Simon wanted to see her. He'd wanted to stop by the night it had happened, wanted to grab her hand and use it to tether her down, stop her from going anywhere. He'd wanted to go visit her before his shift at the grocery store, he had flowers and everything, bought from the same section Maddie had bought Heather's flowers from only one day earlier.

He'd wanted to go to see her on his way to help Kate babysit, sitting in his car until he was about to be late, eventually deciding against it.

She didn't want to see him. It sucked. It was a thought that kept him awake at night, pressing his face into the pillow she slept on, desperate to cling onto the lingering smell of when she was his. It was a thought that had him stopping by her locker when he knew she was in class, a note clenched in his hands so tightly it was at risk of ripping, before he eventually bit the bullet and did rip it, shoving it in the pockets of his hoodie, one of the few that didn't smell like her, one of the few he could wear without feeling like he was going to die.

He knew he couldn't avoid her forever, despite how much she wanted him to. It was a small town, they were bound to run into each other at one point. Simon just worried that he would be too late, when he did eventually muster up the courage to see her.

Simon loved her, and that had been the thing that had ruined them. He wanted go back to that night, to take her hands in his and stop himself from telling her how he felt. To say it differently, to say it better, to say it in a way that might have her saying it back.

Simon felt his stomach drop every second they travelled closer to the hospital. He wasn't even going to see her, he was going to see Sam, so she could tell her asshole boyfriend Peter to stop fucking with them. He'd given his hoodie to Maddie before she went to the hospital, and his shirt had holes in it now, still covered in Sam's blood from the night before. He poked his thumb through one of them. Mrs Lane from down the street was babysitting the twins until they got back, so he could probably just go home and change. Burn the shirt (along with everything else Maddie had ever touched while in his bedroom), then see if he felt better. 

He just needed to handle being in the same building as her for half an hour, and then he could leave her alone. As Deena parked, he tried to shake off the feeling. But every step towards the door he took felt like a hand closing around his throat (and not in a good way) until the doors opened and he stepped inside. He'd done it. 

Deena stormed up to the front desk, where the woman seemed way too unbothered for someone who worked in the only hospital between two towns. It looked like Deena wasn't goint to be able to get in, visiting hours ended almost an hour ago, but then Kate stepped in. "Tell nurse Beddy she has a patient,"

Simon hung back, he could feel Maddie's presence pulling him down the hallway. He didn't notice Beddy had gotten to the reception area until he heard. "See you're still toting around with this moron,"

Simon put on a smile. "She can't quit me, Beddy. I'm too pretty," he said, the nurse rolling her eyes.

Beddy scanned the others, Deena, Josh, Kate and Simon. "Where's your third musketeer? She okay?" she asked Kate, Simon's smile slipping off his face. Deena and Josh exchanged looks.

Kate decided not to go into it. "Listen, we need your assistance,"

"I'm sure you do, but there happens to be a new security protocol," Beddy explained, her voice low. "We kept coming up short on blueberries and bananas, and so now I need a special key to-"

Deena stormed past her. "I need to see a patient," While Beddy escorted Deena down the hall, the other three stayed in the reception area, Simon peering desperately through the frosted glass, trying to catch even the smallest glimpse of Maddie.

"Blueberries and bananas?" Josh asked once they were gone.

"Vicodin and Percocet," Kate explained simply. "You want anything from the machine? I'm starving,"

There were footsteps, and Simon perked up, knowing there was a 0% chance it was who he was looking for, but not letting that stop him from hoping. It wasn't Maddie, but it was her brother. "Hey, you're Mad's friend, right? Simon?" He held a younger girl in one arm, Maddie's sister, and was pushing a stroller that probably held her brother. "We have to get home, but she's awake if you want to see her,"

Andrew gave him a soft smile before continuing out the front doors with his siblings. Simon looked back and forth between the door he'd come out of, and the vending machine (which Josh had somehow made expell all the snacks), and decided fuck it. He'd be a bad.... friend if he didn't go and visit her in the hospital. He'd barely made it two steps, though, when there were more footsteps, these ones louder and faster than Andrew's had been. 

Deena and Sam burst through the door, gripping each other's hands tightly. "Run!" they sped past the three of them, and Simon paused.

