[OPEN - UNKNOWN AREA / UNKNOWN TIME]
Amber stands in a charred, forgotten room—the walls blackened, paper ashes fluttering through the air like snow.
She turns her head from left to right. "What's happening..?" Amber says.
Behind her is a chalkboard, she slowly walks towards it.
Something is written in burnt red chalk:
"I never left. I never left. I never left—"
Suddenly, a voice behind her… soft,
broken, echoing:
"He said he'd protect me."
Amber turns.
A girl with burned skin, in a half-scorched uniform, stands near a broken window.
Her hair is matted. Her eyes are white. The girl walks closer towards Amber, "You're her daughter…"
Amber stumbles back, gasping.
The Burned Girl smiles slowly, "You came back."
Suddenly—the girl SCREAMS, and fire rushes towards Amber—
Watchtower High Volume 1 Chapter 7: The Burned Girl speaks.
———————
[LIBRARY / 11:13AM / AMBER WAKES SCREAMING]
Amber bolts upright, sweating and breathless.
Hayden, who was sleeping on the other side of the table from her, leaps up. "Amber!? You okay?"
"I saw her… I saw Abigail." Amber says breathing heavily.
"Like… dream saw? Or she's alive saw?" Hayden asks confusingly.
"She said I came back… like she was waiting for me." Amber says.
Hayden looks around the Library room, "How long have we've been in here..?"
"Don't know, 2 hours maybe?" Amber says while scavenging through her pockets.
Amber pulls a note out of her pocket. She grabs the note from the night before and shoves it into Hayden hands.
"Ask Kensley who burned the girl."
Hayden reads the note, than looks up at Amber. "You do know that if we confront her, we'll be doing what he wants right..?"
Amber turns her head to think about it, than looks back at Hayden. "I don't care anymore. As long as it gets us closer to the truth. If he practically helping us to find out who he is, I think i'll take that hint."
"If thats the case we can't just ask her we have to confront her. I already talked to Ms. Kensley once, and she doesn't seem to talkative." Hayden says.
[SCHOOL GROUNDS / EARLY MORNING]
Carmen sits by the school track alone, headphones in as she scrolls on her phone.
Ty approaches her from afar and gets closer. "Hey stranger. Mind if I sit?"
Carmen doesn't say anything, she moves herself a bit to the right. Making room for Ty.
Ty sits down beside her, and doesn't say anything. This leads to awkward silence that lasts for 15 seconds. Ty breaks the silence when he looks down at Carmen's hands and she sees that her hands are shaking. "Hey, are you ok?"
Carmen looks at Ty for a split second than turns back to her phone. "Uh yea. I'm fine."
Ty looks at her hands again which are now shaking harder than they were before. "Why are you acting as if you aren't scared? We're all scared, it's ok for you to be as well. You don't have to act that way"
"Ya know, that says a lot for a person that barely even knows me." Carmen says while pulling her hoodie sleeves down her hands.
Ty puts his hands together and closes his eyes. "I didn't mean it to sound that way."
"Also, I am scared. But scared doesn't keep you safe. If anything it makes things worse." Carmen says.
Ty turns his head down and start chuckling, which turns into full laughter.
Carmen looks at him confused. "Do you find something about my situation funny?"
Ty leans back and wraps his arms around the back of his head. "No, I don't. It's just.. i'm a high school student who has 2 more years to graduate and go to college, and yet.. instead of focusing on my studies, i'm over here trying to stop a serial killer like i'm some sort of hero." Ty says whilst smiling.
Carmen turns her head from him and starts smiling as well, we see that her hands have stopped shaking.
"I think Hayden's getting obsessed. He's been on this road for a few weeks now." Ty says.
"Obsession's useful." Carmen says.
"Not if you're Joe Goldberg.." Ty replies.
Carmen flicks Ty on the head, "Not that kind of obsession you idiot. I just meant the type that would point you in the right direction." Carmen says.
"I don't think you needed flick me in the head for that.." Ty says.
"Hey, I actually been meaning to tell someone about this. But I haven't yet." Carmen says.
"Tell someone what?" Ty asks.
Carmen pulls out a flash drive from her pocket. "I hacked the teacher's network. Found something wild."
"…You can hack?" Ty asks.
"There's a lot you don't know about me." Carmen says.
[MATH CLASSROOM / KENSLEY'S CLASS]
Kensley is quietly rearranging folders when Hayden walks in and shuts the door behind him.
Kensley looks up to see Hayden and sighs. "Hayden. You aren't allowed to be here during prep hour, you should know this already."
"You burned her." Hayden says.
"…Excuse me?" Kensley replies with.
"Abigail Thorne." Hayden walks closer to her desk. "The fire. The Silence. The Staff cover-up. The name on that list. Ring any bells?"
Kensley puts her hands under her desk. "You need to leave, right now. And leave this alone.."
"She's not dead is she? Amber's dreaming of her. The Killer knows her. And now she's talking with us."
"The Killer..?" Kensley says.
"Oh right sorry, I forgot you were a student in the 80's. I guess you're more familiar with the name, The Watcher aren't you?" Hayden says.
Kensley looks at Hayden with a surprised face, not knowing how he could possibly know this information since they were all covered up.
"Tell me about what really happened to Abigail." Hayden says.
"…You think that girl is speaking from beyond the grave?" Kensley asks.
"And thats the funniest part. You're still acting as if she's dead, even though you know she isn't. The fact is, you can't accept the feeling that shes dead." Hayden says.
Kensley slides out of her desk, walks past him to the window, Her voice soft and cracked.
