The Devils Bargain | stuilly | billyxstu | stuxbilly

Chapter 24

In the grand scheme of things, Randy Meeks was perceived as a loser. Sure, he'd shed his virgin status, but the loser tag stuck like glue, much to his own dismay. His role in the story was usually an afterthought. He's the type to get his POV on the last chapters of a horror novel, or sometimes not even considered at all. Who'd bother with Randy Meeks' thoughts or feelings, right?

The turning point in his life came when two of his so-called friends—well, one actual friend and another guy he kind of knew—started dating the girl he had a thing for and were a shadow to the guy he was actually friends with. But that wasn't the real kicker. No, what really shook Randy's world was when these two decided to ditch their civilised personas, grab a knife and a mask, and play out some sick horror movie fantasy.

They should've been laughed at and criticized as the horrible human beings that they were; this was a real case; real people died, but instead, they became exactly what they aspired to be—icons of horror. Gale Weathers' book got turned into a blockbuster, and now Billy Loomis and Stu Macher are two of the biggest names in horror.

'Ghostface.'

What a joke.

Randy just wanted to move on, pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker, or fall back on teaching if all else failed, because it's like they say, what you can't do, you teach. But then those faces popped up again—the people who nearly killed him turned out to be the ones who saved him from another guy wearing a mask—and Randy decided they most likely killed the copycat and took up their revenge plan again. And if that wasn't enough of a blow to the ego, they kept lingering around, playing their sick little games with him again and again, never laying a finger on him. It felt like being stalked by a predator, with only the hope of outrunning it but tripping on air all the way down.

But Randy knew Sidney had it worse. He avoided mentioning Billy around her; the pain in her eyes when he first mentioned Billy and Stu being alive was hard to ignore, and the frustration of not knowing how to help made him feel useless. He understood she fell for Billy's deception and that she was still fighting her emotions over the situation because she really did love Billy, and now she'd be judged for admitting that. How she fell for that emotionally repressed, greased-up rat was beyond him. Either way, it hurt to see her like that.

Despite his better judgement, Randy still harboured a crush on Sid, though he knew it was futile. Even with Derek out of the picture, Sid wasn't going to suddenly turn around and date him; he had his chance between the first spree and Sidney meeting Derek to take his shot, and he fell through.

He had Karen now, a girl he'd met at work; he didn't like her as much as Sidney, but when he saw his chance to finally give up his V card, he took it. People judged her for her style, and maybe he did too at first, but she turned out to be pretty cool.

Unlike Randy, Karen wasn't into horror, which was a pleasant surprise—a surprise in the sense that he didn't think he'd fall for a girl who wasn't a horror movie geek like he was. She preferred romance, slice-of-life stories, and tales of family happiness. And that's exactly why Randy felt compelled to keep her away from all this mess.

"Karen, seriously, it's better if you steer clear of me." Randy sighed, pushing some movies onto the shelf while Karen pestered him about the latest university Halloween party incident, masquerading her concern as work-related banter.

"I couldn't care less about some guy in a mask. I'm worried about you and your friends," Karen said earnestly, stepping in front of Randy. Her sincerity was irritatingly genuine, which made it hard for him to brush her off.

Randy paused, leaning on the cart packed with movies, contemplating but mostly tired. "You should care. These guys—they're off their rockers. They'll do anything to get what they want, and I don't want you to get hurt."

Karen suddenly turned her head, and Randy barely acknowledged the faint red flush that powdered over her cheeks before she steeled herself.