Hey, guys! I cut this episode in half to increase the drama and am pretty happy with what direction it went in. I hope you guys like it, too!

Also, I wrote a two-shot story about the first time Gwen and Noah had sex. It's called Am I Not Muse Enough? and the link is on my profile! Go check it out and enjoy!

The entire dance was chaos, Audrey disappeared again into the fray, but Noah kept a tight grip on my hand. At least the two of us would stay together, that was better than nothing. I was about to tell him we had to find her when Emma rushed over to the two of us.

"The killer called. He said that tonight's the big finale," she said in a rushed voice, clutching Noah's sleeve and looking at us with big, terrified eyes.

"Of course he did. A big, ill-advised Halloween dance," Noah exclaimed, normally I wouldn't chimed in with him in agreement but not now.

"Uh, guys, where's Audrey? I lost her after that screen came up," I asked, searching the hordes of freaked out teenagers for her.

"I saw her leave with Brooke and Jake, she's safe right now," Emma told me. "We have to find the Sheriff."

Noah had his phone out, his hand still clutched in mine, but there was a frown on his face. "I'm trying, but all my serious gear is back at the shop."

"We have to find it! We have to find the Sheriff!" Emma cried, taking Noah's shoulders in her hands and shaking him a bit.

"Okay, Em, it's okay," he reassured her, making her loosen her grip on his shoulders and stop shaking the both of us. "Gwen and I will go to the shop and get the stuff I need to find him. Then we'll meet you at your house. Okay?"

"Well, let's go then!" Emma said, turning and weaving her way through the dance patrons with Noah and me in tow.

"Sorry, guys, nobody leaves," the officer at the exit door told us.

"We need to go now or the Sheriff is going to die!" Noah exclaimed, and it would've been funny because of his costume if the situation was different.

The deputy had a short debate before stepping to the side and looking away as we slipped out the door. I guess she didn't want to be held responsible for our possible death and made it look like we'd made it past without her knowledge. Wow, Lakewood had some grade A police officers.

Once we were in the parking lot, Noah and I went to his car while Emma went to hers. I was thankful I'd stashed a bag of extra clothes in his trunk for times like this. Okay, that's a lie, it wasn't there for times like this. It was actually there from a sleepover at Audrey's that I lied about to hang out with Noah. And by hang out, I mean make out with him then fall asleep cuddled up in his bed watching slasher movies.

He anxiously waited for me to grab my bag before walking close to me until we were safe inside the shop. Me getting stabbed meant he never let me out of his sight when we were anywhere someone could hurt me. Even if I was a huge feminist, it was a nice feeling when someone cared about you enough they wanted to protect you.

"I'm going to go change while you get all your geeky gizmos," I teased, but it was lacking. I kissed the corner of his mouth and said, "Everything's going to be okay. This is all going to work out."

I tucked into a bathroom to change while he banged around. I shook out my braids after I changed and pulled the top of it up into a little bun. My makeup stayed the same as I zipped up my boots. When I went into the back, I saw Noah pulling a t-shirt on over jeans.

"Whoa, hi, I didn't see you there," he said quickly, pulling his shirt down and looking over at me with red cheeks.

I dug through my bag and pulled out my makeup wipes, taking one out before I walked over to him. His eyes held mine as I wiped the fake blood off the corners of his mouth gently, never breaking the eye contact –even when I wiped the black out of his eyebrows.

"You're kinda beautiful," I told him, tracing my fingers over his cheekbone once I'd finished removing the makeup.

"Shut u-" he started to say, but I cut him off with a kiss.

It was messy and fast, our teeth clacked together a couple times but didn't stop us. I pulled away from him long enough to heft myself up onto the corner of a desk before using the collar of his shirt to reconnect our lips. He rested his hands on my hips under my blouse and cardigan, scorching me to the bone every place our skin touched.

When I pulled back to catch my breath, his lip ventured down to my neck. With my fingers carded in his hair, I leaned my head back and let him have free reign. His grip on my hips tightened and his teeth ghosted over my pulse point, making the moan from earlier make a reappearance. God, this was so amazing –why did we wait so long to do this?!

His pocket started vibrating against my leg and made me laugh, ruining whatever moment was happening between us. He grinned and kissing my nose before answering Emma, quickly sobering up and reminding me what was at stake right now.

"Right, yeah, we have to go save the Sheriff," I breathed, jumping off the desk and adjusting my shirt while Noah grabbed his bag. "Right, let's go."

Emma must've been waiting at her door because she rushed out to the car the second he pulled in. She rode in the back this time while I rode shotgun. Noah's plethora of machines were scattered out on the dash and my lap where he glanced every once and a while as he drove through town.

"I've almost isolated the signal and I figured out why we can't reach people," Noah announced. "The malware doesn't just access webcams, it turns off ringers and notifications. So, they don't even know we've been trying to contact them."

"Oh, my god! That's insane!" I cried, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "This guy is isolating all of us."

"Oh, yes! I got it! The stream is coming from 1221 Sparrow Drive?" Noah announced, his dimples popping out. "Wait… isn't that Brooke's house?"

"Wait, Audrey and Jake are there, and I just sent Piper over there to check on them," Emma said, locking her phone after she sent the text. "And my mom is on her way to the Sheriff, this is going to work out. Everyone's going to be okay."

"This is insane!" Noah shrieked suddenly, swerving on the empty road. "We are willingly driving alone into certain death without a police escort!"

"No! No, we can't have any cops!" Emma told him, leaning up between the two front seats. "The cops can't help us."

