FINAL BOY || Ethan Landry

- CHAPTER NINE -

I STEP IN FRONT of Chad which makes the killer freeze in his tracks. Even though I have confusion of my own, I use this distraction as my opportunity and stab him in the shoulder, making him wince in pain.

He stumbles back as Chad grabs the fire extinguisher and bashes him in the head with it. "Run!!" I yell to the other three as Chad grabs a gum ball machine and raises it above the killers head.

Before me or Chad have any time to react, a second ghost face appears, stabbing Chad in the side. "Chad!!!" I yell, not wanting him to die, despite our arguments.

The two killers go to stab him again but I jump in the way, taking the hit instead. "No!!!" I hear Jasmine cry. "Stay away from him you beast!!"

It's too late, though. The knife has already entered my body and I feel the air leak out of my lungs. "Fuck." I groan, as one of the killers reel back in shock. The other one seems to care less that they missed the intended target.

They raise their knife above me, and I wait for the impact but it never comes, because the other killer is pulling them away. They share a long look before turning their attention back to Chad.

I feel arms drag me up to my feet and pull me away as I struggle in their hold to get to Chad, who is now being stabbed repeatedly.

"Emmett, you can't save him!" Jasmine's voice shouts from above me. "We have to run!!"

Chad falls to the ground and the two killers swipe their blades clean simultaneously. "Emmett, please." She whimpers and I do my best to erase what just happened from my mind.

We all run back into the main theatre but are stopped by one of the killers jumping through the movie screen. We try to run in the other direction, but get cut off by the other killer who waves his knife tauntingly at us.

We each grab a brick from one of the displays as the killers circle us. "Ready?" Sam asks, but Tara's losing it and I'm barely holding on to sanity. "I need you two to be ready."

Tara and I look at each other in determination before turning back towards Sam. "Ready." We both say.

"Come on, mother fucker!!!" Tara shouts, and the same killer that spared me earlier, sets their gaze on me. Something about their stare isn't as cold and terrifying as it should be.

Suddenly three shots are fired, scaring both of the killers away. I look towards where the shots came from and immediately doubt myself at Kirby's disgruntled form. She's bleeding on her forehead, like she's been knocked out.

"Stay the fuck back!" Sam warns her. This can't be right. There's no way Kirby can be the killer.

"We know it's you, Kirby." Tara accuses.

"Wait, guys..." I start. "I don't think it's—"

I get cut off by the sound of gunshots and Kirby falling to the ground. "Kirby! No!!" Jasmine shouts in anguish.

We all look towards the culprit as Detective Bailey stands there looking proud of himself. "Good job." He says to one of the killers as they appear. "Both of you." He says to other one.

"You??" Jasmine questions with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Detective Bailey shrugs. "Eh, of course me." He admits. "Quite frankly, I expected more from the two of you after what you did to us." He says, referring to Sam and Tara.

"What are you talking about?" Tara asks. "Wait, what do you mean us??"

The ghost face to the right of him takes off his mask and my whole heart drops.

"...Ethan?"

I fall to the ground when he doesn't answer. He only stands there, looking everywhere but at me, yet still grinning darkly at Sam and Tara.

"Mindy was right." He says. "It was easy to juke the roommate lottery. I mean, all I had to do to meet you was room with a conceded, condescending alpha, literally named Chad! Fuck, it felt good to kill him!!"

I flinch at his tone. "Take his name out of your fucking mouth, you traitor!!!" I yell at him, and Jasmine has to hold me back from doing something really stupid.

His face visibly falls at my reaction. "You fucking hated him!" He yells. "You should be thanking me!!"

I scoff. "I didn't hate him, and even if I did that doesn't mean he deserved to die!!" I yell back, and with every hate filled word that comes out of Ethan's mouth, my heart breaks a little bit more.

Ethan's frown deepens as he decides to leave this conversation for now and turns back to Sam. "This was your grandmother's, Sam." He says as he points to his mask. "Nancy Loomis. Really runs in the fucking family, doesn't it?!!"

"Oh! Speaking of family, my name isn't Ethan Landry, is it dad?" He directs towards Detective Bailey.

"Dad?" I whimper, hating every layer that keeps getting added to his betrayal. With every lie he told me that gets revealed, I feel my heart shatter just a little more.

"Wait." Sam cuts in. "If it's you two, that just leaves...Mindy?" She questions in disbelief and I'm honestly shocked myself. She really thinks it's Mindy??

The final ghost face takes off their mask to reveal...holy fuck, it's Quinn!! "Hey roomies." She smiles. "You didn't see that one coming did you?"

"Yeah because you died!!" Tara shouts and Quinn just shakes her head.

"Kind of didn't though." She says, sarcastically. "It was a good way to get off the suspect list. Stab Gale Weathers, stab Mindy on the train, that sort of thing."

Detective Bailey chuckles. "Yeah, and I just made sure I was the first one on the scene so I could switch out her body for a fake one." He admits. "You'd be amazed at what a grieving father can get away with."

"Shame about what happened to your dad by the way." Quinn says turning to me. "I guess being a fag runs in the fucking family." She snickers and Ethan tenses up beside her.

"History really did repeat itself, didn't it?" She asks Ethan.

He doesn't answer.