Apartment Building: 24 Hours Later (Half of which probably involved more sex scenes)

Welp, everything has now gone to shit. The one building they thought they would be safe in, the place where everyone is literally together, still became an easy target for Ghostface, who, although missed their mark again, still got away with killing two of their friends.... and Paul too, I guess, whatever.

Sam leans at the gate, smoking a cig with the driest expression one can muster. "Hey, you okay?" Danny's voice concerningly asks behind her, causing her to turn around and stomp it out. The guy doesn't need a mind reader to tell what she's probably thinking of, the way she keeps staring at that yellow tape and police roaming the Anika's body in the alleyway. "This isn't your fault, Sam."

"But it is." Sam disagrees with a nod, glancing at the ambulance where the rest of her survivors stay with a depressed look on all of them. "Someone took our knives, so we couldn't fight back. I don't know who I can trust." She expresses. After all, she's accidently shown the killer all of the defenses she's tried to put up to fight back, easily able to turn the apartment into a murder playground. The locks? Just slipped in before someone could install them. The tasers? They were missing as well.

"Then don't trust anyone." Danny leans in, pretending to comfort her affectionately in front of the public as he whispers his advice to her. "Not your friends, not me, not anyone." He strongly tells her, willing to be put as a suspect it means Sam is safe. "Also, just like those rumors about you, I would check in with that Ethan kid, see if what news said about him was true as well." He then mentions, but before he can elaborate on that last part, an investigator pulls him along to ask a couple questions.

Meanwhile, the last of the group finally make it to the apartment at the worst and most suspicious time imaginable. Ethan Laundry and Y/N L/N all crawl under the yellow tape, looking around the scene with concern in their expressions. "Shit...." Y/N mumbles as Ethan glances at the three in the ambulance.

"Chad." Ethan calls his name, and Chad looks up to see the two of them showing up with incredibly worst timing. Not happy at all, stands up and stomps right towards the two with angry suspicion in his eyes.

"Where were you two?!" Chad interrogates, looking ready to grab the two right there as the two take a slightly intimidated step back. They guiltfully glance at each other, their expressions reading that they know that they were at the wrong place at the wrong tape. "So?!"

"Alright...." Y/N nervously starts, shaking his hands before he explains the story which might sound a little weird. "I got a call from Tara saying she was at this party on Greenwich Village, right before."

"A-A-And I got one from Mindy saying she was at a bar on Hudson Street." Ethan then testifies, already sounding crazy as those two were at the apartment the entire time except to pick up dinner.

"Wha- Okay, then what happened?" Chad questions, wondering what the heck they were even thinking.

"Then, I-I passed out, and after hours of waiting, I met with Y/N on our way back to the apartment." Ethan then finishes with a sheepish expression, knowing how bad it probably sounds after seeing what happened.

"Wait, hold on, didn't Sam mention that she heard Jill and Charlie's undead voices on the phone one time?" Y/N the mentions as he taps Ethan's shoulder, he and Chad stare at him for a moment before realizing what he's suggesting.

"Oh shit, I'm such an idiot." Ethan covers his face with his face, feeling stupid after he fell for a phony Ghostface call.

"Damnit guys..." Chad mutters, blowing out a big amount of air as he decides to let them off the hook for now. The situation now looks arguably worse as the two then see the body bag in the alleyway.

"Oh my gosh, who-?"

"Anika and Quinn." Chad tells them in dry tone before walking away from them. Y/N sighs, rubbing a had along his face as he leans back against a light pole, seemingly now afraid to approach Tara and Mindy.

On the other hand, Ethan walks up to the two girls, feeling really bad about what happened to one's roommate and the other's girlfriend. "Mindy, I am so sorry."

"Step the fuck back." Mindy orders him with a blank glare, to which Ethan does in as he sucks the small hurt in. "You're at the top of my list." She then tells him, to which he tells her the same thing he told Chad.

"It was from your phone, Mindy."

