𝙎𝘾𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙈: 𝙇𝙊𝙐𝘿𝙀𝙍

Chapter 11 - Pack it Up.

Two Hours Later.

Charlie and Kara impatiently wait in the dreadful, hospital waiting room, yet again. But this time, it's for Mandy. Charlie taps his foot nervously, Kara twiddles her fingers. They hear a nurse call, "Charlie Mitchell?" Charlie and Kara immediately stand up, Charlie asks, "Is she okay?" The nurse nods, "Yes, she's stable. I think she could be okay to leave tonight, just make sure she gets lots of rest and needs to stay down." Charlie and Kara sigh in relief, Charlie asks, "Can we see her?" The nurse nods, "Of course, follow me." The nurse leads the two to a room down the long hallway, she knocks on the door. "Yes?" Mandy calls from the other side, the nurse opens the door and peeks her head in. "I got two people for you, Mandy." The nurse opens the door wider, Charlie and Kara both step inside the room. They see her sitting up in the bed, a large white piece of gauze taped onto her side. Charlie walks up to her, "Oh, Mandy...I'm so sorry.." Mandy shakes her head, "Hey, don't apologize. I'm not dead yet." Charlie chuckles, he wants to hug her but knows it's probably best not to. He just squeezes her hand, Kara walks up to Mandy, "How are you feeling?" Mandy shrugs, "Like I was just stabbed in my side." Kara laughs softly, "We're both just really glad you're okay, that could have gone so much worse." Mandy sighs, "I'm just glad you two are alright." Charlie replies, "We're all going to be, because we're getting the fuck out of here. Tonight." Kara asks, "We're gonna leave tonight?" Charlie nods, "It's for the best, you can tell your friends that farewell party can be tonight. I don't want to keep you two at risk, we need to." Kara nods, "Yeah, I'll tell them." Kara pulls out her phone, she steps out of the hospital room for a moment. She calls Ian, she puts the phone up to her ear. Ian picks up, "Kara? What's up?" Kara responds, "Hey..baby, uuh..so we might have to push the farewell party to tonight." Ian asks, "Tonight? I thought that was in a couple days." Kara replies, "My brother's girlfriend was almost killed, he doesn't want us here anymore." Ian groans, "So he's making YOU seriously leave?" Kara sighs, "No, I..I want to. I think it's best for me." Ian asks, "Best for you? But you're okay here." Kara replies, "Yeah, getting attacked twice..doesn't sound like I'm really okay here, Ian." Ian sighs, "I just..I'll miss having you around, it's gonna be hard for me to say bye to you." Kara swallows, feeling a bit of guilt growing inside her. She musters up, "I'll miss you too..but I'll still call and visit when I can, d-don't worry." Ian responds, "I know, I just don't know what I'm gonna do without you being here." Kara replies, "You'll be okay, I promise." Ian asks, "So, I'll see you tonight?" Kara responds, "Yeah, you'll see me." Ian replies, "Okay, good. I love you, Kara." Kara gulps, "...I love you too, Ian." She hangs up the phone, she runs her hands through her hair, clearly feeling very guilty about what could be going on with her and Justin. She walks back inside the room, Charlie asks, "They know?" Kara nods, "Yeah, I told Ian. I'm sure he'll tell them all." Mandy asks, "Do we need to go back to the house and get our things?" Charlie nods, "Yeah, you can say bye to mom before we go." Kara replies, "Okay, I don't know how she's gonna act with us leaving tonight though." Charlie responds, "She'll get over it, it's fine." Charlie looks over to Mandy, "You sure you'll be okay to go tonight?" Mandy nods, "Yeah, I'm just gonna try to lay low tonight and stay rested." Charlie nods, "I think that's a really good idea." Kara asks, "We gonna go back home and get our stuff?" Charlie nods, "Yeah, help me get her down." Kara nods as she walks over to Mandy with Charlie, they both help her off the hospital bed. Charlie grabs Mandys bag, he hands it to her and the three leave the hospital room. They file out the paperwork for Mandy, then finally leave the hospital.

