"Imagine: you try and save Audrey from the killer which leads to an interesting revelation."

warnings: knives, murder mention

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The cool metal tip against the back of your neck could be described as anything but simple. Horrific, petrifying, nauseating, excruciating, torturous.

No. Not torturous.

The torture hadn't begun yet.

Then there was a twist; a sharp, mocking flex as the metal dug the slightest bit deeper. On one hand, if it were to press far enough, it could sever your spinal cord and you would find yourself without the use of most of your body. On the other hand, a different twist of the knife could be instantly fatal. Neither was specifically preferable.

With the incapability of doing a retroversion of your head, you stood standing in a haunting room, void of scent and emotion except for the calculated fear that your body wore like perfume.

You were sure of three things.

There a person possibly 5′5 standing behind you with a recently sharpened blade against your neck, most likely from a kitchen.

Audrey was not in the room as you had suspected in previous minutes.

One wrong breath, one sign of overwhelming fear and one sign of retaliation would be your cause of death.

It was as if the cold, bleeding walls had swallowed the night sky and spit out the stars, leaving you surrounded by complete darkness. They couldn't see you and you couldn't see them. Perhaps that was for the better. Perhaps, they would kill you and leave you there, not knowing who you were.

Perhaps, they wouldn't torture Audrey with the fact that they had killed her girlfriend. If you were going to die. Weren't you though?

And then there was a moment, no, a scent. Your senses were slowly coming back with an overwhelming truth.

You knew that perfume.

"Emma?"

The pressure of the knife was gone and you were pushed forward, your body lurching against a wall. Your palms hit cement walls with a slap meanwhile your head was reeling.

Then the silence began and ended so quickly you wondered if time was even happening in the abandoned building. You were only there to find Audrey... How foolish had you been to think that you could do it all alone?

You began to hear muffled screaming from nearby but you couldn't place who's screaming it exactly was. It was so inhuman, generating multiple disturbing images through your brain. Footsteps entered the room and you knew that the killer was back.

You were terrified to turn around, to see proof that who you once looked up to was pure evil.

"Why?" Perhaps the question was released from your lips because you knew that there wouldn't be a response. Perhaps it was because there wasn't any proper way to ask.

You turned around just as something hit the ground a few feet away. Your eyes had adjusted to the light just enough to the see an outline of a girl that you surely recognized.

"Audrey!" Along with her name went your breath, your lungs feeling as though they had collapsed.

The lights flickered on but you weren't looking at the figure by the light switch. All you could see was your girlfriend, left in a heap on the floor, seemingly lifeless. Audrey's hair was matted to her forehead with a mixture of sweat and blood. Her skin was sickly pale and there was slices covering her arms and bare torso.

The screams from moments earlier began to make sense.

Your eyes widened and you were absolutely livid. Emma laughed, her voice no longer disguised as the haunting villain that had been torturing your friends. She was just Emma. The breakable blonde with a steady group of friends who loved her.

She was loved.

And yet in that moment, the pure evil that curled around that blonde hair like smoke and burned in her dark eyes became very clear. It was the biggest betrayal of all to see her standing over Audrey like all your girlfriend was a doll, a pawn, a thing. It wasn't some righteous killing or sacrifice, her death meant absolutely nothing to Emma.

Your mind flickered to all of the times that Audrey had been there for the girl; from forgiving her to defending her. So many moments that you had witnessed where Audrey had shown true friendship to Emma and had deeply cared for her.

All of it had been for nothing. A one sided joke that Audrey had missed and paid deeply for.

But what really hurt was the laugh. It was like hearing a chime of carolling bells or singing birds in the middle of a funeral. It was just plain cruel. She was dehumanizing a beautiful person you cared for more than anything in the world.

Audrey wasn't just a doll.

"I suppose this is the part where I ask why again and you go into some long speech about injustice and the thrill of killing?" You'd seen enough movies, read enough books. Your mind spun, looking for a way out, a way to escape but Emma was still blocking the door. You had to distract her, try and get her to come close enough for you to dart around her.

