chapter seven: the show must go on

SUNDAY: October 20th, 2026,

"Tell me, what's the last thing you remember before you woke up on that stage?" The constant buzzing sound made the boy hold himself tightly. The click click click of a pen drove him mad as he tapped his fingers along his jeans "pain, I just remember pain".

He inhaled softly, the thick bandages that wrapped around his skin made him wanna scratch at it until nothing was left but an empty vessel. "Do you remember who found you? Tell me Benjamin, what's the last thing you remember about that stage before you were taken to the hospital".

The boy dug his fingernails into his neck as he let out a breath "Andy, I remember smelling Andy's aftershave, but I.. I don't think he was the one who found me. It must've been the sheriff of Alix, I remember hearing them talking before I passed out but the rest of what happened is confusing".

He flinched when he heard the thud of a pen being tapped against a wooden surface. Likely a clipboard given the current situation he was in, "tell me Benjamin, who do you think would want to harm you? Two attacks within a matter of weeks".

The boy pressed his hands together "I don't know, everyone sorta hates me, or at least I think they do. So being attacked out of nowhere just makes sense". The clock ticked away on the wall behind him and every time a minute passed he would tense.

"No one could truly hate you Benjamin, you have such doubt about yourself that it makes your judgment cloudy. And that can be a very dangerous thing to withhold for someone your age".

Benjamin scoffed as he leaned back into the couch, the cushion was digging into his back. "How are you feeling about the current situation you're in?" Benjamin had been asked that question so many times and every time he always felt frozen.

Being hunted by a masked killer didn't seem like a situation most people would experience but he was right in the middle of it. He remembered the stories of woodsboro when he was a little kid, he'd watched stab and his eyes would brighten. He didn't know the stories were real, not until he got older and he learned all of it was real. Ghostface was a real story and so were all of those people who died from it.

Sidney Prescott and Corey Becker were real people who spent years being hunted down by this masked person. Now history was repeating itself and Benjamin was at the end of the knife, the world was watching; waiting for him to die. History always repeats in a small town like woodsboro and teenagers are always dying, it's no wonder everyone left.

"I feel helpless, I can't protect anyone" he heard the pen click once more and he felt judged as the ink spread along the paper. "You're capable of many things still Benjamin, your improvement with everything is impressive. Most teenagers your age would have a difficult time going blind. You found my office on your own, and your parents have been telling me you're still trying to do your normal routines".

"Normal routines, more like utter failure..." the boy pulled the sunglasses off his face "I can't do anything right, my parents aren't any help either. They're trying to send me off to some boarding school for the blind. I got fired from my job and everyone at school is always yelling at me when I accidentally bump into them with my cane. No one cares enough to ask me what I want anymore. I'm just the town freak".

"Well what do you want Benjamin?" the boy's mind went blank, for once in his life he didn't know what he wanted anymore. Part of him wished he was still himself, he felt like a stranger in his own body. The darkness was always there and he couldn't escape.

"I don't know what I want anymore, I'll probably be dead in a few days anyways. What's the point of wanting something when someone's trying to kill me? My parents won't even care if I die, no one will".

—

The air felt suffocating, Benjamin walked with such slow steps as he felt the coldness of the cane digging into the palm of his hand. He had spent so many days practicing and every time he'd run into a tree or trip over his own feet. He remembered the sidewalks easily but everything else was a nightmare.

He remembered the loudness of Angel's voice when he first attempted to return to the drama club. The girl practically told him he desperately needed a haircut and that his costume would need a lot of improvements. It turned into an hour long conversation of her telling him what his costume looked like for the play, she for once wasn't mean but part of him knew she was likely pitying him.

The play was his only safe place, he spent hours trying to remember the stage layout. Every time he'd miss his que the speakers would make a loud sound of a screeching cat, of course he still didn't know what on earth Andy was playing when it would happen.

Learning the dance routine was another disaster, after he kept stepping on Gwen's feet and falling off the stage he decided maybe it wasn't best he danced. Claire had already rewritten the entire scene by the time he remembered the entire page of lines.

He had never such dread more than Vivian, he could smell her perfume from miles away but her voice was gone. His best friend couldn't even speak with him anymore, he hated the silence and he knew she hated it far more than him. Her parents had spent so much money to get her a machine that spoke for her as she typed, Benjamin laughed at the sound of it.

