Confessions
Stavo knocked on the door, doing that because it was evident that the doorbell had been smashed by someone. When he got no answer, he knocked again, he was sitting outside Audrey’s house, clutching his smashed tablet in his hand. He was planning on charging in there, determined to get her to fulfill her promise to pay to fix it. All he wanted to do was write a damn comic, and she was a horror fan too, she should've understood, but apparently good taste didn’t make her not an asshole.
When she didn’t answer for a third time, he just tried the door, surprisingly, it was unlocked. Careless he thought, a body had just been dropped from the ceiling, announcing this killers return, and she had still left her door unlocked. He pushed his way inside, closing the door behind him, and locking it. He may have hated her, but he didn’t want her to meet a gruesome end, those were just fantasies. His eyes scanned the house, he had no idea where she was, but as he looked around, he saw that the door in an upstairs bedroom was open, and a light was shining out. The shattered tablet in his hand kept him angry as he walked onto the creaky staircase and began ascending. The place was clean and empty, and although he remembered Noah saying on his podcast that her mom was out of state, it still felt weird for the place to look so pristine when her dad still lived here. But regardless, he made it up the stairs, and he swore that he could hear something. Was that crying? Stavo picked up his speed, Audrey was strong, she wouldn’t be the one letting out those saddening cries, so who was it? Maybe Emma was here, that would make sense, Audrey and Emma were close, maybe Emma ran here to cry in Audrey’s arms.
Whatever, he still needed to talk to Audrey, she had this coming. He walked over to the room, about to charge in, but when he saw who was in their, he froze. Audrey was sitting on the floor, tears pouring from her eyes, and she pressed a blade into her arm. He just stared, seeing how her arms were covered in scars, and from how she was acting now, he knew exactly why.
“What the hell?” He said, not loudly, but Audrey still noticed, and looked up, meeting his eyes, and freezing in fear. Blood dripped steadily off her arm, dripping onto her jeans. She was shaky heavily, and Stavo had no idea what to do, he hadn’t expected this to say the least, he had planned to come in here and fight her, or fight the tough side of Audrey he had seen at the school. But now, seeing the weak side that he guessed she rarely revealed, he didn’t want to fight her, he wanted to help her, because regardless of how much they disliked each other, he wouldn’t just let her do this. After some consideration, he sat down next to her, crossing his legs on the ground, but not saying a word. He reached forward swiftly, prying her hand off the razor, and gently pulling it out of her sensitive skin. She looked down, slowly, focusing at some point on the ground, but not fighting anything he was doing.
His eyes scanned the room, eventually landing on the roll of paper towels on her bedside table, it was clear why it was there, so it could be used for the same reason he was going to use it. It wasn’t far, so he could reach while staying sitting, he did so, stretching his torso slightly to reach it.. He wrapped his finger around it, and pulled it back down to him, instantly starting to unravel it slightly, then tearing three pieces off. Audrey still had her eyes locked on the floor, and hadn’t moved aside from her intense shaking. He reached forward, grabbing her left arm, using the the paper towel to carefully dab away the blood without hurting her. He did the same to the other arm, then wrapping some around each arm as a makeshift bandage before he could get something better.
“Audrey?” He said, trying to get her attention, but she didn’t look up, so he grabbed her face, and turned it so she was looking at him. Her sad blue eyes finally met his, and when he finally got a good look at her face, he pulled her into a hug, it felt uncharacteristic, but he knew she needed the comfort right now, anyone could see that. He almost laughed at the fact that his arms wrapped all the way around her, because she was just that small. For once he noticed just how small she really was, she always seemed like this big unstoppable force, but she was really just a small girl with a big voice. It wasn’t a bad thing, he had just never noticed it before. She was taken aback for a second, but slowly, she raised her bandaged arm up and hugged him back weakly, barely holding on.
“Don’t you… h-hate me?” She asked, her voice barely a whisper, and he rubbed small circles on her back. He lost himself in his thoughts for a moment, because he had thought that he hated her, of course he wasn’t her biggest fan, but he didn’t hate her, and at this point, he just pitied her. He shook his head slightly, and he knew she felt it, so he didn’t feel the need to say anything more on the topic, but he had a question of his own.
“Does anyone know?” he asked quietly, still holding her, because he didn’t want to be the one pulling away first, he wanted her to feel comforted. But, she pulled away soon, bringing her hands up and wiping her eyes, and looking at Stavo, who moved so that he was leaning against her bed as well. She played with the ring on her finger for a second, biting her lip in contemplation, but eventually she decided to just tell him.
