For Liv.

The single phrase that Kirby had ended with was vibrating in Sidney's mind. The three words 'it's not over' bouncing around her skull helplessly as she remained rooted to the spot. After each murder spree, each funeral she had attended and every therapy session, there had been a small glimmer of hope that it was really done. A tiny flicker would slip through the mask that she tried to put out that this time… this time… she might just be left alone to live her life. But after each horrific event, each scar and each loss, that small light had gradually gotten less and less bright.

And right now? That light had been extinguished completely and Sidney felt like she had been catapulted back to square one.

"Sidney? Sidney? What do we do?" Kirby asked. The phone was still hanging limply in her hand, a conduit for what was going to come.

"We need to call Dewey. He can maybe get a hold of the number that called." Sidney told her. Even though she was practically a veteran in this now, it didn't dull the overwhelming sense of terror and trepidation she felt. But she was quick to remind herself that it wasn't just her anymore. So, she tried to keep a level head for the sake of Kirby. "Until we get hold of the records, we need to keep as calm as possible."

"But I heard him. He sounded exactly the same!" Kirby replied, flustered at the thought that Sidney felt she was being overdramatic and blowing the whole situation out of proportion.

Upon seeing the mixed expression of disbelief, upset and frustration on Kirby's face, Sidney quickly shook her head and walked over to her.

"I believe that you heard what you heard, and trust me when I say that I know that voice will never leave you. But I also know that technology has developed, and people can do things that weren't possible when this first happened to me." She explained.

It wasn't a lie by any stretch of imagination. Even when she was at college, Sidney had been inundated by hoax calls and sinister voices asking her what her favourite scary movie was and whether she wanted to die or not. Of course, these had been prominent when the first Stab film showed up in theatres, and although some of those tones had been sinister and dark, none of them made her blood run cold like the one that haunted her every waking hour. Back then, she had been blessed with caller ID, a safety net which didn't exist anymore since keeping yourself anonymous came at the mere flick of a button.

Sidney would be the first to acknowledge that she was way out of her depth with everything in today's standards. The last time she'd heard, the Stab producers had actually created some voice-changing software so that for two dollars, anyone could take their turn in playing psychotic killer. It wasn't just technology that had changed though, people had changed too. The pranks that had been played on her were thoughtless, but they weren't really done with any malice. It was just stupid college kids with too much time on their hands between classes and complete over-excitement with the movie premiere. It was different now. There were far too many people eager to cause harm and suffering simply because they could. This ability had been handed to them on a plate with the likes of social media and various apps tracking exact locations. That was just one of the plethora of reasons as to why Sidney avoided any of that side of life like the plague. Trouble seemed to find her without the aid of technology, she didn't need anything extra helping along the way.

Kirby was still upset, so Sidney comfortingly placed her hands on the younger woman's shoulders.

"I believe you, Kirby. I promise. I'm going to call Dewey and we'll get this looked into."

"Don't go!" Kirby interjected as Sidney headed to the door. As Sidney turned her head, an embarrassed expression flooded Kirby. "I mean… just in case this isn't a joke, we shouldn't be on our own…right?"

Sidney smiled at her reassuringly. "My phone is in my purse; I just have to grab it. I'm not going to leave you on your own."

Much to her and Kirby's relief, Dewey hadn't hesitated in asking them both to immediately come to the station with the phone, and when they arrived he was waiting outside to lead them to his office.

"Obviously, we're treating this very seriously. As soon as you came off the phone I asked the service provider to pull Kirby's phone records." Dewey sighed, leaning back in his worn-out chair as he gazed at the two women opposite him.

"Well, what happens now?" Kirby asked, keen to know what was going on.

"Best-case scenario, we get a phone number and we track the location." The silence that followed Dewey's response seemed to echo around the room.

"But…that's easy, right? Phones track everything nowadays." Kirby interjected.

"Easy, yes… but highly unlikely." Dewey drummed his fingers on the table, his frustration at the situation evident.

"What do you mean unlikely?"

Sidney could feel the sinking in her chest as she fixed her eyes on Dewey. The wariness in which he was treating this situation made her feel incredibly uneasy. She knew the answer to that question, and it was one that nobody wanted to hear, but needed to.

"Unlikely means that we might be looking at worst case scenario." Sidney eventually trailed off.

"And what's that?"

"Whoever made that call didn't want to be found. Probably used a burner phone. With the phone call being so short it means there's no way it can be tracked, and besides, it wasn't live anyway." Sidney answered, leaning back in her own chair now and rubbing the back of her neck.

"As it stands, there's no reason to believe that this is anything more than a sick individual trying their luck and creating unnecessary issues." Dewey quickly piped up. "But…we just need to make sure."

With no further updates to be given, Sidney and Kirby stood up to leave.

"Actually Kirby, would you mind just heading next door to Deputy Hicks? We want a recorded statement of what was said in the conversation."

"I.. I don't know if I remember word for word but I remember what he was talking about." She told him. "Does that matter?"

"Just do your best." He smiled at her and watched her leave, waiting until he heard Kirby knock on the door and the latch close before he spoke again.

"So, what do you really think?" Dewey asked Sidney, removing his police cap and setting it on the desk.

