Chapter 4
It was the start of another early morning at Crystal Lake. Mrs. Jarvis and Trish had already gone on their morning jog on the path around the lake. The birds were singing, and the sun was shining its pale yellow gleam down through the canopy, casting shadows on the path. The night had left traces of it all over in dewdrops on the ground, and the moon was barely visible behind the thin, wispy clouds.
The six teenagers came to a fork in the trail and stopped.
"Great, which do we take?" Samantha asked Paul, her eyes wide with worry.
Paul scanned the map he held out in front of him.
"Uh…if I'm reading it right, we take the left," Paul said. He pointed his finger dramatically like an explorer and the group laughed.
They all embarked down the trail, listening to the morning birds singing in the trees and swatting at mosquitoes that were just beginning to come out and feel comfortable in the heat of the day. They were all showered and changed into more comfortable clothes, dressed for an afternoon on the lake shore. The air was just at the right temperature to go swimming and they had all been stoked to have their little area of the lake all to themselves to do whatever they wanted without anyone watching.
Sam and Paul led the way, with Sara and Doug not far behind. Jimmy and Ted were the last of the group. Ted had a pair of expensive black headphones on; they were hooked up to an expensive new Walkman.
"Hey, Ted," Jimmy said, his hands in his pockets. "Hey, Ted!" he said louder, Ted's music drowning out Jimmy's voice. Ted still didn't hear him and Jimmy started saying what was on his mind anyway.
"Ted, I think you're right. I think I'm going to give Betty a call when we get into town,"
"No, no, calling Betty is definitely a dead fuck thing to do" Ted said, forgetting his music was at the current volume that it was. His voice sounded abnormally louder as a result, and the group turned to stare at him awkwardly.
Ted made a dumb face and then pulled off his headphones as the group continued walking down the trail.
"You wanted me to call her," Jimmy said.
'Sometimes the Ted-meister is wrong, Jimbo. I've been thinking. The first rule of love is never get rejected by the same girl twice. That's useless!" Ted explained as Jimmy tried to take him seriously. "You want to make a fool of yourself? Do it with someone new,"
"I don't know anyone new," Jimmy protested.
"Well, sex is a great way to meet them," Ted said, and plugged his headphones back in.
Just then, they all heard the spinning of wheels coming down the trail behind them, and high-pitched laughing.
They all whirled around, except Ted whose head was bobbing to the music coming through his headphones.
Jimmy's eyes grew wide, and he spun Ted around, whose jaw dropped and he let his headphones fall and dangle from his pocket.
Two girls on bicycles came careening down to the trail and as they saw the six teens, they came to a stop and both hopped off their vehicles.
"Wow…" Jimmy muttered, more to himself than anyone. Was he seeing double? No, there were two of them. And they looked exactly alike.
Twins. And they were drop dead gorgeous. Long, slender legs accentuated by tight, spandex running shorts, their ample chests visible through a tank top and a sports bra, and long chestnut hair falling around their shoulders.
"Sorry!" one of the girls said. "We almost ran into you guys,"
"Oh, that's ok," Paul said, cutting through the group and extending his hand. "I'm Paul,"
He shook both of their hands, as they smiled.
Sam caught the one on the left winking at him, and scowled.
"Ted, nice to meet you," Ted introduced himself. Jimmy just stood there in awe, his mouth watering.
"Hi, I'm Tina and this is Terri," the girl on the left said with a pearly white smile.
The girl on the right waved.
Terri was slightly taller than Tina, with darker, slightly longer hair. Still, it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. But none of the guys in the group seemed to care.
"Uh…y-you girls live around here?" Jimmy stuttered nervously.
They both nodded.
"Hey, how much further is Crystal Point?" Paul asked.
"That's where we are going," Tina said.
Yeah, it's a long walk from here," Terri said.
"We can take it," Ted said, flashing his millionaire smile.
"You wanna join us?" Paul asked.
The twins looked at each other, and smiled.
"Sure," they said in unison.
"Lead the way," Paul said, ushering them to the front.
Jimmy felt his knees buckling.
