Scream the MTV Series S4E9 - "Beneath the Mask, Part One"

EPISODE NINE

“Beneath The Mask, Part One”

Police sirens are heard in the distance. Wailing. Echoing through all of Lakewood as their focus is one hundred percent on the James farm. The barn that Emma, Noah, Stavo and Andrew had seen Larius disappear into is completely surrounded by police cars and policemen behind the cars, preparing to shoot if necessary. With Sheriff Acosta dead, the department has been in shambles, but looks to have confidently got their guy as two officers stand on the side of each door. “Prepare!” The one who seems to be leading the haul, behind the cars yells as the rest ready their guns. “Open!” He yells again as the two officers on each side of the door pull the door open, with the rest of the officers having their gun pointed at the entrance.

“Hault!” The leader yells as the rest of the officers unaim their guns. There’s a rocking chair with a dark figure sitting on it. The stench from opening the door hits the officers who’d opened it. The plug their nose, walking in, shining a flashlight at the chair. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” One of the officers says once his eye catches what’s in the chair. The first thing seen is a sign that says ‘GOT YA’ but after a better look, the reality of what’s in the chair is even more eerie. The several day dead body of Denise Douglas. Limbs burnt from being killed in her own oven. Skin melted. This sight is stomach churning. Something unlike any other kill. This is sinister.

The person who was leading the charge walks into the barn to get a better look at what’s going on inside. “I want Larius Shore.” He says, “Go on a man hunt. Bring him to the station. Dead or alive.” The officer says, making it clear that he doesn’t care how they get Larius, they just need Larius gone.

I think I know where Brooke is! 2:44am

Emma’s phone dings, waking her up as she finally was beginning to doze off. She looks at it to see the text from Stavo. At first she is very skeptical of the late text but she notices the exclamation point, which they’d agreed was a symbol to show it’s them.

Sorry for texting.. Might be being watched. Meet me at the barn. Police evacuated. On the search for Larius! 2:44am

Emma’s heart starts pounding, she wants to believe that it’s Stavo and he’s been tipped off on where Brooke is, but something in her gut is telling her it’s a setup. One thing that she sees as a red flag is that he wants to meet at the barn. Memories run through her head, flashing back to when Kieran was the one behind the mask. The memories are so clear, unburying Noah from the casket he’d been buried alive in. Realizing the pig farm is where Jake was murdered at. Despite these jarring flashbacks, she puts her gut feeling aside, going with her heart, and texts back.

I’ll be there in thirty! 2:47am

A police car flies past Emma’s house with sirens on while Emma exits her front door. It’s nearly three in the morning and the whole small town of Lakewood is awake. Lights on from house to house. Police sirens keeping the noise and everybody on edge. Everybody on a manhunt for Larius Shore. As Emma walks over to her car, she begins wondering if Troy James is even a suspect. Troy James may be committing the perfect murders, working with Larius while Larius knowingly takes all of the fall. For what though? Troy is the one with the vengeance to get. Nothing to lose. Why would Larius be willing to take all of the blame when Troy is the puppeteer the whole time?

Police continue bolting down the roads of Lakewood. Emma joins them, but not in a hurry. She drives her car in an attempt to find her best friend, Brooke. She doesn’t keep pace with the frantic police, although speeding. One of the searching police clearly take note as the flashing lights that they’ve all kept on tonight begin following her. She knows it’s her cue to pull over. Once she comes to a stop at the side of the road, she punches the dash, irritated that she’d been pulled over. When the policeman walks up to her window, she recognizes him, but his face surprises her. It’s Dwayne. The officer that had been attacked by Kieran when he’d staged being kidnapped in the mirror house. He’d also played a role in the lockdown at George Washington High. It’d been only speculation if he’d passed from his wounds in the attack until now. He’s stayed out of the public’s eye and hasn’t been active as a police officer.

“Emma?” He says, being the first thing that leaves his mouth when she rolls down her window. Although not being close to her, being on the case with Miguel Acosta the last time, Dwayne knows very well who Emma Duval is. “I don’t know why I’m surprised… are you a vampire or something?” He jokes with her about being awake at these hours as he writes something down.

