BABYSITTER'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING SLASHERS

2 - Nancy

Mr. and Mrs. Kinley are out the door only ten minutes later. This isn't my first time watch their six year-old Evan while they go out for the evening, so I already know where everything is and who to call if something goes wrong.

9-1-1.

Just as usual Evan is dead asleep in his cliché of a racecar bed. I double check on him right after his parents leave. Watching him is the easiest and my favorite, if you can even call it watching. I've always had this crazy yet sneaking suspicion they sedate their child. A joke of course but what kid doesn't try to stay up late with the babysitter when their parents go out?

I shut his bedroom door behind me so that nothing wakes him and return downstairs to the living room. It's time to start the safety check, but first I'll call Reagan.

She picks up on the first ring. "Took you long enough, I was just about to start writing your obituary." Gagged. Reagan jokes because she doesn't take this as seriously as Billie and I do. Which, given her own experience baffles me. But she at least still plays along in making sure whoever is babysitting is safe. "Did you start running up their electric bill yet?"

I put her on speaker and hold the phone up to the light switch as I flick it on, the first of every light switch on this floor. "They can take it out of my pay." Not actually though because I have a homecoming dress to buy real soon.

With all the lights on, the door locks triple checked, closet doors wide open, and my mace on the coffee table with the safety off, I can finally relax for a tiny bit. I plump myself down across the couch.

"Did you see Billie posted the episode?" Reagan asks. Not a episode, but the episode. It's the one I knew was coming, even before Billie had asked for my blessing to do it.

"I figured she would post it tonight. It makes the most sense."

There's a silence. This usually means Reagan I working up to saying something she's definitely had on her mind. "I don't understand why you decided to work tonight and not just come hangout. Even Billie wanted you to hangout. You shouldn't be alone." There it is.

Billie had tried giving me the same lecture earlier, but she was more understanding than I'm sure Reagan will be. I had to do this tonight. "I just need to keep occupied. It is just another night."

"No it's not Nancy, and that's okay. She was your best friend." No matter how many times I hear it, when people use Laurie in a past tense, my stomach twists into knots.

"I'm just going to get through tonight. Besides we're hanging out tomorrow anyways. You can spoil me with ice cream and some crappy rom-com."

"Amen." She really allowed me to change the conversation easier than I had imagined. Then again, she knows better than me what it's like to want to avoid talking about tragedy. She might know better than anyone in town actually.

We spend the rest of our phone call talking about our dream homecoming dresses. Though I don't hear half of it. I can't help but to think about the episode Billie put out tonight of her true crime podcast. The truth is, I had been checking all day waiting for her to post it.

"Hey Reags my mom is calling, can I call you back in a bit?"

"Yeah, sure!" She only sounds half convinced.

I sit myself up and put my phone down on the coffee table next to the mace, dreading what I'm about to hear even though I know every gruesome detail. The volume is turned all the way up, I open the app and her new episode is right at the top of the screen. It was only posted an hour and a half ago but already has over twenty thousand listens so far.