Scream the MTV Series S4E7 - "Proving Grounds"

Emma Duval walks into her house to a sight she’d never expected to see again. Her father sitting in a wooden chair at the table in her kitchen. Slicing a piece of steak with a steak knife as her mother sits across from him cutting her own steak. Emma’s confusion is shown on her face as soon as she makes sight of the scenario. When she notices the two, Maggie notices Emma walking in, Maggie’s eyes grow, but not with shock, but with happiness. “Hey, Em!” she shouts, hopping to her feet walking over to Emma.

“What… What’s going on here?” Emma asks quietly to her mom.

“Your father came to visit, have you talked to him lately? He’s really cleaned himself up.” She says out loud, loud enough for him to have heard it. “Did you know he’s dating Monica Maddox?... Brooke’s mother.” Emma looks at him, looking back at the two then looks back at her mother

“So I’ve heard…” Emma responds, clearly giving attitude. Maggie grabs her arm and pulls her aside, sensing the attitude in her voice when responding.

“I figured you’d be happy to see your father and I getting along so well. He truthfully seems happy. I think Monica and him have been good with each other.. You should give him another chance.” Maggie says to Emma, trying to convince her to allow her father back into her life.

“No-- mom. He left me and now I’m supposed to sit back and let him be happy with my best friend’s mother? How are you okay with that?” Emma retorts back towards her mother. “He left you too, mom. Now instead of making it up to you, he’s out with someone else’s mother.”

“Emma, I left him. He wasn’t in a good state and he wasn’t good for either of us. I can’t hold that on him if he is trying to change and he’s doing well.” Emma closes her eyes and lets out a sigh. “I can tell he’s different, Em. He’s happy again. I haven’t seen your father like this since we first got together… It’s refreshing.”

Emma puts her palm on her face, still not trusting her own father, but she seemingly has lightened up to the idea of accepting him back in her life, as she follows her mom into the kitchen and takes a seat at the wooden table, in between her mother and her father and grabs her own slice of food.

“What’s going on here?” Emma asks, walking towards her school after pulling her car over to the side of the road, noticing it. When she approaches the crowd standing behind yellow caution tapes.

“Apparently two more bodies were found in there this morning.” Some kid yells out to Emma. Emma covers her mouth in shock. She looks on while Noah pulls his car over too, noticing Emma at the scene. He walks over to her, getting out of his car.

“Any updates on them?” Noah asks Emma as Emma jerks her head backwards, not noticing Noah was there.

“Them? Do you know who ‘they’ are?” Noah’s eyebrows raise, as he’d assumed that Emma had known.

“You haven’t heard? It’s everywhere… Apparently Principal Showalter and Nurse Richardson were found with their throats slit last night..”

“I heard that Showalter had a slice in his calf too!” Another one of the kids looking on yells out.

“I heard that Showalter’s head was hanging on by a thread.” The one who’d originally told Emma about the bodies says back to the kid making the comment about Showalter’s calf. “I wonder what they did to piss whoever did this off..”

“Probably wouldn’t give them mints and then gave them detention.” Noah responds, feeding into the two kids, who are clearly interested in what happened. The two kids laugh and Noah chuckles too, but Emma is less than impressed. “What? It’s just a little sardonic humor.” Noah says, trying to lighten the mood. Emma shakes her head no still, not enjoying

“Wait do you see that?” Emma asks Noah, curling her eyebrows. Noah shakes his head Noah as Emma grabs his shoulders and repositions him to look a certain way. When he spots it, he notices Larius standing far away, watching the scene unfold from afar. His hardly recognizable as he wears a hoodie on his body and the hood mostly covering up his face, but Emma still realizes it’s him, so does Noah.

“What the….” Noah freezes up. “What’s he doing here? Why’s he hiding out back there and being so secretive?” Emma shrugs, implying that he’s guilty. The two move up closer to the scene, trying to get a better look at Larius, when they overhear two cops who are working on the scene talking.

“We need to put a warrant out for the arrest of Larius Shore.” the short, stocky one says to the taller, skinny one. The skinny one just nods his head, assuming that Larius had something to do with this.

