Gabriel is a lonely child, but their one and only friend plans to fix that as best she can, inviting them on a trip for the weekend of Halloween to a pair of cabins rented by her girlfriend.
They agree, not knowing that the journey will involve him making various news frends, and also discovering fundamental things about themself they likely would have never even guessed.
Oh, and also, an infamous serial killer escaped from an asylum and is headed their way, because sometimes people really can't catch a break.
CW: Character death (bloodless), ableism, inadvertent misgendering
Hello, hello! Just in time for Halloween! A meme gave me this idea for a story, and it simply wouldn't let me go, so here we are. It's technically a horror story, but it is also very heavily character-centric, the slasher elements are more aesthetic than anything largely, and I don't think you need to be a fan of horror or slasher movies in specific to get something out of it, for what it's worth. And there will be a lot of queerness of course, because someone has to make up for the clear deficit.
This would not be remotely as good without the assistance of a good deal of people. Such as my delightful beta readers, including one friend not on SV, @NemoMarx, @Shadell, and @veteranMortal, with @Squidfam and @UrsaTempest also giving valuable feedback!
For the record I don't expect this to be overly long, just a few chapters, though that could change. I have the second chapter partially written out, with some work still to do. This story does have a lot of heart put into it, so I do hope you enjoy, or get something out of it!
Incidentally, the story is, in addition to some personal emotional value, a love letter to a lot of the horror movies I enjoyed when younger, and often still do. There are a colossal amount of references to horror works, mostly movies though a couple exceptions, in this chapter alone, and a free like to anybody that can find any!
Also as a bit of shilling, some of the conceptual work here was inspired by Shadell's fic, A Little Vice. I do some beta work on it, and it's an absolutely delightful story that is absolutely worthy of more fans and love!
So, on with the show.
Chapter 1: ??? and October 27th, 2023
She knew he was coming. And so she stood near the front door of the cabin, bat in hand. She wasn't experienced with using it as a weapon but she could absolutely make do. She had carefully positioned herself, and it certainly wasn't into a defense stance; she was ready. She knew she had to do something. In the name of the people that had already died to this man, in the name of the people that still had a chance at living, she knew that she had one goal- to protect the people that she had already grown to hold so dear, at any cost. If it put her life on the line, so be it.
<i>Creak.</i>
A pause. Her body reflexively tensed, and her ears perked to pick up any further sounds.
<i>Creak.</i>
Yep. Another one. He was definitely coming. She knew it; those footsteps absolutely weren't any of the girls; they were too hesitant- not those of prey desperately trying to find some escape or allies trying to come to the rescue and check if she was alright, but steps of a predator desperately trying to go unnoticed. But he had underestimated her because oh, had she noticed him. She edged closer to the door, trying her best to not make any noise. What would he do? Try to break it down? Break the lock? She wasn't entirely sure, but whatever it was, she was ready.
She would never have considered herself a potential horror movie heroine, in many senses of the word, but that didn't matter now. What mattered now was the safety of both her friends, and herself. It took her a second to realize that she'd just thought she mattered. But no time to reflect on that right now.
She could hear the crack of wood as the man's knife managed to pierce the cabin door, causing hairline fractures. He thrust again and again, until he had pierced a large enough hole in the wood. He then reached in, his gloved fingers grasping for the lock to the door. She couldn't stop him now, he would get in very shortly. So she moved into a swinging position, and prepared herself.
He knew it was a dream. Only in a dream could the radio static fade to blissful mental silence. He appeared to be in some kind of forest, coastal redwoods towered above him. The resulting colossal shadows to his north framed the midday sun on both sides, and there were vibrantly green bushes, some cloaked in shadow, as well as flowers of various colors and types- he wasn't really a flower person but recognized both roses and daisies. They were scattered in-between the redwoods haphazardly with no clear purpose or intended pattern. Much of the grass on the ground sparkled with morning dew, though there were no other signs of rainfall. He wandered onward listlessly, his white tennis shoes crushing the blades of grass, at times stomping on an unfortunately placed rose. Might as well see where this dream takes him, he decided.
After what felt like millennia trekking through the foliage- his hands mindlessly brushing away non-existent bush remnants off his slick, smooth black shorts- he finally found some true direction. There was a sharp fork in the road, with two well-traveled dirt paths standing before him. One, on the left, led further into the forest. The sun was completely blotted out by the even taller and clearly dying and decaying trees along the pathway, giving the entire potential walk a decided ominous timbre. The dirt path, surrounded by dull colored, clearly dying grass closed in on itself further and further as it went on, giving him a feeling of utter claustrophobia just looking at it. He shuddered slightly, and glanced at the path that led rightward. Unlike its counterpart, the grass was green and still had a slight sparkle to it. There was a smattering of brightly colored roses carefully positioned along the path's side, looking akin to a red carpet of sorts. And in the middle, between the towering, well-kept trees, was a shining halo of light from the sun; a light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel.
The sun's beacon in particular was alluring, so he headed right. The ground on the path before him was bare aside from thoroughly trodden-on dirt, letting him jaunt along at his leisure. A weird sort of spontaneous exuberance hit him, and the walk turned into a skip, his feet flitting merrily above the ground, ending in light kicks before touching back down to Earth again. He could even swear that as he approached his destination, he started to hear tones of melodic, heavenly birdsong. As the boy reached the clearing at the end of the path, he spontaneously chose to do a fun little twirl, kicking his elevated right leg high in the air and transitioning into a full-on spin, before safely landing on both feet.
There wasn't really much at his destination, he realized. Immediately in front of him were two cabins, tall wooden things that had two floors, the top floor on both adorned with two stainless glass windows, one on the left side, one on the right. The polished wood shined in the light. To the left was a large lake, serene and peaceful, utterly static, a beacon of tranquility. The baby blue coloration was accompanied by sparkles that instinctively made him want to shut his eyes, before realizing the light didn't burn. If anything, it was rejuvenating and-
RIIIING! RIIIING! RIIING!
Gabriel's eyes slowly fluttered open, and he grumbled dully to himself as his hands fumbled for the cellphone, his large hands desperately clawing at his blue bedsheets.
RIING! RIIING! RIING!
His eyes slammed open fully and his aimless grabbing finally allowed him to clutch the offending black noisemaker in his right hand. He went through the laborious process of flipping the phone open, saw that the caller ID declared the caller to be "Laurie", and sleepily answered the phone as he put it to his ear. As he did so he sat up on his bed and stretched his legs slightly.
"Heya," he said, the grogginess not having left his voice, giving it an even more unpleasant cadence to his ear than normal.
"Heeeya!" Echoed, if far less sleepily, the chirpy (and all-too-loud) cry of his best—and to be honest, only—friend. Gabriel reflexively rubbed his left temple with his free hand.
"Can you please mind the volume Laur," he grumbled, his eyes darting to find the clock on the wooden counter to the right of his bedside. "It's only…" he finally found the small black-colored block of a clock, and his eyes absorb the red digits. "... 2:30 P.M." He finished dully.
"Yeah, most people aren't you, you know. We like having a day!" that friend, appellation Laurie Curtis, said. The tone was playful but there was a hint of a pout in there; Gabriel knew that Laurie continually bugged him to actually have a reasonable sleep schedule… but what was the point really? If there wasn't any school to use to kill time, what was there to do? Just whittle the day away— chat with strangers online, do some stuff on his role-playing forum. Nothing really exciting, nothing really interesting. It was just one day among many. They were all the same, really.
"Yeah, yeah." He mumbled. They'd had this debate countless times before, and he knew that sparring over the issue once again would do no good. They both knew this dance by heart at this point, both of them clearly entrenched. So he decided to switch the tempo.
"So why did you call? Something up?" If he recalled correctly, Laurie was planning some kind of outing with her other friends that started tomorrow. He wasn't sure why she suddenly felt the need to call him. It made it feel like Laurie felt a constant need to "check in" on him, and he winced at the thought. Surely he wasn't that much of a burden on her. He pressed his eyes with his free hand for a second, both to push away the thought and in an attempt to overcome sleep inertia and jar himself into full wakefulness.
