Gone to the Dark Side

"MORE DEATH IN SHADYSHIDE, WHILE SUNNYVALE ENTERS IT'S THIRTIETH YEAR WITH NO VIOLENT CRIME."

The only part of that Bec was surprised by was the fact that there had been any violent crime in Sunnyvale in thirty years. She wondered what had happened. Did someone shout at the cashier while stealing a lollypop? More importantly, why was it being mentioned at all? The report was about a murder at the Shadyside Mall. Sunnyvale had nothing to do it it. 

Nothing, except for the fact that Jude Goode had died as well. 

Bec massaged the bridge of her nose. Why was she listening to this? The police had gone over everything last night. Except it hadn't felt real then. Not entirely. It had been so late that Bec only heard everything because the police's alarm had been loud enough to wake her up. A part of her still believed that it was a dream. A figment of her overactive imagination, which finally broke after days around Uncle Ruben's constant misery. After all, why would Liz die? That wasn't possible. Bec knew that some of them would die eventually – that was how it would always go – but it wasn't meant to be Liz. 

It didn't seem real...until this morning. When it was plastered all over the news. Bec could only image how school was going to take it. And she would have to go to school. Dad wanted them to stay home. While Cassie and Marney had agreed, Bec was functionally forced into going. The band director wanted everyone to go to that nigh's football game between Sunnyvale and Shadyside, which they could only go to if you went to school (a way to keep them from lying about being sick to skip school when there was an event they wanted to go to after.) 

Besides, perhaps it was better to just rip off the bandage now. People were always going to be a freak about what happened, because none of this really meant anything to them. Waiting a day or so wasn't going to change it unless someone else got murdered in that day. 

"Shadyside, small town America," the reporter said. In the background Bec could make out the entrance to the mall. Someone had spray painted red letters across the class door. It wasn't in focus, but Bec could make a guess at what it said. "But among locals, a history of horror has earned it another nickname, Killer Capital USA. And last night, tragedy struck again."

"Rebecca, turn that off." 

Bec turned to see Dad, who passed behind the couch on his way to the door. 

"It's just the news," Bec said.

"I don't care. You don't need to be watching it, and it's bothering your sisters," Dad said.

How they heard it, Bec didn't know. Marney had disappeared into the forest as soon as the sun came up and Cassie hadn't left their room. Then again, the house was just small enough that the television might be audible. Bec got up and turned off the tv. She might as well get going. She would be walking to school, after all. Usually, Bec would walk down to the Johnson's and have Deena drive her (for no reason other than the fact that she wanted to, because Bec was pretty sure she walked past school to do that.) Except Josh, Deena's younger brother, was obsessed with the witch, and if Bec had to hear about him talk about Liz's death like it was some urban legend. 

When Bec got to school, she found everything the same as every other day. 

The sky was blue. The grass was green. Shadyside was a slaughter house. Despite the fact that almost all of the victims of the mall massacre were their peers, possibly their friends, it wasn't a tragedy to the kids at Shadyside High. It was a joke. The halls were filled with people chatting happily, from jokes about the murders to plans for that night's football game. Those two things were equally important to them. 

Heather Watkins seemed to have become the face of the tragedy. Of all the people that had died, she seemed to be the only one anyone could work up a few shits to give. Her locker was coated in pictures of her and mournful letters. Bec watched as a kid stabbed the door with a knife and carved RIP into the the paint. She exhaled hard. She felt bad for whoever was going to get that locker, because the school was never going to paint over that. 

Thank God Deena's locker was only a few down from that. Bec had no wish to stand next to the knife kid alone for more than a few seconds, unless he got the idea to start carving things other than lockers. 

Deena started to say something when Bec reached her side. Then Kate Schmidt swooped out of no where in her cheer uniform. 

"You see?" Kate said, ignoring that Bec flinch and swore at being jump scared. Again. "It's the witch. Sarah Fier's back."

"Oh, Christ, not you too," Deena groaned.

