CJ SCRUTON
FOUR-STEP GUIDE TO BEING THE FINAL GIRL
1.
There are people here to find you,
remember, to unveil your hiding place.
What scares you most in horror movies is not
the gore, the thought that a machete could meet your guts any moment
and that would be it. Not that the monster might still reach
through the wildflower weeds, where you’ve left them in the ditchwater
as you walk away, at the end.
2.
You need to know what’s coming next.
There will always be someone who thinks you’ve lost
your mind, says you can’t be trusted with yourself. You always hated
those stories built on no one believing the heroine.
You need to not be alone, to find a safe place and cry on the phone
about the parasite that’s wound its way into the base of your skull,
what recedes into the skin when you’re not the only one looking.
You need to be able to see the background,
who’s moving in the shot behind you.
3.
Remember you will think you are the killer,
at some point. Because it could be, after all,
you as believable as anyone else. You a betrayal,
your own hands strange in this tornadogreen lighting, the man in bed next to you
the face from the mirror, the sickly red of scrubbing off makeup. It’s okay,
if this thought makes you sweat so hard you have to change your sheets,
to try to sneak out in the early morning.
4.
It’s okay if you’re afraid
to go off alone, in the bluelight woods by the lake, and find a way
to wrap your tongue around him, his insides, debating the knife
held behind your back. You’re not just watching from home anymore,
and you don’t have to be brave.
CJ Scruton is a trans, non-binary poet living on the Great Lakes, where they teach and research ghost stories. Their work has appeared in The Journal, New South, Juked, and others.