~~~~~~

"even though my life before was tragic, now i know my love for her goes on"
-every little thing she does is magic, sleeping at last

song to listen to: another love by tom odell

warnings: an axe murderer committing axe murder, graphic depictions of gore, kissing(idk if that's a trigger for y'all so it's there), violence, decapitation, fighting, choking, near-death, actual death

~~~~~~

Out of breath as I reached the Mess Hall, I looked around at the abandoned camp. A couple of lights were still on, some lanterns swayed in the wind, and the fire was barely burning anymore. It was strange to think that just hours before the camp was alive and thriving. Kids had been running from each other during Capture The Flag-laughing, screaming from joy, crying from happiness. Now there was no laughter, and screams were only from the victims of Tommy, crying from those who witnessed the deaths and saw the bodies.

"Mia?" A familiar feminine voice reached my ears, and I looked over to see my girlfriend.

Is this a dream? No, no it can't be. Cindy Berman was standing there, covered in dirt and a bit of blood, and her polo shirt was torn. Alice Hart and Ziggy Berman were sitting at one of the tables, Cindy's satchel laid out in front of them. But Cindy was there, standing a couple of footsteps away from me. She was alive. My girlfriend was alive.

"Cee Cee?" I whispered one of her nicknames, and upon her nodding, all I did was look back at the door before sprinting into her arms.

Tears spilled on both sides of this comforting hug; Cindy buried her head in the crook of my shoulder and neck; I stroked her hair and gave her a kiss on her temple. She let out a soft sob, but that wasn't from the fact of my kiss, it was the fact of us in each other's grasp once again. Cindy Berman allowed the kiss on her temple. She let it be seen-there wasn't one bit of scolding in her voice.

"I thought...I thought he got you..." Her voice was muffled, and more tears spilled as I shook my head.

"I thought he got you," I whispered back, the breath of soft laughter an undertone of the whisper.

"I love you, Mia Peters." Cindy declared as she pulled back from the hug, cupping my face in her hands.

"I-I love you too, Cindy Berman."

And our lips met one another's. Cindy and I were kissing in broad daylight, so to speak. She had initiated the kiss, too. I moved a hand to her cheek, and she nuzzled into my hand as we pulled back.

"Once this is all over, we're gonna go on a date at the park, and we're gonna get cheeseburgers, and listen to Queen, and we're gonna-we're gonna hold hands in public, and we aren't gonna let anyone else bother us." She stated, both of our hands now holding the others.

"What about a shopping day, too? I'm pretty sure that isn't gonna wash out, babe." I referenced her dirtied polo, and her laughter became a core memory of mine.

"I'm sure we can fit a mall trip in there, too."

"Can we fit in marriage, too?" I finally asked the question I'd been wanting to ask since day one.

"We don't have enough money for rings though..." Her eyebrows knitted together in an adorable expression of confusion.

"Then we'll make paper ones, and we'll wear whatever white dresses we can find-or we'll make our own." I offered, and Cindy's laughter rang out again, causing me to laugh as well.

"Guys!" Alice's voice interrupted our moment, causing us to look over at the pixie cut girl in annoyingly perfect sync. "I sincerely hate to ruin you guy's moment, but the night isn't over yet."

"Right!" Cindy looked at me again, and I was just confused as hell. "Alice found her hand."

"What? Who's hand?" I asked, slow to process this information.

