Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own.
So far Final Jam had been going swimmingly. Aside from Tess's break down in the middle of her performance, everything else was wonderful. No one even noticed that Ella was missing from her act…
Peggy was ready to go on, guitar in hand. She never originally planned on doing a solo or anything, but her recent confrontation with Tess had given her a new found confidence and strength and she figured it was time everyone knew her for what she was, Margaret Dupree, and not whom she hung out with.
"Well, it looks like we are basically finished with the-" Uncle Brown was about to announce the end of Final Jam and declare a winner when Dee La Duke, the camp's flighty and often scatterbrained owner, ran up behind him and delivered a scrap of paper and whispered something into his ear.
"Oh, what's this? It seems we have a last minute entry here. Just hold tight and give a warm round o' applause for Margaret Dupree!" Brown spread his arms wide as dozens of hands joined together in a thunderous storm.
Peggy nervously stepped out on stage. The neck of her guitar was slick with sweat and she was having some trouble keeping her hold on it.
Just as she had opened her mouth to sing, a small hunched man ran from the back of the room, arms waving madly and screaming garbled gibberish.
"Stop… show! Stop! Danger! Incredible… danger!" the man shouted between breaths.
Uncle Brown made his way to the center of the stage the same time the man did. He gave the figure, now panting with his hands on his knees, a quizzical look before addressing him, "What're you talking about, Collin? What sort of danger is there?"
Collin, a maintenance man who wasn't terribly good at his job and was about two days away from getting the can, raised his head and stared into Brown's eyes for a moment before answering him.
"He's back, sir. A girl and a worker, in the woods. I had Peter search the grounds for him, but I haven't heard from him for ten minutes." Collin put his head back down and continued taking deep, shaky breaths.
Uncle Brown's face went a deathly pale and he wiped his mouth with a quivering hand. The entire audience was silent, not sure if they, too, should be panicked or if this was somehow part of Peggy's act.
Finally, Shane stood up and spoke, "Uncle Brown," his meek voice seemed ten times louder in the quiet, "what's going on?"
Uncle Brown snapped up and surveyed the room quickly before answering, "Everyone, to the cafeteria, hurry now. We haven't got any time at all." The people didn't budge, looking at Brown dumbly.
"I said MOVE!" Brown shouted and parents, campers, workers, and the like shuffled from their seats and got to the nearest exit, Peggy, whose sweaty palms had become unbearable, dropped her guitar, leaped off stage, and lead the way.
Rather than leaving with the rest of the camp, Shane Grey hung back, eager to find out what was happening from his only uncle. As he approached Camp Rock's second in command, he caught snippets of the heated conversation Brown was having with the camp worker.
"You're absolutely positive, Collin? You sure you're not just having a bad trip?"
"Oh, now, Mister Brown, I quit the bad stuff ages ago. Yes, I remember this clear as day in me mind. I was searchin' for a rake for the leaves when I came across a clearin' in the woods. Grisly sight, it was. My stomach couldn't handle it. I ran back here right after." Collin's eyes darted back and forth dizzyingly, like he was watching a tennis match on Brown's face.
"Uncle Brown," Shane made his presence known before joining the two. He wasn't sure if they knew he had heard everything, but right now it seemed best to not let on, "what's going on? Who is he and why are you sending everyone out when Final Jam is almost finished?" Shane didn't realize this, but the more questions he asked, the more he cocked his head to the side. By the time he finished his interrogation, his head was at a sharp angle and pains were beginning to travel up and down his neck.
Brown Cessario clapped a clammy hand down on Shane's shoulder and laughed tensely, "Nothing's going on, my boy. Right as rain everything is. Now, why don't you go join the others in the cafeteria while I look around here and make sure no one was left behind, yeah? You can sing 'em a song, if you'd like." He gave Shane a wink then playfully pushed him towards the exit.
Shane gave Uncle Brown a suspicious look then left the auditorium. As soon as he was sure Shane was not listening at the door, Brown turned toward Collin, who was taking a swig from a rust-covered flask, and told him to make sure everyone was out of the building safely.