"Oh, right! Well… funny thing," Laurie said, almost sounding a little sheepish. "See, one of my friends, Lynda, can't come on our trip. Her girlfriend is sick… can't remember what she has," Laurie pauses for a moment, humming, as though desperately trying to summon the particular ailment to mind. Gabriel wasn't sure why it even mattered, really, but gave her the time to think. "Nah, still can't remember! A cold or something, I think." He could just see in his mind's eye Laurie's stylish blonde twintails swaying as she rapidly shook her head. "Anyhows, not super important I guess!"
"... And this meant you called me… why?" He knew he was being a bit rude, and felt bad for it, but he really didn't understand why this resulted in her forcing him awake. While the details were at this point incredibly vague and rapidly slipping endlessly further away, he thought it had been a pretty pleasant dream, and the basis of the call simply being because she thought him a charity case loomed ominously before him.
"Don't be grumpy! This is an opportunity!" She cheered. "Time for you to actually meet some people, make some memories! All my friends are coming, it'll be a great time!"
"I know none of these people." He retorted. Alright, he understood now. He knew another scheme when he heard one. Laurie had always been a bit of a busybody, poking around his life, trying to make him "make more friends" or "get a girlfriend, already!" He admired the idea and energy put behind it, but no matter what she tried, nothing clicked. It felt like she could have spent time doing so many more worthwhile things.
His friend was utterly undeterred. "Which is exactly why I'm asking you to come! You need life experiences that are outside that dump you call a room. Cmoooon!" This unconsciously made Gabriel take stock of that aforementioned room—clothes were scattered this way and that, but decidedly not in the large, convenient, blue basket, as was always to his mother's displeasure. He also appraised the two somewhat bare and slightly worn wooden shelves, the sides having slight chips. Empty snack bags were littered at their feet. Okay, he'd give her this one.
That aside, weren't there going to be, like, six or so other girls there? The thought of being around so many people made him move from rubbing his temple to using his left ring finger to spin a bit of his brown hair in a knot. It was a bad habit, but twirling his hair was one he had picked up when much younger, and never quite grew out of. Laurie pressed on regardless. "I've told them all about you! It's not like you're a stranger- you're basically one of the girls already!" Gabriel rolled his eyes. Perhaps sensing his continued reluctance, she finished her closing argument with an earnest "Pleeeease?".
Even if he knew Laurie hadn't told them about him, not really- there was no way they could be on-board with this if they actually knew what he was like- he respected how hard she was trying. And what was the harm in it, really? Just a few days doing… whatever the girls were doing (going camping, he thought? Something like that) and then back to his everyday life. How bad could it go, really?
Plus it would make Laurie happy.
The boy let out a reluctant sigh, nodded, and then remembering that he was having a phone conversation, said "Ok. What should I pack?" Laurie let out an exuberant cheer (Gabriel really didn't know where she found all her boundless enthusiasm) and said "Oh, don't worry about that! Just bring your lovely self, we'll handle everything! The girls are going to be so happy!"
He sincerely doubted that, but whatever floated her boat, he supposed. And without so much as a farewell, his friend hung up.
Still somewhat lethargic, Gabriel stumbled out of bed, trying to straighten out his ruffled black t-shirt and blue shorts. He always wore his clothes to sleep, he never got the appeal people got out of sleeping naked, frankly. Not for him. He thought about changing them but… eh, he wasn't going out today anyway. No real point.
With nothing else to do, and no real way to prepare for whatever Laurie exactly had planned for tomorrow, he floated over to the red laptop that sat on the counter on the right wall of his rather spartan and generic room. He quickly started up the computer, and his fingers flew across the keys as he quickly went to his favorite roleplaying site to waste away another day.
As she hung up her bright pink cellphone and set it on the nearby desk, Laurie's always-present smile stretched into a full-out grin. Alright, Mission Complete! Sure, it really sucked that Lyd couldn't come, and she hoped Annie got over Whatever It Was soon. As she always said, though, there was an upside to every dark cloud. She'd wanted so badly for Gabe to make some other friends, and though the many, many previous attempts had ended in tragic failure, this was the first step to the exception! She was sure of it!
The burst of optimism caused her to softly clapped her hands together jubilantly, her eyes momentarily distracted by how pretty the new red nail polish looked on her, then sprang out of her chair, already revving up to prepare for her next task. It was a busy busy day, and she had to make sure she had everything in order. She closed her eyes, and let the mental checklist materialize in her mind—Get up and wash hair, check! Change into some new clothes, check! Check that everybody besides Lyd was still on board, check! Check on Lyd and Annie, check! And now, rope in Gabe. Humongous, golden check!
Laurie then paused, as she realized there was a dead zone in her mental schedule. She was going to go chill with Lyd later, but that wasn't for... she quickly checked her watch and saw it wasn't even half past two yet... so another two hours or so. Siiiigh. What was a girl to do when she had nothing to do?
Well, might as well see who was online to kill some time, she decided. She walked over to her computer, a bulky tan desktop that was directly below one of the slightly worn poster of a younger Jennifer Anniston scattered throughout her room; one of her first real crushes. She turned the computer on, and quickly scrolled her mouse over to her chat client of choice. After it opened she glanced at the left bar, which was absolutely crowded with servers and private chats; she noticed that the group chat for the trip was buzzing- already over 100 messages since she checked earlier that morning. She quickly clicked it and started scrolling.
<TheyAreJustBlue>: Listen, Sal, I know you like the movie, but I really don't think… <TryhardTexan>: Oh, not you too! Listen, I know a lot of people don't like the sequels after the second one, but it has a lot of neat new ideas and heart! I promise! <IStillKnow>: Was this one also produced by Weinstein, Sally? Be honest with me. ,TryhardTexan>: NO!!!! I've told you girls so many times!
She couldn't help but let out a giggle. God, her friends were such dorks about movies sometimes. Laurie had to admit that she was not exactly a cinephile herself, and horror movies were absolutely not her scene. All that gore? Potentially screaming her throat out? No, thank you. Give her a Rom Com any day of the week, please.
Honestly, she wasn't even that big on Halloween in general. Just didn't see the appeal, to be honest, now that there was no free candy on the table. Julie had suggested they binge some horror flicks, and Laurie had had to give that a firm veto. She was the one that had decided they should go camping, and fortunately Allie, the sweetie, volunteered a pair of cabins that their family rented in the fall. Though really, this entire vacation even being possible was thanks to their principal being a major weirdo. She, Gabe, and the other girls on the trip went to Sunnydale Private High, and the principal absolutely adored Halloween for some reason that she sure didn't understand. But regardless, he had arranged their school schedule so that the students would get the Friday before Halloween to the Thursday after off.
It was usually a bit of a bummer, especially since he cut into their Christmas break in exchange, but this year, that pesky black cloud was going to have a silver lining! They were going to have some fun, Gabe was going to make some friends! She'd better let them know the breaking news, though.
<TheStrobe>: Hiii everyone! <IStillKnow>: Oh, heya Laurs. How's it going? <TheStrobe>: Pretty good! Pretty gooood! So, I've got awesome news. <TryhardTexan>: Did you finally watch Scream 4??? I keep telling you girls it's so worth it but… <TheStrobe>: We both know I didn't, Sal, cmon. Try harder! <TheyAreJustBlue>: I assume Gabe's coming? <TheStrobe>: DING DING DING!
Laurie thrust a fist in the air in victory. Yes! Patti had remembered! She'd tried her best to talk Gabe up to the others to get them on board, and they'd all agreed by the end of her pleading and cajoling. She knew that if they got a chance, they'd see what a cool guy he was! Yeah, he was weird and mopey a lot of the time, but if you could just get him talking, there was a spark there, a whole other side to him. You just had to drag it out a little!
<UnluckyNumber>: Wait, sweetheart, you got him to agree? You said he was… kind of a hard nut to crack, as it were. <TheStrobe>: He absolutely is, but you just gotta know the magic words! <IStillKnow>: By which I assume you mean the right way to beg and badger, yeah? <TheStrobe>: Okay, yes, but listen, if you put it that way, it seems really mean! <UnluckyNumber>: You know she means it with love.
Laurie giggled slightly. She absolutely did, of course. Julie was a sweetheart, really. Her snark just gave her a bit of… extra spice, Laurie thought. It was really one of her charm points. She'd honestly always admired Julie, for both her hidden optimism and her playful tongue.
