Archive of Our Own

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xxxxxxChapter 1 - Monday Morning - Dewey Rileyxxxxxx“Victim’s a white woman seemingly in her mid twenties to early thirties.” Dewey’s new partner explained as he walked up toward the crime scene.Since the previous string of murders in Woodsboro, Dewey had been partnered up with this man - Lyndon Willcox - a young and quite inexperienced cop who kind of reminded Dewey of himself when he first started.The guy was nice enough, but Dewey was reasonably hesitant to trust the man as much as he would have liked. It made doing his job harder… but he just didn’t want to get too close. He didn’t want to share anything about his life with the guy. His previous partner had developed a weird obsession with Gale and… Dewey just didn’t want to talk to the new guy about anything that mattered to him… so he kept their relationship as professional as possible. As cold as possible. They were here to do a job - not to become friends.Dewey frowned as he made his way up the loose gravel road toward the old bridge. A body was laying near the bridge, just off the side of the road, and crime-scene tape surrounded the entire area. Several crime scene investigators were processing the scene while the Sheriff talked to a witness off to the side.Sheriff Dana Lake, after just barely surviving the ordeal with Dewey’s previous partner alongside Dewey and Gale, had grown softer since last year. She felt like a big sister to Dewey at this point. Though Dewey was nearly thirty himself, he still appreciated having someone he could consider a mentor, someone he trusted at work. Lake was just about the only person left in Woodsboro who Dewey really trusted. With anyone and everyone else, he had a healthy suspicion that they might have some dark motive. Maybe that wasn’t healthy… but it was certainly understandable. Murder sprees in Woodsboro were becoming a trend, and he never knew when someone might start up again with some insane motive…That was why Gale didn’t live near Woodsboro - why even though she and Dewey had decided to consider themselves dating - they lived an hour and a half away from each other. Gale didn’t trust people any more than Dewey did. In fact, it seemed she was even more reclusive than he was - she didn’t even trust the town itself.Gale had moved to San Francisco about a month after the incident with Anthony. She had tried to stay with Dewey, but when her nightmares and stress over memories in the town only seemed to be increasing as time passed, she decided they should try a long-distance relationship so she could get away from the memories the town brought up. Dewey couldn’t argue with that. He hated that she couldn't stay in Woodsboro, but he certainly understood her reasons. He could see how living in the town was affecting her and he didn’t want her to live her life afraid.She didn’t want to stay in Woodsboro and Dewey couldn’t blame her, but he couldn't leave Woodsboro, and Gale couldn't blame him either. It made their relationship more difficult to maintain, but maintain it they did. They took turns visiting each other about once a month at least and called each other all the time. Dewey couldn’t claim it was ideal… but he couldn’t leave the police force - Woodsboro needed him… and he couldn’t try to pressure Gale to stay considering the trauma the town caused her… Unfortunately, for the moment, this was how their relationship was going to work. It was the only compromise they were both willing to try.Dewey frowned as he got as close to the body as possible without potentially disturbing the scene. He looked down at her with dread filling his chest. No matter how many times he saw a murder victim up close, it was never going to be easy. She was young, as Willcox had said. Probably around thirty years old. She had shoulder-length brunette hair - perhaps dyed, as the roots were darker than the rest. Her skin was pale, she appeared petite - perhaps between five foot two and five foot five if he had to guess. She'd clearly been stabbed, many times. Blood soaked the front of her shirt.“Do we have an ID?” Dewey asked, glancing toward his partner. “Have they checked her pockets for a wallet or anything?”Willcox shook his head. “They checked. She doesn’t have anything on her indicating who she is.”Dewey stared at the woman, narrowing his eyes. She was someone’s daughter. Perhaps someone’s mother, sister, wife or girlfriend. There were people out there missing her. It wouldn’t take long for an ID to come in. But he didn’t recognize her. Woodsboro was a small town - most people who lived here, Dewey at least knew by appearance if not by their full names. He didn’t think he’d ever seen this woman before.“She doesn’t have on shoes.” Dewey noted as he looked the body up and down. “Looks like pajamas… but the shorts are on inside out.”Willcox nodded as he looked back toward the body, narrowing his eyes and noticing the inside-out seams that Dewey had just taken note of. “Do you think the motive was sexual?” He wondered.Dewey shrugged. “Could be… Unless this girl just wears her clothes inside out…” He frowned. When young women were murdered, the motive was almost always sexual, unfortunately. The fact that her clothing was on wrong was a big indicator that was indeed the case. “I’m sure they’ll check for that.” Dewey noted.Willcox nodded. “She’s got a mark on her neck too - almost like rope burn.”Dewey leaned to the side to see the mark better. Sure enough, a thin red line stretched across the front of the woman’s neck. Looked more like thread than rope though. The mark was so thin. Perhaps she'd been wearing a necklace and the killer pulled on it and broke it off of her neck, leaving the angry mark behind.He looked the body up and down, trying to notice more clues - anything that could give him some idea of what had happened to her - who might have chosen to end her life and why.She had blood all over the front of her shirt - she’d been stabbed quite a few times. There weren’t obvious signs of decomposition. If she weren’t covered in blood, Dewey may have even wondered if she was just sleeping. Her body hadn’t been here for long, and she hadn’t been dead for long - less than a day if he had to guess. Maybe even less than twelve hours."She's wearing lipstick." Dewey noted with a frown."Yeah?" Wilcox looked over with his eyebrows risen, clearly unsure why Dewey was making note of that.Dewey exhaled a small breath. The older version of himself wouldn't have noticed that as being odd... but after he started spending so much time with Gale, spending nights together... he knew women didn't usually wear lipstick to bed. "She's wearing pajamas, Wilcox." Dewey explained. "What kind of woman puts on lipstick before bed?"Wilcox nodded. "Maybe she was getting ready for bed. Hadn't washed her face yet?" He suggested."Maybe." Dewey agreed, looking back down at the body.“There’s hardly any blood on the ground around her.” Willcox noted at the same time that Dewey was noticing the same thing. “She wasn’t killed here.”Dewey nodded. He had to agree with that. Someone drove the body and dumped it here, but why? It was in plain view - if they were trying to hide it, they did a horrible job. There was a river below they could have dropped her into - even trees a mere five to ten yards away… but she was left right at the edge of the road - like they wanted her to be found.But why? Why would they want to be caught? Was the motive attention? Did the killer want all the reporters flocking toward him and giving him his fifteen minutes of fame? Like Gale’s former camera man Xavier? Or was the killer just panicked, reckless… Maybe whoever killed her didn’t plan it - did it in the heat of the moment and panicked when dumping her…Glancing around the scene some more, Dewey noticed an investigator taking up a possible foot print near the body. Another was collecting something into a small bag. Hopefully with everyone taking care of the scene like this, with so many people working on it, they could discover what happened and bring a sense of closure and justice to this poor woman’s family sooner rather than later.Across the crime scene tape, Dewey noticed a man speaking to Sheriff Lake. As soon as he made eye contact with Lake, she nodded and waved him over. Willcox paced off in the other direction.“Officer Riley. This is Jude Grant.” Lake introduced them to each other. “He discovered the body this morning.”Dewey nodded, looking the man up and down. He was fairly tall, looked normal. But it was awfully early to be taking a walk out in the middle of nowhere like this. This bridge was a few miles away from the actual town of Woodboro. No one lived near the bridge. In fact it was a popular drinking spot for teens. Why was this guy out here so early?“How did that end up coming about?” Dewey asked the man, careful not to let on that he was reasonably suspicious about the guy’s presence.Jude exhaled and shook his head. “I was looking at the bridge.” He frowned. “And I found her…”Dewey narrowed his eyes. “Why were you looking at this random bridge out in the middle of the woods at six o’clock in the morning?”Jude let out a stressed laugh. “I guess that looks weird…” He admitted. “I’ve been driving around to famous little towns in California taking photos… Woodsboro’s famous… for reasons I’m sure you’re aware… But I wanted sunrise photos… I just wanted to see the bridge. I was trying to get some good polaroids of the sunrise over the water with the bridge as a backdrop - I even took a photo before realizing she was there.”Dewey grimaced. “Can I see it?” He asked.Jude nodded, then looked toward Lake. “I gave it to her already. The girl’s hardly in the frame, and with the sunrise behind her, she’s more of a dark shape off to the side. You wouldn’t know it was a body if you weren’t already looking for her in the shot…”Dewey nodded. “About when did you find her? And did you touch the body at all?” He asked.Jude shrugged and grimaced. “Like two minutes before calling 911… and… Well, I did touch her… I checked her pulse because she barely looks dead… I mean, there’s a lot of blood, but I don’t know… People have survived all kinds of horrible things. I didn’t want to just not help her if she was still alive.”Dewey nodded.“But she was cold… and… I mean…” Jude trailed off. “She’s definitely dead… I’m sorry… I probably contaminated the crime scene…”Dewey exhaled and closed his eyes. “Don’t apologize… I’m sure her family would appreciate that you tried to help her… We’ll probably just want a DNA sample to rule out any DNA on her if it’s yours… if we find any DNA on her that is.”Jude nodded. “I understand… I can do that…” He breathed.Dewey looked toward the sheriff. “We’ve got his contact info?” He asked.Lake nodded. “And the other man over there.” She nodded toward someone Willcox was talking to. “He happened to drive by around the same time. I don’t think there was anything to see other than the body… Whoever left her was long gone.”“I’ll let you know if I need anything else. Sorry to have met you under these circumstances.” Dewey forced a half laugh and shrug.Jude shook his head and shrugged as well, clearly unsure how to respond to Dewey’s awkward line.“Um… Sorry…” Dewey grimaced. Why couldn’t he ever make it through a conversation without being awkward?Lake was quick to draw the man’s focus back to her, mentioning something about possible counseling - as discovering a body could reasonably be traumatic even if it hadn’t quite sunk in yet…Dewey took the opportunity to duck back out of the conversation. He nodded again and walked back over to Willcox who was talking to the other possible witness, a man standing next to a dark blue car.“Morning. I’m Officer Riley.” Dewey introduced himself to the man, holding out his hand.“Tadgh Murphy.” The man frowned, stuffing his hands further into his pockets.Dewey frowned and retracted his hand. This guy seemed tense.“He was driving through as the other man found her. They used Tadgh’s phone to call 911.” Willcox explained.“I see.” Dewey spoke, nodding as he thought about the mental image the description was painting in his head. This man likely wasn’t involved if the other man found her as he was happening to drive through… Unless of course he was returning to the scene, as criminals sometimes did… and the other man threw him off whatever he was returning to do.“The guy just ran up screaming, waving his arms… I thought maybe he’d parked too close to the edge or something - like maybe his car rolled in… I don’t know why I thought that…” Tadgh shook his head. “Just… guess I didn’t want to jump to the conclusion that someone had been murdered. Starting to think this town’s cursed. I don't know why anyone chooses to still live here. Don't know why I still fucking live here.”Dewey exhaled, waiting for the man’s rant to end before beginning his line of questioning. “I’m sorry you had to get wrapped up in this… So… when you drove up, did you notice anything you perceived to be odd, out of place?”“Uh… Besides the fuckin’ body?” Tadgh stared.Dewey frowned. “Yes… Besides that…”Tadgh shook his head. “I didn’t see shit… Just the body and that guy over there freakin’ out yelling to give him my phone… I was just driving home from a night shift… My plan was to go home and fucking sleep. And now here I am at a crime scene with a murdered girl and the cops giving me the third degree... I didn’t ask for this…” Tadgh closed his eyes and exhaled.Dewey grimaced. He understood why the man would be upset. Finding the body of a murder victim was a big deal - a horrible thing to see, to have etched into his memory probably for the rest of his life.“I’m sorry you had to be part of this.” Dewey spoke. He knew as well as anyone that discovering a body in any capacity was traumatic. He still remembered every single one he’d ever found or otherwise witnessed. Woodsboro didn’t typically have enough violent crime for this to have even been an issue until recently - in fact Casey and Steve were the first murder victims whose bodies he’d ever personally seen.“Can I go?” Tadgh asked. He looked tired and a little dirty. Perhaps it was dust on his clothing. Perhaps it was from moving a body to the side of a loose gravel road… Or maybe it was from whatever his job was…“Where do you work?” Dewey asked.“The factory… I’ve been there all night, so don’t you start accusing me of this…” Tadgh glared. "Go ahead and check with my boss. Punched in and out just like I always do. Pretty sure there's security cameras at work too. You check anything you need to, because I didn't do anything wrong."Dewey raised his hands in defense. “I never said that…” He stared, but if anything was bound to get a cop suspicious, it was defensiveness… He also knew from past experiences that having an alibi didn't mean you weren't guilty. Things weren't always what they seemed. Sometimes things like this included more than one culprit."So... check if you need to." Tadgh repeated. "Can I go home?"“I think the Sheriff might want to talk to you before you go.” Dewey answered. “You're not a suspect, so don't worry..." He lied. Obviously everyone was a suspect until proven innocent... but Dewey didn't have any huge reason to suspect this guy specifically. "We need your information, just in case we have further questions. I know it’s been a long night for you already, but this is a big deal. You understand…”“Yeah.” Tadgh breathed. “I get it. I’m not trying to be an asshole… Just… This sucks. I got a sister-” He cut himself off as his voice started to shake slightly. “I didn’t even want to get close to the body, you know? But when that guy over there started yelling and calling attention to her… I swear I almost thought she was my sister. From a distance, the hair, body type an’ everything… I had to get closer just to check… just to make sure.”“It’s not her though?” Dewey blinked.Tadgh shook his head no. “Thank god… She doesn’t even live in Woodsboro… I just… She looks a lot like her and I… I just wasn’t sure for a minute.”“And you don’t recognize her?” Dewey frowned.Tadgh frowned as well. “No. You guys don’t know who she is?” He wondered.“Not yet…” Dewey shook his head. “Anyway… The sheriff needs to talk to you before you go. Try to take it easy after you get home. I know this is the last thing you wanted to run into after a long day at work. Again - I'm sorry you got roped into it. So have a chat with Sheriff Lake, then get home, get some sleep...”Tadgh nodded. "Alright." He breathed.Dewey forced a small smile and nodded. "Take it easy..." He spoke, not sure what else to say.Tadgh exhaled and dragged his feet over toward the sheriff.Dewey shook his head and turned back toward Willcox. “That doesn’t scream innocent.” Dewey whispered as he raised his eyebrow. “Awfully defensive just from a couple simple questions…”“He works the night shift, Riley.” Willcox reminded him. “He’s probably exhausted, already just wanted to go home and sleep, and then this happened.”“True… That, and he says the victim resembles his sister. That had to be pretty heart-stopping if it’s true.” Dewey frowned, watching the man carefully as he and the Sheriff spoke several yards away. He knew as well as anyone how awful of a feeling it was to think - even if just for a moment - that someone he cared about had been killed... And hew knew painfully well how it felt to lose a beloved sister specifically. When Tatum was killed, Dewey felt like a complete failure. He'd been there - at the same house... He was armed, he was a cop... it was his job to protect those kids. That's why he went to the party... He never should have gone all alone. He should have kept himself closer to Tatum... Though he knew his sister wouldn't have allowed that. She'd have been annoyed if he lingered too close...“Probably won’t be able to sleep at all now.” Willcox added, bringing Dewey's thoughts back to the present.“No. I guess not…” Dewey frowned.“Riley?” Willcox frowned.“Yeah?” Dewey looked back.“This is the first body I’ve ever seen too… First crime scene body anyway - not including funerals and that one car accident last month… This is a lot different than a car accident…” Willcox noted.Dewey nodded. “Yeah. It sure is.” He agreed. Even car accidents could be gruesome, but something about knowing the blood and violence was very purposeful made mentally processing the scene different. This woman didn’t accidentally die. Someone chose to kill her, to leave her here.“Riley?” Willcox continued.“Yeah?” Dewey frowned.“Do you think this is another Billy/Stu inspired murder? Like… is this gonna keep happening?” Willcox grimaced.Dewey shook his head as his partner brought up the darkest, most dreadful thought at the back of his mind. He didn't even want to consider that might be the case. Obviously he always jumped to that - he always feared it would start back up again... but he didn't want to even think about it. He wanted to act oblivious and hope him pretending that it wasn't possible would keep it from being the case."Riley? Do you think..." Willcox repeated. "Do you think it's going to be like last time?"“I don’t know…" Dewey finally answered. "I hope not.”xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 2 - Monday Afternoon - Gale WeathersxxxxxxGale looked up at the clock. 3:13pm. This day had gone by slowly… particularly because she was trying to write a book that wasn’t about real life and it wasn’t coming easy.Since the last murder spree in Woodsboro about a year previous, Gale had moved to San Francisco - she was living on a less populated residential street, but still in the city enough to make her feel safer than living in the middle of nowhere. If someone tried to kill her or kidnap her - people would probably see. Someone could help…But hopefully that was all over. Hopefully no one would ever try to kill, kidnap, or otherwise hurt her ever again. It wasn’t normal for one person to have to deal with that kind of thing so many times. In fact, most people lived their whole lives with murderers never coming after them even once. It was ridiculous that it was becoming a yearly occurrence for her.Gale liked to think of herself as strong, stoic… but the past two murder sprees really affected her - more than she’d like to admit… She found she didn’t trust people anymore. She didn’t want to go outside at night - she really hardly went anywhere these days. She just stayed in her house writing - occasionally ducking out for a coffee or to drop by the library… but even those visits she kept short.People knew who she was. Way too many people wanted to approach her, acted like she owed them her time and attention when she had no fucking idea who they were. What was once a compliment (fame of any sort, attention) was now scary. She never knew what someone who recognized her was thinking - were they a fan? A critic? Did they love her, hate her? Did they want to talk to her? Did they want to kill her? It wouldn’t have mattered before… but her last fan - Dewey’s partner Anthony - took things way too fucking far. Now someone telling her she was their favorite reporter made her feel sick.So unfortunately, to escape the memories, the fame, the trauma… Gale couldn’t stay with Dewey - not physically - though they were attempting a long-distance relationship. Gale and Dewey called each other frequently, visited each other now and then… And Gale did her best to not let Dewey know how different she felt. She didn’t feel like the strong, passionate, confident woman she was before. Now she felt scared, defensive, paranoid… She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t help it.Gale wished Dewey were here with her. It would certainly make her feel safer. In fact, Dewey was the person she trusted most in the entire world… but she couldn’t suggest it. She couldn’t let him know how much she desperately needed him right now. He had an important job to do - a job he was passionate about. She couldn’t take that away.So when he called, she tried to remain chipper, to mask what she was honestly feeling. Dewey’s job was high stress. He didn’t need Gale’s problems weighing him down too. The last thing she wanted was to appear weak, needy… to guilt him into leaving the job he loved so he could be closer to her.She knew he’d move in with her in a heartbeat if she were honest with him, if she told him she had nightmares almost every night, if she let him know that she was afraid to go outside once it got dark, that even walking out to her mailbox in the middle of the day gave her anxiety… but she couldn’t have him seeing her as a terrified, damaged, helpless person. She was strong, independent, courageous… even if she didn’t really feel like it at the moment. She wanted Dewey to see her like that - like she used to be.And maybe, if she faked it long enough, that would all come back. Maybe if she slowly forced herself to pretend she was alright, she would be. She couldn’t stay scared forever. She didn’t need to. The chances of being targeted by a serial killer for a fourth time were slim. Right? Surely it truly was over… She hoped the more time passed without anything scary happening, the more she’d get back to normal… but so far it wasn’t that simple.So far every time she was walking down a sidewalk and someone else was walking behind her, an irrational part of her just knew she was being followed - that whoever it was wasn’t just walking in the same direction… they were after her. They were going to follow until she neared an alley where they could kill her, or they had a van somewhere along the sidewalk they’d run up and push her into once she happened to walk by it…So she’d switch sides of the street or duck into a store. And the person would just keep walking… because of course they weren’t trying to grab her or hurt her. They were just existing. They had no idea she thought they were going to kill her. They were just walking by…There were even times when she stepped out her front door, ready to walk out to her car or check the mail… and she’d see someone she didn’t recognize walking by… and she’d freeze up, stare at the person until she probably made them uncomfortable… Then she’d literally turn right back around and go inside. What if the person she saw was stalking her? What if the random guy walking down the sidewalk across the street was just waiting for her to come outside so he could attack her, kill her, kidnap her…?It had happened before… And she wasn’t about to act oblivious and let it happen again. Anyone looking at her might be the next person who was thinking about abducting her, might be someone who fantasized about hurting her or killing her. She couldn’t trust anyone - especially not random strangers. Anthony was a stranger… He thought he was in love with her, and she didn’t even know him.The more she thought about it, the more terrifying it became. She was really famous. Not like the biggest celebrity ever, but big enough that random people on the street recognized her almost every day. If she went into a coffee shop at a busy hour, someone was going to start telling her how much they loved her. Someone else might tell her how much they hated her… People she didn’t know knew her, had strong opinions about her, felt they were entitled to tell her all about those opinions...That many people in the country recognizing her meant that some of the people aware of her existence were creeps, were mentally unwell, were sociopaths, criminals… And those were the type who’d probably seek her out, want to get closer than they needed to. Nowadays, anyone seeming to notice her, starting to walk toward her with that look in their eyes, like they absolutely needed to talk to her… it wasn’t flattering. It was terrifying. She didn’t know if someone walking toward her with purpose wanted an autograph, a photo… or wanted her dead.With a small exhale, Gale stood up from her desk and made her way toward her front door. Checking the mail was sometimes the only moment during the day that she set foot outside… As pathetic as that sounded - it was true… And as pathetic as it sounded, sometimes even that much was enough to make her not want to go outside again.She leaned toward the peep hole in the door, looking out. She didn’t see anyone on her lawn. No one was near her mail box. No one was walking on the sidewalk on her side or across the street. It was broad daylight and no one was close. It should be a pretty quick and easy trip.Gale shook her head and closed her eyes. She exhaled, feeling disappointed in herself for needing to do that - checking the peep hole like she was in the middle of some chase scene from a scary movie… all to go get her mail in the middle of the afternoon. She was being ridiculous.Shaking her head ahead, Gale opened the door and looked out into the bright afternoon. She inhaled and exhaled, mentally telling herself to calm the fuck down, then made her way down her front steps, noticing movement out of the corner of her eye next door. If she didn’t already know who it was, that might have been enough to get her to turn right back around… But she did actually know her neighbor, and didn’t feel too threatened by him.She forced herself to look up and smile. By some stroke of luck (or misfortune) Cotton Weary had decided to move in next to her when her neighbor’s house went on the market shortly after Gale moved in.She still wasn’t sure what that meant… It wasn’t a coincidence… He did it on purpose and she couldn’t fathom why. They were barely acquaintances at this point and he hadn’t made much of an attempt to even talk to her since he moved in… It was actually pretty fucking creepy… but Cotton had proven himself to be harmless countless times, and she didn’t want to be unfair, so she maintained a civil, though distant relationship with him.She still remembered when the house went on the market and Cotton excitedly showed up on her door step to alert her of the “good news” that he was putting in an offer. He’d said something about safety in numbers… Maybe he was more traumatized by his own involvement in the Woodsboro stuff than he seemed. Maybe it wasn’t as creepy as it was depressing. Maybe he didn’t trust people either and considered Gale safe…“Morning Gale.” Cotton nodded toward her as he closed his own mail box and headed back up to his house.“It’s three o’clock, Cotton.” Gale frowned.Maybe his life was a mess right now too. She wondered if he was working beyond doing television interviews. She was pretty sure he said something about working on writing a book. Perhaps his life was a lot more similar to hers than she would have guessed.Cotton frowned and looked down at his wrist watch. “Holy shit…” He mumbled, shaking his head and going back inside.Gale let out a soft laugh, then opened her mail box to find a stack of envelopes. She picked up the stack and started going through them - a few bills, a few that looked like fan letters… She got a lot of fan letters still. Many more than even made sense considering she’d taken herself out of the spotlight.She frowned when she reached the bottom of the stack, finding an envelope without her address, without a return address… It just had a heart drawn on it… and it looked like the heart had been drawn with red lipstick.Gale swallowed. No address meant the mail carrier didn’t deliver this. Whoever had decided to give it to her did. Some creep walked up to her mail box, right where she was standing now - and hand delivered whatever this was.Narrowing her eyes and wrinkling her nose, Gale looked up toward Cotton’s front door as the man closed it behind himself. He’d just been out here. She supposed it was possible he put the envelope inside her mailbox… Though the heart implied it was some sort of creepy love-letter, and she never got that vibe from Cotton. He never attempted to flirt with her - not even once.Gale stared back down at the red heart on the front, contemplating just throwing the whole thing away. Whatever it said didn’t matter - whether it was “You’re my favorite! I love you! Please marry me!” or “I hate you. I hope you die…” She wouldn’t derive any positive feelings from reading it… It would be a power move to just crumple it up and throw it on her front lawn - so if whoever gave it to her was watching, they’d see that she wasn’t interested in their bullshit…But she couldn’t not know what it said. It stood out from the other fan letters, and if it was threatening, she’d need to tell the police. There was an open report about this kind of thing… because she’d gotten some really sick ‘compliments’ in fan letters earlier this year. Telling the cops hadn’t actually helped… but at least there was a record of all the creepy shit she’d been sent. That way if it ever did escalate to something really serious, there’d be more evidence to work with.With an exhale, Gale opened the letter, pulling out a single piece of paper and frowning as she read it:“Beautiful,I hope I got your color right. Your lips always looked like sweet cherries on your show. You’ve forever been so stunning. No one compares to you. No one can take your place - try as they might. The world misses you, Love. Please come back to us.See you soon,Your Secret Admirer”Gale grimaced and looked around, up and down the street.Cotton had gone back into his house, paying her no attention. No one else was around. Whoever wrote this put it directly in her mailbox. They could still be nearby, wanting to watch her open it - to see her reaction.Frowning and looking back down at the letter, Gale read it again. It was not outright threatening, but definitely creepy. “See you soon?” She certainly didn’t like that part…It wasn’t the worst letter she’d ever been sent. Not even close. Gale still got a lot of fan mail, most of it positive, but with a handful of creepy stalker shit. Usually, if it wasn’t a very blunt threat, she didn’t get too upset by it… but something about the way this one was worded really rubbed her the wrong way.Shaking her head softly, Gale folded the letter back up and held the stack of envelopes in her hands. Perhaps reading the other fan letters once she was safely back inside would make her feel less nervous. Hopefully they were nice - compliments without any suggestion of meeting up or getting married…Being famous really wasn’t as fun as it used to be…xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 3 - Tuesday Morning - Dewey RileyxxxxxxDewey grimaced as he looked over the e-mails sent to him regarding the woman found at the bridge. Woodsboro usually was kind of slow in terms of crime, so they had a whole lot of people working tirelessly on this. This was a big deal and the entire department was treating it as such.Apparently the woman had been identified - more quickly than Dewey would have guessed considering she was from out of town and they were starting from scratch. All they had to do was call around to other stations in southern California inquiring about missing women in their twenties or thirties and they found a match right away. The woman's husband had reported her missing after he came home from work and found their house a mess and his wife gone... He came over to Woodsboro early this morning and had easily identified her. Though it was heartbreaking to know a man had lost the love of his life, that the body they were working with had a name, a family, an entire life... at least now they were one step closer to solving the crime. Figuring out who she was so quickly was a huge step.Her name was Natalie Martin, age 31 from Petaluma California, a town close to Woodsboro, but not close enough to make sense. As far as her family knew, she'd never even been to Woodboro, didn't know anyone who lived here, had no reason to be here... She'd just been dumped here for some reason. It was Dewey's mission to find out why.Since she was from Petaluma, the local police there were taking care of interviewing family members and friends, but were working with the Woodsboro PD in case the killer was from Woodsboro. Obviously since the body was found here, Woodsboro police needed to be involved too.Natalie had 13 stab wounds to her chest and back as well as defensive wounds on her hands - slashes and cuts on her palms and fingers like she’d tried to stop the knife from hitting anything important… obviously she had failed - the cause of death was speculated to be blood loss from a stab wound to her heart.Dewey inhaled and clicked open a folder containing autopsy photos. He took note of various details as he looked through them, noting that Natalie had the before-mentioned defensive wounds on her hands, bruises around her wrists as though she had been bound. There was a bit of sticky residue on her wrists as well - likely from tape used to bind her limbs.Blinking, Dewey sifted slowly through the photos, feeling almost guilty to be looking at Natalie in such a vulnerable state. Sure, Dewey had seen this kind of violence and worse. It wasn't something entirely foreign. He'd witnessed people brutally killed right in front of him, he'd seen murder victims up close, worked on cases like this before, but it never became easy. He wasn't as desensitized to it as some police officers seemed to be.He stared ahead at the screen, clicking through the photos and trying to keep himself composed. The last thing Natalie needed was for the cop who didn't even know her to make this all about himself. He had a job to do here. His job was to find the person who did this. To be thorough and make sure Natalie got the justice she deserved. There were a lot of photos, because she had a lot of injuries. A lot of evidence... That was good. Evidence would help Dewey find the prick who did this to her.He leaned closer to the screen and narrowed his eyes when he got to a photo showing injuries on her arms and wrists. Her arms were bruised the same way someone’s might be if someone grabbed them too hard, or perhaps her killer had held her down. Her neck had similar bruises as well - like she’d been choked by someone’s hands. The bruises were long and slender, like fingers. As he looked through the photos further, coming to the series including the stab wounds, Dewey held his breath. She had been stabbed a lot - both in her chest and her back. That meant she had probably gotten away from a moment - far enough that he chased her and stabbed her from behind. He wondered which stab wounds happened first, when she finally stopped even feeling them... Or if she had been in excruciating pain the entire time.He shook his head and looked back toward the information in the file. Natalie’s family had noted the lipstick wasn’t a usual choice for her, that she didn’t normally even wear makeup of any kind. Dewey wondered if that meant something. Perhaps the killer forced her to wear it, wanted her to look a certain way… That certainly made it seem like it wasn’t a Ghostface copycat. None of the Ghostface killers had tried to dress up their victims… This definitely seemed like something else at the moment, maybe something personal - or at least personal to the killer. Maybe he'd had a crush on this woman and his feelings weren't reciprocated. They'd have to question her husband and friends about that.Dewey frowned as he looked over the driver’s license someone had scanned in. She looked so alive in the little photo. They’d probably told her not to smile - as some DMVs tended to want a more straight-faced photo… but Natalie had a slight smirk anyway. He took note of the fact that she was indeed not wearing any lipstick in the photo.The license said her eyes were green, but Dewey wouldn’t have been able to tell by the small photo. He did notice her eyes looked joyful though. She looked like she’d be a fun person to be friends with, a pleasant person… Whoever had taken her life had no right to do so.“Is this Natalie?” Sheriff Lake asked as she walked near Dewey’s desk, stopping and leaning down to see his screen.Dewey nodded. “She looks like a really sweet girl.” He frowned, staring sadly at the photo, looking into her eyes, wondering what she’d been thinking when she was killed. She had to have been terrified… and the defensive wounds meant she knew exactly what was coming. She was aware through it all and fought the whole time. “Why do people do things like this?” He turned toward his boss.Lake shook her head. “Don’t ask me…” She exhaled, still looking at the photo. “She looks a lot like Gale.” She noted with a frown.Lake and Gale had ended up almost friends after they’d both survived Anthony’s attack, but ever since Gale moved to San Francisco, the two had grown further apart again. Never like before though. Before, Lake and Gale hated each other. Now Lake almost seemed protective of Gale, even if the two didn’t talk much. Lake asked about Gale all the time, wanted to know that she was alright after everything.It wasn’t surprising that the sheriff was personally invested in Gale’s well-being. Lake had seen Gale at her worst, at her most vulnerable. It was Lake who actually found her down in the basement, tied up, drugged… Lake had almost died trying to protect Gale that day. The whole experience seemed to soften both women’s opinions of each other.Dewey frowned, looking back at his screen, then glancing back at the sheriff. “You really think she looks like her?” He asked, furrowing his brows.Lake nodded. “Somewhat.” She shrugged. “Got that little smirk like she’s up to something.” Lake forced a small laugh. “Poor girl…”Dewey blinked and considered the photo again. Her hair was lighter than Gale’s. A little longer… but she did have that little smirk that Gale did sometimes… And perhaps the same eye-shape - though a different color. Maybe she looked more like Gale did a few years ago - when she had her hair dyed - back when Dewey first met her.“How is Gale?” Lake wondered.Dewey shrugged. “Doing better, I think.” He answered. “She still seems a little more reserved than before, more nervous. She tries to pretend she’s not, but she is. I know her well enough to see she’s changed. I think it’s gonna take some time to get over everything.”“I don’t blame her.” Lake frowned. “None of us had any idea it was Anthony. We worked with him every day, Riley. I trusted him.” She shook her head.“So did I…” Dewey swallowed, feeling quite a few emotions brought up by this discussion. He had to trust his partner with his life. That’s what cops did. And now that he knew the man was obsessing over Gale the whole time, it made him want to throw up thinking about all the times he’d talked about Gale with him, complained about Gale to him… He used to not think much when Anthony would mention how he thought Gale was so attractive, how impressed he’d look when they watched her on television on slow nights at the station.“Most people aren’t like him though.” Lake went on. “All three of us have to remember that. There’s plenty of times I don’t want to trust anyone… but at the same time, I don’t want to give Anthony that power over me. He was one person who wasn’t who he said he was. Count up how many people around you didn’t ever do anything like that. Wouldn’t ever… Most people are good.”Dewey nodded, thinking about the fact that he was so hesitant to trust his new partner. Wilcox hadn’t personally done anything to make Dewey dislike him or not trust him. Dewey was just hesitating to trust anyone. He trusted Gale. He trusted Lake… Sidney, Randy… and himself. That was about it.“There’s a fine line I guess…” Dewey shrugged. “Most people won’t try to kill you… but some people will... And the ones who do try to kill you try the hardest to earn your trust sometimes. They always end up being people who were right in front of you, lying to you the whole time. Sid trusted Billy. He tried to kill her. Tatum trusted Stu. She loved that stupid kid…” Dewey shook his head, remembering his sister. He wished she were still here.“I’m going to try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt until there’s a reason not to.” Lake noted. “Like I used to. I can’t live my life afraid of everyone around me. Most of the time, it would be for nothing to keep everyone so distant. I can’t let Anthony change me like that.”Dewey nodded. He wasn’t sure he could do the same… Though he knew he should. If he always responded to people the way he did now, he’d have never grown close to Gale. Or even Sidney or Randy. He needed to let himself work with his partner without being suspicious of him. Wilcox hadn’t done anything wrong.“So about Natalie…” Lake circled back around. “I’m hoping this is a case of a crazy lunatic snapping on some poor girl and he’s just going to do it once.”Dewey nodded. “I hope so.” He agreed.“But even if it is just one time, one time is one too many.” Lake noted. “We’ve gotta find this guy. Even if he’s not going to do it again, he needs to be held accountable.”Dewey looked back at his screen and read more of the report. “It says she had marks on her neck like the killer attempted to strangle her with a small chain. They’re guessing a necklace. Probably something she already had on, but it hasn’t been found.” He commented.Lake shook her head. “We still haven’t found where she was killed either. Her house didn’t have blood, though there were signs of a struggle inside. She was perhaps abducted from home, but not killed there. The necklace is probably wherever she was actually killed… Unless the killer deliberately kept it as a trophy.”“Natalie’s husband says she often wore necklaces, but that she had a lot of them and he doesn’t know of any specific ones that are missing.” Dewey read on.The sheriff exhaled and closed her eyes. “This is the worst part of this job…” He noted. “Natalie had a family. She was a person… and whoever killed her just decided she didn’t need to live anymore - for whatever sick reason… I’ll never understand why murderers choose to kill. It’s just so selfish… And what do they even gain? A few moments feeling like they’re powerful? Taking an entire life for those couple seconds of control?”Dewey shook his head. “I don’t know, Lake. It’s sick…” He agreed.“We’re gonna figure out who did this to her. We’ll bring her family the justice they deserve.” The sheriff continued. “Until we’ve got this solved, this case is priority number one.”“Yes, ma’am.” Dewey agreed. It wasn’t like they had much else going on in Woodsboro… Teens drinking in the woods, speeding tickets on the highways… Woodsboro police work was usually pretty slow.“Biggest clue, I think, is the fact that she was left by the bridge, but not killed there… and she’s not from Woodsboro.” The sheriff noted. “We’ve got to figure out why that would be… The killer could be from here. If there’s DNA on her, we’re going to need to test as many people as are willing. Hope something turns up.”Dewey nodded, still reading the report. “And they still haven’t found the murder weapon. Definitely a knife though.” He noted.“What do you think the chances are this is the start of something bigger? Something like before…” Lake wondered. “Stab wounds are always gonna look like a copycat killer… Murder’s not an every-day occurrence around here…”Dewey blinked, looking over at her. Willcox had asked the same thing. But Lake was right. The fact that she’d been stabbed reminded Dewey of the other murder sprees that happened in the town as well. How could it not remind him of that?“You’ve been through this three times, Riley…” Lake stared down at him. “The serial killings, I mean… What do you think? From your own experience… Can you tell just yet? Is this the same sort of thing?”Dewey shook his head. “I really can’t say… but at the moment, it doesn’t look like the same thing.” He shrugged. “One victim, a different crime scene set up than all the Ghost-face killers… Usually they’re killed and left wherever they were killed… And the first killing often has more than one victim, a big, violent scene… This one is really different. The girl’s not from town… The body was dumped, but not even posed in any big grand elaborate way. The only thing similar is that she was stabbed, but that happens a lot with crime victims. Hopefully this is an isolated incident and doesn’t turn into something bigger.”Lake nodded. “We need to give this case our all either way.” She noted. “This young woman didn’t deserve to die. We’ve got to get justice for her.”Dewey nodded, looking back at the photo and thinking of Gale. Natalie really did look a lot like her. The more he looked at the photo, the more he was reminded of the first time he met the reporter.Dewey felt sick as he stared at the photo, of a woman who was alive and well just one day ago… Someone had decided for whatever reason that she didn’t deserve to live anymore, leaving her family to miss her for the rest of their lives.Natalie didn’t deserve this… Dewey needed to give this case every ounce of his attention - to get justice for this woman… He had to help find who did this and put them away forever so it didn’t happen again.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 4 - Tuesday Afternoon - Gale Weathersxxxxxx“The victim isn’t even from Woodsboro.” Dewey explained through the phone speaker. “She’s from Petaluma. No ties to Woodsboro, so I’m thinking the person who killed her might have ties here… Unless it’s really random - it would make sense if you were gonna kill someone to dump the body somewhere that has nothing to do with you… But then, she was right out in the open. Makes me think whoever did this wanted her to be found right away. Why put her right next to the road? I guess unless that wasn't the plan and they dropped her in a hurry, which is possible- Oh… Gale?”“Yeah?” Gale’s eyebrows rose when Dewey finally paused after talking just about non-stop for the past five minutes.“Don’t… Don’t repeat any of this…” Dewey’s voice sounded like he was frowning. “None of this is public yet, and I really shouldn’t be telling you… So… Don’t talk about it to anyone else.”Gale frowned as well. “I won’t… I hardly talk to anyone anymore.” She forced a small laugh. “Who am I gonna tell? A squirrel in my front yard? Assuming I even set foot outside long enough to find one…”Dewey hesitated for a moment, making Gale wonder if she’d let too much slip. She was supposed to be putting up a brave front, making sure Dewey wasn’t worried about her.“You doing okay?” Dewey finally began talking again.“Yeah.” Gale forced a small laugh. “I’m fine, Dewey. Just… Things around here are slow. That’s not a bad thing. No excitement, no drama… I need things to be calm so I can focus on writing anyway. That’s why I’ve been home by myself so much. So I can write.” She lied. She’d actually hardly written anything. It was insanely difficult to make up fiction and keep it interesting while also not dragging up her own negative emotions. She was hesitant to add in too much drama. She didn’t want any of her characters to be in a dangerous situation that would start feeling too real, so she’d started trying to write romance… and then that made her sad because she and Dewey hardly ever saw each other. She didn’t even know what genre she was trying to write anymore.“Well, make sure you’re staying healthy. Get out, get some fresh air... Don’t keep yourself too secluded.” Dewey sounded like he was frowning. “I know it’s hard to trust people these days…”“I’m fine, Dewey. I’m writing.” She repeated.“I know…” Dewey went on. “I was just talking to Sheriff Lake earlier - kind of about this - about not being able to trust people, because I feel the same way - and she said something about not letting what Anthony did define her. She didn’t want to refuse to trust ever again just because of him. To give him that power over her. He's one guy. One creep who betrayed her trust - betrayed mine too... and yours if you ever trusted him to begin with.”Gale let out a soft, breathless laugh. It wasn’t just Anthony. It was his brother Henry, Xavier, Billy, Stu. Every year it seemed another crazy lunatic or two tried to kill her. She had every right to be nervous. Dewey was there all three times. She doubted he was quick to trust everyone he met either.“How about you?” She finally asked, shifting the focus off of herself. “Are you doing okay?” It was his partner who was one of the killers last time. Dewey knew him a hell of a lot better than Gale ever did. Another of Dewey’s co-workers was killed along the way too. In a way, Dewey lost a lot more than Gale did last time.