#{plot drop 01}

Silvio risks getting in trouble from his co-workers as he pulls the grate down a whole fifteen minutes earlier than he’s supposed to. He knows that Bo has the closing shift, and during his lunch break visit to Showtime, he promises that the two of them will walk home together (for the sake of safety in numbers, of course.) He holds his hands to his mouth to amplify his voice, and calls out to catch the other mans attention. Bo looks up with a smile as he works on finishing the restocking of the shelves.

Lily is out the back, counting the money as it’s being put into the safe. But conversation between Bo and Silvio stops as the trio hear a loud, screeching noise of metal against metal. Lily pokes her head into the main shop area, brows knitted. Silvio’s expression immediately turns to one of concern, which he expresses to Bo. “That doesn’t sound like a grate closing…” Silvio says.

Bo puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, “It’s alright, it’s probably nothing to worry about. I’ll go check it out! You stay here if you’re scared,” he tells him. If anything, Bo is curious about what has caused the noise. Lily shrugs a shoulder and returns to counting – the sooner she finishes, the sooner she can leave. Bo steps out of the door and turns left immediately – walking right into a tall figure. Before he can really perceive the figure or apologise for not looking where he’s going – there is a screaming pain in his abdomen. He looks down, a knife having been plunged into the side of his lower abdomen, blood beginning to seep into his clothing. When he looks up, he sees a twisted, smiling jack-o-lantern mask.

Bo shrieks in pain, grasping the knife tightly as he lashes out against the killer, kicking out away from him as he runs hurriedly back into Showtime for help. “Silvio!” he screams desperately, “We need to leave, we need to go we need to leave right now-” Lily rushes out into the main room, not quite sure as to whether Bo is being serious or whether he’s playing a cruel prank on his friend. Silvio runs to Bo, gasping in horror as he sees the knife still stuck inside of him. He attempts to help Bo, eyes focused solely on him as his hands reach for the knife – more worried about his wellbeing than running, still not having registered or understood what’s happening.

Before Silvio touches the knife, Jack grips the man by the throat, squeezing tightly as he slams him against the wall. Silvio yelps as his head splits upon impact. He’s unable to say anything, as Jack’s viciously tight grip on his throat has cut off his air flow. His vision starts to go black, and all he does is whimper in pain. As Silvio struggles weakly against the killer, Bo, who seems to have forgotten all about the knife in his abdomen, grabs the closest object to hurl at Jack. He tosses the video tapes at the killer one after the other, though they don’t seem to affect him in any way.

Jack turns to face Bo. He lets go of Silvio, and the injured man slumps to the floor, head thumping as he reaches up to feel the blood that’s dripping from the back of his head. Jack slowly makes his way to Bo, nothing audible except for the sound of heavy breathing from the injured men and the thumping of the killers heavy boots against the floor. Lily, having just been watching in horror, runs to try and help Bo. She frantically looks around them, trying to think of some kind of plan other than running. Before she can think of anything, Jack pushes a metal shelf over with ease, the shelf hitting Lily and bringing her down harshly. “Fuck-” Lily cries out in pain, the videos, the metal of the industrial shelf and the hard floor inflicting scrapes, cuts and bruises all over.

It’s like a lightbulb switching on in his head as he witnesses what the killer does. Seeing how effective the shelf is against his friend, Bo throws his body weight into the shelf next to him with a loud scream of pain at the impact of the knife still buried inside him – but the shelf is successful in obstructing the killer’s path to him. Lily brushes off the pain quickly, wiggling out from underneath the shelf and running to Silvio at the doorway. “C’mon get up, you have to get up,” she mutters as she helps the man to his feet. Silvio feels a wave of dizziness when he’s standing on his feet again, but the adrenaline allows him to brush it off. “Run!” Lily screams. Bo follows the instructions, and the three of them run, screaming out for help.

The other employees of the third floor who are still closing up their stores, hear their calls. Amalia is first to emerge from Key of Reason, and Chai follows as she rushes out of Tracks. At first she doesn’t understand what’s happening – but then she sees the state of the others, it sinks in. “Holy shit-“ Amalia winces as she sees the knife in Bo’s stomach.

