Chapter Eighteen

Once they thought they were quite a way from Jason, Paul and Ginny stopped, finding themselves to be at a "crossroads" in the tunnels…one leading left and the other right. Ginny bent over, hands on her knees as she took this respite to catch her breath, fill her lungs with needful air, feeling completely fatigued.

"Is there any way out…of this fucking place?" Ginny asked between breaths, sick to death of seeing the sight of dirt and the smelling the putrid stench of blood and death lingering in the air.

Paul looked both ways in the fork in the tunnels; one leading diagonally to the left and the other diagonally to the right. He had a inkling that if they went down the tunnel to their right, it'll probably lead them right into Jason, but if they went down the left, they could just end up at a dead-end and they'll really be in the shit. Hearing Ginny's voice, it roused him from his thinking and turned to see, really see that Ginny had blood splattered all over her top and face. Was she really wounded and he hadn't even noticed?

Right at her side with a comforting hand on her back, Paul asked with deep concern, "Ginny, you're bleeding. Is it -," but she managed to cut him off with a wave of her hand before he got himself worked up, "I'm fine, Paul. It's…it's not mine, but enough about worrying about me. We need to get out of here."

"Yeah, yeah you're right," Paul nodded, looking back to the fork in the tunnel, "But which way should we go?" He combed his fingers through his hair in frustration before finally coming to a decision, "I think we would be much safer taking the left. Come on," he added, stretching out his hand for Ginny to take.

She took it immediately, just wanting to be out of this "hellhole", but she had this horrible feeling that Jason wasn't far behind and when he eventually showed up, she might not be able to see the light of day again…

He knew these tunnels like the back of his hand. He should do, he's been living down here for almost 20 years. They don't know his tunnels, but they were going in the right direction to get out. He only had a few exits out of his tunnels which was pretty reasonable really when he didn't want any of his victims to get out and he knew where they were heading…he had a sort of "sixth" sense about these things. Something he'd picked up from his apparent "drowning" all those years ago.

With his sharpened machete in hand, Jason went in a different direction to where Ginny and Paul were heading. Knowing these tunnels like the back of his hand, he knew he'd be able to catch up to them in double the time.

They'd finally reached the end of the tunnel and, luckily, their escape route. A wooden ladder was propped up against the wall, leading up to the surface, but it was blocked off by a trapdoor. Paul climbed up first, make sure that they were no surprises waiting for them up top while Ginny stood at the bottom. Pushing open the trapdoor, Paul popped his head out and found himself in a shed of some kind. Not filled with gardening tools or anything, but with a variety of equipment that dealt mostly with sports and boats. He then suddenly realized where they were.

They were back at the Counsellor Training Centre, in the storage shed down by the lake. He was sure of it. He'd only been in there once or twice, but he had quite a perceptive memory.

Climbing out from the hole, he urged Ginny to climb up, informing her that they were back at the training centre before closing the trapdoor behind her and looking around to find something to cover it with. So that Jason couldn't follow them up there.

"Ginny, help me with this, would you?" Paul asked his girlfriend, who was busy looking out of the window to make sure that Jason wasn't going to make an appearance without them knowing about it.

"Okay," she uttered simply, turning away from the window and assisted Paul in pulling out a desk, which was used to hold all kinds of tools and equipment within its drawers. Even with Paul's strength they were having difficulty pulling and pushing it along, but eventually they'd managed to situate it over the trapdoor.

There was no way in hell Jason was going to be coming up through there now.

"That should hold. There's no way he's getting through there now." Paul uttered with a sense of triumph in his voice.

Ginny didn't feel the same way as Paul, an awful feeling creeping up her spine, as she looked to the window, rubbing her arms as she felt the sudden chill in the air, "That's fine and dandy, but he's gonna have other exits out of those tunnels. Not just this one."

The triumphant expression plastered on Paul's face quickly disappeared and was replaced with a look of worry, "Ah, shit. You're right," he uttered, before taking Ginny's hand and moving instantly toward the door. "Then we need to get out of here before he finds us."

He'd wished he hadn't have said that when the very person he was mentioning unexpectedly jumped through the window, showering the two counsellors in pieces of wood and shards of glass.

Ginny's mouth opened, unleashing a high-pitch scream as some of the glass shards slash at her face, leaving behind thin cuts which start to bleed crimson instantly. This guy was relentless to say the least!

Running for the door, Ginny was about to reach for its handle, hand outstretched to grab it when she was suddenly yanked back by her hair! As Jason pulled her back, Ginny bending over backward and feeling as though her hair was about to be ripped out from its very roots, she stared up, eyes wide and glossy, to see him pulling back the machete he wielded with one hand, ready to behead her with one clean swipe.

"No! Nnnooo!" She screamed with all her might, her lungs practically burning, too frightened to even move when her eyes caught sight of an oar swinging toward Jason's head. Its flat side connected and hit Jason with an almighty thwack, disorientating him for a few seconds. Ginny's ears picked up the sound of Jason's machete clanging against the floorboards, standing upright as soon as he let go of her hair.

