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Chapter 3: Fright Night
Emma had just been sitting on the bench, thinking everything over in her head as she tried to figure out what to say to Audrey and even to Brooke for that matter. It was all so difficult, first Kieran, than Piper, and now Audrey, again it seemed, only this time with information overload.
She sat there with her head in her hands and just sighed.
***
Aleks laid back on her bed, pulling her knife from her pocket. "Do you think everyone else is alright? I mean I haven't seen a few people since we got done with the ice-breakers."
She commented, lightly, running a hand through her hair before glancing at her phone nervously.
"You're right, Brooke," Audrey sighed, before asking, "She's always been this hasn't she?"
"You might as well say that about any of us," said Brooke, "I mean, believe it or not, but I wasn't always such a good judge of character," she laughed a laugh that soured pretty fast, "Or, maybe I was, but I just didn't care too much about the judging."
She slowed down, brow furrowed in thought, "Or maybe I judge too much and that's my problem. Emma's always been so trusting and look where that's gotten her? I guess I'd be flighty too."
Drew
As Drew kept walking, getting cliser and closer to his prey, he felt the anticipation of their reactions building up.
He opened a pack of fake blood he had in his pocket for the Micah prank and plattered it on his chest.
Micah looked around, "You guys did here something, right?"
"I've been hearing things all night," said Eli, "Haven't seen anything, so I'm writing it off."
Micah rolled his eyes, "I am not crazy!"
"Okay, nobody said you were."
"I'm checking it out,"
"Okay, so maybe you are crazy?"
But Micah remembered all too well that night at the park. He and Terrance had been together, there'd been a weird, noise, they went after it...
Bam. Not together anymore.
He couldn't help but feel this was a repeat performance. Still, he resolved not to be frightened. Tossing his ponytail over his shoulder, he moved a few paces away, toward some waist-high undergrowth. Not far enough away that the other guys would lose him, but far enough that whatever this was might not spooked away...
Maybe this time you can make a difference, he thought wryly, Imagine that. Poor tiny theater kid trumping the murderer. Hello, 1970s musical comedy...
"Ach!" he cried out, a high, shrill scream at the figure emerging from between the grass. He staggered backward, losing his footing and landing on his delicate (but not boney, he wouldn't hesitate to point out if he weren't terrified almost to the point of soiling himself) behind on the grass.
"Oh, shit," he could hear Eli as if from a thousand miles off.
He struggled to catch his breath, one hand fluttering to a racing heart as the figure above him came into focus, dark, lean and pale, glistening red and ruddy in the moonlight...
He felt his lips go dry, "...Terrance?"
-Micah and Eli
"Get away from him!" yelled out Carl, before he started running towards the person.
"Maybe I was always too vindictive," Audrey shrugged. She liked to think she wasn't THAT much anymore.
"I think I see her."
"Oh, well that's a..." Brooke trailed off at a high, keening sound from somewhere in the distance, "What the hell was that?"
"Let's check it out," Audrey began springing towards the scene.
"What? Oh, er," Dave cleared his throat and sloppily brushed back his hair. "Yes! Yes, o-of course I'll come with. It's..." He swallowed, gathering his thoughts. "It's my responsibility. A-as a teacher." With that, he got to his feet.
"Well, this is all fine and dandy, friends," Nicodemus reentered the conversation. "But what of I? I need some threads, man. And even though I find the divide between patient and doctor to be a bunch of authoritarian nonsense, I don't think Kieran should see me in my birthday suit." He laughed for much longer than he should have in this situation.
***
Leslie sat up at the sound of the scream. Micah! She recognized it from so many rehearsals, when their director insisted Hamlet didn't have such a feminine scream.
Only there was no acting here. Leslie knew it.
She hopped out of the bunk bed and ran out of the cabin.
