1987

Chris watched the trees whipping by the car window with a faraway look in her eyes. It almost seemed as if they were traveling at the speed of sound, although in reality the Datsun couldn't be doing more than 55. Peter was an extremely conscientious driver, and wouldn't dream of speeding, no matter how much of a hurry he was in. Her eyes flickered down to the thin gold band on her left hand, and a smile absently came to her lips. For a long time she thought she would never smile ever again, and in truth never wanted to but the passage time had a way of blunting even the sharpest of trauma. It had certainly taken some time, but somehow managed to pick the pieces up and put them back together into a semblance of normal life. Anyone who had seen her that night in the back of a squad car shrieking like a woman possessed would never recognize her now.

Even when she looked into the mirror herself, Chris hardly could either. She'd faltered along for a while, but slowly she'd began to put the worst of it behind her. No more hospital. No more psychiatrist. Actually wanting to wake up in the mornings. A desire to move forward. A cross-country move. Meeting Peter. Falling in love. And now this.

The radio began to play "Nights in White Satin", bringing her out of her reverie. Peter's eyes crinkled as he smiled over at her. "Appropriate, don't you think? Given the occasion?"

"Very appropriate." She replied, her lips curving playfully. "So, when are you going to tell me where we are going? I can't take the suspense anymore. What do you have up your sleeve?"

"Curiosity killed the cat, Chris, you know that."

She gave the tiniest flinch in response, but Peter's eyes were once again trained on the road ahead, only occasionally straying to check the mirrors.

She'd never told him about that awful night. After she'd been released from the hospital she never breathed a word to anyone about the fear, the blood, and the agony. Her friend's names and faces were something that she spent her days trying to forget, although they returned every night as large as life, their dead eyes leveled on her accusingly, and their mouths gaping, silently cursing her for inviting them along to that cursed house to meet their doom at the cruel blade of a maniac. After all, she'd known what lurked in those woods once upon a time (and it really almost seemed like something from a dark fairytale now) and she'd been foolish enough to think that returning would somehow be a good idea, that it would give her closure. That it would show that she was not afraid anymore.

The silence, and her thoughts weighed heavily on her. Desperate to push those awful thoughts away and focus on her new life that she'd worked and fought so hard for and had taken the first step to traveling with Peter earlier today, she forced a laugh. If Peter had not been distracted with the road and his own thoughts, he would have noticed how strained it sounded.

"C'mon Peter, just give me one hint!" She took a deep breath and gave him the most natural smile she could muster.

"Now Chris, what would be the fun in that?" Peter replied. "I really think you'll love it though. The place is just beautiful."

Playfully pouting, which he did see, causing him to smile, and she leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. And as she thought more about Peter, about being with him, about the role he'd unknowingly played in helping her move forward, the less she thought about what did lurk in those woods and how it'd forever changed her life. She didn't want those bad thoughts and memories to ruin things with Peter, but she couldn't help it when they invaded her mind, as they always seemed to eventually.

Looking up at the sky through the windshield momentarily, Peter said, "It looks like it might rain soon. If it does, I just hope it stops before we get there."

Chris barely heard him though. Having gotten lost in her mix of thoughts, in addition to feeling safe and comfortable, especially with Peter there, she began to fall asleep. The last thing she heard before she was completely out was the sound of raindrops landing on their vehicle.

The dream she proceeded to have wasn't a pleasant one. One of the worst she'd had in a while, in fact. The man from the woods was there, of course, the hockey mask hiding that deformed face of his. He was chasing her through those woods, his woods. In the distance, she could hear people calling her name. At first, she wasn't sure who the voices belonged to. It wasn't her parents voices though and eventually, they got clearer and she recognized them: the voices of her friends. Her dead friends. Rick. Debbie. Andy. Vera. Chili. Chuck. Even Shelly. She saw someone up ahead of her, standing with their back to her, and she stopped when she reached them.

"Help me! He's chasing me!" she shouted. "Please!"

The figure slowly turned around and she realized that it was Rick, a dark, bloody hole where his eye had once been.

"You let him kill me, Chris," he accused, his voice distorted. "You let him kill all of us."

She was about to plead with him and try to explain that she didn't mean for them to get killed when she heard footsteps behind her. Spinning around, she found the man in the hockey mask standing directly behind her.