“What’s going on?” Chai’s voice is soft and breathy as panic starts to set in. Her worst fears have come true.

“Run! Run, run, run!” Lily yells, waving her arms aggressively in their direction. Amalia doesn’t hesitate to turn on her heels and run – though Chai takes a couple of moments to really process what’s happening before she does so. “Run, Chai!” Lily snaps as they approach, which shakes the girl into action. She runs as fast as her body allows her. Amalia is the furthest from the stairwell, and lags behind as the others make it to the door. They can barely hear their own loud breathing over the sound of their heartbeats in their ears. “Go, go, go!” Lily pushes the door open and holds it for the others. Bo, Silvio and Chai rush through. Amalia, the last to arrive, places a hand on the door and holds it open for Lily to follow. Before Amalia can follow suit, it’s too late.

Jack grabs the girl by the arms from behind, gripping so tightly that she knows they’re going to be bruised the next day. Amalia decides she’s not going down without a fight – kicking aggressively behind her. Jack, not expecting such a powerful kick from the girl, is surprised enough to loosen his grip, which allows Amalia the chance to escape. In her attempt to rush down the stairs to freedom, she slips, and Jack takes the opportunity to give her a solid push in the centre of her back. Amalia slips down the stairs, her ankle twisting as her other leg scrapes and cuts on the concrete as she slides down.

On the first floor of Shrike Mall, below the commotion, Diego is hurrying to close up, annoyed at the mess that the countless children and teenagers had left him with. Really, he should have gone home at least half an hour ago, like the rest of the first floor had. He wonders why people can’t just learn to clean up after themselves – or even better, never make the mess in the first place. But here is, alone, scrubbing soda off a machine. At least, he believes he’s alone… until he hears loud thumping footsteps echoing.

Unlike Bo, Diego thinks more logically about the risks of going to check. He stands still in his store, looking out the large open doors silently as he waits to see the source of the footsteps. A tall, slender, masked figure slowly begins walking past the store. Diego holds his breath as he realises that he’s unnoticed. He sure hopes it stays that way. It takes a moment for him to recognise what kind of mask he wears. Diego thinks it’s the jack-o-lantern killer, but knows it’s not right.

Only when the suspicious figure suddenly turns to face the man does Diego see that the mask is that of a wolf. Diego is frozen. He swallows hard, hoping that the shadows are concealing him as the lycanthropic stranger is standing perfectly still. But just as suddenly as he had turned, he draws an arrow from the quiver behind his back, raises the bow that Diego hadn’t realised he held, and he shoots.

In an attempt to dodge the arrow, Diego falls to the ground behind the closest arcade machine. He stays silent, despite the pain he feels in his side where he landed, his head that made impact with the machine, and the burning in his arm where the arrow grazed, digging in quite deep towards the back of his bicep. He feels like cursing – but he stays completely silent, hoping that the stranger doesn’t find him. His eyes search for a weapon as he hears the footsteps start again, though as soon as he realises that they’re heading in the opposite direction of him, he abandons the arcade and heads to the ground floor in search of assistance.

On the second floor, Chai helps Amalia up and out of the stairwell. “Are you okay?” she asks, helping the other brush the dirt off.

“I’m okay I think – quick, he’s not too far behind us,” they rush to catch up with the others, but Chai finds herself falling behind as they continue to run. Her chest is aching intensely as she tries to battle through her panic attack, but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem to get enough air into her lungs. The usually fit person is struggling to keep up with the group in her panic, moving even slower than the injured members of the group. Paranoid that the killer is catching up to her, she turns her back to look behind. He’s almost within arms reach – but before she can turn to run, an intense pain shoots through her back.

Bo, Silvio, Amalia and Lily watch in horror as another masked attacker emerges from the stairwell to attack the girl. There is a sharp whipping noise through the air, and they realise that arrows are shooting in their direction. “Run!” Amalia screams. The four of them scatter in all directions in an attempt to dodge the attack themselves. Bo and Silvio rush to meet Sloane outside of Come What May.

