❪ ﹟FIVE  ❫ ࿐ྂ
━━ THE MEEK-MARTIN'S / WOODSBORO LIBRARY !

RICHIE FOLLOWED SAM out of the door almost the second she was gone, leaving Carina, her friends, and Dewey sitting in the Meek-Martin's living room with no clue what to do next.

"Well," Amber sighs. The dark-haired girl stands from her spot in one of the chairs and claps her hands together. "That was just riveting! But I'm going home now," she deadpans. No one tries to stop her, and Dewey, Wes, and Liv all quickly rise from their spots as well.

Liv turns to Chad, "I've got that huge project to finish, call me later?" She bends down to kiss him on the cheek before he can even nod in response, following Amber out the door without a second glance. It makes Carina wonder what kind of person can just leave the person they claim to love with nothing but a rushed goodbye while knowing there's a masked killer running around knife-happy.

Next, Dewey turns to look at Carina, and she rises to her feet to hug him goodbye. She sinks into it when he wraps his arms around her, trying to push away the sinking feeling developing her chest. He presses a kiss to her forehead lightly, and she smiles. "Be careful," he whispers. "Call your mom. Call me if you need anything, seriously."

She nods as he pulls back. "I will."

He gives her one last smile before turning and nodding at both Mindy and Chad. "Tell your mom I send my best." Carina doesn't hear them answer, but she's sure at least one of them nods in response. Dewey sends her one last smile before leaving, and then she's hugging Wes instead.

"Alright, I have to meet my mom for dinner and I want to get a run in first. I'll talk to you guys later, text me if something happens."

All three remaining give some kind of reply back, and then suddenly,

"And then there were three."

Carina chuckles at Chad's comment. She looks at both of them and asks, "Is it okay if I stay for a little bit? Mom's working all day and I kind of don't want to be alone."

Both twins smile at her. "'Course," Chad answers.

Relieved at the answer, Carina drops down next to Chad on one of their many couches, and Mindy takes her spot in the recliner back. The latter picks up the remote from where Sam must have dropped it earlier and flicks through different movies until finally landing on some slasher that Carina didn't recognize. The opening scene leads into an obvious kill sequence, and even though she usually enjoys the movies her best friend picks, she has to look away when the girl is slashed at with a blade.

Nonetheless, she settles in to watch the movie with the Meek-Martin twins. A few minutes into the film she questions her decision to sit on the same couch as Chad when there is a completely empty one she had previously been sitting on. Realistically, she knows she wasn't thinking when she sat back down and just wanted to get off her feet, but now it's all she can think about. Especially when the almost scratchy material of his letterman jacket rubs against her arm every time the two of them adjust just the tiniest bit.

She really wasn't thinking about how close she was sitting when she settled in.

Her thoughts are cut short when her phone rings out from the back pocket of her jeans. Mindy doesn't pay the distraction any mind, but she sees Chad look at her from the corner of her eye. "Sorry," she mumbles as she fishes for her phone.

Mom, it reads in big block letters across her screen. The sticky feeling in her chest that had made its presence known ever since Tara's attack seems to intensify tenfold.

Still, she does her best to push that away, and without thinking anymore about it, she picks up and cheerily says, "Hey mom, I was just about to call you."

There's a brief recognition on her part of Mindy pausing the movie for her phone call, and if it were any other time she'd be honored that Mindy of all people went out of their way to pause a movie for her benefit. Instead, she's grabbed in a cold grip of what feels like death when a distorted voice is the one to greet her instead of Heather Roth.

"Hmm, wrong answer. Try again."

Utterly cold dread is the only thing she can feel, consumed with it as it pools in her gut and drips down her spine. Mindlessly, she reaches for something, anything, to hold on to and ground her. She finds something solid, something that squeezes her hand back when she squeezes hard enough to hear a cracking, but only her subconscious can recognize it as Chad's hand.

The fact that he doesn't pull back must mean the way she's feeling is clear on her face, but she can't do anything to stop it. Not when she's absolutely submerged in pure white fear.

"Who is this?"

"That's what you're guessing, Carina. That's the game. No cheating, I don't like cheaters."

Mindy's in front of her suddenly, bending down and placing her hands on her kneecaps, a solid weight to help ground her along with Chad's hand. Who is it, she mouths. Carina shrugs, certain Mindy already knows the answer to that. "What game?"

"It's fairly simple. You guess who I am, and mommy dearest here doesn't die a tragic death. Get it wrong, and, well," Laughing, the bastard actually's laughing. "Let's just say Woodsboro Library might be closed in future for some major cleanup."

