This chapter caught me in between changing semesters. You know how it is. Anyways, here is ch. 10.
Oh yeah, anyone have any idea who it could be yet? Just curious.
Thanks for reading!
The group of four sat on the couch in Tori's living room. All of them were too stunned from the voice-mail to move. The awkward silence was finally broken up by static from Officer Smith's radio, and it seemed to snap everyone out of their daze.
"Okay...okay yeah. Escalating, I get it now." Tori stammered.
"Now what?" Jade asked.
"Now we radio the captain and see what to do next. You two go get that alcohol bottle and get rid of it." Officer Smith ordered.
Both girls nodded and headed upstairs. The girls got to Tori's room and were slightly thrown off. Tori's phone was in the middle of the floor, laid next to the bottle of alcohol Jade brought earlier that night.
"Vega, you didn't happen to leave your phone and the bottle like this when we left did you?" Jade asked, both girls standing in the doorway to Tori's room, neither girl wanting to enter it.
"...no." Tori stammered.
Jade entered first, with Tori slowly behind. Jade bent down and picked up the phone. She suddenly looked flustered, and quickly scrolled through the phone.
"What's the matter?" Tori asked, walking up to Jade.
"It's nothing." Jade said trying to hide the phone.
"...then can I get my phone back?"
"Uhh, one sec." Jade turned around and started to do something on Tori's phone. She didn't see Tori creep up on her.
"Ha!" Tori cheered as she was able to snatch her phone away from Jade. "I don't see what the big deal i-" Tori stopped when she looked down at her phone. Her photo album was open and the whole first page was filled with pictures of Jade and Beck from a couple of days ago. Jade saw the look on Tori's face and her stomach turned into knots.
"Tori that was a mis-" Jade started to explain herself before she was cut off.
"No, Jade. It's fine." Tori tried to play it off but Jade could see through it. "You don't have to explain yourself to me. We should go back downstairs." Tori turned to leave but was stopped by Jade.
"Just listen okay?" Jade let go of Tori's arm. "Beck wanted to talk. So I went over there and we talked."
"Looks like you did a lot more than talking." Tori spat.
"Yeah. I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't go there to get back together with him. I went to hear him out. I didn't even want to get back together, still don't, but I had to tell him that in person. He deserved that much. But when we started talking, everything came flooding back to me. And it was familiar. It was safe…" Jade trailed off, and an extremely awkward silence filled the room.
"So you don't have any feelings for Beck?" Tori asked hopefully.
"No I don't."
"...what about me?"
"What about you?" Jade tried to play off the question.
"Do you have any feelings for me?" Tori asked.
"Really Vega. You want to do this now?"
Tori sighed. "There's a killer on the loose Jade. And they seem to be targeting us. So if you have anything to say to me I suggest you just say it already. I mean, I already told you how I felt at the school, but we were interrupted...but since then you haven't even said a word to me about it. It's all mixed signals and-"
Tori's rambling was cut off by Jade crashing their lips together. Both girls felt a surge go through them and their brains went into overdrive. Although they didn't have time to enjoy it, as they heard Officer Smith coming up the stairs.
"Hey the captain just gave us our orders we better go!" Officer Smith said as he was walking down the hall, causing the girls to pull away from each other. "I said let's-" Officer Smith felt the tension in the room. He eyed both girls carefully. "...go."
"Okay see you down there." Tori said quickly as she nearly sprinted out of the room, her face turning a bright shade of red.
"Did I interrupt something?" Officer Smith said with a huge grin on his face, already knowing the answer.
"Shut up." Jade spat, sending a glare at him to try and wipe the grin off of his face. It didn't work. "Say anything and I will gut you with the scissors in my boot." Jade said as she walked by him.
"Now see, that seems like something the killer would say." Officer Smith replied, following Jade downstairs.
"Dude. Guess what happened upstairs." Officer Smith said to his partner.
"Scissors." Jade reminded him.
"Hey orders, remember? Officer Briggs said he has orders." Tori interrupted in hopes of changing the subject.
"Yeah let's be professional and stay focused here." Officer Briggs spoke up. "Tell me later." He mouthed to Smith when the girls relaxed a bit and turned around.
"Okay, we got orders from the captain to move you to a secure location." Officer Briggs revealed.
"What? Secure? What's wrong with my house?" Tori asked.
"Captain's orders. He said he wants you safe until we find your father."
"What about my mom?"
"She didn't answer the captain when he tried to call her about the threatening voicemail. We will keep a uniform out front so when she comes home they can drive her out to us."
"Let me call her." Tori started to reach for her phone but was stopped by Officer Smith.
