The Party
If there was any time that it was appropriate to panic, it was now.
The shots. They had been drugged, by ‘Jake’. Of fucking course she thought angrily, pacing around the only empty room she could find, the tiny walk-in closet on the first floor of Emma’s house. She could still hear some people retching, but it had mostly subsided at this point, but the house still smelled like vomit, especially in the bathroom and outside in the yard. Luckily, Audrey found it easy to ignore, because her brain felt slow, foggy, and basically backed up, that didn’t stop her from trying to figure out who drugged the tequila. Her gut was on Stavo, he knew too much about this drug, ayahuasca, then there was the his drawings, that were so creepy. She would love to call him out on them, but them he would know that she went through his tablet, and she really doubted that conversation would end well.
“Audrey? Audrey? Hey, has anyone seen Audrey?” A voice asked from somewhere outside the closet she was holed up in, she knew that voice, it was Noah, but she couldn’t say anything, she had to stay hidden, stay alone. Stavo had said that everyone would start hallucinating, and this closet was her safe haven, as long as she didn’t leave, she wouldn’t accidently say anything about anything. She had a horrible feeling that if she went out there, she would let it slip that she was the accomplice that Noah was searching so desperately for, or the fact that she was cutting. “Audrey? I gotta ask you somethi-” His speech was cut off by a loud crash making Audrey snap out of her stupor.
“Noah?” She muttered under her breath, putting her hand on the lock by the doorknob, but hesitating, Noah was probably fine, but she couldn’t get the thought out of her head that the killer was there. So, she sucked it up, unlocked the door, and twisted the handle so that the door would open. She pulled it open, seeing an ominously empty living room, this room had been packed when she went in, so where did everyone go? There was no trace of, well the living room wasn’t pristine, it was littered with cups, but it there was nothing that could tell her where anyone went, even all the previously open doors had been closed. “Noah? Where’d you go?” She called as she began to walk around the room
“Noah?!” She called again, heading towards one of the doors, she reached towards it, trying to turn the handle, but it didn’t budge. Locked? But this door leads to the kitchen… why is it locked? She thought. Unless, the killer was here, and they had locked her in this room so she couldn’t stop him from killing all of the people she cared about. In panic, she bolted running across the room towards the door on the opposite side that lead to a hallway, along the way, she tripped, falling flat on her face. She groaned, pushing herself off the floor slowly, and turning to see exactly what had tripped her.
“Jake!” There was Jake's body, laying on the floor, with a giant gash through her torso, letting his guts and blood spill onto the floor. Audrey clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, and shoved herself onto her now wobbly feet. Her breathing had become erratic, she knew she needed to get out of there, and get someone, she could finally tell someone, tell Brooke. She started to shuffle backwards, letting her hand fall from her mouth, to grab vase from an end table to use as a weapon, when she bumped into something else. “Brooke!” he muttered, completely frozen out of fear and grief.
“No, no, no, I have to get out of here.” She said to herself, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Brooke’s mangled form. Her eyes had been crudely removed from her skull, blood was pouring out of a gaping knife wound in her chest, and there was a note on her that said ‘Now she can never see what you did, I helped you, didn’t I, Killer?’ She wanted to vomit, and not because of the ayahuasca this time. She bolted away, kicking red solo cups around as she did so, she ran to another door, she was shocked to find that it was actually unlocked. She as flooded with joyus relief, but as she pushed it open, she discovered that it was just the closet from earlier, she wanted to punch a wall at this point, but she also want to…. She touched her wrists, not wanting to admit that she wanted to cut, yet again. She hung her head slightly, feeling defeated, but as she did so, she saw another body. “E-emma?” She stuttered, looking into the lifeless eyes of her former best friend. She had a bullet wound in her chest, and one in head as well. Just like Piper Audrey thought, dropping the vase and stumbling backwards again, but running into something, or someone, this time.
“Audrey?” The voice was monotone, and definitely not distorted like the killer’s, but she whipped around all the same, elbowing whoever was behind her in the stomach as she did so. She came face to face with the man behind the voice, Stavo. He was hunched over slightly, clutching his stomach, and giving her an intrigued yet pissed look. At first, she felt like apologizing, but she didn’t really mean it, since if he was the only one other than her here…. But wait, that wasn’t true, everyone was hear, party guests were milling about in the room, muttering to themselves, or just passed out of the couch. She whipped back, looking in the closet, and there was no Emma, upon further inspection of the room, no Jake or Brooke either. “What’d you see?” Stavo asked, straightening his back, and raising an eyebrow at her since she was still breathing extremely heavily. Illusions, it was just an illusion, Brooke and Emma weren’t dead
“Nothing. Nothing.” She muttered, quickly and quietly. Stavo obviously didn’t believe her, and she didn’t blame him, since she was making it very clear that she had seen something. She just stumbled away from him, and got absorbed by the crowd of people. She pushed her way out of the room, a through the door, that was open this time around. She knew it was an illusion, but she had to check, with everything that was going on, she had to be sure. She looked around desperately, searching for any sign of Brooke or Emma, but she saw none, until her eyes settled on Zoe. She was leaning against a couch, looking completely dazed, and Audrey wasn’t sure she would get a response if she even asked, but she did anyway. “Hey, have you seen Emma?”
