Author's Note: First of all shoutout to nat4show on AO3 for being the first one to get my Trevor reference, no hate on the person behind the twitter account, if it's satire then they're doing a brilliant job at it.
Secondly, I thought about it and since this chapter would be out around the time of the last episode's release, it would be unfair for those who don't get the chance to watch them first, so I'll keep the review for the final five episodes for chapter 3.
Lastly, thanks so much for the support so far! It's been great being able to read some of the reviews (mostly AO3 with that one) and even just the fact that people are still reading this helps so much.
There's more I want to say at the end of the chapter but for now on with the show, here's to the first chapter of 2024! (Sorry in advance for the Scary Girl angst…)
Reviews
MatiasND: I'm glad you liked it! For Scary Girl's situation I think it does depend on certain people's personality as a whole, for example Wayne and Raj are generally quite forgiving so they overlooked the whole stalking thing quite quickly once they realised what caused her to do it.
Meanwhile Julia and MK likely don't care or would only care if it meant gaining an ally in the game (which for obvious reasons they couldn't). Bowie in this case just sided with Raj, but if this happened in the main canon where Scarekiel (thanks Reddit) wouldn't happen then Bowie probably wouldn't risk interacting with her, he's only offering in this since Raj and Ezekiel are friends after all.
I'd give some of the others opinions but then I'm spoiling the next few chapters as more of the contestants make their appearance.
Chapter Two
*Camp Wawanakwa, the night of Lauren's Elimination*
"Could I ask you guys something?" Ezekiel asked the five of them currently sat in the men's side of the Skunk Butts cabin, the Prairie Boy's saddened expression noticeable even to those sitting the furthest away from the phone.
"What is it coach?" Wayne responded.
"If… If you end up seeing her first…" Ezekiel began, knowing that he was gonna try and contact Lauren himself to find out what was really going on with her. "Could you talk to her?"
"Absolutely not…" Julia and MK deadpanned, the pair looking just about ready to leave the cabin.
"I mean, I plan to win this time around, but in the event she comes back I could try…" Bowie replied, not planning on being eliminated so soon but knowing at the very least he should act like he cared.
"Do you want us to ask Priya or Damien since they're friends with her?" Raj asked Ezekiel, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Maybe just Millie and Priya, Damien would probably freak out, I mean they're friends but… well… he's still scared of her…" He laughed slightly, the first bit of happiness showing on his face since he'd found out about Lauren's actions over the last few months.
"On it coach!" Wayne shouted in response, already running out of the door to the cabin, not even bothering to slam the doors shut as he leaped onto the grass and began to run across towards the Rat Faces cabin.
He ran towards the girls side of the cabin first, the Hockey Bro fully intent on talking to Priya and Millie first about the situation before he even began to think about talking to Damien or the others, however before he knocked he could hear several muffled voices from the other side of the cabin.
Wayne instead walked over to the boy's side and listened in for a moment, hearing several voices including one of his teammates, before knocking on the door. The door opened shortly after, with Damien's head peeking from behind the door.
"Wayne? What's up man?" He greeted, opening the door slightly and briefly stepping out of the cabin, his smile genuine enough but even the Hockey Bro could see that Damien looked on edge.
"Uh…" Wayne stuttered slightly, remembering what Ezekiel said about Damien freaking out, and by the looks of things he'd probably just found out about the stalking. "I need to ask Millie and Priya something eh. Have you seen them?"
"Is this about what happened at the ceremony? Because Ripper and Chase already told us about what La… uh Scary Girl did…" Damien responded before shuddering slightly, his eyes widening in panic and horror. "I can't believe she'd been doing that this whole time! Did she say who she stalked exactly? Was it me, please don't be mainly me!" He panicked some more before eventually coming to a realisation. "Wait… did Zeke know?"