<BlowTheCandles>: Ah, he's actually coming? Hardcore. What kind of music does he dig? <TheStrobe>: He… isn't a huge fan of music? I think he likes a bunch of things! <TheStrobe>: Like I said, he reads a bit. Plays video games, does some roleplaying online, that sort of thing! <BlowTheCandles>: Sure, suure.
She really did wish she could have let Gabriel introduce himself to the others fresh, but the prep needed to happen. The poor guy is such a wet blanket, he'd probably jump off a bridge before actually letting himself socialize unless someone gave him a push. And that's what Laurie was here for.
<ISleep>: Oh, the guy you tried to sell us on is coming? Glad you didn't waste the effort. <TheStrobe>: Oh, Trish, you know I could never let you girls down. When it comes to getting what I want, I'm like a dog with a bone. <UnluckyNumber>: You are a bit of a biter…
<BlowTheCandles>: Oh my god please get a room. <IStillKnow>: Please. We're begging you, I don't need flirty nonsense, thanks. <UnluckyNumber>: The more you say that, the more likely I am to do it. You both know this.
Laurie smiled, Allie could be such a tease sometimes, she really did love that side of her.
<TheyAreStillBlue>: So, setting that aside… when are we meeting up tomorrow? <TheStrobe>: I would want to do it early… but Gabe really dislikes getting up before, like, 1. At earliest. <IStillKnow>: Kind of a mood, tbh. <TheStrobe>: So… let's try and meet up around 2, maybe? We should be able to get to the cabins in… around 2 hours, right Allie? <UnluckyNumber>: Absolutely not a problem! Shouldn't be any traffic on the way.
Laurie grinned. She honestly loved all her friends, and the Special Seven becoming the Excellent Eight (she had not run these nicknames by anyone, but they were too good to not use, at least internally) was going to be so much fun, and now everything was totally set up!
She quickly glanced at the computer clock, and realized she would be meeting Lyd in a bit over an hour at this point. She probably didn't need that long to get ready, but she did want to make sure she had fashionable clothes on, the blue shirt and blue jeans getup matched and were appropriately casual, but she could maybe do better. She needed to get some makeup on… yeah, better to be safe than sorry.
<TheStrobe:> Going to get ready to meet Lyd now! See you girls later! <UnluckyNumber:> See you tonight honey~ <BlowTheCandles:> OH MY GOD PLEASE DO NOT START.
Laurie covered her mouth as she let out another little giggle. She quickly closed the chat program and jumped away from her computer, and ran to her large, well-stocked wardrobe. Alright, next item to check off: look absolutely stylish for her little friend-date with Lyd!
"And… action!"
As Jimmy Whatshisname started the cam in front of the asylum as the sun set, Gale Storm made sure to give her best hundred watt smile. She nailed it perfectly, she was sure. She was born to nail it perfectly.
"Welcome, my intrepid watchers. I am your beautiful host Gale Storm, I stand here, in front of Danvers Asylum." She started with a theatrical bow, and then motioned with her right hand at the building in front of her; a large gray monstrosity, with deeply bland and modernist design that was appalling to all of her aesthetic sensibilities: the tall blocky exterior? The dull white coloring? God, please.
She lowered her voice a bit. Time to try and set a tone, Gale. You're good at being the storyteller. "This, my adoring viewers, is where Billy Myers is housed. It was ten years ago now, a dreadful case." She closed her eyes, emulating solemness to the best of her ability.
"Billy was born 28 years ago, and was a lonely boy with no real friends even when he was young," she began, waving her hand in the air in an appropriately dramatic fashion. "His father divorced the family and left him when he was young- nobody is quite sure what happened to him afterward." And Gale had done an insane amount of digging. Bastard could be dead for all she knew.
"For over a decade, his only real interaction was with his mother. Very little is known about that time: his mother adamantly has refused to say anything about her son since the murders, after all." Despite Gale's desperate pleading, bribing, and begging, of course. Goddamn bitch.
She carefully made sure the momentary spark of frustration didn't bleed into her voice. Stay professional. "All we know is that they spent many summers together at a pair of cabins a hundred miles from here or so." She extended her left arm upward and outward to gesture to the horizon her left side, toward a gravel road in incredibly poor condition, with the highway not too far away; he could even slightly hear the rumble of car engines. Okay, it was probably an awkward shot to capture, but so what? They'd figure it out. She could re-shoot in a different position if need-be. First takes are rarely perfect; she'd learned that in podcasting, but that applied just as well here too.
"Today, however, we're going to learn more. Far more. We're going to ask Billy himself why he did the things he did. What motivated him to murder all those innocent girls that Halloween night." She made sure to add a bit of a sorrowful emphasis to the words "innocent girls". She considered going the extra mile, miming brushing a tear out of her eye, but thought that was probably a bit too much.
"And after this ad break we will be there, in the asylum, talking to Billy Myers himself." She made a quick closing gesture with her left hand, carefully positioned outside the camera's sights, indicating that it was time to cut, and like a good camera slave, Jimmy obliged. She then grabbed her almost gaudy (but not quite, of course) yellow purse, which she had set on the concrete ground nearby, and rifled through it. Yep, here they were. Excellent. Jimmy nodded. "Alright, time to head in. You got permission to do the interview, right?" His voice was a deep baritone- maybe bass? That was a kind of voice, right?- and every sentence he spoke practically boomed.
Gale blinked, shocked. "Of course I didn't."
Jimmy blinked himself as he stood up, holding the cam in his right hand, as he laid his arms to his sides. "I… I'm sorry? Isn't that… why we're here?" The poor dear looked absolutely befuddled. Gale gave a wicked grin. "Listen, nobody has been able to actually get answers from this psychopath for like, a decade. You need to catch him off-guard. Element of surprise, capiche?" She pointed her finger at Jimmy dramatically, to perhaps allow the point to sink in.
Jimmy quickly nodded. At least he was willing to play ball. And Gale didn't have to explain that she knew the freak wasn't allowed visitors, so she needed to do things a little more dirty. "So, you shut up, and don't say anything." She put a finger to her lips (that had plenty of lipstick- ruby red, incredibly photogenic), and pulled out a notebook. "I'll say that we're two reporters who want to interview Billy for an article. Hide the camera in your bag there- you made sure the thing was light to carry, yeah?"
Jimmy's head obediently bobbed again, hefting the green bag up on his back, the camera now safely hidden inside. She gave him a token word of praise in return. She was very thoroughly prepared; she'd had two laminated Press IDs with their names and a non-existent paper specifically forged for this purpose, and pulled them out. She handed one to Jimmy, and placed hers squarely around her neck, silently muttering a couple of prayers for good luck under her breath.
"Okay, let's head in there. Just let me do the talking- remember, I'm the brains here." She was sure that Jimmy took this command entirely seriously and didn't roll his eyes. Entirely positive of that. The two then strolled in, Gale making sure to have the lead at all times, with rapid, determined, deeply professional strides. Very calm. Very in control. She needed this to go perfectly. This was her comeback, goddamnit!
She quickly walked up to the receptionist, loudly clearing her throat to get his attention. He slowly glanced up. He barely looked over twenty- plenty of acne still peppering his forehead, with glasses that looked like they were going to tumble off the bridge of his nose. He clearly didn't have much to do- aside from the three of them, the small entrance room was completely deserted. She gave him her second hundred watt smile of the day. "We're here with the California Gazette, and we arranged to do an interview with Billy Myers?"
He looked, raising an eyebrow. "I… didn't hear anything about this," he began. God his voice was so nasally, it made her skin crawl. She had to try as hard as possible to not shudder. "Do you have an appointment?"
"Of course I do. Look it up." God, of course this would come back to bite her. The restriction was nonsense anyway. Bullshit that he was "dangerous". He'd been cooped up nicely in this loonie bin for a decade now, how dangerous could he really be? Unfortunately, the fucker didn't just take her word for it, and actually did as she asked. "Sorry to say, ma'am, that I don't see any appointments for Billy for today. Can I get your name, and I can check with the Boss about this? I'll assume she just forgot." The tone of his voice, however, carried a good deal of skepticism.
Gale simply nodded. She suspected it'd come to this. Time for Plan B. "Oh, I'm sure she did," She slides two crisp hundred dollar bills discretely across the appointment desk at him. This would bite severely into her rainy day fund, but no matter. "But can we just not check and say we did, huh?" She gives him the most charming, disarming smile she can manage, along with a playful wink, fluttering her carefully manicured eyelashes.He narrowed his eyes as he slowly shook his head, almost glaring at her. "Afraid not, ma'am. I need this job. Now, if you want, I can check with the Boss. Otherwise, I am going to have to ask you to leave. Via the help of security, if need be."
