"I have to say," the blonde Brittany said as she sat down in Salvadore's camper, "I didn't know what to expect when you were introduced to us."

"Neither did I," the man replied. "This isn't the sort of job people in my position do, but the money was interesting, and the results? Well, I'll let them speak for themselves."

*  *  *

"Morning ladies," the director of <i>Camp Nightmare - Part 12; the New Midnight</i> greeted his small bevy of actresses who would play this particular installment's victims. He knew what sort of movie he was making, and they knew it to. No one had any doubt that this was anything other than a C-rated impending disaster that would still rake in the cash because that movie-going audiences had a taste for the simple and mind numbing teen-slasher genre. "Before we begin filming, allow me to introduce our secret weapon for this movie, Mister Salvadore."

The man in question stepped forward. "Morning," he said with his slight Mexican-Spanish accent. Which in Hollywood, was everywhere. "For this movie, I, along with my assistant," he nodded at the shapely model that stood off to one side and hadn't been introduced yet, "will be providing the kill actions that the killer of the flick will perform. As I am a professional magician, the effects I provide are going to be practical and visceral."

"What does that mean?" the blonde bombshell who had landed the role of this installment's Final Girl raised her hand.

"It means," the assistant announced, "that Mister Salvadore will provide the practical and on-camera kills for each of you, and ensure you are restored properly afterwards."

"Wait, what?" The young woman with the tight shirt and red hair asked, slightly confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means this!" the assistant said and with a cocky grin, put her hands on the sides of her head and twisted! Her head spun around, the sounds of bones breaking and her skin being pulled tight as she rotated a full 360' shocked the actresses. "Tah-dah!"

"Wow!" "Cool!" "Ewww!" The responses were varied, but no one was repulsed by the woman's self-inflicted injury.

"Now," the Director said, "we all know what kind of movie this is going to be, and to that end, I know that a few of you might have your own reservations about what this will entail. Therefore the first scene we will be filming is the sequence where Miss Pauline here," he indicated the twisted-neck woman, "will be playing the prologue kill by the villain. You will all watch from behind the camera."

*  *  *

"Opening with a sawing in half, of a variant of that, was certainly an interesting choice," Salvadore pointed out.

"It's part of the genre. You open with a 50%, drop down for the next one, then go up to 100% for the final," Brittany told him. "Set audience expectations, then hold their attention as they want more before you deliver. Sure, the plot is an after-thought, but a lot of planning goes into timing and set up."

*  *  *

Miss Pauline ran through the woods, her clothes torn, her chest heaving from the effort. She looked behind her, scared, as though checking for someone, or something pursuing her. The Camera follows her, using the trees to hide the cuts that change the distance between them. Miss Pauline reaches her destination, a fog-shrouded and darkened cabin. She tries to open the front door, but it doesn't, and she fumbles with the keys for a long moment before something catches her eye.

An open window! Escape! She abandoned the door and raced to the window. It it set high up, and she has to climb to get to it, and she struggles, the tension building as she frantically scrambled for the open gap. Then, she reaches it! Her hand catching the lip for a moment and holding on for deal life.

Filled with renewed strength, Miss Pauline pulled herself up, and the camera changed angle to show the open window as she stuck her head through to look through, the nape of her bare neck an inviting target.... but nothing happened. She pulled herself further into the empty cabin, taking a moment to rest her stomach on the lip of the window.

"Almost there, have to warn them," she muttered to herself, ready to get into the cabin properly.

An axe flew through the air, followed by the camera. It slammed into the frame above the window, and the sudden shock caused Miss Pauline to startle. She twisted and looked up at the window as the window shook. She screamed as the window fell, and the glass cut right through her! Blood streaked the glass as she hit the floor, the breath knocked out of her as she tried to drag herself further into the cabin. The camera followed her upper-half as she tried to make it to safety, but instead it gave a POV shot as she looked up to see a dark and shadowed figure looming over her. Smash cut to black, and title cards.

*  *  *

"You actually cut her in half, and that convinced the rest of us you were legit," Brittany told him. "And after you restored her, well, some of us were a little more excited than others. And I have to say, it probably made things a lot cheaper in terms of time and money to have you do the effects than the usual guys."

Salvadore shrugged. "I wouldn't know. There's still plenty of work for them, and this is a pretty niche use of my talents. But tell me, the next one, Kimberly, was it? What is the context for that?"

"You know, it's so cliche to have the actresses names as the same as their characters. We're barely characters, just replaceable points on a graph," Brittany said annoyed. "Kimmy though? Well, one of the things about Slashers is that there is a running theme of punishment or karma. You can't just have a random psycho start killing people. The victims have to have committed some sort of offense first. It's what makes the survivors survive. They didn't commit the offense, so when the killer goes after them, they lose their karmic retributive protections."

