(Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or Friday the 13th; all credit goes to the original creators at Teletoon, Fresh TV and Victor Miller, please support the official release).
(This is an AU in which the show "Total Drama" didn't happen).
~Drowning the Past~
The sound of blue jays chirping in the spring breeze had awoken Dawn from her slumber; she smiled as she walked towards her bedroom window and opened it, "Good morning my feathered friends. Today is going to be a great day indeed", she said. "Dawn, sweetheart, it's time for breakfast", called a voice from downstairs.
She recognized it as her father's voice and made her way down to the kitchen where she saw a bowl of oatmeal with honey being placed on the table in front of her; she looked up to see the smiling face of her father, Joshua "Rain-catcher" Tremblay, as he packed her lunchbox for school.
"Rain-catcher" was the name her father went by when he used to be part of a Commune with other people who lived closer to the Earth or "Hippies" as modern people would refer to them as. That changed when met Dawn's mother, Lauren "Moonlight" Sanders; they fell in love, married and when Dawn was born, they decided to leave the Commune and live like regular people, in a house in a neighborhood.
Of course, they didn't completely give up their previous way of life, hence why they bought a house close to the entrance of the forest. Sadly when Dawn was six, her mother died of breast cancer, leaving her father to take care of her. Her father worked as a local veterinarian while she went to high school; she had recently celebrated her fifteenth birthday and had been visited by her beloved aunt
"Eat up now, don't want to be late for school", said Joshua. Dawn smiled at her father as she ate her breakfast, despite the death of her mother, she had a very good relationship with her father. He loved her more than anything else and he'd do anything to keep her safe and happy. Dawn finished her breakfast and grabbed her lunchbox, "Dawn, honey, I may to work a little late tonight. Will you be okay here at home by yourself?", asked Joshua. "I'll be okay, father. I have the spare key after all", she said.
Her father smiled, gave her a kiss and walked towards the bus stop; Dawn locked her front door and began walking the four blocks to her school. Once she got there, it was the same as any other day: sit in her classes, do her class work, go to lunch, and talk to her few friends. She only had a few friends because Dawn had a special set of "gifts": she had the ability to read auras and communicate with animals.
She had these powers ever since she first learned how to talk and her parents had always encouraged her that these abilities made her unique but other children would always be scared of her because she kind of made it a bad habit of verbally exposing certain flaws and personal affairs she read in their auras.
As she grew older, she learned how to keep her aura reading to herself; after school, she decided to wait for a few minutes for her father to come since he said he may have to work late.
When he didn't come after twenty minutes, she decided to walk home. On the way, Dawn walked past a dark alley filled with trash cans; a gloved hand reached out and grabbed her from behind, yanking her into the alley and against the wall.
She looked to see herself surrounded by three trashy looking teenage boys, looking at her with sneering grins. "Well what do we have here? Pretty little thing, ain't she?", said one boy. Dawn shivered in fear as the first boy held her by the collar of her sweater while the second was snaking his hand dangerously close to a certain area of her body, "Yep, she sure. Let's see if she got any cash on her", said the third boy.
Before any of them could go rummaging through her backpack, Dawn slapped the first boy and kneed the second in the crotch; pushing the third aside, she began running as fast as she could. They quickly recovered and started chasing after her, all three of them yelling all manner of swear words at her.
Dawn completely bypassed her house and just started running into the forest; she could still hear the boys chasing after her, she turned back while she ran to see if they were still behind her. What Dawn failed to notice was the low hanging tree branch coming into range, she found out too late when she rammed head-first into it.
She fell to the ground, her nose bleeding and her senses disoriented, she was close to passing out. The boys finally found her, "Ha! Thought you could knock me in the junk and get away with it? I'm gonna enjoying plowing your pasty little butt", said the first boy.
His buddies stood by cheering as he grabbed Dawn by the collar again; she closed her eyes and readied herself for the worse, but nothing happened. She instead felt something wet splash against her face and she heard the other two boys scream; she opened her eyes and through her blurred vision, she saw a blade stabbed through the boy's head.
A tall man wearing a hockey mask tossed the dead boy to the side as the other two began running away; the third boy managed to escape while the second boy was bisected in one swipe of the man's machete. The man walked back towards Dawn, who had finally passed out due to her head injury; he slid the machete into his belt and picked her up bridle style, carrying her deeper into the woods.