“I think I’m doing okay, I guess. Still hard to trust people, hard to not assume anyone acting strange is contemplating killing me...” Dewey answered after a few seconds, a lot more honestly than Gale had answered him. “I don't know Gale... People don’t usually ask me that.”Gale frowned. That didn’t seem fair. Dewey had been pretty close to dying several times now. People should have been checking in with him all the time. “How’s your new partner working out?” She wondered.“He’s alright.” Dewey answered. “I don’t know him well. Our relationship is pretty professional.”Gale shrugged. There was nothing wrong with that. That was how she ended up treating her camera men ever since Kenny died. Not getting close meant that if your co-worker ended up dying, it wouldn’t be as hard. If they ended up trying to kill you, you wouldn’t feel as betrayed."He seems nice enough. If he goes a year without trying to kill me, maybe I'll let myself become his friend." Dewey laughed.Gale let out a small laugh as well. "He doesn't talk about me, does he?" She joked."No. Not really." Dewey answered."Not really?" Gale frowned. That sounded like a half-yes. Why would this guy have reason to talk about her even a little bit?"Well, he knows we're dating. He knows who you are... but if he mentions you it's brief. I don't talk about you to him. It's nothing creepy, Gale. I promise." Dewey assured her."Okay..." Gale accepted that. She supposed that was normal - for co-workers to mention each other's significant others. She trusted Dewey wouldn't keep it from her if the new guy was showing too much interest.“He’s working with me on this case, of course… But I’ve mostly been talking to the sheriff. I need to try to keep him in the loop more. I just… I’m more comfortable with Lake.” Dewey exhaled.“And me.” Gale laughed. “You’ve been telling me all about it, and I don’t even want to know.”“Really?” Dewey sounded almost disappointed.“No… I mean. You can tell me…” Gale backpedaled. “I just… I’m not going to do what I usually do. I’m not going to try to solve it myself. It has nothing to do with me. No offense to the poor woman who was killed, but she's not my problem. You're going to figure it out. I don’t need to get in the middle of it, to draw attention to myself… I don’t want more attention than I already get. I don’t want to get in the middle of it, report on it, write books about it… This isn’t my story. I promise not to get involved with this… I don’t want to be involved this time.”“This time?” Dewey’s voice sounded nervous. “Do you think this is like the others? Is this going to be a whole big thing with multiple victims?”Gale shook her head. How the hell was she supposed to know? “Well… I hope not… I think we can both agree living through three serial killer murder sprees was three too many.” She let out a nervous laugh.“Well…” Dewey hesitated. “What do you think though? You’ve become kind of an expert… If you had to guess-”“Dewey, I don’t know.” Gale interrupted, pouting as she felt anxiety rising up in her chest. She didn’t want to get involved. This wasn’t about her and it didn’t need to be. She didn’t need to keep doing this to herself.“She’s not from Woodsboro, so it doesn’t feel like the others… But then, the killer would have known I’d be one of the cops working on it… Maybe she’s a message to me?” Dewey sounded nervous. “Maybe he left the body here because of the other killings… Maybe he wants to make it clear this is the start of another spree like before…”Gale swallowed, wondering if that was true. It wasn’t enough to put her mind fully at ease that she was away from muder-town… Dewey was still there. If a new killer was targeting him, Gale feeling safer being away from the town wouldn’t matter. She wanted Dewey to be safe too.“Gale, there’s a reason the guy left the body here too… The victim isn’t from here… Maybe she’s supposed to be a message, a warning… Maybe whatever this is is about anyone from Woodsboro. From the beginning, from the very first murder spree - Billy and Stu. Maybe it's a warning to all of us: Sid, Randy, Cotton… You…” Dewey continued.Gale closed her eyes, feeling herself growing tense the longer she talked to him. “You’re jumping to very wild conclusions, Dewey.” She spoke, trying to keep her voice even, to avoid betraying to Dewey that he was genuinely scaring her right now.“Well… Maybe… I just don’t want to be naive either… If this is supposed to be a message sent to me - to you… to Sid, Randy, even Cotton… I just don’t want to sit back and wait for the killer to come after one of us. I don’t want… I don't want anything like what happened before to happen again... So many people were killed, were hurt... Do you think it could be? Do you think-” Dewey started, cutting himself off before finishing the obvious question he was asking her for the third time now.Gale shook her head. “Unless someone saw a guy in a ghost mask or people have been reporting creepy phone calls, I think we can hold off on making that judgment.” She suggested. “One woman was killed and dumped along the side of the road. That doesn't sound like before... Don’t make it into something it’s not. Just look at it at face value until given a reason to assume otherwise… Okay?”Dewey exhaled on the other end of the phone. “Sorry… It’s just… You’re the third person I’ve talked to who brought up the other killings, Gale… Everybody’s thinking the same thing… I just didn’t want to say it out loud…”“Of course everyone’s thinking that.” Gale frowned. “How often are people stabbed to death in Woodsboro?”Dewey was silent for a moment. “I guess just when there’s a serial killer roaming around…”Gale swallowed. “But that doesn’t mean this is another case like those…” She reassured him, as though maybe her refusing to believe it was another serial-killer would blink the possibility out of existence.“I really hope it’s not the start of something worse.” Dewey’s voice dripped with dread.Closing her eyes and exhaling, Gale shook her head. “I don’t know, Dewey. I don’t want to know. It’s one victim… Hopefully it’ll stay that way. Either way, I don’t need to know… It doesn’t have anything to do with me. I’m not a cop. I’m not from Woodsboro. I may never set foot in that fucking town again… I’m not even a reporter anymore. My next book’s gonna be fiction.”“Oh… Okay. Yeah… Maybe I shouldn’t talk about it with you… This… Yeah, it shouldn’t really have anything to do with you. I shouldn’t have said anything… Sorry…” Dewey rambled.“It’s okay… It’s part of your life and I don’t want to tell you not to talk about it. You can talk to me about it… You can talk to me about anything…” Gale frowned. “I’m just not about to drive over there and get myself killed.”“Okay.” Dewey laughed breathlessly. “That’s good. I wouldn’t want you to… You’re right, Gale. This doesn’t have anything to do with you. You shouldn’t get involved. I don’t want you to get close to this. If it is another copycat, it doesn’t need to have anything to do with you. It’s not your job to try to solve it and you shouldn’t feel like it is.”Gale nodded, feeling a little guilty for being so dismissive. She used to want to get close to stories like this. Dewey probably expected that she’d be interested, that she’d help him solve it… and while a part of her genuinely was itching to jump in her car and drive over there, a larger part of her - the scared, traumatized part of her - wanted to stay as far away from it as she could, wanted to pretend it hadn’t even happened - and to her, it might as well have not happened.She wasn’t in Woodsboro. This had nothing to do with her. She could keep living her life and pretend she didn’t even know what case her boyfriend was working on. If she weren't dating Dewey, she wouldn't have even known it happened. There were probably similar murders in other parts of the state right now - and she wasn't being informed about them. This didn't need to have anything to do with her. She wasn’t a cop. She wasn’t a reporter. She was a writer, and soon to be a writer of fiction. To her, true crime didn’t matter… Not anymore.“So…” Dewey continued. “What’s going on in San Francisco? Everything good?”Gale shrugged. “Fine, I guess. Just mostly staying home, writing… Still getting occasional creepy shit in the mail. You know, the usual.”She heard Dewey exhale on the other end of the line. “Really?” He sounded disappointed. “Do you want me to try to find out who’s sending it?”Gale shook her head. “No. You’ve got a lot of work to do over there. This isn’t a big deal.”“It is to me.” Dewey sounded like he was frowning. “Nobody should be sending you creepy mail.”“It’s not that creepy.” Gale shrugged. “I mean, not lately… and I’ve got the cops here investigating the serious-sounding ones, but haven’t gotten anything too bad in a while. Haven’t even turned anything over to the police in months. None of it is outright threatening. Just weird.”“Did the wanna-be camera man finally give up?” Dewey wondered.Gale let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, actually.” For a while, she’d had a guy sending her weekly letters begging her to let him be her new camera man - even claiming he’d work for free. The letters started off months apart, then eventually became a weekly occurrence… Then eventually stopped coming. Maybe the guy had gotten hired somewhere else and finally gave up. It wasn’t the scariest type of mail she received, but it was still creepy in an obsessive, desperate kind of way.“I kinda felt bad for him.” Dewey admitted. Gale had read a lot of the letters from the guy to Dewey over the phone. They were so fucking desperate. Gale thought it was kind of funny. He'd started sending them right after Billy and Stu. He wanted to replace Kenny. Obviously Gale hired someone else. She didn't accept weird love-letter applications through her personal mail. That was a huge red flag.Dewey had actually been more worried about it than she ever was. But maybe that was because Gale hadn’t ever shared with Dewey the very worst letters she’d received. She only ever read him the ones she thought were funny - or embarrassing to whomever sent it. She didn't read him the ones that actually scared her. An obsessive fan who begged to work for her for free wasn’t nearly as creepy as stalkers who told her how they’d kill her if they ever found her alone, or creeps who wrote out their fantasies about sexually assaulting her and sending them to her like some kind of fucked up love letters. One of those was even sent typed up and bound like a book. The police had those ones now. Gale certainly didn’t want them, but wanted them kept as evidence just in case something horrible happened. As dreadful as it was to think about, if anyone ever did kill her or attack her, she wanted them to be caught, to pay for it…“Hopefully he found a good job or a girlfriend or something else to focus on.” Dewey went on. “His desperation was sad, but creepy… Did you ever tell the cops about him?” He wondered.Gale shook her head. “No.” She answered. She had no reason to make that particular fan into a police report. He’d never threatened to do anything harmful. He only wanted a job. He was just relentless about it.“Really?” Dewey sounded like he was frowning. “He kinda struck me as stalker-ish…”Gale shrugged. “It wasn’t even close to the scariest things I’ve gotten in the mail, Dewey. I don’t turn over stuff that’s just weird. If they don’t flat out threaten to kill me, I usually just throw it away.” She explained.Dewey was silent for a moment. “Well.. I’m glad he stopped sending you stuff. I know you thought it was kind of funny, but I didn’t. I thought it was scary. If someone mailed me stuff every week for months acting like they worshiped me? I’d have been creeped out. I’d have reported it… Um… To myself I guess…” He trailed off.Gale laughed. “It wasn’t a big deal. Not worth my time or the cops’ time.” She persisted. “I hand over anything that’s outright threatening, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry anyway. Handing stuff over to the cops has the same result as doing nothing… Besides, for all I know, it’s from like twenty different people anyway.”“Twenty?” Dewey’s voice rose a bit. “How much stuff have you gotten?”“Well…” Gale let out a small, breathless laugh. “A lot… But for every creepy one I get about ten or twenty nice ones… I still have a lot of fans who aren’t creeps - lots of teenaged girls who see me as a role model… Which is a good feeling. Young girls need strong women to look up to…” She trailed off. She didn’t feel strong lately. Maybe she was letting all of those girls down. All the girls and women who wanted to be like her… and she wasn’t even like herself anymore.“That’s great, Gale.” Dewey sounded like he was smiling. “You’d be a great mother. If we ever had a daughter - she’d grow up to be an amazing, strong, passionate leader. With you to guide her? How could she not?”Gale couldn’t help but to laugh at Dewey’s love for this imaginary person who was never going to exist. “We’re not having a daughter.” She reminded him. Gale could barely take care of herself lately. She sure as hell wasn’t equipped to be a mother.“I know.” Dewey laughed as well. They’d talked about this before. Neither of them really wanted children. Or at least that’s what Dewey said when they talked about it. Maybe he was changing his mind… “So… What else?”Gale shrugged. “Just lots of fan mail and not much else… Lot of people wanting me to get back into reporting… I kind of feel like I’m letting people down by not reporting anymore… but I just don’t think I can…”“You don’t have to.” Dewey reminded her. “You don’t owe your fans anything, and if they truly care about you, they’ll recognize you’ve been through a lot. Give yourself some time. Reporting will always be there. It’s not like you’ll miss your chance. In fact, probably the longer you’re gone from it, the more they’ll want you back. So don’t do it if you’re not comfortable. Take care of yourself first.”Gale exhaled and closed her eyes. Reporting was something she cared so much about once… And part of her still wanted to get back to it. She wanted to uncover secrets, help solve crimes, get parts of the story that no one else could… The work she did helped people… and herself… She couldn’t claim it wasn’t at least partially selfish… but no one else could claim she didn’t help people either. She helped Cotton. She helped stop multiple serial killers…Part of her wanted to get back into reporting on gruesome, big stories like that again - to help solve the next one, to feel the rush of getting there first, of manipulating information out of cops when no other reporter could…But a larger part of her never wanted the world to see her again. A large part of her was terrified that any random stranger on the street might be the next killer - might be watching her, taking notes, obsessing over her like Anthony did.“Give yourself a break, Gale.” Dewey continued, his voice sympathetic. “You’ve been through a lot.” He said again.Gale nodded. She had been through a lot… but to what extent was she going to allow this to define her? Was she giving Anthony too much power to allow what he did to completely change her like this?“Should I come down and visit this weekend?” Dewey asked. “You seem like you could use company…”Gale felt a smile tugging at her lips. “Yeah.” She nodded, carrying her phone with her outside and heading toward her mail box. Once again - just about the only excuse she had to leave her house. Maybe with Dewey here over the weekend she’d start feeling more alive again. Maybe they could go out to dinner, go to the park and just walk around. She wouldn’t even feel nervous being out after dark if he was next to her.“I could drive down Saturday morning. Be there before lunch.” Dewey suggested.“And stay the night?” Gale wondered as she approached her mailbox.“Sure.” Dewey agreed. “Won’t leave until the last possible minute… Really late Sunday.”Gale smiled. That sounded really nice. She’d probably sleep better than she had in a while with Dewey in bed next to her.“And I won’t even talk about my case. I’m sure I’ll want a break from it by then… and you won’t want to hear about it.” Dewey noted.Gale shrugged. “Well, I’m not opposed to talking it out with you, Dewey… Just don’t want to get too into-” She cut herself off when she saw what was in her mail box. On top of a stack of envelopes was a small package. Just like last time, it didn’t have her name or address on it. No return address… Just a heart drawn in red lip stick.It was from the same person as the creepy letter the previous day. The same person who hand delivered it to her mail box. She hadn’t told the police about the previous one… but this was turning into a rather frightening pattern. No one but the mail carrier was supposed to be opening this mail box…“Gale?” Dewey’s voice over the phone brought her mind back into focus.Gale breathed in a small breath, blinking as she looked down at the package. Part of her wanted to just throw it away… but she had to know what was inside. She had to know if it was outright threatening. What if it was someone threatening to kill her or something? She’d need to alert the police… not like they’d do anything…“Gale… You okay?” Dewey’s voice brought her back again.Gale shook her head. “Just… checking the mail… I-” She trailed off.“What is it?” Dewey sounded worried.“I don’t know…” Gale looked up and down the street. Her nearest neighbor - Cotton - wasn’t outside… Her neighbors on the other side weren't either. No one was. Just her. She didn’t know when this package was delivered though. It could have been an hour or more ago. Whoever put it in her mail box could realistically be long gone by now.“Gale, what is it?” Dewey asked again.“Hold on…” Gale frowned, pressing the speaker button on her phone and placing it on top of her mail box so she could use both hands to open the package.She frowned as she opened the top and looked inside. The box contained a necklace and a note. The necklace wasn’t in any sort of packaging - it wasn’t new…The note was written in the same hand writing as the previous one - an almost elegant-looking script:“Saw this and thought of you, beautiful.Love,Your Secret Admirer.”Gale grimaced and looked up and down the street again. Like the last note from this mysterious person, this wasn’t necessarily threatening. Just creepy… She didn’t like it… but was it worth telling the police? The police who never did anything about the last creep who was sending her actual threats? They wouldn't do anything about this. They weren't going to investigate some weirdo sending her cheap gifts.“Gale?” Dewey spoke up again. “What is it?”Gale shook her head, gathering up the mail and her phone and quickening her pace to go back inside. “Nothing.” She exhaled. “Just a kinda creepy note and gift from some freak. Tacky jewelry and a note.”“What did the note say?” Dewey sounded like he was frowning.“That the jewelry reminded them of me. It’s not the worst fan mail I’ve received.” She laughed breathlessly.“Yeah…” Dewey agreed. “You’ve gotten strange gifts before. Probably not a big deal.” He agreed, though his tone seemed to suggest he was actually a bit worried himself.Gale inhaled again. “Not usually delivered directly to my mail box by hand though. There wasn’t an address. Whoever it’s from put it in my mail box themselves.”“Oh…” Dewey paused. “That is creepy… Gale, that’s not okay… At all. You should report that to the cops.”“And say what? That I’m scared that someone gave me a note and ugly jewelry?” Gale frowned, looking down at the necklace in question. “They won’t take that seriously.”“Well, they should.” Dewey frowned. “If they put it in your mailbox themself, that means they walked right up near your house, set foot on your property… That’s crossing a line.”“Yeah…” Gale agreed, pulling back her curtains and looking out toward her mail box. She wondered if whoever was sending these was lingering, watching. Maybe they even lived on her street. Maybe it was someone who moved in just because they knew she lived there.Gale swallowed and leaned to look toward Cotton’s house. Surely not… If he really wanted to get closer to her, to become better friends… he could just try talking to her. She wouldn’t even reject that as long as it didn’t seem too pushy. She’d be willing to chat with him more if he seemed open to it. Why would he send creepy notes instead of just talking to her?“So… the jewelry… Does it look expensive?” Dewey spoke again, bringing Gale’s attention back to their conversation.Gale shook her head, looking down at the box and examining the necklace. “Not really. It’s a little heart pendant on a chain... that looks like there’s a birthstone in it… but it’s not my birthstone, so either this person guessed my birthday wrong or it’s just something random they picked up at a pawn shop or something. It seriously looks like it’d be forty dollars at the most. Same person left a note yesterday too. No gift, but just some creepy note about missing me.”“Hmmm…” Dewey mused. “And you’re sure it’s the same person?”“Yeah.” Gale nodded. “It definitely was. No return address. No stamp. They put it directly in my mail box. And they both have the same heart drawn on them.”“I don’t like it, Gale.” Dewey sounded like he was frowning again. “I know you’re saying it’s not a threat, but nobody should be hand-delivering notes to your mail box. That’s a crime.”“Well… Isn’t it only a crime if they take something out?” Gale mused. “Tampering with mail is a crime for sure… but throwing an extra note in?”“Nobody should be opening your mail box but you.” Dewey repeated.Gale shook her head. It wasn’t a big enough problem to make it into a whole thing. She didn’t want to waste the police’s time demanding that they investigate this.“Could be worse.” Gale shrugged as she closed the package back up, placing the entire thing in her kitchen trash can. “It’s just a note and a necklace. At least it’s not someone threatening to rape or kill me.” She forced a nervous laugh.She heard Dewey’s breath hitch on the other end of the phone. “Have you gotten threatening letters like that?” He gasped.“Yeah.” Gale frowned, blinking a few times. Did he not know that? Had she not ever told him about any of those? “Even before Woodsboro I got an occasional rape threat, Dewey. It comes with the territory of being a woman on television. None of them ever try to actually do it. It’s just their sick little fantasies.”“Are you serious?” Dewey sounded disgusted, which he had every right to be. For Gale, it was normal - unacceptable, disgusting, but something she was used to by now. She was surprised Dewey - being a cop - wasn’t aware that women in the spot light tended to be harassed by creeps in that way.“I haven’t gotten any recently. It was earlier this year for the most part. Then they just stopped…” She shrugged. “Maybe whoever it was got arrested for harassing someone else.”“Gale, that’s terrible!” Dewey went on. “You never told me that!”Gale closed her eyes and frowned. “It’s not all the time…” She noted, hearing her own voice growing smaller. “I’m sure they don’t actually intend to do anything. They’re just trying to upset me… I mostly ignore it…”“Well, you shouldn’t… That’s serious.” Dewey went on. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Gale…” He noted, his voice slightly shaky. “You’ve gotta take things like that seriously…”Gale blinked, starting to feel a bit emotional herself. Maybe she shouldn’t have let herself get used to that sort of thing… Maybe she should have treated every single creepy threat like the only one that she’d ever gotten. Maybe ignoring so much of it made the type of men who sent women things like that feel like they could get away with it.“If anyone ever says something like that to you… Tell me.” Dewey sounded really sad.Gale felt her lip tremble slightly. She wished Dewey were right here in front of her - and she knew he felt the same way. She’d love to feel his arms around her right about now.“Okay?” Dewey spoke.“Okay.” Gale nodded.“I’m serious… You don’t deserve to be talked to like that. Not in person, not in a letter, not in any capacity.” Dewey went on. “And if the San Francisco police won’t figure it out, I will.”Gale finally let out a small laugh. Dewey was so protective. She missed being close to him. She missed living with him, feeling safe with him. But she couldn’t be with him if it meant being in Woodsboro too. Even now there had been another murder there. If she were living in town, knowing that? She wouldn’t be able to sleep whether Dewey was with her or not.Dewey paused for a moment. “I just… That makes me really angry that anyone thinks they have the right to talk to you like that…”Gale nodded and exhaled. “I know…” She frowned. It really made her angry too… It was just something she sort of gave up on in a way. Being a young, semi-famous woman, she’d heard so much toxic, sexist bullshit over the years… She just learned to ignore it.“I wish I was there with you right now, Gale…” Dewey sounded like he was frowning again.“Well, you will be this weekend.” Gale smiled.“We should really talk about living together permanently.” Dewey suggested.Gale shook her head and rolled her eyes, though Dewey couldn’t see the gesture. “We have talked about it, Dewey.” She frowned.“I know…” Dewey frowned. “But there’s got to be a better solution than this… I don’t like not seeing you for days or weeks at a time. I don’t like weird creeps stalking around putting stuff in your mailbox while I’m an hour and a half away. We should be together. I want to be with you.”Gale shrugged. “I’m not moving to Woodsboro.” She stated rather bluntly. It was out of the question. She was absolutely not going to live in murder-town.“Maybe I’m the one who needs to move…” Dewey spoke.Gale blinked. She didn’t expect to hear that. “You’d leave the Woodsboro PD?” She felt her eyebrows raise.“I don’t know…” Dewey exhaled. “Just something to think about… You’re more important to me than the job… But my actions aren’t reflecting that.”Gale let out a breathless laugh. She didn’t even know how to respond.“We can talk about it more this weekend.” Dewey suggested.“Only if you’re talking about moving here.” Gale noted. She didn’t want his visit to turn into an argument - and usually this type of discussion did just that.“I’ll think about it this week… I won’t suggest you move to Woodsboro, Gale.” Dewey promised.“Alright.” Gale nodded. If the discussion didn’t include that, she was willing to hear him out.“Can’t wait to see you.” Dewey sounded like he was smiling.Gale smiled as well. “You too, Dewey… Anyway… I should probably go get ready for my call with my publisher. I’m supposed to call her at three and I’ve got to get some stuff together before then. I’ll call you tomorrow, alright?”“Sure.” Dewey responded. “Oh… Gale?” He spoke up.“Yeah?” Gale frowned.“Be careful… Keep your doors locked.” Dewey suggested.Gale laughed and rolled her eyes again. “I always do, Dewey.”xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 5 - Wednesday Morning - Dewey RileyxxxxxxBefore Maureen, Woodsboro didn’t have murders. Cops gave seat belt tickets, dished out warnings to teenagers sneaking around in parks after dark. There weren’t really serious crimes in the town. Now it seemed there was something terrifying and horrible to investigate at least every year if not every few months. The innocent small town was turning into a terrifying place to live.When Dewey was training to be a police officer, this wasn’t what he thought he was signing up for. He knew it was possible… He knew maybe, just maybe, once in his career he might have to deal with someone who got angry with their spouse and killed them in a fit of rage. He figured he’d very rarely have to deal with a domestic abuse case or a runaway teen with a sad story… but not gruesome murders… Especially not so many gruesome murders. He couldn't even say how many murders he'd investigated now - not without stopping and making a list. And he'd only worked as a police officer for about five years!He blinked as he stared up at his bedroom ceiling. His alarm would go off within the next hour, but he couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about Natalie.They really had no clues whatsoever… Not anything to follow. They knew where she was from, but her family told the Petaluma police that they had no idea who would want to hurt her. She was a loving wife, worked at a hair salon… It just didn’t make sense that anyone would want to kill her, and made even less sense that her body would be left out in the open in Woodsboro.Dewey inhaled a deep breath and exhaled. He couldn’t stop thinking about Gale either. She was still getting creepy mail… but she didn’t seem too bothered by it. Or maybe she had simply given up on trying to do something about it. Dewey knew Gale as a no-nonsense, strong, confident woman with pretty strict boundaries… but she wasn’t enforcing those boundaries these days. She was allowing creeps to send her threatening things and not even pushing back. He supposed ignoring it took away some degree of power from the stalkers, but he didn’t like knowing people were harassing her like that, that the San Francisco police had failed her to such a degree that she’d just learned to accept it. Even if she tried to ignore it… she shouldn’t have had to. If Dewey was there, if he were on the San Francisco police force, he'd be trying to figure out who was doing it. Maybe he was biased... well, he definitely was, but Gale's case would have been his most important one.Maybe people wouldn’t do that to her if she didn’t live alone - if her stalkers and fans knew she lived with an actual police officer...Dewey exhaled and closed his eyes. He should have gone with her. He was sitting here thinking Gale's case should be important, but even he wasn't treating it as such. He was treating the Woodsboro cases as more important - because he was here right now, working on Natalie's case - not on Gale's. Obviously murder was a pretty serious case... and he worked in Woodsboro... but he didn't have to work in Woodsboro. He wasn't about to abandon Natalie's case right in the middle... He needed to help solve it first, but maybe he didn't need to stay in Woodsboro forever. Maybe he could wrap this case up and finally be with Gale - actually be with her - not this frustrating long-distance thing that they were trying.There were more police departments than Woodsboro. He didn’t have to stay here in order to help solve crimes. San Francisco could clearly use his help if their failure to help Gale was any indication. Gale needed him more than Woodsboro did…With a wince and a slight jump, Dewey blinked and turned toward his cell phone on his night stand as it started to vibrate. He frowned. Who would be calling him so early?With a breath and a small groan, Dewey grabbed at the phone and flipped it open. “Hello?” He frowned.“Dwight… It’s Dana.” The sheriff’s voice answered.Dewey furrowed his brow. She rarely referred to herself by her first name. Dewey hardly ever called her that. These days she rarely called him Dwight either… And she certainly never called him before work. He would be coming in anyway within a couple hours… Something was wrong.“What’s going on?” Dewey wondered.Lake exhaled on the other end of the line. “There’s another body… At the same bridge as Natalie.” The sheriff explained.Dewey closed his eyes and shook his head, hoping he was dreaming, that he’d wake up in a moment and this phone call wouldn't have been real. A second body in the same location made this horrible situation a hundred times worse. It wasn’t something isolated, it wasn’t something personal between two people. It was becoming a trend. Who knew how many people this person was planning to kill? It wasn’t one anymore…“I want you and Willcox to go to the scene. I’ll be calling him next… Meet him there - He lives pretty close so he’ll likely arrive before you. I may stop by as well… Talk to any witnesses, get a good grip on what the scene looks like - anything that stands out… We’ve got to figure this out.” Lake explained. “I don’t want this turning into something big. We’ve got to find the person or people responsible for this before it happens again.”“Understood.” Dewey nodded.… … … … … … … …Dewey could see the body well before he reached her. Just like Natalie, this poor woman was lying right next to the bridge, in the gravel - right where anyone driving by could easily see her.As he walked closer to the dark-haired victim, Dewey frowned. This body’s presentation wasn’t quite like the last. It almost seemed like she’d been posed in some sort of sick attempt at artistic expression.She was lying face-up, her pale eyes open, staring unseeing up at the sky. Red rose petals were scattered all over both her and the ground around her. The previous victim was seemingly just thrown out however she landed. This one looked a lot more deliberately posed.Dewey frowned as he tried to think back to what Natalie’s body looked like. Maybe she was posed but he didn’t notice. Maybe it was less obvious… Or maybe the killer just didn’t have as much of a plan for the first one, and was just now developing some kind of calling card…“Glad you’re here…” Willcox breathed as he took a step away from a woman he had been talking to, leaving her with another officer who was seemingly trying to console her.“Who’s that?” Dewey nodded toward the woman.Willcox shook his head. “She discovered the body. Name’s Rebecca Smith. She was driving to work.”Dewey nodded. “She see anything besides the body? Any other cars, any people?”Willcox shook his head. “I don’t think so… We can question her more at the station. I think she’s pretty shaken up. She's wanting her husband to meet her at the station so she can talk to us with him there as well.”Dewey nodded. "As long as he doesn't try to answer questions for her... We can try it." He agreed. He knew sometimes having a family member present helped a victim or witness... and sometimes it did the opposite.Wilcox yawned and shook his head. "Starting to regret accepting this job." He grumbled.Dewey frowned. "I know how you feel... but we did accept the job and we have a responsibility to this woman and Natalie. We've got to find out who's doing this.""I know." Wilcox agreed. "It's just... Different than what I expected working in Woodsboro to be. Even talking to the witnesses is traumatic. Look at that poor woman." He nodded toward Rebecca.Dewey glanced toward her again. Coming across a scene like this couldn’t have been easy for her. He wondered how the men who discovered the previous body were doing. It had been a few days…“Do we know who she is?” Dewey frowned, glancing back toward the body. She looked similar to Natalie from what he could see so far - young, petite white woman… dark hair - darker than Natalie’s, but if the killer was going after a certain type of look - they did look similar overall…“She had a driver’s license in her wallet.” Willcox nodded, handing Dewey an evidence bag with a California driver’s license inside.Dewey narrowed his eyes as he looked the license over. Her photo on the license was how he’d rather see her than the dead body on the ground before him. In the photo, she smiled slightly. Her eyes were big, alive…“Katrina Dorian…” Dewey read her information out loud. “Thirty two years old… From Penngrove?”Willcox nodded. “She’s not from Woodsboro either. Just like Natalie. Only not from the same town as Natalie either…”Dewey looked up at Willcox with a frown. “What does this mean? That this person is killing women from surrounding cities and bringing their bodies here?” He looked back down at Katrina’s body. Like Natalie, there wasn’t a lot of blood on the ground surrounding her. She’d been killed somewhere else.“I don’t know…” Willcox shook his head. “But unless this is a coincidence, this killer clearly has a type.” He nodded down toward the victim.Dewey frowned. That was true. Natalie and Katrina did look almost like they could be sisters. Even their eyes were both light colored. Katrina’s were light green and Natalie’s blue… They were nearly the same age, young, attractive, pale skin, dark hair…He swallowed as he looked at the body with more scrutiny. She was wearing red lipstick… just like Natalie. “How much do you wanna bet her family and friends are gonna tell us she doesn’t usually wear red lipstick?” He grimaced.Wilcox shook his head. “It’s getting really creepy, really fast. This guy’s giving them makeovers? What the hell does that mean?”Narrowing his eyes, Dewey glanced back toward Willcox. “Was there evidence of sexual assault on Natalie?” He wondered. Somehow he’d missed any mention of it when reading over the report.Willcox shrugged. “It was inconclusive… So if something did happen - she didn’t fight back… Doesn’t mean something didn’t happen… Lots of women freeze up out of fear…”Dewey grimaced, thinking about the picture that tiny remark painted in his thoughts… How horrible to be terrified of being hurt and just freeze… They would have held still because they were afraid fighting would get them hurt… and now here they were - cold and dead lying in loose gravel on the side of the road…“Usually killers with a ‘type’ are sexually motivated.” Dewey noted. There was a reason killers who tended to choose a certain look did so. It wasn’t just because they hated dark haired women… Although, sometimes it was a little of both - sexual arousal and some kind of strange revenge plot… Putting the red lipstick on both women certainly seemed it make the motive look sexual though. If the killer just disliked dark haired women, why force them to wear a certain shade of lipstick? Unless he was making them resemble someone he hated - a sister, a mother, an ex-wife or girlfriend. Maybe that was the motive. The guy was crazy, killing people who looked like someone with whom he had a bone to pick.“Riley… You might not like to hear this-” Willcox hesitated.“What?” Dewey frowned, looking over at his partner.“This is becoming a pattern. It’s not an isolated incident anymore.” Willcox explained. “And there’s no way it’s a coincidence that they both look similar, both were stabbed, both bodies were left here… The lipstick is a really big clue… This is one killer, targeting a certain type of person. And at this rate, it might continue. There might be more.”“Yeah…” Dewey nodded. Obviously. Two victims wasn’t one guy accidentally losing his temper and doing something crazy. Two victims meant this person was being very deliberate about this. And they indeed looked similar - same age, same physical characteristics. They were dumped in the same place, and it hadn’t been long between the two. This was getting pretty scary.“There’s a certain look both of these women have. The killer’s choosing a certain type of person. She looks a lot like Gale.” Dewey’s partner noted.Dewey stared, feeling a flash of defensive, protective anger rush through him. Somehow having Wilcox bring that up felt inappropriate. Maybe it was because his previous partner fixated on Gale. Dewey didn’t want the new guy to even talk about her, let alone suggest these viciously murdered women might have anything to do with her.“So does Natalie.” Willcox went on. “They’re from towns near Woodsboro - so is she… So are a lot of women… I’m not saying Gale’s a target. The killer may not even notice she exists, but there’s a pattern here, a type this guy is going for… Lots of women fit that type and… I mean, they deserve to know if they might be in danger. Maybe we need to warn the public.”Dewey felt his shoulders slump as he looked back down at Katrina. She had numerous visible stab wounds, made all the more obvious by the fact she was wearing a light blue nightgown. She did resemble Gale in a certain way… but so would a lot of women. That didn’t mean this had anything to do with her, though it did make him want to throw up thinking about some stranger potentially grabbing Gale up just because she had dark hair. If whatever this was wasn’t personal, and only had to do with the appearance of the victims, any young, dark-haired woman in Southern California would potentially be in danger.“I wonder if Natalie and Katrina knew each other… Worked together, attended the same high school…” Dewey mused out loud. “If we find a connection between them, we might find their connection to the killer. If he knew them both, he might know them both from the same place… They might have known him too.”Willcox shrugged. “Might not have known either one, Riley… My theory’s that he’s just finding women who fits the look he likes and killing them. He may have never talked to either of them before… And in a way, that’s a lot more scary than if he is targeting people he knows. A killer who’s after random people just because of their hair color, body type… That’s terrifying.”Dewey frowned, going back to Gale in his mind. If the killer would attack any young woman with dark hair and a small frame, like Natalie, like Katrina… That meant he’d target Gale too if he happened to see her. But San Francisco wasn’t all that close to Woodsboro. It was an hour and a half away. Most likely, this guy had no idea Gale existed. She wouldn’t be on his radar. Gale was keeping a low profile specifically to avoid stuff like this, and maybe it was working.“I don’t want to jump to conclusions or imply Gale’s in any sort of danger. She lives pretty far away from Woodsboro… but the two victims weren’t from here either.” Willcox went on. “If I had a girlfriend or sister who looked like these girls…” He trailed off for a moment with a shrug. “I might be thinking about telling them not to go anywhere alone for a while… You never know…”Dewey frowned, exhaling tiredly. Was this something he should warn Gale about? Or would he just scare the hell out of her without any good reason? Gale already seemed nervous every time he talked to her. She already was afraid to even come to Woodsboro. Telling her a serial killer may be after her when he didn’t actually know that to be true seemed cruel.“Do you really think Gale’s in danger?” Dewey glanced back at Willcox. “Do you think all young women in the area who fit this general description are? Should we be having a press conference and warning people? Last thing I want to do is make things worse. Turn this into something it isn’t. It’s like Ted Bundy all over again…”Willcox grimaced and shook his head. “I don’t know… Telling every young, dark haired white woman that she’s the next victim might cause more panic than anything… Two really could be a coincidence… He could be targeting acquaintances he dislikes and the first two might happen to look similar. Or maybe he’s snagging up women who walk a certain nature trail or go to a certain store… and these are the first two who seemed like easy targets, could be coincidence that they look the same…”Dewey grimaced. “Are we being naive to say that?” He frowned. “We don’t want it to be a pattern, so we’re pretending it’s not?”Wilcox shook his head and shrugged. “I can’t say if it is or not. Might be a coincidence. Might not… We’re guessing. With only two victims, it’s starting to look like a pattern, but isn’t definitely a pattern… And there’s no need to have everyone in southern California in a panic…”“Unless it saves lives.” Dewey noted. “I’d rather scare people and save someone than not say anything and end up with more young women dead.”Willcox nodded. “Maybe that’d be a question for Sheriff Lake.” He suggested.Dewey nodded. “We’ll ask her.” He agreed. Though he honestly couldn’t say he might not mention this to Gale either way.Of course, she seemed really reluctant to get involved. Maybe warning her would only scare the hell out of her. San Francisco was further south than either town these women were from. Maybe telling her would only upset her with no good reason…“So what direction do we go now?” Willcox frowned, looking over at Dewey with wide eyes and a lost look on his face, like it was the very first day he’d ever been a cop and Dewey was his boss.Dewey blinked. Maybe Willcox did see him as a mentor, maybe Dewey needed to take charge here. He did have more experience.With an exhale and a nod, Dewey put his hand on Willcox’s shoulder. “We’re going to learn everything we can about these two women - where they work, where they shop, who they’re friends with… Hobbies, classes… Anything and everything. We’ll find a connection if there is one… From now until we catch this guy, this is our main priority.”“We should question their friends. See if any of them noticed anyone being weird. There’s a good chance other people in their lives have seen something and don’t even realize it.” Wilcox suggested.“You’re probably right. Let’s get to work.” Dewey nodded. With any luck, they’d figure this out fast - then he wouldn’t have to worry about telling Gale or not. There’d be nothing to tell.