Kate just giggled and led them into the girl's bathroom. Where someone had spray painted the stalls. In bright red was the Sarah Fier poem. Because that made Bec's day so much better. The best – that is, worst – part was that the writing was unlikely to be cleaned off either. 

"She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves!" Kate chanted in a gravely voice. 

Suddenly, one of the stalls burst open. Simon leapt out. 

"She'll take your blood. She'll take your head," Simon continued. "She'll follow you until you're dead!"

"Wow! You guys are dicks," Deena glared between the two. "Bec is literally right here." 

"Oh, no, don't ruin your day for little old me," Bec said dryly. 

Simon and Kate happily obliged, either oblivious or uncaring towards her sarcasm. Why was she friends with these people again? Bec couldn't remember. It had been a long time ago. It had been her, Deena, and Sam since kindergarten, and then they met Kate and Simon in first grade. It had been a relief at the time because it was obvious that Deena and Sam liked each other a lot more than Bec (not in the sense they disliked her, just that she was a friend and they had been girlfriends, and one of those was considered more important than the other.) Except Kate and Simon were sort of...assholes? Ever so slightly. In a couple moments. 

This just happened to be one of those moments. Of all the people in the school, Bec had expected a little sympathy from them. At least to her face. 

"It's just fun," Kate defended.

"It's sick," Deena said.

"What? The dude was wearing a Halloween skull mask!" Simon cheered "How is that not fun?"

"People died. Heather died." Deena waved a hand towards Bec. "Bec's sister was literally murdered. The dude was probably just some sad sack who hated his life, like the rest of us, except he decided, 'hey, why don't I get out of here for good?' and 'hey, why don't I take a couple other mall rats with me?' There's no angry dead witch who made him go postal. The only thing that made him go crazy is this town!"

Deena threw her bag to the ground. The group fell silent. Bec exhaled through her nose. 

"Are you okay?" Kate asked, her tone lacking any of the pervious teasing. 

"Yeah...I'm fine," Deena insisted.

"You sure?" Bec asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Deena snapped. "If anything we should be asking if you're okay."

Which Bec appreciated, but she could tell it was just Deena attempting to get the attention off of her. The two were the same in that way. No matter what, they hated people seeing when they struggled. Because if people saw, it was real. It hurt more. 

"Seemes like...maybe you got a little witch in you," Simon said.

Everyone chuckled awkwardly. They knew Deena was right as much as Bec did, but there was nothing they could do about it. Actually addressing what Deena had said was too much for them. Shadysiders did a lot of things, but actually confronting their struggles was not among them. If they did that, Bec was pretty sure the entire town would go insane, instead of just a couple of them every few years. 

"Dude, why are you even in here," Deena asked. Simon turned back into the stall he came out of. "This is the girls' bathroom."

Simon climbed onto the toilet to reach the vent above it. He pulled out a box that was kept just inside. He held out for them to see. 

"Candystore," Simon said.

"You have to be shitting me." Bec looked past him and up at the vent. "You can't seriously be keeping that here."

"Where am I supposed to keep it, my house?" Simon retorted.

True. There wasn't a good place to keep your stash of drugs. Bec personally would have deemed the solution to simply stop selling drugs to kids, but the both of them had made it clear that wasn't on the table. 

"You know we don't believe this witch shit, right?" Kate said as she adjusted her ponytail. "It's just, like, fucked-up Santa Claus or something."

Simon was making some noise, but Bec ignored him because at the same time Deena held out her own box. She looked between the girl and the box. Kate and Bec shared a confused look.

"What's this?" Kate asked.

"I need one of you to give this to Sam tonight," Deena said.

"Yeah, uh-uh. No way."

"Come on, Kate!" Deena begged. She turned to Bec with a hopeful look. "Bec? Please?"

"Not on your life." Bec stepped away from the box like it would try to bite her. "Sam is your business, okay?" 

"Exactly," Kate agreed. "We are not getting mixed up in your ex drama. Do it yourself."

