chapter seven
the grab&bag ending

HOLLAND WATCHED SIMON bottles of pills from the pharmacy section of Grab&Bag, the store he worked at. "A few months ago, my brother Timothy had an unfortunate experience in which he ingested too much of a certain substance." He dropped everything on the counter. "He was dead for two minutes. But. . . drumroll, Holly." Holland sighed and drumrolled against the counter. "We got him back!"

"Kate," Deena spoke, earning the girl's attention. "It's time for your close-up."

The girl nodded and took a deep breath before beginning to pile the pills while Simon explained. "You need to take these in order. Pile one takes the edge off. You're gonna feel like you're being fucked by a unicorn." Kate poured out more pills. "Pile two is gonna bring your core temp way down. You may feel slightly sick. Now, you need to take a five-minute interval between pile two and pile three. That's really important, okay? Pile three is what brings you down and out, so you gotta take that take five or else it's all gonna go to shit!"

Kate pulled out EpiPens. "How many of these do we have?"

"Tons," Simon answered. "Like a thousand."

Deena's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Wait, EpiPens?"

"Epinephrine, also known as adrenaline," Simon handed the girls the EpiPens. "This is what brings her back! This is Jesus!"

They all lined up so they could be used as bait to distract the killers. Sam sliced her palm open again and dipped two fingers in the blood, marking X's on Kate, Simon, and Holland's chest.

Sam grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her hand. "You guys remember half an hour ago when you wanted to murder me." She chuckled dryly. "You don't have to do this. You can leave."

"Remember when you decided to sacrifice yourself for us?" Kate questioned lightly. "We're ending this together."

Simon placed a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Die well, my friend." He gave Sam a small smile and turned to Josh. "You got back door patrol." Before walking away, he faced Holland again.

She gripped his face. "Don't die on me, Dipshit. I need you to stay fucking alive."

"When this is all over and our lives go back to normal, I'm taking you out on a date," Simon whispered, pressing his lips against hers.

She couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her face. A lot had changed in a single night. She and Simon went from being complicated to basically dating. "That's sounds amazing."

○●○

HOLLAND WALKED THROUGH the store aisles. She'd gotten a knife from the kitchen supplies area and held it by her side. Even though she knew the murderers were dead and she couldn't kill them, it made her feel slightly more safe.

"Come get me, motherfucker," she whispered mainly to herself. "I'm gonna kill your axe-wielding ass."

She swallowed at the loud bang that sounded and hoped that it was one of her friends dropping something. She turned into the next aisle, which was the coolers that led to the fruits and vegetables.

"Go! She's right behind me!" Simon shouted. She immediately started running. The aisle seemed like it lasted forever. She finally made it to the end, sliding out as her body turned to see the Camp Nightwing Killer creep towards Simon.

"Not my boyfriend, you motherfucker!" she screamed, running forward. She stabbed the man in the neck with her knife, giving Simon the second he needed to move.

Black blood oozed out of Camp Nightwing's broken skin, getting all over her hand. Holland took the knife out, not wasting a second before grabbing Simon's hand with her blood-free one and bolting away.

Holland's eyes caught sight of Kate's body on the metal table where the bread cutter was. Her eyes widened in horror but nothing came out of her mouth. It was actually happening. Sure, she'd seen the dead bodies at the hospital but to have one of her friends, someone she'd known her entire life, laying on a table with half of their brain on the floor made it a whole lot more fucking real.

Simon, Holland, and Josh ran as fast as they could. Their hearts were pounding and they were panting. Everything felt so unreal at the moment. Were they really running from a bunch of dead murderers?

Holland hoped that this was all a really bad dream. She'd wake up tomorrow in her bed, go out to the kitchen to get her glass of orange juice, and turn on the TV. Her mom would walk into the house a few minutes later with the daily newspaper, say good morning to Holland, and then sit down to read it.

Holland would then go to school to see Kate alive and healthy with Simon who was laughing at God knows what. She'd see Deena, still moody and blue.

Everything would be just fine.

"They're cornering us!" Simon yelled, his grip on Holland's hand tightening. Holland looked around. Skull Mask, Camp Nightwing, and Ruby Lane were in fact cornering them, each coming from different directions.

Holland took a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut. She was about to be taken out by the same fucker who killed her sister sixteen years ago. Holland could've sworn she heard a voice she didn't recognize whisper it's going to be okay.

It felt familiar, however. Soft and gentle and welcoming. A part of Holland knew it was stupid and probably just her trying to reassure herself she was going to be fine, but Holland thought it was Cheryl Watson.

Holland, Simon, and Josh waited a while for their fate to come. She then realized that Ruby's singing had stopped and so had the stomping of the killers' footsteps. She slowly opened her eyes and realized that the murderers were gone.

"Simon," she breathed out, tapping his chest. "It's over, guys. It's over. It's fucking over."

Holland examined the store as Simon and Josh came to the same realization.

Sam was dead.

Immediately, Josh took off to grab the EpiPens for Deena, who was screaming for help. As much as she knew she should be there for her friend, Holland turned to Simon.

Something was missing.

Someone was missing.

They were alive but Kate wasn't.

Tears began falling from Holland's eyes. Simon pulled her into him, pressing soft kisses to her head as his own tears rolled down his cheeks.

"She's dead," Holland cried. "She's dead."

"It's over now," Simon muttered, rubbing her back.

"Kate's dead, Simon," she sobbed. "She's fucking dead and we can't do anything. We can't bring her back because half of her fucking brain is on the floor!"

"I know," he whispered. "We need to go to Deena, Holly. We need to save Sam."

Holland agreed with a sniffle. She and Simon headed towards Deena, Sam, and Josh. Deena was frantically pushing each EpiPen Josh had grabbed into Sam's lifeless body.

"Are you doing it right?" Josh questioned, watching as nothing happened to Sam.

"I don't know," Deena answered. "I don't know." She stabbed a few more pens into Sam.

"I don't think it's working," Josh commented, voice quivering.

"Try CPR," Holland croaked out. "That's how that Berman lady was saved, right?"

"Yeah," Josh nodded frantically. "Yeah, it was."

"Deena, do CPR," Simon instructed.

"Okay," the girl gasped, doing as told. She pressed down on Sam's chest rhythmically. "Come on! Come on! Come on!" She put her lips to Sam's, blowing before returning to her chest.

Holland fell to her knees, listening to Deena try to save Sam. She used two fingers from her left hand to make a cross and pressed them to her lips before motioning them to Sam.

Swallowing, she turned to Kate's body and repeated the action. Tears fell again as she bit the inside of her cheek harshly.

All of a sudden, Sam started puking up water. She sat up, spitting it out. Holland let out a relieved breath, falling back on Simon's legs as Deena pulled Sam into her.

It was finally over.

𝒎𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒍 !!
i literally haven't watched the fear street movies since i finished writing this book and seeing simon's and kate's deaths again kinda hurt ngl