Tagline: N/A
Back tagline: More than just an illusion…
Summary: As soon as Keith removed the 3D optical illusion poster from the Virtu-Illusions bag, he felt that queasy feeling again. It must have been the frozen yoghurt he ate at the mall that afternoon.
He turned back to the poster and positioned it to nail it into the wall. On the third blow he misses the nail entirely and struck the back of his left hand full force. Keith yelled and dropped the hammer. It landed dead center on the poster—and bounced off the glass.
This was no ordinary poster. If only Keith could have seen it for what it was—an omen of a dangerous force that would be beyond his most horrifying nightmares.
Just because you get a glimpse into the future doesn’t mean you have the ability to change it—perhaps you can only live in terror until it’s your turn.
First impressions: OK, this blurb sounds like it’s a passage from the book, but also doesn’t sound like it? I want actual summaries as blurbs, not parts from the book! Still, it’s definitely intriguing. We have a new author for the remainder of the series too! What happened to happened to Bruce Richards? Will we still get some continuity from the first two books, or from now on are they more standalone stories?
No idea what’s going on with this cover. Is he going to electrocute himself with a jumper cable? What’s it even connected to? Why is the mirror cracked? Will this scene even appear in the book? Let’s find out!
Recap
Roll call:
Keith – Our protagonist who has some mysterious connection to the a 3D optical illusion poster.
Pam – Keith’s rich but supportive girlfriend.
Mario – The best friend with a violent history he doesn’t like to talk about.
Carrie – Keith’s ex who horribly betrayed him.
Mel – A strange mall worker who sells Keith the ominous poster.
Skrag – A local drug-dealing scumbag who’s got an issue with Mario.
Sandra – Skrag’s popular, smart girlfriend.
OK wait, the cover says David Bergantino is the author, but the title page inside says Bruce Richards. Is it just a simple mistake, or is one a pen name or something? They don’t seem to be the same person from what I can find on Google. Oh well. Anyway, we begin with a prologue as Freddy Krueger decorates his boiler room with ‘Wanted’ posters. He’d wanted to go with something more cheerful, but couldn’t get enough milk carton pictures. [Of missing kids? hahaha fkn hell] He then tells us about virtual posters [I’ve never heard them be called that, but he means autostereograms!] He warns that we must look beyond, deep into the virtual space if we dare, but virtual travel is a trip taken with the mind and ‘the farther you go, the harder it is to return.’ You must always look back so you don’t lose sight of yourself and become trapped on the other side of the glass — ‘If you do decide to come, maybe I’ll see you here on the other side. Maybe I can persuade you to become one of Freddy’s poster children!’ [Maybe!]
The main story begins with our protagonist, Keith, at the mall with his girlfriend, Pam, who’s been on his case a lot today because he clearly doesn’t want to be here. If he smiles, she offers to let him buy her a frozen yoghurt, putting on her Baby Face and Boo Boo Voice, which some find ‘irritating and manipulative, but Keith found it endearing.’ [Okeh] They’re a bit of a mismatched pair, with him being a moody, down to earth average Joe while she’s a rich, spoiled ice queen who needs everything planned out, but their relationship surprisingly works. Underneath Pam’s rich bitch persona is a determined young woman who takes nothing for granted, which is why she’s the star performer on Springwood’s track team, and she can ‘even beat some members of the boys’ team in some events.’ [Wow, a woman being better at something that a man?!? Can you believe it?! Doesn’t seem like Keith can] Keith’s captain of the wrestling team and is great academically, but feels he lacks the extra oomph that would set him apart from his peers.
Keith smiles and pays for some froyo, and then they find themselves walking through the section of the mall populated by pushcarts where vendors sell random things. There’s a crowd around one labelled Virtu-Illusions, which is selling framed posters of autostereograms. Keith loves that stuff and thinks he’s pretty good at them, so he concentrates on a dinosaur one he’s seen before [Not up for a challenge, Keith?] until this stupid little argument breaks out:
Just then, someone grabbed Keith roughly on the shoulder and shoved him aside. He turned quickly to face about about his own age, Hispanic and built like a Special Forced soldier. The other boy’s eyes narrowed into threatening slits.
“You were in my way, dude,” he growled.
Keith adopted his best street-tough voice and growled back, “Didn’t yo mama teach you manners?”
“My mama taught me a lot of things,” the boy answered, in a much more authentic street-tough voice. “Like how to beat your sorry ass.”
“Oh yeah?” Keith did not back down. He vaguely noticed that the other customers at the cart had started to move away. “Come on wif it, den. Give it your best shot!”
The other boy had stepped back and raised his fists in a defensive posture. Then he opened one hand and motioned Keith forward. “You want it, I got it. I take you out, dude. I take you out right now.”
[Bruh wtf is this ahahahahahaha]
The boys are just mucking around, though; this hunk is Mario, Keith’s best friend, and they also have a special handshake. [Aren’t they a bit old for that?] Mario’s here with the beautiful Carrie, who Keith dated for a year and had really been in love with before she broke up with him. To his surprise, he doesn’t feel pain anymore, which means he’s finally over the fact that she’s dating his bestie and can now view her as a friend rather than an ex who hurt him. [What? Fuck these guys, Keith] Keith wants to keep looking at posters so tells the others he’ll catch up to them since Pam really wants to go to another store before the mall closes. An ugly stringy-haired cashier named Mel approaches Keith, who kindly allows him to give his sales pitch, and then Keith finds a virtual image he hasn’t seen before titled Mysteria, which Mel hasn’t been able to work out. While Keith tries to figure out the hidden image, Mel chatters away about how he thought his fight with Mario was real, and then suddenly something seems to leap out at Keith from the poster! Shielding his face, he feels something warm ooze over his hands. It seems the poster has shot out ‘a psuedo-pod of color, a bowling-ball-size globe which was now enveloping his head.’ The blob tightens around his face, filling his eyes, nose and mouth until poor Keith starts to suffocate and blacks out.
While unconscious, Keith’s mind hallucinates hordes of spiders crawling over his body, a boa constrictor tightening around his neck, and desperate, agonising screams from far away as dead things come to feed on him. He’s half-buried and unable to move as ‘something very old, and very evil, was above him, studying him … laughing.’ [Scary!] Keith slips back to the land of the living, still terrified and barely able to breathe, surrounded by shoppers and pinned down by a security guard. He seemed to be having what looked like some kind of seizure while looking at the poster, but Keith assures everyone that he’s fine and there’s no need for an ambulance. The area clears out, leaving only Keith and Mel, who says that was incredible [???] and gives him Mysteria for free, wanting to make it up to Keith. [So you give him the poster that made him have a seizure??? I smell an ulterior motive. Is this Freddy in Mel’s body?! Do we really need another character possessed by Freddy?] It’s unnecessary but Keith doesn’t want to disappoint him, so he takes the gift but insists Mel at least takes $10 for it. Keith feels sick as soon as he touches the frame so asks for a carry bag, and Mel thanks him for not wanting to sue Virtu-Illusions, since there’s speculation these sort of posters bring on epileptic seizures.
