Electric Love - R. Meeks

{ 𝚂𝚊𝚍, 𝙱𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕, 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌 }

"Iɴ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍs, ɪ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ɪɴ ᴡᴀʀᴍ ᴄᴏɴᴠᴇʀsᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. Wᴇ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴡᴀᴋᴇ ɪɴ ʟᴏɴᴇʟʏ ʙᴇᴅs, ᴅɪғғᴇʀᴇɴᴛ ᴄɪᴛɪᴇs. Aɴᴅ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ɪs ᴛᴀᴋɪɴɢ ɪᴛ's sᴡᴇᴇᴛ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴇʀᴀsɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ."
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Belle had spent the rest of the day with Dewey and he had brought her back to Jennifer's house with him.

Jennifer, Tom, Phoebe, Angelina, and Steven Stone were all present at the house.

By this point, Steven had long been outside with a flashlight in case the killer found them and tried to break in. Tom was sat on the couch, cigarette in his mouth, tearing up papers from the movie script.

When Dewey and Belle had walked in, Angelina had begged him to stop saying he was scaring her. He'd given a smart-ass reply in return and she'd simply replied that he was drunk to which he said "I'm coping!"

Angelina, tired of Tom's antics, slipped outside through the back door. As soon as it closed Tom, who was still ripping up the script, resumed his talking, "I'll bet she fought and clawed for that Sidney part. Bet she stepped on any poor girl who got in her way,"

"So you asked her out and she said no?" Jennifer quipped.

"That has nothing to do with this," Tom insisted.

"Right," Jennifer replied, the words dripping in sarcasm like blood from a knife, "Come on, Dewey," she continued standing up.

As the two walked away, Tom continued mumbling and tearing paper. Belle looked to the girl beside her. They looked alike which, Belle remembered, was on purpose. Belle opened her mouth to talk to the girl (Phoebe, wasn't it?) but was cut off by the door bursting open.

It took a minute for her to realize who had walked through, but Steven had Gale (the real one) by the arm. Angelina followed them through the door.

"Hey Dewdrop," Steven called, "I've got your girlfriend out here!"

It took a whole 3 seconds for Dewey and Jennifer to return to the living room.

"Look who I found slinking around in the yard. Nightly news,"

"I wasn't slinking, I was walking!" Gale claimed.

"No, you were eavesdropping by the bedroom window," Steven said.

"Yeah, a bedroom you looked pretty at home in," Gale quipped to Dewey.

"Alright, let's talk," He said, motioning toward another room with his head.

"Belle," Gale paused, "You're going to want to hear this too,"

Belle nodded, stood up, and followed Gale and Dewey in to the other room, the kitchen. The lights were off, making the room darker and much scarier than it should have been.

"Okay, Gale, what's this about and why is it important to me?" Belle asked once the three had stopped walking.

"Did you know they released Roman?"

"What?" Dewey gasped. Belle was taken aback, this was supposed to be over. Then again, when was it ever that easy?

"The call to Sarah Darling-" Belle started, but was cut off quickly by Gale, "-didn't come from his phone,"

"Where did it come from then?" Dewey asked the question that was on all of their minds.

"A cloned cell phone. It's untraceable," Gale replied.

"Like Billy and Stu did to Sidney's dad," Belle mumbled.

"Exactly like that," Gale said.

"Well thanks for the update, Gale. Why don't you just go on back home?" Dewey cut in. Belle could tell he was annoyed with Gale's presence at his girlfriends house.

"Wait, hold on, there's more," Gale paused, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolding it. It was a picture of Maureen Prescott, Sidney's mom and her brother's first victim. "How old do you think Maureen Prescott was in this picture?" Gale asked Belle and Dewey.

"Probably around my age, maybe a little younger," Belle answered.

"Yeah, I'd say 19 or 20," Dewey added.

"That's what I thought, so I checked it out," Gale began, "Except there's no record of Maureen Prescott at this age. I cannot find any information. I mean, nothing,"

"She lived in Woodsboro her whole life, somebody there must know something," Dewey said.

"Almost her whole life," Gale nearly yelled, "Two years before she met Sidney's father, she left Woodsboro. No one has any idea where she went or what she did. I mean, it's-it's like she fell in to a black hole, Dewey, she vanished!"

"So?" Dewey said.

"So," Gale repeated, "Why is the killer leaving pictures of-of Maureen?"

"And why these picture at this particular point in her life?" Belle added, "This has something to do with Maureen's life before she settled down and had a family,"

"Exactly!"

"But we don't know that!" Dewey halfway yelled, "If we thought like a homicidal maniac then we'd know how a homicidal maniac thinks, but we don't so we don't!"

Suddenly Dewey's eyes went wide and he grabbed one of the pictures from Gale's hands.

"What?" Gale asked, looking at Dewey worriedly.

"Jennifer." He muttered.

"Jennifer?" Gale and Belle said in sync.

Dewey started walking away and Belle and Gale quickly followed behind him. They made their way to what Belle assumed was Jennifer's bedroom and Dewey quickly started looking for something.

He found it quickly and held the picture of Maureen beside the picture of Jennifer he'd just picked up. Belle saw instantly what Dewey had.

"The building," she mumbled. Dewey nodded frantically and started pointing out the similarities.

"Look at the second story, there and there," he paused to point at the spots on the building that were the same in both images.

"It's the same!" He shouted, "It's the same studio 28 years ago!"

"Oh my God, Maureen was at the back lot at Sunrise Studios!" Gale practically yelled.

"Oh my God," Belle mumbled.

"I got to make some phone calls," Dewey said, nearly running from the room.

Gale and Belle quickly followed him, "I've gotta call Kincaid,"

The three made their way back to the living room where the rag tag group of actors and actresses' had been moments prior to find the room completely empty. Gale seemed to notice, but Dewey, who was looking at his phone, didn't until Gale started speaking. "Dewey, where is everybody?"

Now Dewey looked up and, he too, took notice of the empty room.

Suddenly the door opened, Belle and Gale screamed and Dewey pulled his gun from his waistband.

There was nobody there, nobody had pulled the door open, and now Belle was terrified for what was going to happen next.

She tried not to think back too hard to the last few times a serial killer had been targeting her and her friends.

Both times had ended with someone she cared about dying and her nearly bleeding out. She prayed this time would turn out different, that Dewey, Sidney, and even Gale would stay safe. She didn't want anybody else to die. Belle didn't want to die...

Word Count - 1141