❪ ﹟SIX ❫ ࿐ྂ
━━ THE MEEK-MARTIN'S / WOODSBORO COMMUNITY HOSPITAL !
CARINA HASN'T LEFT the twin's sides since what happened at the library. After the police took their statements and told them all not to leave town, which is fucking ridiculous but okay, whatever, the three of them went back to the Meek-Martin's. Martha was there the second the three entered the house and didn't hesitate to wrap the girl up in her arms.
"Oh honey," she sighs, "I'm so sorry." The older woman didn't say anything else, and she didn't need to. Carina was already crying again as soon as Martha pulled her in close.
No one says anything for what feels like a long time. The only sound in the otherwise quiet home was Carina's harsh breaths. The smaller girl feels a hand land on her shoulder and the show of support from the people around her allows her to relax minimally.
"I know you might not want to talk about it hon, and that's okay. But I do want you to know that I told the police that you'd be staying with us until you're old enough and want to leave or go to school next year."
Carina pulls back in shock, and the hand on her shoulder drops off in shock. "No, I can't impose on you guys like that."
"We're not debating it. You'll stay with us." Martha obviously knows she wants to argue more because she gives her a look that very plainly reads that there's no way Carina is winning this one.
"Okay." She nods and pulls herself out of Martha's embrace. "Thank you, Martha."
"I'll give you three some time alone, I'm going to make some tea. You all saw things today I wish you hadn't."
"Thanks, Mom," Mindy speaks from off to the side, and Carina turns to see that Mindy is sitting on the armrest of one of their couches still looking somewhat pale. She turns to look behind her, somewhat shocked to see that it had been Chad standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder. She smiles at him, and he must understand what she can't voice because he smiles back and nods.
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interlude.
"Have you told the others yet?"
Dewey Riley is only thinking of one person in particular when he asks this question to the girl named Sam Carpenter in the quiet of her car. Only one person he cares about that he knows for certain cares for the Hicks boy.
The brunette girl must know why he asks because her answer is more telling than his question had been. "No, you should be the one to call her."
"I know."
He should, can picture the way in which the officers at the station will tell Wes's friends, with that impersonal smiles and sympathy that can't always reach their eyes. But the idea of having to deliver news as dark as this to a girl as light as she is, his heart clenches, and his gut rolls.
He doesn't immediately move for his phone. He waits, and waits, until finally, it feels wrong to continue keeping such news to himself.
Only then does he pull his phone out and click on one of the three numbers in his favorites folder of his phone. It rings once, twice.
"Uncle Dewey," Carina Roth answers right before the third ring, and she sounds like she's been crying. Dewey frowns. "I was just about to call you."
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"Uncle Dewey," she doesn't know what urged the older man to call her, but she can't hide the surge of relief that spreads through her. No matter what was going on, Dewey always knows how to make her feel better, and she hopes that still holds true here. "I was just about to call you."
He sucks in a sharp breath on the other end of the phone. "What is it, kiddo?"
"Mom," she starts, stopping when her eyes fill with tears once more, and breathing once again becomes somewhat hard. Chad's hand once again claps on her shoulder and she sinks somewhat back into his space. Trying to pull some of the last bits of her strength together, she gulps in what she hopes is enough air to get her sentence out. "Ghostface got Mom. She's dead, Uncle Dewey."
The former sheriff curses, and says something to someone Carina's unaware of. There seems to be some sort of rebuttal, but Dewey is insistent and then there's a sequel of tires. The other person, who Carina can now define as Sam when she speaks again, bites out an irritable, "If something happens to Tara because of you Dewey." She doesn't finish her sentence, but the intent is clear.
"Tara's your family, and I get that. But Carina is mine, and I am not letting her out of my sight anymore until these motherfuckers are dead."
Carina isn't sure if Dewey knows she can hear him, but those words are the reason the tears she had been trying to hold back now spill down her rosy cheeks. "Carina," Dewey acknowledges, recapturing her attention. "We're coming to get you."
"Okay."
She moves to make her way on the porch, almost certain Sam won't be taking her time or waiting for Carina if she doesn't get in the car the second they pull up. As she's walking, Chad follows but doesn't say anything to stop her. Silence engulfs the phone call, and Carina remembers that even though she had been planning it, she wasn't actually the one to call Dewey. "Uncle Dewey, why'd you call?"