'Well… I suppose I have to break the news to him now…' Wayne thought, chuckling nervously as he put a hand on Damien's shoulder. "Calm down brah, that's what this is about eh. I spoke to the coach just a few moments ago, Rajie and Bowie thought the same thing and our whole team confronted him about it, well, apart from Ripper and Chase."
"Is that so…" Damien eventually responded, looking somewhat sceptical however he was looking slightly calmer after hearing that Ezekiel had been contacted regarding the situation. "So what did he say?"
"That's what I was going to tell the girls eh, so… have you seen them?" Wayne asked once more.
"Yeah, they're just in the cabin, come on in…" Damien opened the door once more, gesturing for the Hockey Bro to come inside.
Inside the cabin were most of the Rat Faces, with only Nichelle, Emma and Axel missing from their team, Chase and Ripper were also missing despite Damien's earlier comment about them having told their team about what Lauren had done.
Priya and Millie were talking quietly in the corner of the room to themselves, with Caleb occasionally chipping in with his own comments, Caleb still in the early stages of trying to convince Priya to form an alliance. Zee on the other hand was sitting by himself, drinking through one of his many sodas that he'd brought with him as a result of his sponsorship, and thus was the first to notice the newcomer that Damien had brought back with him.
"Oh hey, wassup man…" Zee greeted, waving slowly at the Hockey Bro, also causing the other three in the cabin to look up at the pair.
"Oh, hey Wayne…" Priya began nervously, already having a feeling as to why he was there.
"Sup guys." Wayne casually greeted, sitting next to Zee, with Damien sitting to the other side of him. "I uh… heard that Ripper and Chase had told you guys about what happened with Lauren…" He started, the mention of the Scary Girl's name causing both Priya and Millie to shiver from discomfort, with Caleb also looking slightly uncomfortable, only Zee seemed unaffected.
"Yeah, we already know… I still can't believe she did all of that…" Millie responded.
"Well, apparently Wayne's team have now spoken to Zeke, but Wayne wouldn't tell me unless you two were here." Damien explained.
"Is that so…" Priya muttered to herself.
"Do we need to get the others or…?" Caleb asked.
"No need, you guys can catch them up." Wayne responded before looking around slightly. "Where are they anyway?"
"Well Emma stormed out in order to get away from Chase, and both Nichelle and Chase followed her. Axel and Ripper I think went to grab some food." Zee explained, drinking from his soda once more.
"Oh okay eh!" Wayne nodded happily for a moment before his expression turned serious once more. "So uh… before I start, you guys haven't tried to talk to Zeke or Lauren yourselves have you?" Wayne asked the others.
"No way am I talking to Scary Girl at the moment…" Millie shook her head adamantly. "Even if it's all lies the prospect of her doing that is far too real for me to be comfortable with it, plus if she got voted off then I don't think they're lying."
"We were talking about calling Ezekiel when you knocked, but apparently you guys all beat us to it…" Caleb added, shrugging his shoulders slightly.
"Yah, Bowie and Jules wanted to tear into him about this whole 'stalking' thing, and we used Rajie's phone to do so." Wayne responded.
"Okay, so what happened then?" Damien asked.
"That's the thing eh, Zeke knew as much as we did…" Wayne responded, drawing a few surprised looks from the others.
"Wait, really?" Priya's eyes widened in shock.
"But weren't those two practically joint at the hip, I swear whenever we spoke to one of them the other was always there?" Millie added, with Damien nodding along in agreement.
"I thought so too…" A voice called from the entrance to the cabin, the six contestants turning to see Bowie and Raj walking in, hand in hand. Raj waving to the others as Bowie kept talking. "But apparently there were times when Lauren just went missing, sometimes for days…"
"What he said…" Wayne gestured towards Bowie, before turning to the pair with a confused look. "So is the call done then or are we bringing him into this one?" Wayne asked them.
"No, he's done with us, he's currently trying to get a hold of her himself." Raj responded, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"We're getting off track here." Bowie stated as he turned to look at the Rat Faces. "We spoke to Ezekiel, turns out Scary Girl's issues are worse than we thought…"
"What do you mean by that?" Damien asked, looking terrified at the possible implications of Bowie's statement.