"Twins," he said to Ted, who nodded in agreement, both of their eyes wide and grinning ear-to-ear. "Two of them"
Yep. And two for us,"
They followed the group eagerly, but Sara stayed behind, pulling Doug off to the side.
"I think I'm going to head back to the car," she said.
"Are you sure?" Doug asked.
"Yeah, I think I forgot something. I'll meet you guys there," she said, and walked off down the trail. She was sure she left her book that she had planned to read lying on the seat, and she needed something to do down at the lake.
God, they were going to be skinny-dipping, and she just knew that Sam was going to try to make her jump in. She felt the nervous pit in her gut as she strolled down the trail to the car.
Of course, all she had to do was just say no. She didn't feel like swimming anyway. Just tell them your stomach was upset. All she wanted to do was sit on the shore, and relax in the summer weather, and sunbathe. She didn't care that the others were skinny-dipping, but she didn't want to do it. She didn't have to. There were people she didn't know and they just invited some random strangers to swim with us...no way she was taking off her clothes in front of them.
It just wasn't going to happen.
Suddenly, she stopped. A twig snapped. Somewhere in the woods on either side of her. She turned, slowing down and trying to listen.
It was probably just a squirrel. She shot another wary glance at the winding trail behind her and kept walking.
There. She heard it again.
A rustle in the bushes. She turned again to look behind her and scanned the dense underbrush. Someone was there. It was probably just Sam trying to scare her like she always did, or maybe Ted joking around.
She stood for a moment, slowly backing away down the trail, as she listened...but the woods were all quiet except for the chirping of birds in the trees.
Suddenly, there was a sharp throbbing pain in her side, and she cried out as she felt the splintered end of the tree branch jam into her ribcage. She spun around, and saw what she had backed into-the broken end of a log protruding onto the path.
She had backed right into it.
She laughed sheepishly.
What was wrong with her? Why was she letting this skinny-dipping thing get to her? And the sex thing? Worrying about all this is making you go crazy, she told herself. Just relax. Don't do anything you aren't comfortable with doing. It's as simple as that. God, she thought, she could have backed off a cliff, or fell off the trail somehow and hurt herself. All because she was hearing noises in the woods.
Maybe it was because it was Friday the 13th tomorrow.
She remembered what Sam had said on the way up. Friday the 13th looks like it won't be such bad luck after all, she had said. And she was starting to think Sam was wrong...maybe there was something to this Friday the 13th thing, because this weekend was turning out to be a disaster. She didn't even know two of these people, and now there were two more random people, two gorgeous women who could probably steal Doug away with one single glance. And now, they were all going skinny dipping without her. To make matters worse, she was now almost getting herself impaled and getting nervous over nothing.
She couldn't win. She would either have to strip and dip, or feel lousy that she was missing out. And it was all her own fault.
Why had her parents sheltered her?
She never remembered going to slumber parties where all the girls take off their clothes. Sam had told her stories about slumber parties with boys and they would undress and touch each other...Sara had been in disbelief. No boys ever asked her to middle school dances. I just graduated high school and haven't even been to a party! she thought miserably. All because she listened too much to what her parents said.
You couldn't do that to your kids because eventually they would see the real world for what it truly was, and wouldn't know how to handle it. It would be too overwhelming. You have to expose them gradually and eventually let them experience the world fully, and immerse themselves in it and learn from it. You couldn't shelter them or else you risk having a child that is behind all of his or her peers, and now here she was, in that exact situation. She was now the "weird one".
She had always been the mature one in school, as called by her teachers, but she was starting to realize that it was actually just emotional repression. All of the kids who were acting out were actually dealing with their emotions, maybe not in healthy ways, but they were still dealing with them. All she did was push her emotions down, and that made her seem "quiet" and "mature". In reality, she just wasn't connecting with anyone. She was just observing silently in her own little world.
Her parents hadn't made it any better. They supported this notion that it was "bad" to want to take risks and live a little dangerously sometimes. How could she blame them? They had also been sheltered. It was 1984, and technology was just now barely starting to come into the picture, so it was a little easier to expose yourself to information, but in the forties when her parents grew up, it was probably that much harder. Low education and ignorance was probably rampant.
