Entanglement of Time

Prologue

What causes a person to kill?
There's always a certain mentality behind a murderer's thinking, but what truly does cause someone to commit a crime so horrific as murder? 
Was it that someone made them mad? 
Maybe something deeper, like insanity?
Was love the motive? 
Could love be a motive?

Tara Carpenter has been haunted by lingering questions since the horrifying Ghostface attacks of 2022. Despite surviving the nightmare, she's never been able to shake the gnawing doubts that plague her thoughts. Why did Amber do it? What drove her supposed friend to such madness? And perhaps most painfully, why did Amber try to take her life? These questions have followed Tara like a shadow, growing heavier with each passing day. Yet, now that she herself shot Amber in a desperate bid for survival, she knows she'll never get the answers she craves. The truth died with Amber, leaving Tara with an unsettling emptiness she can't quite fill. 

Similarly, Kirby Reed has been grappling with her own set of questions for over a decade. The brutal events of 2011 left her scarred and confused, especially when she tried to make sense of why her friends betrayed her so viciously. Charlie was infatuated with her—she knew that, and she admits she toyed with his emotions. It was a cruel game, one she regrets, but it never crossed her mind that it could lead to something as horrific as attempted murder. Jill was a different story altogether. Kirby had trusted her completely; they were best friends, and Kirby believed Jill would never hurt her. The revelation that Jill was Ghostface shattered that trust and left Kirby bewildered. For a long time, she couldn't understand why she couldn't bring herself to hate Jill, even though she despised Charlie. It's a question that remains unanswered, and Kirby has resigned herself to never truly knowing why. 

The parallels between Tara and Kirby are striking. Both had best friends who turned out to be cold-blooded killers—Amber for Tara and Jill for Kirby. Tara is just one year removed from the 2022 attacks, while Kirby has had twelve long years to process the trauma of 2011. Despite the passage of time, both women are left with the same unanswerable questions: What was going through Jill and Amber's minds as they plotted their deadly schemes? Why did they choose to betray their closest friends? Unfortunately, these are questions that will forever remain a mystery—or so Kirby believed. 

Kirby's perspective shifted dramatically when a bizarre accident during an assignment sent her hurtling back in time to 2011. One moment she was completing a task for her boss; the next, she found herself reliving the past in vivid detail. At first, Kirby thought she had died and entered some surreal afterlife. Panic set in as she realized she was truly back in time, but once the shock wore off, she resolved to handle the situation as best as she could. Seeing familiar faces of those who had died—alive and well—was an overwhelming experience, but Kirby knew she had a unique opportunity in front of her. 

Determined to make the most of this second chance, Kirby scrutinized every word Jill and Charlie said, searching for hidden meanings she might have missed the first time around. Her unease grew when she discovered that Sidney, Gale, and Dewey had also been sent back in 2011. The trio, the legendary survivors of multiple Ghostface massacres, were eager to gather evidence against Jill and Charlie to prevent the 2011 killings from ever happening. However, Kirby managed to convince them to hold off, proposing a risky plan of her own. She vowed to stop at least one of them from carrying out their deadly plan, without altering too much of the timeline. 

Against all odds, Kirby succeeded in persuading Jill to abandon her murderous intentions. Although Charlie went ahead with the attacks on his own, his solo attempt failed miserably. When Charlie tried to kill Kirby, Jill intervened, unleashing a terrifying fury as she beat him repeatedly with a baseball bat she had taken from Trevor. The sight of Jill drenched in blood with a wild, unhinged look in her eyes was enough to chill Kirby to the bone. In that moment, Kirby made a pivotal decision—she would keep Jill close, watching over her to ensure she didn't slip back into the darkness that had consumed her in the original timeline. 

Now, back in the present, Kirby realizes that her actions have altered the course of history. Jill is no longer Ghostface, and the timeline has been irrevocably changed. By preventing Jill from descending into madness, Kirby has inadvertently created a whole new reality, one where the past has been rewritten, and the future is uncertain. 

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Tara found herself haunted by the events surrounding Amber's betrayal. The questions she had always wanted answers to now seemed permanently out of reach, severed by the irreversible act of pulling the trigger. In those moments of regret, Tara couldn't help but think that if only she had aimed lower, she might still have a chance to uncover the truth. Killing Amber had not only taken her life but had also destroyed any hope Tara had of understanding what drove Amber to such madness. 

This sense of loss gnawed at Tara, rooted in a deep, inexplicable connection she felt to the past. It was as if a part of her had always been tethered to something beyond her understanding, a lingering bond that pulled at her heart. Though she knew the chances of ever uncovering Amber's motives were slim, that connection to the past remained a constant, painful reminder of the truth she had lost. 

The Core 4 had pieced together some of the mystery when Kirby shared her story, recounting the events from a timeline where Jill was Ghostface. It had been eerie yet validating when Gale and Sidney, via phone, confirmed this alternate reality, one where the nightmare had played out differently. Meanwhile, Jill, who was privy to this strange truth, lingered in the background, her knowledge of a timeline where she wore the Ghostface mask both unsettling and enigmatic. 

Tara often found herself yearning for a similar opportunity—to turn back time and prevent Amber from ever going down that dark path. In her mind, she imagined an alternate version of Amber, one who never tried to kill her, a version that was still alive and untouched by madness. This thought brought her some solace, even as the pain of Amber's loss persisted. Whether this wish would ever come true was something Tara couldn't know, but the longing for it, the desire to rewrite the past and reclaim the friend she had lost, was a feeling she couldn't shake. 

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A/N: The prologue, and set up to this story. I should have touched the time travel AU sooner, but I am now. Please enjoy this Time Travel AU, it's also a variant of a rewrite of Scream 5. I will make a Scream 5 rewrite sometime after this is finished, hopefully, I won't lose the motivation to continue this. My motivation has been low for a few days recently, so I'm pushing my mental health to get this out since I do want to write this story. 

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