Keith’s keen to leave, but Mel wants to know if he believes in fate and karma and that sort of thing, arguing that it’s all real when Keith admits he’s a non-believer. Mel reckons Keith’s seizure may have been fate, like he was meant to have this poster, and by giving him the poster, Mel will attract good karma. He also wants to know Keith’s star sign, but Keith affably explains he needs to go meet his friends and finally heads off, spotting Mel pocket the $10 when he glances back. He finds the others at an exit and Pam nags that she has to get home and eat soon so she has time to rest before her 7pm run. Mario and Carrie help carry Pam’s bags to the car as Keith lies that Mel sold him the poster cheap because he simply got dizzy and had to sit down, rather than go into what actually happened. Carrie isn’t impressed that Keith’s seemingly been tricked into helping the cashier steal and thinks he should do something about it. [I’d love to know how she thinks Mel benefits from giving away a poster, or taking $10 for it when it’s worth a lot more] Keith eventually snaps that she shouldn’t look at it if it’s such a problem for her, and it’ll be in his bedroom anyway, so how would she even get the chance? Carrie storms off and Keith calls out an apology that she ignores, and when Mario also leaves without their ceremonial handshake, Keith knows he’s really screwed up. [Why? He was just stating facts lol]
In the car, Pam chides him about being so moody today and admits she was going to suggest a double date before he put his foot in it. This is a surprise because Pam has always been jealous of Carrie, and Keith is constantly assuring her he’s over his ex. Keith had seemed fine when they first bumped into them, so the idea came to Pam while they were shopping without him. It’s the first time she’s really spoken to Mario, but she realises now he’s not a punk like she’d first thought and understands why he and Keith are friends. Keith ponders on whether he’d be ready for a double date with the people who’d betrayed him. When Carrie first left him for Mario, he’d hated them both, but he eventually came to realise you can’t steal someone because the other person has to want to be stolen, and he eventually forgave Mario and their friendship resumed a month later. [Just a month? Keith’s a doormat] It’s been harder to forgive Carrie, but he finally feels ready and agrees to find out if the other couple is interested.
After dropping off Pam, Keith drives home down Elm Street, passed the old Thompson house. [OK, so the first movie is cannon here, but are the sequels?] Rumour has it Freddy Krueger still lives there, spurred on when plans to invigorate the neighbourhood by demolishing the house were thwarted by a series of accidents, some fatal. Eventually Keith reaches the tidy houses of his own neighbourhood and soon he’s attempting to hang his new poster in his room, determined to solve the image. There’s a tightness in his chest as soon as he lifts the poster from the bag and he’s overcome by a nagging fear that there’s something wrong with the image. The feeling immediately disappears when he drops it, so he picks it up again. The same thing happens, but the idiot still wants to hang it up [Why are you ignoring your intuition here, dipshit?] and ends up accidentally striking the back of his hand as he hammers a nail into the wall. The hammer falls from his hand and bounces off the poster’s protective glass as he falls back in pain.
He can’t move the fingers on his now-purple hand, and since he’s home alone he calls Mario for a lift to the hospital. They’re leaving the emergency department a few hours later and Keith now has a plastic cuff on his hand to prevent movement. The bruising is very bad and he’ll be out of action for the wrestling match again Westview, Springwood’s biggest rivals, in a few days. He’s not too bummed about it because Mario’s their secret weapon, and we learn more about Keith’s best friend here. To get him away from gangs and urban violence, Mario’s father sent him to live with his aunt in the suburbs, and Mario started at Springwood High at the beginning of last year. Rough around the edges and tainted by the area he grew up in, Mario was constantly getting into fights until Keith managed to befriend him and the chip on his shoulder wore away. He focused on athletics, and Keith was able to convince him to join the wrestling team. Mario was super reluctant at first because being pinned would trigger his claustrophobia, so Keith advised him to just not get pinned, and throughout his whole wrestling career, no-one had managed to do it. Whenever some got close, Mario would explode with energy and turn the tables. [Wo knew a phobia could come in so handy?]
Keith apologises for what he said to Carrie yesterday and suggests they double-date. Mario’s keen and is sure Carrie would go for it, as long as Keith is sure, and Mario’s eagerness convinces Keith this is the right thing to do. Back at home later, Keith reflects on his family life. He and his mother are rarely home at the same time due to her busy work and social life, and his father died in a car accident when Keith was three. After a depressive slump, his mother jumped back into the dating pool and ended up being left at the alter three years later. They later found out the scam artist, known as the Thief of Hearts, was tracked down by a previous victim and shot dead, so he got his karma in the end.
Heading to bed, Keith picks up the Mysteria poster to check for damage, but it’s completely unscathed; there’s not so much as a scratch in the glass! The feeling of dread hits him as soon as he touches the poster, but this time it doesn’t completely vanish when he lets go. There’s the distinct feeling of being watched as soon as he turns the lights off, which somehow seems to be coming from the poster. Unable to ignore it, it’s only when he flips the picture to face the wall that he’s able to get to sleep. He has a very intense, surreal nightmare about being at the empty mall with Carrie, Pam and Mario. The girls clearly prefer Mario, who seems to hate Keith and keeps aggressively calling him dude until finally threatening to kill him. Keith flees to the yoghurt stand where a gory skeleton version of Mel offers him a cone of blood and assures him Mario can’t hurt him. To Keith’s horror, there’s four yoghurt dispensers, each labelled with Keith or his friends’ names, and Mario’s corpse is being brutally ground up in his dispenser. The same thing is happening to Pam’s dead body in her machine, but Carrie is still alive and asking for help in her machine, which hasn’t been switched on yet. Keith tries to stop the Mel-thing from switching it on, but is unable to fight him off and Keith is helpless as Carrie is ground up as well. Luckily for Keith, he black outs in the dream before he can suffer the same fate and wakes up facedown in his bed the next morning.
After a quick shower, we learn the bathroom mirror has a warp in it that distorts Keith’s image. He often experiments with the warp, moving his head around to twist his features in different ways, and I’m sure this will be important later because of the book’s cover. [Although it has a crack in it on the cover, not a warp] Later, he calls Carrie to apologise for yesterday and also suggests the double date to her. She’s keen, so plans are made to meet tonight at 8pm.
About an hour before he’s due to leave for the double date, Keith successfully hangs up the Virtu-Illusions poster, once again ignoring the apprehensive feeling he gets as soon from touching it. He struggles to find the hidden image and before he knows it, 45 minutes have past and it’s time to leave. He’s determined to find the image before he leaves the house, though, and finally starts to see a shape within the image, but a twinge of pain behind his eyes causes him to lose it. Undeterred, he tries again and the shape starts to reform, but this time he holds his focus through the pain:
This image was so unexpected that at first he couldn’t tell what it was. Fear replaced shock as the image became easily recognizable. He was looking at a male human face. It seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t understand why. A mask of terror and agony stared out at Keith. The eyes were wide with fear and pain, the mouth open in a silent scream. An unidentifiable inverted V-shaped object protruded from the subject’s mouth. Cat scratches of dread crawled up his back. But Keith could not look away. The image seemed to be drawing him in, infusing him with the terror expressed in the face floating before him.
