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Chapter 1: Final Destination
Emma looked at Brooke, shaking her head for a moment.
"Brooke...maybe we can make the best out of it."
She hoped so at least, considering everything they had gone through. They had fought off killers before, and lived. This was hopefully just a small run of the mill type thing after all, considering it was just meant to be a retreat.
But hey, nothing would be proper without a few screams.
***
Aleks nodded as she looked at Audrey, wondering how the girl was really doing.
"Well that's right, tents could be so much worse."
But than again she was sure that some of the guys might like tents, but she knew that the girls would have said something about tents. But the question was, did the doors to the cabins have locks on them? She found herself checking the door to the cabin when they got inside, ensuring that it locked.
-Emma, Aleks
"You sure that's not just gas?" but Eli smiled, "Don't worry. I've got a way of persuading people."
"You know... I don't think we've ever really spent a lot of time together, have?"
Stavo paused, but said, "Thank you, Eli. I knew I could trust you."
Aleks looked over at Audrey, setting her bag down on one of the beds.
"Not really, but than again...what type of time can people spend properly when running from a serial killer?"
It was just one spree for her, and than Terrance's death, but that didn't mean the others hadn't gone through worse, especially some of her friends actually.
"Or when you were in a coma for 3 weeks," said Audrey, putting her bag down. "I'm sorry, but were you a transfer student?"
"No, I was born and raised in Lakewood. I wasn't targeted when the first spree happened...but the second one, well I was hurt pretty bad." Aleks said, lifting the corner of her shirt to show the large scar on her abdomen.
"What time did Teague say to meet up again?" She asked, grabbing her purse and checking for cell reception.
"Ouch," Audrey grimaced, before looking at her watch, "He said an hour."
"Yeah, sometimes those of us less known to the popular crowd, even though they may be friends with Brooke and Emma, we get underlooked at times."
Aleks shrugged, putting her cell back in her purse. At least they had service. "Shall we go see what the plan is for this retreat?"
"Hopefully we don't have to do trust falls, that might end up with one or more of the female student body letting out a few screams if placed with boys who don't listen or pay attention well enough." She laughed lightly.
"Yeah, I'm not doing that," Audrey shook her head.
"Seriously, trust falls sound like so much fun."
Aleks joked as she put her purse over her shoulder, heading to the door.
Ryan sighed in thought before he answered Ted, "Round every single person in town up in one spot and no one leaves. Only the police are left to search every nook and cranny of the town, houses, brans, everything. That's one way." Ryan replied to ted before he put the gun away and sat back down on his bed.
"We could call in the FBI.." He suggested, "I mean we've had what 2 killers dropping bodies around here already and now a third one pops up out of nowhere. Put the whole town on Lock down...put camera's everywhere and do a sweep." Ryan went into detail about how to stop this new killer.
"Hell man I don't have any good answer or plan to how to deal with this. All I know is that this freak is human and can get stabbed or shot just like the rest of us." The young juvenile admitted.
"This fucking state," Leslie muttered as Tracy was cocking, locking and ready to be rocking her gun. "Oh, you're not the only hormonal teenager packing a piece? Well, that's reassuring."
She lied down on her bed, and searched through her bookbag. Catcher in the Rye, the ideal coming-of-age story where everyone in it is a terrible person.
Like real life.
Leslie looked towards Tracy.
A lot like real life.
"I won't," she reassured her, paging through her novel. "If anybody asks, I'll just say you're out shooting gators. Come back soon, though. You don't wanna be late for icebreakers."
***
Dave motioned politely to the bed. "All yours." A strange man, that one. Mr. Smith, if he was following names right. Seemed to always be out of his element, maybe out of his time. Perhaps a foppish background character in a Victorian novel.
Easy on the judgements, Evans. You have a whole weekend to get to know these people. Finding a bed of his choosing, he laid himself down, and closed his eyes. A quick nap would do him well for the evening's festivities.
-Leslie and Dave
Ari's phone begins to ring: INCOMING CALL..
The name beneath is one she expected to never see again- Gemma O'Neil.
Ari blinked as she looked at the phone, "How the bloody hell..." she swiped right and answered the call as she brought the phone to her ear.