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 6 - Thursday Morning - Gale WeathersxxxxxxGale closed her eyes and angled her face so that the warm water from her shower hit the top of her head. She’d already washed her hair and was just enjoying the warmth at this point. There was something very comforting about standing under warm, running water, not having anywhere to be, knowing she could stay here as long as she wanted. Her showers were always twice as long as they needed to be.Although she had a general feeling of unease following her everywhere ever since she left Woodsboro, she couldn’t claim that she’d made the wrong decision. She missed Dewey. She wanted him to live with her… but he wanted to remain on the Woodsboro police force.She couldn’t ask him to give up his career for her. She wouldn’t have been willing to do the same for him, so it wouldn’t be fair to ask. If Gale was still working as a reporter, living in Woodsboro wouldn’t have worked. She couldn’t go report on interesting cases around the country while living in that tiny town. Woodsboro was for Dewey, not for her.Now he was working on that murder case… and Gale could guarantee that if she were still there living with him, that would have scared the hell out of her. Woodsboro wasn’t Los Angeles… People didn’t just get murdered randomly every weekend. One suspicious death in Woodsboro was a big fucking deal. And in the past couple years, every individual murder in the small town spiraled into something greater and almost got her killed. Gale was glad she wasn’t there.Letting out a small gasp, Gale flinched when she swore she heard a noise - a noise way too close for comfort. She was obviously the only one home - she was the only one who lived here… but that certainly sounded like movement INSIDE her house…Swallowing nervously, Gale remained frozen, staring at her shower door as though somehow staring long enough would allow her to see through the walls and check in on the rest of her house. Maybe it was a car door outside… Maybe someone just slammed their door too hard and it sounded loud enough to be inside when it really wasn’t…She always kept her doors locked. No one could get in without a key - or breaking in…Gale felt her breaths increasing as panic started rising up in her chest. What if someone did break in? What if whoever had been sending her the weird notes broke into her house and attacked her? The one note did say “see you soon.”Gale’s heart pounded as she stood still and silent aside from her quick breaths. She listened, trying to hear if there really had been a noise. She didn’t hear anything unusual now… No one walking around downstairs, no doors opening or closing. Nothing.She only heard the sound of the water hitting the shower’s floor. Perhaps she’d imagined the noise… or again - it was just a car door outside. She didn't hear anything else… She was being paranoid, hearing things that weren’t there. She was fine…Just because she was traumatized didn’t mean the whole world was out to get her. Her fears were irrational, based on a few unfortunate things that had happened to her. It had nothing to do with anyone in San Francisco. Nothing bad was going to happen to her here…Cowering down slightly as she turned back toward the water, Gale swallowed. Was she ever going to feel safe again? Was the entire rest of her life going to be clouded by constant fears of some crazy person trying to hurt her?Maybe someone like Gale just didn’t have the luxury of feeling safe. Even back before Billy and Stu, before she got more famous, Gale knew being a reporter came with risks. Arriving first at a crime scene obviously meant the culprit might still be lingering, might target her… Reporting on sensitive topics upset people. Even Sidney had once punched her in the face.Perhaps Gale was being greedy, being unreasonable… Expecting fame and attention while at the same time expecting everyone to leave her alone? That wasn’t realistic. She knew back when she first started reporting that she was trading in the comfort of safe anonymity. She knew threats and weirdos with no boundaries were part of the territory.But she didn’t think she was being unreasonable to hope that she could feel safe inside her own house. The things she’d dealt with in the past few years were indeed unusual, more than a single person would usually have to put up with - even a semi-famous reporter. She genuinely didn’t expect to be targeted by not one, but several serial killers… And she never expected herself to feel this afraid, to feel this broken.At this point she wasn’t really enjoying the shower anymore. She kind of wanted to be done… but at the same time, thinking about exiting the perceived safety of the bathroom wasn’t appealing. Even if she was being paranoid… what if someone was out there? What if the second she exited this room they grabbed her?Gale let out a small whimper and pressed herself against the wall when she heard another noise. It sounded even closer - like a door opening and closing in her house.With a shaking hand, Gale turned the water off, quietly opening the shower door and grabbing a towel. She wrapped it around herself and tip toed quickly over to the bathroom door, locking it and stepping back, staring down at the door knob, almost waiting for someone to start wildly pulling at it from the other side.That didn’t happen. In fact, she didn’t hear anything else at all… The longer she stood here staring at the door, the more she wondered if she was losing her mind. Did she really even hear anything? Was she just on-edge because of Dewey’s murder case and the fan letters?With a slightly trembling lip, Gale stared at the closed door, listening for any strange noises. She didn’t hear anything now… but she was almost certain she did before - two different noises… She wasn’t crazy enough to be hallucinating noises. Sure, maybe strangers walking around outside made her nervous when they shouldn’t have, but at least they were actually there. She didn’t imagine them. They weren’t out to get her, but they were indeed actual people walking around. Surely she wasn’t hearing noises that weren’t there…Inhaling a shaky breath and staring at the door with a frown, Gale blinked and waited. If someone was inside her house, they were trying to be quiet about it. She didn’t hear things beind slammed around. No windows breaking, no loud footfalls up the stairs. Maybe she really did just hear something outside. Maybe it sounded louder because she was already nervous about the letters and Dewey’s case.She swallowed and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. What should she do? If someone was in her house… what should she do now? Her bathroom had no window. She couldn’t just escape the house all together…But she could perhaps reach her phone, call the police… Her cell phone was in her bedroom, right next to the bathroom. Or at least, she thought it was… Her land line was in the kitchen - all the way downstairs…Gale gasped and let out a small whimper as she was certain she heard a door downstairs open and close. It sounded like the front door, or maybe the back…“Oh my god…” She whispered to herself. She wasn’t just crazy… She wouldn’t have heard three separate noises if her mind was playing tricks on her. There really was someone there… She needed to call the police. The creepy letters were one thing… Someone breaking into her house? She couldn’t stand for that.Biting her lower lip, Gale reached out for the door knob, unlocking it and pulling the door open a few inches, looking out into her bed room. She only had to reach her phone… Then she could lock herself in the bathroom again and wait for the cops.Stepping out into the room as quietly as possible, she headed toward her nightstand. She breathed in a small breath and frowned when she noticed her phone wasn’t there… Where had she left it? She didn’t want to have to go all the way to the kitchen for the land line… But what choices did she have?Feeling herself shaking, Gale headed toward her closed bedroom door, pressing her ear against it in an attempt to hear what might be going on in the rest of the house. If she really was hearing the front door open and close, maybe the person had left. Maybe they came in, looked around, and left…Gale blinked and held her breath as she slowly opened her bedroom door, sneaking as quietly as she could and walking toward the kitchen. She still heard nothing. Hopefully if someone was in here, they left. But she was certain she’d locked the doors… so how had they gotten in?Or was she actually crazy… Did she really even hear anything?Gale exhaled a relieved breath when she finally spotted her phone on her kitchen counter. She couldn’t remember leaving it there… But she must have. She picked it up, but now felt like calling the police might not necessarily be the right move. It didn’t seem like anyone was in her house now. Maybe no one ever was… The last thing she needed was for the police to regard her as a paranoid crazy person. She didn’t want to call them and tell them she thought she heard a noise but wasn’t really completely sure…Still gripping her phone, Gale made her way around her house, checking any doors or windows to make sure they were in fact locked. No windows were broken. Her back door was locked… Everything seemed exactly as it should… Maybe this whole thing was just her paranoia.She couldn’t claim she wasn’t a fairly nervous person in general these days. She’d even had a nightmare last night of being back in Woodsboro - of a fan wearing the ghostface mask chasing her, trying to kill her. She hadn’t slept well. She was tired… Maybe someone seriously opened and closed a car door outside and she was mistaken. Maybe she really was losing her mind…As she was starting to calm herself back down, Gale headed toward her front door, opening it and looking out. No one was there. Not even any unusual cars or people walking along the sidewalks. The only cars were a few she recognized as belonging to her neighbors.Gale frowned and leaned her head out, looking over toward Cotton’s house. There wasn’t any movement. She glanced over where he usually parked his car. It wasn’t there. Gale swallowed. If she heard a car door, maybe it was him leaving. Maybe the other sounds had been him opening and closing his own front door. That could explain why it sounded close. His house was close…She inhaled a steadying breath, then looked the other way toward her other neighbors’ house. The other neighbors were an older couple - Harold and Jenny. They wouldn’t be sneaking around, leaving her weird notes, breaking into her house… right? They had to be almost seventy, and they seemed nice… They wouldn’t have an issue with her. Jenny had actually tried to get her to help her plant a garden between their two lots. Gale had declined and told the woman she was free to plant whatever she wanted and she wouldn’t mind if it spilled over to her side. Jenny had been more than happy to go ahead and now Gale had some kind of weird flowers slowly inching their way closer and closer to her sidewalk. She didn’t care. She had bigger things to worry about.Frowning, Gale stuck her lip out in a slight pout and looked up and down the street again. Nothing seemed unusual. It was quiet, still. A neighbor across the street was just now arriving home in his car, pulling up in front of his house. That was the only other person she had seen since opening the door. Had she imagined all of this?Gale had nightmares all the time about everything she’d been through in Woodsboro. She saw random people in town who looked like Anthony or his brother, like Xavier, even occasionally like Billy or Stu. She thought she saw people wearing the ghost-face costume, only to do double takes and find she wasn’t seeing anything at all. Perhaps she was seriously going crazy. She was so much more paranoid than she ever used to be. She hated that she felt so scared…Gale blinked and looked down when she noticed something colorful down on the ground on her front step. She breathed in a small breath as she stared down in confusion. Flower petals? Gale looked back up, glancing up and down the street again. A woman was walking out her front door with a dog on a leash a little way up the street. The man who’d just pulled up in his car was now carrying in groceries.She looked back down at the petals scattered all over her door step. Maybe the fan who’d given her the necklace and the note gave her these as well - as his idea of a gift… He probably thought he was being romantic, when he was really being a complete fucking creep.Gale stuck her lower lip out in a pout, wondering if she should report this to the police. Maybe the noises she heard was this person opening and closing his car door, running up here throwing petals around, then going back to his car again, opening and closing the door and leaving.But approaching her door? Leaving things in her mailbox was creepy enough… Now the guy was coming right up to her front steps? Gale inhaled a small breath as she brought her hand up to her chest, suddenly very aware now that she was only wearing a towel. If whoever left the petals was still lingering nearby and could see her right now, she didn’t really want them to.She knew the police wouldn’t do a damn thing if she called them about this. Was it even a crime? Leaving flower petals on someone’s step… It was weird. It was uninvited… But the police wouldn’t consider it a threat. They wouldn’t drive all the way over here to try to investigate who gave her fucking flower petals.With a frown, Gale closed her door and locked it. She didn’t know what the petals meant. She just knew she didn’t like it…xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 7 - Thursday Evening - Gale WeathersxxxxxxLater that evening, Gale awoke with a gasp as her entire house suddenly fell silent. She had fallen asleep on her downstairs sofa, watching some kind of cooking show and had been sleeping with several lights still on… but now everything was quiet; everything was dark.Gale sat herself up and looked around, blinking in the darkness. Had the electricity gone out? It wasn’t stormy… She wondered if anyone else’s power was out.Standing up, Gale walked over to her window, looking out to see if it seemed any of the neighbors had their electricity still working. Cotton’s house still had a porch light on. The house across the street had a little string of patio lights still lit up. There were still street lights shining bright as well.“Shit…” Gale grumbled. It was just her house…The paranoid side of her figured this was something targeted - that someone had deliberately cut her electricity to single her out for some reason. It could be someone trying to trick her into going outside so they could kill her... Or someone who was already inside, wanting to make sure it was harder for her to run away when she couldn't see well... Gale swallowed, turning and looking around the silent, dark room she stood in. The rational, calm, collected side of her figured it surely had to be nothing. Something went wrong with her breaker box. It wasn't anything nefarious. Sometimes electricity went out. It didn't mean someone did it on purpose.Her breaker box was in her garage. If this were a scary movie, she'd go out there to flip the switches and someone would be out there waiting. That could be the scene where she died.Gale frowned, staring toward the hall she'd need to take to get to her garage. If it was a trap, she needed to not fall for it... Gale wasn't a big fan of scary movies these days, but when she used to watch them, she always rolled her eyes at characters who ended up in positions like that. Obviously you shouldn't go out to your dark garage by yourself if you're a horror movie character! But this wasn't a scary movie. Gale was a real person and her real electricity just went out. She wasn't in the middle of a horror movie plot, and if the breaker box just failed somehow, she needed to deal with it eventually. She couldn't just sit around in the dark all night...Blinking, Gale continued staring toward the hallway. She didn't want to go out there... She wished she didn't live alone right now. She wished Dewey were here. If Dewey lived with her, they'd take his gun with them to check the breaker box... Or maybe they wouldn't feel like they had to. Maybe if Dewey were here, no one would be sending her creepy notes and she wouldn't be so on-edge. This was probably nothing. Her mind was making things up, scaring her when she didn't need to be scared. But that didn't change the fact that she was indeed afraid. Rational or not, she was very scared to go out into the garage on her own.Breathing out a shaky gasp, then promptly covering her mouth with her own hand, Gale flinched when she suddenly heard a sharp, shattering sound. Was that breaking glass? Did she just hear fucking breaking glass from the direction of her kitchen?!For a moment, Gale was frozen in place. She was certain she’d just heard either her back door or her kitchen window being broken… She's already established that it wasn't storming. It wasn't overly windy outside. There was no reason windows in her home should be breaking. No reason other than someone purposefully breaking them.Gale gritted her teeth and shrunk down, inhaling and exhaling a series of shaky breaths as she stared toward her kitchen. She knew she should probably get out of the house… or at the very least call the police and hide and wait for them to respond… but she couldn’t move. She felt like she was literally frozen in fear. If someone was trying to scare her out of the house, she should stay inside... but if they were already inside, she needed to get out... She couldn't decide what to do...After a long few seconds and what she could swear was the faint sound of her kitchen door slowly creaking open, Gale bit her lower lip and darted upstairs toward her bedroom. She closed and locked the door, then began searching for her phone. She hadn’t reported the noises earlier, but maybe she should have. She definitely heard something now.“Oh my god…” Gale whimpered as she stared down at her nightstand. Just a lamp, a bottle of sleeping pills, and a notepad and pen sat neatly on the tabletop. Her phone wasn’t here. She knelt down and found the charging cord that was plugged into the wall behind the nightstand. She ran the length of the cord through her hands, unfortunately confirming that her phone was indeed not plugged in to the end of it.With a shaky whimper, Gale stood back up and let the cord fall, glancing one more time at the night stand, picking up the pad of paper and checking under it, even though she knew by now that the phone wasn't here. She usually kept it right by her bed, on her nightstand, but because she’d fallen asleep downstairs, she broke that habit… It wasn’t here. She’d left it somewhere downstairs. Probably next to the sofa.She felt her lip trembling as she inhaled a shaky breath, staring at her closed door. Now what? She had locked herself in, but couldn’t call for help. No one knew her power was out. No one knew someone had broken in. What if whoever it was checked every room until they found her? She couldn’t just stay hidden and hope that would solve this… No one was on their way to help her. No one knew she needed help. She couldn't wait this person out forever.Gale shrunk down when she was sure she heard movement downstairs. She reached back toward her bedroom’s door knob, double-checking that she’d actually locked it. She couldn’t stay in here though. If someone was in her house? She couldn’t just stay here and hope whoever it was left… They were here for a reason and had almost definitely been here earlier today too.Swallowing, Gale continued staring silently at the door. Maybe when they came in earlier today they were scoping the place out. Now what was their plan? To hurt her? Kill her? Who the hell was it, and why were they in her house?Gale shook her head. She wasn’t going to stick around and find out. She was getting the fuck out of here. Rushing toward her window, Gale looked out, then down. She could potentially escape from here… She could open the window, pop out the screen… Her roof had a ledge… but then she’d need to find a way to climb down.Breathing out a shaky breath, Gale turned back toward her closed door. She had heard glass breaking… right? Now that she was up here, with total silence surrounding her… she wondered if she’d actually heard anything. She had been asleep… Was it the end of a nightmare? Was it even real? She'd been so worried about going out to the garage, thinking about scary movies where a character making that choice ended up dead. Had the thought of someone hiding in her garage caused her to imagine the noise? Did she really hear anything or was she just that paranoid?Sniffing back the start of tears, Gale let out a small whimper. Was she actually going crazy? Had she dreamed the noise? Was she freaking out in real life right now because of a dream? The incident this morning did have her on-edge. Maybe she dreamed someone broke in because she thought someone already did earlier…Blinking and swallowing, Gale listened, trying to determine if she was going crazy. She didn’t hear anything else. Unless… She leaned a bit further toward the door. She almost swore she heard a slight creaking sound… Someone walking up her stairs?Gale couldn’t help but to let out a small, shocked scream when she heard a very real knock against her bedroom door. She stared with wide eyes as she backed herself toward her window. That was real. No way was that a dream. She was very much awake now…“Gale Weathers…” A gravelly voice called out.Gale stared with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide as she backed herself further away. She felt herself shaking, and felt like her heart and breaths were frozen in her chest. Was this seriously happening right now?“The world misses you, Gale… I miss you. Come out, Love…” The voice continued.Silently shaking her head as she pressed her back against the wall next to the window, Gale stared at the closed door. This had to be the same person leaving things in her mailbox. He’d escalated really far really fast. There was no way the cops weren’t going to be hearing about this now.“I won’t hurt you, Sweetheart. Don’t be afraid of me… I just want to talk…” The voice continued, knocking on the door louder. It was beginning to sound like perhaps the person was close to attempting to force his way in.Gale shook her head again as she blinked away tears and intook a series of shaky breaths. She knew this person couldn’t see the gesture… She didn’t care. She just wanted out of here. She turned toward her window again, reaching to open in, but flinching and letting out a shaky whimper when the knocks on the door turned into something more. It was pounding now, violent, cracking, loud… It sounded like whoever was out there was attempting to break the door down entirely.“Let me in!” The voice growled between pounding, banging knocks. “I just wanna talk to you, Gale!” He growled. “Fucking let me in!”With shaky hands and even shakier breaths, Gale grabbed at the window, pulling it open, then pressing at the screen, popping it out and letting it fall down outside. She peered down after it. It was only one story high, but it sure looked like a long way down now that she was contemplating jumping.Gale bit her lower lip and hugged her hands around her own arms and she stared down at the ground. She hoped she didn’t lose her footing on the ledge. She’d very likely break her ankles if she fell.She glanced over her shoulder with a terrified whimper as the door finally gave way and a masked intruder forced his way into the room.Gale gasped as she stared with wide eyes, for a few long seconds frozen in fear as the stranger stepped into the room. The person was wearing the ghost-face mask as well as the signature long black robe she was all too-familiar with.“NO!” Gale screamed, finally forcing herself to act and turning back toward the window. She felt herself breathing hard as she put one leg through the open window and started to climb out onto the ledge. No fucking way was she dealing with this shit again. She had to get out before this creep hurt or killed her.“Get back here…” The intruder’s voice growled as his footfalls boomed behind her.“Get away from me!” She screamed and thrashed as she felt hands on her arms, pulling her back into the window. “No! Get off of me!” She whimpered, spinning herself around and kicking out at the person’s lower legs as she shoved at their chest.The stranger let out a frustrated grunt, then grabbed her again, with harsh, bruising hands, dragging her toward her bed and slamming her down onto it.Gale choked a breathless gasp as the force of being slammed into the bed knocked the air out of her lungs. She blinked back tears, then kicked out again, balling her hand into a fist and punching out across the face of whoever it was that was looming over her.“Get the fuck off of me!” Gale screamed, kicking again and crawling backwards over the mattress. She realized she was cornering herself further, but it was the only direction available.The intruder grabbed Gale’s arms and easily lifted her, pulling her back toward him and slamming her down rather roughly against the bed again. Whoever it was - they were fucking strong.Gale groaned and blinked back stars as she choked out a shaky breath, then suddenly felt hands around her throat, starting to squeeze.“N-” Gale whimpered, grabbing out at the hands in an attempt to pull them off of her neck.“Hold still.” Her attacker growled. “I didn’t come here to hurt you, Gale. Stop fighting me so I don’t have to hurt you.”Gale shook her head and whimpered a shaky noise as she clawed desperately at the hands. She could feel her own fingernails scratching her throat as she became increasingly panicked, increasingly desperate."Shhhh...." The masked stranger whispered, squeezing his hands tighter as he loomed over her. She felt his body pinning hers against the bed and he leaned in closer. "Don't be afraid. Calm down, Love..." He cooed, leaning more heavily on her, pinning down her legs with his as he continued restricting her breathing with his hands.Gale felt tears in her eyes as she grabbed desperately at the intruder's gloved hands, trying and failing to pull them off of her throat. She felt her vision growing hazy and then reached up toward the mask instead, hoping trying to pull it off of him would convince him to let go of her in order to prevent his identity being revealed.Her attacker leaned back a bit, but didn't let go of her neck. He did, however, loosen his grip just a bit, enough for Gale to manage a small breath as she twisted and thrashed her body under him. Now that he wasn't leaning in so close, she could move more, and she was going to take advantage of that. She wasn't going to make this easy for this creep. If he wanted to hurt her or kill her, she was at least going to give fighting back every ounce of strength she had. She was going to hurt him too, make it really difficult, make him wish he'd never broken in.“Get the fuck off of me!” Gale choked, kicking and twisting her body as she clawed at the hands still attempting to strangle her. She pulled her knees up and kicked out, hitting him right between his legs, as hard as she could. Gale inhaled and exhaled a shaky, desperate breath when by some miracle she managed to throw her attacker off of her. "Fucking creep!" She growled, kicking out toward his chest as she climbed shakily off of the bed.She immediately darted toward the window, climbing out as quickly as possible, stumbling, and tripping over the roof ledge. She didn’t even need to try to find a safe way to climb, as she instead fell down a full story, landing half on her arm and rolling onto her back as she stared back up at the open window with tears in her eyes.Whimpering a pained and terrified cry, Gale dragged herself up to her feet, tripping and stumbling, then pulling herself upright and running to the nearest neighbor’s house and pounding on the door.“Let me in!” Gale screamed, looking over her shoulder toward her own house as she pounded desperately at Cotton’s door.Gale looked up toward her bedroom window as she inhaled and exhaled deep, shaky breaths. She didn’t see movement, but it was likely if the intruder was going to follow her, he’d use the stairs.Shaking her head and choking out frantic tears, Gale turned back toward the door. “Cotton! Please!” She choked, pounding her fist against the door and grabbing at the door knob. “Let me in! Please!” She begged, turning back and looking at her house, toward the front door.She still saw no movement, but if Cotton didn’t answer soon, she’d need to try someone else. The last thing she wanted was to be killed on Cotton’s doorstep because she was too stupid to run away further.After a long thirty or forty seconds, still no one had come to the door. Gale breathed in and out desperate, shaking breaths as she looked back toward her own house, surprised it didn’t seem she was being followed.“Cotton!” She called out, pounding on the door again. “Let me in! Now! Come to fucking door and let me in!” She half-screamed, half-sobbed. “Let me in…” She whimpered as she pounded on the door again, hearing her voice growing softer the longer it took for a response.Gale looked back toward her house, leaning her back against Cotton’s front door. She still didn’t see any movement… Of course, if the person was following her, he’d probably use the stairs… He could be on his way toward the front door or the back door right now. She looked toward the front of her house, then toward the back, trying to see in the shadows if anyone was there. It was hard to say - especially toward the back, as the street lights didn’t reach that far. If someone was back there, watching her right now - she might not know.Maybe the person was already outside, slowly sneaking around the side of the house. Maybe he’d jump around the corner and grab her at any moment.Gale let out an unintentional scream as the door behind her was opened and she stumbled back, colliding with the solid form of a person’s chest.“Gale?!” Cotton breathed, catching Gale’s arms with his hands.Gale pulled herself free from his grip as she spun herself around. She stared up breathlessly at her neighbor, who looked rather worried as he stared back.“What happened? What’s going on?” Cotton breathed, his eyes wide.Gale shook her head, then pushed her way past Cotton, into his house. “Lock your door!” Gale whimpered. “Someone’s in my house!” She choked.Cotton breathed in a small breath, closing and locking his door as advised, then turning toward Gale. “Someone’s in your house?” He repeated, his voice shocked.Gale swallowed and quickly nodded.“Have you called the police?” He wondered.Gale shook her head. “I don’t have my phone…” She whimpered.“I’ll call.” Cotton offered, heading toward his kitchen and picking up his land line.Gale followed him, as she didn’t want to be left on her own for even a second.“How do you know someone’s in there? Did you see them?” Cotton asked as he held the phone in his hand.Gale shook her head. Her vision was blurred with tears and she felt her body shaking. She couldn’t believe this was happening. “I ran up to my room when I heard a noise… He followed me… He broke my door open… I- I had to climb out the window…”“Well… Who was it?” Cotton frowned, pausing with the phone in still uselessly his hand and staring at her with wide eyes. “Could you see his face?”Gale shook her head. “He had on a mask…” She whispered.“So you didn’t see him?” Cotton frowned.Gale shook her head. “No… Cotton, call the police..." She nodded toward the phone."Yeah..." Cotton shook his head and looked back down at the phone. "Sorry..." He muttered as she started dialing. "So... You don't know who it was? Just a guy in a mask?"Gale shook her head. "No. I don't know who it was... But he got close. He was tall… Strong… He grabbed me…” She grimaced.“Are you hurt?” Cotton breathed as he held the phone up to his ear.Gale shook her head and wiped tears off of her cheeks, then turned to look out the window.As Cotton spoke to the police, Gale tuned him out almost completely. She walked over toward his kitchen window. She could see her own house from here. She narrowed her eyes and stared out into the darkness. She didn’t see anything. No movement…She almost wondered if she might be legitimately crazy. Could it be possible that she was so fucking paranoid that she imagined this whole thing? That she imagined being grabbed and threw herself out of a window out of sheer paranoia and fear? It seemed like she was way more paranoid than a normal person even on a regular day. She usually wouldn't even go outside to check her mail if someone was walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. That wasn't normal. That wasn't healthy. Was she losing her mind? Had all the trauma of the past few years finally driven her to the edge of sanity? Was her mind making all of this up?Gale blinked as she stared toward her house. It wasn’t a dream this time. She'd never had a dream that felt this real for this long. Her electricity was still out… The guy broke down her door, grabbed her. She could still feel his bruising hands on her. It was real… She felt the fucker’s hands around her neck. She felt him grab her arms and pull her back…Gale screamed and spun around, shoving against Cotton’s chest when he put his hand on her arm. She stared breathlessly up at him, contemplating apologizing until he apologized first.“Sorry!” He breathed, raising his hands in defense and stepping back. “They’re on their way.” He informed her. “Are you hurt?” He asked again.Gale shook her head. “I don’t think so…” She whispered.Cotton narrowed his eyes as he leaned down closer, reaching a hand toward her neck.Gale stuck her lip out and shrunk back, shaking her head.“You’re bleeding.” Cotton noted, nodding down toward her neck.Gale reached a hand up, allowing her fingers to brush over the injury she’d accidentally created on herself while trying to claw her attacker’s hand away from her throat. “He tried to choke me…” She whimpered, her lip trembling.“He tried to choke you?” Cotton repeated, furrowing his brows.“Yeah.” Gale whispered, her voice shaking. "I kicked him and got away... B-but he... I don't know..." She shook her head. Was the guy trying to kill her? If she hadn't kicked him, would he have strangled her to death? He said he didn't want to hurt her, more than once... but squeezing her throat so tight that she couldn't breathe certainly was painful... Maybe he just said that so she'd stay calm... Maybe his entire goal was to strangle her to death in her own house. Stranger things had happened... especially to people with creepy stalkers.“And you didn’t see who it was?” Cotton asked again.Gale shook her head. “He had on a mask…” She repeated.Cotton nodded. “Was it... Uh... The mask. Was it like before?” He grimaced.Gale’s lip trembled as tears filled her eyes."Was it, Gale? Is this a Woodsboro copycat?" Cotton furrowed his brows."I don't know..." Gale shook her head. It didn't feel the same. The Woodsboro killers always stabbed their victims. They didn't break into semi-famous celebrity houses and try to strangle their idols. Maybe this guy just wore the mask because he knew she'd recognize it. He was a fan of hers, which meant he probably had some degree of obsession with the stories she reported on too. It made sense that a super-fan would own a ghostface mask..."Was it a ghost mask, Gale?" Cotton asked again, staring at her with worried eyes.She finally nodded. “Yeah…” She whimpered. It seemed this nightmare wasn’t ever going to be truly over… She wasn't safe in Woodsboro and she most certainly wasn't safe here either.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 8 - Later Thursday Evening - Gale Weathersxxxxxx“Any idea who it could have been?” Officer Jonas Hale asked from across his desk.Gale shook her head. “I don’t know…” She answered with a frown.Hale narrowed his eyes, cocking his head to the side and looking her over. “You had some trouble with fans sending threatening letters earlier this year.” He remembered.“I wouldn’t call those fans.” Gale pouted, hugging her arms around herself and sinking further into the chair across the table from the cop. “Fans don’t threaten to rape and kill you. That’s the opposite of fans…” She shook her head and grimaced. “Jesus…”Hale let out a stressed laugh. “Sorry… That was your original complaint though.” He noted, nodding down toward an open folder in front of him on the table. “I’ve got it in the file - you said it yourself - ‘threatening fan mail.’”Gale frowned. “Well, when they break into your house and try to strangle you, you can stop calling them fans.” She glared.“Maybe the better term would be stalkers.” He corrected with a slight smirk and a shrug. “We’ll use that wording in this new report.” He suggested.“Yeah.” Gale scoffed, starting to feel pretty irritated that this man didn’t seem to be taking all of this very seriously. Who the hell would smirk like that while talking to someone who’d just been attacked? It wasn’t like the person who broke in was playing some kind of harmless prank. He’d actually grabbed around her neck and squeezed. She couldn’t breathe. If she didn’t manage to kick him off of her, she might be dead right now.“Well… That seemed to fizzle out on its own after a while…” The officer noted. “No new complaints until this one… but this is a big one.” He laughed, raising his hand up in front of himself as though preemptively defending himself against her response to what he’d just said. “Do you think it’s the same person or people from before?” Hale asked. “You didn’t get anything threatening recently?”Gale shook her head. “It doesn’t seem like the same person… I mean… I don’t know. I haven’t got straight up threats lately, but I’ve gotten notes. Like secret admirer notes?” She raised her eyebrows and frowned at the cop. “I think it’s the same person as that… But I didn’t report those. They seemed more harmless at first.”“Notes?” Hale questioned. “That doesn’t sound too scary… What did they say?”Gale exhaled and closed her eyes. “It was like love letters… Not anything too gross… They weren’t even long and descriptive like a lot of the creepier ones… They were short… but… just weird. There was one letter that said something about lipstick… They wrote with lipstick on it. Drew a heart…”“Okay…” Hale frowned, jotting something down on a pad of paper in front of him. “Something about lipstick? What though? Even if you don’t remember the exact words…”“Um…” Gale shook her head, shrugging and closing her eyes as she tried to remember what exactly the letter had said. “That… He was trying to match the lipstick I used to wear when I did my news reports. Something like ‘I hope this is your color.’” She remembered.“Alright.” Hale wrote down some more on his notepad. “That does seem kind of stalkerish.”“No shit.” Gale scoffed.Hale let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “Any others?” He asked.“Yeah…” Gale nodded. “The next one was a necklace with a note. It said the necklace reminded them of me. And they signed it ‘your secret admirer.’” Gale explained. “They were both from the same person. They both had lipstick hearts drawn on them, and nothing else. They weren’t mailed to me. Whoever gave them to me put them in my mailbox themself.”“Ooh. That’s creepy.” Hale frowned with a grimace. “So you know this person’s been right outside your house.”“Yeah.” Gale stared.“Why didn’t you report that?” Hale wondered, narrowing his eyes and clasping his hands together on top of the table.Gale stared, crossing her arms over her chest. Why did it feel like he was blaming her for this? Implying it was her own fault that someone decided to break into her home and attack her…“No offense…” Hale went on. “I just… I think I would have reported that. Especially with the history you have of creepy people obsessing over you. Last time someone was obsessed with you… Well… You know how it ended. Seems like you should be reporting this stuff to us. We can’t help you if we don’t know you need help.”Gale felt anger bubbling up inside her as she stared back at the man. “Well… I did report the threats earlier this year. How’s your investigation going?” She glared.Hale narrowed his eyes as he stared back, then let out a soft laugh. “It’s easier said than done, Miss Weathers… How are we supposed to find out who wrote a letter?”“So why would I waste my time reporting it?” Gale stared.Hale exhaled. “You can report it now.” He shrugged. “We’ll do our best.”“Great.” Gale exhaled, shaking her head as she hugged her arms tighter around herself. “That’s extremely comforting.” She added.“Well, that’s all we can do, miss. I can’t make promises…” Hale went on. “But now that this person has broken into your house, there’s more of a scene to investigate. More of a threat. They’ve committed a very clear crime. I know you’re not happy they actually got in, but maybe a more serious crime than writing a creepy letter will actually get them caught this time. We have clear charges we can file against them too. Breaking and entering, assault… That’s a lot more serious than just writing something threatening or creepy.”“Someone also left petals all over my front step.” Gale remembered. “Earlier today. I didn’t clean it up… I just closed the door and left it there, so they might still be there. Can you get fingerprints off of a flower petal? Like a rose petal?” She wondered.“I don’t know…” Hale frowned. “Not sure anyone’s ever tried… Do you have the notes? The necklace? There’d likely be better prints on those if we’re gonna find prints on anything.”Gale shook her head. “I threw all of that away right after I got it. It might still be in my kitchen trash… I don't remember if I’ve taken the trash out since then.”Hale shook his head as though disappointed in her.“Um… About the rose petals…” Gale continued. She was here now… Reporting a very serious incident. She might as well tell them any suspicion and fear. It didn’t sound so crazy that she thought she heard someone now.“Yeah?” Hale nodded.“I was in the shower this morning… I thought I heard someone in my house… But it wasn’t definitely that, and later I wondered if I’d just heard something outside and was being paranoid… I didn’t see anything out of place when I got out, so I didn’t think anything of it, but that’s right before I found the petals. Maybe someone did break in this morning.” Gale frowned. “Maybe they broke in, looked around… Then left the flower petals.”Hale grimaced. “Why didn’t you report that?” He wondered, his eyes wide. He was looking at her like he thought she was crazy. “You’re getting frustrated that we haven’t caught this guy, but you’re not reporting anything!”Gale felt her lip tremble as tears stung at her eyes. She should have reported it. Maybe the cops would have come by and if the person who was doing all this saw it, it might have scared him away. What if she hadn’t managed to escape tonight? This person could have actually strangled her… Maybe even worse. There were so many creeps out there. So many people who hated her - or worse, thought they loved her and wanted to hurt her for it.“I’m sorry…” Hale frowned. “I don’t mean to shift blame onto you for any of this. And you’re right. We didn’t really help you much before… But you thought someone broke in earlier today… That’s something pretty serious.”Gale blinked away her tears, sniffing back and sitting up straighter. She needed to keep her composure, to remain calm and stoic, to give this officer whatever information she could to help him help her. It wouldn’t help anyone for her to get upset. She wasn’t a victim and wasn’t going to act like one.“And they were wearing the Woodsboro killer mask?” Hale repeated what she’d told him earlier.Gale nodded. “Yes… But I don’t know if it was an attempt at copying that or something else… He said he didn’t want to hurt me… I feel like if he wanted to kill me, he would have… He didn’t even have a weapon. Not that I saw.”“So maybe he was just trying to scare you.” Hale suggested. “Could that be it? Crazy fan who wanted to see you up close? Wore the mask because he knew it was a connection to what happened to you before… Wanted to keep his face hidden, chose something you’d recognize…”Gale shook her head. “It wasn’t like this person just wanted an autograph. They didn’t just break in and look around… This guy grabbed me… Threw me onto my bed, grabbed around my fucking throat… He was really rough…”“But do you think he was trying to kill you? Or even trying to hurt you?” Hale wondered. “Or did he just get excited? Maybe he didn’t expect you to fight back and he panicked?”Gale stared back, for the moment at a loss for words. “He… panicked?” She forced a dry laugh. “You don’t think he was trying to hurt me? He broke in my bedroom door, grabbed me, threw me onto my bed, climbed on top of me, and started choking me.” She glared.Hale exhaled. “I don’t mean to say it’s not serious… Just… I wonder if he really didn’t mean any harm to start and then freaked out because you freaked out. Maybe he intended to just try to talk to you, but you weren’t having it and he panicked. Probably just a crazy fan who knows where you live and wanted to see or talk to you. I’ll bet he didn’t really want to hurt you. It just got out of control for him.”Gale shook her head. “What the hell do you mean, he didn’t want to hurt me? He attacked me. He grabbed my throat and squeezed… I couldn’t fucking breathe… If I didn’t manage to kick him and throw him off me… He wouldn’t have stopped!”“No… I mean, I know he did hurt you. I see that… I just don’t know that it was his plan.” Hale guessed. “My theory right now is this isn’t even someone trying to copy Woodsboro. The mask was to scare you - not to mimic any murder sprees. He didn’t have a weapon. Didn’t try to kill you. Didn’t kill anybody else. There’s been no complaints from anyone in the city about a mask-wearing stalker.”“This is the complaint.” Gale forced a nervous laugh. “I’m complaining… Right now.”“I get that, Miss Weathers.” Hale stared back, still looking at her like she was being difficult, like she wasn’t merely asking him to do his damn job. “I’m just saying, I don’t know that this is anything bigger than a fan trying to interact with you. Maybe even trying to impress you.” He shrugged.Gale grimaced. Everything this guy said was making her feel increasingly nauseated. “Would you be impressed if someone broke into your house and tried to strangle you?” She stared.Hale laughed. “No. I’m not saying the guy was right to do it… Just trying to guess what he was thinking… Trying to get a good grip on what all this means, if you alone should be scared or if the whole town should. I’m just saying this might be just one crazy person obsessed with you - not a whole thing like Woodsboro… You know how entitled people get about celebrities owing them their time and attention just for being fans.”“I’m hardly a celebrity.” Gale looked down.“Sure you are.” The cop disagreed. “You realize you’re famous as hell, right? You were famous even before the Woodsboro stuff. And now you’ve been at the center of three different murder sprees… Two of which were very much about you - your camera man as the killer? Crazy cop obsessed with you? And you wrote books about it all. Damn, Gale… You’re really famous.”Gale stared back. She couldn’t deny that. She loved the attention at first. Even after the second serial killer - her very own camera man - she had to admit she didn’t shy away from the attention… But Xavier wasn’t solely focused on her. Anthony was… and that was the most terrifying experience of her life. That one turned all the attention into something scary instead of something flattering.“Those books? Gale… The story you told was bound to attract creeps.” Hale went on.Gale grimaced. What the hell was this guy talking about? Why was he getting so excited about this? He was starting to sound pretty creepy himself.“I don’t mean to scare you…” Hale continued, sounding more excited by his own rant with each passing second. “But the way you wrote… the way you described everything you went through? There’s certain types of people out there who’d fantasize about that shit - about being on the other side of it, I mean.”Gale didn’t even know what to say… This cop was excitedly informing her that he was definitely sure she had fans out there who fantasized about abducting her and killing anyone who stood in the way of them keeping her?“With the type of fans you had before? And giving them that fodder? Especially your most recent book. You were so descriptive.” Hale explained.“Wonderful… Glad to know you read it.” Gale stared.Hale laughed. “What can I say… I’m a bit of a fan of yours myself if I’m going to be honest.”“No way.” Gale exhaled sarcastically. She wished she’d gotten a different cop to talk to her. This was like the fucking Twilight Zone. She went to the cops about a fucking monster stalking her and the cops were turning out to be monsters too.“I’m just saying…” Hale went on, seemingly unaware of how inappropriate his words were becoming. “If anyone was fantasizing about anything like that - about kidnapping you, having you all to themselves? You wrote a pretty detailed description of exactly what they wanted. Your stalker probably reads that book to himself every night.”Gale grimaced, feeling like she could hardly breathe. This guy was starting to seem way too excited to be talking about this… like maybe the type of person he was describing was himself. He’d minimized this entire experience, insisted he didn’t think the man who broke in and grabbed her by her throat and squeezed really wanted to hurt her…“Can I go now?” Gale stared, standing up and pushing her chair back as she took a step toward the door.Hale stood up as well, taking a step toward her. “Do you need a ride? Where are you gonna go? I wouldn’t advise going back to that house… We’ve got cops combing over it - so it might actually be safe, but…”Gale shook her head as she took another step back. She sure as fuck wasn’t going to accept a ride from this creep. The person she really wanted to call was Dewey. She wanted to call him, beg him to abandon his case in Woodsboro and come be with her.She wanted to get in his car and drive far away. Get a hotel somewhere in Nevada and just snuggle up next to him, let him hold her, let him promise her he’d keep her safe.Gale stuck her lip out slightly and blinked back tears.She knew she couldn’t ask Dewey to do that. Dewey lived over an hour and a half away. The case he was working on was serious, important. The woman who’d been killed deserved justice, and Dewey was just the person to help get it for her. Gale couldn’t ask him to abandon such a serious case because she was scared. Dewey was doing important work… Gale wasn’t really doing anything with her life right now. She attracted creeps, but that shouldn’t mean Dewey had to drop everything to protect her. He was busy. He had so much to worry about already.Whoever broke into her house was some crazy fan. The ghost mask likely was them trying to scare her - like Hale said… It fucking worked, but it wasn’t something she needed to disrupt Dewey’s life over. She had the police here working on it. She couldn’t ask the Woodsboro police to drop everything and come to her rescue too, even if she was dating one of them.She didn’t need to bother him in the middle of the night. She had a neighbor who already knew what happened - someone she trusted more than most people she knew. Even though she was annoyed when he moved in, she was glad he’d been there tonight.“I just need to borrow a phone.” Gale spoke up.She’d just call Cotton. See if he’d let her stay with him for now - if even just for tonight. She could get a hotel the next night…She just couldn’t go home and didn’t want to be alone… Hopefully Cotton would put up with her until they caught the creep who attacked her. He kind of owed her a favor anyway.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 9 - Very Early Friday Morning - Cotton WearyxxxxxxIt was after 1:00 in the morning when Cotton arrived at the sheriff station.He probably should have gone with Gale in the first place, but he always seemed to say or do the wrong thing. There was a reason it was so easy for half the country to believe he was a murderer for so long. He just wasn’t good with people. But he was determined to do the right thing as often as possible from here on out - ever since he’d been given a second chance - since Gale helped him get that second chance - he felt he needed to do whatever he could to redeem himself in the eyes of everyone who decided they hated him. And he owed it to Gale to help her out considering everything she’d done for him.Unfortunately, the news reporters seemed to have caught wind that someone had broken into Gale’s house and that she was at the station, and they'd beat Cotton to the station. Several news vans were parked out front with reporters and camera crews sort of lingering around. No one was reporting anything. They’d probably all gotten tired of waiting for Gale to finally leave the building, but they hadn’t given up just yet.Cotton decided to pull around to the back instead. Hopefully he wouldn’t be seen at all. He was pretty famous too at this point, and any reporter worth his or her salt knew about his association with Gale. If he was seen, the reporters would surely descend upon him like vultures, and they’d definitely make up their own theories whether Cotton and Gale talked to them or not. Even as little as seeing him enter the station would be blown up into something huge in their minds - and on their television reports. The last thing Gale needed right now would be for this story to get any bigger.He parked his car and tried his best to go unnoticed as he closed the door as softly as possible and headed toward the front. Doing all this through the back door wasn’t an option - as it would surely be locked. The best he could do was go as quickly as he could through the front and hope that anyone who happened to see him would be thrown off and not think to look around back for the exit. So he pulled his hood over his head, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and looked down as he headed across the lot and toward the front entrance.Sure enough, just about the second he exited the back lot, he was spotted. He recognized the reporter who ran up to him first - Scott Van Buren. He had actually been a sort of rival of Gale’s… but she’d left him to whatever attention he so desperately craved. Now that Gale was no longer working as a reporter, she wasn’t his competition, so hopefully he didn’t feel too compelled to want to harass her. In his eyes, he'd probably won whatever little competition he decided they were in the middle of. He was still on television; she wasn't. But that clearly wasn't enough for him. He obviously wasn't going to let this story stay quiet.Cotton didn’t know that much about this guy. He didn’t watch the man’s reports, but he did remember his name being mentioned in Gale’s book. Briefly described as a sexist leech without much more page time granted to him, Scott didn’t seem to be a fan of Gale’s. She obviously wasn’t a fan of his. Cotton had actually asked Gale about him once shortly after he moved in next to her - she said the guy accused her of sleeping with cops for information.“Well, this is interesting! Cotton Weary!?” Scott’s voice rang out, calling the attention of any and every reporter who hadn’t already noticed Cotton.“Fuck…” Cotton grumbled to himself as he picked up his pace toward the station’s front door.“Interesting to see you here…” Scott chuckled as he rushed up toward Cotton, snapping for his camera crew to follow. “This is Scott Van Buren, reporting for Channel Six with live, breaking news. I’m standing outside the police station where crime victim and former reporter Gale Weathers is said to be inside describing a horrifying home invasion to authorities.” Scott began talking to his camera as he jogged half-backwards next to Cotton.Cotton shook his head and ignored the man.