The connection is broken by a vicious bolt of pain and Keith swallows some Tylenol, wondering why a virtual-image poster would have an image like that. It’s not like the usual simple images of dolphins or dinosaurs you usually see in these things; Keith had somehow recognised the face, and it was so detailed that Keith could make out the individual hairs on the image’s head. He’s 30 minutes late by this point so hurries off to pick up Pam, lying that he accidently overslept during his nap. He downplays the excruciating headache he’s got and claims to be a little nervous, but he actually just can’t stop thinking about Mysteria. Pam assures him it’ll be just like old times, which is a weird thing to say because as far as Keith is concerned, the old times were when he was dating Carrie, which is definitely not about to happen, but he decides he’s overanalysing her statement and drops the subject.
A short time later the foursome meet at a super-busy coffee shop called Wide Awake, which is popular among teens — ‘In Springwood, all the coffee shops were popular teen hangouts.’ [Coffee is grossssss] Keith feels a bit uneasy around Mario thanks to his nightmare, and when he returns with drinks, the others have decided to do the Dream Exchange because they all had weird dreams last night. Whether it confirms Freddy Krueger’s existence or just perpetuates the myth, the Dream Exchange involves the Springwood teens opening up to each other about their vivid and frequently violent nightmares, [Love this!] and one of the cardinal rules is no lying. Keith isn’t really up for talking about his intense nightmare about his friends, so lies that it was uninteresting and suggests he tell one from a few nights ago instead, to which the group agrees.
Pam goes first and tells of her she was lost in the woods at night and being chased by a large group of wolves. Although she couldn’t understand their howling to each other, she just knew they were specifically after her. The wolves eventually caught up to her and began tearing into her flesh before the biggest and baddest one lunged for her throat, which is when she woke up. Keith tells his dream from a few nights ago where he was walking in an empty room and deliberately stepped on a pin on the floor, which stabbed into his sole and ‘”I popped.”‘ [Hahahaha] Mario finds it super funny, which catches the attention of Sandra, who plops herself down at their table so she can hear the story too. Mario clearly doesn’t want her there and excuses himself to the bathroom, and Sandra explains that he’d gotten into an argument with Skrag the other day and must not be over it. Richard ‘Skrag’ Moreton is Sandra’s boyfriend [And the only one who’s given a last name, weirdly] and ‘the leader of the school’s burnt-out grease monkey contingent.’ He’s two years older than everyone else and is repeating senior year for the third time, [Fkn hell] chain-smokes, does drugs and is rumoured to be involved in a slew of recent burglaries. No-one quite understands why he bothers returning to school — some believe it’s to irritate the staff, but others reckon it’s because it’s the easiest way for him to meet girls. [Sounds kind of predatory lol] At first glance Sandra seems made for a loser like Skrag, but in reality she’s his complete opposite. Smart, studious Sandra is at the top of her class academically, but is clearly excited by Skrag’s dangerous image. Likewise, dating her is ‘Skrag’s revenge against the other students who treated him like a second-class citizen.’ Sandra has absorbed some if his brashness without being insufferable, but unfortunately nothing about her has rubbed off on him.
Anyway, the gang asks where Skrag is, wondering if he’s working on a car or out dealing drugs, and Sandra, not for the first time, insists he’s quitting the drug business, slowly but surely. The group knows better than to argue that they’ve all heard that before, so Carrie mentions wanting Skrag to check out her car because of the funny noise it’s making. Keith then explains his dream again, which isn’t as funny the second time around, [And wasn’t that funny the first time anyway] and then Sandra recalls her own dream. In it, she was at some kind of track meet but was the only one in a lane, surrounded by an angry mob holding weapons. At the end of the track was a glowing ball she has to get, and she realised she’s taking part in a gauntlet. As she was running, the angry mob would reach in and slash at her with their weapons, punching and kicking, and she eventually saw that she was rapidly aging as well. Reaching the ball would return her youth, so she kept running, and her arm breaks like a dry branch when she catches her next fall. She still keeps going, though, forced to drag herself when one of her legs shatters into dust. Haunted by the memory, she seems reluctant to finish, but admits that she was just about to reach the finish line when the mob closed in on her and blocked the path, and she finally woke as they started tearing her body apart. She then initiates the toast that traditionally ends the Dream Exchange — ‘”Dreams are a bitch, and then you wake up … Here’s to waking up.”‘ [Cute]
Suddenly, everyone hears the sound of a scuffle out the back of the coffee shop and realise Mario hasn’t returned, so they all race to the back parking lot where they find him wrestling with Skrag, who’s here to pick up Sandra. Keith hurries over and pulls Mario away, catching a glimpse of Skrag’s face — ‘It was the face in the poster.’ [It’s sort of written as if Keith’s never seen Skrag before, which is weird. Like, why is he only realising now that it was Skrag in the poster? Fair enough if he couldn’t place it back in his room, but his name being mentioned in the coffee shop should have sparked the recognition, right?] Mario elbows Keith in the ribs to get him to let go, then realises who he’s just injured and forgets about the fight. We don’t find out exactly what the problem is between the two of them, but Skrag warns Sandra she’s not safe around Mario, so maybe it’s to do with racism and/or Mario’s history with gangs? [Note from future: It is nothing like that] Everyone quickly disperses, and Keith’s too injured to drive now so Pam drives his car home while Mario follows behind to give her a ride back to her place. As they’re waiting at the lights out front of the coffee shop, Keith spots one table occupied by a single person who seems detached and uncomfortably aware that he doesn’t belong. Then Keith realises the guy is staring at him. The light goes green as Keith instantly recognises Mel, the Virtuo-Illusions cashier, who flashes him a creepy smile, nods slightly and winks as if they share some big secret.
At Keith’s house, Carrie hangs back and approaches Keith while Pam jumps in Mario’s car. She jokes about how good the date turned out to be, and Keith is glad they did it and thinks it’ll be easier from now on. In bed a short time later, Keith can’t get the day’s events out of his head, particularly Mysteria and the image of Skrag. ‘The poster’s eerie presence again permeated the room, as if a sinister, invisible light emanated from it in the darkness. Oh, this is all real, it was telling him, in a smooth, dark voice. And this is only the beginning. The evil droning continued on and on, eventually lulling Keith into sleep.’ He wakes from a nightmare 30 minutes later, but all he can remember about it is Mel creepily smiling at him. He wonders if Mel was so keen to get rid of the poster because he’d sensed something strange about it himself and ventures back to the coffee shop hoping Mel is still there.