"We were best friends. And she was… different. People called her cursed. They thought she was into witchcraft. But she wasn't.
She was just afraid of something. Something that made others think she was crazy."
"Afraid of what?" Hayden asks.
"She said someone was watching her. Someone… on staff." Kensley says.
Hayden doesn't say a word. He just stands there and listens.
"The day of the fire, she came to me shaking. Said she had to run. That they were going to 'finish what they started.'
I didn't believe her.
I let her walk away."
"..And the fire? I need to know how it started, fires don't just start on their own."
"Hawthorne said it was faulty wiring. But I saw him that night. In the east wing. Holding a gas can. That's why that section has been off limits for years. because he doesn't want anyone finding out what he did to her.." Kensley said.
Hayden's eyes widen and his mouth opens. "Why didn't you tell the police this!?"
Kensley turns around and puts her hands on her head. "It wasn't that simple. There are things you don't understand Hayden!"
"No, you want to know what I understand? I understand that you let an innocent girl get burned and didn't even decide bring justice to the one that nearly killed her!" Hayden says while storming out the room. Not wanting to hear anything else She has to say.
[SCHOOL ARCHIVES / AMBER, CARMEN, CHELSEA, TY]
Carmen plugs her flash drive into an old computer terminal.
"This is from 2005. A hidden server. Teachers-only. Something called, Project Cassandra." Carmen says.
Files open.
"What the hell…? That's a student experiment program." Chelsea exclaims.
"Test subject..?" Ty says with a horrified expression.
One folder is labeled: "Subject 06: Delilah Moore"
Amber's eyes widen.
Ty takes his hands of the computer desk and looks up to the ceiling with his mouth open slightly. "Wait, if this Delilah Moore person and Subject 06 are the same person, and yesterday in the basement of the library a paper said that Amber was the daughter of Subject 06.."
"Delilah Moore is my mother.. my Aunt Cass and Father told me that my mother's name.. was Delilah, Delilah Moore…" Amber says with a shocked expression.
Inside: biometric reports, mental evaluations, surveillance logs.
"They used her. Tested on her. And she escaped."
[GIRLS' BATHROOM / NIGHT – CHELSEA ALONE]
Chelsea stares into the mirror, breathing hard.
The lights above flicker once.
Drip.
She looks down at the floor—blood, leaking from the city vent dripping on the floor.
Suddenly—
SLAM.
The Door shuts. The lights die.
"Not tonight…" Chelsea whispers.
From the stalls, slow footsteps emerge.
The black mask steps into view.
Chelsea backs away—
It's the burned girl.
Eyes so bright. So bright that they almost seem like they're glowing.
Hand reaching for her face.
Chelsea Screams—
[DORM LOUNGE / EVERYONE]
Chelsea's scream echoes across campus.
Multple students rush towards the girls bathroom. Hayden and Amber squeeze through the crowd, followed by Ty and Carmen.
"It's the girls bathroom so me and Hayden will wait out here, you girls should go check it out." Ty says.
Both Amber and Carmen Mutually Agree to go in with a head nod, as they walk in. They see Chelsea huddled up by the wall, shaking violently.
Amber immediately goes to her aid and kneels down to her, "Hey, Hey, Hey what happened?!"
"She was real… the burned girl… she's here. She touched me." Chelsea says while holding her knees together.
Amber looks confused, and is trying to understand what had just happened. Meanwhile other girls start coming into the bathroom murmuring.
"Hey why don't all if you just get the hell out of here we're speaking with our friend." Carmen says to the girls that just walked in.
The girls now walk out of the bathroom, Carmen goes to close the door. Then walks back over to Chelsea.
"Chelsea, you said you saw the burned girl, as in Abigail Thorne correct?" Amber asks.
"Yes, her.." Chelsea Replies.
"Well than what did she say?" Carmen asks.
"She said 'He's close now.'" Chelsea says as tears stream down her face.
[HAYDEN & TY'S DORM ROOM / NIGHT]
Hayden opens his notebook that has a map of the campus within it. He circles the old science wing.
Amber sits down beside Hayden. "If she's really alive… where has she been hiding?"
"Not hiding maybe. Locked away?" Hayden says.
"Things are really starting to get intense, when do we involve the police Hayden..?" Amber asks.
"When we find undeniable proof of her still alive." Hayden says.
Hayden looks up, than turns to Amber. "We need to go down there."
Amber's eyebrows lifts. "Tonight?"
"Tonight." Hayden says.
"Well alright then." Amber says, pulling out her phone texting someone.
In the hallway, we see a janitor sweeping the floor. Carmen turns a corner and walks towards the hall he's in.
While she gets closer to him, she swipes the keys off of his side and quickly shoves them in her pocket as she walks away.
[BASEMENT DOOR / EAST SCIENCE WING]
Carmen uses that same stolen pact of keys she took from the janitor to open the basement door from the East Science Wing.
Inside?
Pitch black.
The group steps in slowly.
Old Desks. Burned photos. The Smell of smoke that doesn't seem to leave their noses.
In the center of the room…
A chair.
Straps. Blood. Burn marks.
"Sweat mother of good. What in the world have they been doing in here.." Ty says.
Hayden and Amber walk behind the chair, there they see someone scratched into the floor, in deep carved letters
"LET ME OUT"
Suddenly—
The door behind them SLAMS shut.
And a faint raspy voice says:
"You shouldn't have come here…"
——————
Hayden(Voiceover):
"Some stories were buried with fire.
Others kept breathing beneath the ash.
The question isn't who the killer is anymore—
It's what they're trying to finish."
[END OF EPISODE 7]