Chapter 5

Nighttime had fallen over Crystal Lake. The moon sat low in the sky, glowing like a beacon just above the top of the wall of pine trees that surrounded the lake, it's reflection shimmering on the surface of the water. It seemed as though nothing could disturb the eerie peace of the slowly approaching darkness. The only other sounds were the chirping of crickets, the soft approach of thunder in the distance and the faint music coming from inside the rental house.

The teenagers' get-together was just kicking off. The guys had gone into town and picked up tons of food and beer while the girls stayed to spruce the place up a bit. The girls all showered and changed into party dresses and more comfortable attire from their time at the lake, and the guys were in their best shirts and slacks. Ted had searched through the stacks of vintage records and picked out a few selections for the music.

"Love is a Lie" by Lion was blaring through the turntable. Jimmy popped the collar of his blue suede shirt and leaned against the doorframe, watching Doug and Sara curled up on the sofa and Sam and Paul making out on the staircase, and sighed heavily. Tina and Terri were on the other sofa, whispering excitedly and giggling at him.

Just ask one of them to dance, Jimmy urged himself. He watched nervously, trying and not succeeding to act nonchalant as he paced back and forth around the room, checking his hair in the mirror as he walked by.

Damn Ted and his bullshit, he thought. They had made a bet when they were out getting beer that he could get one of the twins in bed before Ted.

Jimmy was starting to fear he might lose twenty bucks. Damn you, Ted. Damn you for putting this dead fuck thing in my head, he thought. Now, he was having all kinds of doubts. What if she laughed in his face? What if everyone would get laid at this party tonight except for him? What if Ted was right? What if he actually was hopeless in bed and truly a dead fuck?

He just needed a little confidence, he thought to himself, puffing out his chest subtly. His dad had always told him as long as you are confident and being yourself, no girl could resist. Maybe it was finally time to start listening to someone else rather than Ted. After all, what the hell did Ted know? He wasn't even dating anyone. He never held down a girl for more than a few weeks at the most.

He always claimed that he couldn't be wasting his time being tied down to one girl, that he always was on the move, and on the lookout for new sex and for new experiences.

Then again, Ted was not the guy to go to for love advice. How to get laid quick? Sure. But not for true advice on love and women. Jimmy eventually wanted something real, and Ted wouldn't know real if it hit him in the face.

But now, he didn't care about anything real and he was hornier than ever. He finally took a deep breath, and walked casually over towards the couch.

"Would either of you care to dance?" he asked the twins, extending his hand.

Terri looked at Tina with a coy smile, and then back at Jimmy.

"To this song?" she asked, hearing the boisterous rock music coming through the turntable in the corner.

"This? This is good!" Jimmy said.

Terri hesitated.

"Sure," she said and took his hand.

Jimmy led her to the center of the room, and they both began moving to the beat. Terri couldn't help but snicker at his awkward, but endearing dancing. He was honestly kind of cute, but as she glanced over at Doug and Sara, she felt herself getting sick with envy. Doug could do so much better than...her, she thought. Yet, here she was, settling for Jimmy. Then again, the night was still young. If everyone would loosen up a little and maybe get a little hammered, then this party just may get more interesting. Maybe the boys would come to their senses and figure out that they were the only girls worth screwing tonight.

God, that was really bitchy of me, Terri thought to herself. She couldn't help it. At Crystal Lake High, her and Tina were always the hottest and most popular girls at any party, and parties in Crystal Lake weren't that hard to come by if you knew just how boring of a town it truly was. At Crystal Lake High, both of them had to swat guys off like flies drawn to flypaper. Everywhere they went, they were always being hit on, either by the football coach, or the creepy guy that was always hang out and ask for money down at the old gas station.

And now, the two hottest guys at the party were taken by a total sleaze and a flat-chested nobody. The only other two guys to fuck was Jimmy with his spastic dancing and the total Elvis-wannabe who had walked into the living room and was now drooling all over Tina.

