chapter six,
we execute him

        CARLYN SAT IN between Chad and Ethan, snacking on her Doritos. The three of them, Mindy, and Kirby all sat in the back of a van. Detective Bailey had come up with a plan to use Sam (and Tara, who insisted she go with her sister) as bait for Ghostface. Kirby was going to track the call.

        "So we're really doing the phone tracing thing that never works in the movies?" Mindy, being Mindy, voiced her doubts. "It'll be all keep him talking, Sam, two more minutes, I've almost got him. And then he hangs up just before we can get a lock."

        "I can trace a call in under 15 seconds," Kirby countered, looking over at the girl.

        Mindy leaned closer to her. "Well, you've got them out there as bait."

"Because the killer usually calls from somewhere nearby," Kirby explained, like it was obvious.

Mindy tilted her head. "And you think they're safe because it's broad daylight in a public place?"

"Look, I am here, okay?" Kirby sighed. "And so is Bailey."

        "This is exactly how our Uncle Randy died!" Mindy exclaimed. "Broad daylight. Public place. Yanked into a van. Stab, stab, stab. No more Randy!"

        "Yeah, daylight doesn't exactly change anything for these fuckers," Carlyn recalled that day over a year ago. It had been broad daylight when Wes and Judy had been killed. Judy had been killed on their front lawn and no one had seen a thing.

        Kirby frowned, leaning closer to the young adults. "I promise you guys we will keep Tara and Sam safe."

        Ethan watched the interaction, absentmindedly offering Chad to take from his bag of Cheetos. Chad blankly stared at him before he shrugged and took some.

Carlyn wrinkled her nose as she watched them. In her opinion, one of Ethan's major flaws was that he preferred the normal Cheetos. "Gross."

        "You like Cool Ranch Doritos," Chad shot back, throwing a Cheeto into his mouth while keeping his eyes on his best friend. Carlyn flipped him off and rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Sam?" Kirby spoke to the girl as Carlyn narrowed her eyes at the boy. "Stay frosty out there, okay?"

"We're good," Sam muttered back, voice coming through into the van. After a few seconds, Ghostface finally called. "You're gonna die, you know."

        "No, you're gonna die, Samantha!" Chills ran down Carlyn's back as she heard the modulated voice for the second time in 24 hours. "Choking on your own blood while I hack up you're sister."

        "Unless we find you first."

        "For a mastermind, you're not very bright," Ghostface remarked. "Waiting for me to call, desperately hoping I'm nearby so the police can grab me? But I'm not nearby, I'm a step ahead. Be seeing you, Samantha."

        "Did you get it?" Sam asked when the call ended.

        "Yep," Kirby confirmed. "Geolocation coming through right now. . . He's on the Upper West Side. He's inside an apartment building halfway across the city."

        "On West 96th?" Tara's voice came through.

        Kirby furrowed her brows. "How did you know that?"

        There was a moment of silence before Sam's voice came through once more. "Gale."

Carlyn's eyes widened as she shared looks with her friends. "Shit."

○●○

THEY WERE ALL in the lobby of Gale's apartment. The woman had barely made it out alive. Carlyn was next to Chad, playing with her necklace while she thought. Exhaustion covered her body, having had no sleep in the past 24 hours.

The doors opened and Cute Boy, Danny, ran in. "I got here as fast as I could."

"Did you?" Tara challenged, suspicion laced in her tone.

"I'm scared, you guys," Mindy confessed. "I really don't wanna get hurt again."

"Neither do I," Chad admitted.

Mindy looked at her brother. "I don't want you getting hurt again, either."

"I know, I know," Chad rested his head on her shoulder. Their relationship was built on teasing, so seeing them be so vulnerable with each other made Carlyn's heart ache. "So what do we do now?"

"Maybe he gets to win this time," Sam answered, making everyone look at her with confused expressions. "He wants to punish me." Sam stood up. "Me. So maybe I let him. I'll just give myself up. If this is what I have to do to keep you safe, it's worth it."

"No, we're not doing that, Sam," Tara argued, standing up from the couch. "Alright? You went back to Woodsboro to protect me. Every single day you make the decision to protect me. None of us would even be alive if it weren't for you. You have to let us protect you this time."

Sam shook her head. "No."

"Yes," Tara nodded. "We're a team, remember?"

"Actually. . ." Mindy stood up. "We're family."

Chad clapped his hands and grabbed Carlyn's hand, dragging her up with him. "Let's go! Final Five!" He put their hands out and Mindy placed hers on top. "Come on!"

Tara laid her hand on theirs.

"Final what?" Danny nodded at stepped forward, like he was planning on joining them.

"It's an us thing," Chad shot him down, making the older man let out a slight chuckle.

Sam sucked in a shaky breath and looked down at their stacked hands for a second before moving her eyes back up. "He's gonna keep coming after us."

Carlyn opened her mouth, but was cut off by Ethan. "Isn't there there somewhere, like, safe we could just hole up in?" he stammered.

"No, he's just gonna keep finding us," Tara shook her head as they all dropped their hands, letting them fall to their sides.

Ethan sighed. "Great."

Carlyn noticed the look in Tara's eyes and tilted her head. "What're you thinking?" she wondered.

"We could use that," Tara looked up at Carlyn.

Sam furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"

"What if. . ." the youngest Carpenter slowly started, like she was gathering the pieces of a puzzle to see if they would fit in her mind. "What if we trap him somewhere?"

Mindy's confused expression dissolved. "That. . . might actually work."

"Where would we trap him?" Carlyn inquired. "And how are we going to do it by ourselves?"

Tara pulled out her phone and called Detective Bailey. She put the phone on speaker and spoke before he could get a full word out. "I think we have a plan."

"I'm getting my ass chewed out for not dropping the case and now you want me to do what?" Bailey grumbled, a hint of annoyance in his tone. Clearly, he was still upset over the fact that Sam and Tara had stolen his car.

"We want to lure him to a secure location and trap him inside."

"And then what?" Bailey pressed.

The five of them all looked at each other, clearly thinking the same thing. "We execute him," Tara finally answered him. There was a long silence as they waited for Bailey to answer. "Are you gonna help us?"

"Let's kill the son of a bitch," Bailey sneered. "Now, I'm stuck here, but Gale gave us the keycards to the theater. It's got heavy surveillance and security cameras, but we can use that against him. I'll tell Kirby to meet you there and I'll join you as soon as I can."

"Got it," Tara nodded.

"And remember, travel in public," Bailey advised. "More people around you, the less chance he has to take a shot at you before you get there."

        With that, the phone call ended.

𝒎𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒍 !!
the reveal is next chapter🤭🤭