A/N: 4 reviews in like 8 hours is definitely enough motivation to chop out another chapter, and fast. I wrote in a small sappy Creille moment for you easilyobsessed... and for us Palex fans, Darkredeyes, of course there is Palex goodness. So, anyway, the slaughter of our favorite TV high school students continues...
One for the Money, Two for the Show...
Peter and Jay saw the car smashed into the tree before they even broke into the clearing. Jay began running as soon as he could see that it was his car. Peter hurried after him, video camera now flipped open and recording. Jay screamed "FUCK!" at the top of his lungs when he was close enough to see that not only his car was smashed up, but it had impaled Spinner on a big fucking tree.
Peter filmed Jay punching out his own car window, kicking the front tire and then pacing and cursing. Zooming in past Jay, he got a shot of Spinner laying face down on the hood of the car. His face was splattered in his own blood, and the hood glistened with a darker red on top of the original red paint. His glassy eyes stared blankly into the dark woods, seeing nothing. Blood was still dripping from the front bumper. Drip, drip, drip.
Everyone alert at the campsite heard Jay's "FUCK!" echo through the woods. Manny looking out of her tent saw a very frightened Emma, wearing only her pants and a black bra, ran off into the woods toward the scream. J.T., Toby and Liberty were all staring off into that direction only a couple feet away from her tent. She climbed out and headed past the campfire, trying to keep up with Emma. She lost Emma when she found her boyfriend and the girl crushing on him standing up together by the fire. She gave Craig a hurt and pissed off look, but didn't have the time to scold him. She ran off after Emma, once again.
"What's going on?" Marco asked Craig and Ellie as he and Dylan approached the campfire.
"We don't know." Ellie told him, "Maybe we should all go together to find out?"
"Let's hurry." Craig said and he ran in the opposite direction. Ellie Marco, Dylan, J.T., Liberty, and Toby hurried in the right direction toward the parking area.
Peter stopped filming when Emma ran up. He tried to block her view of the body, not wanting her to see it. He knew she was easily traumatized, and this wasn't going to be something she would get over easily. She pushed him out of the way, and fell to her knees when she saw what had happened to Spinner. She started crying, so he knelt down to comfort her.
"Don't you worry Emma, I'll protect you." He told her valiantly, he kept an eye on Jay while he talked to her.
"He was just with us a few minutes ago..." Emma cried, "He was... sitting next to me... and now...he's... he's..."
"He's a fucking hood ornament!" Jay cursed, "Shit. Fuck. God Damn it. Is this a good Christian gets! HUH? Fuck!"
"Will you stop already?" Peter asked Jay, who had been cursing non-stop for the last two or three minutes.
Marco, Dylan, Manny, JT, Liberty and Toby ran up at this point.
"Oh my god." Manny whispered, her voice as weak as her knees suddenly felt. She covered her mouth, afraid she was going to be sick.
"Spin!" Marco ran up to the body, he tapped Spinner's face. Spinner was dead, no doubt about it. Marco felt the warm tears rushing out of his eyes, his heart was racing. Dylan was there behind him, a hand on his back. "He's dead." Marco said though a cracking voice, "Spinner, he's dead."
J.T., Toby, and Liberty stood back all staring like deer caught in headlights.
"Why are you still here Jay?" Dylan asked, marching up to the man who was easiest to blame, "When you kill someone it's generally best if you run."
"I didn't kill him!" Jay snarled in response, "What? do you think I wanted my car bashed up? Do you think I wanted my best friend dead?"
"Why did you have a gun if you weren't going to kill anyone?" Manny accused openly.
"I told you! It's for protection." Jay was still yelling, his temper was getting the better of him now, "I live in a bad part of town, plus Spinner wasn't shot!"
"No, he was run over by your car." Manny told him coldly.
"Murderer!" Emma stood up suddenly behind Manny, her eyes were red and poofy, "You killed Spinner!"
Craig ran up, now wearing a shirt. He saw the fight about to break out between Dylan and Jay, he saw Marco standing by a very dead version of his old pal Spinner. He took a deep breath and decided to try and make sense of the situation. "Hey, guys, guys!"
"I didn't kill Spinner" Jay screamed at Emma and Manny now, "I'm not a fucking murderer!"
"GUYS!" Craig's scream actually drew the attention to himself at last, "Let's not freak out here, okay? Spinner is dead. Someone killed him. Maybe it wasn't even one of us, maybe there's someone else out here. We aren't even suppose to be here, who knows what kind of psycho's..."
"-yeah, look at him!" Jay pointed at Craig, now that everyone seemed to notice Craig was talking, "He tells some stupid ass story about campers like us getting killed and then guess what? Spinner is killed!"
"It was just a story." Craig said seriously, "I don't want to believe any of us could be killers. So let's figure this out, okay?"
"He's right." Ellie stepped up to help Craig out, "We need to stay sane, and do this logically. Irrationality will only get us in more trouble. Jay, you say it wasn't you. Who had your car keys?"
"They were in the car, in my bag." He swallowed hard after saying it, "Anyone could have gotten them. This guy here was lurking in the area though." He pointed at Peter.
"I was just getting my camera."
"Out of Jay's car" Emma exclaimed, "Did you see anyone?"
"I saw Jay." Peter scowled at Jay.
"Okay, so anyone could have gotten the keys. It's dark out here, if someone was 10 feet away you most likely wouldn't have known anyway." Ellie pointed out, "We have to stop accusing each other, Craig is right."
"Where is Paige? Hazel?" Marco said suddenly, "Alex?"
"Paige has motive, and she's been known to steal cars." Jay mumbled, "There's a suspect for you."
"Stop accusing people Jay." Ellie told him.
