BLOODSPORT
CHAPTER FIVE !

THERE WAS LIGHT CHATTER amongst the friend group that day. All of them had gathered at the Meeks-Martin residence at the request of Sam Carpenter. News of her attack at the hospital had spread fast courtesy of Amber, who had returned to hospital after she was questioned by the cops.

   Pauline was squished on the couch, her body wedged deep into the crease between Amber and Chad. For the last ten minutes or so as the teens sat in wait of Sam's arrival, she had busied her with phone. In most situations that she was in need of distraction, Pauline would seek out Mindy, however her best friend seemed far too preoccupied by the front door.

   Mindy had paced almost continuously back and forth by the front door, jumping at every car door slam heard. It was clear she was excited to discuss the horror that had plagued their lives. From her place beside the young Summers girl, Amber had just angrily sighed for the fourth time since they had arrived when a series of knocks broke through their conversations.

"How do you know so much about the Stab movies?" The question could be faintly heard from Sam's odd boyfriend as Mindy lead them into the living room.

   Following behind the curly haired Meeks-Martin girl came Sam, her boyfriend Richie and interestingly enough, former Sheriff Dewey Riley. Last time any of them had checked, the man had vanished from the public and spent most of his time in a trailer on the outside of town.

His estrangement from his wife, famous author and TV personality Gale Weathers had been quite the talk of the town.

   As the group entered the room, a sudden sharp pain surged through Pauline's ribs. She had been elbowed in the side by Amber Freeman, who looked quite confused by her actions. Almost as though she didn't even know she'd done it.

"Ow!" Pauline gasped out in pain. It hadn't really hurt very much but the suddenness of the hit made it feel much more worse what it was. She turned her head to glare over at the Freeman girl. "What'd you do that for?"

"Runs in her family." Dewey answered for the girl as they moved further into the room.

   "Randy was our uncle. RIP." Mindy proudly stated, kissing the first two fingers on her hand and holding it up to the large portrait of Randy Meeks that hung over the fireplace. "You said to bring everybody."

"Ooh, suspects! My brother would be so proud." Said Martha Meeks, the twins mother as she bustled into the room carrying a tray full of snacks.

A endearing smile appeared upon the face of Dewey Riley as he stared over at the woman who remained oblivious to his presence. "Hey Martha." He lowly laughed out. Part of the man wished he had remained close to the woman after her brother's demise.

"Dewey! Hi!" Martha exclaimed in excitement, quickly pushing the tray she held onto the living room coffee table. Her wide eyes scanned over the man. "You look..."

   Silence followed as she took in how tired the man looked, how haggard his clothes look. "How's the wife?" The woman finally uttered out when she was unable to generate any positive in regards to Dewey's appearance.

   The sight of the grimace upon Dewey's face had Mindy to speak up. "Mom, we're good. Thank you." The young girl sent her mother an appreciation filled grin, hoping her words were enough for the woman to take the hint.

"All right, kids. Have fun." She smiled softly at the group of teens before taking her leave.

   Once the twins' mother was gone, Sam nodded her head in appreciation in Mindy's direction as she stepped forward. "I asked Mindy to call everybody here, because..." She slowly exhaled a deep, wavering breath. "There's something I have to tell you all."

Feelings of confusion and shock riddled the group as they took in the reality of Sam's words as she explained everything. From how the attempted killer had contacted her and attacked her at the hospital, to how she and Tara were only half sisters due to her having s completely different father.

That father just happened to be infamous Woodsboro teen killer, Billy Loomis.

   "Let me get this straight." Chad spoke up, becoming the first one to add onto the conversation. His finger pointed at all his friends while his eyebrows furrowed in confusion not quite understanding this. As he spoke, everyone turned to glance his way. "So you're saying that you're the daughter of Billy Loomis, and, what, that one of us is the killer?"

   Sam nodded her head. "The killer told me he knew my secret. He attacked Tara to lure me back here." Flashes of her sister in that hospital bed after her attack caused her chest to tighten. Sam couldn't help but blame herself for everything.

Chad's brows furrowed in confusion yet again. "But then why immediately go and murder some douche-nozzle that was stalking Liv?"

