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Chapter 6: Child's Slay
Tracy was busy staring at her phone, sending a text out in impatience for the time being.
What's the plan...I am sick of all these idiots running around.
She sent the text, lifting her head when she saw Drew running around.
"If it isn't the prodigal son..where have you been?"
Drew
He would comb his dark brown locks back with his his fingers and gave her a flirty smile, his piercing blue eyes, looking into her own,
"Can't I go take a shower so I smell nice for you?" He asked, grazing his fingers down her arm.
"What are you scheming?"
Deanna held it out towards him, "You can have it, I'm too high as it is."
She looked towards the woods a moment, "Hey...can we talk? Walk with me?"
Her head nodded towards the woods, as she passed him the joint and started to walk into the woods.
This was her moment, the one Kieran had helped train her for right now.
She could get her revenge on him for what he had done, and she would indeed, right now.
Tracy looked up at him, shrugging her shoulders.
"Plotting the next gruesome moment of our tale."
An idle shrug as she looked at her phone, wondering if the killer would text her back or not.
"But its in the air right now...whether or not whether I'll get a response."
Drew
"Maybe.." He would sigh, and take her hand into his own,
"..Maybe, you shouldn't be fooling around with this stuff, maybe you should leave it alone before you get caught, or worse, before it gets you killed."
"Don't really see that there's much to talk about," replied Lance, taking the joint and giving it a mighty hit.
"Why should I?"
"That was...months ago," Brooke said softly, "I..."
That week...
That week she'd brought Stavo to Bridget's party. She'd let him hold her as she reeled from that doped punch. She'd let him comfort her when she thought she'd killed Seth. She went along with him to bury a man in a landfill.
She had fallen in love without wanting to, in the midst of grief and hatred and fear and a dawning realization that she did not, and might not ever, know what she was truly capable of.
"I knew him all this time," she said at last, "You hated that I was with him, you tried to keep me away from him, you did everything, said everything, made all those accusations..."
She took a step closer, "And you never told me. You, with your love of contrived coincidences and shady backstories, you let me fall in love with a stranger!"
There were tears warming her eyes, "Why, Noah? Why didn't you say anything?"
***
"At this rate, it may just be all we get," said Theodora grimly, "Ah, well. My pension's barely anything anyway."
And she started off down the road, after the bus.
***
Rachel pursed her lips, "I'm here because I was invited, Audrey," she looked past her to Ted, "Don't tell me you're deciding to swing that way? At least pick somebody with some meat on him."
***
"Sometimes," Fitz said, with some reluctance, "I wonder whether my other son is just a figment of my imagination. Some specter I conjured to replace Terrance."
He realized that this poked a gullet-sized hole in the story he'd put about when this all began and decided to hell with it.
"I lied to you all before," he said at last, "Drew wasn't at some boarding school all these years. He was living some bohemian existence among the punk trash of the California badlands. I didn't even know he existed until two nights ago, and I remember his mother only as a shadowy regret in a long line of self-recrimination."
He chuckled, "He claims he sought me out when he learned what had become of his brother. Thought he'd finally claim the legacy that had been denied him. What a damnably cruel joke, isn't it? I can't decide whether they would have been bosom companions or bitter enemies. But I know, somehow, that it was Terrance who sent him. For me. A punishment, or a penance."
He turned to Evans, "What do you need repenting for, anyway?"
-Brooke, Theodora GoR and Fitz
Tracy pulled her hand back, shaking her head.
"I don't follow orders well."
She commented, before she looked at her phone once more.
***
Deanna sighed, stopping ahead of him at the entrance to the woods.
"Because I want to apologize...for how I acted, and I would rather not have an audience if anyone decided to come out..."
She said, frowning as she looked over her shoulder at him a moment.
-Tracy, Deanna
Aleks looked up at Ryan and Zach, they were going to make it.
"We can get help...its up to us."
She said solemnly, holding the gun in her lap and Zach's hand in hers tightly.
"Zach...are you alright?"
She lifted her head, despite the blood and grease covering her face and hair, she still had a slightly fearful look on her face.
Dave looked Fitz in the eye, the weight of the question clearly disturbing him. "What I'm repenting for?" He looked away, getting lost in his own self-reflection. "A lifetime of mistakes. I should have been more attentive to my wife when we were married. I should have tethered myself to reality rather than just write on mere flights of fancy, meaningless scribbles of nothing. I should have...should have...protected my daughter...oh, God!" Dave began to sob copiously, burying his face in his hands.
Lance thought about it, and said, "Why not? I'll hear you out."
He wouldn't take her back though. No sir.
***
Teague shook his head and started following her.
"What were you saying, before that happened?"
***
"Is that why you keep coming back? And no, I'm not swinging that way!" Audrey pinched her nose. She looked like a damn fool...
"So...are you talking with her ghost, or..." The giant looked confused. Great. Just great.
"Yeah, I talk with her ghost. She can be very vindictive."
Deanna felt her heart jump a moment, but kept her face solemn as she walked into the woods, towards Kieran.
