A Horror Story 5: Hate/Kill/Repeat
Did you really skip to this chapter without knowing the score? If so, forget it, you can be confused! Oh yeah, this year's story is also rated M, for language. Just in case you'd want to know.
Minus 00:00:13 and counting…
The cold water flowed from Danny's face as he slowly lifted himself up from the water. He stared dully down at his faint reflection, watching water and greenish blood drip down onto his visage.
He wished for a moment he could be his reflection. His reflection looked normal. It didn't show the wound that had bisected his lips, nor the swelling that had begun to close his left eye. Maybe his reflection lived in a world where there was still sense.
Danny didn't want to believe he'd left that world. For all he'd seen and experienced since that day when he'd stepped into his parents' machine, he'd tried to think that his world had some inherent line that could be stomped on, kicked, and scrambled, but would remain regardless.
He really didn't know any more. Not with why he was here, on the banks of this river. He felt mud squelch under his legs and hands as he tried to get up. He heard a faint, female voice, calling out to him.
He heard the slow, thundering footsteps.
The large, powerful hand seized his hair.
I spend a fair bit of time of the Internet. There's a lot of great time-sinks out there. One of them is a little website called TV Tropes. A trope is an aspect of fiction, a device used to move the plot forward. Essentially the good version of a cliché: a trope is a plot element, a cliché is an overused plot element. It started as a recording of tropes used in television, hence the name: eventually it expanded to cover tropes used in just about any and all fiction. Including when these story elements mirrored aspects of real life stories.
There's one trope that sticks with me. It was dubbed The Determinator (though that name may change, it's happened before). In essence, it describes someone or something that simply will not stop. As the trope itself puts it:
"There is no stopping the Determinator. He does not understand patience. He does not Know When To Fold 'Em. No one can reason with him. No price is too great to pay for success, up to and including his own life (and others'). He'll do whatever he has to do. Do not expect him to consider he might be better off letting it go, even if he can barely stand. Giving up is just not in his nature."
I would think I know more about this then the average person. And not just because of who my best friend is.
In a way, a ghost is all about this concept. For many, when you die, that's it. For many of our allies, enemies, and acquaintances, death wasn't enough to stop them. Either they continued on, or an aspect of them did.
I'd like to say that negative emotions were not the primary reason for their return, but too many times it was. Anger, revenge, hate…far more often that brought someone back from the supposed end then anything noble.
Once you're back though, you can go two ways. You can evolve past what kept you going…or devolve into a hideous THING whose original goals, if you had any to begin with, have long been buried under an overwhelming compulsion to do harm. Whenever that factor comes up, I always think of Ted Bundy, who started out a charming, careful psychopath who targeted young women almost to a hitman-like degree of control and ended up butchering his final, teenage victim like an animal, his mind having finally become little more than a slave to his killing urges.
And I think of Sizzle. But the less said about her the better.
Fortunately, not all people can accomplish the seemingly impossible due to their dark side surviving beyond death. Danny's living proof of that.
But there are more of them then him.
Some have determination that might even surpass his own.
Even if you think you'd never see anything like them.
Minus 0:13:31 and counting…
"Almost there." Danny said, a few seconds before he landed on the isolated wood road. He heard a faint fumbling noise in his personal communicator: apparently someone was picking up a headset to join in.
"Okay, just what is it that happened? That's so important it couldn't wait until morning and dragged Danny out of bed?"
"We have a Fissure." Danny said, stopping as he looked down the road. To the human eye, it would appear everything was normal.
Until they got close enough to see 'the crack in the world' and the throbbing energies that lay within it. If you were that close though, it was probably already too late.
"All right…any problems?"
"Out here…no." Danny said, looking around. "Flare's not sensing any disturbances in the woods."
"How about in the Force?" Tucker joked.
"Quiet nerdlinger. This is serious. If nothing came out, why is Danny getting dragged into it?"
"Because when I was investigating local reports in the area surrounding the Fissure, I found something, young lady."
"What?"
"There was a group of kids who were heading off to spend a weekend camping. They were reporting missing yesterday. They never showed up at their destination, they can't be contacted…and the last place they were seen, a gas station, and where they were supposed to go…there's a strong chance they went THROUGH the Fissure."
"…oh."
"Mom? It's Danny. The Fissure's stable." Danny said. "I'm going after them."
"Wait Danny. That's dangerous, even for you. We don't have any idea where that hole leads. You need to wait for…"
"I can't wait. I have to know if the kids went across. If they're still alive."
"Danny, even if the kids didn't emerge into something that would kill them instantly, crossing a void-passage without proper protection is taxing at best. We'd also be completely out of contact with you. You can't just jump back and forth either. You need to…"
"No mom. I'm going. I have to know. If they can be saved, I'm going to save them. They didn't deserve this."
"…please Danny."
"I know Mom." Danny said quietly. "I have to. Please understand that."
"…please be careful."
"I will." Danny said. "I'm going guys. Get yourselves down here ASAP. I don't know when I'll be back and in what state."
Famous last words.
Minus 53:22:49 and counting…
"Okay…so explain this to me again." Jess Crespo said as the large SUV drove along the road through the forests in New Jersey. "Marshall wanted to go camping."
"That's right." Benny Wright replied.
"So he arranged for us all to go camping on this island he picked out."
"Yeah…?"
"Then Marshall gets sick with measles from one of his cousins and can't make it."
"Yeah."
"So why are we still going camping?"
"Marshall went to all the trouble of arranging it. Would seem rude not to go." Thomas Mead said.
"No, you just want to go so you can drink your Jack Daniels without your parents finding out." Jess said.
"Touche." Thomas replied, taking a swig from a bottle of said alcohol. Danni Belmont looked in mild disapproval.
"Hey relax Danni. I can control myself. If I can't, have your boyfriend beat me up."
"He wouldn't do that!" Danni blurted out, before looking embarrassed. Said boyfriend, Andrew Peters, gave Thomas a dirty look. Thomas just shrugged and had more Jack Daniels.
