t w e n t y - t w o

_______________

AS THE movie credits begin to roll, Chad looks around at all of their friends, sleeping soundly from the incredibly long day they've had.

Sam was still at Danny's, a little too stressed to sleep.

Tara and Eli were cuddled up on the long side of the couch, while Mindy was curled on the love seat. Jamie and Ethan both were sprawled across the floor, somehow looking the most comfortable.

However, Alex was still awake, putting away all of the trash from their meal when he taps her shoulder.

Startled, she jumps, quickly relaxing upon realizing who it was.

"Jesus, man, don't scare me like that," she holds a hand over her heart, carefully placing the plates in the sink.

"Sorry. Can we talk?"

"Yeah," she nods, leading him into her room. "What's up?"

"I just haven't been able to stop thinking about what happened last night. You guys almost died. You know, one wrong move and I wouldn't have my sister or you anymore," he sits on her bed, clearly stressed. "And I ran right out the door."

"Hey, I'm glad you ran. I was so happy to see you guys get out of that apartment, even if I couldn't," she sits next to him.

"I know you're not upset, you're too you to be mad at that kinda thing. But I just don't want to be in another situation where I might lose you."

"You won't," she assures. "I've been training at the gym."

"Greg was a 6 foot tall man and Ghostface took him down," he raises his eyebrows.

"Okay, get up then," she gets into a fighting stance, earning a snort.

"I'm not fighting you, you could get hurt."

"You're scared," she mocks. "If I can't get you on the ground, then you can be my personal bodyguard."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he stands up, towering over her.

They circle each other for a short while, before Alex makes first contact.

They wrestle a bit, Alex landing a few harmless blows to his side when he grabs her arms, pinning her to the floor.

"Guess I'm your personal bodyguard," he smirks, and she narrows her eyes, using her legs to flip them over.

"Guess again," she tilts her head, smiling smugly.

"You're good," he admits, eyes drifting from her chocolate ones to her lips.

He hesitates before taking a leap of faith, smiling. "You know, I think there's one plus to the whole "we may die any second" thing."

"And what is that?"

"I can do this without worrying about the consequences," he grabs her face, kissing her.

It catches her by surprise, making her gasp, but almost immediately she eases into it.

As with anything she did, she feels that second voice in her head telling her this would get someone killed, but chooses to ignore it this once.

"I've been wanting to do that for an embarrassing amount of time," he admits as they pull away.

"Yeah, me too," she smiles.

"Wanna try again?"

"Please," she leans back down, lips closing on his while hands wander.

It felt familiar, and with all murder aside, it felt right.

So when his hand slides under her shirt, she doesn't pull away, but instead, pulls it off.

"You sure about this?" he touches her hips, eyes searching hers for any sign of doubt or hesitation. "What happened to your vow of celibacy?"

"I'm pretty sure you're not a psychopath," she chuckles. "And if you are, well, at least I can say I didn't die a virgin."

"Amen," he laughs. "Seriously, though. We don't have to do anything."

"I want to," she assures. "But preferably not on the floor."

"Right," he lifts her up as he stands, carrying her to the bed. "Where were we?"

"Right about here," she pulls his shirt off, delicate hands tracing the lines of his abs as she kisses him passionately.

_____

Meanwhile, Jamie opens her eyes, taking advantage of the lack of witnesses as she texts Gia to let her know she was on the way, and tiptoes towards the front door.

She grabs the keys to Eli's jeep as quietly as she can, slipping her feet into a pair of Uggs before sneaking out of the front door.

Of course, she misses the eyes watching her every move, already aware of her whereabouts from his sneaky swipe of her phone earlier.

As soon as she makes it downstairs, she gets in the car, speeding towards the apartments in order to make it back before her dad got there.

She looks up at the high rise in appreciation, knowing it was a place her dad would've moved them into if it weren't for them wanting to stay close to Tara and Sam.

She parks in the school's parking garage, luckily finding a spot near the entrance.

When she exits the car, she takes a deep breath, practically running out of the creepy building into the open campus.

She holds her pepper spray firm in her left hand, hitting the buzzer as soon as she gets to the front door.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Jamie."

"Come up," she responds, unlocking the door.

Jamie ignores the guilty feeling of doing the exact thing her family worked so hard to get her off of, especially at a time like this, in favor of silencing the chaos in her mind.

