Jenny entered the cabin through the open door, carrying a large tupperware container and placing it on the kitchen counter alongside a few other smaller ones. Each one was filled with food best suited for a barbecue; such as coleslaw and potato salad. The sound of bare feet on hardwood flooring could be heard as Lizzie walked down the stairs, fresh out of the shower and drying her hair with a small towel. She had put on a white tank-top and sweatpants, deciding to get comfortable after the long car journey. As she joined her mother in the kitchen, she got a good look at the amount of food that had been brought along. "Isn't that a bit too much food?"
"Not for your sister. I swear she has the metabolism of a hummingbird," Jenny chuckled before a voice from outside caught her attention.
"Jenny! Where's the first-aid kit?!" Richard called out. Both Jenny and Lizzie gained worried expressions as they ran out of the cabin, just in time to see Richard and Matt help a young man up the porch steps. Madison soon caught up to them, carrying a backpack over her shoulder.
"What happened?" Jenny asked as the newcomer was brought inside the cabin. "Who is this?"
"Where's the first-aid kit?!" Richard repeated as he helped Luke over to the couch.
"I-In my bag! What happened to his arm?!" Jenny stammered before Richard ran back out of the cabin to find her bag.
"It was an accident. Dad was showing Matt how to use the rifle," Madison began to explain, only for Jenny to jump to conclusions.
"Matthew, did you shoot him?!"
"Mom!" Lizzie interjected, shocked that her own mother could suggest such a thing.
"I-I didn't see him! The trees were in the way!" Matt insisted, almost on the verge of tears. Luke just remained silent as the family talked, looking to the door as Richard returned with the first-aid kit. After he had put it on the couch, Luke opened it and began looking through what was available.
"Richard, how could you let Matthew use that gun?!" Jenny asked. At the sound of this, Richard looked away from the kit and stood up to address his wife.
"How could I-...how was I supposed to know that he'd shoot someone?!"
"I didn't mean to!" Matt insisted.
"We know, Matt. It's okay," Madison assured him. The Garrett family plus Matt gradually gathered in a circle as the argument escalated.
"No, it's not okay! Richard, Matthew could have killed someone!" Jenny pointed out.
"Mom, stop it!" Lizzie interjected yet again.
"I showed him how to use it properly!" Richard pointed out.
"He shouldn't have been using it at all!" Jenny retorted.
"Um...excuse me?"
"Mom, calm down!" Madison insisted.
"How am I supposed to calm down about something like this?!"
"You had no problem when I taught Madison and Lizzie how to shoot!" Richard reminded his wife.
"Yeah! Because they never got anyone hurt!" Jenny said.
"Everyone? My arm-"
"Stop it! You're upsetting Matt!" Lizzie pleaded.
"Come on! This isn't fair on him! It could've happened to any of us!" Madison reminded her parents.
"And yet it had to happen with Matthew!" Richard stated.
"Will you stop talking about me like I'm not even here?!" Matthew spoke up.
"HEY!" a voice called out, directing the group's attention back to the couch. They watched as Luke finished wrapping some dressing around his arm, covering the graze he had sustained. A tube of antibiotic cream rested on his lap, his fingertips still stained from having applied it moments earlier. "It's okay. See? As long as I check it every now again, it should be fine," he explained. An uncomfortable silence lingered as Luke packed away the contents of the first-aid kit, almost as if the argument had never even occurred.
"Are...are you sure you're okay?" Jenny asked, looking rather surprised.
"Yeah. I'm sorry for causing any trouble. It really was my fault," Luke explained. "I heard the gunshots going off, and people don't usually come up here. So I figured I'd take a look and see if everything was okay."
"Well,...we are now," Richard sighed, now having calmed down. "Uh...introductions. Luke, this my wife Jenny. Jenny, this...is Luke," he then introduced, trying to somewhat reduce the awkwardness. With a deep breath, Jenny extended her hand to Luke, managing a polite smile.
