shit." Jess said and then suddenly the bus pulled to a stop, causing Sam to fall forward into the glass and giving her a nosebleed.

"Fuck!" she said, holding her nose as Jess tried to keep her balance.

"Holy shit are you okay?" She asked before handing Sam a tissue from her pocket. Sam nodded and then Jess turned her gaze back to the car that was trailing them - except it wasnt there anymore.

Whilst the girls were too distracted by Sam's bloody nose they had failed to notice that when the bus came to an abrupt stop, Henrik had quickly made a turn to avoid hitting the back of the bus but instead he had swerved into the forest, his car crashing into a tree at full speed.

The passengers, Caitlin and Gemma both had bleeding noses - which was starting to become a theme here - and Caitlin was pretty sure she had a concussion. Henrik was fine, just a little shaken up. The impact had mostly been on Caitlin's side of the car.

Caitlin wasn't feeling very great, her vision was going all wavy like she had just come off a roundabout and the was a loud ringing in her ears which made her unable to hear her friends very well.

She reached out, pushing open the door of the car and crawled out. She fell to her knees, the ground around her covered in red moss. She raised her hand to her face, feeling the hot red blood on her upper lip. She looked down her hand and putting it back on the ground to steady herself.

Suddenly her vision disappeared and the sight of the dark woods was replaced by the face of a woman, she didnt recognize her but she knew right then that it was Sarah Feir.

The witch.