Scream the MTV Series S4E3 - "Broken"

Emma sits on a chair with slight padding around the back area. The chair also appears to be padded on the seat. “After further examination, it’s now to our knowledge that Audrey will make a full recovery her breathing is back in a rhythm. However she’s still not breathing on her own and is required oxygen input through her nasals. Once we’ve determined she no longer needs the breathing assistance, we can let her go home.” A doctor's assistant is standing in front of Emma. Emma is not alone in the hospital, beside her is Brooke Maddox and beside Brooke is Audrey’s girlfriend, Gina.

Gina’s arm is in a heavy wrap. It’s not visible by the eye, but under her wrap, her cut is put back together by several stitches from the knife wound. “Still think I’m the psycho that attempted to kill my OWN girlfriend?” Gina snarks towards Emma, rolling her eyes.

“Enough!” Brooke yells out “She already apologized. She clearly feels awful. What more do you want? You will never understand because you will never go through what the three of us have been through together!” This was directed towards Gina, but it could also go for Emma’s father, who had promised to stay this time, however, it hasn’t held as Emma has yet to speak to her father for two days, which was the night of Audrey and Gina’s attacking. In Kevin’s defense though, there’s no way for the two to stay in contact, due to the fact that he doesn’t have a cell phone and Emma didn’t tell her mother that she’d seen him.

Gina is completely silent after Brooke had called her out, but silent in a sassy way, rolling her eyes and still believing she’s right. “Maybe you should leave now.” The doctor states, still standing in front of him. His name tag says ‘Dr. Douglas’ “We can’t allow Audrey’s stress level to exceed a specific point and with all the bickering you three have done since you’ve showed up… it’s probably best that you just go home.”

Gina gets red in the face “Can’t I go see her? I’ll be real quick.” Gina is clearly angry about being asked to leave. Dr. Douglas lets out a sigh before responding.

“Please do not make this more difficult than it has to be.” He says, basically denying her of visiting with Audrey. Dr. Douglas is a veteran doctor, who has been in the medical field Emma’s whole life and by the looks of his age, possibly longer. He has been working with the Lakewood clique since the first series of attacks by Piper Shaw. He patched Jake up when he was first attacked in the bowling alley. He also worked with Noah after the death of Zoe, and after he’d been stabbed and buried alive.

Lately, with his age, Dr. Douglas has been transitioning into more of a nurse than a doctor or operator, but Emma’s mom has always spoken highly of him as an operator. He was even the head-doctor of Lakewood’s hospital at one point.

Many believe that the only reason he’s still employed by the hospital is because of his loyalty and experience, along with agreeing to switch to attentive care, rather than being an operator. He wanted to remain a doctor, but with his age, his eyes have begun to deteriorate. He has enough money saved up to retire by far, but stays in the business because he loves his job. If it came down to it, he’d probably work for free.

Emma, Brooke and Gina walk out of the hospital, as all three stay silent. As soon as the door opens, revealing the bright light of the sun and cool gust of winter air, Gina gets out another smart comment. “Happy now?” she says in the direction of Emma, “I went to see Audrey, not you two.” she mutters as she begins to walk away, “Next time you guys want to do something ‘fun’ ... don’t bother inviting me.”

“Don’t you need a ride home? You live over an hour away!” Emma yells out to Gina as she’s already halfway down the road.

“I have two legs!” Gina yells back at her without even looking back.

Days went by and Emma went without seeing Gina nor her father. She was growing to the belief that her father wasn’t returning and he’d left again. She now believes that she was originally correct, that her father had been at the James barn for another reason, although she doesn’t have a clue on the actual reason. There’s only one way to find out.

Emma has to pay a visit to the James’ farm.

Emma knows she can’t go alone, in case something goes wrong. Her go-to people would have been Audrey and Kieran, but Audrey is in critical condition still and we all know what happened with Kieran. That only leaves two people, Noah and Brooke.

How in Hell did the two most fragile survive this far? Emma hoped that Brooke would bring Stavo for at least a little bit of manpower, because she knows Noah can’t supply it. The only problem with that though, is that Brooke can’t get a hold of him, due to his phone being in the hands of the one doing this. Another idea hits her, when her phone buzzes.

Don’t sweat missing the date, I saw what happened. 6:22

Andrew Wizworth. She completely had forgotten her date, she had completely forgot about him, as she hasn’t been at school since she hasn’t been at school since Friday, when the event happened. It was now Wednesday. Emma looked outside her window as the road, the sidewalks had patches of melting snow, due to the recent random heat wave.

She wants to ask him to help her out, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to drag him into the mess. Everyone she gets close with is targetted. She can’t do that to him, she has to spare him. She then gets another text that changes her mind.

