The Killer Unmasked
Manny sat down in front of a large tree. The sky was starting to lighten ever so slightly, she knew dawn wasn't more than half an hour away. She was exhausted in every way possible. She came here happy, and she'd leave here not ever able to sleep again. Half of the people she came with were dead. The killer, be it Peter or Jay, was still out there. He could be watching her right now. She didn't care anymore, she was too tired to care.
A man screamed. It sounded like Peter. He screamed again. He was being attacked. She stood up suddenly. Of course, if he was the killer maybe he was trying to lure Emma back to him. He screamed one last time, but the last scream was cut short. Manny took off toward the screaming. No one could fake a scream like that last one.
She was drawn to the right spot by seeing Liberty's body swinging gently back and forth. Looking under Liberty was like looking at a massacre. They had ridiculed Rick, but she didn't think even he would have had the audacity to do something this despicable. Peter was laying on the ground, both of his legs had been chopped clean off at different lengths. He had a blood streak running from him to a couple of feet behind him. The axe was now sticking out of the back of his skull, his head was flopped to the side, his last scream still permanently frozen on his features. Manny felt like she'd throw up again, but she knew there was nothing left to throw up. She walked around Peter's body. Jay was sprawled out half way on top of Alex, his eyes were closed. He looked almost as if he was playing at being dead, fake blood being his way of tricking her. She kicked his leg, it was stiff and hard. He hadn't so much as twitched. Paige and Liberty were right in front of her.
She had thought half of her friends were dead, she had been wrong. All of her friends were dead. She noticed a small flash of light in a tree not to far off to the right. She walked over to find Peter's camera, propped up and recording. She pulled it down and rewound the tape. If she played it back she would know who the killer was. She would finally know for sure. She hit play.
The tape was dark, and of rather poor quality in the night. It was amazing it had recorded as well as it did. Peter always did have good taste in technology.
On the screen Peter paced back and forth. He looked at the camera, then he looked away. He finally spoke.
"If anyone is watching this, I'm already dead." He said simply, "I sincerely hope that isn't the case of course, but we're dropping like flies out here." He swatted at a fly to make his point. He turned and walked over to Paige, who was barely on the screen at all. "Paige Michalcuk, she had just made it into Banting University, Harvard of the North. She graduated at the top of her class. May we all remember the late Michalchuks." He stood up and walked over to Alex and Jay, "Alex Nunez, Jay Hogart. A misunderstood lot, but good people they were. Rest in peace guys, I hope death is easier than life was for you... and I'm sorry Jay. I don't think I would have really killed you. I hope not at least." He looked up at Liberty. On the screen it only showed half way up her torso. "Liberty Van Zant." He said, "There goes a woman with some ambition and brains. She tried to be a leader, and she tried to be compassionate. Those two tasks are not easy to juggle. Well, better luck in your next life Liberty. There'll be people who sincerely miss you in this one."
The hooded figure crossed behind him, carrying the axe. Peter walked started pacing again, holding his head. His monologue continued, "The killer has to be a girl. I'm the last guy out here. I think, and as much as I hate to say this, I think it was-" He suddenly fell over backwards with a scream. The killer moved in front of him. Peter was no longer visible because of the killer's back. He said something, but Manny couldn't make out what he said. The killer raised the axe again and took another swing. The killer stepped forward as Peter was trying to crawl away. There was one last raise and fall of the axe. That was the last scream she had heard. The killer glanced around from over Peter's body, then 'he' removed his hood to reveal long blonde hair. Emma looked back at something she apparently heard in the woods, she pulled off the hooded sweat shirt and ran off screen. A couple of seconds later Manny saw herself walk onto the screen.
Manny dropped the camera. It hit the ground and closed. Her best friend was the killer. Emma had killed everyone.
"Hard to believe, I know." Emma said. Manny spun around to see Emma back in the black hooded sweatshirt, but the hood was down. She was leaning against the tree Paige was dead on. She was unwrapping the t-shirt bit that Peter had wrapped her hand with.
"Why? Emma?" Manny asked wide-eyed, and confused.
"Why not?" Emma responded with the raising of her eyebrows, "They think they can just do whatever they want. They knocked down a tree that was a very important habitat. As a tree like that decomposes it acts as food for a zillion different insect species. As they live off of the wood, they provide nutrition for thousands of local birds, which here at Halidora lake, means several endangered species too." Emma spoke the same way she always did about these things, aggressively and angry. But now, knowing she had killed someone over it, Manny couldn't listen to the non-sense.
"That's not something to kill someone over Emma!"