“If you think you’re surprised imagine me right now. Everybody’s awake right now. Everybody also thought you were dead…” She says with attitude in her voice, not lightening up to the familiar policeman. He straightens his posture noticing the tone in her voice which rubs him the wrong way.

“Talk is cheap. I’d retired from being a policeman after my attack. Too dangerous.” He’s still being nice, but his tone is no longer up beat and joking like he had been with her before.

“Yeah, seems like it.” She rolls her eyes, clearly angry about him pulling her over. He gives a confused look, not understanding why Emma is giving him so much back talk despite him being cool with her, because he recognizes her and knows her situation.

“I was offered the role of the sheriff after Miguel’s passing…” he hesitates after speaking on Miguel’s murder. Emma’s eyes dart up to his face, not realizing he was the new sheriff. “The pay was good and money was starting to become a concern. I made a decision for my family. I’m sure with everything you’ve been through how important family is.”

Emma nods, but with an eye roll again signaling ‘yeah, whatever.’ She then speaks out against him again. “Then, with all due respect ‘sheriff,’ why are you pulling me over while Larius is still on the loose?” Sheriff Dwayne raises his eyebrow at the question.

“You haven’t heard?” Emma tilts her head, wondering what she’d not heard yet. “The thoughts are that Larius skipped town. We aren’t searching for Larius anymore, neighboring towns department are on his case.” Emma’s even more confused now, wondering why all the police are roaming the town with their lights on and in a hurry. “We have gotten word from a very reliable source that Larius has been collaborating on these kills with someone… It makes sense how Acosta was murdered while Larius was in custody.”

“Any blind squirrel could have told you he has been plotting this with somebody. It’s Troy James. It’s Troy James. Troy was hiding Larius in his barn, that’s why Larius was staying while hiding out.” Sheriff Dwayne gives a puzzled look, writing down on his notepad again.

“Interesting theory.. We already have a face we’re searching for though…” Emma’s once again puzzled, being blinded by other possible suspects due to being so fixated on Troy James and Larius Shore. “How much do you know about Sheriff Acosta’s son, Gustavo?” Emma’s ears ring hearing Gustavo’s name pop up in the suspect list again. The texts that she’d just received from him, telling her to meet him at the James pig farm is the first thing in her memory.

How could she have been so blinded to something that may have been right in front of her the whole time? Maybe Larius and Troy James are guilty… That doesn’t mean Stavo is innocent. Has this whole thing been a ruse allowing Troy James AND Stavo Acosta to walk out innocent? Was Larius the elected sacrifice by the three to take the fall and allow the killings to continue after going to jail? Three killers instead of two. Stavo and Larius knew each other growing up, they were together and somebody died before that. Could blaming each other been a cover to throw everyone off of one of the two?

“We’re going to keep our search on. I’m going to let you off with a warning on that speeding that you were doing. My advice for you? Go home. Get some rest. Let us professionals do our job. I can only imagine what you’re doing out at this hour, but there’s no way that anything good can come of us.” Emma nods, finally lightening up to Sheriff Dwayne, after he’d filled her in on the situation and let her off with a warning. As Sheriff Dwayne turns around and gets in his car, driving away, Emma stays back a little bit and then heads back on the path that she’d been going before. Straight to the Troy James the Gustavo Acosta, latest suspect in the Lakewood slashing, had told her to go. Alone. No cops. No friends. Alone. If there are questions that need answered, Emma wants to be the one getting the answers. She’s tired of warped stories and perspectives. The only thing that she can have at this point is cold hard facts and the cold hard truth. Emma is tired of theories and games. She knows that this ends tonight.

✟

Emma’s car pulls up into the grass of the pig farm. Emma’s very aware that she could be pulling in to her own demise with Stavo, being who texted her, now a suspect, on Troy James property, who’s been a suspect and Larius Shore, who undoubtedly has connections with both of the other two suspects, while being a suspect himself. As she gets out of her car, she wonders why she’s always in a position like this.