She takes the elevator to the 17th floor, biting her nails the whole way up. Even the music felt ominous tonight, playing an even darker version of Don't Fear the Reaper.

"Jesus, what happened to elevator music?" she furrows her brows as she steps off, knocking on the black door.

Gia quickly opens it, letting her in to her luxurious one bedroom. "Hey, come in."

"Thank you for doing this, Gi," she smiles. "I really appreciate it."

"Of course. I can't say I'm not shocked though. You don't even drink at parties," she shakes her head. "Are you alright?"

"Do you usually question your customers?" she jokes.

"The ones I like," she shrugs. "Is it the murders?"

"Yeah, it is. I just get really anxious all the time. I can't think or eat or sleep. I usually can handle it but the killer coming after us, it's making that ten times harder."

"I'm sorry," she grimaces, rubbing her arm soothingly. "Do you wanna stay here? You shouldn't go out this late."

"No, Alex and Eli would lose it if they woke up and I was gone. I'll be fine, I drove. How much for 20?"

"Uh, 60. Friends and Family discount," she hands her the pills.

"Here you go," they exchange, and Jamie lets out a breath of relief. "You are the best."

"Yeah, don't OD on me, dude. This stuff is clean, only the best of the best, but too much will kill you."

"Yeah, I'm familiar. See you in class, Gi," she winks, exiting the apartment.

"Be safe," she closes the door behind her, leaving her in the empty hall.

Jamie clicks the button on the elevator, taking two pills as it opens. Her phone rings once the doors close, and she answers, expecting it to cut out anyway. Much to her (un)luck, it goes through, Ghostface greeting her.

"Jamie, Jamie, you just don't learn," he taunts. "If you ask me, at this point, you deserve to die."

"Good thing I'm not asking you," she shrugs, angry at herself for not taking the stairs.

"It's a shame you helped Sam that night. Maybe I could've spared you."

"Yeah, right. Just cut to the chase. You wanna kill me, right?" she bounces her foot, not understanding why this elevator was moving so slowly.

"Of course, I do."

"Why? What did we do?" she tries to stall, texting Alex an SOS with a pin to her location.

"You don't get it, do you? Tell me, what is it like being the screw up of your family?"

"I wouldn't know," she gets nervous, waiting for Alex to respond.

"Sure. I wonder if your father will feel the same way knowing his daughter died tonight all because she went to buy drugs," he taunts. "Maybe he'll understand, everyone has their vices. Some kill, some drink, some get high, right?"

"Fuck you," she seethes, hanging up and calling Alex instead.

______

"Chad, wait, my phone," Alex reluctantly pulls away from the boy, hand reaching for the persistently buzzing device.

"Jamie?" she furrows her eyebrows.

"Alex, I need you guys to get me out of here. The killer, he's after me," she cries, letting out a breath of relief as the door stops at the first floor, pausing before it can open.

"Okay, okay, we're on the way. Where are you?"

"I'm at the Torrance Apartments- Ah!" she screams as the door opens to reveal Ghostface standing in front of her.

"Jamie?"

The girl was busy screaming as they push her back into the elevator, stabbing her shoulder. She clicks the 7th floor button in the fumble, trapping herself with the killer.

"Get off of me!" she shrieks, kicking them hard in the stomach.

"Shit, Chad," Alex jumps up, putting her shirt back on and tossing him his, rushing into the living room to wake up Eli.

Quickly she pushes him awake, startling him into annoyance.

"What the fuck, Alex?"

"The killer, he's got Jamie. We need to go now!" she shortly explains, calling 911. "Hello, I need cops and an ambulance to 652 Amity Way. There's a murderer trying to kill my sister."

"What?" he quickly loses his grogginess, putting on his shoes. "Where are my car keys?"

"They're not there?"

"No."

"Shit, we'll find them later. Grab mine-" she opens the door, screaming at the sight of the figure standing in front of it.

Relaxing when she realizes it's just her dad, she immediately gets back into her state of panic.

"I'm starting to think you're psychic," he jokes.

"Dad, we have to go now. It's Jamie."

"What?" he drops his bags.

"Let's go!"

______

Meanwhile, the girl in question continues to wrestle with the killer as best as she can in the enclosed space, sobbing at the blood soaking her hoodie.

They get the upper hand for a second, grabbing her hair and hitting her head on the wall.