Pauline's head shot around to Wes as the boy interjected, "And why does it have to be one of us?" He raised an accusatory brow, glancing at Dewey who had begun to wring his hands together. "What about deputy Dewey here? Maybe he's the killer. No offence."

Dewey nodded his head, accepting the slightly hurtful assumption. "None taken, but what's my motive?" He questioned with a slight lean forward.

With little hesitation, Wes was quick to list, "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're on the suspect list."

Dewey slightly squinted. "Well, maybe you're the killer. Because that cut deep." The Riley man weakly muttered out, his voice breaking as he leaning back into the couch.

"Damn, Wes." Pauline whispered to the boy. She couldn't believe how easy his words had come to him. Wes simply shrugged his shoulders in response as he saw little that was wrong with his statement.

   "That douche-nozzle is connected. I googled him. His mom is Leslie Macher." Amber spoke up, glancing up from the phone she clutched tightly in her hands. When all she received was many confused looks from those not in the know of the previous killings, she explained, "Stu Macher's sister."

"Who's Stu Macher?" Liv asked the group, the girl absentmindedly playing with a lock of her dyed pink hair.

From his place on the couch, Dewey spoke up. "He's Billy Loomis accomplice. A real loony tune." He knew all about Stu Macher, having lived through the first set of killings back in 1996.

In an instant, Sam sat up straight at this information. "Okay, okay. So the first three attacks are all on people related to the original killers." She commented, glancing around at the many faces surrounding her.

"Oh my god! He's making a requel!" Mindy suddenly exclaimed, jumping up in her chair. Her eyes grew wide as she excitedly pushed herself into a sitting position.

Many paired of confusion filled eyes glanced her way. Unlike Mindy, who had followed in her uncle's footsteps of becoming a horror movie fanatic, the rest knew next to nothing in regards to the rules of horror movies.

"A what?" The Carpenter girl questioned, speaking up for those who also had no clue what a requel was.

Her question had Mindy shrugging her shoulders as she uttered, "Or a legacyquel. Fans are torn on the terminology."

A groan rumbled in Chad's chest as he rolled his eyes. "Please speak English." He begged of his sister.

The Meeks-Martin girl tutted before continuing on with her explanation. "Okay, remember the Stab movie that came out last year?"

   "Oh yeah, the on the Knives Out guy directed, right?" Liv asked, her voice laced in excitement. Her head turned to her boyfriend beside her with a joyful smile. "I actually really liked that one."

A snort of laughter was sent the McKenzie girl's way. "Of course you did. You have terrible taste." Mindy jabbed, her dislike for Liv showing clear as day.

"I hate you." Liv deadpanned.

The constant back and forth between Mindy and Liv was coming annoying. Pauline couldn't understand why they even bothered speaking to one another. "Mindy, get to the point." She spoke across the room, pulling away Mindy's gaze from the pink-haired girl.

She glanced around the room briefly then spoke. "The point is, the hard-core Stab fans hated it. You go on 4Chan and Dreadit, all they're talking about is how Stab 8 pissed on their childhoods." Her hands waved wildly in the air as she spoke.

She quickly continued, "How they crammed in social commentary just to make it elevated. How the main character is a Mary Sue."

Richie couldn't help but look confused on the movie terminology as he questioned, "What's a Mary Sue?"

Many glanced his way. Mary Sue was a pretty common term for bland main female character that even those not in the film community tended to know. Why didn't he? "You really don't want to know." Wes then answered.

   "What's wrong with elevated horror? I mean, Jordan Peele fucking rules." Amber commented in defence of the genre of elevated horror. A look of pure displeasure graced her features.

"Uh, obviously, but that's not Stab. Real Stab movies are meta slasher whodunits. Full stop!"

Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Come on, it's just a movie."

   Mindy shook her head. "No it's not. To some people, the original is their favourite thing in the world. The movie that made them love horror. That Mom or Dad showed them when they were ten that bonded them together."

   "And God helps anyone who slightly fucks with that special memory. Who makes a movie they think disrespects it." With a slight lean back, Mindy glanced around the room. "It sounds like our Killer is writing his own version of Stab 8 but doing it as a requel."

"Which is?"

   Despite the severity of the situation at hand, Pauline had to bite back a grin at the elation that Mindy exuded as she explained, "See, you can't just reboot a franchise from scratch anymore. The 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 on-going storyline, even if the story shouldn't have been on-going in the first place." She continued to explain, waving around her hands. "New main characters, yes but supported by and related to legacy characters."