"At least he's not driving." Andrew said.
"So…we're going camping because someone else can't go camping." Maria Gunn said.
"Precisely." Jess said.
"Meh." Maria said, and shoved the dozing form of Jon Katz off her. Jon simply adjusted himself and resumed sleeping, not even disturbed.
"God. Is he ever NOT sleeping?" The last teenager, Brenna Spellings, said.
"Not really, no." Thomas said. "Are we there yet?"
"Not much further according to the GPS." Benny said. "I hope no one has to go to the bathroom because you could have gone back at the gas station."
"That attendant was creepy." Brenna said.
"Creepy as in a little unhygienic, or creepy as in dah dah ner ner ner ner ner NUHHHHHH…?" Benny said, glancing back from his driving as he hummed the famous Deliverance theme.
"No, I think he had a little trouble with his eye, there was…"
"What's that?" Jess said, pointing.
"What's wha-?" Benny said, turning back around.
The light exploded in Benny's vision, filling the SUV. Alarmed yells and screams came from the various teenagers, which increased in volume as the van suddenly felt like it was in a washing machine. A howling roar filled Benny's ears as he tried to find anything resembling control.
Then it was over, as Benny's head abruptly banged into the steering wheel. Strangely, the horn did not sound, as the teenagers in the van went silent save for a few whimpers and cries.
"…did something just happen?" Jon said sleepily.
Minus 52:47:12 and counting…
"The van's toast." Jess said, dropping the hood of the SUV. "Whatever happened kicked it in the teeth but good. I'm amazed it was able to make it all the way here."
"Yeah…now where's here?" Jon said.
"I don't know. The GPS is fried. So are all our cell phones." Benny said, looking at the nearby lake and the cabins positioned around and near it. "I'd hazard a guess and say we're at some sort of summer camp."
"That's nice. WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?" Brenna yelled. "Did we drive into the fucking Twilight Zone?!"
"Brenna, your language." Andrew said.
"WHO GIVES A FUCK!?"
"Calm down." Maria said.
"She's right. Let's keep calm here." Benny said. "We're not on Mars. We're not going to help each other by panicking."
"So what do we do?" Jon asked.
"…well, first we should check around. See if we can find someone. At least a phone." Benny said.
Minus 51:22:51 and counting…
"Okay, I will admit this is damn freaky." Benny said, the group gathered around the van. A search of what had been confirmed as a summer camp had just turned up a lot of mysteries. The camp was completely abandoned, and none of the located phones worked. From what Benny could tell, the place had been empty for some time. Most surfaces were covered with a thick layer of dust, anything perishable was in various stages of rotting, and there were no marks indicating recent comings or goings when it came to vehicles.
"What are we going to do?" Danni asked.
"Okay…all right." Benny said. "First thing to do is figure out where we are. Without the GPS and a phone…okay maybe that can wait. We have enough food to last us about ten days or so. Night's coming. I say we bunker down in one of the cabins. Maybe do another sweep, make sure there isn't anything we can pick up around here. Matches, lanterns, the like. Tomorrow, we'll look around and try and find someone."
"I don't like this place." Danni said.
"I know. It's weird. But we're still in America as far as I know. An odd…pocket of America, but still there."
"I'd just like to say that if we find food and it has hardly any taste, we should be concerned." Jess said. Jon smacked him over the head. "Ow! What was that for!"
"Because I didn't understand it."
Minus 45:58:10 and counting…
"So what do you think happened to us?" Maria said. The group sat around the campfire: without electricity, they'd had to resort to the older method to cook their food. Jon dozed in a sleeping bag nearby, the only one apparently unconcerned about their trouble.
"I don't know…ball lightning?" Benny said. "I just saw a big flash."
"It felt like we were being tossed end over end." Maria said.
"Yeah, but we were back on the road afterward. Not upside down in a crumpled tin can. Which is a lot worse off." Andrew said.
"Speak for yourself. I lost my Jacks." Thomas grumped.
"I'll buy you a bottle when I know mutant Tribbles from hell won't eat my face off." Jess said, poking at the fire with a stick. "So, are we going to have someone keep watch, or something?"
"Probably not a bad idea. Let's draw straws…"
Minus 24:29:39 and counting…
"You must be joking." Maria said. She, Andrew, Jon, Brenna, and Danni had stayed in the cabin while Benny, Thomas, and Jess had gone to look for people. They had not returned with good news.
"I wish I was." Benny said. The group had spent several hours that day, not counting rests, looking around the lake and up and down the nearby road. They had discovered more cabins and residences, numbering around 20.
Not a single person had been found in any of them. Some of the houses and cabins had been empty, with FOR SALE signs in front of them. The rest had been abandoned, in the same state of dusty disuse the summer camp was. None of the houses had cars. That was bad enough. But none of the houses had power either, and none of the phones worked. The group had even tried to fiddle with some of the fuse boxes, without luck. Whatever had cut off this area from the world ran deeper from that.
"So what does it mean?" Danni said, eyes wide.
"…well…uh…" Benny said.
"We discussed this on the way. The rational answer is that there was some sort of toxin leak nearby that required an extended evacuation." Jess said.
Danni looked like she wanted to pass out.
"…no. Some of us would have gotten sick. I don't think that's what it is." Maria said.
"Yeah, also an extended evacuation doesn't explain why the power is just gone…but still." Jess said.
"So what is it then?"
"…Okay. This is…we pretty much have to assume that we're alone right now, and that anyone we meet isn't friendly. This was civilization at one point, but it isn't now. We need to figure out where the next big settlement is and make our way there." Benny said.
"Now?" Andrew said.
"…no, it's getting late. We'll camp here again, tonight….weapons. Did anyone find anything that could be used as a weapon?"
"Whoa, do you really think we'll need weapons Ben?" Thomas asked.