"Bullshit, I think their guns can do some serious damage," I replied, looking at Emma with raised brows.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they've got, like, big-ass guns and body armor and SWAT teams," Noah agreed, catching my gaze when he stopped at a red light. "This is America!"

"You guys, he said no cops, okay? We have to finish this ourselves," she told us desperately.

"We've got your back, Em," I told her, turning my body around so I was facing her completely. "We've had our differences in the past, but this is about more than us. They're my friends, too."

She took my hand in hers and squeezed it reassuringly. We might not like each other very much, but this was bigger than just us. It was up to we three to save the entirety of Lakewood, and that was only a little bit terrifying.

"Well, if this is the final showdown, the killer's going to try and take out every single one of your friends, one by one until you're the only one that's left," Noah told us after I'd turned back around to face the front. "Because you're the survivor girl, Gwen's the pretty, virginal friend, and I'm your know-it-all sidekick.

"Oh crap, I'm gonna die," he said suddenly rubbing his forehead worryingly. "I am going to die, and it's my own fault for knowing so much. I'm going to die because I'm so smart!"

"You're not going to die, no one's going to die!" Emma argued. "Tonight, we're going to change the ending."

Without thinking I reached out and took his free hand, holding it with both of mine. I felt the tension in his shoulders lessen as he glanced over at me. I wanted to kiss him and hug him and tell him everything would work out, but I knew that wasn't going to be possible right now. My hope was he got that from my eyes, and the look he gave me in return told me he did and felt the same way. The two of us could apparently communicate with just looks, a new development for us.

Within the first ten seconds of arriving at Brooke's, there was already a dead body. "Oh, my god! It's Piper!"

"I'm gonna throw up!" Noah moaned from beside me.

"Come on, let's go look inside," I suggested, stepping around the body of the podcaster and leading the way into the house.

The three of us had just stepped into the house when I heard a floorboard creak. I held out my arm and halted Emma, gesturing to my ear for her to listen. Another creak sounded and her face paled: someone was in here with us.

We waited a beat before jumped around the corner, coming face to face with Kieran holding a gun. That was sketchy, especially considering there was the off chance he was the murderer. I held Emma's arm so she kept her distance, but she looked pissed instead of relieved.

"Emma, relax, it's me," he coaxed.

"Holding a gun." Maybe I judged Emma too harshly before, she was holding her own even when Kieran gave her pleading eyes. "Why didn't you call me back?"

"Well, I didn't feel much like talking after you accused me of murder," he replied in a curt tone. "My bad."

"You wanna put that down now?" Noah suggested, eyeing the gun nervously as his palm started sweating against mine.

He placed it in the back of his pants' waistband. "What are you doing here?"

Kieran looked at Emma, surprise apparent on his face. "You texted me to meet you here…"

"No, I didn't," she told him slowly.

He scoffed at her; he was obviously annoyed than any of us realized by Emma's accusations. "Well, I didn't send this to myself."

"Unless you did to convince Emma you're trustworthy because you're the one controlling the malware," Noah suggested, making Kieran glare at him.

When Noah said that out loud, I realized how crazy it really sounded. I decided to take control of the situation and asked, "What happened to Piper?"

"I don't know, I just got here," he replied, seemingly thankful for my change of conversation topics. "I saw her car and took a look around."

"I really want to believe you," Emma pleaded, pinching the bridge of her nose in desperation.

"Why would I hurt Piper?"

"Because she found out you might be the son of Brandon James," Emma shouted, making Noah and I immediately look at her in surprise.

"What?"

"Yeah, what?" I repeated.

"We talked to Cassie James and she said her grandson came to visit her," Emma explained to all of us. "Then she identified you, Kieran."

"And you believed her, a stranger, over me, your friend?" he asked, looking at her incredulously.

Emma went to talk to Cassie James with Piper instead of one of us? That was a little fishy to me, but I didn't ask any questions. Something about Piper always sat weird with me, but I couldn't place why. She always showed up right after something terrible happened and started snooping. I understood she was a journalist and that was her thing, but it was almost too perfectly orchestrated. I never told Noah about my theory because I knew he was obsessed with her and her podcast, he'd probably just think I was crazy or something.

"Noah, can I talk to you for a second?" I asked, pulling him into a big coat closet away from Emma and Kieran and closing the door. "Can I tell you something at the risk of sounding like I'm totally psycho?"

"You can tell me anything, Gwendolyn. You know that," he told me, only vaguely freaked out judging by his tone.

"Something about Piper makes me nervous. I don't know what it is, I just know it's something I can't get over," I admitted, looking at the toes of my boots instead of his inquisitive eyes. "She's always in the right place right after something happens, faster than anyone else. Isn't that weird to you?"

"She's a journalist, G, it's her job," he offered, taking my shoulders in his hands and squeezing them reassuringly. "You're just freaked, but you were stabbed and that's totally understandable."

He kissed my forehead and hugged me close, rubbing my back for a couple seconds. I should've went with my gut and kept that opinion to myself. Now he was going to think I was jealous of her or something. Guys' minds always jumped to jealousy when girls didn't like each other like there weren't thousands of other plausible reasons to dislike someone other than wanting what they had.

"We should go find the others. I don't like the thought of Audrey being in this house with the crazy killer on the loose," I sighed, pushing open the door without looking back to see if he was following me.

That was the last thing I did before pain exploded in the back of my head and everything went black.

Thanks for reading, guys! Don't forget to check out the two part story!