Chapter Text
Susie yawned, opening her eyes. The light of the early morning and the warmth of the sun made it easier for her to adjust to being awake.
Since she was no longer in the Entity's realm she wondered everyday if the other survivors, if the other killers were okay, or if they met the same fate of being free again. She knew some of them were miserable even before the Entity.
She kept wondering, dreaming about it every day, sometimes she had nightmares of the survivors begging for help. She wondered where her pet demogorgon was, and if she made the right choice escaping.
Then again, she would glance at Joey, still sleeping next to her, and the cradle her now 1 year old daughter laid into. Since Joey found a job as a social worker assistant, Susie found her life to be improved a lot.
She had her daughter, Aurora, which she named after her childhood favorite disney princess. Her parents helped her and Joey get a house and move in together. They were in contact with Frank, Julie, Danny and Ji-Woon. Life was great. If it weren't for Susie's constant nightmares and dreams in the Entity's realm. The only one that knew about it was Joey.
The nightmares never happened every night, but when they did, it was hard to get Susie to sleep after.
Susie wrote them down every time so she could remember them in the future. Some of the scariest were about Quentin being tortured to death by Freddy, and the teen blaming Susie for leaving everybody behind to be tortured. Some others were about Claudette, Meg and Dwight, slowly melting into something like the Blight, screaming in agony. Another one that stuck to her was when Susie herself was stuck in the Pig's trap. Amanda was crying, waiting for the timer to finish: she kept yelling about how it wasn't fair that Susie got to be free and she didn't.
Susie took a big breath. That night she didn't have any dreams. That was positive, at least. She looked at the time on her alarm clock, on her bedside. 7:11AM. If Joey didn't wake up he would be late again to his job.
"Joey, wake up... it's past 7AM." Susie gently placed a hand on Joey's cheek. "You don't want to be late like yesterday."
The day before was Monday. On Sunday Joey went out with Frank and came back a little tipsy. Susie obviously scolded him for that, but never got actually angry at him. Joey was still only 20 years old. And he was responsible for himself. He obviously felt the consequences of his actions on Monday morning. He struggled to get out of bed and he was also late for work.
"I'm awake..." Joey mumbled. Thankfully Joey didn't seem to be bothered by waking up.
He usually sets an alarm but he ended up falling asleep at 9PM the night before. Susie got up after rubbing her eyes, taking a big breath. She checked on Aurora, and found her still sleeping soundly. She felt lucky she had a kid that slept through the night with no problems. The first few months were terrible, though.
Susie opened the grey curtains, that were already see-through, and the stronger light made contact with Joey's face. He groaned and slapped a hand on his forehead. He opened his eyes forcefully, then glanced at the alarm clock: 7:16. Oh, he hated getting up that early.
But he liked the thought of being a family man already. Joey never thought he would have a child this young. He remembered that when he was about 5-6 years old, he used to play the dad when he and his cousins played House. That memory was something that Joey cherished now that he was an actual father. He even told Susie about it when Aurora was born.
When Joey managed to get on his feet, he yawned and stretched. He took one quick look at Susie, that was staring down the window, tk know something was up.
"Did you have a nightmare again?" Joey asked, mostly afraid of Susie's answer.
"No, I did not. I was just... thinking about them." Joey joined Susie, and put a reassuring hand on her back.
"It's okay to be scared of your nightmares, Suz." He started saying. "Besides, haven't we already seen Yun-Jin? Mh? She didn't jump in the hatch with us."
"I know..." Susie said quietly.
She hated remembering that she was dead, though. She could have asked her so many things: if she remembered the Entity, what happened to her... And then she had this... weird feeling that she HAD to speak with Leon.
Maybe he knew something about that. There should have been a reason Leon gave the key to Ji-Woon, right? Or maybe not. Maybe she was overthinking the whole thing. Joey would have loved to listen to Susie rant about her thoughts, but also he didn't want to be late for work. It took everything in him to step away to grab the clothes for the day and then head to take a shower.
Susie moved a few seconds after Joey left the room, startled by Aurora's yawn. She put on a smile and looked at her awake baby, picking her up.
"Good morning princess!" Susie said with a smile. She started tickling her daughter, making goofy sounds to make her laugh, in which she succeeded. "Let's get some breakfast." She then said.
Susie headed for the kitchen, and as she walked in front of the bathroom she knocked and told Joey that breakfast will be downstairs in the kitchen.
Susie put Aurora in her high chair and opened up a cabinet to get her pancake mix. She quickly made the batter and hurried to make some pancakes for her and Joey. She even got to make a couple of small ones for Aurora to try, cutting them in much smaller pieces for her to eat. Susie served breakfast as soon as she was done. She sprinkled the pancakes with some chocolate syrup and moved to also warm up some milk for her daughter.