“I’m here with Gale’s neighbor - Cotton Weary from Woodsboro - you and Gale go way back! Are you here to take her with you? Will she be staying with you? Are the two of you seeing each other?” Scott rambled, hardly giving Cotton a second to answer any of his inappropriate questions even if Cotton wanted to.Scott continued running way too close to Cotton. Close enough that Cotton would have shoved him rather roughly out of the way if the cameras weren’t here. “Was she attacked in her home? Did the intruder hurt her? Say anything to her?” Scott went on. “Were you there when it happened, Cotton? Did you see anything?”“No comment.” Cotton pushed past the guy, toward the door.“Was it an insane fan? An attempted robbery? Something worse? Did they attack her?” Scott asked again.Cotton exhaled, ignoring the questions as he ducked inside the station, exhaling a breath as soon as the door closed behind him, instantly turning all the loud reporter questions into something muffled and more easily forgotten. Cotton shook the tension out of his shoulders and made his way through the lobby.“May I help you, sir?” The receptionist looked up with a forced smile.“Yes. Um... I’m here to pick up Gale?” Cotton frowned. He didn't usually pick people up from the station. In fact, he was pretty sure he never had before. Usually he was on the other side of this - being interrogated, accused of crimes he didn't commit. He wasn't used to being inside a police station and being looked at as anything other than a criminal. “I’m uh… I’m her neighbor. Cotton Weary.” He added, almost nervous that at the mention of his name they were going to go ahead and cuff him and start asking where he was when the intruder broke in.“Oh. Yes, of course…” The receptionist nodded, narrowing his eyes. “I recognize you. Can’t believe you two live next to each other. What are the chances? Guess you’re still friends. That’s nice…”Cotton cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. “So… Where is she?” He asked again.“Sorry. She’s waiting over there.” The receptionist nodded toward a row of benches along the wall further into the station.Cotton exhaled a relieved breath when he finally saw Gale, who was laying down on her side on a bench with a deputy jacket balled up under her head as a makeshift pillow. Gale was curled up, clutching one of the jacket’s sleeves in a tight fist. She appeared to be asleep, but it looked like a fairly tense sleep. She looked worried - which of course she had a right to be.“Gale…” Cotton whispered as he approached her. He was genuinely surprised she’d called him and not Dewey. He understood why she came to his house in the first place, because she was scared and he was there… but why wasn’t she calling Dewey at this point? She had seemed annoyed more than anything when he moved in, and didn’t really make an effort to talk to him beyond passing moments when they both happened to be leaving their homes at the same time. He honestly was starting to think she hated him.Gale groaned as she blinked her eyes open and pulled herself up into a sitting position. She yawned slightly, pressing her fingertips up to her forehead like she had a headache.“Hey, Gale.” Cotton forced a small smile as he leaned down a bit to see her better. “You ready to get out of here?” He asked.Gale frowned, looking up at him with an exhausted demeanor - almost like she was disappointed to see him.“Hope you weren’t waiting for too long…” Cotton shifted from one foot to the other as he stood awkwardly in front of her.Gale inhaled a small breath, staring up at Cotton silently for a moment before shaking her head slightly. “Cotton…” She spoke, her voice small, her lower lip trembling a bit. She swallowed as she looked up at him. Her eyes shined with the start of unshed tears.Cotton grimaced, feeling his shoulders slump. She looked so vulnerable, so sad. He wanted to hug her… but he didn’t know if she’d welcome that. They weren’t really close friends or anything. She’d probably called him just because she knew he was nearby, knew she wouldn’t have to wait as long as if she called Dewey. Maybe she did call Dewey too and knew it’d take him a while to get here, so she called Cotton while she waited… Maybe she told Dewey to meet them somewhere and she just didn’t want to wait for him by herself.“Are you okay?” Cotton breathed. “D-do you want me to take you home, or… to a hotel or something? Or… Are we meeting Dewey somewhere? I-”Gale’s lip continued trembling as tears shined in her eyes. She pulled herself up to her feet, then reached out toward Cotton, pulling him into a rather surprising hug all on her own.Cotton inhaled a small breath, hugging her back carefully, wanting to be supportive, but not wanting to overstep boundaries. He understood that she'd gone through something scary, that she needed support right now. He just didn't expect that she'd want it from him. “Are you alright?” He breathed. Maybe she hadn’t told him the full story of what had happened when the man broke in to her house. If anything, she seemed more upset now than right after it had happened.Gale shook her head, sniffing back a small sob.“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Cotton asked, feeling anxiety in his chest. Gale had told him she was basically okay. That the man grabbed her, tried to choke her, but she got away quickly and that was it. She sure seemed upset now though.“No… Not really… I’m-” Gale choked, shaking her head again as she clung to him. “I’m okay… J-just ready to not be here anymore.” She whimpered.“Okay…” Cotton breathed. “We can get out of here…Where do you want me to take you?”Gale shook her head and let out a small shaking sob. She continued hiding her face in his chest as her body shook with tears.“I’m sorry I sent you here all by yourself…” Cotton frowned, placing a hand on the back of Gale’s head and holding her gently but securely. Now that he was here, holding her close, feeling her actually subtly trembling in his arms, he felt really guilty for sending her to the station on her own. They weren’t that close, but maybe it was because Cotton couldn’t take a fucking social cue for shit. She told him she was fine to go on her own, but she wasn’t really…He kept thinking they weren't close friends, but why couldn't they be? They'd known each other for a long time now. She called him when she needed someone's help... She was clinging to him now, sobbing, shaking... He kept wondering if they were okay - if she was annoyed by him... but clearly she didn't have the issues with him he feared she did. She needed a friend, and Cotton was here. He just wasn't very good at being a friend. He wasn't very good at being around people at all.Gale had insisted that Cotton not go with her - back at the house, he’d asked if she wanted him to go with her to the station and she said no… but maybe he should have pushed harder. It was important to Gale that she didn't look weak - that she seemed independent and strong - but she was allowed to be vulnerable - to need other people. She didn't want to admit it... Cotton should have just insisted that he wanted to come with her. He shouldn't have asked her - he should have just done it. She probably could have used a little more support - but she didn't want to be the one to say it. And now here she was, looking like she was at a breaking point. He’d abandoned her when she needed a friend more than ever.“I’m sorry…” Cotton whispered again, shaking his head and exhaling. “I should have come with you…”“It’s okay…” Gale shook her head, pulling back a bit from their embrace. “You didn’t see anything… You’d have been waiting for ages while they talked to me… I appreciate you being here now.” She breathed.“Do you want me to take you somewhere, like… a relative or something… Or… I mean, I’m not opposed to driving a bit if you need me to… I can take you to Woodsboro. Dewey still lives there, right?” Cotton offered. He felt so awkward right now. He wanted to be friends with Gale. He kind of thought their shared trauma created a unique bond… but ever since he moved in, she felt so distant. He didn’t really know her that well anymore.Gale pulled back, staring hesitantly into his eyes, then looking down. “Can I stay with you?” She whispered. “J-just for tonight? I’ll sleep on your couch or whatever… I just… I don’t know anyone else in the city and I don’t want to bother Dewey…”Cotton frowned. “I’m sure Dewey wouldn’t mind…” He blinked. Dewey would definitely want to know about this.“I know…” Gale exhaled. “But he’s busy and he’s working on a stressful case… I don’t want to take him away from his job. It’s important to him…”“Okay…” Cotton nodded. He knew Gale was more important to Dewey than his job, but he supposed this wasn’t his call. It was up to Gale whether or not she wanted to get Dewey involved.“So…” Gale grimaced as she looked back up at him. “Can I stay with you? I won’t stay long… Just tonight… Just until the cops are finished at my house...”“Yeah…” Cotton nodded. “Yes, of course… You can stay with me as long as you need to… I want you to be safe, Gale…” He agreed.He knew she asked to stay with him when she called earlier, but he couldn’t honestly believe that’s what she meant. She hadn’t really been very welcoming when he moved in. Sure, she was polite enough. She hadn’t done anything outright hostile… Just hadn’t seemed too excited when he told her he’d put an offer on the house next door to hers. He was kind of under the impression that she was angry that he moved in next to her.“I just wanna get out of here…” Gale whispered.“Okay.” Cotton nodded. “We’ll try to sneak out the back… but I’ll warn you, some reporters were out front… Scott Van Buren tried to talk to me.”Gale closed her eyes and exhaled. “Of course he did… Did you say anything?” She wondered, looking up at him with a grimace.“Of course not. We’ll just refuse to talk if he tries to ask us anything, okay?” Cotton nodded. “We’re both used to attention. We can handle this. Head straight for the car. Act like they aren't there. Right?” He forced a smile.Gale exhaled a shaky breath and nodded. “I didn’t do anything wrong… I’ve got nothing to hide… But he’s not entitled to information… He asks me anything, I’ll ignore him…”“Exactly.” Cotton agreed. “We good to go?” He looked over at the receptionist.The receptionist nodded. “Gale put your number down for contact purposes if we need anything else. That okay?” He asked.Cotton frowned, looking down at Gale.“My phone’s at my house…” Gale swallowed. “We can go look for it… B-but maybe not just yet…” She looked down.Cotton nodded. “That’s fine. You can call my number if you need anything. We’ll let you know when we get Gale’s phone back.” He agreed.“Thanks, Cotton.” Gale mumbled, still not looking up.“No problem.” Cotton frowned. Gale seemed so defeated. He’d never seen her like this before. She used to be so confident, so assertive. He wondered if this was a response just to tonight, or if she’d been struggling for a while. He lived right next to her, but he hardly ever saw her besides occasionally crossing paths when they both happened to go out for the mail at the same time.“Back door?” Cotton asked the receptionist. “Reporters are out front and they’re like vultures…” He explained.“Right…” The receptionist nodded with a small smirk. “She would know all about that… Karma’s a bitch, huh?” He laughed softly.Cotton scowled back at him, hesitating, wanting to argue over how fucking rude that was. Gale was clearly traumatized, terrified. She didn’t deserve that. Whether she’d been insensitive in the past or not, she was clearly a victim of something terrifying tonight. The police department staff should have known better than to act like that.“Cotton, let’s just go…” Gale whispered, seemingly sensing that Cotton was about to yell at the receptionist over what the man had just said. “He’s not wrong…” She offered a breathless laugh.Cotton frowned. “Yes he is…” He disagreed. Gale had grown a lot over the few years he’d known her. She wasn’t as insensitive as she used to be. And even if she were, she didn’t deserve to be treated that way. Two wrongs didn’t make a right.“Back door’s this way.” Another officer cut in, gesturing toward a door across the room. “You can call us if anything else comes up. Miss Weathers, if you think of anything relevant… Don’t hesitate to call. We want to help you.”“Thanks.” Cotton nodded toward this cop, looking at his name tag. “Officer Thomason.” He read the name tag. “Thanks for your help.”“That’s what I’m here for. Take care.” Thomason smiled and nodded.“Jesus…” Cotton grumbled as he put his arm around Gale’s shoulders and led her over to the door. “Can't believe the receptionist said that…” He noted.Gale shook her head and exhaled. “It’s my own fault.”Cotton frowned. He couldn’t really claim she hadn’t been pretty harsh in the past. She was just like the reporters out front once. Willing to ambush witnesses after traumatic events. She surely appreciated the parallels here. But she deserved a second chance just like anyone else. It was the job of the cops to deal with the public and to be compassionate about it - no matter who the public was. Most of the police were kinder to him when they thought he was a murderer than the receptionist just was to Gale.“Miss Weathers!” A voice yelled out as soon as they exited through the door.“Damn it…” Cotton growled, pulling Gale closer to himself. He’d really hoped using the back door would prevent this…“Gale! Are you hurt!?” One of the reporters shouted from a distance. “Were you attacked? Was it a crazed fan? Did they hurt you!?” She called out from across the lot.Cotton kept his arm around Gale’s shoulders, pulling her along as he picked up his pace.“What happened? Is this related to the Woodsboro murders? Did you see the person who attacked you?” Scott breathed, tripping as he pushed through literal bushes to get closer as fast as he could.Cotton shook his head, picking up his pace to a jog as he pulled open the passenger door of his car and pushed Gale inside. He closed the door and exhaled as he ran around to the driver’s side.“Cotton, are you and Gale dating each other now?” Scott wondered. “She could call anyone after this traumatic ordeal, and she chose you…” He noticed.Cotton shook his head. “Might want to stay clear as I back up.” He glared toward the reporter, otherwise ignoring the man’s line of questioning.“Gale!” Scott went on, rushing up toward Gale’s window and banging rather roughly on it with his fist.Cotton grimaced as he looked toward her, as she curled up in the seat, looking down and away from the camera Scott’s crew was shoving against the glass.“Gale!” Scott continued, pretty much screaming as he slammed his hand against the window again. “Did the intruder attack you? Are you injured? Do you believe this is connected to the killings in Woodsboro this past week? Is the killer after you now?”Gale inhaled a small breath as she glanced up toward Cotton with uncertainty in her eyes. Maybe she hadn't considered that the person who broke in could be the same person killing women near Woodsboro.Cotton shrugged and shook his head. He hoped this wasn’t connected to that. If it was, it was very likely he would be a target too. Anyone obsessed with the whole Woodboro-killer-trend tended to target those involved in previous incidents. That included Cotton. And with him getting closer to Gale recently, his chances of becoming a fatality were increasing. Hopefully it was just a crazy fan and wouldn't end up having anything to do with him...“Miss Weathers!” Scott pounded against the window again. “What did the man who attacked you look like? Did you see him? Did he try to kill you? Was it attempted murder? Attempted rape? Were you raped? Did he rape you, Gale? Is that why you were in the station for so long?”Cotton let out an audible growl as he slammed the car into reverse, backing up rather quickly, both to get Gale out of here and to hopefully scare Scott and his team away. He’d run over them if he had to.“Gale!” Cotton heard Scott yell again before he sped up out of the lot.Cotton exhaled as soon as they were out on the road. He put his seat belt on since he hadn’t had a chance to up until this point, then glanced over toward his passenger. “You okay, Gale?” Cotton asked.Gale was finally pulling herself up out of her defensive position. She pouted as she stared out the windshield.“Sorry he said all that…” Cotton frowned.Gale exhaled. "It's fine." She closed her eyes for a moment, then blinked them back open, continuing to stare wordlessly through the windshield.Cotton shook his head. “It's not fine. You don’t deserve to be attacked by reporters. Even if you were once not too different from them… You still don’t deserve that…”“It’s poetic in a way. I’m on the other side now, being harassed by reporters in the same way I used to harass people.” Gale noted, shaking her head as she continued looking out the windshield. “I was so insensitive to Sidney, to Dewey, to a lot of people… I just wanted my story, and I didn’t care who I hurt to get it.”“But you’ve grown out of that.” Cotton noted. “They need to do the same. Just because you did something wrong once doesn’t mean everyone can treat you like dirt for the rest of your life.”Gale let out a soft laugh and shook her head, then stared through the windshield silently for a moment longer, furrowing her brows as she appeared to be thinking.“What are you thinking about?” Cotton asked after a long few minutes of silence.“He said there were murders in Woodsboro…” Gale noted. “Dewey mentioned one… I haven’t talked to him a lot lately… I told him I didn't want to know... so I guess it's my fault if he didn't tell me... I haven't been watching the news... I just wanted to pretend it wasn't happening, to ignore it and hope it didn't turn into something like before. Are there more murders? Is it a serial killer?” She frowned toward him.Cotton nodded. He’d been watching the news. “There’ve been two murders. I don’t know if I’d call it a serial killer. I don't think it's anything like before. It seems different than the ghostface killings. It’s just two… Young women. But they aren’t from Woodsboro. Their bodies were just found there.”Gale inhaled a small breath and looked back at him silently.“Doesn’t mean this has anything to do with Woodsboro. Or you or me...” He shrugged. “They were stabbed… Or at least that’s what the rumor is. The police haven’t actually released a cause of death… but people on the internet are saying that’s what it was. Stabbings. You said your guy didn’t have a weapon.”Gale nodded. “Yeah…” She whispered.“You said he told you he didn’t want to hurt you.” Cotton noted. “And he sent you fan mail… It can’t be the same guy. Unless he’s sending fan mail to lots of people, but the women killed were just regular people. Not famous. Doesn’t sound like the same guy to me.” He guessed.Gale shook her head. “No… This guy… It feels a lot more personal… But then… Anthony…” She trailed off.Cotton glanced over toward her, biting his lip, then looking back through the windshield as he drove. “We’ll figure it out, Gale. If the cops don’t, we will. Stick by me… And we can call Dewey too. You won’t be alone anymore. The three of us helped solve something really similar once before, so we’ll do it again.”“I don’t think this is like that.” Gale grimaced. “I hope it’s not. I hope it’s like the cop said - that it’s a crazy fan who took it too far… Surely he’s not off killing people in different towns in between sending me weird shit in the mail and breaking into my house.”Cotton let out a small laugh. “Strange that we’re hoping it’s just a crazy fan breaking and entering. As though that isn’t terrifying enough.”“Well…” Gale exhaled. “I’d rather have a weirdo breaking in because he wants to talk to me than a weirdo breaking in to kill me.”Cotton nodded. He’d prefer that too - that some crazy fan wanted to meet Gale so badly he made a stupid decision and broke in. That this wasn’t Woodsboro-related. He just knew he’d be a target if it was some kind of copy-cat killings. Especially with Gale so close. They’d probably both end up dead - or one would die trying to save the other. He’d rather just go back home and live his life. Being involved with something big like that would get him tons of interviews and book deals… assuming he lived. But he’d rather not risk dying. And he really didn’t want Gale to die either. Or Dewey or Sidney or Randy or anyone else that might get roped into it.Gale shook her head. “I just… I’m trying to figure out who it could have been…” She answered. “They said ‘the world misses you.’ I got a weird note in my mail box that said the same thing… What does that mean?”Cotton shrugged. “Crazy fan who misses you being on television. He said ‘the world’ so he’s not just talking about a personal thing. I’m guessing it’s probably somebody you don’t even know - someone you’ve never met. Just a crazy fan. Are you sure it was just one person?”Gale shook her head. “I only saw one… but I guess there could have been more… One person attacked me, but he said ‘the world misses you…’ not ‘I miss you… I sure hope there’s not like a stalker club full of numerous people sending me creepy shit, planning break ins at my house…”Cotton grimaced. That was actually very possible - that there was some kind of fan club and multiple members were involved in this.“I want to know who it was…” Gale whispered. “I wonder if it’s someone I know, someone I’d recognize…”Cotton shrugged. “Could be. But I doubt it. If it’s a crazy fan, they’re escalating because they don’t know you, because they want to get close but can’t do it any other way. That’d be my guess anyway.”Gale blinked. “I guess you’re probably right. They don’t know me but want to… Or… It could be someone I do know already, someone I’m not as close to… I just want to figure it out so he’ll leave me alone…”Cotton nodded. “Yeah.” He agreed. It would be nice if they could figure it out, get the guy in trouble. Although, just for breaking in and assault, he wouldn’t be in prison long. At best, he’d serve a couple years and Gale could get a restraining order.“He had on the ghost face mask, but I don’t think the voice was disguised. It just sounded like a man’s voice…” Gale noted, furrowing her brows as she stared ahead. “And now that I’m thinking back… I almost feel like I recognized it… But… I can’t place who… I’m just… I keep going back to Anthony, but it couldn’t have been…” She grimaced, closing her eyes and exhaling.Cotton swallowed, glancing from Gale back to the road. It couldn’t have been Anthony. Anthony was dead. The man’s voice probably just haunted Gale’s memories. Perhaps any threatening voice would have sounded like his in her frightened state.“Maybe it wasn’t even the ghost mask… Maybe no one attacked me and I just had a nightmare and scratched myself. Maybe I’m going crazy…” Gale exhaled as she brushed her fingertips lightly over the fingernail marks on her neck.Cotton felt his eyebrows raise. He hadn’t seen anything. He only knew that Gale ran over to his house in a panic. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to imply that she was losing her mind and seeing things that weren’t there. Gale was the one suggesting she was imagining this… How sure was she that anyone even broke in?“Do you really think that?” Cotton wondered.Gale shrugged and shook her head. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. Maybe I am… I might have just imagined all of it… What if I did? What if I’m that crazy now?” She glanced toward him with a trembling lower lip and tears in her eyes.“Well… You said he grabbed your throat, tried to choke you… How could you imagine that and still think it was real?” He frowned. “Did you not feel it? You can’t feel something that’s not real…”Gale closed her eyes and exhaled a shaky breath. “I’ve had so many nightmares…” She whispered. “I’ve woken up plenty of times actually screaming, crying, feeling like I’m genuinely being attacked by someone… It always feels real… I have nightmares all the time. I’ve been having them ever since…” She trailed off.“You have?” Cotton frowned. He didn’t know that. That didn’t sound like her. Gale always seemed so fearless, so put together. No matter what she went through, she always appeared strong, unaffected.Gale nodded. “All the time. I see people out in public… that for a half-second… I swear they look like Anthony, like Xavier… I’ve even occasionally sworn I saw Billy or Stu… My heart fucking stops, Cotton. But it’s not even real.”Cotton exhaled. “That’s understandable, Gale… What happened was terrifying. I’ve had dreams about Xavier attacking me… That’s a normal response to going through something like this…”“But I’m seeing things that aren’t there…” Gale continued. “It sounded like Anthony but it’s definitely not him… If I heard a voice that wasn’t there, was the person there? Did I imagine all of it? Am I going crazy?” She whispered.Cotton shook his head. “You’re not crazy.” He disagreed. “You’re stressed. You’re scared… But you’re not crazy. Your other nightmares… Do you wake up from them while actually running away? Or do you wake up in bed, on the couch?”Gale nodded. “Yeah. I always wake up and it’s obvious that it was a dream.”“So this is different.” Cotton explained. “You’ve never ran over to my house in a panic after a nightmare. I think this one was real. I mean… I wish it was only a nightmare… but I don’t think it was. You said the guy broke your bedroom door in - I guess if the cops go up there and the door is fine, you’ll know you imagined it… But I’m guessing that won’t be the case. If this was a nightmare, it’s a really elaborate one. I don’t think you’re crazy.”Gale frowned and looked over at him. “What if this is another Woodsboro copycat?” She asked, her voice small, slightly shaky. Her eyes were wide, worried, full of dread. “What if it was the same guy who killed the women in Woodsboro? And he’s here now, trying to kill me… What if it’s starting up again, and this is just the beginning?”Cotton shook his head. “Then we’ll survive it.” He answered simply. “And you can write another book.” He offered with a small grin.Gale closed her eyes and forced a breathless laugh. “Maybe you should write the next one.” She suggested. “I’m sticking to fiction.”Cotton shrugged. He certainly could write the next book. That wasn’t a bad idea…xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 10 - Friday Morning - Dewey RileyxxxxxxDewey let out a groan as he awoke to the sound of his cell phone ringing. It was beginning to seem like the sheriff calling him early in the morning was going to replace his actual alarm.“Hello?” Dewey breathed into the phone.“I need you to take a shift surveilling the bridge with Willcox tonight.” Lake spoke immediately, with no greeting whatsoever. “Instead of your regular shift…”“Oh…” Dewey blinked a few times. “So I won’t come in this morning?” He asked for clarification.“No.” Lake explained. “But I’ll fill you in on some things now. We’re going to surveil the bridge constantly for the time being.”Dewey nodded, though Lake of course couldn’t see him. That made sense. Two bodies dumped at the same location? It was becoming a pattern. The killer would likely return if he killed anyone else. Why not keep some cops watching the place?“No one so much as drives over it without one of us seeing them, questioning them… It’s not a high traffic area and it’s not too big of a task to have a couple of us nearby at any given time.” Lake went on.“Okay… Are we roping it off? Are we allowing people to drive through as long as we talk to them and they aren’t up to anything?” Dewey wondered.“We want people to drive through, yes. I just want anyone who does drive through to be questioned as to why. Even if they’re just going to work. Question them. Even if you see a car approach and then back out - follow them. They don’t need to know we’re watching until they’re already in our sights.” Lake explained“Are we thinking the killer might strike again?” Dewey frowned. “I mean, I hope he won’t, but if he does, it’d be good if one of us is there to catch him. I guess that’s a good idea. He’s left two bodies in the same place, so it makes sense-”“He already struck again.” Lake interrupted. “There’s been another body found… Same bridge. Same everything… It’s definitely the same guy.”Dewey groaned, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I’m really sorry to hear that…” He spoke, not really sure what to say. Even after being a cop for a few years now, he never knew what to say about unfortunate events like this.“We’re going to catch this guy, Dwight. We’ve been being careless. That ends now.” Lake went on, her tone very serious. “We’re not leaving any stone unturned. We’re not leaving the bridge unwatched… We’re going to put everything into this. Anything we were slacking on… We’re picking up the pace. I’m not letting this continue. Not on our watch.”Dewey nodded. He agreed. They needed to figure this out - and quickly. Three dead women was three too many. “Do we have an ID on the victim?” He frowned.“Yes. She had her license on her. The killer isn’t trying to hide who these women are… I almost wonder if he wants to be caught… Dumping three bodies in the same place, right out in the open… And we’re the idiots who’ve been letting him… I should have made this call after Natalie, or at the very least after Katrina. I feel responsible for this, Dwight…” Lake trailed off.Dewey shook his head. “If nothing else, he’d have dumped the next body somewhere else. You have no idea who this guy is, where he’s killing these women. This isn’t on you…” Dewey assured her.Lake exhaled. “I know…” She agreed. “I’m just angry… These women didn’t deserve to die… I’m sick of this prick toying with us… Whatever he’s doing, whatever point he’s trying to prove… He won’t be dumping another body there… Not unless it’s the last.”Dewey nodded. “Well… I don’t want to hope he’s dumping a fourth body… but I guess if he does, at least we’ll catch him. So who’s the victim? You said she had ID?” Dewey asked again.“Yes. Monique Anderson. Age 27. Stabbed like the others.” Lake started. “Bruising on her throat indicates she was likely strangled as well - maybe to subdue her before the stabbing. The bruises are fresh, but the cause of death is definitely the stabbing. She’s probably only been dead less than eight hours, Riley…”Dewey grimaced. He hated picturing what these poor women went through before their eventual deaths. No one had any right to treat another human being how this killer was treating these women.“She’s… kind of posed…” Lake spoke.Dewey blinked. Lake was speaking in present tense. “Are you at the crime scene now?” He asked.“Yes.” Lake answered. “There’s a lot of details on this one, Dwight… Almost like clues - intentional or not…”“What do you mean?” Dewey frowned. “Should I come over? Is there anyone else with you?”“I’m not alone. There’s a team combing over the scene and Hernandez and Smith are with me questioning some witnesses.” Lake answered.“Okay…” Dewey exhaled. “Good… Glad you’ve got some help… So what clues?” He wondered.“Well, to start, she’s somewhat posed… Like Katrina… but different. Same vibe… She was posed sitting up with a rose in her hand… And he used lip stick to draw a heart on her chest.” Lake explained.Dewey frowned. “Was she wearing lipstick too? Like the others?”“Yes.” Lake answered. “And looks like the same shade was used to draw the heart.”Dewey blinked, trying to understand what that might mean. “Why draw on her with lipstick?”“I don’t know.” Lake exhaled. “But there’s other strange details with Monique… Details that are different than the others. He cut her hair… It’s not a bad hair cut, but there’s a few long clumps that fell down into her nightgown - he missed them when he cut the rest. It’s obvious it’s been cut very recently…”Dewey swallowed. “He cut all of it? Like a deliberate hair style? Not just taking a chunk to save for himself? He styled it?”Lake exhaled a long exhale. “It looks like it.”“Well… I suppose we need to comb back over the other crime scenes looking for things out of place like that.” Dewey noted. “The others’ families didn’t say anything about cut hair… but maybe he was trying to make Monique look a certain way. Maybe he liked the other women’s hair how it was already. Their hair was already shorter…” “That’s an interesting theory… He’s going after a certain look… Monique almost had it - so he changed the part that didn’t quite match. Didn’t Natalie’s hair look dyed?” Lake remembered.Dewey shook his head. “Her husband didn’t say anything about it though. I think she dyed it herself.”Lake exhaled. “Maybe it’s time we warn the public… He’s targeting a certain look and any women who share these features have a right to know they’re potentially in danger.Dewey nodded. “That’s gonna scare people…” He warned. Sometimes that was necessary, but causing a panic didn’t always help in situations like this.“I’d rather them be scared than dead.” Lake noted. “Plus, the public is going to put this together on their own eventually. The similarities between the victims is obvious. Two’s a coincidence. Three’s a pattern. The reporters are catching on and they’ll be drawing their own conclusions. They’re who the public listens to if we don’t have a press conference. We might want to get ahead of them.”Dewey closed his eyes. “That’s true… People aren’t stupid. They’ll see what we’re seeing. If the guy was killing men who looked a lot like me, I’d be nervous whether the cops told me to be or not.”“I’ll work on something for a press conference around noon today… but in the meantime, we’ve got to think about what clues might be right in front of us that we’re missing.” Lake went on.“There were the flower petals on Katrina…” Dewey noted. “We can try to find which flower shop they might have come from? Monique’s got a flower in her hand, you said… Could be the same shop… Or maybe the killer grows them himself… Did Natalie have any clues like that?”“She didn’t have any flowers… She wasn’t even really posed…” Lake recalled. “I almost wonder if that one was rushed. It was his first victim… Maybe he panicked, left her before he could set her up how he wanted because he was afraid he’d be caught. Maybe he was even planning to set her up in some kind of pose but the two men who called us that morning showed up and scared him off.”“Could be.” Dewey nodded. “The only weird thing I can think of with Natalie was that her shorts were inside out… That’s all I can think of.” He mused.“That might not even mean anything.” Lake guessed. “Plenty of times when I’m going to bed I’ll put on clothing inside out if I’m feeling lazy… Or, she could have been sexually assaulted and re-dressed by the killer afterward. Or she re-dressed herself while traumatized and panicked… The examination doesn’t rule out rape, but doesn’t point directly to it either.”Dewey nodded. “How about Katrina?” He asked. “Was she sexually assaulted?”“Same conclusion as with Natalie. It’s possible…” Lake answered. “If he is sexually motivated, he’s not being rough about that part. There’s no definite signs. But I do worry that these victims all share physical traits. He’s targeting women who look alike. He has a ‘type’ and that sounds sexually motivated….”“What does Monique look like?” Dewey grimaced.“Young white woman. Dark hair, petite…” Lake answered. “Just like Natalie and Katrina. I hardly believe it could be a coincidence… Especially with the hair alteration. And she’s from San Rafael. I don’t know if I mentioned that. Yet another town… He’s taking women from different towns every time… Leaving them all here.”Dewey frowned. “He almost has to be from Woodsboro… or has some tie to the town… Why leave them all here?”“There’s something else, Dwight.” Lake spoke.“Yeah?” Dewey held his breath.“Three of Monique’s fingers were cut off.” Lake told him. “And we haven’t found them. That doesn’t happen by accident.”Dewey grimaced. “No… It certainly doesn’t…” He agreed. “Do you think he’s taking trophies? Could the fingers be some sick souvenir? Maybe he’s taken things from the others as well… just things we didn’t notice - a lock of hair, jewelry… Something from their homes…” He suggested.“We did think there was a missing necklace in Natalie’s case.” Lake reminded him.Dewey nodded. “So what did he take from Katrina?” He frowned.“I don’t know…” Lake breathed. “We’ve got police in all three towns searching for anything and everything. We still haven’t discovered where any of them were actually killed. We have so much missing information.Dewey closed his eyes and exhaled. “We’ll figure it out, Dana… We’ve got a good team… We can do this.”“I hope so…” Lake agreed. “Plan to be at the station at 6:30 this evening. We’ll do a short debriefing, then you and Willcox can head out to the bridge to relieve Hudson and Evans near the bridge at 7:00. Hernandez and Smith will relieve you two at 3:00am. Feel free to leave any paperwork until the following day if you’re tired. I know the schedule’s going to be tough to get used to.”“Right…” Dewey frowned. “Am I going to be free this weekend then? I told Gale I’d visit her on Saturday…”Lake hesitated for a moment. “Maybe we’ll have him caught by then…” She hoped.Dewey closed his eyes and nodded. That sounded like a ‘no’ to him. Until they caught this guy, this case was going to require all of Dewey’s attention. Hopefully Gale would understand.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 11 - Late Friday Night - Gale WeathersxxxxxxGale stared with boredom at the television as the second hour of whatever cooking competition show started. She was presently downstairs at Cotton’s house, trying to sleep on the couch while he slept upstairs in his room. She was exhausted… but of course anxious enough that sleep wasn’t coming easy.This was now the second night in a row she’d be spending at Cotton’s house. While her intention was to call Dewey and tell him about what had happened to her the previous night, when she finally did get ahold of him, he seemed so stressed that she felt guilty bothering him with it.She’d finally gotten ahold of him around noon, and he had told her some sparse but frightening details about the case he was working on. He told her the victims all fit a certain description and told her not to worry but that they looked like her… and he said he would be spending the night watching the bridge where they were found, but would try to still come for the weekend if he could.Gale couldn’t deny that it was scary hearing that the killer was after women who resembled her… but she also couldn’t deny that knowing Dewey was going to be sitting in the dark at the bridge they knew a serial killer kept going to was alarming as well. She was very worried for his sake. If this were a movie (which she knew it wasn’t…) this might be where Dewey’s part ended. Cops sitting in the dark at the bridge where three bodies were dumped? Sounded like an exciting scene… A scene where a cop might die.When Dewey advised her to keep her doors locked, told her to stay safe… Gale had hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should pile her own traumatic situation on top of everything he was worried about.Was it possible it was the same guy sending her the weird letters? The same guy who broke in to her house? Dewey didn’t mention anything about the murdered women receiving any letters or gifts from stalkers… And the guy who broke in to her house seemed very focused on her being a semi-famous reporter. He was a celebrity worshiper. An obsessed fan. Not a serial killer. The other women weren’t celebrities of any kind. No one who knew them mentioned anything about them being stalked first... It couldn’t be the same person… Right?Also, if the guy Dewey was looking for was dumping a body last night, surely it wouldn’t be the same guy who broke into her house. What, did he try to abduct her, fail, then go grab someone else and kill and dump her instead? That was a stretch… Wasn’t it?As she’d listened to Dewey, hearing the stress in his voice, hearing that he seemed genuinely worried about her, she decided not to say anything. Maybe she should have... but he was so busy working on such an important case. Gale choosing to monopolize his time and efforts with her own drama wouldn't be fair to the women he was trying to bring justice to... to any future victims of the same killer. If Gale took him away from his case, more people might die - people who he could save as long as Gale didn't take him away from the case.Telling him wouldn’t do any good. He was an hour and a half away and San Francisco wasn’t in his jurisdiction. It wasn’t his job to find the creep who was stalking her. He’d just be worried about her instead of himself, instead of focusing on his case... He’d probably think the man who attacked her was the same man killing women in Woodsboro… So he’d come here, leave his case… More women would be killed there because Dewey was babysitting her… It would throw him off. He’d be distracted and then he wouldn’t be able to properly do his job and keep himself safe.So she’d kept it to herself. It wasn’t the same guy. Gale’s was clearly an obsessed fan. He didn’t try to stab her… and the women who were killed weren’t famous in any way. Gale’s stalker-fan wouldn’t have been a “fan” of them too. It didn’t add up.So she had told him she was fine. She didn’t mention that she was staying at Cotton’s house, that she was afraid to go home… She told him to be careful and promised she would too. And then they hung up and Gale spent the rest of the afternoon lingering around at Cotton’s house, watching cooking shows, trying to make conversation with the man who was honestly even more awkward than Dewey… And that was saying a lot.After lying on the couch in the dark for quite some time tonight, Gale had finally given in and turned on the television, hoping something mind-numbing could help her fall asleep. If she was thinking about the perfect way to cook a scallop, she wouldn’t be able to think about nearly being murdered… again. She wouldn’t be wondering if Dewey was okay. If he was at that creepy bridge, if the killer was there too…Gale stuck her lip out in a pout and closed her eyes. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about that. Dewey was a good cop. He was with his partner. He was brave, cautious… He’d be fine. Maybe he’d even catch the killer, and then he could come visit her once his job was no longer so stressful. Then Gale wouldn’t be afraid to be in her own house.She smiled as she pictured herself in her own bed, with Dewey next to her. She’d sleep better than she had in months, whether she had a stalker or not. Dewey would keep her safe.Blinking her eyes back open, Gale looked back at the television screen. She needed to force herself to get invested in this dumb show for a little bit, to choose a contestant she wanted to see win and start feeling irrationally nervous about them failing instead of being reasonably nervous about something real.Gale shook her head as one of the contestants on the show mentioned that he was going to make ice cream to go along with a tart he was in the middle of. She wasn’t going to hope for this idiot to win. That hardly ever worked. The contestant in the previous episode tried to make ice cream and failed miserably. That was the reason he lost the last round.Gasping a soft breath as she felt like her heart fully stopped, Gale stared toward the front door when she suddenly heard a knock. It was a light knock… maybe the wind blowing something against the outer wall? Maybe it wasn’t a knock… Did Cotton have anything hanging on his door? Anything the wind could be moving?It was after eleven o’clock at night… No one should be knocking on Cotton’s door right now…Still staring at the door, waiting to see if whoever it was knocked again or if it was just the wind, Gale narrowed her eyes. She wondered if she should wake up Cotton… but then, he was probably going to kick her out if she woke him up and the culprit ended up being the wind…When there still was no further noise after about a minute, Gale exhaled a small breath and closed her eyes. It was the wind. It wasn’t anything threatening. It was natural noises that came with the house - a house she wasn’t familiar with.Gale turned back to the television, letting out a small, breathless laugh as she watched the cooking show contestant struggle with the ice cream machine.“It’s completely frozen!” The guy yelled in a panic.Gale smirked. She knew that wasn’t going to work out.Gale actually physically flinched when she heard what sounded an awfully lot like another knock at the door a few minutes later.She turned toward the door, staring as she felt like she was frozen in place. She needed to wake up Cotton. She sure as hell wasn’t going to answer the door, and didn’t think ignoring it entirely was a good idea. Last time she thought she heard something in her own house, she didn’t take it seriously, and then the fucker broke in later that night, tried to strangle her… She needed to trust her own instincts this time. Someone was knocking, and there was no fucking good reason for them to be doing so this late.Either someone was fucking with her, or someone Cotton knew was having some kind of emergency. Either way, Cotton should probably know…Gale frowned, her brows furrowing with worry when rather than a third knock, someone pushed a small package in through Cotton’s door mail-slot. It landed with a small thud, followed by what sounded like footsteps going slowly back down his front stairs.Gale blinked as she stared at the package sitting menacingly on the floor. She wondered if it was intended for her or for him… If someone was fucking with her - wearing the ghost-face mask and everything… this could be a weird fan obsessed with all the Woodboro drama… Maybe Cotton was on their radar too. He was there for a big part of it… This was his house.Swallowing, Gale stood up and approached the package - a simple box about two to three inches wide and four or five inches long. She left it on the floor where it had fallen and leaned toward the door, standing on her tip-toes to see out the peep hole Cotton had positioned way too high for her to see out of without a bit of stretching.She blinked and stared into the darkness, reaching over and flipping on the porch light, then looking again. She couldn’t see anyone… But someone had definitely been there. This box didn’t show up on its own.Gale frowned as she backed away from the door and stared down at the box. It had a red heart drawn on it in lipstick, just like all the recent creepy shit she’d been given. That didn’t mean it was intended for her - but it did mean it was from the same person who’d been harassing her.Looking toward the stairs that led up to Cotton’s room, Gale wondered if he’d been getting creepy mail too. He might not have taken it seriously if he did. Maybe he even would have felt flattered.Bending down, Gale picked up the box. It was light weight. Probably a creepy letter and some small gift like jewelry… She really didn’t want whatever was inside and part of her wondered if she should just call the police right here and now… Hale had implied before that she was wrong to not report the other gifts… so she should report this one too - no matter what was in it.Gale tightened her grip on the box and bit her lip when she could swear she heard some kind of movement further in the house - toward the kitchen. Cotton was upstairs asleep, wasn’t he? Maybe he came down for a drink or a snack? She didn’t know his habits…Gale swallowed, holding her breath as she inched toward the stairs. She needed to wake up Cotton. If he wasn’t the person in the kitchen making noise, he sure as hell needed to know about it - and the creepy package and the knocks at the door. If Gale was in danger here, Cotton might be too.Still holding the package and moving as quickly but quietly as possible, Gale inched her way up the stairs. She knew the smarter thing to do would be to get out of the house… but her only options were the back door in the kitchen - where the noise was coming from - or the front door someone had just been knocking against. Neither seemed safe.If her stalker turned out to be stalkers - this might be a setup. There could be one person in the house trying to scare her into leaving - and one person outside waiting to grab her. She needed to make sure Cotton was aware of this. She didn’t want to try to handle this on her own.Gale frowned when she reached the top of the stairs, looking left, then right. She didn’t know the layout of the house. All she needed to know was where the couch, kitchen, and downstairs bathroom were. She never even went upstairs until right now. Which one was his bedroom?She decided to turn left, walking as quietly as she could and slowly opening the first door she came across, finding a desk with a computer and a few shelves of books inside - a sort of home office.She exhaled tiredly and went on, trying the next door - a bathroom. “Fuck…” She whispered to herself, hearing tears in her breathless voice.“Gale?” Cotton’s voice suddenly startled her.Gale spun herself around, dropping the package she’d been holding onto and placing her hand over her heart as she took an almost stumbling step back. “Cotton…” She whispered. “I… I thought I heard someone downstairs.”Cotton blinked, frowning. “Are you sure?” He asked.“W-were you downstairs?” Gale breathed. “J-just now? I thought I heard something toward the kitchen…”Cotton shook his head no. “I locked all the doors… You’re safe here…” He promised.Gale swallowed and shook her head, taking another step back. “We should get out of here…” She advised, keeping her voice quiet, urgent. Last time she thought she heard someone in her own house, someone was in fact there, and they attacked her. “We need to call the cops, either hide in a room until they get here, or both of us get out, get into your car and start driving.” She suggested.“What’s that?” Cotton nodded toward the package on the floor between them.“Someone slid it through your mail slot on your door.” Gale answered. “Like just now… Five minutes ago… They knocked, then slid that through….”“What is it?” He asked again.“I don’t know…” Gale whispered. “It just has a heart drawn on it… Have you been getting creepy mail? Like… not outright threatening, but creepy?” She asked.Cotton shrugged. “Every once in a while…” He bent down and picked up the package. “Have you?” He asked, looking down at her.Gale swallowed. “Increasingly often…” She whispered. “I’ve gotten a few things with lipstick hearts drawn on them this week… just like that…” She admitted, nodding toward the package.