"This is weird, guys. Better to have and not need them than to need and not have them…where's Brenna?" Benny said.
"…she said she was going to use the bathroom."
"…shit." Benny said, looking around before finding a broom and picking it up. "Stay here…wait wait no, bad idea. All of you come with me. We're not going…"
The door opened.
"Oh you're back-AHHHHHHHH!" Brenna said as Benny began raising the broom. "What the hell is your problem!"
"Sorry, thought you were a slasher."
"A what?"
"Never mind. Sit down Brenna, it's not good news."
Minus 22:02:25 and counting…
"So what did you do today?" Jess asked the group as they sat around the campfire. It was notable that this time he, Thomas, Benny, Maria, and Andrew all had improvised weapons this time, though Jon was again sleeping in his sleeping bag.
"We looked around some more. Didn't really find anything new. A calendar, but it's three years out of date." Maria said. "Didn't find any edible food, even cans. We tried fiddling with the SUV some more, but none of us really know what we're doing. Didn't work. Besides that, nothing happened."
"Let's hope it stays that way." Benny said, sitting with his broom in his lap, having consigned the bristles to the fire a while back. "I've done some more thinking. Running off together tomorrow is probably a bad idea. We have no idea where anything else, we could easily get lost, wander around in circles, and end up in an even worse predicament. My idea is to go back to the homes we searched yesterday and look for maps. If we can find maps, we can have some idea where we are, and how to reach civilization. If not…well, let's not find the maps first."
"What if we go to a city and it's abandoned too?" Danni asked.
"Then it's the zombie-apocalypse and we have to restart civilization. Since Andrew is the only one of us who actually has a girl, I call God-emperor!"
"Hell no, you got to be god-emperor last time." Jess said.
"Too bad, I called dibs."
'That still doesn't explain what happened on the road. Or help us if it was a toxin." Maria said.
"Shut up and eat your smores Gunn."
"I will." Maria said matter of factly, and did so.
"Remind me when we get home to kick Marshall's ass for sending us out here." Brenna said.
"I call dibs."
"You can't call dibs!"
"AS GOD EMPEROR ALL MY WORDS AUTOMATICALLY CARRY THE DIBS! SO SPEAKS GOD-EMPEROR BENNY!"
"I miss my Jacks." Thomas said.
Minus 00:22:04 and counting…
"Nice work guys." Maria said, looking over the maps that Benny, Andrew, and Danni were pouring over. It had been another long, exhausting day searching the surrounding areas, even for the group that had been left behind. Tension could use up energy as much as effort. But their choices finally bore fruit, and the group sitting around the fire was feeling pretty good despite all that had happened. The fact none of them had gotten sick or been attacked by zombies had helped.
"As far as I can tell, we're roughly around here." Benny said, pointing at a map. "This camp isn't on the map for some reason. Probably too small. Heck, it doesn't even have a sign, or someone stole it when it closed or something….anyway, it appears the nearest town is a place called Forest Green. It's about 40 miles away…so maybe three days walk. Barring we don't see a car."
"Or have to drag Jon." Brenna said. Jon was, as usual, asleep in his sleeping bag.
"Forest Green? That sounds familiar…" Jess said.
"Did we pass it on the way?" Andrew asked.
"I don't remember that." Maria said. "So, we're heading off tomorrow?"
"Probably best. Our food isn't going to last us forever." Benny said. "No matter what Thomas finds."
"You just don't appreciate the finer things in life." Thomas said, walking up with the fresh bottle of Jack Daniels' liquor he had turned up in the day's search. Not wanting to drink it warm, he had used the lake as a makeshift fridge, as the camp lacked electricity.
"Actually I do, that's why I don't touch that stuff." Andrew said.
"Please don't get drunk Tom." Danni added.
"Don't worry, I can control myself." Thomas said, removing the cap and drinking. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh…life may be utterly terrifying as the norm as of now, but at the moment, it is good."
"You boys ARE going to bring the tents and stuff when we go right? I don't want to squat in an abandoned house." Brenna said.
"Why not?" Jess said.
"I dunno. It's…rude."
"It's only rude is you…wait how is it rude? No one lives there! We'd be doing the house a favor!" Jess said.
"Great. So Tom is drinking Jack again, Jon is sleeping, and Jess and Brenna are arguing, You want to pull out your game books Benny and we can all be doing the things that define us?" Maria said.
"Hey wait, since when is arguing with Brenna…"
Thomas interrupted the conversation with a loud burp. Everyone looked at him, as a gust of wind blew, making the fire dance.
"Sorry. Anyone want some?" Thomas said, standing up and offering his bottle. "Come on guys, you have to indulge in a little vice every now and then…"
The wind stopped, and the fire resumed its normal shape.
Casting back the shadows and revealing the massive form that now stood behind Thomas. Everyone's eyes went as wide as saucers.
"…what?" Thomas said, and turned around.
A giant, rotting hand reached out…and seized Thomas' liquor bottle, squeezing it between two fingers and shattering it, the alcohol within spraying all over Thomas' lower half. Thomas stared in wide-eyed shock, horror, and surprise. The way the figure had snuck up on them without a sound or a clue was only part of it. The rest was WHO IT WAS.
"…hey!" Was all Thomas could blurt out.
The hand lifted again…and two fingers violently poked Thomas in the chest, knocking him over and into the fire.
Thomas' screams as he was caught ablaze partially snapped the group out of it, but for a moment they were still frozen in the surreal horror of it. It couldn't be happening. It was all a bad dream. Thomas was not rolling on the ground, all aflame and screaming, with THAT GUY HAVING PUSHED HIM…
"…HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!" Maria finally yelled.
The figure lunged forward, towards Brenna.
Grabbing the sign post behind her and ripping it free, as he turned around and plunged it into Thomas' chest. Thomas' screams cut off like a switch had been thrown, as the young man emitted one last gurgle and went still.
