AMONG SOULS

"True love is found not among bodies, but among souls."

A few disclaimers for your viewing pleasure:

- This story is based off of the 2009 remake, and does not utilize anything from the original movies.

- I was originally under the impression that Crystal Lake was located somewhere in New England, but given the presence of coalmines, rednecks, and hunting lodges, I have changed the location to West Virginia.

- Don't take this story too seriously. I wrote it for fun, and for my own personal enjoyment. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

- Due to laziness, and personal preference, I've written Jason with two functioning eyes. Because it's much less awkward to say, "Jason narrowed his eyes," than it is to say, "Jason narrowed his eye." See? So awkward.

- I do not own Jason. But I put him on my Christmas list, so we'll see how that works out.

DASVIDANYA

Dasvidanya Mitchell was officially lost.

Well, that wasn't quite true. She wasn't completely lost. She knew that she had been driving for two or three days. She knew she was in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. She knew she was somewhere in West Virginia, because she'd passed a sign that said so a few hours ago.

But that was it.

Usually, being lost was a very bad thing. Being lost did not settle well with her. Being lost meant panic attacks, and mental breakdowns, and heavy medication.

But this time, it was different.

This time, she wanted to be lost.

Maybe you're just a masochist, Ana, her brain suggested. So helpful, her brain. When it wasn't insulting her, or giving her panic attacks, it was flashing memories of that last fight with Max through her brain, and offering up images of her corpse sitting in her car in the middle of the desert, dead from being lost.

No matter that she was nowhere near the desert.

Her brain was convinced that she was going to end up there, and that she was going to die a horrible, miserable death from exposure and starvation, and her eyeballs would be eaten by prairie dogs, and a cactus would grow out of the chest cavity of her eviscerated corpse.

Such a wonderful thing, her brain.

She turned off the highway at a random exit. No particular reason. She just felt like getting more lost. Being lost on the highway was easy. Being lost in rural farmland in the middle of West Virginia, where there weren't mile markers and gas stations every two minutes, that was where shit got real.

"L'appel du vide," she said. The call of the void. The urge to jump. To end it all.

Not that she wanted to die. She didn't. Not in the least.

But she did want to be lost.

And why is that? her brain wondered idly.

"Who knows?"

She sure as hell didn't. She just knew that she had been driving for what seemed like years, and she was finally far enough away from New York City that she no longer smelled garbage and car exhaust with every breath. She no longer heard sirens and honking car horns in her dreams. She was no longer afraid to make eye contact with strangers at gas stations. She could see the stars again.

She could hear the wind. And the crickets.

God, she'd missed the crickets.

And what about Max? What about your friends? Your job? Your life?

"Fuck it," she muttered, following the narrow, two-lane road through another series of twists and turns. "I'll figure that out when I get where I'm going."

And where is that, darling?

She rounded a bend in the road, and saw an old, run-down gas station on her right. She pulled in and parked beside an old Chevy pickup that might have once been red, but had faded to a lovely, rusty pink color, and got out of the car.

Two old men glanced over at her from their bench in front of the convenience store. When she smiled at them, they nodded politely and returned to their conversation.

The man standing at the counter looked up from his magazine and smiled at her when she walked in. He was short, and balding, and his glasses looked to be about an inch thick.

The door jingled, and Ana winced at the sound. She didn't like loud noises.

"Howdy, ma'am," he said cheerfully. "Anything I can help you with today?"

Ana smiled, despite herself. She had forgotten what it was like to interact with actual human beings. She had forgotten that kindness was still alive in the world. The further South she went, and the further away from New York City she got, the nicer people became.

"Actually, yes," Ana said, grabbing a bottle of water out of the display and setting it on the counter. "Would you happen to know of any nice places to stay around these parts?"

He punched a few numbers on his old register and made change for her dollar and nodded. "Oh, yeah, we got a lot of nice cabins up by the lake for rent. Most of 'em are empty this time of year, too."

A lake? A cabin on a lake?

That sounded fucking perfect.

"And how do I go about renting one?" she wondered, taking the change and tossing it in the little coin tray in front of the register.

"Well, you just keep going down this road a ways, and you'll see the diner on your right in about half a mile, give or take. There's a shop right next to it, sells fishing and hunting equipment. The manager, that'll be Jim, he owns a number of cabins along the north side of the lake. He'll give you a good deal."

Ana pulled a five dollar bill from her wallet and handed it to the man. "Thank you for your help," she said. And she meant it.

He took the money and smiled. "And thank you, ma'am. You have a blessed day."

"You, too," she replied. She picked up her water bottle and turned and headed for the door. The bell jingled above her head, but she was ready for it this time. She just grit her teeth and tried to block it out.

"Wait, uh, miss?" the gas station clerk called, halting her halfway out the door. She turned. "Don't… don't go wanderin' too far in the woods 'round these parts. We got some mean grizzlies like to come down from the mountains this time a year."

Ana grinned. She had absolutely no intention of wandering around in the woods. Getting lost in a car was more than enough for her, thank you very much. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

She nodded farewell to him, and to the two old gentlemen holding court on the bench outside, and hopped back in her car and continued down the two-lane road. Sure enough, about half a mile down she found the small, shiny diner, sitting beside the road like it had just been dropped right out of 1955. And beside it was a weathered little cement-block shop with a sign out front that said, "Jim's Supplies and Lures."

She pulled her Mustang into the parking lot and sat there for a moment, collecting her thoughts.

Get a cabin by the lake. Sleep and laze around and watch the snow fall for a few days. Eat too much. Meditate. Have a few glasses of wine. Get good and relaxed. It had been such a long time since she'd been truly relaxed.

And then, maybe she'd consider turning her cell phone back on.

She nodded and got out of the car.

For once, being lost had worked out well for her.