Meanwhile, Sam is still walloping in her current situation, when she hears a door from the alleyway open and looks to see a broke Detective Bailey walk out, eyes red from all the tears it shed. Both she and Tara notice that he's barely able to stand straight. "I'm gonna be right back." Tara tells Mindy as she stands up and walks towards Wayne, who looks to still be crying over his daughter's death. "I'm really sorry about Quinn."

"Thank you." Wayne nods with a sniffle, looking like he doesn't know what to do with himself. "Both my kids are gone..." He says in despair, causing Sam to comfortingly put a hand on his shoulder. "My whole family.... is gone." He sobs for a minute before looking up at them. "They took me off the case, but I'm not gonna stop until I find him." He then states, his expression changing to one of grieving vengeance as he looks strictly at Sam. "You fuck with my family.... you die."

Sam nods, knowing full well how that sentence feels. "Agreed."

Then, both of their phones ding with a notification, not just Sam and Tara, but Wayne, Mindy, Chad, Ethan, and Y/N, all from.... Richie's phone number. "It's him again.... that bastard." Wayne growls, prompting Sam and Tara to check it, soon followed by everyone else out of curiosity. What they find is not just a text message, but an image sent to him.

Gale Weathers, tied up just like Steve Orth 1996, in a room so dark, only the light from the phone lets them see who the woman being tied up is. 'One Day Left....' The message under it says. Everyone looks up in shock, glancing at each other with knowing expressions. Their deadline is Halloween.

A car with it's sirens on then pulls up, and the driver quickly gets out, marching towards the Carpenter sisters. Finally pulled out of the photo, Sam looks up to see Kirby Reed having arrived at the crime scene. "Kirby, Gale's-"

"I know, he sent it to me too.... which makes me not like how he already has my phone number." Kirby tells them, holding her hands against her hips. "Our killer's getting impatient, the apartment was just a warning for what's coming next."

"But there's a way.... A way for us to find him before he finds us again." Wayne then chimes in, a very determined look on his face. He then turns to the Agent with an idea in mind. "You're FBI, right? You have a way to trace his phone calls?"

"Yeah, I do..." Kirby confirms with a nod, already on to what he's planning. "But I doubt the killer will pick up just because Sam called him."

"He wants to prove that nowhere is safe, so let's give him that chance." Wayne states, looking at everyone else as it seems that he's already contracted an entire blueprint in his brain in a manner of minutes. "Cat and mouse, only this time... he's the mouse, and we're the cat with the trap." He phrases as he slowly nods, maundering.

"And I know the place he'll want to strike next...."

__________________________________

Central Park: A Couple Hours Later

Oh boy... and he thought the apartment scene was bold, now he's gotta do something even bolder. With Quinn now completely in the mask for the rest of Halloween, Y/N and Wayne are left with manipulating everyone to go where they please. And now, it's incredibly easy, with Sam and Wayne on cooperative terms again, though now there's some conflict between him and Tara, as shown when he's forced to walk along with her for a few minutes before they bring Sam.

As they walk across the park, side by side, Y/N notices Tara's blankest expression yet, and if you know Tara, than you obviously know that you did something wrong. He sighs a bit before slowly breaking the silence. "Tara... I didn't kill anyone." He pleads to her, an obvious lie, but the plan here will help pull that lie off.

"You said you would be there, you weren't there." Tara simply responds with a painfully lack of emotion in her face, clearly very untrusting of the guy who was admittedly gone for way too long.

"Tara, I swear the call was from you, the voice sounded perfectly like you, it was even coming from your own phone." Y/N persists, giving her a pleading expression. The knowledge of Roman's voice changer returning does make it more believable, but with all that happened, Tara's now entered Sam levels of untrusting.

"I know, I checked my phone after you told Chad." Tara confirms for him, though she still gives him a look that indicates that he's weary around him. "But... that still doesn't change the fact that you were nowhere during Andy's, Laura's, Frankie's, and now Quinn and Anikia's murders." She then brings up, causing Y/N to look down with a sigh.

