A/N: We're about at the halfway point, which means the final act is approaching.

Sorry the last chapter took so long and was on the shorter side. This should make up for that ;-)


Tori, her dad and Cat checked in at the Bonneville Inn, which wasn't far from the police station.

The trio got adjourning rooms, with Tori and Cat in one and David in the other. He insisted on the connecting rooms in case something happened.

Tori flopped on one of the twin beds and let out a big sigh.

"Today has been exhausting."

Cat signed into the hotel's Wi-Fi.

"Hey, Tori; there's free Wi-Fi here."

"Just be careful, girls" warned David. "These connections are usually unsecure so be careful what you do when you're hooked up."

"Kay, kay!"

David retreated into his room and moments later the sound of the shower could be heard.

Cat sat down on her bed while Tori rolled over to face her direction.

"I'm sorry this is happening," the Latina said.

"What?" replied the redhead. "This wasn't your fault. None of this was."

Her friend looked visibly distressed.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Cat.

"Wondering why the hell I'm still here," Tori admitted. "It should be me on that slab."

Cat quickly got up and sat beside Tori on her bed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Trina died saving me," she shakily replied. Tears were forming. "And even in death, they can't leave her alone. Where is she?"

The petite girl hugged her friend close.

"I don't have time to grieve. I don't even have the ability to lay my big sister to rest. Everything is so fucked up and every day I feel like I'm coming apart!"

Cat started to tear up herself.

"Now Sinjin and Burf are dead. They didn't do anything to anyone," Tori sniffed. "Maybe if I died too this would've stopped."

"DON'T SAY THAT!"

Cat was now kneeling before her, grabbing her shoulders.

"Don't EVER think that!"

"But..."

"NO! You listen to ME now!"

The redhead wiped her eye before going on.

"If you died and Trina survived, I would be having this same conversation. I would be telling her to keep going. But Trina was the one who died, and it was all that maniac's fault. Not yours. Life is a gift; don't waste it! You hear me?"

Tori tearfully nodded.

"I feel bad too, you know."

"What?"

"Because when Trina put you first like that, I realized how I had her all wrong. You've been trying to convince all of us that there is a side to your sister that we don't see."

Tori took out her phone and went through her pictures. She landed on one from their last Halloween with their mom. They were dressed as witches.

"She was more delicate than people thought," she said. "But Trina figured being the big fish was how you survived. I mean it worked for Jade, that's why those two always fought the most."

Cat chuckled.

"Guess there's not enough room for two alphas."

"Nope," agreed Tori.

Cat then silently stood up and began walking around the room. She was making her scrunched-up thinking face so things were percolating.

"Cat?"

"Did you..." she bit her lip. "Did you have any thoughts who it could be?"

Tori's eyes were starting to dry up.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean suspects," replied Cat. "Obviously whoever this lunatic is, they know you and your family. Somebody has something against you."

The two girls remained silently in thought.

"Robbie?"

Cat glared at her, offended by the question.

"And why do you think him?"

Tori shrugged.

"Aren't most serial killers white men; oftentimes socially awkward...and..."

"Add heavy metal music and he could be one of the West Memphis Three."

The Latina closed her eyes.

"Sorry."

"What about Beck?" asked Cat.

Tori chortled for the first time since they got here.

"Come on!"

"Hey, whoever chased me was pretty fit."

Tori made a thinky face.

"A kick in the face would disable most anyone."

"What do you think?" asked Cat.

"You know," Tori then cleared her throat. "Wouldn't it be funny if it was him?"

The redhead plopped back down on her bed.

"He was destined to have a flaw."

Tori yawned.

"Mind if I shower first? I'm beat. You can have it right after."

"Okay," Cat said. "Not staying up very late anyway."

She then showed Tori her inbox. There was an email from Sikowitz.

"School has officially closed down and there's even talks of a curfew."

"Oh man," Tori sighed.

"Anyways, he's having us do a virtual class, so we don't fall behind. Here's the Zoom link."

"Virtual class?" asked Tori. "Well, I guess seeing him and the old gang will be nice, even if it's through a screen."

Cat smiled.

"A little normalcy, please!"

"Never thought I'd be this pumped about school," Tori shrugged.


The following morning, after having some breakfast, Cat fired up her trusty laptop and placed it on the bed so her and Tori can join in Sikowitz's class.

"Okay, here we go."

Cat clicked on the link and it took them into the Zoom call where everyone is broken up into squares. Tori and Cat are in the upper right corner. Andre and Beck were already there along with a few other students.

"What's up girlies!"

"Hey, 'Dre!" waved Tori.

"Hey, Beck" waved Cat.

The pair then both looked awkwardly at the boy.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Nothing!" blurted out Tori.

"We're fine!" added Cat.

Andre just shrugs when Robbie joins the class.

"Whoo! Sorry I was almost late," he said, sounding out of breath. "How's everybody doing?"

"You sound tired, man" observed Beck.

"Yeah," muttered Tori. "What were you doing?"

The curly-haired boy looked standoffish.

"Oh, well, I was...you..." he began tugging at his collar.

"He was probably punchin' his munchkin."

"JADE!"

"Sup, losers."

She then turned her face as if she could see Robbie from down there like this was Hollywood Squares.

"Real classy, Jade" said Beck, doing a golf clap. "As always."

The goth kept her stance but raised a certain finger, knowing a certain ex would see it.

"I'm serious, Shapiro. You'd better not be doing anything weird. Let's see those hands, mister!"

"Come on, Jade!" protested Tori. "Really!"

"What the heck, Cat! You and Vega having a sleepover and I wasn't invited?"

"Is that a hotel room?" asked Andre. "Y'all in hiding?"