Chewing the already shredded flesh from the inside of her cheek, Sidney sighed and pushed a hand through her hair.

"I don't really know. With the whole story out there for anyone to read and become invested in, it's not exactly difficult to cause damage with everything at your fingertips."

"What I don't quite understand is how Kirby's phone number was obtained." Dewey replied.

"I mean… I don't know much about it, but if you're good with technology…" Sidney trailed off.

"I don't doubt that. Kirby is on all forms of social media and even if her phone number isn't featured, as you said, someone good with a good grasp for technology would be able to figure it out. But I just don't understand why…"

"People can be cruel." Sidney answered simply. "They don't often need a reason."

"I agree. But surely in this day and age where there's a news story every time you update your phone, there would be other things to target." He mused. "Think about it. This story is over a month old now. In that space of time there've been two terrorist attacks, stabbings, shootings… you name it and the world has seen it. Why is someone so fixated by this one thing?"

Sidney took note of Dewey's expression then- and though she didn't want to admit it- it was looking to be more than a cruel prank.

"You think there's something in this, don't you?"

Dewey shrugged his shoulders reluctantly and looked like he was considering just how to put things.

"It's just… with the phone call and the incident with the photograph." He trailed off for a moment, letting the statement hit and sink heavily. It was only when he glanced at her did he shake his head and give her a small smile. "Look, they could all simply be a set of coincidences. We can rationalise what happened with the photo and put the phone call down to a prank. But there could also be someone out there who has decided to try and pick up after where Jill and Charlie left off."

Sidney nodded as he said this, thankful for his honesty. No matter how much she didn't want to hear it, didn't want to even think about this whole mess starting up again, she needed to. She needed to be prepared

"So, what happens now?"

"Well, we extend police observation on both you and Kirby. You've already taken the initiative to stick together- and as much as I know how you feel about Woodsboro, I think it's best that you stay under our surveillance until we know if this goes any further."

Nodding he head once more, Sidney pushed herself up from the wall that she had been leaning against and headed to the door, Dewey following shortly behind her to walk her out.

"As soon as you know anything about the phone call, please let me know."

"Of course, Sid. You don't even need to ask. I'll see you in a couple of hours anyway, I'm on observation tonight, then you have Hicks tomorrow." He told her, knowing how she liked being kept in the loop about things.

"I bet Gale is rueing the day that I returned." Sidney mused, a feeble attempt at a joke that nonetheless made Dewey smile.

"Are you kidding? She's already booked the passenger seat next to me. We all get through this together Sid, just like we always have."

Only moments later, Kirby exited with Judy, who gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Remember, Kirby. Anything you need, I'm here."

"Thanks ma'am." Kirby waved awkwardly; some sort of cake gripped in her hand. "And thanks again for the lemon squares."

The car journey home was nearly a silent one, which hadn't been so different from the first journey. Sidney could have put the lack of conversation to the station down to fright and shock, but she had expected a little more from Kirby by now.

"Are you alright?" Sidney asked eventually, breaking the silence alongside the quick flick of her indicator light clicking rhythmically.

"Yeah…" Kirby said automatically, which made Sidney's eyebrow raise in response without even so much as looking at her. Once Kirby noticed, she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Yes…no… I don't know if I'm alright." She answered, slower this time as she averted her gaze to the scenery passing by in a blur of colours.

"It's alright to not be alright you know?" Sidney asked her, her grip on the wheel slacking ever so slightly. "I went through a year of college pretending to be fine. Got a boyfriend, made new friends… I even nearly joined a sorority." Sidney laughed a little at that as she remembered how desperate Hallie had been to get into the Delta Lambda Zeta house.

Kirby couldn't help but laugh at that. "You? I couldn't ever see you joining a sorority." She told her.

"I was going to because my roommate, Hallie, wanted to be in it so badly." She couldn't help but hear in her own ears the pang of sadness that tainted her sentence as she spoke about yet another person she loved and cared about being killed, just to get to her.

"Still…" Kirby said softly, allowing the sentence to trail off for a minute.

"The point is…I had all this happening around me…all this positive chaos because it distracted me. It made me feel like I was alright, even though looking back now, I wasn't."

"What happened then?"

"Well… then I did a complete one-eighty and became a social recluse." She admitted. "Nobody but Dewey and my dad knew where I was. I was holed up in this cabin in the middle of an untouched set of co-ordinates. I didn't even use my real name." She explained.

Kirby paused for a moment, trying to put together what she said.

"What I mean Kirby… is that you don't always have to be alright all the time. Pretending you're fine all the time is just as bad as not allowing yourself any hope of coming out of not being okay."

Kirby once again focused on Sidney as she drove.

"So, what did you do to get a balance?"

The question made Sidney smile then, and she took a moment to glance at Kirby.

"I'll tell you when I find that one out myself."

That made Kirby chuckle, despite everything that she had been through that whole day. With Kate's funeral and the phone call, it had all just been so exhausting.

"Listen, I'm not going anywhere. There's two of us in the house and I know that house like the back of my hand. Dewey is on watch tonight with Gale, you'll be as safe as you can be."

"But you can't promise me it'll be alright." It was a statement of understanding now, not a question.

Sidney pulled up at the house and sighed softly.

"No, I can't. But we just have to trust that it will be enough."