He doesn't answer her at first, and Carina can almost perfectly picture the look on his face as he prepares to tell her whatever the bad news is. Because it has to be bad news, she tells herself. Otherwise, Dewey would've already told her.
"I'm so sorry, Rina. So sorry."
Cold white dread pools in her gut once again, the same feeling she had only hours prior when the killer called her for the first time. Her muscles tense, and she grabs Chad's hand and squeezes.
"Who is it?"
Chad taps his thumb on the back of her hand but doesn't let go. She looks up at him and he's got a curious expression on his face, but his eyes are filled with the same knowing as hers.
Before Dewey can answer, Sam's car is pulling up in front of them, and Dewey is hopping out to open her door and trying to usher her into the car. Only she doesn't move, the phone still clutched helplessly against her ear. "Uncle Dew, who is it?"
Her uncle freezes at her voice, and only the impatient tapping of Sam gets him to open his mouth and tell her. He at least has the decency to look her in the eyes are he takes part of her heart that's left and squashes it like one would do a fly. "They killed Wes and his mother this afternoon."
Chad tenses next to her, and she has a split second where she thinks that Wes was his best friend too before she cries again and lets go of his hand with one last squeeze. Rushing towards Dewey, she hugs him before she can think of the time they're probably wasting. He wraps his arms around her back and pulls her into his chest, and suddenly she feels like a small child visiting her Uncle Dewey and Aunt Gale again.
He pulls back with a regretful look on his face. "We have to go, we have to get to Tara." She nods, because if there's one thing she's not doing it's losing another friend today. She turns to Chad and calls, "I'll call you later," before jumping in the car and Sam is speeding off.
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Their almost at the hospital when Sam calls Richie back, trying to check if he's made it to the hospital. The ringing of the phone seems to be their worst enemy as they speed down empty roads. When the line connects, everyone lets out a short-lived breath of relief. "Richie! Are you at the hospital?"
"Hello, Samantha."
Carina blanches. "No."
"Richie can't come to the phone right now. He's finding out what happens to people who stick their noses in business that doesn't concern them."
"Please don't hurt him."
They're about two minutes from the hospital, and Carina is really starting to get tired of the fact that she can't just teleport places when people need her.
"I'll tell you what. You can choose. I'll only kill one."
"What? Tara!" Sam's voice is dripping in fear, and Carina can't even blame her. Sweat has begun collecting on her palms, and she's reaching for Dewey before she even registers she's doing it.
"Who do you want to hear die?"
"No, please." Carina's crying, again. She had thought she'd be all out of tears. Before today, she had thought she was stronger than this. "I'm begging you. Please don't hurt them."
"Really? You can't save your own sister? All you have to do is say, 'Kill Richie'."
"No! No!" Tara's cries get louder and Carina just knows Ghostface has caught up with her. "Hey! Tara! Don't touch her. Please, please, please, I'm begging you."
"Or say, 'Kill Tara,' and I'll make sure to hit all the organs I missed last time."
The hospital's quiet when the three of them pull in, and Sam's jumping out of the car before it's even off. Carina leans through the gap in the front seat and pushes the gear stick to park and takes the keys from the ignition. By the time she's done and out of the car, Dewey and Sam are already racing through the doors.
She tears off after them and catches them at the elevator. Hopefully, Richie is already here and with Tara. Sam had called him when the three were in the car, and he was closer than they had been.
Sam's still talking to Ghostface, and Carina prays to some almighty being that they can't hear the elevator dinging in the background of the call. "I'm begging you. Please don't hurt her."
"Last chance to save one. Choose."
"Why are you doing this?"
"You want to know why, Sam?" The three have just made it on the elevator, and Carina reaches around Dewey to press the button for Tara's floor when she sees Dewey hesitate."Maybe it's because you're a selfish bitch who can't even make a decision to save the life of someone you love. Maybe you're too weak for this franchise."
"Maybe you're right." When the elevator bounces to a stop at the correct floor and starts to open, Carina lets out a little smirk at the power in Sam's voice when she states, "Or maybe I'm just stalling for time, fuckhead."
Dewey makes a shot at the Ghostface standing over Tara before it flees to the side, and Carina pushes past them both to reach her friend's side. Dewey's behind her. "I'll get Richie."
"Tara!"
As Sam and Carina lean on opposite sides next to Tara and try to help her sit up, Dewey helps up an injured Richie from further down the hall. Tara's crying out in pain, and Carina tries to hide her wince every time the other gasps.
"Come on, Richie. It's okay. I got you."