"Well according to Zeke, Scary Girl's actually been abused by her family for years, and that she ran away to join the circus as a child because of this, and when the show exposed where she was living and what she'd become her family essentially stuck the dagger in…" Bowie explained.
"And what exactly are you implying?" Caleb questioned, his eyes narrowed slightly at the man who got him eliminated first in the previous season. Most of the others who weren't around for the phone call shrugged, also not understanding the full implications of what had happened.
That was apart from Millie, who gasped in horror, her eyes widening as she figured it out. "What Bowie's saying is that they must have found Lauren and done something that caused her to snap!"
Priya and Damien both gasped, whilst Zee put the soda can down, his eyes widening in shock as he began to register what the problem was. Caleb on the other hand looked a little more sceptical, although he looked thrown off by the implication.
"Okay, well… what exactly happened for Lauren to snap and begin stalking us?" Caleb asked the Skunk Butt trio.
Bowie smirked as he pulled his own phone out, quickly opening up an audio recording and turning the volume all the way up. "Would it be easier if I just showed you all?" He responded with a smirk on his face as the recording started playing.
"So what changed?" Raj asked.
"Yeah, what was sooo bad that Scary Girl decided to stalk all of us?" MK added, sarcasm clear in her voice.
Ezekiel's eyes darted down for a moment, holding back another sigh, before looking back up to the screen. "They found her… and they got it into her head that she was unwanted… that she would be alone and only remembered as a freak the way she was…"
"What?" Bowie, Wayne and Raj all cried out, the three of them holding a little bit of empathy for the Scary Girl.
"They put it into her head that she had to be normal, even though she was perfectly fine as she was… She had you guys, she had Damien and Priya and Millie, she had Dawn and Izzy and Sierra… she had me…" He sighed sadly, finally realising what was wrong… "Or at least I thought she knew… that night was when she started to change, I didn't notice at first but… Lauren slowly started to act weird, and I think that's when this 'stalking' began, and the worst part is I could see in her eyes that she hated it…"
The recording then stopped briefly as Bowie started to skip through certain parts of it. "Just give me a sec, no one needs to hear Julia's arguing on a serious topic like this…" Bowie snarked before he found where he needed to restart. "There we go!"
Everyone in the cabin stared back at the phone in silent shock, before eventually Wayne shook his head and began to speak again. "So… you're saying Lauren was just trying to fit in with us eh?"
"I think so…" Ezekiel answered, uncertainty creeping into his voice. "I don't know what her reasoning was, I just think that she wanted people to see past the 'Scary Girl' like I did… even if it meant being something that she wasn't…"
"Was she really hurting that much?" Raj asked softly.
Ezekiel just nodded in response. "Yeah… I could see it so easily eh…" He answered solemnly.
Bowie stopped the recording once more there, putting the phone away and looking up to see the shocked faces of the others including the Hockey Bros.
"Okay… Now I'm convinced…" Caleb muttered, his scepticism shattered by the audio proof, Bowie just simply didn't have the time if what Wayne had said about the phone call just happening was true, and you couldn't fake the emotion that had leaked into Ezekiel's voice.
Wayne and Raj meanwhile had clocked onto another issue with the recording. "Hey wait a minute, you said you weren't gonna use this against them!" Raj complained, looking at Bowie with a small look of hurt in his eyes.
"Oh Raj…" Bowie began, shaking his head with a small smile on his face as he turned towards his boyfriend. "I'm not gonna use it on Ezekiel or Scary Girl if that's what you're asking, I only did it in case Julia or MK try to twist the situation…" He reasoned, seeing both Hockey Bros smile in response and rush into hug him.
"So…" Priya's voice cut in, causing the duo to end their glomping of Bowie and turn around to face the Rat Faces once more. "If I heard all of that right… Lauren's been put in a position where she felt the only thing she could do was force herself into stalking us?"