“Wouldn’t being involved in his original arrest be a pretty good motive to kill Principal Showalter?” Emma nods, “And I’m assuming Nurse Richardson just stood in his way.” He continues.

“We should follow him.” Emma says, pointing at him as he walks away into the woods, clearly trying to get away from the scene. Noah nods and Emma validates her statement. “Let’s go.” The two of them get into Noah’s car, and he drives off, driving to where the woods that he’d been walking through would end. The two wait outside of the woods for a few moments, but after those moments set in, it’s noticeable that Larius won’t be coming out, seemingly had taken a turn to take a different route. “You know where he lives. Don’t you?” Emma asks Noah, trying her hardest to track Larius, clearly paranoid after she’d seen him at the school. Before this, she’d been kind of neutral on tracking Larius because she didn’t want to go behind Brooke’s back and do something that would upset Brooke, but it seems like she may have talked to Andrew a bit more about it, as he clearly influenced her to be more willing to track Larius. She definitely sees the purpose in it now. It shows with her relentless pursuit.

“Yes, I do, but that’s a death wish.. You really think we should go to a killer’s house?” Noah asks Emma, thinking she’s out of her mind now. “He knows his time is running out. He killed two people just last night. If he’s going out, he’s going to want to kill everybody in sight. Last night was the beginning of the storm. I fear for what’s going to happen today.”

“I’d rather go to a killers house without them knowing I’m there, then waiting for the killer to come to my house without knowing that they’re there.” Noah nods, understanding what Emma’s saying, trying to get over his fears of going back to Larius’s house.

“I think we should call Andrew.” Noah says, clearly looking for time to buy, stalling his ultimate fear. Potential death. Noah has had so many near death experiences in the past few years that the thought of it should no longer faze him, or anyone else living in Lakewood for that matter. Noah’s different though. His obsession with serial killers stems off of respect for the killers and now, fear that it could happen to him. He knows what they’re capable of. He has a firm understanding of death and with each near encounter, that feat engulfs him more and more. He thinks his time is running out. “I mean, come on Em, he’s your… Whatever. He. Is?” Noah tries to fill the awkward silence of Emma thinking about it, but he fails, only making it more awkward, bringing up Emma’s relationship with Andrew. The same relationship that had made the two of them tense up before.

“I- yeah.” Emma says awkwardly. Noah may have found a way to stall Emma, bringing up the relationship of her and Andrew. She’s clearly struggling to use a label after everything that’s happened with Kieran and Tom. Her only other boyfriend cheated on her and then was murdered by Kieran. She doesn’t have the best track record with the label, ‘boyfriend.’ “Yeah we should wait for Andrew and tell him the meetup spot.” By meetup spot, she clearly means Larius’s house. Noah nods and pulls out his phone and begins typing a text to Andrew.

Hey Andrew, we’re going on our plan to spy on Larius a little early, we saw him at the school looking extra sketchy. Meet us @ his house. 10:23am

Almost instantly a text dings through, right back.

Ok, will be there C U SOON 10:23am

After the text, Noah starts up his car and drives off into the distance, possibly driving to their doom.

✟

“Aren’t we supposed to be waiting for Andrew?” Emma says, this time maybe stalling, as Noah is starting up his car again.

“We don’t have time to waste, Em. We’re right on his trail.” Noah shouts quietly, driving after him, keeping his distance though, so he doesn’t notice. Larius drives a white pickup truck he’s never driven before. The truck lacks a license plate, it’s obvious that he’s not trying to be tracked. The radio in Noah’s car is quiet and staticy, but Emma notices something in the static.

“Turn this up for a second.” Emma says cranking the radio up. A voice is heard on the radio, clearly a news source.

“Male, 19. Black hair, bright blue eyes. Last seen with a dark hoodie, driving a white pickup truck with no license plate. If anybody sees this man, please report it to authorities. Suspect is considered to be very dangerous. Stay off the streets today. Lakewood is on a severe lockdown. I repeat. Stay at home today.” Noah and Emma look at each other, knowing they’re on the tail of a potentially dangerous serial killer that had killed both of their best friend in Audrey Jensen, Audrey’s girlfriend, Gina, the principal of the school and more.

