“And you’re really an asshole,” Wes says before I can express the same sentiment.He turns his stare onto Stu’s fist, using his own weapon to point to it.“Where’d you get the knife?”
Stu glares back at Wes before looking down at the boning knife in his hand.The tip has specks of blood on it.
“I got it from Campbell.”
CHAPTER 27
“You’re not hard to gut at all.You’re hard to execute.”
—NotSet It Up
“You foundCampbell?”I ask incredulously.
Ever since he ran away, I assumed he was either dead or hiding somewhere so obscure it would’ve become a joke among the horror of tonight.Something rife with dramatic irony where he would’ve eventually developed the courage to venture back into the club and find some kind of redemption.But then I see the way Dani and Jennifer wilt against the wall and remind myself this isn’t that kind of movie.
“Yeah.”Stu scoffs, and I don’t need him to clarify that he didn’t just get it from Campbell; he probably pulled it out of him.
That means another name on the match cards has been figuratively crossed off.I press my palm against the top of my dress and feel the cards crinkle beneath the material, resisting the urge to pull them out and see who is still left.
“He’s at the end of that first hallway.The one we ran down earlier,” Jennifer says, and I’m reminded of why we bypassed it when Wes and I ran up here.
Retracing your steps rarely leads to anything good.
“He had a whole collection of them, as well as another present for you.”Stu points the thin blade in my direction.
“What—”
“Flowers,” Dani blurts out, her eyes glazed and exhausted.She props a hand on her forehead as Jennifer fidgets against the wall and adds, “More roses.”
They share a look, and I know there’s more to the scene that they won’t or can’t explain.Save for the crude scratching on the bathroom mirror, the romantic gestures have just been getting bigger and bolder.This whole night has been about escalation.Especially if Wes and I are right and Heart Eyes is the one responsible for those murders I saw on the news.He just keeps stepping up his game… and I can’t even imagine what he has planned for the finale.
But on that note, the knowledge we’re closer to the end of this than the beginning when Stu first left the group has me asking, “How have you been avoiding Heart Eyes?It’s been hours since we split up.”
“Heart Eyes?”Stu spits, and even the others have a range of different reactions.Wes lets out a darkly humored exhale in understanding, Jennifer cringes, and Dani sucks in a short breath.
“His mask.It’s pink with hearts where the eyes should be.”
Stu mutters something that sounds like “Fucking, psycho, creep ass…” before his voice becomes a grumble and I can’t distinguish any more words.He points a finger across the room to the back wall, just above the chaise I thought would be an ideal place to grind my body on top of Wes.
“You know how some of the corridors are roped off?I figured it’s ’cause they’re employee sections.”He moves the direction of his finger to point out the door.“There’s another one on that side.I took a chance, looked down the last hallway, and found a janitor’s closet.Ithas a lock, a sink, cleaning shit.But there was no phone or anything.I was there for an hour and then figured I’d try to find an exit.”
It sounds smart enough, reasonable enough even, but I’m not going to give him credit when at least three people have died while he was allegedly hanging out in a janitor’s closet.
He’s made it clear there’s no love lost (or gained) between us, but I’ve watched enough Shyamalan movies to know there’s always room for a twist.It’s highly unlikely Stu’s leaving these grotesque declarations of love while continuing to look at me like my very presence conjures up the smell of dog shit beneath his nose.But a good Final Girl doesn’t take anyone off the suspect list until the killer is unveiled.
So I say, “We should keep moving.We’ve been here for a while.”
Aside from two jump scares and our group of two becoming five, there’s been no sign of Heart Eyes.It’s easy to forget what happened downstairs or on the dance floor or down the hallway where Campbell must be when the adrenaline drops and you’ve gotten used to the tacky feeling of blood on your hands, but I trust the reprieve about as much as I trust a third-act breakup in a nineties rom-com.
It always turns around when you’ve gotten comfortable with the new norm.
“Should we go to the janitor’s closet?”Jennifer asks.“We could clean up, figure out a plan?”
It’s a good idea.One I’m about to agree with before Stu suggests we split up again.
“Hold on.”
Wes shifts next to me, and when I glance up at him, his eyes are fixed on the back wall.Not quite where Stu was pointing, but higher, in the corner, on a protrusion from the ceiling that’s been painted over in the same color as the walls.He strides over to it and takes a closer look.It doesn’t resemble the security cameras that have been tampered with.Those are perfect half-spheres—I can see one in theother corner of the room, covered in the same view-obstructing black paint as the others, but this shape looks more like a—
