CHAPTER THIRTEEN
( ! the witches hand ! )

THEY MISSED IT. James and Ziggy ran up to the front of camp right as the bus passed the Camp Nightwing sign. It didn't even stop to grab them as it drove past, many campers being able to escape any certain doom the ones forced to stay would inevitably face. "Fuck!" James cussed, throwing his hand through his hair in both anger and anxiousness. He had no clue how they'd get out of this one now.

Ziggy noticed Tommy coming towards them much quicker than James did but once he did, that puking feeling quickly came back and the two were sprinting off again.

They ran into the Mess Hall, Ziggy locking the door quickly after James was safely in. "What are we going to do?" James questioned quickly, watching as Ziggy looked around the room in fear. She didn't respond, her eyes only grew before Ziggy ran towards the mixtape player and hit play. Wayward Son began playing and James knew if he made it out of this he'd never play that damn song ever again.

She ran into the back storage room quickly after that, James following immediately. He looked at Ziggy, very concerned. "What the actual fuck is the reasoning for leading him right to us?" Ziggy didn't respond, she just locked the door behind them and pulled James into the very back corner before hiding more to the front with a knife in her hand.

Tommy suddenly came smashing through the locked door, said lock seemingly not even standing a chance against him now. He looked down and saw the bloody footprints that lead him straight to Ziggy and James.

James turned his attention to an escape plan, looking around the room quickly for help. He then noticed the air duct directly across from him near the floor, unscrewing each screw as fast as he could.

Tommy began wiggling the doorknob, trying to get in. He quickly gave up on that, though, and resorted to hitting the door with his axe over, and over, and over again. The constant swinging continued until the hole was big enough for Tommy to reach his hand through and unlock the door from.

James only had one screw left. He took it out as quickly as possible before setting the cover down. James turned back to Ziggy, ushering for her to crawl through with him. The air duct was a tight fit for James, meaning Tommy wouldn't be able to get through it and wherever it led would be away from him.

James crawled through, assuming Ziggy had began following him. He knew he couldn't turn back. Literally as he didn't even have enough room to turn his body without it getting stuck. James crawled as fast as he could while still being quiet.

But that was when the music stopped and he suddenly heard Ziggy screaming and grunting. "Fuck!" James mumbled to himself, finally realizing she definitely hadn't been following and was instead attacking Tommy.

James quickened his pace and found the other side, seeing it was the kitchen, which was just a thick wall away from the storage room. James began slamming his shoulder into the air duct cover to push it off. He wouldn't be able to get out any other way as the unscrewing had to be done from the outside.

He continued slamming against the cover even harder after hearing Ziggys screams, and when he realized he also heard Cindy somewhere, the slamming quickened and got harder.

James felt the cover begin to pull out of the wall, meaning the screws were coming loose. He gave one last hard shove and went tumbling forwards and out of the vent. James crawled out, looking around and seeing an open knife drawer.

He heard banging far too close to be Ziggy and Tommy so James quickly looked to the vent on the floor, shockingly finding Cindy slamming her feet against said vent cover. "Cindy!" James exclaimed, bending down and quickly beginning to use the knife to finish unscrewing the bolts for her. "James! Thank god."

Finishing the unscrewing, James quickly threw off the cover and grabbed Cindys hands, pulling her up and helping her out of wherever she had come from. "Come on! We gotta get back over to Ziggy!" But he didn't even have to move.

Cindy was right behind him, the two getting scared when Ziggy came from the other end of the room, not even noticing them, with Tommy above her as she crawled. James gasped when he saw Tommy, now with some sort of bag over his head, towering over a crawling Ziggy with his axe held up high.

Cindy, in an act to protect her sister, ran forwards fast, stabbing Tommy right in the back with a knife she too had gotten out of the drawer with many knifes. Tommy turned around, looking right at Cindy but it was as if he didn't recognize her at all.

Cindy stopped for a second, lip quivering, before she slammed her knife down into Tommy's chest, right around his heart. "Fuck... you!" After the second stab, Tommy fell to the floor.

Ziggy looked up at her sister, panting. "You swore!" Cindy, also panting, looked down at her sister. "It's becoming a habit."

Cindy dropped her knife fast as Ziggy laughed a bit, the sisters pulling each other into a hug while on the floor. They sobbed into the others arms before Ziggy pointed something out. "You smell like shit."

"Yeah, that's because I'm covered in it." Cindy replied, making Ziggy push her older sister away. "Oh god." Cindy looked down at her polo shirt. "Do you think it'll wash out?"

Ziggy laughed a bit. "You might need to buy a new polo." They both chuckled and James once again felt awkward but this time not for their arguing, but sister moment. "Im so sorry, Ziggy. I'm... I'm sorry I wasn't here, not just tonight, but every day." Cindy cried.

Ziggy shrugged. "No, you were. You just—" Cindy shook her head. "No, no. I haven't been here. I know that now. I know that you just needed me to listen, to hear you. I thought if I just put my head down and followed the rules, everything would be fine, that I'd get out of Shadyside, but... but now I know you were right. Everything is cursed."