Gale gave her own glare right back, and was about to release some invective, before Jimmy put an arm on her shoulder. The help had a point. Causing a scene here by getting security involved would just cause problems in the long run. She therefore simply bit her lip, nodded, and walked off. Calmly, professionally, of course.
When she had exited the double doors, she let out a series of hushed profanities. She finished her tirade with a louder, and especially bitter, "Goddamnit! How was I supposed to know people in this dump would actually be good at their job?!"
She paced back and forth, her heels loudly clacking against the ground, and grumbled to herself for a couple minutes more before looking up at Jimmy again. "Okay, we'll try again tomorrow. I didn't want to have to play this card, it's risky… but it could work." She ran a hand rapidly through her long black hair and gazed right at Jimmy's blue eyes, demanding his attention. This was important. "A morning shift employee there is an old fan of mine, I found out."
He didn't need to know how she found that out, and ignored his questioning gaze. "I managed to get his number, and know he has a shift tomorrow. I can see if he can sneak us in. It's risky, but it's our best shot. The entire video series hinges on this." She tried to use emphasis to drive the matter home to the man. When Jimmy opened his mouth, she rolled her eyes and preempted him. "Yes, I promise you'll get paid for the extra days of work."
And with that, she headed back to the small blue Nissan Versa they'd arrived in, Jimmy Whoever obediently following her. Gale Storm would be a star again. She had to be a star again. She would not let that one fucking bad call ruin her- this was her comeback, and she was not going to let some asshole receptionist ruin it.
She had a destiny to forever be in the limelight, and she was going to snatch that destiny back by the teeth, through absolutely any means necessary.
Nancy Legenkamp, one of the more experienced orderlies at Danvers Asylum, prided herself on many things. But most of all, she prided herself on her timeliness—her shift started at 8:00 PM, right on the dot, and she always arrived by then. Ideally a few minutes early, in fact, in case Glen, the lazy bum, clocked out early, as usual. She prided herself on looking professional— she made sure that her white uniform was not only spotless, but fit perfectly on her figure. At times this has meant making sure not to gain any weight, but even in her 40s, God had granted her a rapid metabolism that did the job fine.
She always made sure her brown hair was properly done, with an emphasis toward some degree of safety— no ponytail in case the freaks tried to grab it, for instance. Always boots too, no high heels in case she would trip on them, as much as she would have loved the extra height. In addition, she made sure to always greet everyone, even the people contained in there, with a bright plastic smile and an tonally artificial kind word. She had a picture-perfect image to maintain, and she was picture-perfect at maintaining it.
Her job was pretty simple- make sure nobody caused any trouble. Fortunately, that was rarely an issue. She simply had to take an hourly stroll across the patient cells—though some particularly whiny activists called them "cages"— and just made sure everything was on the up-and-up, and it always was. It was also her duty to feed the inma- patients, she mentally corrected, patients' dinner. And, well, if she happened to forget, clearly it was her old age kicking in. It was a common joke she made to the other orderlies, and it typically killed, much to her delight. Basically all she really did was mostly snack and watch all the freaks from cameras installed in their incredibly spartan, empty housings.
But, as night drew long, and her shift came to a close… She often found that she needed a bit of stress relief. And this job was perfect at providing it.
Some people talked about how "inhumane" Danvers Asylum was, but those people didn't get it. They thought these people should be treated with dignity? The fact is, there are people that are just Born Wrong, she made sure to emphasize this to her son every time he mentioned her job. There were some that were just the Wrong Sort. And if anybody was stuck in Danvers, there was always going to be something Wrong there.
Which meant she didn't even need to ever feel guilty for what she was about to do.
She quickly reached Billy Myers' cell— among the Wrongest of the Wrong here, in her opinion. She quickly unlocked the door with the small slightly rusted key given to her for emergency purposes, ignoring the creak— she swore they'd think to maintain these things one of these days—and coolly entered.
Billy Myers was a behemoth of a man that loomed over anyone he approached, like a monstrous leviathan. He was well over six feet, but he deceptively hid this through either lying down, staring at the ceiling, or in a pathetic slouch when standing. Some argued that his insanity stemmed from his deviant size, and while "experts" at the time dismissed this as utter nonsense. Nancy disagreed adamantly.
The freak's shoulders were broad, too broad, contributing to his mountain-like appearance. Despite the years of the deserved retribution for his crimes, he still seemed to have a bit of muscle in his arms and legs. A tiny part of her felt like he could strike again at any moment, one she always made sure to bury in the back of her mind. Overall he was just a massive Shape of a man, really. He lurked in the corner of his cell in the rags of his striped uniform, giving the appearance of obliviousness that anyone else existed in the world at all.
Alright, time for the warm-up. "You're a freak, you know that?" She said, upon entering the cell. Sure, this was considered "unsafe", but it's not like this whack-job was going to tell on her; the murderer hadn't spoken for as long as she'd worked here. Outside receiving and eating his meals, all he did was lay there placidly, what harm could he possibly do?
"You're a monster, you know that? Those poor girls. They probably had no idea, did they?" Her voice grew more aggressive, but she was still revving up. "You just came up to them, and they thought you were just some harmless weirdo, they never thought-" Her voice grew harsher and more judgmental with every word, the pace increasing. There was no discomfort to take glee in, but the silence sufficed-
"... Mother."
Wait. What? The voice was soft and croaky, with a soft creaking sound to it, not unlike the sound of a coffin opening, as if to allow a decaying corpse to shamble out. She could see the lips struggle to form the word, as though they barely recalled how to, relying on pure muscle memory. But…
Nancy stumbled back toward the door, shocked. Had he just-
However, with a speed the orderly had no idea Billy possessed, he flew toward her with a weapon in hand. She only had a second to mentally reprimand whoever the moron was that allowed the monster to have a plastic knife, before she felt a sharp, unbearable pain in her throat. The man said something else, she was pretty sure, but Nancy's mind was already becoming foggy, and if he did, and she did catch it, it merely registered as a collection of meaningless syllables. And a mere few seconds later, she thought no more.
I'm giving you a like because that is amazingly creative, but no, I honestly just wanted somebody who was commonly in the kind of movies Laur would like, and she does have a pretty substantial rom com ouvre.
All these characters are unrelated to movie characters. As I said, this is in many senses a love letter to one of my favorite movie genres, so it's basically just stuffed with references- I'll just straight up say that almost every name in this chapter is a reference to something (the MC is too but it's a personal thing I wouldn't expect people to get, not a horror movie ref); some a bit more subtle than others, and some might not be particularly clear without context from future chapters. I'm not going to say that the references have no influence on the story, but definitely not the plot. It's very cheky and silly, but I can not change who I am.
It was pointed out to me that given the amount of characters exactly who is which chatname can be different to keep track of, I'm adding a little Dramatis Personae here to provide a quick summary of the main characters, some potentially important relationships to note, and whose chat name is whose.
Gabriel: Our main character. Chat name unknown ATM. Very Sad, enjoys various forms of music, reading- though it isn't something he's done much of recently, as well as other less stereotypically masculine hobbies. Was invited on the trip by his only real friend, Laurie.
Laurie Curtis: Chat name- TheStrobe. Enjoys dressing up, rom-coms, with also a slight taste for action movies. In general a very optimistic girlie-girl who desperately wants Gabriel to be able to get out and make friends. Girlfriend to Alice.
Alice ("Allie") King: Chat name- UnluckyNumber. Laurie's girlfriend. Despises her rich parents and the formalities they force upon her, has a bit of a tomyboy-ish side, and is in general very casual and free-spirited. Has a playful and somewhat flirty streak with her girlfriend, even if she would be the first to admit she isn't the most smooth at it.
Julie Hewitt: Chat name- IStillKnow. Has a relatively blunt and teasing-to-snarky sense of humor, and has a definite tendency to say what she thinks. Enjoys horror movies, Is bisexual but would freely admit that she doesn't "get" guys whatsoever. No love interest.