"Come on, give the ol' Teddy Bear a kiss," Ted said into Tina's ear and she pushed him away. He held up a teddy bear he had grabbed off of the curio cabinet and held it up to her, kissing her with it, and then he tossed the teddy bear aside, brought his lips up to hers and pressed hard.

Tina turned her head as his wet lips made their way across her cheek and onto her neck. She managed to push him away and a tight smile formed across her lips.

"I need another drink," she said, her eyes glaring at him. She gave Terri a glance, stood up and walked into the kitchen, as Ted slumped on the couch, rejected. Terri kept dancing to the turntable with Jimmy who was still thrashing wildly in an attempt to impress her, and it wasn't working all that well. Then again, he was sort of cute, and he wouldn't be the ugliest guy she had had sex with.

Maybe I can pull that bimbo off of Paul and take him upstairs and show him what sex with a real woman is like, Terri thought. She hated to think things like that, but she couldn't help herself when Paul looked the way he did. His wavy dark hair and his tanned skin was almost too much to bear. He was way hotter than any guys from Crystal Lake. I am such a bitch, she thought again.

That was always how it had been her entire life. That's how they were known around Crystal Lake High.

Tina was the slut, Terri was the bitch.

At least Terri got along with her sister, for the most part. Terri had always been a mother to Tina even though she was only about five seconds older.

She made sure that she was being safe, having sex responsibly, and not risking getting STDS, or worse, getting pregnant. Their mom died when they were little and so all they had was their dad who just sat around the house for the better part of his day, knocking back bottles of scotch and cigars and cursing at them every chance he got.

Sure, maybe she wouldn't be as much of a bitch if she didn't have to deal with all the anger inside at her asshole of a dad, but what could she do? Everybody dealt with their demons in their own way. She dealt with them with bitchiness, and Tina dealt with her frustration by screwing every guy she met.

Just then, the loud rock music died and Frank Sinatra's soft jazz rendition of "Tangerine" began to play.

"Hey, why'd you change it?" Jimmy asked Paul who was switching out the records at the turntable.

"Relax, Jimbo, your girl's going to love this one," Paul said and walked over to Samantha, who wrapped her arms around his waist and gently swayed with him, burying her head in his chest. Jimmy glanced awkwardly at Terri and laughed, offering her a slow dance.

"Why not?" she said and wrapped her arms around his neck as they began to slowly sway from side-to-side.

Tina watched broodingly, staring at Paul and Samantha slow dancing by the turntable and frowned.

I could have him falling all over me, Tina thought. Sam whispered something into Paul's ear, and suddenly took off for the kitchen, leaving him alone. Now was her chance.

That girl is way in over her head, she thought. What he needs is a woman, not a girl. Tina took a quick glance into the mirror on the wall, fixed her hair and checked her teeth, and walked over to Paul seductively, putting on her best sexy look.

"You like this stuff?" she asked about the soft jazz humming through the brass phone of the record player.

"Yeah," he said. "You like slow dancing?" she asked flirtatiously, pushing up closer to him. Samantha walked back into the room, holding a beer. She saw Tina and Paul by the record player and her eyes narrowed.

What did that bitch think she was doing? Sam thought, seeing the glazed look in her eye as she stared up at Paul. It was the same look she gave Paul whenever she wanted to get it on with him. Samantha made a wry face and hurried over, stepping in front of Tina and throwing her hands around Paul's neck dramatically.

"Kiss me you fool!" she exclaimed a la Olive Oyl.

Paul yanked her into his arms.

"Soitenly!" he exclaimed, imitating Popeye, and kissed her playfully, resulting in loud, high-pitched laughter from Sam, who snuck Tina a dirty glare out of the corner of her eye. Tina gave her an equally nasty look back and sauntered over to Ted sitting on the couch.

'Want to dance?" she asked reluctantly. Maybe seeing her with Ted would make Paul jealous and he'd finally see what she could do for him.