"Basically." Bowie summed up. "The only thing I really don't get is why she didn't trust any of us to help her, I mean admittedly I probably wouldn't have but you guys would have."
"Uhhhh…" A collective response from the Rat Faces, with only Zee staying silent as he still processed what was going on.
"I mean… I might have tried to help, but honestly she still scares the shit out of me sometimes…" Damien admitted.
"I just don't get what the problem is…" Zee added, butting himself into the conversation once more. "Lauren doesn't need to change, isn't the beauty of life that we're all our own person, we shouldn't be forced to change ourselves just because a couple of people say otherwise."
"Damn Zee, when did you get so philosophical?" Damien asked, impressed.
"Phila… what?" Zee responded, confused.
"Never mind…" Damien facepalmed, although a small smile was on his face at his friend's statement.
"I mean, Zee's right! We wouldn't have been able to help her in the way she wanted because honestly no one would be able to…" Millie said.
"It's not like we can all say we're the textbook definition of normal anyway." Priya agreed. "I mean, I can't at least, I was literally trained for my entire life to win a reality show, I'm fairly certain that's not normal!"
"And I wouldn't say Zee's overconsumption of those soda can's is particularly normal." Bowie gestured towards the suitcase of soda on Zee's bed.
"It's just for the brand man, I have to do it." Zee argued, grabbing another can and holding it up in front of him, squinting slightly. "Aww man, why'd they have to give me so many of these lemon ones…"
"That aside…" Caleb said. "Priya's right! We can't force Scary Girl into being 'normal' because frankly this 'normal' thing is pure BS anyway. Besides, I'm sure Ezekiel can give her a few reasons why this normal thing doesn't matter."
"Oh yah, Zeke's whole feral thingy wasn't exactly normal and we all like him despite it all." Wayne agreed.
"I know this is nice and all." Millie interjected, realising that they're all going slightly off topic. "Like I'm glad we're in agreement that no one here including Lauren should be forcing themselves into changing themselves, but how exactly are we gonna convince her into believing that?"
"And that's assuming that she'll even hear any of us out after voting her off." Damien added, looking over to the three Skunk Butt teammates currently in the cabin.
"Again, Ezekiel is trying to contact her, but that doesn't mean we can't either. Worst case scenario if she won't talk to us by phone the first person here who gets eliminated can talk to her." Bowie reasoned.
"That is true…" Priya shuddered, knowing that whilst she wanted to help Lauren, she was still somewhat terrified at the prospect of talking to her alone whilst the Scary Girl was angry, knowing what nearly happened to her during the previous season.
"It's alright Priya…" A large hand placed itself onto Priya's shoulder, the smaller girl glancing up to see Caleb smiling comfortingly at her. "I'm sure she won't try to hurt any of us, besides it's like Bowie said, it's only a last resort if she won't talk to us now."
Priya didn't say anything in return, instead smiling gratefully at him with a small blush. Unnoticeable to anyone else, Damien and Millie shared a small glance of distrust towards the taller boy.
"Alright then, it's settled!" Bowie announced gleefully. "We'll try and get in contact with her tomorrow, and see if we can reason with her or at the very least make sure she's okay."
"Why tomorrow, why not now?" Zee asked.
"Do you want to deal with a mentally unstable Scary Girl just after she'd been voted off…" Bowie replied deadpanned. "At least give her a day to calm down…"
"Fair enough…" Zee agreed, taking a drink of his lemon soda, looking uncomfortable as he did so.
"And now that that's been agreed on…" Bowie continued, sitting on one of the beds with a grin on his face, Raj joining him whilst Wayne retook his place next to Damien and Zee. "How's everyone been lately, I've been dying to hear some of the gossip all day!"
*The Next Morning*
It had been several hours since the campfire ceremony where everything had gone wrong for Lauren, and the initial anger where she'd sworn revenge against her former teammates had only just begun to simmer down.