"Chris!" he said, except it wasn't the voice she'd expected. "Chris, wake up!"

Her eyes snapping open, she sat up in her seat and looked over at Peter. It had been his voice.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned. "It sounded like you were having a bad dream."

"Yeah, I was," she replied rather shortly. "I'm fine now."

"Well, we're almost there anyway," Peter said, once again ignorant to the signs that she was giving off that she wasn't just 'fine'.

Looking around, trying to shake the fresh feeling of dread that had washed over her thanks to the dream, Chris took a look around at their surroundings. There were lots of trees. She knew that wouldn't help her mind at all. She saw that they were approaching a small, wooden bridge. A bridge that looked awfully familiar. Her breathing got heavier as she began to panic. It couldn't be. Of all the places in the world that Peter could have chosen to take her to, it couldn't be. But it was. When she saw the house, she knew it was: Higgins Haven. Though it was no longer called that, her parents having sold it after last time, it was still the same place to her.

Peter didn't notice how she was reacting, distracted by the scenery, a big smile on his face.

"This is it! What do you think?" he asked her, looking over at her, his smile disappearing when he saw the look on her face. "Chris? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

He immediately brought the car to a stop and that was when she began to scream. He quickly got out of the car and started to run around to her side, but before he could reach it, she opened her door herself and ran as fast she could, away from the car, Peter, and especially the house.

Utterly baffled with his brides behavior, it was all he could do to stand there gaping after her. What had gotten into her? He turned to the innocuous appearing house as if it held the answer somehow but the house bore the demeanor of a mute witness, tight-lipped yet knowing. What could possibly have upset her so much about a house that she had never set eyes upon before?

"Chris?! Chris, Wait!" He called after her as she disappeared into the thick trees that surrounded the property like a gathering storm. "Come back Chris, what are you doing?! Chris!" Peter broke into a run towards the dark, foreboding silent woods, praying he would catch up with her sooner than later. He'd never seen her like this before, and while confusion was his main companion it was soon joined by a sense of dread as the canopy above him seemed to utterly swallow the moonlight and leave him in darkness.

Chris was nowhere in sight, and the woods were as quiet as the grave. He scanned the shadows feverishly hoping to spot her light pink cardigan, or a flash of light brown hair somewhere in the gloom. It was as if the woods had swallowed her as efficiently as it had extinguished the silvery light above. Peter was utterly unfamiliar with the property that his parents had purchased as a vacation home for little more than a song six months earlier. He'd never set foot there before that night. He'd only seen pictures of the property before and after it's renovation, his father being very proud of both the low price he'd paid for what promised to be a prime piece of lakefront property and of the remodeling that he'd completed on his own without bringing in any outside contractors.

Truthfully the place had sunk to the back of his mind before his mother had suggested bringing Chris here for their honeymoon. He'd agreed of course, the latest pictures from his father's pet project looked like a small slice of heaven and just the sort of place he'd like to share with Chris. While Peter was a lifelong city dweller he cherished the great outdoors, and wished to share that with Chris who claimed to have never been further than five minutes from the bright city lights and satisfied with that. While she seemed to be utterly content with her patch of concrete jungle, there was something about her that suggested that she was more in touch with nature than she claimed to be. Peter had thought that surprising her with this outing would bring some of what he'd sensed to the surface.

He sure as hell wasn't expecting this, though!

Chris' legs carried her through the woods, almost as if they were moving with a mind of their own. She wasn't sure how far she'd run, but Peter's voice had quickly faded. Her thoughts of him had faded too. Forced to the back of her mind was more like it actually, replaced in full by every single terrifying thought that had ever entered her head in relation to that place. She just wanted out. Out of those woods for good. She thought she had gotten out for good before, when all of her old friends had been slaughtered by the madman, but now she was back again anyway. It was like an unending nightmare.

She hoped that she still remembered the woods as well as she thought she did. She used to know them like the back of her hand. That knowledge had proven itself useful for her in the past. Like the night she hid in the woods from her parents. The night she first met him, the man who haunted her mind whether she was awake or asleep.

Feeling herself begin to slip in the mud, she slowed down for a moment, coming to a complete stop. It had stopped raining. She'd completely forgotten it had rained earlier until just then. She had stopped screaming too, though she wasn't sure when. Catching her breath, the cool night air burning her throat slightly, she took a quick look around. Other than the sounds of insects, it was quiet.