"Hello. I'm so sorry about all of this. It was just...quite a shock," she apologised.
"Don't worry. I'd be more surprised if you hadn't reacted like that," Luke commented, both he and Jenny chuckling slightly.
"Speaking of reacting, how were you so calm during...all of this?" Madison asked, gesturing to Luke's patched up arm.
"My uncle takes me out shooting. He told me what to do in case this happened," Luke explained. "He's got a place up near here. That's where I was headed."
"Oh. Is he expecting you soon?" Jenny asked.
"Uh...I told him I might not make until nightfall. Why?" Luke asked.
"Well, how about you stay for some dinner?"
"Jenny?" Richard spoke up. "Are you sure-"
"Richard, it's the very least we can do considering…" Jenny trailed off, not needing to explain the rest of her sentence. Without any way to argue against her, Richard remained silent.
"Oh, I couldn't-" Luke began.
"I insist. Besides, we have enough food to sink a ship," Jenny insisted.
"She's not wrong. It's actually kind of concerning," Lizzie chimed in. Luke smirked at the sound of this, only for his smirk to fade as he considered the possibility of something dangerous being out in the woods.
"Are you okay, honey?" Jenny asked, snapping Luke out of his thoughts.
"Yeah. Yeah, I-I wouldn't mind sticking around for a little while. I mean, if you don't mind," he said.
While the Garrett family became acquainted with the new arrival, they remained blissfully unaware of the masked figure watching the two vacation houses. He looked over the two vehicles parked on the dirt road, his heavy breathing muffled behind his mask. And while remaining obscured among the trees, he moved away to another vantage point, the leaves beneath him crackling and rustling with each heavy step.
As night fell across Crystal Lake, an orange glow illuminated the front area of the cabin. A small campfire had been set up, providing excellent mood lighting for the Garrett family plus Matt and Luke as they sat and conversed. Adjacent to the fire was Richard's grill, smoke drifting from it as he expertly cooked each burger and hot dog to perfection; a habit which was playfully mocked by his wife and children. And as the night went on, the group had transitioned to an interesting part of the evening: telling horror stories around the campfire. The flickering light of the fire illuminated Matt's face as he spoke, captivating the rest of the group as his tale of terror came to an end. "But when the doctor looked back over the balcony, he was gone. He remained silent even as the babysitter cried, because he knew that the Shape was still out there, ready to slay his next victim. The End," he finished in a Serling-esque manner. He looked around the campfire, unaware of the reception his story would truly receive.
"Eh, I give if a six out of ten," Madison commented, surprising the young man.
"Same here," Lizzie added.
"I give it a five. And even then, that's just me being generous," Richard then admitted before taking a sip from his beer, his arm draped over his wife's shoulder. Matt looked around the group with a feigned expression of hurt.
"What was wrong with it?" he asked.
"Nothing at all!" Jenny insisted in a supportive manner, but even she could not keep the charade going for more than a few seconds. "Although, a lot of it did seem a little...far-fetched."
"I mean, come on. This "Shape" apparently got shot...six times, right? You don't just get up and walk away from that," Madison pointed out.
"First, I said he got shot FIVE times. And second, it's based on true events," Matt then revealed, prompting a series of groans and laughs from around the campfire. "What? What did I say?"
"I think you just dug your own grave, son," Richard said with a smirk.
"Whenever someone says a horror story is 'Based on true events,' that's secretly code for 'This story is complete BS,'" Madison revealed, earning a stern frown from her mother for even speaking the initials of curse words.
"It is!" Matt insisted, his voice raising to a bemused pitch. "One of my squadmates in Haddonfield said so!" Richard then raised his hand with a curious expression.
"I'm sorry. Your squadmates?"
"Yeah!" Matt nodded.
"As in?"
"As in my gamer buds," Matt clarified, now feeling embarrassed as the group laughed once again.
"I believe him." The family looked to Luke as he spoke up, having been mostly quiet for a majority of the evening. "My uncle told me the same story."