All human beings want to live a little eventually. You couldn't hold them back for very long or else they have to break free, or repress it until they hate themselves. This weekend had been a chance for her to live a little and leave all that shit behind her, but it was getting harder and harder to just let loose.
Just calm down, she thought. Just stop overthinking. Maybe she didn't have to take off her clothes to have a good time. These next few days could be fun and relaxing, and she just had to allow it to happen, or else, she was going to end up ruining everyone's mood by freaking out or scaring herself to death.
What could go wrong?
"Cannonball!" Paul yelled, pulling back on the tire swing and leaping on, jumping off and curling up his legs just as the tire started to swing back to the shore and landing in the water with a resounding splash.
Crystal Point was a small, sandy beach on the north side of the lake, marked by a huge boulder jutting out into the middle of the water. A weathered dock stuck out into the lake, and a few old canoes were resting on the shore. A makeshift tire swing hung from the gnarled branch of an oak tree that hung over the shallow part of the lake.
Tina was next, leaping onto the tire swing and catapulting off into the water with a huge splash. Terri came after her, and then Sam who both landed in the water as Paul held up imaginary signs pretending to judge their dives.
Sara was lying on a towel on the dock beside Doug, and Jimmy and Ted were standing on the shore awkwardly, still in awe of the two gorgeous girls they now had at their disposal.
"Come on in!" Tina called to Ted and Jimmy.
Jimmy laughed nervously.
"Uh…no…no thanks, we haven't got our suits!"
"Skinny dip!" Paul shouted as he reached down into the water, pulled off his trunks and threw them onto the shore. Sam squealed with excitement, and took off her bikini top and bottoms, tossing them onto the shore. Tina and Terri both did the same.
"What the hell are we doing?" Ted said, his face lighting up with excitement.
He threw off his shirt, and pulled down his pants and shorts simultaneously, running towards the water baring it all.
Paul and Sam both cheered as Ted dove into the water headfirst.
"Come on Jim!" Paul yelled.
Jimmy couldn't believe he was about to do it. Fuck it, he thought.
He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled down his pants and shorts, tossed them into a pile beside a stump and ran into the water.
Doug looked at the group splashing and having a blast in the water, and frowned.
"Hey, I'm going to take a quick dip," he said.
He didn't give Sara time to reply. He cannonballed into the water, and exchanged a hi-five with Paul.
Sara sighed and sat up on the dock, picking up the book she had brought, and flipping to her bookmark.
"Suit yourself," she said glumly.
Samantha dog-paddled through the murky water towards Sara, and raised the upper half of her body onto the dock.
"Come on, Sara, strip and dip!" Sam urged.
"No…" Sara said uneasily.
"Sara, let's see what ya got, come on!"
"Sam, I said no," Sara replied.
"Fine. Then I'm going to stay under until you do," Sam said, mock-angrily. She pinched her nose, and disappeared under the surface of the water.
Sara turned away from her nonchalantly and shrugged.
"Fine. See ya later,"
It was another one of Sam's stupid ploys to get Sara to do something she was completely uncomfortable with doing.
After a minute or two of being underwater, she would realize that she couldn't hold her breath that long and would be forced to come back to the surface. She was just going to have stay under there all day because there was no way she was taking her clothes off, especially not in front of all these people she didn't even know.
It was just a matter of time before Sam would come up to the surface, groan in annoyance, and swim back to her friends.
But thirty seconds had already passed. And then a minute. No sign of Sam. No splashing.
Sara turned around to the spot where Sam went underwater, and there was no sign of her. No bubbles were rising to the surface. She had disappeared.
Sara shook her head and laughed to herself.
How much longer was she going to keep this up? Sara thought.
There was no way she could hold her breath for that long.
Then another minute passed, and Sara bit her lip nervously.
She turned back towards the water, and scanned the surface for Sam.
She was nowhere to be seen.
