may Ꭷ

Sam carefully placed her lunchbox down, walking towards and knocking at the next stall's door, and no answer came for minutes, until the girl inside it opened the door and stumbled back.

"Uhm, hi! I.. I wasn't expecting someone waiting for me, uh.. here, of all places," Chrissy muttered, her bangs slightly disheveled and her expression something between extremely panicked and strangely calm, "uhm, anyway, what's your name? I don't think I've seen you here before." - "I'm Sam, Samantha Fraser."- "I-It's nice to meet you, I'm Chrissy Chunningham." she stumbled a bit to speak “ are you okay? I thought I heard you throwing up” - “ I’m fine! Don’t worry about it ..” but it was clear there was something up.

Sam and Chrissy stared at each other for a few rather awkward seconds before Sam picked up her forgotten lunchbox from the ground and took a step back.

“so.. break is almost over, but.. if you need anything, I entered the cheer team and since you’re wearing the uniform .. we’ll see each other soon” — “yea! About that, I’m actually the capitain” — “oh, that’s nice” — “yea, uhm, see you then!” — “yea, cya”

The rest of the day went by in a blink, and Sam found herself looking forward to cheer practice, because something about that girl, Chrissy Chunnin.. Qunnin.. she couldn't quite remember her name, but what she could remember is that something about the things she said didn't match the way she looked - not about her being the cheer captain, that she knew it was true, but she didn't look as much "okay" as she promised to be.

Sam was walking her way home to her rented apartment, when something moved between the trees from the forest across from the street, and as she noticed ginger-ish hair flowing, and that one pink backpack she saw in the bathroom before, there was no doubt it was Chris.. not Chris.. Cassie maybe? Whatever that girl's name was, and not that Sam was a creep or anything, but we ain't gonna lie, that felt suspicious as fuck.

The grass bent when Sam's foot fell on it after jumping over the fence, to try to find the rushing Chrissy inside the long and dense forest she now found herself in as well, her eyes searching for something- anything- that could prove she wasn't actually going crazy, and Chrissy was actually there, as odd as it seemed to be, though she certainly wasn't expecting to find chrissy near a picnic table staring at .. nothing?

"Chris? Is everything okay?"

Again, silence filled the already quiet space- only for Sam, because Chrissy could clearly hear her screams upon standing right in front of a clock with tiny black spiders crawling from the inside of it.

Sam gently shook Chrissy's shoulders, taking another step closer.

" Chrissy !!" Sam shook her harder, grabbing her arms to turn Chrissy around, to find out the girl's eyes went blank.

Panicked reached Sam's face in almost record time, her eyes widening at the sight of Chrissy's dead-alike eyes, her hands catching her face, and her bag fell from her shoulder, and she gently tapped Chrissy's face.

" WAKE UP, CHRISSY!"

Chrissy blinked hard at the shout, her mind quickly clicking off of Vecna's trance and her iris and pupil returning to color, also with slightly wide eyes, her first view being Sam's horrified face, only a few inches from hers, and the first feeling was warm hands clinging almost desperately onto her face.

Chrissy looked back to the same place she was staring a few moments ago. "What are you doing here?!" Chrissy whispered, "I could ask you the same thing!" - "did you follow me here?" - "I did not- well, kinda, but what was happening with your eyes?" - "I-"

Dark curls could be seen from behind a tree trunk, not too far from them, a voice interrupting Chrissy's explanation, "You actually came-"

Both girls jumped in surprise; Chrissy, still scared from the whole clock thing, and the fact that the same completely disappeared from its place, clung onto Sam, almost making both fall.

"oh, hi, Eddie." - "I still can't believe Chrissy fucking Cunningham is standing right in front of me with ... I'm sorry, who are you?" - "That's Sam, uhm, she's .. a new girl on the cheer team" - "Ah, okay, good afternoon Sam, it's nice to meet you"

Sam stared at the new appearance, her eyes flickering between the guy who clearly didn't look her age and the small suitcase that he held.

She took a step to the side and nodded quickly, "yea, good afternoon, and I came from Ohio, maybe that's why you never saw me before"

" did you bring it? " Chrissy interrupted, careless but equally worried "nice and clean" Eddie pointed the suitcase at her.

" Is this drug dealing ?!" Sam shouted before Chrissy slammed her hand against Sam's mouth, "don't yell it!"

“So, how was your night, sweetheart?” Her mom murmured. “It was ..” Airi played with the apples with her fork “Fine, just, next time mom, can you please ask your sister to take care of you? You know Halloween is my favorite holiday”. “ I know that Airi, but you know how vulnerable I am right now, won’t you do your mom a favor?” Her mom pleaded, taking another apple slice. “I know mom, and I’ve been helping you for the past 4 months, and I really care about you but you also should considerate I really like halloweens” “It’s just a Holliday, you’ll have another one” “next year” “Exactly!”

Airi sighed heavily and stood up again, taking her untouched bowl with her.

“where are you going?” Her mom replied, maybe a little to fast. “I’m not hungry”

Airi came to the kitchen and washed her bowl, staring at the phone like it had offended her, she was still thinking about Sarah’s call, and whether or not it was actually important.

Airi spent the next hours writing on her diary:

“011/01/86 , last night was Halloween, and mom made me stay home to take care of her, she didn’t needed to, she could’ve asked aunt Rachel to take care of her, she’s her sister and a nurse at Jefferson high! She’d probably take better care of her than a 16 year older like me, tho around midnight I received a call from Sarah, which is weird, she haven’t talked to me since she moved to Nashville, and I think I took out my anger from not being able to trick or treat with Lauren and Mary on her because I hung up when she was trying to speak, but I still cannot understand why she’d call me, maybe I should call her back but I didn’t note the number, but if I do, I will be more careful with my words”

It was weird to write that, to be honest, Halloween that year was weird in general, and that had been doing had been doing things to Airi’s mind.

Around noon, Airi fed her mother and took a ride on her bike to downtown, mostly to buy the medicines she noted last night, but also to feel fresh air and try to forget the happenings of the Halloween night that still bothered her.

Airi wasn’t surprised to see weird things in her town, she actually lived in a suburb in Jefferson City, and to be honest, she already saw everything; people in bathing suits in the winter, people dressing like it was the 60’s, kids with cigarettes .. all of this made her consider Jefferson City her home, her safe place, but what she definitely wasn’t expecting was to see her best friend, Lauren, holding hands with …

No way. No way Lauren was holding hands with …. Sarah fucking Jane ?!

Airi paused her bike on its tracks, her gaze was sharp, more focused on the fact that the girl she had trusted everything was holding hands with the girl she had been thinking about for the past hours ever since she called her.

“Sarah ?!” Airi echoed quietly, almost loosing balance even tho her bicycle was perfectly still. Jane and Lauren also stopped, Sarah wasn’t quite surprised, her expression stayed almost … calm— meanwhile Lauren let go of Sarah’s hand like it burned. “Hi, Airi” Sarah murmured.

a.n. : AHHH I’M SO EXCITED TO WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER AA, hope you enjoyed this, and I will do a post talking more about the characters!!