"Tommy!! Tommy!!" Reggie screamed.
The killer suddenly stopped walking towards the ladder and snapped around to face Tommy.
Tommy was instantly frozen with fear as if someone had injected him with a tranquilizer.
He was transfixed on the image of the man wearing a hockey mask, covered in blood, oozing from the gash in his chest and on his arm and wielding a machete.
Then, the voices came back stronger and louder than ever.
"Die!….Die!….Die!…"
They grew louder, and louder, throbbing like a giant tumor, like some kind of deformed growth in his mind that was growing and pushing on his brain. And all he could see was Jason Voorhees standing before him.
The killer and Tommy locked eyes for several moments.
The killer wasn't sure what to make of him, Pam thought. It was as if he was deciding whether to kill him or not.
Or maybe it really was Jason Voorhees back from the dead to finish Tommy off. If the killer wasn't Tommy, it had to be Jason.
They both stared at each other like it was a western showdown.
Tommy was seemingly in a trance.
He didn't move or run.
"Run, Tommy, run!" Pam screamed. "Run, he'll kill you! Listen to me!"
"Jason…" Tommy muttered under his breath.
The killer slowly advanced towards him.
Tommy still couldn't move. He just watched, mesmerized, in total shock.
He was oblivious to Pam's urging.
He watched as the murderous brute advanced towards him. He was staring off into the distance, replaying the entire night at Crystal Lake in his head.
And now, it was playing out right in front of him.
Again.
For all he knew, it could be another dream. It
could be another hallucination.
It was just like in his dreams.
Jason coming towards him, and not being able to move.
He heard Pam screaming his name just like Trish..
It had to be a dream. It had to be a terrible dream.
He'd wake up in the morning and Jason would be gone.
Jason came closer.
"Remember, Jason…don't you remember…" the voices played in his head. It was his own child-like voice. It was the words he had said to Jason on that horrible night.
"Die!.Die!..Die!"
All he could feel was the sheer helplessness he had felt as a twelve year old boy when he had faced him before.
Jason raised the machete into the air.
Tommy still didn't move.
"Tommy!!" Reggie shrieked.
"Run, Tommy! He'll kill you!!" cried Pam.
And then, the machete came down and Tommy didn't get out of the way.
The fire that burned across his chest suddenly
galvanized him, breaking him from his trance.
"No!" Pam cried in despair.
Tommy fell, suddenly incredulous as he touched his hand to his chest only to discover his hands were now stained red with blood.
There was a gash across his midsection.
Jason walked towards him menacingly.
"Up here, Tommy! Tommy!!" Reggie begged him.
Tommy still lay on the floor, in shock at the red that blossomed across his chest and blemished his hands.
The pain was unbearable. It felt like a hot iron
had been slammed down on his ribs.
As the killer closed the gap between them, Tommy felt something in his left pocket.
It was the pocketknife his father had given him.
Now enraged and terrified, finally coming back to his senses, Tommy fished it frantically out of his pocket, flipped it open and thrust it towards the mad killer's groin.
The blade of the knife penetrated deep into the inner part of Jason's thigh.
Jason growled and Pam and Reggie cheered hysterically.
The masked murderer went down on all fours, clutching at the knife in agony.
Tommy, still bleeding profusely, staggered towards the ladder.
"Tommy! Up here! Come on!" Pam cried.
"Hurry up, man!" Reggie exclaimed.
Tommy slowly made his way to the ladder, the pain almost knocking him to the ground again. It coursed through his entire body. It was as if a thousand bullets were ricocheting around inside him.
He clutched at the deep, bleeding gash across his belly, trying to fight through the excruciating stinging sensation that spread across his abdomen.
The killer managed to pull the knife out from his thigh, and he hurled it aside.
With the help of the adrenaline that was now surging through his veins, Tommy reached the ladder, and with urging from Pam and Reggie, he mustered up all of his strength and started climbing one rung at a time.
"Come on, Tommy…" he thought. You need to protect them…"
Just how he had protected Trish.
That was all he could focus on.
The sound of Pam's voice calling to him urgently was the only thing keeping him going.
Her voice then started to fade in and out of earshot.
He was losing blood.
He began to feel increasingly lightheaded.
He was more than halfway there.
Jason staggered to his feet and stalked towards the ladder, taking his time.
"Come on, Tommy, you can do it!" Reggie cried.
Suddenly, Tommy's foot slipped and he teetered, losing his balance, wincing at the pain that ravaged his body.
"Take my hand!" Pam yelled.
She extended out her arm towards him and he reached for it with all the strength he had left in him, and she and Reggie both pulled him up into the hayloft.
Jason started climbing the ladder. One rung at a time. Perfectly stealthy and in no hurry. He had plenty of time to catch them. Now they were trapped in the hayloft. Nowhere else to go.
Jason reached the hayloft.
Lightning flashed, illuminating the room in the incandescent white light.