"Yeah, killing people is a bit extreme." Emma rolled her eyes and tossed the torn shirt shred on the ground, "But people can't just get away with doing whatever they want, sometimes violence is the only way. Look at the political system of third world countries, it explains it all."
"Okay, so you killed Spinner and my boyfriend for knocking over a stupid dead tree. Why did you have to kill everyone else then? What did Paige and Alex do? What did Peter do." Manny couldn't believe it. Emma was talking so calmly about slaughtering these people that she had practically grown up with.
"You people left the fire completely unattended to go gawk at Spinner." She ranted, "All of you did that. Hazel was the last one there, though, so basically it was her responsibility. Marco and Dylan had the choice to turn back, they started this whole thing. The made the wrong choice, you don't camp in closed off wild life reserves. It could seriously damage the biological cycle that was so carefully put in place to help these species thrive! Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"No Emma, I don't. How could you? How could you kill your friends like that?" Manny asked fiercely. How could Emma just kill people over such stupid shit environmental bullshit. People's lives were far more valuable than some little biological system at a lake.
"It really isn't hard Manny. I wouldn't say it's any harder than it was for Alex and J.T. to kill that poor deer. That creature had no chance, with Alex just shooting off weapons into a wildlife reserve. And J.T., that animal had a chance at life Manny. We could have saved it."
"It was a mercy killing! The deer was suffering because of a stupid accident! Accidents are not something anyone should die over Emma! How could you care about a stupid deer's life more than your friends?" Manny pointed at Peter's corpse, "He was your boyfriend."
"Who I knew wouldn't be brave enough to save me from a fire." Emma retorted coldly, "And then, he hit me. You saw him hit me. He was going to become a domestic abuser, couldn't you see that? I had to stop it before it got too far."
"You started the fire!" Manny curled her lip up in disgust, "You killed Hazel for leaving a little campfire unattended and you started a big fucking gasoline fire in the middle of the woods?"
"It didn't start a forest fire." Emma countered, "I made sure the dry brush was pushed back, anyway, it was completely necessary."
"You're insane. Completely insane." Manny told her. Emma gave her a wicked little smile, admitting she knew she was insane. She was even proud of it. "Paige? Jay? Liberty? Are you going to kill me and Ellie too?"
"Paige was a mistake." Emma sighed, her smile wilted "I was going for Alex, but they moved... it was a surprise for us both. Jay got in the way... and well, at this point I think I 'll just have to kill all of you in order to get out of here without going to jail." She pulled out Jay's gun from the back of her pants. "I'll shoot you, Ellie and myself... then rig this gun here to blow off Sean's head when he arrives."
"Sean? How is Sean coming?" Manny took a step away from Emma and the gun.
"I called him about four hours ago." She told her, "While all of your cell phones don't work out here, a satellite phone works just fine. He'll be here any minute, so we better get on with it."
"Emma you don't have to do this." Manny took a step back, "You could plead insanity or something. I'll completely back you up. You could over-come this... this... killing thing."
"You really think so Manny?" Emma asked sweetly, she hung her head in shame "because I never wanted it to go this far. I...I... just didn't know what to do after I killed Spinner on a whim. It seemed like the only answer was..."
"I tottaly think it's possible, Em," Manny stopped backing away. She saw her real best friend for the first time in this entire conversation, "We can get you help, the killing has to stop. Killing is never the answer."
"You're so right." Emma started crying, "I don;t know what came over me. I don't know what I've done... Oh Manny, this is horrible!"
Emma started crying. Manny hugged her. She wasn't very comfortable with the hug, after all Emma was about to kill her. Still, though, it was a good feeling that she was saving Ellie and Sean's life.
"We'll make it through this Em. We're best friends, that's what best friends do for each other."
"Thank you" Emma wasn't really crying, over Manny's back she rolled her eyes. She was convincing in her lies, she always had been. Manny hugged her a little tighter."I love you so much..."
She shot Manny. The shot echoed through the woods loudly. That's why Emma hadn't used the gun yet, she knew it would be loud. Manny opened her mouth to say something, her face etched with betrayal. Her eyes were wide.
Emma stepped back and cocked her head at Manny with a self satisfied smile."You really should stay out of other people's business. It's a nasty little habit, and someday it could just get you killed."
Manny looked down at the point blank gun shot wound, her eyes still wide and her mouth hanging open. It hurt, but not like she would have expected it to. She looked back at Emma, who was still smiling mockingly at her. "I hate you Emma." Manny whispered, before falling backwards. The stars were almost all gone, the sun would be up soon. Manny hoped Sean saw through Emma's guise. She hoped someone stopped this insanity.
There was the scamper of feet running through the near by woods. Another gun shot rang out and Emma yelped in pain.
