The Sheriff's Daughter

16

"Here?" Cindy asks as they approach the Hanging Tree.

"Yes, dig! Dig!" Cindy instructs, "Easy, easy."

She lowers Charlie to her feet. The brunette leans against the tree, keeping watch while the Berman sisters dig. In the distance, Nick lurks in the forest, watching everything go down. According to the deal made with the Devil, Charlie is the target, and the two Berman sisters, well, it doesn't matter because they're from Shadyside.

"Guys?" Charlie calls. Ziggy looks up to find Billy Barker walking toward them with a bat.

"Just keep digging!" Cindy instructs.

Ruby Lane's voice  makes Cindy look up again, "You always hurt..."

"Faster!" Charlie calls.

"The one you love."

Ziggy pulls up more dirt and when she goes down for another scoop, she hits something hard, "I hit something."

The two sisters then use their hands to lift whatever Ziggy found out of the hole. They pull out a stone.

"The witch forever lives," Ziggy reads, "The witch forever lives. Cindy, what does it mean? Cindy?"

"I don't know."

"Well, where is she? Where's the body?" Ziggy demands to know.

"I don't know!" Cindy exclaims. She looks around at the killers surrounding them, "This way. Come on!"

Cindy stands up and turns to see Tommy running at them.

"They're not coming for you," Charlie says, "Run. Get out of here."

Ziggy turns, "I can't leave you. Not again."

Charlie sobs, "You have to? Okay? You have to get out of here."

"Charlie... Charlie.. no!" Ziggy cries. Charlie looks at Cindy.

"Take care of her, ok?" She says to the older Berman sister. Cindy has tears in her eyes but nods, protecting her sister first.

"No, no, Cindy, no!" Ziggy pleads. Cindy wraps her arms around Ziggy and lifts her up. Charlie begins to hobble away in the opposite direction of them, "No! Charlie! No!"

Cindy runs in a different direction from the killers. Ziggy kicks and thrashes in her sister's arms, watching as Tommy and the other killers go after Charlie. Nick furrows his eyebrows at the sight. The killers are going after Charlie, not the Shadysiders. Something is wrong.

Tommy gets to Charlie first, with the Milkman right behind him.

"Charlie!" Ziggy screams as Tommy hits her in the chest with the ax, "No!"

Charlie falls to the ground as Nick Goode steps into the field.

"Charlie!" He yells. He takes off running toward the Hanging Tree as the Milkman stabs Charlie in the stomach. Ziggy sobs in Cindy's arms as they stop running and watch the killers go after her.

Charlie turns her head and looks at Ziggy one last time. She reaches out to Ziggy, "I love you, Ziggy Berman."

The brunette closes her eyes and accepts her fate as she is stabbed two more times. Her heart stops beating and the killers seemingly disappear into thin air.

"Charlie! Charlie!" Nick shouts. He slides down to his knees and begins to perform CPR on his sister even though she is still bleeding from her stab wounds. Ziggy breaks free of Cindy's arms and runs to her.

"Charlie, Charlie, wake up!" Ziggy shouts. Nick counts out loud as he does chest compressions. Cindy approaches slowly from behind, crying and covering her mouth as she sobs. She feels as though she's killed the only real friend that Ziggy's ever had.

"Ziggy give her two breaths! Now!" He shouts. Ziggy pulls her chin back and breathes into her mouth twice. Nick continues chest compressions.

"Come on, Charlie, please! Please wake up!" Ziggy says. She grabs Charlie's hand and squeezes it.

"This wasn't supposed to happen, Charlie. This wasn't supposed to happen to you," Nick mutters, tears in his eyes as he continues CPR. Suddenly, Charlie breathes. She gasps for breath, "Oh my god! Charlie! Charlie!"

"Ziggy..."

"I'm right here. I'm right here," Ziggy cries, grabbing the girl's bloody hand.

"Turn away," Charlie instructs. The redhead becomes quiet and confused.

"What?"

"Turn. Away."

Ziggy lets go of Charlie's hand. She backs up and turns away, but hears the squelch of a knife plunging into flesh only seconds later. Nick chokes and when Ziggy turns again, Charlie's hand holds a knife in Nick's throat.

"C-Ch-Char..." Nick gasps. His hands claw at the knife but Charlie keeps the pressure driving into his neck.

"I know... what you did... And what Dad did... it's over..." Charlie coughs. Just as she says that Nick cries out in a demonic voice. Ziggy backs up into Cindy's legs. The redhead grasps onto her sister as the sound penetrates their ears. The killers reappear for a moment around the group but fade away into nothingness as Nick slumps to the ground, dead. Charlie lets go of the knife.

"Charlie..." Ziggy says.

"I had to do it..." Charlie cries, "I had to."

"It's okay... it's okay," Ziggy says. Sirens wail in the distance, "Everything's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay."

***

"Can you tell me your names?" Officer Kapinski asks. Charlie lies on a stretcher as EMTs tend to her open wounds. Ziggy and Cindy stand next to each other with space blankets around their shoulders. Ziggy and Cindy look as if they have no idea what just happened, completely in shock.

"Ziggy Berman."

"Cindy Berman."

"Charlie Goode."

"And any of you wanna tell me what the hell happened here?" He asks. The bodies of the campers who were murdered are lying in body bags next to the ambulances. Kapinski was at camp a few hours ago, taking away a Nurse who tried to murder a counselor. Now, he has more bodies and one injured.

"My brother, Nick, and Tommy Slater," Charlie says, "They just went crazy."