“No… not anymore.” She confessed, and he found himself to be slightly confused, how could someone just forget they saw this, how could someone just forget to tell someone, how could someone just forget to help her. She clearly saw the confusion in his eyes, because she sighed, closing her eyes for a second in thought, before opening them, but refusing to look at him. “Jake knew… h-he found out, he said he would help me, but now… I don’t think that’s happening.” She said, and he put his hand on her arm to comfort her, but she pulled her arm away harshly, pulling her knees up to her chest, and bowing her head.
“Stay put.” He said, he voiced filled with care, yet it was still firm, because he didn’t want her running off on him when he walked away, he didn’t thinks he would, not right now, but he walked swiftly nonetheless. He pushed his way through the partially open door to his bathroom, hoping that she would have a first-aid kit of sometime. He remembered Noah once mentioning on his podcast that the Lakewood six all kept a first-aid close ever since the first murder spree, just out of caution. Stavo scanned the room, looking for any place where it could be held, and his eyes found the sink cabinet. He strode over, crouched down, and pulled the doors open, revealing that he had been correct, the first-aid kit was there. He grabbed it quickly, shutting the doors, and rushing back to Audrey, who hadn’t even uncoiled since he left. Pity grew in his chest as he walked over to her, setting the kit down, and gently resting his hands on her shoulders reassuringly.
Carefully, he pulled one of her arms away from her knees, and peeled the paper towels off her still bleeding arms. He opened the kit up, instantly spotting some bandage in it that he could use to wrap her arm again. The paper towels weren’t going to be much of a fix, he knew he had to do this, so, he pulled the bandage out, and wrapped her arm. Once he had finished with that one, he moved onto the other, treating it with the same level of care and concern, then setting it down lightly.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered, her voice so broken, that it hurt just to hear it, it hurt to hear her that sad, and he didn’t even know her that well. He wasn’t even sure for what, but then he saw her eyes, that were staring directly at his broken tablet, which was now lying faceup on the floor. He was still mad about that, but now, he couldn’t be like that, he couldn’t be angry, he knew that, ever since his last boyfriend, he knew he would never get mad at someone who was cutting.
“We’ll work it out later, okay?” He said, moving so that he was leaning against her bed with her. He let her rest her heavy head on his shoulder, but didn’t wrap his arm around her, she didn’t seem to mind, she just liked having someone next her. They sat there for a second, before Stavo managed to work out what question he wanted to ask first.
“Why?” He asked quietly, from what he knew, she didn’t have depression, or anxiety, or any other mental illness, so he ruled that out. What was making her so upset that she would do this? He knew about her mom… maybe it was that, or maybe it was bullying she endured. But, both of those things happened awhile ago, and the scars that lined her arm looked fresh, well, fresh-er. He looked back up and her face, and he had the sick feeling she wasn’t going to share. “Look, Audrey, I promise I won’t judge, I won’t tell anyone, I want to help.” He said, and saw her facade shatter, and suddenly, everything she had been holding back came flooding out.
“I brought Piper to Lakewood.” She said, making him freeze, She brought that psychopath here? Everything clicked into place, she wasn’t saying anything, because she knew everyone would be pissed. He couldn’t bring himself to do, mostly because he hadn’t been there for the original murder spree. “I don’t know I was just, so alone, Emma had left me, I felt so isolated, and I needed a friend, someone who understood, so I found Piper, she swore it wasn’t her, she swore.” She ranted, obviously not realizing what she was doing, judging by the look on her face after she had done it.
“So you feel guilty?” He asked, but he already knew the answer, it was obvious that she did, and her nodding her head just backed it up. He looked down, twiddling his thumbs for a moment as he thought of what to say, when he looked back at her, she had her face buried in her hands, and she was shaking roughly. “Well it’s not your-” He began, but she knew what he was gonna say, and cut him off.
“Yes it is.” She simply simply, sniffling as fresh tears poured out of her bloodshot eyes, and as he watched her, he found himself wanting very badly to just get up and go get Noah, go tell him about everything, because he was the one she really needed right now. “Not only did I do that, but now there's another psychopath running amok, killing the people I love. Which is putting me on edge, so now I’m also directly hurting the people around me too, like breaking your tablet, for example.” she admitted, and that's when he noticed she was looking at the tablet again.
