BRUTAL !

CHAPTER SEVEN:
"Sometimes I scare myself"

KITTY AWOKE TO the faint sound of rain tapping against the windows, the room bathed in a dull gray light that barely illuminated the space. For a moment, she didn't know where she was—her mind foggy from exhaustion and grief. Then the sharp sting in her side brought it all rushing back: the hospital, Wes, Nate's worried face.

She sat up slowly, clutching the blanket around her shoulders like a shield. The house was eerily quiet, the kind of silence that felt suffocating. Kitty glanced at the clock on the wall. It was barely 6 a.m., but the weight in her chest made it feel so much later.

There was no hint of Nate or her Mom. And she groaned, feeling a burn in her throat that could only be cured by a glass of water. But she needed to get up and walk into the kitchen to get some.

She groaned once more, before she finally threw back the blanket and got up, clutching her stomach which hurt a little, but a lot less than yesterday, thanks to all the medication she had taken.

She thought about calling Tara. She honestly needed to. The girl probably hadn't heard about Wes yet and Kitty felt like it was her obligation to tell her. Also, she desperately needed her best friend and just wanted to cry in someone's arms other than her Mom or Nate's. But doing all that over the phone? Maybe she could convince Nate to drop a quick visit at the hospital later.

Kitty poured herself a glass of water, when she heard her phone vibrating. She sighed, putting the glass down and walked back into the living room. Her phone had been flooded by messages nearly the entire evening, waking her a few times, until she had decided to put it on silent.

Chad and Amber had tried calling a few times, while Liv and Mindy had left various text messages that had gotten more paranoid with every missing answer from Kitty. It wasn't like she wanted them to worry, but Kitty couldn't bare to talk to them.

Later in the evening, she had heard knocking on the door. It had been her friends, asking about her well-being. Nate had assured them that she was alright, as far as that was possible and that she needed to rest and would contact them as soon as she felt ready.

That was an answer they all could live with and the messages stopped pouring in.

Kitty furrowed her brows as she unlocked her phone, expecting another message from her concerned friends. Instead, the notification wasn't from any of them.

The screen displayed an unknown number. Her heart sank as she stared at the message preview:

Unknown

How are you holding up, Kitty?

Her fingers hovered over the screen, her pulse quickening. Something about it felt off—too personal, too deliberate. She opened the message, her stomach knotting tighter with each passing second.

Unknown

You must miss Wes. I know I do.

But I have to admit, he was never as fascinating as you.

Her breath caught in her throat as she read the words. A chill ran down her spine, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen.

Another vibration.

Unknown

You looked so peaceful sleeping on the couch last night. Like a painting. Perfect. Just like I always imagined

Kitty froze, her blood running cold. Her eyes darted to the living room window. The curtains were drawn, but a small gap near the edge let in the faint glow of the streetlights outside. Her throat tightened. She couldn't remember if she'd left it like that or if someone else had.

She gasped as another message appeared, this one with a photo attached. It was blurry, taken from outside the living room window. But there was no mistaking her sleeping form on the couch, the blanket drawn up to her chin.

Unknown

See? Just perfect

This wasn't over. Not even close. Ghostface wasn't just watching. He was waiting. For her.

Her voice cracked as she whispered the only name that came to mind: "Nate..."

🔪🔪🔪

"CAN YOU PLEASE tell me, how it's possible that that psycho can contact my sister?"

The detective looked unsure at the question, his eyes flying over Kitty's phone in Nate's hand. "We're doing everything we can to find—"

"Maybe you're not doing enough"

The detective's mouth tightened, his composure slipping under Nate's glare. "We've traced his movements before. He's using burner phones and rerouted signals. It's not as simple as—"

"Not as simple?" Nate snapped, his voice rising. "This man broke into our lives, killed her boyfriend and his Mom, who was the Sheriff by the way, and now he's tormenting my sister from a distance? Don't you dare tell me it's not as simple."

Kitty flinched at the venom in Nate's voice but remained silent, clutching her jacket tightly.

The detective glanced toward Kitty, softening his tone. "I understand your frustration. I do. But we're working as fast as we can. Every message helps us narrow down his methods. We'll find him."

"Great. In the meantime, what are we supposed to do? Wait for him to show up at our front door?" Nate barked.

"Nate..." Kitty whispered, her voice trembling.

He turned to her, immediately softening at her expression. "Kit, I'm sorry. I'm just—this shouldn't be happening. Not after everything." He sighed, before he turned back to the detective. "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me."

