CHAPTER FIVE
( ! every 16 years ! )

"IT DOESN'T MAKE sense. It's... it's not possible. Bullets didn't stop her." Sam freaked, sitting down on Deenas couch. Kate rolled her eyes. "Amazing observation."

Deena, pacing, quickly spoke as she looked to Simon. "Who the hell was that?" Simon locked the door before quickly turning towards Deena, far more freaked than she was. "How the hell should I know? She... I don't— she was hot! I don't know! The bitch seemed normal!"

"Yeah well, I hate to break it to you, but normal bitches don't bleed black fucking blood!" Deena replied, not having to think back much as the blood was still splattered on Simons face. "Well, she was hot and normal until she attacked me with a fucking razor blade!" Simon screamed back.

Annie sighed, walking back into the room with a wet washcloth in hand. She turned Simons face towards her own, giving him a small smile as she began wiping off the blood. Josh looked up at the mention of the razor. "Wait. What... a razor?"

Simon nodded as Annie continued to get the black blood off of him. "Yeah, for like old-timey shaving, or in this case, I guess, slitting her—"

"Wrists. She slashed her wrists." Josh finished and everyone looked at him confused. Annie stopped wiping away the blood as she became intrigued by what Josh knew. "Was she singing something? Was she singing a song, like an oldie... like an oldie song?"

"Jesus, Rain Man. How the fuck do you know that?" Simon replied, answering Josh's question which sent the boy out of his seat and down into the basement.

Everyone quickly followed, Annie noticed all the news paper clippings and photos on the wall first and watched as Josh pulled a certain one right off the wall.

Everyone else gathered around his small table and Josh quickly scooted his trash off said table, putting the paper on the table. "This is Ruby Lane." Simon turned the paper towards himself, looking at the girl. "The girl who attacked you." Finished Josh.

"Holy shit!" Simon replied, looking closely at his attackers photo. "She sang as she murdered her boyfriend, her friends, then she killed herself. Slashed her wrists."

"Jesus. Yeah, why didn't I see this on the news?" Kate questioned, the paper now facing her as she looked at it. "Because it happened 30 years ago. 1965."

Josh got up and went back over to his wall while Annie moved the article towards herself. He was right. The publishing year of this article was in 1965, but, Annie then couldn't understand how Ruby had looked the same now as she did back then.

Josh came back down, more papers in hand. "Ruby is one of Shadysides killers, just like Skull Mask." Josh slapped down a recent article that showed Ryan's face on the front and Annie bit the tip of her thumb nail as she looked at the photo.

"I mean Ryan Torres. Look, 1978. Sixteen years ago." Josh stated, now putting a Camp Nightwing article in front of the group and Annie gasped a bit. She had always ignored any stories of what happened at the camp, never wanting to know. And even now as she looked at the article, she wanted nothing to do with it.

That was until she saw his name. James Marks. It was written right between the names of the other fallen teens from the camp. Annie didn't understand how she knew absolutely nothing about her father yet from this article felt she knew everything she needed.

Was it that horrible to see the name of someone you could have loved in an old paper about their death? For Annie, just about as bad as it could get. She felt any details about who he was didn't matter because as the article stated, he was dead. It didn't matter who he was because he was gone.

It didn't matter if he might have been funny, or kind, or even a real ass. None of it mattered anymore and never would again.

"Masked psycho murders kids at—" Josh started but Kate finishes it for him. "Camp Nightwing. Yeah, my moms sister was there. That screwed my family up for a long time."

Annie nodded, trying to sound unbothered. "So was my dad. I guess you could say my family is still screwed up because of it." It was evident to everyone what a touchy subject it was for Annie, for both girls, so, no one added anything else.

Simon placed his hand over Annie's on the table, squeezing it lightly and slowly moving it off and away from the article.

"1950, Harry Rooker, local milkman slashes a bunch of housewives. 1935, Humpty Dumpty Killer. 1922, Billy Barker. 1904, Grifter guys girls, and on and on. It happens in Shadyside over and over. Normal people turn into psychos." Josh explained.