“Well…” Cotton exhaled. “I’ll open it. I’m not afraid of mail… At worst, it’s some creep’s panties.” He laughed. “Don’t worry about this one, Gale. We’ll consider it my fan - not yours… and if it’s too creepy, we’ll call the cops… Okay? I’ll go with you this time if need be. We’ll stick together.”Gale let out a small breath and nodded, but she hadn’t forgotten the movement she heard downstairs. She also hadn’t forgotten that Cotton didn’t really answer her when she asked if he’d been downstairs, and wasn’t treating this as something serious. She heard someone in his house… He didn’t think that was odd? He didn’t find that threatening?Maybe he just thought she was crazy… Gale herself was beginning to wonder if she was. He probably thought the person slipping the package through the mail slot had scared her and that she’d imagined the rest. Maybe she had…“I kinda hope it’s panties.” Cotton laughed with a shrug as he peeled a strip of tape off the top of the box. “I’ve actually gotten more panties in the mail than you’d probably guess… but it’s dwindling. I think some ladies liked me more when they thought I was a murderer.” He laughed.Gale forced a nervous laugh as well. She wished that was the worst thing she’d ever been sent. She also wished being sent sexy panties could be as funny to her as it was to him. She had actually received anonymous sexy lingerie before. It wasn’t funny. It was threatening.Cotton was still smiling slightly as he opened the top of the package, but the smirk was immediately replaced by shocked horror when he looked inside.“Oh god…” Cotton gasped, looking absolutely disgusted as he stared down into the box. “Jesus fucking Christ!” He grimaced.Gale inhaled a small breath. Cotton’s hands were actually shaking. “What is it?” She whispered, staring back at Cotton. He looked so disturbed. This couldn’t just be a necklace or a weird letter. “Cotton… what is it?” She asked again.“It’s…” Cotton swallowed. “Gale… It looks like…”Gale inhaled and exhaled a small breath, contemplating stepping forward and looking inside the package herself. Cotton seemed at a loss for words. “Cotton…” She said again. “What is it?” She tried a more demanding voice.Cotton shook his head. “Gale, it… It looks like it’s somebody’s fucking fingers…”Gale frowned. “What?” She stared. Surely that wasn’t right. Did she just hear what she thought she heard?“It’s fingers! Gale, it’s severed fucking fingers!” Cotton all but screamed.Gale cautiously approached, narrowing her eyes and grimacing as she looked down into the box. Sure enough, three bloodied fingers were inside. One even had what appeared to be a wedding ring on it.“Oh my god…” Gale breathed, turning away.She felt herself shaking as Cotton grabbed her wrist and pulled her along the hallway and into his bedroom.“I’ll call the cops…” Cotton breathed, putting the box down on his dresser, then pacing toward his night stand and grabbing up a cell phone.Gale stuck her lip out in a pout as she looked over at the box. She didn’t even want to be in the same room as it… but if someone was downstairs, she couldn’t leave.Gale looked toward Cotton’s bedroom door. Fortunately there was a lock. She locked it and moved away from it, making her way over to the window and looking down. His house was a little different from hers. There wasn’t any sort of ledge. If they had to escape through it, it would maybe result in broken ankles. But maybe not. She hadn’t really utilized the ledge when escaping from her own house, and her ankles had somehow managed to stay unbroken.She ignored whatever Cotton was saying into the phone as she tried to listen to what was going on in the rest of the house. She couldn’t hear a thing. In fact, now that she thought of it, after the initial sounds, she didn’t hear anything at all until Cotton showed up behind her in the hallway. He hadn’t seemed too worried when she told him about the noise either.What if all this was his doing? When the person broke into her house the previous night, Cotton took a while to answer the door afterward… He had time to get back home, to sneak his way back into his house through his back door…Gale stared up at Cotton as she inched her way toward the bedroom door. He could have been the one downstairs… He could have slid the package in through his own door, then acted shocked just now for show…Why did he feel the need to move in right next to her earlier this year? The two of them had hardly talked in the past year. She helped him escape a wrongful conviction and that was about the extent of their relationship… but here she was, in his house… Had he guessed she’d come running to him? Was this all his fucked up plan?Moving in right next door - that was so deliberate, so weird… Was he behind every creepy note? His mailbox was ten feet away from hers… He could have easily put notes in it while not looking suspicious at all. He had every right to be standing out there checking his own mail.Did he do all of this? Did he move in next to her because he missed her reporting? He missed having an easy connection to the press? Did he cut off someone’s fucking fingers during all this? Was Cotton the person who broke into her house and tried to strangle her?Whoever broke in was tall, strong… just like Cotton. Was it him? Gale felt her lower lip tremble as she stepped further away from Cotton, who paced around the room as he spoke into his phone. She was starting to feel like she might legitimately be going crazy.Gale continued staring nervously up at Cotton as he glanced back at her, frowning and shrugging slightly as he continued talking to the police - if he even really called them. For all she knew, he was faking the call. Maybe that was it… He’d pretend to call them, pretend to hang up… Then what? What did he want from her? If he was behind all of this, what was his end goal?Gale needed to get to her own phone. She needed to get out of here. She’d left it somewhere downstairs after retrieving it from her house earlier this afternoon… It was probably next to the couch she’d been trying to sleep on.Inhaling a small breath, Gale reached for the door, unlocking and opening it, then taking off running down the stairs, ignoring Cotton’s yelling behind her.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 12 - Still Late Friday Night - Gale WeathersxxxxxxTripping down the last few stairs with a wince, Gale straightened herself and continued toward the couch in Cotton’s living room. Sure enough, her phone was there - right on the coffee table. She exhaled a relieved breath and grabbed it before turning around and looking up the stairs.“Gale?” Cotton yelled back from the top of the stairs. His brow was furrowed and he was looking at her like she was crazy... But that would be exactly what he'd do if he was trying to deceive her. Gale had dealt with this kind of thing before - people who she thought she could trust turning against her - people who acted innocent being anything but.Gale swallowed and stared back up at Cotton as he took a step down."Gale?" Cotton repeated. “What are you doing?”"Stay away from me!" Gale breathed, squeezing her phone in her hand as she stared up at him."What?" Cotton frowned. "Gale..." He trailed off as he started moving further down the stairs, closer to her.Gale shook her head and went for the front door. She wasn't about to stop and leave Cotton time to catch up with her. If she could just get back into her own house and lock herself in, she could call the police and wait there for them to respond. Her front door had a code so she could get in without a key… Then perhaps she could go upstairs and lock herself in her bathroom while she phoned the cops. As long as Cotton didn't get to her before the cops did, she wouldn't have to outrun or out-fight him for long. She just needed time. Just a little bit of time.She shoved her phone into her pocket and ran for her house, rushing up the front steps and inputting the code with a shaky hand.As she pulled at the door, Gale grumbled a frustrated hiss and input the code again. She must have done it wrong in her panic.This time, she got it right. She pulled the door open, but let out a sharp, terrified scream when she felt someone’s hands on her arms, pulling her back with quite a bit of strength. A hand immediately clamped down over her mouth and an arm wrapped across her chest, pulling her close to whoever had grabbed her.Gale shook her head and tried to scream again, kicking out and grabbing at the railing of her stairs. The arm was so strong. She wasn’t going to be able to overpower this person. She couldn’t even scream for help with the hard hand pressed over the lower half of her face.Gale whimpered a shaky sob as she continued to thrash as best as she could, wondering if she was about to be killed. This person could grab her throat and squeeze, or take out a gun or knife and kill her even quicker.“Hey!” A voice yelled from the direction of Cotton’s house as her attacker pulled her back away from the stairs.Gale inhaled a small breath as she looked toward the sound with wide eyes, blinking as she noticed Cotton running toward her. She realized in that moment that she had been horribly wrong. The person holding onto her clearly wasn’t Cotton. She’d run away from an ally and literally into the arms of the creep who’d been stalking her.“Let her go!” Cotton yelled.Gale thrashed as much as she could, kicking out, elbowing. Her attacker was practically lifting her off the ground as he dragged her away from her front steps. She finally managed to get one of the stranger’s gloved fingers between her teeth and bit down as hard as she could.Whoever had grabbed her let go for a moment, allowing Gale to shove him backward and stumble forward into the grass with a shaky breath. She immediately crawled forward, trying to create distance between her and her attacker.“Gale!” She heard Cotton’s voice as he rushed up toward her, but her attacker grabbed her first, dragging her back up to her feet, spinning her around, and hitting her pretty hard across her face.Gale stumbled back with a choked whimper, finally actually seeing the person who had grabbed her - he was still wearing the ghost mask. She still couldn’t tell who it was. She just knew it wasn’t Cotton - since Cotton was here with her. She’d been horribly mistaken.Crawling backward, Gale felt her heart pounding in her chest. She was terrified… but it didn’t seem like the stranger was going after her anymore. He left her on the ground and headed for Cotton instead.“Cotton! Watch out!” Gale screamed as she struggled to pull herself back to her feet.“I’m not scared of you…” Cotton growled, balling his hand into a fist and swinging out as the masked man approached him. Cotton managed to hit the person in the gut, but didn’t knock him down.“You should be…” The stranger growled back, pulling a knife out from the dark robe he was wearing and slashing out toward Cotton.“Cotton!” Gale screamed, stumbling toward them. She couldn’t just leave Cotton to fend for himself. He was only out here right now because Gale panicked and ran. “Leave him alone!” She demanded as she shoved at their attacker’s back, causing him to trip forward with an angry growl.The masked stranger was quick to turn back toward her, punching her pretty hard across her face so that she fell back against the ground again.“You stay down.” The stranger growled, taking a threatening step toward her, raising his fist slightly.Whimpering and shaking her head, Gale shrunk down, terrified that the man was going to grab her again - or worse, stab her to death right here on her own lawn.She flinched and raised her arms up to cover her face as Cotton charged at the robed, masked stranger from behind, tackling him to the ground. Gale inhaled a small breath and crawled toward them, determined to get ahold of the knife, to prevent the man from hurting her or Cotton with it.But their attacker was quick. He was back on his feet in seconds, and still had the knife in his hand. He was swinging out at Cotton again, and Cotton had no real way to defend himself.Gale shook her head, climbing to her feet and grabbing out at the stranger’s knife-arm. “Don’t!” She choked. She couldn’t just let Cotton fight this guy on his own. It was her fault he was involved at all.“I said stay down!” The masked man growled, turning toward her and hitting her again - what felt like ten times harder than before.Gale coughed and squeezed her eyes shut as she groaned in pain as she landed hard against the ground. The guy had hit her so fucking hard, and she landed on the ground even harder - knocking all the breath out of her lungs. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her vision swam and her head hurt both at her temple where he’d hit her and in the back where she’d hit it herself when she landed.Pulling herself halfway up with shaking arms, Gale let out another pained moan, shrinking down when she saw the stalker slash out his knife toward Cotton’s chest.“No!” Gale choked, struggling to pull herself up to her feet. She was so exhausted, in quite a bit of pain… She wasn’t sure she had it in her to do much to defend Cotton here - but she had to.Cotton was still fighting too, dodging and thrashing, throwing punches… His erratic, defensive movements caused the knife to hit near his shoulder instead of square in his chest - which was preferable to the alternative, but still not a relief. The masked man was still swinging out, still trying to slice and dice any way he could.Cotton let out a pained scream as the knife-wielding man stabbed out again. Gale couldn’t tell where the stab landed, but could hear in Cotton’s voice that it hurt.“Stop!” Gale screamed, grabbing out at the stranger’s dominant hand again. His arm was muscular - strong… a fact proven again when he swung back, hitting Gale hard in the ribs so that she stumbled back, completely out of breath.As Cotton remained struggling, Gale couldn’t see if he was hit again - and if so, where. All she knew was that eventually, Cotton stopped moving and his attacker turned his attention back toward her.Gale shook her head as she stared up through her tears. She could hear sirens in the distance as the stranger loomed over her. Cotton really had called the police. She felt horrible for doubting him. All she had needed to do to avoid this moment was stay up in Cotton’s room with him. She may have just gotten them both killed by doubting him, by running away from him instead of trusting him.“Cotton…” Gale choked, looking across her yard where her friend lay unmoving on the grass. She raised her arms up to cover her face and cowered down as she felt hands on her arms. “Get off of me!” She screamed, kicking out as the masked intruder hauled her up off the ground.“Shut up!” The man growled, letting go of one of her arms only long enough to hit her hard across her temple once again, turning her world black.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 13 - Very Early Saturday Morning - Dewey Rileyxxxxxx“He dragged her into a dark colored car.” Cotton explained from his hospital bed. “I don’t think she was conscious anymore, but she was still alive.”Dewey nodded, feeling dread in his chest. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do… He had to fix this. He had to find Gale… but hardly knew where to even start. Cotton didn’t have enough information, and neither did anyone else. It was the most frustrating dead end he’d ever encountered in his life.He’d driven to San Francisco as soon as someone from the police station had called to tell him Gale had been taken. He didn’t even stop to think about asking his partner to come with him, or even Sheriff Lake. It wasn’t until he was already in the city that he remembered he should have gotten them involved.He talked to the San Francisco cops first, then relayed all information to his own police department, and was now talking to Cotton. He hoped the local cops might find her and bring her safely home, but he didn’t trust them to. He needed to look as well. He also had Lake and Wilcox on the way, so hopefully with so many people looking - at least two of whom actually cared about Gale a great deal - they’d find her quickly and bring her home before something horrible happened.Cotton had already told the cops everything he knew, but Dewey needed to talk to him anyway - just in case his own line of questioning might bring out something he’d forgotten to mention. Cotton had spent more time with Gale these past few days than anyone else. He’d been with her when she was kidnapped… He’d have more answers than anyone, and Dewey needed to make sure he got them all.Fortunately, Cotton hadn’t been injured as significantly as his attacker had probably hoped. He had a stab wound to his shoulder and more shallow cuts across his ribs and arms. His most serious wound was in his abdomen, but it was off to the side and missed everything important. The doctors guessed it was mostly pain and shock that immobilized him and expected he’d make a full recovery.Gale on the other hand… No one knew where she was or if she was hurt. And Dewey was terrified that the person who took her might have been the same person leaving women’s bodies by the bridge in Woodsboro. The more he spoke to the local cops and to Cotton, the more it seemed like the women at the bridge and Gale were connected by the same perpetrator. She fit the same physical profile as the rest of the victims… Dewey even noticed - he worried about her while working on the case… Even his colleagues noticed and brought it up… and Dewey barely even mentioned it to her. He should have fucking told her… He should have made sure she knew how serious it was… but even he didn’t know for sure. He didn’t want to scare her, so he mentioned it in a more casual way, told her not to worry… But she should have worried. Dewey should have worried. He should have made sure she was safe.“Was she injured?” Dewey asked. “When you saw her last, was she hurt?” Dewey added with a grimace.Cotton shook his head. “Nothing significant. I mean… I think he hit her to knock her out… Maybe hit her to keep her from running off… We were struggling out on the lawn for a few minutes. I didn’t catch everything, because the guy was trying to kill me… I… I don’t know. I don’t think he stabbed or cut her or anything. He kept slashing out toward me, but any time he turned back toward her, he seemed to be trying to keep her out of the way more than anything. He wanted her alive.”Dewey nodded. That was reassuring in a way, but not completely so. If this was the same person who’d left the women’s bodies in Woodsboro - things didn’t look good. They weren’t killed in their homes either. They were abducted and taken elsewhere - just like Gale. And then they were killed.“I don’t think he wanted to kill her. He wanted to kill me.” Cotton let out a nervous, awkward laugh. “She kept trying to help me, and he kept pushing her back, hitting her, trying to keep her down without really hurting her too badly - even though he had a knife in his hand. He could have used it. He chose not to. Not on her.”Dewey swallowed. He hoped it would stay that way - that whoever this creep was would take his time before choosing to kill her - would give Dewey and the other police a chance to find her first.“I don’t think this had anything to do with me, Dewey. He wanted Gale. I just got in the way.” Cotton frowned.“And do you have any idea who it could be? Have you seen anyone who doesn’t belong lingering around, parked nearby?” Dewey wondered.Cotton shook his head. “All I know is what she told me - that she’d been getting creepy gifts in the mail… And then the last gift was shoved through my mail slot like… ten or twenty minutes before the guy took her. And… That was the fingers.”Dewey grimaced. That was the most telling clue that the two cases were connected. There hadn’t been any DNA test done just yet… but those fingers were Monqiue’s… They fucking had to be. But that wasn’t the only ‘gift’ Gale had been given that connected her to Dewey’s current murder investigation. She didn’t know it - neither did Dewey until too late - but she’d been given tokens connected to each of the women killed.As soon as the San Francisco cops had informed Dewey of all these details, he wanted to kick himself for not talking to Gale more this week. She’d been receiving packages with red lipstick hearts drawn on them - one of Dewey’s murder victims had a red lipstick heart drawn on her chest. All of the victims had red lipstick on their lips - and their family members and friends said they didn’t wear makeup - or at least didn’t wear that shade of lipstick. Gale was given a necklace - the first murder victim - Natalie - seemed to be missing a necklace… The flower petals at Katrina’s crime scene? Gale had flower petals thrown all over her porch… It was sick how obvious the clues were… If Gale had told him, Dewey would have connected it… and if Dewey told her about his crime scenes, she’d have connected it. The fact that neither of them wanted to bother the other caused them both to miss this… And now Gale was gone.“Oh…” Cotton spoke up after a moment of silence. “Um… The other thing was the license plate… I tried to look at it - as the guy drove off… I don’t remember… I- It was hectic. I was in a lot of pain and my memory’s not as good as I’d like… but it was California plate. Something with an L and a 34. I don’t remember completely. I just know it started with L and 34 was in there somewhere… I think at the end. Like ‘L… maybe 0… Something something 34…”Dewey nodded, swallowing. “And you told the local police that?” He asked.“Yes.” Cotton nodded. “I told them everything I could think of…“And you couldn’t see him?” Dewey frowned. “Didn’t hear his voice, or see any tattoos, or anything that would distinguish him from anyone else?”Cotton shook his head. “He was covered head to toe. I… don’t think his voice was disguised… But I didn’t recognize it. Just a man’s voice…”“No accent? Odd speech patterns?” Dewey wondered.Cotton shook his head and shrugged. “Dewey…” Cotton hesitated, looking at Dewey and swallowing. “Do you think he’s going to kill her?” Cotton frowned.Dewey shook his head. “I can’t think like that… He took her alive for a reason… We’re gonna find her.”Cotton nodded, closing his eyes and leaning back. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him… I tried.”Dewey shook his head. “You did try. Cotton, you did everything you could. You did a lot more than I did.” He added with a pout. Why had Gale told Cotton all about this and not him? Why didn’t she go to him to protect her? Dewey would have left Woodsboro the second she told him if he’d known…But maybe that was exactly why she hadn’t said anything. She knew he’d leave Woodsboro - would abandon his case. She didn’t want to be the reason the killer of the women he’d briefly told her about didn’t get caught.Cotton shook his head. “She said she was going to tell you all of this.”Dewey frowned. “She didn’t. Not much of it… Thank you for being there for her when I wasn’t.”“Yeah…” Cotton exhaled. “I just wish I was like… Easier to trust or something… Everyone always assumes I’m up to something… She… She ran from me, acted scared of me… I think she thought I was the one who broke into her house…” He frowned.Dewey blinked. “Someone broke into her house?” He stared. The local police hadn’t told him that…“Yeah… She didn’t tell you?” Cotton stared. “That’s why she was staying with me…”Dewey swallowed and shook his head no. Why hadn’t she told him that? “No… When did that happen?”“She thought it might have been a crazy fan, because of the weird gifts she’d been getting in the mail… She got like a love note and a necklace a couple days ago - like monday or tuesday I think.” Cotton explained.Dewey nodded. He knew that part.“And then the day the person broke in - they broke in at night, but that morning or mid-day, someone put flower petals all over her door step.” Cotton went on.Frowning, Dewey stared back. The cops told him that part - about the flower petals, but Gale hadn’t. He wished he would have communicated better with her. If she’d told him that when it happened… Surely Dewey would have connected that to his case. It was a huge red flag. He would have never let her stay on her own if he’d known.“Then that night someone broke in. They tried to choke her and she ran over my house.” Cotton explained. “I think it was pretty quick - like they didn’t try to kill her - just grabbed her and squeezed their hands around her neck… I mean - not that that alone isn’t terrifying… Just… The guy stabbed me. I don’t think he wanted to kill her.”Dewey shook his head, feeling his breaths shake in his chest. That was one of the things he noticed on some of the murder victims in his case - that it seemed like they’d been choked - to knock them out perhaps… but the cause of death was stabbing. If this was the same person who killed Natalie, Katrina, and Monqiue… they were probably going to kill Gale too. Dewey didn’t have long to figure this out.“But she escaped and ran over to my house.” Cotton said again. “The cops couldn’t find anything, but she didn’t want to stay alone in her house, so I told her she could stay with me. Figured if it was a crazy fan, they might not try anything with me there too…”“Why didn’t the cops tell me that?” Dewey stared. Someone breaking into her house the previous night was the biggest part of this story after the fact that she’d been taken. Why leave that out?“I don’t know…” Cotton shrugged. “Seems pretty relevant to me…” He forced a stressed laugh.“You think?” Dewey scoffed. “So this person tried to take her once already… And the cops did nothing…” He squeezed his hand into a fist as his breaths grew quicker. Maybe that was why they didn’t tell him… because they could tell he was already frustrated with them and knew that would cause it all to boil over.“Even I didn’t think it was that serious.” Cotton frowned. “I mean… Yeah… It’s serious. Someone breaking in and grabbing her… I just… I had heard about the Woodsboro killings, and the thought flitted through my head, but I honestly didn’t think this was the same as that. Maybe I was being naive…”Dewey shook his head. “It’s not your job to know how seriously to take things like this. It’s their job, and they failed. If they broke in and didn’t want to kill her, obviously that was the plan. It was an attempted kidnapping. And the cops just shrugged it all off.” Dewey shook his head.He couldn’t believe how incompetent the police were behaving. How could they just brush that off? Did they not tell him because it made them look like fools? Why hadn’t they protected Gale after something so terrifying? And why didn’t Gale tell him? Dewey would have driven down here immediately… He would have never let her stay alone if he’d known that…Cotton shook his head. “I don’t know that all the cops like Gale very much, Dewey. One of ‘em said something about karma when I noted that reporters were outside the station when I went to pick her up after the break-in… And… I mean, it’s true - Gale did have a habit of harassing people for her news stories… but it just wasn’t a very nice thing to say to someone who’d been attacked earlier in the night.”Dewey nodded. “Which cop said that?” He wondered. Maybe he needed to start compiling his own list of suspects, even if the police were on it.“Um… The one at the front desk… I don’t know his name.” Cotton shrugged.“Anyone else say anything rude to her or about her when you were at the station?” Dewey asked.“The reporters were kind of harsh. Particularly Van Buren.” Cotton answered. “I don’t think… I mean, I doubt he’s the one behind this… but if you’re trying to make a list of everyone who’s been kinda a dick around Gale lately, I guess he’d be on it… But I really haven’t spent much time with her until after the break in. We’re neighbors, but we don’t talk much.”Dewey nodded. “Well… This is a start at least… I’ll took into those two… and the car… Cotton, if you think of anything else - anything at all - call me.”Cotton nodded as Dewey stood up.“I hope you find her, Dewey…” Cotton frowned.Dewey closed his eyes and exhaled. “I will…” He spoke. “I have to…”xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 14 - ??? - Gale WeathersxxxxxxWith a pained groan, Gale blinked open her eyes. Even so, she was still surrounded by darkness.She inhaled a small breath when she attempted to reach a hand up to her throbbing temple, only to find that her hands were somehow bound behind her. She noticed then that her mouth had something over it too - likely a large piece of tape.Gale choked out a small sob and shifted uncomfortably where she was lying. Her ankles were tied as well, and she was certain she was moving - perhaps in a car trunk? That had to be it… The masked stranger who had attacked her and Cotton knocked her out and put her in his car trunk…Gale swallowed… Cotton had been stabbed. If that alone hadn’t been enough to kill him, their attacker had plenty of time to finish him off after knocking Gale out. He was probably dead… all because she didn’t trust him and ran off. If she had stayed up in his bedroom with him, the cops would have come and the masked stranger would have been scared off at the very least - if not actually caught…With a groan, Gale tried pulled at her wrists. The good news was that they seemed to be secured together by tape. Tape could potentially be stretched or otherwise broken. Maybe she could get free… The bad news, of course, was that she was in a moving car, the man who took her had a weapon, had seriously hurt or killed Cotton during all of this… The situation she was in was serious. Getting her hands free might not do her any good.Gale’s eyes widened in the complete darkness and she held her breath as she felt the car slow down to a stop. She hoped they were at a stop sign or a traffic light and not their destination. She was not ready to confront whatever it was this man planned to do with her.Gale pulled at her wrists more. Her arms ached from being pulled awkwardly behind her and she felt like she could barely breathe as panic settled in. She felt tears stinging her eyes as the car moved forward again. She was glad the driver wasn’t ready to get out and finish whatever his plan was… but at the same time, it meant they were getting further and further away from their starting point. The longer they drove, the less likely anyone looking for her would know where to look.Trying to keep herself calm, Gale made a point to listen to her surroundings. It didn’t sound like they were in the city. She didn’t hear other cars… It also felt and sounded like they were driving over gravel, and a little faster than would be appropriate in the city or a residential area. They must have been out in the country.But the country still had stop signs, which meant he’d slow the car down from time to time. Maybe if she could get free and figure out how to open the trunk from the inside, she could escape whenever her kidnapper happened to come to a stop sign or slowed for a turn?She tugged at her wrists more and more, feeling increasingly frustrated and increasingly weak. The more effort she put into freeing herself, the more tired her arms felt, and the more panic rose in her chest. Gale let out a frustrated, muffled growling sound past the tape as she shifted her ankles as well. Getting those free would be more important than her hands, but they were taped so securely too.Breaths rose and fell quickly in her chest as the car slowed again. She had to get free. She had to get out of here while he wasn’t expecting it. She’d read about people escaping from situations like this. All hope wasn’t lost… But her chances here were slim. She’d have to fight hard, be smart, time everything out right, and hopefully have a bit of luck on her side. She could do this…But as soon as that thought entered her mind, Gale’s heart started pounding and her breaths increased when she heard the car door open and felt the car move slightly in response to the weight of its driver stepping out. They weren’t at a stop sign… The car slowing wasn’t for that… The guy was getting out - maybe to check in on her, maybe to hurt or kill her right here and now.Gale swallowed and shrunk down when the car’s trunk opened. She felt herself shaking as she stared up into the night at the silhouette of her abductor. It was relatively dark, but she could tell he was no longer wearing the ghost mask. She blinked, wondering if she should look away - to beg the man to let her go and promise she hadn’t seen him, that she wouldn’t tell the police… Surely the fact that he was letting her see his face couldn’t bode well… He wasn’t going to let her go if he thought she might tell the police who he was.“Don’t be afraid…” The man whispered, reaching down and putting his hand on her jaw.Gale flinched back and let out an inadvertent whimper, squeezing her eyes closed and shaking her head to get his hand off of her. If he decided to kill her here, he definitely wouldn’t have trouble doing so. She couldn’t even fight back.Gale felt herself shaking as turned to the side as best as she could. She had no line of defense - nothing other than trying to make herself smaller, trying not to look at him…“Stop doing that…” The killer scowled, reaching out and grabbing her by her upper arm to keep her in place. He put his hand on her jaw again. “Look at me.”She squeezed her eyes shut tighter and shook her head, choking out a muffled noise. She wanted to at least be able to talk, to beg him to let her go, to promise she hadn’t seen him, that she didn’t know who he was and wouldn’t try to get him into trouble for this.“Look at me.” He growled again, grabbing around her chin harder, squeezing a hard grip around her arm.Gale swallowed, feeling her lip tremble under the tape. He was getting angry. Not looking - refusing to see his face… it wasn’t going to be the potential way out of this that she hoped it would.Blinking her eyes back open, Gale forced herself to look up at him. She wished her mouth wasn’t taped. She couldn’t even try to reason with him. She couldn’t ask him what he wanted, who he was, why he was doing this…Exhaling a shaky breath through her nose as she stared up at the shadowy figure, Gale frowned. Though it was dark, she could see the man’s features well enough to know it wasn’t any of the potential suspects she’d lined up in her mind. She didn’t recognize this person. Part of her almost expected whoever had been harassing her would be someone she somehow knew… In every other situation like this she’d been in, once the mask was off, she recognized the person. But she didn’t think she’d ever seen this man before. If they did have a history, it was brief.Perhaps it was a fan who tried to talk to her at a book signing - someone she brushed off because she had too long of a line. It could have been an anti-fan, someone who thought she was too pushy with crime victims. Maybe it was someone she interviewed for her news reports… She couldn’t help but to worry that perhaps she’d been blunt with the wrong person. Maybe she told this guy to back off when he got too close. Maybe she made him look like an idiot on television… She just couldn't remember him. She had no clue why he was doing this to her right now.The stranger smiled, tilting his head as he ran his hand further over her jaw, back toward her hair, rubbing his thumb across the tape stretched over her lips. “I won’t hurt you… I don’t want to hurt you, Love… Gale… Sweet, fierce, fiery Gale… I’ve waited so long to have you so close… I love you…” He whispered.Gale swallowed, feeling her lip tremble as tears filled her eyes. She was so afraid of what might happen from here. She didn’t know this person, had no idea what his plan was… She was certain it was nothing she’d enjoy… Even if he claimed to not want to hurt her - she was tied up in this fucking car trunk… He’d already hurt her.Inhaling a small breath as she noticed a faint light in the distance, Gale tried to sit herself up. Was that another car? Someone who might save her?The stranger exhaled tiredly as he put a hand on Gale’s collar and pushed her back down, looking over his shoulder as he did so. “Guess our chat’s going to have to be cut short for now…” He grumbled. “Be a good girl and keep quiet in there, Love.” He smiled slightly.Gale let out a muffled noise as the lights grew closer. This was her chance to escape. Or perhaps her chance to get herself killed…Gale shook her head as her abductor slammed the trunk back closed and everything aside from her own heart pounding in her ears and the sound of a car’s tires cracking over loose gravel grew silent.Turning overself over to face the other direction, Gale felt with her bound hands and feet, trying to find a tail light or latch or anything she could use to her advantage. When she thought she’d found the tail light, she kicked at it, trying to knock it out. Nothing happened.Whimpering softly, Gale held her breath and listened to the sounds outside. Whoever had driven up on them was still there. They stopped and were talking to her kidnapper.“You okay?” She heard a muffled voice outside.“Just changing my tire. All done now.” Her attacker lied. “Must’ve hit a nail or something…”Gale shook her head. She couldn’t let this person leave. This might be her only chance… So she kicked out at the sides of the trunk, making a muffled yelling sound through the tape pressed firmly over her lips.She kept kicking, kept thrashing and trying to make noise in any way that she could. She didn’t stop until she started hearing more noise outside. It wasn’t just a simple conversation anymore. It sounded more tense. The person in the other car must have heard her.When she heard raised voices and some sort of commotion outside, Gale didn’t stop kicking and attempting to scream past the tape. She had to make noise any way she could. She couldn’t let her kidnapper make up some sort of excuse and trick this person into leaving her here.Gale didn’t stop thrashing and kicking until she heard and felt the trunk pop open. At this point, she froze, shrinking down and breathing quick, frantic breaths through her nose as she looked up at her abductor with wide, terrified eyes.She felt her lip tremble and her brow furrow. She could still hear the motor of the other car, but didn’t hear the person who had been driving it. She had a horrible feeling that she may have just gotten this poor person killed.Her abductor stared down at her silently for a moment, then subtly shook his head. “That was selfish, Gale…” He stared, reaching up with one arm and wiping sweat off his brow. Gale noticed a dark stain on his forearm - blood… almost definitely not his own.Gale swallowed, feeling tears stinging at her eyes. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. She just wanted to be back home. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted Dewey.“Would you like to see what you made me do, Love?” The stranger’s voice hissed.Gale felt herself shaking. She shook her head no.Choking out a frightened, muffled noise as the killer grabbed her upper arms and hauled her up out of the trunk, Gale squeezed her eyes shut. Her ankles and wrists were still bound. She couldn’t even stand on her own, keep herself balanced.She felt her attacker wrap an arm around her chest and put one hand on her chin, holding her back rather roughly against his chest. “Look.” He growled against her ear.Gale whimpered softly, but finally blinked her eyes open, letting curiosity beat out her fear. She choked out a small sob as she was forced to look down at the body of the person who tried to help her… a man - maybe 30 or 40 some years old. He’d been stabbed quite a few times and was definitely dead.“You made me do that.” The killer noted. “It’s your fault he’s dead. It’s your fault Cotton’s dead. You’re getting everyone around you killed… That was so cruel of you… You haven’t changed a bit, Gale… You’re still so self-centered… You were so loud just now - just to try to save yourself… You didn’t care if he died…”Gale squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears running down her cheeks. He wasn’t entirely wrong - she knew she’d be putting this stranger in a dangerous situation if she tried to get his attention. If she had stayed quiet, he’d have left - gone home to his spouse, his kids, his friends…She tried to shrink down as she felt her abductor run a hand gently up and down over her arm, wrapping his other hand loosely around her throat. “Don’t do anything like this again, Gale.” He warned.Gale let out a soft wince as her attacker shoved her rather roughly back into the trunk, slamming it closed, then heading back up to the driver’s seat.She was still shaking as she heard the engine start, then felt the car begin to accelerate again. She closed her eyes and exhaled a calming breath. What was she supposed to do now? She didn’t know what to do… There was nothing she could do. She was bound, stuffed in a trunk, at this stranger’s complete mercy…She didn’t even know what he wanted, who he was, why he was doing this… Every other time something like this had happened to her, once she saw her attacker’s face, she’d at least have some idea of their motive, their plan… What did this man want? What was he going to do to her?As she shifted herself uncomfortably, Gale inhaled a small breath, blinking her eyes as she felt something digging into the side of her thigh.She’d all but forgotten everything leading up to being attacked in her front yard… Before that, she’d run downstairs in Cotton’s house. She had grabbed her phone and stuffed it in her pocket with the intention of running to her own house and calling the police. The second half of that plan hadn’t worked out… but she did still have her phone - and her attacker probably didn’t know that.With hope and fear in her heart, Gale maneuvered her arms as best as she could behind her, sliding her phone out of her pocket and blindly feeling the buttons with her fingers. It would be easy to dial 911… It would be easier to dial speed-dial number 1… Dewey.But she needed to get the tape off of her mouth first.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 15 - Early Saturday Morning, Before Sunrise - Dewey Rileyxxxxxx“...It’s definitely the same guy, Lake.” Dewey breathed into his phone as he headed toward the San Francisco police station to hopefully get some answers.“I agree.” She spoke. “I’m afraid this is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack though. We’ve got no solid leads. The other women had nothing in common - didn’t know each other - weren’t even from the same town… And now Gale… She’s from yet another city. Doesn’t know the other women as far as we know… Where do we even start?”Dewey shook his head. “I’m questioning anyone I know of that seemed to have a problem with Gale… Cotton told me some of the cops were less than friendly… And that reporter from last year? The really competitive one - Scott Van Buren. He’s another suspect on my list.”Lake paused for a moment. “Didn’t he seem to not like her getting the story before him? He should be glad she’s not reporting anymore…” She guessed. “With her kind of living more quietly, it seems that issue resolved itself for him.”Dewey shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe… But from what she told me about him, he really didn’t like her - maybe he was killing women who looked like her to taunt her - figuring I’d tell her more about my case than I actually did and she’d get involved… Or maybe since the news has been slow, he’s creating his own stories. What bigger story to report on than Gale Weathers going missing? He sure seemed to get a kick out of it last time.”“It’s worth looking into at the very least, I suppose. I’m going to have Evans and Hudson try to go back over all the reports on Natalie, Katrina, and Monique - try to find a connection beyond them all looking similar.” Lake told him. “Wilcox and I are headed your way. I don’t feel right sitting at the station when we need as many people as possible out looking for her. And I don’t feel right having you on your own.”Dewey nodded. “We’ve got to find her, Lake… The window between the other women getting abducted and us finding their bodies is such a short time-frame. We don’t have long…”Lake didn’t say anything for a moment. She was probably thinking the same thing, and just didn’t want to verbalize it. “We’ll find her. We’ve got all of our people working on this, and the San Francisco PD. Even the police in the towns where the victims are from… We’re gonna figure it out.”“I hope so…” Dewey whispered. He felt like they still had no fucking clue where to go. How were they supposed to find her quickly when they had no idea who took her, no idea where this person had taken her? They still didn’t know where the other women were murdered, had no idea what their connection was other than fitting a physical description. All Dewey knew was that the killer was targeting women who looked like Gale. That didn’t help him find her. Not even a little.“I’m just heading in the direction of San Francisco now.” Lake told him. “We can branch out whatever directions we need to as we come up with new theories or leads.”“Okay-” Dewey paused when his phone made a little beep. “Uh… I’m getting another call…” Dewey noted into the phone. “Call me back if you figure anything out.” He requested.“Sure thing.” Lake responded. “Be safe, Riley. I’ll see you soon.”“Will do.” Dewey breathed, pulling the phone down from his ear and looking to see who was calling him.He could swear he lost every bit of breath in his lungs and his heart just about stopped when he saw the name on the caller ID. Gale. Dewey blinked and shook his head, ridding himself of the initial shock and pressing the answer button with a shaking hand. What if this was whoever took her? What if they were calling to taunt him? To tell him they’d hurt or killed her already…“Hello?” Dewey breathed, his voice a little shaky.“Dewey?” Gale’s voice whispered. She was so quiet, almost sounding far away.“Gale!” Dewey breathed, pulling his car over to the side of the road so he could focus on just the phone call. “Oh my god, Gale! Where are you?! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”“I’m okay…” Gale breathed. “I’m… I mean, I’m not… I’m… I’m not really hurt…”“Where are you? What happened?” Dewey asked.Gale paused for a moment. “Dewey, I’m in someone’s car trunk… My hands are tied, so I’m holding my phone behind me… I’ve got you on speaker… Can you hear me okay?” Her voice shook. She sounded out of breath, close to tears.“I can hear you… Do you have any idea who it is who took you? Or where you are? Where you’re going?” Dewey breathed. “Oh my god… Gale… We’re looking for you. We’re all looking… but we don’t know where to start.” He bit his lower lip, blinking back unshed tears.“I don’t know where we’re going…” Gale answered. “I don’t know who he is… I could see him. He wasn’t wearing the mask… But it’s dark, and I couldn’t see him that well… B-but I don’t think it’s anyone I know - not anyone I’ve talked to enough to recognize at least.”“Okay…” Dewey breathed. “Well… What does he look like?”Gale exhaled. “I don’t know…” She whimpered. “It was dark when I saw him… He- He’s tall… He’s pretty strong. Short hair… M-maybe brown hair? I… I don’t know, Dewey…” She choked, starting to sniffle with tears in her voice.“Gale… Gale, don’t panic… Don’t cry…” Dewey whimpered. “I’m gonna find you…”Gale breathed out another shaky sob, then started speaking again. “He’s been sending me creepy stuff… I should have told you… I wanted you to be with me. I’ve been so scared… I was staying with Cotton instead because I didn’t want to bother you. Dewey, he killed Cotton…”“No…” Dewey shook his head. “Cotton’s not dead.”“He’s not?” Gale gasped. “He said he was… I thought for sure-” She trailed off.“He was hurt, but not too badly. He’s gonna be okay.” Dewey explained. “I’ve talked to him. He told me all about the weird gifts you’ve been getting. He told me everything he could remember… Gale, my suspect list was some of the cops and Scott Van Buren… it’s not any of them?”“No.” Gale answered. “I don’t think so. It was dark, but I really don’t think so.. It’s not… I don’t recognize him… It’s not them… It’s no one I know… No one I’ve talked to recently.”Dewey frowned. “Did you see the license plate? Or what kind of car it is? Do you hear anything that could tell you where you are?”“No…” Gale hesitated. “Dewey… He killed someone…”Dewey closed his eyes. He knew that. This guy killed three people already. People who bore a very terrifying resemblance to Gale. The guy had a preferred victim type, and Gale fit the mold perfectly. Dewey should have seen this coming. He should have never let this happen… He didn’t want to believe it was about Gale, so he didn’t act like it was… but it was. And now she was gone. Now the killer had her in his trunk, and Dewey had no fucking idea where they were going.“Gale…” Dewey frowned. Maybe she connected that on her own - that the person who took her was the same man responsible for the murders Dewey was investigating.“He killed a man…” Gale went on.Dewey blinked. That wasn’t right… All of this man’s murders were young women. It was becoming a very obvious pattern. He killed young, brunette women… Cotton was only attacked because he stood between the killer and Gale. This man didn’t go after male victims…“Maybe ten minutes ago.” Gale explained. “He pulled over - right after I woke up, and a car was driving up… It was going the same direction we were - I saw the headlights. He closed the trunk, but I heard the car stop, and voices… They were talking… I was scared… I didn’t want this person to get wrapped up in everything, but I didn’t know if I’d get another chance to escape. I tried to make noise, and he killed the person…”“Oh…” Dewey blinked. That was different than the others… Why pull over and attract attention like that? He could have just kept driving…“He stabbed him… I made a lot of noise, hoping this person could save me…” Gale’s voice cracked and she let out a choked sob. “I just got him killed… If I wouldn’t have made noise, that man would still be alive…”Dewey shook his head. “It’s not your fault.” He frowned. “He didn’t have to take you. He didn’t have to do any of this. This is all on him - not you. Don’t blame yourself…”Gale inhaled a small breath. “That’s the only clue I can give you as to where we are…” She went on. “He left him and his car in the road…” Gale explained. “So… Wherever that is - we were there. We were just there… It’s a gravel country road… The guy’s car should be facing the same direction we were going.”Dewey inhaled a steadying breath, nodding as he realized what a potentially big lead this was. It would tell him what direction they were going - where they were just ten minutes earlier. If they found the dead man and his car, it could really help them get closer to finding Gale.Assuming the man had been driving about non-stop sense taking Gale, they could measure out that much distance in all directions from her house, send out deputies to look for the car and the victim. Then they’d know much more than they knew now… Maybe they’d even get a call before finding him themselves. Someone was bound to drive by and call it in. Dewey needed to relay this to the San Francisco police as well as his own. Maybe he’d even tell Lake and Wilcox first.