doomsday. [ yellowjackets ]

quatorze.

xxx.

chapter quatorze.
fourteen.

xxx.

        Truthfully, Sam couldn't care less about whatever the hell had happened during the seance; sure, was she concerned and a little freaked out over what the girls had described to her and Laura Lee, paired with the bloody hash on Lottie forehead? Yeah, obviously, she wasn't a monster, but she also cared way more about actually having Shauna's godforsaken journal in her possession. She knew she'd have to put it back quickly, but the chaos of the night would likely give her just enough time to look through it before everything was resolved and forgotten about in the morning.

        Which was why she volunteered to help Laura Lee clean the attic after everyone settled from the seance. With the others downstairs, too startled and in shock to do much, Sam and Laura Lee scrubbed Lottie's blood from the window glass and the floorboards, though the blonde was doing most of the work. Sam sat near the window so she could use the moonlight sinking through the glass to read as she absentmindedly cleaning the floor with her other hand and a rag with dish soap on it.

        Thankfully, Laura Lee was too busy murmuring to herself about what a bad idea the seance was, amongst a few prayers, to notice or care about what Sam was doing. The curly haired girl skimmed through a lot of the journal, honestly impressed that it started way back in Shauna's freshman year. It didn't start to get all interesting or useful until the middle of their senior year, the current year.

       Sam's eyes felt like they couldn't keep up with the words when she started to find the reason Shauna had been acting so strangely with Jackie. She even thought she might've been making up a few of them, so she had to trace her finger along the lines to make sure they were real. Her heart paced quickly, whether from adrenaline of finding what she was looking for or from fear of being caught just when she'd finally gotten there. Sam read Shauna's panic through her written words, her anger and jealousy came before that, and somewhere laced in between it all was a longing and a love that seemed to be disguised as hatred or loathing. Her fear jumped off the pages just as well.

        For how detailed her entries seemed, Sam was surprised that there was no mention of her bothering Shauna or trying to interrogate her over the past few weeks. Everything else was so complex that she felt like she'd been transported into Shauna's own thoughts, after all. And then finally, there it was.

       The secret Shauna didn't want anyone to know. What she didn't want Jackie to know.

        " Oh, shit. " Sam whispered, closing the journal as soon as it hit her. Laura Lee shot her a look over her shoulder, but once the other girl dismissively waved at her, the blonde turned back around after a second or two. Sam tucked the journal into her jacket and pressed her hand to the floor to push herself up to stand. She tried to contemplate what the hell she was going to do with that newly revealed information when she felt grooves underneath her fingers.

         She looked down at the floor and moved her hand an inch, finding a symbol engraved into the wood below. Sam paused, almost as surprised by that discovery as her first. The symbol was the same as the one she had drawn in the dirt a few nights ago, and in the sand at the lake before that.

        Downstairs, the group had started to settle down for the night, but really there was no settling to be done. Coach Scott had gotten sick, and the Yellowjackets had to play a quick game of 'not it' to decide who would clean up the vomit on the floor while he went to sleep it off in the bedroom. After that, the group sat in their makeshift beds, none too excited to fall asleep as the events of the night still played in their minds.