Chapter 3
The trail down to Stillwater Camp was a little precarious in the daytime, but traveling down it by moonlight was downright nervewracking for Deborah. It was steep, with a sandy, gravelly surface, and the soles of her shoes kept sliding at random intervals as she walked. Luckily there were logs embedded in the trail to prevent falling all the way down, but she was already tense before they were even close.
Neither she nor Buggzy talked much at all. Something about the stillness of the woods along with the very real possibility of dying horribly made talking feel unwise, as if at any moment they could be overheard. At last, the trail evened out and Deborah cast a nervous look over at the abandoned campfire at the water's edge. Someone should really put it out, but already the previously large bonfire was dwindling down to embers. And honestly Deborah didn't really want to chance seeing Rob's body again. The house with the phone was further west, anyway. Buggzy started down the trail to the back door, but something caught her eye. Silently, she reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, tugging him along to the back of the long cabin.
There was definitely something wrong with the phone box.
"Is it supposed to look like that?" Buggzy whispered. Deborah shook her head and crept closer. The little light at the top of the box that normally glowed faintly blue was now blinking an angry red. Even more noticeable was a slash through the metal of the box.
"The wires have been disconnected," she whispered back, pointing at a group of black wires hanging loose around the top of the box. The metal on the box itself looked hot and there was no way she was risking touching it. Instead, she picked up a nearby stick and poked at the door. It swung open easily, belching out a bunch of pale grey smoke. Both Buggzy and Deborah covered their mouths and noses as best they could, waving the smoke away from their faces.
"Is it fixable?" Buggzy's whisper was muffled from behind his hand. He got a shrug in reply from Deborah, before she started inching closer to look. With the smoke making it hard to see and breathe, she didn't want to get too close, but she made sure she got a good look inside before crawling back.
"The fuse is useless, it's been cut in two. We need to replace it."
"Great." Buggzy frowned. "Well, f- that."
Deborah shook her head. "No, there's got to be a replacement. You can't think Kenny would let this camp open if he didn't have a replacement for everything that could break or get lost, do you? We've just got to find out where he put it."
Buggzy shrugged. "Well it's gotta be in the cabin, right? The fuse box is right outside..."
"I'd ask Kenny but who knows if he even has a radio," Deborah answered. "We could spend half an hour searching that cabin and find nothing at all. It should be close but I don't know where..."
That's when the lights turned off in the cabin in front of them.
Buggzy stepped back with a startled cry, while Deborah just clasped her hands in front of her chest. It wasn't just one light, it was all of them, including the lights along the road and, upon further looks, the lights at the cabin by the docks. All of the lights, and all at once. That meant only one thing- someone had cut the power.
"Where's the generator?" Deborah asked, "I was over in Blair's, I don't know the area well..."
Buggzy swore and gritted his teeth. "Over by the docks. That means he's gotta be close!" He started to jog towards the door but Deborah grabbed his arm again.
"No, that's the first place he'll look! He's got to know the phone's important! The cabin back at Evergreen is all locked up, we can hide there for a bit and come back when he's gone!" Her whispers were urgent but they carried an undeniable amount of sense. Neither of them knew what Jason was capable of. Being cautious was the best plan they had at the moment. Buggzy sighed, his shoulders sagging dramatically, before heading back to the trail at a jog. Deborah scurried to keep up while not tripping or stabbing herself with her poker.
Gym had always been an easy class for Buggzy, but it wasn't so for Deborah. She'd much preferred studying English or the Humanities in school. By the time they neared the cabin that they'd left only a short time ago, she was already starting to get winded. Thankfully the window was close to the back of the cabin, and Buggzy waited for her to get through first. The jog over hadn't tired him at all, so the least he could do was play lookout while she climbed through.
The lights were out in this cabin as well, since the generator covered the entire eastern side of the camp, both Stillwater and Evergreen. The only light was from the moon outside, which seemed exceptionally bright tonight. Deborah scooted along the wall away from the window, with Buggzy following close behind. She tucked herself up against one of the bookshelves on the wall, trying to get her strength back and convince herself at the same time that nothing was hiding in the shadows.
There was a very good chance that Jason hadn't seen them as they went back to the cabin; he was all the way over by the docks, after all. He wouldn't come searching for them here, and Deborah comforted herself with that idea. They just had to wait for a while and he'd probably move somewhere else. It had to be boring standing around and waiting for people to come to a single cabin. She sighed, the soft sound feeling much louder in the relentless silence of the night. The moonlight from the window dimmed, and Deborah turned to look. And nearly screamed.