“Okay… That’s useful… We can use that… Have you felt the car turn since then?” Dewey asked, typing some notes into his computer so he could communicate with Lake while also staying on the phone with Gale.“Um… I think so… I think we turned right a few minutes ago.” Gale answered.“Okay…” Dewey nodded. He was going to need to get in contact with the local police too, though he didn’t trust them to do a good job with this. Even so, it was worthwhile to get as many people working on this as possible - perhaps they could track Gale’s phone, find her that way… As much as he wanted to take charge on this and find her himself, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. The more people helping - or trying to help - the better.“I’ve been trying to think who it might be, but I just don’t know, Dewey…” Gale went on. “He’s a fan, maybe… Judging by the gifts, and he said he didn’t want to hurt me… I don’t know what he does want… and… I mean, I don’t necessarily trust what he says…”Dewey nodded, choosing not to tell Gale that he was almost completely sure the man whose trunk she was presently inside murdered three women who looked a lot like her. If he followed his own pattern, Gale was his next murder victim…“Gale… I’m gonna do whatever I can to find you.” Dewey promised. “What I need you to do is stall for time… Anything you can do to make whatever his plan is take longer… I’ve got the Woodsboro police and the San Francisco police working with me on this… Just try to stay calm, try to keep him distracted or otherwise slow him down… We’re looking for you, Gale… We’re gonna find you…”“Okay…” Gale’s voice shook… “Dewey… We’re slowing down… We’re turning left…” She whispered.“Alright…” Dewey nodded. He wished he could know exactly how long it had been between turns. The more times this guy turned the harder it’d be to guess exactly what roads he’d taken.“Dewey…” Gale whispered.“What?” Dewey blinked. She sounded like she was starting to panic.“He’s slowing down again… A lot… I think he’s stopping… Wherever he was going… I think we’re here…” She whimpered.“Okay… Stay calm…” Dewey breathed. “Put your phone somewhere where he can’t see it - but leave it on so I can hear what’s happening.” He suggested. “Stay calm. Stall for time… Try not to panic, Gale… I’m gonna do everything I can to find you as soon as possible.”“Okay… I’m gonna take you off speaker, but don’t say anything… I don’t want him to hear you… Dewey…” Gale hesitated. “I love you…”“I love you too, Gale… I love you so much… I’m gonna find you…” Dewey spoke, feeling his heart sinking in his chest.With that, it seemed Gale had done as Dewey suggested. She said nothing more, and for a few long moments, he heard nothing but silence, then finally the sound of a car’s trunk popping open.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 16 - ??? - Gale WeathersxxxxxxGale blinked and exhaled a small breath when the car’s trunk popped open. She felt like she could barely breathe. She was so afraid of what might be about to happen, but she knew she needed to stay as calm as she could, to stall for time, try to verbalize any information that might help Dewey find her. She wasn’t completely doomed just yet.She squinted as the darkness around her suddenly turned bright. Above the car was some sort of street lamp and the light in her eyes after being in the dark for so long actually hurt.As she tried to force her eyes back open, Gale saw the silhouette of her captor between her and the light. She tried to get a better look at him, but still couldn’t tell who he was. She was pretty sure she’d never met him before. He didn’t look familiar at all…But now that Dewey was on the phone, able to hear anything and everything said between them, Gale wondered if she could tease out some answers. If he thought he was only telling her, maybe her abductor wouldn’t mind telling the truth.“Who are you?” Gale breathed, wincing and shrinking back as he reached down and grabbed her by her upper arms, easily hauling her up out of the trunk. He was so strong… It didn’t seem like much of an effort at all for him to pick her up entirely.“You took off the tape…” He noted, reaching up toward the strip of tape she’d managed to get almost entirely off of her face. It was hanging by one edge on her cheek. He carefully removed it the rest of the way.“I couldn’t breathe…” Gale lied, hearing in her own voice that she was out of breath. Of course, she didn’t need a reason to not want her mouth taped shut. Removing it didn’t mean she was up to something. Fortunately he didn’t seem upset by the fact that she’d mostly gotten it off.“Here… Lean against the car…” Her abductor advised, pushing her gently against the trunk and taking a knife out of some unseen pocket in the dark robe he was wearing.Gale shook her head and shrunk down, feeling her breaths picking up. Surely he wasn’t going to kill her right here… He wouldn’t have driven her all the way here just to kill her against the edge of his car.“Shhh… Don’t be afraid. Calm down…” He whispered, kneeling down and cutting the tape around her ankles. “I won’t hurt you, Love. I’ve told you that.”Gale swallowed, feeling herself shake as he stood back up to his full height. He must have been over six feet tall.The stranger smiled and reached down, tucking some of Gale’s hair behind her ear, then putting his hand on her upper arm. “You’re so beautiful.” He noted, gently running his hand up and down her arm. “I’d never hurt you…”Gale inhaled and exhaled a few steadying breaths. She needed to start working on getting some information for Dewey. He could hear all of this. He could hear if she took note of her surroundings out loud. It could help him find her.Dewey had advised her to remain calm and try to stall for time while he attempted to find her. So running might not be her best bet, especially with her hands still bound behind her - this very tall, very strong man would likely catch her, maybe be angry and hurt or kill her for it… So for now, asking him questions, speaking out loud about what she saw around her might be the smartest move she could make.Gale frowned and looked around. They were parked in front of a dark house with a barn next to it. There were no other houses nearby and it appeared they were at the end of a rather long driveway. The chances of her calling out for help and being heard by anyone were low.She continued observing her surroundings, noticing a mail box near where they parked. She inhaled a small breath and looked away, trying not to be obvious. If she could read the address off of it, that would tell Dewey exactly where they were.“Whose house is this?” Gale asked, hearing how breathless she sounded. She was so fucking scared.“I don’t know…” Her abductor shrugged. “No one’s used it in years. It’s just been sitting here. It’s mine now.” He laughed.Gale forced a small laugh as well, feeling her chest grow tight as he started pulling her toward the house. “Wait…” She winced. She needed to get a look at the mail box. “I’m… I feel dizzy… Can… Could I sit down for a minute?” She asked.Her kidnapper frowned down at her, reaching down and putting his fingers under her jaw, tilting her face up so he could see her better.Gale swallowed and shrunk back slightly, biting her lip as she looked up at him.“You’ve been lying down this whole time… Why are you dizzy?” He actually looked genuinely worried, like it mattered to him that she might not feel well… After he hit her and killed a man in front of her… After he stuffed her into a trunk and left her there for at least a half hour…“I’m just… I don’t know… M-maybe I stood up too fast… Can I sit down?” Gale shrunk down.“I’ll just carry you.” He offered, reaching down.“No!” Gale flinched back, turning herself around and backing toward the mail box. “No… I can walk…” She breathed, still taking slow steps back toward the mail box. “M-maybe I’m just scared…” She whispered. “C-can I have a minute… Just…”“Well, are you dizzy or not?” He glared, stepping after her as she continued moving backward toward the mailbox. "You're fucking with me? Lying?"Gale shook her head, glancing toward the mail box as soon as she got close. She could read the address now - it was stuck on with stickers… But a lot of it had peeled off. She only had a street name and the town… but that was a hell of a big clue - a lot better than anything else she’d managed to get out to Dewey thus far.“Heaven Hill? Eldridge?” Gale spoke, trying to keep her voice as loud and clear as possible without overdoing it, hoping desperately that Dewey could hear her.Her abductor frowned down at her. He almost looked confused.“That’s what the mail box says…” Gale spoke, speaking as loudly as she could without being too obvious about what she was doing. “Heaven Hill… Eldridge.” She repeated. “I don’t know where that is…” Gale went on, trying to make this sound more like a conversation with her kidnapper than clues being desperately shouted out toward her unseen phone. “Where is Eldridge? How far did we drive?”“Not too far. I never travel far.” He answered, grabbing her upper arm again and steering her toward the house.Gale felt her breaths increasing in speed as she stumbled after him down a sidewalk leading up to the house. She didn’t have a choice but to follow, as he pulled her up the front steps. “Who are you? Wh-why are you doing this?” She whispered.“I’m just a fan… Someone who’s missed you…” He answered. “Someone who’s ready for you to come back into the spotlight again.”“What’s your name?” Gale asked rather bluntly. “W-what do I call you?” She asked. “You know my name… I don’t know yours…”“Jude.” He answered. “You can call me Jude.”Gale swallowed. “Is that your name?”“Yeah.” He laughed.“Jude?” She said again. “W-what’s your last name? Have we ever met?” She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him, trying to search his face for something she recognized. The name almost felt familiar. Maybe she’d gotten fan mail from him before - mail that he’d signed…“No.” He frowned. “Unfortunately we haven’t… Not until now. I wanted to meet you…” Jude went on, sounding almost sad. “I wanted to meet you so bad… For so long. Ever since the first time I saw your show, I’ve been dying to meet you.”Gale swallowed. “Why?” She grimaced.“Because I love you, Gale.” He stared. “You still can’t put together who I am? I’ve sent you so many letters… I signed them, Gale. Not the latest ones, but the ones before? I signed them all… I tried so hard… You don’t even remember me?”Gale stared back, inhaling a small breath. He was starting to seem agitated. She didn’t want that. But she wasn’t sure what to say to bring him back into a better mood. She genuinely didn’t know who he was, and she was terrified that pretending to would backfire.“You were my everything… I structured my life around you… Do you realize how much you meant to people? I made sure to be home in time to watch your show every fucking day…” He stared, increasing his grip around her arm. “Your show mattered to people… and you just fucking left…”Gale winced as he picked up the pace, dragging her further into the house, through a door that led to stairs going down. He was taking her into a basement.“Why are we going into the basement?” She asked, mostly so Dewey would in fact know that she was in the basement if he happened to find the house, but also because she was genuinely frightened about what his plan was.“Watching your show was like… Gale… It was my life…” Jude went on, his voice growing a bit louder as his grip tightened around her arm. “I wanted to meet you. I wanted to be with you - to work with you… I applied to be your camera man… over and over… You didn’t even give me a chance… I’m excellent with a camera… I know the perfect angles, the perfect lighting… I would have made sure you always looked beautiful, that your show would be the best - not just because you’re already gorgeous, but… that I’d make you shine and sparkle even more! You didn’t even give me a chance!”Gale pulled lightly at her arm, biting her lower lip. She remembered getting letters from someone begging to be her new camera man… It was one of her most interesting fan mail series for a while… Until she started getting actually threatening stuff.“I just wanted to be with you, Gale… I would have never done anything like this… You didn’t give me a chance…” He said again.Gale inhaled a shaky breath and shrunk back when she noticed what she was sure was dried blood on the floor. She pulled on her arm, whimpering when Jude only grabbed onto her tighter.“Please…” She choked, trying and failing to pull away. He was holding onto her so tightly. She glanced back toward the dark red stain, feeling her own blood run cold. “Please don’t hurt me…” She whimpered.“I’m not going to hurt you. How many times do I need to stay it? Stop panicking.” Jude growled.Gale shook her head. “Did you kill someone in here?” She asked, her voice shaking.“I did…” He answered, staring at her like she was being crazy right now to be concerned over this bit of information. “But I won’t kill you… Gale, I’d never kill you.”“What do you want?” Gale asked, averting her eyes from the massive blood stain.“I want you to do a news report for me.” Jude answered rather simply, his tone so much lighter than the situation.Gale blinked, looking back up at him. “What?” She stared.Jude let go of her arm in favor of walking over to a chair where a stack of folded clothes sat. Gale looked around the room further, noticing a white sheet tacked up to the wall with large lights set up nearby. The lights were presently off, but she could tell this was meant to be some sort of stage.“Wear this.” Jude instructed as he walked back over to her. “Oh… I need to get the tape off your hands.” He added with a wide grin and a laugh, placing the clothing back on the chair and shaking his head.Gale felt herself freeze as she held her breath, remaining still and staring at the weird stage in front of her as Jude walked behind her and cut the tape from around her arms. He wanted her to dress up and pretend to do a news report?“I want you to report on the murders.” Jude breathed as he walked back around in front of her and nodded toward the chair with the stack of clothes on its seat. “We’ll get you dressed up how you used to, and you can report on the murders… Just like before.”“Billy and Stu? Or…” Gale swallowed. “C-can’t you just find an old recording?”“No. Not the ones you already did… I have those. I have tapes of those…” Jude laughed. “Report on my murders. The ones I did… I killed all those women. I did it for you, Gale. For your news reports… I know you don’t report anymore…” He frowned.Gale inhaled a small breath, staring up at him, suddenly feeling more guilty than she deserved to. This guy killed them because of her? Obviously it wasn’t her fault… She didn’t ask him to do this… but she still felt somehow responsible.“So…” Jude went on. “Get dressed… and you can report on them.”Gale swallowed. She really didn’t know a lot about the murders. She’d deliberately distanced herself from it. She wasn’t even sure how many there were.“You’re aware of the murders, right?” Jude frowned.Gale inhaled a small breath and nodded. “Somewhat.” She breathed.Jude’s shoulders slumped. “Are you serious? I dropped them off in Woodsboro so your boyfriend would tell you… Did he not tell you?”Gale shrunk down, feeling herself shaking as she took a very small step back.“He didn’t tell you?” Jude frowned. “I thought that’s why you were so jumpy… I sent you gifts from the crime scenes… I thought you knew that’s what they were… The necklace? The flowers? Obviously the fingers…” He added with a laugh.Gale glanced briefly toward the stairs, wondering if she should try to run. Stalling for time, hoping Dewey would find her was a good plan in theory… but how long would he take? Did he even have enough information to find her? What if he couldn’t hear her with the phone in her pocket? What if it had disconnected and he hadn’t heard any of this?Maybe she should just make a run for it before it was too late. This guy said he wouldn’t hurt her, that he wouldn’t kill her… but why should she trust his word? Once the creepy recording he wanted was made, then what? He was obsessed with her… His idea of not hurting her might be different than hers. Maybe he wouldn’t think it was hurting her if he forced himself on her, if he kept her tied up down here so she could do fake reports on all kinds of things. Right now her hands and feet were free. Right now she would make an attempt at escape. That might not always be the case…“So, Love…” Jude smiled, grabbing toward Gale’s wrist and tugging her a bit roughly toward him. “We’re going to make a video.” He went on, nodding toward the sheet and the camera and lights set up near it. “You can report on the women I killed.” He grinned, reaching into the dark robe he was still wearing and taking out a stack of polaroid photos. “The cop didn’t tell you enough, so here… Take a look.” He handed them to her.Gale shrunk down, taking the photos with shaking hands and going through them. Her lip trembled as she looked at what appeared to be three different women in the same basement she was in now. They each wore the same thing - the red blazer and matching skirt and white t-shirt Jude had tried to hand to her a moment before. It looked an awful lot like the outfit she’d worn when she made her big report after Billy and Stu’s murder spree.The women in the photos looked scared. One of them had tear streaks down her cheeks. One had a bruise on her jaw and a split lip - Jude had clearly hit her.As she sifted through the photos, her hands trembling, Gale let out a soft gasp. The last several in the series of photos showed the same women obviously dead. They were outside, perhaps along a gravel road. They weren’t wearing the skirt and blazer anymore and had clearly been stabbed.Gale looked back up toward Jude, shaking her head and taking a step back. “Please don’t do this…” She breathed. If he made these women wear that outfit and then killed them… the fact that he was asking her to wear it was fucking terrifying. Obviously he had a routine here, and it ended with the women he’d kidnapped being dead along a gravel road.“Oh, Gale… Don’t be afraid…” Jude frowned. “I won’t do that to you. You’re different. Natalie, Katrina, Monique… I tried to get them to be you, Gale… They didn’t work out. They’re not you. They didn’t have what it takes. You do.” He nodded toward the clothing. “Get dressed.”Gale stared at the pile of folded clothing, gripping the stack of photographs tighter, feeling like she simply had to hold onto something to keep herself from fully panicking. She felt her breaths growing quicker as she tried to piece together what the plan was - how much time she likely had left.She didn’t want to be in this basement. This was obviously where the other women were killed. At least one of them anyway, judging by the massive blood stain.Gale shook her head and took a step back, looking up at Jude with wide eyes. He was clearly crazy. Maybe she could use that to her advantage. Convince him that she was on his side and they could maintain a relationship if he let her go.“I do remember you…” She breathed.Jude’s eyebrows rose and he looked hopeful for a moment. “You do?” He smiled.Gale nodded. “Yes. You wanted to be my camera man… I had so many applications… Yours definitely stood out.” She breathed. Stood out as fucking crazy.“Why didn’t you choose me?” Jude frowned.Gale swallowed. “Well, like I said - there were so many applications… Obviously I didn’t choose right… But I don’t have a camera man now, and I can choose you now…” She lied.Jude smiled slightly, but didn’t say anything else.“So… Let’s go back upstairs… And I can… I’ll go home, and I can call the station, and see if they’ve got a time slot where we can have a show again.” Gale spoke, feeling anxiety building in her chest.Jude narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know… This seems like a trap…” He guessed.Gale shook her head. “It’s not… I really do need a camera man, and obviously-”“No.” Jude cut her off, grabbing her arm and again and pulling her toward him. “I’ll be your camera man my way. I gave you a chance and you obviously didn’t want me… I think you’re trying to trick me. Trying to get me in trouble.” He accused. “You just want to go home so you can call your boyfriend and have him arrest me.” He frowned.Gale grimaced. “No-”“Stop.” Jude put his finger over her lips, causing her to flinch back with a frightened gasp. “We’re doing it my way now. No more discussion. Put on the clothing and let’s do this.”Gale felt her lip trembling and tears stinging at her eyes. She was pretty sure if they did this Jude’s way, she wasn’t going to be alive for much longer. He had developed a pattern involving this basement, this outfit, and stabbing women to death. It definitely didn’t look good for her sake.Stalling only worked for so long. Eventually, whatever Jude was trying to do here - he’d be done… He wasn’t just going to let her go after. Killing her like he did the other women was almost definitely his end goal - even if he didn’t even think that was his plan - it probably was. He’d established a routine, a pattern… He dressed these women up, forced them to put on some sort of show… then killed them. Gale was the fourth woman he’d done this to according to his photos…“Gale… Sweetheart… I’d like you to put on the clothing…” Jude said again, taking a step forward and frowning down at her. “The old Gale - the real Gale… She’d wear something nice to do a news report. I want you to look nice.”Gale inhaled a steadying breath. She felt like she was going to pass out. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been more afraid in her life. Somehow this was different than every other bit of bullshit she’d been through with similar aggressors. This man wasn’t just a killer… He was absolutely crazy. Even Anthony didn’t act this creepy - not in the same way.“Awwww…” Jude cocked his head to the side and reached toward her as Gale shrunk back a bit, allowing him to lightly grip a bit of her hair. “Don’t cry, Baby… Don’t be afraid…”Gale’s lip trembled. “I am afraid…” She admitted, wondering if the fact that this man thought he loved her might help her out here. Maybe just being honest - telling him she was afraid of him - could help her out. Maybe he truly did think he cared about her. Maybe he’d back off if she just flat out told him how uncomfortable he was making her feel.“Why are you scared?” Jude stuck his lower lip out in a slight pout.Gale stared silently for a moment, inhaling a shaky breath. “Y-you made them wear this. You want me to wear it…” She nodded down at the photos in her hands. “You killed them…”“But they aren’t you, Gale… Don’t be afraid…” Jude frowned. “You’re the best reporter on the planet… So get dressed and do your thing… That’s all I want. I want you to be you. You can do that. They couldn’t, but you can. I won’t hurt you… You just have to be yourself. That’s all. It’ll be easy.”Gale shook her head, glancing toward the outfit and then down at the pictures in her still-trembling hands. “Please…” She whimpered. He was clearly crazy. He really might kill her even if he didn’t think he would. “Please don’t do this…” She whispered.“What-” Jude blinked, glancing down toward the photos as well.. “You really think you’re the same as them, that I’ll do to you what I did to them?”Gale inhaled a shaky breath and stared silently back. Why the hell wouldn’t she think that?“No… Gale… No, no no no no…” Jude shook his head. “These pictures? That’s not for you. I won’t hurt you. You’re better than they are. I won’t do that to you. I promise. I just want you to look nice… You wouldn’t go on television in your pajamas… I mean, they’re cute and all… but not for reporting.” He stared, his eyebrows raised.Swallowing nervously, Gale stared back. She glanced toward the stack of clothing again. She was presently wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants - and her cell phone was in the pants pocket. Ignoring the fact that she wasn’t about to get undressed in front of this creep, she needed to keep her phone close.“Get dressed.” Jude demanded again, his tone quickly growing less patient as he balled one hand into a fist and took another step toward her.Gale felt her lip tremble as she took a small step back, gasping and whimpering when Jude reached out and grabbed her arm, tugging her toward himself.“Let go!” Gale choked, dropping the stack of photos so that they scattered on the floor at their feet. “Get off of me!” She gasped, tugging at her arm and shoving against Jude’s chest. He’d gotten so angry so quickly… His patience was clearly thin.“Put on the fucking clothes!” Jude growled, pulling her closer and grabbing at the hem of her shirt. “Get dressed! Right now!” He yelled, attempting to yank the shirt up.“No!” Gale yelled back, shoving his hand away and pulling the shirt back down, holding it in place. “Don’t touch me!” She screamed, balling her hand into a fist and slamming it up against his jaw.“God damn it!” Jude growled, grabbing at her arm and squeezing it in a tight fist. “Take it off. NOW.” Jude growled, pulling her toward him, then slamming her back against the basement wall.All the air seemed to get forced out of Gale’s lungs when her back hit the wall hard. She blinked back tears and coughed as Jude grabbed at her shirt again, tugging it roughly up. “You’re wearing what I say! I’m not asking. This is a demand - not a question.” He growled.“Stop!” Gale choked out a shaky sob, shoving at his chest with one hand and grabbing at her shirt with the other. “Please!” She begged.Jude let out a low grumbling noise as he squeezed his hand tightly around her arm, then out of nowhere hit her rather hard across her face. “You don’t argue with me!” Jude screamed. “You don’t fucking punch me!”Gale squeezed her eyes shut and shrunk down, trying to keep the sobs from rising up out of her chest. She was in pain; she was terrified. “Please…” She choked again. “Please don’t hurt me. Please let me go…” She whispered, hearing her voice shake.“Gale…” Jude breathed, his voice low, careful… He seemed to be trying to appear calm, but he obviously wasn’t. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t like this…” He hissed.“Th-then stop…” She whimpered, blinking and shrinking back as she looked up at him.Jude exhaled tiredly. “Put on the fucking clothing, or I’ll take this matter into my own hands. I’ll do it for you if I have to, but you won’t like that…” He threatened. His hand was still on the hem of her shirt, gripping the material in a hard fist.Gale choked out a shaky, pained breath, squeezing her eyes shut. She gripped the hem of her shirt with shaking hands, desperately attempting to keep herself covered as she shook her head.“Do what I say so I don’t end up hurting you.” Jude breathed, gripping one hand threateningly around her neck as he glared into her eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t like hurting you, Gale. I hate this…” He stared.Gale whimpered, reaching one of her hands up toward his, trying to pry his grip off of her neck. “Then stop… Please…” She whispered again. “Please stop…”“I don’t want to hurt you, Gale…” Jude repeated, finally loosening his grip with both of his hands and stepping back, but his breaths were still quick. His face was red and he was obviously tense. He was frustrated with her, but truly did seem to not want to be.Gale could only stand there as he finally backed off a bit. She felt her entire body shaking. She was cold, terrified, and genuinely felt like she might faint.“Get undressed… Put these on.” He said again, clearly trying to keep his voice calm as he grabbed at the stack of clothing and shoved it toward her. “That’s all I want. That’s not too much to ask. I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want you to wear this. Okay?”Gale shook her head, looking down and shrinking away. She wasn’t getting undressed in front of this man. She didn’t want him to see any more of her body and she needed to keep her phone close…She could hear Jude’s breaths increasing. He was getting frustrated again. Refusing to do this wasn’t going to end well for her… But he was staring her down… He had a creepy obsession with her, and the last thing he needed right now was to watch her get undressed, to see every inch of her body that wasn’t covered by her bra or underwear.The guy clearly had a problem, and she didn’t want to add fuel to the fire burning in his brain by letting him see even more of her - the only parts he never got to see while meticulously watching her news broadcasts for years. Getting undressed in front of him with him staring at her like this? What if he was unable to control himself? What if just seeing more of her body than he already had caused him to snap? She was terrified.“Put on the clothing.” Jude growled, stepping closer to her again.Gale inhaled a shaky breath, shrinking back slightly. She didn’t want to outright refuse again. That wasn’t working for her… But she was so afraid of what might happen if she got undressed in front of this man. He clearly had a creepy obsession with her, and creepy obsessions were so often sexual…Obviously Jude was stronger than she was. She didn’t have much of an advantage here… And refusing to do what he said was making him increasingly angry. Maybe if he looked away she’d do it - put her phone in the skirt pocket… Just to keep him from attacking her again…“N-not with you watching…” She whispered, looking up at him and grimacing as she inhaled and exhaled a few shaky breaths. “Look away, and I’ll do it…” She finally agreed.For a moment Jude stared down at her silently, his eyes narrowed. Then suddenly he reached out and shoved against her shoulders, knocking her back against the wall again.Gale coughed and shook her head as Jude closed in on her further, grabbing her and easily wrestling her back against the floor and climbing on top of her. “We’ll just do it the fucking hard way then.” He growled.Gale choked out a frantic breath, squirming under the stranger’s weight and shoving out at his chest. “No! Don’t!” She begged as he grabbed at the waistband of her pajama pants. “Please don’t! PLEASE!” She sobbed.“Hold still. Gale, you’re pissing me off…” Jude growled, grabbing at her wrist and pinning her arm against the floor.“Stop!” Gale screamed, thrashing and kicking, grabbing at the waist of her pants to keep him from pulling them off of her. She suddenly felt a sharp pain at her temple and her vision swam when Jude hit her rather hard.Gale blinked, exhaling a shaky breath as she drew her shaky hand up to her head. She could barely see, was in quite a bit of pain, and honestly felt like she might pass out. He’d hit her so hard… “Please…” She whimpered as he took the opportunity from her being temporarily disoriented to pull her pants down and off of her.Gale sobbed and punched out at her attacker’s face again, but it did her no good. He only hit her back, five times as hard, grabbing at her shirt and easily pulling it up over her head and off her arms.As she remained on the floor, breathing hard and blinking back hazy stars, Jude grabbed at her arms, pinning her down with hard hands and staring down at her. She noticed his eyes looking up and down over her exposed body - she only wore her bra and panties now.Jude was breathing heavily as he stared down at her. His grip around her wrists was hard, painful, threatening. He was clearly angry, and Gale didn’t know for sure what he’d do now that she’d pissed him off.Gale felt like she couldn’t breathe at all. She was terrified, heartbroken, embarrassed. She’d refused to change into the clothing so she wouldn’t set this guy off… She didn’t want him to see her undressed. She was scared of what he’d do if she cooperated… And now here they were. That hadn’t worked at all. She should have just done it. Maybe he wouldn’t have hurt her… He certainly seemed like he might now.“Gale Weathers is a difficult person…” Jude spoke, almost like he wasn’t even talking to her or himself. Like there was someone else in here he was explaining his actions to. “We all knew that…” He grumbled as he squeezed his hands tighter around her wrists and stared back down into her eyes. “I shouldn’t be surprised… But you’re really making me angry. You’re making me want to hurt you… Stop making me want to hurt you.”Swallowing and inhaling a shaky breath, Gale shook her head. “Please… Please don’t… I’m sorry…” She cried, trying to shrink down as she felt her entire body trembling. She closed her eyes and tried to pull her arms free, tried to curl in on herself, to cover herself up any little bit. She was so scared.She whimpered and blinked her eyes back open when she felt Jude move her arms up over her head so he could hold down both wrists with one of his large, bruising hands. She blinked back up at him, inhaling and exhaling shaky breaths as she watched him staring back.“No-” She choked, shaking her head as he reached down toward her shoulder, running two fingers up and down over her bra strap. “Don’t touch me! Please!” Gale sobbed, trying to thrash under his hard grip. “Get off of me!” She begged.“Shhh…” Jude whispered, running his fingers carefully across the lower trim of her bra. “Don’t cry. I won’t hurt you. I’m not going to hurt you.”Gale’s lip trembled as she tried to shrink down away from his touch. “Please don’t…” She shook her head, pulling at her arms weakly.Jude blinked, still moving his fingers gently over just the edges of the garment, almost like he’d never seen a bra before and was confused by it. He wasn’t moving to take it off of her. He just seemed to be intrigued by it.Gale tugged uselessly at her wrists and tried to wiggle her body out from under him as his weight pressed down against her thighs. She held her breath and tried to get herself to calm down as she felt two of his fingers slide between her bra strap and her skin.She felt herself shaking as she stared up into his eyes. He was staring back as he ran his fingers down the length of her bra strap, from her collar bone to the top of her breast. He paused there for a moment as Gale stared back up at him with a trembling lip and tears welling up in her eyes.“You’re acting like you didn’t do anything wrong.” Jude glared down at her. “You’re acting like I just attacked you… You made this happen. You made me have to force you, because you wouldn’t just do it on your own.”Gale swallowed, staring speechlessly up at him. She didn’t know if she should say anything at this point or just stay quiet.Jude licked his lips then ran his fingers carefully between her bra strap and her skin, back up over her collar bone and shoulder, then toward her neck, wrapping his hand lightly around her throat as he stared back into her eyes with a cold, hard stare that was impossible to read.“Please don’t hurt me…” Gale choked, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to curl in on herself. She didn’t want him to see her. He seemed obsessed with her, and she wouldn’t be surprised if sexual assault was on his to-do list. He was hesitating for so long. She was terrified that his mind was going to go straight there. He had her almost fully undressed now, pinned under him… If he wanted to assault her, now would be the time.Jude blinked and cocked his head to the side as he let his eyes rake further over her body. He narrowed his eyes when they reached her underwear - one of the few tiny shreds of dignity he’d allowed her to keep thus far.Gale flinched and shook her head, choking out a shaky, unintelligible plea as Jude reached his free hand down toward her hip. She tugged desperately at her arms and tried to turn her body to the side to keep him from touching her, to keep him from undressing her any further.“Stop it.” Jude growled, squeezing her wrists tighter in one hand as he gripped the material of one side of her underwear. “If you’d have done this yourself, it wouldn’t have had to get so messy.”“Please don’t!” Gale choked, trying to shrink down. She couldn’t handle this. She made so many decisions in her life to keep herself safe - at the expense of spending less time with Dewey. And she wasn’t safe at all. All those sacrifices led her here.Jude simply shook his head as though annoyed, pulling the side of the garment back up where it belonged, then letting go. “Feels like I’m trying to get a defiant toddler dressed…” He glared.Gale inhaled and exhaled shaky breaths as she tried to look down in confusion. He wasn’t undressing her further? Perhaps the garment had slid down a bit when he forcibly removed her pants in such a rough manner. Could that be the case? That he genuinely didn’t want to hurt her in that way? That it was all about getting dressed in the other outfit and nothing else?Her attacker continued staring, his grip around her wrists finally loosening enough for her to pull her arms free.Gale shook her head and pulled her arms down, hugging herself and hiding her chest with her arms and hands. She immediately turned her upper body to the side as much as she could and let out a shaky sob.Jude scoffed angrily as he climbed off of her, pushing heavily down on her body as he stood. “Get off the floor, stand up, and put the clothing on.” He demanded.Gale remained on the floor, hugging her arms around her chest, curling on on herself. He’d hit her so hard. She was in pain, maybe even had a concussion. She wasn’t sure if she could get up and get dressed even if she wanted to.“I said get up!” Jude growled, grabbing down at her arm and dragging her rather roughly partially off the floor.Gale didn’t even have the energy to beg this time. Instead she simply choked out a pained, terrified sob as she tried to keep her chest covered, tried to keep her legs curled up toward her chest. She could feel his hand creating bruises on her arm.Jude left her sitting up in a defensive position, cowered down, looking away from him. Her breaths were quick, painful, absolutely terrified. She felt cold, shaky, disoriented, completely out of breath.“Here.” Jude spoke, grabbing one of her arms and pulling her forward by her wrist, pushing the clothing into her hand. “Just put it on… God… Stop crying, acting like I’m the bad guy… Just fucking put it on…” He breathed, his voice shaking with frustration.Gale sniffed back tears and pulled her legs up as she crawled backwards into the corner, hugging the clothing against her chest in order to feel more covered up. She felt like she could barely breathe. She was exhausted, in pain, terrified, humiliated.Jude seemed out of breath as well, indicating that Gale had indeed put up a good fight. She just wasn’t strong enough - he was so tall, so muscular. She was no match for him.“Gale.” Jude’s voice was stern as he took a step toward her, staring her down. “Put on the clothing.” He ordered. “Don’t make me keep saying it. Do what I said.” He warned.Gale remained frozen in fear, her entire body trembling. She couldn’t get herself to move, to do anything. She even wanted to put on the clothing now - to wear something, anything… but she couldn’t get herself to move. She was exhausted, in so much pain. Her body was shaking so much she wasn’t sure if she could even function.“Do you want to end up like her?” Jude growled, picking up one of the polaroids and throwing it at her.Gale closed her eyes and turned her face to the side. She didn’t need to see the photo. She knew what he was threatening without seeing it again.“Is that it?!” Jude growled, picking up more of the photos and throwing them at her. You want that!? You want me to fucking kill you!?” He screamed.Gale shook her head no and choked out another shaking sob.Jude suddenly let out another frustrated growl, moving quickly toward Gale so that she flinched back and shrunk down. He grabbed her arms and pulled her up, pushing her roughly against the wall as she sobbed.“I didn’t want to hurt you!” Jude breathed, holding her against the wall with terrifying strength, with one arm pressed across her collar bones. He reached with his other hand up toward her cheek, wiping away tears. “Stop crying…” He demanded, his stare hard. She could tell he was angry. Very, very angry..Gale reached up with her hands, putting them both on his arm and pulling. He was so strong. She couldn’t get his arm to budge an inch, and now that she was using her own arms with more strenuous effort, she felt like one of her wrists was hurt - perhaps sprained or otherwise twisted during her struggle with her abductor.She winced and stopped struggling with that hand as she stared up at Jude, who was looking down at her with annoyance and anger in his features.“What’s so hard about you just putting on a different fucking outfit?” Jude breathed. “I’m not asking for a lot. Wear what I say, and do the report… That’s it… You’re acting like the others. I can understand why they were confused… I was asking them to be you… It shouldn’t be difficult for you to be your fucking self, Gale.” He stared.Gale swallowed, breathing in and out shaky, sniffling breaths. “Are you going to kill me?” She whispered.Jude blinked as he stared down at her. He’d said before that his plan wasn’t to kill her… but he wasn’t saying that now.“Jude?” Gale spoke, her voice small, shaky.He stared back, his breaths uneven. He looked angry. “You’re frustrating me… Why aren’t you doing what I say?” He breathed, his voice a little shaky. “I said I wouldn’t hurt you if you just do what I say… Why do you want me to hurt you?”Gale shook her head. “I don’t…” She grimaced.“You act like you do… I just said wear the fucking outfit… That’s all you had to do…” He stared, moving his arm up over her throat and pressing down lightly.Gale let out a sharp gasp, reaching up and grabbing at his arm. He was starting to cut off her airway. “Jude… Don’t…” She winced, tugging uselessly at his arm. “Please stop… I can’t breathe…” She choked.Jude stared, his eyes looking increasingly wild as he pressed down across her throat more securely. “I won’t kill you… I just need you to hold still.” He stared.“Please don’t…” Gale whimpered, her voice tiny, strained. She continued to desperately attempt to pry his arm off of her throat. “St-” She cut herself off with shaky choking gasps.“Shhh…” Jude whispered, leaning down close, breathing in the scent of her hair as he ignored her struggles and pressed harder against her throat. “Go to sleep, Love… When you wake up, be ready to cooperate… Or you might seriously end up just like the others…”Clawing at his arm, she felt her fingernails scratching at her own skin - just like she unintentionally did the last time he tried to choke her. This time, however, it didn’t seem like she was going to escape. He had his own body pressed so close against hers, keeping her from kicking out.Gale’s lungs burned, her throat felt tight, and her arms were growing tired from trying so hard to escape. What tiny amount of energy she had left was quickly draining.Gale let her eyes fall closed as she felt her body growing limp. Eventually, her fear and pain almost melted away as numbness and darkness took over.xxxxxx

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

