Slasher Summer(91)

“No, no. Who asked you to deliver that?”

“You weren’t expecting it? It was from someone named…” She scrolled farther down the phone screen. “Wes.”

That was the name of Carrie’s so-called therapist. Patrick’s mouth went dry.

“Weird. There’s no last name.” A notification popped up on the girl’s phone. She scrutinized it and added, “Do you still need me? I gotta go pick up some diapers at the drugstore on the other side of town.”

Patrick shook his head and ran back into the diner.

“She’s just a messenger,” he said in reply to Jason’s stricken look.

Gerald slid off his stool and sidled up to the poster. “That don’t say nothin’ about waffles. Slasher 2? Is that one of those horror movies?”

“Yes,” Patrick said flatly.

Gerald returned to his coffee and crossword, his mouth pinching with disapproval. “Hope you’re not plannin’ to put that up in the diner. Don’t like those kinds of movies. Nothin’ fun about watching a bunch of young folks dying.”

“No,” Patrick said. “There isn’t.”

He and Jason stared down again at the movie poster for the Slasher sequel. Slasher 2: A New Chapter. A terrified girl in a clinging white tank top and too-short denim cutoffs cringed behind a window’s open blinds, while the Slasher lurked outside in the shadows with an axe. The tagline read, Everyone Needs a Fresh Start.

“What does this mean?” Jason asked quietly. His fingers wove between Patrick’s. Patrick squeezed his hand tight. Jason’s strength and resilience were the only things he could trust in this unpredictable world.

Patrick swallowed, trying to dislodge the words from his throat. “I don’t know.”

An icy chill raised all the hairs on his arms as he read the message scribbled in black marker at the bottom of the poster. The world as he knew it turned upside down and he was falling again, falling down those long steep stairs in the Slasher cabin and into a cold and endless dark.


See you soon, boys!

XOXO The Slasher





Acknowledgments


Like axe murdering, writing is a solitary activity—but publishing is not. This book would not be in your hands if not for the efforts of many wonderful and dedicated people: my agent, Dorian Maffei; Jorgie Bain, Nalisha Vansia, Sarah Scarlett, Jack Hallam, Nina Elstad, Lee Motley, Clément Natiez, Nick Lowndes, Fiona Brown, Rebecca Ogden, and the team at Penguin Michael Joseph; Peter Joseph, Mattie Townson, Allyson Coy, Lindsay Cook, Julie Cepler, Dyana Messina, and the team at Crown; and Rich Davies, who did the incredible cover art. Thank you, Team Slasher! If we were trapped together at a remote cabin with a killer, we would all survive. No bad choices here.

I also want to thank my friend Amy for her hospitality at her own cabin in the woods, where part of this book was written (and no one was killed, that I know of). Life really is better at the lake.

Lastly, if you’ve read this far, thanks for sticking with me to the end! I hope you had as much fun reading this book as I had writing it.