At the Delta Lambdas right down the street from the Omega Beta Zeta house, nobody heard a thing.
Punk rock blared from a sound system. Two fraternity brothers lifted their friend up in the air upside down and held him over a keg, chanting "Chug! Chug!"
"You know, Sidney," said Murphy, as she and Lois guided her across the backyard. "We here at Delta Lambda Zetas only promote safe, condomed sex despite what you may hear about sororities just being for blowjobs,"
Sidney was trying desperately to tune them out. She glanced all around, trying to listen to the music, or trying to make social interaction, but she could only focus on one thing.
Was there a killer on the loose?
What if they were here, watching her at this very moment?
Lois said her name and Sidney snapped out of her thoughts.
"Uh..sorry," she said. "That sounds great,"
She didn't mean it.
Her eyes lit up as she saw Derek making her way to the three of them with a cocktail in his hand.
He handed it to Sidney and she raised her eyebrows at him, as if to say "Get me away from these idiots!".
"What took you so long?" she said.
"And Sidney, Derek here is a Delta Lambda big brother," said Murphy.
"We like to keep it all in the family," Lois said.
Sidney fought hard against the urge to turn up her nose in disgust at her socially unaware comment, and sighed. It was the last straw. She was done being solicited to.
"Well, girls, you have given me a lot to think about," Sidney said. Then she grabbed Derek by the arm and pulled him off into the crowd.
Lois shrugged at Murphy, and then they both turned to Hallie, who had approached, also with a cocktail in her hand.
"It's working, it's working," Hallie assured the sisters, seeing the worried look on their face. "Just keep trying with her. Sid's got some…walls up right now,"
Mickey suddenly appeared out of the crowd, wearing a nice sweater and slacks, and his thick, dark hair slicked back and messy as usual.
"Do you wanna dance?" he asked Hallie.
"Sure," she said playfully.
She pointed over to a group of fraternity boys.
"..with that wide-shouldered fraternity boy right over there, you think you can manage that?"
"That hurts," Mickey teased back.
Meanwhile, Sidney and Derek had found a semi-isolated corner of the party and sat together on a bench.
"So," Derek said.
Tonight, he looked particularly handsome, in a button down shirt and jeans, and his hair was styled with gel.
"The twits being nice to you?" he asked.
"Painfully nice," Sidney replied with a groan.
"I take it you won't be pledging Delta Lambda," Derek said with a grin.
"I think not," replied Sidney, laughing.
Then, the piercing sounds of distant police cars growing closer and closer could be heard.
Murphy suddenly ran onto the patio from inside the house, and waved her hands.
"Hey everybody!!" she exclaimed. "Something is up at the Omega Beta Zeta house! Police are everywhere…hurry!"
Sidney immediately felt a knot twist in her gut and she watched as the entire party rushed back inside the patio doors, murmuring collectively with excitement.
Derek and Sidney exchanged curious yet worried glances, and hand-in-hand, they followed the rest of the crowd through the house and onto the front porch.
Two police cars, sirens blaring, gunned it down Sorority Row towards the end of the dead-end and surrounded another two-story house.
Sidney watched, her eyes glazing over, feeling everything come back over her in a single surge.
The party was all running down the street to see what the excitement was about, but Sidney stayed firmly planted on the front porch.
She didn't need to find out.
She already knew.
Gale hopped out of the news van and walked briskly across the street to the group of police cars surrounding a large sorority house on a dead-end street.
She had seen the sirens flying by the student center, and had commanded Joel to peel out and follow them.
Her heels dug into the asphalt as she strode, and she was freshly changed into a sleek, black pantsuit and matching jacket.
The commotion was palpable, but Gale still couldn't tell what was going on.
There was an ambulance, its sirens still wailing, and four police cars surrounding the house, but Gale didn't see any body bags being wheeled out of the front door.
She craned her neck to look up, and saw that the third-story balcony doors had been shattered.
Debbie Salt suddenly careened around the side of the ambulance and almost collided with Gale.
"Oh, Gale! You're just in time, looks like it was a single victim. Sorority girl," Mrs. Salt said, flipping through her notes. "Lots of blood, but they can't seem to find a body…oh I have to go, I've got a deadline!"
And just like that, she walked off into the newly formed crowd of reporters that gathered around the sorority house, mingling with the curious college students.
Dewey stood nearby, his arms crossed, watching it all nostalgically.
"It's happening again, isn't it?" Gale said to him.
"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" Dewey said icily, narrowing his eyes.
Gale didn't say a word. She was at a loss with
him. She had already apologized, and he still wouldn't budge.
She couldn't let his stubbornness stand in the way of catching the killer and getting the story.
She snapped her head around to Joel, who was climbing out of the news van, and walking towards her with a concerned expression.
"Move it, Joel," she said.
"Gale, I gotta be honest with you," Joel said. "I'm not cut out for this. I came to tape the news, not
Faces of Death 14,"
His eyes cut to the ambulance and the blood-stained pavement where CSI technicians were snapping photos.
"Don't fuck with me," Gale said, and then she cut a glance at Dewey, before storming off towards the police officers with Joel, reluctantly, in tow.
Back at the Delta Lambdas, Sidney was still almost in a trance, watching her life story repeat right in front of her.
With the cameras, and the reporters, and the police, it was major deja vu.
She shivered in the cold night air, as Derek wrapped his arm around her, also eyeing the action skeptically.
"Let's get you home," he said.
"Yeah," Sidney replied. "Let me get my jacket,"
With Derek still standing outside on the porch, Sidney walked back inside the Delta Lambda house, which was now empty and echoed with the aftermath of a party-solo cups were lying all around the floor, and plates of half-eaten sandwiches and hors-d'oeuvres were scattered about.