No Stavo anywhere in sight. Caution tapes surround the barn. Emma knows something went on inside there, but the police department has kept everything since the George Washington High murders off social media. Her phone rings as she approaches the barn. Unknown caller. Emma answers and talks before they have a chance to say anything. “Who is it this time? Stavo? Troy? Larius?” she’s clearly mad and very rightfully so. She’s been manipulated and toyed with for weeks now. “Can you at least have the manners to tell me which one of you psychopaths I’m talking to right now?”

The voice on the other line chillingly laughs and then disregards her request to know who was talking. “Thank you for covering for me back there.” the voice says. “It’d be a shame if Dwayne knew about you coming her tonight, wouldn’t it?”

“What do you want. You got me here. Here I am. All alone! You want me dead? Kill me.” She’s bold, demanding the voice behind the phone to take action.

“And stop having fun so soon? You’ll know my face soon enough… Until then. You think you’re so sure that you know the faces behind the mask? Tell me which one of your three little theories you think is talking to you right now?” She hesitates before answering.

“You told me to come here, Stavo. You wanted me here alone so you could kill me. You used Brooke as bait.” After she guesses that it’s Stavo, there’s a longing silence. Dramatic pause, waiting for the voice to confirm or deny the claim.

After a few seconds pass, the distorted voice screams into the phone. “WRONG ANSWER!” The call ends as the person on the other line hangs up the phone. Emma looks down at her phone, scared, waiting for something to happen after the call ends. A few more lingering seconds pass and her phone buzzes. A text from Stavo’s phone number. Emma opens the text and it’s a short video clip. She clicks the clip and sees what seems to be a picture of a tied up Stavo, until a baseball bat comes speeding through, knocking him upside the head jarringly hard. Emma gasps and locks her phone, noticing the video was filmed in the barn. Emma pockets her phone and stands at the closed barn doors wondering if her next move should be to open them or run.

In instincts, Emma charges the barn door, prying it open with a crowbar that was sitting beside the door, seemingly being used to lock the door from the outside. She wields it after opening the door, ready to swing. The chair that Stavo had been seated on in the video that she was sent is sitting in place, however he’s missing. Replaced by Brooke. There is a paper stapled on the wooden chair that she sits on. Emma frantically calls an ambulance for her friend, tending to her. While she knows she alive and conscious, she pulls off the paper that’s stapled to the chair Brooke sits on.

Dear Troy, Of course I feel bad for everything. How couldn’t I? The way it all happened.. I don’t think I can ever forgive myself. The most comfort I’m going to get is that you forgive me. On the topic, your forgiveness is the only thing that will put me at ease. I think Kevin has been getting on to this and I don’t know what to do to get the weight off my shoulders. I feel like I’m about to snap. There’s so much pressure on me right now and it seems like nobody is willing to support me or nugget. There’s no way that Kevin will want anything to do with her after he finds out who the father is.. I can’t say I blame him. He’s not perfect but I feel like sometimes I catch myself pushing him away because… I feel like he deserves better. I’m messing up his life. I’m messing up yours too. I feel like my existence is an inconvenience. I only hurt the people who care about me. I always hurt the people who care about me. That’s all I know. I feel like one day I might accidentally take things too far, and if I do, I feel like somebody will get hurt. If Kevin ever finds out for sure… I think I’m going to LOSE IT.

Sincerely, Daisy

“Mom…” Emma’s heart drops after reading the letter, as police sirens sound and ambulances close in.. Sincerely Daisy. Emma’s mind jumps straight to the mind of a high school Maggie Duval. She was clearly referring to her first born, Piper when she’d said nugget. She said that Kevin wouldn’t want anything to do with ‘nugget’ once he found out who the father was, which was referring to Piper’s father, Brandon James. She connects all the dots of the note in her head. The last line stands out the most to her though. ‘If Kevin ever finds out for sure… I think I’m going to lose it.’ That connects the final dot that the story has been missing this whole time. Everyone has been missing this whole time. Brandon James didn’t commit 1994 murders… Emma, in a panic, turns around and runs back to her car. She starts the engine and drives off, speeding out of the area she’d parked in, despite police rolling into the scene to tend to Brooke.