There, at the window, silhouetted in the moonlight on the ground, was an absolutely immense figure. It dwarfed the window, and luckily didn't seem inclined to try crawling through it. But the shadow stretched out across the wooden floor for several long seconds, glancing from side to side across the area it could see. Listening, she assumed. Then, almost as quickly, the shadow was gone.
"Do you think he saw us?" Buggzy whispered, as soft as he could manage without becoming completely inaudible. Before Deborah could answer, they heard the sound of something hitting the door. It wasn't the dull thump thump of someone kicking the door like Buggzy had done, this was sharp and harsh- the sound of splintering and cracking wood. Deborah gasped, shrinking away from the direction of the sound. The wooden doors were sturdy here, but could they keep out someone- something like Jason?
Abruptly, Buggzy stood up. He tossed the baseball bat in his hand, staring ahead with a determined look. "Okay, Deborah, get ready to run." Deborah stared at him like he'd grown horns and asked her to jump off a bridge. "Look, somebody needs to find that fuse, right? I don't even know what it looks like, and I know I can't fix that phone. But I know how to use a bat. I'm gonna go get his attention, you use that distraction to get away, deal?"
Deborah stood as well, shaking her head. "You're going to get yourself killed," she hissed, her fear making the words harsh.
Buggzy reached into his pocket and pulled out a closed pocket knife, the moonlight glinting off the red handle. "I got protection. Now, you get ready to sprint once I've got his attention, I'm gonna draw him off towards the lodge. Get as far away as you can." Reluctantly she nodded. Buggzy wasn't about to listen to her, that was clear. He gave her a thumbs up and hopped out the window. For a few seconds she didn't hear anything, until there was a heavy crack sound by the door. For a moment she thought the door had broken, until she heard Buggzy shouting a challenge.
The smashing of the door stopped, followed by more shouting. Then, running feet and a heavier, thudding walk following. Then silence again. Worry clutched at her heart, but she couldn't go chasing after them. Trying to fight or outrun Jason would be the same as suicide for her, and it would be wrong to let Buggzy's efforts go to waste. Instead, she hopped out the window and took off for the northernmost cabin in the ring as fast as her legs could run.
The cabin was up by the end of the road leading to the camp, just a short walk as it were. It wasn't a big cabin really, only two rooms with a flimsy wall in between and two doors leading between the rooms. She flung open the southernmost door, then closed it behind her, leaning against it while she caught her breath. It had been pure adrenaline driving her along across the small campsite in the center of the ring of cabins, and now her arms and legs felt like jelly. But the cabin wasn't secure yet. With a sigh she stood back up and clumsily lowered the barricade, then opened one of the doors to the back room and barricaded the back door, too. Only then did she relax a little.
She flicked on the flashlight on her belt, bathing the room in a dim, white glow, then she began to search. She doubted that a cabin this far up would have a spare fuse for the phonebox, but who could really tell with Kenny. Knowing him, he'd prefer to have five spares in five different places just in case. There could easily be a fuse somewhere in this cabin. Neither the desk nor the small end table in the back of the building had anything of note in them, so she moved back towards the front.
As she stepped through into the little front room, she noticed something. Or, perhaps, a lack of something. The crickets had all gone silent again. She'd noticed it before, just before Rob was murdered, and it had been oddly quiet before Jason had appeared at the window of the shack. A cold chill ran down her spine, and she switched off her flashlight and glanced over at the barrier. It was in place, and three of the windows in the front room were carefully shuttered. If she could just get over there, she could maybe hide away from his notice.
Carefully, slowly, she tiptoed across the room, inching her way into a corner between two shuttered windows. Her hiding spot was hopefully out of sight, with the window on the other side of the door being the only one without shutters. She curled herself up into a ball in the corner, hoping to avoid any notice, and tried hard not to think of reasons why Jason would be back so suddenly. Buggzy must have just lost him, that's all. That's what it had to be, right?
Deborah tried very hard to keep her breathing controlled and quiet, but it was awfully hard to do so. Any second it felt as though her heart would leap out of her chest, and her limbs were still shaky from having pushed herself so much. Through the pounding rush of her own heartbeat, she heard something outside the cabin. A heavy thud, thud. Someone was walking around outside, and from the sounds it was someone very large indeed. Curiosity got the better of her, and she stretched up to glance outside through the slats in the shutters.
Jason wasn't as close as she'd thought. He was walking along the path circling the campsite, but any moment he might turn her way. For the first time however, she got a good look at him. He was, as she had correctly discovered earlier, massive. Easily over six feet tall, more likely nearing seven, and built like a wall of solid muscle. At least, he should have been solid muscle. As he turned, appearing to search the area, she realized her mistake. The person in front of her should not have been able to move at all.