“What the fuck is going on?” Sloane asks, eyes wide as she notices Bo’s wound (and the knife still stuck in his side.) “Killer,” Bo says breathlessly.

Meanwhile, Lily rushes to meet Ruby, who has emerged from Jennifer’s, hearing the commotion. Ruby immediately places a concerned hand on her shoulder, “What on earth is happening?”

“We need to get out of here,” Lily breathes, “They’re trying to kill us all.”

Coley rushes over to assist Amalia, wrapping an arm around the injured girl and helping her into Claire’s, away from the rain of arrows flinging in all directions.

All of them watch, out of breath and seemingly paralysed by fear as Chai falls into the hands of Jack.

Chai whimpers softly. She feels as though she can’t get any air into her lungs, as though someone is squeezing the air out of her as she panics. Tears well in her eyes from the pain and the fear. But she’s unaware that the arrow in her back is the least of her problems. Jack approaches her from behind, taking her ponytail into his hand, gripping it tightly and pulling her head back. She panics, knees buckling and collapsing beneath her. She kicks out, desperately tries to grasp onto anything so that she might be able to pull herself from the killers grasp, but she’s unsuccessful. Jack slams her head into the bench next to them. Chai drops to the floor, splattering the linoleum with blood as it drops from her nose and sprays from her mouth as she coughs. Her eye socket was immediately broken upon impact, and it shows as her eye swells closed. She can’t get up no matter how hard she tries, sobbing softly as her head is pounding and dizzy.

Jack walks away from the girl, leaving her spluttering on the floor as he heads towards Come What May. “Chai!” despite Ruby’s call for her attention, the girl can’t manage to distinguish where the sound is coming from. Ruby is the first to rush to help her, her focus on Jack attacking the young girl causing her to momentarily forget about the other person hunting them. As she rushes over to assist, an arrow glides past her neck, nicking the skin only enough to cause a single drop of blood to roll down her skin. She turns and looks at the wolf face, seeing him nearing her quickly – moving much faster than the man in the pumpkin mask. She turns away quickly, but doesn’t move fast enough to get away from him as he pulls out a hunting knife. He slices her skin from top to bottom on her back, thankfully missing her spine by about an inch, not digging in as deep as the knife would usually allow him as Ruby moves away still, despite her pain.

As Ruby is being hunted by the wolf, Jack makes his way back to Bo, who has taken to running again alongside Sloane and Silvio, towards Amalia and Coley on the other side of the mall. The group is getting tired, but the killers don’t seem to tire no matter how many times they outrun them. Silvio makes it to Claire’s in one piece – but Sloane stumbles before she makes it there. The hunter takes his knife to her face in an upward direction – not too deep, but enough to leave a large cut up her cheek and a slit through her eyebrow.

Bo moves slower due to his wound, the knife still sticking out of the side of his abdomen, and due to that, he is caught by the jack-o-lantern killer. In swift, sturdy movements, Jack pulls the knife from his abdomen and kicks him backwards with a heavy boot. The breath is knocked out of him as he’s sent hurtling over a trash can, landing hard on his wrist. Bo has had his fair share of experiences with broken bones before, and he’s positive that it’s broken. He’s running out of energy, and starts to feel defeated. “Please… please don’t kill me,” a tear rolls down his cheek.

Silvio, Sloane and Lily rush to Bo’s aid, helping him to his feet. Bo winces as Silvio accidentally brushes against his broken wrist. “Sorry, I’ll be careful,” he promises.

Ruby helps Chai up, blood covering her hands as she holds the girl up on her feet. “Just hold on for me,” she huffs, the pain of the wound on her back making her feel weak.

“Ruby… you’re bleeding,” Chai leans into the older woman. Her words are slurred, and it’s difficult for her to pull the right thoughts out of her head, “You’re bleeding… we need an ambulance…”

“For me?” Ruby asks. Chai makes a noise of agreement.

