Read Online The Last Victim by Jason Moss, Jeffrey Kottler - Free Book Online

this case I couldn’t see any way to
     avoid it. Besides, he seemed nice enough.
    “Jason,” my brother said, tugging at me, “what do I do now?”
    Normally, I’d be bugged by Jarrod’s interrupting, but I was glad for the distraction. “Sorry, mister, but I gotta help my
     brother.”
    “That’s okay, little guy. I just like watching you play.”
    I looked around the room helplessly. My parents were a million miles away. My brother had no idea what was going on. And this
     guy was getting more and more familiar with me. Now he was bumping into me and rubbing my shoulders.
    “Uh, mister, we gotta go now. Our parents are waiting just over there.” I pointed in the general direction of the casino,
     but he could tell I was lying.
    “I’ll tell you what, son, why don’t you just come with me for a little while. I’ll take you back to my house and we can play
     some games there together.”
    I froze. I knew my brother and I were in deep trouble. But every time I tried to move away from the man, he kept following
     us closely, touching me whenever he could.
    What was even more annoying was that Jarrod was completely oblivious to the danger. “Come on, Jason, look at this! Look what
     I did!” He was so mesmerized by the flashing lights of the games that he wouldn’t look at me long enough for me to signal
     him that we had to get out of there.
    I thought I could get away from the guy if I was by myself, but there was no way I could do much with my little brother there.
     I saw the man looking around, checking to see who was watching us, when I punched my brother in the arm hard enough to make
     him cry.
    Perfect. Jarrod was making some serious noise. “
    That’s not going to work,” the man said to me with a smile. “You’re still coming home with me.”
    “Okay, mister, I’ll come with you, but I can’t leave my brother like this. Let me just show him where my parents are so he
     doesn’t get scared. Then I’ll come with you.”
    I don’t know if he bought my excuse or not. Maybe he just got nervous because he realized things were getting more complicated
     than he’d anticipated. But while he was thinking things over, I grabbed my brother’s hand and started moving us toward the
     door. I whispered in his ear that a monster was after us so we’d better run for our lives. Jarrod thought I was kidding but
     we still shot out of there as fast as we could.
    I didn’t want my parents getting all excited, so I didn’t tell them much about what happened—just that some guy scared us.
     I was curious, though, about why someone would want to snatch kids and hurt them. What was it about a person’s background
     that fed such urges? I somehow connected that child molester in the casino with slashers in horror movies and, later, real-life
     serial killers.
    I finally saw
Friday the 13th
—with two friends, and
without
my parents’ permission. Just a few minutes into the film—when the eerie music first starts to rise, signaling impending doom—I
     closed my eyes, and I kept them tight until the closing credits. I didn’t actually
see
the movie this first time, but hearing it was bad enough. Afterward, I had vivid nightmares in which a monster would stalk
     and try to kill me.
    Even so, I went back to see the movie a second time, this time forcing myself to watch the whole gruesome spectacle. I figured
     the reality had to be more tolerable than the nightmares.
    On some level I don’t really understand, a part of me also enjoyed the feelings of panic and fear that we all recognize as
     the stimulation that draws us to such films in the first place. Once the lights come back on, we breathe a sigh of relief
     when we realize that our own sorry lives are not nearly as bad as we once imagined. What’s a crummy job, or a fight with a
     friend, or a bad head cold, compared to being tortured by one of these monsters?
    During the next year, I must have seen a hundred so-called slasher movies. Having been