Chapter 18 Carrie #2
He scratched his head. “For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry about how things went down.”
The apology drifted to Carrie’s feet like a deflated balloon. How many years had she longed for those words? For him to recognize the magnitude of what he’d done? And now that he’d said I’m sorry, it had no effect on her. It didn’t lift the weight of her regrets.
Her therapist had warned that simple words wouldn’t be enough, and she couldn’t depend on them for closure. Words wouldn’t change the past. All she could do was focus on the present.
“I don’t know what else I can say,” he added. “I should’ve and could’ve handled it better.”
Carrie’s throat felt like it was full of broken glass. “Yes, you should have.” Her voice squeezed out in a small and pained drip. “But it was a long time ago. I’d like to forget it and move on.”
“Yeah. Me too. We good?”
She turned to him with an angelic smile. The Care Bear smile. The Jordan Knox smile. Tiffany was wrong. Carrie didn’t need saving. She was doing a good job of saving herself. “We’re good.”
Jason smiled back and then bumped her shoulder companionably with his. “High school, huh? Best and worst time of our lives.”
The affectionate gesture completely took her aback. She laughed in surprise, her cheeks warming. “Yeah. Best and worst. But it taught me how to take my knocks and get up again.”
Jason chuckled, no doubt thinking of his time on the football field. “Me too. Literal—”
A dark figure came barreling through the trees and slammed right into him.
Carrie screamed. Tiffany turned around and yelped as Jason collapsed, grunting from the impact.
“Jason!” Carrie cried.
“Run,” he croaked under the weight of his attacker.
Tiffany was a frightened hare, paralyzed in place. Carrie moved first, but instead of running, she raised the bread knife. Recognition suddenly flashed in Jason’s eyes. He weakly lifted an arm as if he could block her. “Wait! Carrie, don’t! It’s Patrick!”
Patrick sprawled on top of Jason, their startled faces mirrors of each other.
“Patrick!” Carrie lowered the bread knife. What on earth had happened? She barely recognized him. His clothes were filthy and his hair a nest of cedar needles and cobwebs. “Oh my gosh. We thought you were Russ.”
“Holy shit, am I glad to see you,” Patrick said, eyes still locked on Jason. He suddenly seemed to realize he was flopped on Jason’s chest. He coughed, rolled off Jason, and scrabbled to his feet, holding out his hand. Jason took it and let Patrick haul him up.
Carrie was able to get a better look at the rest of Patrick then.
What a shocking state he was in. His Oxford shirt had become partially untucked from the waistband of his khakis, and one of the points of his collar was unbuttoned.
Patrick never had so much as an eyebrow hair out of place.
Something—or someone—must have scared him.
“What happened?” Tiffany asked as Jason plucked a spray of cedar needles out of Patrick’s unruly curls.
Worry gripped Carrie’s chest. “Where’s Jen?”
Patrick took a great gulp of air, uncharacteristically fidgety. “I lost her. She was heading for the highway and wasn’t planning to come back.”
“Not a surprise,” Jason muttered.
“Has anyone seen her?” Carrie asked, searching her friends’ faces. She hadn’t thought before to ask about Jen, since all this time she’d assumed she was with Patrick.
“Tiffany and I have been mostly staying on the lakeshore,” Jason said.
Tiffany smacked Patrick on the shoulder. “How could you lose her?”
Patrick took her punishment, a guilty expression crossing his handsome features. “I tripped, and when I looked up, she was gone. And then I heard someone calling for help and tried to find them.”
“Was it Michael?” Carrie was uneasy that they hadn’t found him by now. Was he okay? And had Jen made it to the highway?
Patrick wet his lips. “I don’t know. Might’ve been. I didn’t find him, though. I’m sorry, Jason. I tried and then I—” He shook his head. “You’re going to think I’m nuts. But I saw the Slasher. A guy wearing the mask and jacket and everything.”
Carrie brought a hand to her mouth. “I saw someone dressed as the Slasher, too, when Freddy bailed.”