Theresa ("terry") Rothe: Chat name- BlowTheCandles. Trish's best friend since childhood, and is very close friends with Alice. Hates her first name due to its formality, and loves teasing her friends. Is straight with a boyfriend, though said boyfriend was unable to attend the trip, which is part of why Laurie invited Gabriel isntead.
Trish Bennett: Chat name- ISleep. Trans woman, best friend of Theresa, very close friend to Julie. Very much snarky and can be relatively dismissive of boys as a general rule. Enjoys hororr movies as well as sci-fi. No love interest.
Sally Sanchez: Chat name- TryhardTexan. Moved from Texas a couple years ago, and quickly became good friends with Julie in particular. Is the biggest fan of horror movies of anyone in the group. Is in a relationship with Patti, and is decently close with Julie.
Patti Griffin: Chat name- TheyAreJustBlue. A very optimistic and kind person that wants to give everybody a chance, and is always looking to make new friends. this desire can edge on desperation at the worst of times, due to being incredibly lonely as a child. Shares her girlfriend's love of horror movies, though is not quite as obsessive, and is Patti's girlfriend. Isn't overly close to any of the others, is probably closest to Laurie.
Heya again! For once I'm managing to get more than one chapter of a work done! Overall, I'm a bit more happy with this chapter than the last one, I feel like I managed to kind of figure out the spirit of what I wanted to write a bit more and overall believe it reads a bit better. I would like to thank @Shadell and @NemoMarx for looking at it and providing some comments, Shadell in particular providing a good deal of insightful stuff that I think makes the chapter read much better overall.
She also pointed out to me that the chat handles, given the amount of characters, can be a bit confusing so I have added a Dramatus Personae post above this one for reference.
Chapter 2: October 28th, 2023 (Part 1)
Gabriel woke up from a dreamless sleep to find himself consumed by blackness. He fumbled out of his bedsheets and ambled his way to the light switch next to the door, quickly flicking it on in one rapid motion. A quick appraisal of his clock told him that it was 4:00 AM. He let out a soft sigh, resigned. Oftentimes Gabriel was able to just sleep through to the next day, but his bedtime of roughly 11:00 PM did mean that sometimes his body would force him awake in the middle of the night. He hated those nights the most, it was when his throbbing, aching torment was at its worst.
He quickly turned the light off and carefully walked back to the left side of his bed, collapsing into it, his head colliding with the pillow. And as he did so, his leg began to jerk. Restless leg syndrome, he had been told, and despite all the advice the doctors had given, nothing had helped. The jerks were sharp, rapid, and constant and made getting back to sleep simply impossible. Ironically enough, it barely even mattered.
At night was when the static was at its loudest, and he heard his voice, in its deep, whiny cadence. It told him how worthless he was, how pointless everything was, how completely a failure at everything he was; that he might as well simply give up. He had no real rebuttal. He couldn't remember ever having one; their (his) knives of scorn had stabbed and sliced at what little self-confidence he had, making it unable to offer him any sort of protection. At night the voice felt less like static that he did his best to tune out, and more like the hungry caw-cawing of a murder of crows as they pecked at and feasted on what was left of his self-worth.
The endless barrage of self-hatred felt suffocating, leaving him barely any room to have any true thoughts of his own, solely consumed by endless mental tirades of his own worthlessness.
He quickly reached toward the counter on the left of his bed and his hands grasped his anti-anxiety medication. He grasped through the blackness and quickly plucked out a tablet, popped in his mouth, and dry-swallowed. It was a futile gesture of resistance- he knew it never helped. None of the meds did. He felt the all-too-familiar thrum of anger at this point, but bottled it up, buried it deep inside again, desperately trying to contain it as quickly as possible.
He had gotten diagnosis after diagnosis, medication after medication, and the voice had just gone on, relentless. Was there just something wrong with him? Was he just crazy? Was he just born to suffer all his life, hearing Internal Grabriel tell him what an absolute disaster of a person he was, fearing the monster inside would break out of its cage again?
Just like every night, he had to assume this was Life's way of telling him the answer was yes.
He tried to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. They never did. He prayed that when he slept, he'd have that dream again and it'd give him respite, but it didn't come either.
Immediately upon hearing the poppy ringtone of his cellphone, Gabriel rubbed his eyes wearily and got up, stretching his limbs. It'd been a long night, but he'd managed to get himself back to sleep eventually.
He'd set an alarm for 1:30 PM, thinking that he might as well sleep in as long as he could; he had been hoping he'd be able to sleep through the night, but you couldn't get what you wanted sometimes, he supposed.
He slapped his face and quickly got out of bed. If he recalled right, Laurie had said that he didn't need to bring anything in particular, so he could just get ready as quickly as possible. He reached into his closet, and grabbed the first set that he could find- blue shorts and a white t-shirt. Acceptable. He then dashed into the shower, rinsing himself off as quickly as possible, and then got to work washing his hair. He attempted to be thorough; he was going to be with the others for a few days and though he presumed there were showers, he wasn't certain.
He jumped out of the shower probably unnecessarily quickly, and did a fast run-through of his teeth with the toothbrush. He grabbed his cell, some random clothes, his medication, a laptop computer, and a few snacks and threw them into his trusty blue backpack- Laurie had informed him the night before that they'd be staying at the cabin for four days, so he wanted to be prepared. Alright, now he was set. His house was a small two-floor dwelling, so it was just a quick jog from his room to the exit. He gave his mom a quick wave of the hand goodbye when he passed the kitchen, and as she cheerfully bid him farewell, he dashed to the front door, out it, and closed it behind him.
He had expected everybody to already be out on the driveway, waiting for him, scornfully glaring. But outside his mom's white buick, the driveway was entirely empty. Checking the clock on his cell, though, he noticed that it was still roughly ten minutes to two. He let out a soft sigh of relief- at least he wasn't going to be responsible for them being late, on top of having to take him in the first place.
On the downside, that left him alone to ruminate, which was never a good time. He decided to mindlessly rifle through his backpack, occasionally checking his phone for any missed calls or texts- do any busywork he could find to keep himself occupied. It was enough to keep the voice a tolerable whisper instead of the vicious scream it'd been the night before. After around fifteen minutes of killing time, the girls arrived in two separate vehicles. Laurie was driving her small buick, the red paint on it chipped. She came out with two other girls Gabriel didn't recognize in tow.
The one on the right was tall- probably around 6 feet- with wavy black hair tied into a loose ponytail at the back. "Hi, I'm Julie." she said as she slowly approached, though her voice was distant and slightly chilly. He got a distant sense that unlike Laurie had promised, she would frankly have preferred he not be here at all.
"Heya," he said automatically in return, before taking further appraisal. She had on a short green skater skirt- Gabriel was a bit surprised given the slight chill outside- with a plain black top.
The girl to the right quickly walks over behind Julie and joins her on the left side. She was shorter, with ivory skin and curly black hair. "Hi! Gabriel right? Name's Sally. It's a pleasure!" He noticed that her voice still had a bit of a southern drawl to it. She rapidly holds her hand out for Gabriel to shake, and after a slight nervous twitch of his right hand at the idea of the contact, he obliged.
Both were giving him soft smiles, even if Julie's was clearly forced, and he quickly dodged their gazes, shifting over to look at her friend. As she didn't need to introduce herself she merely gives him a bright wave, which he weakly reciprocated. He couldn't help but note with a degree of humor that she was wearing a black shirt with a large orange alight jack-o-lantern on the center; he had to respect the effort to get into the Halloween spirit, despite her own feelings on the holiday.
Right behind her was a shiny black Nissan. It was Laurie's girlfriend Alice's car, and it was probably the price of a couple year's worth of his mother's paychecks. Laurie, always immediate to jump to her girlfriend's defense, had insisted to him that it was a gift from her parents that she didn't even want after he saw it for the first time. That didn't stop her from happily riding around in it though, evidently.
Alice immediately took point, which made sense, given that she was the one Gabriel actually knew. She was wearing a rather pretty-looking, flowing yellow dress that went down to her knees, patterned with roses and lilies. Gabriel was shocked she had anything like that in her wardrobe, to be honest. She also had her blonde hair dyed in a bun, though given the subconscious twitching of her fingers, he suspected that in particular was not long for this Earth.
Alongside her were three other girls, who introduced themselves in a flurry that Gabriel found impossible to keep track of, frankly. One was named Patti and another Trish, he was pretty sure, but he was equally certain he would find it impossible to tell which was which. They were simply a blur of interchangeable faces in different clothing to him at the moment.