A sob falls from her lips, and it's then that she realizes she's got tears running down her face. The library, she mouths to Mindy hoping the other girl will be able to understand, we have to go. Mindy nods and stands, pulling Chad, and Carina through the link they've created with the hands that are still connected, up and off the couch. She grabs the keys to Chad's Jeep, and for the first time since he's got the car, Carina doesn't hear him argue with her that no one's allowed to drive it but him.

Instead, he leads her to the backseat, moving to sit with her, unbreaking the link they have through their hands. She's thankful, almost certain that if he did she'd lose all sense of reality.

She swallows roughly, trying to clear her throat enough to be able to form words. "Do I at least get a hint? Most games include hints." Her voice is rough, and she can vaguely hear Chad seemingly telling Mindy to speed up.

It's only a five-minute drive to the library from Chad and Mindy's, but Carina is certain these are the longest five minutes of her life.

The distorted voice on the other end of the phone tsks at her like she's a child that colored outside of the lines. "Not this game."

Once again a sob falls from her lips without her permission and she knows the only thing holding her together is the hand in hers squeezing repeatedly, keeping her in the present. She racks her brain for a way to stall, like she's suddenly going to be able to outsmart a fucking serial killer.

"Why us?" she demands with her heart in her hands. "Why us?"

"I'm not the one answering questions here, Carina. You are. Time's almost up. Any guesses?"

"You're sick," she cries. "You're sick and twisted. What kind of satisfaction does this give you? God, do you get off on it? I bet you do, bet it's the only way you even feel the tiniest bit like more than just the pathetic waste of space you are."

Chad squeezes her hand hard, and she realizes it's a warning. She sends him a wide-eyed glance. That was too much, too harsh. All she's done is made them mad, something she can see now. That definitely wasn't going to help her mom.

Thankfully, Mindy throws the Jeep in park in the tiny parking lot of the Woodsboro Library, and Carina doesn't have time to think about it as the three of them jump out of the car and run for the doors. She sees her mom then.

Heather Roth is beautiful, a fact their town detests. Some are even bold enough to say such beauty was a foul waste for someone who gave their entire being up for a psychotic killer. There were days Carina was inclined to agree with them.

Now, as she spots her mother standing behind the reserve desk, that disappointing yet familiar faraway look in her eye, she's the most beautiful sight Carina's ever seen.

"Mom!" She's screaming, uncaring of their surroundings, running at her mother like she'll be able to grab her and carry her out of here with only her sheer willpower. Only, she's stopped by arms coming down hard around her middle.

"Wrong answer, Carina. Damn, you're really bad at this. Oh well, say bye bye to mommy dearest for me."

The call drops suddenly, and it's then that Carina sees them. The figure in the Ghostface mask. Only her mother doesn't, because her mother looked away in order to turn toward Carina at her cry.

It's the sweetest kind of torture as she watches her mother's eyes light up at the sight of her just seconds before they go dim for the rest of Carina's life.

"NO!"

She's fighting the arms around her with all her might, but it's no use. Chad's not going to let her go. He's not going to let her run into a death wish. Not when it's already too late.

At the same second she locks eyes with her daughter, Heather Roth takes her last breath. The rest are stolen from her by the person in the Ghostface mask. Her throat is slashed, and Carina feels bile rise in her throat as she watches the splatter fly in their direction. No matter how much she wishes she could, she can't force herself to look away. It's a killing blow, and it's enough to knock Heather Roth down.

Isn't that poetic. That after all these years, Heather Roth is killed by the one in the Ghostface mask? It might not be her love who took her life, but it was one who carries the same sword in their bloodied knuckles. It almost seems like fate. Her inevitable undoing.

In the end, the fact that she was the last thing her mother saw before she met her end, and Chad's arms around her, are the only things to keep her from turning to Ghostface and telling them to finish her off now as well.

Instead, she watches in horror as Ghostface swipes her mother's blood off their blade and flicks it away like it didn't represent another life down the drain.

Part of her is waiting for them to take a running head start at Carina and the twins, but instead, they only turn and walk away.

It's only after she hears the slamming of the back entrance that she allows herself to turn in Chad's arms and bury herself in his chest. For some reason, she aches for the ability to crawl into his chest and burrow herself in there, almost certain it's one place she'd always be safe no matter what. Right now, that's all she wants.

But because she can't, she opts to cry as he holds her until she can't feel anything else.

Vaguely she recognizes Mindy's voice talking to what she assumes is the cops, but she doesn't have enough energy to face that just yet.

Thankfully, Chad doesn't seem to have any plans to go anywhere. If the way he holds her securely against his chest says anything, it's screaming that no matter what it feels like right now, she's not alone.

NOTE
— oh my gosh this was hard to write :( carina i'm so sorry please forgive me 🙏