Simon grabbed a photo that seemed to be of a man with long hair and blood pouring out of his completely black eyes. "Jesus. Look at this guy."

Annie leaned her chin on Simons shoulder, looking at the same image he was. Josh sighed. "That's the pastor, Cyrus Miller. 1666. He was the first one recorded. He, um... killed kids and cut out their eyes."

"Shit." Annie whispered before looking up as Sam walked away from everyone, fast. Annie noticed she looked like she might puke. Deena quickly followed Sam, but Josh wasn't done.

"None of this is random. It's Sarah Fier. She's turning Shadysiders into killers." Josh stated, matter of fact. Annie rolled her eyes. "Bullshit. Sarah was probably just some normal girl who found herself in a bad situation she couldn't get out of. She wasn't able to turn people into killers."

Josh looked to Annie. "But she could." Kate looked at Josh. "Do you really believe that? I mean— no one actually thinks that this witch shit is real."

"Exactly." Annie stated, using what Kate said to help prove her point. Simon nodded. "Yeah, it's something babysitters make up to scare kids."

"No, no. Just listen to me. 1666, Sarah Fier was hanged for witchcraft, fact. But ever since she was executed, she's been possessing people, turning them into killers, to take revenge on the town." Josh explained.

Simon nodded. "It's like the nursery rhyme." Josh nodded in agreement, causing Annie to roll her eyes as Simon began reciting the rhyme. "Before the witches final breath, she found a way to cheat her death. By cutting off her cursed hand, she kept her grip upon our land. She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves."

"Yes, exactly. Don't you see what's happening to us? This is all proof. Shadyside isn't just some hotbed for psychos. All these massacres are connected to Sarah Fier. The witches curse is real!" Josh finished. "Bullshit!" Annie replied but was met with a look from Kate telling her to stop. "Fine. Let's assume that the witch has been possessing people for some sort of messed-up vendetta. This isn't the same as the mall massacre. Something different is happening to us. Something way worse. Okay, we have two of her killers after us and both of them are dead. Why is she so mad at us?"

"I saw her."

Annie turned her head slowly to Sam, who now had new clothes on, and looked at the girl confused. "Last night, I don't... I don't know, you know. I thought I hit my head... it was... it was her. I saw the witch."

Annie nodded, feeling like her head was going to explode. "Yup. Perfect. This is great, guys really."

THE GROUP WAS now back where it all seemed to begin, where Peters car had crashed. They were now walking towards the crash site after leaving the ambulance open and running for when they got back.

Annie was walking behind everyone else, a bit in her own world. She couldn't believe the logical conclusion the group had got to was possession and witch bitch, but here they were. And she also couldn't believe she was spending so much time thinking of her dad.

She just wanted him and Sarah Fier out of her head.

Josh noticed the tall brunettes slower pace and held back a bit. He looked at Annie, he had been meaning to ask but found it had slipped his mind while the realizations about Sarah had been coming in. "Hey Annie... I've been thinking about this and kind of wondering. You didn't care Simon went up to some random girl because he thought she was hot?" Josh would be lying if he said he expected the reaction Annie gave. He had expected her to possibly ignore Simon, not help him clean up and stay near hims

Annie looked back at the boy, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean— she was. I would have done the same thing, honestly." Seeing that Josh no longer had any questions, Annie walked forwards a bit and was once again finding herself walking alone with her thoughts.

The group made it and Annie was a bit surprised to see Peters car still there. She had expected someone to tow it away as the wreck had happened pretty close to Sunnyvale.

Seeing a skull right behind the car definitely didn't ease any tension for anyone as they edged closer to the car. Sam went in front, walking right back to the side she had been on and beginning to reenact what had happened.

"Okay, so I fell out of the car... here." She was now on her hands and knees, crawling forwards slowly. "I was crawling, and my nose was bleeding. And then... I feel something." Sam pulled up and a chain came up with her.

She kept pulling, and everyone gathered around. "Chains?" Kate questioned but Simon seemed to realized what was happening. "Oh! Not just chains." He shined his light straight down and Annie's face scrunched up at the somewhat decayed human skull that now sat in front of them.