“Hey, it’s alright, I mean… yeah, I’m upset about it, but you didn’t understand it’s okay.” He said, and she looked at him, her eyes begging him to elaborate. So, he sighed, and reached forward, grabbing the tablet off the floor. He settled back down, and entered his tablet, opening his drawing app, and passing it to her. “It’s a comic book… I’m trying to tell the story of murder, and it keeps, really bloody at points. I get what it looked like, but… I don’t know, I’ve always been fascinated by death.” He said as she scrolled through the pictures, eventually handing it back when she reached the photo of jake being rolled up in the ‘Lady of the Lake’ banner
“Mhm,” She hummed out.
***
Stavo hadn’t left last night, he had camped out on her floor with some pillows and some blankets from her closet. He had promised her he wasn’t going to leave last night, and she was very grateful for that, because she had a feeling that she would’ve continued if he hadn’t been there to stop her. When she woke up, he was coming out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in mouth. She didn’t her best not to groan or complain because she knew he had just help her, but she had the overwhelming urge to punch him directly in his perfect face.
“Why didn’t you just use my dads or something,” She whined, making sure it sounded relatively playful because she didn’t want to be rude to him right now. Luckily, he smirked, and continued brushing his already perfect teeth, instead of getting defensive. She just rolled her eyes and pushed herself off her bed, and yawned, happy due to the fact that she had actually been able to get some proper sleep.
“Get over it.” She heard Stavo call from the bathroom, making her roll her tired eyes again as she slid herself out of the bed, noticing that she, sometime the night before, slipped into a tank top. She could see all her scars, the scars that covered her arms, screaming red marks on her pale skin. She ran her fingers over them, feeling how they bumped up at different heights, she left her fingers lingering on one that was almost perfect lined up with a vein, at stared off at someplace on her wall. How she hadn’t killed herself already, she had no idea.
***
She drove Stavo to school that day, chatting about the comic he was making, or the new killer, or anything, with both of them purposely avoiding the topic of what covered her wrists. Stavo had made her a deal, almost the exact same one she had with Jake, which made her wary that maybe the killer would target Stavo next. She couldn’t do that to Brooke, not again, not after Jake, so she silently agreed, and made a note to never take him up on it. If Stavo noticed she was lying when she agreed, then he didn’t say anything.
“Do you think they’ll find it weird that we turn up together after what happened at the school yesterday?” She asked, nonchalantly, but she saw Stavo squirm a little out of the corner of her eyes as she pulled into one of the many parking spaces surrounding the school. He just shrugged and she realized that she should probably have the same attitude, because who cares what other people thought. She had only ever been affected by someone's opinion on her when it was anyone of her fellow Lakewood survivors.
“If anyone says anything we can just ignore them.” He supplied, and that sounded like a very sound plan to her, so she nodded and pushed her car door open,and hopped out, promptly turning back around to grab her bag, then shutting the door behind her. Once she saw Stavo do the same thing, she locked the car, and started walking towards the school, surprised to see that Noah wasn’t waiting for her outside like usual. He always got there before her. Was he sick? She couldn’t know, but she could easily text him and find out. She paused for a second, opening up her bag, and shoving her hand in, look around for her phone. When it wasn’t in the place she usually put it, she frowned, she wouldn’t have put it anywhere else, but she checked anyway. Nothing. Did I leave it at home? She asked herself, but now that she thought about it, she didn’t remember having it at home. Her brow furrowed, but she was distracted as Brooke made her appearance, walking over to Stavo and touching his black eye lightly.
“What happened?!” She asked, and Audrey was struck with the painful knowledge that Brooke had had no idea that it had happened in the first place. Audrey looked away, not sure if she could look Brooke in the eyes right now, but her gaze landed on the boy behind Brooke, Noah. He looked uncomfortable, he wouldn’t look her in the eye, and he seemed pretty desperate to leave. She took two hesitant steps toward him, and he looked up at her, with a defensive and anxious look on his face.
“Noah?” She asked cautiously, stepping toward him, and he immediately took a few steps back, watching her every action carefully. He looked skittish, and she felt that if she took another step in his direction, he might run off in the other direction. She racked her brain, trying to think of why he would be acting like this, he wasn’t like this yesterday, and he didn’t seem freaked out by Brooke or Stavos presence. In fact, he seemed to be clinging oddly close to Brooke at this point.
“Um yeah, that’s uh, that’s me and uh, I actually have to go and grab my thing so uh, i'll text you.” He rambled, before running back into the school. She furrowed her brow, and looked back to Brooke and Stavo, who looked just as confused as she felt. A horrible, gut-wrenching thought crossed her mind, forcing her to gulp, and look at the concrete below
He couldn’t be getting suspicious of her… could he?