"What you want me to do afta that, sir?" Collin asked, already drunk from a previous visit with a Mr. Jack Daniels.
"Burn it. Burn this whole damn place to the ground then call the police. The less places he has to hide, the better. And for God's sake, Collin, don't let the children know, do I make myself clear?" By this time, Brown had Collin by the shirt collar and was shaking him slightly.
The toxic tone in his employer's voice took Collin out of his drunken stupor and he nodded, frightened, "Yessir, as you wish."
Brown let go of the man's shirt and did his best to regain his composure, "Good. I'm going to go calm the parents and kids." Uncle Brown turned and with one last look back at Collin said, "If none of us make it out tonight, I want you to know you were a terrible worker and never garnished any respect from anyone."
"Thank you, sir," was all Collin could think to say to the departing Brown.
0o0
While all the pandemonium was happening onstage and in the audience, Tess was hiding in a dark alcove, crying and cursing her mother.
"Can't even turn off her phone for her only child's performance," Tess wiped her nose on the back of her hand, a disgusting habit her mother tried her hardest to discourage. "She'll pay for that, making me look like a loser in front of Shane Grey and costing me Final Jam," Tess tried to contain the sobs that threatened to escape her throat, but failed.
As her shoulders shook and tears flooded her eyes, a muscular presence entered the back exit of the auditorium.
"You know, she's never even told me she was proud of me," she cried to no one in particular.
The beast, ax in hand and ready to kill, heard Tess's sniffling and turned to his new prey.
Tess wiped her eyes with the hem of her shirt, "The maids have been more of a mom to me than she has! Reading me stories, kissing me goodnight. Is affection too much to ask for from your own mom?" Tess practically screamed, her sadness dissolving into anger.
The man took slow, deliberate steps toward Tess's hiding spot, readying his weapon.
Tess stopped short as she realized she couldn't hear anyone onstage or in the crowd.
"Are they done already?" she asked as she crawled out from the small crook. "Can't even come get me for We Rock, some friends," she grumbled.
Collin ran backstage just then, gasoline can in hand, colliding with Tess and nearly knocking the girl down.
"Oi! I'm sorry! Didn't watch my stepping there," he began apologizing profusely.
"Darn well better be!" Tess huffed. "Do you know how much this outfit cost? And what are you doing with that?" Tess pointed a finger at the gas can and scrunched her nose.
"Oh, I was just preparin' t-" Collin's explanation was cut off, however, as he looked over Tess's shoulder and saw the burly figure with the hatchet coming closer. Collin dropped his can, gas sloshing to the ground, and stared at the approaching danger.
"Just what are you looking at?" Tess didn't like it when people just stopped talking mid conversation and looked behind her at the man with the knife.
Tess screamed and tried running past Collin. Collin, being ever the gentlemen, shoved Tess towards the monster and shouted, "Take 'er, you sonovabitch! I'm not the one yer wantin'! She wronged ya!"
Once the words escaped his lips, Collin high tailed it out of the auditorium, stopping only once to light a match and throw it over his head. He heard a whoosh as the building caught fire and didn't stop running until he reached the cafeteria.
Meanwhile, Tess was struggling to escape the killer's iron grip. As she wriggled her arm around in his hand she became aware that the flesh caught in the man's hand was tearing from her body.
"Lemme GO!" she pleaded.
The masked man took a hold of Tess's neck and pinned her against a wall. He saw shock flicker across her face, but that shock quickly turned to fear.
"Don't hurt me!" Tess screamed, but before she could beg any further, the man swung his hatchet at her face and landed it square between her eyes.
The man pulled the cleaver from Tess's head and continued to hack at the poor girl until nothing remained but her splintered bones and the pretty charm bracelet from her mother.
The brute stepped over the girl's body and made to go onstage, but soon found that the entire front room was engulfed in flames with a trail of fire leading to the gas can at his feet. The man turned and left the way he came, moving as rapidly as his large feet would carry him.
Once outside, he saw a building, a building that had noise emitting from it and lights on inside…
