DM5 Page VII

  Meagen sat uneasily on a chair in her living room.  Tracy had been in the house for probably a couple hours now, and it was getting dark.  The power was on again, but there wasn't a guarantee it would stay that way, with the MTV Awards sucking up the electricity and all.  Since they couldn't find a flashlight, they lit the house up with a whole bunch of candles.
   "I gotta go to the bathroom," Tracy said as she walked to the bathroom.  About a minute later, the power went off once again, with the candles the only thing bringing light into the room.
   "Tracy, did you make it there OK?" Meagen called.  In the dark, Tracy could've tripped on something, even with the candles in place.
   No answer.
   Meagen got up and realized, toward the bathroom door, the candles had stopped burning.  Then the next pair of candles stopped.  Then another.  Then another.  Extremely weird considering there wasn't any breeze going through the house.
   "Tracy," Meagen called again.  No response.
   She thought she heard a footstep as yet another candle stopped.  Now, it was so dark that only the living room could be seen with the remaining candles.
   Was that another footstep she heard?  "Is that you, Tracy?"  Meagen asked.  Nothing but another soft foot step.  She didn't stick around to find out whose it was.
   Running immediately to the front door, Meagen first checked to see if anyone was behind the door.  Didn't look like it, but it was very dark outside.
   She opened the door, BUT THEN got startled as someone popped up in front of her.
   It was Gary.
   "Gary!" Meagen said, catching her breath.  "You scared me."
   Gary said, "Sorry, I just wanted to see how you were doing, with Nik getting killed and these power outages and all.  You OK?"
   Meagen answered, "I think there's someone in the house, besides Tracy."
   Gary looked at her and asked, "Are you sure?  You're not just being paranoid?"
   "Yes!  I'm sure."  Meagen faced inside again.  "Tracy!!  You there?!"
   Still no response.
   Gary said, "I'll check inside.  You stay here."
   Meagen refused.  "No!  I won't let you go in there alone.  And besides, you know splitting up always means one of us is going to get killed!"
   Gary, after a moment of hesitation, agreed.  "OK, let's get in."
   It was just then that Meagen noticed that all the candles in the room had burned out.  She stopped.
   "You know, Gary," Meagen began.  "If this killer is trying to copy a horror movie, like the others were, don't you think he'd want us to come inside a dark, scary house?"
   "Well, yeah, but we can't just leave Tracy in there...."
   "Yeah, but if I'm wrong, then we just leave Tracy in the house while she's in the bathroom.  If I'm right, then Tracy's already dead and we'd just be going into a deathtrap!" Meagen explained.
   SUDDENLY the power came back, and the lights in the living room turned on again.  No sign of anybody inside.
   "Come on, Meagen," Gary insisted.  "There's no one inside.  Now let's get in."
   "No!  Gary, come on, we'll go knock on a neighbor's house and we'll call the police and they'll check things out."
   Gary understood that Meagen could be scared, but he was getting a little frustrated.  "Fine, if you don't want to go, then stay here.  I'm going to check Tracy out.  I mean, I'm going to check if she's OK."
   Gary walked inside the house, calling out, "Tracy!  Are you here?"  He then walked in a direction where Meagen couldn't see him.  She waited by the front door.
   ALL OF A SUDDEN the power went out again, and the house was pitch black.
   "Gary!  GARY!" Meagen called.
   No response.
   SUDDENLY someone popped up behind Meagen and frightened her.
   She realized it was just Tracy.
   "Oh, Tracy, you scared me!  Thank God you're..."
   Tracy interrupted her.  "There's a fisherman killer in the house!!  He almost got me but I clmbed through a window!!!!"
   "I knew it!  Now we have to go get Gary and then get out of here---"
   Before Meagen could finish, the fisherman popped out of nowhere and got Tracy in the stomach with his hook.
   Meagen cried, "TRACY!!"
   Tracy shouted back, "RUN!  SAVE YOURSELF!!"
   Without hesitation, Meagen fled back inside the pitch dark house.  "GARY!!  WHERE ARE YOU?!"
   The power went on again, and Meagen scrambled to find her shotgun.  Where was it?  She checked under the couch. Not there.
   THEN someone grabbed her shoulder.  It was Gary.  "Calm down, what happened?"
   "It's the fisherman!  The bastard killed Tracy!!" Meagen responded.
   Immediately Gary ran out the front door, Meagen following him.  Tracy and the fisherman were gone, but there was a trail of blood that led to an open manhole.  They stood above it, staring down.
   "Think we should go down?" Meagen asked.
   Gary answered, "No, that's just what the killer wants us to do.  We should get the cops and let them check it out."
   JUST THEN, the headlights came on from a car facing them further down the road.  They could see the Scream killer in the driver seat.  Then, tires screeching, the car started to speed toward them.
   "Doesn't look like we have much of a choice now," Gary stated.  He jumped into the manhole.  Meagen took a deep breath and jumped in, too.
   She landed in the sewers.  They were on pavement, parallel to a flowing stream of dirty water.  The sewers were more or less a bunch of dark corridors that twisted around in a giant maze.
   "Are OK, Gary?" Meagen asked.
   "Of course I'm OK, now we'll try to find another manhole and get the cops...." Gary stopped.
   Curious, Meagen asked, "What is it?"
   Gary was looking down at the ground, where the trail of blood started again, which continued onward, twisting around a corner.
   "Think we should follow it?" Meagen asked.
   Gary looked at her and answered, "Let's do it."
   Meagen smiled.  "You know, you're really cute when you're all confident like that."

   Meagen's original enthusiasm vanished as the trail ended.  In front of them was a door and a ladder leading, well, up somewhere.
   "Where to now?" asked Meagen.
   OUT OF NOWHERE the fisherman fell from above (probably from the ladder) and punched Gary in the face.
   "GARY!!" Meagen screamed.
   The fisherman blocked Gary's way to the door, but Meagen was freely accessible to the door.
   Gary told her, "Meagen, go!"
   Meagen hesitated.
   "GO!"
   Meagen ran to the door, pulling it open and closing it behind her.

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