Alive >> Jake Fitzgerald << Scream

Nine.

Oh my god I just finished reading another Jake story called stuck with him and im crying my eyes out smh

"It's not real, I mean it can't be real."

"Lydia, Nina's dead. That's all the proof we need." Emma mumbled

"Alright guys, you know the drill, phones down."

My eyes flickered across the classroom of teens before they landed on Brooke's small figure beside me. Her eyes were trained down onto the desk, as if it was the most important thing in the world but that was when I realised she wasn't staring down at the desk itself, she was staring at something placed infront of her.

Her phone sat infront of her, replaying the gif of Nina over and over again. Almost as if it was on an eternal loop.

"It's okay." I half smiled, sliding my hand across the desk as I took Brooke's phone, turning it off, "I'm not gonna let the killer hurt you."

"I'm not worried about them hurting me..." the blonde girl sighed, "They called you Lydia, not me..." she paused, "I'm worried about them hurting you."

"But the Brandon James gif put us on the map Mr B!" Jake called out from behind the two of us, putting Brooke and I's conversation to a stop, "I mean, we've got like seven of the top ten trending hashtags right now."

"Maybe you should focus more on your studies and less on Lakewood web buzz?"

"Who can resist a murder selfie?"

"Which is what the killer is counting on."

The whole class eagerly spun around to listen to Noah, he was the guy with all of the theories, he'd probably be a great detective, but instead he ran his own podcast called 'The Morgue'.

Go figure.

Something else about Noah was that it felt like we were almost becoming friends, we'd been talking to one another a lot more since the lake incident, it was almost as if our near death experience or maybe even a brush with the killer brought us closer together. He was on my side.

"Alright Will Graham, what is this killers design?" Mr Branson said, leaning back against his desk.

"Well, murder's a lonely game, you know? I mean, say you're the killer, okay. You sneak into Nina's house, you skulk around and scare her and then you kill her. Boom!" Noah's voice echoed across the room, "But then what? You take a victory lap around the pool? You just stand there watching the blood spread out in the water, thinking your crazy guy thoughts."

"Creepy monologue alert." Brooke rolled her eyes

"So maybe it's no good if hes the only one watching?" Riley nodded

"Exactly, yeah!" Noah glanced to her, "It's the age of Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. We need to share the things we do, or its like it never even happened."

"You know what I think?" I spoke up, everybody's eyes fell on me, "The killer's trying to taunt us, to show us that by posting that gif... Their reign of terror is just beginning."

"Riley! Phones off."

"Sorry Mr B, but my friend from St Mary's texted... a girl that goes there died."

"Who was it?" Brooke asked

"How'd it happen?" Jake questioned

"It doesn't say."

Everyone briefly paused for a moment, thinking over the information that had been given to them, and I knew in that small moment that we were all thinking the same thing; Was it the killer?

"I'm sorry to hear that Riley... Uh, why don't we go back to-" Mr Branson stumbled over his words

"I-Uh... I have to go to the bathroom!" Audrey threw her chair back abruptly, running out of the classroom as everyone's eyes followed her.

That was the moment all of the pieces fell into place.

I'd heard Audrey talk about the video with Noah before, I'd only ever eavesdropped to make sure she was okay because unlike all of my other friends I actually felt bad about what happened, these were the three things I knew. 1) Audrey's girlfriend was called Rachel. 2) Rachel went to St Mary's. 3) Rachel was dead.

"Oh god!" I stood up, about to go after her, but Emma beat me to it.

I silently stood infront of my desk, not knowing what to say or do, whether to go after her or to stand there with my mouth open like a goldfish. I froze.

A hand grabbed ahold of my harm, pulling me out of my stupor, "Lydia, it's okay. Emma's got it."

I slowly sank back down into my desk, letting my hand fall into Jake's, being the arm which had grabbed me, as I stared back at him.

"Audrey's girlfriend is dead..." I mumbled, turning away from him, as I more or less began to talk to myself, "And it's all our fault."

"Actually, let's- let's all take a minute."

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"Em and I, we're gonna talk stuff over, you know, about Rachel? You wanna come with?"

I let out a heavy sigh, grabbing the few belongings of mine that I needed before stuffing them into my backpack, using the locker door as some kind of shield so Brooke wouldn't see the guilty look on my face at the mention of Rachel.

"No, I think I'm just gonna catch a ride home."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." I nodded, pulling the straps of bag up over my shoulders.

"Look, Lydia." Brooke placed a hand on my shoulder, "None of this is your fault. You didn't record that video and I'm sure as hell you didn't send it. You have nothing to feel guilty over."

"But i do feel guilty!" I groaned, "When the killer called me, t-they told me to keep an eye on Jake because it would be a shame to see another Lakewood teen die, b-but what if protecting Jake was a distraction when I really should've been protecting Rachel?"

"You didn't even know Rachel, Lydia." She spoke reassuringly, "Jake needs you, okay? You need to look out for each other, it's obvious by talking about Jake the killer wants something with him, and by calling you they're trying to get to you too."

"You're right... but I don't feel any less guilty about Rachel."

"I know."