Luckily, Mel hasn’t moved and seems pleasantly surprised that Keith is here to talk to him. He claims he didn’t notice anything strange about the poster. Keith admits it gives him a bad feeling and mentions seeing Skrag’s agonised face in the poster, which gets an eerie smile from Mel, who’d only been here tonight to do a little business with Skrag, which explains a lot. [Drugs drugs drugs!] The fight prevented their transaction, but Mel hung around to watch people because ‘”I just love watching people.”‘ [OK creep] Mel suggests Keith had been projecting when he saw Skrag’s image in the poster — ‘”The poster could be reflecting what you see in your head, like a psychic mirror.”‘ He explains that the image may have triggered a psychic ability within Keith and seems sure that Skrag’s image is a warning that something bad is about to befall him. He advises Keith not to tell anyone, including Skrag, because everyone will start treating him like a weirdo if he starts babbling about seeing faces in images. Mel admits that he’d been an outcast in high school and everyone treated him like a goon no matter what he did, so he eventually became one. Keith’s a bit fed up by Mel’s weird behaviour by this point and asks why he doesn’t just stop acting weird, but Mel just says it’s too late for him. He warns that Keith will end up just like him if he starts telling his friends this stuff but agrees to see what he can find out about Mysteria and instructs Keith to stop by the cart later this week. Keith decides Mel is definitely strange but not as creepy as he’d thought, and when he returns home, the poster appears completely harmless now…
It’s 3:30am now and Skrag has unwillingly woken up at the ramshackle house he rents on Elm Street [I don’t think it’s Freddy’s, though] from what was likely going to be a wet dream involving the Doublemint twins. His jaw is sore from the punch-up and we find out the reason he and Mario fought is because of some big secret Skrag has been keeping for him. [Ooooh, I love other people’s secrets] Skrag’s injuries are his own fault, since he provoked Mario into the fight in the first place, but he’s decided that tomorrow everyone will know the scandalous secret, which Sandra already knows because she demanded an explanation on the way home. An engine roars outside, and Skrag recognises it as his beloved Mustang. Attempting to get out of bed, he realises his wrists and ankles are tied to the bedposts and he can’t move. The engine just revs even louder as he shouts for help and thick exhaust billows through the open window, choking Skrag. The fumes thin out as the engine goes idle, and Skrag hears someone exit the car followed by a few clicks and scrapes. Eventually, right outside the window comes the sound of two clicks, each accompanied by some crackling as bright orange sparks dart into the room. [Jumper cables?!?] Something sharp suddenly bites into his ear, excruciatingly painful, and then a gloved hand grips his forehead and something coppery-tasting and V-shaped is forced into his mouth, clamping over his tongue. [Oh shit]
A red plastic-sheathed cord ran from the shape and out of his sight through the window. The thick smoke of burning flesh rose from his mouth. His screams became nothing but pathetic gargles. Skrag knew what was happening to him.
The revving of his car’s finely tuned engine was the last sound Richard ‘Skrag’ Moreton heard as his brain surged with electricity.
[Oof, what a way to go. But a bit confusing; if the car’s exhaust was facing the window, these jumper cables must be pretty long, otherwise how would this even work? The battery’s at the front of the car usually] At lunch the next day, Mario burst into the cafeteria and announces to his friends that Skrag was murdered, which he suspects was revenge for a bad drug deal or something. He gleefully explains how Skrag was dispatched, and Carrie scolds Mario about how happily he’s taking the news before storming off. Mario chases after her, leaving Pam and Keith alone, the latter of which has gone into shock as he realises he saw the murder in Mysteria.
Pam snaps him from his stupor and to show him Mario being put into a cop car by two officers outside, having been intercepted at the cafeteria’s entrance. They find Carrie, who’s certain it’s about the fight rather than Mario being suspected for murder, and Keith points out they don’t actually know anything about Mario’s past before arriving in Springwood. The girls head down to the police station to show their support, but Keith will meet them there, giving them no explanation other than there’s something important he needs to check on first. He heads to the mall to find Mel, but a female cashier at the Virtu-Illusions cart informs him that he’s been fired after failing to show up to work today. He’s allegedly been stealing money too, but no-one knows how to reach him because his number is disconnected. [Oooh, what if Mysteria is somehow connected to Freddy, and Mel was a victim of the poster and had become the latest corpse inhabited by Freddy or something? Mel is definitely suss]
With no way of tracking Mel down and unsure if he’s even still in town, Keith meets the girls at the station, where Mario has been questioned for an hour at this point. Mrs. Vasquez, Mario’s aunt, is there, and when the trio try to reassure her that Mario hasn’t done anything wrong, she declares that Mario would have been in jail for murder a long time ago if she hadn’t begged his father to send him here to Springwood. Apparently According to her, Mario’s already a murderer, but before we can get anymore information, the police bring Mario out and announce that he’s not in trouble but they may need to speak to him again. Mario leaves with his aunt and the girls decide Mrs. Vasquez is wrong, there’s no way Mario is a murderer! Keith nods in agreement but secretly isn’t so sure because it’s obvious something terrible happened in Mario’s past. He’s also concerned that just like Skrag’s image in the poster, his nightmare of Mario being violently out of control could be some kind of premonition.
Later that afternoon, Keith heads over to Carrie’s place after she calls in tears requesting he come check out her car. She’d barely made it home from the police station because it’s making a hissing noise and won’t idle, and she also needs someone to talk to since Mario’s aunt won’t let him near the phone. Keith patches the car up as best he can and they discuss how Keith’s had to teach himself a lot of things due to his father not being in the picture to pass on wisdom. [HE taught himself all that and I don’t even know how to change a tyre] He laments that he hasn’t yet found his one true talent, and although he’s good at a lot of things, there’s always someone who’s better — Skrag with cars, Mario at wrestling, Pam at athletics, and Sandra academically. [Oh, we leaving Carrie out? Actually I’m fine with that she’s a dirty betrayer] He wonders if he’s just using being raised without a father as an excuse for mediocrity, but Carrie assures him he’s not mediocre and asks how he thinks she’s better than him. [Oh here we go, I wonder if they’ll cheat now. There’s a very thin line they can cross here…] Keith shyly admits she’s just more wonderful than he is, but Carries argues that he’s wonderful as well and she doesn’t know what she would have done if he hadn’t come over. She tells him that whatever’s happened in the past, he’s very important to her, Mario and Pam, and he’s the glue holding their group together. [You’ve only just started hanging out, can we even call that a group yet?]
The conversation turns to Mario, and Carrie is somewhat doubtful that Mario is innocent of Skrag’s murder based on his behaviour the past few weeks. He’s not home when he usually is, he’s being secretive, and has had quite a temper lately, especially when it comes to Skrag, which makes her wonder if he’s gotten involved with drugs somehow. Mario’s mentioned to Keith in the past that Skrag reminds him of punks from his whole neighbourhood, and Carrie wonders if maybe he’s relapsed or something. Keith thinks they should give Mario a chance — he’s their best friend, after all, and just because he seems to be going through something doesn’t mean he’s a murderer.