***
Kieran had walked for what seemed like more than two miles, hurt and lost. What seemed like an easy road to freedom moments ago had devolved into tedious, monotonous, hopeless dragging of the feet. Having taken the ramp to that campground, he was all but lost until...
A scream! Which meant people. Which meant help.
Kieran jogged over to the sound, intent on finding it...when he heard something else. A faint moaning. Like a siren's call, Kieran followed that now.
"Oh, God..." He felt a terrifying mix of confusion, horror, shock, and just barely hidden under it all, a tinge of happiness.
Kieran, in the smallest of chances, found his sister.
"Oh, God!" It was no pretty sight. There she was, tied to a tree, beaten and bloodied. He half-convinced himself it was a dream, a guilty nightmare, a mirage induced by killing his first love. Kieran rushed over to undo her restraints. "Deanna!" He said to her, working at each rope. "Deanna, it's Kieran!"
It was done. She fell over into his arms, slumped. Kieran gently pushed her back so she can see him. "I'm here! I don't know how, I don't know why, but I'm here!" He held her chin to prop up her head for a moment and gently tapped her on the face. "C'mon, Deanna! Wake up!"
-Dave, Nicodemus, Leslie and Kieran
"Well, you could always just stay here..." began Theodora.
"I think not!" harrumphed Fitz, "This Mungo Jerry ape won't be getting anywhere near my bags. No sir."
"I...might have something in your size," said Phyllis, "It's...er...it's a kaftan," she held up the fine chartreuse fabric for his inspection, "I know it's not the most practical thing, but I'm not sure you'd fit into my slacks."
***
"What was that?" Zach looked up with a start, from the weary Aleks on the bed, to the window, "Sounded like...like a scream."
He bit his lip, "Aleks, you just sit tight, okay? I'm gonna check it out real quick."
If somebody else was in trouble, if someone else was about to get hurt, and he had a say in stopping it this time...
Well, he couldn't just sit it out. This was his game now, as much as everyone else's.
***
"What the hell..." began Eli, incredulous, looking the figure up and down, "That can't actually be..."
"You're not real," Micah shook his head, reaching up for Carl's hand, feeling it there and getting some small courage from that, "No, Terrance, it... Carl, he isn't actually there, right? It's just a contact high, courtesy of Smoke?"
-Phyllis, Theodora, Fitz, Zach, Eli and Micah
"I DIG IT!" Nicodemus snatched it and donned the cool chick's fabrics. "What a fit! Thanks, baby!"
Deanna looked up, reaching behind her back and gripping at the gun loosely. "K-Kieran....h-how..."
She than realized she wasn't bound to the tree, but she still hurt like hell.
"Fractured ribs best I can tell...beat with a bat, abducted and left out here to die or worse..."
She chuckled, spitting blood to the side onto the dirt, before looking up at her brother. Wait, why was he here?
"Y-You...." And she pulled the gun out and shakily held it.
"Was it you?"
Aleks shook her head, jumping up. "I'm coming too!'
She stood up, walking out of the cabin with him.
"No going alone....remember?" She told him, reaching out to grasp onto his hand.
"You're...um..." Phyllis bit her lip to suppress an ill-timed smile, "You're welcome."
"Jesus Christ," muttered Tina, "Superstar."
"Yes, well, that's enough of the fashion show," said Theodora, "Ms. Hudson, I'm sure you want to see your son well as much as I. Howard, you're going with Hendricks and Evans. Edward, you're bound to the common hall..."
Her eyes fell on Fitz.
"What?"
"Your son is staying in one of the boys' cabins."
"Unless he's decided to go digging in the gold digger, yes."
"In a more innocent time, I'd have asked you to explain. But I would think you'd like to make sure he's well?"
"I..." but Fitz broke off, sighing, "Yes, of course. He shan't thank me for it."
"Sons never do," said Tina, "But my Eli'd said I never did nothing he could thank me for."
"That's settled then," said Theodora, "Let's be quick. And careful."