"No phone calls. We need to go." He told her.
"What? Why?"
"Tori one thing we do know about this killer is that he has all the technology in the world. You can bring your phone, but turn it off. You too Jade. We don't want to be followed or traced or whatever." Both girls decided not to argue.
Officer Smith looked down at his cell phone. "Alright got the address, let's get going."
[...]
The girls and the officers had been on the road for a while now and Tori was getting anxious.
"Hey how are our friends getting there?" Tori asked randomly.
"Getting where?" Officer Smith asked from the driver's seat.
"To this 'secure location.'" Jade added.
"What do you mean? The orders were to get you and Jade to the location. He didn't say anything about anyone else."
"WHAT?! We can't just leave our friends out there alone!" Tori fumed.
"Hey don't yell at us. We didn't make the call. It was the captain's." Officer Briggs retorted.
"Yeah and no offense Tori, but one of your friends might be the killer." Officer Smith said.
"Yeah well I don't believe that." Tori pouted and slyly pulled out her phone with the intent to at least inform her friends about what's going on. They had left the city already and the phone was struggling to get a signal.
"Where are we going anyway?" Jade inquired when she saw the deserted road they were taking.
"We can't tell you that. Sorry, it's procedure." Officer Smith answered.
"Yeah… 'procedure.'" Jade said skeptically.
[...]
"Hey man." Beck greeted Robbie.
"Hey. What's up?" Robbie said, standing halfway behind his front door.
"Am I..interrupting something?" Beck asked when he saw the how nice Robbie was dressed.
"Robbie? The food is getting cold!" Cat called from inside the house.
"Finally!" Beck exclaimed with a huge grin. "Good for you man! Date night with Cat huh? About time."
"Yeah yeah I know. Thanks." Robbie's face turned red. "So what are you doing here?" Robbie asked, wanting to get back to Cat.
"I was driving by and just wanted to check in on you guys. But I can see you guys are just fine."
"Yeah thanks man we're good."
"I see. Stay safe you two." Beck laughed.
"Ha-ha." Robbie fake laughed.
Robbie reentered his dining room, still stunned at how beautiful Cat looked, and how lucky he was. Cat looked up from her plate and they caught each other's eyes, both just smiling at each other. Robbie had just sat back down when his doorbell rang again.
"Sorry It's just Beck. I'll be right back." Robbie told her.
"Kaykay!" Cat giggled.
"Hey man, you are killing me here!" Robbie groaned as he opened the door.
"Sorry, but we need to go. Like now." Beck said frantically.
"Whoa whoa, slow down. What's going on?"
"I just got a call from Tori. Apparently she got a pretty bad voicemail from the killer. Like real bad. She just told me that the police are taking her and Jade into protective custody. She said that she'd feel better if we were all with her. She just texted me the address."
"Okay.. Okay yeah, we should go and be there for them. I'll get Cat."
Robbie left the room and came back with Cat. The three of them then left in Beck's car.
"Wait what about Andre?" Robbie asked as they pulled out onto the street.
"Tori told me he was already on his way there." Beck replied.
[...]
"Okay we are lost." Officer Smith looked around but saw nothing but the dirt road they were on and trees everywhere else.
"Great job. The academy's finest ladies and gentlemen." Jade spat as she rolled her eyes.
"Hey, if you haven't noticed, there aren't any signs around here. All we have is this outdated map." He pointed to the map Officer Briggs kept flipping around trying to find their location.
"Okay I think I know where we went wrong." He pointed to a place on the map. "We went left instead of right."
Officer Smith slowed down and looked over at the map. "Damn, all they way back there?"
"Great. Hear that Vega? Lewis and Clark here led us down the wrong road."
Tori was too engulfed in her thoughts to notice the argument going on between the officers and Jade. She was too worried, about her friends, her father, and whatever was going on between her and Jade.
[...]
It took a while but Officer Smith finally got them back on track. They figured they were only a couple of miles out, and Tori and Jade were relieved to be close to safety.
"So where are you guys from?" Tori asked, trying to keep her thoughts away from anything stressful now that she had a headache from all her worrying.
"Well I'm from a little town in Minnesota actually. It's-" Officer Smith started.
"No. Nope. Nooooo." Jade interrupted.
"What's your problem?" Tori asked.
"Have you never watched a horror movie before? This is the part where the cops reveal their backstory, where they grew up, and all that chiz."
"Yeah so?"
"Writers do that so the audience will react when they get slaughtered." Jade spat/
"Wow, such colorful language." Officer Briggs shot back.
"This isn't actually a movie. You know that right Jade?"
