Realistic or Modern 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐢𝐭?

[esor]

Xander simply just shrugged, walking over to the counter and leaning on it so he wasn't just stood there whilst watching her.

"I'm taking you home." He told her. He would've liked to tell her that he was a little worried, that he didn't think it was right for her to be walking home by herself, but no way would he admit that to her. He thought what he said was sufficient enough.

His eyes kind of avoided hers, he felt somewhat awkward which was unusual. It was probably because he was doing something considerate and not selfish, which is what he was used to. He looked over the store again, like he was seeing it for the first time. His eyes were scanning the movies, he considered renting one. Then he'd have to bring it back...An excuse to see her again?

-

Seeing Josh wrap his arm around Lindsey's shoulder made Skylar feel odd; she felt kind of jealous, but at the same time her heart felt warm. It was like her head was battling with her heart, in her head she just wanted him to wrap his arms around her and keep her safe (sure, a little more than he was doing with Lindsey but still) but her heart felt happy that he was comforting her, she knew he wasn't a big hugger so that was a really sweet gesture.

Whilst the tall boy looked over at the photos, she couldn't help but look at him. Every second a new part of his face was illuminated by the soft glow of the flame, every second she saw a part of his face that was more handsome than the last. Despite him being very easy on the eyes it was hard to look at him, it was like window shopping- staring, longing at something she couldn't have.

She had to rip her gaze from him and look towards the photos, the reality of the whole situation digging deeper in her. At least if she was looking at Josh she wasn't feeling existential worry and grief.

Lindsey appreciated the comfort from Josh, Sky also, but having someone tall eradicated the worry of anything happening to her or the brunette girl beside her. Not that something would happen in a huge crowd of people, but it was still warming.

 

[amberskies]

The smirk he had when he walked into the store combined with what he had just said.. was he hitting on her? Ellie blinked for a moment as her eyes followed him approaching the counter, before realising he meant that he'd take her to her own house, not his place. Then, her expression softened and she couldn't help the smile that overcame her features, trying her hardest to suppress it as she looked down at her feet for a moment.

Ellie noticed him averting his eyes, and slowly walked over in his direction, still holding the copy of The Shining in front of her with both hands. She moved to stand next to him by the counter, looking up at him despite him not returning the eye contact.

"That's why you came here?" She asked, making no effort to hide the sweet and appreciative smile sitting on her lips. That was a lie; she made a slight effort to make it seem less wide, not wanting to look crazy as she stood next to him, feeling all sorts of things at the idea of someone like him driving all the way here just to drop her home.

-

Josh gave Lindsey's shoulder a little squeeze, before slowly letting go of her, as though he was trying to let go without being noticed. Sure, he was sort of close with Lindsey, but not to the extent where he felt incredibly comfortable having that sort of physical contact with her. He wanted to be there for her, but he also didn't want to make himself uncomfortable in the process. His smile was a bit more forced and slightly pursed at this point, not finding a reason to smile as he stared at the photos of Sadie.

Sadie and Heather. Two girls. As his eyes returned to Lindsey and Sky, he couldn't help but feel slight concern and sadness overcome him. Lindsey and Sky. Two girls. It could just as easily have been them. His eyebrows lowered, annoyed at himself for even thinking of something like that. They were safe and sound in front of him now, and that was all he needed. He wasn't sure how he had plagued his mind with such dark thoughts in the first place. He wasn't the type to get concerned easily, but then again, Sunnydale wasn't the type of city to get murders.

He was disrupted from his thoughts as a few people joined the trio standing in the crowd. The girls looked somewhat familiar, classmates, but he wasn't particularly close with either of them. One of the three girls had strawberry blonde hair and a tear stained face with big, sad eyes, clearly trying her best to suppress her feelings but failing miserably. She was standing by Josh, partaking in a conversation he was barely paying attention to, before she suddenly had a pout on her face as they all spoke of memories with Sadie.