Sidney walked through the foyer, through the dining room and into the living room, picking up her denim jacket from the back of a sofa and putting it on.
And then, the house's landline phone jangled on the end table in the foyer.
Sidney stopped dead in her tracks.
It rang again. And again.
"Sid, you ready!?" Derek called from the porch.
"Almost…" Sidney said.
She felt the pang of dread deep in her core, staring suspiciously, almost knowingly, at the phone ringing on the end table.
"Fuck it," Sidney thought. She had to know.
She picked up the phone and put it to her ear.
"Hello, Sidney…" a very familiar disguised man's voice said.
It shook Sidney to her core. Tears began to fill her eyes, but she still remained stone-faced.
"Remember me?" the voice said mockingly.
"What do you want?" Sidney asked.
"I want you….it's showtime," the voice threatened.
"Then why don't you show your face, you fucking coward!"
"My pleasure…" the voice rasped.
And then, Sidney turned around to face the front door.
There, in all his infamy, stood the masked killer. His arms outstretched like a malevolent ghost.
Sidney shrieked in terror.
"Derek!"
She saw the fleeting glint of a knife soaring towards her heart, and she leaped out of the way.
The masked assailant's knife whistled through the air so fast that Sidney felt the air rush by her.
It plunged into the end table and remained stuck there, as the killer growled in anger.
Sidney ran for the front door but the killer had closed it and locked it.
Too many locks.
She didn't have time.
The killer yanked the knife out of the table and ran towards her.
"Sid! Sidney!" Derek screamed from outside. He began to beat on the door frantically, but it was no use. The door had been locked and chained.
Sidney screamed again, as the knife came for her again.
It whistled past her, and impaled itself in the door, narrowly missing Derek's head.
Sidney ran through the foyer, almost moving for the stairs.
No, fuck that, she thought.
She ran through the dining room, looping around the table, moving for the kitchen. The killer suddenly lunged out of an open doorway, grabbing her denim jacket fiercely.
It ripped halfway down Sidney's back, as she wriggled out of his grasp.
Her hands found a ceramic plant and she smashed it atop the killer's head.
He staggered backwards, growling in anger, falling over a chair and crashing onto the hardwood floor.
"Help me!!!" Sidney screamed.
She had lost all of her badass energy. The terror that was trip-hammering through her system had made her panic, and she was running for her life.
She sprinted down a hallway into the kitchen, fumbled with the lock on the back door, and flung it open, racing out into the backyard.
Where to run? She was in a large, fenced area surrounded by woods. She ran towards a gate, throwing it open, and ran through the backyard of another sorority house.
She ran up to the back door and pounded on it.
"Help me! Please!" she screamed, but nobody came to the door.
She ran through another backyard, hopped a small fence, and pounded on another door. No response.
Then, she stopped to catch her breath.
There was no sign of the killer.
Sidney found an old oak tree, and ran behind it, leaning against it and trying to compose herself.
She tasted the saltiness of her own tears on her lips and all she could hear was her heart thumping like the back legs of a jackrabbit.
"Deweyyyyy!" she screamed.
This can't be happening, she thought in disbelief. This just can't be happening again.
And then, she felt something…dripping on her cheek. She touched it and looked at her hand.
It was red.
Sidney looked up and let out a blood-curdling shriek.
Cici was dead, hanging from one of the branches of the tree; her stomach was nothing but a bloody mess of guts and intestines.
She screamed again, bringing her hands up to her face instinctively as more tears ran down her face.
She ran back through the yard towards the Delta Lambdas. She had to find Derek. She had to find Dewey.
Only they could help her.
She felt entirely powerless.
Just as she threw open the gate leading back into the Delta Lambda's backyard,a figure slammed into her, almost headbutting her.
It was Derek.
He grabbed her by both of her arms.
"It's just me! It's just me!" he exclaimed as Sidney relaxed and fell into his arms.
"The killer's in the house!" Sidney cried.
"What?" Derek exclaimed,
And then he pulled away from Sidney and charged back inside the Delta Lambda house.
"No, Derek, don't!" she screamed, but it was too late. He had already disappeared into the house.
"Sidney!" a familiar voice proclaimed.
She turned to see Dewey limping around the side of the house.
"Dewey!!" Sidney exclaimed with relief.
"Sid! Where is he?"
"He's in the house with Derek!" Sidney cried.
"Shit!" Dewey said, looking towards the house, his eyes wide.
"Stay here!" he ordered Sidney, and then ran up onto the patio and into the house.
After a few moments of agonizing and maddening silence, Sidney heard a cry of pain, and a loud crash.
She slowly inched her way towards the open patio doors, tears running down her cheeks.
"Derek?" she called.
Fuck no, she thought. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't lose someone else.
"Sidney!" came Dewey's voice through the silence. "He's in here!"
Sidney ran through the kitchen and into the small hallway leading to the rest of the house.
Dewey was standing over Derek, who was sitting on the floor, clutching a bleeding gash in his forearm.
"He got me! He got me!" Derek said, grimacing at the pain.
Blood was leaking from his arm and onto the floor.
So much blood.
"Put pressure on it," Dewey said, and Dewey ran into the dining room, searching madly for the killer.
The house was empty.
Dewey walked into the foyer, seeing Lois and Murphy standing in the front doorway.
"Is everything okay?" Lois asked.
Dewey didn't respond. He hobbled back into the hallway, where Sidney was frozen in time again.
Tears stained her cheeks, but she couldn't cry anymore.
She just stared down at Derek in helpless terror.
Her worst fears had just been confirmed.
It was happening all over again, and more people were going to die now, all because of her.