Scream V (2022) My Version
Chapter Fifteen: Meeks'Martin Meeting
After their meeting with Dewey this morning, Sam had called Wes and asked him to gather his friends and head to Chad and Mindy's house. They needed to talk. He agreed to do so. She called her father who checked in Tara. He said she was eating food and wondered where she and Richie were. She explained that she talked to Dewey who couldn't help but that she had an idea. She said she'd explain it later.
Having arrived at the Meeks'Martin residence, Sam and Richie climb out of their Prius.
"So this is where Mindy and Chad live?" Richie asks her.
Sam opens her mouth to respond, then sees something. Smiles.
"Holy shit... he came." Sam said. Riche follows her gaze to see Dewey step out of his car. Gun on his hip. Limping across the street to them.
"I've decided to temporarily assist in your investigation." Dewey said.
"Thank you." Sam said sincerely.
"How did you know we were coming here?" Richie asked.
"I was a former sheriff. It didn't take much to figure out where you two were going." Dewey said. He knows this town considering he was born here and worked in the town for ten years. Nothing doesn't get by him.
Dewey walks past them as Richie turns to Sam.
"Oh good, the guy has a gun now." Richie said sarcastically. Sam gives him a disapproving look. Richie quickly shut a down.
Doorbell rings. Mindy answers the door to reveal Sam, Richie, and a cleaned-up Dewey. Mindy leads them inside. In the living room are Stacy, Nate, Liv, sitting next to Amber Wes and a bruised up Chad.
"Thanks for letting us come by." Sam said.
"Are you kidding? The chance to talk to two Ghostface survivors and a potential future victim? I'm in." Mindy said.
"Who's at the door?" Asked Zeke who was walking into the living with soda. Sam recognized his voice.
"Zeke." Sam said surprised.
"Sam." Zeke said just as surprised to see her. "You look good." He said smiling.
"Thanks. So do you." She said smiling back. Richie caught this and wasn't happy about it.
"How's Tara?" Zeke asked.
"She's getting better. Thanks for asking." Sam said. Zeke nods. Sam stares lingering over Zeke's physique. She could tell he works out. She could see his chiseled chest through his white t shirt. He definitely has grown up.
Zeke's eyes lingered on Sam's body. He smirked at how nice her ass looked in those jeans. Her breasts looked particularly delicious to him. He was lusting over her. He secretly had a crush on her. Richie didn't like this one bit.
"Hi. I'm Richie her boyfriend." Richie said introducing himself considering Sam wasn't going to do it. Zeke gave him an icey stare.
"Sup." Was all Zeke said before turning away.
"Wait, am I a survivor or the victim?" Richie asked remembering Mindy calling a future victim.
"Oh, you're so cute." She leads them into the living room.
"So how do you know so much about the Stab movies?" Richie asks Mindy.
"Runs in the family." Dewey said motions to a picture hanging next to a massive 4K TV and blu-ray collection: Randy Meeks, in a school photo. It was single photo of him. The family's name had been tarnished due to what Randy had done. Dispute how people felt about the family, both Chad and Mindy were penalized for it. She looked offended by the comment.
"Dewey hi." Martha said going over to hug him.
"Hi Martha. How you doing?" Dewey smiled politely. He hadn't blamed her or her father for what Randy and Mrs. Meeks put them through. As far as he was concerned, they were as much of a victim as he, Sid, Billy and Tatum were.
"You look…" Martha said to Dewey but couldn't continue as he did look a little worse for ware. "Ok." She said turning to head in the kitchen.
"Hey gang!" Sam said. She spots Chad's bruised face. "Chad what happened to you?" She asked concerned.
"I'm fine." He barely manages say.
"Fuckin football fucktards jumped my baby brother. I wish I was there is would've kicks their asses." Zeke said not happy about seeing Chad beaten up. Even Liv felt bad for him.
Sam sits on the couch with Richie and Dewey, across from Mindy and Chad. They look stunned at what they've just heard. Chad stares at Dewey.
"So we're here because every time ghost face made his appearance to go after Sidney it was always someone in her friend circle." Sam said.
"Yeah with Sid it was Randy and Stu Macher. When Sid, Billy and my sister were in college it was their friend Derek and his mother Mrs. Meeks." Dewey said glancing at Martha who looked on sadly. Chad and Mindy never knew their grandmother because Martha had kept information about her from them. Zeke was the only one who knew the truth having overheard a conversation between Martha and her ex husband. Chad and Mindy would later find out the truth having watched Stab 2. "When Sid and Billy went into hiding, she would give birth to their twins. She, Billy and Tatum faced off against Roman Bridger who was her half brother, Mark Kincaid who was Roman's half brother and Angelina Tyler, their former classmate from high school. Then seven years ago it was Ross Hoss who was Billy's brother. His partner was Trevor Sheldon Jill's ex." Dewey continues.