"Miss O'Neil?"
Was the woman alive? Was that even possible?
It is not Gemma's voice that answers, but a tinny male one.
"Hello, Ari. Working on the weekend?"
Ari found herself looking around almost immediately, eyes scanning her cabin.
"Who is this? And how do you have Miss O'Neil's phone?"
She moved to glance around the cabin once more, before looking out the back window. Something wasn't right, she needed to figure out what was going on and how the hell this was even possible. Hadn't Miss O'Neil been claimed dead? Wasn't she the cause of some of those murders?
"Who am I? Why do I have GemGem's phone? Will Sharon ever learn Nick is porking his ex-wife behind her back?"
A bitter chuckle, "I can give you the right answers, but they'd be for all the wrong questions.
"Tell me, Ari...do you like what you do?"
Ari found herself opening the back door of her cabin, worst idea possible perhaps, but she had to check.
"I do actually, music is a passion of mine. Why?"
She questioned, as she glanced around the back of her cabin before making her way onto the back porch of it. Something was wrong, this wasn't right at all and she wasn't sure how to handle any of this. If there was someone coming after the children, she needed to warn Teague.
So she found herself exiting the cabin, making her way quietly towards the one she knew the Principal was in.
"I wouldn't disturb the old soldier's sleep if I were you," warns the Voice, "He's notoriously cranky.
"What you can do, if you enjoy your job and your kids so much is act fast, because currently everybody on this moldy mudheap has about ten minutes before this place gets blown sky high."
Ari froze, turning to look around.
"What do you mean?"
If she could do something, she would do it.
"You can't blow up the students!"
"Honey, you'd be amazed at the crazy shit I can do if I put my mind to it. If you expended some imagination every now and then, you could do some impressive things too."
The Voice cleared his/her/its throat, "You're understandably upset about this, of course, but don't worry. You can be a hero! Just head to the old shed at the edge of the campground. There's a little trap door in the floor. You'll know it when you see it."
A short pause, "This should go without saying, but if you even think about telling anybody, everybody in this place is on an express elevtor to hell. Do not pass Go, do not collect 700 virgins."
Ari turned and looked around, before her hand clutched the phone tighter as she held it to her ear.
And with that she began to run through the area, headed towards the edge of the campground, to the shed, she knew where it was since she had come here earlier to ensure things were set up for everyone. And as she reached the shed, she opened it and walked inside to the trap door.
"I'm here...what next?"
She questioned as she moved to open the trap door, kneeling in front of it as she sighed a moment.
"Well, go inside, of course. There'll be this big crate in the cellar, all chained shut."
Ari could feel her blood pumping, and she climbed down into the trap door.
As she lowered herself down, she took a breathe and looked around before her eyes landed on the crate. She had a feeling it was certain death, doing what was told of her by the voice on the phone, and yet she wouldn't risk the lives of the students.
"I see your crate..."
She approached it, standing in front of it as she finally felt her shoulders tremble.
"There's a bolt cutter in the corner. Put those dainty hands of yours to good use and cut through that chain."
Ari could tell that whatever she was about to do, well it wasn't good.
She moved to get the bolt cutter, holding her phone up against her ear with her shoulder before she clipped the chain and cut through it. She listened with the weight of the chain as it dropped to the ground and made a loud clanging noise resound through the closed in area.
"N-Now what?"
Her voice trembled, as she gripped the bolt cutter with one hand and held the phone with the other.
She found herself backing towards the ladder, wanting to get up and out of there as quickly as possible if she needed to.
The chain echoed in the confined space.
When the Voice next spoke, it sounded well-pleased, "Good. Good. Hey, you ever seen Dark Shadows?"
"That's the one with the vampire right?" Ari responded, using the hand that gripped the bolt cutter and also the ladder leading out of the room.
Her mind wandered, what the hell was in that crate.
"It's not just 'the one with the vampire'. It's a genre-busting daytime soap opera from 50 years ago that influenced every horror, fantasy and sci-fi show to come after it. And do you know how a serial daytime drama was able to manage that on a ditchweed budget five days a week for five years?"