It wasn't as if Bec and Kate were any less mad at Sam. Sure, they weren't dating, but Sam had been their friend. Then she moved to Sunnyside and stopped talking to them. It was almost has if she had never existed at all. Bec loved Deena had all, but whatever was going on with her was far more dramatic than she could deal with. 

If Bec wanted romance drama, she would have just dated someone herself. Except she didn't. So she didn't. That simple. 

"I'm not going to the game. I quit band," Deena said. 

"Well unquite or something, I don't care," Bec said.

"Since when?" Kate asked at the same time.

"Since who give a shit?" Deena muttered, the conversation once again getting too close to addressing her actual problem. 

"Was band the only extracurricular you had left?" Kate continued. Deena didn't answer. "You still have your band uniform, right? You just wear that shit one last time."

Kate bent down to pick up the box of drugs Simon had sat down. 

"I've got something that'll give you the balls to face Sam." 

Kate opened the box so Deena could see inside. A shirt was stuff to the side, likely to quickly cover the drugs in case they got caught. Claim they were storing gym clothes up there or something. Bec ran a hand down her face. 

"What? You're dealing again?" Deena said in disbelief. "I thought you stopped after this dingus's brother OD'd." 

"Timothy?" Simon asked, as if he forgot who his own brother was. 

"Wh...uh...Timmy wasn't a real OD," Kate defended. "He didn't actually die. They brought him back."

Simon mimicked the defibrillators. 

"That's still an OD," Bec pointed out. "You guys are idiots." 

"Excuse me?" Kate raised an eyebrow at Bec as the group started out of the bathroom. "Which one of us is valedictorian, again? President of every dumb this shithole has to offer." 

"You're not president of the puzzle club," Bec said as they left bathrooms. 

"Yeah, because you just made it up," Kate retorted. "I'm getting out here. Off to claim my place among the stars, bitch."

Suddenly, a boy came howling down the center of the hallway. He leapt between the slowly parting crowd, dragging a dummy after him dressed up like one of the victims. Of course he did.  Bec and Deena shared a look behind their friends' backs. 

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SUNNYVALE WAS HOSTING A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE MASSACRE. Why? Bec had no idea. Probably because they were Sunnyvale, and they couldn't resist the constant urge to make everything about themselves. 

Bec raised an eyebrow as Deena dropped in to the seat next to her.

"You decided to come?" Bec asked. 

"Someone had to drop this off," Deena dropped a shoe box into her lap. Bec lifted the corner of the lid to see it full of Sam's stuff. So they had guessed right, after all. "Sorry about Kate and Simon, by the way. They were being total assholes."

"It's not that big a deal. People grieve in weird ways, and apparently some made up witch is how they do it," Bec said. She hoped it wasn't obvious she was lying. "'Sides, it's better than pity. If I have to listen to one more teacher tell me how much they'll miss Liz, I'm going to chew my own arm off."

"Threaten to chew their arm off, instead."

Bec scoffed. That'd show them.

Deena pulled on her headphones as the bus started, a clear sign the conversation was over. Bec was fine with that. It wasn't like she wanted to talk. Instead she leaned her head against the window and watched the scenery as it flew past. 

There was a clear divide between Sunnyvale and Shadyside. An invisible line, a run down gas station on one side and a two story mansion on the other. Bec couldn't help but stare in awe. Hell, half the houses had Greek columns. Who put that on a house? Were these people insane? Sunnyvale wasn't real. It was the place she only saw in movies. The kind that only existed on a sound stage.

Night was falling as they arrived. A pair of Sunnyvale cheerleaders were passing out candles as they filed onto the field. Bec took one reluctantly, holding it delicately in her casted arm because her flute was way more important to keep safely in the other. It earned her a much too wide smile. Why did these people seem so into it. After that she was funneled through a bottle neck into an increasingly crowded group of teens. Elbows seemed to attack Bec from every angle. There were enough people to start triggering her claustrophobia, or at least a fear a mob running over her, but there was nothing Bec could do about it. She was not going to freak out in front of Sunnyvale psychos. 

Through the crush, Bec could see Mayor Goode up on the podium. He cleared his throat into the microphone and everyone pretended to be listening.