The strawberry blonde haired girl gripped Joshua's arm, almost hugging it as she reached her other hand to wipe away a tear and prevent her mascara from smudging. Josh very visibly tensed up at being grabbed like that, not only because he wasn't expecting it but because he wasn't a fan of being touched by people he hardly knew. He had straightened up at the contact and froze up a little, immediately breaking eye contact with whoever he was looking at and clenching his jaw as he waited to be let go, not wanting to be rude by shaking her off since she was grieving. That would only make him look like an absolute asshole.

 

[esor]

"Yeah." He said to her, finally looking back at the girl. He looked at the copy of the film she had in her hands and reached out his, taking it from her. He knew what it was, he'd seen The Shining before, he watched it with his dad- his mother was far too scared of horror films to even consider watching it with them, no matter how much they tried to convince her to.

"Hm. I suppose I'll get this, too." He said to her. Looking at the film he hadn't paid much attention to what it actually was, it didn't register to him that there was no point in getting it. He was genuinely just trying to make it look like he wasn't there just to drive her back home. Even though he was, and she probably knew that he was. He had noticed her smile, it was cute, he thought. Since there wasn't much else for her to be smiling about in this moment, he assumed it was because of him and that majorly boosted his ego.

"How long until you close up?" Xander asked Ellie, standing up straight now and introducing eye contact.

-

Sky took a few small steps back as some more girls joined the group, she knew of them but hadn't really spoken to them before. Her only connection to them was Lindsey, really. With no idea how the girls felt about Sky, she didn't want to jump in and try to comfort them just to be rejected. Plus it seemed one of them was taking comfort into her own hands by gripping Josh's arm. Seeing him tense up like that was slightly funny, she felt bad for thinking that, clear he was uncomfortable. But soon enough she went a little closer.

Not wanting to rip the grieving girl away from Josh, she simply decided it was best to strike up a small conversation. "Josh, can I talk to you for a second?" She looked at him before directing her gaze to the girl.

"I'm so sorry." Sky told her. "It's really urgent." She added, hoping she'd release his arm and set him free. She had no idea what she would say to him but either way it probably would've been nice for Lindsey to spend some time with her other friends, the ones who all knew and loved Sadie.

 

[amberskies]

"You haven't seen The Shining? It's a classic, it's about-" Ellie began to speak, advertising the movie before realising she had gone into work mode and Alexander definitely wasn't a legit customer she had to verbally sell the movie to. She looked away from him for a moment, remembering that work was over and there was no need to convince him to get the movie anymore. Her fingers proceeded to fiddle with one another, and she then returned her attention to him.

"Take it, bring it back whenever." She told him. She wasn't about to charge a friend for borrowing a DVD. Besides, even though it was a popular movie, it wasn't the only copy they had anyway. And, part of her was hoping it would mean he'd stop by another time, unless he decided to take the lame route and return it to her at school, which she hoped he wouldn't.

"Oh, uhm.." Ellie thought for a moment, standing up straight as she realised she was meant to be cleaning up instead of chatting him up. "Sorry, give me like 15 minutes." She told him, before mentally cursing at herself for apologising for something like that. She picked up a few more films from the counter and walked off from him to put them in their appropriate spot in the store.

-

Josh held back from exhaling a sigh of relief as Skylar jumped in and saved him from the girl gripping his arm, but seeing as the girl hadn't actually let go yet, he realised he might have been getting ahead of himself. He silently prayed that she would let go, and eventually, she did.

"Yeah okay." She sniffled a little, before reluctantly letting go of the curly haired boy and letting her hands fall to her side before returning to Lindsey and the other girls just a foot away. Josh instantly eased up, finally letting out that sigh of relief as he took a few steps away from the group with Skylar.

"Thanks. What's up?" he asked her, unsure of whether that was a total excuse or she actually had something urgent to tell him. Maybe she did need to tell him something and simply timed it perfectly with when the girl had grabbed him. Josh still held the candle in his hand, and stuffed the other one into his pocket as he felt the cold nipping at his skin.