-Theodora, Fitz, Tina and Phyllis
"Nu-uh," Zach steered her back inside, "You're staying right here. I'm not about to have you bleeding all over the place again. Listen, I won't be gone long."
Aleks looked at Zach, reaching out and taking hold of his hand.
"Please....if its something bad....I don't want to be alone..."
Nicodemus looked to the man who called himself Teague, who seemed to be the leader of this here league. "I'll go with this fine gentle-man."
***
Kieran smiled, if only for a moment, when she spoke, before she described what happened to her. Why or how? Kieran, didn't have time to dwell on. All he knew that Lakewood was a scummy place full of scummy people who did scummy things.
He was one of them, among many others.
Kieran saw her grab her gun when she accused him. "Me?" He gave a weak laugh. "I'm a messed-up person but I swore I'd never hurt you. And I keep my promises." Kieran took her gun and pocketed it, wondering briefly how Deanna was tortured yet still armed. "C'mon." He lifted Deanna, carrying her in his arms, wincing in his own pain. "We need to get you some help." Kieran looked around, still lost. "There's a camp near here or something. We can go there."
-Nicodemus and Kieran
"Yeah...a camp where the school is on retreat..." Deanna said, coughing, feeling the blood sputter down her chin.
She tentatively wrapped her arms around her brother's neck, hoping this wasn't misguided right now.
Deanna looked at her brother, cringing in pain as her ribs started hurting and aching. "I'm gonna shoot that asshole in the face..."
She frowned, looking at her brother, "Gimme back my piece...if my dude see's you holding me...it won't be pretty..."
But at the same time, she couldn't feel herself able to hold the piece properly.
"I'd like to see that movie," said Tina.
"Edward, you keep an eye on him, then," said Theodora, "Dr. Langley, I trust that if we do find Kieran, you'll be able to...er...assist us in subduing him."
Well, that sounded less and less desirable every time she weighed it.
"Come on, now," and she headed outside, shortly followed by Tina and Fitz.
"Now that it's just us three..." the latter said almost as soon as they'd closed the door behind them, "I'd like to make something very clear."
"You're not a homosexual?" suggested Tina.
"No! I mean yes! I mean, no I am not, and no that is not what I wanted to say," Fitz looked around, "We are surrounded by madmen and cravens."
"You don't have to tell me twice," said Theodora.
"Fine. You think me a lickspittle. I'll admit to a certain bend toward caution, but it's never served me wrong before. And this trooping about in the darkness with a murderer about flies in the face of caution and good sense."
"We'll only be 'trooping about' as long as it takes to get the kids together," said Theodora curtly, "And that includes your son, I might add."
Fitz muttered something that sounded vaguely like 'my son' over and over again the rest of the way to the cabins.
"Mind if I smoke?" asked Tina at one point.
"No!"
"No like yes, or no means no?"
Theodora snatched the pack of Camels right out of her hand, shoving it in her pocket.
***
"I guess we should be going," said Howard, holding the gun uncertainly at his side, "Good luck, Ed."
"We'll bring the kids to meet you in the common hall," added Phyllis, "And if the phone doesn't work..."
She hated herself for bringing it up, when she had no easy alternative.
"We'll figure something out."
They headed outside, moving toward the girls' cabins. Phyllis noted that Howard was refusing to so much as look at her. It gave her a weird, creeping feeling, and that gun in his hand didn't help matters. Not that she could bring herself to be honestly frightened of Howard Jensen, of all people.
Still...
"How're you feeling?" she asked Dave, "I mean, you...you seemed a little out there before, no offense," she paused, "It was wrong of us to have so much to drink. I can't remember the last time I got so hungover... And to think, it couldn't have happened at a worse time. But...you are alright?"
***
"Aleks, if someone is in trouble, it...it might get dangerous. And we both know what that's like, and like or not, you're not in any shape to run away if you've got to."
