"Welcome to Act Three."

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"Tara!" Amber yelled, barrelling Layla out of the way as she rushed down the chairs and straight into the girl's arms. Layla furrowed her brow a little with her new knowledge that Amber had secretly been in love with her on-and-off again girlfriend for god knows how long. Her eyes analysed the duo, flickering to where Sam was staring at her in curiosity at the vicious look that Layla was shooting towards the other teenager.

Layla rolled her eyes, pointing to Amber and making a heart with her hands. Sam's eyes lazily flickered to where the duo were still hugging, understanding what Layla was trying to make out. Sam also furrowed her eyebrows, not liking the thought of the girl that hated her guts for no reason trying to date her baby sister. At least Layla had previously had a reason for hating Sam - Amber just hated her because she could.

"What are you doing out of the hospital? Should you even be up and around?" Amber asked, even though Layla was certain that she had told them all that Tara had left with Sam. She shrugged it off as she noticed Tara's eyes look around until they found Layla's. Layla shoved through the teenagers that were standing on the staircase, confusion written across her face as she came face to face with Tara, Richie and Sam.

"I need my spare inhaler," Tara said, her eyes flickering to Layla as she expected the girl to pull it out and pass it to her. Layla's eyebrows furrowed, knowing for a fact that she didn't have the spare inhaler anymore. 

"Why? Where are you going?" Amber questioned, Layla scoffing a little as the dark haired girl shot her a sarcastic smile. If Tara noticed the extreme icy tension between her two favourite girls, she didn't say anything about it. They hadn't always seen eye to eye, so Tara just assumed they'd had another falling out as soon as any alcohol entered their system. "It's fine, don't tell me. I get it. Just be safe, okay?"

"Do you have the spare inhaler?" Tara asked Layla, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. Amber grimaced from beside them, causing Richie to hide a smirk as he noticed how clearly jealous the girl was. Sam noticed, elbowing him lightly in the side and silently telling him to knock it off before it just escalated the situation.

"No..." Layla started, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "I definitely put it in..."

"Don't worry Tara," Amber interrupted, swinging her arm around her friends shoulders and sending a fake smile in Layla's direction. "I haven't misplaced MY spare inhaler, I think it's in my room."

Layla muttered under her breath as Amber yelled to try and break up the party, trying to send everyone away so that her and Tara could go upstairs without anyone else getting in their way. Sam sent Layla a knowing look, wishing that she could be 100% certain that the girl wasn't Ghostface - or she'd have told her to get her stuff and just come with them as they left. 

She knew Layla was the least likely to be a Woodsboro serial killer after everything she'd been through but Dewey's words echoed through her head - Don't Trust The Love Interest. Tara had been the target of three attacks now, just like Sidney Prescott had been when her father had tried to attack her multiple times. She couldn't let her guard down, not when that much trauma had occurred to the girl in the past.

"Let's go," Sam whispered to Richie, nodding at the light switches behind him as her eyes flickered to the watch around her wrist. They needed to go - they'd been here too long already.

Richie took the hint, flicking all the lights on behind him and ignoring the annoyed groans of angry teenagers in the process. He narrowly dodged a cup that was thrown at him, raising his voice to try and get them all to clear out smoothly and quickly.

"Hey, hey, hey! Hello! Can we cut the music, please? Hi... Gen Z How are you? Both Sam and Tara here have been attacked by the killer twice! Now they're here, which makes this place
a huge murder target, so... if I were you, I would probably leave!"

No-one moved an inch.

"Okay, I tried to be nice. Get the f*ck out! Thanks, teens! Thank you so much!"

Layla stood in the foyer of the house as Tara and Sam followed Amber deeper into the house, while Richie wandered into the kitchen as he proceeded to round up the last few stragglers. She wasn't sure when it had been agreed that their core friendship group was fine to stay there, but she knew that there was no dragging Mindy away from the Stab movie that was playing on the TV next door.

Her phone buzzed once again in her pocket, causing her to role her eyes as she pulled it out to see multiple missed calls from Gale and Sidney. She knew they were just looking out for her, but she just wanted to have some time to relax before she inevitably got maimed by some murderous freak that probably had some vendetta against the Carpenter family.

'amber's house? where is amber's house - gale'

Layla rolled her eyes and chuckled a little at Gale signing off her texts to her. She had told the woman plenty of times that it told her who was texting her at the top of the screen, but she had always been adamant that she signed off her texts so that the girl knew it was 'really her' and not her assistant. Layla wanted to point out that anyone could sign off a text as -Gale, but chose to let her adoptive mother have her moment.