Turning around she saw Paul wielding the oar with both hands, pulling it over his head to hit Jason with it again. He nodded toward the door and shouted, "Run Ginny! Get out of here! I'll hold him off!" He went to hit Jason with the oar again, but the 6 foot 5 killer grabbed with one hand before booting him hard in the gut, sending Paul flying backward onto his front.

Ginny jumped back at the brutality of the attack, her back pressed against the wooded wall, her hands flat against it, trying to breath, but finding she had shortness of breath out of sheer fear as she watched helplessly as Jason treaded toward Paul, snapping the oar in half and tossing it to one side. His footsteps sounding so heavy, the floorboards creaking beneath them.

I need to do something. I need to do something quick or he's going to kill Paul and me next! But what can I do against someone like Jason? Ginny though, her eyes scanning the shed to see anything she could use as a weapon.

Then she saw it.

The machete lying on the floor, completely abandoned by Jason whose attention was solely on Paul, picking him up by the throat with both hands, intention of strangling him to death clearly on his mind.

She only had a few seconds to act or Paul would be surely dead. She needed to make this count or this will all be for naught.

Pushing herself off the wall, Ginny scrambled for the machete, gripping its handle with two hands, before charging at Jason, screaming loudly, as she plunged it right through his abdomen. The blood spurted onto Paul's front, colouring his clothes in dark crimson, as Jason let out a hoarse grunt, letting go of Paul who held his throat, taking this time to breathe in air that Jason wanted to take away.

As he watched from his position on the floor, Jason looked down at the machete protruding from his stomach before Ginny pulled it back out, more blood pouring out as it caused him to go weak at the knees. He held the wound with one hand, the other he'd acquired from Ginny in the tunnels had already stopped bleeding, and abruptly dropped to his knees, the strength in them suddenly gone.

Before she gave him chance to do anything else, Ginny lifted the machete over her head and hacked it into his shoulder. Jason wheeled his head back, his one eye through the hole in the pillowcase looking up to the ceiling before rolling to the back of his head. His body falling back until it hit the floor…hard.

She found herself staring at Jason's unmoving body, unable to look away even though Paul was calling out to her. Calling her name.

"Ginny? Ginny? Ginny, are you okay?"

Paul's hand on her shoulder finally woke her from her gazing and she immediately wrapped her arms around him, her crying muffled against his shoulder, truly thankful that the nightmare was now over.

She felt like she'd been crying for hours, but once she'd stopped, she moved her face away from his shoulder, face flushed and damp from the crying and looked up at him, "It's over," she answered softly, "It's finally over."

Paul beamed her a smile, nodding to her words, "Yeah…let's get out of here. This place's starting to give me the creeps."

Ginny accompanied that notion with a small laugh, hugging Paul with the last of her strength before she collapsed into his arms, completely exhausted from everything that had happened this very night. With her arm draped around his neck, his around her waist, Paul used the remainder of his vigour to walk her out of the storage shed, leaving Jason's lifeless body behind for the authorities to handle once he'd called them back at the lodge.

Once they'd reached the lodge, heading inside, the fire had long died out in the living room, but the lights were still on as Paul helped Ginny settle on one of the sofas. He then headed straight for the phone, thanking God that it still had a dial-tone. Dialling in the number, Paul waited for a few seconds before it was picked up by a woman who introduced herself as Deputy Thomson.

While Paul was on the phone to the deputy, Ginny held herself in her arms, feeling slightly chilled even though she knew it was over. Suddenly, her ears picked up something that was indistinguishable at first, but got clearer as it carried on. It was a scratching sound and it was coming from the door they'd just come through. To Ginny, it sounded much like a cat when it clawed at the door for its owner to let them in after spending sometime outside, but no-one who'd stayed there had owned a cat, to her knowledge anyway.

Backing away toward the fireplace, Paul still on the phone in the background and oblivious to what was going on, Ginny took one of the pokers that was leant against it and gripped it tightly in one hand. As she headed toward the door, she thought about asking Paul to accompany her, but he was still on the phone to the deputy and they needed the police to get here as soon as possible. To take them away from this awful place.

With her free hand outstretched, Ginny turned the doorknob and opened it quickly, fire poker overhead ready to strike, only to be welcomed by nothing. She could've sworn she'd heard a scratching sound…until something whimpered down below and she bowed her head to see that it, and the scratching, belonged to Muffin, Terri's pet dog.

She'd completely forgotten about her, smiling as she picked the dog up into her arms, carefully stroking its soft, white fur and loving the attention that it was giving her as it licked her face.

"Aw, Muffin. It's nice to see you too."

Closing the door behind her with her heel, Ginny returned to the sofa, but just as she passed the window, it erupted in a cascade of glass as Jason, who was now unmasked and revealing his disfigured features, leapt through it, wrapping his powerful arms around her and attempting to pull her back outside.

Ginny set free a terrifying scream, watching as Paul dropped the phone and made a run for her before she succumbed to darkness…

Please leave me a review as I like to know what you all think of my "re-imagined" franchise and if so, PM me if you have any suggestions on future instalments. What would you like happen in them? Should I include the dreadful Part V: a New Beginning and take it in a new direction after Part IV: the Final Chapter?

Please, I'd like to know. Anyways, chow for now and hope to hear from all you real soon. ;-)