Chapter One
October 31st 2011
Seventeen years. They had been waiting seventeen years for this moment, each of them for different reasons, but all of them were equally shocked when they saw the couple sat on the dark beach and immediately recognised the male. How could they forget?
"There's someone here." The girl whispered, her head snapping round to see who it was. "Nice costumes. What are you, The Dead Breakfast Club?"
The rest of the conversation turned into static as Erin stared intently at him, waiting for him to make eye contact or show any signs of acknowledgement. But it never came, the dark eyes that she had once looked into and felt nothing but pure, unadulterated bliss flickered over her for a few seconds as if he'd never met her before in his life.
"Yeah, why does he get to have a girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend, do you have a girlfriend? Kyle you?"
Girlfriend? As they had all walked along the beach Erin had realised the moment she saw the pair that they were very clearly on a date, and it stabbed a fresh wave of pain through her chest. After everything, everything they had been through and he had done he still managed to swep her aside and move on. Pushing the unruly mass of curls out of her face, Erin stepped closer to the young couple the seventeen long years of anger bubbling up. "Don't you care?" She hissed, crouching down. "I spent all these fucking years trying to convince these guys you weren't what they thought you were. Don't you fucking care?!"
"Come on lets go." Tate said, his dark eyes remaining on Erin for a few seconds before he quickly scooped up the blanket and steered his date away from the group. "This beach sucks. Someone should pick up the trash."
And just like that he walked out of Erin's life again, only this time he was taking a girl with him. His girlfriend.
"I told you, he's a fucking asshole." Stephanie spat venomously. "He doesn't give a shit about what he did to us, not even you. You still think we should all play nice?"
Erin scoffed, unable to give an answer. For so long she had been desperate to see Tate again, and not for the same reason as the other five, but because she missed him. God she had missed him, despite everything she missed being around him and every halloween she would venture out with her now only friends just in the hopes that for once he would show his face and put an end to the never ending pain he had caused her. "He's gone back to the house, are we going to follow?"
"Oh you bet we are." Grasping hold of Erin's hand, Stephanie pulled her down the beach behind the others. The pair had been friends for a long time, before the horrific incident that went down at Westfield High and the slither of a silver lining with being dead was that they were dead together. Linking her fingers through her bestfriends, Stephanie gave a small squeeze. "You're way prettier than that bitch."
The sentiment behind what Stephanie said was sweet but it didn't have the effect that the goth hoped for; the girl was clearly very pretty and even if she wasn't he had moved on, left Erin behind and that hurt more than anything physical about the girl. Fingering the bloody hole in her chest that served as a constant reminder of what had happened back in nineteen ninty-four the anger began flooding back, blurring any other thought wanting to penetrate Erin's mind. "He didn't even look at me, not properly. He's too busy living his life while we're all trapped in a fucking nightmare, the nightmare he fucking created."
"That's the spirit, keep that going we're nearly there."
The house was exactly how Erin remembered, still as creepy as the first time she'd stepped in it all those years ago. Walking up the drive way her eyes landed on the expensive looking car parked up right next to the front door, a car that her family never could have afforded, a car that she would never be able to buy. She found it was the little things that would send her spiraling into a hopeless chasm of depression, like watching every senior year graduate or someone get their drivers permit. In moments like that it truly sank in that Erin's life, and Stephanies, all of their lives had been abruptly halted and they now all suspended in time never moving forward, just remaining static.
"Oh great," Kyles voice pulled Erin's attention away from the shiny car. " He sends his little girlfriend out."
"With a pair of scissors. You guna make us some paper dolls?"
Erin eyed the girl more closely. She was pretty and exactly the type of girl Erin had always thought Tate would go for, dark and mysterious not like her. Even with the crappy hand she'd been dealt in life Erin always prided herself on how positive she was, that she saw the beauty in even the ugliest situation but as the years ebbed away she found herself becoming less and less like the girl she once was. This girl that Tate had chosen would have a full, rich life, she would have children, she wouldn't be forever stuck as seventeen year old.
"Hey," Stephanie whispered. "Are you okay? You haven't said a word." Snapping her head back to Tate's girlfriend, her voice raised again. "I think she should know who you are, know exactly what he's capable of. See if she protects him then." When Erin said nothing, Stephanie grabbed her left arm shoving the bracelets up until she exposed a small tattoo. "Read it." She yanked Erin's wrist closer when the girl didn't move. "I said fucking read it."
It was taking all of Erin's will power not to cringe as the girl spoke the word etched onto her skin, she had never felt more of a fool. The tattoo had always been something that she would look at to smile but not anymore, that had been ruined the moment she stepped onto the beach.
"What are you his ex or something?"
"Ex?! I'm about to fucking seconds away from wasting you bitch, does she look like an 'ex or something'? Fucking get out here you coward!" Pushing the girl aside Stephanie began beating at the front door wildly, her blonde and black hair whipping around madly. "Fucking coward!"