He looked around, "Look..." and he dragged a chair over to the door, "And when I come back, I'll knock and say...uh...'23 skidoo', and you'll know it's me." he looked around, "Or...well, I guess I could just look in the window and you'd see."
Zach broke off, "You'll feel better if you were with someone, I get that. But I'd feel better if you were here, where...where it's safer. Hey, throw me this one bone, okay?"
-Theodora, Fitz, Tina, Phyllis, Howard and Zach
Aleks looked at him, nodding her head before she leaned up.
She gave him a quick kiss, "I know its corny...but I just had to do that...in case."
Though she hoped to god that nothing would happen, she pulled out her knife, handing it to him.
"Take this...it isn't much...but at least I'll know you've got something."
"The school?" Kieran said, heart dropping in his stomach. Of all the places to have a bloody car accident, it was right by where all the people he's hurt are staying. "Great." Wonderful coincidence.
"Your dude?" He asked, starting his trek to nowhere in particular. "You mean that guy on the phone? That guy? I'm not a great judge of character but him? Really?" Kieran shook his head. "Sometimes, I wonder what you're trying to prove with shit like that." He exhaled, stepping over a fallen branch. "Look, I got two guns on me and I'm an infamous serial killer. You're a beaten down kid. Which of us do you think can do more?" Kieran cocked his head, adding, "Or is that what you're trying to prove with 'your dude' and this tough guy act? Please..."
***
"Oh, I-I'm fine," Dave nodded solemnly. "I'm mostly responsible. You were just trying to have sound time, which is reasonable. I-I should've stopped myself. That relapse...it was on me." He sighed, still somewhat drunk. "Just like Miss Wilcox running away. I...I should have done more."
He swallowed, overwhelmed by remorse past and present.
-Kieran and Dave
"Fuck you, big brother." Deanna choked out, though a laugh came with it.
She smacked him in the face, though she could feel how weak she was getting right now.
"I've been on a downward spiral...ever since my own brother sliced my arm open, and therefore I guess you can say its been drugs, and misguided behavior...but if you want me to trust you...trust that you weren't the one to do this to me, than have a little faith and gimme my gun." She said, trying to lift her head up slowly so she could look at him. "That whole school hates me...because I'm your sister...nobody would give a shit if I died...I doubt anyone even cares that I've been missing since the start of this stupid retreat..."
Deanna could feel herself getting weaker, and she let out a loud gasp of pain. "Put me down...quick....please..." She gasped for air, having trouble breathing right now, and it showed as she clutched at her chest with one hand.
"M-my ribs..."
"Boys' Cabin 1," Theodora had memorized Ari's (there's a name she didn't much like to think about) list to a jot this morning, "Noah Foster and Lance Wilson."
"Lance..." Tina scoffed, "Still can't believe it..."
"That would be the charming pothead with the delightful pidgin English vocabulary?" asked Fitz.
"He thinks he's hot shit, gave me a free dimebag because he's banging my niece."
"You didn't accept it?" asked Theodora.
"A man gives you a gift, you take it. Come on, you've been married."
"And divorced. I didn't like any of the gifts."
Tina snorted.
"Is that who you were looking for, when you took off earlier?" asked Fitz, "This Wilson boy?"
"Figured he'd know where Deanna was. He didn't."
"And you came back all muddy and smelling like an herbarium."
"Yeah, and then all of you got pity soused. Careful you don't break your neck getting off that high horse."
Theodora clucked dismissively, trying the door to the cabin, "Locked."
She knocked, "Mr. Foster?"
"Smokey!" Tina banged, "Yo, yo, yo!"
"Quiet, wretched woman!" Fitz put a hand over her mouth, "You'll bring the madman down on top of us!"
"Get your perfumed paws off me!" she swatted his hand away.
"It makes no difference," Theodora had been peering through the window, "Nobody's home. But the beds look unmade."
"It's a boys' room. The beds weren't gonna be made anyway."
