Ten years had passed since they all escaped from the horrors of that night alive. They didn't make it out unscathed, but they survived.
Once they were able to rebuild their lives, after years of therapy sessions alongside graduating high school and college, all but one of them moved away from that cursed place to try and distance themselves from it as far as possible, though what they did with their lives they weren't sure, having been out of contact for so long.
Adam and AJ had been fairly busy themselves: finally getting a degree in mechanical engineering and getting a job as an automotive mechanic—even if that required them moving south one state—she got to work at a music store (not the most glorious of jobs and pursuits, but it made her happy and that was what mattered), and were now married for four years. They also had a child on the way, and now getting ready for it was their biggest priority.
Though while ten years have passed, they were still haunted by nightmares. All they could do was keep working through it as best they could, for its sake more than their own.
Now that the two of them had a weekend off together this month, they could finally get around to doing some more shopping to prepare for the baby. Next up on the list was actual furniture as opposed to maternity clothes for the time being—among other things, they'd need a crib, a changing table, a smaller washtub for it, a car seat, and a stroller.
Her eyes remained on her list, trying to think of anything else to add, as she heard him walk up the stairs and opening the door.
"Coming up so soon?" She asked while keeping her attention on the list.
"Staying up late is boring without you around," he replied as he went over to his drawer to fetch out his pajamas.
She set down her list as he was getting ready for bed, and when she reached for the lamp to turn it off, his hands came onto her shoulders and she felt his chin atop her head—stubble and all.
"Did it kick while I was gone?" He asked as he moved a hand over to her stomach to feel the bump.
"No, not yet," she replied. He could only start to feel the child's kicking a few days ago, so it'd be understandable he was still excited.
"Aww…" He trailed in a joking tone, though he still retracted his hands, moving on to the bathroom.
She'd have to let him know if it kicked later.
"Do you think he'll follow us here?" She asked, continuing to clutch her leg as it throbbed in pain.
"We can only hope that he doesn't," he answered as he slid down the barricade.
The cabin they had just entered was completely devoid of people and generally away from everyone else with the power box active but without the lights on, though at this point, that was something they needed.
She had been about to make some repairs to the fuse box when she stepped in a trap that she didn't notice, with it being buried into the dirt in such a way that there was no way to see it until it was too late. Jason showed up as she was getting out of it, and if it hadn't been for Adam already scrounging around the cabin with a machete in hand, she would've been dead. They ditched the cabin afterwards and ran off to hide in the woods, and much to their surprise, Jason didn't pursue them afterwards.
Whether he caught sight of something else or was going to attack them later, they couldn't figure out.
There were only a few rooms in the cabin that hardly contained anything worthwhile, but one of the rooms was a bathroom with a first-aid kit stationed on the shelf, even if there weren't any painkillers in the room. After turning on the light, Adam gestured and said, "Come on, let's try and get that patched up."
Sitting down on the toilet, she was mentally preparing herself as he got on his knees to look at the wound, which still had some blood trickling out. The tights she wore had absorbed some of the blood, but not very well, and the part where the trap dug into her ankle were shredded and seemed to only be hanging on with a single thread.
"Just rip it," she said, "it's completely ruined already."
He did as she said, and after seeing that it was red and swollen, he sighed when he got out the disinfectant. "This is going to sting a bit."
"I can handle it." She said.
No matter how much she might've mentally prepared herself for it, she still took in a sharp breath and gripped the lid more tightly as the disinfectant stung. Adam tried to work as quickly as he could for it, though his knowledge of first-aid wasn't exactly the best, so all he could do was clean it and wrap it up in what gauze was available.
"That should do for the time being," he didn't exactly have confidence in his voice as he said it, "Once we get out of here, the hospital can do a better job of looking over it."
If we can get out of here, she thought to herself as she stood up. Sure, the pain was still there, but at least it wasn't bleeding like a stuck pig. "Thanks for that. But what now?"
He crossed his arms and looked to the distance, "I wish I knew. Regrouping with the others is probably our best bet."
"Yeah…" She muttered. Much as she would've liked to hide here due to it being in the distance, there was safety in numbers and Jason would eventually come here regardless.
She opened the window in the main room to take a look out of it while the lights were still off. There weren't any signs of the others, but at the same time there was no sign of Jason having been around either. "Nothing here."
"I better head out first, just to be safe," Adam said as he approached the window and slinked his way out, keeping the machete in his grip.
She followed suit, but as they made their way over to the cover of the forest, a knife had been tossed in their direction and landed right in front of them.
"What the-?" Adam let out when she saw what must've been Jason out of the corner of her eye.
Or rather, right beside her.
The only sound she could make was a sharp gasp before his arm swung and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up off of her feet and constricting her throat with his hand. The feeling of his giant fingers wrapped around her neck and squeezing the breath out of her was terrifying. Any gasps for air she tried were short and raspy, and tears were blurring her vision. Her hand was trying to reach for the knife in her pocket, but the desperation for air made it hard for her to keep her mind on the knife.