Pounding the dashboard, Emma tries to get her car to go faster. The fear of being pulled over in this situation dawns on her. She can’t allow anyone to follow her back to her house, she knows that if her mother is actually doing this and actually framed Brandon James in ‘94, then she will not hesitate to shoot anyone who’s on to her.

Emma’s mind is full of all the possibilities as she’s driving to her own house. She’s coming up with her own theories in a “Noah Foster” type fashion. She wonders if Maggie had collaborated with Brandon James for the ‘94 attacks. She wonders if Brandon willingly took the wrap for the murders that Maggie committed, or if Maggie just did it and framed Brandon without any compassion. She hates to paint a picture of a murderer with her own mother, but she feels that she has no reason not to. It has been right before her the whole time. That’s the real reason Piper was so upset with the family. Not because they abandoned her… They got her father killed… on purpose.

She whips the car into her own driveway and opens the front door. Inside, the first thing she sees is the thing that catches her eye. Her father, knocked out cold. Blood dripping off of his forehead. Tied up in a chair. “Dad… Dad… Dad…” Emma whispering, creeping over to her father.

“Where am I?” He asks, clearly groggy as she shakes him trying to wake him up. He seems out of it.

“We need to get you out of here.” She whispers still trying to keep quiet, trying not to wake up her mom, who in which, she believes to be the one behind the attack. Right when she gets Kevin’s hands untied from behind his back, the lights upstairs turn on… Maggie’s bedroom lights. She begins to walk down the stairs not wearing glasses.

“What’s going on down here?” Maggie says in a seemingly tired voice. Emma reacts by grabbing a knife off the counter top.

“Stop right there, don’t move.” Emma yells up at her mom who’s halfway down the stairs. Maggie continues down them, ignoring the orders by her knife wielding daughter. “I said stop!”

“What are you doing, Emma?” Maggie’s in her bed clothes, it looks like she’d been asleep. She was in bed before Emma left and Kevin hadn’t been in the living room yet… “What’s Kevin doing here?”

“You tell me, Mom! You’re the one who knocked him upside the head and tied him up for me to find!!” Her voice loudens, almost in a threatening way.

“Have you lost it Emma?” Maggie asks, still approaching Emma, acting confused.

“No. You have!” Emma is in hysteria. “Dad found out about Piper… You lost it.. You did it. It was you! Not Brandon James. You’re the reason Brandon James is dead.” Maggie’s eyes scrunch up in confusion. It’s clear that she has no idea what Emma’s talking about.

“Brandon James… killed… those people in 1994. He snapped.” Maggie says, putting her head down, knowing she didn’t do it. A tear runs down her face as Emma still holds the knife towards her mother. That’s when there’s a voice heard behind Emma.

“Actually he didn’t… But Maggie didn’t either.” Emma turns around to see her own father, the same man that she’d untied, holding a gun that must have been hidden in his waistband. He points it towards Emma and Maggie.

“Dad…” Emma says his name, the way it leaves her mouth is a combination of sadness and confusion. “Why?” Kevin’s face continues growing red in the heat of the moment. The adrenaline running through him.