"They've gone out somewhere," said Theodora, "Good Lord."
There's an uncomfortable silence. Tina drums her fingers against the side of the cabin.
Finally, Fitz cleared his throat, "I'm not looking for them."
"I know," said Theodora sourly, "And neither will we, for now. We'll check the others first and..." her voice falters, "Move on from there."
***
"Kids are determinedly willful," said Phyllis, "And Deanna...well, she was only my patient for a short time, but it was long enough for me to know she's willful as any. So much of her life has been taken from her, manipulated by others. She must crave every free second she can get. If she decided she didn't want to go back with you, there wasn't much you could do."
She smiled, "My Micah's willful too. Once he gets something in his head, he does it, no matter how harebrained or plain ill-advised. He gets that from me. The nightmares I used to give my parents. Staying out late, going out with my friends... I remember, one night I went out to this slam poetry thing, this real bonhomie dive... They acted like I'd gone to a crack house."
The rush of those youthful indiscretions...she didn't remember them very often, and when she did, they were always flurries of sensation. Color, texture, taste, smell... Very few real memories stood out. Coffee on her lips, house music rebounding off the walls, the feel of a new beard scratching against her face as a tongue worked its way through her lips...
How young she'd been. How stupid. How alive.
"Our children are beyond our control," Howard nodded somberly, "It's on us to make sure they trust us. That they...trust the right people, in general."
Again, there was an odd edge to his voice. Phyllis shuddered, the first inkling of a thought coming into her mind.
He couldn't...
No. No, impossible. There was no way...
"Cabin 1," Howard declared, "Emma and Brooke."
He knocked, only for the door to swing inward, "They didn't lock the door."
"Be careful!" Phyllis warned. Howard held up the gun, peering in through the door. A moment later, he turned back, "It's empty. No sign of them."
"Oh no..." Phyllis breathed. There wasn't a soul of them unaware of just what Emma Duval was to Kieran. If he was here, and if Emma was missing...
"We have to find her," she said at once.
***
Zach didn't even pretend to protest at the kiss, just nodding, hoping he didn't look as stupid as he felt.
"It's cool," he turned the knife over in his hand, "Okay. I'll...I'll use it well. If you need something, there's...well, you can always throw that lamp," he nodded to the cumbersome thing on the nightstand.
"Just hold tight, Aleks."
And with that, he slipped out into the dark, closing the door behind him.
-Theodora, Fitz, Tina, Phyllis, Howard and Zach
Aleks moved the chair in front of the door and locked the cabin, she than snagged up the lamp and held it tightly in both hands.
"Just don't go dying on me Zach..."
She murmured, looking around the empty cabin so that she could secure the other exits or entrances of the cabin.
She locked the back door, than shut every window and secured it, hell she even went as far as to pull the mattress' up against the windows, except for one spot that she could see through should Zach return.
***
Emma blinked, she had been too lost in her own thoughts before she heard the screaming. She got up and started running, smacking right into Brooke and Audrey.
"Brooke...Audrey..." She wasn't sure what to say, but right now she grasped onto her two friends.
-Aleks, Emma
"Yeah, well, dating some druggie wanna-be gangsta isn't going to do you any favors," Kieran replied. Doing a double-take, he complied and put her down. "Fine. You get your gun. Just don't shoot anybody." He turned around before turning back. "Without good reason." Then Kieran turned back and got to thinking. Fractured ribs. What did you use on fractured ribs? Simply moving Deanna would probably hurt her. Kieran needed to bandage it up. With what, he didn't know.
"Okay," he nodded to himself, slowly convincing himself of an idea. "OK, let's try this." Kieran took off Nicodemus's shirt, tearing it into halves through the broken seams created from the crash. He bent down by Deanna, ready to wrap them around her ribs. "Don't suppose you have any of your boyfriend's weed to dull the pain?"