“Come on, we need to get out of here. We’ve got you,” Coley says softly, helping Ruby hold the girl upright, prompting her to walk.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Amalia promises.

Between the two groups, there’s enough of them to help each other out, the group running, stumbling and hurling themselves towards the stairwell to make their way down another floor.

On the ground floor, Diego finds Keanu. Keanu stands staring at the ruined mural that was defaced two days earlier when the older man rushes towards him in a controlled panic. “We need to get the fuck out of here, there’s an attack,” Diego says in a hurry. Keanu quickly follows the older man into the mall’s office and staff space upon being instructed. After Diego explains what he has seen, and what has happened to him, Keanu pulls out a chair for the injured man to sit in while he calls the police.

Diego is on the line with the police as he hears a loud commotion from down the hallway in the direction of the food court. Keanu gets to his feet, feeling brave. “I’m gonna go check on the situation – you stay here and stay on the line – get the cops here quick.”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Diego asks.

“I’m not gonna be careless! Don’t worry,” he says with a roll of his eyes. Keanu rushes out to see what’s happening, though he’s smart enough to keep himself hidden in the shadows to ensure his own safety. He watches as the group of bleeding, bruised, limping and crying people rush towards the exit. He quickly returns to Diego’s side and updates him on the situation so he can inform the police of the severity.

Inside the main area of the mall, Coley, Amalia, Chai and Ruby manage to reach the front door and rush their way through. The others are still ahead of the killers, but they struggle to move as quickly as the others, as Bo is losing blood quickly. An arrow rips Sloane’s sleeve as it rushes past, and the group still in the mall know they need to escape in a different direction.

“Come on, I know another way out,” Lily tells the group, leading them into the nearest store she knows will take them outside. Together they navigate their way through the spa service and outside to the pool. Sirens can be heard in the distance, but none of them take much notice as they attempt to escape. They know Jack is close behind them, and they don’t have time to think about anything other than survival.

“I’m… I’m so dizzy, I don’t think I can-“ in the rush, Bo slips in his Converse on a puddle next to the large body of water. He falls, rendering himself unconscious as his head makes impact with the ground. The most injured of the group falls into the pool.

“Bo!” Silvio screams, wiping tears from his face as they all rush to Bo’s aid once again. They catch him before he reaches the floor of the pool, and the three of them work together to pull him up and out of the water.

“Fuck, he found us!” Sloane stands back, pointing in the direction of the entrance to the indoor spa. Jack pushes through the door, his knife held tightly in his hand and dripping with blood. Silvio has barely noticed the return of the attacker in his attempt to ensure his friend is breathing – he is, just. Just as Jack takes a step towards the group, the sirens become almost deafening. Red and blue lights surround the mall as the police arrive, and an ambulance soon after.

“Sloane, go and get the paramedics,” Lily says. Though Sloane isn’t really one to take orders, she listens in this dire emergency, jogging off in the direction of the flashing lights. Lily turns back to the door, eyes widening as she realises that Jack is nowhere to be seen – the door leading back inside the mall swinging shut.

plot drop 001 features ten of our muses encountering the jack-o-lantern, along with a new killer known as the hunter. 

amalia ricci is left with a sprained ankle, bruising to her arms and substantial scrapes and cuts to the side of her leg. 

bo turner is left with a stab wound in his lower abdomen, a broken arm, bruising to his body, a head wound and head injury / concussion and nearly drowns. 

chai tseng is left with a wound to her back / shoulder, a head injury / concussion, a broken eye socket and some internal bleeding. 

coleen 'coley' dias is left uninjured. 

diego munoz is left with a cut to his bicep, bruising to his body and a very minor head injury. 

keanu velasquez is left uninjured. 

lily kor is left with bruising to her body and substantial cuts and scrapes. 

ruby harington is left with a nick on the neck and a large knife wound down her back from top to bottom, an inch away from her spine. 

silvio incanti is left with a wound on the back of his head and substantial bruising to the neck.

sloane foster is left with a cut down her face.