In a small town lies Kaijo High School, but our story no longer takes place there. In the city of Tokuko, five hours from Kaijo, 4 old friends, who were a part of their high school culture club, alongside some new faces, embark on the next stages of their lives, and this is their story...
TRIGGER WARNING: EVERYTHING
Kaijo. October 21st. 8pm
Lizzy: Anything?
Delia: Nothing
Katie: Nothing for our group either
Lizzy: Damn it
Michi: Lizzy, this might be something we have to leave the police to deal with
Lizzy: What the fuck they gonna do huh? They won't even be interested since he only went missing this morning
Yazzy: Yeah from hospital! He was kidnapped from his room
Lizzy: I just want to find him
Yazzy: I know you do
Tori: We all do
Michi: But what good is exhausting ourselves
Lizzy: Because he would do the same for us. Tori, when you went missing, he didn't go home for three days, knowing full well that he would get beaten by his dad for it, because he wanted to help find you
Delia: He cares, that's great and all but Lizzy, we can look again tomorrow, everyone is exhausted, we need to rest. We can't find him like this
Michi: Delia's right. We're no good to anyone like this. Let's go back to your house, sleep and then we'll start again tomorrow
Lizzy throws her keys at Katie
Lizzy: You guys go, I want to keep looking
Yazzy: At least let someone stay with you
Lizzy: No, you're all tired so go home and "rest"
Katie: Lizzy...
Lizzy walks off
Yazzy: Should one of us go?
Katie: No, there's no point, not when she's like this, she'll only shout at us to go back
Ash's House. Kaijo
Kieran: I don't understand what's happening? Please can someone tell me
Kaylin: Let's start with me then
Kieran: Kaylin?
Kaylin: First thing's first. I never liked you. Never
Kieran: What...
Kaylin: God all those moments with you were just torture, your sad, pathetic, little life, all your sob stories, all your hardships. I just wanted to laugh in your face when you told me how your dad beat you. You know the way you went on and on and on, made me want to break your arm. I totally sympathise with your dad
Kieran: Kay-
Kaylin: And don't even get me started on having to hold your hand, hug you, ugh kissing you. I wanted to throw up every. Single. Time! Although sleeping with you was probably the most disgusting thing of all. Thankfully that was always over pretty quickly. HAH! Still, I had to date other people to get the scent of you off of me.
Kieran: Ple-
Kaylin: And I tell you what, I'm not pregnant. Never was, and even if by some sick and twisted coincidence I did, I'd have been down to the abortion clinic straight away to wash you out of me. People like you don't deserve children.
Kieran: There's no baby?
Kieran begins to cry
Kaylin: Aww you poor little thing. Are you getting all upset because there's no child of yours coming into this world. GOOD! Cry all you want, it's not making that baby appear
Ash: Alright that's enough
Kaylin: I want to humiliate you, make you feel as disgusted as I did having to spend every minute with you
Ash: Stop
Kaylin: I say we strip him, and torture him
Ash: ENOUGH!
Kaylin: Ash I was only
Ash: This is my revenge, not yours. I let you go first as a gesture of kindness on my part. Remember, you work for me, not the other way round. This was always on my terms and this goes how I want it. There will be no more belittling, no more talk of stripping, humiliating and the only torture will be psychological and it will come from me. Now sit down and shut up or you're out of here
Kaylin sits down
Ash: Sorry about that. She got a little too carried away with her part in all of this
Kieran: Her part?
Ash: You see, I hired her to become your girlfriend. She was to do recon, gather up to date information about you, know your personal details, address, work, everything that I no longer knew. She was to play the role of a dutiful girlfriend, never giving a hint that it was all a sham, even if it meant taking progressive steps in the relationship. She played it well, a little too well if you ask me but she got what we needed.
Kieran: Fake?