"So you think one of us is trying to recreate what happened all those years ago?" Nate asked.
"It's possible yes." Sam said.
"You really think it's one of us?" Chad asked as they looked at him. He hadn't heard Dewey respond to a similar question. He seems to be messing with his left ear. Martha notices this and goes over to him.
"Historically speaking, at least one of the killers was from the friend group 75% of the time." Dewey further explained.
"Chad let me see." Martha said checking his ear.
"Can you hear me?" Martha asked. He nods.
"Just some ringing is all." Chad said.
"Makes sense... We all know Tara, we all left the pool hall right after Vince did, any one of us could have killed him-" Mindy said responding to Dewey's comments.
"What about David?" Stacy asked. "I mean no offense but Chad was the last to see him alive and could've easily killed him." Chad frowned hard.
"My son is no killer." Martha said defending her son.
"I didn't mean anything by it Mrs. Martin." Stacy said.
"No I know what you met. Listen, I know what my brother did and it messed up my family but my children are not killers and should not be treated as such. Do we understand each other?" Martha asked firmly.
"Yes ma'am." The group said with the exception of Mindy, Chad and Zeke.
"But the killer said he knew my family secret. I think he attacked Tara to lure me back here. But there's a problem." Sam said.
"What's the family secret?" Wes asked.
"That just it. I don't know. I asked my father and he doesn't know." Sam said.
"So?" Zeke said.
"So why then immediately go murder some guy who was stalking Liv? Or why he kill David?" Amber asked.
"Maybe because he beat the shit out of Deputy Dewey here. Maybe he's the killer." Wes said accusing Dewey. "No offense."
"None taken. Why would I kill David?" Dewey asked.
"Collateral damage." Wes said. They shook their heads. Wes shrugged.
"Ok then what's my motive?" Dewey asked.
"You got stabbed a billion times, got dumped by your famous wife and crawled into a bottle. I think it's safe to say you make the suspect list." Wes said.
"First off, I didn't get dumped by Gale. I was the one who left my family behind coming back here. Second of all, I'm not an alcoholic. Once a day I'll have a drink and third, I survived being attacked four different times. No way in hell am I going kill innocent people." Dewey explained
"Um... Vince is not unconnected..." Amber said as everyone turns to her, who's staring at her phone. "I Googled him. His Mom is Leslie Macher, Stu Macher's sister." She continued
"Who's Stu Macher?" Liv asked.
"Our uncle's accomplice, Liv, try and keep up." Mindy said. Liv shoots her the finger.
"So what does this have to do with David?" Chad asked.
"David was related to the Beckers. His mother is the sister to Casey's mom." Dewey said as the room falls silent for a moment.
"So the four attacks and only two murders. Two being related to a past victim and the other linked to a past killer. What the hell does this have to do with me and Tara?" Sam asked trying to figure it out. Zeke thought for a moment and then something Sam said earlier stuck out to him.
"Sam you said your dad didn't have any family secrets you knew of right?" Zeke asked.
"Right." Sam said.
"What about your mom? Do you think she has a secret from her pat that could be connected to what's going on now?" Zeke asked. Sam thought about that for a moment. She didn't know and when she asked her mother, she could tell Christine was hesitant but ultimately denied having any secrets.
"I don't know." Sam said.
"I think you should find out." Zeke said. Mindy thought for a moment and then had an epiphany.
"Oh my God... he's making a re-quel." Mindy said excitedly. The others stare at her.
"A what?" Sam asked.
"Or a Legacy-quel. Fans are torn on the terminology-" Mindy said excitedly
"Speak. English." Chad said to her.
"Okay, okay, remember the Stab movie that came out last year?" Mindy asked everyone in the room. Liv brightens at this.
"Oh yeah, the one the Knives Out guy directed, right? I really liked it-" Liv said.
"Of course you did, you have terrible taste. But the hardcore Stab fans hated it. You go on 4Chan and Dreddit, all they're talking about is how Stab 8 pisses on their childhood, how there's no connection to the original films, how the main character's a Mary Sue-" Mindy explains.
"What's a Mary Sue-?" Richie asks.
"You really don't want to know." Wes responds.
"There was even a petition to have the studio pretend Stab 8 never happened and shoot a new movie "for the fans"-" Mindy continues.
"But it's just a movie-" Sam said.
"Not to some people. To some, the original's their favorite thing in the world - the movie that made them love horror, that opened up a whole new world, that Mom or Dad showed them when they were ten that bonded them together. And God help anyone who slightly fucks with that special memory, who makes a movie they think disrespects it." Mindy said taking a deep breath before continuing "It sounds like our killer's writing his own version of Stab 8, but doing it as a re-quel."
"Which is?" Dewey starts to ask before being cut off. Mindy gets to her feet, happy he asked.