Rolling her eyes, Layla moved her phone back into her pocket without replying, heading to see where Sam had gone.

_____

"They stopped," Sidney told Gale as the duo continued to drive in the direction of the tracker that Sidney had dropped into Richie's car. Gale's head shot around to look at Sidney before her eyes flickered back to the road, a little bit of confusion on her face. It was rather early in their journey to be stopping already.

"Gas station?"

"No..." Sidney felt her heart race as she zoomed in and realised exactly where they were. "Oh, shit!"

"What?" Gale yelled back, her eyes snapping down to the phone that was shoved in front of her face by Sidney. As soon as she noticed the street name, a cold chill crossed her spine. She'd seen that house before, and it had haunted her every day since. "Oh, shit!"

"How far are we?" Sidney asked, nothing how Gale stamped on the pedal, their necks snapping back as she sped through the dimly light country roads that surrounded Woodsboro. Her knuckles were white as she clutched at the wheel, no hesitation in her mind as they sped towards what definitely was a trap.

"Too far."

_____

Layla slammed into Sam as she did her second lap of the house, having been searching for the older sister. Sam reached out and steadied her on her feet, apologising as she accidentally pressed against the bandaged wound on Layla's arm.

"You need to get Tara out of here, it's not safe," Layla begged Sam, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as she realised that all of the party-goers were now gone. Whether that had been intentional or not, she didn't think about, but it still stuck out in her head uncomfortably as she realised that this wasn't a memorial party for Wes now but rather an open field for hunting season.

"Believe me, I know," Sam yelled, brushing off Layla as she shouted through the house for her sister. "Tara, we're leaving!"

"No Sam," Layla said, reaching out and lightly grabbing Sam's arm and spinning her back around to face her. Sam huffed a little, not liking that Layla was preventing her from getting Tara out of the house right away but knowing that she had to listen to what she was trying to tell her. "I put the spare inhaler in her bag with her normal one, they were both in there when you guys left the hospital room. Someone must have taken both out  -"

They were cut off as Sam's phone started ringing. The older girl furrowed her eyebrows as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, her annoyance at an all-time high as she noticed the same on the caller ID. Ignoring Layla's protests, she raised the phone to her ear and started talking.

"Hello?" Sam asked, putting the phone on loudspeaker as her and Layla moved to stand at the front entrance to the house. Layla was biting her nails, the unceasing feeling that had been in her body now amplifying as she realised that she hadn't seen any of her friends except from Mindy in a while. Chad had gone after Liv, and she hadn't seen either of them since. Tara and Amber were taking a very long time to just get the spare inhaler down.

"You need to get out of that house right now!"

Her blood ran cold as she heard the urgency in Sidney's voice. Through all of the years that she had known the woman, she had only ever heard her voice like that back when her father had died.

"How do you know where I am?"

"You're in Stu Macher's house, where your dad and Stu killed everyone," Sidney replied, Layla and Sam turning to look at each other in dread as the words left Sidney's mouth. Layla couldn't believe that after all these years of knowing Amber and having lived in Woodsboro that she didn't even know that the girl lived in the house where her aunt's murder had lived. "Someone planned to get you there You need to get the fuck out, Sam!"

"Sid," Layla said lowly, knowing who the woman and her adoptive mother were as people. "Promise me you aren't coming here."

"Layla?" Gale asked, her voice high-pitched as she realised that the house Sam was at was Amber's house - where Layla had said she was partying at. The two older woman exchanged looks, knowing that there was no way in hell this was a coincidence now. "Layla, get out that house right now or I swear I will kill you myself!!"

Just before Layla had time to make a witty comment back, Sam's phone went crashing to the floor as the two girls jumped into the air as Mindy's blood-curdling scream broke through the house. Layla and Sam shared a look, instantly taking off towards the living room where they had both seen the girl last.

"Holy fuck, get AWAY FROM HER!" Layla screamed as they noticed Ghostface standing above Mindy, piercing her with the long knife as if it was an everyday activity. Layla threw her phone from her hand across the room and at the back of the attacker, but it didn't seem to even phase them in the slightest.