"This isn't how I wanted to be here tonight," Mayor Goode started. "I wanted to be here as a fan. Our Sunnyvale Devils and your Shadyside Witches throwing down some good old American football."

And, of course, the Sunnyvalers would win. They always won. Especially when they played against Shadyside. But Bec pretended that had nothing to do with why he was so enthusiastic over the two playing. It was just a friendly game! Huzzah! 

Would he have been so enthusiastic if there was an actual chance? 

"Instead I find myself here, as a husband, a father, as a neighbor. And, yes, mayor of Sunnyvale." Mayor Goode did not, Bec noted, say uncle. It wasn't that she expected them to be a bawling mess over Jude. Just that by now the lack of mention was starting to feel...purposeful. "And on behalf of all of the people in my town, I say all of Sunnyvale mourns with you."

For the amount of times he said all, you would have expected a bigger turn out. As Bec scanned the crowd, she only saw those who had to come. The football, cheer, and band members. And even they were glaring hard at the Shadysiders, as if they were currently ruining their lives. Could they be more obvious? Bec at least would have paid a few people to show up, so at least their 'all of Sunnyvale mourns with you' would mean something.

Above them, the flood lights turned off. Sheriff Goode took the podium from his brother.

"My family has been in Sunnyvale for generations, and now my brother is mayor and I your sheriff. We've prospered here," Sheriff Goode said. "And yet, I've seen you, our neighbors in Shadyside, suffer tragedy after tragedy. It's easy in times like this to drown in questions of why...why this happened."

Actually, Bec's only 'why' was why was this vigil all about Sunnvale? Could they not stop talking about how great their town was for one night? Except she could answer that for herself. Because when wasn't it?

Shadyside could blow up and all anyone would care about was how badly the poor Sunnyvalers felt about it.

"But I know too well there are no answers that will provide relief. There's no peace found in the past. We must not fall into darkness. We must look to the light."

Blah, blah, blah.

Bec zoned out. Her attention wasn't on Nick Goode, it was on the growing conflict somewhere in the crowd. So far the two towns had split the crowd right down the middle. Now they were practically pouring over each other as a fight exploded to life. Bec groaned. Someone almost hit Bec in the face and she was forced to duck in an attempt to flee the onslaught. The last thing she needed was more broken bones. 

So much for solidarity. 

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"PIECES OF SHIT!" Kate bellowed.

The entire bus screamed with her. She stood in the walk way, ice pack pressed to her face where a Sunnyvaler had elbowed her in the face. As if the fight hadn't already gotten everyone worked up, Kate was certainly doing the job. Only Deena sat out, laying across the back seat in an attempt to nap. 

A part of Bec wanted to say she was just as pissed as the others. After all, the event had been for her sister. They'd used her sister's death to make themselves look all high and mighty. Then they used it as a chance to beat up on the Shadysiders who were forced to come stand around and play into their delusion of grandeur. Except she wasn't. She'd expected this. The only surprise was that it took them half a vigil before they made a scene. 

"They think they can do what ever they want!" Kate shouted. "They ruin our vigil, then go waltzing back to their mansions, like we're some reject pile that they can step on!"

"No!" The bus roared.

"Well, we are not the reject pile!"

"No!"

"This shit ends tonight!"

"Yeah!"

"What are we gonna do?" Simon pushed himself up in his seat to stand with Kate.

"We're gonna to kill those preppy assholes!" Kate answered.

Kate sat down to a bus full of teens cheering her name. They bounced in their seats and slammed their fist against the ceiling of the bus. Normally, this would have gotten them kicked off. As it was the bus driver didn't seem to notice at all. Maybe he was just as pissed with Sunnyvale as the rest of them.

They were just working up a chant when a faint noise caught Bec's attention. She turned and found herself squinting through a bright light. One that was thankfully blocked by Deena standing to investigate it.

"Goddamn Sunnyvalers," Deena snarled.