"Duh. I just think it's bad karma. But whatever." She turned her attention to the officers in the front seats. "It's your funerals." She said acidly.
A moment of silence passed while they contemplated what Jade said.
"So Minnesooota eh?" Tori said with her best "Minnesotan" accent.
"Yeah we don't talk like that." Officer Smith retorted, slightly annoyed. Tori smirked, she could see why Jade would 'impersonate' her, it was fun when you were on the other side of the joke.
"What about you Briggs?"
"I'm from L.A. Grew up over on-" He stopped as the car had taken a turn and not to far down the dirt road was a giant branch.
"Why are we slowing down?" Tori asked nervously, looking around at the surrounding woods.
"That giant branch in the middle of the road."
"Just drive over it." Jade said nonchalantly.
"Yeah and risk blowing out our tires? Unless you wanna walk?"
"Maybe." Jade smirked.
"I don't!" Tori squeaked.
Officer Smith came to a stop at the huge branch. Both officers looked at each other and nodded. They opened the doors and stepped out.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Tori cried out after them.
"You want to get to the safehouse right? Well we have to move this out of the way."
The officers started to move towards the branch, while Tori and Jade kept checking the woods around them. The branch wasn't too heavy, and before long it was out of the way.
"See? Easy." Officer Smith said as he got back into the car.
"Just drive please. Let's get to safety." Tori said, voice still shaky.
They were on the road for no more than five minutes when they pulled up to a giant house.
"This is weird." Tori noted how there weren't any police cars around, at least in front of the house, and no lights were on.
"Are you sure we are at the right place?" Officer Briggs asked.
"Hmm.. Well maybe it was one of the other dozens of mansions we went by on the way here." Officer Smith barked.
"Did the captain say anything about no lights or something when you two talked?" Tori asked.
"No he basically texted me the address and that was it." Officer Smith revealed.
"What?!" All three said in unison.
"What?" Officer Smith said confused.
"You did talk to the captain right?" Jade spat.
"Yeah of course. I'm not stupid."
"And?"
"I radioed for him, didn't get an answer then he called my cell. He said he was in a meeting with the 'higher ups', and told me to give him the quick version of why I called. He said to put you guys in protective custody and he'd text me the address."
"Isn't that against some kind of procedure or something?" Tori asked. Both officers just looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions.
"C'mon let's at least check inside." Officer Smith offered.
"How about no." Jade declined as she dragged Tori back to the car. "Let's get out of here." She said before getting into the police car.
"Now this is probably against some kind of procedure." Officer Smith said as he turned to his partner.
"Well we are going against orders… But who cares man. Let's get out of here." Officer Briggs replied.
"You're on their side?!"
"Dude, we just revealed our backstories man. We shouldn't be anywhere near creepy secluded houses right now."
"Good point, let's go."
The officers jumped into the car and took off on their way back to civilization. They slowed to a stop when they came up to the large branch that was in the middle of the road, again.
"Okay let's just not stop this time." Tori pleaded.
"We still can't roll over it, or we'll be stuck out here." Officer Smith repeated from earlier.
"It's a trap!" Tori argued.
"Well it's either this or go back to the creepy house." Tori and Jade didn't say anything. "Besides, it'll take a minute, we'll be right back." Officer Smith said as he and Officer Briggs stepped out of the car.
"Dude are you trying to jinx us?" Officer Briggs groaned.
"Let's just get this over with."
Once again, the branched was moved without incident.
"What was that?" Officer Smith asked as he turned towards the woods.
"I didn't hear anything." Officer Briggs said as he got into the passenger side of the cop car. Seeing his partner still not moving, Officer Briggs reached over and rolled down the driver side window. "C'mon man."
"Get in the car!" Both girls were practically screaming at Officer Smith. This snapped him out of the daze he was in and he hurried to the car.
"Are you really that stupid? It's a forest! If the noise is an animal, who cares? If it isn't let's not stick around to find out what it is." Jade spat.
Officer Smith was about to answer when Ghostface came charging out of the forest. Tori's scream alerted Officer Smith and he turned just as Ghostface swung his knife through the open driver side window. Officer Smith barely dodged out of the way and the knife's blade got stuck in the metal grate separating the backseat from the front seat, causing Tori to yelped at the sight of the blade in front of her. At this point Officer Smith peeled out and left Ghostface in the dust. All four heads in the cop car were turned around, looking at Ghostface standing in the middle of the road behind them. Tori managed to pull her eyes away from Ghostface to see where the car was going.
"LOOK OUT!" Tori screamed as the car hit a tree, the whiplash sending her face towards the knife stuck in the metal grate.