She checked both sides of the dock for her friend, but she was gone. Did she swim back to the group? No, she didn't. Sara counted for everyone except for Sam. Was she still underwater? What if she got stuck? What if her foot got caught in something and she was running out of air?
"Sam?" Sara called, her eyes wide with worry.
She couldn't hold her breath this long. Something was very wrong.
"Sam! Sam?!" Sara screamed, beginning to panic.
Just then, Sam's lifeless form came floating out from underneath the dock. Her eyes had rolled back in her head, and her tongue hung from the side of her mouth. Oh my god...Sara thought. She's dead...Sam is dead...Just as Sara began to lose her mind with terror, Samantha came to life and lunged out of the lake, grabbed Sara by both of her shoulders, and pulled her off the pier into the water with a splash.
Sam burst out laughing, as Sara thrashed around in the water.
She finally regained her composure, finding her footing on the sandy bottom of the lake. She tossed her wet hair out of her eyes, and splashed Sam angrily.
"You bitch!" Sara exclaimed, as Samantha laughed hysterically. The anger didn't last long, as Sara began to laugh along with Sam, who splashed her back playfully.
The teenagers continued laughing and splashing each other for the next half an hour, not once seeing the man standing in the shelter of the trees just a few yards down the shore line, watching them, feeling the intense hatred for their youth and their carelessness burn brighter with every laugh. With every shout and cry, he felt it growing stronger.
It was Friday the 13th. A new dawn on Crystal Lake. A new nightmare. The massacre at Crystal Lake wasn't over. It continued tonight.
Tonight they would see what pain and suffering felt like. They would feel what the man in the tattered worksuit watching them had felt when he drowned in the very lake they were enjoying. They hadn't been watching him. They only wanted to satisfy their own filthy, loathsome needs. It was the same suffering he felt when he watched his own mother, the only one who ever cared about him enough to kill for him, be murdered by one of...them.
Repulsive teenagers who only sought physical pleasure, and rescinded all other priorities. They had to be stopped. They had to all die before anyone else's life could be ruined, ripped from him in an instant...they would all get what's coming to them. What they stole from Jason, they would return with their lives. Jason gripped the knife tighter, the thought of the bloody atonement filling him with immeasurable satisfaction.
They would learn why Friday the 13th at Crystal Lake was a day to be feared.
"Mom sure has been jumpy lately," Trish said to Tommy sitting in the passenger seat as she pulled the station wagon off of the paved road onto the narrow dirt road that led to Crystal Lake.
The old junkyard scrap of a car sputtered down the road, the sun shining down through the branches casting shadows that danced across the windshield.
"Yeah, I guess," Tommy said, petting Gordon who stuck his head between the two from the backseat.
Trish wondered if it was a mid-life crisis. She was getting to that age. The age where you look back on life and question every decision you had ever made, and wonder how you ever got to where you were, and why you didn't take that one opportunity in college.
That age scared the hell out of Trish. She wanted to go off to college and become a nurse, but with being homeschooled for a large part of her life, she feared that it would be too overwhelming being thrown into a huge university with thousands of new people to meet.
Maybe she could attend one of those smaller two-year community colleges and take basic classes and then transfer to a larger four-year college to get her degree.
Then she could come back home until she got a job and made enough money to move out, and maybe find someone to settle down with, squeeze out a few kids, and make a life for herself. Was that the life that she wanted? She had no idea. All she knew is that she had to get out of this town.
Trish broke out of her thoughts when she heard shouting and joyous cries coming through the open rear window and saw the teenagers car parked on the side of the road. The shouting was coming from the lake.
Gordon began to bark excitedly, and as Trish slowed down, squinting to see the lake through the trees, Gordon suddenly bounded through the open car window and disappeared into the woods.
"Gordon! Wait!" Tommy called.
Oh no, Gordon!" Trish exclaimed, bringing the car to an abrupt halt.
Before Trish could think of what to do next, Tommy jumped out of the passenger seat, not closing the door behind him, and ran off into the woods after the dog.
"Tommy!" Trish cried, and ran out of the car after him.
