A look of surprise crossed Mikes face.
"So Jane's not the killer?" he gasped in disbelief. "I was sure it was her."
"You're obviously not a very good detective" Ke$ha muttered, pushing her blonde locks away from her eyes.
"I'm not here to get harassed Mrs. Sebert – I'm here to learn the truth."
"And I'm going out of my way to give you this information" Ke$ha sniped, glaring at Mike.
"Mrs. Sebert."
"Michael."
"I can kick you out of here whenever I want" he whispered aggressively, sternly pursing his lips.
"And I can take my knowledge of the killer and lock it in my brain" she whispered back, her mouth forming into a devilish grin.
"Continue."
"I knew you'd see it my way."
Jan lay over Jane's body, crying.
Steven had gone back to the fountain to get Claire, telling her the awful news. Claire stood up in disbelief, shuddering with fear.
Vivian, Lauri, Michelle, and Mark were nowhere to be found.
"We were all here… It couldn't have been one of us" Claire stammered, clutching Stevens arm.
"We have to face the tough reality" Jan said, looking up from the body.
"And that is…?" Steven questioned.
"That it might not be one of us, and that it's someone who came here with the intent to kill us."
"But who would even do that?" Claire shrieked.
"Someone who knows us well enough to follow us here" Steven replied. "Someone crazy."
"Clarisse" Jan suggested again.
"It's not the time for jokes you faggot" Claire snapped. "Our lives are on the line and I really don't feel like dying. Not after…"
"After what?" Steven asked.
"Never mind" she mumbled. "Point being, we need to make sure none of us die."
"As if we haven't been thinking that the entire time" Jan said, jerking his head towards Claire.
"Well maybe if you morons didn't leap up and go on a hero quest every time you heard a little bump, while also assuming it's a woodland creature or other variant, half of us wouldn't be dead" Steven said pointedly.
"Regardless" Jan huffed "We're dealing with somebody who obviously knows what they're doing, seeing as they've offed more than half of us."
Steven looked up.
"We need to stay together. No more splitting up. No more leaving to save someone. From this point on, we're inseparable."
Vivian stumbled through the woods, dirt and twigs matted into her hair.
She rested near a tree, sighing, looking out into the darkness for a sign of life.
Before she could react, the tree she was leaning against dropped a branch, hitting her in the head.
"What the fuck?" she snapped, looking up at the tree.
She heard a giggle.
Looking at the tree, she saw 'Fan1233' inscribed in its trunk.
"What are you doing here?" Vivian retorted, glaring at the tree.
"I'm just a passerby. Watching you and your friends do what 4 did on the charts in real time if amusing" the tree mused.
"It's not amusing, it's devastating" she shot back.
"The only devastating thing going on right now is Warriors chart performance" the tree slyly replied.
Vivian woke up, a cold sweat beading across her forehead.
"Jesus Christ, that was one hell of a dream."
She got up, moving towards the clearing ahead of her.
Before she could make it, she heard a rustle nearby.
A figure in a hoodie darted by in the distance, rushing towards the house.
"Shit" she muttered, running in the opposite direction.
Mark had managed to make his way back to the field where Jane's body lay motionless.
Noticing her body, he ran up to her, hoping she had just been knocked out.
As he came closer, the burns tearing across her body became more visible, her scorched skin crumbling away. He noticed the horrendous angle her body was positioned in, and automatically knew.
He had heard the shotgun blasts while hiding in the forest, and took that as an incentive to run deeper within, hiding away from any potential terror. However, he had wrongly assumed that the killer was the one shooting – in fact, as he now saw, Jane's death was the outcome.
While many of his friends didn't know it, Mark had possessed a deep, burning passion for Jane every since the vacation started. The second they locked eyes after years of pointless online conversation; he knew that she was the one.
Unfortunately, he didn't know that she played for both teams, and assumed the worst when he saw her and Mary cuddled together on the couch. Not realizing that she was open to dating both sexes, he assumed she was a lesbian, and gave up hope. His lust, however, did not disappear, and he often found himself yearning for her love, although he knew it would never come.
Tears welling in his eyes, he noticed something shining near her body.
"Oh my god" he whispered, shock etching his voice.
Vivian's charm bracelet glistened in the moonlight.
He picked it up, a mixture of anger and frustration running through his mind.
The tiny bracelet bounced and jingled with every movement of Mark's hands. The tiny charms hanging off of it represented important facets of Vivian's life. A heart with the word 'FRIENDS' etched in the middle was an embodiment of her and Jane's friendship. A house was settled near it, a symbol of Vivian's appreciation for her family and all that they have bestowed upon her. Another charm shined a little to the left; a college graduation cap – an agency of Vivian's successful educational experience and yearning to go to Harvard Medical School.
The most prolific one, however, was the one that was hanging next to the heart. A small, silver pistol jangled in the dim moonlight. Mark didn't have to think much about what that was for.
"Evil bitch" he muttered, standing up, ready to go confront her.
He heard the noise of a phone vibrating from Jane's pocket. Hesitant at first, he eventually picked it up, a look of disgust form touching Jane's body crossing his face.
He looked at the phone, a chill going down his spine.
