IF LOOKS COULD KILL
xviii. Killer instinct

scream vi,
chapter eighteen

TW: suicidal thought !
✸

          Ethan Landry believed he and Starr were somewhat alike, two people trying to avenge their brother's death. People saw him as insane, but he only saw himself as the product of death, the leftovers of a destructive world taking another piece of his heart.

Ethan thought he was dead, but when he'd woken up only to be staring up at the theatre ceiling, he knew he still had the chance to kill all three girls.

Tara had disappeared, along with Sam and Starr. He'd gotten up to his feet, seeing his father laying limp on glass. "Dad," Ethan shakes him up, making him groan.

Detective Bailey opens his eyes, feeling a throbbing pain run through his body. "Where are they?" He yells, "Where are they?!"

"I don't know—I don't know." Ethan helps him to his feet.

Detective Bailey takes out his gun, "They're in here somewhere, go look behind podiums."

Ethan obeys, "Yes, sir."

Detective clenched his teeth at the fight the girls were putting up, why can't they just accept their deaths like they deserve?

His thoughts stop racing when he hears his phone buzzing in his back pocket.

Ethan also feels his phone buzzing, he grabs it out of his pocket, seeing the name Chad Meeks-Martin in the ID caller. "What the hell?" He frowns

He answers, "I know it's you, Starr." Was the first thing he says.

"I'm glad," he can imagine her grinning on the other end of the line, "I want you to know me, I want you to hear me."

Ethan looks back at his father, who seems to also be receiving a call, "You think you're scaring me?" He laughs, "You think you're just this scary little monster?"

"I'm not a monster, like you...monsters die, Ethan. They always do."

"Not in my movie." Ethan croaks.

"Well, this is my movie, my ending," Starr giggles, "I'm the Star of the show, not you."

"How about you come out from hiding so I can kill you." Ethan looks around, not seeing any sign of Starr. "I'll show you who the real Star is."

He hears her sigh on the other end.

"Fine." She caves in, "You can be the star of the show, Ethan Landry. We will teach you what kind of Star you are."

Ethan felt his blood run cold, looking over to the mannequins to see both Billy Loomis and Amber Freeman's coats missing, "we?"

Two blades entered Ethan's back at the same exact time, his eyes widen in terror as he screams, "Dad! Help me!"

The detective turns around, seeing his last son get stabbed repeatedly by two people in a Ghostface masks.

The blade moved all across his body, not a single area untouched by the knife. Ethan felt his eyes tear, he tried crying out, but Sam sent a blade straight through his throat, cutting off his vocal cords.

Starr took off the Ghostface mask, a devilish smile spreading on her lips. "Welcome to your ending, Star of the show." She nags before wrapping her hand around his throat, sending the knife straight into his ear and letting the sharp tip come out of the other.

Sam takes off her father's mask, stepping back so Starr could finish him off.

She grimaces as she pulls the knife out of his ear before sending it straight down into the middle of his skull.

Ethan's body went into complete shock, eyes still open, and he falls to the floor.

Starr retrieves her knife from his head.

Detective Bailey was shocked at what he was seeing, both Sam and Starr had their backs turned to him, but when they both turned, Sam and Starr swiped their knives simultaneously, eyes dead set on him.

The detective felt his gun shake in his hand at the rage radiating off of both women. He raises his gun.

Tara Carpenter came up behind him, sending a brick to the back of his skull, making the Gun escape from his grasp. Tara kicks the gun away.

"All yours," Starr says to Sam.

Sam takes her time to walk over to Detective Bailey, but when she gets there, her knife comes ramming down on him. Stab after stab, through his arms to his chest, stomach, and throat.

Sam was relentless. His screams only motivated her to keep going.

When she finally stops, she looks him dead in the eyes, beads of sweat dripping from her forehead. "My father was a murderer...no matter what you think, I'm better than that."

Detective Bailey was on his knees, "Thank you—thank you." He chokes, his hands trying to suppress the blood leaving his throat.

Starr, Tara, and Sam look at each other. Sharing the same thought.

Ghostface always comes back. Starr thinks.

"Damn right, they do." Amber Freeman steps up next to Starr. "Don't let this mistake be the reason you lose more of the people you care about, Starr."

Starr wasn't even shocked by Amber's presents, more so, relieved.

Amber is the only person who knew what Starr was thinking, and how she felt. Amber is the only person who can comfort her.

Sam turns back to Detective Bailey, a smirk twitching on the corner of her lips, "But you did fuck with my family, so." She stabs the knife directly through his eye, making him cry out.

He falls to the floor, his body twitches before he finally stops moving.

The three stand there in silence.

"Nice." Tara compliments.

Sam thanks her.

"It's done..." Starr mumbles. "I'm done." She should be feeling like an elephant lifted from her chest, but instead, she felt like one just sat on it.