***
"No," Dave decided, reasoning, "We should stay together. The Wilcox boy is a threat to the flock. It's best we hunt the wolf rather than the sheep." He nodded towards Howard. "Apologies for the pastoral metaphor, Howard."
-Kieran and Dave
Deanna pulled her hoodie off, revealing the rather messed up already bruising skin and blood patched. "I do actually...got a blunt in my pocket...." She coughed out, pulling it out and sparking it up. She took a few fat drags off it before looking at him.
"You know...they need to be set...which means I'm gonna scream. But do it...because otherwise there could be more damage...than just get me the fuck out of this hell hole swamp." She coughed out, the smoke exhaling as she looked at her brother. She knew that this wasn't going to be fun, and she could already feel herself hurt and wounded pretty badly right now. She tried to take another drag, but ended up dropping it as she moved to clutch at her rib cage instead.
"If you care...don't lemme die out here in the fucking swamp before I shoot the asshole that did this..." She coughed.
-Deanna
"Which one is this?" Fitz asked as they approached the second boys' cabin.
"Gustavo Acosta and Eli..."
Tina hurried ahead before Theodora could finish. She hammered on the door, "Eli! Eli, it's Ma! Baby?"
Fitz gave Theodora a sickly look. She quickened her pace, "Empty?"
"What do you fucking think?" Tina snapped, "He's gone, my son's gone, and his maniac cousin's on the loose."
"I'd wager they're all gone," said Fitz grimly, "All of them, taken and skinned alive, no doubt. I tell you, we must..."
"Ms. Hudson, we will find Eli," Theodora promised with a certainty she did not feel, "But we must keep our heads..."
"Don't you fuckin' talk to me about heads, you old bag. Give me the gun."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Give me the fucking gun, or I'll take it!" Tina advanced toward her.
"Do as she says, Kellerman," warned Fitz in tremulous tones.
"Calm yourself," Theodora chastised him, not looking away from Tina, "Ms. Hudson, I understand you're concerned for your son..."
"You're not a mother, you don't understand a goddamn thing. I've got to find him!" she leaned forward, eyes gleaming with a life seldom glimpsed there, "He's all I have! You hear me? He's everything!"
"And he won't be helped by his grief-crazed mother seizing a gun and running off to..."
Tina pounced, tackling Theodora to the ground. Hers is a wiry strength, fierce and quick, though Theodora proved no slouch herself, beating away at the younger woman as she struggled to get out from underneath her.
"No!" Fitz cried, dithering off to the side, "No, don't! Don't, you idiots! Curse you, the thing will go off, I swear it!"
"Do something, you useless moron!" Theodora gasped through the chokehold Tina had put her in.
"I'll fetch help!" and he ran off, leaving Theodora to call after him.
"Damn you! Damn you!"
Tina seized the gun, giving Theodora a sharp rap on the side of the head with the butt, "No hard feelings," she assured her, getting to her feet, gun in hand, and taking off after the specter of her son, leaving the Vice Principal groggy and moaning on the ground.
***
"What?" asked Howard, "Oh. Yes, of course, it's fine."
Phyllis was reluctant, looking from one man to the other, "Fine, then. But I'd like to let the record show I don't approve."
Still, she could see the wisdom in Dave's advice. Best to make sure everyone was safe before looking after those who weren't. It may well be that Brooke and Emma weren't the only...
"Maggie," she said abruptly.
Howard stops in his tracks, turning to her, "What of her?"
"It's only..." she bit her lip, "She's missing too."
Howard looked away, grimacing, "The same thought's crossed my mind. She...she went out after me, you say?"
Phyllis nodded, "But, Howard, I wouldn't blame..."
He ignored her, continuing down the line to the next cabin.
"Audrey's," though whether he was speaking to them or to himself was unclear, "Audrey! Audrey, it's Dad!"
He knocked on the door, sharp and insistent, peering in through the window. Phyllis caught up in time to see what he saw...