There was a shout and something shattered against the window. That got Bec out of her seat. She hurried over to see liquid pouring down the window. On the other side was a car full of Sunnyvalers in skull masks. One stood up through the sun roof, already preparing another alcohol bottle to throw.

"Guys! Come here!" Deena shouted.

Kate and Simon broke off from the crowd to look over their shoulders. The Sunnyvaler whooped and threw another bottle.

"Are they seriously doing this right now?" Bec knew they were demented, but this was a whole new low.

Simon squinted through the glass. "Hey, isn't that, uh..."

Oh shit. Bec narrowed her eyes to look through the burning light. Right there in the shotgun seat. Fucking Sam Fraiser.

"Guess we know how long it took her to go dark side," Bec grumbled.

Deena whipped around and pushed past them. She bent to pick up one of the coolers. As she did, Simon took the chance to pull down his pants. Bec slapped a hand over her eyes just long enough to avoid getting mooned, before he pressed his naked butt to the glass window. Maybe the Sunnvalers would have been offended if they weren't drunk off their asses. As it was, they just continued throwing shit.

Just in case they did notice, however, Bec leaned over Simon and flipped them off. She really hoped Sam got a good at it. Et fucking tu, Brute.

"Open the door!" Deena shouted.

Obviously, Bec obeyed without question. Then she stepped aside to let her friend do whatever she wanted. Deena was hauling around a very heavy cooler and she wasn't about to get into an altercation with that. Kate bent down to grab the other handle of the cooler. Unlike Bec (and literally everyone else involved) she actually looked concerned.

"This is definitely a good idea, right?" Kate asked.

"It's just ice and shit, Kate, they'll live," Bec said. She paused as her gaze fell on Deena's face. Or, more specifically, the glob of blood pooling in her nose. "Deena, you might wanna –"

"On three," Deena interrupted. "One, two..."

"Deena!" Kate said, finally getting the girl's attention. She gasped when she saw the blood. "Your nose!"

Kate recoiled, covering her own nose and letting go of the cooler. Deena's fingers slipped at they swung forwards. Instead of just dumping the content onto the car, the entire barrel went flying. It crashed into the hood, spilling water and rolling off to the side. Tire's screeched as the car lurched to the side, then over corrected hard the other way. It went careening into the woods at the side of the road. 

Deena turned and screamed for the bus to stop.

The second they were stopped, the four rushed off the bus. Bec would have never thought she would care about the well being of some assholes who were harassing them, but Sam was in that car. As mad as Bec was at her, she didn't want her dead. She didn't want anyone dead.

It was easy to find the crash. They'd torn through the foliage like it was nothing, leaving a long line for them to follow. 

Sam was on her hands and knees beside the car. She was not looking good. Cuts and bruises covered her body, a thick river of blood pouring down her face. Deena ran to her side. Sam barely responded to her apologies, instead staring at her in a daze. One of the Sunnyvalers screamed insults and slurs at Deena. It didn't stop her. 

"Sam, it's me. I'm here," Deena cupped Sam's face, ignoring the teen completely.

"Did you...see?" Sam gasped between heavy breaths.

Simon bent down in front of Sam. She blinked at him, as if confused where he had even come from. Bec hovered vaguely to the side. There was a hell of a lot of blood going on, and some shattered glass, so she was just going to stay far away from the crime scene. Besides, would it really help Sam to crowd her?

"Okay, we should not be down here," Kate said.

"Shut up, help be carry her!" Deena insisted.

Bec waved a hand at her broken arm. She could help Sam up with her other arm, she supposed. Except that would be a hassle that was likely to get her hurt, and Bec didn't want to go getting her finger prints all over the place. Even for Sam. 

"Okay, fine! Not you. Kate –"

"No! We need to leave, like, ten minutes ago," Kate agreed.

"We have to clear her airway," Simon said, reaching for Sam's face. Deena slapped his hand away and he defended, "Hey! I got this. Chill out. I got this."

He definitely didn't get it. Still, it was more than Bec was doing, so who was she to judge?

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Simon asked.

"Three," Sam said. It was, in fact, three.