"See?" Matt happily chimed in while gesturing to Luke. "Thank you, kind and merciful stranger."
"You might want to ease up on the ass-kissing, Matt," Madison playfully warned.
"I almost killed the guy. It's not like I have any other choice," Matt responded in a similar tone, managing to get a laugh out of Luke.
"It's alright, man. I swear. Water under the bridge," he insisted for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Matt smiled with relief, yet Richard was still on edge about the situation.
"Did your uncle know any other stories?" Lizzie asked, having noticed her father's nervous expression.
"Well,...there is one that I know pretty well," Luke answered, briefly glancing out at the surrounding woods.
"Is this one also 'Based on true events'?" Jenny asked curiously.
"It is actually," Luke confirmed with a nod. He then took a deep breath; the group could not tell whether it was for dramatic effect or otherwise. "Have any of your heard of Camp Crystal Lake?" The question resulted in a curious silence. "A long time ago, a kid named Jason Voorhees drowned there. His mother Pamela worked there as the camp cook, and she blamed the counsellors for not keeping an eye on him while he was out in the water. Driven insane by the loss of her son, she went on to kill other counsellors, only to be killed in self-defense by her final victim." Luke glanced around at the group, their current reactions a mix of interest and uncertainty. "However, Jason was still alive. And he knew what had happened to his mother. Wanting to get revenge, he went on to kill more than thirty people. Including the woman who used to live here," he then revealed, turning and looking to the rented cabin.
"Seriously?" Madison asked, now genuinely intrigued by the tale.
"Seriously," Luke answered. "Her name was Tracy Jarvis. And in 1984, Jason killed her along with a group of kids staying in that house right there," he added, gesturing to the separate vacation house. "The only survivors were her children Trish and Tommy. When Jason tried to attack his older sister, Tommy took a machete and slashed him right in the head, over and over again until he finally stopped moving. But even then, after Jason's body was taken away by the police, the ambulance carrying it mysteriously crashed. And his body was never found." A brief silence lingered as Luke finished his story, the sounds of nearby insects and rustling trees filling the void until he received his feedback.
"That's another six from me," Madison commented.
"Eh, I'll give it a four," Lizzie added.
"Don't get me wrong; it was a very captivating and well thought out story, but there are definitely a few plot holes," Matt pointed out. "Like, if this kid Jason did survive drowning in the lake, why wouldn't he just come back and let his mother know he's alive instead of leaving her to go crazy and kill a bunch of camp counsellors?"
"Plus, how exactly was Jason meant to survive all those slashes to the head? At least Matt's story didn't explicitly mention headshots," Madison added.
"Exactly," Matt agreed, gesturing to Madison while glancing at Luke. The latter smirked, looking out into the nearby woods as he spoke.
"Yeah. I guess it is kind of silly," he mumbled.
"Well, with those unsettling stories fresh in my memory, I'm going to hit the hay," Jenny interjected, removing her husband's arm from her shoulder and getting up off the ground.
"Are you sure? We still have a lot left over," Richard said, only for his wife to lean down and whisper in his ear.
"I need some time to freshen up, honey," she whispered, winking at her husband before making her way over to the blue vacation house. Richard smiled as he watched her go, his trance broken by Lizzie's voice.
"I think I'll go to bed too," she said, also getting up off the ground.
"Me too," Matt added, standing up and pausing as he noticed Richard's frown. "Oh. No, I...I didn't mean-"
"Just go, Matthew," Richard insisted, making a dismissing gesture with the hand holding his beer. It was quite clear that both he and Matt wanted this conversation to end as soon as possible.
"Yes, sir," Matt obeyed with an awkward bow, both he and Lizzie quickly shuffling over to the cabin.
"You sure you're not too freaked out?" Lizzie asked once out of earshot, noticing how pale her boyfriend's face had become.
