Author's Note: This chapter actually wasn't originally planned but it came to my mind at the last minute. Point of view changes mid-way through, not really something I usually do but I like how it worked out. As always, review please. Then you will be sure to continue getting my love and devotion (And my continued writing, yeah yeah)
Disclaimer:: I don't own Scream. Nor do I own the characters or the actors. Otherwise I'd probably be too busy doing dirty inappropriate stuff with David Arquette to write anything. (I've always had the weirdest celebrity crushes, sue me. Actually no, don't do that.)
Silver Lining
Chapter Three :: Paranoid
"Tell me right now
You really wanna spend your whole life alone
A little time out might do you good, might do us good
Before we be done for good"
It was starting again. Well he had no definite proof of that but he definitely had a bad feeling. A double murder at a Stab preview wouldn't have worried him, murders happened on a daily basis around the country. But a double murder occurring in the same town that Sidney and Randy were attending college, at the preview of a movie based on their experiences definitely set off red flags. It just seemed like too big of a coincidence to not somehow be connected.
If his instincts were right then that would mean that Sidney was in danger. He certainly didn't want it to be true but Dewey wasn't about to take any chances when it came to her life. He had already lost his sister and had made a promise to himself to never let that happen to Sid. Plus it was what his sister would want, she had defended her best friend plenty of times in the past.
Especially after the death of Maureen Prescott. While the whole town was talking poorly of the deceased woman Tatum had tried to shield her friend from that. There was no question that Sidney had heard all the names they were calling her mother but Tatum had managed to shield her from some of the hurtful words. Even if it meant issuing dirty looks and threatening physical violence. She had been a fighter, even to the very end. His fellow officers assured him that she had given the killer a fight, even in death she managed to make him proud. Then again he had always been proud of his little sister, she was a charismatic young woman who had had a bright future in front of her. He regretted not telling her that more often, for not trying harder to be the bigger person and work past their petty sibling fights.
He knew that Tatum would want him to do anything in his power to keep a copy cat killer from finishing Billy Loomis' plan. That was why Dewey found himself buying his first plane ticket and getting on the first flight he could find heading towards Windsor College. He had promised months earlier to visit Sidney and Randy but this certainly wasn't the situation that he'd been planning on. His mother thought he was crazy for up and leaving so sudden but he knew he didn't have any other choice. If he didn't go now he knew he would go crazy with worry in Woodsboro waiting for some sort of news, either good or bad.
He would never forgive himself if something happened and he wasn't there to stop it. Honestly he wasn't sure if he could handle anymore guilt, if any more was added then it would surely start eating away at him. It was his job to protect Sidney and no amount of distance was going to stop him from doing that.
Maybe he was wrong, maybe he was just overreacting, but he would feel a lot better being near her when it turned out to be nothing. Maybe then it could be like a nice happy family reunion, Dewey really was hoping that he was wrong. None of them had truly healed from the murders, they had just continued on and tried their hardest to move forward with their lives. No one wanted to linger on the past, especially one as dark as theirs. But was there really any escape from it? Sidney and Randy had moved across the country and still couldn't make it go away.
All Sidney had wanted was a chance at being normal, just like any other college student. Which was probably becoming impossible with that stupid slasher movie coming out over the weekend. Gale Weathers' book had made all of their names known in popular culture, especially Sidney who was thrust into the role of victim. That book had stolen their chance at normalcy and had insured that no one would ever forget about the horrific events in Woodsboro.
Not that Gale would ever care about what she'd done to their lives, she was too selfish for that. That book had shown her true colors and Dewey wouldn't forget how wrong he'd been about her. He found himself in debate over if he wanted to see her again. There were so many things he wanted to say to defend himself after the way she had insulted him in her book. On the other hand he wanted to move on, to be the bigger person and not fight over something petty. Even if those pages had pretty much proved that she had been using him from the beginning.