Parts of him were certainly human-looking, solid and muscular, but his shirt was getting a little tattered around the bottom, and underneath where she should have been able to see skin there seemed to be just an empty hole bathed in shadow. The story said he'd been sunk in the lake for some time, but she hadn't truly believed it before. This creature, with a drape of chain around his neck, and a glistening machete in his hand, was barely a person at all.
The white hockey mask swung towards her window and his body straightened out to follow, and Deborah pulled back. Had he seen her? She couldn't tell, but he took a step closer, then another step... It was very hard to control her breathing to a steady, unnoticeable pace now- the world seemed to have shrunk to a pinpoint and the only thing in her sight was Jason slowly walking towards her. Her body tensed all up, preparing to scream or run or something, when a hand clamped down over her mouth and pulled her down, wrestling her into the corner and away from the window.
She very nearly screamed in sheer panic, but the hand held her jaw firmly closed. The person's mouth was close to her ear, and they whispered a soft, harsh Shhhhh, their hot breath tickling her cheek and sending shivers down her spine. She couldn't move her arms either, for whoever was holding her had their other arm around her chest, pinning both of her arms down. They had her pulled so close, she could feel their strong heartbeat pulsing against her back.
The heavy footsteps neared the window, and she closed her eyes. Maybe he wouldn't notice her, or the person who had pulled her down into the shadows. Seconds ticked by, before there was another loud crack from outside, and the shadow at the window disappeared. A shouted challenge (a rather profane one honestly, that made Deborah's eyes widen) and the sound of running feet told her Buggzy had only lost Jason before.
Still, Jason moved slowly, and the arms around her didn't release until the sound of heavy footsteps was gone. Even then, they didn't let go immediately. From next to her ear, the person whispered, "If I let go, do you promise not to scream?" Deborah nodded, several vigorous shakes. The hand uncovered her mouth, and the one around her chest receded as well. Immediately she scrambled away from the corner and over close to the table in the center of the room, before turning to look at the person in the corner.
The person was tall, and from the vague shadowy shape she saw and the voice she'd heard in her ear, male. Other than that, she couldn't tell anything, so she flicked on her flashlight, aiming it towards the ground so she didn't blind him. The harsh white glow of the light sent the young man's face into craggy shadows. He didn't look much older than her, really, early 20's at most, but the harsh light made him seem far older. His hair was tawny blond and fell in unkempt curls across his tall forehead. He had a very long face indeed, with hooded eyes and a long straight nose and a cleft in his chin that her flashlight made into a deep gouge. She'd almost say he was overdressed for the occasion, with a heavy denim and sherpa-lined jacket over top of a plaid flannel shirt and a pale blueish-grey henley shirt underneath.
"Who are you?" she asked in a fierce whisper, though she was feeling more scared than violent. "How did you get here?"
The young man sat up and seemed ready to crawl over to her. She shrank back, and he froze. Then, with a big sigh, he settled himself where he was. "My name is Tommy Jarvis. Someone here radioed for help, so I drove over." His voice was soft and faintly nasal, but something about it was so earnest and open. Deborah blinked.
"Radioed... did you hear my message on the CB?" she whispered. He nodded.
"Yeah, I didn't catch all of it, but I understood what you were saying. He's back, isn't he?" The moonlight through the slats of the shutters fell on the stock of a shotgun, hung over the young man's- Tommy's- shoulder. The corner of his mouth twitched up into a taught, humorless smile. "I brought the gun like you asked, but I don't know how much it will help."
"How do you know that?" Deborah's voice was still a bit shaky from fear.
The smile faded, and his brows furrowed. It could have just been Deborah's imagination, but a haunted look seemed to emerge from his pale eyes. "I've run into Jason before," was all he said but she would have laid money that there was more to the story. Nobody gets a look that broken from something as simple as he made it sound. A few moments passed between them, the silence interrupted by quiet cricket chirps outside. Finally, Tommy spoke again.
"How much damage has he done? Do you know?"
Deborah shrugged. "I dunno, really. The power's out over here in Evergreen, and he messed up the phone fuse box down in Stillwater. That's all I know, I haven't gone anywhere else." Tommy's brow furrowed and he frowned.
