Leaves barely crunched and branches barely creaked as Jason slipped between the trees. The sound of his footsteps covered by the rippling of lake water and the patter of rain. In all his years of vengeance Jason had never had difficulty staying out of sight. But he wasn't used to the kids of camp crystal lake staying out of his. Breaching the tree line he stalked down the well trodden dirt paths that now ran slick with mud. From waters edge to the great campfire, where songs that stoked the fires of Jason's hatred were sung, he searched. Through the cold and the wet he hunted for those who had taken so much from him. But there was no one. Only the stillness of the grave. Had, after all these years of killing, he finally succeeded. Had the debased and debauched finally been punished. Could he finally rest?

*Crrrrrrk*

Jason Voorhees' decomposing neck swung to the tree line with a sickening sequence of pops and groans.

"SoMeOnE HeRe..."

The revenant thought to himself. Jason had long been consumed by a rage he barely understood but now stirring deep within his long dead heart he thought he felt something else. Excitement. He relished the chase and this years crop of councillors certainly were more wily than the ones that had come before. But then again after so many years of visiting the same haunted grounds they were bound to have picked up a few tricks.

Jason crossed the gulf between himself and the creaking in seconds. Before long he was wading through the waist high scrub that made its home in the shadows of Crystal Lakes great trees. The creaking was deeper in the forest now. Thats where they always ran. But they didn't know the forest belonged to the Voorhees'. Rain dripped from the slick blade in Jason's hand echoing the blood that was soon to follow. It had been too long since his last kill and if there was one thing worse than the presence of the monsters that had taken his mother from him, it was the being alone. A stolen lifetimes worth of hate rushed once more to the fore as atrophied neurones translated it from his black heart to the front of his limited thoughts.

His victim had stopped now. Whether it was the cold or just plain fear the he couldn't tell. That's when he heard it. Drip drip drip. "Tears" Jason thought. His prey was suffering. "Good" he thought. That is what they deserved for making sweet little Jason into the terrible Jason Voorhees. He burst through the lank plant life and buried the tip of his machete so deep into the tree that had he been more of a thinking man he would have worried about its retrieval. But something was wrong. There was no blood, no screams… and no body.

But he had heard it. He had heard the forest betray the presence of his prey. He had hunted it. He had heard it stop. More over he had heard the thick heavy tears dripping to the ground. "Drip." a particularly thick droplet splashed on the top of Jason's head and with paradoxical speed the dead man turned once more. Wrenching his blade from the trunk with such force that tendons snapped and muscles ripped. When Jason looked up he froze. There was no cold and wet young girl choking back tears. No terrified teen wetting himself in the dark. Instead, Jason found himself face to face with the dripping flesh of a freshly peeled Human body.

Jason stood motionless for some time, pondering laboriously over the riddle that lay before him. "aLrEaDy DeAd..." He thought. But it didn't make sense. This was his home. There was no one else but him and the camp counsellors. "Unless..."

There was movement again and once more Jason turned to locate its source. It sounded like it was coming from the trees but there was nothing. Nothing to see and nothing to hear. Nothing except three strange dots that came to rest on his partially exposed rib cage.

As the ichorus remains of his blood pumped through his greying cortex Jason was transfixed. He waved a mangled hand over his midsection attempting to swat away the strange lights. He was mystified as they simply passed over his fingers never straying from their resting place. His simple mind never once contemplated that with this captivating incandescence could come danger. Soon, there was another light, and not one he would soon forget.

The hulking revenant was dashed to the ground as a fist sized tunnel bore its way through his chest. Organs ruptured as rotten meat evaporated from within. Sickly steam drifted listlessly from his nostrils and ruined mouth. It was some time before Jason returned to his feet and with such an addled brain it was hard for the thrice dead being to maintain coherent thought. But even so. Even through the damage and deformity. Jason realised. That if he was not the Predator in these woods... Then he must be the prey.

Once Jason made his way through the undergrowth. Only this time he was the one being hunted. Whatever had attacked him was in pursuit though no matter how hard he strained he could not catch sight of it. Shouldering through the branches as he leaked his stagnant lifeblood Jason scanned for his pursuer.

Jason didn't know what to do or where to turn. He just simply kept driving on. Had he found him again? Had he come back for his head? Jason froze. He had come to a halt at the banks of the river. He looked on the torrents of water with fear. He hesitated. He thought about turning to face his attacker. To bury his machete deep within it's black heart. But Jason feared what could be coming. Jason feared who could be coming. He thought he heard creaking again. But they had left the trees behind. No, it wasn't creaking. It was more like clicking… and it was close.

Jason looked at the waters as he calculated his next step. It may have been these very waters that took him as a child, it may have been the waters on his brain that had deformed his body and stunted his mind. Water may have been Jason's chief fear in this world. But it wasn't what made its home in this world that he feared. But it was a fear that may have come for him once more.

*Splash!*