"Oh dear god." Benny said, as he frantically looked around for his broom, the tire iron, a pointy stick, ANYTHING…
But it was too late for that. The figure had caught them at the worst time. No one had any weapons at hand.
And he was coming.
"…oh." Jess said.
"RUN!!!!!!!!!!" Benny screamed, as the group scrambled backwards, Danni, Brenna, and Andrew yelling and screaming wordless sounds of horror.
"FUCK! FUCKKKKKKKKKKK!" Maria yelled, starting to run before stopping.
Jon. The damn sleepyhead could sleep through Armageddon.
He'd slept through this, and the figure was coming.
"JON!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Jon never knew what hit him, as the figure brought his foot down on his sleeping head. The darkness hid most of the mess, but not the sickening wet crunch.
"…damn!" Maria said, turning and running like hell, the remaining six pretty much all alongside her.
"…WOODS! GO FOR THE WOODS!" Benny screamed, as the group ran along the lakeside. The figure followed, slowly but surely. It had watched for some time, but eventually their colors had been exposed. Just like all the others.
Now, once again, the blood would spill.
Minus 00:07:06 and counting…
"Oh god…oh god…where's Maria?" Benny said, the group now lost in the woods.
"I don't know! We lost her!" Danni said, sounding sick and miserable.
"That can't be! This isn't happening! God! No!" Brenna gasped.
"It is real…oh god damn it, it is real." Benny said.
"I…HOW IS HE REAL! WHY IS HE…HOW IS-!" Jess yelled.
Danni screamed in terror, and the group jerked around. He had found them.
"RUN! GO GO GO!" Benny yelled, as the group took off again, their yells echoing between their ragged breathing. Benny lead the way, twisting and turning through the woods.
Cabins in the distance.
"..CABINS!" Benny yelled.
"YEAH! OUT OF THE WOODS!" Jess yelled. None of the panicked teenagers knew why being in the cabins would be any better than the woods, but rationality had long since fled. It would have fled normally, but who was chasing them and the sheer IRrationality of it had put wings on its feet.
Its feet was luckier then Danni Belmont's, as her foot plunged into a soft area and became stuck in some tree roots.
"HELP!" Danni screamed.
"DANNI!" Andrew yelled, turning around and running back to her. Brenna stopped so quickly she nearly fell over before running back to Danni, trying to yank her best friend's foot free with Andrew.
"DAMMIT!" Jess yelled, as he turned and started back himself. Benny stopped and turned, but froze before he could get any further.
The figure was too close. And now he had a weapon. Unable to move, Benny could only watch.
"COME ON!" Andrew yelled, clawing at the root.
The shadow fell over him. The three looked up, staring death in the face.
"HEY ASSHOLE!"
The figure turned as the black and white shape flew out of the forest and smashed into him with a foot. The figure was hurled through the air like a doll, flying a few dozen feet before striking a cabin and going through its side, the building partially collapsing on his body afterward.
"I don't think so." Danny Phantasm said.
"…is that a superhero?" Benny said. Andrew didn't say anything, as Danni's foot was finally free.
"…thank you." Danni said to Danny. Danny nodded.
"Danni!" Jess said, running up.
"What?" Danny and Danni both said. Confusion briefly crossed several faces.
"Oh. Weird." Danny said, before his eyes narrowed. The rubble was shifting.
Then the piece of wood was flying at him.
Danny snapped his head to the side, the makeshift projectile just missing him. His look of surprised alarm faded quickly.
"Get out of here. I'll deal with this."
"…buddy, do you know who that is?" Jess said.
"Yeah. Wish I didn't. Wish it wasn't possible. But it is."
The figure had by now fully stood up.
"Jason Voorhees." Danny said. "Run."
There's a theory about writing that pops up every now and then. I may have even mentioned it before and forgotten it.
The idea is that no one truly creates anything. They peer into another world, and believe it to be imagination. Everyone perceives things in a different way, so it comes out of different people different ways. Ergo, every fictional creation that was ever created really exists, somewhere.
When you're in our business, that possibility becomes more feasible.
Sometimes, though, the truth is far more then can be handled.
Minus 00:05:47 and counting…
Jason cocked his head to the side a bit, looking at the newcomer. His previous victims began scampering off, but Jason paid them no mind. The newcomer had fought back. He'd actually fought back effectively.
He would die first.
Danny, for the most part, was trying not to feel what the dimensional crossing had taken out of him. He was also surprised to see a fictional creation in the flesh, but not exceptionally so. He lived in a very weird world. He didn't expect it to always be original.
He also hadn't expected what kicking Jason would be like. He'd moved him, but Danny would have been able to shrug off kicking a normal person. With Jason, he felt like he'd kicked a wall. His hulking form was even stronger than it seemed, and considering he was dead, that was really saying something.
Jason reached down into the rubble, pulling up the machete he'd retrieved and been unable to use on his victims. Danny snorted.
"Anything you can do…" Danny said, as he reached up and pulled out the Magnus Flareium. Jason looked at him a moment, and then pushed his way out of the rubble.
"I know." Danny said, as Jason began stalking towards him, his ragged, undeniable clothes flapping in the slight breeze and his eyes blazing intent behind his dirty white hockey mask. "I'm not going to mess around. Unlock. Go-ARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Danny collapsed with a scream, as the blue energy that had begun forming on his blade sputtered out. More had been taken out of him by the crossing then even he had thought. He couldn't unlock the Magnus' true power.
And Jason was coming, raising his machete.
Danny, however, was far from helpless.
Jason closed in in time for Danny to raise his hand and fire a blast of green energy into his weapon arm, knocking the blade away. Jason didn't even have time to react to that, as Danny leapt up and lashed out with his foot, kicking Jason under the chin as hard as he could.
He found out two things.
One, Jason still felt like a wall.
Two, he was a LOT faster than Danny would have predicted, as Jason's free hand snapped up and seized Danny's ankle in a grip of iron.
"HUH?!"
