A/N: In the last update, Hayden traced Ghostface's phone calls to an abandoned auto-body shop and Sherman, Penny, and Hayden went down to that exact same place. They were hoping to find Peabody, but they only found Ghostface's lair in the main office. Now this is where we left off. Enjoy!
Sherman and Hayden were now in Hayden's room watching 'Detention of the Dead' and Penny was over in the other room getting her dress on for a big company gala that her parents were hosting tonight, her mother had decided to let her get prepared at Hayden's place because they feared Ghostface would try and break in and that she'd be safer with her friends.
"So, Sherman. You going with Penny to her parents' company gala at their office building?" Hayden asked. Penny had offered an invitation to go with her as a date but politely declined. He wanted to spend his time looking for his dad, and printed out fliers offering a reward for anyone who's seen him, but didn't mention that Ghostface was the kidnapper because everyone was afraid to step out of their homes now because of him. He's even handed a few to the police.
"Oh boys" Penny said getting their attention. Both boys looked to the door to see Penny standing right in the middle of the door-frame wearing a burgundy dress with a black wool cardigan over it, she also had black stockings and burgundy Mary Jane's as well.
"Wow" Sherman said wide eyed and blushing at this.
"Penny, you look a-a-a-amazing" Sherman said getting up and looking at her.
"Thank you Sherman" Penny said hugging the redhead.
"So, how long before you gotta go?" asked Hayden. Penny looked to the alarm clock on Hayden's desk and then spoke again.
"In about five minutes. My mom just told me dad's gonna be late because his car got towed and he's gotta speak to the impound lot manager which could take a while" Penny explained and then turned her attention to the fliers on the desk and looked at them.
"Wow, I didn't think you'd make so much of these" said Penny.
"Yeah. I'm so worried for him right now, sometimes I keep thinking if Ghostface killed him" Sherman said.
"Don't say that, he'll be fine" Hayden piped in.
"Well, I do really wish you the best of luck" Penny said with a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks Penny, it means a lot coming from you" Sherman said smiling a bit. A car horn could be heard and now and Penny looked out Hayden's window to see a stretched limo outside.
"Oh, that's my ride. I gotta go. Bye guys" Penny said running out the door.
"Bye!" both boys called out in unison.
"I'm gonna go order some pizza with the money my mom left us" Hayden said.
"Sounds good. I'm gonna check the police blog to see if there's any news involving my dad" Sherman said sitting down at Hayden's desk looking at his Macbook air (which Hayden was kind enough to let him borrow of course) and clicked the police blog tab.
The limo stopped in front of the 'Peterson Law Firm' building and Penny was nervous. But in the midst of all the nervousness, she smiled a bit, thinking that tonight she'd get to have a sliver of fun and time to forget about Ghostface and the people he's murdered.
(Start playing 'Runaway (U & I) (Svidden & Jarly Remix)' by Galantis as you read this next sequence of the story)
"Alright, you can do this Penny. Just go in and smile, and don't let all these murders cloud your mind. Just have fun, that's what matters tonight, having fun" Penny said to herself and got out of the limo and walked into the building through the tall double glass doors and walked down the hall, her heels clicking on the hard black marble floor. She then saw her mom waiting for her.
"Penny, there you are. You look so beautiful" Patty said hugging her daughter.
"Thanks mom" Penny replied simply.
"Where's Sherman? I thought he'd be here with you" Patty asked.
"He said he wanted to focus more on finding his dad than anything. So he's handing out fliers and looking at the NYPD police blog" Penny explained.
"Well, I hope his search isn't in vain. C'mon, let's go inside, the party's already started" Patty said opening twin maple wood doors that lead into the building conference room. The room was illuminated with pink, purple, and white lights that came from a disco ball on the ceiling, balloons surrounded the rims of the windows, dinner tables were set up with pink, purple, and white table cloths covered them, and there was music blaring throughout the room.