“Regretting this cat and mouse chase yet?” Noah asks Emma, basically asking if they can turn back.

“It’s too late to turn back, Noah. After all of the pain that he’s put us through… He needs to be stopped. I don’t see anybody else but us doing that right now.” Distracted by Emma’s talking, Noah doesn’t even realize Larius is taking a turn, which leads to Noah taking an extra sharp turn to trail him.

The turn was onto a back road. One so familiar to Emma and Noah. The back road that leads straight to Troy James’ old pig farm. This almost verifies to Emma and Noah that he’s guilty and he’s probably coming back here to plot something big before he goes out. Right before the turn towards the pig farm, a deer runs out on the road, in front of Noah’s car. Noah swerves, driving off the road. “Dammit!” Noah yells. Luckily no impact on the vehicle. Neither Emma, nor Noah, jerked their heads enough to smack it off of anything and activate an airbag. Just a minor inconvenience, slowing the two down. The car doesn’t show damage. Noah puts the car in reverse and successfully backs out of the ditch. If Noah and Emma hadn’t known where Larius was headed, the would have lost him. Noah slowly creeps his car up around the corner to see two bodies standing at the farm. “Is that Brooke?” Emma says, with her heart dropping.

“We have to help her.” Noah says, scared for his friend, Brooke, who could be staring a killer in his eyes right now. The two stay low profile, getting out of the car and heading towards Brooke and Larius through the woods. They creep through the woods until they’re within listening range. They catch their voices.

“Please tell me everything I’m hearing isn’t true…” Brooke says, clearly upset. “I know you don’t have it in your heart to kill.” Brooke continues, softly. Tears fill her eyes.

“I’m not who they’re painting me to be, I’m not who Stavo’s painting me to be.” Larius verifies. “I have my demons but I would NEVER kill someone on purpose.” The last few words catch her ear.

“So it’s true?” she asks, “The story about you shooting your friend with Stavo’s father’s gun?” he nods his head while she continues on.

“I can explain Brooke, Stavo’s version of the story is twisted. I didn’t mean to kill him. Stavo thinks that I did it on purpose. That’s why I came to Lakewood in the first place. I knew Stavo was close to snitching. I had to get rid of him somehow.”

“SO YOU PLOT TO KILL HIM AND ALL MY FRIENDS? NOW WHAT? NOW YOU’RE GOING TO KILL ME?! DO IT. Get it over with. Spare me.” Brooke yells and then stares coldly into the soul of someone she now believes is a killer.

“No, Hell no, Brooke. I didn’t kill anyone. I wouldn’t. Especially you. I came to keep tabs on Stavo. To make sure he didn’t snitch to his sheriff dad…”

Brooke cuts him off, “And if he did? Then what?” Brooke waits for an answer, but then chirps in again before he could respond, “Then you snap and start killin’ people?”

“No, Brooke! YOU KNOW ME. That’s not who I am-” she cuts him off again, this time using evidence against him.

“What about the Brandon James mask found in your locker, are you saying that was a set up because you’re an easy target?” She questions him.

“No.” He admits. “That was mine…” Brooke’s eyebrows curl in confusion, but he continues to explain. “I’d originally came to Lakewood to keep tabs on Stavo, to make sure he wasn’t going to drag me down… Then these killings started popping up and I just- I figured I could use them to my advantage. I was going to plant the mask in Stavo’s locker. I figured if he got on a multi-murder charge, his word about me would no longer hold any weight.”

“So you were going to take everything that this city went through and is going through and everything that I’M going through, to your gain just to get yourself in the clear for something that happened years ago?” Larius puts his head down clearly ashamed.

“I know what you’re thinking, Brooke. I’m not a good person, but I’m definitely not a killer.” He says, “but the police think they got their guy and I’m going to let them think that. I’m going to turn myself in… I’m going to plead guilty.” He says, alarming Brooke.