Instead Lauren found herself lying in the same room that she'd shared with Ezekiel during their time at the Playa Des Losers in the first season, staring up at the ceiling with the light having vanished from her eyes, replaced with tired bags and tear marks that had yet to dry out.
The confidence she'd taken into the second season had completely vanished the moment her feet had dropped onto the wooden planks of the dock at the resort, the 'Normal Girl' hadn't even glanced at the interns as she had stormed into the lobby and straight up to the residential wing, where she quickly claimed that same room she stayed in the first time before beginning to let everything go…
The room around her was completely trashed, pillows strung across the room next to broken wooden drawers, broken glass and pieces of wood scattered across the floor, the closet doors in particular being smashed into little pieces following Lauren's brief tantrum over that particular secret costing her any chance of being normal in her teammates eyes.
"Why! Why did I tell them that I stalked them for my research! This would've all been avoided if I'd just kept my fucking mouth shut!" She'd screamed as she'd smashed a picture of Chris into the wall, shattering the frame and leaving a small dent where the corner had struck.
This had continued for hours, every fibre of Lauren's being still angry about the events back on the island. She'd let out every small bit of anger that she could, anger at her teammates for voting her off, anger at Chris and Chef for making her come back to the show for a second season, anger over the hate comments she'd gotten on social media and especially from her family…
Anger at herself for allowing herself to get so emotional about what her abusive parents had said, anger at herself for resorting to stalking the others just to learn how to be normal, anger at herself for not being able to trust her boyfriend or those she considered friends with the truth, instead bottling it up as she continued to spiral further and further into madness.
Now she just laid there, hours later, her thoughts still rampant despite letting all of the emotions she'd kept bottled away over the last few months out, her anger having quickly turned into depression as she laid there lifelessly.
'Should I have just told them sooner…' Lauren thought to herself. 'Would they have helped me? Show me how to act normal? Or would they have turned their backs on me? Would Zekey?'
Lauren sighed deeply, her head tilting slowly towards the window. She already knew the answer to that question, of course they wouldn't…
"No one would want to help a psycho like me…" she muttered to herself, her tone completely flat. "Why would they… all I seem to be good for is creeping people out…"
Lauren gazed out of the window overlooking the rest of the resort, glancing past it and towards the forest nearby. For a moment she wondered about exiling herself from the others, hiding away somewhere like 'The Fun Zone' on Boney Island where she knew none of them would find her.
For a moment the thought sounded enticing to the Scary Girl, before she sighed angrily, life returning to her eyes briefly as she sat up, her hands digging into the mattress underneath her.
"Oh what's the point!" She shouted to herself. "As if that's gonna accomplish anything apart from getting myself killed…"
She found herself standing up however, continuing to glare out of the window in the direction of where Wawanakwa was, her thoughts once again swimming as she thought about her possible revenge against the others she'd spoken about in the confessional as she was leaving the island.
"They already hate me anyway…" She muttered idly to herself as her fists began to clench once more. "What does it matter if I go back, mess with the challenges to get my enemies kicked off, see how they like it when everyone turns against them!" She rambled, her voice getting more and more ticked off with every word she spoke.
'But what if Zekey hates you for it…' A small part of her thought to herself, Lauren's eyes closing in pain, believing that he'd also turn on her like her teammates did, like how Damien and the others most likely have.
She giggled hollowly to herself as she turned away from the window, instead wading through the debris she'd caused and heading straight for the door. Maybe Ezekiel would hate her, but wouldn't he anyway once the others told him, or would they let her own actions do the talking once the season started airing?
She shook her head once more, trying to rid herself of the bad thoughts as she opened the door to leave the room. Just before she did however Lauren began to feel her phone vibrating in her pocket once more, she reached into her pocket, pulling her phone out to see the missed calls from several of the others including Ezekiel. She stared at the notifications for a moment, only to immediately put the device away, not wanting to talk to any of the others in fear of their continued rejection. She took a moment for herself to breathe before she smiled widely, closing the door with her usual expression now fully masking what she was truly feeling, before walking away from the now destroyed room.