 

[esor]

"M'kay." He replied still looking at her. She was being very generous not charging him, he thought, and that made him quite happy. Not because he didn't have to pay, but he thought she must have liked him enough to let him have it for free. Xander waited until she walked away from him before reaching in his back pocket to pull out his wallet, he had absolutely no idea how much it cost to rent a DVD, so he took out 20 dollars and put it underneath a little trinket on the counter. He hoped she wouldn't notice yet, and wouldn't question him about it. He appreciated not having to pay for it, which actually meant he wanted to pay for it even more. The man felt that was odd, but didn't think much about it.

"You like horror films?" He asked her once his wallet had been shoved firmly back into his pocket, eyes looking around the store until they landed onto the pretty girl.

-

Skylar showed a smile when he thanked her, and she responded to his question with a small shrug. "I just wanted to get you away. Have you all to myself." She joked with a little humoured smile, but quickly diverted her speech away from that, mentally scolding herself for acting so lame. "Not sure I've ever seen you look so uncomfortable." She mused, keeping her candle close to her so she could feel the warmth radiating from it.

"How do you feel? You know...about, that, and this." She asked him, gesturing to that girl subtly then to the whole situation, though being very ambiguous she hoped he would understand what she meant. She knew the girl grasping onto him would've made him uneasy but what she didn't know was how he felt about Sadie's death, she hadn't had chance to speak to him alone since it happened. Sky didn't expect him to be mourning, but wondered how he was feeling about the murders. She wondered if he ever worried about it.

 

[amberskies]

Elle continued to make her way through the different aisles, placing each film in the appropriate spot and ensuring they looked neat. It wasn't part of the job description, and though Elisabeth wasn't diagnosed with OCD, she still had some tendencies that seemed to point in that direction. She always spent a little extra time making sure each film was sitting perfectly straight and that the space between each cassette was the exact same. Satisfied with the placement of everything on the aisle, she moved onto the next before looking over at Xander as he spoke once more.

"Yep, it's my favourite genre." Ellie told him. After she started working here, she had fallen into a horror film obsession. Though their video store didn't discriminate and had all sorts of genres, horror was definitely their specialty. "You?" She returned the question, curious as to whether they shared a passion for horror.

-

"I.. am cool with crowds but I don't like people throwing themselves onto me like that." Josh said in response to her, though he had a feeling that it wasn't what she was gesturing to. As he looked at his surroundings, he realised she meant the more general context.

"Oh." He said at first. "The.. Sadie thing." He went on to add, his eyes shifting from Skylar's pretty blue ones to the candle he was holding, before giving her a small shrug.

"Shitty situation. I mean, I wasn't close to her, but.." Josh drifted off, stopping himself before he dared say anything about how it could've been Skylar. That would sound too sentimental coming from him. It also could've been Lindsey. Realising he still hadn't finished off his sentence, he returned his eyes to her.

"I dunno it's weird. And I don't even have a clue of who it could be." He admitted. That was what bothered Josh most about the entire situation. He didn't have the tiniest clue of who could be the killer, or if it was even one person or more than one. It could've been a team effort, too. And did the killer target men, too? It was odd for Josh to overthink even the slightest bit. He was practically never like that. He'd never admit it, but the murders had put him a little bit on edge. Hell, Sky could be the killer. He had a feeling she wasn't, though.

 

[esor]

"They're cool." He answered. "Don't really scare me though." They did. Though he was quite good at hiding it, squealing at a film whilst watching it with his dad was quite embarrassing, he thought. His dad would ridicule him for it for weeks.

All of a sudden he felt like opening up a little, he figured he could trust her now and anything he said would probably be overshadowed by that night. He, too, wondered if Ellie remembered any of what happened. He was pretty drunk that night so details were blurry but he did remember practically begging her to kiss him. Embarrassing, huh? These thoughts were just annoying him now so went back to conversing with the girl.

