prologue

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prologue: the aftermath

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prologue: the aftermath












SUNDAY: October 27th, 2026






Everything felt like a rush, no amount of bright light or sting of a needle made Benjamin's gaze focus. The constant voices of paramedics and police officers made him wanna rip his ears off his head. He was on the verge of death and yet he didn't even flinch once, the idea of death never scared him. Not even now as blood stained his flesh, a parting gift from Andy.

He wanted to sob into an endless pile of despair at the thought of Andy. He had everything he could've wanted and then he watched it burn into nothing. That's what he told the sheriff when the man asked him what happened inside the theater. A fire, that's what took poor Andy's life away, a fire.

Not a blade stabbing his flesh until he stopped moving, Benjamin didn't feel any guilt. Not even when he sat beside Claire and watched the girl start to write her next idea into her notes app. Broadway in big bolded letters that's what she wrote before she let herself be taken away by the ambulance.

"Is there anyone you'd like us to call?" Benjamin looked at the sheriff, the man looked like he wanted to quit already. "No, my parents are out of town" he stopped speaking after that and let himself sink into the gurney as the doors of the ambulance shut.

He could still see the bright flames, the school looked better this way. He didn't think he'd last this long, yet somehow he did, he just wished he could've stopped Nadia and Gwendolyn too. The girls were missing and while most said they likely died in the fire he knew deep down that wasn't the truth.
































5:00AM
Nadia Montgomery's house




The place was a mess when the sheriff and his deputy approached the home. Blood stained the girl's carpet and her closet was empty aside from a few loose shirts she left behind. Her bed was flipped over and a huge hole rested along the seams. "Looks like the girl planned her escape, there's no way she'll last a day".

The sheriff pointed his flashlight towards the window seeing it was wide open. "She couldn't have gotten far, looks like she panicked and packed what she could. Left out the window in hopes of getting away before we learned who she was".

The deputy walked towards the closet "I don't understand what can cause someone to go crazy. You saw the news right? A bunch of teenagers decided to wear a stupid mask and kill each other". The deputy pointed his flashlight into the closet, his eyes widening as a knife slammed into his throat.

The sheriff wasn't paying much attention as he looked down at the girls desk that was covered in dirty bandages. "Looks like she patched herself up here before she left, the other one, Gwendolyn Evans is reported missing as well. Likely the girls are working together on getting out of town".

𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵-𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘍𝘪𝘤 ² Where stories live. Discover now