“You want to know why?” He laughs. “Your theory was so, so, so close. But a different plot twist ending. You’re right, Emma… Brandon didn’t kill anybody in 1994. That was me. Just like it was me who killed your little friend Audrey and all the other people that you were all so close to. Sheriff Acosta? Gina? Those were all me too.. Don’t act like your mother is innocent though. I may have been the one with the knife in my hand, but she’s the one with the blood on her hands… She DROVE ME TO THIS POINT!” He yells, kicking the chair over that he was sitting on, breaking it. He’s clearly full of emotion… and alcohol.. He walks over to Maggie and pushes her against the wall with the gun to her head “Didn’t you, Maggie?” Sweat drops down her face, as he wipes it off with a napkin that he had in his pocket. “Why don’t you tell our dear daughter, Emma, about all of the sneaking around, the cheating, the getting IMPREGNATED BY A DAMN MUTANT!” His voice raises again while he still has the gun to Maggie’s head, not knowing if he should pull the trigger or allow her to suffer in fear. “I’m sure by now, Emma you know about your half-sister, Piper James… You don’t think that she found her way here on her own do you? Sure Audrey brought her in, but where do you think she got the story on her family? Audrey brought the killer, but I created her.. Along with her mutant father Brandon and her adulterous mother, Maggie.” He laughs for a second. “Honestly, I was more of a parent in her life than either of them were. I figured it was my duty, considering Maggie and I were still together when she had her! And she expected me to brush it aside. She hid it at first, but you can only hide a pregnancy for so long… You want to know why I killed those people in 1994 and framed Brandon James? I found out. I found out that Maggie and him had been sleeping around while I was with her. I had to make both pay.. The only way to do that was to make Brandon suffer. Maggie hated to see him suffer, DIDN’T YOU MAGGIE?!” He redirects his attention to the gun pointed at Maggie’s head. “So I dressed up like the monster. I killed a few people and the whooooole world thought that he did it, and he knew if he said that he didn’t he’d be shot and prosecuted on the spot, so he had no other option but to go on the run.” Maggie begins to cry.

“It’s true.” Maggie says in tears. “That night we met at the dock… He had been telling me he didn’t do it. I didn’t believe him. He told me he was going to turn himself in because he knew he could get off because he didn’t do it. I didn’t get to tell him anything before he got shot.” Maggie continues crying as Kevin puts the gun at the bottom of her chin and raises her head back to facing him, and then aims it at her forehead again.

“How touching. What a sad story, Maggie. Only if you believed him… Maybe he’d still be here. Like I said, the knife was in my hands, but the blood was on yours.” Emma interupts her father to ask a question

“So why come back and continue it 26 years later?” Emma asks, “Did the thrill wear off?” Emma kind of insults her father’s killings, saying that he’s only doing it for the thrill, despite him just going into detail about his reasoning.

“History repeats itself, Emma.” Kevin says, dropping Maggie and pointing his gun at the head of Emma now, walking closer towards her. “Not just in serial killers, but adultresses too. Do you know why I left in the first place, Emma? I doubt you do. Your mother always lied to make herself look better. It wasn’t because I was drinking too much or getting aggressive, don’t listen to that bullshit she probably feeds you. I left because I started to suspect you’re not my daughter.” Emma’s heart drops hearing those words, but drops even more when she hears the safety of the gun click off as Kevin walks closer to her. “I’m sure you found that note that I’d left for you at the barn… That wasn’t from high school. That was from a few years ago while I was still living at home. I found it at the barn while I was staying there before I’d moved in with Monica. The only thing keeping me from losing it again was the thought of you actually being my daughter and my delusions were the reason I suspected otherwise. When I found that note though… That was all the validation that I’d needed. My suspicions were right. You’re not my daughter, Emma. You share more blood with Brandon James than you thought…. Troy James is your father.” Emma’s jaw drops

“That’s why you framed him… That’s why I was lead to believe that he’d been the one behind the mask.” Kevin nods, still pointing his gun at Emma’s head.

“Because history repeats itself… I got Brandon killed when Maggie cheated on me with him and now I’ll get Troy killed because Maggie cheated on me with him and the best part? Troy is already the brother of a killer… They’ll never believe he’s innocent.” Kevin laughs

“The cops didn’t suspect Troy, they’ve been after Larius this whole time. Troy is still free…” Kevin shakes his head.

“Modern problems call for modern solutions. The cops in Lakewood haven’t been a threat for years. I figured the best way to go about this was to get you to put a bullet in your father’s brain by yourself. I had to speed things up though, Sheriff Dwayne is a little less incompetent than I’d previously believed. I put a bullet in Troy’s head earlier today. I’m going to drag him in here after I do the same to you two and I’m going to make it look like a double suicide murder.”

“What was the deal with framing Larius?” Emma continues the questions, clearly stalling Kevin at this point as Maggie tries to sneak away. Kevin laughs at the question.