Ted jumped to his feet like a dog hearing his name.

"Let Teddy Bear show you how it's done," Ted said.

And the night went on, everyone oblivious to the man in the hockey mask right outside the window watching them.


Trish and Rob stepped out of the front door and closed it, embracing the warm brush of the night breeze coming from the lake and listening to the soft singing of crickets and owls hooting in the trees.

"Wow, your mothers an amazing cook," Rob said, lifting his backpack higher on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Since our dad's not around, she had to adapt. She used to hate it," Trish answered, walking down the path towards the road with him.

"So it's just the three of you out here?" Rob asked.

"Yeah. My parents are separated. You know, middle-aged crazy," Trish sighed. " I kinda hope that they get back together,"

"I hope so too," Rob said sympathetically.

There was a moment of awkward silence as his eyes met hers and she felt herself blushing. Say something, Trish prodded herself. Don't just walk in silence.

"Um...looks like another rainy one," she said, staring up at the dark clouds that were beginning to cover the stars.

Nice going, she thought. Real smooth.

"Yeah," he replied, glancing at the sky. They both heard the low rumble of thunder approaching and stared out into the night. Trish glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and noticed his hard stare, as if his eyes were transfixed on something out there in the woods, watching them. What was his deal? There had to be something that he wasn't telling her. His gaze was always out-of-focus as if his mind was constantly elsewhere, and at the dinner table, he had dodged their questions and kept glancing out the window and avoiding eye contact.

Something was definitely bothering him, and she wanted to know what. Why did he have to be so alluring? It was something about the years that he had on her. She had never had a thing for older men, but now she just couldn't help herself with him. She was definitely physically attracted to him, but then again, she also found him psychologically captivating too. He was stoic and mysterious, but she could tell there was probably a much softer side of him in the way that he looked at her.

It was like he was trying to tell her something important, but never doing it. What was he hiding?

She decided not to pry as she glanced out at the night, and then back at Rob.

"Listen, if it ever gets too bad out there or you just need to take a shower, we're always at home. And if we're not, Tommy usually leaves the door open," Trish said. If anything happened out there, she wanted him to know that he had a place to come for help.

Rob nodded in understanding.

"Just stay on the trail. It leads around the lake," Trish explained, pointing off down the path.

"Thanks," he said.

Without warning, he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, and after a soft brush of his hand on hers, he walked off into the night towards the lake.

Trish watched him leave, feeling her heart flutter and the flesh of her cheeks turning beet red. He was definitely older than her, probably in his late twenties. But her parents had been ten years apart, and when did age become some kind of impossible barrier to overcome?

As she walked back towards the house, she began to wonder about his body, picturing him naked under those dirty clothes, imagining the feeling of his warm body on hers, moving with her, inside her...What are you doing, Trish? she thought. You picked this guy up on the road in your car and now you were having fantasies about him?

You're being ridiculous, she laughed at herself. She was actually fawning over a guy much older than her that she had just met who could be some kind of maniac. That's what happens, Mom, when you keep your daughter cooped up for so long. She gets so damn horny that she wants to have wild sex with every strange man that she runs into in the woods.

But something about him was so mysterious and alluring. She also couldn't stop thinking about why he was out here. He had blatantly lied when he told Tommy and she that he was hunting bear. At the dinner table, he had also changed his story and said that he was doing a survey of the lake's wildlife, after Tommy hammered him about there being bears at Crystal Lake.

What in the world was he really doing out here? It wasn't often that she saw people camping here, especially with how the locals felt about the lake. Then again, Rob didn't seem like the woodsman type when it came down to it. He was carrying all of the right equipment-with his thick flannel shirt, jeans and hiking boots, and his gigantic knapsack, and the knife in the leather sheath on his belt, but his personality didn't fit. He seemed like too much of a city boy. He was probably just out here for a vacation, but why the wild stories about bears?

