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Chapter 7: Sons and Fathers
"Who knows?" Dave inquired seriously. "We just might be."
And so they were off on their journey.
***
Leslie opened the stockroom door, looking for the sideboard. "And it should be right...here."
No knife. Not a single sharp utensil to be seen.
"I should be used to this," she confessed. "The feeling of disappointment. But every time, it gets me. I swear to God..." Leslie looked around frantically. "Either Fitz was wrong or someone stole the knife. Great. Just fucking great!" She kicked a box out of frustration.
-Dave and Leslie
Carl's right eye twitched. He tried containing his rage, like he normally did.
But it didn't work, and he kicked another box nearby.
"Fuck! What are we supposed to do now?!"
Tina blinked at him, letting out a hoarse, throaty chuckle.
"Sure. Lead the way, Mr. Poet."
Noah
When he heard the way she spoke, he knew he had to stay with her, he had to show her there was always a way back from whatever darkness she found herself shrouded in.
"Yeah, let's go." he said softly and and oushed himself frim the tree. Like so many times befire, Noah found himself walking into danger, an emotionally fractured girl leading the way.
"I don't know!" Leslie snapped back, wringing her hands through her hair. "God, these teachers are so stupid! The killer probably snatched up the knife and went to work on another victim! FUCKING DAMMIT, PIECE OF..."
"Why, hello there!"
Leslie turned around from her rage to find that weirdo "doctor" standing in the door. "Um...hi."
Nicodemus beamed. "I'm detecting a lotta hostile energy comin' from here! 'S everythang cool?"
"Frosty," Leslie replied deadpan.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm," Nicodemus purred.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?" Leslie replied, her face red with anger again. "What does that mean?!"
"It means you're not as cool as you think," the doctor replied, still smiling. "Come 'round the main room. I'll be conducting a bonding ceremony!"
"Bonding...what?!" Leslie stammered. "But you don't even work for the school! You can't conduct fucking...ceremonies!"
"I conduct what y'all folks need," Nicodemus leaned with a loud whisper. "Community." He waved and headed off. "See ya there!"
Leslie blinked, very much confused. "WHAT?!"
-Leslie and Nicodemus
The twitch in Carl's eye grew. This fucking Hippie...wanted to do a fucking ceremony?
"This...this is why I hate hippies."
Leslie buried her face in her hands. "Normally, I'm respectful of all creeds and cultures, including this idiot's cultural appropriation of Eastern religions, as long as they don't hurt anybody. But this...this is a pain in my ass." She sighed. "I guess what else are we left to do? Maybe he'll hop us up on drugs and we can forget this whole thing ever happened. Fucking hell..." Leslie dragged her feet out of the room, defeated.
***
"So your son," Dave struck up conversation with the woman. "How is he faring?"
-Leslie and Dave
"Eh," Tina shrugged, "Best as I can hope, I guess."
She stomped on alongside him, feet squelching through the wet earth, "You know, he's a brave kid. Stuck on through a lot, despite a lot. Despite me," she shrugged, "I guess I ain't always been the most Mom, you know? But he don't complain, not as much as he ought. He pulls his own weight...helps out 'round the house, pays the bills, cleans up my pukes and other messes. Not a lotta kids'd do that. Maybe they shouldn't. But it is what it is, and he goes along. Sometimes, I gotta wonder why."
Carl stood there for a minute. Maybe two, contemplating his next move...
"Oh what the hell? Why not?"
"Ah," Dave nodded, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "So it's safe to say your son cares for you more than you care for him?"
"Well, excuse the fuck you!" Tina spat, "I love that kid! I was laid up for half a day popping that bastard out! Who did I have for help? No Daddy. My ma died when I was a kid, my Dad left. My brother had a stick thicker than those tree-trunk arms of yours up his ass. I had to take care of him. And I was young. And I coulda given him up...let me tell ya, I almost did. But I stuck with him, and I said I'd raise him. Because he was mine. Nobody else's. And I dug my heels in and maybe I fucked up more than a few times, but I love him..."
She sighed, "Don't know how he can love me back, but..."
She thought of him finding her in the woods, holding her steady, telling her not to give up, to come to her senses, not let go...
"I know he does," she shrugged, "Crazy world we're living in."
***
"You're out of your goddamn mind," Eli folded his arms, looking Langley over, "There's, like, only six people left."
"If it makes you feel any better, the ones not here might just be better off," interjected Brooke.
-Tina, Eli and Brooke
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Dave assured her. "I wondered the same thing with my daughter. Years and years of her taking care of me while I gave little in return. Miraculous, really, how she tolerated me for so long." He nodded solemnly. "When she died, I realized I never thanked her. She never knew my appreciation for what she'd done for me. Ever since, I've been left with a void in my heart because of that." Feeling the wind touch him once more, Dave affirmed, "Yes, there's truly nothing more important than family."