xxxxxxChapter 17 - ??? - Gale WeathersxxxxxxThe first thing Gale noticed when she began to blink her eyes back into awareness was that her wrist was throbbing. The second thing she noticed was that both of her wrists were taped together in front of her. She was lying on ground in the basement. The air around her was cold and silent.She exhaled a shaking breath, noticing she was wearing the skirt, shirt, and blazer Jude had demanded she put on - he must have put it on her after knocking her out. Her ankles were also taped and a strip of tape was over her mouth as well.Gale let out a small, frustrated whimper, immediately reaching up and pulling the tape off of her face, then pulling herself up into a sitting position and beginning to work on the tape around her ankles. She had to get out of here, fast. Though she gave Dewey as many clues as possible, there was no telling how much of it he had even heard. There was a very real possibility that he wasn’t going to come to her rescue, even though she knew for certain that he would if he could.Gale felt herself trembling as she worked on removing the tape around her ankles. Her hands shook and her breaths were short as panic settled securely into her chest. She was cold, scared… but also angry. This creep had no right to try to force her to dress how he wanted, to kidnap her and drag her to this place.She’d established that he was a crazed fan - the one who’d been sending her desperate pleas to be her camera man earlier this year… And for some reason he felt entitled to force her to do fake news reports in his basement - dressed up how she used to dress for her reports.According to the photos he’d shown her, she wasn’t the first woman he’d done this with. All three of the other women in the photos were wearing this outfit… and then in later photos they were dead. She had to get out before he ended up killing her.With a shaky breath, Gale pulled the remaining tape off her ankles and dragged herself to her feet. She blinked and looked around, trying to find the clothing she’d been wearing initially. Her phone was in her pajama pants… but those pants were nowhere to be seen. That meant she couldn’t give Dewey any more clues. It also might mean Jude could have found the phone - might have another reason to be angry with her.She looked up the basement stairs, blinking. Jude wasn’t down here with her. She didn’t hear anything either. She wondered if he was even still in the house. Maybe he’d left for some reason, expecting she wouldn’t wake up just yet. Maybe this was her chance to escape…Gale wrinkled her nose and frowned as she looked down at her outfit. It was almost exactly like the outfit she’d worn the night Billy and Stu almost killed her. The morning after when she did her news report about it - the biggest report of her life. Jude must have really fixated on that specific report.She noticed he didn’t provide her with a jacket similar to what she’d been wearing that day, but maybe he hadn’t liked that part - normally she wouldn’t have worn the jacket - that report was different than her usual professional, put-together look. She’d kept the jacket on that morning because she remembered feeling unreasonably cold… Probably because she was in shock and didn’t even realize it at the time. Gale had seen the playback of that specific report countless times, as it replayed on many news stations in the weeks following. She looked awful - there was blood on her face, on the jacket… her hair was a mess…Looking back, she could barely believe she’d even done that report. She’d almost been killed, was visibly injured… Of course, it was the biggest moment of her professional career. She became a hero and an icon in the eyes of so many… but now that she was less focused on her career and more aware of her mental health, she realized she’d done that entire report in a moment when what she really needed was to talk to a therapist and be seen by a paramedic. She’d discovered her colleague’s brutally murdered body, thought she found Dewey dead on the front steps, had been in a rather rough car accident, and had been knocked unconscious by Billy, ended up shooting Billy… all within twenty minutes.She barely even remembered actually making the report. What she remembered was going home after, taking a very long, hot shower, then sleeping for like ten hours. Then she’d gotten to work, starting her book the very next morning and having the rough draft done by the weekend. That was her priority. That was all she could think about - not the fact that her camera man had been killed, that she had almost been killed, that Dewey had almost been killed. She just wanted her story.Now her priorities were different. Now she just wanted to feel safe, but she hadn’t felt safe for a long time, and certainly wasn’t now. She needed to get herself out of this… So she inhaled and exhaled a steadying breath, bringing her wrists up to her mouth and biting at the edge of the tape, pulling her arms free after a bit of a struggle, and quite a bit of pain. Every time she moved or touched her wrist, it felt like it was being crushed. Jude must have broken or sprained it when he attacked her.She then looked around the basement, noticing a small window up near the top of the wall. She didn’t think she could reach it - might not have even been able to fit through it if she could reach it. She looked toward the stairs again. That was the only way out…Gale had no idea where her attacker was right now, but staying still and waiting on him to come down and hurt her or kill her wasn’t an option. She needed to get out. So she swallowed a nervous gulp and started up the stairs as quietly as possible.Opening the door at the top of the stairs as gently as possible, Gale peered out into the hallway, trying to remember the route she and Jude had taken to get to the basement initially. If she could make it outside, perhaps she could run out to the main road, flag someone down…When she finally spotted the front door, Gale exhaled a small breath and picked up her pace.“Gale!” Jude’s voice caused Gale to flinch. “You’re awake!”Gale immediately turned back around when Jude stepped between her and the front door, but he was quick to catch up to her before she could even start running.“Come back down stairs and we’ll do that report.” Jude’s tone was inappropriately chipper as he held onto her arms and pulled her back toward the door to the basement. “I’ve got some adorable shoes for you to wear too. Hopefully the right size. I think they are. You threw out some old shoes last month that were size six, so that’s the size I bought.”Gale exhaled a small breath, shrinking down as Jude hugged her against himself and led her back to the stairs.Gale shook her head, ducking down and twisting her body away from him, then running. She wasn’t going back to the fucking basement. She had a horrible feeling that if she went down there, she wouldn’t come back up alive.“Gale!” Jude growled as he ran after her, his heavy steps echoing through the house in time with her heartbeat pounding hard in her ears. “Get back here!”Gale shook her head and continued running, ultimately cornering herself in the house’s kitchen. She’d hoped to find a back door, but there wasn’t one - not in the kitchen at least.As soon as she entered the kitchen and realized she’d reached a dead end, Gale froze for a second, then started pulling out drawers, hoping to find a knife, or really anything she might be able to use as a weapon.She was only afforded a few precious seconds to look before Jude had caught up with her. Gale let out a shaky scream when she felt hands on her arms, pulling her roughly back.“Get off of me!” Gale yelled, kicking out at the cabinets in front of her as her attacker pulled her back against his chest, lifting her off the ground. “Let go!” She screamed as she thrashed as wildly as she possibly could.“Stop moving!” Jude growled, wrestling her back against the counter top and pinning her wrists down against it. “You’re gonna start cooperating!” He growled, pressing his knife against her neck.Gale choked out a small sob, squeezing her eyes closed as she could focus on nothing but the cold knife pressing against her throat.“I don’t want to fucking hurt you!” Jude yelled, pressing his knife closer against her throat. “Stop fighting me on every god damn instruction! You need to do what I fucking say… Before I do something we’ll both regret…” He hissed.Gale blinked her eyes back open, inhaling and exhaling shaky breaths as she stared up at him. He was so much bigger than she was. He had a weapon. She wasn’t going to be able to overpower him. She needed to outsmart him, to bide her time until she was in a better position. This wasn’t it.“You ready to play nice?” Jude stared. “You ready to do what I say?”Gale swallowed. “Yes.” She whispered. She knew he said he didn’t want to hurt her, but she wasn’t confident he might not freak out and kill her if she irritated him any more than she already had. He was clearly getting close to losing what little ounce of composure he had left.“You’ve been so defiant…” Jude noted as he pulled her up off the counter top. “But I suppose that’s why we all love you, right?” He added with a laugh. “I’m a big fan - I’ve seen all your reports… I know you’re stubborn… I know that… I shouldn’t be surprised you’re being difficult… but I do need you to try to tone it down, Love. I’m getting frustrated. Understand?”Gale nodded, swallowing nervously as he led her back toward the basement, holding her hand in one of his, and his knife in the other.Gale inhaled a small breath as she turned toward him. “Are we trying to recreate my old news reports? The ones about Billy and Stu?” She asked.Jude nodded. “But about my killings.” He answered.Gale closed her eyes and inhaled a steadying breath, knowing she needed to try to stall for time a bit more. She’d given Dewey really solid information - assuming the phone had stayed connected and he heard everything that happened when she still had the phone with her. It was possible he was very close to finding her. She just needed to last long enough for him to get here.“Y-you got the outfit right…” Gale noted with a small voice. “But I did my hair and makeup differently back then… I had my hair dyed… and my makeup-”“I know.” Jude cut her off. “I’ve got the exact lipstick. Remember? I included hearts on the mail I sent you.”Gale felt like she might throw up as they reached the basement door again. She couldn’t go down there. It was so obvious he’d killed the other women down there. If she went down there, he’d force her to do whatever news report he wanted her to do, then he’d kill her too.She felt herself shaking and tears stinging her eyes as she started to drag her feet. Agreeing to go down there seemed like willingly signing away her own life. Stalling only worked if Dewey was on his way. She didn’t know if he was. She knew she managed to get a lot of information out of Jude, but she didn’t know for sure that Dewey had heard it. She had no idea if the phone stayed connected, if any of it was said loud enough for Dewey to hear it…“Can we wait a second?” Gale squeaked.“Why?” Jude glared down at her.“I’m just feeling light-headed…” She answered somewhat honestly. She really did feel like she might faint. This situation was more stressful and more terrifying than most things she’d encountered in her life.Jude shook his head and pulled her along. “You’ve got to stop making excuses, Gale. We’re just doing a news report. I’m not going to kill you.” He laughed.Gale grimaced. He probably literally was going to kill her. That’s what he’d done to every single other woman he’d done this to. Gritting her teeth, Gale looked toward his hand. He held the knife, but he’d be caught off-guard if she grabbed for it right now. He wasn’t expecting it. She might be able to get it from him, to kill him before he killed her.Letting out a small growl, Gale grabbed for the knife, managing to grab his hand, but not get the knife away from him.Jude let out an angry growl, pulling his knife-hand back and punching Gale across the face in the same instant.Gale stumbled backward, her back hitting the wall behind her as Jude closed in.“I’m through being patient!” He screamed as he grabbed toward her throat.Gale kicked out at his legs, tripping him up so that he fell to his knees and dropped the knife. Gale’s eyes widened as she watched the glinting object skitter across the hard wood. She immediately crawled after it, managing to grab it before her attacker snatched her ankle and pulled her back.“Get the fuck off of me!” Gale screamed as he spun her around so that she was on her back with him looming over her. She stabbed up toward his body, managing to get him near his stomach before he grabbed her wrist and pinned it against the floor.“Ahhh!” Jude growled in pain and anger. “You bitch! YOU STABBED ME!” He screamed.Gale grimaced and pulled at her trapped arm. She still held the knife, but couldn’t do anything else from here. It was also the same wrist that she was pretty sure he’d hurt during their struggle before. It throbbed horribly as his hand squeezed hard around it.“You fucking bitch!” Her attacker screamed again, his voice shaking, tears in his eyes.Gale choked out a small sob of her own as she stared up at him. He was so fucking strong. She’d gotten a good hit in - she stabbed the fucking knife into his gut… but he was still over powering her.He grabbed the knife out of her hand and threw it to the side. “And I was wondering why so many people wanted to fucking kill you…” He growled, staring down at her, gripping both of his hands around her throat.“No!” She choked before he tightened his grip in such a way that she couldn’t speak any longer. She squeezed her eyes closed and grabbed at his hands, trying to pull them off of her throat as he only increased his grip.Was this it? Was he going to kill her? Everything she’d been through, and some crazy fucking fan would end it all?Gale continued to struggle, thrashing her body in any way she could, kicking out, clawing desperately at the hands around her neck. She blinked back tears and brought her knee up heavily against the body of her attacker, knocking him back for a moment.Inhaling a shaky, pained breath, Gale twisted herself around, crawling toward the knife lying on the floor about two yards away.“Get back here!” Jude growled, grabbing at her ankle.“Don’t fucking touch me!” Gale growled, kicking out, managing to hit him near his shoulder with her foot.She was able to grab the knife as he grabbed at her ankle. He pulled her back and she twisted herself around in the same moment. “Get off!” She screamed again, slashing the knife out, right toward his face.“Fuck!” Jude growled, grabbing at her wrist with one hand, gripping it hard so that she dropped the knife with a pained wince.Gale’s breaths were quick and shallow as she stared up at him. She’d managed to get him right across his face. In fact, blood was dripping down off of his cheek, landing against the white t-shirt she was wearing.“NO!” Jude screamed, putting his hand over his cheek, then reaching down toward Gale’s chest, wiping his hand over the stain his own blood was creating. “It’s not supposed to be stained!”Gale breathed out a small, shaky breath, staring up at her attacker, then glancing toward the knife that lay on the ground right next to her arm - the one he was still harshly gripping.Swallowing, she used her other arm, reaching over herself to grab the knife again.“Oh, no you don’t!” Jude growled, grabbing the knife first and pressing it down against her throat.Gale flinched back and squeezed her eyes shut. He could kill her right this second if he wanted to… “Please don’t…” She gasped, feeling her body tense as she held her breath.“You only had to do the news report… You just had to look pretty and report on my murders… But you seem to want to die!” Jude growled, his voice angry, crazed.Gale blinked open her eyes, trying to hold still as he pressed hard against her throat with his knife. “Please… I’ll do it…” She breathed. She kind of had to. She was going to die in the next minute if she didn’t do something…Jude shook his head. “You ruined the shirt…” He growled.Gale felt herself shaking as she stared up at him. He didn’t even care that she’d cut a knife across his cheek. He only cared about the shirt getting stained.Jude let out another small growling noise as he pressed the knife down harder against her throat - not cutting, but starting to apply enough pressure with the flat surface of the blade to hurt her. His breaths were quick and angry. Sweat pooled up on his forehead as he stared down at her with a wild look in his eyes.“I’m sorry…” Gale whispered. “Please don’t kill me…” She breathed, her voice so small she could barely hear herself.“I never wanted to hurt you…” Jude exhaled, still staring without blinking, letting the blood run down his face like he honestly didn’t even care that she’d cut him. “But I fucking do now. You’re pissing me off so much… I wanna snap your fucking arm, break your ribs, slap your little face…” He growled, squeezing her wrist painfully as he spoke.Gale choked softly as the pressure of the knife against her throat started to make breathing harder. She pulled at her trapped wrist and brought her other hand cautiously up toward Jude’s, hoping to gently push the hand with the knife further away.“Maybe if I can’t enjoy your reports, that’ll be it. I’ll enjoy fucking killing you.” He hissed. “I’ll make sure it lasts a long time. I’ll squeeze every bit of pain out of you first. I didn’t always get anything out of hurting people, Gale… But I’m starting to like hurting you.”“Please.” Gale whimpered. “I’m sorry… Please stop…” She pushed lightly at his arm. “I won’t fight anymore. I’ll do whatever you say…” She begged.“And why don’t I believe that?” Jude glared down at her.Gale inhaled and exhaled quick, shaky breaths. She didn’t know what to say.“You’re being so fucking difficult…” Jude hissed, staring down at her with crazed eyes, still barely seeming to care that she’d stabbed him in the gut and slashed across his face.He only cared about the shirt… about her doing whatever report he wanted. He didn’t even care that she’d hurt him. He just wanted her to look how he wanted and act like she was reporting on the news. She could do that. If it would keep him from killing her, she could force herself to do it. She’d rather that than be dead.“I-” Gale stammered. “W-when I reported on Billy and Stu… I was a mess then. It’s… It’s appropriate for the shirt to be stained…” She tried, hearing in her own voice that she was so out of breath she wasn’t sure any air was reaching her lungs.Jude continued scowling down at her, then finally tossed the knife behind him.Gale inhaled a shaky breath, reaching with her free hand toward her throat, grabbing shakily to make sure he hadn’t cut her. She felt her lip trembling as her eyes started to fill with tears. She was so sure he was about to kill her just then.Her relief didn’t last long though. Just because he’d decided not to cut her throat didn’t mean she was safe. He only stared silently down at her for a few short seconds before raising his hand up, then bringing it sharply down to slap her across her cheek.Gale inhaled a sharp breath and winced as she turned her face to the side. Raising her free hand up in a defensive gesture, Gale continued shrinking down. “Please don’t hurt me…” She choked. “I’ll do what you say. I promise… I won’t-”She cut off her own begging with a sharp scream when Jude grabbed her wrist in a hard hand and twisted in a harsh, sharp motion.“Stop!” Gale cried, trying to pull her arm free. He’d already hurt her other wrist - the one he had pinned to the floor. This hurt so much more and the pain was only growing as he continued squeezing and twisting in a hard, bruising hand.Jude let out a growling sound and twisted her arm further, squeezing harder with each passing second. If the twisting motion didn’t break her limb, the intensity of his grip just might.Gale couldn’t even beg anymore. She could only choke out pained sobs as she felt his weight on top of her, pinning down her legs painfully and twisting her arm at the same time. She could only manage pained, shaking screams as he squeezed and twisted, still gripping her other wrist in his other hand and pressing painfully against her thighs with his knees.“I should break it, you fucking bitch.” Jude growled, finally stopping twisting, but still gripping her arm in a hard, bruising hand as he stared down at her.“Please…” Gale whimpered, feeling herself shaking as she stared up at him through her tears. “Please stop…” She choked. She felt her entire body shaking. Her arm hurt so much and she felt like she could barely breathe.He continued staring down at her with angry eyes, inhaling and exhaling angry, loud breaths. “Why shouldn’t I hurt you?” Jude glared. “You stabbed me… You cut my fucking face…”Gale swallowed. “I’m sorry…” She whimpered. “You were hurting me… I was scared…”Jude shook his head. “I was asking you to do a news report. I was asking you to do your job.” He spoke to her like she was a defiant child who didn’t realize what she’d done wrong. “Then you ran off, attacked me when I followed…”Gale blinked. “I’ll do the report now…” She said again, her voice breathless.“No.” Jude narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You don’t get to slash a knife across my face then say you’re sorry and make it all better. You hurt me. Now I get to hurt you.” He blinked, then finally twisted her arm in one last quick, sharp motion, slamming her arm painfully against the floor.A scream tore from Gale’s throat and she squeezed her eyes shut as hot, blinding pain shot through her arm. She could swear she heard or maybe felt some sort of cracking inside her limb as he slammed it down.Jude continued holding her arm down painfully against the floor. Gale felt like she couldn’t breathe. It hurt so much, and was only getting worse as Jude continued squeezing his hand around the injury he’d created. At this point, she couldn’t even say anything else. She could only sob and moan in pain.Jude shook his head, but finally let go, allowing Gale to pull her arms defensively toward her chest.She choked out pained sobs and held her hurt arm protectively against her chest with her other hand. Jude’s weight still pinned her securely to the floor. She couldn’t do a damn thing to help herself here. She was entirely at Jude’s mercy and he seemed to have lost his patience with her entirely.Gale shook her head as she continued crying. She felt so useless, so weak. She wished Dewey was here. She needed him. She needed him so badly. She couldn’t do this herself. She wasn’t strong enough.She felt hard hands on her upper arms again, slamming her back down against the ground and then grabbing at her throat.“N-” Gale choked, reaching up with her own hands and grabbing at his.“Everyone always said you were a difficult bitch…” Jude growled, squeezing his hands tightly. “I even loved that about you once… That you didn’t care who you hurt to get the best report…” He shook his head. “That you did what you wanted. That you didn’t give a shit about anybody else.”Gale whimpered a shaky, breathless sob as she desperately pulled at his hands. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t really move either, as he was now pinning down her thighs with his knees.As her vision started growing dark and her mind started fading, she thought about Dewey. None of this would have happened if she’d stayed with him. She didn’t want to be in Woodsboro. She was scared of something like this happening if she stayed there… but it had happened anyway. The only thing she did by distancing herself from Dewey and Woodsboro was to ensure she’d be all alone when the next creep targeted her.She thought she’d be safer on her own. She was horribly mistaken.Gale sniffed back tears as she grasped desperately at her throat. She hadn’t seen Dewey in weeks. He was the only person on the planet she felt truly safe with, and she’d distanced herself from him. And for what? To hide out on her own? Ignoring creepy fan mail, not even telling him when someone broke into her house and attacked her…As her mind felt like it was filled with static and her vision clouded over, she kept Dewey in her thoughts, picturing him finding her body too late, being devastated to know he’d been so close to saving her. She hoped he wouldn’t blame himself for this. She hoped he’d be okay…She felt her own struggles growing weaker as Jude squeezed his hands tightly around her throat, pinning her body against the floor. This was the end. She’d tried to time things right, to stall when she should, to fight back when she should… but it just wasn’t going to go her way…As her vision faded and her mind grew hazy again, she pictured Dewey’s smile. She wished she could talk to him again, if only one last time…xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 18 - Early Saturday Morning - Still Before Sunrise - Dewey RileyxxxxxxDewey turned off his head lights as he pulled up to the abandoned house on Heaven Hill in Eldridge. If this was the right place, he didn’t want to spook Gale’s abductor and get her killed, so he was choosing to go about this as quietly as possible. He had other cops checking similar addresses - any old houses on the same street - there were a few. He was sure she had to be at one of them.Gale had kept her phone on in her pocket and seemed to be trying to give verbal clues as to where she was. She’d actually managed to relay a lot of very useful information before she and the phone ended up separated.Unfortunately, Dewey hadn’t heard from her in a while, and he was terrified that she might be seriously hurt or even dead. He heard a lot of talking between her and her abductor, what could even be described as arguing, then screaming, a struggle, crying… then nothing. Then the phone eventually must have died or otherwise lost the connection. It had been at least half an hour since he’d heard Gale’s voice and he desperately hoped that wouldn’t be the last time.Gale had managed to be very resourceful thus far. She’d gotten so much information into the phone, funneled back to Dewey. He even knew her kidnapper’s first name… She’d done everything she possibly could to help him find her. Now it was his turn to do the heavy lifting. He couldn’t let her down. He had to find her before it was too late.Closing his car door as quietly as he could, Dewey stepped onto the loose gravel of the address’s long driveway. He immediately noticed a dark car and stepped toward it, narrowing his eyes and looking at the license plate.Dewey inhaled a steadying breath when he noticed the license plate matched Cotton’s description. ‘LYQ4P34’ Cotton had mentioned L and 34… This had to be it.Dewey fumbled in his pocket for his phone, sending a quick text to Sheriff Lake, indicating he was pretty sure he was in the right place and that she should approach the scene quietly and cautiously should she get here before he’d wrapped things up.He put his phone on silent and slipped it back into his pocket. He didn’t need it making any noise and alerting the suspect that he was here…Taking his gun out of its holster, Dewey glanced back toward the road, wondering if he should wait for backup. The other cops were checking different houses nearby. Lake would have only been five to ten minutes away… but he’d have to waste time waiting for her or someone else.. For all he knew, the killer was going to finish Gale off any second. He didn’t know what was happening inside that house. Maybe Gale only had a minute left to live… She couldn’t afford for Dewey to waste time. He needed to go in and find her. Now.So he quickly made his way up to the house’s front steps. He knew Gale had said something about going down into a basement - but that was a while ago. He didn’t know if she was still there or not… But it would be a good starting point once he got inside.Fortunately, the front door was unlocked, so Dewey carefully and quietly made his way inside, immediately noticing what sounded like a struggle - shuffling clothing, maybe even a small choking sound.Dewey’s eyes widened and he picked up his pace, heading toward the shuffling noises. He felt like he was in a dream - a nightmare - as the followed the sound of the struggle. What would he do if he made it too late? If this person killed the love of his life right in front of him?Dewey bit his lower lip, blinking back the start of tears as he turned a corner and quickly came upon the scene of a man dressed in black hovering over Gale, pinning her against the floor with his hands around her neck.“Get off of her!” Dewey yelled out without a second thought, raising his gun up. If this guy didn’t let go of Gale RIGHT NOW, he was going to kill him.Strangely, the killer did let go, sitting himself up - putting his weight on Gale’s thighs and keeping one hand on her - near her waist. Gale wasn’t moving. She looked entirely limp, unconscious… Hopefully still alive.Exhaling a shaky breath as he narrowed his eyes, focusing on Gale, Dewey shook his head. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing. “Get off of her!” He demanded again, his voice shaking.“Do you two not talk to each other?” The killer stared up at Dewey with a smirk. “I thought you were dating…” He raised his eyebrow.“Is she dead?” Dewey breathed, still holding his gun pointed at the robed stranger as he glanced between him and Gale. Gale still wasn’t moving.The man moved his hand over her chest and cocked his head to the side as he looked down at her. “Uh… Not sure…” He shrugged. “I think I might feel a heart beat-”“Get off of her!” Dewey blinked himself back into a rational mind. He didn’t need to ask this fucker that. He needed to check himself. Dewey was in control now. He was the one with a gun… “Get back against the wall! NOW!” He yelled. “Don’t think I won’t shoot you!”The stranger raised his hands defensively in front of himself, laughing and standing up to his full height, then taking a step back so that he was against the wall.“Gale…” Dewey whispered, rushing to her side and kneeling down, shaking her gently by her shoulder and placing a hand against her cheek. She was so still, so silent. “Oh my god… Gale…” He breathed.“Fucking idiot.” The killer grumbled and Dewey suddenly felt a sharp pain against the back of his head and a harsher pain in his arm as the man grabbed at his gun, easily knocking it out of his hand.“Fuck!” Dewey gasped, scrambling for the gun, unfortunately not fast enough.“Back up, Hero.” The killer chuckled.Dewey froze as he saw his own gun pointed back at him. He then looked up at the man holding it, finally actually focusing on his face and blinking when he realized he’d seen him before.“Jude Grant?” Dewey breathed, raising his hands in defense. This was the man who he’d talked to after Natalie’s body was discovered. In fact, Jude was the man who claimed to have found her. He was out at the bridge taking photos and found her…When Dewey was listening through the phone and Gale got the man to tell her his name, he didn’t make the connection. Why hadn’t he connected that? How many fucking people named Jude had he met in his life? By now, after three murders and everything that happened to Gale, the first crime scene and everyone associated was all but forgotten to him. But it shouldn’t have been. A good cop would have all the associated names at the front of his mind.Jude rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Your lack of communication skills made this a lot less satisfying than I’d hoped. This was supposed to be a beautiful web you’d both see and fear… It was wasted on you two… Officer Riley… I took very obvious souvenirs from every single crime scene and delivered them straight to her… You’re dating… Aren’t you? How did none of this come up when you spoke with her? You guys never fucking figured it out…”Dewey swallowed. He did figure out… Just… not until it was too late. Gale didn’t tell him. He bit his lower lip and looked back at Gale, crawling toward her, exhaling a relieved breath when he noticed her chest subtly rising and falling. She had quite a bit of blood on the front of her shirt though, and obvious bruises on her visible skin.“Gale…” Dewey whispered, gripping at her shirt and moving it up over her ribs to try to see where she’d been hurt. He couldn’t find a stab wound. Just blood. Maybe it wasn’t hers. Jude’s face had clearly been cut. Perhaps the blood was his.“Leave her where she is.” Jude demanded, still pointing the gun at Dewey. “And back up against the wall.”Dewey exhaled and did as he was told, noticing a knife with blood on its blade lying on the floor near his feet. He hoped it was Jude’s blood. He looked back toward Gale. The blood on her shirt wasn’t actively spreading. And it did look more like drops than something gushing from a wound on her body. She must have gotten the knife from him and attacked him back with it.With a small breath, Dewey slowly squatted down so that he might reach the knife without being obvious. He instead acted like he was out of breath, bending forward and looking down, eyeing the knife, trying to judge how many crucial seconds he’d use to grab it up and lunge toward the killer.“Why are you doing this?” Dewey frowned, looking back up at Jude. “Why did you kill those women? Why do you want to kill Gale?” He shook his head.“I don’t want to kill Gale.” Jude blinked. “I’ve always loved Gale…” He answered simply.Dewey shook his head. “No you don’t.” He disagreed.Jude stared back at him, his eyebrows raised. He looked like he was about to snap.“You don’t. You don’t love her… You don’t do this to people you love…” Dewey breathed. “You can’t claim to love her after violently kidnapping her, dragging her here against her will, hurting her…”“I didn’t hurt her.” Jude glared, shaking the gun as he made a growling noise in his throat. “Don’t you fucking say that.”Dewey exhaled, gesturing back toward Gale. “Look at her… You were choking her when I came in… She’s unconscious!”“She tried to attack me.” Jude stared back. “I never wanted to hurt her, but she’s being very difficult… I only hurt her because of what she did. I mean, look for yourself.” He scoffed, gesturing up toward his own cheek. “I deserve to get a few good swings in against someone who slashes me across the face. Yes. I hurt her. I made her cry… I’ll admit that… But she hurt me first.”Dewey felt tears in his eyes as he glanced toward Gale again, wondering what all she’d been through since she’d been here. He heard part of it over the phone, but not all of it. There was a painfully large stretch of time he couldn’t account for. He had no idea what this creep did to her during that time.Jude shook his head. “You can’t look at me like I’m a monster for making her cry… I wanted to cry too! You realize how much it hurts to get stabbed in the gut? To have a fucking knife slice open your face? I’m gonna have a scar! She’s lucky I only did what I did in response. She’s lucky I didn’t stab her too.”Dewey shook his head. He couldn’t reason with this man. Gale hurting him was self defense. She had to fight back to save herself. He wasn’t sure if Jude honestly didn’t understand that or if he was just being a prick.“I did have to get rough.” Jude smirked slightly as he glanced down toward Gale, then back up at Dewey. “She finally pushed me to get a lot more violent than I’d planned… Did you hear her screaming just now? I really only wanted her to feel pain for what she did to me… but… I have to admit, I kind of liked it…” He laughed.Dewey felt like he could cry as he looked from Gale to Jude. He didn’t hear her screaming. It must have been just before he got up to the house. “Why was she screaming?” He whispered, hearing his voice crack.Jude smiled wider, obviously enjoying being able to explain this. “Well, she attacked me, so I attacked her back… Hit her across the face. I don’t think I broke her arm, but she sure screamed like I did.”Dewey felt his heart sink as he looked back toward Gale, trying to see if either of her arms looked broken. He blinked as he noticed bruises starting to form around both of her wrists, but the bones didn’t seem misplaced… Of course, there could be lots of internal damage that would only be obvious to her.Dewey inhaled a shaky breath and looked back up at Gale’s kidnapper. He just needed to stall for time. Lake - assuming she’d read his text - could be arriving within minutes. She was more cautious than Dewey. She’d think with her head rather than her heart. She wouldn’t rush in and focus on Gale and Dewey first, leaving her open to what just happened to Dewey. She’d focus on subduing the suspect first. Ever since she’d almost been killed by Anthony last year, Lake was much more cold in that way. Suspect first. Saving a crime victim wouldn’t do a damn bit of good if the suspect killed you in the process. That’s what she always said ever since… Dewey should have listened to that. He should have just shot Jude the second he saw him.“Why are you doing this?” Dewey asked, trying to keep calm, to keep Jude talking and not acting on any of his violent impulses.Jude stared at him, narrowing his eyes. “I tried to be Gale’s cameraman more than once. Ever since Kenny got killed back in Woodsboro… Any time there’s a vacancy, I apply. I apply even when there isn’t one. I applied more times than I can count. I even offered to do it for free… If she only gave me a chance. I could have been the best camera man… and I wouldn’t have been like her other ones…”Dewey swallowed. He remembered this guy… He was the one who sent Gale all the letters - the ones she thought were kind of funny, but which made Dewey worried. He was too persistent. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, but since the letters seemed desperate without being threatening, Gale hadn’t thought much of it.“Kenny didn’t keep her safe.” Jude went on. “The stupid fucker died, leaving Gale all alone to fight actual serial killers all by herself.”Dewey blinked. “Well… He didn’t mean to die…” He breathed. And it wasn’t exactly like Gale’s camera men were meant to be her bodyguards.“Then Xavier… Obviously he wasn’t a good fit.” Jude scoffed. “She never hired me. She hired fucking Xavier. She hired a psychopath instead.” Jude’s voice started to grow more angry.Dewey stared back. “What does that make you?” He whispered.Jude let out a breathless laugh. “It’s different. I’m not killing people for attention, for fame… I’m not even a copycat of the whole Ghostface thing. I don’t care about that… This isn’t about Ghostface. It’s about Gale.”Dewey swallowed. It was true that this seemed different than the other killing sprees. Individual women all dropped in the same place, no witnesses or survivors claiming to have gotten threatening phone calls. It wasn’t a copycat at all. It was just a crazy guy obsessed with Gale… but not necessarily obsessed with the Woodsboro murder sprees that other Ghostface copycats seemed to be.“I kept applying. After Xavier, I honestly thought she might finally give me a chance. But she didn’t. She hired Stanley!” Jude scoffed. “Stanley! Obviously he didn’t protect her either. He left her all alone to get kidnapped by that psycho cop!”Dewey inhaled and exhaled a frustrated breath. Jude was very, very similar to Anthony, actually. And Stanley actually did try to protect Gale - more than any other of her camera men ever had. Stanley literally died protecting her.“I didn’t ever want to hurt her.” Jude went on. “She said no, so I was going to let that be. I was trying to find someone who could be my Gale, and none of the other girls were good enough… So I had to get the real thing… but she’s being difficult.” Jude explained, tilting his head to the side and letting out an annoyed scoff.Dewey swallowed, looking Jude up and down. There was quite a bit of blood dripped down onto the ground and Dewey could swear the dark robe he was wearing was stained even darker near his stomach. He had a cut on his cheek too. Gale definitely fought back at some point in all this. That would explain why she was unconscious on the floor - Jude didn’t like her struggling.“I’m going to give her one more chance to do what I want her to do. If she’s difficult one more time… I’m done trying.” Jude stared. “If it doesn’t work this time, I’m killing you. Then I’m killing her. I’ll kill her slow so I can enjoy it.” He glared.Dewey swallowed. “You don’t have to do that…” He breathed.“I hope not.” Jude laughed. “I hope she’ll come to her damn senses and do what I say. I don’t always enjoy killing. You know that? I’ve only ever killed four people, Dewey. I felt bad about it the first time… I didn’t want to kill the next girl, but she made me so mad… and I ended up actually enjoying killing her a lot.”“You don’t want to kill anyone else, Jude…” Dewey shook his head. “Gale means so much to you… You don’t want to kill her…”“I might.” Jude shrugged. “If she pisses me off one more time? I really might. Katrina was really satisfying to kill. I was gentle with her at first too, until she gave me a reason not to be. She hit me in the fucking face, gave me a bloody nose… She was a lot easier to manage after she was fucking dead.”Dewey grimaced, then blinked, exhaling a tense breath when Gale made a small noise and began to move subtly. She was waking back up.“Maybe she’ll be good now, knowing if she doesn’t, I’ll fucking kill you.” Jude stared, reaching down and grabbing at Gale’s arm as her eyelids began to flutter open.Dewey felt his breaths freeze in his throat. He wanted to rush to Gale’s aide, to shove Jude away from her so she didn’t have to wake up to him grabbing her, so this nightmare could be over. But Jude was armed, and Dewey was terrified that making one wrong move would mean Gale wouldn’t live through this.Gale let out a small noise - almost a sob as she immediately began to struggle. She coughed and shook her head. “Don’t-” She choked in a weak voice as she shoved at Jude’s grabbing hands.“Gale!” Dewey breathed out, grabbing up the knife and holding it behind his back while Jude was busy focusing on Gale. “It’s okay… You’re gonna be okay… Gale, I’m here.”Jude scoffed and rolled his eyes, pulling Gale up against his chest so that she was facing toward Dewey, and pressing Dewey’s gun up against her jaw. Gale hugged one of her arms against her chest and moaned a shaky, pained noise, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment.“Gale!” Dewey breathed, wanting so badly to rush to her side, to pull her out of Jude’s grip, to hold her and promise her he’d take care of her. It was so painful seeing her after being so worried, and not being able to get close, not being able to grab her in his arms and protect her.Gale blinked her eyes open and looked at Dewey with a trembling lip. “Dewey…” She whimpered, clearly just about at her breaking point. Her voice sounded strained and she had visible tear streaks down her cheeks. It was obvious her arm was hurt too - Jude had mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he’d broken it.“Gale, Love… You need to do what I say this time… Your idiot boyfriend’s here…” Jude started, pointing the gun toward Dewey instead. “And if you don’t do what I say, I’ll shoot him in fucking head.”Gale exhaled a shaky breath. Her lip quivered as she looked across the hall at him. “Dewey…” She whispered again, shaking her head slightly as silent tears started to fall down her cheeks.“It’s okay. We’ll be okay…” Dewey breathed, hoping his promise was something he could in fact deliver on. “Just do what he says, Gale… Okay? He’s not going to hurt you if you just do what he says.. You’ll be alright.”Maybe if he could get Jude to focus on Gale just for a minute, it would be long enough for Dewey to act. He had a knife… That wasn’t as fool proof as a gun, but it was still something he could work with.More tears welled up in Gale’s eyes as she looked back at Dewey, shaking her head. She clearly didn’t have as much faith in him as he’d have liked. Though honestly, he wasn’t sure of himself either. He couldn’t guarantee that either of them would leave this house alive.“Gale… Just do what he wants you to do… So he doesn’t hurt you… Please…” Dewey breathed. He only needed Jude to focus on Gale without pointing the gun at her long enough for him to attack. That was their best chance.“No.” Jude laughed. “Do what I say so I don’t hurt him.” He nodded toward Dewey. He still had Dewey’s gun pointed right at the cop. “If you don’t do what I say, I’ll shoot your little boyfriend… Understand?”Gale nodded, staring with wide eyes at Dewey.“Alright.” Jude grinned. “Let’s get this show on the road.”xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 19 - Nearing Sunrise, Saturday Morning - Dewey RileyxxxxxxDewey held his breath as he was forced to follow Jude and Gale down the stairs and into the basement.So far, Jude had kept himself very close to Gale, maintaining sharp focus and keeping the gun raised up and ready. At the moment, Dewey had no chance of ending this without putting Gale at great risk of harm or death. He couldn’t attack Jude yet - not with the gun so close to Gale. If he got her hurt or killed, he’d never forgive himself.Downstairs, it seemed Jude had put together some sort of makeshift stage. A sheet hung up on the wall surrounded by professional lighting that was presently turned off. Next to the sheet was a chair with a microphone laying on it. It was obvious what the stage was for - what he wanted from Gale. He missed her being a reporter and wanted that back. He wanted her to put on some sort of reporter show for him.Biting his lower lip as he looked around the space some more, Dewey noticed some blood stains, what looked like some clumps of dark hair on the floor… This was clearly the other half of the crime scenes he’d been working on. This was where the women at the bridge were killed, where Monique’s hair was cut off.“Put on the lipstick.” Jude ordered as he shoved a tube of lipstick into Gale’s hands.Gale frowned and cowered down, gripping the lipstick in a shaking hand. She didn’t move to do what he asked. She seemed almost frozen, unable to act, unsure of what to do.“Put it on.” Jude growled again, shoving Gale rather roughly against her shoulder so that she took a stumbling step back. “Or I’ll kill the cop, then you.” He threatened. “And your death won’t be fast.” He added with a crazed stare. “You know I can hurt you a lot along the way.”Gale swallowed, opening the tube of lipstick and bringing it up toward her mouth, slowly, with a trembling hand, dragging it across her bottom lip. Even with both her hand and her lip shaking, she managed to do a decent job.“Do you need a mirror, baby?” Jude asked, cocking his head to the side as he watched her. His tone had changed from angry and threatening to sweet within a matter of seconds.Gale shook her head no, obviously not really caring what the make up would look like. She dragged it across her top lip, then paused, staring breathlessly toward Jude, waiting on his next demand.“The shoes.” he nodded toward a pair of high heels on the ground in front of the lights he began flipping on.Gale walked over and stepped into the shoes, glancing toward Dewey for a moment, letting her eyes wander down to the fact that he was obviously hiding one hand behind his back. She seemed to know he had some sort of weapon Jude didn’t know about. Hopefully Jude wouldn’t be as perceptive. His focus seemed to mostly be on Gale.As Jude flipped all of the lights on, Gale blinked, turning her face away as the harsh lights must have hurt her eyes. Dewey noticed in the middle of all the lights was also a video camera. He was going to record whatever this was.Swallowing, Dewey stared at the camera, feeling a sick, sinking feeling in his chest. He wondered if Jude recorded the other women. Did he record the murders?“Let’s fix your hair.” Jude suggested, stepping toward Gale and reaching out a hand toward her face.Gale gasped and stepped back. “I can do it.” She breathed, reaching up with both hands and running her fingers through her hair.Jude growled, reaching out rather quickly and gripping Gale’s wrist, pulling her closer to himself and pressing the gun up against her chin.Gale whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut as Dewey flinched slightly, wanting so badly to go over and punch this guy. But he couldn’t risk it. One wrong move, and Jude might pull the trigger.“Don’t move.” Jude demanded, keeping the gun firmly in place and reaching up with his other hand to straighten up Gale’s hair. “I liked this better before. It’s still cute, but the lighter color is what I fell in love with.” He noted. “And you’ve let it grow too long… Not unattractive, but not the Gale I want.”Dewey glared at the back of the man’s head. Gale had stopped dying her hair. The darker color was her natural hair color. This man had “fallen in love” with a version of Gale that wasn’t even real. The version on TV, with the fake highlights and business attire. The cold, factual language of a reporter. Jude had no fucking idea who the real Gale was. He had no idea Gale was sweet, caring, at times vulnerable, uncertain. He didn’t realize she was a person and not just a character on his television screen.Gale trembled slightly as she stared ahead, looking at the wall rather than at Dewey. He wondered what she was thinking - if she trusted him to get her out of this or if she was trying to come up with a plan of her own.He wondered if Jude had done anything horrible to her during the painfully large chunk of time that she was left alone with him after the phone call was dropped. There was about a half hour during which the call had ended and Gale was still with this man. He didn’t know what had happened during that time.“We can dye it back to how it was.” Jude nodded. “Cut it how it used to be… And we’ll get you back to your old confident style of reporting. I’ll kill some more women for you to report on.” He offered.Gale swallowed, looking up at Jude with a frown, realizing that this man planned to somehow keep her here for a while. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen. Dewey had a lot of police looking for them right now. If Dewey didn’t end this himself, the other cops would - hopefully without making Jude feel cornered, hopefully without accidentally compelling him to kill Gale once he realized he wasn’t going to be getting out of here in any condition other than cuffed and under arrest.“Alright, Love… Let’s get it going.” Jude smiled, taking a step back and standing in front of his video camera. “Go on.” Jude nodded, pressing a button on the camera and handing Gale the microphone.Gale shrunk down slightly, shaking her head. “I don’t know what to say…” She whispered, her body visibly shaking.“Report on the murders.” Jude instructed, looking a little irritated. “You didn’t have someone telling you exactly what to say before. Do your job.”Dewey swallowed. How the hell would Jude know what happened when the camera was turned off. Maybe someone had told Gale exactly what to say. He wouldn’t know the difference.“I-” Gale hesitated, glancing toward Dewey. He hadn’t told her many details. Ordinarily he would have. She would have wanted him to… Ordinarily she might even know details he didn’t tell her, things she found out on her own… But she didn’t want to get involved this time and he had respected that. She didn’t even know the victims’ names, how many there were. She hardly knew any of this. Dewey had stopped telling her because he didn’t think she wanted to know…Jude let out a small growling noise as he stepped toward Gale, who shook her head and took a step back. “Dont’ fuck with me, Gale. You didn’t forget how to do this… Don’t act like this… Do what I said. Make it good. Like old times.”Gale’s lip trembled as she backed up, nearly pressing her back against the sheet hung up on the wall. Her eyes shined with tears.Dewey inhaled a shaking breath, wondering if his chance to attack Jude - to stab him in the back and end this - was now… He still had Dewey’s gun. He could shoot Gale so quickly if he chose to… If Dewey attacked him and he shot Gale as a response… He wouldn’t be able to live with himself. He needed to choose the right moment. He couldn’t risk Gale getting hurt - or worse.“Do the report, Gale.” Jude growled. “You won’t like what I do if you don’t cooperate.” He vaguely threatened.Gale stuck her lip out in a pout as tears started to fall. Maybe she knew what Jude meant by that. Dewey could only guess… Though his guesses weren’t anything pleasant. The fact that he was choosing women who looked just like Gale, that he was obviously obsessed with her… It certainly looked like sex was a motive. Most men obsessed with a woman included that on their list of fantasies. The chances of Jude not planning to include sexual assault in this crime were slim.“She doesn’t know a lot about the murders, Jude.” Dewey cut in, hearing in his own voice how out of breath he was. He was really fearful for Gale right now. He’d seen what this man did to the other women - to women who resembled Gale so closely. He didn’t want that to happen to her. He couldn’t let it happen. He wouldn’t.“She knows enough. Gale… Do the report.” Jude growled. “I showed you the photos. I told you the gifts were from the crime scene… You know enough to at least not just fucking stand here crying. Make a damn effort… I don’t want to have to hurt you.”Dewey grimaced and gripped the knife tight in his fist behind his back. He wondered what the chances were that Jude had already hurt Gale in the way he was fearing. She seemed so terrified, so broken. She had several visible bruises and scuffs on her body. They’d definitely struggled more during the time Dewey couldn’t account for.The thought of this man hurting Gale like that made his heart break, but it may have already happened. Maybe Dewey was too late to save her from that… But he could save her from more. He could save her now - if only he focused, found the perfect moment…“I’m…” Gale started, holding the microphone up toward her mouth. “Th-this is Gale Weathers… R-reporting from… from Woodsboro…?” She started, gritting her teeth and staring toward Jude with question in her eyes. Obviously she wasn’t sure what he wanted. They weren’t in Woodsboro, but was that what he wanted her to say? Was she meant to be pretending like she was at the crime scene? In the town at least?Jude nodded silently, staring and holding Dewey’s gun up as a reminder.“W-The Woodsboro PD have found the bodies of three women who were stabbed to death.” Gale went on, her voice still shaking as she stood herself up straight and tried her best to appear stoic and unafraid. “They have no solid leads at-”“NO!” Jude growled, balling his hand into a fist and stepping rather suddenly toward Gale.Gale shook her head, stumbling back and hitting the wall with her back. She raised her hand up in front of her defensively.“They do have leads. Talk about the missing necklace, the flower petals, the fingers. Tell them the victims fit a certain profile.” Jude demanded. “Tell them the girls’ names, where they’re from…”Gale swallowed, shaking her head slightly. “I don’t…” She whispered, glancing toward Dewey with lost eyes.“Natalie, Monique, and Katrina.” Dewey spoke up.Jude glared at Dewey.“That’s their names, Gale…” Dewey whispered, nodding reassuringly. “They’re from California towns surrounding Woodsboro, but were all found in Woodsboro, by the old bridge over the river on the edge of town. Cause of death on all three is stabbing. We haven’t found where they were killed-”Dewey trailed off, looking around the basement with a grimace. He definitely knew where they were killed now… “Well… I’m guessing they were killed here…” He noted.Gale nodded, inhaling a small breath and raising the microphone back up. “The women who were murdered are from California towns near Woodsboro. All three of the women: Katrina, Natalie, and Monica, were stabbed-”Jude let out another growling noise, but didn’t say anything more this time.“Monique.” Dewey whispered, locking eyes with Gale who stared back at him with nothing but fear in her features. “Not Monica. Monique.” He corrected.“I’m sorry… Monique.” Gale corrected. “Th-the victims fit a certain profile…” She whispered, her voice shaking further each time she glanced back at Jude, who was seemingly increasingly agitated the more Gale messed this up. “All young women with dark hair… All women from California towns near Woodsboro… Um… Th- The police found the bodies at the bridge-”“The police didn’t find the bodies…” Jude glared, squeezing his hands into fists as he became increasingly annoyed. “How often does that happen, Gale? How often do the police find their own crime scenes… I found one of ‘em. I fucking called in the first one.”“Okay…” Gale nodded. “The police received tips from… The killer called in- The first victim was reported to have been found by the killer.” She spoke, glancing back toward the camera and shrugging.