Ash: What next, let's think....oh! I know! My "death". You see, there was two of us near each other when the truck hit, the other girl, I will admit, looked very similar to me, but she took the direct hit, I was merely knocked by it and landed just around the corner. You all ran to that girl though, straight to her, as if it was me. You all crowded round her, cried, screamed, called for help, while I laid there, just out of sight and watched. I couldn't believe it. You all thought I was her, you all went off behind the ambulance and that was it. A few hours later, people are putting up messages of condolence on my socials, and I realised that girl had died. Inspiration struck, I could just play dead. It sounds ridiculous, crazy I know but I thought, well you're all so sure that I'm dead. Obviously you didn't know me well enough to know that girl wasn't me, so why not be dead? I'll fade away and make a grand return when the time's right. Though not without revenge, and the target, you
Kieran: Me?
Ash: You promised me that we'd be together forever, you told me it was you and me against the world. Nothing else mattered, just us. You said I was everything you needed, the love of your life. You and I knew each other better than we knew ourselves. Then I sat there, the day of the accident, and I watched you cry over that random girl, I couldn't believe it. You knew me, every part of me, how could you think that was me. You just accepted I was gone so quickly. Not even three years and you moved on, with Yazzy of all people, one of my best friends. I thought you were better than that, I thought you couldn't like without me, that I was what you needed, but you moved on, you let me go and you moved on.
Kieran: You're really not dead....
Kieran starts crying again
Kieran: I'm just so happy
Ash: Huh?
Kaylin: WHAT?!
Kieran: All this time, every day, I've missed you, every day I've thought about you. There's been a hole in my heart since I lost you. Ash, my world ended that day. I didn't think I would ever love again, I wanted to die, in fact, the day of your funeral, that night, after I'd come back from the church, I stood at the edge of the bridge in town, ready to throw myself off.
Ash: You did?
Kieran: I didn't want to live without you. Didn't want to love anyone but you. I didn't care if I didn't have you. But standing there, I thought about you and your words. I thought, no I believed, that you would be so angry at me for throwing my life away like that. All those times you had picked me up when I was down. Encouraged me when I was broken. All of those things I believed I couldn't do but you proved me wrong. If I had died that day, all of that would have been for nothing. I have lived my life for you, everything has been for you
Ash: You still love me?
Kieran: I'll never stop. You're back, you're alive and I'm just so happy to see you. I don't care about any of this, you're alive. Oh...but the baby?
Ash: I lost it...
Kieran: You did?
Ash: The knock from the truck was still pretty rough, even if it didn't cause me too many injuries, unfortunately it didn't survive.
Kieran: I'm sorry
Ash: But it's ok, because we can make a new one
Kieran: Hang on...
Ash: Right now, you and me, recreate the life we lost
Kieran: Right now, but Kaylin's in here
Ash: Who cares, she's seen it all
Kieran: Doesn't mean I want her to see it again
Ash: I thought we were the only ones that mattered? We have another chance, a chance to start again. Let's do it like we said, you, me, a baby, a marriage and happily ever after
Kieran: Let's talk first before we-
There's a loud whack and Ash pauses for a second before falling to the ground. Where she was standing, Kieran can see Kaylin, holding a metal pipe. Kieran looks down to see Ash, on the floor with a large pool of blood spreading out from her skull
Kaylin: That's better. She was getting swept up into all of your crap. That can't happen. She knew better than anyone that revenge was important, falling for your crap now was unacceptable. Although....You know what, you talk a good game
Kieran: What did you do to her?
Kaylin: Eyes up here. She's gone, fuck her. Well actually don't do that
Kieran: I just want to go home
Kaylin: You were actually sweet with what you said, so I'm gonna take Ash's place
Kieran: What?
