The School for Wayward Final Girls

Chapter 1

I kept rubber bands up and down my arms. Each time I felt myself drifting off to sleep, I used one of the rubberbands to snap into my arm to the point of the rubberband breaking due to the harsh force. It's been a week since my family was murdered. A week since I've drifted off to sleep for more than half an hour. It's all I would allot myself before my mind would reel like crazy and have me jolting upright in bed.

I rubbed at the itchiness of my arms caused by the welts scaling each arm. Tugging a bulky sweater off of the closet door, I wrapped it around my arms to hide the markings as Mr. Conway entered the room. Without knocking. He always comes home on lunch break like clockwork.

"Genesis, there is a woman here to see you. She runs the boarding school FG."

"FG?" I spoke, confused. "I've never heard of it."

"It's an elite school. Only an increasingly selective few are selected as candidates each year. Your previous school submitted forms late, and your application was just approved with a prestigious scholarship paying your tuition plus room and board in full. Why don't you just talk to them?"

I shrugged and headed downstairs, flicking my wrist with a rubberband that had just snapped.

"Sidney Prescott, this is Genesis Torres."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Genesis. If you don't mind, Mr. Conway, I prefer to have these meetings in private. I like to know the candidates better in a one-on-one setting. It allows them to open up to me more."

"Of course, I was just heading out. Gen, call me if you need anything." He rushed out the door after grabbing an apple to tide him over for lunch."

I sat on a couch, focusing on Sidney in an attempt to stay awake.

"Genesis, this is a safe space for you. I know what happened to your family, and I know that you suspect what happened to your family but are convinced you're crazy. You aren't. I'm sure you have seen the "Stab" movie franchise. Well, they are about my life. And about a horrible time in my life. And that trauma seems to always rear its' ugly head with movie fanatics and truly sinister people that try to replicate that trauma to cause more pain and suffering."

"What does this have to do with a boarding school?"

"It's not just a school; it is a promise that I kept to your mother when we began this school for people like her and people like me. And now people like you too. Your mother never wanted it to come to this, but this place is the only place where you will be safe."

"I can't sleep. No place is safe for me."

"This school that I have created is a school for final girls. Sometimes there are final boys in the mix, but the school mainly has females that attend."

"My mother never mentioned a school."

"I know. That's because sometimes it is easier to make your past nonexistent. She wanted to keep her family safe while also ensuring them a normal life. I had no choice but to send my daughter and son to that school where I could keep better watch over them when our last house received death threats with a Ghost face mask. A mask that belongs buried in the past. Woodsborrow is a town I can never escape from, but this way, I am making sure that no one will have to face their demons alone."

"Freddy is a literal demon. Your demon is someone playing dress-up; mine is someone that can play puppet master in my dreams with little chance for escape."

"There is a special sleep clinic unit at the school where you will be closely monitored and woken up at any sign of danger. You will be able to sleep again."

"Who else is there? At the school?"

"Laurie Strodes Granddaughter. Jess Bradford's granddaughter. Those are the more notable final girls that you would have heard from."

"I only know of them from those cheesy slasher flicks. Halloween and Black Christmas. You're telling me those events in those movies are real? And your school is a buffet of PTSD?"

"Those movies don't relay the events correctly. If they did, then to the audience, the movies wouldn't be as enjoyable. Because once the movie ends, you're left with you and me. Two people trying to get through the day and pick up their broken pieces again and again. Nobody else can see that because they move on far before we can. I lost my best friend when I was your age. Her name was Tatum. All she is seen as is another victim to a rising body count or a profit in the Stab franchise because the more bodies that drop, the more money the franchise makes. I don't want you to be just another plot point, Genesis. I want to work towards giving you a future. I have a brochure for the school. But I think you should consider giving us a chance.

"Wait," I called before Sidney could officially leave. "I know you are probably busy, but I haven't slept in a week. Please," I pleaded pathetically. "Just watch me sleep for an hour, max. I ran out of rubberbands to keep me awake." I dropped my gray sweater around my shoulders to reveal welts. Sidney didn't look shocked or gasp. She understood that I did whatever was necessary to survive. And that is what I will soon learn is lesson one of being a final girl.