BABYSITTER'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING SLASHERS

4 - Reagan

If the police weren't too preoccupied with what is happening, I'd have been pulled over and arrested with how fast I'm driving. I make it to the emergency room parking lot in less than half the time it should have taken me.

Two more police cars are parked out front the entrance with an officer stationed outside the sliding doors. "Under orders not to let anyone in." she tells me when I approach.

I don't recognize her at all, so there's no chance of being let through just yet. "Please just tell me if she is alive."

The officer hesitates a moment but thankfully relents. "All I can say is that she is in surgery right now, they're doing everything they can."

"Can you please let the Sheriff know I'm out here. Please. She's my best friend. Tell him it's Reagan."

The officer gets distracted though and I turn to see who else has arrived. Billie and Stacey are running over to us.

"Do we know what's going on?" Billie asks.

Fury courses through me the closer she gets. I can't stop myself from slapping her clean across the face. "You bitch! You did this! You're stupid fucking podcast!"

The officer pulls me backward as Stacey gets in between us. Billie's eyes well up as she puts a hand over the fresh pink of her cheek.

"Reagan!" Stacey yells. "This is not the time."

"Not the time?" She must be joking. "She posts another one of her murder stories about our friend getting butchered and hours later another one is in the hospital. Where do you think these creeps get their inspiration? Because they want to be just like him!"

Billie stays silent.

Stacey, the always reasonable and sane one, the one who knew to quit babysitting after Laurie's death last year for self-preservation, steps closer to me, forcing me to look her in the eyes. The eyes that nobody can ever say no to. "You know as well as I do that if she wasn't talking about it, others would be, and god knows they are. This isn't anyone's fault but whoever did this."

I shake my arm free from the officer. "That doesn't make it right."

"What's going on out here?" We all turn to see Sheriff Forbes standing in the doorway, his eyes bloodshot. "Girls get inside now."

Stacey stays between Billie and I as we follow him inside and down the long white hallway to a waiting room where his wife is pacing back and forth, crying hysterically. He tries to approach his wife, but she holds out a hand to keep him away.

"Nancy is still in surgery." He says.

"What happened?" Stacey asks, the only one of us with a voice.

"What do you think?" Mrs. Forbes chokes out. "My baby girl was stabbed. By the same lunatic probably that YOU stopped looking for Rick!"

That hurts even me and the defeated look on the sheriff's face says he had already confronted that same thought.

"Did anyone see anything?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "A neighbor found her on the grass." His eyes well up. "I was just there. Everything was fine." He's barely holding it together.

"And Evan?"

"Didn't even know anything happened. He was still asleep in bed, perfectly fine."

That's a relief at least. Then again, the kids almost always go unharmed. Almost always.

I'm frozen as Mrs. Forbes lets out a wail. The sheriff rushes forward and catches her as she crumbles. With what strength he has, he holds her up and guides her out of the room, leaving the three of us alone.

We stand here, helpless and with no choice but to wait

"I never thought-" Billie says through the tears, her soft voice cracking.

I exhale. It didn't occur to me until now that Billie has never been through this before. Despite all the stories and the interviews, she didn't really know. Now she does.

"I know you didn't." I step forward and pull her into an embrace. "I'm sorry for hitting you I just, I don't know what came over me."

Both girls kind of laugh.

"That was a real hit." Billie responds. "Remind me never to piss you off again."

Stacey joins the hug and we just stand here a moment together, before letting go.

"So, what now?" I ask.

"We find out who the hell did this." Billie says. There's the sleuth.

"Are you crazy?" Stacey scoffs. "First, the two of you quit babysitting, like forever, and then you let the police do their job and catch the prick themselves."

"Because that worked out so well last time." Billie took the words right out of my mouth.

Just then Sheriff Forbes reappears. "I just heard from the doctor."

Time stands still.

"She's going to make it."

We all almost fall over in relief. Thank fucking god.

"She was only stabbed once." He says. "They were able to stop the bleeding and get her stabilized. She probably won't be awake until tomorrow they said. You girls need to get home. I'm having one of the officers escort your cars back to each of your houses."

None of us dare argue. Hospitals haunt me anyways.

The three of us each give him a hug and make our way back out to the front and towards our cars. While we wait for an officer to pull up.

"My place tomorrow." Billie says.

"If you think our Moms are going to let us go anywhere, you're crazy." Stacey says. She isn't wrong. "I'll be surprised if we aren't under curfew again tomorrow too like last year."

Billie really is about to experience first-hand what living in this town truly means.

Just then a car passing by the parking lot, slows down to an almost roll. We all look at the dark sports car. Even with the tinted windows, I know exactly who's driving that car.

"He has got a lot of balls." Stacey says in disgust.

Billie doesn't say a word. Even she must know who that is.

"Fucking idiot." I say.

Laurie's ex-boyfriend steps on the gas and drives off. Boys really are stupid. Not a good look to be seen out and around on the night of a murder attempt, especially when you were suspect number one in your girlfriend's murder.