"Oh," she groans, touching her head softly, her eyes widening at the killer's knife heading straight for her chest.

She grabs their arm before they can make it, pushing them hard. The knife clatters to the ground, giving her a chance to knee them in the stomach again, punching them in the face.

The doors open just in time, and she runs out, knocking on the apartments and screaming for help.

"Please, someone help, there's someone trying to kill me!"

With no success knocking on the doors, she cries, searching for a weapon.

Luckily, one of the residents, a blonde guy who seemed to be the same age as her, opens the door. "Is everything okay?"

"There's someone trying to kill me, I really need your help," she cries.

"Okay, okay, come in," he lets her in, beginning to close the door, but of course, Ghostface is quicker, kicking it open.

"Oh my God," Jamie sobs, running further into the apartment.

Before she can even blink, the killer stabs the guy in his neck, effectively killing him.

She runs into the kitchen, grabbing a pot and throwing it hard at the killer. It stops him for a second, giving her a chance to grab a knife and run into the bedroom.

ALEX

hurry
in apartment 7g
pls he's after me

we're coming j I promise

The Hosses make it there shortly after Jamie's text, rushing inside after a resident opens the door.

"She's on the seventh floor," Alex shouts, pausing by the elevator, but ultimately ending up choosing the stairwell.

Jamie slows her breathing enough as the killer enters the room, looking around for her.

Her eyes widen as she spots their boots directly in front of her, making a silent decision to fight.

She rushes out of the closet, stabbing them in the back harshly, before doing it one more time.

Not wanting to press her luck, she tries to run out of the apartment, instead getting grabbed by the killer and thrown through the glass door to the balcony.

She winces as she lands on the balcony, the glass shards digging into her skin.

Just as the killer plunges his knife into her chest and tries to push her off, Eli swings his bat at the killer's head.

Unfortunately, that makes Jamie begin to fall back, but in the knick of time, Ross grabs her hand, lifting her back onto the platform.

"I got you, sweetheart. You're okay," he assures, brushing her hair out of her face.

The killer gets past them both, running out of the apartment before Eli or Alex can catch him.

"I'm not," she cries. "He got me."

This alerts him to the wound dangerously close to her heart, steadily bleeding out.

"Dad?" she looks up at him, tears continuing to stream down her face. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize, this isn't your fault," his own eyes beginning to water, while he tries to put pressure on the wound.

"It is. It's all my fault."

"Shh, it's okay," he continues to rock her, spotting the ambulance approaching. "They're coming."

"We're up here!" he shouts down at the cops, who notice him, pointing the paramedics upstairs.

"We couldn't catch him-" Eli and Alex run back to the balcony, shocked to see Jamie's pale face.

"Dad," Eli doesn't take his eyes off of his sister, heart dropping at the amount of blood pooling around them.

"Jamie, you're okay, okay?" Alex crouches next to her, grabbing her hand.

"Then why are you crying?"

"I can't help it."

"I'm sorry I let you down," she coughs, blood pooling out of her mouth.

"You didn't let us down," Eli shakes her head.

"You never let us down," Ross continues to stroke her hair, trying his hardest to give her some comfort.

"Hey," she coughs again. "The killer-"

"He got away, but we're gonna find him, honey," Ross assures, but she frantically shakes her head, struggling to get the words out.

"No, the--"

"What about the killer?"

"Ch- Chance-" she coughs out before her eyes roll back.

"Jamie, no," Ross shakes her slightly, just as the paramedics run inside.

Alex lets out a haunting scream as the paramedics crouch down, having to be held back by a crying Eli while Ross crumbles next to her lifeless body.

They make quick work of checking her pulse, nodding to each other at the faint thumping in her neck.

"We gotta move now!"

"She has a pulse?"

"Barely," one loads her onto a stretcher, wheeling them out of the apartment.

Ross's phone rings immediately after, and he answers it angrily. "What?"

"Welcome to New York, Detective Hoss."

"Fuck you. We're gonna find you, okay?"

"Mhm, sure."

"And I won't rest until you, however many of you there are, are dead," he hangs up.

Somehow, Alex and Eli's night went from hopeful to whatever this terrible, dark aching feeling was in as little as a few hours.

One thing was clear: this killer needed to die and they'd stop at nothing to make sure that happens.

______

a/n: i confess the original draft of this did had a much bleaker ending but i couldn't bring myself to kill another mc 😭