It would be better to never see her again, she could take the profits from her book and move on. Dewey would be doing the same thing once he was certain that Sidney was safe. Somehow he would find a way to get on with his life, maybe Woodsboro was still a quiet enough town to shield him from the repercussions of the movie. That was if the more recent murders were unrelated to Sidney, until he knew that there would be no moving on for anyone.
Sidney was why he was flying across the country, and if he did in fact run into Gale then he had to remember that. She could never be trusted again. Even if she was a very attractive woman, and he was a single man. No, it would never work.
Looking out the window of the plane he really did hope that it would all blow over. Hadn't Sidney been through enough, hadn't they all?
Was it all really starting over again? Was it wrong for her to be hoping that it was? At least then her traveling hundreds of miles to the college town wouldn't be a complete waste. Though she should already consider herself lucky, the potential copy cat killer would give the release of Stab even more publicity than the studio could offer. In fact it was publicity they wouldn't have to pay for, even better.
There were times that Gale really wondered if it was healthy to take so much pleasure in the misfortune of others. It was the business that she was in and she was well aware that if she didn't get the story then another reporter certainly would. That was a fact that helped her to push away any moral objections though honestly she hadn't had any in the last few years. She had become desensitized to a lot of things going on in the world. Bad things happened, often times to good people, and it was her job to go in there and get the whole story.
In the news business there really wasn't room to step back and consider what a story would mean for the people it was about. That sort of hesitance would leave a new reporter or they just wouldn't make it in the business. Gale aimed high, she wanted to be successful and was prepared to do whatever it took to get there. Even if it meant exploiting the pain and suffering of those around her.
Everything she had was the result of exposing the lives of others. Sometimes it was easy, like in the case of a successful business man who was cheating on his wife. Gale saw plenty of cases like that and she could simply say that whatever happened he deserved it. Then you had a murder story and it was your job to get an interview with the grieving parent who thought it wasn't right that they had to bury their child. And it wasn't fair but people wanted to see those tears. Maybe society was somewhat to blame for creating a demand for her brand of journalism. She was just giving the people what they wanted. A simple case of supply and demand.
But that didn't mean she didn't gain from that demand. Gale was a a highly successful woman who had made a fortune off of the lives of others. Money to fund an impeccable wardrobe, but then again her looks was really a part of her job. She had a nice car that she admittedly didn't use enough to really justify a need for it. There was her apartment in LA that was practically abandoned if she was working. And she was always working, she honestly felt more at home in hotels.
At least the hotels had other people so it was never too quiet.
Not that Gale would admit to being lonely. After all she had friends- well she had coworkers who didn't hate her. Plus she had plenty of fans, a lot of them being attractive young men. What more did she really need? She had been alone enough that she now thought of it as being selective about the company she kept. At one point she did consider getting a cat but she knew it wouldn't work with her always gone. There wasn't room for anyone in her life.
And why was it that when she reassured herself that she was better off alone she would think back to Deputy Dwight Riley? It made no sense to think back to someone that she'd barely been involved with. It was just plan ridcious to be devoting so much thought to a man who she hadn't seen in years. Especially a man that she could never have, not truly. They were much too differenct and she would always be too busy for any sort of relationship.
Because Gale had a feeling that Dewey was the relationship sort of man. She had always pegged him for the sort of man who wanted to settle down and start a family. Maybe that wasn't the first thought on his mind but without a doubt that was where it would all lead to. On the other hand Gale had a string of bad romances and she couldn't even commit to her apartment or her car. Yet alone commit to one man for the rest of her life.
It wouldn't work, it could never work. Those words were very familiar, she had been saying them ever since she first left Woodsboro.
She blamed all the Stab promotion for bringing him back to her head, because he certainly would never be brought back into her life. Woodsboro was a finished part of her life and so was he. There was no way she would go back and he'd probably never leave.
There was no fighting it, it was the way it was meant to be. All she needed was to get her story and then get the hell away from Sidney and anyone else connected to Woodsboro. And maybe get laid.