"Where's Stillwater? I don't know the camp layout-"
"Ah!" Deborah sat up onto her knees and pulled the folded-up map out of her pocket. "I have a map right here!" She scooted across the floor and settled beside him, laying the map down on the floor so they could both see. Tommy leaned in to look, his side pressed up against hers. "We're here right now, in Evergreen." She pointed to the topmost cabin on the right side of the map. "And Stillwater's down here, by the lake." There were two cabins down there, side by side with the campfire they'd been at right in the center. "And the phone is here, in the big cabin."
Tommy craned his neck from side to side, studying the map, his face getting noticeably close to hers as he did so. "Just the one phone?"
Deborah nodded. "Just one so far, there's another that's supposed to go in at the main lodge soon, but it got delayed. But we have a CB Radio in case of emergencies." With a small sigh she added, "Emergencies like this one, I guess."
Beside her, Tommy turned his head to look at her, and Deborah turned a little to return his gaze. "It's gonna be okay," he said softly, but there was a hesitance in his voice. She could tell he didn't really believe it, and honestly neither did she, but the words were nice to hear. He dropped his gaze back to the map a little too quickly. "How bad is the phone? Can it be repaired?"
A nice, task-oriented question. Deborah closed her eyes for a second, visualizing the damage she'd seen. "There's some disconnected wires, but those shouldn't be difficult to fix. But, he sliced through the door to the box and cut the fuse in half."
"Is there a another fuse around?" asked Tommy, his eyes still on the map.
Deborah opened her eyes and pursed her lips together. She rocked a little from side to side as she thought, occasionally bumping into his side. "There are replacements somewhere, but the only person who knows where they are for sure is Kenny. He's the head counselor," she explained. "There's probably one in the house with the phone, but it's too risky to search there- Jason might be nearby." She breathed out a little huff of frustrated air, making her bangs poof for a second. "I was searching around here, but I haven't seen any signs of a spare fuse nearby. But... it's a long shot, but I'd bet Kenny has a spare hidden away at the main lodge. It's the best stocked building in camp."
Tommy made a thoughtful noise beside her. "The lodge... that's the old Higgins house, right? Over that way?" He pointed towards the western side of the camp. Deborah nodded.
"That's right, I think it used to be a residential building before it got bought and refurbished. At least, that's what I heard." He nodded at her reply.
"I grew up around the lake, I know the area. I'm just not used to the new camp layout." He pointed to the map. "Well, if there's a spare in the lodge, we'd better go look for it." Carefully he folded up the map and stood, offering a hand to help her. "Let's go, um-" He paused for a second, an unanswered question hanging in the air around them.
"Deborah. Deborah Kim," she answered, taking Tommy's hand and letting him pull her up. She couldn't help noticing the lightly callused feeling of his skin as she did so, he certainly wasn't any stranger to physical labor.
Silently, she gestured for Tommy to keep the map, then lead the way the the second room in the building. One of the windows was already open- most likely the one Tommy himself had entered from while she was distracted- and she crawled through it herself, waiting on the other side for her new companion to follow.
The inside of the cabin had been too dark to see anything clearly, but the outdoors were light up by the silver light of a full moon. A moment of regret tinged Deborah's thoughts as wished she'd have picked any other color to wear today instead of white. Under the moonlight it almost seemed to glow. She flicked off her flashlight and motioned for Tommy to follow her. She knew the way well enough, she'd walked it just this afternoon, and if their lights were off they'd be harder to spot.
Walking in silence, they started the trek to the lodge, slipping around behind one of the cabins in the circle and meeting up with a trail on the other side. The trees and rocks seemed to loom around them, and the intense quiet put all her senses on high alert. Every step seemed magnified, every stone displaced by walking or puff of air that moved the leaves above felt like a beacon, designed to alert Jason to their presence. Impressively, Tommy seemed to move as quietly as Deborah herself, despite not knowing the path. He even managed to avoid a few low-hanging branches that could easily have cracked him across the forehead in the dark, were he not paying attention.
Finally the barn came into view, and beyond came a glimpse of the warm, inviting lodge beyond. Deborah picked up the pace, her eyes fixed on the lodge ahead. The lights were still on at the lodge, casting pools of comforting golden light around the area. It was tempting to just run headlong towards the big house, but Deborah forced herself to stick close to the side of the barn. It would be a handy place to escape if she needed it, even if several of the windows were boarded shut.
Halfway along the side of the barn, her foot collided with something heavy. It didn't feel or sound like a rock really, and it rolled away at her touch. A growing feeling of dread washed over her, coiling around her chest and stealing her breath. She turned on her flashlight and lowered her eyes, fearing what she'd see.
There, resting against the side of the barn where it had stopped, lay a human head. Buggzy's sightless face stared back at her, his mouth opened for all eternity in a silent scream.