"Let's just say I might need a Red Bull before any bedroom shenanigans," Matt replied. Lizzie smirked, reaching around her boyfriend's waist and pulling him to her side as they entered the cabin.
Jenny closed the bathroom door behind her, scrolling through her phone's playlist as she walked over to the sink. Upon selecting one of the songs, she placed her phone on the sink counter and then proceeded to get undressed. Patsy Cline's 'I Fall to Pieces' began playing at a gentle volume as her shirt fell to the tiled floor, followed by her jeans, and then her undergarments. She then reached behind the shower curtain and turned the metal handle, the sudden hiss of running water almost drowning out her choice of music. After walking back over to the sink, she turned up the volume on her phone, catching the sight of her naked reflection in the mirror. She looked over herself with an uneasy frown; it really had been a while since her and Richard were last intimate. Plus having two children certainly made it more difficult to look presentable. With a soft sigh, Jenny turned away from the mirror and pulled open the shower curtain with a flourish.
Finding the tub empty, she climbed in and then pulled the curtain closed. Jenny closed her eyes as the water washed over her, her hands reaching up and running through her wet hair. But as she tilted her head to let the water fall away, she was caught off guard by the sound of the bathroom door creaking open. Jenny paused, moving her head out from beneath the water to hear better. "Hello?" she called out. The only response she heard was the sound of the bathroom door being locked. While concerned at first, a coy smile soon spread across her lips. "Richard?" she called out again, noticing a silhouette spreading over the shower curtain. Back in the day, Richard would have been quite adventurous when it came to fooling around, but not nowadays. Jenny fully backed out of the stream of water, the silhouette's head seeming to follow her movement. However, her coy smile immediately dropped as she heard no audible response from the mysterious figure. Jenny carefully reached for the curtain, her fingers barely grazing the damp material before a pair of large arms reached around and pull her forwards. Jenny's face pressed into the material, the dampness causing it to cling to her skin and become air-tight. Jenny tried to scream for help, desperately attempting to pry both the material and the attacker's arms from her body. She eventually slipped in the tub, but the figure held her up, her bare feet sliding across the damp basin as they struggled to find a source of friction. Jenny's movements gradually slowed, her teary eyes rolling back in her head as she lost her grip on the attacker. Her arms slumped to her sides, and her body went limp. Jason then dropped Jenny's body back into the bath with a heavy thud, towering over her and breathing heavily. His gaze briefly shifted over to the phone by the sink, Patsy Cline's soft voice continuing to play over the sound of rushing water.
"Are you sure you'll be okay walking this late at night?" Richard asked, standing up beside the campfire as Luke finished pulling on his backpack.
"Yeah, absolutely. As long as I stick to the road, I should be at my uncle's place in no time," Luke replied, holding a flashlight in one hand and straightening out his straps with the other. "Tell Jenny I said thanks again for the dinner and...just everything really," he acknowledged with a smile. Madison emerged from the cabin, carrying one of the small tupperware containers over to Luke.
"Hold on there. We need to give you something for the road. There's some hot dogs in here, a couple of burgers, and some beans," she said.
"Oh. Are you sure you don't mind?" Luke asked, turning his backpack towards Madison and letting her unzip one of the compartments.
"Look, we have to lug all these leftovers back home in a couple of days. I'm just trying to lighten the load," Madison explained, slipping the container into the backpack and then zipping it back up.
"Well, I'm always happy to help," Luke chuckled, straightening out his backpack straps again as he turned back to face Madison and Richard. "And if you guys need any help at all, just follow the road to the left. You can't miss us."
"Much appreciated," Richard replied with a nod. He and Luke then shook hands before the latter headed towards the road.
"Have a good night!" Madison called after him. Luke waved his hand back in response, the father and daughter smiling as they sat back down next to the campfire. However, both were unaware of the masked figure standing at the back door of the vacation house, watching as Luke disappeared behind the trees. With his axe held tightly in his grasp, Jason walked out of the cabin, shrouded by the darkness as he pursued his next victim.