Gordon bounded down the trail towards the lake, finally coming to a stop on the shore, and barking excitedly at the throng of teenagers.
"Hey, look it's Gordon!" Paul shouted.
Tommy came next, stumbling down the hillside and stopped dead in his tracks beside Gordon.
He looked out at the lake, and his mouth dropped.
The first thing he saw was the clothing littered all over the ground. Bras, panties, shirts, shorts, and shoes were scattered everywhere. He'd never heard of such a thing. Swimming naked? He thought that was only something people did in the movies.
And then he saw Samantha come rising out of the water just enough to catch a glimpse of her breasts, and he felt his knees turn to jelly and the tingling feeling in his stomach.
He had the urge to look away and to shield his eyes, but his twelve-year-old boy mind wouldn't let him.
Oh my God, Trish thought, as she came running down the hillside, the realization hitting her. She didn't even know anyone actually skinny dipped. She thought it was just a thing someone talked about doing to sound cool. She was more naïve than she had thought.
Before Tommy could try to say something or pretend like he hadn't seen anything, Trish grabbed him firmly by both shoulders and spun him around.
"Tommy, turn around right now!"
Tommy tried to twist back towards the lake, but she held him in place.
"Turn around!" she ordered.
"Hey, Trish!" someone yelled.
"Come on in, Trish!" Paul called, gesturing her towards the water.
She laughed nervously, trying to think of an excuse.
"No, I think I'm overdressed," she said. It was the best thing she could think of. She didn't want them to see her face glowing bright red. "Bye!"
She began to push Tommy back towards the trail, her other hand grabbing Gordon by the collar.
"Party tonight, Trish! Hope to see you there!" Paul yelled.
"Come on, Gordon. We're too young for this," Tommy sighed, walking with Trish towards the trail.
Trish couldn't stop blushing the entire walk back to the car.
"Some pack of patooties, huh?" Tommy said, as they drove down the dirt road towards the house.
"Tommy…" Trish said, flashing him a glare. She could just see the look on her mother's face when she told her that the kids next door had been skinny-dipping and she caught Tommy looking.
That was just it. She wasn't planning on telling her. She may have a firm talk with Tommy herself later tonight about how spying on people was wrong, and maybe have the talk with him about girls. That's one of the reasons she wished her dad were still around.
If she told Mrs. Jarvis about this whole ordeal, she would go ballistic. Mr. Jarvis would have calmly sat Tommy down and gave him the old birds-and-the-bees talk.
Trish certainly wasn't good at relationships and the opposite sex herself, so what could she say? What advice could she possibly give? She hadn't been in a relationship since middle school. And all her mom would do was give Tommy an hour-long lecture and ground him from all of his video games.
She remembered the glazed-over look in his eyes when they introduced themselves to those kids last night. Puberty was hitting him like a truck. Had she been that boy-crazy when she hit puberty? She didn't think so. All she could remember was learning about her period and about things called tampons and why she would wake up covered in blood every now and then.
And Trish was only seventeen, she was still going through the tail end of puberty as well. She barely knew anything about sex, only what she had managed to read about in magazines and from vague descriptions from her mom. She had no idea what to say to Tommy, so she just decided to keep quiet the rest of the ride home. What could she say? She hadn't even had a boyfriend since the fourth grade, and then, it's not anything real. She really hadn't had a real relationship. There was nothing she could say to Tommy to get him to understand, but even she didn't understand it all that well.
Plus, if she told her mom they had been skinny dipping, she didn't know how she would take it. She'd probably report them and get them kicked out by the landlord. And then, no party...and Trish wouldn't have even gotten to meet them all that well.
It wouldn't hurt to go over and hang out for at least a little while. What was wrong with trying to be a normal teenager for once? Why couldn't her mother just lighten up? Maybe with Dad gone, she felt pressure to be the strict one and to be the one "wearing the pants". Maybe her mom was just lonely and needed to get laid. It wouldn't kill Mom to get out and make some friends, Trish thought. She had been the one to opt to move to Crystal Lake after all, but Trish figured she hadn't anticipated the townsfolk to be so … aloof.