*The Next Day*
"And the final marshmallow, after a vote of five to three, goes to…" Chris proclaimed, enjoying the tension that grew between the two remaining contestants as they braced themselves for their potential elimination from the game.
Their faces both tensed up, not much else being able to be done considering the current state of most of the Rat Faces team. Zee and Nichelle sat as normal, the only contestants who'd finished the challenge and were thus spared from still being stuck together as the rest of the team were.
Eventually however, Chris relented from tormenting them any further, smirking as he announced the final contestants name. "Emma!"
The girl in question smiled brightly as the marshmallow landed on her forehead, quickly being stuck to her just like all of the feathers had been previously, her arms unable to reach up and grab the symbol of safety.
Unfortunately for Millie however, she had no such luck, her stunt with pushing Damien into the four point slide in the previous challenge ultimately being what cost her the million dollars. Whilst Priya and Damien had ultimately forgiven her for the incident, the rest of the team hadn't quite done so, a fact that may have been wavered had Damien been able to prove that he had done so himself, however any words that he tried to say had come out slurred and unrecognisable due to his tongue currently being stuck during the challenge.
"Chef, rip Millie off of that log…" Chris called over to him as the co-host stepped forward with the spray bottle with a small smile on his face, ready to finally free the Rat Faces off of their temporary prison. "She's going home!" He continued gleefully as both Priya and Damien glanced over towards her with saddened expressions.
"Hey did we ever find out what happened to Ripper? No… okay." Chris questioned to himself, quickly dismissing the self proclaimed 'alfalfa male's' disappearance as he started to walk away towards the confessional, the sounds of the spray being used on the Rat Faces being heard off the camera.
Damien briefly coughed up some of the spray as he fell to the ground, relieved at finally being freed. "Ahh finally…"
He slowly got up, quickly seeing Millie drop to the ground upset at her elimination. "I'm sorry Millie, it's my fault…"
"No!" Millie turned to him, a shaky smile on her face as she looked at him. "It's mine… I shouldn't have pushed you down that slide last episode… I probably deserved this considering what happened, I just wish that I had the chance to apologise to everyone else before this happened."
"Oh yeah… right…" Damien replied sheepishly before turning to the five members of the Rat Faces who he knew had voted Millie out. "Uh yeah, we did actually make up during the challenge, I tried to tell you guys but… well…" He explained, gesturing towards the now downed log that Caleb had been forced to carry around for most of the day after the challenge, the man in question stretching after finally being freed of the extra weight.
"For real… aww man… now I regret voting for her…" Zee said regretfully, petting his new pet raccoon.
"Sorry Millie…" Emma added, her hand raised in an apologetic manner.
Millie however just sighed and waved off her apologies, a soft smile on her face. "It's fine guys, like I said, I deserved to go now…"
"That doesn't mean that you had to…" Priya cried out as she hugged her best friend. "It's because of the guidebook wasn't it…" She muttered to herself as she hugged Millie.
"Wait what?" Millie's eyes widened slightly as she looked at her now sobbing best friend. "What do you mean?"
"If I hadn't made that guidebook and made you feel like you needed to try harder in the challenges, you wouldn't have pushed Damien down the slide." Priya continued, Millie's look of shock turning back into her soft smile as she hugged Priya once more.
"Are you two done yet Millie! Because you have a Drone to catch soon…" Chris called over impatiently as everyone on the Rat Faces glared over at him.