“I think she’s upstairs.” Zoe replied, starting to smile slightly with her perfect teeth. She giggled a bit, causing her hair to fall onto her shoulders, and her chest to bounce slightly, and Audrey knew she should have more patience, since the girl was under the influence as well, but she wanted to make sure they were okay.
~~~~~~~
Noah stumbled down the long hallway, feeling woozy and disconcerted. The ayahuasca had made feel like he had just had five jager bombs, basically, it made him feel more drunk than he had ever been before in his entire life. He wanted to vomit and pass out at the same time, but he couldn’t do either, so she just stumbled in his drunken stupor through Emma’s house, trying not to break anything. He eventually had stumbled into the hallway that led to the foyer, and spotted a familiar face at the end of it, Audrey.
She looked frightened, confused, and strangely enough, a little bit guilty.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How was Rachel there? This had to be another Hallucination, but she didn’t want it to be, she wanted to believe that Rachel was there, standing in front of her, even if she had a noose wrapped very loosely around her neck. Audrey stared at her for a moment full of disbelief and some sorrow, because she knew she could never truly have the beautiful girl who stood in front of her know.
“Shh, don’t be afraid, I won’t tell anyone what you did to yourself, and to the others.” Rachel said, and placed her hands on the sides of Audrey’s neck, pulling her in for a long, sweet kiss. Audrey raised her arms, wanting to wrap her arms around Rachel, and hold her so tightly that she could never slip away again. But she hesitated, because, even in this moment, she knew she didn’t deserve Rachel, she was the reason she has gotten killed in the first place. She had to pull away, she couldn’t let herself indulge in people as sweet as Rachel. Rachel deserved someone with a heart as pure as her own, not Audrey, not the monster that had brought Piper to Lakewood just so she could have a friend, not someone so selfish.
“I don’t deserve you.” She mumbled quietly into the kiss, before pulling back, feeling sweaty and defeated. But the face that she was looking at was not Rachel’s, but someone that she had never imagined herself kissing, a certain obsessive nerd, who looked just as confused as she did. Noah. Audrey and Noah just stood there for a moment, asking themselves the same question over and over in their heads. ‘What did I just do?!’
“Z-Zoe I…” Noah said, looking over at said girl, who Audrey hadn’t even noticed had walked up, simply because she had been shocked into a stupor. She felt as if she couldn’t control her own body as Zoe pulled Noah into a short, tender kiss, then turned to her, connecting their mouths slowly but sweetly.
~~~~~~~~
Noah hadn’t call her. Why hadn’t Noah called her? They were best friends, right? So, after everything that happened, she thought he would’ve called her by now. But no, she understood why he had neglected to call him last night, or answer her many calls, they both extremely freaked out, because they didn’t know what this meant for their relationship. The whole thing had driven her cut again, because, for some odd reason, she had liked it. Maybe because she thought it was Rachel, or maybe it was because of the drugs. Yeah, the drugs.
“Hey!” Noah said, walked next to her car, and leaning on it ever so slightly, looking uncomfortable and nervous. And she couldn’t help but be uncomfortable herself, not because of what happened, but because it felt so unnatural for Noah to be so nervous just because of her presence. They had always been each other’s safety blankets, and you they had always found shelter in each other, they had always felt comfortable with each other, and now this. This, unnerving tension between the two of them, she wasn’t gonna lie, it kind of scared her, since she never wanted to lose him. “So uh, last night was… weird.”
“Yeah, don’t do drugs kids.” She said as she collected her books from the mess that was her trunk, trying to regain their usual attitude, whilst trying to stay away from any prying questions he might have. She glanced over at him for a moment, seeing that he looked like he was desperately trying to articulate something in brain. “You good?” She asked as she shoved her last book into her bag, eyeing him oddly.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He said, much too quickly, causing her to raise an eyebrow, as she pulled the trunk of her car down, shutting it with a blunt thud. She glared at him suspiciously, watching him squirm slightly under her intense gaze, silently willing him to just spill his guts and make this easy on her. “Okay uh, I do actually have, uh, a couple of things something to say, or ask. Before we… ya know… kissed, you apologized to me, and then said ‘I’m paying for it my own way’ what was that about?” He asked innocently, and while externally she looked calm and indifferent, internally she was more panicked than she had ever been in her entire life. She hadn’t actually said that, had she? Most of the night after getting drugged was a blur to her, with the exceptions of the three-way make out session, and the ever to vivid hallucinations of her friends dead bodies.
“Weird, don’t remember that, must’ve been the drugs, it was all about the drugs.” She said, trying to keep her voice steady despite the fact that she could see that her hands were visibly shaking. She knew why, it was because he was just so close,one more question and he would discover the things she did to herself when no one was watching. Just stop asking question Noah, She thought, trying not to let her fear show on her face. “Probably not for her though, she likes you, I can tell, try not to screw it up, okay?” She said, walking off and trying to distract Noah, successfully doing so, and when he turned his head towards her, she bolted in the other direction. She was so dead set on getting out of there she didn’t notice Stavo, who was right in her path, looking down at his phone. She crashed into him, in the middle of the otherwise vacant hallway, sending both of them crashing to the ground, with Audrey landing awkwardly on top of Stavo.