"My dad and I watch a lot of films together. More so recently than we did before." Since his dad no longer worked, he had a lot of free time and sitting on the sofa with his son watching a film was a very good way to spend it. Plus Alex valued that time with his father. "He loves horrors."

-

Skylar nodded along as Josh replied to her, it definitely wasn't the most pleasant conversation two teenagers could be having but she'd rather he told her than keep it all to himself anyway.

"I don't either. I never thought that someone in Sunnydale could ever do something like this." The girl sighed. "It's terrifying." Her voice quietened a little. She also wondered if the killer would target men, she hoped not. She was already frantically worrying about Ellie and Lindsey all the time, as well as herself, she didn't want to be worrying about Josh too. That would wear her out completely.

"I suppose it's only a matter of time until it happens again. It could be a coincidence but two murders in Sunnydale so close to each other? It would be an extremely unlikely coincidence." She continued.

"Are you alright, though?" The brunette asked him sincerely.

 

[amberskies]

"Same." Ellie told him. She had watched so many movies over the years, particularly when she was younger, that she was sort of desensitised to the shock factor of horror movies. She still really enjoyed them though, and because part of her job required her to help people pick out or find a movie, having that sort of horror knowledge helped.

She smiled softly as he talked about watching movies with his father. Ellie wasn't as close to her parents as the average teenager. Not only were they both always busy at work, but they were incredibly strict which made it difficult for her to stand them half the time. She still loved them because you were supposed to love your parents, and because they were the reason she had a roof over her head. But in terms of having a bond with them, she didn't really have that. She did have a bond with her aunt from her father's side, though. Her aunt was incredible, and she always looked forward to her visits to Sunnydale.

"Really? My parents don't like them." She laughed a little. That was sort of a lie actually, she had absolutely no idea whether they liked them because they practically never rented movies and always watched cable TV instead. But she always assumed it wasn't their genre.

She was finished with putting away the cassettes, so she moved on to a different task; opening the box of new videos the bossman had ordered. She ripped away the tape at the top, revealing brand new cassettes of various movies that had been released very recently. Among them was the slasher movie Scream, starring none other than the handsome Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard. She left the box open for the morning shift workers to unpack, and grabbed one of the copies of Scream to temporarily take home. Her boss wouldn't mind.

"Fitting." She said as she held up the cassette, remembering that the synopsis of the movie involved a masked serial killer targeting high schoolers.

-

Josh nodded his head slowly. To be honest, the feeling of fear hadn't set in for him yet. It wasn't just because none of the victims were boys, but also because the gravity of the situation just hadn't set in yet. A killer in Sunnydale? It still felt oddly.. weird. Not real. As though it was part of his imagination. But as he momentarily glanced over at the photos of Sadie, he knew it was all real. Why'd he feel so detached from it all then?

He opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped himself as he realised his words were going to be far from comforting. He was about to go on about how there would definitely be more victims, but he was sure that was the last thing Skylar wanted to hear.

"I'm fine. Doesn't feel like reality to be honest." He told her. Josh never expected to lose a single one of his classmates in this manner, and looking down at the candle was a constant reminder of the tragedy they were experiencing. "You?" he returned the question, looking back down at her. His fingers shifted around the candle as he felt hot wax dripping along the side of it, not wanting to burn the tips of his fingers.

 

[esor]

A chuckle escaped Alex's mouth. "Maybe that's where the killer got the inspiration." He gestured over to the cassette. Then, he raised an eyebrow.

"You're not the killer, are you, El?" He asked dramatically, looking at the copy she was taking for herself. It was obvious he was joking but he kept his tone serious. No way would he suspect Ellie to be a serial killer. Though he hadn't thought all that much about who it was, he didn't think it was anyone he was remotely close to. "Have I made a life-threatening mistake coming here to see you?"