~Dream Sequence ~
Dawn walked around and found herself in what looked like a summer camp, the sign above her read "Camp Crystal Lake". She was confused until she heard the sound of a commotion; she turned and saw a slightly deformed boy being harassed and chased by other children, and the camp counselors were just standing by too distracted by each other to notice.
The children pushed the boy into the lake, laughing as he struggled to stay afloat; Dawn ran towards the edge of the dock and reached out, trying to save him but it was too late.
The boy sank like a rock; Dawn started crying as she watched him die, that's when she heard something next to her. A little girl with blond hair tied into two pigtails stood there crying loudly, Dawn was in shock by how much the girl looked like herself; the girl turned towards her and screamed, "JASON!"
~End of Dream Sequence~
Dawn awoke suddenly, gasping for air like a fish out of water. She slowly sat up as she tried to catch her breath, her heart was beating so fast she felt as if it was trying to squeeze its way out through her rib cage; Dawn looked around and saw that she was lying on an old bed in a dimly lit room, the room itself looked as though it was dug underground.
"Hey look, she's awake!"
"She finally woke up!"
"Hey, are you alright?"
Dawn heard a bunch of squeaky voices and looked over the edge of the bed to see a small group of rats, of course only she understood what they said and they were all asking if she was okay. "Why yes, my furry friends. I'm alright, but do you know where I am?", she asked. Before she could get an answer, the sound of heavy footsteps was heard.
"Uh oh, he's back!"
"Jason is back, you guys!"
"Let's hurry and hide before he steps on us!"
They all scurried under the bed as the same hockey mask wearing man walked into the room and stopped in front of Dawn; she recognized him as the man who had saved her from the three teenage boys who wanted to rob her, "You're the one who saved me. I don't know who you are, but thank you ever so much for helping me. I don't know what would've happened if you didn't come along", she said. The man merely titled his head in confusion before leaving the room through a trap door in the ceiling.
The rats came back out after they were sure the man had left, "My furry friends, I have some questions I wish to ask you all: where am I and who was that mysterious man", said Dawn. Suddenly she felt something heavy on her foot and saw that her left ankle was shackled to the wall; a particularly large brown rat climbed up the bed post and sat at her feet.
"I'm the leader of my colony, you can just call me Swampy and if I have to start somewhere, I'll start from the beginning: you're in "Camp Crystal Lake". Several years ago, before you, me or even my parents were born, this place was a summer camp and many kids were brought here during the summer. My grandfather was one of the rats that lived in the floorboards beneath the camp kitchen and he stowed away on the school bus that was bringing the kids here; one kid happened to be a boy named Jason Voorhees, he was a special kind of kid and by that, I mean he had a bit of a facial deformity. The other kids didn't want anything to do with him until one little girl got on the bus: she had blond hair tied into pigtails, pale skin and she carried a white teddy bear with her everywhere she went; she was the only one who wanted to sit near Jason, the only one not bothered by his face.
"And Jason liked that, as well as the fact that this girl wanted to be his friend. His mother, Mrs. Voorhees, was the camp cook and she too was the only one not bothered by her son's face, in fact she loved that kid more than herself and loved it even more when he and the girl continued to spend time together at camp. Those two would eat together in the messhall, play together and sometimes when the camp councilors took the kids for a hike in the woods, those two would purposely get themselves lost just so they could sit alone in the forest and talk to each other.
"I knew the whole story because my grandfather told me all of this when I was just a pinkie, but as they say all good things come to an end and it was a period of time my grandfather always said he wish he could forget seeing. One day while the little girl sat at one of the picnic tables doodling, the other kids began to harass poor Jason; they chased him all over the places and pushed him towards the dock, the girl tried to get help but the councilors were made up of mostly teenagers and they were too busy flirting with each other to see the boy in danger. He fell into the water where he began drowning, the little girl tried to pull him out of the water but she wasn't strong enough.
"The poor boy sank to the bottom of the lake, leaving his best friend to sit there crying over his lost, but she wasn't the only one who saw it happened. Mrs. Voorhees saw what happened to her son and...let's just say that angry didn't even begin to cover how she felt at the time; my grandfather told me that after the little girl went back to her cabin to mope around in depression, Mrs. Voorhees became very...um, 'productive'.
