My Heart Is a Chainsaw

In this interlude, Jade completes her history interview project by recounting her conversation with Christine Gillette, a local woman at the nursing home. Jade describes how when Christine was young, the mining industry around Proofrock was failing, and men went across Indian Lake to hunt for elk. Because the elk were heavy, the best way to get them back across the lake was to pump their insides full of air and float the bodies back. Christine’s father Bill was doing this with an elk when the animal woke up, having only been wounded rather than killed. The elk sank to the bottom, but Bill did not want to lose the meat and so asked his friend Cross Bull Joe to bring a tow truck to the old dock to try to recover the animal. However, Christine claims that what they pulled up instead was the corpse of a part Indigenous American girl named Stacey Graves. The girl’s jaw was caught on the hook, but then tore off, returning the body to the water. The men were too afraid to get the hook or the truck back and the dock collapsed into the water shortly after.

Jade concludes that this account confirms local legends of the Lake Witch, who is either thought to be Stacey Graves or her mother. She includes a jump-rope rhyme written by local children, warning them to beware of Stacey Graves.

Jade is out stabbing and picking up trash outside because school is on summer vacation and so her janitorial duties are expanded to the rest of the town. She imagines stabbing her father instead of the trash. As she works, she considers whether the Lake Witch or Ezekial will be the killer in the slasher movie unfolding in town. Ezekial was a preacher who, when the lake was first dammed, trapped his congregation in a church and drowned them all as the ravine filled. She thinks that he is not a likely antagonist since he has no reason to desire vengeance against the town. Her path takes her past Sherriff Hardy’s house, and she wonders if he will make her do the community service required of her for stealing the canoe on the spot if he sees her. However, Hardy is out on his airboat. Jade recalls that he bought the boat with insurance money when his daughter Melanie drowned in the lake, and he now uses it to try to prevent anyone else from drowning. Jade hopes that he finds and kills his daughter’s former boyfriend, Clate Rodgers, who was in the boat with Melanie when she died.

As she watches the lake, Jade spots Letha Mondragon getting into a jeep with some other teenagers to attend a party. She also notices Theo Mondragon out on the lake in a boat. Jade becomes convinced that Theo might be molesting his own daughter, since his “trophy wife” indicates that he has a taste for younger women. She decides to follow the jeep to the party to protect Letha from her father. At the party, Jade hides in the woods wearing a mask. She sees other teenagers watching a horror movie but thinks that they are probably not appreciating it like she does. Letha comes out to help a girl named Tiffany Koenig, who is throwing up. When Tiffany goes to wash herself off in the lake, Jade sees Letha begin to wade into the water, defying the trope of the final girl by being too curious. Letha finds the decaying body of Sven in the water, and Jade flees, both thrilled and shaken that her predictions are coming true.

This interlude is written as a note to Letha Mondragon from Jade, attached to a copy of the 1971 movie A Bay of Blood. Jade describes how she first found the movie in a gas station bargain bin and how it is considered a precursor to the slasher genre. She recommends that Letha familiarize herself with the movie and its tropes so that she can avoid being killed or being tricked by the killer. Jade also includes the information she has gathered in history class about the Lake Witch, suggesting that since slasher movies don’t tend to be supernatural anymore, someone is likely impersonating Stacey Graves to get revenge. She warns Letha that there will likely be more murders at the Fourth of July party and includes her number in case Letha wants to talk more.

Sherriff Hardy catches Jade sneaking out of the library after she has printed out the materials she intends to give to Letha. She convinces him that this is make-up work for history class, and he tells her that she needs to begin her community service that week. Hardy drops her off in front of her house, but Jade notices he turns on his police lights at the end of the block. Jade falls asleep watching horror movies. When she wakes up, she prepares a package to mail to Letha. However, when she looks outside, she sees that the Mondragon boat is not anchored in front of Terra Nova now, but near the dock for Camp Blood. She spots Theo Mondragon on the boat and Letha sitting on the dock with a blanket, being comforted by Tiara. Police and park rangers surround the area. Jade suspects that this means the killer has claimed another victim.

Jade returns to the house and tries to dye her hair black with shoe polish. When she is finished, her dad is awake and is cooking eggs. He tells a story of how, when he was young, he used to hide under the docks with a rope attached to Hardy’s car and have Jade’s mom Kimmy call in an emergency so that he could jet ski across the lake. Jade doubts the story, but her father then threatens her with bringing Hardy too close to their house. He claims he will kick her out if she becomes a snitch or associates too much with the police. When she asks him why he is not at work, implying that he is still too drunk, Tab claims that one of the Founders died, so they have the day off.

Jade transcribes an interview with Sherriff Hardy about the deaths that occurred at Camp Blood that she intends to turn in for her history project. Hardy describes how he attended the camp as an 11-year-old and recounts that it had an Indigenous American name—Winnemucca. Four students died that summer. Jefferson Stoakes was found in the lake with a hornet’s nest in his mouth. Then, Crane Howarth was found at the bottom of a bluff campers used to climb. Althea Walker’s body was discovered in a cooking pot. Finally, Hardy witnessed the death of Melanie Trigo, the daughter of the dam keeper. She was being eaten by a figure in a nightgown with long hair. Hardy fled from seeing the murder, hiding in the lake because he believed it was Stacey Graves and that witches could not go into the water because of Ezekial’s holy singing. The then sheriff, Don Chambers, was forced to prevent Mr. Trigo from flooding the town due to his grief. Chambers later explained to Hardy that he had not really seen the Lake Witch, and that the figure he saw eating Melanie Trigo was only Amy Brockmeier, a camper with an unknown mental illness.