"Let her go!" Adam roared as he tried to slice Jason with a machete, but the blows and resulting cuts to his clothes and flesh didn't seem to bother him at all. All Jason did to counter was elbow him with such force that it knocked him to the ground, stunned and out of breath.
When her feet touched the ground, the machete in his other hand immediately stabbed into the base of her throat, her blood bursting out from the wound, his other hand moved onto the blade to help as he moved it down through her torso.
She thought her vision would immediately go to black upon death, but she could still see perfectly fine, and she swore she could hear Adam's despairing screams as the machete was ripping her from the inside, breaking her necklaces apart and her blood bubbling up her throat. The pain was unbearable as she could feel it cut through her heart, her stomach, finally stopping partway through her pelvis.
As he yanked out the machete from her body, she could feel something get ripped out of her and saw it: still attached by a cord near the center and the blade still in its head after cutting through the middle of its developing body, covered in some kind of fluid and partly red and transparent beneath the fluid.
Her unborn child. From the present.
Her eyes launched open to reveal their dark bedroom. After slowly rising up, she started to feel her face, her throat, and her pregnant stomach with her hands for some confirmation if the evisceration happened after all—and relief when there were no cuts to be felt or blood on her hands. Looking around, the only source of light being the moon and a few streetlights from outside, and the occasional car passing by to break through Adam's snoring beside her. His face was peaceful in sleep, and his body was relaxed under the covers.
She quietly sighed. It was just a nightmare, but it felt so real.
Much as she wanted to go back to sleep, it was difficult after being shocked awake. Even after it wore off, her eyes were heavy with sleeplessness and kept themselves shut, but her mind couldn't calm down. She also looked over to the alarm clock beside the lamp: the time read 2:09 am.
Sliding out of the bed and putting on her housecoat, she made her way downstairs to the kitchen. She didn't think it would help, but maybe a nice hot mug of tea would settle her nerves, even if only a little bit.
The sting from turning on the kitchen lights kept her eyes shut until she reached the cupboard, opening it to find that none of her tea bags were in there—those would be in the cupboard to the left.
This was going to be a long night.
All of them were in a daze after the car rolled down the hill and crashed into a tree at the bottom, and with the ground slanted in such a way that the boys wouldn't be able to reach the car and roll it back up—at least not with decent footing.
As all of them were waddling out of the trashed vehicle, he heard Eric mumbled, "I am never going to doubt wearing a seatbelt ever again," and he was quietly thinking the same thing. The others probably were too.
Jenny was looking around, seeing only trees up the hill or the lake being close by, "Are there any other options at this point?"
"Tiffany and Chad already got away in the two-seater, and Deborah and Kenny got to where the police are. Don't know about the others." AJ answered.
"Guess we're going to have to head to the police through the long route." Jenny cringed. "That or cut through the woods."
"Do you think we might still have the boat?" Eric asked.
"The boat?"
"Yeah, the boat. I remember seeing the boat over at the dock earlier. Maybe it's still there?" Eric said.
"Or Buggzy and Vanessa used it to the escape." AJ added.
"Or Victoria took it for herself." He muttered under his breath.
Jenny's eyes perked up as she pointed to the dock in the distance, "There it is! There's the boat!"
The rest looked to where she was pointing, and they were able to make out the boat—and it had its engine attached.
"Oh thank goodness!" Eric sighed in relief as they jogged over to the dock.
Once they arrived at the dock, Eric flipped up the engine to look it over while Jenny was scouting the area for anything else in the area. AJ stopped right at the dock, clenching her jaws and placed her hands near where the trap dug into her leg.
"Does it still hurt?" He already knew the answer, but he couldn't help himself.
"Yeah," she confirmed.
They all heard Eric grunt in frustration when he flipped the boat's engine back down. "The propeller's missing, and it doesn't have enough gas to get anywhere."
"So we've got more stuff to find," he plainly stated.
"Because of course," AJ threw up her hands.
They looked between each other for a moment when Jenny spoke up, "I think it'd be best if Adam stayed here with AJ while Eric and I go and look for the gas and propeller."
He and Eric agreed to it as AJ glanced away and muttered, "Yeah, yeah." Much as she hated being injured, it wouldn't exactly be a good idea to run for parts with such an injury even with it patched up, and between the other three, he would make for the better protector in case Jason showed up.
"Then it's settled," Jenny said while motioning for Eric to follow her, "Eric, let's go."
As the two went back up the hill, he took her hand and said "Come on, let's hide in the shack," leading her inside. All the two of them could do was take turns peeking out of the window to see if either of them had come back, and it certainly felt like an eternity to do so.
When there was finally some sign of Jenny and Eric returning, he had been looking out of the window as before he saw what looked like a dark ball fly a short distance, followed by a thump that dropped to the ground near the shack.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Don't know," he admitted, "I thought I saw something fly."
"Fly." She repeated while he crouched over to the entrance to the shack to see exactly what landed near them. When he took a peek outside the shack, his eyes widened and his fingers tightened on the doorframe.