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Flashback Sequence: "How Emma Did it"
Emma had been sitting next to Spinner, with Paige on his other side during the scary stories. At one point she got up to go get a bottle of water. While she was up she scribbled on a piece of paper, telling Spinner to meet her by the big oak. She waited for him to be incredibly distracted by one of the more idiotic stories being told and then she slid the note into his pocket. He noticed her touching him, but she played it off as if a bug had been on his sweater. She started telling him about the life cycle of said insect. He didn't want to hear about the bug, so blew her off, and told her he really didn't care. Then he told a story.
When the group was breaking up she pulled a seduction on Peter. He had always wanted to video tape them having sex, and she knew he would try it again. This time though, she went along with it fully. He was more than eager to run off to the car and leave her unaccounted for. She tossed her shirt in the tent and pulled out a simple over sized black hooded sweater from her bag. If she stashed the sweater and showed up shirtless later, people would assume she had been waiting for Peter in the tent. She had to be quick, she hurried over to the cars. She watched Peter leave, camera in hand. He hadn't noticed Spinner not far off leaning boredly against a tree. Emma got in the car and searched for Jay's keys. She saw him put them in the bag, they weren't hard to find. She started the car and turned on the brights. Spinner stuck his hand up to block the sudden light. He thought it was some kind of joke. She pulled the knife and gun out of the glove box. That's all she needed, now Jay would be a prime suspect.
She hit the gas, and slammed into the tree. She braced herself, but the blow still hurt. She swung open the car door, Spinner had been caught between the car and the tree. It was that easy, killing someone. She grabbed the note that would pin her to the crime, and she ran quickly back into the woods. Just outside of camp she tore of the sweater and left it at the foot of a tree. She ran through the camp, looking frightened. Lots of people were out of their tents, she was afraid to talk to any of them. Afraid they would know, so she ran back towards the wreck site. Jay screamed "Fuck" giving her all the more reason to be heading over there.
When she got there they were fighting. Everyone was in a panic. She played along, she was good at playing along. The guys were all pointing fingers at each other. Jay was prime suspect just as she had planned.
They split up again, in search of others. She feigned a panic attack and told Peter she couldn't handle being out here in the enclosed woods like she was. He was a very understanding boyfriend, because he was scared too. He told her to go back to the cars and wait with Dylan and Marco. She did as he asked right after picking up the hooded sweat shirt from where she had left it. They were in the back of the van, and extremely easy targets. She spent a few minutes bashing them up with the things Jay had in his trunk. She wanted it to resemble the tent from Craig's stupid camper story. In the end she was pleased with her work. If she was suppose to be here when Peter got back she would need an alibi though. She pulled a bulimia trick and forced herself to puke all over the ground in front of her artful display.
She took the bolt cutters and crawled under all the vehicles. She didn't know anything about them, so she just cut anything the bolt cutters would cut. She gave Sean a call, and told him she was in trouble, she gave him directions. All of that didn't take long enough, and she couldn't just wait around. She headed back towards camp. She wanted to see what the other's were doing. When she got there she found the fire about to start a forest fire. She was furious. Toby and Hazel were sneaking around the camp. They tried to run, but she threw Jay's knife. It was a good knife, it hit it's target. Toby left Hazel there, but Emma didn't really care. She'd get Toby later, there was no rush. She heard people coming back to the camp, which turned out to be J.T. and Liberty. She creeped back into the woods, hid the hoodie, and came around to the far side of the parking lot. There was a small group already gathered and talking. They hadn't discovered the new bodies yet. She curled up against J.T.'s car and thought about all the things that had ever upset her. Before she knew it she was completely spaced out, in a world of torment. Peter was there, offering her a shirt.
Then they found the bodies. It had it's desired effect as well. Everyone tired to leave, but alas, her disabling technique had worked. They all headed north. The shed they found was full of another variety of weapons, much like Jay's trunk had been. One of which Alex had to show off by murdering an innocent deer. From that moment, Craig's impending death took back seat to J.T. and Alex. Liberty had a plan to keep them safe, it was actually rather effective. Emma was trying to figure out how she could ditch Peter when Jay popped his head in the door. Peter played good boyfriend again, he ran off after Jay. It was perfect, she went to work. She pulled the hoodie out of the bag she had brought and tossed it on again. She hurried out into the woods. She was listening carefully for the voices of the others. She ended up close to Liberty when she exclaimed "Hey look!"