"Wow, it looks like this place is packed" Penny said smiling.
"I know, everyone's busting a move out on the dance floor" Patty said laughing pointing at the back end of the room where a DJ was and her mother and father's employees were dancing and having fun.
"So this is how you celebrate finishing remodeling? A huge party?" Penny asked with humor in her voice.
"You know how your dad is, always the life of the party" Patty said handing her daughter a glass of Coke and she took a sip of it.
"Speaking of dad, is he here yet?" asked Penny looking around.
"He's still at the impound lot but he promised he'd be here soon" Patty said reassuring her daughter that her dad would be here soon. The two of them then sat at one of the tables.
"You okay? You look down" Patty asked, noticing Penny was looking down at the tips of her shoes with sorrow.
"I just can't think straight because of..." Penny was about to continue, but her mom finished the sentence for her.
"Because of the murders?" asked Patty.
"Yeah. Forget WATCHING 'Stab' my friends and I are LIVING 'Stab' right now" Penny said running a hand through her hair. She then felt her mom place her hand on top of hers and smiled.
"It won't be like that for long. Everything's gonna end soon, I promise" she said. The music then began fading away and people began clapping.
(You can stop playing the song now)
"Attention. Attention, may I have your attention please?" asked the vice president of the company, he was standing behind a microphone stand with a microphone being kept in it's grip.
"Welcome everyone to the 'Peterson Law Firm' company gala. We are having this gala in honor of the entire building's reconstruction and that means a whole new look and chapter for our company itself" he said, making everyone clap softly for him, even Penny and Patty.
"Now without further ado, I'd like to present you with a few words from one of the big brains of 'Peterson Law Firm', Patty Peterson" the man said, the spotlight was on their table and she got up on stage with everyone, even Penny clapping for her. When Patty got up on stage the clapping stopped.
"Thank you. Thank you. It's such an honor to see so many familiar faces here at our gala to celebrate a new look for our firm and a dawn of equality for all clients who will come seeking our help" Patty said. Penny's smile then faded away when she saw a familiar sight behind the DJ booth, Ghostface slowly popped up from behind the DJ and raised his knife.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Penny screamed pointing to the DJ booth. Patty and everyone else's eyes were where she was pointing and saw Ghostface stabbing the DJ repeatedly in the back. Patty tried to run away but tripped on the microphone wire and landed on her back. Ghostface heard Patty's fall create a thud on stage and then ran towards her, stabbing her as well.
"MOM! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" said Penny. Ghostface turned his head to notice Penny screaming and then jumped off the stage and ran towards her. Penny began running out of the conference room and into the halls.
"You're not gonna get me. You're not gonna get me" Penny muttered to herself and ran towards the stairs, thinking that the elevators were gonna go slow with their doors closing and it would be a slow and subtle invitation to be killed. When she tried to open the door that lead to the stairs, Ghostface blocked her path.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Penny screamed. Ghostface's black gloved left hand grabbed Penny's wrist when she tried to punch him for defense and possibly to pull off the mask. Using the knife in his other hand, Ghostface made a pressure filled painful slit on the top of Penny's forearm.
"YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" Penny screamed out at the top of her lungs and yanked her wrist away and looked at it, blood oozed from it and dripped onto the floor. Ghostface then pushed Penny to the floor and she grunted in pain the minute her body hit the floor.
"Please don't hurt me!" Penny begged. Ghostface didn't respond, only silence filled the air and he pulled out a burlap sack from the sleeve of his cloak and put Penny inside it, leaving Penny Ghostface's hostage.
Back at Hayden's house, Sherman was still on the computer. He felt that his eyes were getting heavy from staring at the computer and clicking the refresh button over and over only to find no new headlines on the police blog involving Ghostface or another murder.
"So tired" Sherman whispered with his head now lying down against the keyboard. His head snapped back up when he saw Hayden come in with a place with two slices of pizza on it and a large two-liter bottle of Dr. Pepper.
"Wake up sleepyhead. You gotta be awake in case something comes up, remember?" Hayden reminded him and placing the pizza and Dr. Pepper on the desk.
"Thanks" Sherman said taking a bite out of one of the slices and noticed Hayden also had a tall glass in which he poured the soda into.
"Wow, you sure poured me a lot" Sherman said noticing how Hayden filled his glass nearly to the top.
"Soda keeps you up, and you gotta get things done so I have you the one thing you love the most that keeps you awake" Hayden said. Sherman smiled and took a sip, now leaving the glass half-full.
"Thank you" said Sherman.
"No problem. Let me know if you need anything else okay?" Hayden asked walking towards the door.
"Got it, thanks" Sherman said now back to looking at the computer screen and kept on clicking 'Refresh Page' to see if anything came up, but it was the same results as the last time. Sherman's phone then began ringing and he checked the caller ID to see that it said 'Unknown Caller' and he answered it.
"Hello?" asked Sherman, only to hear his own voice repeat what he just said.
"Hello?" the voice repeated.
"Who is this?" Sherman asked.
"Who is this?" asked the voice, copying what Sherman had just said.
"Look whoever this is, please hang up this isn't funny" Sherman said, a click could be heard and then an all too familiar voice spoke.
"Aw come on, I was just having some fun, huh Sherman? Buddy, old pal, old friend" Ghostface said.
"We're not friends, you're a sick creep who wants to see me lying on the floor bleeding" Sherman said with hate.
"You don't know how right you are. But I just wanted to let you know that your girlfriend has just become my second bargaining chip, she's mine now" said Ghostface. Sherman now felt his heart racing and he stood up.
"Where is she!? If you killed her and my dad I swear to God..." Sherman then heard himself being cut off by Ghostface on the other end.
"Oh I didn't kill them... not yet. But I will if you don't do as I say. Remember the gala she went to?" Ghostface asked.
"Yeah?" Sherman asked.
"Go to 'Peterson Law Firm' and go to the conference center in the back of the first floor where the party's being held. You'll see both of them there" Ghostface said.
"What makes you think I'm not suspecting this is a trap?" asked Sherman.
"No traps, no dirty play, just you and me face to face once and for all" Ghostface replied. Sherman then felt his hand clench up into a fist and it was trembling in anger and fear.
"The game is almost over Sherman. Welcome to the final round. Ahahahahahahahaha!" Ghostface said with a mechanical laugh ending his sentence before the dial tone was all that was heard. Sherman then hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. He then had an idea, he tip toed down the stairs and saw Hayden was too distracted from watching a Hockey game on TV. Sherman went over to the cutlery sitting on the kitchen counter and took out the largest knife there was and tucked it in between his pants and his belt, using it as a carrying case.
"I'm coming guys. Just wait" Sherman whispered to himself before walking to the door and opened it making sure not to make any noise shutting it.
Little did Sherman know, Hayden noticed what his friend was doing through the reflection in the windows and quickly came to the conclusion something was going down involving Ghostface. The brunette preteen then went into his mom's room and went to her nightstand. When he opened the drawer he pulled out a silver 9-milometer handgun with a sticky note that said 'For Emergencies Only' in red pen ink, and a magazine filled with bullets was right next to it. This gun was something that belonged to his dad, he liked to go down to the shooting range as a hobby and collect new and classic guns and this gun was his favorite, his mom kept it as a reminder of him and not sell it like she did with his other guns that he gave her permission to do in his will.
"Don't worry Sherman..." Hayden said taking the gun out of the drawer, placing the magazine inside it and loaded it up.
"I'm coming to help you" he finished before putting the gun in his back pocket and ran out the door to help his friend.
A/N: That little chapter was just a warm up of what's to come. The final act is to come, the killer will be revealed, and so will his intentions. Will Sherman come out of this alive, or will he fall like the others? All that and more in the next update. Please review, thanks!