𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑏𝑒𝑟//𝐸𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑦

Chapter IV

Chapter Four - The Suspect List

"Shoot me in the head!"

⇝☠︎︎⇜

McKenna was sitting on a bench outside of the college with the others, she was between Tara and Ethan while Mindy was standing in front of them. "Okay, nerds, listen up!" Mindy called, getting their attention. "As terrifying as this all is, I'm actually glad I get a chance to redeem myself for not calling the killers last time." Mindy said, looking down and fixing her shirt.

"Yep." Chad hummed.

"It's fine." Mindy muttered before taking a deep breath. "The way I see it, someone is out to make a sequel to the requel." Mindy started.

Anika put up her hand, she was sitting between Quinn and Sam on a different bench. "Um, what's a requel?" She asked.

Mindy pointed at her. "You're beautiful, sweetie. Let's hold questions to the end." Mindy told her, earning a smile from Anika.

"Stab One took place in Woodsboro. Stab Two took place in college." Sam told them.

"Hey, look at that." McKenna started, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "Woodsboro survivors," She motioned between her, the sisters, and the twins, "college." She motioned to the big building behind them before dropping her hand. "Yay." She said sarcastically.

"So we think that the killer is trying to copy the movies?" Tara asked, looking up at Mindy as Chad focused on his notebook.

"That is one possibility. Heros now in college: check. Suspicious new characters brought in to round out the suspect list and/or body count: check, check and check." Mindy said, pointing to Quinn, Anika, and Ethan.

"I don't like this." Ethan muttered, looking away.

"But it can't just be about Stab Two." Mindy said.

"Why not?" Tara questioned.

"It would make sense if this were just a sequel. But we're not in a sequel, because nobody just makes sequels anymore." Mindy told them, it was dead silent among the group. "We're in a franchise! And there are certain rules to a continuing franchise."

"I had a feeling." Sam muttered.

"Rule one: everything is bigger than last time. Bigger budget, bigger cast, bigger body count. Longer chases, shoot-outs, beheadings. You got to top what came before to keep people coming back." Mindy informed them.

"Beheadings?" Chad repeated his sister's words, looking up from his notebook.

"Beheadings." Mindy confirmed. "Rule two: whatever happened last time, expect the opposite. Franchises only survive by subverting expectations. If the killers last time were whiny snowflake film nerds with Letterboxed accounts instead of personalities, you can bet the opposite will be true here."

McKenna hummed, nodding along with what Mindy was saying. "And rule three: no one is safe. Legacy characters? Cannon fodder at this point. Usually brought back only to be killed off in some cheap bid for nostalgia. It's not looking too good for Gale and Kirby. Oh, and that's not even the worst part!"

"Oh, this is the part where she tells us the worst part." Chase said, not looking up from his notebook, Tara, Ethan, and McKenna looking over at him.

"The worst part is that franchises are just continuing episodic installments designed to boost an IP. Which means main characters are completely expendable now, too. Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Ellen Ripley, Sally Hardesty, Jigsaw, Tony Stark, James Bond, I mean, even Luke Skywalker all died so their franchises could live on. That means it's not just the friend group. Any of us could go at any time, especially Sam and Tara." Mindy explained to them, the group was silent as the sisters shared a look.