"Did they get back together?" His first thought was that perhaps Peter had been there, and Deena had punched him or something, and now they needed to get out before they got in trouble, but when a person in a skull mask ran after them carrying a bloody knife, the realisation sunk in. 

Kate screamed, and Simon instinctively grabbed her hand, the three of them taking off running. Simon skidded to a stop. "What?" Kate yelled.

Simon's face paled "Maddie."

They ran through the halls, checking every room until Simon flung open the door to Maddie's room. She was just dozing off, her still-dizzy eyes struggling to focus as the blonde boy reached her bedside. "Si-Simon?"

"Hey," he shushed her, pulling her up as gently as he could.

"Wha- what are you doing?" she blinked a few times. "Why are you here,"

"Skull mask killer," he looked deep into her eyes for the first time in what felt like an eternity to both of them. He gripped her hands. "We need to leave, now,"

Thankfully, her throbbing head had mostly gone due to the pain meds she'd gotten, or else Maddie wouldn't have even thought to run. Kate and Josh sprinted after them, Simon keeping her steady. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. Skull mask? But, she'd heard Nick Goode say that skull mask was dead.

They reached the front door and came to the terrifying realisation that Deena had the car keys. "Come on, the ambulance,"

Simon went to pull Maddie along, but she staggered away. Her eyes were trained on a car behind them. "No,"

"Mads," he urged desperately, "I know, you don't want to see me, but I need you to be safe. Please, just come with us, we can take you- we can take you home, or wherever. Just please," he tried to grab her hand but she pushed him away.

"No. That's-" she fell against the doorframe, and Simon looked anxiously down the hall, this time for the skull masked killer. "Andrew. His car. He's still here,"

Before he could stop her, she was running back into the hospital, Simon trailing after her, Kate and Josh deciding to make a break for it and go to the ambulances. Her siblings were in there, she needed to find them. She ran past the reception and almost screamed as she realised she was standing in a pool of Beddy's blood. Simon clamped his hand over her mouth, pulling her into his chest, both to offer her comfort and to muffle the sound of her strangled gasps. 

Her mind was foggy, it could only make out two things, that Beddy was dead, and her siblings could be next. She needed to find them. Where on Earth would they be? There was a scream from a voice Maddie couldn't make out, and suddenly Simon was dragging her away again. "No! No! Simon! My brother!" there were tears running down her face, and Simon felt like he could feel her shattering in his grasp. "I can't! Please!" she thrashed in his arms, pulling back towards the reception. She could not leave without her siblings. "Simon!"

Simon let her go just long enough for her to stop running, looking back desperately for any sign of her brothers or sister. Her eyes darted wildly around the reception area, knowing at any moment she could be hustled along again, until they came to a horrified stop on a figure on the floor at her feet, blood dripping out of a bullet hole right in the middle of his head. She let out a noise of shock before Simon grabbed her, pulling her outside where Kate had parked their stolen ambulance, and this time she let him. She ran out of the hospital, through the parking lot and she didn't stop until she was in the back of the ambulance. 

As they pulled away, her eyes scanned the parking lot, looking for her brother's car in the space she'd seen it in earlier. It wasn't there. There was a car there, but it wasn't Andrew's. Same model, but what she'd thought was a foggy white in her mind, she now saw was grey. Her siblings weren't there, they were safe.

She closed her eyes, the fresh bullet hole filling her mind. Angry eyes blinking up at her before Simon got her away. A face covered with blood, both his and others'. A face that Maddie knew well. A face she'd seen almost daily over the Summer. A face she'd gotten rides home from after work. The skull mask killer. 

Ryan Torres.

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
simon @ maddie

also the fact that maddie was like "ah shit skull mask killer's definitely dead, but simon says he's here so i guess he must be" absolute blind trust in him 

also, simon's "did they get back together" seems so utterly ridiculous because we saw what went down in sam's hospital room but honestly if i was him my first thought would also have been "oh shit deena started a fight and now they're dating again, okay let's go" or maybe i'm just dumb too 😭😭😭

also, i'm desperate to talk about how awkward it would've been if josh had turned around all 😎 only for the vending machine to just. not work. would that not have been hilarious or is that just me

take a shot every time i say 'also'