Jen scoffed. “Freddy, Timmy Thompson isfictional.The guy across the lake was just some rando. I couldn’t get a clear look at him, but he definitely wasn’t wearing a Slasher costume.”
Patrick shrugged. “It was tough to book the cabin. Probably someone who didn’t make the wait list wanted to get a peek at the place.”
“Get a peek and then slaughter us in our beds!” Freddy said.
“A crazySlasherfan!” Michael said.
Jen barked a laugh. “We’re all crazy fans here. Don’t be stupid, Pipsqueak.”
“Jen—” Carrie started. Poor Michael was scared and Jen had to be mean?
Jen put an arm around Tiffany’s shoulders. Tiffany was still hunched over, looking uncharacteristically timid. “Come on,” Jen said. “Horror fans are the nicest, most normal people around. Just look at Patrick. And Tiff here. Even if Freddy and I saw the same guy, so what? He’s just a tourist. Not a masked creep with mommy issues. And anyway, not everyone with mommy issues goes on killing sprees.”
“If they did,youwould’ve gone on a rampage long ago,” Patrick said wryly.
Jen winked. “They do call me a ladykiller on campus.”
The speculation and banter filled Carrie’s gut with unease. “There might be another explanation.”
All heads swiveled toward her. She shrunk back, instinctively making herself small. She hadn’t had this many expectant eyes on her since her days at the Rialto, and she wasn’t sure if she liked it.
She gulped, willing her pulse to calm. “I just broke up with my boyfriend Daniel. He was very possessive. He was always trying to separate me from my friends and was insanely jealous of anyone I spoke to. When I broke it off with him, he didn’t take it very well.”
She didn’t tell them she’d initially fallen for Danielbecausehe was so possessive. That, and because he’d had blue eyes like Jason’s. She’d interpreted his obsession with her as protectiveness. No one had come to her defense after The Photo, and it had felt good to have someone on her side after having been cast adrift for so long.
And then it had all gone very, very wrong.
“How well?” Jen asked, eyes narrowing.
“He said he’d kill anyone who kept me from him.”
Her friends stared at her. Carrie shifted uncomfortably. She had no choice but to drop another bombshell.
Digging her phone out of her jeans pocket, she said, “He’s been sending me some alarming texts.” She noted there was no signal. That would explain why she hadn’t heard anything from him since late last night. Tapping on the messaging app, she held up the screen to Jen. She didn’t read the messages herself. She knew the words by heart now.
“It’s not over until I say it is. Nothing can stand between us. I’m coming for you, Carrie,” Jen read out loud. “Shit. That’s fucked up.”
“Was he aSlasherfan?” Freddy asked.
Carrie almost laughed out loud. If Freddy knew how obsessed her ex was, he’d drive off in his van and refuse to see her ever again. She’d met Daniel at a campus screening ofScreamand they’d hit it off right away, as he knew even more about slasher movies thanher dad. It was only after their relationship became serious that Daniel had admitted he’d chatted her up because he’d recognized her from a photo he’d seen on a horror film subreddit.Thephoto.
Slasher movies were nothing. The real horror was not being able to escape who you were in high school.
“Yes,” she said.
Tiffany’s face whitened. “When I was underwater, I swear I saw a man wearing aSlashermask.”
Freddy violently stubbed out the joint. “I told you, man. The Slasher.”
“Freddy, it was amovie.” Patrick’s voice wavered, although his words were rational. Carrie was surprised. Calm and organized Patrick, who ironed his button-down shirts to perfection, was actually rattled. She remembered his sister had been the victim of a random attack. Nothing disturbed him more than the unknown, and this was a situation he couldn’t iron his way out of. “It’s not really the Slasher,” he added, although it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
“It’s someone pretending to be the Slasher, which is just as fucked up.” Freddy tugged off his hat and ran his hands through his messy hair. “We gotta get outta here, man, before Carrie’s ex turns us into mincemeat.”
A dam seemed to break then. Tiffany rounded on Jen and reamed her out for inviting Carrie. Jen snapped that she was just trying to get the band back together. “Don’t blame Carrie!” Michael interjected. “It’s not her fault her ex turned out to be a psycho.” Carrie couldn’t help thinking this would be the perfect time for a horror movie killer to creep up on them, while they were all distracted.
Freddy started to rock back and forth, moaning that he couldn’t die because he hadn’t finished writing his screenplay yet. Patrick turned to Carrie and bombarded her with a dozen questions about Daniel. His personality, his strengths and weaknesses, his willingness to hurt people to get to her. Carrie inched backward fromhis interrogation. Thinking about Daniel triggered a flood of unwanted anxieties.
“We don’t know if it’s actually him—” she protested, but Patrick kept the questions coming. Carrie clenched her eyes closed as if that would shut out the memories of Daniel. His cool conviction that she belonged to him, and only him.