After all their introductions were done, the girls all stared directly at him, clearly awaiting an introduction of his own. Gabriel adopted his usual Deer in Headlights look when it came to forced socialization. He withered under their gaze, his body slouching in on itself and his right index beginning to rapidly twirl his brown locks and subconsciously undo the knots before rapidly creating one anew. He wasn't always good at that, but his mother kept telling him that he'd go bald young if he didn't learn.
"Uh," His voice was light and soft, and he was half-concerned the breeze would blow it away before it reached any of their ears. Great. Nice start.
A pause, a beat.
"I-I'm Gabriel," They already knew that dumbass.
Another pause.
"So, it's… it's great to meet all of you, I hope we'll have a great time together!"
Wow. Fantastic job. Full marks. God, and he wondered why he had basically no friends, maybe if he actually picked up some social skills that would, you know, help? Bowing his head in defeat, he could feel the sweat rapidly accumulating in his brow and the shame accumulating in his gut– he'd known this would be a failure from the start–- he rapidly retreated to Laurie's car and slipped into the right backseat without another word.
Julie Hewitt did not Get boys, so it was a little awkward just being a few feet to the left of one that was a total stranger for two hours straight.
She was the first to admit that dudes were a mystery to her. Her ex, Brad, broke up with her because, and she quotes, "you look at me like I'm another species, Jules." If boys didn't want her to be bewildered by them, they could feel free to start making sense at any time, frankly.
She'd tried to grasp the whole "guy" thing, she really had, but eventually she'd just had to admit defeat and accept them as one of life's great mysteries. She subconsciously ran her fingers down her skirt, appreciating the softness of the fabric before making sure to ruffle it into place, if unnecessarily. Hardly like anybody was able to peep at the moment.
This had really been an issue of a lack of planning ahead, she mused. She had chosen Laur's car on reflex: Alice was a sweetheart, she loved her like a sister, but she would never be comfortable riding in a symbol of the girl's family's obscene wealth, frankly. She tried to avoid broaching the topic, knowing it would bring on more pointless (if endearing) self-flagellation, so she just made sure to just quietly get a ride with one of the other girls whenever possible.
However, she hadn't stopped to think about the fact that obviously The Boy would want to ride with their best friend.
This had led to a massively awkward first thirty minutes of the ride. Julie had sat on the left side, simply typing inanities and grumblings to her friends on her Ipad. It was one of the few "gifts", read tokens of self-loathing, from Alice she had actually accepted, albeit reluctantly.
The Boy— Gabe or something, she thought, but she liked thinking of him as The Boy—had simply huddled in on himself like a cornered animal, listening to something on his Ipod and looking out the dirty window, as they zoomed by trees, trees, and more trees.
She considered her options—Laur was very obviously concentrating on how to get to their destination. Given that her car didn't have a GPS and Alice had gone there before, it was bewildering that they had chosen to take point, but the lack of forethought was definitely a very Laur move. Anyway, not somebody she could strike up a conversation with at the moment. Sally, meanwhile, was snoozing in the front seat after liveblogging horror movies to them basically all night. So she didn't have many good options here.
Sally's left hand draped over into the backseat of the car, and Julie decided to pass some of the time admiring how nice the baby blue nail polish she'd given her friend for her birthday looked on her, before taking a breath and deciding to bite the bullet. She'd have to interact with him for the next few days anyway, no better time to start.
She scooched closer to The Boy, wincing at the rather unpleasant feeling of the nylon seating against her bare legs.
"Hey," she said when the two were just a couple feet apart. No response. She positioned herself so that she could wave a hand in front of his face. Nothing. Nada.
"I just wanna chat," she cajoled, but. No. Dice.
Was he sleeping? No, no, those brown eyes were open. Just ignoring her. Well, that simply wasn't going to do. Seemed that it would take drastic measures to get his attention, but drastic measures it was. She quietly got to his side, and plucked the earbud from their right ear and jammed it into her left, and waited to be blasted by some rock or heavy metal. But suddenly a poppy tune hit her ears.
Everyone can be a princess! If they truly try, just take a breath and let your heart soar-
Julie's eyes widened, the cheerful and peppy beat was familiar, but before she could even place the source of the song, The Boy had ripped the white earbud roughly out of her ear, jammed it back into his own, and gone back to his forlorn tree viewing. Julie thought for a second, and then realization hit. It was from that one magical girl show. It was part of a series- Triangle Heart? No that was something else she was pretty sure- that Sally had been ga-ga over for a while. Trish liked the series a lot too, so she had picked up some things from osmosis.
Maybe this could be an angle.
"So… you like magical girl shows?" She asked tentatively, expecting him to at most give her a dull nod.
That was something The Boy absolutely did not do. He suddenly jerked to look at her, rapt attention in his eyes, and leaned forward, cutting the personal space between them in half. Julie reflexively backed up a little out of concern for her personal space, but if The Boy noticed, he didn't care.
"Oh, I've loved them for years!" He said, radiating all the enthusiasm that they could muster. When Julie looked at his eyes, that had up to this point lacked any sort of life while there wasn't a fire there, certainly nothing close. There was something— almost certainly akin to what attempts by humans attempting to create heat for the first time probably looked like. There was a definite spark of life right at the eye's center, begging to be able to push outward to the rest of him.
"Do you know too much about the genre yourself?" He asked, his voice seeming to ooze hope. Julie shook her head weakly, overwhelmed by his sudden burst of energy, but he was utterly undeterred.
"Okay, so, the reason these shows are so awesome is that they… like…. Allow girls to be feminine, but still be strong and powerful and worth something." He emphasized the last two words with sort of rapid, if slightly indecipherable, gesticulations of his hands, spinning them in circles for a second.
"Pretty Cosmic Warriors was a classic, obviously, and absolutely fantastic, far more mature than you'd expect, absolutely check it out when you get the chance!" Julie had fully expected to have to carry on much of the conversation by herself, but he was firing opinions off like a machine gun, not even really leaving Julie almost any room to interject. That said, something about it was captivating- perhaps it was the way his tone had so much weight to it, as though he were trying to convey something of vital, perhaps even divine, import.
"The Magical Heart shows are a personal favorite of mine though! They all tend to have their own appeal, so it's hard to know where to start." Julie had been so busy processing all of this while still trying to follow his words best she could, that it took her this long to notice that his lips that had been in a continuously thin line or frown were slowly pushing their way upward, into a definite grin.
"While most people would swear by seasons like Rapid Heartbeat being the best, my favorite will always be Princess Warriors because it has the strongest characterization by far, to be honest!" Julie just marveled. Compared to earlier, he was simply glowing.
"I can summarize the arcs a bit if you wa-"
And just like that, mid-sentence, the spell ended. He ran out of steam and his body, which actually seemed almost relaxed a mere second ago, suddenly tensed inward defensively, and his eyes lost all glimmers of life, instead taking on the look a mouse likely made when confronted with a wild tabby.
"Sorry," he uttered softly, sounding as though they felt that by talking about how they enjoyed something they were committing a heinous crime.
Julie desperately wanted to get that peek into something more from him, whatever it was, back. And while she was processing how, her mouth turned traitor and acted of its own accord.
"You know, you're kinda cute when you get like this."
______________________________________________________________________________
"You know, you're kinda cute when you get like this."
Gabriel just stared for a moment. He felt a cocktail of emotions replacing the fear he had felt of being laughed at, most of them things he couldn't place. For a moment, it gave him a calming, nice feeling, but that was almost instantly blotted out by a massive spike of anger. She was mocking him, he knew it. Boys weren't cute! Boys weren't allowed to be cute. They were bold, brave, strong, handsome, words that Gabriel knew by heart, given how his mother tossed them his way like candy. This was her trying to let Gabriel know how pathetic he was, that he had to like something so girly, he couldn't even be a boy properly, had to have some stupid hobby that no sane boy would ever relate to. He always knew people would laugh at him, if he bothered to share it, really. He shouldn't have bothered...
… But when he looked into the girl's bright blue eyes- Julie, he was pretty sure it was- there was nothing like that, and the curled smile playing along her ruby-red lips, her lipstick clearly very carefully applied, certainly didn't seem mocking. He pushed the anger back down into the crevices of his mind and what came next was an odd thrill, a thrum of a pleasant feeling he couldn't quite place. From the allure of the forbidden, he supposed. Getting something that was so unbefitting him as a boy was charming for its novelty.