Josh pulled on the other end of the chain a bit and more bones began showing themselves. Josh grabbed the lock at the end of one side of the chain. "Fier. It's her. It's her grave."

"Oh no, no. No! This is bad! This is really bad!" Simon freaked. Annie just looked around at the bones, unable to comprehend that they just dug up the witch bitches grave. "No wonder the witch is pissed at us. I'd be pissed too. Sam disturbed her grave." Kate stated, giving Sam a not so kind look.

Annie pushed a hand through her hair. "Jesus fucking Christ." Josh sighed. "Now she's sending her henchmen after us."

"Henchmen?" Kate questioned. "As in every one of those sickos on your wall is coming after us?" Josh didn't get to answer Kate as the sound of a twig snapping caught his attention. "Did you hear that?"

"Hold up. Hold up. She's mad because we disturbed her grave, right?" Simon questioned and Deena just looked at him. "Yeah. So?"

"So, let's un-disturb it! Just put the bones back, rebury them, and put her to rest!" Simon concluded. Deena chuckled sarcastically. "No, that's so stupid!"

Annie looked at Deena. "It could work!" Deena turned her attention now to Annie. "Two seconds ago you didn't even believe Sarah Fier was a witch!"

Before Annie could respond, Josh spoke. "It's genius!" Simon nodded, pointing at Josh. "Yeah! In... in Poltergeist!" Another twig snapped and everyone's heads shot up. Kate looked at Simon. "Whatever. Let's just do it quickly so we can go."

Josh decided to be watch, leaving everyone else to help rebury the body. Simon, Annie, and Kate were all digging down as fast as they could, trying to make it deep enough so that Sarah was properly buried. "Deena, Deena! Find something to wrap her bones!" Simon instructed nervously.

Annie looked at Simon. "Do you really think this is going to work?" Simon looked back at her, the same worried look plastered on his face. "I fucking hope so or else I have no idea what we could do next."

Annie bit the inside of her cheek, nodding. It seemed obvious to her that she didn't want killers running around after her, she assumed anyone would feel the same. But, throwing away her skepticism for a short moment, if these really were the killers from the past, then Annie truly had no idea how to stop them.

It was easy enough in theory to kill someone living, even if the thought made Annie wanna puke, but it definitely seemed to already be being proven that killing a dead person was so much harder.

Deena came over to the hole Kate, Annie, and Simon had dug, holding a leatherman jacket. Peters jacket.

"Guys?" Josh questioned but no one was listening. Annie helped to lay the jacket in the hole as she really didn't want to start touching a dead girls bones unless she really had to. "Guys I think there's someone in the woods!"

Deena and Simon quickly shoved the bones into the jacket in silence while Kate and Annie wrapped the jacket around said bones. The moment felt far too tense to be joking around or even speaking.

Once nicely wrapped up, Annie and the others began throwing whatever was on the ground on top of the jacket, covering it up. "We need to hurry!"

Simon leaned over the newly buried spot. "There, there. We're sorry." Kate looked between her three friends. "Did it work?" She didn't get a response so she turned her attention to Josh and yelled out, "did it work?"

Josh also didn't answer and seconds later Annie knew why. One of the killers, the Camp Nightwing Killer, to be exact was running straight towards Sam.

Deena, Simon, Kate, and Annie all screamed when seeing the killer, all of them but Deena running away from the axe man. Annie found herself tripping through the woods going back to the ambulance.

Simon reached his hand out towards the girl and she took it fast, the two of them along with Kate still running far away from the axe murderer.

Sam, Deena, and Josh all caught up quick as they sprinted and once seeing the ambulance, everyone's pace sped up fast as they all hopped into the back and Kate went into the drivers seat.

Kate quickly turned the ambulance back on, Annie thought they had left it on but assumed she was wrong. She thought now they must have just left the light on and it turned off. Simon and Josh both quickly slabbed the back doors shut right as the axe murderer could be seen leaving the woods and running towards them.

