chapter eight
july 19th, 1978

CINDY NODDED AND ran off, probably to get tools. When she got back, she met the other three girls near the Mess Hall door. She handed Ziggy and Cheryl small gardening shovels while she took the big one. "Okay, let's go."

Alice waited for hers and frowned when she realized she hadn't gotten one. "What, I have to use my hands?" she questioned, the corners of her lips twitching up slightly.

"No," Cindy answered. "You're staying here."

"Come on," Alice protested. "I can hop just fine." To prove her point, she hopped closer to the door and turned back around.

Cindy tilted her head, shooting her a look. Cheryl got closer to Ziggy and slipped her hand in the redhead's. She felt safer that way. It was reassuring to know that Ziggy was right beside her.

"Alice. . ." Cheryl started slowly, looking at her and Ziggy's connected hands before looking at Alice. "I think Cindy's right. No offense, but you'd kind of only be slowing us down."

Alice's small smile fell. "I watched my dad go to jail when I was six. I watched my mom steal so I could eat. First time I cut myself, I was 12. It was after. . ." She turned her head to Cindy. "Well, you know when. And now tonight, I watched your perfect boyfriend turn into a monster and kill the only person I've ever loved. . . I've waited my whole fucking life for this. And now I've found it. Let me see this through. For Arnie. . . for Tommy. . . for Shadyside."

Cindy reluctantly nodded. "For Shadyside."

"For Shadyside," Cheryl and Ziggy agreed simultaneously, sharing a small look. While Ziggy turned back to her sister, Cheryl kept her attention on the redheaded girl.

"Alice!" Cindy screamed, making Cheryl snap her gaze towards the girl. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Tommy was creeping up behind Alice. The girl turned just as Tommy raised his axe and lowered it, slicing her chest. Cheryl gasped, watching Alice fall to the floor. Blood oozed from her mouth and the wound.

Cindy roared in anger and bolted forward, smacking Tommy right across the face with her shovel. He staggered slightly but quickly stood back up, not caring about his discarded axe.

Cindy put her shovel up to his throat and pushed him against the wall. "Fucking die!" she yelled, shoving the shovel farther into his throat. "Why won't you fucking die?"

Finally, at the last push, Tommy's head came off. His body fell back to the floor with another thud and his head rolled away. This time, the contents of Cheryl's stomach escaped and landed directly on the floor, along with her shovel.

"No!" Cindy fell to the floor, next to the barely alive Alice. "Alice? Alice? Alice, just. . . just stay with me. Alice." Alice's strangled breathing ended, making Cindy sob. "No! Alice! Alice!"

"You always hurt the one you love," Cheryl vaguely heard in the distance. She wiped her mouth to clean away the remainder of the vomit and stood up.

"What is that?" Ziggy asked in a whisper.

"Someone's singing," Cheryl furrowed her brows. "Who the fuck is singing?" She stood on her tiptoes, acting like it would help her see better. "Who's there?"

Ziggy gripped Cheryl's hand again as she exchanged a look with her sister. Slowly, the three girls began walking towards the sound. A hand reached out of the hole Alice had came from.

"Run! Run!" Cindy exclaimed, and they did. They rushed out of the area. Ziggy and Cheryl let go of each other's hands.

Ziggy bent down to pick up the big shovel while Cheryl went to grab her small one.

Cheryl turned at the sound of Ziggy's screaming. Her eyes widened. Somehow. . . Tommy's hand had gripped onto Ziggy's leg. Cindy ran over, pulling her sister away from the hand before they ran out of the Mess Hall and headed straight for the Hanging Tree.

"There it is," Cindy shouted. "Go! Go!"

When they got to the tree, Cheryl fell to her knees and immediately began digging, throwing dirt over her shoulder.

"Guys. . ." Ziggy whispered. Cheryl and Cindy both looked up and followed her gaze. A child was walking up to them, holding a baseball bat.

"Just keep digging," Cindy instructed, keeping her eyes locked on their surroundings. Cheryl looked up, her stomach churning once more at the fact that they were being surrounded. "Faster."

Still, they kept digging until Ziggy's shovel hit something. "I hit something," she announced, falling to her knees.

"The witch forever lives," Cheryl read from the rock as soon as soon as she dusted it off. "Well, that answers every single question I have."

"Cindy, what does it mean?" Ziggy wondered frantically. "Cindy?"

"I don't know," the older girl mumbled.

"Where is she?" Ziggy went on. "Where's the body?"

"I don't know!" Cindy stuttered, eyes glossing over with tears. She glanced back at everyone who was surrounding them. She grabbed Ziggy's arm and motioned for them all to stand up. "This way. Come on!"

They went to run but quickly stopped when they saw Tommy - with his head back on - running at them. Everywhere Cheryl looked, there was someone there. She felt dizzy as she whipped her head around.