She didn't know, but she had an uneasy feeling about him. Trish walked back inside the house and closed the door. She went through the living room and into the kitchen where Mrs. Jarvis was at the kitchen sink scrubbing a casserole dish clean.

"Well, he was nice," Mrs. Jarvis said, seeing Trish out of the corner of her eye. "But promise me you won't bring home any more strangers,"

Trish smiled.

"I promise. But he did get the car fixed," she said, sitting on a barstool. "You did a nice thing, but he could have been a maniac," Mrs. Jarvis said. She turned to Trish, hesitated, and then said "I just want you and Tommy to be safe,"

"I know but..." Trish started to say.

"No, just listen," Mrs. Jarvis interrupted, her eyes filled with concern. "There's something I haven't told you and Tommy because I didn't want you to be scared, but there's some bad stuff going on,"

"What? Trish asked, her voice sounding worried.

Mrs. Jarvis hesitated longer, deciding whether or not to tell her about the murders.

"... Some kids got killed up near the camp," she finally said.

Trish's eyes widened.

"The news said it was bad. They were killed by a psycho living in the woods. You see how unsafe it can be to just let someone into our home?"

"Oh... I'm sorry. I had no idea. Did they catch him?" Trish asked.

"He's dead. They killed him, but it just goes to show that you can't trust people nowadays. Some people are really sick," Mrs. Jarvis said.

Had Trish heard her mother right? Killed? As in murdered? She shuddered down to the soles of her feet.

"Just be careful, alright?" Her mother said, interrupting Trish's thoughts.

Trish nodded after a pause.

"I will,"


"How ya doing with Terri?" Ted asked Jimmy, who was leaning against the kitchen counter.

Jimmy didn't answer, pretending to ignore him and staring sadly into his beer.

"Nowhere, huh?" Ted said, shaking his head.

"She hates me Ted," Jimmy said morosely.

"Look, Jimbo, you gotta warm her up first,"

"I don't need any of your advice, Ted," Jimmy rebuffed.

"Look, just do what I do," Ted started to say.

Jimmy watched as Ted stuck his hand in his pants, unzipped his zipper with the other, and stuck his pointer finger through the zipper of his jeans, wagging it at Jimmy.

"Now, don't be such a dead fuck," Ted said, guffawing with laughter at his own joke.

Jimmy slammed his hand on the counter.

"Look, Ted, I told you I didn't like that. Besides, you have the hot one of the two," Jimmy sighed with frustration.

His eyes grew wide as Tina stepped into the room.

Ted still had his hand in his pants, his finger poking through his open zipper, cracking up at his charade, not noticing Tina standing there with a wry look on her face.

Jimmy swatted him and Ted turned to see Tina standing in the doorway.

Ted laughed nervously.

"Hiya," he said, waving with his hand that was poking through his zipper.

Jimmy groaned and buried his head in his hand.

"He thinks that's funny. He thinks that's a funny thing he's doing," Jimmy said.

Tina stifled a giggle, grabbed a beer from the counter and walked back into the living room.

"Great, now you've ruined it for me with her too," Jimmy sighed, walking back into the living room.

Ted reached out and grabbed him, pulling him back.

"Hey, Jimbo, I'm trying to help you out," Ted protested, but Jimmy knocked his hand away and walked out of the room.


Back in the main room, the party was livening up as Paul motioned everyone to all gather around. The teens gathered around the living room, Tina and Terri standing in the center of the misshapen circle they had formed.

Paul punched a hole through the bottom of two cans of Budweiser with a corkscrew, fizz bubbling to his lips as he sipped it up.

He handed one beer can to Tina, and one to Terri.

"Alright, the first one to chug wins," Paul said. "You ready, girls?

Tina and Terri both nodded, giggling with excitement, bringing the cans up to their lips.

"Ok, on three," said Paul.

"ONE…TWO…THREE!" the group chanted.

Tina and Terri both tilted their head back, guzzling beer as fast as they could, most of it ending up on the floor. The teenagers urged on both girls, laughing and cheering boisterously.