"And because Kimberly only opened the book, and allowed the others to get to it, her death was relatively mild."

Brittany nodded. "Right. Relatively being the operative word here. So, what is the name of the trick you did?"

"Sword basket," Salvadore told her. "Normally, the assistant would contort around the swords, or they wouldn't be aimed at them, or there would be some other trick. But here? Well..."

*  *  *

Kimberly had to hide! That menacing person was stalking her and they were very dangerous! The book said so! But if she could make it to the others and explain the situation, then they could make things right. Fix things to how they were before.

She dismissed the laundry basket. Too small, and she would have to toss out clothes to fit in it. No, it was the upright closet that she could hide it. One of a few, and if she stayed still and didn't so much as breathe, she could escape. She opened the closet, and barely noticed just how thin the wood paneling actually was. She closed the door, and looked through the small slats that were at convenient eye height for her. She held her breath as the Killer carefully walked past her, the shadow across her face. The camera watched as said Killer carefully prowled about, then, almost as if she had defeated his searching, walked back to the door. He opened it, stepped twice, then closed the door, staying inside the room.

Kimberly let out a sigh of relief.

The sigh was short lived as the Killer appeared in front of her chosen hiding space, and she jumped back in shock, the cabinet rattling with her movement. "Ahhh!" she screamed as she made to kick down the door, but the camera, inside the cabinet, looked down and saw that there was an iron bar through the cabinet and Kimberly, her stomach turning red.

Outside, the Killer held up his traditional machete and inspected it in the gleaming light. Inside, Kimberly pleaded silently that he would do no more.

The Killer stabbed the box with his blade, ignoring the impromptu pin he had already used. Inside, Kimberly bit back her cry of pain as the blade entered into her left leg, punching all the way through. But the Killer didn't see that as he pulled out his weapon and inspected the blood on it. Nodding to himself, he slammed the blade through the cabinet again, and Kimberly nearly doubled over in agony as the horrible weapon slammed through her chest, her breast impacted by the force of the not-quite killing blow. "Please," she pleaded, only for the Killer to pull the machete out one last time.

He slid it horizontally through the slats, piercing Kimberly through the head, ending her for good.

*  *  *

"She squeaked!" Brittany laughed. "Like, actually squeaked!"

"How was I supposed to know she moved inside the box and I got her between the legs?" Salvadore defended himself with his own laughter. "Girl ruined the take."

"Hey, that's the nice thing about this, fewer takes. We can do longer shots because we don't have to switch out a prop or dummy each time."

"That iz true. Though I have to admit, a proper sword box like that would have many more things inserted."

"Remember what I said about building up," she reminded him. "And she didn't actually do anything, so her death wasn't supposed to be overdone."

"You're the expert here. Although the same can't be said for the next two."

Brittany nodded. "Look, I'll say it straight out. Lesbian love scene is pure fan service. 100%."

"Actually, why are there no guys in this movie anyway? Well, aside from secondary characters?"

"Part 11 was the guys version. This is part 12. Part 13 is supposed to have the survivors of the last six join forces to destroy the evil for good," she told him. "Expected survivors... it's a toss up."

"Ah, ok then." Salvadore accepted that with no questions. "This one was challenging as usually two assistants at once is serial, not parallel. There are some exception, but they require a lot of prep-work."

"I can see that. But still, I'm pretty sure those two only got the jobs because of their names. Seriously."

"That, and they volunteered at the same time to go totally nude."

"Hey, as a Final Girl, I'm supposed to be the innocent one," Brittany complained. "Which means keeping my shirt on and my pants closed."

*  *  *

Betty and Veronica had no idea what was stalking them. The book had tempted them, and they gave in to their carnal lusts in the woods. Betty, her crimson hair flowing over her shoulders, passionately kissed Veronica, the blonde's pixie-cut mingling perfectly framing her face as she was pressed up against the tree. Their tops were off, and skirts lifted. The camera enjoyed the view for the benefit of the audience as they pressed up against each other, unaware of their impending doom.

The Killer approached them in the open. No attempt to hide from them, yes they were still indistinguishable in the fog and poor lighting. He paused as he got close to the two lovers, almost considering as though he should wait for them to finish before beginning his work, or just getting it over with. After all, somethings even forces of evil had to stop and appreciate.

This wasn't one of them. The Killer approached, striding forward with intent and purpose, his cruel and violent weapon at the ready. The two women were so enamored by the power of the Book that they failed to spot anything amiss, not even the shadow he cast. He held up his free hand, and invoking the power of the Book, caused the two women to turn to the side, leaning with their sides against the tree and being side-by-side form his perspective, rather than front-to-back.

