SCREAM

A Town in Flames

It was all over the news Sunday morning. Lynn was no longer apart of Ashwood. "Teenage girl, murdered in her home."  It was all they talked about for the next two weeks. Homicide was never a topic in such a small town like Ashwood. Hannah and Ren we're in Ren's bedroom. She stood over her vanity desk and sobbed. She was feeling too many emotions at once. Hannah was as well, but grief was not one of them. The only thing running through her head is why, all of a sudden. Who? Who in the right mind would do this. The town was in flames, metaphorically. Hannah snapped out of it and tried to comfort Ren.

"Look, it wasn't your fault. What happened last night, that wasn't you." Hannah suggested. Ren picked up her head and looked at Hannah from the corner of her eye.

"Well obviously I didn't kill her. I treated her like shit though. I should've been there for her more often." She said as she dropped her head again. Hannah decided to share some thoughts.

"I just don't get it though."

"What?" 

"I don't get why. Like why right now. We've never had a homicide case here."

"Yeah, only suicide cases because this town is depressing as fuck." Ren said wiping her tears with some tissues on her desk.

Hannah chuckled. It was dark and true, but Ren had always worded dark things into more humorous ways. Hannah threw herself on the bed. She wasn't excited for school tomorrow. She had no choice to go though. She had already missed too many days. If she missed anymore, it was summer school for her. There was a knock on Ren's door. 

"Come in." she said, giving the mysterious person permission to come in. It was no other than Ronnie. He walked in with some flowers. 

"Just wanted to drop these off. Thought they would help a little." He said, handing Ren the bouquet. 

"It's a fucking murder, not Valentine's Day. Get the fuck out Ron." Hannah said, pushing Ron out the door and closing it behind her. Ron was a sweet guy. He always tried to make things better. However, no one ever said he was, well... the smartest. One time, ren's dog got hit by a garbage truck and he sent her pictures and videos of her dog throwing trash away, thinking it would be cute. Ron was your average skinny dude. He played football, but he wasn't one of those mean jocks. Ren was your typical... well no one knew what vibe ren was ever aiming for. Her hair was very colorful though. It was mainly red and orange with green and purple streaks here and there. No one knew whether she meant to do that or if it was from dying it too much. No one also ever had the balls to ask, because yes, Ren was that mean girl. I don't mean popular mean girl. I mean, mean girl with nuts of steel. 

"Y'know, we could always call up Sam and Ally and see if they wanna come over." Hannah suggested to Ren. Sam and Ally Eastwood were twin sisters. Looking at them, you would've never guessed. Ally had long, luxurious blonde hair, while Sam had medium wavy brown hair. Their facial structure wasn't exactly on point either. Ally was more artistic and intelligent. Only with certain things though. Sam was intelligent as well, but she never put herself on the artsy side of things. She was more of a film making girl. She tended to stay in the theaters during its late hours and mess with the tapes. Time to time, she even put her own homemade tapes in the projector. Ally was always caught drawing on her tablet in school. Ally still managed to get good grades too. She was easy to get along with. She never made the first move into a friendship though.

 Her best friend Koko Ives always made fun of her. Not in a mean way of course. Koko was your average lesbian. She also had silky blonde hair, but hers was shorter than Ally's. She had a bunch of piercings. She also wore red and blue most of the time. Koko and Ally didn't have a lot of classes together though. Koko decided the previous year that she would take all of her classes with her girlfriend Grace Owsley. Koko typically skipped classes and was the next soon to be drop-out. Grace was the only thing keeping her in school though. 

Sam wasn't lonely by the way. She also had a couple of friends she kept close to her. Kai Ekker and Jay Herring. These were her best friends for the main part. They always helped her make films after school and went out to eat at dairy queen a lot.  Of course everyone was a part of the same friend group, but some just stuck to others. Kai was thin with dirty blonde hair. She was pretty obnoxious. Just as obnoxious as Koko. You would typically catch Kai listening to Melanie Martinez, her favorite music artist, or just tormenting people for no reason. Jay also liked to torment people. Him and Kai together was hell. Jay was slim with messy brown hair. He was growing it out. He usually wore sweatpants and crocs to school. You would probably catch him talking about how the new scream movie was coming out next year or about how much he loves "The Walking Dead".

Ren considered Hannah's idea but rejected it.

"Don't get me wrong, hanging out with the group is amazing, but it's too much to handle right now, don't you think? 

Hannah was honestly surprised. "Sorry, I just thought it'd be nice to get out."

"We did that yesterday and my best friend died."

"She didn't die because you touched grass."

"Don't underestimate mother nature, Hannah." Ren said finishing up her make up. "Besides, Peyton wouldn't even come hang out. I haven't seen her in a while."

"Peyton is going through stuff right now."

"Yeah, and she's shutting us out. We need to be there for her. I wonder if she even knows what happened." Ren said, checking herself out in her mirror. Hannah rolled her eyes and texted Levi. "I'm bored, want to hang out? Ren can't decide whether she's in Twilight or Face-Off and it's scaring me."  

Levi read it and replied. "Why not, Chris won't answer me. He's probably playing Roblox or something."  Hannah finally got a small victory. 

"Well, sorry to cut things short, but Levi wanted to know if I could help him with Homework real quick." Hannah said as she grabbed her stuff and started to head out. 

Ren turned around and watched. "Oh ok... well be careful, yeah?" she said as she turned back around and started smiling at herself in the mirror. She admired herself quite often. Hannah left the house and set off to Levi's. Peyton Bixby was a quiet girl who never came to school or interacted with anyone. Not ever since what happened to her family. She had long black hair. That's all they remembered. The last time they saw her, she came to school pale, with torn pajamas. Chris had short curly brown hair. He was a gamer and never came to any social events with the friend group. Though, when he did, he could talk all night. Chris Boone was quite the horror expert and lectured people how to survive. The group often wondered if Chris could ever follow his own advice. Levi Bassett had black hair as well but his was shorter. He kept it long but not that long. Levi was a close friend to Hannah, and they hanged out often.  

Hannah continued her walk to Levi's house when she got an uneasy feeling. She looked behind her. It was getting dark and they had school the next day. Hannah texted her dad, telling her she would probably end up staying the night at Levi's. She started to walk again. Each step she took, she felt someone looking at her more and more. She started to sprint. Eventually she made it and busted through the front door. Levi's parents didn't mind Hannah. She came over a lot. Levi came down his stairs. 

"Are you okay?" He asked.

She panted and looked at him. 

"Where's your damn homework."