“You’re turning yourself in? Plead guilty? Do you know how… actually guilty that sounds? Why would you be willing to waste away in prison if you didn’t do it?” Brooke asks, still hounding Larius.

“Because Brooke, they think it’s me and they’re not going to change that opinion. They had me in custody when Sheriff Acosta was killed and they STILL think that I was behind the mask. I’m going to turn myself in and either whoever really did this sees it as a clear and stop cold turkey, or…” Brooke interrupts Larius, understanding where he’s going with his sentence.

“Or they continue and realize they really do have the wrong guy.” Her words set in after a moment and she continues talking after a dramatic pause. “Either way a killer is on the loose. Regardless of if they plan on stopping if they’re in the clear or not, the person who killed Audrey, Kieran, Stavo’s father… They’re not just going away. Taking the fall doesn’t fix the problem, it just prolongs it.”

“The people need closure! Brooke you don’t understand. This city has been scared for so long that they need closure. They need to see me rotting in a cell because they’ve painted this picture that I’m some kind of psychopathic murderer and it’s beyond my control at this point. If you want to blame someone… Put that on your boyfriend.” He goes back to accusing Stavo of something.

“What about me, Larry?! You don’t think that I need closure?! I’m the one being terrorized. My friends are being terrorized. They need closure. You’re more worried about the outsiders looking in than the people that are ACTUALLY getting victimized?” Without hesitation, Larius has a response to Brooke.

While they’re talking, Andrew creeps up behind the group, listening to Brooke’s conversation. He startles them on accident. “Sorry, guys. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you. I can’t find my phone though…” Emma gives him a confused look. “It’s been lost for a few days.” She realizes that he’d responded when she texted him early about meeting Andrew, but the argument interrupts her thought.

“You’re always so quick to think that you’re being victimized. You’re being toyed with that’s clear, but you’ve hardly been a victim. What have you ever suffered Brooke? Locked in a box? Maybe stabbed once? You’ve got off easy. Audrey was a victim. Tyler O’Neill, Nina Patterson, Riley Marra. Those were victims. Jake Fitzgerald was a victim. Those were all your friends, but out of all those listed, as far as I’m aware, Audrey was your only ‘friend’ that this killer has victimized. It’s the outsiders looking in with this one. Kieran to make a statement. Audrey to prove the statement. Gina, Principal Showalter, Miguel Acosta, the nurse, Mrs. Debs… Those were mindless kills for the entertainment of the person who’s doing this. I don’t want you to act like this is all about you. For once in your life Brooke, don’t make this all about you. It’s not. It’s about Lakewood as a town. This town is cursed.” Brooke’s face grows red in anger at the words leaving Larius’s mouth. Almost as if he’s taunting her for everything that she’s been through.

“Whatever, Larius. Turn yourself in. Rot in a cell for the rest of your miserable life. I don’t care anymore. DON’T try to drag Stavo or me down with you though, and don’t blame Stavo for having to cover up your mistakes. Hold yourself accountable. You’re not the killer who’s doing this, but you’re pretty damn close to it.” Brooke says, standing with her hands on her arms, shivering in the cold, winter, morning air. Larius looks on at her, blinking, being unable to believe the way Brooke had turned on him. He nods, with a sad look on his face and turns around. He wanders off into the woods. Brooke stays put, seemingly frozen in time. People say they can freeze in fear all the time, but can they freeze in any emotion? Any feeling of overwhelming emotion? Brooke stands frozen, overwhelmed with a great sadness. Something that she’s way too used to for a high school girl.

Brooke is frozen with emptiness.

✟

It wasn’t him… 12:43pm

Brooke looks up from her phone. The contact that she’d sent the message to… Stavo Acosta. She double texts him.

But it might as well have been. You were right about Larius. 12:43pm

She still stands in the James Pig Farm. Tears fill her eyes. Emma, Andrew and Noah all four gone from the woods. They’d clearly heard enough that they know not to convict Larius. However, they didn’t pack their bags and go home. The creep out of the woods to comfort Brooke. “How long have you guys been here?” She says, pouting her bottom lip as Emma puts her arm around her, comforting her.