The detective nodded, though his posture remained tense. "I get it. You're scared, angry. You have every right to be. But we're doing everything we can. I promise you that."

Nate rubbed his temple, his shoulders slumping slightly. "I just need to know that she's safe. That's all I care about."

"I would suggest leaving town," the detective said, his voice steady but tinged with urgency. "At least for a little while. Somewhere quiet, out of the spotlight, until we have this guy locked down."

"Yeah, I was already thinking about that." Nate nodded.

"Wait, what?" Kitty mumbled, looking up at her brother. "Where would we even go?"

The detective and Nate exchanged a glance, nodding at each other before Nate walked away from the counter to properly talk to his sister. "To New York, at least until everything is over."

"But what about my friends?" Kitty asked, confused. "What about Mom?"

"Mom can stay with Trevor. He was planning on visiting his family in Phoenix. And I know it's not gonna be easy for her, but she will have to go with him. She understands the danger of staying." He said, softly touching Kitty's shoulder, but she drew her arm back. "And your friends have parents that take care of them. They can decide what's right now."

Kitty looked at him in betrayal. "We can't just leave, Nate. I can't just run away."

Nate frowned. "You came close once and he left you be, Kitty. No one can say he will spare your life again. I'm not taking any risks." He shook his head. "Not this time."

"Not this time?" Kitty asked confused.

"If I had convinced Charlie to come with me. To live with Dad, maybe—"

"Nate," Kitty interrupted softly. "You were fourteen when Charlie died, even younger when Mom and your Dad got divorced. He was eleven, he had his friends here, he wanted to stay and it wasn't your responsibility to take care of him. And you can't be sure that he hadn't done the same somewhere else."

"Woodsboro, what the absolute shit of a town." Nate laughed humorlessly and blinked away tears, his lips tightly closed as he nodded. "Yeah. But this time I'm older. Please let me protect you, Kit. It's fine if you don't want me in your life after this, but even if I won't get to see it, I just want you to be alive and safe."

"Okay," she nodded. "But I want to see Tara, just ten minutes, please."

"Of course. Ten minutes and then we get your stuff and drive to the airport, no extra stops, okay?"

🔪🔪🔪

SOME TIME LATER, Kitty and Tara were sitting together on Tara's hospital bed, both crying slightly as they recounted the events from before, telling each other what had happened.

Kitty was so glad that she still had Tara. She wouldn't know who she could talk to about Wes' death, if it wasn't for her. Tara was one of the only people who had known Wes as well and as long as Kitty had.

As they muttered quiet words and held each other's hands, the adults were hurriedly whispering in the corner of the room.

It seemed that Sam and Richie, as well as Nate, were on the same page considering the departure of this godforsaken town. Nate nodded once more after Sam had said something before his eyes fell on the watch on his arm.

"We should better get going," he decided. "Kitty, we'll buy everything you need there. It's already quite late and we can't risk going back home."

Even though Kitty wanted to protest, she just tiredly accepted his answer with a nod, understanding that there wasn't any room for discussion anyway. At least Nate had changed his opinion about where the journey was going. Instead of New York he, Richie and Sam had decided that it was probably safer to stick together and hold out in Richie's and Sam's apartment until the killer was stopped.

Nate and Sam helped Tara into her wheelchair, while Richie hurriedly packed the few things of her's into his backpack.

"Come on," Nate muttered, pushing a hand against Kitty's back to lead her down the hallway, Richie, Sam and Tara in front of them.

When they entered the entry of the hospital, a voice interrupted them. "Samantha?"

"It's Sam." Sam muttered, as the group froze in their movement.

"I'm..." Sidney Prescott wanted to say, but was quickly interrupted by Sam. It was not like she had to introduce herself to anyone in this town.

"I know who you are."

"I hope you're okay." Sidney said softly, leaning down to Tara in the wheelchair before her eyes wandered to Kitty. "I hope you're too. Gale said you were the only survivor in the Hicks murder yesterday."

Kitty nodded, no real expression on her face.

"Listen, I'm sorry..." Sam interrupted, as she felt that Kitty felt uneasy upon meeting the woman and talking to her.

"You're Billy's daughter." Sidney deadpanned before her eyes flew over to Nate, and also Kitty. "And you are Charlie Walker's siblings."

"We'll bring the car around." Richie said, with obvious discomfort, as he pushed Tara's wheelchair through the door. Nate and Kitty, as well as Sam, stayed put where they were.

"Yeah. I'm his daughter." Sam finally sighed.

"Charlie was our older brother." Nate confirmed as well.