Pretty sure that she knew which way to go, to get out of the woods, Chris started running again. She didn't run much further though, because she thought she saw movement in the woods ahead of her. She wanted to believe that it was just an animal or the moonlight and shadows tricking her eyes. She desperately wanted to believe that it was anything but him. Then she saw more movement, something coming towards her. As it moved into the moonlight peeking through the trees, her worst fears were confirmed. The moonlight striking the hockey mask was all she needed to see.

Backing away, she blinked a few times, just to be sure. He was getting even closer. That was when she began screaming again. This only made him walk faster, definitely headed towards her. She spun around and tried to run again, but it was too late. She felt a hand on her shoulder, his large hand, which grabbed her tightly, his fingers painfully digging into her flesh. And before he could do anything else, she fainted, falling to the ground in front of him.

Meanwhile, Peter continued calling Chris' name as he moved. He felt lost though. She could have gone in any direction and it being dark didn't help at all. He still couldn't wrap his head around why she'd run off screaming like she had. Something had obviously frightened her, but he couldn't understand what it might have been at all. He just wanted to find her though. The 'whys' could wait.

"Chris!" he yelled for what felt like the thousandth time in just the past few minutes, and that was when he heard her screams again.

Immediately, he changed his course of direction and ran in what he hoped was the correct direction. It sounded like she was nearby, but he wasn't sure. He continued calling her name, even when her screams stopped again. He wasn't about to give up on looking for her, especially not when he was so close. Then he saw the man crouched down next to her body, his hand gently squeezing one of her tits through her cardigan.

"Hey!" he shouted at the man. "You get the hell away from her!"

He then charged at the man, hoping that he hadn't done worse to Chris than grope her. The man had stood back up when Peter had shouted at him and he watched as Peter slipped in the mud, similar to how Chris had before, except Peter wasn't able to stop himself and his legs slipped out from under him, causing him to fall backwards and crack his head on the big root of an old tree. It didn't knock him out, but he was unable to get back up, his head spinning with sharp pain.

Jason took that opportunity to walk over to Peter, who had rolled over on his knees as he grabbed at his head, the back of his clothes completely coated in mud. Reaching down, Jason wrapped a hand around Peter's throat and yanked him backwards into another tree, his head taking more taking more damage as it bounced into the tree, leaving some blood behind where his head struck it. Jason's grip tighten around Peter's throat, making it impossible for him to breath. Jason then yanked Peter one more time, in the direction of another tree, but instead of his head smacking it, the sharp stump of a broken branch pierced the back of his head, the end popping out of Peter's mouth in splash of blood. Jason finally released Peter's throat, not that it mattered anymore, his feet dangling a couple feet above the ground.

Jason took a step back to survey his handiwork as Peter gave a few final twitches before finally going limp, a wet stain spreading slowly over the fabric of his jeans. Blood was steadily oozing it's way down the length of the hanging body to eventually puddle on the ground below. The still open blue eyes were beginning to take on a glassy look that Jason was all too familiar with. He didn't know who this man who'd interrupted him was, and truthfully he didn't really care either. He'd come here with the girl, and that was more than enough to seal his fate. While Jason might have normally spent a little more time admiring what had been a rather good job in his opinion, he had more urgent matters to attend to.

That Chris girl stirred slightly, a weak groan escaping her lips that sounded for the world like that last ounce of air exiting the dead man's body. He considered her for a long moment, before moving in to wrench her up by one languid arm and hoist her up like a sack of potatoes. His left eye settled on the slim gold band encircling her fourth finger, and he paused, considering this as well. Slowly he turned his head back towards the man hanging from the now crimson broken branch, and for a very long moment he remained still, Chris still half dangling almost bonelessly in his grip. Then he lowered her back to the ground, straightened up and strode over to the tree.

Reaching out with huge, dirty hands he grasped the man's arms and planted a foot on the tree. With a quick, brutal motion he yanked the body free with a protesting crack from both bone and branch. He let the body fall, and turned his attention back to Chris, scooping her up and flinging her over a broad shoulder before grasping a handful of the man's thick dark hair almost as an afterthought and dragging him along as Jason began making his way back towards the Haven.