***
"A small family's still a family!" Nicodemus cheerfully replied. "I haven't been around you folks long but one thing for sure, you're definitely carrying a lotta bad vibes that need be unpacked A.S.A.P!"
Leslie and Carl entered the room.
"Wonderful! Y'all made it!" Nicodemus looked about the room. "That should be about everybody!" He paused, smiling at them. "Well, let's gather 'round now in a circle. C'mon! C'mon!"
Begrudgingly, Leslie took a chair and dragged it into a circle.
Nicodemus took his seat and smiled. "So. How's everyone doin' tonight?"
-Dave, Nicodemus and Leslie
Tina gave him a second look at the mention of his daughter, "Aw, fuck. I'm sorry. I remember when..."
Eli prone in the hospital bed, pale and prone and breathing unevenly. She got shivers just thinking about it. How hopeless it had felt, how empty, how...
"Not that it matters any or nothing," Tina said in a tone of forced casualness, "But what'd you think happens? Ya know...after you die?"
***
Brooke stared, "Peachy," she said, loudly and clearly, "Having a great time. It's also not nighttime, but we're all tired, so I guess it comes to the same thing, doesn't it?"
She looked around, "I don't get it, didn't we already try this ice breaker shit? I have distinct recollections of being strangled."
-Tina and Brooke
Dave gave the question some thought, as it was one he had often pondered in his lifetime. "I've always figured we'd join the sublime, become one with nature. Take, for instance, this fog. It could very well be made of the souls of those long dead. Or perhaps last night's rain. Or even...a gentle breeze." A smile came to his face then. "I don't think there's an afterlife, nor do I think there's an end. Simply a continuous cycle that feeds itself and creates this grand mystery that we call life."
***
"But honey, that's the paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast," Nicodemus informed the girl. "A lot's happened since then. A lotta fightin' and a lotta division, two things ya can't have in times like these. We gotta band together, expel all our toxic energy and truly be one with each other."
Footsteps as someone entered the hall.
"Ah! Another has joined us! Just in time!" Nicodemus clapped his hands together.
Stavo stopped at the sight of the circle, very much confused. "What's this?"
"A bonding ceremony!" Nicodemus explained. "C'mon, hop in!"
Immediately suspicious, Leslie asked, "Where were you, exactly?"
"Taking a walk outside to get the crisp morning air," Stavo replied flatly, sitting himself down. "My therapist once advised it."
"Indeed," Nicodemus agreed. "The outdoors present us with many natural energies from which we can extrapolate. I'd be doin' this outside if there wasn't a cranky kook killin' folks. Now," he clapped his hands together excitedly. "Are y'all ready to embark on a journey of love and discovery?"
Leslie repressed bile just then.
Stavo casually took out his sketchpad and started drawing, glaring Brooke's way.
-Dave, Nicodemus, Leslie and Stavo
"The fog..." Tina grimaced, "You telling me we could be walking in River Phoenix right now?"
Tina chuckled, "You know, I knew this guy once...he was a teacher too. We had some wild times. Talked a bit about dying... Little scamp was almost horny for it. But I say, if I'm gonna die, it's gonna be a real damn show. I'm gonna go out scrapping or not at all. Gotta make it worth it, huh? And then, well, wherever I end up, I guess I'll be happy, because I made something of it, you know? Maybe it don't mean much, really, but to me it's something."
***
Brooke turned to regard Stavo, feeling her eyes all-but bug out of her head.
"Oh yeah," she said distantly, "I'm just stoked."
-Tina and Brooke
"I've found, quite recently actually, to be quite the case," Dave replied with a smile.
What a day for introspective dialogue!
***
"Coolio!" Nicodemus cheered. "Now, first things first, we gotta connect our hands. C'mon, c'mon. Don't be shy!"
Leslie looked between Carl and Brooke with mild disgust before grabbing their hands.
Stavo sighed, putting his pencil down and taking Tracy and Eli's hands.
Having grabbed the scrawny boys' hands, Nicodemus began the proceeding. "So what I'm gonna do is squeeze your hand," he said to Tina's boy. "And you're gonna pass the squeeze to him, and you're gonna pass the squeeze on to her and so on and so forth..."
"Oh, c'mon!" Leslie complained. "Theater kids do this before a show. It's all a bunch of bull!"
"Not if you got that attitude! Now squeeze!" And so Nicodemus squeezed the boy's hand.
-Dave, Nicodemus and Leslie
Eli winced at the strange, inexplicably oily touch.
"Uh...I don't...I don't get it, what am I supposed to..."
"Just squeeze Stavo," interjected Brooke, "It isn't that hard."
Eli looked at Stavo, "Uh...okay."
And he, er, squeezed.
-Eli and Brooke
Emma slid down a small hill, still following the same prints. "Jesus, we'll never catch up with the killer now. Bastard couldn't have gotten that far away. Those bodies were still warm!"