"I'm sorry if that's weird for you."

"No, no, it's..." Sidney shook her head, looking at them all with sympathy. "I've been through this. A lot. You want to talk?"

"We appreciate it." Sam said softly, as Nate and her exchanged glances. "And I'm...I'm really sorry about Dewey. But we're leaving."

"I tried running too. It doesn't work, it always follows."

"All due respect, that's your life, not mine." Sam pushed the door open, walking outside the hospital, closely followed by Kitty and Nate, but also Sidney and Gale Weathers.

"I'm not so sure about that." Sidney shook her head.

"What do you want from us, lady?" Sam asked exasperated.

"Hey! Watch your tone, new girl." Gale scolded. "You know how they always say it goes back to the original? Here's the original."

"I want your help. The help of all of you." Sidney clarified, her eyes shortly landing on Nate. "Because you're wrong, this is your life now. Which means whoever this is will keep coming for you."

"So?" Nate and Sam asked at the same time.

"So I want you guys to help us kill him."

"You want us to help you and the host of a morning show commit murder?"

"Yeah, not happening." Nate shook his head. "We've all been through enough. My sister stood face to face with that monster, I'm not gonna let it come this close again."

"I can understand that." Sidney said softly. "But he really doesn't care where you run to. He'll follow you regardless."

"And I'm what in this scenario?" Sam asked with a quirk of her brow. "The bait? The helpless victim?"

"If the shoe fits..." Gale shrugged.

"You're not helpless, Sam." Sidney shook her head. "He killed your friend, he killed ours."

Kitty looked to the ground, tears threatening to spill as she tried to ban the image of Wes from her mind. Nate took her hand in his.

"And I have kids, which means I won't sleep until he's in the ground."

"Look, I'm sorry about what this has done to your lives." Sam said, her tone a bit softer again, as she watched the two women in front of them. Her eyes jumped to Nate and Kitty shortly. Kitty looked so different than she had only yesterday, when Wes had still been alive. She couldn't put Tara through this again and she had the same responsibility for Kitty. "But no matter what you or the killer or anyone says, this isn't my story. This isn't our story."

A car behind them honked, screeching to a halt. "All right! Let's get the fuck out of town, huh?"

"Sorry. That's my boyfriend, Richie." Sam introduced, opening the car door.

"Nice to meet... We met." Richie shook his head at the realization. "Sam, please get in the car so we never have to see these people again."

"Sam..." Sidney pleaded.

"No. We're leaving." Sam said one final time, nodding at Kitty and Nate, before she sat down in the car. "That's the only way I can protect Tara.. and Kitty."

"Okay, good luck." Sidney nodded defeated.

"You too."

The car started moving and Nate turned around, taking out his keys and unlocking his own car that was parked a few feet away.

Gale crossed her arms, watching Kitty with the sharp gaze of a journalist always looking for a story. "Dewey used to talk about you," she admitted after a beat. "You and your Mom. He thought you deserved better than this."

"He was a good man," Kitty nodded. "I liked him a lot."

Nate and her were ready to turn and leave, when Sidney's voice interrupted. "I'm sorry about your boyfriend." She said softly. "I'm sorry about Wes."

"Thank you," Kitty said honestly. "I remember both of you. From a few years ago. I'm sorry, for everything that has happened. I'm sorry for what he did."

"You don't have to apologize for him," Sidney muttered in a soft tone. "We're not responsible for the people we love."

"Thank you," Nate nodded, and softly nudged his sister's arm. "Come on."

"Go ahead, I'll come in just a minute." Kitty watched as her brother unlocked the car and started the engine. She turned back to Gale and Sidney. "I'm really sorry about Dewey. And I wish I could stay to help, but I have to go with him."

Sidney and Gale nodded simultaneously.

Nate set the car back and held it directly behind Kitty. "I'm sorry," she said once more. "Stay safe."

"You too," Gale and Sidney chorused as they watched the girl close the door of the car and drive off with her brother.

"Well, that went fucking horribly," Gale muttered as soon as the car had left the parking lot.

"Don't worry, I have a plan. Sam's seems really tough. And Kitty and Nate? They've been through this before."

"Honestly, Sid, who gives a shit?" Gale shook her head in disbelief. "You said it yourself, he's gonna go after them."

"I put a tracker on the cars."

"What? You did what?" Gale asked open-mouthed. "On both of them?"

Sidney nodded with a triumphant smile. "It seemed like something Gale Weathers would do."

"Take that as a compliment."

—