"Fuck! It's Eric's head!"
"His head?!" She shuffled over to the entrance to see it for herself and was greeted by the image of Eric's head, his face frozen in fear, the frames for his glasses bent inwards and the lenses broken. Soon enough, his headless body slid down the hill and a gas canister tumbled down, thankfully not breaking apart or having the cap busted off as it made its way down.
He dashed out to grab the can when the propeller landed near the canister and he heard a shriek from the top of the hill. At the top, he could make out Jason grabbing Jenny and lifting her by the throat.
Taking the propeller in his hand, he tossed it over to AJ and while trying to keep his voice down, barked "Fix the propeller! Hurry!"
She caught the propeller and scrambled to her feet as fast as she could, dashing to the boat as he did with the gas canister in hand. It took much of their concentration to keep their attention on repairing the boat despite being cramped from fixing both parts at the same time, and ignoring Jenny's scream from the top of the hill.
"There," she huffed as she slammed the engine down, "I think I put it on right."
"And I hope I'm doing this right," he added, finished with filling the tank with gas.
He immediately caught sight of Jason walking down the hill, saw that she was already trying to get the engine to start up. Recalling that nobody had brought a rifle with them in the car and it'd be likely Jason would attack her if he went into the shack to find something to fight with, he looked between Jason and the canister in his hands.
Better than nothing at all, he thought to himself, as he charged forward enough to chuck the empty canister at Jason, where it slammed into Jason's leg, making a hollow wham as it did so.
"What are you doing?! Get over here!" She hollered as the engine was roaring and ready to go.
He was quick to dash back and jump into the boat, after which she took off. From what he could see as they were speeding away in the boat, the canister had tumbled onto the bottom of the hill where Jason picked it up and looked at it, without trying to chase after them. Was he confused? Surprised that someone would try and toss it, let alone use it to fight?
Whatever it was, he could ponder over it once they got out.
As the boat was rushing forward, he took the map out from inside his jacket, and it was a little tricky to be reading a map while on a moving vehicle. Her focus was entirely on steering the boat, and she never asked for any assistance once during the drive, and it looked like she knew where she was going, judging by how he was following the map himself.
The drive seemed to feel like an eternity and the silence during the whole thing was tense, but there wasn't much to say that could help—her focus needed to be on getting out as quickly as possible.
Once the sight of the red buoys was down just a short distance away, he bit his lip. To let out the relief of knowing that safety was just around the corner would likely be jinxing it, and it took a lot to keep it inside, and she was likely thinking the same thing.
Just a little more…
Then it happened.
They couldn't keep their gasps held back when Jason had risen right beside the boat, grabbing the side, and heaving it downwards, sending them into the water with him. Their screams broke the silence they had going, but not for long as they were just as quickly submerged in the water.
He swam up as fast as he could and while he saw that the boat was completely tipped over—bottoms up—that wasn't the biggest concern on his mind. "AJ?! AJ!"
The calls for her name were answered by her emerging from the water herself, rapidly taking in deep breaths like he was. "Adam?"
"AJ! You okay?"
"I think so," she replied, glancing over to the boat.
He was about to swim over to it before she shrieked as she was being pulled back into the water.
Wasting no time, he sucked in a breath before diving right after her, but she was nowhere to be seen. What he did see was Jason rushing up right before he was grabbed at the throat, and a machete about to stab his neck.
His eyes opened as he rose up in a rush, slowly looking around the room to find that he was in the safety of his own home rather than being submerged in water. The silence helped to calm him down as he felt around his throat to confirm that there were no cuts or deep holes.
He glanced around again and noticed that she wasn't asleep beside him—she wasn't there at all. Her housecoat was gone too, so she couldn't be too far.
Still, he had to check and make sure.
Despite having made the tea to try and calm down, so far she only had a few sips of it even as it cooled. Instead, she was nodding off while her eyes were routinely slowly closing down on her eyes before they opened up again.
She didn't know why she bothered, really.
"So that's where you went," her eyes widened when she heard his hushed voice from the top of the stairs. Her head didn't turn as he came down and took a seat next to her, though she noticed that he had his housecoat on.
He sighed, "I wake up from a bad dream and you're not there."
"I had a nightmare too. Of back then."
His gaze looked down to the table after she said those words. They knew all too well what "back then" meant.
"So did I."
"Same old dream of being killed by Jason?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"That's what I thought." She didn't want to bring up how her dream had her being killed and their unborn child ripped out with a machete—that wouldn't be helping at all.
He just scooted closer to her, placing one of his hands on her own. There really wasn't much either of them could say that would help, but this was one of those times when actions were better than words.
She snuggled closer to him and lightly smiled, "Thanks." Then her eyes opened up, "Hey, it's moving." She said as she took his hand and placed it on her stomach where she felt movement.
He started kissing the top of her head again. That was all he needed to get his spirits back up.
And it was what she needed too.