"I...I...I can't do this." It was all too much, this wasn't how it was supposed to be, it wasn't supposed to be anything like how it was. Snatching her arm back, Erin set off at a run her feet pounding into the sidewalk as she moved as fast as her legs would let her and she didn't stop until the sidewalk turned to soft sand. The beach had been somewhere she and Tate had gone regularly to escape the drama of high school and teenage life, they would talk about the future and babies, it was perfect. It was their little haven to dream as big as they wanted. Dropping onto her bare knees, Erin let out the scream she had been holding in for years. It ripped up her throat, bouncing off of the darkness and echoing back in her ears. There was no going back, all she ever did was look back, look at the memories that once were and cling and claw to get back to them but now she couldn't, everything had changed. There was no going back.
"We want to know why."
Erin heard Chloe ask a little way up the beach making the blonde turn to watch as her only friends interogated Tate. For a few years they had hounded her in the same way, claiming she had to know why he had done it but she was searching for the same answer as them. She had no idea what had been going through Tate's head that day, they spoke about everything but apparently not on that day. No, on that day he had decided not to let her in and Erin had simply become part of the fallout of his bad choice. She had to know. She had to know why he did it, and there was no way he was ever going to tell the others, if he was going to tell anyone it would be her. Despite everything, Erin still knew him better than anyone and if not for herself, for her friends she had to ask the question.
Mind made up, Erin got back to her feet and marched up the beach to where Tate was being circled like a sheep amongst wolves. "We don't have long, please. Come and talk to me. Just me." Five pairs of eyes shot to her all with the same incredulous look. "Trust me. He'll talk." Not waiting for a responce, Erin dragged her feet through the sand leaving the group behind praying that Tate would follow her. Maybe she didn't know him well anymore? It had been a long time and people changed over time, whether they be dead or alive.
"What's with those guys? I don't know them."
A warmth spread through Erin, he had followed her, she still knew him. Maybe there was some hope. "It's funny how the human brain protects itself isn't it? Like forcing yourself to forget you shot six high school students so you don't have to live with the guilt."
Tate scoffed lightly throwing a stone into the ocean. "I didn't kill them, or you. Like I said to your friends you've got the wrong guy."
"Tate, come on do you really think we would forget who killed us? Did you forget who killed you?" Tate shook his head in answer, still refusing to make eye contact with Erin. "Why won't you look at me?"
He didn't know why but when ever he looked at the curly haired blonde Tate felt like he did know her, like he knew her well and the feeling didn't settle well with him. "I don't want to, you and your friends jumped me. Why would I want to look at you?"
It was classic Tate, trying to hide his real feelings because they felt un-natural to him, he did it all the time when they were a couple and Erin couldn't help but let out a knowing laugh, her long hair spraying out as she threw her head back. "You know the day you did this," She paused briefly to point at the hole in her chest the shot gun had created. "You were supposed to meet me right here before school but you never showed. I knew something was wrong, we had been falling down a rabbit hole but apparently you were further down than I was."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Abruptly Tate stopped walking, grabbed Erin's shoulders spinning her to face him, his face contorted in confused anger. "I'm sorry about what happened to you but I don't even know you, maybe you should see someone?"
Erin's anger spiked, shot higher than it had ever done before. She had had enough of his little charade, he needed to face what he'd done and give her the explaination she deserved. "I need to see someone? You walked into our school and shot five students dead, nearly killed the librarian and then shot me, in the chest." Repeating what Stephanie had done back the house, Erin shoved the diy tattoo she had given herself back when she was alive. "See this? I did this in your house, the one your new girlfriend lives in, when you told me you loved me the first time." Little by little Erin saw the realisation creep into Tate's mind, tears began to pool in his eyes and any anger dissolved being replaced by horror. "Remembering now Tate?"
"I...I didn't mean to...I didn't mean to hurt you." He choked, drawing his head into his hands and beating it repeatidly tryint to dislodge the memory of killing the blonde from his head. "I thought you were someone else-"
"What? Another innocent child? Another person who had done nothing wrong to you? You ruined seven lives because what? You were having a bad day?" The tears that had been threatening to spill now fell freely down Tate's cheeks only increasing Erin's anger. Why did he need to cry? It was entirely his fault they were all dead, himself included. "Don't you dare fucking cry Tate. We're stuck in that fucking nightmare, stuck in the place where you decided to end our lives!" Erin was shouting so loud her throat hurt, he looked scared of her almost and she couldn't have been happier. "You're living a fucking peachy life with your new girlfriend and what about me? I'm alone! I'm still stuck in that fucking school where I have to relive day in and day out the precise fucking moment when my boyfriend shot me!"
"I'm so sorry Erin! Please-"
"Sorry?!" Interupted Erin, giving Tate a hard shove knocking him into the sand. Stood over her once boyfriend crying on the ground made all the years she spent wishing that he was with her seem like the biggest waste of time. "You're a psychopath Tate, I wish I had never met you." Turning on her heels, Erin began a slow walk back to the high school that served as her eternal prison, the sun was beginning to rise. Time was up. "More than anything I wish I had never loved you."
A/N/ I hope who ever reads this enjoyed it, this is my first AHS story so any feedback would be awesome :)