"I could have been nicer. I could have been less of a... of a monster." Ziggy replied, taking part in the blame for why the sisters stopped acting like sisters. Cindy shrugged. "Yeah. Well... you were my monster. And at the end of the day, Mom, Dad... Shadyside, Sunnyvale, I..." Cindy grabbed Ziggys face. "I won't let anything pull us apart again. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear, ma'am." Ziggy replied with a smile. A distant bang destroyed the mood and everyone turned their heads quickly. The banging continued, coming out of where Cindy had once been stuck.

James walked towards the noise, one knife in each hand as Cindy quickly got up and stood next to him. The two looked down in the hole, anxiety feeling like it was dripping from their pores.

But James let out a sigh in relief when it was only Alice, smiling up at Cindy. "Hey, snitch!" Cindy sighed. "What took you so long?" Alice began trying to get out, grunting as Cindy ran forwards and tried to lift the girl up. James quickly helped, making the lifting process much easier and then helped to get Alice to her feet.

Cindy and Alice smiled at each other and James, once knowing Alice could hold her own, moved back over to Ziggy. "You okay?" He whispered, moving her arms around and checking to make sure she wasn't bleeding. Ziggy just smiled and pulled her best friend into a hug.

James hugged back quickly, neither wanting to leave the others grasp. "You should get out of here. For Mary-Jane and your kid." Ziggy whispered, still holding onto him as if when she let go she'd disappear. James couldn't do that though. "I'm staying here, with you. We promised to always be there for each other so let me be here for you."

Ziggy remembered the moment. They were around 7 or 8, playing on the playground. There were a few of the other boys picking on Ziggy, they had been James' friends at the time. She remembered how he stood up for her, loosing the friendship of all the boys in the process. But he didn't care, he would have rather been friends with Ziggy than any of those guys.

So for the rest of the time she was there, he played with her and the two had a lot of fun. Before she left, she had made him promise her they'd always be there for each other no matter what. He had agreed and now it seemed more than ever that James would be sticking to his promise.

"You did it." Alice noticed, seeing Tommy's body laying on the floor. Cindy looked Alice right in the eyes. "We did it." Cindy then quickly wrapped Alice in a hug but was stopped even quicker. "Okay, careful, okay? This things like a million years old."

"I bought that a month ago." Cindy replied, confused. James pulled away from Ziggys hug and quickly just sat down next to her, watching the two older girls. "No, I'm not talking about your stupid bag, genius. "Blood will fall." Satans stone, okay? It was right there. All this time, buried under the moss, and I found it. I fucking found it." Alice smiled, knowing she could end it all.

"Found what?" Cindy questioned. Alice just chuckled. "Three guesses." Alice then walked right past James and Ziggy, a bit slowly with her broken leg, and took a seat at one of the mess hall tables.

Cindy, Ziggy, and James all followed her quickly and each took a seat of their own, Ziggy now next to Alice as James and Cindy sat across from them. Alice then pulled out a hand, well more like the bones of the hand, and carefully placed it on the table.

"What? What is it?" Ziggy questioned and James looked at her a bit confused. "Ziggy... it's a hand." Alice looked to James. "Not just any hand... it's Sarah Fier's lost hand."

James quickly moved his own hands as far away from that hand as he could, not wanting to even accidentally touch it. "Nurse Lane... she spent her entire life looking for this. A way to stop the curse that took her daughter." Cindy gasped out, terror and sadness both evidently written on her face.

"Without her hand, her grip on the land holds firm. The curse will last until body and hand unite. This led us to the hand bone. And if legend is true, that means her body's still buried—" Alice explained, part reading off the tale part showing Ziggy the book that once belonged to Nurse Lane.

"By the Hanging Tree." Ziggy finished for Alice, causing the other girl to nod quickly. Cindy stared forwards at the hand. "We can end this. No more murders, no more curse, no more..." Cindy then looked back at Tommy, who was still lying on the floor very much dead. "Pain." Cindy continued. "We can save Shadyside... tonight!"

Ziggy then pulled the hand towards her, wanting to get a better look. James watched her closely and when he saw blood begin to fall from her nose, he quickly went to reach for her but the blood hit the hand and he watched as Ziggy threw herself back a bit with her eyes wide open.

Cindy grabbed Ziggys hand, pulling her out of that state and Ziggy began wiping her nose quickly. "My nose... I bled on the hand and... I think I just saw her."

"Who?" Cindy questioned quickly, getting extremely nervous. James brought his hand back down to his side, now more than ever wanting to keep it away from that severed hand on the table.

Ziggy looked up at Cindy, breathing heavily. "Sarah Fier. She was... she was angry." Alice looked down at the hand and nodded. "We have to bury this thing... right fucking now."

AUTHORS NOTE!
hi again! I literally have one chapter left to write of this movie that's crazy I'm gonna finish this one in less than two days.

anyways super excited for part three I already have some simon and annie (but like as whoever they are from the past) ideas and it's gonna be great.

here's this graphic I made of them last night because I have a pinterest board for fear street and have a section dedicated to simon and annies relationship.

hugs and kisses, me

also MAJOR blood and gore warning for the last chapter and be ready for some pain along with a warning of mentions of self harm

AND FINALLY FINALLY GUYS NEXT GIF BE SO PROUD OF ME BECAUSE I EDITED IT MYSELF AND IM PRETTY PROUD