"She felt that the camp councilors were to blame because they weren't watching her son, so armed with a machete, my grandfather watched from beneath the messhall as she butchered those teenagers one by one, slaughtering them all without any mercy. It wasn't until there was only one councilor left that the girl realized what was happening; the remaining councilor, a teenaged girl, grabbed her from the cabin and tried to escape with her.
"My grandfather followed them to the lake where Mrs. Voorhees caught up to them, he hopped into the pocket of the little girl's overalls and told her to run away as fast as she could, and to my grandfather's surprise, she could understand him and did what he said. The little girl only ran a few steps before turning around in time for both her and my grandfather to see the teenage girl behead Mrs. Voorhees with a machete.
"My grandfather stayed behind while the little girl ran away until she made it to the town, where she told the police about what happened. They came to see what happened but only ended up collecting all the dead bodies while the little girl was sent to another state to be with her family. The teenage girl was also found dead, but the shocking part was that it had been Jason who killed her.
"You see, he wasn't dead, my grandfather saw him rise up out of the lake after he witnessed his mother's death and now he continues to live here in the old camp, killing anyone who dares to come here. My grandfather and his colony continued to live in the floorboards of the camp mess hall, and he said that he missed the little girl and he believed Jason did too. His mother kept of picture of her along with Jason in a locket that he still held onto", Swampy scurried to the table in the middle of the room and grabbed the locket string with his teeth.
He brought it to Dawn, opening it so she could see the picture of the girl, "My grandfather didn't really know her, but he said he could never forget her face...or even her name, he said what happened here haunted him as much as he assumed haunted that girl. And the name of that sweet little girl was Meena Tremblay", he said.
Dawn was immediately taken by surprise, placing her hand over her mouth as though she just came to a horrible realization. The rats looked on in concern, "Hey are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost", said a young grey rat. "Meena Tremblay is my aunt, I'm her niece Dawn Tremblay", she said.
Swampy, as well as all the other rats, gasped collectively. "I knew it! I knew you looked familiar the moment I saw Jason carry your unconscious body in here; granted I've never met Meena as I wasn't born at the time, but I've seen that picture enough times to have the image practically imprinted into my brain. She looks just like you!", said Swampy.
Dawn looked back at the locket, "That's understandable: she and my mother were twin sisters and everyone who was invited to my first birthday party kept saying I was a spitting image of my mother and aunt, at least that's what my dad said. But then why am I here? Why did Jason save me, but then bring me here? From the look of it, it's like he's keeping me prisoner", she said gesturing to the shackle around her ankle.
All the rats looked at her sadly as they quickly pieced together what was going on, "Kid, remember when I said that my grandfather said he assumed Jason had missed Meena? Well, I think gramps was right: you look just like her so Jason must believe you actually are her and that's why he saved you. If you were any other teenage girl, he would've butchered you as easily as he did to those boys, but since you bare such a striking resemblance to your aunt, he thinks you're one and the same. And now that he has his "best friend" back, he's never going to let you out of his sight; you were right, you are his prisoner", said Swampy.
All the other rats nodded in agreement, saddened by the fact that the first real human companion they've had in years is now a caged bird with no hope of freedom; the reality of the situation fell upon Dawn like a large rock and she suddenly burst out into tears, throwing herself upon the old flat pillow as she sobbed pitifully.
Swampy and his colony all gathered on top and/or near her in an attempt to bring her some comfort; though she eventually stopped sobbing loudly, she still continued to cry until she didn't have the strength for it anymore and promptly fell asleep.
Swampy and the others pulled the thin blanket over her and quickly took refuge under the bed again; they would've stayed out longer to keep her company as she slept, if it wasn't for the fact that Jason could walk in at any minute and make sweet work cutting them up into fish bait if he saw them around her.
Truth be told, Jason did walk back into the room holding two items: one was Dawn's school bag and the other was a white teddy bear or at least it was supposed to be white, the stuffed animal looked very old and dingy. Jason dropped her bag on the floor near the far left side of the bed and after seeing that Dawn was asleep, dropped the bear next to her before leaving.
Meanwhile...
Joshua Tremblay had just finished sorting out the new shipment of flea medicine in the storage room when the manager of the animal clinic walked in, "Alright Joshua, that's enough for tonight. You can go home now, I'm sure that lovely daughter of yours is waiting for you", he said. Joshua thanked him as they both walked out of the clinic, but just as they were locking up a police car stopped in front of the building.