If you need anything, I’m here. 6:24

Emma thinks of this as more than just a nice text, but seemingly him actually trying to help her figure out what’s going on. Whether it be with the killer or with her crazy family. She lets out a sigh and decides to text him back.

Hey I might have to take you up on that offer. Could you meet me at my house, please? 6:24

Emma plants her hand’s palm around her forehead, unsure if she made the right call or not. She pulls her phone out again and calls Brooke. She answers.

Brooke stands in her bedroom wearing a capri shirt and skinny jeans. Her hair lies down straight, it’s naturally straight, she doesn’t need a straightener. “Hello?” Brooke answers, the tone of her voice shows she more of asking why Emma is calling.

“Hey, um… Brooke! I need your help with something.” Emma says while Brooke rolls her eyes, knowing it’s going to be something crazy. It seems like since Kieran was stabbed, Emma has been completely fearless, as if she knows she’s a survivor and is boasting it. More or less, she just feels the need to be extra protection for herself after being screwed over when she’s let her guard down on several occasions.

“Um, so.. The thing is-- I haven’t talked to my dad since Audrey was attacked.” Brooke lets out a silent sigh. She’s believing that Emma’s PTSD had made her imagine her dad that night, due to hearing Stavo talk about him earlier that day. She was convinced that Kevin wants nothing to do with Emma.

However, Emma gets very defensive when someone questions her PTSD, almost as if it were one of her trigger words. It possibly is, considering Ms. Lang had drilled the fact that she had it, so far into her head, she struck oil.

Emma hadn’t talked to Ms. Lang since she’d accused Emma and Audrey of having Mad Man syndrome. Emma is lucky that Kieran confessed as a lawyer could easily have skewed it to make it look like it were Emma and Audrey planning to kill Kieran. That would have put Emma and Audrey both behind bars, or in Kieran’s case, dead, while he would have roamed free.

Brooke agrees to going on the wild goose chase with Emma, Stavo previously had mentioned about talking to Kevin, but he didn’t tell her where they were, even when she’d ask. He seemingly would just change the subject.

She has been beginning to worry about Stavo. Somehow, the killer had gotten ahold of his phone and he hasn’t been seen since, she’s just waiting for Miguel to send out a search warrant for him. Quite frankly, she was surprised that he hadn’t yet, considering the fact he’s a cop. Brooke doesn’t sense a problem if Miguel doesn’t. He knows more about Stavo and the law than she ever will.

She still can’t quite shake the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong. She phones the only thing that knows anything about Stavo and Stavo’s past. She calls Larius. The phone line is busy. She crinkles her eyebrows showing suspicion.

That’s when her phone buzzes. She looks down at the locked phone and sees one notification, a text from Emma

Get over here ASAP 6:36

✟

Noah rolls up to Emma’s house and there are several cars parked alongside the road and in her driveway. He wasn’t aware that Emma had invited other people. He had just believed she’d only asked him to come with her to find her father.

He had taken it as a compliment that she’d asked him. Just a year ago the two had no contact between each other. They were on two different social levels. She was pretty and popular, meanwhile, he was a nerd with a serial killer “fetish.” So the fact that they’d grown so close is a gift to him.

He opens his car door at the same time as another car pulls up to the road curb right beside him. He doesn’t recognize the jet black jetta. Instead of getting into the house, he stands outside of his car to see who’d just parked beside hi,. When the jetta’s door opens, he recognizes who steps out. Larius Shore. He’d invited Larius, but he assumed he’d be a bit late because he invited him right before leaving and Larius lives further away from Emma than Noah does.

“Did you run all the stop lights going eighty?” Noah jokes with a smile on his face. Larius’s stern look doesn’t change though. He almost seems upset.

“Noah.” He says simply, as he opens Emma’s house door, inviting himself in. Emma gives a confused look when she sees Larius. Inside the house is Emma, Brooke and Andrew. Brooke whispers something in Emma’s ear and Emma shakes her head no.

Noah follows Larius into the house. Brooke doesn’t hesitate on walking up to Larius. “Have you seen Gustavo anywhere? Last time I talked to him, he was headed off to your house. Did he make it?” She asks him.

Larius gets a cocky smirk on his face, “You’re either going to kiss me or you’re going to back the Hell up. Your choice.” He says looking down at Brooke. Brooke’s eyebrows raise as if she’s going to give him attitude. Emma smiles from a distance, knowing she hasn’t seen this side of Brooke since Jake was killed. She then resists the urge to talk back to Larius, stepping back.

“Thanks babe. Now, would you like to ask me the question again in a more formal manner?” He still wears the confident smile as he continues to peer down at the blonde.