"Not exactly," squirmed Tori.

Jade folded her arms.

"I really hope all of you are wearing pants," she huffed.

"What's crawled up your butt?" asked Andre.

"I'm in a funny mood today," answered Jade. "Last night was a bitch, eh girls?"

Tori and Cat looked at each other.

"I feel a severe lack of teacher from this class," noted Robbie.

Sure enough, the square containing the administrator of this virtual class was of an empty room.

One sandy haired boy piped up, "Oh, fuck. Did the killer get Sikowitz too?"

"I cannot imagine the torture of being haunted by that man."

Jade's words were punctuated by the sudden appearance of the eccentric educator.

"HE-YO! GOOD MORNING, FUTURE MOVERS AND SHAKERS!"

Sporadic good mornings were muttered by the students.

"Didn't mean to keep you waiting, but my second breakfast rolled under the bed."

"Second breakfast?" asked Beck.

"Yes, I recently started to live life to the fullest by embracing the hobbit lifestyle."

He then repositioned himself so he could display his dirty foot.

"I already got the lack of shoes down."

Everyone shook their heads at the sight of Sikowitz's foot.

"Any-hoo, my coconut rolled under the bed and I couldn't reach the darn thing. It was then I realized my bed was no longer against the wall and just grabbed it from the other side."

About half the class facepalmed.

"Nice to see you all, or your heads anyway," he smiled. "Well, you know, people don't watch TV anymore. It's all streaming now, so might as well get used to seeing each other on the monitor screen."

Sikowitz proceeded to spend the first couple of minutes doing roll call. He wanted to make sure everybody's mic was on and that he could be heard on their end. Satisfied, he began the exercise.

"So, I thought we would begin with a little improv. Since the interaction is limited here, we'll just do a scene where all of you are standing in line at the DMV. When it passes on to you, you must begin your part with a letter in the alphabet."

He then takes out a piece of paper.

"And in the spirit of the alphabet, we will go in alphabetical order."

Throughout the exercise, everybody chimed in with their own improvised monologue. There were no guidelines, so most of the students used their turn as a soliloquy to talk about why there were at the DMV that day.

Now, we were on the V's.

"Look at this line!" Cat exclaimed. "This will take all day! I cannot be late; why did I come here the morning of my job interview? It's for data entry. I don't even know what that is!"

The class chuckled at the redhead's comical rant.

Sikowitz then hit the little bell on his desk, marking the end of Cat's bit and moving onto Tori.

"My gosh, it hasn't moved at all! Not that I'm in a rush; its actually a nice break. This is more people than I usually interact with. Beats my apartment full of cats. I love them all but the conversations are very one-sided. Well she looks nice."

The bell chimed. Now it was passed onto Jade.

"Not happening, Cat Lady!" the goth sneered. "You should really step back, I've got a problem with pet dander."

"TIME OUT!" called Sikowitz.

"What's wrong?" asked Jade.

"Nothing, I just thought Tori was onto something I had been hoping for. So far nobody has interacted with any of the others directly. True improv is achieved when its a group effort. You two have broken the ice nicely. Way to play along, Jade!"

The pale girl just rolled her eyes.

"Now, let's keep going. Only now that we continue to pass on the conversation for the remainder of the exercise. So, Jade make sure you dovetail this chain to Todd."

The aforementioned boy with brown hair folded his arms.

"Excuse me, professor, but I'm not in the mood. You know, since my two friends were murdered."

A stunned silence hit the zoom call. You could hear a pin drop.

"And I especially don't want anything to do with Jade West," he added.

"Got a problem with me?" she asked.

Todd shrugged, "Doesn't everybody?"

Jade wasn't looking amused by this attack from skinny boy over here.

"What's your problem, man?" asked Andre.

"What's YOUR GUYS' problem?" pressed a girl named Cindy Campbell, who normally sat in the back row. "How can you be friends with this psycho bitch?"

"The FUCK?"

"Language, Miss West!" admonished Sikowitz.

"But it's okay this dickhead attacks me?" asked Jade.

"Him attacking you, that's rich."

Jade glared at this Cindy girl.

"Nobody asked you, you bitch!"

"Go sit on a dick!" spat Cindy.

"OKAY, LANGUAGE!"

Sikowitz was not putting out any fires today.

"You should just turn yourself in," pointed Todd. "Everyone knows you're crazy."

"Oh, yeah?" growled Jade. "Who says?"

"Everyone!" shouted Cindy. "You obsession with scissors?"

"I mean you are sketchy as fuck," chimed in another student.

"I'm not the killer!" Jade huffed. "I wa-"

"I heard you stabbed a boy in middle school!"

Todd's words made Jade freeze.

"What?" asked Beck.

"And you know it's true, West!" said Cindy. "My mom's friends with Seth's mom."

Jade's eyes looked like she unlocked an old memory.

"Seth?"

"That was the boy you stabbed and you got away with it!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Robbie said. "Jade killed Seth?"

"Oh, she tried" replied Cindy. "And it was all a big coverup."

Jade slammed her fists down, making her camera shake. Those wearing headphones were shook by the loud boom.

"Seth was a fucking pervert and everyone else are a bunch of goddamn LIARS!"

Next thing everyone knew, Jade signed off.

"Class dismissed!" called Sikowitz.

Then the virtual conference disconnected.

Cat and Tori sat there, stunned at how out of control that got.

Tori's phone vibrated and she grabbed it to view the new text from Andre.

"That could've gone better."


A/N: Special thanks to Quitting Time for the idea of the virtual class scene. I took a few liberties to keep it interesting. And of course the Cindy Campbell was a nice little reference that sounded too good to leave out. Thanks again, QT.