"Excuse me, sir. Are you Joshua Tremblay?", asked the officer. "Why yes I am, can I help you with something officer?", he asked. "Actually yes, there's a boy down at the station rambling on about a madman and he claims this guy took a girl who looked like your daughter. We need you to come help us with the situation", said the officer. It was a that moment that Joshua felt both fear and anger rising up inside him; he stepped inside the police car and rode back to the station.
Inside the interrogation room, the surviving teenage boy sat handcuffed to the table as the sketch artist sat across from him. "Okay, described to me what this "psycho" looked like", she said. The boy, still shaken over the death of his buddies, started talking. "He was tall, like six feet almost, man. He wore this beat up old hockey mask, kinda like the one the goalie wears and he has this huge machete what big enough to slice my bros in half, man!", he exclaimed.
The sketch artist drew his description before flipping over to a clean page, "Now this girl he kidnapped, was she Dawn Tremblay?", she asked. "How the Hell would I know? My buddies and me see this girl walking down the street, we figured it was a easy score", he said.
Joshua had just entered the room as the boy gave the sketch artist another description, "She was really short like almost five feet, she had this bright blond hair, pale skin and she was wearing a green sweater, black skirt, purple tights and black shoes", he said.
Joshua looked at the sketch and saw that it was indeed Dawn; he slammed both hands on the table as he looked at the boy with an angry glare, "Young man, I'm going to give you five minutes to explain to me what you did to my daughter or I'm going to do something so deplorable that I doubt Mother Earth would forgive me. Now!", he said.
The boy grew even more scared as he spoke, "Okay okay! My buddies and me were hanging by an alley when we saw that blond girl walk past us, they thought she'd be an easy score so we grabbed her. I swear, we was only going to take her money and let her go afterwards but she kicked my bro in the nuts and ran off, so he said we had to chase her. We found her in the woods on the ground with her nose bleeding, I think she ran into a tree or something; then my buddy was gonna do something until that hockey mask wearing freak came outta nowhere and shoved that machete through my bros' face. I ran away and hide while he gutted my other buddy like a freaking fish and then I looked back but he and that blond girl was gone. I think he took her, man! There's a freaking murderer out there!", he exclaimed as he broke down crying
Joshua didn't know how to process this information, he just turned towards the nearest police officer and said, "Please find my daughter. She doesn't know how to properly defend herself, she must be so scared and confused...please help her! I already lost my wife, I can't lose my daughter as well". The police officer assured him they'd stop at nothing to find Dawn and advised him to stay in a hotel in town so he'd be close enough to receive updates about the situation. Please be safe Dawn, he thought solemnly.
Dawn had awoken several hours ago because the hunger she felt gripping her stomach was too much, she needed to eat something. "I don't suppose any of you know where to find food?", she asked the rats. "All we eat are food scraps and any bugs we find crawling around. That doesn't sound like it'll be appetizing to you", said Swampy.
Dawn moaned in agony as her hunger persisted, she also doubt that Jason was going to give her anything to eat, which when she thought about it, sort of defeated the purpose of keeping her a prisoner. Just as she was about to give up, she saw her backpack on the floor near the bed; that's when a spark of resolution flashed through her mind, she opened the bag and pulled out her lunchbox. Her father had always packed her lunch because Dawn was a strict vegetarian and he was never able to convince the school board to start serving vegan lunch.
She thanked her father, as well as Mother Earth, and opened the lunchbox to see what he had packed. Inside was a grilled cheese sandwich, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a fruit salad, a regular salad with French dressing, a packet of graham crackers, a bag of pretzels and two bottles of spring water. Dawn never understood why her father had to pack so much food for lunch, but right now she was beyond grateful as she opened the container with the grilled cheese sandwich and pulled out half, taking a bite.
Granted the sandwich was cold, but Dawn didn't care as she opened the bag of pretzels and helped herself to some as she devoured the half of the sandwich, washing it down with some water. After she finished, she put the rest of the food back into her lunchbox; she didn't know how long she was going to be trapped or how long it'd take for her father to realize what happened and send for help, so she figured the smartest thing to do would be to ration her food so she'd have enough to last her until she was rescued.
She reached into the bag of pretzels, though, and pulled out a few to give to each of her new rat friends. "It's ashamed you all don't get much to eat, here have some of my pretzels. I'm going to only eat enough to satisfy my hunger and store away the rest so I'd be able to survive long enough until my father comes with some help, but I don't mind sharing some with you", said Dawn.
