Jason yanked Trick off his feet and pulled him up close. Then he coiled an arm around the boy's throat. Trick struggled; he slammed his head back into Jason's chest, but the chokehold was as tight as an elevator cable, and suddenly the boy was struggling for air. He gagged. His tongue popped out. His mouth fell open. Jason used his free hand to wrest the phone from Trick's fingers and force-fed the plastic receiver into the boy's mouth.

Trick punched and screamed-his every muffled cry going straight down the line to Sheriff Haslip-but he was less than a child in Jason's grip. Jason rammed the phone all the way down to the bottom of Trick's throat, and held it there until the boy stopped moving. Snot dribbled from Trick's nose and ran onto Jason's sleeve. The boy's face was red and puffy with asphyxiation. Tears mingled with dirt on his cheeks. Jason tossed the body aside and it crashed into a bed of ferns.

A muted voice sounded through Trick's unmoving lips. "Making a false 911 call is against the law."

Then the line went dead.

Chapter 5, Friday the 13th: Carnival of Maniacs