After dinner that night, Keith gets a phone call but doesn’t recognise the whispering voice on the other end until they identify themselves: ‘”It’s me,” he repeated. “Mario.”‘
Mario’s snuck to the phone while his aunt’s in the bathroom and insists that despite what she may have said, he didn’t kill anyone and he’ll explain it all tomorrow at school. After the very brief call, Keith heads up to his room and feels Mysteria’s presence as soon as he’s through the door, as if it’s been waiting for him. He finds himself rooted to the spot and unable to tear his eyes away from the picture as his vision blurs and his head begins to pound. An image forms of a sleeping elderly woman looking distressed before Keith’s headache gets too intense and he falls back onto his bed, severing the connection to the poster. He downs some more Tylenol and attempts to sleep so the pain can disappear.
He wakes up just after 8pm and finds a message from Sandra on his answering machine. Through tears, she explains that Mario killed Skrag because of something to do with Keith, and she wants Keith to meet her tonight so she can spill the beans and he can hopefully convince her she’s wrong. She tells Keith to meet her at the sign out front of school at 8:30 tonight so they can talk, promising to keep calling if she doesn’t hear from him by then or he doesn’t turn up. [She’s gonna be dead or something by the time he gets there, isn’t she?] As he’s preparing to go meet her he gets another phone call, this time from Mel who’s heard about Skrag’s murder. Keith mentions the second face in the poster and doesn’t like how excited Mel seems, but he lets it slide when Mel requests they meet because he’s got information about Mysteria. Keith is on his way out so tells him to call back and leave an address so he can head right over when he gets back, promising he won’t tell anyone or bring any cops. As he heads over to the school, it dawns on Keith how weird it is that Mel somehow has his number despite Keith not giving it to him or even telling him his last name — ‘He suddenly wondered if he should have asked to meet Mel in a public place.’
Keith waits at the school for an hour but there’s no sign of Sandra at all, [Ugh, I hope she’s still alive, she seems nice] so he heads home and then to a trailer park in a seedy part of Springwood. As he approaches Mel’s trailer he hears water running inside and is surprised to learn that Mel actually bathes. [Hahahaha] Not wanting to interrupt his probably monthly shower, [Lol drag him, Keith] Keith decides to snoop around outside for a bit, unable to shake the feeling he’s walking into an ambush. He finds a decent-sized storage shed near the back end of the trailer hits the light, illuminating animal traps of all sizes hung on the back wall. Springwood is hardly bear country and Mel doesn’t exactly seem the type to hunt animals, so Keith is even more nervous about him now.
Keith’s busted by Mel, who doesn’t seem bothered at all by his snooping and explains he inherited all the traps from his grandfather. Inside the trailer, which is as messy and depressing as Keith expects, [Hahaha poor Mel] Mel isn’t immediately forthcoming with his new information and is clearly toying with Keith. Since Keith doesn’t recognise the elderly woman he saw in the picture, Mel points out that there’s nothing they can do to prevent something bad happening and finally reveals what he’s discovered. He’d gotten through to Virtu-Illusions’ PR department and was told that Mysteria was actually a joke by one of their artists. It was never supposed to be distributed, and the woman wasn’t sure how many are in circulation, but there’s no picture to find in that particular artwork. The company is super keen to get it back and offering a reward, so Mel suspects there’s more to the story than Virtu-Illusions is letting on.
Mel thinks Keith should send Mysteria back if it’s bothering him so much, or alternatively offers to buy the seemingly cursed poster off Keith himself, [Sneaky] but Keith declines because it’s obvious Mel’s up to something — does he want the reward the company offered, or does he have some other agenda? Keith still would like Mel’s help with figuring out what’s going on, and Mel suggests he bring Mysteria over sometime because it’ll be easier to assist if he can see it. Keith agrees to think about it and attempts to leave, but Mel guilt trips him into staying to hang out a bit — ‘”I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re just a user like the rest of them. But you came looking for me. You asked me for help. I gave it to you, now you run off. I thought you were cool, man.”‘ The sudden shift in behaviour is unsettling, but Keith understands because he really had pumped him for information, and Mel had been kind enough to forgive him for snooping.
Keith agrees to stay for a bit but is fully aware Mel is playing him, and Mel reveals he’d overheard the group’s Dream Exchange at the coffee shop. He denies eavesdropping and says he was there first, but Keith was too wrapped up in his friends to notice. Mel apparently approached him to say hi, but he didn’t want to interrupt Pam’s recount of her nightmare, and then the fight had broken out. Keith thinks he should have said something anyway, but Mel admits he was scared they wouldn’t want anything to do with him. He’d had a dream ready to tell too, thinking that was the price of admission to the group. [Mel seems like a genuinely lonely guy seeking friends, but also he’s super suss about the whole Mysteria thing so I’m not sure what to make of him] Keith asks about the dream and although Mel’s forgotten the details by now, he was basically sitting where Keith is right now, watching TV, and every channel is showing war, murders, death, destruction etc, and dream-Mel can’t stop smiling at it all. Keith points out that Mel is always smiling and jokes that he should stop watching TV, but Mel seems offended at first until he realises his new best friend is trying to lighten the mood.
Even though it’s barely been a few minutes since he forced Keith to stay, Mel declares he’s got a bunch of things to do right now and will have to kick him out. He’ll call Keith if he finds out any more information about the poster, which reminds Keith to ask how he got his number in the first place. With a mixture of pride and embarrassment, Mel admits to sneaking into the school’s library and looking Keith up in the yearbook, then called Information. He tells Keith to drop by if anything else happens or he just wants to hang out, or maybe he’ll see him and his friends at the coffee place sometime, and Keith leaves with a bundle of nerves in his stomach.
Arriving at school the next morning, Keith notices the stadium lights are on and there’s several emergency vehicles around it, including a hook-and-ladder vehicle, as well as a crowd of onlookers. He joins Pam, Mario and Carrie in the crowd as the ladder is extended towards the lights, almost touching a body suspended before them. [Omg, Sandra ;(] The lights are too bright to see who it is, but they’re turned off when a fireman brushes his arm against a light as he tries to grab the corpse. Keith only gets a glimpse of the body before the fireman wraps a tarp around it, but it’s definitely female. [And definitely Sandra] A second fireman holds the body at the waist while the first one cuts the cord around her neck, but as they slowly descend the ladder, the lower one slips, dropping the body to the ground to keep himself from falling. The body’s facedown, completely uncovered now, and Keith and his friends immediately realise it’s Sandra. Keith and a hysterical Carrie are allowed over to the body at Carrie’s insistence, and Keith tells Officer Farthing who the body is. The officer wants them to be completely sure it’s her, so he turns the girl face up:
After a moment of pure shock, Carrie started screaming. The front of Sandra’s clothes were scorched, burned through in some places. Bloodstains splotched her jeans and shirt. The cord had cut into her neck, and blood had spilled from the wound. Much of her hair had burned away from her face. But the face was the worst. It was shriveled and dry, cracked and peeling. Sandra had the face of the old woman Keith had seen “sleeping” in “Mysteria.”