Satisfied, he drew back his mighty blade, and swung! Steel flashed in the moonlight, and the camera cut to a quick shot of the two women, their lips locked, opening their eyes in mutual shock before panning down to show the machete having gone through both of their necks at the same time, buried slightly in the bark of the tree to keep it upright. The Killer watched as their headless bodies fell to the ground, still pawing at each other in their last lustful throes.

Unimpressed, the Killer lifted their still living heads, their eyes moving and their mouths working as their new situation became apparent to them. He then held them by the hair in one hand, and grabbed an ankle from each of them in his other hand, and dragged their nubile, naked and dead bodies away into the night.

*  *  *

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to do that and not have their heads roll off the weapon?" Salvadore complained. "Too much force, and they won't stay on as the blade it too deep in the tree. Not enough, and the weight causes the blade to fall out. Get the angle wrong, and they slide right off. One or both." He huffed. "Not my finest hour. I mean, a double guillotine is always fun, but that's straight down into a waiting basket. This... this was unnecessary performance."

"You needed 8 takes to get it right," Brittany told him. "I can't blame you. And the two of them were complaining afterwards about how sore they were."

"Sore. Right. Was that before or after they finished rocking their trailer?"

Brittany choked back a laugh. "You got me there. But I have to ask, the later scene where I see all the bodies on display as I confront the killer, did you get the heads mixed up?"

"You mean if I deliberately put their heads down in front of the wrong body, damn straight," he told her. "A classic switch, which would happen to the best of us. Totally on accident though."

"But yeah, that makes sense. The two of them would represent improper acts in the course of the story, the ones whose behavior is enabled by their bad actions, and are punished during it. Which of course, leaves us with the last one."

"May was enjoying the hell out of being evil," he agreed. "Which is why as the real cause of the problem, her attempt to sacrifice you would naturally fail, and her death would be the more karmic."

"And why she gets to have the second-best one-liners in the movie, able to go down with a quip," Brittany agreed. "And besides, everyone knows that the bad guys get to have the most fun."

"Except when they don't."

"Except when they don't," she confirmed.

*  *  *

"AHAHAHAHAHAH!" May cackled evilly as she held the evil book of evil in her hands. "With just one more sacrifice, I will obtain eternal power and life immortal!"

"You'll never get away with this!" Brittany said through her tears as the two of them struggled over possession of the book. The Killer was dead, or as dead as he could be given the fires that were going on around them. Some of said fires were even deliberate, and not at all an accident as everything went wrong! The music was tense as they fought, until May was able to trip up Brittany and shove her away. Brittany fell to the floor, avoiding a pool of some burning liquid by sheer chance.

"Brie, Brie," May used her pet diminutive for the other survivor, "you never stood a chance. Why," she raised the book over her head in supplication, preparing to crush Brittany's head under its weight, "you should know I throw the book at anyone who gets in the way of what I want." The fires turned her grin into a vile thing, full of evil and horror.

"You don't have a leg to stand on!" Brittany yelled back as she grabbed the Killer's machete with one hand and desperately swung it through May's legs, cutting her off at the knees.

"Ahhh!" May screamed in pain as she fell, the book falling from her grasp as she desperately looked at her amputated limbs. "You bitch! Give me the book!"

"No!" Brittany got to her feet unsteadily as the cabin kept burning down. She leaned on the wicked metal blade as May crawled for the book. "No!" She staggered forward, dragging the blade behind her. "I won't let you!" she tried to go for the book, but her feet gave out from under her and the blade fell from her grip. "Nooo!"

"Ye...!" May's cry of triumph ended as she put her hand on the book - and the machete dropped down to impale her head from the back, a reflection of the first kill by that weapon in the movie. Brittany regained her feet and rushed over, kicking the book into a fire, which exploded into an inferno with the presence of the evil.

Deciding that now would be a good time to leave, Brittany fled.

*  *  *

"OK, so maybe that was anti-climactic," Brittany admitted. "But it's a sequel set up. And May didn't complain about the headaches."

Salvadore nodded. "One of the script revisions before it was decided to bring her back for Part Thirteen was having you kill her by cutting her in half with the Killer's weapon."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Yep, right down the middle," he drew a line on Brittany showing where it would have gone. "But the higher ups made a decision and I have to live with it."

"Damn, that would have been fun," Brittany said sadly. "You should have split when you had the chance!" she quipped. "But filming is over now, so I was hoping you could do me a favor."

"Oh?" Salvadore asked.

"Yes," Brittany leaned forward. "Everyone else got to have fun, and I didn't even get a nightmare sequence. Would you mind doing something to me, for fun? That cutting in half sounds hot," she asked. "In fact," she started to remove her shirt, "I'll even pay in advance."

Salvador smirked. "I don't have access to the props right now," he told her, causing her to pause. "But I do know where to get a chainsaw."

"Deal. And maybe I can convince the writers of the next part to kill my character that way."