Carina looks at Dewey and Richie after she and Sam get Tara standing, and she wills Richie to walk faster in her head. They have no clue where this Ghostface ran to, and she really doesn't want to stick around to find out.
She can just make out Dewey telling Richie, "It's gonna be all right," before turning to yell at them. "Get to the elevator!"
Like something out of her nightmares, Ghostface jumps out of one of the rooms next to Dewey and Richie, shattering one of the windows with their elbows as they go. Glass flies everywhere, but Carina forces herself to stay alert. Richie, who was pushed out of the way by Dewey, falls to the ground a few feet from the three girls.
The brunette rushes forward to grab him, hauling him up and back towards the rest of them while they all watch in horror as Dewey tries to fight Ghostface off of him on the floor. "Not today," he mutters.
It's until moments like these that Carina forgets her uncle was a trained police deputy and sheriff, and was damn good at it. He pushes Ghostface off with skill she never would dream to have, and as the person in the mask staggers back, grabs his gun and fires enough shots into their chest to render any one human dead.
To her surprise, Richie, whom she still has an arm around, steps forward like he's going to approach the dead body. Her eyes glide sideways to look at his face, and she's confused by the pure shock and disbelief on his face. You'd think someone who just survived death and witnessed the person trying to kill them die would be a little more relieved.
Dewey quickly sits up and rushes over to them, grabbing Carina's bicep and nudging them all toward the elevator. "Let's get out of here."
As the elevator doors open, the five of them rush inside. Dewey presses the 1st-floor button but proceeds to slam his hand on the sensor before the doors close. "The head." Carina watches in horror as Dewey steps off the elevator again.
"What?"
"Uncle Dew stop it! Leave them! Please!" She's begging, and she doesn't care how desperate her voice comes out. She's crying again, and part of her knows this is an argument she's not going to win.
Her uncle, her sweet uncle who was always more to her than even her own mother was, looks at her and smiles sadly. "You have to shoot 'em in the head, or they always come back."
She shakes her, gut twisting. Without meaning or wanting to, she scans the man in front of her up and down, almost like her brain knew this was going to be the last time she saw him alive and trying to get her to sear it to memory.
"Dewey!" Sam calls. "Who gives a fuck?"
"I do."
The doors slam close, and Carina throws herself at them like she'll be able to pry them open with her own hands. The effort is futile, as the metal death trap is already taking them down to the 1st floor.
"No! Dewey!"
Without asking for permission Carina presses the button for Tara's floor once again, and she's almost relieved that none of them get off and leave her when the doors open at the ground level. Richie is already on the phone with 9-1-1, but Carina can't register any of his words. Her whole head is a mess of static as they wait for the elevator to take them back up.
Part of her is hoping that when the doors open again Dewey will be standing in front of them waiting for them. She never had been that lucky.
If there was any part of her soul left after losing both her mother and her best friend in one day, it was completely and utterly ripped from her body without a second chance when the elevator doors opened up to the sight of Dewey Riley laying a pool of his own blood.
She's sure the others are probably talking, Richie's probably telling the 9-1-1 dispatcher that there's a body in front of them, but she can't hear any of it over the gut-wrenching scream she lets out. It's full of pure anguish and torture. She's running before Sam or Richie can stop her, falling to her knees next to Dewey.
"No! No!" She's never felt so desperate, pulling at his wrist to feel for a pulse the exact way he taught her ages ago. While the logical part of her knows the effort is futile, she can't help the pure desperation crawling through her as she prays that it's not. "C'mon, Uncle Dewey. You're supposed to keep me safe. C'mon, please. God, please."
Her knees are soaked crimson with her uncle's blood, but she doesn't think about it as she all but throws herself over him and sobs into his carved-in chest. She just keeps muttering please over and over, not stopping and not letting go even as Sam and Richie attempt to pull her away.
Dewey was the only family she had had left, and she didn't want to go anywhere without him. She absolutely refused to leave him. There was only one thought going through her head as the paramedics pried her fingers off of Dewey's arms and forced her away from his cooling body.
I'm going to kill this motherfucker.
madi speaks! 💌
it's the way i genuinely sobbed writing this chapter
dewey is my absolute favorite character in the scream franchise and having to write his death physically pained me
the only way i'm getting through it is the fact that i'm currently drafting my book for him and it's making me <33
also am i somewhat mean for killing carina's mom, her best friend, and her incl in the same day? yes yes i am and i deeply regret it