   A slight wave of understanding washed over Pauline, who questioned, "So it's not quite a reboot and not quite a sequel?" She wanted to make sure she understood exactly what Mindy was trying to say.

   With a grin and a click of her fingers, Mindy pointed down at her friend. "Exactly. Like the new Halloween, Saw, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters...fuck even Star Wars. It always, always goes back to the original!" She then chose to emphasise this point by grabbing hold of her copy of the original Stab movie that lay on the coffee table.

   Sam paused for a brief second. "Are you telling me that I'm caught in the middle of fan-fucking-fiction?" She then snarled out in irritation, her brows furrowing as she got angrier at her circumstances.

"Not just in the middle, Sam." The Meeks-Martin girl uttered as she moved to sit atop the coffee table in front of Sam "You're the star."

   The room fell silent for a moment. No one knew what to say. If what Mindy said was true, then that meant Sam was the new Sidney Prescott and would effectively become the target of many attacks to come.

   "So, not to put too fine a point on it, but, according to requel rules..." Liv gestured over at Mindy to emphasise her point as a look of concern began to paint her face. "Who's next?"

"Going by the pattern, whoever it is has to be connected to someone that came before."

   Everyone's heads turned to stare over at both Sam, who they had learned was related to Billy Loomis and therefore was 'connected to someone that came before' and Dewey. "I'm starting to regret coming here." The former sheriff muttered.

Wes' eyes grew wide with panic. "Jesus, my mom was a character in one of them."

   "No one cares about the shitty, inferior sequels, Wes. You're safe." Mindy words put a damper on Wes' mood significantly. She then glanced over at her brother with a indifferent shrug. "With Randy as our uncle, though, you and I are probably screwed."

Chad sat up with a fearful gaze. "Wait, what?"

   "Yeah hang on, you guys might die?" Pauline incredulously inquired with a slack-jawed expression. There was no way in hell that either of the twins could die. Who would she hang out with then?

   Richie, who had remained quiet silent during the entire interaction, chose to speak up. "Or you're the killer and this whole elaborate monologue is just to cover your tracks." He accused with a point to the Meeks-Martin girl.

Mindy just scoffed at him. "I think it's pretty clear who the killer is at this point."

   Sam's head turned to stare at Mindy. "Who?" She carefully asked, the woman scared of the answer she might receive. She hoped that it wasn't someone she knew personally.

"You." Was all Mindy needed to say. "It makes perfect requel sense."

   Chad was quick to speak up in agreement with his sister. "That actually does make sense." As he spoke, many of the rooms inhabitants slowly nodded their heads. They couldn't help but concur with the logic behind Mindy's words.

   The Carpenter woman, who at that point had finally had enough, jumped to her feet with a resounding slam of her shoes against the wooden floor. "Fuck this." She uttered before taking her leave. She left the room in anger at the accusations.

   How could they possibly believe she would hurt her own sister? That she was capable of murder solely based on who her father was. She hadn't asked for this life, hadn't asked for her birth father to have been a serial killer so why, why was she being punished for something she didn't ask for?

   "That probably could have gone better." Pauline sarcastically quipped as she and the others watched Richie follow after Sam. She sent a false smile to the group, specifically Mindy, Chad and Liv. "I think you hurt her feelings, guys."

   Mindy simply rolled her eyes at her best friends reaction. "Shut up and eat your popcorn before it goes stale." She stated with a dismissive wave of the hand.

Pauline, who had been eyeing up the snacks since the twins mother had first brought them in, —especially the popcorn which was a specific flavour that only she liked, something Martha Meeks-Martin had been purchasing for the girl ever since she learned this fact which always brought an appreciative grin upon Pauline's face, leaned forward and grabbed the bowl from the coffee table.

   As she chomped away at the delicious, salty and buttery snack, smacking away Wes' hand as he attempted to swipe some from the bowl, the Summers girl missed the endearing upward curve of Mindy's lips that appeared as a result of her best friends actions.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

jamielee's thoughts.
chapter five. not proofread.
not as long as the other chapters but I don't want the fic to be over too soon. anyways hope you enjoyed :)