She stopped when she thought they were far enough in, far enough away from everyone else.
"Sm--, no Lance..."
Her start was shaky, as she turned to look at him for a moment before lowering her gaze.
"I know that what my brother said pissed you off...and I'm sorry that I said those things, I'm not the best person in the world..."
Sure she was damaged, she knew that, and this was the utmost disgusting thing she had to do, but it would be worth it.
"You're right. It did piss me off," Lance crossed his arms, taking a mighty hit.
Deanna sighed, looking at him.
"I'm sorry...I say the wrong shit when I'm heated...you know this, and I was so upset that they were going to off my brother..."
She sighed a moment, running a hand through her hair as she looked at him.
Noah
It killed him to have her feeling all this anguish at once, but at least now she knew the truth. The truth about Stavo, the truth about him, about how he kept this secret, buried for him to know, and only him. Still though, she couldn't blame him for not telling her, she wouldn't have even accepted it back then.
"Because you didn't want to hear it!" He yelled a vein protruding from his neck, "You wouldn't have heard it, and you didn't want to, and...." He sighed, taking a breath, before uttering words he wished he didn't have to say.
"Because you needed him, he was the one that you decided would help you move on from Jake, not your friends, not counseling, him."
He looked down, and back to her, his voice low, small, hollow.
"Because you're fucked up Brooke, you don't care about anything except what you want, not your friendship dynamics, your parental relationships, your grades, not even what's healthy for you matters, unless it matches what you want in the moment."
***
Drew
He scowled,
"It seems like you take orders just fine from whoever's on the other end of that phone, on the other side of that dumb ass mask."
He had a cold, empty look in his eyes,
"not to mention from Terrance, I've already heard how you were his pet."
Tracy felt her eyes go dark, and she reached out and gripped her hand around his throat.
"Don't you ever mention Terrance like that to me again..."
She snarled darkly, looking into his eyes with a dangerous glint.
"Go on," Lance wasn't buying it. Something wasn't right here...
Drew
A smirk formed, and a spark of excitement gleamed in his eyes, as he grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand from his throat, with a heave.
Her nails had left marks on either side of his neck, and he kept a hold of her wrist,
"You may scare everyone else here, but I see the real you." He said in a sharp, unsettling whisper.
"You're just a scared little girl crying in the rain, trying to get so fucked up she can pretend her best friend...Her first love, is still alive."
"Your daughter?" Fitz exclaimed, maybe too loudly, "What, is she dead?"
He paused, "Dead as my son is dead," he sighed, "Yes, I suppose that is a raw deal. But, Evans, I can't imagine there's any glory to be won if we blamed ourselves for every wretched thing that happened to our children. Believe me, I've tried, and it always ends in the same murky muckpit."
***
"Alright?" Zach repeated, "I mean...yeah, I...I guess I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?"
He attempted something like a reassuring smile, "It's...it's only..."
"There!" Ryan leaned over the wheel, "Up ahead."
The bridge they'd crossed to arrive at this place yesterday loomed out of the mist ahead of them. Ryan moved for the gearshift, slowing the bus only slightly to compensate for the change in terrain.
"Aleks, I...there's just...seeing you...doing that, yanno, crawling into all that goo and...people juices, I guess...God, this is stupid..." he sighed, "I guess it just brought home that I'm kinda...useless."
***
"Damn if I remember, Edward! I was just distracting myself!" Theodora didn't break her stride, chasing after the bus, her sensible shoes clacking on the pavement, "I am not letting those ingrates get away! Dammit, don't they give a damn about their own paltry, miserable lives?"
***
"Audrey, I've made this clear once, I've made it a thousand times...I'm here because you invited me. If you didn't want to see me, I'd be playing blackjack with Maya Derrin and John Cassavettes."
***
Brooke reeled back, eyes wide, "I could slap your eyeballs out of your sockets, Noah, but frankly, I'm tired and you're not worth the trouble."
She shook her head, "Who are you to tell me what I can and can't know about the man I let into my life, time after time, even when you told me to let him go? Don't you dare paint this as you choosing to be the bigger man. We're both too smart for that bullshit. You wanted me to leave Stavo, but you didn't want me to blame you for it, so it all had to be convenient, it had to fit, it had to match the narrative. If I was ever gonna find out, it'd have to be when things really started turning to shit anyway and I needed just one little push to finish the sale, don't you for once tell me you covered your ass because I'm 'fucked up'!"
She stepped back, shaking her head, "And maybe I wouldn't be if, for once, the people I trusted would do me the same favor."
She pressed first one notebook, then the other into his arms with enough force to send him shaking, "Take them. They've done what they were created to do."
-Fitz, Zach, Ryan, Theodora, Ghost Rachel, and Brooke
Deanna sighed, shaking her head as she allowed a few tears to roll down her cheeks.
"I'm serious..I screwed up, I got caught up in the idea that my brother would take me with him...protect me..."
She took a step towards him, stopping right in front of him.
One hand reached up to scratch at her shoulder, where the tape was and loosened it until she felt the knife slip into her palm.