“It was probably a fan,” Jason said tiredly.
“Did he have an axe?” Carrie asked Patrick, wondering if they’d seen the same person.
Patrick nodded, swallowing hard. “He had an axe and—and he started to chase me with it. I ran through the woods and hid in the old fire lookout and—”
Carrie kept her hand to her mouth, afraid of what noise might spill out. The Slasher in the woods, chasing Patrick with an axe. It was just like a movie. Her pulse pounded, a frenzied drumbeat in the quiet night.
Patrick’s shoulders shook. Carrie slipped an arm around him. “It’s okay,” she said soothingly, although she felt anything but serene, knowing he’d narrowly escaped death.
Jason reached out and took both of Patrick’s hands in his.
Jason was full of surprises tonight. It was an astonishingly intimate gesture, considering Jason and Patrick had seemed tense around each other since she’d arrived.
Carrie had thought their friendship had ruptured as badly as Jason’s relationship with Tiffany.
“Hey,” Jason said. “Look at me. You’re safe now with us.”
“How is he safe? How are any of us safe?” Tiffany’s words spilled out fast and shrill. “Russ has an axe! He must have stolen it from the cabin! He might’ve killed Mikey already, and Jen and Freddy!”
“We don’t know that. We have to keep our heads,” Jason said.
Tiffany blanched, and Carrie winced at his choice of words.
Jason cleared his throat and continued, “I mean, we have to stay calm. Not jump to conclusions.” His voice was stern.
The voice of his father, Coach Ackerman, explaining game strategy out on the field.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go back to the cabin.
The others were supposed to meet us there.
We’ll lock ourselves in and wait for morning.
It’ll be easier to go for help then. Russ can’t sneak up on us in daylight. ”
“What about Michael?” said Carrie with dismay.
“Fuck Mikey!” said Tiffany.
Jason sighed. “I’m sorry, Carrie. The axe changes things. I’m worried about Mikey, too. But I don’t want to risk any of you for his sake. I’ll see you all back safely, and then—and then I’ll go look for him myself.”
Carrie stared at him in dismay. “Jason, no!”
“I have to. He might need my—”
“Help!”
Everyone startled. Carrie jerked her head up and listened breathlessly. The cry had come from far away.
“That’s the voice I heard before!” Patrick said.
“Help me!”
Carrie drew a sharp breath. “That sounds like Michael!”
“Which direction was it coming from?” Jason surveyed their surroundings. Carrie turned around, trying to pinpoint where Michael might be. They were on the edge of a steep slope, but their view was obscured by cedars. Tall and menacing, the trees refused to give up their secrets.
The cry escalated into a panicked scream. “Help, he’s gonna kill me!”
Jason spun around, increasingly agitated. The scream had the opposite effect on Tiffany. “You can all go after him. I’m heading back to the cabin.” Selfish as always, she turned and fled into the woods, ponytail swinging.
“Tiff! We need to stay together!” Jason called. He jogged after her, arm reaching out to yank her back. Patrick followed, Carrie right behind him. She didn’t want to let them out of her sight.
“Jason! Watch out—” Patrick shouted, abruptly stopping in his tracks.
It was a chain reaction. Carrie’s forehead collided with the space between Patrick’s shoulder blades, sending him crashing into Jason.
Jason lurched forward, and instead of grabbing Tiffany like he’d intended, his outstretched palm pushed firmly into her back.
Tiffany shrieked and vanished, her voice growing fainter as she fell down the slope.
Carrie screamed, her arms whirling as she struggled to stay planted on the crumbling ground.
It was too late for anyone to regain their footing.
Patrick grunted a swear word—and suddenly both he and Jason’s arms flailed like they were trying to fly.
For a brief moment, Jason’s eyes locked with Carrie’s.
She grabbed for his hand. She couldn’t lose him now, not when they were starting to build a rapport.
Their fingers touched—and then gravity cruelly tore them apart and sent everyone tumbling into darkness.