“Honestly I didn’t even need to. He made it easy. I knew that him and Troy James knew each other from their old town and there was a chance that he’d get drug into it… but are we serious? He was staying with him!! Two birds, one stone, I guess. Larius gets arrested. Troy gets killed. I get off scotch free. Now the only thing to do is finish you two off.” He says, getting ready to pull the trigger of the gun he has aimed at Emma Duval, that’s when he’s struck with the same chair that he was sitting in when Emma had arrived. The chair breaks into even more pieces after Maggie cracked it over his back. Kevin drops to the ground in pain. The wooden chair shatters into shards, piercing against his skin as he yelps out in pain.

“Emma run, call the police.” Maggie shouts at Emma. Emma takes off up the stairs and begins to dial on the phone. Meanwhile, Maggie goes to run but is tripped up by Kevin, grabbing her leg. The gun that he’d been threatening his own family with had flown across the floor. That’s what Maggie was running for and Kevin recognized it right away. Maggie stretches off the floor, trying to grab the gun, but Kevin keeps a tight lock on her foot. He takes a knife, assumably the one that he used in his killings, and slits the achilles of his ex-wife, Maggie. Now it’s Maggie yelling for help as blood begins to run from her foot. Kevin laughs and turns back to reach for the gun, when he looks in the gun’s direction, it’s not there. It’s replaced by a pair of feet. He follows the feet up the legs to the face to see Emma standing over him holding the gun. She shows no fear in her eyes. She shows only anger. The person to blame for everything that’s happened to her and her friends is laying right at the end of the barrel.

“Emma…” Kevin says softly, slowly standing up. She keeps the gun aimed at his head the whole way through standing up. “You didn’t really believe all those things I said, did you?” Kevin hangs his head low. “I was angry. Worked up. Emma… Come on. You can’t really believe I’m not your father can you? I RAISED YOU. Emma… Please” Kevin takes steps slowly towards Emma, but Emma notices, backing up as he gets closer. “I know I’ve caused you a lot of pain, my dear… At the end of the day though, you’re my blood.” Kevin non-malignantly reaches into his coat pocket. Emma’s eyes scrunch, confused at what he’d grabbed from it. “Which means you’re just like me!” He yells into a voice changer, that made his voice into the voice that would call Emma’s phone. He lunges towards her and she instinctively takes a shot, hitting him in the chest. The power of the gun knocks Emma back a little bit, but Kevin drops to the floor mid lunge. His eyes, remain open as his hand covers the bullet hole, bleeding out instantly.

“Mom!!” Emma says dropping the gun and running over to Maggie, who’s still heavily bleeding from her leg. Emma rips off one of her own flannel sleeves and ties it around Maggie’s leg to try to slow down the bleeding. “The police are on their way, I’m sure an ambulance is too… You’re going to be okay-” Emma says as she’s cut off by a gunshot. Blood splatters onto her face. Maggie’s face turns red, from blood running down a hole in her forehead. Emma’s jaw drops as her own mother’s body goes limp in her arms. Too shocked to cry. Too shocked to do anything. She turns her head towards the direction the shot came from to see Kevin laying on the floor, holding his chest where he was shot and holding his gun that Emma dropped right beside him, assuming he was dead.

Her hand now covers her own mouth in disbelief. Kevin aims the gun at Emma, ready to shoot. He then grunts in pain and points it at his own head. “You’re just like me.” He says, firing his gun. Emma screams as police sirens are heard in the background. Emma still is holding her mother’s deceased body in her arms. Blood runs down the body and down the limbs of Emma. She reflects off everything that’d just happened as the sirens grow closer and closer. Traumatized.

✟

Emma Duval sits in the back of an ambulance with a blank stair. Her boyfriend Andrew Wizworth stands in front of her holding her hands. Her head is rested on her best friend, Brooke Maddox who shares a blanket with her. Noah sits on the other side of her, with his arm around her to comfort her. “So now what?” Brooke asks, as Emma is completely out of the loop, and rightfully so.

“It’s over…” Noah says, rubbing Emma’s back. A tear drops from Emma’s eye.

