A/N: The day of the 'Friday the 13th' marathon for Sherman and Penny turns into a day of tragedy when Mason is killed, and they leave the house to try and make sure he's okay but Ghostface used the two preteen kids' absence as an opportunity to kidnap Peabody and hold him hostage somewhere, and he threatened to kill Peabody if Sherman called the cops. This is where we left off. Enjoy!
Sherman woke up in the guest bed of Hayden's house screaming wearing nothing but a gray tank top and his boxers. Sherman then could feel tears welling up in his eyes and a lump in his throat that felt impossible to swallow. Yesterday, Hayden and his mother offered to give Sherman shelter in their own home after they found his dad and Ghostface's killing spree was put to an end, Sherman didn't have the heart to say no to his friend.
"Sherman? I heard you screaming, are you okay?" Hayden asked coming into the room wearing his favorite 'Batman' pajamas and sat down next to Sherman.
"I'm scared. What if my dad's really dead and I don't have anyone else to care for me?" Sherman asked wiping his tears and sweat away. Hayden then hugged his friend.
"Sherman, listen to me. Hope isn't something you just throw away, you will find him. And if you don't... then I'll convince my mom to adopt you. We can be brothers" Hayden said smiling a little bit.
"Really? You'd do that for me?" asked Sherman in shock at how kind the thing Hayden offered to do for him was.
"Thank you" Sherman whispered smiling back and returning the embrace Hayden was giving him.
"You're welcome" the brunette Emo-haired preteen said before breaking the hug and pulling out Sherman's phone from his pocket.
"Also, I traced where that call came from using my computer and your call history" Hayden said. Sherman was now starting to get interested in what Hayden had to say.
"And?" asked Sherman.
"And, I found this old abandoned auto-body shop. That's where the call originated from. We go there, we find your dad and free him" Hayden said. Sherman then smiled again and hugged Hayden again.
"Thank you so much! I knew there was gonna be something good happening soon" Sherman said.
"No problem. We should leave first thing in the morning though" Hayden said before bidding goodnight to his friend once more and both went back to sleep. Sherman fell asleep with a smile on his face knowing that he'd be beating Ghostface in his game soon and it would all be over.
The next morning, Sherman and Hayden were hogging down pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and sausage patties too.
"Woah, looks like you boys are really hungry" said Ms. McClaine.
"Yeah, we've got something we wanna get done today and we wanna have a big breakfast before we do it" said Sherman before guzzling down some orange juice.
"Good idea, breakfast is the most important meal of the day after all" Ms. McClaine said before taking both Hayden and Sherman's empty plates and putting them in the sink to be washed. Once they both finished their OJ, Hayden and Sherman picked up their backpacks filled with everything they'll be needing for their mission to where Ghostface called from.
"I gotta go to work and I won't be home till late, okay?" Ms. McClaine said.
"Yes mom" Hayden said before hugging his mom and they both went out the door. When they were walking down the street, Hayden spoke up.
"How come you didn't mention where we were going and why?" Hayden asked.
"You'd really think your mom would let us leave the house to go where a serial killer called me and where he's possibly holding my dad hostage somewhere?" asked Sherman.
"Yeah, you're right. She would flip her lid and ground me for a month" Hayden said. When they turned the corner to see the bus stop, they saw Penny with a flashlight in her hand.
"Hey guys" Penny said.
"Oh, hi. What's going on?" Hayden asked. Sherman then spoke up for his new female blonde friend.
"I kinda invited her to come along with us" Sherman said rubbing the back of his head.
"Why?" Hayden asked.
"We're gonna need all the help we can get and I thought Penny would be good" Sherman said not realizing he was blushing.
"Oh, I get it" Hayden said winking. Sherman then shook his head.
"No no no no, we're just friends, dude" Sherman said in his defense.
"Whatever. C'mon, this place is on the outskirts of the city near the city limit" Hayden said now taking the lead and leaving Sherman and Penny to walk behind him.
"Thanks for coming with us, it helps" Sherman said.
"No problem. I wanna help you as much as I can" Penny said in a supportive manner.
The three kids' trek took them about an hour long walk to get to the city limit and saw nothing but grassy plains and abandoned buildings.
"Wow, this place looks deserted" Penny said.
"It's an extremely old town. It shut down when the great depression struck" Sherman explained. They then saw at the very end of it, in a large plain of grass there was a building covered with vines and thorn bushes.
"That's the place. It looks exactly how I found it on Google images, only it's not one large greenhouse" Hayden said. The three kids then began running towards the building and saw that the garage doors were covered top to bottom with vines.
"I don't think we can get past these" Penny said.
"Sure we can. These vines look ancient. We can just. rip them off easily" Hayden suggested.
"Worth a shot" Sherman said as he went over to one of the garage doors with Hayden and on the count of three, grabbed the vine blockage and they all came down at once.
"That was easy" Penny said surprised at how the vines came down so fast. Sherman then decided to lift the garage door by himself. Hayden tried to offer some help, but he insisted on doing it himself.
"Please don't be locked" Sherman said to himself in his mind before grabbing onto the handle and raised up the garage to reveal it opened up easily and it wasn't locked or rusted shut into it's place with the gears.