Noah
Noah stumbled down the hill, occasionally having to stop himself from tripping on his own feet. However her words distracted him from that task and he tripped, with a groan. He picked himself up, and brushed off his clothes, before walking in front of the girl,
"Wait, what bodies?"
Emma, barely fazed by the question, suddenly remembered Noah didn't have the full recap. "Oh, right. We found Smoke and Deanna dead. Fresh. We found tracks that could be the killer's there, so...yeah, that's what we're doing." She called back to him, "Also, keep an eye out for Kieran. We're gonna use him as bait. Unless Kieran is the killer. Then, y'know. Two birds..."
Noah
Noah stopped in his tracks, pangs of guilt for previously judging Deanna as a suspect began to form, and the realization that Emma didn't even feel bad about them being dead set in.
"Emma...Do you even care?"
"And here we go again," Emma rolled her eyes. "Yes, I care, Noah. Sure, Deanna wasn't kind to me and Smoke was an idiot but they didn't deserve to die. Ghostface does. Ergo, I care about killing Ghostface. I'm sure Deanna would be appreciate being avenged. Wouldn't you?"
Noah
"No." Noah said, almost as fast as she asked the question. He wouldn't want to be avenged, not like that.
"I mean yes...I mean, I would want you to try and solve the mystery, not kill the person who killed me!" He said. In a way, Emma was just like Noah, she had one goal and would stop at nothing. Noah didn't care who he hurt, or what lengths he had to go to in order to solve the mystery. Hell like she said, he was out here by himself too.
He let out a defeated sigh, "Non of us are ever going to be the same again, I just...I don't want us to lose the part of ourselves that still feel the losses."
"Well, after you see so many people get killed, Noah, you don't just lose that part," Emma explained. "It gets taken. And if the thief dies, whose loss is it? Way I see it, I've spared a lot more innocents of that inconvenience. I'd be doing the world a service."
Noah
"But you would be doing yourself an injustice, Emma."
He looked at her and decided to make a bold move, considering her state of mind. He took her hand in his own.
"If you kill Kieran, you may lose that part of yourself forever, you won't get to take it back."
Emma turned at the feel of Noah's hand in hers. She glanced at the hardened killer in their midst, Pedro. Big, strong, a master at his craft, obnoxious but useful--is that she would be after the kill? With her little experience with the man, Emma actually somewhat dreaded it but the power was undeniable.
"I'll take my chances," she wrenched her hand from his grasp, glaring at her old friend. "Besides, Kieran's a side-note. Just bait for the new killer. My business is done with him. I bit his ear off to that effect." Upon saying that, Emma smirked despite herself. "Maybe I've already lost it." She was quiet for a while, lost in her thoughts. "We've changed a lot, haven't we? Weird mix of growing up and trauma, I guess." In that moment, it was as if Emma spoke as a normal teenager and not a tragedy-ridden wreck of a human.
Aleks shook her head, looking at him as she ran a hand through her hair and over her face.
"I'm fine, and Zach and I...we'll make it through all of this."
If she found him that was, she just had to find Zach first, than they could all get out of here safely. She looked over at Ryan, frowning a bit more before she looked down at the shore. "He made it right? I mean he isn't dead...he can't be..."
She was nervous enough, and not even sure if the gun still worked or not. "I have the gun still, but I'm not sure if it'll work from being in the water."
-Aleks
"What am I, chopped liver?" asked Ryan, tittering, "I get it. You did me enough of a solid not letting me drown."
He looked at the gun, "Probably. We were only under for, what, a couple minutes? You'll be fine... Look," he drew his own weapon, "Fun fact: you can shoot a gun underwater. Fuck knows why you'd want to. But you can. Might need some cleaning up after, but..."
He held the weapon up, "Care to test the theory? Fuck, maybe Zach'll hear the shot."
Or the killer would, but Ryan was feeling sufficiently daring after escaping what was essentially an action movie set piece.
He nodded to one of the stunted poplars on the rise a little above the riverbank.
"One...two...madeyalook...three!"
The shot rang out, clear and true, coming to rest neatly center-mass in the tree trunk.
"Ha!" Ryan cheered, "Now, if that was a person, I'd be going back to the hole, but I don't think we've gotta worry about ending up helple..."
There was a distinct rustling noise from the undergrowth. Ryan cocked an eyebrow, "Uh..."
Noah
He flinched at the yanking separation of their hands, and listened to her plan, it was good, crazy, but good.
"How do you even know that the killer will take Kieran as bait?"
"More than we could have ever expected." he nodded.
Aleks froze as she looked towards the undergrowth, moving ever so slowly towards it.
"You don't think..."
Perhaps she was heading towards her death, perhaps it was Zach. She could only look for the signs that maybe it wasn't something out to kill her.
"And your not chopped liver...we're alive, and right now we've got to find pour friend and get somewhere safe..."
She paused as she looked at the undergrowth, "Zach, is that you?"