J.T. was an easy target, she didn't even have to slice and dice him. Had she not had the surprise factor he might have fought her off. As it was, he was drowned and Liberty was still talking to him. Emma hurried back into the woods, she still needed to get Alex. She spotted the two of them flirting again. It was sickening. Paige pushed Alex up against a tree, a tree that was the perfect size to hide behind and reach around. She went for it. She couldn't pull the move while they were kissing so she patiently waited for a pause in sound. She knew Paige wouldn't be able to re-act when she saw her slit Alex's throat. It would be utterly flawless, so she grabbed the head and dragged the blade across the throat. But it wasn't Paige staring back at her, it was Alex. They had somehow switched positions. Alex lunged at her, and she just barely escaped her grip. She threw her knife without meaning to. Alex had a murderous look on her face, if Alex caught her she was done for. She ran. She ran hard. Thank goodness for all of that running she had done over the last year. She lost Alex by the time she made it back to the shed. She tossed the hoodie up over a branch of a tree and grabbed one of the cans of gasoline. She spashed it on the back wall and the far side. Inside she pulled a lighter out of one of the bags and tossed it against the wall. The old building went up in flames. She ran around the shed quickly kicking dry wood away from the shed. She was running out of time, people were due back.
Inside she set a trap. Her plan was to lure Craig into it, which was a very sketchy plan. But she had already messed up and killed Paige, and Paige hadn't done anything. If it happened again, it wouldn't be any different. Peter ran up to see her walking back to the corner. He called out to her. She turned around in circle's staring at the flames as if she saw ghosts. He kept calling to her, but didn't come in, she had been counting on that. She sat down and hugged her knees again. The lost scared child thing seemed to work wonders on everyone.
And Craig was the hero. He came to rescue her, and he got himself trapped. She went along with it, she even accidentally cut her hand on the stupid rusted trap. She had the key, if she had wanted it off of him it would have been a lot easier than what they were doing. She was running out of time to play along with it though, in a few minutes she would be burned alive with him. He gave her a perfect escape though, good old hero Craig. She had succeeded in killing everyone she was out for. Well, except Alex. Alex still had it coming to her. Of course, now getting away from the group would be difficult.
Until Peter slapped her. She left, she grabbed the hooded shirt and Craig's discarded harpoon gun. She went for where she had killed Paige. Knowing Palex, the couple would still be together. And together they were, Alex was sitting on the ground crying next to her dead girlfriend. It would have almost been a sad sight if she hadn't been aiming at her with a harpoon gun. There was a rustle in the bushes between them, and Alex stood up. Emma had to re-aim, and quick. If Alex saw her, she'd move. Shooting a moving target with this thing would be near impossible. She shot, and in a blur Jay had thrown himself in the way of the shot. She hadn't even known he was there. The harpoon hit it's target anyway. Liberty didn't know what she was talking about, the weapon worked just fine. She walked over to make sure there was no mistake, that she got two birds with one stone, as they say. The two of them lay bloody and broken, she had indeed hit two birds with one stone. From that spot she could easily hear the approach of someone else. Emma dropped the harpoon gun and climbed up the tree. She pulled out the rope she had gotten from Jay's trunk. She tied it into a lasso as Liberty walked into the area. Jay was still alive and trying to tell Liberty that Emma was in the tree. Emma wished she could shoot him again, the conniving bastard. She carefully lowered the rope, if Liberty evaded the trap she would have to shoot her, and she really didn't want to shoot her. She was going to have to shoot everyone else.
Liberty didn't escape the trap, but she was way too heavy for Emma to lift, so Emma jumped down on the other side of the branch. Liberty was hoisted up into the air by her neck. Emma pulled the rope tight and walked around a smaller tree. She tied it in a knot. Liberty was still struggling. Emma had always thought people's necks snapped when they were pulled into the air like that. She went over to where Jay had been hiding, he had discarded an axe. It was the axe that Peter had chased him with. She picked it up. It looked like she could kill one more person before she had to resort to the gun. She went looking. She didn't find anyone, so she circled back to find Peter talking to himself while pacing around the bodies. He had obviously lost his mind.
She swung low and chopped off one of his legs at the knee. He screamed in pain and fell over. When he saw her standing over him he scurried backwards with his one leg. "It was you!" He whimpered. She swung the axe again, this time taking his other leg off at the thigh. He flipped around and clawed at the ground for leverage, trying desperately to crawl away. It was pathetic. She swung the axe into his head. She pulled her hood down and took the hoodie off again.
...and that is how Emma Nelson killed the Kids of Degrassi.
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A/N: Shocking, I know. How many of you knew it was Emma? I was terribly afraid it was too obvious. Anyhow, stay tuned for the return of Sean, and more death. Will Emma get away with it? Dun.. dun... dun...