Swampy and his colony gratefully accepted the pretzels, each of them nibbling away at the crunchy salty snacks. Dawn smiled as she laid back down to let herself relax as her body digested the small meal she had. Swampy climbed onto the bed and squirmed his way into her sweater, perfectly hidden. "I figured you need some company and all of my colony can't be seen by Jason lest he'd hack us up, so I'll stay here in your sweater while the others stay under the bed", he said.
Dawn smiled as she petted his head with her index finger, "You and your friends are so kind to help comfort me in my perilous situation. I know I should feel sorry for Jason, but I read his aura: it was black, which usually means a person is full of hatred, anger and even despair. I understand that part given what happened to him; there's also a small splash of pink swirling around in the black, pink means love and I think that is the bit of love he had for his mother, for my aunt Meena and by extension me. The pink means Jason won't hurt me, but the amount of black in his aura scares me...oh Swampy, I'm so afraid! I don't know what to do", she said as she began crying again.
Swampy gave her a gentle lick on the cheek, "What you can do is be brave, try to hold out until your father comes with help to rescue you. In the meantime, know that you're not alone; my colony and I will be here to keep you company and we'll try as best as we can to make you feel comfortable", he said. Dawn smiled as she laid her head back down and tried to sleep.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At that moment, Joshua was sitting in his hotel trying to keep himself calm by meditating while a CD of forest sounds played on the CD player behind him, but he couldn't calm his mind because all he could think about was Dawn. Ever since he heard about her being kidnapped, by a murderer no less, he had been on edge; he tried to keep his spirits high by drinking herbal tea, listening to his "Songs of the Earth" CD and of course meditating but it was futile as his mind kept wandering back to his precious daughter.
Every minute he kept thinking: was Dawn safe? Has she been hurt? Is she still alive? If she was, was the killer taking care of her? Is he at least giving her vegan meals to eat? Is he even feeding her at all? Has he tried to assault her physically and/or sexually? Joshua just couldn't stand it and he began crying; ever since his wife had died, Dawn had been everything to him: she was the air he breathed, the sunlight shining on his face in the morning, the moon lighting up the sky at night, the gentle breeze of a spring day.
He had loved his wife so much that when he lost her it nearly killed him, thinking about what was happening to Dawn was tearing him apart inside; he felt that if he lost his only daughter, the pain would destroy him. It would be an emotional torment he would never get over, the kind of pain that usually drove a person to kill themselves, but Joshua had hoped with all his heart and soul that it wouldn't come to that.
He looked outside at the large full moon and began praying, "Great Earth Mother, please hear my prayers and answer my pleas. I beg of you, keep my daughter safe; she is all I have left in this world, she is the one thing that brings eternal joy in my life. I don't think I'd have the strength to keep living if I lost her, so please watch over her. Protect her and if at all possible, help her find a way out of the situation she's in. And let her know that I will always love her", he sobbed as he laid down in bed and cried himself to sleep.
Dawn coughed slightly in her sleep before she began to slowly open her eyes; she looked up and saw that Jason had been standing directly in front of her, which cause her to jump back in fear. "My goodness, you scared me! You shouldn't do that, you could give someone a heart attack", she said.
Jason simply walked over to her shackled ankle and unlocked the bind, then he held out his hand towards her so he could help her up. Since she had been lying down for most of her imprisonment, Dawn's legs were a bit wobbly at first but she managed to find her footing; confused as she was, she let Jason lead her up the trap door into the old cabin above. Then she was taken into a bathroom where Jason had tossed an old towel and what looked like a shirt with the "Camp Crystal Lake" logo on the front. The shirt also had several dried blood stains.
He walked out the room, shutting the door behind him. "I think he wants you to shower, but I'm not sure if the plumbing even still works here anymore. This camp has been abandoned for almost thirty years", said Swampy. Dawn turned towards the shower, which wasn't in that bad of condition except for the mildew on the walls, and turned the faucet handle; the shower head sputtered for a minute before water came out and surprisingly the water wasn't dirty, the actual problem was that the water was freezing cold and there wasn't any soap.
"Well...its better than not being able to take a shower and I am beginning to smell a little, so I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and bare it", said Dawn. So she began to undress; Swampy, despite being a rat, acted like a gentleman and shut his eyes while she removed her clothes and stepped into the tub.
