“But we don’t know where Michael is.” Carrie anxiously glanced over her shoulder to the kitchen, where he’d run out the back door.
Poor Michael. He’d always been sensitive. Carrie was really worried about him being out in the woods alone. She’d known him longer than anyone else in the Jumpscare Society. He’d been the little boy who lived across the hall in Cranfield House, a crumbling old mansion on the wrong side of the tracks that had been carved into apartments. Michael’s mother, who was Jason’s maternal aunt, had fallen in with a bad crowd as a teenager and dropped out of school to have Michael.
Mama had judged Michael’s folks something awful, but hello—pot, kettle, et cetera. At leasthisdad had stuck around, although it was mostly to drink away whatever money Michael’s mom made at her various waitressing jobs. Carrie and Michael would take the bus together to and from grade school, and on afternoons when Mama was out working, Carrie would let him into their apartment and feed him whatever she could spare without Mama noticing. His parents weren’t very good at being home before midnight or at keeping the pantry stocked.
Michael had always needed someone to take care of him, and Carrie had been happy when Jason’s parents took him in. Mama had been glad, too, because she hadn’t liked Carrie spending so much time with a boy. Even when Carrie assured her, truthfully, that Michael was like a brother. She knew he would’ve liked to have been more, but Jason—
Michael simply wasn’t Jason.
Tiffany put her hands on her hips. “I’m not waiting around for him.”
Carrie bit her lip and summoned the strength to stand up to Tiffany. The Cedar Lake High queen bee couldn’t cow her anymore, now that they were outside of high school. “He said he’d be right back.”
She realized how dumb those words were as soon as they spilled out of her mouth. Jen laughed and Freddy shook his head vehemently. “No, no, no. Biggest mistake in the book. They never come back in the movies,” he said.
“Freddy, we’re not in a movie,” Patrick said.
“That doesn’t matter ifRussthinks we’re in a movie,” Freddy muttered.
Carrie glanced anxiously toward the darkened kitchen again, not sure how else to convince the others to look for Michael.
“We can’t leave Mikey out there,” Jason said, and despite Carrie’s conflicted emotions around him, she felt a rush of gratitude. Jason would never leave his cousin behind. “Remember that time he went off to pee and came back two hours later covered in poison ivy?”
“Mikey’s a big boy now, he can take care of himself,” Jen said.
“He tried to protect us. We can’t desert him,” Carrie protested.
Jen and Tiffany wore identical sour expressions. Carrie should’ve known that as childhood best friends, they’d side together. She had to remember she was alone here. The Jumpscare Society might be her friends, but they weren’t necessarily her allies.
Thankfully, rescue came from Patrick. “Because if it were any of us, Jason wouldn’t leave us behind, either.”
“How about a compromise,” Jason said. “We’ll spend an hour looking for Mikey. He can’t have gotten far on foot. If we don’t find him, we’ll go and get help.”
“Only an hour?” Carrie said in dismay.
“An hour’s more than enough time. If he’s gone that long, we can assume he’s found a cell signal and gotten help,” Patrick said.
“Or he went to town by himself,” Jen scoffed. “He could be fleeing the country as we speak.”
“Well, we’ll have a better chance of finding him if we split up,” Jason said.
Freddy clutched his head and groaned. “Oh my God.That’sthe number one rule of slashers. Never split up. Did the Jumpscare Society teach you nothing?”
To Carrie’s surprise, Jason rounded on Freddy. “Freddy!” he barked. “Those aremovies.”
Everyone fell dead quiet, or maybe Carrie’s pulse suddenly seemed very loud. What had happened to Jason during the past four years while she was gone? He was normally the most patient and tolerant of them. On the surface, anyhow. This could be the real Jason, the one who hadn’t known how to be discreet four years ago.
A vein popped on his forehead. “If you don’t have anything helpful to say,shut up.You’re just going to freak everyone out.”
He’d saideveryone,but he gestured at Tiffany. She looked like she was about to throw up, although more from Jason’s outburst than Freddy’s paranoia. Interesting. Carrie’s pulse beat faster, but with hope. If tensions between him and Tiffany were high, shemight have a chance to get him alone later and finally get some closure. She just needed to muster her courage.
Freddy hung his head, mumbling an apology under his breath. Jason squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was about to apologize, too, but instead huffed out a weary breath.
Carrie broke the awkward silence with a cough. Jason’s words were harsh but true. Panic wouldn’t help them find Michael. “Nothing bad happens when they split up inScooby-Doo,” she offered, giving Freddy a reassuring smile.
“And we’ll go in pairs. No one’s going out in the woods alone.” Patrick dug through the box of emergency supplies and started to hand out compasses.
“I’m going with Velma,” Jen said, clapping Patrick on the back. “Since he actually knows how to use this thing.”