"Give her a minute!" Axel shouted back at the host before turning back towards Priya and Millie. "Continue…"
"Right… thanks Axel…" Millie thanked the survivalist hesitantly before looking back at Priya once more. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't read the guidebook, but that was my decision to make, not yours, same with what happened with Damien and the four pointer. I don't blame you for any of this, and I want you and Damien to be strong, either of you can win this whole thing and who knows, maybe at the end of all of this I'll be able to say that MY best friend is the first two time winner!" Millie smirked, seeing her best friend wiping her eyes, a newfound determination on her face as she took Millie's words into consideration.
"You're right… I'll make sure not to disappoint you then." Priya smiled, a teasing look on her face as the two girls giggled briefly.
That moment however was quickly brought to an end however when Chris walked back up to the pair, an irritated look on his face. "Alright we get it, you two are best friends. But Millie, it's time to go!"
Millie sighed, finally letting go of Priya and beginning to follow Chris towards the confessional so that she could say her final words.
However before she could get too far Damien ran up to her with some final words to say, whispering them into her ear so that Chris wouldn't hear anything that was said. "Remember, you need to talk to Scary Girl when you get to the resort…" Damien said quietly to her.
"Crap I almost forgot about that…" Millie replied in a hushed tone, her eyes widening in shock and slight fear, not knowing if her 'friend' was still angry about the way that she'd been eliminated.
"Damien…" Chris called over to him. "Unless you want to join Millie on the Drone, I suggest you get back to your team now…" He said, annoyance really starting to creep into his tone.
"Right… sorry…" Damien smiled sheepishly before running off, leaving Millie alone with the host once more.
Millie just smiled, turning and walking into the confessional, ready to give her parting words to the camera before leaving the island.
Little did she know what would be waiting for her when she finally got to the Playa Des Losers…
*A Few Minutes Later*
"Hello?" Millie's voice called out as she opened the doors to the resort, having arrived at the dock only moments ago to no fanfare. "Anyone there? Lauren? Chase?" She continued, calling out the names of the two contestants that she knew should have been there.
She stepped into the lobby, cautiously looking out for either of her old Ferocious Trout teammates as she began to walk through the resort. It seemed way too quiet for her liking, especially considering how she remembered Chase at the very least being one of the louder contestants from the first season.
Minutes passed as Millie walked down the various hallways making up the inside of the resort, checking every room for any signs of the others, however not even any signs of the interns that maintained the resort could be found. Millie could feel herself slowly getting more anxious about the situation, the lack of sound in the resort almost giving it an eerie feel.
She eventually found herself heading towards the gym area, the large room being one of the last areas she hadn't checked aside from the residential wing and the pool area outside. However as she passed the doors leading to the pool area she could faintly hear the sounds of someone talking…
Someone familiar…
"Yo yo yo! It's ya boy Chase! Back at the Losers Resort once again…" Chase's voice could be heard faintly through the door, the youtuber's voice attempting to be cheerful for a moment before Millie heard him slap his forehead. "Aw come on! Okay from the top…" She heard him mutter before he started repeating his earlier phrase once more.
Millie sighed in frustration, having hoped that she would have found Lauren first out of the two, at least then she could check up on her after what Bowie and the Hockey Bros had told them from their own conversation with Ezekiel.
She opened the doors, seeing Chase strutting around the pool area completely alone, the camera that he'd stolen from the island still in his hands as he continued to narrate his 'intro' to himself. The youtuber was so lost in his talking that he didn't even notice as Millie walked over to him with irritation creeping onto her face.
"What are you doing?" Millie asked him once she got close enough, watching with slight amusement as Chase whipped around to face her, almost dropping the camera in shock as his eyes briefly looked at her in fear, before looking almost relieved at the sight of Millie.
"Oh thank god, it's only you…" Chase sighed in relief. "I thought it was gonna be Scary Girl following me again."
"Have you been at that since you got here, it's been twenty four hours?" Millie looked at him, noticing the slight bags under his eyes, as well as what looked like faint tomato sauce stains on his hoodie.