Right as he almost got to the back, Kate slammed down on the accelerator and they were off.

"That was the Camp Nightwing Killer!" Josh gasped, looking back towards where they left said killer. "That was a bust!" Kate shouted from the drivers seat and Annie couldn't help but agree.

They had almost died again and the reburial didn't even work. Deena shot up from her seat. "Yeah, maybe because it's not like the movies, okay? It's not as easy as putting bones to rest!"

"It should have worked. It always works!" Simon freaked, still not understanding how his plan had failed. "Maybe it's her missing hand." Josh replied, theorizing why it hadn't worked.

Kate suddenly yelled out. "Who gives a shit? It doesn't matter. Hey, how do I not die?"

"We! How do we not die!" Simon yelled back towards Kate before turning his attention to Josh. "And I'm looking at you, witch nerd!" Josh, suddenly called out, stuttered. "I... I don't know!"

"Well can you figure it out because I'm with Kate. Dying isn't something I had on the list for tonight!" Annie shot back, feeling her nerves turning into misdirected anger.

"They're not coming for us!" Everyone turned to Sam at that, waiting for her to continue. "They're coming for me." Deena looked at her confused. "What?" Sam sighed. "I saw her again... the witch. She... I disturbed her grave. She wants me."

Josh, now realizing, nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nightwing ran right by me. I jumped out of his way, it was like he didn't even see me. He went for her."

"Then can we just throw her out of the damn bus and move on with our lives?" Annie questioned and was met with a sudden look of shock from Deena. "Annie! What the fuck?"

Annie sighed, she knew it sounded bad the way she said it. "I just mean— why do we all have to risk our lives because Sam messed up the bitches grave?" She sounded like an asshole, she knew it. But Annie didn't want to die.

"Guys, Annie, no! Ruby attacked Simon. Skull mask came after us at home. And went to your place Annie! And while you guys were babysitting!" Deena explained and Kate quickly pulled over and slammed on the breaks. "No, he didn't." Kate stated, coming to the back with everyone else. "Skull Mask didn't care about us." She grabbed Simons shirt. "He wanted this. Sams blood."

Deena looked down at Simons shirt. "What the fu..." Annie looked at the shirt, grossed out he still had it on. Simon looked down as well. "Yeah! From the crash when Sam puked period! It's Jaws, dude! A shark smelling blood! Kates right! When we found Skeletor, he was all sniffy and weird with my shirt like a perv in a pantie shop!"

"Yeah, but he came to our house too! Even Annie's!" Deena stated, she just didn't want this to all be Sams death. Kate looked down and Annie followed her line of sight. "Deena..." Deena looked down as well and saw it, Sams blood on her shoe.

"Sam bled on her bones, and now the witch wants more of her blood!" Simon stated frantically. But Annie still didn't understand one thing. "Then why did the asshole come to my house? From what I can see, I don't have blood on me."

Everyone looked at the girl and she was right. They couldn't see any blood. So, Kate grabbed the nearest flashlight and shinned it right in Annie's eyes. "Fuck, Kate!"

"Sorry."

She moved the light around Annie before stopping it on Annie's jacket. "Look." Kate spoke and everyone looked towards the bottom of the leather jacket. It was hard to see, but there in the light. The dried, red, blood was evident on the jacket. "Oh, gross." Annie muttered, taking her leather jacket off and putting it down next to herself.

But Sam was still stuck on the Jaws comment. "Okay, so what do they do in Jaws?" Kate directed her attention right at Sam. "Well, I'm pretty sure they didn't go skinny-dipping with the goddamn bait."

"She's not bait!" Deena replied quickly, sending Kate a side eyed look. Josh stood up suddenly. "Yeah. She is. Seriously, if we're right and they're after her... let's give these assholes what they want."

AUTHORS NOTE!
hello! I stayed up till 5am last night writing and only got to here so let's just say the book isn't done yet haha BUT it will be soon so I hope you enjoyed this chapter

also warning is: blood, swearing, gore, mentions of kissing (will not be writing smut but your minds can wander), and body explosions