Jason swung and hurled Danny, and the Halfa yelled as he flew a dozen feet and crashed into a tree. He hit the ground, rolling back up and glaring at Jason. The undead monster cocked his head again, surprised that he hadn't left Danny a smear on the bark.
"No. Not another victim of yours. NO!" Danny yelled, lashing out with the Magnus. A green blade of energy flew from the blade and tore across Jason's side. Black ichor that may have once been blood flowed freely.
Jason's head snapped down to the wound, and then snapped back up, as he began stalking towards Danny again. Danny slashed the air again and again, more blades flying out and carving through Jason's rotting form. He didn't slow his tread in the least, as he reared up and slashed his own weapon.
Danny ducked and rolled, springing up before Jason could recover and leaping into the air. Jason turned around as Danny brought the sword down as hard as he could, the blade slashing deep into Jason's head at an angle, the sword carving down into the skull and hockey mask.
A second later Jason punched Danny so hard he cracked four ribs.
Danny flew through the forest again, his sword yanking free as he went through the air and crashed back down onto the grass beneath him. He rasped, holding his chest and looking at Jason in considerable surprise. He'd tried to cut his head clean through. Not only had he failed, he hadn't affected Jason at all. All he'd done was carve a mark on the upper right side of his trademark facial covering.
"…yeah. No kidding." Danny said, as he got up. Jason was coming again. Danny held out the sword. "No more kidding around."
Yellow energy ignited on Danny's sword. Time to draw the monster in.
"Come on you! I won't run!" Danny yelled. Jason probably didn't care what Danny had to say, as he stalked forward with his bloody blade. He got to see a rare sight: one of his victims running towards him.
Danny slashed with his sword. Jason swung to meet with his machete.
The impact felt like it was going to tear Danny's arms out of their sockets, but his Kickback energy did its job, as Jason found the strength of his weapon being reflected back and swinging the blade away from his center of mass, leaving him wide open.
Danny leapt back as new, red energy appeared on his sword. The energy he called the Absolute. Any contact with living things caused the Absolute power to fry their nervous system. If Jason Voorhees thought he could win a slice and dice war, he was going to get a rude surprise, as Danny plunged the blade into his chest.
Jason jerked violently, his head flying back…
And snapping forward, head butting Danny on the upper left side of his face. Danny staggered back, caught completely off-guard, and Jason backhanded him and sent him flying upward and back down through some tree branches. Danny crashed back to the ground, his head spinning from the attack.
HOW? Jason may have been dead, but his body was still moving around. Something had to move it. How did he just ignore having his nervous system attacked like that? Danny had used the offense on zombies, they'd gone down to it…
Jason had not, as he reached down and yanked the Magnus out. He looked at the weapon for a moment, at the strange square holes cut out of it.
Before the voice whispered in his head.
Wretched abomination. You will fall!
The blade flew out of Jason's hand, and he snapped his head up as it returned to Danny's grip. Energy ignited anew on the sword.
"I saw what you did, to those two people." Danny growled, as sparks of power began crackling on his body. "They didn't deserve that. NONE of them did. No more. I WILL END YOU, NOW!"
With a roar, Danny slashed the Magnus out, and green arcing energy surged out and slammed into Jason. He thrashed in its grip, his body smoking and sizzling.
Then he started walking forward again.
"ARRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Danny yelled, as he whirled around and slashed once more. Another green blade of energy flew out and carved through a nearby tree, and with a loud rumbling crack it began to fall.
How Jason slipped around it with his steady pace, Danny didn't know. He also didn't take chances.
Jason dodged the tree only to find Danny firing blades of energy everywhere, carving through tree after tree. A cloud of birds took off as the entire forest around Danny began collapsing around his ears.
Jason lunged for him.
Danny leaped straight up, kicked off a tree, and then slammed himself down on another one, dropping it right on Jason. His body was slammed to the ground, as more trees toppled over onto the original. Jason thrashed beneath his prison, trying to get free.
Danny landed at Jason's head. Jason's lone eye looked up at him.
The Magnus' pointed end slammed into Jason's forehead, as Danny put everything he had into every single bit of Absolute Energy he could unleash. Jason spasmed violently, the energy ripping him apart inside, leaving nothing intact in its wake.
Ironically, Danny shot the destructive power into Jason's corpse for roughly thirteen seconds before he finally yanked the sword out, breathing heavily.
Jason lay still, his eye closed. Danny inhaled through his nose and snorted.
"And stay down." Danny said, and ran off.
…a moment later, the eye opened again.
Minus 00:02:00 and counting…
"Have to leave, right now, have to leave, right now, have to leave, RIGHT NOW!" Jess said over and over by the van.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO?" Benny yelled, as he turned the key in the engine. Nothing happened, again. Benny knew deep down the odds of it starting were almost nothing.
"That can't be Jason Voorhees…" Andrew said, holding a terrified and crying Danni. "He doesn't exist! He's a damn movie!"
"He looked pretty damn real to me…" Brenna said. None of the teenagers were alert enough to notice the racket of the collapsing forest.
"I don't even LIKE those movies. Why couldn't we be in Star Wars?" Benny said.
"WHAT ARE WE DOING IN FICTION TO BEGIN WITH?!" Andrew yelled. "It's impossible!"
"We live in a world where men in tights beat up giant gorilla gods every other week! NOTHING is impossible! Just highly unlikely!" Jess said.
"Yeah, but I mean, we aren't going to get talking animal sidekicks or never get old or anything co-"
Danny landed several feet away with a thud. Danni, Brenna, Andrew, and Jess all yelled in surprise.
"Oh shit no…!" Benny said, turning around, expecting the worst.
"Sorry." Danny said, walking over. "You guys all right?"
"…that was Jason…" Andrew said.
"Yeah."
"He killed…"
"Yeah." Danny said, walking around the van. "What's wrong with it?"
"It won't start. It's conked out ever since…WHERE ARE WE? WHO ARE YOU?"