"Sarah Fier's."

~~~~~~

All four of us now sat at the table, Sarah Fier's wicked hand laid out before us. For a hot minute, it felt as though none of us even dared to breathe. This was real. We can end this curse. We can end this curse right now, for Shadyside.

"What? What is it?" Ziggy asked, apparently still clueless to a majority of this situation.

"It's Sarah Fier's lost hand," Alice replied after fifteen seconds.

"Nurse Lane..." Cindy spoke up, taking in a shaky inhale before continuing on. Our hands were clasped together, but not under the table this time-instead, our hands were right on top of the table. "...she spent her entire life looking for this. A-a way to stop the curse that took her daughter."

I kissed her shoulder to provide a decent amount of comfort, allowing the kiss to linger for just a second before turning to face Alice instead of just hearing her words.

"'Without her hand, her grip on the land holds firm. The curse will last,'" she slid the book to Ziggy. "-until body and hand unite.' This led us to the hand bone. And if the legend is true, that means her body's still buried-"

"By the hanging tree," Ziggy and I said excitedly, exchanging a weird glance at each other before shaking it off.

"We can end this," Cindy spoke up again, a small smile growing on her face. "No more murders, no more curse, no more...pain." She looked over to where Tommy's now masked and utterly dead body lay in the kitchen before she said the word 'pain.' "We can save Shadyside...tonight."

Ziggy pulled the hand over to herself, and in a terrifying moment, the blood from a bloody nose dripped down and she went into a trance-like state. The only emotion showcased on her face was terror, and I prompted myself to fight-who knew what would happen once Ziggy got out of that trance. Before the curse could set in any longer, Cindy grabbed one of Ziggy's hands, causing the girl to jump and gasp for air.

"My nose..." she said between gasps. "I bled on the hand and...I think I just saw her."

"Who?" Cindy asked as if the answer wasn't blatantly obvious at this moment in time.

"Sarah Fier," Ziggy said with another big exhale. "She was...She was angry."

"We have to bury this thing...right fucking now." Alice made eye contact with Cindy, and in the back of my mind, a certain radar went off: it was the gay one, which makes complete sense.

Cindy nodded and ran into the kitchen, coming back out a minute later with two big shovels and another smaller one. She handed the smaller one to Ziggy, one of the bigger ones to me, and all of us stood up.

"Okay, let's go." She urged, and Alice looked at her with an expression of confusion on her face.

"What, I have to use my hands?" She asked, and I let out a sigh as Cindy replied.

"No, you're staying here." The older ginger shook her head.

"Come on, I can hop just fine," Alice tried to reason, hopping forwards to the kitchen door, turning around to face us after.

Cindy and I shook our heads no.

"I watched my dad go to jail when I was six. I watched my mom steal...so I could eat. First time I cut myself I was 12. It was after...well, you know when." After the 'snitch' incident...shit. "And now tonight...I watched you guys' perfect boyfriend..." A couple of tears started to fall from my eyes, and I wiped one away, trying to stay strong. "...turn into a monster and kill the only person I've ever loved." Now all of us were crying to some degree. "I've waited my entire fucking life for this. And now I've found it. Let me see this through. For Arnie...for Tommy...for Shadyside."

"For Shadyside," Cindy repeated, nodding as tears of her own streaked her dirty face.

She looked to me, and I nodded, "For Shadyside."

"For Shadyside," Ziggy said, nodding upon eye contact with me.

"ALICE!" Cindy screamed, and at that moment, I saw Tommy barrelling towards Alice, his axe preimptively raised to strike her down.

The pixie cut young woman turned around just in time to be axed in the chest, and all three of us cried out as her body fell to the ground. Cindy let out a cry, raised her shovel, and smacked Tommy's head, causing him to stumble back into the wall and drop his axe. Just as he went for her with his bare hands, she used the shovel to pin him against the wall by his throat. Karma's a bitch. 

"FUCKING DIE!" Cindy screamed in anger, slowly pushing the shovel straight through Tommy's throat. "Why won't you fucking die?!?!"

I couldn't help but scream as his body and head-separated from each other-dropped to the ground, his head rolling for just a second before ending. That was fucking attractive. Did Cindy Berman just drop the F bomb? I slid to the ground next to Ziggy as Cindy dropped down next to Alice, begging for her to just stay with us. But she took her final breath all but five seconds later. It was only when Cindy started to sob and call out Alice's name that I crawled over and wrapped her in a hug, swaying back and forth as she cried into my shoulder.

"You always hurt," I heard a familiar voice coming from the kitchen, causing me to stand up and start to walk over. "The ones you love, the one you shouldn't hurt at all."

"What is that?" Ziggy asked, the remaining three of us fully standing now.

"It's Ruby Lane."

~~~~~~

next chapter y'all-

it's the last one of the night for 1978

(there will be aftermath written for mia, and there will also be mia written into 1994 before i get on to the other peters)

p.s. i know you guys hate me

but the amount of silent readers here, reading this with no votes and comments kind of makes me want to force a goode to write my name on the wall so STOP BEING SILENT READERS

COMMENT
VOTE
COMMENT SOME MORE
BE DECENT HUMAN BEINGS
THE VIEWS MEAN NOTHING IF ALL BUT FIVE OF THE 900 SOMETHING READERS ARE SILENT

but to those of whom do comment and vote, i love you and you guys are my besties :)

-sloane