For the last day, she'd been so busy catching Ghostface and killing him, she wasn't thinking about now.

What now?

It's over, her task is complete. What does she do now? Live life without her brother?

Starr didn't want to.

Tara rubs Starr's shoulder when she sees tears form in her eyes. "We got you."

Starr looks up, seeing a smile on both of the Carpenter's faces. She nods, "That's good, because uh—I think I'm about to—"

Starr falls into Tara's arms.

✸

          Starr felt her body moving, maybe it was an out-of-body experience or she was simply dead. "Am I dead?" Starr croaks as her eyes hit the silver roofing of a vehicle.

"No, not dead. Thank god." Arden scoots up in her seat, examining Starr's body in the hospital bed.

Starr was able to lift her head just a little to see a window in the back of her. She was in the ambulance.

She sees Sam and Tara as well. "Chad's alive and so is Mindy," Sam informs her.

"That's good." Starr bites on her drip and chapped lips, "I would jump in joy, but I might kill myself doing that." She mumbles, laying her head back down.

"I talked to my parents...I told them everything." Arden tells her friends.

"What'd they say?" Tara frowns.

"They said I could come back to Woodsboro." Arden tells them, "I could finish college and get my degree while they help take care of the baby."

"So, you're going back?" Starr tries not to sound hurt, but she was.

Arden's eyes softened, "Yeah, and you can always come and visit if you'd like. I'll be going to the nearest college so it's easy for me to travel home and back."

"Wow," Amber chuckles, "first your mother leaves, then your father, then me, then your brother, and now Arden. Talk about abandonment issues."

Ignoring Amber, Starr smiles, "I'd like that."

✸

Starr Kimens was told at the hospital that day, that the deep stab wound that Ethan Landry had made to her back was inches away from her spine and could've left her paralyzed for the rest of her life, or worse.

When she heard this, she felt guilty. Guilty because she felt doleful for not being killed. She tried ignoring the voice in the back of her head, it was loud whispers saying she deserved to die.

Starr looks around her dorm room, she was packing her things and some of Arden's while she was out getting a check-up on the baby.

The air was stifled, at least it felt like it to Starr.

She sat down on her bed, Naproxen pill bottle in hand.

When it came to ways Starr imagined herself being killed, it was always the image of a Ghostface stabbing her to death, or slitting her throat. Something gruesome that would be done at the hands of someone else.

Starr never imagined dying by her own hands until now.

Starr knew it was cowardly, she knew it would hurt the people around her, but she's never felt so empty in her entire life.

Her hands were shaking, she couldn't keep the blurry tears out of her eyes.

Her fingers touch the cap of the pill.

Knock knock

Starr flinches at the sound of someone at her door, causing her to hurriedly wipe her tears and stuff the bottle of pills into a box she was in the middle of packing.

"Hope I'm not interrupting, just came to check on you." Mindy smiles as she closed the door behind her. "How's packing going?"

Starr huffs, her eyes glazing with exhaustion. "Pretty tiring actually." She tries to smile.

Mindy nods in agreement, "If we keep moving every five minutes, I might lose my mind." She chuckles, taking a seat next to Starr on the bed. Their knees touching.

"You okay?" Starr decides to ask, her voice fixed in a mumble.

Mindy tries nodding, but you could see straight through her facade. She ends up shaking her head side to side, "No...you?"

"No." Starr hears her breath stagger.

Mindy pulls her lips in, "You know...before Everything happened, Anika told me that I wasn't exactly in love with her."

Start frowns, her eyes concentrating on Mindy. "Why would she say that."

Mindy brings her hands in front of her, "Because of you."

"Me?—why me?" Starr questions.

"She said I looked at you, the way that I should look at her and I never understood what she meant by that," Mindy felt a wetness trial down her face, she wipes her tears, "Not until I finally did."

Starr's eyes softened, sensing what was coming next, "Don't—please, don't. I can't—I just can't."

Mindy stays quiet. Nodding.

"I envied Anika, Mindy. She had you and you are all I've ever wanted," Starr admits, "but the way I feel right now...I have never felt so alone in my life. I can't drag you into that."

"You're not alone, Starr," Mindy corrects her, "you have me and your friends."

"I'm glad that I do, I am," Starr utters, a sad smile appearing on her lips, "but when I look at you and Chad or Sam and Tara, all I can think about is Arlo and everything else that I've lost."

Starr sees the way Mindy's eyes gloss over. "I love you" Starr expresses, "I love you." She repeats.

Mindy smiles, "I love you too...and I'll let you deal with everything that you need to deal with...I'll wait for you, Starr Kimens."

Mindy places a soft kiss on Starr's cheek, before leaving Starr in the dorm room.

˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡ใƷ ♥●•٠·˙

word count: 1894

SIREDNOTES !—
I feel so much for Starr!