Prologue
The Girl Who Cried Wolf

     THEY told her she was crazy, that she was going insane, that it was all in her head.

     Why should they believe her anyway, when Jia Li had always been known as Woodsboro's loose canon, the girl having a record of spuing the most unbelievable stories?  As one does breathing, Jia Li fabricates lies.  Okay... maybe that's being a little dramatic.  But that's what the townspeople of Woodsboro would have you saying and thinking of the young girl.

     The street was dead quiet as Jia Li's huffing filled up the atmosphere.  Her dusted-up Converse scratched the blackened street road, the same roads she'd known her whole life.  She knew how to get everywhere just by being the latchkey kid who walked everywhere.  She was now second-guessing her decision to leave Mindy and Chad's end-of-summer party early, and she honestly could hardly remember what exactly she was leaving the party for anyways, but it seemed too late to go back now.

     Everyone at the party had seen her stumble her way out into the chilly, dark night.  Thankfully, this time she hadn't thrown up on anybody or made a scene, but she still knew what they thought about her.  Jia Li was currently trying to untangle herself from the devil's clutch – aka confining herself to a strict alcohol-only high, which many other students at her high school did too but she still sat apart from those classmates.  Woodsboro would never accept her, no matter what she did now to try and erase her past.

     When Jia Li was in seventh grade, she was in a car accident with her mother and brother that left her in a coma for three days when her mother's Honda collided with a semi-truck in an intersection.  When she came out of it, there was one person and one person sitting at her bedside — Tara.  But despite the comfort she received from her best friend, she was still unable to leave what had happened in the past.  Her brother had to get a leg amputated... all because she was distracting her mother while driving.  Someone could've died she kept reminding herself.  Someone could've died because you were an idiot.

     Ever since the accident, things hadn't been particularly right in her mind.  Hence the new best friend she had become acquainted with.  She still couldn't understand why her friends were mad about it — weed was legal in most states now anyway.

     Jia Li fastened her jacket closer to her body as she crossed her arms over her chest.  It was getting chilly out, something she did not take into account when she had left the Meeks-Martin residence.  It was already past midnight when she left, so it was surely creeping into the early hours of the next day.  She stopped in her tracks, realizing her muscle memory was taking her back down the road that would lead her to her dealer – and honestly, a part of her contemplated still going down that road.  She knew he would be awake and more than willing to sell her something to help her sleep better.  But she sighed, what would they think of her?  Reluctantly, she turned to go down a different street, hoping she was drunk enough to just crash out when she got to the comfort of her bedroom.

     If Jia Li kept her gaze on the concrete, she might have missed it.  Alas, the girl found herself squinting into the dark street ahead of her, only lit by poorly saturated street lamps.  One even flickered.  At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but goosebumps grew on top of each other still the same.

     If she didn't know any better, she'd say she was staring right at Ghostface.

     She heard about all the ways the people wearing the ghost masks would terrorize their victims before gutting them, but this didn't seem like the way Jia Li would end up dying.  From what she knew, it was all phone calls and horror movie-related questions.  Hell, they'd even made a movie franchise based on what happened.  Luke Wilson played Billy Loomis!

     Ghostface — whoever it was this time – was staring right at her, only a couple of yards away.   They stood directly in the middle of the street, long black gown draped over their figure, no cars would be driving by at this hour.  Nobody would be awake.  Trees and grass surrounded the residential area.  She was completely by herself (minus the masked freak).  Maybe this was the way Jia Li would end up dying.  But she wasn't so sure just yet.

     She didn't want to, but she felt like she needed to yell out first since her new friend wasn't much of a talker.  She had a strong urge to turn around, to make sure there was only one, but she knew in her gut that she couldn't turn her back on the masked-about-to-be-killer.  Not when they were staring at her like that.  How could a plastic, printed mask, be so full of expression?

     "What do you want?" Jia Li said, just loud enough for them to hear, and she knew that they did.  But still, nothing in response.  Just a slow tilt of their head, still maintaining the stare.

     Jia Li Holland had lived in Woodsboro her entire life.  She was used to common remarks about Sidney Prescott and the Stab movies.  She saw children dressed in Ghostface masks each Halloween.  Chad and Mindy's uncle was Randy Meeks.  Mindy was also a complete horror movie junkie and made Jia Li watch Stab (along with other movies) with her frequently (even if Jia was too high out of her mind to remember what she saw).  She hadn't realized it until then, but Ghostface consumed almost her entire life.  And that would have been a more haunting thought if she wasn't face to face with someone who had the potential to gut her in front of someone's house, for a family to find her remains the next morning.

     "Go home, kid!" Jia Li shouted.  At the very least, maybe if she disappeared someone could say they heard her yell out that night.  "Leave before I call the cops!  They don't take well to Halloween pranks, especially not Ghostface!" she waved her cell phone around, large numbers on her phone screen that read 911.

     It was like Ghostface had understood her loud and clear, which made her skin crawl.  Ghostface placed their palms facing Jia, then took a couple of brief steps backward, as if mocking a surrender.  A twitch fell over Jia Li's shoulders, shaking off imaginary chills at the thought that whoever was under that mask more than likely knew who she was.

     Despite the steps backward, Ghostface didn't move any further.  Jia Li had to come to a conclusion, and fast.  There was no way she could negotiate with a masked murderer into the early hours of the night.  She made the impulsive but bold decision to make a run for it, whispering a quick, "Fuck this," to herself, bolting the other way.  Who cares if the detour to her house would become an hour longer?  She was making it out of this goddamn movie one way or another.