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"you're going to make it. it'll be hard but you're going to make it."
-anonymous

song to listen to: the way by zack hemsey

warnings: swearing, panic/anxiety, arguments, drug mentions,

(we're so close to chaos)

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We relatively mindlessly followed Cindy into the infirmary, me sticking with Tommy as she advanced into the wooden building. I played with a silver locket around my neck and seeing as that the uneasy feeling in my stomach hadn't gone away yet, something had to calm me down. If it wasn't words of affirmation from Tommy, then it would have to be some fidgeting technique of my own accord.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" Tommy asked as he closed the door behind us, and Cindy turned in our direction.

"Answers." She dropped the keys in Tommy's hands.

"Cindy, no, please, God, no." I ran my fingers through my hair, frustrated with her reply.

"Come on, Cindy. It doesn't matter, alright?" Even Tommy was on my side with this one-it's an outnumbered thing right now.

"It matters." She stated with a strained 'confident' voice. "There's a reason Mary did what she did and said what she said and we're going to figure it out. Right now."

"Come on, Cindy," Tommy continued to beg as my head found its resting spot in my hands. "Please, I-"

And she started to walk to Nurse Mary's office, and I leaned my head on Tommy's shoulder. He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze before both of us walked towards our perfectionist of a girlfriend. Cindy was going through all the draws, trying to find these answers she so desperately wanted. For sure, I wanted answers too, but I didn't want to dwell on this right now. Right now, I wanted to have a normal night. But apparently, Cindy didn't want that and didn't seem to care that neither Tommy nor myself wanted to be doing this right now.

"Ha," Cindy chuckled, holding a pill bottle up. "No label, half empty. Like I said, she was on drugs. We just have to get these to the cops then they'll tell us what they..." She stopped talking and looked at Tommy, a mix of disgust and confusion upon her face as he picked up some old-looking book.

With his head tilted to the side, I took a step closer to look at the book myself. It'd been open to a set of pages right in the middle, all of which looked worn and town. It looked creepy, to say the least, which is exactly the type of thing you'd want to see when looking to find the reason why a killer's mother attacked you earlier that day. Best fucking birthday ever.

"'A deal was made with the devil'," Tommy read from the book, and my eyebrows furrowed together in confusion mixed with some slight anxiety. "'Sarah Fier cut off her wicked hand on Satan's stone in exchange for eternal life, scarring the soil beneath with the Witch's Mark...bringing darkness upon the land.'"

Cindy's giving Tommy a look that clearly reads 'don't be a dumbass, the curse isn't real,' and I'm giving her a look that says 'don't be a dumbass, the curse is real and you're in denial.' Of course, Cindy can't see my facial expressions, seeing as her focus was on Tommy at the moment. Before anything else could be said, the sound of glass breaking could be heard from one of the other rooms. The three of us turned in the direction the sound had come from, momentarily frozen with fear.

"Did you hear that?" Tommy asked, and I gave him a look.

"No, we didn't hear the sound of glass breaking coming from a room with no lights on. Don't be every white girl in a horror movie-no stupid questions, okay?" I smiled slightly, and Tommy's eyebrows crinkled together in confusion.

"But...but you're a white girl who's asked stupid questions and might be in a horror movie-"

"No no no, I'm not that type of girl in a horror movie. I'm a final girl-I live in Shadyside, Tommy, and historically-"

"Historically there aren't a lot of final girls in Shadyside, M." His words oddly hurt me, but now I knew that I had to prove him wrong.

Both of us, now silent, started to walk down the small hallway that leads to the room where the noise came from. I couldn't help but take Tommy's hand, my heart pounding out of my chest as we got closer.

"Hello," Tommy called out, and I squeezed his hand tightly. "Hello, is somebody in there?"

We get into the room, and we can't see anyone anywhere, which only feeds my anxiety even more. Out of the blue, someone jumps out of the shadows and scares Tommy and me. With her laughter annoyingly familiar to me, I realize that it's Alice-and probably Arnie too.

"Shit," I swore under my breath, stumbling a few steps back and running my fingers through my hair.

"Come on, that's not funny." Tommy seemed just as out of it as I was, if not more so.

Cindy and Arnie come into the room as well; it's beyond obvious that Cindy's upset-and that was to say the very least. I put my head on Tommy's shoulder, feeling awfully lightheaded as words came from my ginger girlfriend's lips.

"Alice? What are you doing here?"

"Well, it looks like we're both here for the same thing," Alice replied with a scoff, and I rubbed my temple. "Must really want me to scrub those toilets."