"Okay, this is going to sound petty, but...." Y/N hesitates a bit before asking this next question, but then just pretty much throws a hand up and utters it out anyway. "Is this about Mindy's love triangle theory?"

"What? No I-" Tara stutters for a second, rubbing her face with both of her hands. "Y/N, I'm sorry, but you have to understand that no one's really safe from blame yet, not even Kirby or Wayne for crying out loud."

"Alright, Y/N, split up from Tara." Kirby then orders from Tara's small and hidden earpiece. She gives a nod to Y/N, who then walks away from Tara to presumably head to the parking lot. "Now let's see if the killer uses that as a cue to call." The Agent then notes, knowing that every Ghostface likes to use moments like this to play with Sidney or Sam on a emotional level.

A few minutes later, Tara meets up with Sam and they begin walking together. "You should've stayed with the others." Sam comments no more than two minutes in, protective survivor mode kicking in again.

"That's not gonna happen." Tara states as the two walk like they're simply having a similar sister-esq conversation, and he's technically right.

"There's no point in both of us putting ourselves at risk." Sam then notes as they try keeping their eyes only on each other, and in front of them, away from anyone else that's part of the operation and not in the van.

"I'm not, I'm your backup." Tara quips, giving her sister a cheeky smirk. Yeah, right, just because she shot Amber in the head when she was charging with a knife that one time doesn't automatically make her the 'backup'. Ask Richie, who's plan blew him in his face after Sam was the one who untied Tara in the first place and killed him without needing to set him on fire.

Inside the van, Kirby keeps her GPS tracker ready while Mindy, Chad, and Ethan sit with her in van, pretty much being the real life movie audience. "So we're really doing the phone tracing thing that never works in the movies?" Mindy questions as Chad knowingly chuckles and Ethan awkwardly snacks on Cheetos. "It'll be all 'Keep him talking, Sam. Two more minutes, I've almost got him.' And then he hangs up just before we can get a lock."

"I can trace a call in under fifteen seconds." Kirby replies with a similar amount of sass in her expression, a small reminder from the actual law enforcement that, that whole thing is simply a plot device used to either draw out a cop show/movie's runtime so something else that's actually supposed to happen, happens.

"Well, you've got them out there as bait." Mindy then brings up as Chad invested watches the two go back and forth, finally no longer bored of all this waiting.

"Because the killer usually calls from somewhere nearby." Kirby replies as she gives her a look, reminding her of the plan she and Wayne proposed. She's not wrong, though if Sidney were here, she'd bring up that Charlie's calls never actually took place from nearby at all, since is method was usually being away from the crime scene he already caused or at the one he and Jill were going to make.

"And you think they're safe because it's broad daylight in a public place?" Mindy questions with an obvious criticizing look. I mean, sure, using the opportunity to fake Tara and Sam being alone so they can easily ruin the cover of being amongst other suspects sound great, but the apartment attack has shown that his Ghostface doesn't really seem to give a fuck about that either.

"Look, I am here, okay? And so is Bailey."

"This is exactly how our uncle Randy died." Mindy quickly brings up, the main point she's been trying to make all along, to which Chad points to her. "Broad daylight, public place, yanked into a van, stab, stab, stab, no more Randy."

"Huh..." Kirby hums, admittedly nodding to that argument as she finally understands where she's coming from. Guess she's got a point there, police operation, still heavy stakes against this Killer, got it. She gets back on the mic, getting the memo to make sure Sam and Tara remain alert. "Hey, Sam? Stay frosty out there, okay?"

Back to Sam. "We're good." Sam simply replies, pretty much hinting to her that she's always frosty.... okay, most of the time, she's frosty. In the Park, Wayne watches them from a bench, looking around for his daughter's killer. (But ya'll know what's actually up) The entire park is not just covered with people, but in people in costumes as well, seems that Halloween has already gotten people in that mood before it's gotten to night. (Though, personally, I also dress up in the morning on Halloween)

Then, it happens. Sam's phone starts ringing and she pulls it out see it coming from Richie's phone, just as they predicted. This time, the killer's arrogance will be his undoing. Sam exchanges a look with Tara before answering the call. "You're gonna die, you know."