After a minute of drinking and chaos, Tina finished and lifted her beer can in the air in victory.

Terri fell back into a chair, defeated, laughing hysterically.

"The winner is Tina!" Paul shouted as the group cheered exuberantly, all except for Samantha who watched as Tina leapt into Paul's arms, hugging him for longer than she was comfortable with.

"What do I win?" Tina said to Paul, biting her lip coyly.

"What do you want?" Paul asked.

"How about a dance?"

Paul smiled.

Samantha's jaw dropped.

"Jimbo, put on another record," Paul pointed to the turntable, and pulled Tina close.

Jimmy picked up a record, and put it on the turntable.

"Stella by Starlight" poured into the room softly, as Tina draped her arms around Paul's neck and they gently swayed back and forth, Paul's hands on her hips.

Tina caught Sam giving Paul an icy stare.

"Oh, you don't mind, do you?" Tina asked, with a bitchy smirk.

Samantha watched as she leaned her head on Paul's shoulder. Her arms were crossed tightly, her eyes staring daggers.

"Actually, I'm going to take a swim. It's getting a bit too close in here for me," Sam said coldly, and stormed out of the house, banging the front door closed after her.

Sara moved for the door, concerned.

"Sam, wait!" Sara called after her, but Doug grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards him.

"Sara, Sara, let's just dance," Doug said.

"I don't want to dance," Sara protested.

"Let's just mind our own business," Doug said. "I'll talk to Paul tonight, alright?"

Sara sighed, not taking her eyes off the door.

She turned back to Doug.

"Alright," she gave in, and leaned in to him, still thinking about how angry Samantha looked.

They never should have brought those strangers to this party. Really, Sam and Sara had talked before the party and it was actually only the guy's decision to bring them.

The girls never got a say in it.

Sara had seen Tina making eyes at Doug the entire night too. She knew it was a matter of time before something like this happened.

But Doug was right. Just let Sam and Paul work this out on their own, she told herself.

The teens had much bigger things to worry about.


That bitch, Samantha thought nastily as she walked down the trail towards the lake.

She just shows up at our party with her just-as-slutty sister and ruins everything. Goddamnit. Sam had warned Paul that she didn't have a good feeling about them. But he didn't listen. Men never listen. Sometimes their dick could really get in the way of them actually thinking sensibly. Why even invite total strangers? What can go wrong? Paul had said. And now, she knew he had just been after the sex.

She stopped and took a deep breath, the burning sensation in her chest slowly fading.

That bitch, she thought again. That bitch, that bitch. She wanted to rip them apart with her bare hands. She wanted to hit her as hard as she could with one of those wine bottles on the wall.

But that's how a guy would have done it, and she wasn't about to stoop down to that level. Girls didn't fight like that. They did it all in secret.

God, she had been all over him. They almost had to mop up her drool.

Wasn't there some kind of secret code for women? If there was, the first rule should be to never go after a taken man. It just wasn't right. Shouldn't women look out for each other? Shouldn't women never go after another woman's man?

I would never do anything like that, Sam said. Sure, she was promiscuous, but never a home wrecker or a cheater.

It just wasn't right.

Of course, Tina wasn't the only one to blame.

Paul was just letting it all happen. She wasn't really as hurt about Tina, but she was more hurt that Paul didn't stop her. Nobody tried to stop her. They just let her practically molest him in there.

Paul didn't do a damn thing to stop her, or reject her. He had a fucking girlfriend, why didn't he tell her no? Was it that hard to resist someone's sexual advances for a guy?

For her it was easy.

Whenever some creep hit on her at a party, all she did was tell him that she had a man, and that was that.

For some reason, guys just couldn't keep it in their pants.

All she needed was a nice dip in the lake just to clear her head and cool off. She still felt disgusted seeing them all over each other. She was still sweating and shaking from almost punching that skank. Maybe Paul would come to his senses and join her.

Samantha shivered as a cold breeze brushed her bare arm. It was getting colder by the minute.