Emma grinned and pressed the bloody knife against her cheek, smearing blood across her pale skin in the process. It looked as if she was cradling the knife, cherishing the deadly blade.

"Do you want to know something interesting? Life isn't a cult horror movie, Y/N. Not everyone has a good reason. Honestly," she said thoughtfully, twisting the knife so the sharp blade was pressing into her skin but not enough to puncture it. "I just had a lot of issues that I found a solution for."

"So murder was the first thing on your mind?"

She laughed again, biting her lip and showing off a dimple. It was absolutely sickening that she could look so calm, collected and joyful all at once. "Don't be silly, Y/N. When I went to the institution it was like a breath of fresh air. I didn't have to put up these walls anymore that Piper made almost impossible to keep up. They diagnosed me with a social disorder, telling me that my social behaviour in any type of setting is unnatural. I finally started learning to be myself once I accepted—"

There was a click in the back of your mind and you knew instantly where Emma was going with her little story.

"The manipulation, lack of empathy, social connection and desire to follow a social order? You were literally diagnosed as a psychopath and they let you out after you were introduced to a setting of murder?"

Though everyone figured that Noah was the horror genius, you had an extreme interest in psychology and the analysis of characters within films. Emma's "social disorder" was by the book psychopathy and you hadn't noticed it in her once even with all of your knowledge.

One thing you did know for sure was that being in the Piper situation would have made the doctors incredibly uneasy when treating Emma. Not every psychopath is a killer, but once introduced to the idea and faced with the opportunity, there is higher chance the diagnosed person would take it. Compared to a person that is not facing the illness.

"They loved me there! And anyways, I had no intention of killing until I came back and my fucking boyfriend started treating me like a broken beer bottle. What was I supposed to do? I played the hurt girl in need of love, I played the strong girl who cares for her friends, but nothing worked with him. So I started with Jake. I couldn't be obvious now, could I?"

"Are you going to kill her?"

That was where things became interesting.

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't dream of killing your little darling girlfriend. She's my friend after all. No, I'm going to kill you while making her watch. And then, when she's all good and ruined, I'll send her to the institution where I had to go. I think my favourite part of that plan is that everyone will believe that the poor, innocent blonde and her friend were attacked. The friend getting hit a little too hard in the head after watching her girlfriend get brutally bludgeoned with the back of a kitchen knife."

You glanced to Audrey once more and took a deep breath, your fists clenching in preparation. Emma sauntered over to you with an air of arrogance and her knife poised in preparation to harm you.

All you could picture was Audrey watching, hearing your screams as you had heard hers. The thought was sickening, your stomach churning while your entire body began to violently shake. When faced with a killer, you somehow kept yourself together.

But when faced with the possibility of destroying Audrey's life, things changed drastically.

"Fuck you," you exclaimed angrily, taking a step towards Emma as if you were the one holding the weapon, the power.

"Are you going to try and fight me for your girlfriend now, Y/N? Do you have the guts to even kill me? Personally I think you're a little too soft to be a kill–"

All it took was a swing of your arm and contact against the side of her body, throwing Emma's body so that she hit the wall, just as you had. Her shoulder smacked against the cement and her head made a cracking sound that echoed throughout your body with the feeling of an electric current. Emma stumbled, clutching her head and giving you the opportunity to grab her knife.

You brought up your knee and pinned Emma's stomach to the wall, pointing the knife at the base of her throat. She choked, gasping for the air that you wouldn't allow to fill her lungs.

She had been too arrogant, too confident in her ability to control the situation. No one could commit murder without something to drive them. Emma had absolutely no reason and that was her fault. She didn't want to win badly enough.

Behind you was your girlfriend. The one who held you at night and whispered about how much she was thankful for you, the one who bought you small gifts and sent you videos just to remind you that she loved you. No one was going to take her away from you.

"Now look bitch," you hissed, pressing the tip of blade to Emma's smooth, unmarred throat. She flinched but showed no sign of fear or surprise. That only made it easier for you. "When it comes to my girlfriend, I have the guts to do anything."

You were going to win that time, and there wasn't a single chance that you were walking out of that abandoned building without Audrey Jensen in your arms.