"I gotta meet Randy before my first class. He just called and told me to meet him ASAP." She was out of breath.
"Emergency?"
Sidney shrugs and runs out of the door.
She runs out the main doors and sees Randy sitting alone on a bench. He sees her and gets up and greets her with a hug.
"How ya doin'?" He asks leading her to the bench. Sidney shrugged.
"I just woke up 15 minutes ago... I'm not really sure," She noticed the distressed look on Randy's face. "What's going on?"
"Stu called me this morning and told me to call you because Dewey called him and---"
"Randy. What's going on?" Sid urged.
"Your dad's dead," Randy finally said. "The police tried to contact you, but they couldn't get though." Sidney couldn't quite comprehend what he was saying at first. "He was found hanging from a tree... Gutted. Kinda like-"
"Casey Becker," Stu comes up behind them. "And guess what tonight is."
"The nation wide release of Stab," Randy said quietly. Stu nodded. Sidney put her face in her hands and appeared to be crying. Randy put his hands on her shoulder and Sidney looked at him. Both guys were shocked to find out that Sidney wasn't crying.
"Are you okay," Stu asked.
"We don't have to go see the movie if you don't want," Randy tried his best to comfort his girlfriend. Sidney shook her head no.
"We've had this planned forever. I'll go. I just... Need a minute," she got up and ran back inside. Randy sighed and Stu took a seat next to him.
"What an emotional roller coaster that girl's life is," he said. Randy gave him the look. "I didn't mean that like... Uh... CeCe's waiting for me," Stu bailed out as fast as he could and left Randy alone on the bench.
Later that night Dewey stood in the long line of people waiting to get in. You'd think that for a guy who had VIP seats to the movie he'd be allowed to cut in line. No doubt that Sidney and the others were already waiting for him inside.
A thin black woman walked down the line offering people free 'souvenirs' of the movie. A ghost face costume complete with the cloche, mask, and a glow in the dark rubber knife. She came to Dewey.
"No thanks," he kindly passed the offer up. He had his own ways of remembering the days of Billy Loomis's power trip.
Dewey was the only person in the line that wasn't dressed in the costume.
All of the sudden, out of nowhere came a sharp pain that was very familiar to Dewey. He clenched his left shoulder and, feeling a thick goo between his fingers, knew what had just happened.
Somebody stabbed him! Dewey quickly turned around to see dozens of ghost faces talking and laughing amongst themselves. Some were having knife-fights with their rubber daggers. It seemed as if millions of ghost faces were staring him in the face.
He staggered down the line of people, and he caught some peoples attention. His face was feeling flushed and he was definitely feeling light headed.
More and more people started pointing and gasping, removing their mask one by one. Some whispered, others asked if he was okay. Dewey's legs started shaking.
It wasn't the knife that's causing this, he thought to himself. It's surprise. Maybe even fear!
Inside, Stu and CeCe were at the counter getting popcorn for everybody. Randy and Sidney stood holding hands by the entry waiting for Dewey. A blonde guy in a ghost face cloche ran through the doors, bursting through security and making his way to the counter.
"Help," he yelled. Stu and CeCe looked away from the candy that had their attention. "He's been stabbed! Somebody fucking stabbed him! CALL THE POLICE!"
Security escorted the guy out, clearly thinking he was stoned out of his mind. Stu looked at Sidney and Randy with wide eyes and then they ran out of the theater, leaving a confused CeCe behind.
"Wha--- uh okay?" CeCe said to herself.
The next morning Ring, ring, ring Sidney sat up on her bed.
"Hello," she yawned into the receiver.
"Hello Sidney. What's your favorite scary movie?" A vengeful voice laughed on the other line. The voice was that of the killer. Sidney was expecting this.
"Who is this," she said with no emotion in her voice.
"You tell me," the voice replied. Sidney reached over to her night stand and grabbed her caller i.d.
"Cory Gillis. 555-0176," she said then silently laughed to herself.