She continued down the winding trail, hugging her arms to her chest, still shaking her head in anger.

She still pictured them, pressed up against each other. That bitch, she thought again, repeating it over and over again in her head until in some kind of strange therapeutic way, it made her feel better.

She knew that something was up when they met the two of them on the trail earlier. Paul had that look in his eye, the same look that he had when he had come on to her a hundred times before.

He probably led her on, she thought. He was practically panting like a dog in heat over her. All the guys were. She even caught Doug staring at Tina's ass when they were swimming, but she didn't tell Sara.

Sam could take something like this happening. She was pissed, sure, but Sam had had guys cheat on her before. Sara? Sara had only ever dated Doug. She would have been devastated.

That slut can take Paul, but if she so much as touches Doug and hurts her best friend, she would have hell to pay.

Sam could make out the sign that read Crystal Point through the darkness, and stepped onto the sandy shore.

The lake looked eerily calm. A white mist hung over the surface of the water like an oppressive cloud. The night was quiet and still, all except for owls and crickets, and the gentle lapping of the water onto the shore.

She shivered, glancing around, making sure nobody was watching, and stripped down to her underwear, and then nude.

Just then, a twig snapped.

She whirled around towards the trail, covering her bare chest with her hands.

"Paul?"

No response.

"I know you're out there, Paul!" she called into the darkness.

She let her hands fall to her side, revealing her naked body to whoever was out there.

Still no answer. Just like men to just take everything for granted, she thought.

"Fine, screw you, Paul!" she cried, and turned back towards the lake.

She squinted, barely able to make out an inflatable yellow raft floating out in the middle of the lake.

They must have forgotten it on the shore this afternoon, and it got swept out into the water.

Samantha stuck her toe into the water, and after deciding that it was bearable, she dove into the water, paddling towards the raft.

She grabbed hold of the rubber grips on the side of the raft and pulled her body up onto the raft, sprawling out on her stomach.

How dare Paul be all over some white trash backwoods bitches when he could have all this? That was the thing with men. When they're trying to get with you, they're sweet and kind and opening doors for you. When you go out with them and be their girlfriend and fuck them, they don't want anything else to do with you and they just want to move on to the next best thing. They were all disgusting.

Maybe she'd get back at him and go screw around with Ted, or Jimmy. They were kinda cute. Or maybe she would just go grab a bottle of tequila and get shitfaced, or smoke some of Ted's grass. Either way, Paul was going to have to do a lot of apologizing.

He would probably be out here in no time, on his knees begging for forgiveness.

Crack.

Another twig snapping on shore caught her attention. She looked up towards the dock and thought she saw some bushes moving.

"Paul?! Paul?" she called. No answer."I know you're out there, Paul."

Still no response. This is what Sam always did when she got pissed, and Paul would always eventually come find her and win her back. It was just a matter of time.

"Screw you, Paul!" she called out into the darkness. Some fucking graduation, she thought miserably.

She sprawled back out on the rubber raft, trying to ignore the cold water seeping through the bottom.

And then she heard something else. Water splashing. Like someone was coming through the water towards her.

She didn't have time to look up to see who it was, because just as a huge splash of water came over her, a gigantic, meaty hand clamped down on the back of her head, pinning her to the raft.

Sam screamed as loud as she could, trying to fight against the hand on the nape of her neck, but it was too powerful. She twisted her head around underneath his monstrous hand just enough to see the white goalie mask that the huge man leaning into the raft and pinning her down was wearing.

There was a loud thunk and a hiss of air as something penetrated the bottom of the raft and Sam felt a searing hot pain like nothing she had ever felt before in her abdomen.

She felt cold steel rip through her torso, and as she let out a guttural shriek, her life began to slip away. The tip of the hunting knife poked through the tender flesh of her back, crimson rivulets of blood cascading down her bare buttocks and pooling in the bottom of the raft around her as her screaming and convulsing came to a stop.