He scanned the loft, searching for them. His breath was slow and calm.
Tommy was lying on his stomach.
He had lost consciousness.
Jason tilted his head and flipped Tommy over onto his back.
He lay there motionless.
Jason moved away from him and focused on his moving targets. Where were they?
He listened but only heard the rain pattering on the roof of the old barn and the wood sagging and creaking under his heavy boots.
Rows of hay bales were stacked against one wall, and the other wall held a shelf of tools.
The loft doors were open, creating a precipice that looked down onto an old, rusted tractor harrow. Rows of sharp spikes jutted upwards towards the sky.
Jason walked. Slowly. Patiently. The killer knew he had time. His fingers gripped the wooden handle of machete in a talon-like grasp.
It was his prey that was running out of time.
As he passed by a large bale of hay, he saw a fleeting shadow out of his peripheral vision.
Someone ducked back behind the hay.
It was too late.
Jason had seen Reggie, crouching down behind the hay.
Reggie slowly stood to his feet, facing the monstrous psychopath.
Jason slowly walked towards the young boy, tilting his head, observing him.
He tilted his head to the other side, like a curious dog.
Then, he suddenly lunged at Reggie, slamming the machete down on a wooden beam, inches from
him.
Reggie lurched backwards, cornered against the wall.
As Jason raised the machete again, he felt the ax handle come down right on his shoulder blade and he grunted.
He spun around to face Pam, who was wielding an old ax that was missing its blade.
She swung it again like it was a baseball bat, and Jason effortlessly moved out of the way.
He advanced towards her.
Pam stumbled back, looking behind her to see where the loft's open doors were.
She swung again and missed.
Then he countered and swung with the machete, knocking the ax handle out of her hand.
She screamed out in terror as she looked behind her to see she was right on the edge of the precipice.
Ten rows of spikes lay below her. She cried out in peril again, imagining how it would feel for every one of those spikes to tear into her.
There was nowhere to run. Jason was eye-to-eye with her, cornering her back against the precipice.
She teetered, almost losing her balance and plunging to her death, but managed to stay up on the loft.
Jason came at her. She tried to run around him, but he blocked her at every move.
He raised the machete.
"Noooo!" Pam screamed.
Hope was almost all lost until Pam looked at Reggie, who was waving her arms to get her attention. They made eye contact and Reggie motioned for her to get out of the way.
All of a sudden, Reggie climbed as fast as he could on top of the bale of hay and he pounced like a wildcat onto Jason's back.
He let go just as Jason went pitching forward from Reggie ramming him.
Pam dove to the side, her shoulder slamming into the wall as she cried out in pain.
Jason fell, his arms flailing, disappearing down the side of the barn and out the loft doors. The machete hit the floor.
Then, there was silence.
Pam and Reggie caught their breath and listened.
There wasn't any noise. Not a thud, or the sound of him falling on the spikes.
Just the rain.
Where had he gone?
Pam and Reggie both inched towards the open loft doors, searching for the mad killer.
Suddenly, he lunged up and grabbed Reggie by the leg and pulled him towards the precipice.
"Nooo! Pam!" Reggie shrieked in abject horror.
He was being pulled off and down onto the spikes by Jason, who had been holding on to the doorframe of the barn doors below.
Jason wrapped his meaty fingers around Reggie's ankle and twisted, resulting in the boy being brought to tears as he frantically clung for dear life to Pam.
"Reggieeeee!" Pam screamed.
"Help me please! Help!" Reggie cried.
Tommy's head began to move slightly.
His eyes fluttered open and then grew wider as he saw what was happening.
It was a murderous tug of war between Pam and Jason, and Reggie was the rope.
"Helppp!" Reggie screamed and screamed again and again.
Tommy lay there, still in immense pain. He just wanted to die…to never have to face this world again. Then, the voices came.
"Die….Die….Die…."
This time, he felt something different. They were energizing him, and he suddenly felt the same rage that he had felt back in 1984.
"Die!….Die!….it echoed in his mind.
It was as if his whole body felt it. Those words pulsating in his veins.
That son of a bitch had to die.
With the voices giving him an incredible amount of strength, Tommy slowly dragged himself up onto his feet, and lifted up the discarded machete.
A surge of power coursed through his veins.
It felt like nothing he had ever felt before. He curled his fingers around the wooden handle, feeling the weight of the heavy blade.
It felt incredible.
And then, he was overcome with lust…the lust to kill.
He raised the machete into the air like a medieval sword, and brought it down, hacking at Jason's hand again and again.
Jason released his grip on Reggie, and down he fell.
Straight onto the spikes with a loud, wet thud.
As Tommy passed out from sheer exhaustion, Pam and Reggie hurried to the precipice and looked down.
Their jaws dropped in shock.
The hockey mask had come off when the killer landed on the spikes.
It was the paramedic.
Roy Burns
