The night dragged on and still no more evidence. Rodney, Page and Kally kept an eye out for Strange who showed up only to look miserable that Raven was fawning all her attentions on Parker Lansky, the preacher's boy. He sat in a corner by himself, shredding pieces of paper that were in the pocket of his leather jacket.
Page bit down on her lip for the umpteenth billionth time that night and said, "Well, I guess I'll go talk to him."
Kally and Rodney watched her go off to talk to Strange but quickly disappeared outside when they saw none other than Deputy Rye's car pulling into the drive w/ Deputy Rye and Tom in it.
"Hey Strange," Page said slowly sidling up to him. "You look upset."
"Yeah, well, this party's pretty dull."
Page took a seat on the settee beside him. "But it would be better if Raven were hanging out w/ you right?"
Strange looked at her. "Why do you say that?"
Page laughed. "Oh, c'mon, Strange, I've seen you around her. You want her."
Strange tossed a little piece of his paper shreds to the floor. "Yeah, well, does that bother you? W/ me being a 'murderer' and all?"
Page frowned. "I... I'm sorry I accused you. I was being attacked, Strange and it was easier to blame it on you than think logically I guess."
Strange glared at her. "Thanks, I'll remember that." He stood up and walked away, leaving Page gaping hopelessly at his retreating leather covered back.
Page looked around for Kally and Rodney but couldn't find them so she went to find Mercedes instead. "Hey, Mercedes, can I use your phone? I'm going to see if I can get a hold of Tom."
Mercedes nodded, yelling over the music, "Sure! Use the one on the landing-take the two flights of stairs and it'll be on the third floor. It'll be nice and quiet up there!"
Page climbed her way to the third floor and found the phone. She was dialing the number of the police station when she thought she heard something. Looking up she called out, "hello?"
Eerie silence followed and she looked all around her.
"Cedar Hill Police Department," the voice in the phone said.
"Hi, can I speak to Officer Sheridan please?"
While she was waiting she heard more footsteps and just as the woman on the
other end was going to tell her Officer Sheridan wasn't there, Death was standing before her, cape, scythe and all.
Page screamed and dropped the phone. She started to run for the stairs but tripped on the cord and sprawled across the floor.
Death was instantly on top of her, pulling her up and dragging her away.
She screamed again and begged Death to let her go but Death ignored her and no one else could hear her.
Page was taken up another flight of stairs to the attic where Death wielded his scythe a few times for dramatic affect and then simply tied her to a chair.
"What do you want?" Page sobbed.
Death began to laugh, a masculine laugh that filled the whole room. "Page, Page,Page," he said. "You still don't know how to play by the rules ... you keep breaking them. Do you wanna die, Page? Your friends sure didn't."
"You're such a loser!" Page spat w/ irritated disgust. Scream already has a three-part trilogy AND a parody, you're not going to become famous by making a fifth installment!"
Death chuckled and Page wondered where she'd heard that laugh before. "Oh, won't I though? I've already managed to kill let's see..." he muttered inaudible names. "Three people all by myself w/ two people in waiting. Did good ole Stu Boy and Billy Boyfriend do that? Noooope! They had to HELP one another. I did these ones all on my own and, dum da da dum! The police are clueless. They'll never be able to figure it out." He put the scythe right underneath her chin. "Even you couldn't figure it out."
Page tossed her hair behind her head haughtily. "Well, aren't you going to reveal yourself then? Steve and Billy did."
"But Stu and Billy were a bit slow," Death laughed, twirling the long scythe. "They didn't plan things through the right way."
Page smirked, feeling somehow that she had an advantage over this lunatic. "Well, Ben Willis in I Know What You Did Last Summer revealed who he was before he tried to kill Julie. And he killed everyone else all on his own. No one's here to save me, remember? Even the chick on Urban Legend let it be known who she was. It makes it more scary."
Death laughed. "Well, if you insist!" He threw his hood back w/ a flourish and Page almost screamed again.
"Bailey?" she cried, incredulously. "But.."
"Surprise!" Bailey howled. "You like the Death costume? I thought that the chainsaw mask, the Ghostface, the fisherman look and the Eskimo parka were all well and good but I wanted at least SOME originality."
Page shook her head, tears building up in her eyes. "Why, Bailey? Why would you kill them?"
"Why?" Bailey asked, his face red w/ adrenaline. "WHY?! Asking for a motive is another death wish, Pagey baby-that's begging for climax. But ok, you're pressuring me for it and I wouldn't want to disappoint you..." He walked up to her chair and placed the blade of the scythe under her chin again. "But first, I have a couple of guests I'd like you to meet." He walked over to the sliding door of a closet. "And behind door number one!" he said flinging open the left side door. The slashed body of Deputy Rye fell out.