“The last time I talked to Stavo, he told me he was on his way to talk to you. I wanted to know if he made it.” Larius looks over Brooke’s shoulder to see Noah, Emma and Andrew engaged in their own conversation.

“Ummm, no. Actually he never showed up.” Larius lies to Brooke’s face. “I haven’t talked to him since I joined his group on our project for English class. I think I talked to Noah over there,” He points at Noah, which grasps his attention. “more than I’ve talked to Stavo since I’ve moved here.” Brooke walks away and Larius puts his head down, knowing he’d accidentally attracted Noah over to him. “What’s up, man?’ Larius asks Noah giving him the bro hug handshake that every guy seems to know.

“What ummm, what were you and Brooke talking about?” Noah asks Larius, snooping around in their conversation.

“OH! I was just telling her about how you gave me the whole Brandon James story. Speaking of that, after the attack on.. Audrey! Is it?” Noah nods, ensuring Larius that he’d gotten her name right. “Is Brandon James back or is Lakewood witnessing a whole nother serial killer?”

Noah rubs his chin, pondering the question. “Well…” he begins with this signifying he’s going to go on one of his rants. “You see, I stand by my original theory. Brandon James is somewhere at the bottom of lake Lakewood, dead. By that theory, there would have to be a whole new killer, which also seems exceedingly unlikely. For that to be the case, Audrey’s attack would have to have been a one off attack, but Emma had mentioned getting strange texts about the situation and I was told by Audrey’s phone to meet her there. The chances that someone would go through all that just to almost kill Audrey are very low..” He continues, “So logically speaking, it’s most likely another serial killer on the loose.”

Larius squints his eyes and wrinkles his eyebrows, because Noah had just went on a long, pointless rant about a simple question. He tries to look fascinated though. “Yeah, I know what you mean, but if there is another killer… Who?”

Noah’s eyes widen at another simple question. “Honestly, I don’t know. If I had to put money on it, I’d guess someone in this room tried to kill Audrey.” Noah scans his eyes around the room. He looks at Emma, Brooke, Andrew then his eyes lock back with Larius. Larius is just a bit taller than Noah but way more muscular.

“That rules out a few people.” Larius pauses, “More importantly where my finger is pointed.” Noah’s right eyebrow raises showing interest.

“Oh? You have a theory?” Noah asks rhetorically, “Who do you think is the potential killer?”

“Stavo.” Larius replies with confidence but without hesitation. He’s completely serious.

“You think he’s capable of killing?” Noah is confused because he’s grown to be a great friend of Stavo’s and of all of his time knowing Stavo, he’s seemed to be a genuinely nice guy.

“I know he is.” Larius says back. “Plus, all this time Audrey has been attacked and the cops have been on the search, Stavo’s been playing a nice little game of hide and seek. You can’t really believe that him being missing is a coincidence, can you? Not even Brooke has talked to him.”

Larius’s opening statement runs through the mind of Noah, while he’s processing it, he nods to make it look like he’s still acknowledging what Larius is saying. What had Larius meant when he said he knew Stavo was capable of murder? Had he been speaking metaphorically or does he literally know of a Stavo wrongdoing? Either way, Larius knew something about Stavo that nobody else does and Noah is going to get to the bottom of it.

“I guess you make a point.” Noah replies, “I’ll have to put that into consideration while I’m reassembling my murder board.” Larius gives Noah a nod and then a weird look.

“Murder board?” He asks Noah.

“Yeah, haven’t you heard of The Morgue?” Noah asks, now questioning Larius.

“Of course! I’m a regular listener.” Larius is happy to say, but he doesn’t know how it correlates to the murder board.

“Okay well, you know how in The Morgue I try to put pieces together and understand why the killer is doing what they’re doing and who the killer is?” Larius nods to Noah’s question. “Well, the murder board is a postboard where I pick things apart and figure them out before The Morgue.”

Larius nods his head, implying he understands what Noah is going on about. This time, he actually does though. Larius looks behind him and notices Brooke, Emma and Andrew exiting a door and getting into a car. Larius jerks his head backwards then follows, telling Noah to come as well.

✟

“Is this the place?” Andrew asks, pulling over on the side of the road. The infamous James farm sits to the passenger side. Emma, who is in the passenger seat, nods her head yes. The James farm is an instant eerie feeling, even to Andrew and Larius, whom have never graced its presence. To the rest of the group, who huddled up in the car together, it’s just downright sinister.

The crew hesitates to get out of the car. They gawk at the dimly lit barn. Some of the house lights are noticeably on, in the dark sky. In the car, Andrew sits at the steering wheel, with his hand on Emma’s leg, who’s in the passenger seat. In the back, Larius sits in between Noah and Brooke. Brooke looks less than impressed.