Dawn held back a shriek as the freezing water hit her bare skin sensitive skin, after trying to get used to it, she began scrubbing under her armpits, across her arms and legs and stomach, and her private areas. She didn't have any soap but she hoped the cold water would be strong enough to wipe out the body odor.
When she finally had enough, she quickly dried herself off and shut off the water. She slipped her skirt and leggings back on, as well as her undershirt; then she took the old camp shirt and slipped it over her clothes before tugging her sweater over it. The shirt itself was extra large in size and it made Dawn look like she was wearing a dress; with all the layers she wore, her shivering from the cold shower had stopped.
Swampy crawled back into her sweater, hiding in her collar right near her left ear; Dawn walked out of the bathroom to see Jason standing outside it, this time she only slightly jumped. Not wanting to be rude, especially since his black aura scared her to no end, she smiled. "Um...thank you for letting me cleanse myself. I was beginning to smell terribly and good hygiene is always important", she said.
Jason once again held his hand out to her and she took it, letting him lead her back through the cabin and into the underground room. On the table near the bed she saw a game of checkers had been set up, this confused her. "My grandfather said he used to see Meena and Jason playing games together all the time. And since he thinks you're Meena I should let you know...she always let him win, I'd advise you do the same", whispered Swampy even though she was the only one who could understand him.
Dawn sat on the bed as Jason shackled her ankle once again. I guess he really wants to make sure I don't escape, she thought. Then he sat on a stool on the other side of the table, "I see you want to play a game of checkers, well okay. I'd love to play with you", said Dawn as she made the first move. Then Jason took a turn; the game lasted for all of fifteen minutes because Dawn was purposely making moves that would guarantee she'd lose.
She smiled nonetheless as she was to keep up the charade of her being her aunt Meena until she was rescued. As Jason was setting up the checkerboard for another game, Dawn decided to talk to him. "So...how have you been...all this time? I've won...I mean miserable without you, Jason", she said.
This comment caught his attention, that's when Dawn realized that the more she pretended to be Meena, the more he'd believed she was Meena. She figured if she wanted to stay remotely unharmed throughout this whole ordeal, she'd have to keep up the act and that not only meant pretending she was her aunt, but also acting like she was sad and lonely without her best friend.
"I mean, I thought I lost you when you drowned in the lake. I thought you died and then I was so sad, but your mother...she showed those councilors what for. They should've been watching you, making sure you were okay, but they didn't. So your mother punished them...it's what they deserved for letting your drown, but then they killed her and now you're here doing what she would've wanted. I'm so happy to see you again; after what happened, I was sent away to live with the rest of my family. I can't express how happy I am to be reunited with my oldest, most beloved friend", she said.
There was silence before Jason leaned forward; Dawn flinched and shut her eyes thinking he was going to hurt her, but instead gently placed his hand atop her head and stroked it as if he were petting a small animal. I guess he really does believe I'm Meena, she thought.
Meanwhile the real Meena, Dawn's aunt, was pouring herself a glass of jasmine tea to enjoy with a plate of gluten free oatmeal cookies. She took her snack and walked into her room where she was greeted by her pets: a German shepherd named Sunny, an orange tabby cat named Clementine and a blue macaw named Starry Night.
Like her niece, she loved animals and she too could speak to them, but her sister Lauren, when she was alive, didn't. The ability to read auras and communicate with animals was a trait their mother, Dawn's grandmother, had and when the two of them were born, it had skipped Lauren and went to Meena, but when Dawn was born, Meena had had a hunch she'd inherit it and she was right.
"You know, I haven't spoken to Dawn since her fifteenth birthday. I think I'll give her a call and see how she's doing", said Meena as Starry passed her the phone. She dialed Joshua's number and waited for an answer before it picked up, "He...hello?", said a meek voice. "Joshua is that you? You don't sound too well, are you alright?", she asked concerned about her brother-in-law. Joshua realized it was his sister-in-law who had called him, so he didn't hold himself back; he told her about the entire situation, about Dawn being kidnapped and the police still had no luck in tracking her or her kidnapper down. Meena was silent for a moment before she replied, "Joshua, I'm going to the airport. I don't know when I'll be there, but wait for me by the arrival gate, alright? Goodbye", she said as she hung up.