Kaylin: Let's do it. Let's make a baby
Kieran: Get away from me
Kaylin: You'll do it with her but not me? Up until a few minutes ago, you thought I was carrying your child. So let's just make it happen
Kaylin gets closer
Kieran: Stop please
Kaylin: Don't worry, you know yourself that this won't last long
Kaijo. October 21st 2024
Lizzy walked. She knew exactly where she was going. She couldn't shake it off her mind since she saw it. There was something unsettling her about it. A feeling that something was wrong and she wasn't going to let it go. She walked back the route Michi and her took. Back past Kieran's old apartment, now home to a family of three and a small dog, past the clearing where she would sometimes hang out with Kieran and Ash after school on days when she didn't want to go home. She kept walking until she came back to that house. Ash's house. It was that flicker. It bothered her. She had never seen that before, and on the day when Kieran was missing, there it was. Why Ash's house though? Why would Kaylin take him there? Then she had another memory. It was a couple years ago, on the anniversary of Ash's death. She walked this way, and sat outside the house for a while thinking back to the past. Then as she walked back, she saw a figure, she couldn't work it out but it looked so much like her. Was it her? No, couldn't be. She died. Lizzy saw it happen, right? What if it was her? Then that would mean she wasn't dead. Then Kieran being here would make more sense. No matter what, she wasn't leaving until she had gone into the house
She knew a secret way in, of course she did, she'd been here many times before. She scaled up the wall behind the house and to her surprise, the windows were unlocked, she slipped her way in and then stopped. She could hear voices, she wanted to be sure she could hear properly so she put her ear to the floor
Kaylin: Just think, I could be pregnant with your child now. Perhaps we should go again just to be sure
Kieran: Stop....please
Kaylin: Shut the fuck up and enjoy it, it's the last time it's ever going to happen between you and me
Lizzy wasn't mistaken that was Kieran's voice and the woman's voice, that was the same one at the hospital earlier. It must be Kaylin. She rushed downstairs without thinking and barged into the room where they were
Kaylin: What the fuck?
Kieran: Lizzy?.....Please help me
Lizzy couldn't take in what she was seeing. It wasn't pretty, far from it. One of her best friends, was having the worst thing imaginable happen to him and she was in shock. She could see the tears pouring down the sides of his face, dripping onto the cold floor beneath him. The floor, there was a body...Ash? She was alive? How? She was bleeding badly though. It was probably that pipe Lizzy thought to herself. Lizzy darted to it and picked it up
Lizzy: Get the fuck away from him
Kaylin: Who the fuck do you think you are?
Lizzy: I'm Lizzy, who the fuck are you? Get away from him or I will beat you around the head with this
Kaylin: You don't have th-
Whack. Lizzy hits Kaylin so hard, she falls right off and smacks her head on the ground
Kaylin: You bitch
Lizzy: I warned you
Lizzy goes over to Kieran, covers him up and unties him
Kaylin: This isn't over
Lizzy's House. 11pm
Michi: We haven't heard from Lizzy in hours. Do you think she's ok?
Tori: She's probably walking up her driveway, that'll take a few hours
Delia: Unless she gets a taxi
Yazzy: Don't say that word in here, there might be traps
Michi's cell rings
Katie: Oh is that her?
Michi: It's not but I need to take it
Yazzy: Ok
Michi: Hello
Michi walks off to the next room to take the call
Doctor: Michi hi, it's Dr. Carter here calling from Tokuko Hospital
Michi: Oh hey
Doctor: Michi, your partner was admitted to hospital earlier tonight
Michi: They were? Are they ok?
Doctor: It seemed they had a flare up of their symptoms. We did everything we could but unfortunately they passed away 30 minutes ago
Michi: No, no no no, that can't be true. They were about to get new treatment
Doctor: I'm so very sorry
Michi: They're gone?
Doctor: I'm afraid so
The doctor continues talking but Michi tunes out, unable to take in anything else that's been said.
Ash's House
Lizzy: Come on, let's get you out of here
Kieran: Leave me
Lizzy: Don't start that shit again
Kieran: No I mean it, look at me, a mess, a defiled, stupid mess
Lizzy: Stop it, come on
Kaylin: I don't think so
Kaylin picks herself up off the floor without Lizzy seeing, pulls a knife out from her pocket and stabs Kieran multiple times in the back
Lizzy: NO!
Kieran falls forward and hits the floor as the blood pours out of his wounds
Lizzy: No no no NO NO HEY! STAY WITH ME HERE!
Kieran: Lizzy.....
Lizzy: HOLD ON! HOLD ON! COME ON
Kieran: I'm sorry for everything
Lizzy: STOP! STOP! KIERAN! HEY! COME BACK TO ME HERE!
Kieran's eyes close