"Danny Phantasm." Danny said, as he pulled up the hood. "You accidentally passed through a crack in reality. Entered another world. Unfortunately, it seems that fiction is derived from said other world. Hence, Jason Voorhees."
"…another world?" Brenna said.
"Yeah. You're lucky, in a way. The vehicle protected you. If you'd gone through in a corvette, the transport process probably would have killed you before you came out the other end." Danny said. "Cooked your engine. It's useless…in a sense. I have tricks of my own."
"Yes. Lucky. That's a word." Jess said. Danny drew his sword, green energy igniting on it again before he stabbed it into the guts of the car.
A moment later, the engine rumbled to life.
"That won't last long." Danny said, pulling the sword out. "Is this all of you?"
"…we lost someone. Maria." Danni said.
"Bugger. Stay here. I'll go look for her."
"…how does stabbing an engine work?" Jess said.
"Who cares! You're leaving? What about…Jason?!" Benny said, still struggling to say the word.
"I shot him full of enough destructive energy to melt down a tank." Danny said, walking around to the back of the SUV and peering inside for weapons to give to the scared teenagers. No luck, so Danny closed it shut.
"Yeah…but it's Jason Voorhees!"
"In that case I also dropped enough wood on him to give a lumberjack a-!"
Jason's form loomed around the SUV. Even Danny never had time to react, as Jason seized him by the back of his head and rammed his face into the metal back of the SUV so hard he left an impression.
"OH SHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" Benny screamed, falling out of the driver's seat. The way the SUV had been parked had doomed them: the right side was facing the lake. Everyone had been on the left side, which was considered the 'main door' and hence Jason had crossed the lake and snuck up on the group without a sound just like before.
Danny Fenton thought he understood Jason Voorhees. He did not understand enough. Danny could have stood there for an hour and pumped destructive energies into Jason, it wouldn't have mattered. Jason's body no longer moved under the power of a nervous system any more.
Danni screamed as Danny slumped down to the ground.
"RUN! AGAIN! GET AWAY! RUN!" Benny screamed, as the teenagers began scampering away once more. Jason looked at them, and then looked down at Danny, who much to his surprise was trying to get up. He'd thought that would be enough.
He had a exclamation point to put on it though, raising his machete.
"…well, it's not like I wanted to LIVE LONG ANYWAY!" Jess yelled, as he ran it and hit the back of Jason's head with a tire iron as hard as he could. Any makeshift weapons hadn't been in the back of the van, because the teenagers had already taken them out. This time, they had not been left behind.
"JESS!" Benny yelled, stopping from where he'd fled with the others.
"RUN! GET AWAY! RU-!"
Jason whirled around, and his hand lanced out, burying itself in Jess' chest. Ribs snapped as he forced his way through them, and blood erupted from Jess' mouth as Jason tore through his lungs and went beyond. With a horrendously wet crunch, Jason tore a segment of Jess' spine out through the front of his chest. Jess hit the ground, his face burned into a rictus of agony and horror.
Jason dropped the piece of spinal column on the cooling corpse and turned back around.
Danny hit Jason so hard he broke two fingers. He didn't care, as Jason was carried up and came crashing back down on the ground several feet away.
"You…goddamn…bastard." Danny raged, as more energy sparked on him. He looked at Jess' body. Poor, brave boy.
Jason was just getting up. Again. Danny's emerald eyes flashed green and white, as the Magnus floated up to his hand.
"Death is too good for you." Danny snarled. "You-will-SUFFER. Flare. DO IT."
Danny snapped up his arm, but he didn't attack Jason with his sword. Instead he hurled it away, the sword flying above the lake. Jason stared for a moment at this, before stomping back towards Danny, machete at the ready.
This time, Danny did not move. Jason swung.
The blade passed through Danny. Without the Magnus, his intangibility powers kicked back in full force.
"Surprise."
Danny fired a twin-fisted blast of energy into Jason's chest, blowing a hole in him and knocking him back a few steps. Jason surged back with demonic energy, slashing his machete down. Danny leapt and phased through it, flipping over and smashing another energy charged fist into the back of Jason's head. He faired no better than the unfortunate Jess, as Jason spun around with incomprehensible speed and slashed again, catching Danny across the thigh, cutting through his coat in the process as Danny yelled. Snarling, Danny kicked in his also-freed-up flight power and flew backwards, drawing cold within himself and blasting an icy gale at Jason from his mouth, freezing his weapon arm solid before Danny flew back in and hammered more energy charged blows into Jason's chest.
Over the lake, the Magnus had floated to an upright position and began to spin, dark energies beginning to be drawn from within the lake and the campgrounds all around it, and beyond.
Jason's speed again surprised Danny, as he grabbed Danny by the throat and tried to crush his windpipe. Danny's eyes blazed, firing twin blasts of green energy that pierced through Jason's own throat. The monster stumbled back, as Danny charged two more bolts of energy and fired them, blowing up Jason's knee and weapon arm shoulder. It staggered Jason, again, briefly, but he was swiftly heading back at Danny after a few seconds.
Danny glared at the sight. His incredible anger was beginning to be outpaced by the strain of the dimensional crossing again: he hadn't entered this at full strength and he couldn't keep this up much longer. Especially since his wounds were also working on him, while Jason kept shrugging his off. Again. And again. And again.
There was more than one kind of pain in the world though. Danny knew that. He also figured Jason had long forgotten, little more than a shambling mound of rot driven by a a singular urge that had followed him into death and beyond. Hate/kill/repeat. Hate/kill/repeat.
For what he'd done, Danny would show him how wrong he was.
Jason was coming, slashing his machete. Danny turned intangible again, Jason's weapon going through Danny. It was almost done, the Magnus was shining with ebony power, and if anyone had been close they might have heard an echo of countless screams and cries…
Jason had stopped, cocking his head towards Danny.
"What's the matter, Voorhees? Are you afraid of ghosts?" Danny said.