She quickly packed a suitcase, bid farewell to her beloved animal friends and caught a taxi ride to the airport. Inside she bought a ticket to Vermont and got on the plane, hoping and praying it would fly faster, but the two and a half hours were not helping her situation. Once she was in Vermont, she took another taxi to the hotel Joshua was staying in and rushed up to his room, where he threw himself into her embrace, letting all his emotions out.
"Joshua I know your suffering a terrible heartache, but I need you to pull yourself together and put on your best hiking clothes. Your daughter is in great danger and we're the only ones who can help her", she said as she put on a pair of boots.
Joshua complied but couldn't help but question her, "What do you mean 'only we can help her'?", he asked as he too put on a pair of boots. Meena gave one those heavy duty flashlights and led him out the door, "Follow me, Joshua. We're going to visit an old friend of mine who should've stayed where he sank", she said. Confused as he was, Joshua still followed his sister-in-law towards the woods.
Dawn laid fast asleep on the bed; after playing checkers for a total of seven hours and waiting for Jason to leave so she could eat the other half of her grilled cheese, plus half the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and graham crackers, she was beyond tired and needed to rest. Swampy, of course, was snuggled up next to her head completely hidden by her sweater and her hair.
So far, her plan to bide her time until she was rescued was going great; it seemed that Jason was fully convinced that she was Meena and Dawn was banking on that because it meant he wouldn't try to harm her. She read his aura again and saw that the pink swirling around in it had grown a little but it was still undermined by the amount of black in his aura and that continued to scare her. She had no idea how long she had before her ruse might slip up; all Dawn could was wait and hope and be brave in the face of danger. I know my father will come to save me. I just know it, she had thought.
Meanwhile Meena and Joshua were trekking through the woods, pointing their flashlights in randomly. "Meena, I'm confused by something: you know the man who kidnapped Dawn? You said he was an old friend of yours", said Joshua. They both stopped in their tracks when they had approached the old "Camp Crystal Lake" sign, which was so old and almost completely eaten away by lichen that it was ready to fall off, Meena looked at it with fear and contempt. "I had hoped to God and the great Earth Mother that I'd never have to return to this horrid place. I guess I can't just live my life pretending it never happened, it's time I faced my demons and laid them to rest", she said. The two then stepped onto the camp grounds and began calling out Dawn's name.
Back in the underground room, their calls had awoken Dawn from her slumber, as well as Swampy and his rat colony. "I know those voices, that's my father and my aunt Meena! They came to save me, which means I need to find a way out of here", she said as she tried to tug on the shackle around her ankle. Jason had currently been further down the tunnel when he heard the noise, Dawn immediately stopped tugging at her shackle when he came by.
One of Swampy's fellow rats ran up his pant leg, but Jason swatted him away and walked out of the room. "Are you alright?", asked Dawn. The rat, named Scraps, wheezed slightly before holding up a key; Dawn recognized it as the key used to lock her shackle, she grabbed from Scraps paws and locked herself. Grabbing her school bag and throwing it over her shoulders, Dawn stood up and tried to look for an alternative way out since going through the door in the ceiling would surely get her spotted.
"Follow us, there's a tunnel that'll take you right outside the camp's entrance. It's closed but you can easily move the blockage", said another rat named Digger. Dawn followed the rats to the tunnel, she moved the crates blocking the entrance before crawling inside on her hands and knees; the rats followed close behind as she stepped into an open corridor and ran as fast as she could before coming the a door.
She forced it open and ran outside, backtracking to the camp to find her aunt and father; sure enough, she got to them before Jason did. Joshua could barely contain his excitement, he ran over to Dawn and engulfed her in a tight but loving hug, "Oh Dawn, I was so scared! I thought I was going to lose you, I'm so glad you're safe", he said tearfully. Dawn hugged her father tightly, never wanting to let him go; suddenly, she felt a dark presence behind her and turned to see Jason standing there with his machete at the ready.
Joshua put his arms around her defensively as he approached them, "Leave them alone, Jason! I'm the one you want", said a voice. Jason turned around and saw Meena standing behind him, he looked back at Dawn and then tilted his head in confusion. "That's right, Jason. I'm Meena Tremblay, the girl you were holding hostage is my niece Dawn; I understand why you held onto her, does look like her mother and she was my twin sister. Jason, I'm ashamed of you: you were my best friend! When you drowned, I thought my life was over, but I was sent away to live with my grandparents in Maryland.
