Slasher Summer(16)
She felt an unwelcome pang in her chest and took a sip of beer to chase it away. I am a strong woman who can’t be hurt anymore.
Freddy drew in a shaky toke. “I’m telling you, man. It’s the Slasher.”
“Freddy—” Patrick said, rolling his eyes.
“I’m serious! Dude jumps in front of my van, and then he tries to drown Tiffany—”
“Tiffany said she was mistaken,” Carrie said.
“I—I don’t know,” Tiffany said. Carrie frowned. Tiffany had been convinced she’d been imagining things before. The weed—and Freddy—were making her doubt herself.
“I saw some creep watching us from across the lake,” Jen blurted out, and Carrie blinked in surprise.
“See?” Freddy gestured at Jen, the joint smoldering between his fingers. “The Slasher! Timmy Thompson coming to avenge his mother!”
“That’s impossible!” Carrie couldn’t help laughing at Freddy. He must be smoking some really strong weed. Timmy Thompson was the Slasher’s real name. According to the movie’s lore, the cabin’s owners had evicted his mother after her husband’s untimely death, causing a mental breakdown that had led her to try to drown herself and her young son in the lake. Timmy had survived and wound up in an institution, until breaking out as an adult to seek gory revenge in three movies and a reboot.
Jen scoffed. “Freddy, Timmy Thompson is fictional. 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 crazy Slasher fan!” 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, you would’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 Daniel because he 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 a Slasher fan?” 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 of Scream and they’d hit it off right away, as he knew even more about slasher movies than her 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. The photo.
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 a Slasher mask.”
Freddy violently stubbed out the joint. “I told you, man. The Slasher.”
“Freddy, it was a movie.” 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.