Page cried.
"Oooo, your number one suspect! Gonna cross him off the list now, Pagey?" Bailey cackled in delight and walked over to the other side of the closet to open the other door. "And behind door number two- Dorkus Excellencesus himself!"
"Rodney..." Page said softly.
"Yeppers!" Bailey said, spinning around to face her. "No Barry, no Rodney, no David and nooooo Deputy Rye. There's all the friends we had and therefore all the suspects. I almost had Tom as one but your damn buddy Raven had to interfere. I was going to kill off her and the Johnson girls too but they were too caught up in the crowd and I didn't want them to make a scene of course. Besides, you can't kill the virgins."
A shudder coursed through Page's spine.
"So, according to the rules, Pagey baby, you gotta go!" He made an elaborate slash through the air w/ his scythe.
"But why did you do it, Bailey? They were your friends!" Page continued to sob.
Bailey looked at the bodies. "Idiots, those two. I had nothing against Rye or Rodney but both were getting way too suspicious. So I had to get rid of them. Tom was next on the list but when he showed up at the party he got a call and had to leave Rye w/ Kally and Rod who were desperate to interrogate him. When Rye gave them evidence against his guilt-that he'd been arresting a drunk driver at the time of Barry's death, they knew they couldn't trace it back to Rye. So Kally went off to find Strange, the poor sob that your
other accusations led to. I sliced and diced ole Deputy here and his little investigating friend."
"But you killed Barry! And David!"
"NO!" Bailey screamed in her face. His lips began to quiver w/ apparent sadness. "I only killed Barry... I never killed David."
Page looked up at him in confusion. "You didn't?"
"No... David, Barry and I saw you getting 'arrested' and followed you and Sheridan into the woods. We wanted to bust Tom for David's sake. We wanted him canned."
"For David's sake what are you talking about?"
"David was in love w/ you!"
Page gasped. "He what?"
"That's right, Page, David wanted you bad and so we had to prove to you that Tom was no good by getting him in trouble so you couldn't be w/ him anymore. We followed you guys out there and planned to confront Sheridan but things got all hot and steamy and David got upset. He took the scythe we had w/ us-the one we were going to tap on the windows to bust you guys w/, and he started cutting himself. We thought he was joking around at first but he started to bleed all over the place. He said he couldn't take it anymore-he was never going to be good enough! He slaughtered himself for you, Page!"
Page trembled in her chair.
"We were scared, Barry and me, we couldn't go to the cops because our
fingerprints were on the scythe too-they'd put us away for killing our own friend. So we left the body and wrote stuff on the window to keep you from seeing the body. We both agreed to scare Sheridan off or get him fired after that. We had to avenge David's death. So when you two went on another sick romping through the cemetery, opportunity knocked. I wanted to kill him because it was all his fault, Page. David never woulda done it if Sheridan weren't in the big picture. So I told Barry about the idea and he got scared. He called me 'crazy' and said we should just go home. He didn't care about David-he was going to leave it all alone! I had to kill the traitor!"
"Killing people isn't going to bring him back, Bailey. It hurt you, it hurt us all, but revenge won't do anything to help him."
"You shut your filthy mouth!" Bailey screamed. "You don't know what you're talking about! David was like my little brother! I loved him... And he'd still be alive today if it weren't for you and your stupid boyfriend!" Bailey was crying himself now but attempted to pull himself together again. "So now, you two gotta die. You broke the rules, you broke ALL the rules and you're my motive for it all anyway so you're the grand finale. You gotta go now, Pagey, gotta go."
He walked to the closet and pulled a third person out of the middle.
"Tom!" Page cried out.
"Yeah, I told you, he has to die too! And since you had the audacity to continue your little romance w/ him I think I'll let you watch him die."
Tom's protests were muffled by the gag in his mouth.
Page watched as Bailey raised the scythe above Tom's head and prepared to bring it down.
"Not so fast!"
All eyes turned to the doorway. It was Kally and she had Deputy Rye's 9mi.
"Oh great!" Bailey groaned. "Just fucking great! Why can't there ever be one decent horror movie that ends in bloodshed instead of heroism?" He started towards Kally, wielding the scythe.
" 'Cause you picked the wrong heroes to fuck w/!" Kally yelled, pulling the trigger. She shot backwards w/ the force of the gun going off and from shock and Bailey went the other way w/ a bullet to the stomach.
Kally helped Tom and Page w/ their bonds. Before they knew it, the attic was swarming w/ the on-looking partygoers, news reporters and cops.
"And the ex-virgin still lives," Page ascertained wearily.