[Poor Sandra did not deserve that! What a way to go, poor girl] Keith confirms her identity and Sandra’s corpse is taken away. Officer Farthing suspects she was severely beaten and hung out to dry, literally, and has likely been up there under the hot lights all night — ‘”Leave something in the oven long enough, and it’ll shrivel up to nothing. That’s what happened to your friend.”‘ [At least she was most likely dead from the noose before burning up, I guess?] Keith and Carrie inform him that Sandra was Skrag’s girlfriend, and while Skrag’s drug dealing could have lead to his murder, no-one would have any reason to kill Sandra. [Except Mario, to keep his secret from getting out! But is that too obvious?] Suddenly realising Mario and Pam aren’t around to comfort Carrie, Keith puts his arm around her, [I wonder if these two are gonna have an affair. It seems like it’s heading that way] and Officer Farthing hands them his number so they can call him if they think of anything else.
The pair find Mario and Pam in the parking lot, where everyone is clearing out because school’s been called off for the day. Looking pointedly at Mario, Keith reveals why Sandra called him last night and asks why he and Skrag had fought. Mario swears he didn’t kill Skrag and the fight was because Skrag was talking shit, but Carrie wants to know more. Looking like a trapped animal, Mario admits that Skrag had been on his case about something lately, ‘”But that something is the reason why I couldn’t have killed him. My motive is my alibi, guys.”‘ Keith demands to know where he was when Skrag and Sandra were killed, but it’s not the teary-eyed Mario is answers, but Pam — ‘”He was with me.”‘
[OK, I was not expecting that! I thought it’d be Keith and Carrie who’d end up cheating. This is crazy. My mind is blown. And the fact that Pam was pushing for them all to double date?!?!? Fuck these two! Mario has done this twice now!] Keith rages at both of them, and not even Carrie is safe when she tries to calm him down — ‘”You stay away, too. Let’s talk again in about six months and you can tell me how it feels to be dumped and alone.”‘ [Hahaha get her, Keith!] Mario insists they’d wanted to tell Keith and Carrie but Skrag was being such a dick about it, which is why they’d fought. Mario claims he wouldn’t go around murdering people because he’d been caught cheating, but he’s aware the police think he’s guilty because of his upbringing. There’s some truth to what his aunt said — the people Mario used to hang out with killed someone and he saw it happen, so as far his dad and aunt are concerned, he pulled the trigger which is why his aunt thinks he killed Skrag. He definitely seems more worried that Sandra may have told the police that Skrag saw him and Pam together and was threatening to blow the whistle than Keith and Carrie’s feelings, warning that if the police think Keith believes Mario murdered them, they’ll probably believe it too, especially given how angry Keith is at the moment. Mario’s also nervous that the police will assume he’s influenced Pam to be his alibi, so even though he doesn’t deserve it, he’s begging Keith to help him out here, ‘”Or I’ll fry.”‘ [Interesting choice of words after Sandra’s death…] It’s a tough one for Keith because he doesn’t know for sure that Mario didn’t kill Skrag. He’d heard that Skrag was killed in the early hours of the morning so ‘”Either you killed Skrag, or you were with Pam at three in the morning. And I sure as hell don’t know which would be worse.”‘ Then he simply walks over to his car and drives off, ignoring them as they call after him.
Keith eventually pulls over in tears, conflicted about Mario’s innocence due to his yoghurt nightmare earlier in the book —the dream foretold betrayal and violence, and if it had been conjured by the poster, it really could be a premonition. [Especially because the betrayal part has already happened!] Or maybe Mel was right and the poster had just been the catalyst for some hidden ability Keith possessed. Either way, Keith doesn’t know what to think, since everything’s been so wacky lately.
Keith arrives home around lunchtime and listens to the countless messages on his answering machine from Mario, Pam and Carrie, but doesn’t call any of them back. There’s also one from Mel, who’s heard about what happened at school and wants Keith to come over as soon as he can. Keith wonders how he found out since it’s too soon to be on the news and even if it had been, Sandra’s wouldn’t have been identified to the public. [I’m confused about Keith’s confusion here because I’m sure word travels fast around town and even if it didn’t, Mel never mentioned Sandra’s name, he literally just said he heard about what happened at school] Keith wonders if Mel is the murderer, but on the other hand he’s clearly got a talent for discovering information quickly. Keith now suddenly has what he deems a premonition of the faces of himself, Skrag, Mel and Sandra as moons orbiting the gravitational field of a large planet, except the planet is Mysteria and instead of gravity, it’s evil. [I have no idea how he’s interpreting this as a premonition lol] He clamps his mind shut from the weird image and glances at the poster, which once again seems to be completely normal. The phone rings again and Keith lets the machine get it. This time it’s Officer Farthing, who’d like him and Carrie to come down to the station to make a statement. That’s the last thing he wants to do, so he shuts off the ringer and settles down in the living room with a book because sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to not think about it.
He’s still reading when mum arrives home several hours later, and she gets to work making his favourite dinner to cheer him up, marinated chicken breast. [Really? That’s your favourite dinner, Keith?] Keith heads up to his room and listens to the messages left on his phone, including one from Mario and a lengthy one from Carrie, who explains she doesn’t want to go make a statement at the station until she’s spoken to him, and Mario’s been taken in again. Carrie is positive that Mario didn’t kill anyone and points out that if Keith wasn’t so angry at him right now, he’d believe his best friend’s innocence too. She plans to go to the station alone Keith doesn’t contact her and, realising she’s right, Keith calls her back but has to leave a message instead explaining he’s on his way to the station. As he’s about to hang up, he glances at the poster which painfully draws him in once again, causing him to drop the receiver. Mysteria depicts Mario’s face this time, looking terrified with what appears to be flames around him. Keith’s abruptly released from the poster and notices Carrie’s answering machine is still recording, so he frantically warns her that Mario’s in danger and she needs to find and stick with him if she’s left the station by the time he arrives. He blurts out that Mysteria showed him Skrag’s and Sandra’s deaths and now he’s seen Mario’s, but maybe they can prevent it if they’re all together.
Keith speeds over to the station and learns that Mario was only in to make a statement and both Pam and Carrie have been and left already. No-one’s home at Mario’s, so he heads back home, hoping Carrie will have called. She calls soon after he arrives and he tells her to stay with Mario and he’ll come meet them at the diner where they’re at. He wants to talk to Mario first, and when Carrie puts him on the phone he tells him he’s in danger so needs to stay with her and he’ll explain everything when he gets there. [OK, so stop wasting time?] Keith makes the mistake of looking at the poster again and with the headache comes a new face, this time of Pam, her neck ending ‘in a jagged line.’ [Uh-oh] Realising she’s replaced Mario in the pecking order, Keith learns from Mario that Pam’s probably out running.