"This isn't for you," Cindy's words didn't come out exactly as they had planned, causing me to lift my head from Tommy's shoulder and cock an eyebrow.

"Woah, Berman." Arnie looked genuinely excited with her words, and I wanted to do nothing more than tell him to shut up but I couldn't bring myself to speak at the moment. "I didn't know you were into that kind of thing-"

"They're not for me," Cindy explained, clearly frustrated. "I'm giving them to the cops."

"Oh yeah, the cops." Alice's words seemed bitter, and I wanted to slap her. "Yeah, right, of course. No," her voice raised. "What are you talking about?! What, now you're gonna snitch on Mary too?!"

"What happened between you and Cindy is years old, get the fuck over it, Alice. And these are two completely different things! Mary, she-she attacked me and Tommy-" I snapped at the pixie cut blonde; she advanced towards me and shoved me; Arnie grabbed the book from Tommy's hands.

"This for the cops too?"

"Give that back!" The blonde went to grab the book, but it turned into a minor physical fight that resulted in Arnie tossing the book to Alice.

Tommy and I sat down on one of the infirmary's beds, both feeling the pain from our earlier injuries. I put my head in my hands for the millionth time that day, feeling genuinely unable to continue to fight with Arnie and Alice. It didn't matter anyways-the lot of them always got their way, whether their methods were legal or not.

"She emerged by the Meeting House," Alice read from the book in a creepy tone of voice. "One hand severed, lost forever. We hanged the witch, body chained and buried, but without her hand her grip on the land holds firm. Oooh! This is Sarah Fier's shit! Mia, is she your ancestor or something? It's the only way to explain your psycho behavior earlier-"

"Alice, come on." Cindy defended me since I couldn't, trying to take the book back from her ex-best friend.

"When she is near, blood will fall," The asshole continued in her shameful excuse of a creepy voice. "And the curse will last until body and hand unite."

"Alice, it's Mary's diary. Let's put it back!" Cindy continued, and my head went from my hands to Tommy's shoulder once more.

"It's not just a diary. It's a map."

"What?"

"Crazy Nurse Lane made a crazy map," Alice walked to the bed opposite of the one Tommy and I had been sitting on-of which we got off of, too curious for our own good. "It's camp, but it looks like she drew all over it."

Cindy, Tommy, Alice, and I all sat around the bed, Arnie hovering over Alice in that constantly-high-and-horny way he does. I rest both elbows on the bed, leaning over to see the map Alice was talking about. The pixie-like girl was telling the truth: it was a blue map of Nightwing, with red markings all over it.

"1666 Union," Alice and I read in sync, and then gave each other bitter glares at that realization.

"Union, that's Shadyside," Cindy explained the obvious.

"What?" Alice squinted her eyes, showing me how idiotic she was at the same time as I said: "I know."

"The-the settlement before it was divided into Shadyside and Sunnyvale," The ginger explained further as I fell back into silence.

"Really?"

"Well if you went to class..." Cindy's bit of attitude was hope for me that she just might become more confident in herself.

"So, the camp is built in the same place as the settlement?" Tommy spoke up, and my eyes widened.

"When you word it like that, that really sets the tone for the night..." I mumbled, and Tommy gave my thigh a tiny squeeze of comfort.

"Whoa, look look look, Sarah Fier!" Arnie pointed out a spot on the map that happened to be more in the woods, and sure enough, the name 'Sarah Fier' was written in red.

Creepy.

"Do you think that's her house?" Alice asked, an annoying smirk on her face.

"What are all the X's?" Arnie asked yet another reasonable question.

"There's only one way to find out," The mischievous tone in Alice's voice prompted me to start shaking my head.

"What? Alice, no no no, no we're supposed to-the Color Wars, please-" I tried to beg, but it was too late: Arnie and Alice were already running out the door, Cindy's satchel in hand.

I knew we'd have to go and chase after them, but my ears started to ring as we walked out of the infirmary. Looking around the camp as dusk set in, I also knew another thing: this night wasn't going to end well. Whether it was that Shadyside didn't win the Color War, or something much worse, I didn't know, but I really didn't want to figure it out. Taking Tommy's hand after he put on a red and plaid jacket, we jogged after Alice and Arnie with Cindy ahead of us, holding hands.

~~~~~~

author's note:

heh everything's going to shit next chapter
my apologies

the peace is over

how'd y'all like this chapter?

if u didn't leave a million comments know u made me sad

if you left a million comments know i love you very much

i love y'all regardless for reading this

but yeah-

heheheheh