He actually felt happy in Ellie's presence, he felt unjudged which was quite rare for him. Whilst people refrained from coming up to him, talking to him and socialising with him, they would stare at him, look at him, talk about him when he wasn't there. He did feel quite judged walking around school, really. But it didn't put a damper on him, well, when he was at school is mood couldn't really be pulled down much further.

-

"I'm worried, honestly. Really worried. It could've been me. It still could be. But it could be Ellie or Lindsey; that would be even worse. I can't bare the thought of something happening to one of them." She told him truthfully. But she hated revealing this to him, she didn't want him to think she was whiney or weak. Skylar would sacrifice herself, no doubt, no hesitation, if it meant she could save her Ellie and Lindsey; though it hadn't crossed her mind that it would ever come to that.

"I'm fine, though." She added to keep the conversation slightly lighter, if that was even possible. "Nothing much I can do about any of it." She finished her sentence with a little shrug, before looking down at the flame. It was bright, but nicer than staring at weeping people. She felt so bad for everyone, even her mom looked upset and she didn't even know who Sadie was before she was murdered.

 

[amberskies]

"Could be." Ellie mused. She didn't know many of the details behind the murders, but it wasn't uncommon for horror movies to inspire killers in real life. She heard about that happening a few times. Could this be one of those cases? Had she potentially rented out a horror movie to Sunnydale's killer?

She was definitely overthinking it, so she snapped out of her thoughts and processed the next thing Alex said, letting out a slight laugh.

"Walked right into my trap." She teased him as she stood back up, approaching the back of the counter and slipping the Scream cassette into her backpack. Part of her wanted to suggest Xander watch it with her, but then the other part realised that was a rather direct and intimate invitation so she decided against it. Turning off all the electronics as well as the lights, the store was now completely dark inside.

"One sec." She told him as she fumbled in the dark with a different set of light switches, turning on the black light they'd keep on at night. It gave the store an eery vibe, particularly with the events that were going on recently. Her eyes went on to scan the store, thinking of whether she had something else to do before closing up.

-

Josh nodded slowly as he spoke. Skylar didn't typically get this raw about her feelings to him, but he wasn't about to stop her. He sort of empathised. Sure, he didn't hold the same level of fear as her, since he was a guy and all the victims thus far had been girls, but he still had that same fear of losing Skylar, Lindsey and Ellie. Especially Skylar. Thinking about the football game, recalling seeing Sadie, he looked away for a moment as he thought about the fact that it easily could've been Sky. He could see her one day, and the next she could be gone forever.

"Yeah. I get it." Josh told her. Because he did get it. The way Skylar felt toward Lindsey and Ellie combined was the way he felt about losing only Skylar. Obviously it was because she was one of his friends.

"You'll be fine as long as you're not alone at night, honestly." Josh went on, trying to sort of comfort her. "Sadie and Heather were both alone at night when they.." He trailed off, assuming Skylar knew what he meant with the end of the sentence. "He's not gonna strike a group of people, you know?"

"Or she. They, whatever." Josh added, trying to be sort of gender inclusive since he was assuming the killer was a man.

 

[esor]

Xander kept his gaze in her direction, finding it interesting to watch her work. What he did for work was quite different so it interested him. The black light actually did creep him out a little, it made him imagine what she would feel like if she was here all alone, in the dark, in such a time.

"So...would you have walked home? Tonight? By yourself?" He asked her inquisitively, raising an eyebrow. It really baffled him that she was even working by herself at this time, never mind that she might have had to go home all alone if he didn't want to drive her. He fiddled with the copy in his hand and scanned over it with his eyes as he waited for a response from the girl who seemed to be pondering what work she had left to do.

If it was up to him, he'd have walked in, grabbed her hand and taken her to his car and driven her home straight away. It was spine chilling in the dark at this time, he didn't have concern for his own safety but that didn't mean he wasn't creeped out by it all. Standing there in the store made him feel uneasy.