It was like the land around them was cursed. People gave her funny looks when she mentioned that she lived on the lake. It was almost like anyone who dared come out to the lake was some kind of lunatic, but of course, it made sense with all the stories she had heard. Awful stuff had happened out here according to the locals, but then again, small towns always engage in hearsay and rumors that eventually get out of hand.
"Camp Blood" the locals would say. "You actually live out by Camp Blood?" Whatever had happened, if it had happened, had really spooked them and turned them into a very superstitious bunch. At least these kids renting the vacation home seemed fairly normal, and it was probably because they weren't from Crystal Lake.
Trish was broken out of her thoughts for the second time by the car's engine jolting, sputtering noisily and slowing to a stop. Another raucous clattering sound came from the engine, and then, the car stalled.
"Great, what next?" Trish exclaimed.
"I'll take a look," Tommy said, climbing out of the car and walking around to the hood.
One of the things their dad did manage to do is teach Tommy all about cars. At five, he was walking around talking about carburetors and fan belts, and by the time he was ten, he could replace a flat tire.
Tommy popped open the hood and stuck his head into the engine compartment.
"Can you fix it?" Trish asked after about a minute of silence.
Tommy stuck his head from behind the open hood.
"I need a screwdriver," he said.
"There may be one in the trunk," she replied, handing him the keys.
He walked back around to the trunk, unlocked it and popped it open, scanning the cluttered interior.
"Nope, no screwdriver,"
Trish sighed.
"Oh, great. Looks like we're walkin,"
"You guys need some help?" said a voice.
Trish turned her head to the passenger side window and gasped with fright as she saw a stranger leaning into the car.
He was a tall, rugged man in his early twenties with a head of wavy black hair, a young scrubbed clean face, and wearing a flannel shirt, jeans and hiking boots. He carried a big travel duffel bag and a rolled-up sleeping bag that was slung over his right shoulder. He looked like he could be on one of those survivalist shows.
"Hi, I'm Rob Dyer. Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said with a warm, apologetic expression.
Trish stepped out of the car apprehensively and waited for him to walk around to her side.
He extended his hand.
"Hello, I'm Trish Jarvis and this is my brother Tommy," she said, hesitant about introducing herself to a random man who approached them in the woods. But he seemed friendly enough.
"What seems to be the problem?" he asked.
"It won't start," Trish said, gesturing to the car.
Rob pulled off his backpack, set it on the roof of the car, and rubbed his hands together.
"Let's see what I can do. Get in, give it a crank when I tell you,"
Trish nodded in response, and climbed into the driver's seat.
Rob bent down underneath the hood, and reached a hand down behind the engine.
"I think the problem is the celluloid, but we don't have a screwdriver to fix it," Tommy said.
Rob whipped out a bowie knife, and gave Tommy a look. He placed it strategically between two wires, creating a shower of sparks.
"Try it now!" he said.
Trish twisted the key in the ignition and the car roared to life.
With a relieved sigh, she leaned her head out the window.
"You need a lift?"
Rob shrugged.
"Sure, why not? Where you headed?"
"Back to the house. We live right down the road. You can have dinner with us," Trish said, smiling.
Her mother probably wouldn't appreciate a random stranger joining in on their family meal, but after he saved them the good fifteen-minute walk in the summer heat it would have been to the house, it was the least she could do.
"That sounds fantastic," Rob said, and grabbed his backpack.
He climbed into the passenger seat as Tommy slid into the back beside Gordon, and Trish started off down the road.
"I didn't think anyone lived this deep in the woods," Rob said.
"We do," Trish replied. "What are you doing out here in our neck of the woods?"
"Hunting for bear," he said.
"You can't be hunting for bear," Tommy said with a frown.
Rob changed the subject hurriedly.
"Uh, are there any kids around here? Vacationers? People like that?" Rob asked.
"Yeah, a bunch of kids moved in yesterday, right next door to us,"
"How far is Crystal Lake from here?" Rob asked.