Jason turned around and left, stalking off in the direction the unfortunate teenagers who had wandered onto his land had gone. Danny's eyes widened.
"Oh no you don't! No more! NO MORE!" Danny yelled, as he flew over Jason and re-phased back into existence. "LIKE HELL!"
Jason slashed at Danny, who dodged in a more normal fashion and laid into Jason just like hell, smashing blow after blow into the demon of Crystal Lake. He could feel tissue and bone giving beneath his hands, despite Jason's amazingly solid frame, but Jason didn't feel it. Wouldn't feel it…
It was done.
Danny snapped out his hand, and the Magnus flew towards him. He'd only done this a few times with living creatures before. It was a highly effective technique to disable minions without doing permanent damage while also inflicting proper punishment to the truly evil who commanded them, but it was also so disturbing to Danny on a moral level that he was loathe to do it except under the most deserving circumstances.
This had long ago met them, as Jason slashed his machete down. Danny snapped his body back to dodge, lifting his foot and stomping it down with all his strength on Jason's weapon, throwing Jason off balance as Danny snapped up his other foot and kicked Jason in the face. Jason was staggered again, a second…
The Magnus entered Danny's hands.
"BLACK REMEMBRANCE."
With a bellowing roar of rage, Danny stabbed the sword into Jason's chest again.
And force-fed Jason all the pain, terror, and suffering that Jason had inflicted over the years right back into him. Every poor, unfortunate soul who'd done nothing more than indulge a little, or act like teenagers did, who never got the chance to finish growing up and learn to do more or better because Jason had murdered them for it. Every single death that had left an imprint on this cursed lake and its surroundings, that had driven away all the people that used to live here, that had given the name the title of Camp Blood. This was a bad place, and Jason had made it worse. It was high time he knew it. In great, terrible detail.
Jason spasmed under the assault, as the torments he'd inflicted ever since he'd seen his mother die exploded through him, forcing emotions he'd long lost the capacity to feel through him. He thrashed, drowning under them, just as he'd drowned all those years ago. So much pain, so much fear…
So much…
Danny yanked the Magnus free, and Jason collapsed to his knees, his machete sagging in his fingers.
"No more." Danny said, spitting on the ground. "It's over."
Jason's body fell.
Even as his hand seized the Magnus.
Danny's eyes widened as Jason surged back up. Impossible. Utterly impossible. He'd broken a DEMON with that attack! There was NO WAY-!
But there was. If Danny had managed to look into Jason's eyes, he would have seen why.
Rage. Unfathomable, unending rage. Rage that made all the righteous anger Danny felt towards Jason for what he'd done look like the barest pinpoint of light. Jason no longer ran on such things as a nervous system, morality, or even a degraded desire to kill. Jason's essence, his existence, his very embodiment was rage.
Even beneath all he'd done, that Danny had made him experience, the rage loomed ever greater.
He was Jason Voorhees.
AND HE WAS FUCKING PISSED.
Danny felt the pain almost as cold at first, as Jason slashed up with the machete. His few seconds of utter disbelief cost him dearly, as the blade ripped across his chest, the end slashing up across his face in the process and slicing his lips open. Danny staggered back, greenish blood splattering on Jason's body, Jason not even noticing the incongruity as he tossed Danny's sword aside, stood up, grabbed Danny, and shoved him backwards, ramming his head into the side of the van.
Danny fell to the ground, and Jason raised a foot and brought it down on the Halfa, feeling more bones snap beneath his boot. Danny yelled, but he didn't lie there, as he shoved himself forward and partially upright, trying to get to the Magnus.
Another burning line of agony tore across his back as Jason slashed him. Danny staggered and tried to turn around.
Jason's fist buried itself in his gut, the rotting appendage seemingly merging with him from the sheer force, and then Danny was in the air, flying off into the distance.
Jason stalked off, leaving the Magnus on the ground. No one heard the voice screaming and lamenting what the passage between dimensions had done to Danny.
He was too low on energy. The connection between the two had been broken.
Danny was all alone.
NOW.
Jason's iron grip seized Danny, who had fallen down near a small rivulet that exited Crystal Lake. It was large enough though, as he shoved Danny's face down into the water.
"Oh no." Andrew said, in the distance from where he watched with the others. Their protector was dying. He'd done all he could against this monster from dark fiction, and it hadn't been enough. They were dead. All dead…
"Let's go help him!" Brenna said.
"With WHAT?" Benny said, his own urge to help snarled up with his understandable mortal fear.
"Who cares? We have to do something!" Danni said.
"I…don't know what we can do…" Benny said.
Danny, despite the teenagers' fears, was not ready to die yet. He struggled furiously under Jason's grip, before he finally turned a hand around and fired blasts from his finger wildly. The blasts mostly missed, but one flew true, flying into Jason's right eye and out the back of his head. Jason snapped his head back, and then with another surge of never-ending rage, he yanked Danny up out of the water.
Then he brought Danny down on his knee, back-first. Danny only saved himself from being broken in half by an instinctive use of his ectoplasmic abilities making him more flexible, and even then the impact was agony as Jason bore down on him, trying to rip him in two.
"GO…TO…HELL!" Danny spat, firing more blasts into Jason's face and chest. Jason didn't even react to them, pulling Danny up from the rack of his knee.
There was a tree nearby.
Jason used Danny to chop it down, hammering him right through the wood growth before he hurled him into the distance. Danny crashed down amongst the cabins, his body one great big mass of pain.
He had to get the Magnus. He had to find a weakness. He had to stand up and fight.
He couldn't do any of it, and Jason was coming.
Jason stalked through the cabins towards the one who had dared to hurt him. He didn't understand. Pain was nothing. He'd long lost the capacity to care about pain, no matter how it was inflicted. Even when someone found an opening, Jason always adapted and survived. That was what he was. A survivor.
A sole survivor. No one came on his land. No one. Anyone who did, and did not leave swiftly, could stay there. Forever.