-

Skylar nodded at him. He was right, his attempted comfort was lovely but the worry she felt wouldn't subside no matter how hard she tried to get it to go away. "Yeah, you're right. For once." She teased as a way of trying to lighten the mood slightly.

"I might have to only do weekend day shifts at the bookstore. I don't think it's safe to work nights, really." She told him. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, she'd much rather that than be a victim but she much preferred working after school and having the whole weekend doing nothing. It made her think how Ellie was working nights. It was hard not always knowing if she was alright or not, it played on Skylar's mind like a pianist playing Chopin's Sinata No.2.

"I'll be fine, so will Ellie and Lindsey." She said, as if trying to reassure herself more so than Josh.

"Might just convince my parents to move away and I can get a new job in a different bookstore. Never have to see you again." She obviously joked, there was no way she'd ever move away- not yet anyway. Probably when college came around, but for now she was staying firmly put.

 

[amberskies]

Ellie was sort of used to working alone at night in the store. It was real scary at first, but over time she got used to it since practically nothing would usually happen to her. Sure, a group of drunk teenage boys would occasionally stop by and bother her, or someone homeless would be banging on the door for spare change, but it wasn't until Sunnydale got a serial killer that Ellie really felt a tinge of fear. She looked over at him as he posed a question.

"Yep. I couldn't cancel it." She told him. Truth be told, even if she could cancel it, she highly doubted she would've. There's no way she can do day shifts because she has school, and working only the weekends wasn't enough. Besides, she liked avoiding work on the weekends so she could really relax and do nothing all day. Maybe her schedule would have to change now, who knew.

"I don't know what to do about the whole situation." She then went on, letting a bit of her concern show. "Anyway I have pepper spray." She added with a hint of a laugh at the end of her sentence.

-

Josh rolled his eyes at her a little, the smile sitting on his lips showing that he was in on the joke. It seemed like his words actually managed to comfort her, if at least a little bit. Sometimes he'd accidentally say the wrong thing and though he genuinely meant to be comforting, words could come out wrong.

"Yeah, you guys will be fine. If you find yourself in the killers path, kick him in the nuts." Joshua advised, sort of jokingly but also in slight seriousness. That was a pretty good tactic, assuming the serial killer had that organ.

"You have more chances of surviving a serial killer than surviving a year of high school without us." Josh teased back, leaning forward slightly as he spoke like that before retreating to his straight standing position. He knew she wasn't serious, but if she were to move away from them, he wasn't sure if he would survive the school year without her. The problem wasn't that he couldn't make friends; hell, everyone wanted to be his friend. The problem lay in the fact that Josh was real picky about his friends, and Sky managed to fit his criteria rather perfectly.

 

[esor]

“Oh yeah? Pepper spray? Wow…You’re basically invincible with that.” Alex teased her with a gentle smirk. “You will be invincible if you let me take you home.” He added, sounding very confident in his ability to keep her safe. He knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her, but he wasn’t going to pour his heart out like that. It was best he just flexed his arrogance.

He did have deep concern about her, which was weird, he thought, because he wouldn’t have done this for anyone else. In his head, he didn’t like her anymore than he liked any of his other friends. But in his heart he did, he just didn’t know that yet. Or know the extent of it, at least.

-

Sky chuckled. “Well thanks, I’ll keep that in my head in case I ever run into the killer. I’ll be so badass.” She sarcastically chimed.

“You don’t think so? Well, I think I would be perfectly fine. I think you’d be the one struggling to survive without me.” The girl smirked, though in her head she didn’t actually think that, little did she know it was pretty much true. She’d never move away, not yet at least. If it was proposed to her by her parents she’d protest and protest until they agreed to stay. What would be the point in moving now, anyway? All it would do would disrupt her life. Maybe if she could move away with Josh! At this point she was getting very carried away in her thoughts. He didn’t even like her and she was fantasising about escaping with him.