"Oh, we live on the lake,"
"Really? Great, that's where I'm headed,"
The trees cleared as the Jarvis house came into view, perched on a small slope, the rental house in view a few hundred yards away, a narrow dirt path between the two.
Trish pulled the car to a stop in front of the house, and parked.
"Here we are," Trish said.
"Thanks for the lift," Rob said.
"Are you going to come in?" Trish asked.
If her mother had a problem with it, she could get over it. Maybe she finally had a friend.
"No, I don't think I can," Rob replied, looking towards the lake.
"Oh, you got to come in!" Tommy chimed in from the backseat. "There's something real neat I want to show you up in my room,"
As the three began to walk towards the house, Trish began to grow worried.
Should she be taking this complete stranger into her house? She didn't know where he was from or what he was doing out here in the middle of nowhere. After all, he said he was hunting for bear and there weren't any bears in this part of the country.
What could go wrong? He seemed like a nice guy, and he looked like he needed a quick shower and some food. Her mother should be glad to do such a hospitable thing as helping him on his way.
It was the least they could do for him starting up their car for them. Maybe he just didn't know that there weren't any bears in this part of the country. That had to be it.
Rob, Trish, and Tommy got out of the car and walked up to the front porch as Mrs. Jarvis opened the front door. Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion, and she looked to Trish with a "who the hell is that?" look.
"Mom, this is Rob," she said, gesturing to Rob. "Rob, this is my mother,"
Rob extended his hand and gave his best polite smile.
"Hi, Rob Dyer. Nice to meet you, Mrs…"
"Jarvis," her mother said, shaking his hand nervously.
"Come on, Rob, you got to see my room!" Tommy exclaimed, dragging Rob into the house and up the staircase by the hand like a dog on a leash.
Trish stepped into the house, closed the door, and as she turned around, she was greeted by the same look from her mother. "Who's your friend?" she asked before Trish could utter a word.
"He's a guy we picked up. He fixed our car, I thought he could have dinner with us," she answered.
Mrs. Jarvis looked bewildered.
"Ok, well I guess I'll start fixing it," she said, looking nervously towards the staircase and heading for the kitchen.
Trish let out a deep breath. She took that surprisingly well. Maybe she was just in a good mood. Normally she would have pulled her aside and gave her a stern talk and probably forced her guest to leave.
After all, she was probably grateful for the free fix up on the car. It sounded better than ever after Rob had toyed with it. Maybe Mrs. Jarvis could hire him as a handyman, Trish thought, and then he'd be around...finally, someone's company...her thoughts trailed off to the horrors that were awaiting Rob in Tommy's room...
Upstairs, Tommy pushed open the door to his room, and Rob's jaw dropped in astonishment at the assortment of masks hanging from the ceiling. The room was some amalgamation of sci-fi conventions and horror movie sets, complete with posters and memorabilia of all different forms. Rob toyed with one of the action figures on the bookshelf, taking it all in, as Tommy stood in the middle of the room, his hands on his hips, proud of his work.
"Cool, huh?" he said.
"Amazing…" Rob muttered, spinning one of his masks around on its string.
"Hold on, here's my latest mask," Tommy said, lifting up a large head made of foam. He put it on his head and his hand operated a remote. It was a Planet of the Apes-esque monkey head replica complete with an open mouth full of razor sharp fangs.
Each time Tommy pushed a varying order of buttons on the remote, the mask would move and contort to resemble realistic facial motions. The mechanisms rippled underneath the leathery layer of artificial skin.
"Rawwrrrr…" Tommy made the best guttural monster sound he could.
"You made this?" Rob asked, dumbfounded.
"Yeah," Tommy replied, taking off the mask.
"You're talented, kid," Rob said, studying each of the masks. It was better than anything he could have ever done. They all looked so realistic, so professional. Like something right out of a Hollywood studio.
"Thanks," Tommy said.
As Rob glanced out the window, he saw the rental house on the opposite side of the clearing, and the car sitting out front.
It was perfect. He could stay here and keep an eye on those kids at the same time.
He was looking for someone. And those kids would lead him straight to the someone he had been hunting the past four days.
Tonight, Rob had business to take care of.