"Oh, well since my whole attempt at trying to film a sick intro for the challenge ended up costing me a million big ones." Chase began, chuckling slightly although he looked like he was trying to convince himself that it was funny. "I thought I'd at least try to improve my intro's whilst I was here, besides it was either this or be paranoid over whether or not Stalker Girl was gonna attack me…" He shuddered at the last part.
"If only you put as much thought into improving your relationships as you did into your videos…" Millie rolled her eyes, already imagining how Emma would react to this news if she ever found out, she then began to process the last part and her eyes widened slightly in a mixture of worry and fear, neither of which were aimed at Chase. "Wait, you haven't seen Lauren yet? At all?"
"No, thankfully that freak seems to have taken the hint and she's stayed away from me. Hell if I didn't know any better I'd say she isn't even here…" Chase replied happily.
"Hey! She may have overstepped her boundaries with everyone but she's still my friend!" Millie responded angrily, poking Chase angrily in the chest as she glared daggers at him. "Besides, didn't Bowie and the others tell you about what was going on with her?"
Chase just scoffed in response to Millie's question, clearly not believing Ezekiel's story like so many of the others had. "Please, so people said a few bad things to her, I get those all the time on my channel!"
"I wonder why…" Millie rolled her eyes as she turned around and started storming away back into the resort, heading towards the one part of the building that she hadn't checked yet.
Unfortunately for her, Chase had finally decided that he didn't want to be alone in the resort anymore now that he'd had some form of human contact and had followed her inside. "So why exactly are you looking for Scary Girl anyway? I thought you'd still be mad at her for the whole stalking thing?" Chase asked Millie as they entered the lobby.
Millie sighed as she turned to face him once more. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still annoyed with her for doing what she did, but I also want to understand more about why she felt like that was the only way. Ezekiel said that something changed in her after her parents got involved, and I want to find out what…" She explained, smiling slightly at the end as she started climbing the staircase leading to the residential wing. "Think of it as me using the notes that I'd made last season but for good this time rather than to slander you all."
"Oh right… I forgot you did that, I was too busy making out with Emma to realise…" Chase replied sheepishly, still looking somewhat uncomfortable at the prospect of running into Scary Girl.
Eventually they made it into the hallway, immediately heading towards the room that they knew Lauren had used during the last season. Chase stood back as Millie nervously knocked on the door, only for nobody to answer, the pair looked anxiously at each other before Millie cautiously began to open the door to the room. "Lauren? Are you there?" Millie called out, only for her eyes to widen at the state that Lauren had left her room in.
Chase peeked his head into the room in order to see what was going on, wincing at the debris spread across the floor, any trace of Lauren or the few things she'd brought with her to the island completely missing. "Ooh that's not good…" He muttered weakly, his eyes beginning to dart around nervously.
"I better let Zeke know…" Millie agreed as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, immediately dialling Ezekiel's number, after a few moments the Prairie Boy answered, a tired "Hello…?" barely coming from the speaker before Millie spoke, her tone a mixture of concern and fear.
"Lauren's missing…"
End Chapter
Author's Note: Tee hee, I had to leave it on a cliffhanger. I had written the majority of this chapter before the episodes had come out, so I kept Lauren's status vague in case of any changes for chapter three to begin sorting out. (e.g. If she returned or if she changed back to her original look by the finale)
Lastly, I just need to get this off my chest once again but I feel like this needs to be said to ease my anxiety about this whole thing. I'm so thankful for everyone's support over the last 8/9 months since I started 'Not So Scary'. I'd started 2023 off in the darkest place and the reboot helped pull me out of it, especially once I started writing this.
It's helped so much and it's made me want to interact more with the rest of the fanbase that I've been a part of since the days of the original cast. Everyone who's read this so far has given me a chance and it's been so refreshing to see considering what the fic is about, I just wished that other people would do the same. (mainly TDTWT, the reddit seems chill and I haven't really interacted much with TD discord apart from posting chapter releases)
Overall though I just want to go through 2024 with a much better mindset without having to worry that people don't like me because of this…