"No, you're gonna die, Samantha! Choking on your own blood while I hack up your sister." Ghostface barks his reply, all too ready to dish out some threats while Kirby immediately gets to work tracing the line and Wayne hears the call from his own headpiece.

"Unless we find you first." Sam remarks, clearly trying to hint the trap she and the group have set for this killer who's slowly falling into it. However, the Ghostface just chuckles at her in response.

"Aw, you're cute Sam, but what if I'm not wearing my beautiful costume this time? What if I've already sliced open one of your little friends while you were busy setting up this little trap for me?" Ghostface then mockingly suggests, subtly revealing that he's been onto her little plan from the get-go. "You see? For a mastermind, you're not too bright." He quips as Wayne glances around, catching on to what the killer's saying.

Then, the killer hangs up, Sam looks down at the phone with a hint of fear on her face which is shared by Tara, wondering if what the killer just said is actually true. "Did you get it?" Sam queries Kirby, desperately hoping that the killer was bluffing.

"Yup. Geolocation coming through right now." Kirby confirms with a few beeps and clicks from her lap ton. Back in the van, the laptop zooms in, and despite what the killer may be suggesting, the location appears inside the park. "Got it, he's exiting the park now, heading towards the parking lot." She relays this information to both Sam and Wayne, prompting the detective to stand up and make his way over there.

"Stay here." Wayne tells the girls as he passes them, jogging over to the parking lot, 'hidden in plain sight' now thrown out the window as they try to make it before the killer presumably escapes. "We're on our way, now, keep him on your screen, Agent Reed."

"You got it."

Back in the van, Chad, Mindy, and Ethan look at each other with excitement, very pumped up that they've actually seemed to get a one-up on their slasher villain. "Wow, that actually worked, I expected the reveal to be that was he near this van the entire time." Mindy remarks with a laugh as she high-fives her twin. "Hold on a second..." Then, she briefly pauses as her eye catches something she recognizes through the front window.

Chad sits up and leans over to take a peek at it also, someone in a Ghostface costume, marching towards Sam and Tara. It may appear to be a Stab fan at first glance, but once Chad sees the knife in his hand, and Mindy spotting the decaying features of the mask, it's undeniable that this is the right Ghostface. "The killer, he's still here!" Chad exclaims as he almost runs Ethan over with his body as he slams the van's back doors open.

"Chad, wait!" Kirby yells behind him, but the guy has already booked it out of the vehicle and towards the killer, who keeps approaching the two with his hunting knife. Everyone follows him, though way behind as Chad is already six feet ahead of them.

Ghostface begins to get closer, seemingly wanting to move quicker as he reaches his blade towards the two sisters who still haven't noticed him yet. "Sam, Tara, look out!" Chad loudly warns them, and the Carpenters finally turn around to see the killer approaching them.

Before Sam can react, Tara surprisingly beats her to the punch and grabs the gun Wayne landed to them hidden in Sam's jacket. "Stop!" Tara loudly orders, and shockingly, the Ghostface immediately does so and holds him his hands and knife in surrender. "Where is Gale? Why did you kill my friends?!"

Before the guy in costume can reply, he eventually hears the rapid footsteps coming towards him, and turns just in time to see the beast known as Chad charging his way over and straight up tackle him to the ground and begin bulldogging the killer on the grass, catching the attention of every person nearby. "Got you, motherfucker!" Chad exclaims as he then delivers some hard punches to the guys face, causing the guy behind the mask to grunt in pain.

"Chad, stop!" Kirby then orders, pulling on the guy's jacket. Chad clearly wants to do more to the slasher, but eventually sits up and lets Kirby pull him away before she pulls the maniac up to his knees to arrest him, soon joined by Wayne to runs up to them upon hearing what's happening from his headpiece.