Sam grabbed the ceramic lamp from beside her, raising it above her head and launching it with all her force at Ghostface. This seemed to do the trick, the attacker panicking and running away from a bleeding out Mindy. Sam and Layla wasted no time in rushing to their friend's side, the younger girl pressing hard on as many of the wounds on the girl that she could while Sam tried to talk to her and keep her conscious.

"That's a lot of blood, Sam," Mindy wheezed, noticing the blood that was coating her clothes and her friend's hands as they pressed against her.

"No, Mindy, stay with me," Sam said as her head lolled a little, slapping her face lightly and trying 

"What did you do to her?!" Amber screamed as she entered the room, her head whipping between the three in a frenzy as she yelled at the blood that was oozing from Mindy. Tara hobbled in behind her, her crutches slowing her down as she looked at Sam, Mindy and Layla in utter horror.

"Nothing! No, We didn't do anything! The killer, he..."

"Is she okay?"

"What the fuck?" Richie screamed, making Sam spin around in nothing but rage as she realised that he had been here the entire time but hadn't noticed that Ghostface had managed to attack Mindy.

"Richie, where the fuck were you?"

"I went into the basement to get beer!" Richie yelled, pointing at the bottle that was now lying smashed on the floor from his surprise at seeing Mindy all slashed up in the corner of the room. Layla glared at him, her hands pushing Amber off Mindy as she continued to press down on the girl's wounds. Amber snatched her own hands back as if Layla's touch had burned her, almost snarling at the girl in the process before spinning around to look at Richie.

"You went to the basement alone?"

"I asked her to come with me! She said no!"

Everyone screamed as the outside door slammed open, Liv running into the room with her hands also coated thick with blood. Layla felt her heart drop as she looked at the girl, noticing the one person that she also cared about wasn't in the room. Chad had gone looking for Liv, and here Liv was coated in... his blood.

Not Chad. Not fucking Chad, Layla begged.

"Stay the fuck back!" Amber screamed at her, waving her arms around at the girl that was hyperventilating. 

"Jesus Christ!" Liv screamed, her sobs wracking her body as she noticed Mindy bleeding out while Layla tried to keep her concious.

"I was with Tara, but the rest of you were wandering around!" Amber screamed, spinning around as she looked at everyone in the room. Her eyes lingered on Layla and Sam longer than the others, the accusation in the air as clear as day. "One of you is the fucking killer!

"Fuck you, Amber!" Liv sobbed, knowing that she hadn't done this - she'd never done this.

"Why is there blood on your hands?" Sam snapped, looking at Liv's hands and instantly turning into the defensive Sam that Layla had grown up with. Layla looked at Liv, her voice almost broken sounding as she felt tears pooling in her eyes too.

"Liv, where the fuck is Chad?" Layla asked, her voice strained and drained already.

"What?" Liv asked, obviously in shock from finding Chad outside after he had been attacked by Ghostface. "I found Chad I found Chad and he's..."

"You're fucking lying! You're the killer!"

Layla didn't want to believe Liv could have done any of this. Even Mindy had said it herself, Liv wasn't capable of being a killer as she was too 'boring'. She wasn't good enough at hiding things for her to have managed to pull this off without anyone having caught on.

"You just were never good enough"

Ghostface had said that to her, just before he thought that he was about to kill her in that stupid hospital. The words had been rattling around in her head all night, and she couldn't quite figure out why until everything seemed to suddenly click into place like a lightbulb being turned on. Her hands slowly moved away from Mindy, shaking as she looked up as the group argued between them.

"You're not good enough for Tara!"

Words that Amber had said to her only moments prior.

"Holy shit," Layla muttered, her voice not being heard by the others over the sound of their arguing. "Holy fucking shit!"

"I'm not the fucking killer!" Liv yelled back at Amber, having been going back and forth with everyone in the room about whether or not she had killed Chad. Layla's eyes flickered between Mindy and Amber as she felt her heart beating out of her chest as if it was about to explode.

"I know!" Amber snapped, rolling her eyes as if she was fed up now of this argument and the theatrics. Without a single second of hesitation, she reached into her belt and pulled out the gun, firing directly in between Liv's eyes and smirking as everyone screamed out in horror at the scene that they had just witnessed.

It had been too late for Layla's realisation to have any impact on anything, but her blood still felt like it had frozen to the core in that moment. She knew that the look on Amber's face would haunt her for the rest of the life. Her demeanour had shifted completely, and suddenly Layla felt all of the clues that she had missed scream in her head like a warning sign.

"Welcome to Act Three."