Chadley McKnife

Danny and Casey (both 16) are longtime best friends living in a relatively small town in Missouri. Danny is gay and has been in love with Casey for years, and is very closeted and has a pretty unhappy home life.

The plot kicks off when Danny begins noticing a lot of increasingly strange behavior from Casey, leading him to believe that something bad may be happening to him and to become very worried for Casey’s safety. 

Meanwhile, Casey has been in the process of making the decision to become a Dexter-style vigilante serial killer. His first target is a classmate who he suspects of being an aspiring mass shooter and his second target is a teacher at his school known to be abusive and creepy.

After these two murders he cools down for a little while, but as the police start investigating he gets worried and decides to run away. Before doing so he confesses what he’s done to Danny, not wanting to leave him without any explanation.

Danny struggles to process what Casey has confessed, but knows that he can’t bear to be left behind and so insists on going with Casey.