"See? She's fine," Simon said as he looked over at Deena. Sam promptly coughed up blood all over his shirt. He stumbled to his feet and backed away quickly. "Oh. Ugh! What the fuck?"

Police sirens wailed in the distance. Bec's head snapped towards the noise. Somehow her life had gone from bad to even worse.

Paramedics rolled Sam away into an ambulance. Meanwhile, everyone else was held back for questioning. Bec leaned against a tree as she watched the others get interviewed one by one. Great. This was great. Not only was she going to get a personal visit from Sheriff Nick Dickhead Goode, they were probably going to call her dad.

This was the last thing he needed right now. Kate was right. They should've just bailed.

"Rebecca Wardwell," Sheriff Goode said as she stepped in front of her. "I'm sorry about your sister."

"And I'm sorry about Jude," Bec replied. What else was she supposed to say? Thank you?

For a moment, Goode looked surprised. Then there was something else, something Bec couldn't put her finger on, and then he went back to being serious. Or at least pretending to be serious. Sometimes Bec wondered if could possibly take anything seriously, or if he was always taking things as an excuse to get on them. 

"Right. Back to the point, wanna tell me what happened here? The truth, preferably," Goode said.

"Yeah. Sure. The truth is..." Bec sighed and looked to the side, pretending to look remorseful. Then she looked back up and flipped the sheriff off. "Kiss my ass, Nickolas."

"It's Sheriff Goode," he corrected.

"Oh. In that case, it's Bec," Bec snapped. "Listen, I get it, I'm also surprised that Sunnyvalers are suffering the consequences of their actions. But drunk teens crashing a car isn't exactly a new thing."

Sheriff Goode shook his head. Bec didn't know why she was so annoyed by his dismissal. She knew it wasn't the truth. But Goode didn't know that, his issue wasn't that Bec was lying. Everyone else had said the exact thing. This wasn't an assumption that Nick Goode came across naturally through evidence. 

It was just that he didn't believe Sunnyvalers would ever make a mistake.

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THE HOUSE WAS QUIET THAT NIGHT. It felt unnatural. As if everyone was holding their breaths, waiting for something to break. Marney stared up at the bed above her. If she looked over at the other bunk bed, it would just be another reminder that Liz was gone. The room had always seemed too small for four seventeen year older. Now it was too big for two (three, Marney reminded herself. Bec wasn't gone. She was just at the football game.)

The floor was cold under Marney's feet. She winced and turned. Cassie was still asleep up in her bed.

'Don't summon the dead' was a strange sort of rule. For a lot of kids, it was a sleep over game. Something that only went wrong in horror movies, and maybe the lives of other people. Except living in Shadyside and being a Wardwell made you one of those other people. It made your life into one of those horror movies. So Marney followed those rules. It made people call her a freak and paranoid, but that was right to her. That was safe to her. 

Except today she had to break one of those rules. There were answers she needed. Answers that you don't just get sitting around. 

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, how to summon the dead wasn't a popular book topic at the library. Marney considered masking Josh to ask his witch nerd chat room, but he was in school and she doubted they would approve. So instead she was stuck with the obvious — a fuck ton of candles and ouija board. Both of which were mostly for the atmosphere, given that most reports said they were just a fire hazard and a game respectively.

It was fine. Most sources Marney found seemed of the opinion you just...coax the ghosts out. Like they were scared cats instead of otherworldly creatures. You just made the right mood and hoped they showed up.

Liz would love this, Marney thought. Sitting here like an idiot waiting for her to show up. Maybe she wouldn't come, just out of sheer spite. Or maybe she'd just pop up to laugh at her one last time.

Something creaked behind her. Marney jumped and turned around. It was just Ruben, standing in the doorway.

"You scared me," Marney scolded.

Instead of responding, Ruben turned and shuffled off.

Marney didn't know what she expected. She turned back and nearly screamed when she saw some sitting in the chair across from her. Not Liz, but a ginger boy Marney recognized all too well.

"Aw, Marney," Jude Goode leaned across the table. "How sweet. Miss me already?"