“Jesus Christ, Gale…” Jude stared. “We don’t know who the killer is… God damn it… Let’s just try to get through this so we can delete this ABSOLUTE GARBAGE that you’re spewing and try again.” He growled, his voice loud, deep, almost yelling.Gale inhaled a shaky breath. Dewey could see her hand shaking as she held up the microphone, waiting on Jude to stop screaming so she could try to give him what he wanted.“You’re really disappointing me right now, Gale. You know that?” Jude continued. “I haven’t killed you… because you’re supposed to be better at this than they were. I had them try to record a news report… They pulled this shit… And I fucking stabbed them to death. Do you want that?”Gale shrunk down slightly and shook her head. “No…” She whispered.“Then do it right.” He glared.“D-do I start over?” Gale wondered.Jude shook his head no. “This is take one. Do better, but we’re gonna try it all again from the top. Practice makes perfect, right? Though I doubt you ever had to try this fucking hard before… You’re really slipping.”Gale nodded. “Okay… Um… Police are looking for suspects and are asking for the public’s help - if anyone has seen anything suspicious… Wait… You wanted me to talk about the fingers…” She mumbled to herself.Jude’s breaths increased in speed as Gale continued, stumbling through this bizarre show, trying to give the man what he wanted while clearly unsure what exactly that was.“There were items missing from the bodies… A necklace, and flowers and… one victim’s fingers were removed. These items were sent to-” Gale paused. “T-to me?” She grimaced.Jude let out a growl and grabbed toward Gale, gripping her arm and dragging her off of his makeshift stage. “You suck at this now! You’re out of practice!” He yelled, shoving Gale rather roughly so that she stumbled and fell down against the ground.Dewey flinched, wanting so badly to run to Gale’s aid, to punch Jude, to dare him to fucking ever come near her again… But Jude had his gun. One wrong move from Dewey, and Gale might be shot… So he remained still, gripping the knife behind his back, waiting for the perfect moment to strike back…Gale shook her head and crawled backward away from the angry man. “I don’t know what you want… Wr-Write me a script… I- I’ll read whatever you want… I just don’t know what you want me to say…”“You never had a script before! You just knew what to say!” Jude screamed, holding his gun out threateningly, pointing it directly at Gale.Gale inhaled a shaky breath raising one hand up defensively between herself and Jude. She kept her other arm protectively against her chest.Dewey felt his breaths freeze in his lungs. What if he shot her? What if he did it right now? What if Dewey’s last chance to use the knife to try to stop this was coming and going in this very moment? Or what if he tried something and that got Gale killed? Maybe the moment wasn’t now at all… How could he tell?“Jude… Let me tell her more about the case first…” Dewey suggested. “I never told her much. She can do what you want… She’s not been researching it like she used to. She can’t report on something she doesn’t know about…”“Why didn’t you research it?” Jude growled, stepping toward Gale with his hand balled in a fist.Gale swallowed, shaking her head and cowering down.“You used to…” Jude breathed, holding the gun up in front of himself, pointing it down at her.Gale shrunk down and looked away, choking out a small breath.“The other murders… You wanted to be involved. You wanted to find the guy. You didn’t care that you were risking everything. You loved it. You knew more than the cops… And now this? You don’t even know their god damned names? You don’t know shit!” He screamed.“Jude…” Dewey breathed, feeling himself shaking. He didn’t know what to say. This guy was angry that Gale wasn’t as involved now that he was the murderer… but obviously she had good reason not to get too close. Things like this kept happening and she was sick of it.“Even Gale can’t be Gale… You’ve put that part of yourself away… you’ve let it die…” Jude stared, grabbing Gale by the arm and dragging her up off the ground, then turning to better see Dewey at the same time. “You two have changed…” He noted, pressing his gun up to Gale’s temple, causing the woman to choke out a shaky whimper and squeeze her eyes closed.“Listen…” Dewey breathed. “You had an image of us in your head… It’s not what you expected… But that’s okay… You can just let us go… And we’ll let you go too. No one ever has to know you were involved. The police hadn’t gotten anywhere in this investigation. We had no idea it was you…”“Yes you did.” Jude stared. “That first day I met you, you were asking me questions. You were suspicious…”“I’m suspicious of everyone. Anyone who’s near the crime scene… I’m gonna ask questions. I was more suspicious of the other guy. Tadgh. I asked him more questions than I asked you…” Dewey explained. “I never followed up with you… If I thought it was you, I’d have called you into the station to ask more… We don’t have any evidence…” He lied. Obviously this entire basement, all the photos, the probable videos… The evidence was a whole mountain.Jude blinked. “I gotta decide what I want to do…” He stared. “I wanted you to be who you used to be, Gale… but maybe you’re not capable anymore… Maybe the Gale I love is gone… I need to reinvent her, and even you can’t pull it off…”Gale blinked her eyes open, staring at Jude, then glancing toward Dewey with a frown. Her breaths were quick. Her eyes were wide. She looked terrified.“If you can’t be Gale… I can find someone else… I’ll go through all the women in California until I find her…” Jude stared, his eyes cold.Gale swallowed, trying to shrink out of Jude’s grip, but only succeeding in causing the man to grab her harder. She winced as his bruising hand squeezed tightly around her arm and he pressed the gun hard against her jaw.“I’ll have to find someone else… Let’s get out of the outfit so we don’t get more blood on it.” He nodded.Gale’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “No…” She whispered, reaching up and grabbing at the front of the red blazer she was wearing. “No, I’ll try again… I can… I can do the report…”Jude shook his head. “You can’t. You’re too timid now. You’re not the cold, ruthless reporter I know and love… I’m going to find someone else. There are women out there who I can make into the perfect Gale… I thought it’d be you… It should have been… Obviously.”Dewey felt his shoulders slump as he shook his head. “Jude… Don’t… Don’t do this…” He breathed. “Please… Please don’t hurt her, Jude. You love Gale. That’s what all of this was for… Right? Because you love her…”Jude nodded. “Yes.” He agreed.Dewey exhaled a shaky breath. “So you can’t hurt her… You’re trying to make your own Gale out of other women… but you’ve got the real thing right here in front of you. This is Gale. This is the Gale you fell in love with… She’s exactly who you wanted - who you’re trying to make out of other women… She’s here. This is her… You’re just scaring her. You’ve got to give her a moment… You’re scaring her…”“She doesn’t need to be scared.” Jude stared. “She wasn’t ever scared before…”“Yes she was…” Dewey disagreed. “When the cameras weren’t on? Chasing around serial killers is fucking scary. She just put on a brave face for the camera. Let her have some time to-”“No.” Jude interrupted. “That’s a lie. Gale wasn’t scared. She wasn’t lying to me on the news reports. I watched every single one, and Gale wasn’t scared. She was fearless, strong, passionate. Nothing could stop her....” He growled.Dewey swallowed. This guy was seriously insane. He thought Gale’s entire personality was what he saw on-screen. He literally didn’t realize she was an actual person with fears, doubts, vulnerabilities. He just thought she was the stoic, professional reporter and nothing else.“If you love her, you won’t do this.” Dewey shook his head.“I do love her.” Jude stared, his eyes angry. “Don’t you claim that I don’t love her. You don’t know shit. I love her more than you do. I’ve loved her longer than you’ve known her. I watched her every night. I recorded every broadcast, watched them even when she wasn’t on anymore… You don’t know how much I love her. You have no fucking idea!” He yelled, shaking Gale slightly as his anger increased.Dewey swallowed, noticing Gale staring back at him with uncertainty in her eyes.“You left her. I’d have given anything to be with her - and you could have… but you left her alone and she wasn’t safe…” Jude glared. “I could have killed her. I had lots of chances. I was in her house several times and she didn’t even know. No one knew. Anyone could have killed her, could have broken in and raped her. You weren’t there to protect her!”Dewey swallowed. He honestly couldn’t deny that he felt horrible for leaving Gale by herself. He thought she’d be safer away from him, but it wasn’t him who put her in danger… It was Woodsboro, copycat killers… Dewey didn’t want to leave Woodsboro and Gale did… What he saw as a compromise - staying in Woodsboro and dating Gale long-distance - wasn’t really giving Gale much. He was being selfish. He wanted her and his job. He couldn’t choose… but maybe he kind of did. Maybe he’d chosen his job over her. Visiting a couple times a month wasn’t putting their relationship first at all. Not even close… Maybe giving up the Woodsboro PD was what he should have done from the start. He should have chosen Gale…“You didn’t care. No one was protecting her. You love her so much… but you find three murdered women who look just like her and don’t think to fucking tell her to be careful?” Jude went on. “Are you that dense? People stalk this woman, Dewey. Do you realize that?”Dewey almost wanted to laugh. Obviously people stalked her. Jude was one of them.“You don’t love her, Jude.” Dewey stared, hoping maybe appealing to the fact that this man thought he had some kind of bond with Gale simply from being a very obsessive fan might help them out here. “If you loved her, you wouldn’t hurt her. You wouldn’t hurt and kill women just for looking like her… If you love her, you won’t hurt her anymore. You’ll let her go.”Jude shook his head. “I didn’t hurt her.” He stared.“Yes you did, Jude…” Dewey frowned.“No, I didn’t.” Jude growled. “But I’m fucking about to. I’m sick of you two…”xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 20 - Early Saturday Morning - Still Before Sunrise - Dewey RileyxxxxxxDewey remained as still and calm as possible as he stood in the basement, watching and waiting for the right moment. He still had Jude’s knife in a tight fist behind his back. He still had an advantage the man didn’t know about. But Jude also still had Dewey’s gun, and he had it pointed at Gale, right up against her jaw at the moment. If Dewey didn’t time his moves right, Gale might end up dead.“Okay, Love. We gave it a good try…” Jude looked back at Gale. “Take off of the clothing. We’re done.”Gale shook her head, shrinking back and gripping the red blazer she was wearing in a trembling fist. Her eyes were huge as her breaths became quicker.“Honey, that wasn’t a question.” Jude laughed an annoyed, scoffing chuckle. “Take it off, or I will.”Gale swallowed and shook her head again. Tears shined in her eyes and her lip was trembling.Dewey remained silent, looking back and forth between Gale and Jude, trying to decide where his window of opportunity might be. If Jude tried to hurt her, he’d have to intervene. Even if it was risky.“Fine.” Jude glared. He rather abruptly turned back on Gale, grabbing at the blazer she was wearing and trying to pull it off of her.“No!” Gale choked, grabbing at the garment and pulling it close.“Oh… We’re doing this again?” Jude laughed, shoving Dewey’s gun roughly against Gale’s chin as he pinned her harshly against the wall. “Remember last time? You make this difficult, and you’re gonna end up on the fucking ground again. Undressed anyway. With me on top of you.” He threatened.Gale choked out a shaky sob as Dewey felt his breaths freeze in his chest.“So… You take it off or I will.” Jude glared.Dewey inhaled a sharp breath. “Jude… Please…” He felt his lip shaking. He was going to have to do something. If Jude tried to hurt her right in front of him… Dewey couldn’t just sit back and wait for the right moment. He couldn’t let that happen. He’d have to strike, even if Jude still had the gun pointed at Gale. He wouldn’t be able to watch him hurt her. He couldn’t.“Take it off, Gale.” Jude stared.Gale swallowed, her lip trembling. “I’ll do the report…” She breathed, her voice tiny. “Don’t make me… Please… Please…” She whimpered, shaking her head as her breaths grew quick and shaky. “I’ll do whatever you say…”Dewey inhaled a sharp breath, hoping this wasn’t what it looked like. Jude was referencing what he’d heard part of on the phone. He demanded Gale get changed into what she was wearing now. Gale refused. He heard a struggle, then crying… Had Jude assaulted Gale in that moment? Was that why Gale seemed so broken now? Was he threatening to do it again?It broke Dewey’s heart listening to Gale crying over the phone and not being able to do anything to help her - not being sure what was happening. Whatever had happened, it wouldn’t happen again. Not with him here now. Gale was alone before. She had no one to protect her. Now she did. Dewey wouldn’t let him hurt her again.“No. I’ve given you more chances than I can count. Take it off. Now. Or I will.” Jude threatened.Gale shrunk back, shaking her head.“Fine.” Jude growled, grabbing at the blazer and pulling it roughly off of Gale’s arms.“Stop!” Gale screamed, holding her hands up and pushing at Jude as he grabbed her shirt next.“Jude, don’t!” Dewey grimaced, squeezing the knife in his hand behind him. He was so close to using it. He was so scared his timing would be wrong. Jude still had his gun, held so close to Gale. “Jude, stop! Damn it! STOP!” Dewey screamed, his voice louder than it had been all night.By some miracle, Dewey’s tone seemed to catch Jude’s attention. The man looked over at him with raised eyebrows.“You can’t…” Dewey shook his head. “You can’t force that on someone. Jude, if you ever had any care for Gale, you won’t do this to her…”“Won’t do what?” Jude narrowed his eyes, still holding the front of Gale’s shirt in a fist.Dewey grimaced. “You won’t…” He hesitated. “You won’t force her-” He swallowed, almost afraid saying it out loud would somehow make Jude do it for sure.Jude shook his head, narrowing his eyes and laughing a dry, annoyed laugh. “You think that’s what this is?” He scoffed.Dewey swallowed, staring silently back. For a moment, the only sound that could be heard were Gale’s soft, shaking breaths - almost sobs.“Is that it?” Jude growled. “You think I’m some kind of sex-obsessed fan? You think I took her so I could have my way with her? That all I wanted was to force myself on her? To hear her beg me to stop and get some kind of sick thrill out of it? To hear her cry in pain while I took whatever I wanted like a fucking pig?”Dewey stared silently back at the man, not sure what to say. Jude seemed very much like a sex-obsessed fan… What the hell kind of person would abduct a woman, force her to wear certain clothing and makeup, record her… It seemed sexual to him. But he sure seemed offended to be accused of having that motive.“I didn’t do anything to the other girls.” Jude frowned, shaking his head and staring back at Dewey. “Don’t your autopsy people check for that? You think I’d do that?” He stared.Dewey swallowed. The pathologists had indeed checked, and they found that there weren’t obvious signs of trauma that would indicate rape, but it was hard to ever rule it out 100%. Not every victim struggled. Not every attacker was necessarily rough…“I didn’t do anything to Gale.” Jude said again, looking with a frown toward Dewey. “I love her and I wouldn’t hurt her like that. I’m not a rapist…”Dewey inhaled a sharp breath, nodding. At least Jude seemed to have some sort of morals, somewhere to draw the line. Maybe Dewey could use this in their favor. If this man really did feel like he loved Gale, like he didn’t want to hurt her… Dewey could remind him of that.“I’m not a fucking rapist.” Jude muttered again.“Good… That’s a horrible thing to be…” Dewey spoke. “I know you wouldn’t hurt someone like that. You love Gale. You care about her…” He went on, trying to use this man’s feelings about his own decency to his and Gale’s advantage.“Of course.” Jude agreed. “I love her more than anything.”“Right.” Dewey nodded. “So you wouldn’t hurt her. She’s not what you expected, but you still care about her.”Jude stared silently back at Dewey.“So let her go…” Dewey suggested. “We won’t go to the police…”“You are the police.” Jude glared.Dewey grimaced. “Well… yeah, but I’m not the best cop around or anything…” He backtracked. “I can keep a secret. No one has to know who you are.”Jude shook his head. “I can’t let you go… You both know too much, and I know you’re not gonna just let me get away with all this… I can’t… This didn’t work out… I’m as disappointed as you are. I want my outfit back, but you both have to die…”With that, he raised the gun back up, toward Dewey.“No!” Gale screamed, grabbing at the man’s arm, pulling the gun back so that he couldn’t aim it at Dewey.Dewey felt like his heart stopped as he flinched, frozen for a moment, unsure what to do as Gale and Jude struggled for control of the weapon.Everything that happened next was so quick Dewey could hardly process it. He heard a gunshot and didn’t even think about what he was doing as he lunged forward, ready to defend Gale in any way that he could.Within a half second, Gale and Jude were on the floor, both struggling for the gun. Gale was focused entirely on it, while Jude was half focused on the gun and half focused on keeping Gale subdued, pinning her legs down with his knees, holding down one of her wrists as he reached for the gun that had fallen down next to them.Dewey let out some sort of scream, raising the knife he’d had hidden and stabbing out toward the man who was presently struggling with Gale. He managed to get the guy in the back, but Jude didn’t even react to it beyond a sort of grunting sound. The man must have had so much adrenaline rushing through his veins that he couldn’t even bother feeling that he’d just been stabbed.Dewey exhaled a shocked breath as he paused for a moment, watching a dark spot begin to spread across the back of Jude’s shirt. Did the man even notice Dewey had stabbed him? He wasn’t reacting… He was still focused on Gale.As Jude continued fighting with Gale, Gale thrashed under him. Jude finally hit Gale pretty hard across the face, reclaiming the gun within the span of a few seconds as Dewey stabbed out at his back again.This time the knife stuck, and as the man moved out of Dewey’s reach, he took the knife with him. Before Dewey could even think what to do next, Jude was dragging himself up to his feet, groaning and almost growling as he grabbed Gale’s arm arm and dragged her up as well.“Get off of me!” Gale screamed as she thrashed in his grip. She let out a pained cry as Jude squeezed his hand hard around her wrist.Dewey couldn’t afford to consider the fact that the man held the gun now reason enough to remain still. If he didn’t finish the guy off quickly, he wouldn’t have a chance to later. Obviously Jude was going to kill him, then kill Gale.So Dewey lunged at him again, grabbing at the hand he was holding onto the gun with. Jude was at a disadvantage here. He may have been armed, may have been bigger and more muscular… But he was one man. Gale and Dewey were two. They could do this.As Jude lost his grip on the gun, it fell and skittered across the floor. Dewey continued pushing him back against the wall, seemingly managing to push the knife further into his back in the process.Jude let out a short, breathless gasp, blinking and choking as he released his grip on Gale, who allowed herself to stumble to the floor. She quickly crawled away.Dewey inhaled a breath, staring with wide eyes as Jude stared at him. “D-did you stab me…?” He choked.Staring back and inhaling a shaky breath, Dewey nodded. “Yes…” He whispered. “I had to…”Jude nodded slightly, reaching a hand behind himself, toward the knife sticking out of his back.“I… Didn’t know you took this…” He breathed, his words shaky, breathless.Dewey stared at him, feeling his own breaths shaking as well.Suddenly Jude let out a growling, screaming noise as she lunged toward Dewey, knife in hand.Dewey flinched and stumbled back, bracing himself, knowing letting the knife stay in the guy’s back was a foolish mistake. But before Jude had a chance to stab Dewey, a gunshot rang out through the closed space and Jude let out a scream and stumbled back against the wall.Dewey looked behind himself where Gale stood, holding his gun, still aiming it at Jude. She was shaking, looking very much like she was seriously considering pulling the trigger again. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea.Jude slid down the wall, leaving a smear of blood behind him as the knife wound on his back was rubbed against the pale-colored paneling covering the walls. He breathed in one sharp, pained breath, then his head fell back, his eyes remaining open as his lips parted slightly. He looked very much like he wasn’t going to be getting back up.Gale’s breaths were shaky as she stared back at Jude, still holding the gun up, pointing it at him. “Is he dead?” She whispered.“Gale…” Dewey exhaled, rushing up to her, taking the gun from her and pulling her into a hug. If they had to shoot him again, Dewey would do it. Gale didn’t need to be traumatized any more than she already had been.“Make sure he’s dead.” Gale persisted, pulling out of the hug and staring back at her abductor.“Okay…” Dewey nodded, letting Gale go for a moment, then walking cautiously over toward the large, formerly imposing man now slumped down against the wall. Dewey kicked his foot, then reached down with a cautious hand, feeling the side of the man’s neck for a pulse.After a moment, he shook his head. “He’s dead, Gale.” He promised.Dewey could see tears welling up in Gale’s eyes as she shrunk down a bit, biting her lip and hugging her arms around herself.“Oh my god, Gale… I’m so sorry…” He choked, pulling her into a secure embrace, feeling more guilty than he ever had in his life. He’d spent so much time away from her, letting her live over an hour’s drive from where he lived, sacrificing time together so she’d be safe…But that hadn’t worked out at all. In fact she was in so much more danger BECAUSE they lived so far apart, because Dewey hadn’t communicated to her about the case, because Gale hadn’t told him about the creepy gifts… If they’d lived together, this never would have escalated so far.Gale buried her face in his chest and let out a shaky, heartbroken sob. “I thought I’d never see you again.” She whimpered.Dewey blinked back tears as he held her closer. He’d thought the same.He flinched and felt Gale do the same when the door to the basement was suddenly pushed rather harshly open.“Police!” Lake’s voice boomed down the stairs, followed by the sound of her footsteps.If Dewey didn’t recognize her voice, he’d have thrown his hands up in surrender. She sounded pissed… But he knew she was only so urgent because she must have heard the gunshots, and had no idea who had fired, who had been hit…“We’re okay!” Dewey called back, keeping his arms protectively around Gale’s shoulders as he turned toward Lake’s voice.Lake kept her gun raised as she made her away around them and headed straight for the suspect, kicking the knife away from his hand before reaching down to check for a pulse.Dewey grimaced. That was a good idea. Why hadn’t he kicked the knife away first?“He’s dead…” Dewey told her.Lake continued her assessment anyway, then finally stood back up and stepped toward Dewey and Gale. “I’ve got an ambulance on the way.” She spoke.Dewey swallowed. “We’re okay…” He said again, then frowned and looked down at Gale. He supposed he didn’t actually know if she was okay. Jude had been choking her when he found them. She was unconscious… Her arm was very possibly broken or at least sprained. She probably did need to be checked out at the hospital.“I can’t believe it was him…” Lake exhaled, shaking her head. “Right in front of our eyes, all along… Gale…” She leaned slightly to the side so she could see Gale’s face better. “Are you alright?”Gale swallowed, turning toward the sheriff and nodding. “I think so…” She whispered.“Alright.” Lake put her hand on Gale’s shoulder and looking her up and down. “I think you should go to the hospital just in case. You too, Riley.”Dewey nodded. He didn’t think he really needed to… but he also knew allowing himself to get checked out would mean Gale was more likely not to shrug off her injuries.“We’re pretty sure it’s just one killer this time?” Lake cautiously looked around the room.“Yeah.” Gale let out a soft laugh. “And hopefully this is the last fucking time…”“You said it.” Lake laughed, pulling Gale into a quick hug, then clapping Dewey lightly on the shoulder. “Glad you’re both okay… Let’s try to never fucking do this again…” She breathed.Dewey exhaled and nodded. He hoped that would be the case. He wasn’t sure how much more of this kind of thing he could handle.xxxxxx

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xxxxxxChapter 21 - Early Saturday Morning - Gale WeathersxxxxxxGale closed her eyes as she leaned against Dewey, smiling slightly at the feeling of his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. She hadn’t genuinely felt this safe in months. Maybe longer. She wished she had never moved away from Dewey. She wished she’d spent the past several months just like this, wrapped safely up in his warm embrace, clinging to someone she trusted during her moments of fear and doubt instead of trying to get through it all alone.Despite everything that had happened, Gale actually felt safe now. Nothing else bad was going to happen. No matter how many weird creeps were still out in the world, right now, it didn’t matter. Right now, she was protected. Dewey was here now. She was safely in his arms and he wouldn’t let anything else happen to her.They were presently at the hospital, in the emergency room. Gale was exhausted after numerous doctors examining her, having x-rays taken of her arm, then waiting on those x-rays to be read and dealing with the results.The doctors had suggested Gale stay over night - mostly because she’d been hit fairly hard several times as well as choked to unconsciousness - also several times. She was also pretty scuffed up in plenty of other places. The ulna bone in her forearm was fractured. Her wrist on her other arm was sprained as well. Dewey had actually been hit pretty hard too - not hard enough to knock him out, but still pretty hard. They’d checked him for a concussion too and determined he was probably fine.Gale felt fine too, more or less. She was fairly traumatized, was definitely in a bit of pain from being thrown around so much, but physically, she felt okay enough… Now that her injuries had been tended to, she’d been given pain-relieving medicine, and she was safe in Dewey’s arms, she wasn’t too worried about her physical safety.Staying in this room wouldn’t erase the trauma, and wouldn’t undo the fact that the creep who abducted her hit her and choked her and twisted her arm until one of the bones literally cracked. That was already done… If the doctors and Dewey hadn’t insisted that she stay, she wouldn’t have. But she couldn’t deny that she did indeed feel like the hospital was a sort of fortress. If in some cruel twist there was a second killer out there waiting on her, he probably wouldn’t come in here. She really did feel safer in the emergency room than she might if she were at home, or at Dewey’s house. For now, she wanted to appreciate that.“I can’t stop thinking about how messed up it all is…” Dewey whispered as he sat next to Gale on her hospital bed, running his fingers gently through her hair. “Jude was there from the start. The very first crime scene. He called in the tip, Gale. From the first moment we knew someone had been murdered - he was the one who called it in… But he didn't stand out. He just seemed like an unlucky guy who happened to find a body and call it in.”Gale frowned, keeping her eyes closed, though she was listening to everything Dewey was saying. “Looking back, does it make more sense?” She wondered.She felt Dewey shaking his head next to her. “Not really. There was actually a second witness I was more suspicious of. Jude seemed pretty calm… but maybe that should have been a sign - that the guy who wasn’t as disturbed about finding a murder victim was the one acting odd between the two of them. The second guy was angry, irritated… Jude was very cooperative.”Gale shrugged. That made sense. Of course the killer would try to appear cooperative. The other guy acted angry because finding a murder scene was awful. He hated that it happened to him. Jude didn’t care, because he created the scene. Gale frowned. "The other man..." She spoke, staring ahead and breathing in a soft breath. "He couldn't be an accomplice, could he?" She turned her head slightly to see Dewey's face better.Dewey shook his head no. “I really don't think so... They didn't seem to know each other... Jude said he was trying to take photos of the bridge - the sunrise over it or something.” Dewey spoke. “I wonder if he wasn’t going call us at all - but he was there dumping the body when the other witness drove up on him - so he had to make up a reason to be there - a reason to be right next to her.”Gale frowned. “Photos?” She looked up at Dewey.“Yeah… I mean… He did hand some over to Sheriff Lake… I’m sure he didn’t take them after the second guy got there - so he really was taking photos… Maybe the whole thing went exactly how he planned it.” Dewey speculated.Gale swallowed, remembering everything that had happened. “He had photos of the women he killed.” She noted. “He showed them to me. I’m sure the cops will collect them… I think they all ended up all over the basement floor… He threw them at me when he got angry…” She remembered.Dewey grimaced. “That’s so creepy… He handed over polaroids to the sheriff. Ones he took of the bridge. Natalie was in the shot, but just barely. He probably framed it that way on purpose.”“It does kind of add up in the end, Dewey.” Gale noted. “He was the guy sending me the camera man letters… So he was an aspiring cameraman… He also was an aspiring photographer - though polaroids aren’t the usual go-to format for a professional.”“Well… Obviously he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.” Dewey frowned. “No wonder you didn’t hire him.”Gale let out a soft laugh. “The camcorder he had in the basement wasn’t shit either.” She smirked.Dewey shook his head and hugged her closer. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” He breathed.Gale leaned closer to him, laying her head against his chest. “I’m glad you are too.” She whispered.When Jude threatened Dewey, that was the moment she stopped feeling like she could choose to fight back whenever she felt too cornered. It wasn’t just her life she was risking anymore. As soon as Dewey got there, she was more scared than ever. That shouldn’t have been the case. She should have been relieved to see him… but she wasn’t. She was terrified for his sake, terrified she was going to watch Jude kill him, and then still be in the same predicament as before - only with her boyfriend dead on the ground at her feet.“He showed you the photos?” Dewey suddenly asked, finally seeming to register in his mind what she had said a few moments before. “Like, photos of them dead?”Gale swallowed, nodding. “Yes. Alive and dead… Wearing the clothing he made me wear… Then back in their own clothing and stabbed… When he told me to take the clothing back off…” She trailed off, blinking back tears. The thought of putting the clothing on had been terrifying, but when he wanted her to change back out of it? She was so fucking sure she was about to die.Dewey closed his eyes and shook his head. “You must have been so scared, Gale…”Gale nodded. “Yeah.” She forced a small, breathless laugh. “In the photos, he had all the women wearing that red skirt and blazer… He made them put on the same outfit he made me wear… The one like I wore that night - when Billy and Stu…” She trailed off.“He must have fixated on that one news report.” Dewey guessed.Gale nodded. “When he showed me those photos… and then gave me the clothing…” She cut herself off when her voice started to shake.Dewey wrapped his arm tighter around her, wordlessly pulling her closer.“He had photos of them stabbed to death… I-” Gale whimpered, biting her lip as she felt her throat growing tight. She genuinely thought he was going to kill her. “He was trying to make them into me… Make them dress up like I did that night… And then… Showing me photos of them dead? Obviously it didn’t look like it was going to end well for me…”“Gale… I’m so sorry…” Dewey breathed. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you more. After a few victims, it was developing into a pattern. It was clear he had a type, and that type was-” He cut himself off with a grimace.Gale looked down, swallowing a lump in her throat. She knew what he was thinking. The type was her. This guy targeted women who looked like her. He was trying to recreate her with these poor women. He sent her tokens from the murders. The necklace, rose petals, even actual fingers…Now that it was all over, it was painfully obvious what the guy was thinking. He tried to turn all three of his victims into Gale. He sent her gifts to feel more connected, then finally gave up on making a Gale out of other women and took the real thing.“I didn’t want to bother you with something like this because it’s scary.” Dewey went on. “I could tell you didn’t want to hear about this… You’ve been through enough, so I didn’t want to scare you… If I honestly thought you were in danger, of course I would have said something. I should have said something.”“You did.” Gale reminded him. He’d told her the same day Jude finally kidnapped her. She hadn’t taken it seriously either. “You told me, Dewey. I was the one who didn’t tell you. You told me the victims looked like me. You kept telling me to lock my doors and be careful… I was the one who failed to tell you some guy in a ghost mask broke into my fucking house…”Dewey shook his head. “I should have made sure you knew it was obviously a pattern - that three victims, all looking like you-”“You told me, Dewey.” Gale frowned. He did. She was the one who didn’t want to believe it could have anything to do with her - even after a guy actually broke into her house. She was the one being so naive it was almost idiotic.“Not enough.” Dewey frowned. “I mentioned it as a small possibility, but I should have taken it more seriously. I was being naive. I just really wanted it to not be what it looked like. I didn’t want for it to have anything to do with you.”“I know.” Gale frowned. “Lots of women have dark hair, Dewey… It really was sort of a stretch… Seeing three brunette women killed an hour and a half away from where I live and then jump to the conclusion that it was all about me…? There are so many other women with the same features - it wasn’t about them… Why would it be about me? You couldn’t have known.”Dewey shook his head. “My partner mentioned they looked like you. Lake mentioned it… I thought it. I just… I thought you were already kind of traumatized about before. I didn’t want to bring you into it. I was worried if I said too much, that it might draw you closer, bring you back to Woodsboro - make you a target. I didn’t know you already were. I didn’t want you involved.”Gale shook her head, letting out a soft laugh. They’d both kept things from each other. They should have just been transparent, been honest.“Why are you laughing?” Dewey frowned.“Nothing…” Gale closed her eyes and shook her head. “I just… I felt the same way, kind of. I was getting creepy gifts, but I knew you had a whole case going on. I didn’t want you to worry. We should have just told each other. If I told you about each of them? It's obvious they were from the crime scenes… He threw petals all over the one girl, left the same ones on my doorstep. I mean, the fingers was obviously something serious, and I definitely would have told you that one, but I didn’t have time. The necklace. I should have told you about that. The woman was probably missing it, and if we communicated, we could have figured that one out.”“You did tell me, Gale… You told me someone sent you a necklace… I should have connected that. The very first victim had a mark on her neck, like she’d been choked with a small chain - like a necklace.” Dewey frowned. “We knew we were looking for a necklace, and you’d been sent one… I’m so stupid…”Gale opened her eyes again looking up at Dewey with a frown. “Don’t say that.” She whispered, reaching up and touching his cheek with her hand. “You’re not stupid… You found me… You saved me…”Dewey closed his eyes and shook his head, scoffing softly. “You pretty much gave me the address, Gale.”“Not completely. I couldn’t even read the whole thing.” Gale pouted. “Don’t call yourself stupid, Dewey. If you were stupid, you wouldn’t have found me. You wouldn’t have thought to grab the knife and keep it hidden, to wait for the right moment. Your quick thinking saved my life.”Dewey looked back down at her. She noticed in this moment that he had tears in his eyes.Gale felt her own lip tremble as she looked back. Seeing him upset made her heart hurt. “It’s okay…” She whispered, reaching up and touching his cheek again. “We’re both okay now…”Dewey swallowed and nodded. He still looked upset. Still looked like he was seconds away from breaking.Gale shook her head. “Don’t cry…” She grimaced.Dewey exhaled and hugged her even closer, using both arms and practically pulling her into his lap. Gale wrapped her arms around him as well, leaning her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes.“It was so hard to listen to that phone call…” Dewey whispered. “I know I’m being selfish by being upset about that… You were there. You lived it… But hearing it… Hearing him hurt you, threaten you, yell at you… And you sounded so scared…” He shook his head.Gale blinked her eyes open, staring at the wall behind Dewey as she remained in his secure embrace. Dewey very likely couldn’t tell what was happening during parts of that call… when she kept the phone on, when Jude was demanding that she change clothing… Then she refused and he attacked her. Dewey had probably heard the struggle… Gale wasn’t sure what either of she or Jude said during that. Maybe it sounded even worse than it actually was… but it truly was fucking awful.“I heard you crying…” Dewey whispered.Inhaling a small breath, Gale nodded silently. She couldn’t remember every single part of the ordeal, but yes, she was certain she’d cried a bit during it. It was terrifying. She had felt so defeated, so humiliated and frightened.Dewey hugged her tighter as he went on. “It was hard to tell what was happening just by listening… He sounded angry, and it sounded like he hit you… You were crying…”Gale swallowed, still staring silently at the wall as she remembered what had happened. It was just about the most frightening experience of her life. She genuinely thought he was going to rape and kill her. But after everything that happened, she wasn’t sure he really wanted the first half of that. He’d had lots of chances and he didn’t take them. He seemed more interested in her as some sort of trophy or doll. He wanted to dress her up, to make her hair and makeup look the way he liked. Beyond a bit of awkward staring and that one moment where he focused on her bra… he didn’t make any move to do anything like that. He barely even touched her after she was undressed. He didn’t want her to be unclothed - he wanted her to be in the clothing he chose for her.“Did he hurt you?” Dewey wondered. “Did he… I know he said he didn’t… But did he make you-” He cut himself off.“No…” Gale shook her head, making an educated guess at what Dewey was trying to ask. “He just wanted me to wear the outfit. I refused… I didn’t want to get undressed in front of him. I was scared… I was scared of the same thing you’re worried about, but he didn’t do that… He didn’t even try…”Dewey pulled back a bit, looking down at Gale with a frown, tucking some of her hair behind her ear, then leaving his hand on her neck as he stared intently into her eyes.“I’m okay.” Gale promised. “He didn’t… He just wanted me to wear the outfit. That’s all… He even pulled my clothes off…” She noted, looking away and biting her lip. “When I refused, he grabbed me, pinned me down, and pulled off my shirt and pants… I thought…” She paused, swallowing a lump in her throat and blinking back tears.“Gale…” Dewey frowned, rubbing his thumb gently over her cheek.“I was probably crying then.” She guessed, though she could barely even honestly remember specific details of those moments. It was like a blurred nightmare. “I thought he was going to hurt me… I refused to change into the outfit because I was afraid if he saw me undress, he wouldn’t be able to control himself… So I wouldn’t do it. I told him he had to look away… and he got angry and pulled my clothes off himself.”“You must have been so terrified. We couldn’t rule out sexual assault on the victims, and one had her shorts on inside out… When he took you, I worried that was his plan - or at least part of it.” Dewey spoke.Gale shook her head. “The shorts were probably inside out because he made her get dressed in the skirt, then put the shorts back on her to kill her without ruining the red outfit. That’s what he said to me, remember? That he didn’t want the outfit ruined… He was going to make me change out of it before stabbing me.”Dewey shook his head. “I was afraid - when he was trying to take the clothes off of you himself - that it’d be a repeat of what I’d heard over the phone. And I didn’t understand what I’d heard. You were scared, so I wasn’t sure if he already hurt you… if you already knew what he’d do and were afraid…”Gale let out a soft, dry laugh. “I wasn’t afraid of that anymore. Not the second time…” She whispered. “I was afraid he was going to kill me. He showed me photos of the women wearing the outfit, then wearing their own clothes again - and stabbed to death. I knew once he made me change out of the outfit…” She trailed off.Dewey exhaled. “I guess part of me feared it would be both things. That he’d… You know… and then kill you after. I wasn’t gonna let him, Gale. I had the knife, and I told myself if he tried, that I’d have to do something, even if the moment wasn’t right. I wasn’t going to let him hurt you like that.”Gale smiled slightly. “Thanks, Dewey.”“I was so scared for you…” Dewey frowned. He looked like he was close to tears again. “I hated not knowing… Wondering if he already hurt you… Fearing he was going to try again…”“Don’t be upset, Dewey… It’s all okay… We’re alright.” Gale promised. “He didn’t-” She paused to breathe in a steadying breath. “He didn’t rape me…” She shook her head, finally just saying it. “I don’t think he wanted to. He could have, and he didn’t.”Dewey inhaled a sharp breath, hugging her against his chest. “I hate that… I hate hearing that… That he could have…”Gale nodded. “Well… it’s true. He pulled off my clothes and had me pinned under him… Dewey, he could have.” She said again, feeling tears stinging at her eyes.She hated it too, knowing that if that was what he wanted, he would have done it. The only thing that kept her from being violently sexually assaulted was the fact that the crazed lunatic who had her pinned almost naked to the floor didn’t feel like doing it. If that was what he wanted, he would have done it, and she and Dewey would be having an entirely different conversation right now.“I don’t want you to ever leave my sight again, Gale.” Dewey frowned.Gale let out a small laugh.“I’m serious… I don’t want you so far away. I don’t want you on your own… This guy couldn’t have ever targeted you like this if you were still living with me.” Dewey frowned.Gale blinked. He was right. Staying away from Woodsboro didn’t make her safe. The creeps followed her… All it meant was that she was alone. Not any safer whatsoever, and also all alone.“Can we move in together?” Dewey blurted.Gale stared back at him.“I don’t care if it’s your house or mine… or somewhere else entirely. We can go to Alaska for all I care…” Dewey continued. “Just as long as we’re together.”Gale smiled and let out a soft laugh. “I agree.” She nodded. “I don’t care where we live… but I do want to be together. I feel safe with you, Dewey. We’ve both been through a lot… Being alone won’t make those memories go away.”“We should have stayed together.” Dewey agreed.Gale blinked, staring at the front of Dewey’s shirt, feeling like they were having a conversation they’d already had many times before. When were she and Dewey going to learn? They should have stuck together better through every single trauma they’d endured. They always regretted staying distant. They needed to stop making the same mistakes over and over again.Gale inhaled a shaky breath and closed her eyes. “I thought I could run from the trauma by leaving Woodsboro, but that didn’t work at all. I was also leaving you, and I needed you. I was so scared, so on edge… all the time. Not even just recently. It was the whole time. I didn’t feel safe for a second.”Dewey frowned. “You didn’t?”Gale shook her head. “I haven’t felt okay in a long time…” She whispered. “I thought leaving Woodsboro would help and it didn’t. It meant leaving you too, and I think I only felt worse… I felt so alone. I had Cotton, who I’m not really close with. And that’s it… I don’t talk to him like I talk to you.”“Gale…” Dewey’s shoulders slumped. “I missed you so much… I thought I would be selfish to say it - to imply that you should be with me…”Gale shook her head again. “I thought I was being selfish wanting to you come to San Francisco… I didn’t want you to give up the Woodsboro PD, but I wanted to be with you so badly. I was scared every day… I didn’t say so. I didn’t want you to see me so broken, but I am broken, Dewey.” She whispered. “I’ve been broken this whole time. Even after Billy and Stu… I don’t think I’ve ever really felt right again since that night.”Dewey cocked his head to the side and looked intently into her eyes. “Really? You seemed so put together. I didn’t think Billy and Stu affected you at all…”“I didn’t think so either, but they did…” Gale frowned. “I felt so numb to all of it for so long, but I think it was my mind trying to protect me. I didn’t even think Xavier affected me that much until Anthony killed Stanley. I didn’t let Stanley close because I didn’t trust him. Because of Xavier… and I didn’t let Xavier close because I missed Kenny…” She felt her lip trembling. “Losing Kenny hurt and I thought if I lost Xavier the same way… I didn’t want it to hurt…”Dewey shook his head, pulling her into a closer hug. “I never realized you felt much of anything about Kenny…” He whispered.“I did…” She whimpered. “I wasn’t very nice to him… b-but he was my friend. We were kind of rude to each other, but it was almost like what siblings do. Maybe he didn’t feel the same way about me, but I almost saw him like a brother. We spent so much time together… I think he was my friend… I know it’s weird that I can’t say that he definitely was… I mean, maybe he hated me… I don’t make friends, Dewey. I’m such a bitch most of the time.”“No you’re not.” Dewey frowned. “I’m sure he thought of you as a friend too. You did spend a lot of time together.”Gale let out a small laugh and shook her head. “I won’t pretend we were best friends… I’m not going to idealize our relationship after the fact… but Kenny and I spent a lot of time with just the two of us. We traveled for our jobs - just me and him. We had lots of time to just talk about life, or whatever… and he did mean something to me. It might have seemed like I moved on quickly and literally didn’t care when he was killed, but I did… I did care.”“Gale…” Dewey breathed. “I’m so sorry all of this happened. You’ve lost a lot.”“So have you.” Gale sniffed.Dewey nodded. He’d know better than Gale what pain felt like. He lost his little sister. Tatum meant the world to him. He’d lost friends too - cops at the police department. Dewey definitely lost even more than Gale did. She was probably being selfish to even imply to him that she was in pain right now, that she felt such great loss… when he’d lost so much more.“I’m not okay, Dewey.” Gale said again.“But you will be.” Dewey assured her. “I’m going to be with you. We can work it out together… I’ll keep you close, keep you safe. I promise.”Gale exhaled and leaned further into his side. “If this ever happens again, we’re working together. No secrets. Anything one of us knows, we’re sharing. We’ll solve the next one as a team.”“Don’t say that… It’s not going to happen again.” Dewey frowned.“Four times now, Dewey. Four serial killers killing people in Woodsboro, roping us into it, almost killing us…” Gale reminded him. “It’s been a fucking annual event at this point.”“This last time was something different though.” Dewey reminded her.“Didn’t feel different to me.” Gale stared at him with raised eyebrows.“I guess I see your point.” Dewey grimaced. “It wasn’t like the other murder sprees, but it was still pretty fucking scary for you and me… But it’s not going to happen again. If you get creepy mail, I’m gonna know about it…”“Let’s move somewhere completely out of state.” Gale suggested, closing her eyes and leaning her head against Dewey’s shoulder. “No one needs to know where we live. We can move to a cabin in the woods.”Dewey laughed. “That sounds like the plot of a whole different type of horror movie, Gale.”Gale frowned. “Then we can just go to Chicago or something.” She shrugged. “Nowhere in California. California is cursed.”“We’ll figure it out.” Dewey assured her. “Wherever we end up, we’ll be together. We’ll communicate better… We’ll both be safe.”Gale smiled, closing her eyes and laying her head on Dewey’s shoulder again. She knew he was telling the truth, and she was going to learn from the horrible mistakes they’d both made. Gale and Dewey weren’t meant to be apart, and from here on out, they never would be again.xxxxxx