"No, I'm worried about them." Marco hurried back over to Dylan's side, "If there's a killer on the loose, and they're out there alone..."
"We don't want anyone to go out there alone." Dylan took charge, "We need a search party to go back to the campsite, and a couple search parties for the general area. Marco and I will stay here, we'll look through the car and see if there's any evidence as to who took it."
"We have to go out into the woods?" Manny asked meekly, "I'm not going with Jay."
"J.T., Toby, Liberty." Dylan told the younger group, "Go back to camp and see if Paige, Hazel or Alex somehow slept through the... incident... Ellie, Craig, Jay you guys go that way around towards the Lake and circle around. Emma, Manny, Peter I want you guys to go the other way to the lake and circle back. Once we have everyone back here we can see about going and getting some help."
People did as they were told, more than obliged to be following orders in this frightening situation. Dylan pulled the keys out of the ignition and searched the front seat, he handed Marco the keys in order to search the trunk. There wasn't anything in the seat, there wasn't anything on the dash board, not even anything in the glove box.
"A couple bags, some rope, a tire iron, bolt cutters, a wrench, a hatchet," Marco was listing the array of items in Jay's trunk "what's this thing? I think it's a candle holder. This trunk is full of junk."
"That rhymed." Dylan smiled at Marco, coming around to look at the cluttered trunk.
"But it's true." Marco wasn't much in the mood for smiling, one of his best friends was just brutally murdered. Dylan kissed him lightly, and he melted into his arms. The physical comfort was so good right now.
"Let's go make sure no one is hiding out in my van, what do you say?" Dylan asked.
"Dylan... I don't know..."
"Come on, we have at least ten minutes until any of them get back."
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"There's got to be something we can do." Paige sighed, "What about a distance relationship? Then you could stay here, and I could go, and we could still be together."
"See, I told you that you would be ecstatic if I had offered that," Alex smiled at her ex-girlfriend, "But... Paige, as much as I do love you, and I do, I don't know how well that will work for us."
"Why not?" Paige was almost whimpering, she was still so into Alex, Hazel had been right about that.
"Because you'll have new friends, new love interests. You'll go and get drunk some night, at some stupid college party, and then you'll cheat on me. You'll blame it all on me for not being there with you. You'll have a new life Paige, a life that doesn't concern me." Alex left the window open to her vulnerability only for a second, "Plus, I'm sure I'd move on too. After all, we'd hardly ever see each other."
"Then what if I stay? What if I go to University here?" Paige offered.
"Paige!" Alex was shocked, "Banting is your dream. You got it, you're going to Banting. You can't stay here."
"Yeah, it's my dream." Paige agreed, "But I'll manage at UT, if I still have you by my side."
"No." Alex said simply.
"Then it's not about Banting at all! What did I do?"
"Look, it is about Banting, but you can't give up your dream for me." Alex explained, "I'm just not worth it."
"You are to me" Paige interrupted.
"I was saying, I'm not worth you giving up your dream for, but if you want to try the distance relationship so friggin' much, I guess we can try to work something out." Alex put an arm around Paige and pulled her closer to her, "After I find another job I can work on getting myself a set of wheels too, okay?"
Paige nodded before she pulled Alex in for a kiss. It had been over two weeks since she had kissed her, and that had been far too long in her book.
"Well good to know you're both okay," Manny said snidely from behind them, then yelled out to the others "I found them! Over here!"
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"Jay?" Craig called out.
"That's so not cool." Ellie complained as she moved tree branches out of her way, "It totally makes him seem like conspicuous. You don't think he did do it, do you?"
"Honestly? I don't know." Craig answered, "I'd like to keep an eye on him, is what I'd like to do. I can't believe he just took off like that. I should go find him."
"Well, I know I personally don't want a killer on the loose." Ellie agreed, "I can watch my back right here, go ahead and go get him."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm a big girl Craig, I can watch myself."
He nodded that he understood, and started to head off to find Jay. Ellie grabbed his hand and pulled him back, she quickly leaned in and kissed him. He looked surprised, but smiled anyway.
"Don't get yourself killed alright?" She said, letting him know he could go now.
"Yeah, you keep alive too." He responded as he cautiously wandered off looking for Jay.
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J.T., Toby and Liberty found Hazel. She was asleep in her tent, but she had headphones on. She said hadn't heard anything, and seemed utterly frightened at the news that Spinner had been killed.
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Dylan and Marco had found their way to the very back of the van, where the others wouldn't see them easily when they returned. Marco was laying on Dylan's chest, and Dylan was running his fingers through Marco's poofy hair.
"How are you staying so calm?" Marco asked quietly.
"I don't know Marco." Dylan put both of his arms on Marcos shoulders, "I wasn't as close to him as you were. Maybe that's it. I mean I wouldn't be this calm if it were you out there."
There was a click.
"What was that?" Marco sat up a little straighter.
"It was the lock." Dylan responded.
The back hatch lifted up. It was someone wearing a black hoodie, and the hood was up. They were holding the tire iron and wrench that had been in Jay's trunk.
"Why are you wearing that?" Marco asked the killer, obviously recognizing exactly who it was, but not the fact that they were the killer. Of course his first question is about fashion, rather than the tools that could be used as weapons, too.
"Marco, watch out!" Dylan cried out and he tried to block the blow from the wrench as the killer swung it in at Marco's head. His hand deflected a part of the blow, but not all of it. Marco grunted and fell forward, and Dylan's concern for his boyfriend over-rode his senses. He failed completely to block the tire iron that knocked an inch size hole in his forehead. The killer didn't stop at there. With all the tools found in the back of Jay's car, a killer could make quite a masterpiece.
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A/N: Well, obviously no kudos for you guys. Try, try again... lots more death to come.