“Long enough to know that Larius isn’t a killer… An asshole, but not a killer.” Emma nods, continuing to comfort Brooke. Brooke nods, agreeing about Larius being an asshole. It’s hard to dispute at this point. Not only had he used the Lakewood killings to his own gain, trying to get back at Stavo, but he’d also accused Brooke of ‘playing the victim’ and basically told her that she’s overreacting about her and all of her friends being hunted by someone behind a mask and a knife.

“He deserves to rot in that cell..” Brooke says, but she can’t continue her thought without being cut off by Emma trying to comfort her again.

“Not for the murders of Audrey, Showalter, Debs, Gina and Sheriff Acosta though.. He needs justice in a different way.” Emma says.

“Tampering with an on-going police investigation is one damn good way to start on that.” Noah adds his two cents into the conversation. Brooke nods her head, agreeing with Emma and Noah.

“Let’s get out of here…” Brooke mumbles to the group, but barely loud enough for them to hear it. “This place gives me the creeps.” The rest of the group nods, and when they turn around to walk away, they hear rustling in the barn. “Did you guys tell anybody else we’d be here?” Brooke asks, Emma, Noah and Andrew look over at the barn, also hearing the noise. They shake their heads, no. That’s when Emma’s phone rings.

“Hello Emma.” she picks it up. Chills slither down her spine. Chills slither down the spines of Brooke, Noah and Andrew too. Andrew has yet to even hear the voice until now but a strange haunting sets over him. The unfamiliar voice rattles him. The voice of evil. “Which one of your friends want to die today?”

Brooke takes the phone from Emma’s hand “Cut the jig, asshole.” Brooke yells at the person talking through the phone. “You’re a coward! Hiding behind a voice changing app, a cell phone, a mask and a knife… Show yourself and maybe we’d take you as a legitimate threat to our lives!” There’s a pause, a hesitation after Brooke calls out the masked person killing her friends, even from the person on the other side of the phone.

“A volunteer.” The voice says, hanging up. The end of the line beeps.

“Brooke, what did you do?” The group stands in place in silence waiting for something to happen, but it’s just a dramatic collective of silence.

“They aren’t going to do anything as long as we stick together. Serial killers don’t hunt pacts-” Right as Noah finishes his word, he’s smacked upside the head with a baseball bat, taking him straight to the ground. Noah goes out cold from the strike of the bat and has no movement, lying limp on the ground. Brooke tends to Noah, making sure he’s okay while Andrew jumps at the person holding the baseball bat. The person wearing the Brandon James mask… They drive the bat into the abdomen of Andrew, who’s trying to stand up for his friends. The bat to the stomach bends him over. Andrew screeches in agony as the bat connects with his gut. He puts his hand on his abdomen to prevent further impact, allowing the attacker to wind up and take a crack at his spine, dropping him to the ground. Andrew shows little movement laying on the ground. He’s in pain, but not knocked out, like Noah. Emma jumps on the person’s back, trying to defend her boyfriend, but they flip Emma over their head, onto Andrew. Emma’s back collides with Andrew’s back, knocking the wind out of Emma. She gasps for air, trying to breath. Noah is still being tended to by Brooke, when the attack walks over to the two of Brooke and Noah, they throw down their bat and sling their knife from their pocket, Brooke stands up to run away, but the attacker catches her by her hair. They pull her inwards towards them, lunging their knife into the side of Brooke Maddox. The impact comes with them thrusting the knife towards her and also pulling her towards the knife. The knife slices right through her flesh, cutting deep into her side. The pain pulses through her body as she yelps. The knife slings out of her skin, covered in blood. They pull her up by her hair, putting the knife to her throat, taunting her. Before they can slice or pull away, a gunshot is heard, just barely missing the person threatening Brooke’s life. When the shot is heard, the attacker drops Brooke and runs off into the woods.