"But where is he now? He up and left me again...I'm alone and I'm scared...I don't want to die..."
***
Tracy felt her eyes burn with anger, and her other hand reached up to slap him across the face.
"Your a filthy person...and you don't even know Terrance..."
She wouldn't stand for this, not one bit.
***
Aleks looked at Zach, reaching up to place a hand on his cheek.
"Your not useless...you pulled me up and got me out of there...you helped me with my feet..."
She shook her head, leaning in and pressing her forehead against his.
"I wouldn't be here without you...I don't want to lose you Zach..."
This was her moment, and she leaned in and kissed him.
-Deanna, Tracy, Aleks
"Clearly not, Theodora," Teague replied. For such a short woman, Theodora certainly could run as fast as she needed to.
"Come back here, you little shits!"
He looked to Theodora and said, "I will P.T. their sorry asses until Hell itself freezes over!"
***
Audrey closed her eyes and said, "Just get it over with."
"What are you talking about?"
"Go ahead. Call me crazy. I know everyone else in school does. Crazy Audrey Gail Jensen, everybody!"
Ted frowned. Audrey waited, but it never came.
"Why on God's Earth would I do that? You miss her. It's pretty clear," Ted shrugged, "Maybe she misses you so much, she visits you."
Well that was...completely in character with Ted.
"I miss her. Everyday, every single day, I wish she was still here."
Ted took a deep breath and asked, "You really loved her, didn't you?"
"Yeah. I still do."
Lance felt a hint of sympathy for her.
"Well you're not going to. But it's a little too late for us, isn't it?"
Deanna held the knife in her palm, looking up at him as she felt the tears dripping down her cheeks.
"Can we be friends...maybe? If your not against that..."
She stepped closer to him, gripping the knife tighter as she prepared herself for the moment at hand.
"Maybe. I'll need to think about it."
Noah
Noah's whole body was trembling as she shoved the books into his arms, he let them drop as he pointed a shaky finger at her.
"At least I'm not getting Fucked by a sociopath murder suspect!" The poison dripped form his words, as he angrily berated her. tears, beginning to form in his eyes, but not because he was sad, but because he was finally going to tell her how he really felt about the whole situation, he would dig into his bag and throw her own profile notebook at her,
"Open page thirty-two." He already knew it by heart, he wrote it after all.
"Brooke Maddox has suffered a great deal, and yet appears not to be phased, even by the deaths that some hand in causing. It most likely stems from her childhood, growing up with a drug addicted mother who seemingly couldn't bother raise her own daughter, and a disinterested father, who expected her to be perfect, and keep a respectable image. I firmly believe that Brooke is not a suspect in the latest killings, if she survives, she will go back to acting as if they never happened after the killer is apprehended."
He let out a cold laugh, "And man oh man, was I right, huh?" He stared at her, "A week after Kieran was caught, it was all fun and games again for you miss Maddox."
"It doesn't matter that I kept this from you, you'll still forgive Stavo, and you'll love him...You'll love him right into his grave, just like Will, and just like Jake."
***
Drew
He held his face, and chuckled.
"Oh and you knew him so well, I guess he knew what a crazy bitch you were, that's why he didn't love you like you loved him, right?"
"You don't understand, Fitz!" Dave wailed, tears now flooding down his cheeks and into his beard. "I've lied. I've lied for so long and now the weight of the truth is crushing me, making me the weak specimen you see before you!" He stopped to breath, shakily exhaling. "I've told people for years that she died in a car accident. T-that I felt guilty for letting her go out on her own. That I should have been there." His cries stopped briefly, as he gathered the will to speak.
"But I was." Dave was looking into nothing but the abyss of his own past now, completely removed from the present. "I was there at the accident. I was there with her. Because I...I was driving the car, drunk as all hell. And she was having none of it, Fitz. She...she told me to stop. To slow down and I ignored her. I ignored my own daughter." He paused, hands shaking. "The next thing I hear is her scream as we crash through the guard rail and down to the forest." His eyes watering once more, he whimpered, "But she wasn't dead. No, Kathy...Kathy was dying. Slowly. A-and I knew when I saw my baby girl beaten, bloodied, broken...that I had killed her."
Dave's whole body trembling, he cried out, "I'm a murderer! I murdered my own child! Oh, God!" He wept and wept as he did that night years ago, finally having confessed his mortal sin.
Deanna nodded her head, before she quickly pulled out the knife and thrust it into his gut and upwards as hard as she could.
"Should think quickly..."
She pulled the knife out, and than brought it down into his shoulder just above his heart.
That was when she felt the blood splatter against her cheek, and she did something very uncharacteristic.
She smirked.
Because of the amount of weed in his system, Lance didn't feel the pain.
"What the actual fuck, Deanna?!"
Tracy snarled, reaching out and smacking him again, harder this time.
"Terrance knew where we stood, and he loved me in his way. I was fine with it."
Deanna ripped the knife out of his shoulder, and than rammed it down into his chest.
"I could never forgive you...for fucking my disgusting aunt."
She rammed it into his heart, and smirked darker.
"Go to hell."