The Movie Writes Real Life

What are the rules?

Lindsey locked her living room door and dried her eyes. It had been hours since she'd found two of her best friends dead. After the call from Ghostface, she'd called 911 right away. Her and Mark had been taken to the police station and questioned. Mark's parents had come and taken him home, leaving her alone. One of the deputies was going to call her parents but she pleaded with him not to. She was legally aloud to be home alone and she refused to interrupt her father's dream vacation. She could cope on her own.

Her house was dark and quiet and while Lindsey rarely found anything scary, she couldn't help but be creeped out. Her throat was dry and her eyes were stained from tears. She didn't think she'd ever be able to unsee the horrors of that night. She went into the kitchen to get a drink of water and stopped dead in her tracks when her phone vibrated.

The police had found Carly's phone smashed to bits, about a block from Dana's house, but the killer would most likely just use another phone. They told her that if she got any calls from the killer again she should call the police station and let them trace the calls. She got the courage to pull out her phone and check who it was. She relaxed a little when she saw that it was just her friend Eric.

"What?" She answered impatiently.

"I heard about what happened tonight, are you okay?" His voice sounded frantic and caring. She hated it.

"How did you hear about it?" She asked. It had only been a couple hours and it was too late for it to be on the news.

"Danny Glenn lives down the street from Dana and he hasn't shut up about it on Facebook," He responded.

"That's incredibly insensitive," Lindsey muttered. Her and Dana used to be friends with Danny until they went to different schools. Sure they hadn't talked in a couple years, but that didn't give him the right to be so heartless.

"Really Linds, are you okay? Is Mark still with you?" Eric prodded. Lindsey was touched by his concern, but she didn't feel like talking to him at the moment.

"I'm fine. Mark went home, but I'm fine," She repeated it so he would understand, "Look, I need to sleep. If you're still worried, call me tomorrow."

"Okay," He said and hung up. She felt bad for being slightly rude to him, but right now wasn't the best time for a chat. She curled up on the couch, without changing or turning off any lights. She fell asleep, plagued by dreams of a killer.

                                                         ****

Monday at school, everyone stared at her. From class to class she couldn't ignore the whispering behind her back. Fifth hour was the worst because that was the class she usually saw Carly in. By lunch, Lindsey just couldn't wait for the day to be over.

She grabbed her bag lunch from her locker and headed towards the cafeteria. On her way there she saw Mark's girlfriend Jessica. They ran into each others arms, ignoring the muttering and angry glances from other cafeteria goers.

"I can't believe this," Jessica said. Lindsey nodded in agreement. They headed towards their lunch table where Eric and Mark were sitting silently. It was obvious the death of their friends was eating at them. Jessica grabbed marks arm and he kissed her head.

"How are you doing?" She asked. He shrugged.

"That good, huh?" Eric said. I sighed and he opened his mouth to say something else. Before he could, Sara and Jonah sat down with their lunch trays.

"Okay, what the hell?" Sara said, "I'm sorry if this is the wrong time, but we really need to talk about this. Who's running around imitating Scream? And why on earth are they going after our friends?"

"Gee, you're right Sara, this is the wrong time," Jessica said.

"She has a point. I mean, Scream is the worst horror movie to copy. It's meta crap," Jonah said.

"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me. Isn't it obvious why someone would pick Scream? The killers in the those movies are always human. Good luck trying to imitate Freddy or Jason," Mitch said.

"Jonah, insult Scream again and I will cut you. We've had this discussion before and you can't come up with a legitimate reason the movies aren't good," Lindsey said. There were sighs and eye rolls from around the table.

"It ruined horror! All the self aware bullshit prevented horror movies from taking themselves seriously " Jonah exclaimed.

"Horror wasn't being taken seriously anymore. It was time for a change," She scowled. He shook his head.

"Oh god, what kind of horror fan are you anyways? Torture porn? Japanese horror? Have you seen every "haunting" movie there is? Would you go to a midnight opening of "The Paranormal Witch Haunting Ghosty"? How many remakes have you paid ten bucks to see? Do you even have the balls to enjoy a real slasher?" Lindsey said.

"I'm an 80's slasher fan. Ya know, back when they were good," Jonah snapped back.

"Slap slap kiss," Sara sang. Lindsey shot her a look of annoyance.

"Look, I really don't know what this has to do with the murders," Mark said.

"If the murderer is trying to copy Scream, then maybe the rules change," Jonah explained. Lindsey's head snapped up from her lunch and she looked at everyone expectantly.

"We all know the rules to surviving a horror movie, right?" Lindsey asked. Everyone but Jonah shook their heads. "Oh how am I friends with any of you? Well pretty much, don't have sex, drink, do drugs, or say 'I'll be right back'."

"But in modern day the rules have bended, haven't they?" Sara asked. Jonah shook his head.

"Not if this is a traditional slasher. If it is, it will always follow those rules," He said.

"But that's the thing... Does it follow the traditional slasher rules? This is like The Twilight Zone," Lindsey said.

"We'll just have to hope it does," Jonah said.