Just like him.
This strange one would as well.
The rock bounced off his shoulder. Jason barely noticed at first, but a few more managed to get his attention.
"Hey! Yeah! Leave him alone!" Benny yelled, as he waved his broom at the monster, his other friends armed with sticks or whatever they could pick up.
Jason looked at them a second, and then turned back to Danny.
"HEY! NO!" Andrew yelled, throwing another rock. Jason didn't even react, as he headed back for Danny.
Benny smacked Jason with the broom, understanding, perhaps, why Jess had died.
Jason's counter-attack, done without even looking, just glanced Benny and still threw him back into the group, leaving him bruised and winded. Jason continued on, as he lifted the machete over Danny and brought it down.
It buried itself in the ground, as Danny pushed off at the last second and leapt away. He looked at Jason with hard eyes, or rather the one that was still open, breathing hard as blood ran down his body. Looked at the people who he was supposed to protect, and who had tried to protect him.
He would not let them down.
"Still standing." Danny said, and attacked.
Jason backhanded Danny so hard he nearly ripped his jaw off. Danny crashed into a cabin, disappearing in a hail of rubble.
"Oh no!" Danni said, as Jason yanked his machete free.
The explosive noise of the gunshot got even Jason's attention. The buckshot ripping into his flesh also helped, as Jason turned towards the shooter.
"Fuck you." Maria said, and fired again, blasting away with the shotgun she'd stumbled over in the hunter's cabin in the woods. She thought she'd have found her friends all dead. She wasn't sure WHAT she'd found, but Jason was there. She would figure out how he existed later: now she was just going to blow his bastard murdering ass away.
"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" Maria screamed in a litany, pumping blast after blast into Jason. One shot caught his mask, ripping part of its lower half off and exposing gnarled, twisted teeth. The shot after that was even better, blowing the top of Jason's head right off. The last shot struck him dead center.
Key word being last, as Maria's gun ran out of ammo. She pulled the trigger a few more times before that sank in, as Jason straightened himself and glared at her.
"Oh fuck." Maria said, and turned to run.
Jason lifted the machete and threw it, the blade flying through the air as true as Maria's bullets.
Danny caught it, his hand closing on the hilt, stopping the blade a few feet from Maria.
"Still standing." Danny said, and spun before hurling the machete back, the blade impaling through Jason.
"Run." Danny said, looking at the teenagers. They listened, running off and meeting up with Maria. They'd gone above and beyond the call of duty, demonstrating just why Danny did what he did.
If all that Jason was was rage, then Danny would not meet him there. He knew now that he would lose.
But…he had something else. One last…something.
"Monster." Danny said. "I won't let you have them. They had faith in me. I will repay it, ON YOUR CARCASS."
The wind began to whirl around Danny, as white energies began swirling into his hands and body. Jason, having removed the machete from himself, paused, cocking his head once more.
"If the fires of hell won't claim you, then I shall call upon other flames…" Danny said, the energies gathering in his hand. "And I shall stand against those who would do harm…"
Jason was done listening, as he stalked towards Danny. Danny lowered his head, looking at the tiny ball of energies. His eyes, and the symbol on his chest, shone emerald.
"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you." Danny said. "Uh…fruit salad, liberty and justice…forget it."
Danny charged.
"HOPEFIRE!"
Jason swung his machete.
Danny's fist smashed right through it, breaking it in half.
The fleeing teenagers were all knocked off their feet from the shockwave of Danny's blow striking home. There seemed to almost be a slight pause in the eruption of the power, and then all the cabins around the pair exploded into rubble as Jason burst into flames. The white, destroying fires consumed him, even as he was hurled into the air, flying up and falling back into the depths of the lake.
He sank beneath its waters. Within moments, all that remained of his presence were ripples.
"…and stay down." Danny said.
"…Danny…that was your name right…" Benny said.
"I need to be sure." Danny said, standing by the lake side, leaning on the Magnus. His weapon had done with what little remained of his power to patch his wounds, but it hadn't done much for his pain. But his determination was keeping ahead of it, just slightly.
"He's not coming back out. We want to go home. Please…"
Danny looked at them. He'd been selfish. He'd stood there and forced the kids to wrap their friends' bodies in blankets themselves, not wanting to leave them there. But he had to watch the lake. He had to be sure. HE HAD TO BE SURE.
He…was tired. So, so tired…
Danny collapsed into Benny's arms. He was vaguely aware of another set coming to help him, as Andrew and Benny dragged Danny to their vehicle. Danni followed, carrying the Magnus. All of them kept an eye on the lake as well, despite themselves.
Nothing emerged, and they loaded Danny into the vehicle, getting in after him. Benny closed his door, and after a second pressed the button to close all the locks.
"…such anger…" Danny whispered. "No peace…in a way…hell…but…not enough…"
"Rest, buddy. You've done it. Let's get out of here." Benny said.
"…sword…special…show you way home…keep you safe…" Danny said, and then slipped into sleep.
"He going to be all right?" Maria asked.
"…I think he will." Danni said, as Benny started the SUV and drove away from the cursed grounds that had claimed so many lives.
Nothing emerged from the lake as they did so. Nothing attacked them as they returned to the Fissure. Nothing came through after them.
Once again, Camp Crystal Lake was quiet.
It wasn't really over then. No sooner had Danny gotten it back together somewhat than he had to run off and do something else. He didn't say what. I think he went to Florida, or California. One of those places. There was no rest for the weary.
There were other things needed, as well. Explanations needed for the deaths, and God knows how those poor kids are going to handle this whole experience. But they're alive. Danny gave them that.
Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.
End file.
CLICK!
The lake was as silent as any tomb, still and unbroken.
Until the mask floated up, its empty eyes staring at the night sky.
The fingers emerged from the eyeholes, and the hand dragged the mask back into the depths once more. For now…sleep.
Until the next time.
CH CH CH AH AH AH.
See you again.
Perchance.