STRAWBERRIES & CIGARETTES (TOMMY EATON)

•CHAPTER 8: BREAKING NEWS AND BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS•

"Guys, something big is going down," the Farraday boys heard Davey say through the walkie talkie.

"Someone's going down on who now?" Eats asked, giggling at his own joke.

"Remember, Eats, he's talking about us. Who told you anyway, Davey?" Nicholas said before laughing at himself.

Curtis rolled his eyes and playfully punched Nicholas' arm.

"Guys I'm serious! You know those boys that keep going missing? I was right! It's a serial killer! My dad just got called in." Davey explained in crackles.

"Holy shit," breathed Nicholas, his smile now fading.

"Dude, you're not kidding. It's on the news right now!" Curtis said, walking over to the TV going on the kitchen, Nicholas trailing behind.

Nicholas could not even pay attention to the Television blaring with news about the serial killer. He had drowned everything else out and was silently panicking in his head.

'Of course a serial killer just happens to be on the loose when I come to town,' Nicholas thought to himself.

There was an active serial killer on the loose in Ipswich Oregon, and all Nicholas could think about was Tommy Eaton.

"The sheriff's report says they're likely looking for a white male in his late 30s to 40s living alone. His targets seem to to be males ages twelve to sixteen." The TV snapped him out of his thoughts.

Nicholas Farraday was worried, quite frankly, about Tommy Eaton, and what might happen to him and his friends. They were the preferred target of said serial killer, and Eats hung out in a treehouse in the middle of the night most nights. That was an extremely sketchy situation to be in with an active serial killer on the loose looking for boys like Tommy.

•••

"I can't believe something like this could actually happen here!" Davey exclaimed excitedly to the other boys in his room.

"Think about it, the killer could be right here in our neighborhood! This is the coolest thing that's ever happened to us!" He continued rambling about how 'cool' it is that a middle aged man is hunting for teenage boys in their city right now.

"More like scariest," Nicholas said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Davey, dude, didn't they say he hunts boys our age? Shouldn't we chill with the late night manhunt?" Woody asked nervously.

"Why?" Farraday questioned.

"What the hell, Curtis! I don't know, maybe because an active fucking serial killer may be trying to hunt us!" Nicholas screamed at his cousin.

"Okay, I guess you have a point, but none of the kids are from Ipswich, and Cape May is pretty freaking big." Farraday tried to reason back.

"It's not even that big! What is it like nine towns?" Davey says.

"It's ten towns," Woody corrected.

"Guys, I can't believe you're not freaking out that something is finally happening to us here." Davey said, obviously still giddy from the news.

"We could fucking die, genius." Nicholas says with an eyeroll.

"There's no way it's gonna hit our neighborhood," Eats says turning to Davey's wall of newspapers full of conspiracies, "I mean, look at this place. You're desperate for crazy shit to happen."

"There's a damn serial killer on the loose in Cape May!!" Davey screams, still trying to get through to the boys, "it could most definitely hit this neighborhood. There's teenage boys running around here all the time! I mean look at us."