Joey walked in the kitchen, smelling the air. He could tell right away that his girlfriend made his favorite breakfast. He sat down at the table, right next to Aurora. As he played with her for a moment, Susie came to give the baby her bottle.
"She's growing up so quickly…" Joey commented with some sadness in his voice.
"She sure is…" Susie added. "I wonder if she'll be alright… you know… mentally. In the future."
"Why shouldn't she be?" Joey looked at Susie with worry.
"You know why, Joey…"
Joey flashed Susie a worried look, afraid that he had no idea what she was talking about. Susie sighed and sat down at the breakfast table.
"Where she was conceived, the problems I had during the pregnancy…"
Joey finally understood and slightly nodded, picking a piece of his pancakes from the plate with a fork. Susie had her fair share of PTSD and depression after the Entity thing; she was far from okay even now. It came to a point where she had to stop breastfeeding to get antidepressants. And Joey was, still, the only one who knew. He knew how bad Susie kept feeling even when on medications: the nightmares never stopped, her panic attacks lessened but were still frequent.
On top of those, she felt guilty she had to stop feeding Aurora so closely and found it had to adjust to a bottle.
"She won't remember a thing. Look at her! She's just a happy potato." Joey flashed a smile to Aurora who was sipping her milk, looking at the colorful building blocks on the other side of the room.
Susie smiled, unsure of it. Sure, she would love to believe it, but it was so hard for her to do so.
A notification on both their phones broke the silence. Susie picked her own phone up first and checked: it was the group chat. Danny sent yet another selfie of his latest victim the night before, fully masked and dressed as the Ghostface.
A picture of Ji-Woon followed right after, showing off a pile of tickets for his next concert in New Jersey.
Joey texted as a reply: 'I hope some of those tickets are for us!' to which the Trickster replied with a 'Obviously <3'.
Soon after a selfie of Frank doing the peace sign, beard undone and double chin due to the bad angle followed.
Danny's reply was fast: 'Is that the toilet flush behind you?'
Frank took a couple minutes to reply. 'Yeah. You were showing off your hard work and I'm showing off mine.'
'Your shit?' Danny, again.
Frank sent a thumbs up sticker followed by a 'Yes. But I'm having mercy not to actually show it.'
"Disgusting…" Joey laughed, putting his phone away. Susie shaked her head and let out a small laugh.
Frank was always so… himself. It was incredible how dumb he could be.
The rest of their day went on as usual, with Joey going to work at 8:30 to be there at 9AM and Susie going on a walk with Aurora in her stroller. The evening was not that bad either.
Susie ordered pizza for herself and Joey and fed Aurora some blended veggies and cheese. It was soon time to sleep again.
Susie was already tired that day so she wasted no time falling asleep.
A shiver on her body woke her up. She opened her eyes, surrounded by darkness. It was cold, and… she was laying down on the floor. It looked like it was a street.
Children were running around, laughing, screaming, some were playing tag. She looked at a house. Some kids were knocking on the door, holding bags and little baskets.
"Trick or treat!"
Susie smiled at the sight of the little ones having fun. The door opened, and a young woman with blonde hair handed out some candies to the children, who then ran away thanking her, off to the next house.
The woman's smile faded as soon as she laid her eyes on Susie, still sitting on the floor.
"Do I know you? You seem familiar." The woman asked. Susie squinted at the woman.
"I don't think we…" she stopped. She then recognized the hair, the clothes, and the blue eyes. "Laurie Strode..?"
"Yes…" Laurie nodded, unsure. "And you are..?"
Susie hesitated before saying her name. "Susie." It sounded so forced and painful. Maybe Laurie remembered her, maybe not. Maybe she remembered that when Susie was a killer she would rather spend time helping the survivors work on their generators. She never killed. Never. She couldn't bring herself to do so.
Laurie rushed out of the house, helping Susie back on her feet.
"You need to come here." She said, serious.
"What?"
"You need to come here and be careful."
Susie wondered what she meant by "come here" if she was already there.
She was about to ask, but Laurie stopped her in her tracks.
"Behind you…" Susie froze, then slowly looked around her.
The mask. The white mask and the heavy breathing. She remembered that so clearly. The Shape raised his knife, and just as he lounged to hit her…
Susie gasped, quickly sitting up. Joey woke up startled.
"Woah, woah, what happened? Are you okay?" He asked, half whispering.
"I… I think my dream had some kind of meaning, Joey…"