A few moments pass and Emma opens up her door. “Now or never, I guess.” Emma says with a hand signal, telling them to follow. Larius looks at Brooke as if she’s getting out on his side. She whips her hair into his face and gets out with Noah. Larius smirks as he gets out of the car.

The group follows Emma, she walks over to the barn very slowly. Her feet sink into the mushy ground. The ground is a mixture of mud and melting snow. She reaches the barn door and freezes. The group players follow the leader and also come to a halt.

“What’s wrong, Em?” Andrew steps forward and puts his arm around Emma. She continues to stare at the barn door. “Are you okay?” He asks. Another moment passes and Emma swipes his arm off of her shoulders. She puts her hand on her head thinking for a moment and then sprints away. Andrew looks at Brooke with a confused look on his face. A scared Brooke shrugs at hi, signifying she doesn’t know what’s wrong with Emma.

Brooke follows this up by chasing after her. It doesn’t take long for her to find Emma, curled up in a ball, lightly sobbing. Her back is to a tree, which keeps her up, straight. “Emma, what’s wrong?” Brooke asks her. She pokes her head up with. Tears roll down her face, slowly. Before Emma can respond a gunshot is heard. It’s close. Brooke pulls Emma up to her feet and the two run towards the barn to see if everybody is okay.

“AND IF YOU KIDS DON’T GET OUT OF HERE IMMEDIATELY, THE NEXT SHOT WILL BE AIMED!” Emma hears a familiar voice yell. Once Brooke and Emma break out of the woods, it’s quite obvious what they see. “Emma?” Kevin Duval softly says, standing near Andrew, Larius and Noah, holding a 12 gauge shotgun in his hand.

“Dad?” Emma responds, dumbfounded at the fact her father had just shot at her friends. He looks down at his daughter.

“Emma.” He repeats himself, this time more concerned, knowing he’d messed up. She can smell the alcohol on his breath. Her face turns beet red. Not only mat, but embarrassed by her father.

“Are you even TRYING to change dad?” Emma gets straight to the point. “You seemed very different when you came to me on Saturday. You were sober.” His lip pouts out.

“I’m trying, babygirl. I am.” His anger turns to sadness. “This is my only home. I’m not even legally allowed to be here. If people come, word gets out and bam, I’m back in prison. I can’t go back, Emma.” He says teary eyed. “Please understand.”

“She looks down, avoiding eye contact with her own father. He’s obviously sorrowful. “Being completely trashed right now isn’t helping your case-- Kevin. These are my friends. I told them to come here.” She says to him.

A tear rolled down his face when Emma had called him by his legal name, and not dad. “Why would you do that” He asks her.

“Well, considering you promised you were back and you were staying with me, then I didn’t see you since. There was word out already that you’ve been hanging around the James farm. Now here we are, in the same spot we’ve been for basically my whole life.” She rolls her eyes at him. “With you constantly lying to me.” Her friends awkwardly gawk as they just stand there watching this transpire.

“I can’t stay. I-- your mother.” Emma interrupts her dad before he can finish his sentence.

“My mother what? Doesn’t like the fact that you’re an alcoholic? She doesn’t like the fact that you’re mean when you’re drunk and your temper in uncontrollable. Well guess what dad, I don’t like it either.” Emma yells at her father as he fights back tears again.

“I’m sorry, Emma.”

“No you’re not. If you were sorry you would have changed. How many chances do I have to give you?” She continues to lecture him. “You should have quit when I was born, when you and mom were breaking up, when you got at of jail. You’ve had enough chances to change. You’re not sorry.”

Kevin hangs his head low. “Emma, my past. You don’t understand.” He replies, he goes to continue but Emma’s yell overpowers his voice.

“Don’t understand? I went through the same exact thing that you did TWICE, and now I’m quite possibly going to have to go through it again. One of my best friends, Audrey Jensen, is sitting in the hospital right now, fighting for her life. You don’t know that though, you say you’re staying then you leave. You say things will be okay, then you make them worse. You say you’re my father but you act like an enemy.”

Kevin Duval stops fighting back and allows Emma to drag on him, taking it in. He continues to try fighting tears, but breaks down into a sob. He drops down to his knees and Emma stands over him with a straight face with no remorse. “Emma, please. I’ll stop. For real this time.” Kevin is barely even comprehensible, between his drunkenness and his sobbing.

“Don’t trust him.” Noah says, looking out for his friend. Kevin hops up to his feet and gets in Noah’s face.