However, Kirby stops reaching for her handcuffs when she realizes how odd the killer's body language is... shakier and more intimidated. She double checks him and sees that his hand is actually duct taped into a fist, taping it to the knife. She removes it, and the person behind the mask doesn't waste a second to drop it out of his possession, allowing it to land on the ground with a clanky thud. Then, she takes off the mask, and finds Y/N L/N... mouth duct taped, preventing him from speaking. Then, it's clear that his feet are slightly restrained as well, which is why he isn't running.

"Oh my gosh, Y/N!" Tara exclaims, but Wayne holds her back as Y/N cries out to her through muffled noises, the both of them reaching their hand towards one another. Then, Sam gets a text from Richie's number.

Richie: Fail to fool me once, shame on you!

During all this, Chad hears something very odd coming behind him. "Mommy, it's raining, it's raining red... " He hears a little girl sing from behind him, though the clear sunshine going on right now should indicate otherwise. "Mommy, it's raining, it's raining red." Chad walks off to where this song is coming from, getting a bad feeling all of a sudden as he hears the girl go on. "Mommy, it's raining red...." He eventually goes behind a couple trees that kind of form a circle as he finally spots the girl, who's costume definitely has had a red-ish shower. The girl then notices and turns to him. "It's warm."

Confused, Chad looks up and where the 'rain' is presumably coming from... and finds Danny Brackett. Gutted and hanging from tree branches....

His guts being the source of the warm, red rain.

____________________________________________

Half an hour later, the authorities have arrived as Ghostface's newest murder blocks everyone out of most of Central Park. The supposed plan to finally catch the killer before his 'final act' has now blown up in the group's faces, giving the villain another point in their favor.

As everyone stands with each other except for Kirby and Y/N, who are by the ambulance they the latter is currently in, Detective Bailey comes up and gives them some more bad news. "The killer's abandoned his phone in the parking lot." He tells them, shaking his head with a sigh. "We can't use it to track him anymore.

Once finished, Kirby walks over to a mentally confused Tara and holds her shoulder to get her attention. "He's alright, but a obviously a little shaken up." She informs her, and Tara nods her head with a thank you. "Also, he said that he had something that he wanted to tell you first." She relays to her before walking up to speak with the other policemen.

Perplexed and also concerned, Tara walks over to the ambulance where Y/N sits in the same place she was in hers back during the aftermath of the apartment attack. A towel is wrapped around the kid as he stares off into space, looking like he's seen a ghost. "Y/N?" Tara calls his name, and he finally turns to look up and her, a haunted expression on his face. "Are you..." She said you interrupts herself as she instead mentally slaps herself stupid. "No, you're not okay, I almost shot you."

"It's not like your fault..." Y/N says with a shake of his head, Tara's face though states that she argues otherwise. "I wasn't paying attention. I just went back to my car, then I suddenly blacked out, waking up in that fucking costume." He relays the experience towards her, causing her to imagine how confused and scared he must've been.

"Oh my gosh, Y/N, I'm so sorry..." Tara expresses as she walks up and sits down next to him. Y/N can tell that she's starting to feel emotional again, probably feeling so many things at once. Guilty, scared, and now confused at to what they're going to do next. Thankfully, that last part as a solution.

"You know what the scariest part about being in that whole situation?" Y/N queries, causing Tara to look at him with a curious brow. "I thought I wouldn't be able to tell you what really happened during those twenty-four hours." He then tells her, turning to her with an expression that holds some news that he knows she might want to hear.

"The actual reason I was gone, was because I figured out where the masks were coming from."

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(A/N) Alright, another chapter. The reason that this is shorter than the last one is because I wrote this in a new day, and I don't have anything else to add to it, so what you see is what you get.

However, were also now getting close to the endgame, the train section, the theater, and whatever additions that come with it.

Anyway, plz vote and comment, and I'll see you all in the next one.