"Do you… mean that?" He couldn't help but ask, his tone strangely longing in a way he didn't understand.
"If I don't mean something, I typically don't say it." She said, her voice still having a playful friendliness to it. She paused for a second, and then her voice, while still playful, grew more tentative, as though testing the waters."You're blushing, by the way."
Gabriel tried to sputter out some kind of response, but even he could tell it came out as incomprehensible gobbledygook. He wanted to deny it, but he could feel that his cheeks had a slight heat to them. But it was her fault for calling him something like that in the first place! "O-Okay, sorry," he said. He wasn't sure what he was sorry for, but it was reflexive and he was trying to find some kind of footing in this conversation again. Some level of familiarity.
She shook her head, dismissing his token apology, and then continued on with a bright smile. "You know, you're not bad for a boy. Gabe, or like, Gabriel, right? That's your name?"
The first sentence left a bit of an acrid taste for some reason, and at the utterance of his name, whatever weird spell Gabriel had been utter dissipated, and he felt things crash back to normalcy. He'd always hated his name- it was hardly like he, of all people, deserved to be named after an angel.
"Yeah," he said, the response a dull thud.
Julie blinked for a second, and then seemed to be considering something. Then, as though making a decision, she shook her head, and just gave a smile that seemed to be going for "reassuring".
"Let's talk a bit more after we get to the cabins, alright?" She said, something in her tone Gabriel couldn't define.
And Gabriel had to admit he kinda would like that.
______________________________________________________________________________
Theresa— Terry to her friends, teachers, and anybody who didn't want a punch in the throat, really— Rothe leisurely stretched out in Allie's car, her arms patting the leather seating to her back, then softly tracing her fingers on its smooth surface. God, like, she knew, "Eat the Rich" and all that, but damn if they didn't make slick rides. She gave a grin to Trish, but she didn't notice- the girl a few feet to her right was mindlessly fiddling with her Ipad. Allie was just chilling in the front seat, leisurely following Laurie's car, and Patti was on the passenger side doing… something or other.
Suddenly, Allie spoke up, still staring ahead at the road. "You know, if I got this thing in an 'accident', do you think my parents would let me pick the new one?"
Terry let out a soft giggle. "You know it'd have to be 'up to their standards', Al." She unconsciously added air quotes and tried to add a sort of polished flavor to aforementioned quotation- Allie's parents evidently talked about "standards" quite a bit. Given the brief silence, she wasn't sure it quite landed. Eh, she'd workshop it.
Trish quickly interjected, letting out a forlorn sigh. "I'm afraid you'll have to put up with having a car that none of us could ever dream of affording." As she glanced over, Terry could see that she'd even unconsciously clenched her fist for effect. She could be such a drama queen.
"The burdens of a poor, poor rich girl never end." Terry chimed in again, trying, and failing, to add her own flavor of solemnity. It was ruined by her voice nearly cracking at the end, as she tried to hold in laughter.
"You two know I hate it," she mumbled. Terry could tell that she was blushing and making an effort to focus very hard on the road at the moment. Her voice did have a definite note of frustration to it, though. Terry tried, and failed, to chalk that up to trying to maneuver the pedals in her ridiculous dress.
"Yeah, and it's not fair of you. Think about them." Trish pushed on, playing bold defender of the bourgeoisie.
"Your dad had to work hard to get married to the daughter of an oil baron." Terry added, effortlessly nailing the punchline.
"Both of you suck," Allie said, flipping them the bird with her right hand, though since it was between her giggles the statement was deeply, deeply unconvincing. Terry responded with a satisfied grin— it sounded like Allie might have started to get into one of her Moods again, and absolutely none of the others wanted that, of that she was certain.
None of them were remotely close to being badly off- they were all seniors at a private school in California for Christ's sake, none of them could pretend to know poverty. Yet, there was "We can afford to live in Cali with at least one working parent," well-off and there was "Oil Money" well-off, and Allie was eternally aware of that fact. She honestly did wish the girl would chill a little sometimes.
Anyway, it sounded like that was the end of the Teasing Allie portion of the trip, so she returned to her Ipad and re-entered the trip's group chat. Unfortunately, when she looked at her screen, she saw that Trish had been just a bit faster.
<ISleep>: Nice, now that Jules' back, I think it's finally time for Terry, as our Token Straight Friend, to grade the new guy. <IStillKnow>: Damn those diversity quotas. <ISleep>: So, Ter, Marry, Fuck, or Kill?
Terry just rolled her eyes. Honestly, she could feel a little pulse of anger that she desperately tried to push back, as she glared at her best friend across from her. Frustrating her friend likely didn't even mind- her friend's taller height made Terry "have the ferocity of a puppy" when she got angry, apparently.
It was petty, she knew that, but it was always so awkward being the only girl in her friend group that really liked boys. Oh, Julie and Patti claimed to be bi, sure, but Julie was always looking at boys like she was the host of a nature documentary, and even before Patti started dating Sal, she freely admitted she had never dated a boy in her life.
There was just this small, crippling frustration at feeling like the odd one out. She knew it was stupid, and unfair, but there it was.
<BlowTheCandles>: Kill in the dining room with a candlestick. <TheyAreJustBlue>: Harsh, harsh. <BlowTheCandles>: I mean, I'm sure that's shocking to all of you, seeing as you wouldn't know what an attractive boy was. <ISleep>: Listen, I tried being one for a while. Dating them, no thank you ma'am. That's your department. <ISleep>: Which is why I asked for your expertise!
She could always tell when Trish was giving her a polite nudge, and quickly circled back. She was right, it was dumb irrational resentment, no point stewing in it.
<BlowTheCandles>: Which is why I'm giving my expert opinion that the dude couldn't hook-up with anyone to save his life. <BlowTheCandles>: Unless they were into the… little mouse scared of his own shadow type, I guess. <TheyAreJustBlue>: That's a type? <BlowTheCandles>: If there's a Type of Guy, there's a type of person into him, 100% <ISleep>: Tragic to hear you'll be keeping your current boytoy, he's so boring to tease. <BlowTheCandles>: Carter is an absolute sweetie and you know it. <ISleep>: My point remains unchanged! <IStllKnow>: Gab's really not that bad, you guys.
Terry couldn't help but blink and unconsciously raise an eyebrow. "Gab" was the new boy, she took it- his name was Gabriel, she thought, so that tracked. Patti was a sweetheart and wanted to give the dead fish a chance, so her mostly staying on the sidelines wasn't a surprise, but she'd expected Julie to join in on the teasing at the first opportunity. Her whining earlier had only cemented this in her mind. This was… certainly unexpected.
<TheyAreJustBlue>: So you did try talking to him? Nice! <IStillKnow>: Yeah. I really think you two should actually at least give them a shot. <ISleep>: I mean if he has your stamp of approval, I'll definitely… consider it. <ISleep>: But more importantly, why on Earth are you calling him Gab? <ISleep>: Isn't his name Raphael or something? <BlowTheCandles>: It's Gabriel, dweeb. <ISleep>: Angel names, they all sound the same to me. <TheyAreJustBlue>: If you set Trish's… her-ness aside it's a good question though. Why not Gabe? <IStillKnow>: Not the vibe.
Terry had no clue what the fuck that meant, but she also knew that Julie would absolutely not answer her if she asked, so she decided to let it drop. Checking the clock, they were reaching the two hour mark, so she set the Ipad at her side and tried to get a bit of shuteye.
When Gale learned about the inmate escape at Danvers Asylum, she really wished that her contact on the phone had been next to her. I mean, it was probably good for his health that he wasn't, but it would sure have been cathartic on her end, at least.
After all this fucking effort, all these resources and money spent, and the freak just somehow gets handed a plastic knife by these utter clowns, sharpens the tip without any of them noticing, and manages to lead a total breakout. Apparently the local police were essentially in chaos, rapidly scrambling to get as many of the freakshows back into their pens as quickly as possible. From what she'd picked up from her news and police blotter there were still a few people yet to be caught, and of course, Billy fucking Myers was among them. She desperately tried to keep her cool, to be calm, to be professional. Be her best self.