“Sorry,” she muttered, pushed herself off of Stavo, and getting to her feet. He quickly followed her drift, simply giving her a slightly angered glare. She met his gaze for a second, expecting him to walk in favor of supporting Brooke during the assembly, but he just stood there glaring at her as if he saw something everyone else didn’t. “What?” She asked, feeling her temper beginning to rise, because if had something to say, he should just say it and stop creeping her out.
“That’s the second time you’ve knocked into me within the last twenty-four hours.” He stated, which was true, now that she thought about it. It hadn’t been on purpose either time, and Stavo didn’t think she had done it just to piss him off… did he? She straightened her back, and glared back at him, suddenly throwing on a defensive front.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She spat angrily, crossing her arms over her chest. Stavo knew that she was suspicious of him, and she believed that he was suspicious of her as well. Stavo smirked, amused at how easy it was to get a rise out of the small, raven-haired girl in front of him. He wanted to find out how easy he could get her with his annoyingly vague statements. “You got problem with me, you wannabe vincent van gogh?” She asked, stepping into his personal space, and getting up in his space.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Both of you calm down, especially you Audrey.” A small panicked voice came from their right, and they turned into unison, seeing Noah, looking slightly distressed, probably because he knew about his best friends anger issues all too well. She rolled her eyes, stepping away from Stavo, but not stopping glaring, to which he responded by waving at her slightly and smirking, before walking off to join the assembly.
“One day, please just let me kick someones ass when they piss me off.” She said, turning back to look him, with all the anger in her blue eyes dissipated.
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“You were wrong, ya know.” Noah said once they had found two seats next to each other in the middle of the large, crowded, auditorium. She looked over at him, confusion clear on her face, as she raised an eyebrow at him. He met her gaze, and continued. “About the Zoe thing, she doesn’t like me. In fact, she thinks I like you.” Audrey’s heart skipped a beat, she knew Zoe liked Noah, so she couldn’t understand why she had turned him down at all. But that’s not what freaked her out, Zoe thought that he liked her. It wasn’t even that, because she knew that Zoe didn’t know him as well as she did, what made her question everything was the fact that, for a moment, she felt excitement boil in her heart. Excitement that she quickly buried.
“I doubt it, she was probably just freaked out about last night. Give her a bit.” Audrey said, and Noah just looked defeated, which caused her to feel a little down as well, because he was upset that Zoe had rejected him, meaning she was the one he liked. Why am I upset about this? She asked herself, but she couldn’t find an answer to her question, and she wasn’t about to ask him. Finally, she zoned back in, and saw that his face held an incredibly sad expression, making her regret worrying about her silly feelings.“Look, Noah, even if she doesn’t like you, it’s her loss, okay? She rejected you, so obviously she’s an idiot, Noah, okay?” She said, trying to brighten his mood, however slightly.
“Thanks Aud.” He said, flashing her a small, yet genuine, smile. She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his arm and rubbing it gently, trying to comfort him as best as she could. She didn’t deserve him, poor, sweet Noah, and all she could think was if he ever found out what she did, he wouldn’t be sweet little Noah anymore, he’d be mad, he’ be betrayed, and he’d be done with her.
Noah rested his head head ontop of her hers, and they just sat there happily, cradled in eachothers arms. Until Audrey felt a cold, hard, glare on her, she scanned the room, looking for the source, and that’s when she saw Zoe. Giving her the most hostile glare she had ever seen, and she thought she knew why, because Noah looked comfortable and safe with her, in other words she was jealous.But her attention was quickly moved back to the stage, where the teacher showed up at the podium, with the list of finalists for the Lady of the Lake. making Audrey take her head of Noah’s shoulder so she could pay attention, and root for Brooke.
Names of girls she didn’t know were called, yet she clapped for them, but she didn’t clap for Zoe, not because she was jealous, but because she knew it would make Noah feel better knowing that she was on his side. She clapped as loud as she possibly could as Brooke’s name was called, and the blonde girl strode onstage calmly. Brooke’s eyes skated to all her friends, first Emma, who was smiling widely, then Kieran, who was sitting beside her and clapping with his stoic face on. She looked around, and saw Stavo, obviously sketching the entire situation, but smiling nonetheless, and she let her gaze move over to where Audrey and Noah were sitting, clapping and smiling happily, then to the empty seat Jake was supposed to be in and Audrey saw flicker of sadness and anger cross her eyes, but she quickly smiled, covering it up.
Then it happened, then banner was lowered, and Audrey watched in horror as sticky, red blood poured onto Brooke’s head, coloring her light hair a deep, ugly red, as a familiar body fell from the ceiling, and landed at her feet. Jake. Audrey’s heart speed, up and she gripped the fabric of Noah’s shirt. She was suddenly grateful because at least it looked like she was only acting like this because her friend was dead, and not because she feared what the killer was planning to do with this.
Brooke screamed.