"I thought the nightmare was over, until I heard stories in the news about people going missing when they come to this camp; it was you making them disappear wasn't it? When that girl tried to get me out of the camp, I was shocked to see that your mother had killed all the councilors; I thought she was nice, but she took revenge too far. And now here you are, murdering hapless teens that wander onto the camp grounds. I'm sorry Jason, but it's time I bury this terrible memory in the dirt where it belongs", she said.
Without warning, she dropped kick him and began fighting him in one-on-one combat; Dawn marveled at her aunt's physical strength, but her father immediately grabbed her and tried to lead away. Dawn stayed rooted to the ground because she didn't want to leave Meena behind; her aunt was tossed to the ground as Jason stalked towards her, Dawn couldn't handle it anymore and ran towards them. "Stop it! Don't hurt her, Jason! Please! I'll be you best friend forever, we'll run far away from here and never have to worry about anything ever again", she said. Jason was distracted long enough for Meena to grab his machete; she looked at him with teary eyes, "I'm sorry, Jason. I'm so sorry", she said.
She swung the machete upward and sliced his head off with one blow before she kicked his body to the ground and began cutting off all the other limbs; then for good measure, she sliced the torso into three pieces. She then piled them together, doused them in lighter fluid and lit them on fire, burning them and the camp along with them. "You should've died and stayed died thirty years ago", Meena whispered.
She turned back towards Joshua, who stood covering Dawn's eyes to prevent her from seeing what had just transpired, "Come on now, you two. Let's leave this cursed place behind forever", she said. The three of them, plus all the rats who snuck into Dawn's school bag during the ordeal, trekked out of the woods, leaving "Camp Crystal Lake" behind as nothing more than a distant memory.
Six months later, Dawn and her father had left Vermont and decided to live in Maryland with her aunt Meena. After she survived her imprisonment, Dawn was advised to see a psychiatrist twice a week to deal with any mental trauma she may have suffered; aside from being scared that she'd never see her father again, she was alright mentally and physically and it was no longer necessary for her sessions to continue.
Her father got a new job at another animal clinic and was currently trying to earn enough money to buy a new house, but until then they lived with Meena in her house. Her pets quickly accepted Dawn, but her cat took an awfully long time before it got used to Dawn's new rat companions, who were all cleansed, vaccinated and now lived in a large hamster terrarium in Meena's attic.
Dawn herself was beginning her first day at her new school, but she couldn't help but think about Jason. She knew she didn't have to worry about him anymore because he was finally dead and she had moved away from her old home to leave that memory behind, but she couldn't help feeling sorry for him. Yes, it's true that he was a cold-blooded murderer but as she delved into his dark aura, she saw that all he really wanted was a friend. Not that Dawn was beginning to develop Stockholm Syndrome, but she just felt immensely sorry for him; now that he was dead, she knew whatever punishment awaited him in the afterlife wasn't going to be pretty, but she prayed that he at least learned his lesson.
"Hey there, you look lonely. Mind if I sit next to you?", said a voice. Dawn looked up and saw a dark-skinned boy wearing glasses sitting next to her, "Why yes, of course you can", she said with a smile. The boy smiled back, "I take it that you're new here, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Cameron, Cameron Wilkins. What's your name?", he said. "My name is Dawn Tremblay and yes, I just transferred here so I am new", she said.
The bell rung and class began, afterwards Dawn walked alongside Cameron in the hallway, "I'm glad I made a new friend today. If you want, at lunch I can introduce you to my other friends Zoey, Sam and Mike. I'm sure they loved to meet you", he said. Dawn smiled, "Yes, I'd like that very much. Thank you, my friend", she said. And as she walked through the halls to her next class, Dawn felt rejuvenated; she felt as if she had been given a clean slate and now she could start her life anew, make new friends and let go of the darkness of her past. Great Earth Mother, thank you. Thank you for giving me, my father and my aunt a chance at a new life and thank you for giving me the strength and bravery to survive through that terrible experience. I will never forget your kindness nor take it for granted, Dawn thought. For the first time in her life, Dawn felt free!
~The End~
Author's Note: Well, thus ends my first crossover one-shot; hope you all enjoyed it. By the way, I set "Camp Crystal Lake" in Vermont because when I was doing research on the "Friday the 13th" movies, I found nothing that told me what state the camp was in, so I just made it up. Anyway, I'll see you around; until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!