"What do you want, Sarah Fier?" Cindy hollered, bending down and grabbing the hand. "You want this? You can have it! Just let my sister live! Just let my sister live!" She dropped the hand and grabbed the big shovel again. "You bled in the bone." Cindy faced Ziggy. "They're after you. Get ready to run."

"No, Cindy, no," Ziggy argued as Cindy grabbed her arm and ran off, Cheryl following behind them. Cindy pushed Ziggy to the side, slapping Tommy in the face with her shovel. Tommy quickly retaliated, hitting her with his axe and knocking her to the floor.

Ziggy ended up running right into one of the murderer's arms. Cheryl screamed. No Ziggy. Anyone but Ziggy. Before Cheryl could run over to her girlfriend, arms wrapped around her and she found herself on the floor with a girl on top of her.

Cheryl recognized the girl, having seen her face many times in the newspaper before when she was younger.

The girl on top of her was Ruby Lane, Nurse Lane's daughter.

Cheryl knew that, by now, both Cindy and Ziggy were probably barely clinging to life. They were most likely slipping off into whatever happens after death. She didn't fight Ruby off, knowing it was useless if Ziggy was dead. She quietly said sorry to her mother and Holland as she accepted her fate.

Ruby raised her razor blade to Cheryl's neck and cut. Cheryl choked and opened her mouth, blood spilling out. Ruby didn't stop there, however, she grabbed Cheryl's wrists and slashed them.

Cheryl didn't get the chance to watch the girl she loved die. Her eyes fluttered closed as one final breath escaped her lips. She slipped away into a newly found silent night when the murderers all disappeared with Ziggy's final breath.

It was almost peaceful, except she hadn't died a peaceful death.

Cheryl Watson had died at 16 years old in pain.

She hadn't got to be there for her mother, who was now on her way to the hospital, attempting to reach anyone who could get her to her daughter so she could inform her that her little sibling was about to be born, completely oblivious to the fact that her daughter was now dead and she would receive a police officer in her hospital room at 3 PM the next day.

○●○

"THAT WAS JULY 19th, 1978," Ziggy sucked in a deep breath. "5,937 days ago. My sister was dead, the love of my life was dead. . . and so was I. And most days. . . I wish I'd stayed dead."

"Holy shit!" Simon exclaimed, pointing towards Holland. "That's the day before your birthday."

Holland wiped her tears away. "Yeah," she croaked out. "That's the day before my birthday."

She'd heard stories about her sister her entire life, to the point where she'd even started to resent the girl for a bit. She'd always felt like an outsider because she'd never known Cheryl Watson.

"Wait. . ." Josh seemed to be calculating something as he slowly looked up. "Wait. . . you're Ziggy?"

"Cindy. . . my sister, she sacrificed herself for nothing," Ziggy focused on not crying. "I told everyone the story of how she and Cherry died, the story I just told you. And no one believed me."

"What about Nick?" Simon inquired, allowing Holland to bury her head in his chest. She looked like a mess - a gorgeous fucking mess, in his opinion.

"I thought he was different," Ziggy replied. "I thought he would believe me. But Nick had a destiny in this town. And you don't become sheriff talking about ghost stories. I couldn't see him again, not after that. The witch. . . the town curse. . . for one night, Cindy and Cheryl believe that there was a way to end it, so I thought there was too. But now I know. . . there is no end."

They were left in a painful silence. Holland picked up her head but quickly laid it back down. Her head was throbbing. . . she'd just met her dead sister's girlfriend.

An alarm clock broke the silence and Ziggy rushed to turn it off. "Like I said." Ziggy continued as the four teenagers stood up. "Your best chance is to run from this place. Go as far as you can and hope a bus doesn't hit you on the way out."

"We found the body," Deena revealed when Ziggy moved to walk away. "Off Highway 5 in the woods between Shadyside and Sunnyvale."

"It's not possible," Ziggy dismissed.

"Oh, it's there," Josh nodded. "Trust us."

"It's all creepy and shit," Simon added as Holland lifted her head from his chest. "With the chains and the bones and stuff."

"That could be anyone," Ziggy disagreed, more so trying to convince herself than the teenagers standing in front of her.

"Not with a lock on the chains that has Fier engraved in it," Holland fought back.

"Some sick joke?" Ziggy shook her head.

"Why do you think our friend died?" Deena piped up. "For the same reason they killed Alice, your sister. . ." She glanced over at Holland. ". . . Cheryl. The killers came after us because we found something they didn't want us to find. And I wish to God that it never happened, but we found it. We found what you were looking for in '78. We found Sarah Fier. Look, please, we - Nurse Lane was right. We can end the curse by reuniting the hand with the body and we know where the body is so all we need is the hand. What happened to Camp Nightwing? Is the hand bone still there? Is it still buried underneath the hanging tree?"

Ziggy seemed to be debating on if she wanted to tell them or not. When Holland began losing all hope, the woman opened her mouth. "Camp Nightwing was tore down and turned into Shadyside Mall."

𝒎𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒍 !!