Disclaimer: I don't own Billy Loomis or Stu, or any of the Woodsboro gang. If I did own Billy I wouldn't be writing right now, I can promise you that. Hurhurhur… I just own Gretch and the rest of my original peeps.
Authors Note: VERY LONG CHAPTER. Also, I hope as we get deeper into this story I keep them in character as much as possible. Keep in mind as well that my timeline is stretched out longer than in the film because it helps with the story and gives us time to develop more, unlike an hour and a half long movie where we have to CRAM.
I hope I'm doing okay keeping Billy in character as well as fleshing him out a bit as we go. Same with everyone else. And I hope Gretchen keeps your interest. I know some people were wondering where her strength of will went. Well, she just realized what had happened and now the consequences kick in as the adrenaline wears off and reality comes crashing back. But don't worry, she's still Gretchen the psycho lover.
Reviews are love…yummy chocolate covered Billy love. Let me know what you think so I know you're still reading!
That day went to hell for Woodsboro High in terms of people actually learning anything. After the announcement students were either in actual shock of feigning it so they wouldn't have to go to class. I'm not sure what I was feeling as I saw the smile cross Billy's face and felt the tugging of my own pull at my lips. His dark eyes sparkled. He'd cleaned up after us very well. Fire had a way of taking care of things.
The moment ended when the bell sounded the end of the period. Students poured out into the hallways and I lost sight of Billy in the crowd. I was still sitting in my chair at the desk even after the klaxon of the bell. I didn't know what I was feeling or thinking at that moment. All I knew was that Billy and I had gotten away with murder. And Billy seemed to be quite good at it.
"Trust me, don't trust what you see." His words repeated in my head. His seeming indifference except when no one was looking. The mask slipped away for me and I saw that same darkness mirrored from my soul in his eyes. He's awakened something that I should have kept asleep inside me. And now I had to deal with it and with whatever this was between us.
If life were a movie we were doomed from the get go. Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate...none of them had ended well. What was I doing? I needed to stop this or I'd be dragged down into a place I'd never come back from. But inside I couldn't stop hearing that voice telling me that this was what I was meant to do, this was what I'd been waiting for during all those years of being beaten up, treated like shit, and left on the outside looking in. Billy was on the inside looking out because no one else was there that saw the real him...or could handle and understand the real him. But I'd seen the crazed, black angel beneath that mask of normal and what it could do. And I hadn't run.
I got up finally when I noticed no one else was in the room. Hell, even the teachers were getting riled by the amount of deaths happening in Woodsboro. So I gathered up my things and headed out to the hallway. It was crowded and rumbling with gatherings of students discussing what they now knew. People were trying to fathom what could have caused the fire; many of them blaming Scott's penchant for smoking things that were illegal and having something go haywire. Others had heard that it was a faulty gas line. And a few of the slightly smarter ones were saying this was another act by whoever had killed Casey and her boyfriend.
I moved through the hallway like a ghost, avoiding the groups of babbling students and trying to decide if I could just keep walking out the door and down the street.
"Gretch!" I heard a voice call out to me and winced as Randy appeared in front of me. "Jesus can you believe it? Scott the Snot is no more."
Randy, master of eloquence. "Yes Randy, I heard as did the entire student body." I replied. He'd somehow maneuvered me over to one of the recessed doorways and there was Stu and Tatum and, much to my delight, Sidney. Billy was nowhere to be found.
"I think it was a deal gone bad. Some Cuban drug lord fried his ass." Stu was explaining while leaning heavily on Tatum.
"You're giving that douche bag too much credit." Tatum said. "He probably managed to cause his bong to explode."
Sidney was quiet, looking nervous as she always seemed to do. She was chewing on her thumb nail and then she glanced over at me with eyes that had seen a lot more than anyone knew.
"I think someone pulled a Krueger on the dick." Randy commented leaning against the same wall I was, although without as much desire to climb into the wall I was sure.
"Pulled a Krueger?" Sidney asked.
"Pulled a what?" Billy came around the corner and slung his arm around Sidney's shoulders causing her to jump slightly and nearly causing me to have a stroke that thankfully no one had noticed.
"Pulled a Krueger." Randy repeated and then looked at me. "You agree don't ya Gretch?"
"What the hell are you talking about genius?" Tatum rolled her eyes and asked.
I swallowed and avoided looking over at Billy as he kissed Sidney's temple. I swallowed as my mouth grew dry and tried to avoid the sharp little pain that his actions were causing me. "Pulling a Krueger…" I began, readjusting the bag on my shoulder and studying the floor tiles as I continued. "Is Randyspeak for someone burned Scott alive in revenge for something. If we go by the gospel of Craven, that means he was a pedophile with a mean streak and some parents had enough. Extra bonus points for one of those parents having kicked ass alongside Bruce Lee."
I looked up and found Stu and Tatum looking at me funny, Stu in amusement and Tatum in the "what the hell are you and what are you talking about" way. Sidney looked slightly perplexed but curious and Billy had a twinkle in his eyes. Randy was nodding his head in agreement.
"Did you two come from the same planet or something?" Tatum asked finally.
"If you mean the Planet of Awesome yes." Randy told her. "But I mean come on? Who hadn't thought of offing that douchebag at least once?"
"Jesus Randy, why don't you say that a little louder? I don't think Dewey's boss heard you." Tatum said gesturing down the hall.
"I think the popo have taken up permanent residence in Himbry's office. That'll put a real dent in his paddling time with the cheerleaders." Stu said with a leer. Tatum shivered.
"I'm just saying the dude had a lot of enemies. He picked on a lot of people. Sooner or later he was going to try it on the wrong one." Randy said matter of factly. I felt the blood drain from my face and gripped my bag harder, trying to keep my fingers from shaking.
"Hey, didn't you have some tussles with the dick?" Tatum asked suddenly, looking right at me.
I kept my voice steady. "Me and probably twenty other people this week." I told her.
"And that's just the girls." Randy replied, looking a bit sheepish. I'd heard some of the things that Scott had done to him and they weren't pleasant. Granted, they had been before Randy had befriended the duo of Stu and Billy who seemed to look out for him in some little brother/big brother fashion.
"I wonder…" Sidney said softly and I looked to see Billy glancing down at her, his arm still around her shoulders holding her close.
"What are you wondering?" He prodded her, his voice soft and careful.
"I wonder if this did have something to do with Casey and Steve. Seems too...close." She said and I froze for a heartbeat.
Bill gave her squeeze, not even glancing my way. "Don't think too much into it Sid. Scott was a scumbag. Who knows who had it out for him? Plus he was an idiot, so Tatum might be onto something with her bongbomb idea."
"Bongbomb…I think I had some of that last week." Stu gestured as if smoking a joint and fell backwards, sliding to the ground and dragging a struggling Tatum with him onto his lap.
"Ass! Get off me!" She cried out and I relaxed while Sidney seemed to let go of her suspicions with Billy's help.
"I think classes are done for today or they might as well be." Randy commented, watching some of the students just walk outside with it only being around 10 o'clock and a full day head.
"You might be right, but until its official I've got English." I told him following his gaze.
"Yeah I guess we all need to get somewhere else." Tatum managed to pry herself out of Stu's arms and off the floor without flashing everyone, which I was impressed by.
I walked away, not glancing back to see what Billy and Sidney were doing or where they went. I didn't have another class with Billy in it until my last of the day which would be Art. But I doubted we'd make it to that point. There were more deputies walking around, nearly as many as the day Casey and Steve's murders were announced.
I worried about Billy. I worried about me. And I didn't know what to expect next. English was one class that I actually enjoyed and I did well in. But that day I was distracted, which didn't matter so much since everyone else was too. I didn't even realize the class was over until the bell rang, jarring me from my thoughts which had turned to that morning and waking up with Billy's arms around me. I'd been sleeping in a house filled with corpses and I hadn't cared, hadn't even been afraid. I had slept beside death, seen beneath his hooded robe and I hadn't been afraid of him either. What was I now?
The day was still going and I still had classes until Himbry decided enough people had skipped out or the fragile teenage psyches he felt he was in charge of needed a break. So I headed down the hall towards Computer Science which was in a newer section of the high school, some of it still in construction.
I wasn't paying attention to much of anything, just passing through the halls and being avoided by most of the other students. That's why when an arm reached out from behind some of the tarp that was separating off part of the construction area I didn't react until I'd already been dragged behind it, away from the hallway. A hand was over my mouth and one arm was around my waist. I was frozen and didn't know what to do when I felt lips brush against my ear.
"So Gretchen, ever seen The Toolbox Murders?" Billy's voice was unaltered and I could hear the smile in the words. When he felt me relax he pulled his hand away from my mouth but still kept his arm securely around me.
"Billy, damn it…" I said, trying to calm down my heart for the third or fourth time that day. "You shouldn't be talking to me right now."
His long fingers moved to my chin and turned my head to look up at him. "Why not? No one comes over here during class." He said.
"Because it's dangerous and there are god knows how many cops floating around. And…and Sidney's here." I winced inwardly at how whiney I sounded, especially with that last bit.
His eyes narrowed and his face tilted down. "Gretchen, what did I tell you this morning?" I heard the change in his tone distinctly. "Or did you forget where you were when you woke up?"
"I didn't forget." I said resigned.
"And what did I tell you?" Billy turned me to face him completely and I complied without a fight.
"To trust you." I answered him and he nodded.
"And do you trust me?" He asked me, one hand brushing back along my hair.
"Yes." I told him, truthfully. Here I was in the middle of the most secluded part of the school with the man I had seen stab someone to death in the blink of an eye. He'd slaughtered a house full of high school punks in an evening. And he'd done it for me.
"Then why are you shaking?" His eyes narrowed, his head tilting down and catching my gaze till I had to meet his.
"I'm not…" I lied, quickly looking away. I was shaking and I wasn't sure why.
"Don't lie to me Gretchen. I don't like girls that lie to me." His voice turned dangerous. He grabbed my chin roughly and forced me look at him. "Tell me the truth."
I felt like a weakling at that moment. A girl as frivolous as Tatum, with as much sense, but I couldn't help the pain seeing him with Sidney caused. And the guilt that came over me at the thought of what I'd done. Even more than helping kill Scott, sleeping with another girl's boyfriend seemed more of a sin. "I feel guilty." I told him finally.
"Guilty?" He looked surprised for a second. "For doing the world a favor and offing the dick who'd been threatening you? Really?"
"God no…not for that." I said and sighed heavily.
"You're feeling guilty about the rest of our date…" I looked up to find him grinning again, that same manic smile that appeared when the mask of "everyday Billy Loomis" was gone. His voice held that same lower, darker tone that made my pulse get faster and my skin start to tingle.
"Ye…yes…" I managed to say.
"Sidney's my problem not yours. Don't worry about her." He pulled me closer to him and I placed my hands against his chest on instinct. Beneath the thin cotton of his shirt I could feel the hard muscle there, hidden from view. This was why he was able to move like he did, strike like a ghost made from lightening when he killed. I'd seen him do it with Scott and it was frightening and strangely beautiful, at least to me.
But I was confused and the guilt wasn't going to go away easily. I know the confusion showed on my face. "You don't love her?" I asked finally, my voice barely above a whisper.
He glanced away for a moment. I felt him stiffen beneath my touch. He sighed deeply. He looked sad, lost. "That part of the plot isn't for a while yet." He said, turning back to me and leaving me just as confused as before. And truthfully that made me angry. He must have noticed the change in my mood because added. "I told you Gretchen, trust me not what you see."
"I don't like being the other woman." I told him harshly and tried to push away from him. He could kill me at any time he wanted and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. Maybe I had a suicidal streak, but I also didn't like feeling used. I didn't mind if he killed me then, I knew I wasn't safe anymore. Those were the rules, and I was fine with that. But I had my own rules too.
I shoved at him but his arms were like steel clamps around me. Billy growled…actually growled and suddenly there was a knife pressed against my neck, the same one from last night. The blade was pressed as close as it could be without cutting me, and Billy's eyes were as black as the robes he wore when hunting his prey. I didn't dare move another muscle.
"Do you think you can just leave?" He snarled the question, and I could tell he was just barely holding in the rage that was burning him up inside. "Just like she did? Do you? I'm not letting you leave Gretchen, not now. You know too much…you know me…"
I didn't say a word, and I had no idea who he was talking about. I barely breathed as I saw the parade of emotions rush through Billy's eyes. Finally I managed to whisper the question that had been plaguing me since last night. "What am I to you Billy?"
Billy heard me and I saw him come back from wherever the anger took him, at least part of the way. His face tensed and the blade was pulled back away from my neck. "You're…mine…" His voice was strained, matching the expression he wore.
I was. I knew that as surely as I knew my own name. We were kindred souls in a world that didn't see us, or did but chose to see what it wanted to. He was a crazy angel, dark and brooding but with a smile that he only showed to me. I was completely his. I think somehow I knew that even before I knew the truth about Billy Loomis…somehow I knew. But there was still something else he wasn't telling me, the plot was still a mystery and he was writing this script on his own.
I reached up and touched his cheek carefully, his skin flushed and warm against my fingertips. He still held the blade in his hand. I took a breath and spoke. "But you're not mine."