Over to Pam now, who’s jogging around Springwood Park and collecting her thoughts. She’s worried about being out alone with a killer on the loose, but she won’t be out long and she’s pretty sure Skrag and Sandra’s murders were drug-related. Speaking of Skrag, that’s who she blames for Keith finding out about the affair.
She and Mario had meant to be direct with the others after realising their mutual attraction a few weeks ago. After a few secret dates, they realised it was less of an affair and more of the beginnings of a relationship, and they just needed to pick the right time to tell Carrie and Keith. Mario was keen to tell them as soon as they were discovered by Skrag, but Pam didn’t think Keith could handle the news just yet and formulated a plan:
She thought Keith was still in love with Carrie. She would arrange times when the two couples would “accidentally” bump into one another. Once reintroduced, Keith and Carrie would become friends again. Perhaps they would fall in love again, announce the news to Pam and Mario, and the switchover would take place painlessly.
[You sneaky little bitch! I won’t lie, I kind of love it though hahaha. So Pam actually did mean it literally when she said the double date would be like old times 💀] Pam immediately thought of Mario when she learned of Skrag’s death, but knew deep down he wasn’t involved, which is why she’d lied to the police about being with him that night. She was actually fast asleep in bed at the time, and Mario had claimed he’d been doing the same thing. Pam’s reached the crest of a hill by this point, which drops away steeply to a barren area of grass and rocks to her right, and that’s exactly where she falls when something heavy suddenly strikes her in the side. She briefly spots the dark shape of a man above her before she’s speedily rolling down the very steep hill. There’s two sharp, metallic snapping sounds as sharp things bite into her leg and upper left arm. [I have no idea what’s going on here. Is the killer throwing something at her or something?] Her right hand and left foot are suddenly paralysed as they’re set upon by whatever’s making the sharp clicks, and she can feel blood pouring out of the wounds caused by whatever’s biting into her flesh. As she nears the bottom of the hill, an artery is severed when something large and sharp attaches itself to her right thigh, shooting blood out like a fountain. She finally comes to a stop facedown at the bottom of the hill and begins to grow weak from blood loss. She struggles to flip herself over, momentarily blacking out from the pain when she tries to push herself up, but eventually rolls onto her back:
Immediately Pam felt something hard and flat against the back of her head. As the weight of her head pressed her down on the surface, she heard the sound of a heavy spring uncoiling. She died instantly as heavy metal teeth bit into her flesh, nearly severing her head at the neck.
[Oof, wasn’t actually expecting her to die!] Keith discovers Pam’s corpse a short time later and also steps on one of the claw trap things, which he recognises from Mel’s shed. [Ohhhhhhh, so Pam rolled through several bear traps on her way down the hill! Poor gal] Mario appears and attacks Keith, believing he’s the murderer, but Keith manages to convince him otherwise and explains why he’s sure it’s Mel — not only because of the animal traps, but because Mel sold him the poster and also knew Sandra would be at the school last night. [No, he didn’t. All Keith told him was that he was heading out. He didn’t specifically say where or to meet with who] Keith wants to go to the police right now, but Mario insists on a detour to Mel’s place so he can beat him up before turning him in.
On the drive over, Keith chides Mario for not staying with Carrie, but Keith was freaking him out so he wanted to come find Pam as well. Keith fills him in on the whole faces in the poster stuff, and when they arrive at Mel’s trailer, it appears he’s not home. Mario tells Keith to wait in the car while he goes to investigate the trailer, which is conveniently unlocked. Opening a door a bit, Mario can see in the dim light from outside that Mel’s sitting in a chair and starts taunting him, but Mel doesn’t respond. Mario eventually turns the lights on to find Mel tied to the chair and very much dead — ‘He had been slashed from ear to ear, and the slit curved, giving him the appearance of having a wide, permanent bloody, smile.’ [So who the fuck is killing everyone? It can’t be Mario based on his reaction. Carrie? Keith, somehow? There’s no other people left to suspect!] Mario stumbles back out of the trailer and leans against it to collect his thoughts, illuminated by the lights of Keith’s car. Suddenly, the car lurches forward, striking Mario in the chest and pinning him against the trailer:
At the wheel was Keith, his face distorted, an almost unrecognizable mask of evil. With insane glee, Keith accelerated, slowly crushing Mario against the trailer.
As the last breath was squeeze from his lungs, Mario managed to croak, “You’re killing me, dude.” He no longer had feeling below his neck. “I’m dying,” he said weakly.
Keith’s malevolent smile only widened. Somehow, he had heard Mario’s plea over the roar of the engine. “Yes,” Keith replied cruelly. “”You are.” Then Keith started laughing, a deep, horrifying sound. It was not Keith’s laugh … or even his voice.
Mario’s eyesight faded to black on the image of Keith’s twisted face. And the hideous laughter was the last thing he heard before he died.
[Another surprise death! I love to see it] Keith races home and straight up to his room, yelling at his mother to leave him alone when she tries to check in with him. He attacks Mysteria with a hammer but the glass doesn’t even crack, and then he runs to his private bathroom and vomits at the memory of what he’s just done to Mario. [How does he remember that but none of the other murders?] He hardly recognises himself when he looks in the mirror, and as he concentrates on his image, his eyes blur and he seems to be looking deep within his reflection. All distinguishable features melt away and the lighting disappears in the reflection, so all that he sees is a mass of flesh floating in blank space. [Guessing this has nothing to do with the warp. I guess it wasn’t relevant after all. The cover is stupid now] Before his eyes, the scene changes to Scrag’s murder, and Keith witnesses himself securing the jumper cables to Scrag’s ear and tongue. Then the image fades away, replaced with vision of Keith meeting up with Sandra, who tells him about Mario and Pam as they walk, and Keith sees himself attacking her, then with inhuman strength hanging her body from the stadium light before turning it on and heading to Mel’s trailer. [So does he have lapses in memory when the murders took place, but we weren’t made aware of it? Like, are we gonna get some kind of explanation?] The next scene is of earlier this afternoon. Instead of reading all day like he’d claimed, Keith drove to Mel’s, murdered him and stole the bear traps, and that night after stopping by the police station, he set them up on the slope at the park for Pam. [We were reading his experience at the from the police station until he left to find Pam after speaking with Carrie and Mario, so when exactly did he set them up? And seriously, how has he not noticed these lapses in memory?]