“It’s over…” Emma repeats him.

This whole time Emma’s been punished for mistakes that her mother had made. Her mother cheated on Kevin with Brandon which drove him to be a serial killer in the first place, her mother hid Piper, her daughter, Emma’s half-sister, from the world, which drove her to become a serial killer. Her mother cheated on Kevin again, which apparently was the result of her being born. Kevin found out and continued the killings. Everything that’s bad that has happened to Emma, to Brooke, to Noah… Was all a result of Maggie Duval’s decisions. Now Maggie Duval is dead.

Now Emma Duval’s decisions finally are the ones that matter.

What does this matter to her though? She’s been beaten, torn into, cut up, traumatized. Her own boyfriend tried killing her. Her own mother died in her arms. Is Emma gone beyond repair?

Will normal ever actually be normal? Is this really over? Sometimes, people are wrong… Even people who’ve spent their whole lives studying and romanticizing moments like these. Noah’s face is caring and genuine. He truly believes it’s over.. What about the video of Stavo that Emma had seen on her phone before entering the jarringly empty barn though? Sure, Kevin could have pre recorded the video and already killed Stavo, but the thought that Stavo isn’t there has yet to dawn on the Lakewood crew as the mourning of Emma’s mother Maggie and thought-to-be father, Kevin’s death commences.

✟

“HEEEEELPPPPP!” A familiar voice is heard. “CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!?!” It’s evident that the voice is in pain and distress. After a flashlight is shined, it’s evident that the familiar voice is Stavo Acosta. Footsteps echo in the area that he’s laying in. “HELP! PLEASE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!” The footsteps walk over to Stavo, it’s somebody wearing the Brandon James mask. Kevin Duval is dead. The person behind the mask holds a baseball bat over their shoulder. Stavo is incapable of moving, it’s not known why until the flashlight that the person holding the baseball bat shines onto his leg. Stavo is contained to the ground with a bear trap on his leg. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STARING AT? FREAKIN’ HELP ME!”

The person holding the bat puts it up to Stavo’s chin and raises his head with it. You can tell that by the red gash on Stavo’s head, this isn’t from when the video of him being hit by the bat that Emma saw was recorded. He’d already been struck with the bat once. “What are you waiting for.” Stavo’s voice changes from helpless to angry. “Just finish me off already… What are you keeping me here for?”

The person in the mask tilts their head and lowers the bat. They walk around Stavo before cranking the bat behind their back and smacking his wounded leg with the bat. Stavo yells out in pain grabbing for his leg that the bat made contact with. The person that had hit Stavo with the bat begins to walk away. Stavo’s cries for help in silence, leaving him in the darkness, slowly losing hope. The light turns back around and something lands on top of Stavo. His nose crinkles from the stench of the object that landed on top of him. He rolls it off of himself. A body.

The bloody corpse of Kevin Duval. There’s no time frame from when this is between the incident in Emma’s house and now, but according to the light decay of Kevin looks like it’s been a week maximum. He gasps, not knowing the context of the situation. “Is that-” right before he can finish his thought, another one lands on him. This time it’s Maggie he rolls off of himself. “Oh my God.” He doesn’t know if another body is gonna follow, but he gets his answer quick when the person with a bat stands over him again, instead of tossing another body.

They put their finger to their face telling Stavo to ‘shh’ then they look over their shoulder, behind them. After they look back at Stavo, they drive the bat into the abdomen section of Stavo. He grabs at his stomach, yelping for pain as the mysterious figure continues to menacingly stare at him. They then reach into their pocket pulling out a kitchen knife. “Oh, no no no no...!” Stavo struggles to get free, pulling at his injured leg on the trap, somehow trying to get it out.

The person puts their knife to Stavo’s throat, but hesitates once again, and turns their head, lowering the knife. As they begin to walk away, they turn around and boot Stavo in the face, knocking him to his back instead of the sitting position he was in. The person then turns around and exits the door, being lost in the bright like of the outside, to the point it’s they’re only a figure. This isn’t over. A killer is still on the loose.