She failed miserably at this task and nearly smashed a hole in her hotel's cheap drywall; she definitely did succeed at cracking the dull, ugly beige surface. She immediately cursed at her contact after she had hung up, him not having anything to do with it really be damned. She then started pacing around the cramped room, it was as much as she was comfortable spending, especially since she was paying for Jimmy's lodgings a few doors down.
She had to think of a plan. Had to consider her strategy here.
She spent the whole morning spitballing, and could think of nothing feasible. Sure, she could just wait until they caught him, but the manhunt could reasonably take time. Days. Even a week or more, if she was really unlucky. If he'd made it this long, clearly he was decently good at evading the fuckers. She simply didn't have that time, she'd put pretty much all her cachet into this as her Big Comeback, and if this didn't resolved in the next couple days, she would theoretically have to do it without that much in the way of funds, almost certainly without a camera-man, and if her contact didn't take her near explosion on the phone well, basically any way into the building to begin with. She pinched her temple, hard. She considered punching the wall a second time.
Instead, She dully sat in front of the TV, passively listening for updates, and ruminated. What exactly was it that Past Gale would have done? Past Gale, best selling True Crime novelist, and host of the podcast The Knife's Edge. A woman that took pride in telling stories in a way that was professional, clear, and effective. That really struck a chord with the audience, that really managed to properly build a narrative. She would freely admit that she wasn't a paragon of modesty, but even her peers had to admire how amazingly good she was at what she did. With a mere handful of words, she could make any sap pity exactly who she wanted them to pity, or side with whichever party she wanted them to side with. The prosecution? The defense? It didn't matter; either side could be wicked devils or innocent angels with a stroke of her pen or a properly emphasized word.
She grit her teeth and clenched her fist as she sat on the chair next to the small TV that clearly showed its age. It and the blotter buzzed in the background, filling her head with largely useless information as she continued to travel down memory lane.
Then came Buzzfeed. Fucking Buzzfeed! It couldn't have even been the like, she didn't know, Washington Post or something. But they reported how she had… perhaps fudged the facts to make certain parties look better than they were, and left out details that could have made some of the cases seem a little more messy than she made them appear.
The moronic reporter didn't get it! Gale tried to patiently explain it to her, but she just kept talking about ethics. Listen, ethics were nice, but even plenty of that woman's own colleagues could understand these days that you couldn't let the facts get in the way of a good story. You had to jazz things up in order to keep suckers' attention, get those clicks (or listens and purchases, in her case), and keep getting a paycheck. That was the way the world worked now!
People listened to her podcast, or read her books, because they wanted to see a story play out, not experience some dry documentary or expose, and that was exactly what she gave them. That was how things worked. You simply didn't shoot the messenger, that was common knowledge. And yet, that's exactly what the bitch did. She kept badgering her about one case in particular: the Warden case. Saying that she went too far that time. And perhaps some people that just didn't get it would agree with her, but she had been convinced her adoring fans would not.
She had been maddeningly wrong. Her own fans had called her a traitor, a liar, and left her in droves. Her name became a punchline in the community, an example of What Not To Do, as though they didn't all have the same schtick, she just had gotten unlucky. But it stung. No more attended book signings outside a very devoted coterie—which hardly filled up any bookstores. No more huge audiences praising her work, at most giving incredibly grudging commentary, and even feeling the need to fact-check her now!
And far less money donated to her, of course.
She didn't think she was wrong to be bitter, or want that sweet, sweet limelight again. Everyone knew it felt lovely to be loved, and everybody wanted to become a star. Gale had done that, and had unfairly been stricken down because some reporter got too nosy. She needed that attention, needed that fame—she'd gotten free hits for so long, and her psyche was desperate for another intoxicating dose.
For a while, though, she'd had no idea how to recover. She was disgraced, a joke. How do you bounce back from that in the community? How could you even start?
However, then she'd come up with this. A plan. First of all, she'd take to Youtube; plenty of her fans had talked about her potentially incorporating video content anyway, and enough of them stood by her that she could absolutely salvage her reputation enough to maintain an audience. She'd get by on sponsorships, ad revenue, and probably a Patreon. It wouldn't be the kind of living she'd gotten in her prime— no dinners at fancy restaurants—but it would absolutely be a living.
And the Myers case was absolutely perfect for that. There was still a good deal of mystery surrounding it, due to the psycho's mom not talking and the bastard himself keeping mum. So, there was an angle here. Explain the case, tar and feather the psycho as best she could— whatever publication went after her next could hardly complain about that one—and force a way to get an interview with him as a capstone.
She had a lot of what she needed, no doubt. But she'd promised an interview. She'd framed so much of the hype around an interview. And she knew better than anybody that the public? Her fans? They were fickle bitches. They would see her as a liar, shame her in the comments, and her comeback would be for nothing.
She simply didn't have the time to come up with some kind of alternative, she didn't have the money to pull this off without doing something now and she simply knew her fans would ditch her if she didn't have something explosive here. And she needed more of that love. She would wither without it.
As the sun continued its arc across the sky outside her dirty window and the morning became the beginning of the afternoon, Gale rapidly paced back and forth, back and forth. She thought of every possibility, every kind of apology she could manage, every kind of compromise she could muster… and it all felt too weak, too flimsy.
But that's when she realized it. Sometimes, in order to really capture your audience's attention, you had to do something unexpected. Something nobody would do. Something fucking crazy. She'd be on the front page of the news again! She'd be popular again! All eyes would be on her, if she could just think of a move big enough!
It was in the middle of the afternoon that it hit her. This was insane, she knew that. It'd be a miracle if she could get her help on board. However… if she could… and if it worked…. She grinned. It was a grin full of pure mania.
This would be so perfect. She quickly rang up Jimmy.
"Jimmy, how would you like it if I tripled your pay?"
"... Tripled?"
"Are you deaf? Yes. Tripled."
Could Gale afford that? She could make do. Her eyes glowed with a manic intensity until anything she had felt in a long time, probably not since one of her earliest stories, chasing the trail of a killer. The reporter's instinct, she thought.
Jimmy Whathisname meanwhile, sounded incredibly wary. "What's the catch, Gale," he snapped. "You aren't doing this out of charity."
Gale sighed. It was now or never. She wasn't sure if she could sell this well enough to get him on board, but she absolutely had to try. Come on bestselling author Gale Storm, make the pitch. Sell the story.
"Are you ready to be one of the heroes that catches Billy Myers?"
The sad thing is that Gale's probably not even that wrong about a lot of the rest of her scene/industry, it's just that, ironically enough, her fall from grace was a good story, what with the centerpiece of this ominous Warden case scandal.
Also, it seems there's very much a throughline of Billy Myers being unleashed to be the classic horror slasher in large part only through the failures of the people and institutions around him, the like Roald Dahl villain of an orderly and the asylum that doesn't fire her, the cops being cops, and now whatever crazy ass plan Gale has that presumably gets Billy in place to start hunting around the cabin of our protagonists.
Also, it seems there's very much a throughline of Billy Myers being unleashed to be the classic horror slasher in large part only through the failures of the people and institutions around him, the like Roald Dahl villain of an orderly and the asylum that doesn't fire her, the cops being cops, and now whatever crazy ass plan Gale has that presumably gets Billy in place to start hunting around the cabin of our protagonists.
I think that slasher movies, and sometimes horror movies in particular, can be very interesting; in that especially in a lot of the classic slashers, the killer is in some sense just Bad. Whether it be because of some kind of mental illness (Friday the 13th), tthem just being terrible people (Nightmare on Elm Street), or just being Inherently Evil (Halloween). And especially in cheaper or cheesier slasher films, that ocntinues to this day. I actually don't begrudge the movies this much; they have a limited runtime to get what they want done, and oftentimes the focus simply isn't one the killer, and that's fine, but it is definitely a very... pat perspective morally speaking, and wiuthout really spoiling anything, I do want to dig into it in some ways.
As much as I love a lot of slsaher movies, I do want to haave a little fun poking at them a bit, in addition to the overall kind of main focus of the narrative here. Being upfront, Alice is kind of a spin on a character you see a lot, especially in kind of trashier slasher films, of "the rich friend that nobody can stand but hang around because she has a lot of money, which helps facilitate the plot". At heart I do want to try and keep this Gab's story, but there is a decent amount under the hood I want to try and at least dig into a little.