"Alright, the door is open. Let's go" Hayden said pulling a flashlight out of his bag and turned it on, Sherman did the same and Penny too. Once they were inside, they saw old cars of classic models when automobiles were just invented.
"Woah, these things look like you'd see them on 'Pawn Stars' or something" Penny said shining her flashlight on the car closest to her.
"Not even the richest of people could afford their cars during that time" Hayden said looking at a hood-less vehicle and looking at the old rusted up engine covered in dust.
"But phone signal wasn't even invented until way later into the century... how did the killer call us from here?" asked Sherman.
"Every single wireless network is able to offer service in dead zones. Even my dad has it" Penny said looking at the old dusty wrenches and picked one up to get a closer look.
"That probably explains it, but it doesn't explain why he'd hide here. What's so special about this place?" Sherman wondered out loud.
"The killer probably thought that nobody ever comes here anymore even though it had so much history and just picked here to set up some form of residence" Hayden said. Sherman then looked at the very end of the garage to see a metal door with a broken off door knob.
"Hey guys, look at this" Sherman said getting their attention and walked over to the door.
"You think he's been hiding in there?" asked Hayden.
"I think so. I also think he's the one who probably broke the door knob off when he tried to get inside the first time" Penny suggested. Hayden decided to open the door and reveal what was behind it. It was an office, it had waiting chairs, old pictures of classic cars and everything.
"It's just an office?" Penny asked walking in first. Sherman then saw something and shined the light on it.
"No, it's his lair" Sherman said. They all shined their lights on the wall to reveal photos from books, internet websites, and a large spider-web made of yarn.
"Wow, look at all these" Hayden said examining the wall. There were photos of the original victims and survivors of the Woodsboro murders, and all the copycat killers following in the steps of the original.
"See this one? It goes in a pattern. Billy and Stu, Mickey and Billy's mom, Sidney Prescott's half brother; Roman, and her cousin Jill with her friend Charlie these are all the original Woodsboro murderers" Sherman said noticing the pattern.
"Wait, one's missing" Penny said shining her flashlight to the photo that was next to Jill, but it was completely redacted with Sharpie.
"I'm guessing that's supposed to be the new Ghostface" Sherman suggested. Before anyone could say anything else, rustling and shaking could be heard behind a wooden door by the front desk.
"I think there's someone behind that door" Sherman whispered. He approached the door quietly and slowly reached for the doorknob and turned it slowly as well. The preteen redhead opened it up and revealed it to be nothing more than a janitor's closet with nothing but a family of possums running out of there.
"Ahhhh! I hate rodents!" Penny screeched. Sherman then shined the light in the closet to reveal a piece of paper with a stencil of Ghostface's mask on it and the words 'Nice Try' written on the top of the stencil itself. Sherman then crumbled the paper up and threw it against the wall in anger.
"He's not here. He probably figured out what we did and left before we could even catch a glimpse of him" Hayden said, realizing what the killer must have done before they arrived. Sherman's phone rang again and he answered it.
"Hello?" Sherman asked.
"How do you like my place, Sherman? Sorry it's a bit of a mess. It's been like that ever since the stock market crash" Ghostface said laughing at the fact the kids thought they could catch him but couldn't.
"Where is my dad!?" Sherman asked in pure hate filled anger.
"Oh don't worry. You'll see him soon enough if you keep playing the game the way I want you to. It's just like in 'Saw' and 'The Collector' but with no gruesome murder devices or booby-traps" Ghostface said before hanging up. Sherman then looked down to his shoes.
"Come on guys, let's go back. We've wasted our time coming here" Sherman said before walking out the door and both his friends following him.
"Sherman, remember what I said. Never give up hope" Hayden said.
"He's right. You've gotta be getting closer to who this guy really is, right? I mean, we found a psycho killer's lair, like an evil Bat-Cave" Penny said trying to offer a sliver of hope to the redhead.
"You guys don't get it. This guy is testing me, and when I fail, people are dead because of it. He's trying to make me feel guilty for all the murders that HE caused" Sherman said feeling like he'd been failing at trying to keep everyone he loved safe.
"Forget about Ghostface for just once okay? You've done so much more than you think you've done. You survived Ghostface's attack when he tried to make you victim number two, you know the rules on how a horror movie works and how to survive it. Not to mention you found his lair... dude, you're starting to get closer to finding out who's really behind that mask. You just gotta keep going on and on" Hayden said.
"And besides..." Penny said before pulling Sherman into a kiss and him returning it within seconds and pulled apart after five seconds.
"I'd rather have been fighting this guy together than be dead not following the rules you know" Penny said. Sherman blushed and smiled.
"O-O-Okay then. I guess we're pretty close" Sherman said before exchanging high-fives with both Hayden and Penny and the two of them went home.
A/N: Now our heroes have found Ghostface's lair but found out that it was all for nothing, Peabody wasn't there and neither was Ghostface. But now, Sherman and Penny have finally had their first kiss in the middle of all this murder and talk of horror movies. But now they're both getting closer to who the killer truly is. More to come in the next update. Please review, thanks!