It sounded like drunk Kermit the frog and every time Vivian used it the only sound he could hear was the loudness of her typing away. Even with his sight being gone he would imagine her smile, the way her eyes would brighten in awe. He wishes he could've seen her one last time before the attack, that he could remember every single detail that makes her Vivian.

They had been best friends for years and all he remembered the most was her eyes. The color taunted his mind every waking minute and he tried to dream of everything from before. The colors and shapes that made everybody intact, he missed the colors.

He kept counting inside his head as he walked along the sidewalk. When he hit the number ten he reached his hand outward and let it click on the crosswalk button. "Ben?" his ears perked up as he listened to the voice with confusion. "I thought that was you, do you need help crossing the road?".

His hold tightened on his cane "no it's alright, I gotta practice crossing on my own. Doctor says it'll help me feel more independent. I thought you were with Kieran? My phone kept reading the group chat out and half of the messages were you two going on about being secret agents and detectives".

Nadia smiled softly "we're planning on solving this case ourselves, no one else is doing anything about it. It's like everyone's stopped caring about ghostface". Benjamin sighed softly "no one in woodsboro cares about ghostface anymore. They hear the word and get scared and they hide inside. The sheriff hasn't really called with any updates, I keep getting pestered by news reporters though. So that won't change".

He heard the soft click of the walk button and he felt the fear inside him form. "Kieran says I'm too obsessive over this whole thing, but don't you wanna know who did this to you? Won't you feel at peace knowing they're caught?".

"No..." Benjamin's voice cracked as he pushed his sunglasses upwards. They rested along the top of his head as he felt the warmth of the sun rising along his skin. "Because it'll mean one of my friends isn't really my friend, someone's lying Nadia, they're blending in so perfectly and when the moments tight they'll kill all of us. They only blinded me to give us all a warning, everything's been dead silent for the last five days, doesn't that creep you out?".

Nadia looked down as she pressed her hands together "it terrifies me, I could be talking to the killer at any second and I wouldn't even know. That's why I'm gonna figure this out so we can all feel safe again, Kieran's gonna help despite his worries. We're not telling anyone else just in case they're ghostface".

Benjamin laughed slightly "you told the blind kid, I guess you have nothing to worry about from me. Just me accidentally stepping on your toes. If you find anything, can you just tell me? Even if it's bad".

Nadia smiled sadly "you'll be the first person I tell... part of me is worried it's someone we won't expect. I thought for sure it was Claire, she seems the type to do something like this".

Benjamin shrugged his shoulders "it could still be her, she could've just thrown us off by showing up when I was attacked at the theater. The best way to prove you're innocent is to be around when ghostface is, she's smart enough to get away with it, anyone from the drama club is. That's the scary part about all of this, they could get away with it".

He clicked the crosswalk button again "you think it's Andy" he grew tense at the girls words as he pushed his sunglasses downwards. "I don't know who it is, but aren't you the same way when it comes to Kieran? You have to think about it at least once when you're with him, it could all be a lie for all we know. One second you could be happy and the next Kieran's betraying you by stabbing a knife into your back. You can see it coming from a mile away, I can't".

Benjamin smiled softly "I just hope by the end of this all we can all go back to normal. Even if it hurts when we figure out who the killers are. I'll see you at school tomorrow, just be careful out here, it's not safe being alone when it's almost dark out".

"I'll owe you a coffee when this is all over, it'll be my treat. I hope you actually like coffee by the way". Benjamin chuckled "of course I like coffee, and tell you what I'll get you a raspberry tea too. It'll be our victory treat when we survive ghostface".

He waved at the girl one last time before he walked slowly across the road. Nadia waved despite the boy seeing it, she turned around and walked off down the sidewalk towards Kieran's house. Unknown to her hidden behind a tree in the distance, ghostface emerged from the shadows and they were ready.

—
authors notes:
kept this one short for the sake of it being a filler chapter, also because it just felt right to end it there. I've spent so many hours trying to think of who survives and who dies by the end of this and I literally don't wanna kill anyone off but it's gonna have to happen eventually, I mean it can't be a scream apply fic without someone actually dying. I'll dread the moment those chapters happen, it's gonna hurt! I'm so attached to all of these characters, killing them off is gonna be such a hard decision.

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