chapter five
tommy's the killer

A SCREAM INTERRUPTED her. Immediately, Nick was running off with Cheryl and Ziggy in tow. The three found where the sound was coming from and pushed past the pile of young kids.

Cheryl froze at the sight of Jeremy, a barely ten year old boy, dead on the floor. She felt sick to her.

Gary rushed everyone to the Mess Hall. Cheryl bit the inside of her cheek as she paced nervously. A killer was now on the loose at camp. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't escape the image of Jeremy and his bloody, cut-up body.

The lights went out, making kids scream. Cheryl's sucked a deep breath and told herself she was fine, knowing that she had to keep her fear under control to not panic the kids more.

"Everyone stay calm! Everything's alright!" Nick assured once he finished counting how many campers were now in the Mess Hall.

"How many?" Gary questioned.

"23," Nick replied.

Gary's eyes fluttered closed for a second. "That's 30 missing at least."

"Where's Cindy, Kurt, Joan?" Nick wondered as he headed over to the phone.

"I don't know," Gary answered. "I haven't seen them or - or Tommy or anyone." The lights slowly started to come back on. "Shit. Maybe they're looking for us."

Nick slammed the phone back in place with a scowl. "It's dead!"

"We have to go!" Ziggy stated, moving toward the exit. "We have to warn people!"

"I'm sure they heard the bell," Nick tried. Ziggy ignored him and continued forward. "Hey!" He blocked her path and wrapped his arms around her when she went to continue. "Hey-"

"My sister!" Ziggy argued, pushing herself away from him. She glanced back at Cheryl. "And Theo. They're still out there!"

Cheryl's heart dropped. She hadn't even thought about Theo. She walked forward and stopped next to Ziggy. "And Tommy," she added. "We need to go get them."

Nick huffed. "Me and Gary will go, okay?"

Gary turned around, pale. "What?"

"Just please stay here," Nick finished. Both girls went to open their mouths, but Nick shut them down quickly. "I'm not letting anyone get hurt. So please just let me do my job. I'm gonna find Cindy and Theodore, just stay here. You." Nick pointed for Gary to follow him. He grabbed a couple of flashlights. "You make for cabin one, I'll head to nine."

"What if the killer's still out there?"

"That's the whole point, Gary," Nick retorted, already heading towards the door with his flashlight shining.

"Hey, everybody!" Gary began, turning towards the campers momentarily. "Stay here! Okay? Okay." He turned back around and followed Nick.

All of a sudden, both Cheryl and Ziggy were being pushed against the wall, two girls from Sheila's group holding them there.

"Where is she, witch?" the one holding Ziggy demanded.

"Wh-"

"You kill her like you two killed Jeremy?" the other got closer to Cheryl's face. "Huh?"

"Who the fuck are you talking about?" Cheryl hissed, shoving the girl off of her.

"Sheila!" the same girl exclaimed.

"Where the fuck is Sheila?" the second one demanded.

Cheryl and Ziggy shared a look, their eyes widening in realization. "Shit." Ziggy pushed the girl away, grabbed Cheryl's hand, and dragged her out of the cabin.

"Nick!" the redhead hollered. "Nick, we forgot Sheila!"

Cheryl's head moved around frantically. She was hardly able to see anything in the dark. "Fuck!" She dragged Ziggy toward the outhouse. When they got there, Cheryl was relieved to see that the screwdriver was still wedged in the door. Quickly, she took it out and threw the door open, gagging at the bugs on the floor.

"Sheila?" Ziggy called out, moving past Cheryl. "Sheila, are you still in here?" While Ziggy stepped into the original stall Sheila had entered, Cheryl checked the first one to her right.

"You bitch!" she heard Sheila screech, followed by a pained scream from Ziggy. Cheryl rushed out of the stall and into the other one, finding Sheila with her hand gripping Ziggy's hair.

"There's a fucking killer on the loose!" Cheryl shouted, pushing Sheila off of Ziggy. She stepped in front of her girlfriend protectively. "You're lucky we even came and got you, otherwise you'd probably be dead!"

"Cunts!" Sheila apparently was not ready to cooperate. Her hand went flying, landing on Cheryl's cheek with a loud smack. Cheryl gasped and blinked in shock at the sharp pain. Before she even realized what she was doing, her fist made contact with Sheila's face.

Cheryl's eyes widened at Sheila's unconscious state, but Ziggy smirked. "Hot."

"I heard shouting, what's going on?" Ziggy jumped when Gary placed his hand on her shoulder. His gaze landed on Sheila. "What's going on in here?"

"Is everyone okay?" Ziggy asked.

"No! Everyone - everyone's headed back to the mess hall," Gary told them. "I jus - where's Nick?"

"Fuck if I know," Cheryl replied breathily, stepping away from Sheila's body. She looked at her girlfriend, noticing the weird look that had struck her face. "Zig? What's up?"

"Listen," Ziggy raised a finger to her lips.

Cheryl could barely make out the noise over how loud her heart was beating. Somebody was screaming, and it was coming from. . . the toilet?

Ziggy moved past Gary and into the stall across from them, where the screaming was coming from. She kneeled down and opened the lid, peeking her head down. The screaming became louder. "Cindy?"

"Cindy?" Cheryl repeated in confusion, entering the stall also.

"What are you doing down there?" Ziggy questioned while Cheryl tried her best to look.

"It's kind of a long story," Cindy loudly responded. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Ziggy replied, standing up as Cindy demanded to know if she was okay. She stepped onto the toilet and grabbed the rope and bucket they'd used earlier for Sheila.

"What is going on?" Gary inquired. Cheryl had a feeling he was more so asking himself than he was the campers.

"My sister's in the toilet," Ziggy sighed, pausing what she was doing to answer him.

"What?"

"Gary-" Cheryl shook her head. "We have no fucking clue why Cindy is in the goddamn toilet! Okay? So just shut the fuck up and help get her out, got it?"

"Okay," Gary squeaked, slightly scared of the usually calm girl. Cheryl and Gary both grabbed onto the rope while Ziggy lowered the rest to her sister, and Alice apparently.

"Now!" Ziggy instructed. They all began pulling. Cheryl grunted, her muscles already burning. She'd never lifted the weight of a full-grown person before. "Keep pulling!"

The door creaked open, making Cheryl and Gary both look over to see Tommy. Cheryl gasped at his appearance and her heartbeat picked up once more when she saw him raise the axe in his hands. He swung it, chopping Gary's head clean off. Ziggy and Cheryl screamed. While Tommy pulled his axe from the wood, Cheryl grabbed Ziggy's hand and quickly slipped past him, rushing out of the outhouse.

They ran through the forest. Cheryl gasped in breaths, both from the running and the panic she was feeling. She crashed right into someone and screamed in fear, fighting against the person to get free.

"Cherry, it's me!" the sound of Theo's voice immediately made her calm down. A sob slipped past her lips as she threw her arms around him. He was okay.

"Gary-" she cried out, clinging onto him like her life depended on it. In a way, it kind of did. "Tommy. . . Tommy's the killer. He just fucking chopped Gary's head off. I-"

"Come on," Theo cut her off, gripping her hand to pull her after Ziggy and Nick.

𝒎𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒍 !!
theo!!