"See, you can't just reboot a franchise from scratch anymore, fans won't stand for it. Black Christmas, Child's Play, Flatliners- that shit doesn't work. But you can't just do a straight sequel, either - you gotta build something new, but not too new, or the Internet goes bug fucking nuts. It's gotta be part of an ongoing story, even if the story shouldn't have been ongoing in the first place. New main characters, yes, but supported by and related to legacy characters. Not quite a reboot, not quite a sequel. Like the new Halloween, Saw, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, fuck, even Star Wars. It always goes back to the original." Mindy said finally breathing. Sam stares at her horrified.
"Are you telling me I'm caught in the middle of fan-fucking-fiction?!" Sam asked.
"Not just in the middle. You're one of the stars. So that also means me and Chad are involved as well as all of you." She said referring to Nate, Stacy, Wes, Amber, Liv, Richie. Even Zeke is involved by proxy. Believe it or not, the sheriff could be considered a target to because she is from woodsboro, grew up around time the first murders occurred and took part in the last time ghost face made his appearance. She might be in danger as well.
"So, not to put too fine a point on it, but according to re-quel rules... who's next?" Amber asked.
"Going by the pattern, whoever it is has to be connected to someone that came before." Mindy said as everyone slowly turns to look at Dewey.
"I'm starting to regret coming here." Dewey said.
"My mom was a character in Stab 4-" Wes said.
"Nobody cares about the inferior shitty sequels, Wes, you're safe." Mindy said to him.
"Considering who our uncle is, though, we are probably screwed." Zeke said.
"Wait, what?" Chad asked Zeke as Mindy nods agreeing. Martha looked on worried. Dewey saw her expression and knew it well. She was worried for her children.
"Or... one or both of you are the killers, and this elaborate monologue is just bullshit to cover your tracks." Richie said accusingly.
"Please, I think it's pretty clear who the killer is at this point..." Mindy said patronizingly.
"Who?" Sam asked.
"Mindy. I mean, obviously." Amber said. Mindy looked at Amber offended. She wasn't the only one looking at Amber. Zeke and Chad are glaring at Amber to. Sam blinks.
"Why Mindy?" Sam asked.
"She is the niece of a serial killer! Who better to inherit the mantle and carry the series forward? You hurt Tara but don't kill her, which gives her a reason to you back to Woodsboro and then goes on a rampage, getting revenge on the town for the death of her uncle. It makes perfect sense!" Amber said.
"It kinda does, actually..." Nate said. Mindy looks on offended. Liv nods too. Even Dewey's giving her the hairy eyeball. Mindy stares at them, trying to control her emotions...She is hurt her friends would think she's a killer.
"Sorry, but I don't make the rules-" Amber said.
"My sister and brother aren't killers. You're little bullshit theory sucks." Zeke said getting angry.
"Then maybe you did it. Amber said. "I mean after all you just got back to town and then attacks happen. Coincidence."
"There are no rules. This isn't a game, or a joke, or a movie. Real people's lives are at stake-" Sam says.
"I know. And she's probably the one who's going to kill them." Stacy said further accusing Mindy of being a killer.
"Great, I try to help and get accused of being a killer. I'm tired of my brother and I being accused of doing something we didn't do. It's insulting!" Mindy yelled.
"Sorry don't kill us." Nate said his attempt at a lame ass joke in the wake of a serious conversation.
"Fuck you Nate." Mindy said getting up off the couch and running up to her room.
"What? I was just joking." Nate said.
"Ain't shit funny about people dying ass-clown." Zeke cursed.
"Sorry." Nate said.
"Where is Mike? He ain't here." Wes asked.
"He said he wasn't stepping foot in the murder house. No offense." Stacy said. Zeke and Chad rolled their eyes.
"I think it's time this little meeting concludes." Martha said.
"I agree." Dewey said standing up.
"Well this was unproductive." Richie said standing up with Sam and the others.
"Chad go check on your sister." Martha said. He gingerly gets up off the couch and heads upstairs to check on Mindy.
"Sam." Zeke said walking up to her. She stops. "It was nice to see you again." He said. Sam nods smiling. "Listen I think you should ask your mom about the family secret."
"I tried but she said she didn't have a family secret." Sam said.
"If that's the case then you and Tara shouldn't have been attacked. This isn't a coincidence." Zeke said to her. "Be safe ok." He asked.
"You to." Sam said to him before leaving. She, Wes and the others left the house. Zeke stared after the group and watched Richie. He didn't trust him. He knew Sam and did not know Richie.
"Do you think what was said holds any truth to it?" Martha asked.
"No. Mindy and Chad aren't killers. I'm a lot things. Killer ain't one them." Zeke said to his mother. I think it's one of their friends.
"You don't think it's Sam?" Martha teased.
"No. She's not a killer." Zeke said.
"That's cause you like her." Martha said walking away from him with a sly smile. Zeke looks back at her smirking.
Who could the killer be? Only time would tell.