"MOVE AWAY FROM THE BODY. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS."
Before the shock had time to settle in, Mark dived out of the way and sprinted towards the water, his eyes wide with terror.
Looking back, he saw a fire erupting, a hooded figure standing by it.
Lauri was curled in a ball within the closet of one of the downstairs rooms. She didn't know which one, but towels and toiletries surrounded her, the smell of lilac filling the space.
She heard the front door creak open, and felt the vibration of heavy footsteps entering the house.
Seeing as the figure was the equivalent of two minutes away, she decided to reassemble herself, making her body invisible to the eyes of the killer.
She heard the back door slide open, and heard the figure walk outside.
Before she could make a run for it, she heard the door open again.
"Shit" she whispered, tightening her body.
The footsteps echoed through the house as the killer made its way from room to room, closet to closet. She heard it coming closer to her hiding quarter, and before she knew it, the door flung open.
Hiding under the pile of towels and accessories, she could see out of a small peephole she made. The space was warm, and breathing quietly was made extremely hard.
The figure let out a grunt of frustration, and threw something to the ground, a loud thud emanating from the object.
Lauri adjusted her eyes in the darkness, looking at the object before it became clear.
Her eyes widened, and she used every ounce of will in her body not to scream in terror.
Laid before her was Jane's decapitated head, her eyes still open, looking at her with unmistakable fear.
Jan, Steven, and Claire continued trooping through the forest, stopping for short intermittent breaks.
"We should go back to the house" Claire huffed, looking desperately at Steven.
"No. That's the least safe place right now" Steven replied. "And besides, Michelle's still out here."
Claire had heard enough.
"Why are you so fucking concerned about Michelle. She's probably fucking rotting right now anyways. Stop being so fucking concerned about everybody else and fight for your own fucking life you whiny little shit."
Jan and Steven turned around in disbelief.
"Why would you ever say something like that?" Steven asked, looking at Claire, visibly hurt.
Jan backed away, not wanting to involve himself in their fight, although normally he would be the one starting it.
"I just don't understand why you all value other peoples lives so much when your life should hold the top value" she replied.
"But when you love someone you-"
"Stop with this 'love' bullshit. You've known the bitch for less than a week. I've known her eons longer than you and I still place myself over her any day."
"Why are you so hostile?" Steven angrily shot. "It's not like you've ever killed someone."
Claire froze.
She remembered the truck.
She remembered the gas station.
She remembered the sound of the gun.
She remembered the ambulance.
"Claire…?" Jan asked, looking at her despondent face.
"I killed a man once" she said blankly, emotion absent from her face, as if she was staring off into darkness.
"W-what?" Steven asked.
"We were at a gas station at one in the morning on a Saturday. The guy was drunk and or psychopathic, I don't really know. He threatened my mom. He was going to rape her. He had hit her already and had thrown her onto the hood of his car. I was in our car watching helplessly. I was fifteen. I knew we had a gun in the glove box. I took it out, walked right up to him, and shot him clean in the face."
"Jesus" Steven whispered. "I'm sorry."
"They didn't put me in juvenile detention because they believed me and my mom. He wasn't alive to testify, and he didn't have any family members that really cared. He had multiple sexual offense charges already, so there wasn't much of a question about it. But I'll never forget it. I'll never forget killing another human being."
"So how does this relate to the value of your personal life?"
"Because I wasn't going to let him kill me and my mother. I realized what had to be done. If I find out one of you is the killer, I won't waste a second to shoot your fucking head off."
With that, Claire started walking deeper into the forest.
"Pretty girl, ugly secret" Jan murmured to Steven, following after her.
Michelle had hidden herself in the woods. Surrounded by shrubbery, she was invisible to the naked eye, especially the eye of any lurking killer.
She smelled the faint scent of smoke, coming from the bay. Looking off into the distance, she noticed a small, bright light flickering in the distance.
"Curiosity killed the cat" she muttered to herself, leaving her hiding place and running towards the shoreline.
Once she got there, she knew immediately what it was.
A fire had erupted surrounding a smoldering heap. Michelle made use of her resources, and used the bucket near the fountain to singe out the fire. What she found after doing this terrified her.
She screeched, a charred, decapitated body lying in front of her. Some of the skin had burned off so badly that bone was visible through the blackened skin, and portions of it's neck bone were visible from the brutal slice the killer had given to it's head.
What scared Michelle most was that she had no idea who the body belonged to. Was it one of her already dead friends, or was it the body of somebody new?
Out on the shoreline, she saw the silhouette of a figure standing.
The moonlight reflected off of the ocean, letting off an eerie glow as Michelle made her way to the beach.
A key turned into place, and a figure let out a gleeful yelp.
"I told you it would work" the other said to its accomplice.
"This is a goldmine" she figures said aloud, looking around the closet sized area.
The other looked around in wonder, inspecting and admiring the prized possessions on the walls.
The figure broadly grinned as it dismantled a pump-action shotgun from the wall of defense weapons, proudly owned by the St. Clair family for many generations.
"Look at this!" the other said with joy.
"Perfect" the other murmured, looking at the keys on the wall labeled "Motorboat."