"Oh shit!" Cory said using his regular voice.
"Hot flash Cory, prank calls are criminal offense prosecuted under penal code 653M," Sidney informed him. Cory cursed again and hung up.
"Hope you enjoyed the movie," Sidney hung the cordless phone up.
"Time to change numbers again?" Hallie asked checking her outfit out in the mirror.
"Nah, it'll die off, it's opening weekend." Sidney gets out of bed and walks towards the closet.
"Where you headed?" Hallie asked. Sidney opened her mouth to answer, but Hallie answered her own question. "Ah, lemme guess. Randy's?"
Sidney nodded. "Hows your friend? The one that's in the hospital?" Hallie reached into her makeup bag. Sidney shrugged.
"We're lookin' to find out."
Dewey's hospital room "Well if it is happening again, then we're in luck because hey... What am I the worlds greatest expert on?" Randy asked. Dewey thought for a second.
"Nothing," he answered. Randy's enthusiasm tuned down a bit.
"Horror," he answered, looking at Dewey. "The way I see it, someone is out to make a sequel, you know, cash in on all of the movie murder hoopla, so it's our job to observe rules of a sequel. Number one, the body count is always bigger, number 2, the death scenes are always much more elaborate, more blood, more gore, carnage candy. Your core audience just expects it. And number three, never..."
"Gotta love Randy and his little rules," Sidney laughed.
"How do we find out who the killer is, Randy, that's what we need to know!" Dewey sat up in his hospital bed.
"Well, let's look at the suspects. There's me, the obvious boyfriend," Randy motioned his hands towards Sidney. "Hello Billy Loomis! His knife cut missed every major vein and artery and he pitied on Sid."
"So you think you did it..." Dewey said without thinking. Sidney raised an eyebrow at him.
"Not so fast... Not so fast, let's assume if the killer or ers has half a brain, he's not a Nick at Night rerun type of guy, he wants to break some new ground, so forget the boyfriend thing, it's tired. Besides... It's me! Who else do we got?"
Small silence. Sidney glances at Stu who is sitting on a padded chair with CeCe on his lap. He's clearly not paying attention, but mouthing something silently to himself. He blinked for the first time in minutes. It was obvious he was trying to figure something out.
Something about him made Sidney feel un-easy. Of course he was the lap dog of Billy all those years ago, so when something like his happens again he'd obviously be the first to be suspected. He's been there before.
"Mickey!" Randy broke the silence. Sidney looked back at him. "The freaky Tarantino film student. But again, if he's a suspect so am I and boyfriend thing... Tired..."
"No," Stu finally spoke. Everybody turned their attention to him. "It's a reverse copycat!"
"You mean like a sloppy-cat?" Randy asks.
"Think about it," Stu says. "Billy's original planned victims were Casey, Himbry, Tatum, Dewey, Sidney, then Neil..."
"I'm not following ya," Dewey says and everybody else agrees.
Stu thinks for a second. "See, Neil was the last victim that was supposed to be killed. In this case, he's the first... This killer is going to want to save Sidney for last, so Dewey would be the second to last victim... Billy wanted to kill him because he knew, being Tatum's brother and all, he'd be watching out for her. You see what I'm saying?"
"And he's the second victim in this case," Randy filled in the blanks. "Gale wasn't supposed to be there, so she doesn't count."
"Which makes the next victim---"
"Tatum... Or in this case, Sidney's best friend!" Randy said as if he were having an epiphany.
"Wait..." Sidney says. "When I was in the van with Gale's late camera man, there was video footage of the killer behind Randy getting ready to cut him up," she recalls.
"Oh man... I was a victim?" Randy asks Stu.
"Shit man I'm sorry. You were after Tatum..." Stu starts understanding Sidney's point. He stands up, causing CeCe to nearly fall.
"You're the next victim," he gasps. Sidney looks at Randy, who just stares at the ground as if he's about to pass out.