The person with the gun walks over to the group from the woods. It’s a middle aged man, brown hair. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties. Emma is the only one conscious enough to comprehend him. He reaches his hand out to Emma and pulls her to her feet. “I saw the scuffle…” he says, “You guys looked like you were in danger.” Emma nods, verifying they were in danger. “What were you doing fighting on my property?”

The last line sends electricity through her body. “Are you…”

“Troy James.” He finishes her sentence for her. “No time for conversation, we’ve got to get this young lady to the hospital. She looks like she’s losing blood fast. I can drive her if you trust me to. You can gather up your friends and meet me there.

“No!” Emma yells out. “No…” She realizes she showed that she doesn’t trust Troy, but how can she? The vengeful brother of Brandon James, who Emma still thinks is either alive, or dead because of her own mother. “It’s not you.. I don’t trust the hospital, one of my friends were killed there, the other was abducted there. Their protection is about as good the prison that Kieran was killed in.”

Troy nods his head, understanding. “Well, we can’t just let her continue to bleed. She will die there. I insist, you and your friends come in, I’ll patch her up enough to stop the bleeding for now.” Emma nods. Troy James picks Brooke Maddox up, cradling her and carrying her towards his house by the farm. Emma follows, waking up Andrew, who, while limping, carries Noah to the house. Andrew was conscious enough to understand the conversation.”

✟

“I can’t believe I’m seriously sitting in the same house as Troy James right now…” Noah looks around, starstruck, having glorified Brandon James his whole life. That’s when Troy comes back with two cups of tea, handing one to Emma and one to Noah.

“Yours will be coming right up.” He says looking towards Andrew. “Your friend, Brooke is it?” He looks around at the collective nods, verifying her name. “She’s doing good. Better. It looks like she’s going to make it, but I still recommend that you let me take her to the hospital, or at least YOU take her, if you don’t trust me. They’re professionals for a reason you know?” Emma nods.

“Lately the professionals haven’t been seeming like it.” Emma says, clearly talking about not only the hospital, but the police department as well, having not caught the killer yet. “Mr. James… Troy…” Emma hesitates quietly. “You know that wasn’t just a normal fight/attack, right?”

“I’m quite aware. That’s the reason I’d recently moved back to Lakewood in the first place. This is the third killer that’s exploiting the tragedy that happened with my brother for their own twisted gain. I’ve had enough of watching on the sidelines. I know you guys are set on learning who it is terrorizing you and your friends, but not me. I don't need to worry about who it is. I’m more worried about putting whoever it is six feet under.” The words set in to Emma, terrifying her. The words that Troy speak are horribly similar to the person that they’d been talking to over the phone with a voice changing app.

“My mother has this crazy theory…” Emma hesitates before telling the story, “She said that her and… Miguel Acosta ... had rescued your brother, Brandon from the lake the night that he was shot. That’s why his body was never retrieved. She said they’d left him in the woods. He was alive, Troy. Do you think he’s still alive and he’s out for revenge?” She asks him, the look on Troy’s face turns almost sinister when he talks.

“Why that theory is downright impossible. You think I don’t know about your mother leaving Brandon in the woods to die?” Troy lets out a sad laugh. “Who do you think was the one who found him there the next morning. His cold, rotting corpse, sitting in the woods. The image haunts me to this day. Your mother may have had fake love for my brother, but I loved him. All his flaws and sins.” Emma’s heart drops as Troy’s seemingly gone off the deep end, after mentioning Brandon’s whereabouts. “I gave my brother a proper burial and didn’t tell anyone. I protected your mother by not telling anyone, because it’s what Brandon would have wanted. He was always looking out for her… even when he wasn’t looking out for himself. I was the one always looking out for Brandon. Making sure he’s avenged.” Emma begins backing up, afraid that she’d walked into a house with a murderer. “You look a little pale, Emma. Drink your tea, you may be low on sugar.” Emma looks down at the tea and sets it down, refusing to take another sip of it.

“Actually, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome… I’m going to take your advice and take Brooke to the hospital… I want to ensure the highest care quality for her.” Troy stands up when Emma says about deciding to leave. This scares her, not knowing what his next move will be. She thinks that he knows she’s on to him. Andrew stands up before her, in an intimidating, but not threatening way.