Aleks Martaine was in bed, lying atop the sheets. But the bed next to her, Audrey's, was empty and unslept in.
Howard had gone white as a sheet, breathing uncertain breaths, "N-no, it...it can't..."
"Howard, don't panic," Phyllis attempted, "We'll...we'll ask Aleks, she's Audrey's roommate, surely she must know..."
"Don't you tell me not to panic!" Howard reeled back, voice shaking with anger, "Not you..."
"Howard..."
"You manipulative wretch of a woman, just how long did you think you could get away with it?" he snapped, hard and sharp, lifting the gun with one shaking hand.
"Howard, please!" she understood now, understood what he must know, what he had found out...
"My daughter trusted you! Trusted you when she won't even trust me, and all this time you've been..."
A harsh, high scream echoes through the night. Phyllis's blood ran cold; she knew too well whose voice that was...
A bang! A nervous finger, startled by the cry, had pulled the trigger. Howard's gun went off in the same instant as he dropped it. Phyllis cried out, throwing herself to the ground...
The sleeve of her coat was singed, smoking. She looked up, wide-eyed and trembling, as the spiderweb cracks in the glass of the window where the bullet had struck.
"No..." the life seemed to have gone out of Howard, "No, I...I didn't..."
His legs went out from under him, sending him to his knees opposite her, the gun lying between them.
"I didn't..."
***
"There you are!" Brooke found it difficult to disguise her relief, which was very annoying, "You know how worried you had us? God, don't try anything like that again. Audrey only wanted to..."
A few things: the first, a report of gunfire, echoing clearer than the scream had. Brooke jumped at the noise, lost her footing (stupid fucking impractical footwear...), fell forward...
And through the ground. That is, the mossy earth beneath Brooke gave way the second she made contact with it, leaving her sprawling in some musty ditch, covered over with dried humus and assorted withered nature junk.
After coughing up the sufficient amount of dirt and bugs, Brooke took enough measure of herself to assess that she was not, in fact, dead, and then turned up to regard the other girls standing at the rim of what was now obviously a very poorly disguise hole, about six feet deep.
Six feet.
Of course.
"I can't even be surprised at this point."
-Tina, Theodora, Fitz, Howard, Phyllis and Brooke
Aleks screamed as the bullet struck the window, and she ducked down to hide herself. Her scream loud and terrified for the tie being, considering someone had just fired a gun at her window.
She really should have gone with Zach at this point, she wasn't safe in here right now.
"Zach!" She screamed out, holding the lamp against her as tightly as she could right now.
***
Emma gasped out when Brooke went falling in, eyes wide.
"T-that's a grave...."
She looked around, panicked, dropping down onto her stomach and holding her arms down into the hole as far as she could go. "Brooke! Grab on!"
She wasn't about to lose one of her friends.
-Aleks, Emma
Kieran furrowed his brow when Deanna continued her vows of revenge. She felt serious, much more than Kieran ever remembered her before Lakewood. Yes, she'd grown up these past few years, faster than any kid should.
But this, it didn't feel right coming from Deanna. She was the good one of the family. The one who shouldn't be tainted. Clark, Tina, Eli, Kieran--they were addicts, creeps, people filled with anger. Kieran was already far gone, but Deanna...it shouldn't be a concern.
In that instant, Kieran was brought back to Nat's last words.
"Alright," he prepared the makeshift bandages. "Here goes nothing."
Kieran applied the pressure...
***
"Peace, now, Howard!" Dave implored the pastor. "There's no reason to..." But it was too late, as he ducked to the ground to avoid the stray shot. He looked to Howard, who was clearly in shock of what he had just done. "Howard." Dave staggered over to him, steadily sobering up. "Maybe you should..." He cleared his throat. "Maybe you should give me the gun."
***
Leslie felt footfall behind her. Her instincts awakened.
"Not today, asshole!" In one fluent motion, she maced her would-be attacker.
-Kieran, Dave and Leslie