The final scene is of Mario’s death before the mirror goes black, and Keith realises for the first time that he’s killed everyone. Suddenly, a voice inside Keith’s head declares he didn’t do it alone, and his reflection begins to morph once again, this time into a horribly burned figure — ‘”Say hello to Freddy,” said the monster. “Now you’re the B.M.O.C.— Big Murderer on Campus.” Freddy laughed. ‘”You’ve done Daddy proud!”‘ [Don’t tell me Keith’s his son too]
Meanwhile, Carrie’s pounding on Keith’s bedroom door, but the only answer is chilling laughter on the other side. She’d returned home earlier to hear the message from Keith on her machine, then told her parents to call the police and send them to Springwood Park. She headed there herself, hoping to save Pam from imminent danger, but she was too late and Keith and Mario were nowhere to be found. On her way to Mario’s house, Keith sped by, alone and with a strange look on his face, so she followed him. She instructed his mother to call an ambulance while she went up to talk to Keith, and here we are. She finally forces herself to enter the room, met with an overwhelming feeling of dread. She spots the poster behind her just as Keith steps out of the adjoining bathroom, and she immediately realises that it isn’t really Keith. Freddy-as-Keith gloats about Keith killing everyone before the evil light leaves his eyes and Keith is himself again, feeling terribly guilty for the murders.
She steps forward to comfort him but notices the terror on his face and follows his gaze to the Mysteria poster behind her, which is has a roaring sound coming from it and it now depicts blackness. Captivated, she approaches it and can see a red glow in the distance of the poster, conjuring images of blazing furnaces in her mind. All at once, a horribly charred man appears against the black, and Carrie immediately recognises him from long ago. ‘”How do you like this for 3-D?”‘ Freddy quips, springing forward to grab her and drag her back into the poster, which envelopes her with heat as she passes through the glass. She manages to twist around in his arms to face Keith’s room, where he’s just standing there like a stunned mullet. Her attempts to fight Freddy off fail, but just as she’s completely through the poster, Keith finally grabs her arms and begins to pull her back.
Carrie kicks out at Freddy and eventually is back through to Keith’s room, but Freddy begins emerging from the poster too. Keith whacks him in the head with the claw end of the hammer, but Freddy’s prepared for the second strike and slashes at Keith’s arm before grabbing him and attempting to pull him through. Carrie attacks Freddy’s arms with the hammer but he doesn’t seem to notice and Keith, who’s holding onto the frame to prevent himself being completely pulled through, orders her to smash the picture. They both realise that this might seal this little portal and trap Freddy on the other side, but it will probably trap Keith too. Still, he insists she do it, [And I bet the glass will inexplicably break this time lol] and Carrie brings the hammer down on the glass with all her might:
It shattered instantly, glass falling into the void just as Keith’s hand finally slipped from the frame. With the breach came a rush of hot air, which blew her backward into the room. Sounds of laughing mingled with screaming as a glow formed in the center of the poster at the same time the frame seemed to buckle and shrink.”
The poster collapses in on itself, but the glow at the centre extends outward like a worm, the colours of the original poster. The worm stops inches from her face and Freddy’s face forms at the end, warning that he’s never out of the picture for long. The frame then fully collapses, sealing the portal and severing the worm’s connection, which dissolves in a shower of light. Carrie tentatively touches the spot where the poster had been, but it’s completely solid, with no trace of the poster or the hellish doorway. But he’d said he’d be back and Carrie believed him — ‘Springwood had not seen the last of Freddy Krueger.’ The book finally ends with an ironic epilogue from our favourite burn victim:
Poor Keith! He was so obsessed by how everyone else was better than him at something, he forgot to take a good look at himself. He lost sight. Well, I found him, and now he’s here with me in the boiler room, among his friends.
Actually, his friends are among him. Wherever he goes, he’ll take a little piece of each of them. He’s got Sandra’s brain, Mario’s strong body, Skrag’s miraculous hands, and Pam’s swift legs. And they’re all wrapped up in Keith’s skin in one neat little package.
Carrie was telling him the truth when she said he kept his friends together. It’s just too bad there wasn’t room for Mel. Oh well, some people just aren’t cut out for the In-Ternal Crowd, no matter how hard they try.
But Keith can finally be proud of himself now that, with a little help from his friends, he has become the ultimate model student!
[How heartwarming for Keith! I’m confused by the body parts thing though … so everything’s been sort of Frankensteined together as one complete body? It says it’s all wrapped up in Keith’s skin, which is what makes it confusing. I guess the logistics aren’t that important, but I just like to know everything xoxo]
Final thoughts
This has been my favourite Tale of Terror so far, which is saying something because I really enjoyed the first two! Going into it, I was hoping for some kind of continuation of Alicia’s and Chip’s story because I was appreciative of the lore being built, but this one went a different route and while reading the book I honestly didn’t miss them. This was more of a slasher than the first two and the whodunnit aspect was stronger for me because it somehow never really occurred to me that Keith was Freddy’s vessel. [Which should have been obvious. In my defence, it’s taken me ages to read this one because life’s been getting in the way, so sometimes there’d be a week or more between picking it up] The deaths were creative and half were a surprise too, which I love. I really didn’t think Pam and Mario would get the chop, but they totally deserved it! Sandra didn’t though, poor girl. I thought Mel would play more of a role towards the end, or even Virtu-Illusions, but I guess he was just a super sketchy weirdo and the company genuinely just wanted it back because it was never supposed to be produced. How did Freddy come to be able to use it, though? I suppose we’ll never know.
It was also a bit of a downer ending for Keith, but he couldn’t really win either way because he’d likely be charged for the murders if he stayed in the real world. Considering the epilogue, I think Keith’s jealousy of his friends’ skills should have been emphasised a lot more so it would be more impactful because honestly the only time we saw it was during that one conversation with Carrie, and from memory Skrag’s miraculous hands weren’t mentioned at all anywhere in the book. I loved the Dream Exchange concept and liked how the dreams somewhat foretold the gang’s fates: Pam falling into the jaws of several bear traps while on a run mirrors being chased and ripped apart by wolves; Sandra’s dried up corpse hung from the stadium light reflects her dream of rapidly aging while racing toward a glowing orb; and Mel’s slit throat resembling a smile was just like him sitting in that same chair and smiling nonstop at the TV in his dream. Also, I can’t help but feel like no-one would have died if Keith sent the poster back to Virtu-Illusions instead of stubbornly wanting to figure things out himself. Selfish. Speaking of Keith, it really bugs me that he somehow never noticed he clearly had some lapses in memory? I guess Freddy could have been covering it up with false memories, but that should have been explained.
I’m also super curious about the change of authors, especially because the front page inside the book lists Bruce Richards as the author. After reading the book it does seem like they’re two different people, but I’d love to know why Bruce Richards bowed out when he was doing so well! I can’t complain too much because this was really good, but I really wanna know the reason behind it Also in hindsight, the cover of this book is fkn stupid. Keith (presumably) holding jumper cables while looking into a cracked mirror never happens, and the mirror in the book isn’t even cracked. A better cover would have been to have him inside Mysteria or something, considering the plot. The first two’s covers didn’t occur in the books either, but they made a lot more sense with the story. Oh well.
Anyway, 99 conniving schemes to get your boyfriend back with his ex so you can date his best friend who’s dating said ex out of 121!
Check out my recaps for the rest of this series here or by clicking the corresponding tag to the right.