“So be it. We should meet up again soon… I feel like I might have some information for you to help you figure out who could be using my brother’s name, mask and story for vendetta. You’re a lot like your mother was when she was your age, Emma… Brandon would have liked you.” Troy takes a step back away from the three of them. “Your friend is in that room right there.” He points towards the hallway. He steps away even more, allowing them to pass by. First Emma heads into the hall, then Andrew and the last one to go through is Noah. As Noah passes though, he feels his arm being grabbed and tugged backwards. He jumps, scared by the grab. Troy James turns him around as his friends don’t realize that they’d walked on into a different room without him. “You’re Noah Foster, right?”

Noah’s eyebrows curl, confused by how he knows who he is. Noah is also kind of flattered that somebody that he’d, in a sense, looked up to growing up. “That’s me… How did you…??”

He’s cut off by the piercing voice of Troy. “The Morgue. Right? I’m an active listener. I love the way you analyze every situation and bring to life the scary reality of the murders that are happening around you. Glorifying them almost. Showing the beauty in them. It’s such an optimistic coping method that people are able to hear an optimistic point of view from. I also recognize you because we’d exchanged e-mails years ago. Don’t you remember?” Now that Troy says something about it, Noah does recall exchanging e-mails with him for a class project. Noah nods, showing that he remembers. “You’re a smart kid, Foster. You’ve got a good head on you.” Noah is honored to hear these words from Troy. “Why do you stick around this crowd?” Noah’s honor turns to confusion with the question from Troy. “I can tell who these people are. I understand who you are. You didn’t get along with them before the murders, it’s obvious. Emma’s just like her mother was. The popular girl at school. The A-List girl that everybody wanted to be or be with. Her boyfriend, I’m assuming he’s the flavor of the month. New kid maybe? He is just along for the ride. Your ‘friend’ that got chopped up? I think I recognize her.. Maddox, isn’t it? I knew her father before he passed. The mayor of Lakewood. Such an honorable title. It’s a shame that couldn’t protect him from a knife half as good as it protected him from law enforcement. He was a corrupt man, I’m sure you know that, you’ve lived in Lakewood your a whole life. You’ve seen the scams, you’ve seen his daughter countlessly defend him, I’m sure, and if that’s true… she’s just as corrupt as he was.” Noah lets out a sigh, thinking about everything that Troy said, allowing it to sink in. “From what I know about you, that’s not your crowd and you’re living a dangerous life just by being in that crowd. Everything the Duval family touches is cursed. Everyone that Maggie got close with as a kid died, and the same is happening with Emma. It doesn’t matter if you catch THIS killer, Noah. They’re going to keep coming until she and everyone close to her are dead. Until you distance yourself from the Duval family, death is inevitable. Why do you think I moved away?”

“Actually, no disrespect, Mr. James, but death is inevitable either way.” Noah says without meaning to be sarcastic. “I know what you’re saying, but these are my friends. Did I picture myself being in Troy James’ house with Emma Duval and Brooke Maddox in the future, two years ago? No, definitely not. But life always takes crazy twists and turns and my craziness brought me here and despite everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t change it for the world.” Troy nods his head, understanding. After a few seconds pass, Troy responds.

“I understand that, Noah. I can tell you’re a good kid though. I don’t want you caught up in their problems. Obviously I can’t make your decisions for you, but I do want you to keep in mind this conversation when you’re staring at a knife plunging towards you.”

Noah doesn’t know if what Troy had said is lack of communication skills or a threat, but either way he no longer feels comfortable being alone in the same room as Troy, which works out for him, because right as the two have a bit of lingering eye contact, Emma walks into the room. “We got Brooke in the car. Let’s go.”

Noah nods. “Right behind you this time.” Noah nods his head towards Troy as Troy waves his hand goodbye at the two. He continues waving until the whole group is out the door. Once he sees them leave the room through his window, he shuffles into the room beside the room that Brooke was laying in. He pulls out a drawer from under the bed and opens up the lid covering it. It reveals Brandon James’ mask.