Charlie parks Karas car into the houses driveway, he gets out and helps Mandy out of the backseat. The three walk up to the front door, then enter the house. Charlie and Karas mom stands in the living room, she walks over to the three when they come inside. "I was so worried, where were you guys?" Kara replies, "The hospital, didn't the police let you know what happened?" Her mom nods, "Yeah, I just-..I wasn't thinking clearly and didn't know where you guys would've been. Mandy, are you alright?" Mandy smiles faintly, "Yeah, I'm okay. Thank you." Charlie clears his throat, "Hey, mom-?" She looks at him, he continues, "So..we're gonna leave..tonight." Her eyes widen, "Tonight?" He nods, "Yeah, we don't think it's safe to be here anymore." She scoffs, "But..Kara doesn't even have her stuff ready-" Kara cuts her off, "I do, mom. I have a bag in my room with all my stuff, I'll be alright." Their mother glares at them, "So you're gonna come here after leaving for two years, then take your sister away from me now too?" Charlie responds, "Take her? I'm helping her, taking her from this. Anywhere else is better than here, mom. I would think YOU of all people would get that." She rolls her eyes, "Whatever, get your guys' stuff then." She walks off out of sight, the three are silent. Charlie mutters to Kara, "Just go get your stuff real fast and wait in the car, okay?" Kara nods, "Yeah, alright." She walks off into her bedroom, Mandy and Charlie walk off into the guest room for their belongings. Charlie opens his suitcase, he starts putting his last pair of clothes in there, along with some of Mandys as well. Mandy asks, "Do we really have to stop at that farewell party thing?" Charlie sighs, "Unfortunately, yes. It's important to Kara, and I don't want her to have to not be able to say bye to her friends." Mandy nods, "Yeah, that's true." Charlie zips up the suitcase, then tosses another bag over his shoulder. "You ready to go?" Mandy nods, "Yep." Charlie takes her hand, they both leave the guest room. Charlie peeks inside Karas room to see if she's still in there, she's not which means she's probably already in the car waiting like he had said. Charlie and Mandy walk to the front door, Charlie takes one more glance at the inside of the house. He then turns back, and walks out with Mandy. Charlie opens the backseat and helps Mandy inside, he puts her bag back there with her. Karas already in the passenger seat, Charlie walks around the car and gets in the driver seat. He starts the car, "So, where's this farewell party at?" Kara replies, "It's at Ruths house, heres the address." Kara shows Charlie the address on her phone, he types it into his GPS system and it begins the drive. He backs out of the driveway, then begins to drive to Ruths house.

Everyone waits at Ruths house, theres even a lot of other people there. Theres drinks going around, decorations hung up, and loud music blaring throughout the house. Ruth walks into the living room, she sees Justin, holding a drink in his hand, talking to a friend. She asks, "Hey, is Kara on her way?" Justin asks, "Why would I know?" Ruth replies, "Because you're in love with her, duh?" Justin rolls his eyes, "You want me to throw this drink on you?" Ruth laughs and backs away, she sees Ian standing by the front door. His arms crossed,  "Hey, Ian?" He looks over at her, "Hey." She asks, "Is Kara on her way?" Ian replies, "Yeah, she is. She just left her house, also how many people did you invite? Wasn't this supposed to be a small party?" Ruth shrugs, "I put out an open invitation post on my story, I did NOT expect this many people to show up..." The front door opens, Beck walks inside. Ruth speaks up, "Hey, I didn't think you were gonna show?" Beck shrugs, "I needed something to get my mind off everything, you got drinks somewhere?" Ruth points to the kitchen, "There should be some just sitting on the counter in there." Beck nods, "Alright, thanks." He walks into the kitchen, grabbing a drink on his way inside. Ian sighs, "I don't want her to be leaving." Ruth responds, "It'll be alright, maybe all this murder shit will relax when she's gone." Isla pushes herself through a crowd, "Hey, is Kara here yet?" Ruth shakes her head, "No, not yet." Isla groans, "I just wanna see her, just before she goes." Ian nods, "Yeah, me too." Ian pulls out his phone, feeling a text notification. He lights up a bit, "She said she's almost nearly here." Ian walks off in a different direction, typing on his phone as he walks into a crowd of people. Ruth looks around, "Damnit." Isla asks, "What?" Ruth responds, "I think I left my phone out in the backyard when I was bringing in more drinks." Isla asks, "Do you want me to go grab it for you?" Ruth shakes her head, "No, it's fine. I'll be right back." Ruth pushes through some people, then finally reaches the back door. She opens it and steps outside, she walks over to where she was when bringing in drinks earlier. She doesn't see anything, "Goddamnit." Theres the faded sound of loud music playing in the background, making it hard to hear stuff outside. She looks at the ground around her, it's only full of leaves and dead grass. She then hears something, it sounds like a phone chime coming from a different direction. She looks over in the direction, it's just a lot of shrubbery. She's very confused, another chime comes through. She can hear it very faintly due to the music, but she begins to walk towards the sound.  She hears a twig snap under someone's foot in the shrubbery, she stops. "..Hey, anyone in there?" No response, she gulps softly. She takes another step closer, then she finally sees a phone screen wallpaper light up as another text comes through. She immediately recognizes the phone as her, she sighs in relief. She reaches through the shrubbery, scratching herself on some thorns. She then feels a hand grab onto hers, and pulls her roughly close to them. She screams loudly, but they cover her mouth aggressively. She screams, but it's all muffled. The killer is atop of her, they tilt their head, glaring down at her. They raise their knife, they them harshly being it down into Ruths chest. She cries out, but she can't make much noise. She bites the persons finger, they cry out and let go of her. Ruth gasps as she coughs once they let go of her, she turns over and begins to crawl away. Blood gushes from her stab wound, she grabs her phone and sees the texts. It's all saying, "Test text" All from one person, someone inside the party. Her heart sinks, realizing who one of them is. She then feels a sharp pain go into her back, she screams loudly. Nobody can hear her screams due to the loud music blaring, the killer grunts as they begin to stab Ruth in the back, over, and over again. Ruth coughs up blood, it mixes in with the dead grass on the ground. Blood splatters on her phone screen, the killer goes insane. They keep going, then finally see that Ruth is completely still. They stand over her, their chest rising up and down with every breath they take. They quickly wipe their knife, then dispose of the costume. Before slipping back into the party, staying clear of anyone seeing what they had just done.