“What’d you just say you little punk?” His sadness turns back to anger, wiping tears from his own eyes. “Who do you think you are?”

Larius pushes Noah to the side and steps up for him in Kevin’s face. “Now, I’m new to Lakewood, but it doesn’t take long to realize that Noah’s a nice guy and your a drunk who doesn’t deserve a chance, so if you want to pick a fight with one of us, sir, I dare you to make it me.” Larius cracks his cocky grin at Kevin. The same grin he was giving to Brooke earlier. She blushes at it this time, but the blush quickly goes away and turns to shock when Kevin punches Larius in the jaw.

Larius is knocked back by the bunch, but seemingly unphased. Larius quickly ups back up to his feet and tackles Kevin to the ground. Larius gets a few punches in on Kevin, although Larius doesn’t seem hurt because of the adrenaline running through him, his jaw is already bruising.

Noah and Andrew work together to pull Larius off of Kevin, but Andrew does most of the heavy lifting. Larius is still swinging as Andrew holds him back. Kevin sits back up and wipes blood from his nose.

“I think we should leave.” Larius yells unintentionally at Emma. Kevin is still grounded. Larius turns to Kevin and cracks one last smirk at him as the crew walks away. The car set up is like before. Andrew driving, Emma in the passenger, and Brooke, Larius and Noah in the back.. This time though, Brooke is more attentive to Larius. She holds a cold soda that was in the back up to his jaw, where he was punched.

His face is straight, instead of joking with Brooke like before, he’s angry. Not at her, just in general. “Your dad’s a prick.” Larius says to Emma.

“Hey watch it, Shore. He’s still her father.” Andrew stands up to Larius, who’s caught off guard by it. Andrew almost fully turns around and locks eyes with Larius.

“Chill out. He shouldn’t have popped me then, and you shouldn’t have broken it up.” Larius’s frustration grows with Andrew.

“You literally told him to hit you. It was better off for the both of you that I broke it up dude.” Andrew starts to yell and the car begins to speed up.

“Andrew it’s okay.” Emma says to him. “My father had it coming. Larius was just standing up for Noah, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have thought for a second that he’d changed. He’s a drunk. People don’t change.”

“People don’t change, but they do learn to hide their true self better.” Brooke says and Noah looks over at her, surprised by the wisdom.

The whole car grows quiet for a hot second, but the silence is broken by Emma’s phone going off. Someone is calling. The number is not saved in her phone. Emma knows the number instantly though. Her heart drops. “What’s wrong, Emma?” Noah asks her.

“This is-- was Kieran’s number.” She responds. Brooke covers her mouth and Emma answers on speaker. “Hello?”

The chilling voice replies. “Hello, Emma. Take me off speaker phone if you want the information.” Emma looks around the car. Noah nods his head telling her to take them off speaker. She does. “Thank you. Now, I have some information that may leave you uneasy.” She begins to sweat. “So, your friend Gina, she’s been unseen for over twenty four hours. It appears her family doesn’t seem to mind, but I think you’ll be comfortable knowing she’s currently in my possession.” The voice continues. “This time there is no games. She’s at the spot Kieran taught you how to shoot a gun. One exception, Emma. You must come alone.”

The last sentence throws Emma into a full panic. Emma knows by now that there’s always a twist. Why would whoever is doing this want Emma to come alone? Surely they have something in the works. She notices the killed had ended the call.

“Emma?” Brooke asks. “What’d they say?” Emma doesn’t know how to explain. She knows the crew wouldn’t allow her to go alone.

“It was about Audrey.” Emma lies to her friends. Andrew’s concern is shown on his face as he drives. “They just said I won the game.” Emma begins to tear up. “They said it’s no over though.” She redeems her lie. “They said there’s more to come.” Andrew puts his arm around Emma and continues to drive.

✟

“Well, followers.” Noah’s voice rings. “It appears there’s been official confirmation from Emma Duval herself that a serial killer is once again on the loose.” Noah continues, “It’s also noted that this is the same person who snuck into the state prison and killed Kieran. There’s currently no word on the killer’s connection to Brandon James or Kieran, but there’s always my personal theory; what I learned from Kieran being the one to do the previous killings is that anyone could be behind this. For all we know-- it could be me.” Noah gives a long, awkward pause. “No, I’m totally kidding.” another pause. “Or am I?... Yeah I totally am, but the point I’m getting at is; you truly can trust nobody. Here’s something I had told my, now deceased, ex-girlfriend, Riley Marra. Everybody tells lies, everybody keeps secrets and everybody is free game… Until there’s nobody left.” Noah lets another dramatic pause run its course. “This has been this edition of The Morgue. I’m Noah Foster. Thank you for listening.”