"I don't want to scare anybody, but I want to give it to you strait about what happened up here." Jasper looked around the group who sat cozied around the fire at the edge of the woods.

Emmett smirked and shook his head, but glanced at Rosalie beside him, who smiled wide as she anticipated the local ghost story. He whispered into her ear. "Can you pass me a beer?"

Rosalie reached into the cooler and winked as she handed him the bottle. "Let's hear it," she said, turning her attention back to Jasper.

Alice smiled and exchanged a glance with him. She let out a light chuckle when his eyes narrowed and he began the story.

"There was this boy," Jasper began.

"His name was Jason, right?" Jacob asked, raising his eyebrows.

He nodded, "That's right. You see... his body was never recovered from the lake after he drowned. If you listen to the old timers in town they'll tell you he's still out there."

"Like Ralph..." Leah rolled her eyes, but placed her elbows onto her knees and leaned forward.

Jasper grinned, "They say he's still around... some sort of demented creature... surviving in the wilderness." He turned toward Edward and Bella, "Fully grown by now."

The two of them smiled, and glanced at each other. Bella shifted slightly closer and sighed quietly as Jasper continued.

"Stalking... surviving on wild animals... they say he's fully grown by now."

Esme looked over her shoulder towards the woods that loomed just a few feet behind her.

Carlisle half-smiled and rubbed her back.

"Where's that kid Mike?" she whispered.

His eyes scanned the small crowd, but he didn't see him. Before he could respond, Jasper went on, now glancing in in their direction.

"The girl that survived that night at Camp Blood a few years ago," he said, "On that Friday the 13th... she claims she saw him."

Esme made brief eye contact with Jasper.

"She disappeared two months later." He looked at her for a moment and then turned to Emmett and Rosalie again. "Vanished. Blood was everywhere. No one knows what happened to her." He stared them down and Rosalie looked at Emmett, who appeared just a little on edge for the first time. He still managed to crack a closed-mouth smile. "She was the one who supposedly killed that woman here who went on the killing spree... Mrs. Voorhees."

"Jason's mother," Alice added. "She's the one who killed a bunch of teenagers who were up here about to open camp five years ago."

"The lone survivor," Jasper chimed back in, "She beheaded Mrs. Voorhees. Legend has it that Jason saw his mother killed that night... and then he took his revenge... a revenge he'll continue to seek if anyone ever enters his wilderness again."

Leah swallowed hard and looked out toward the lake, and then glanced around the darkness.

"And by now, I guess you all know..." he cleared his throat, "We're the first to return here. Five years... five long years he's been dormant. And he's hungry..."

Everyone sat on edge listening to Jasper's story, each person taking their turn looking over their shoulder and moving closer to the person next to them.

Jasper glanced around, taking in their expressions. "Jason's out there..."

The rustling of leaves from the woods caught everyone's attention and they all stood up at once as a man with a deformed face and a long spear emerged from the woods just a few feet away from where they all sat.

The women all screamed, and even Alice grabbed Jasper's shirt with force that it ripped slightly at the bottom.

Emmett breathed in heavily and balled his fists, about to tackle the man but stopped when Jasper began to chuckle. At the same time it registered that the person was wearing a mask, one that he quickly removed as he dropped the spear with a loud laugh.

Everyone's attention turned to Jasper, and Jacob was the first to laugh with them in a sense of relief.

"Mike?" Bella asked, looking at the red-faced boy who stood belly-laughing in front of them.

"That's right." He continued to laugh and shared a quick high-five with Jasper.

Alice looked at him and shook her head, unaware of the surprise ending to her boyfriend's story.

Esme and Rosalie locked eyes for a moment, both still catching their breath before they each cracked a smile.

"I was this close to decking you in the face," Emmett said with a laugh, before putting his hands on his knees and looking down at the ground. He let out a decompressing laugh.

"Was I the only one who wasn't scared?" Leah teased.

"You jumped about ten feet," Jacob said back with a laugh.

"Still less than your twenty feet Jake." She winked, making him snicker and shake his head.

Carlisle managed a laugh and looked at Jasper. "You got us pretty good there."

Jasper smiled, "I just had to get all these little "stories" out in the open," he told them, "I figured it was good to get it all out of our system." He laughed again and looked at everyone who was still awaiting a conclusion to everything. "It's ancient history. Jason drowned. Mrs. Voorhees was killed and Camp Blood is kind of off limits."

"I thought this was Camp Blood," Mike said, still grinning from his part in the scare.

Alice shook her head. "Steve opened up the camp here because no one wants to be associated with everything that happened back then."

"So where's the actual Camp Blood?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jasper pointed in the opposite direction of where they'd all set up camp, "It's over-"

Alice put a hand over his mouth and smiled at Edward, "Steve doesn't want us all wandering over there."

"Oh, I wasn't... planning on it." Edward shook his head, though Bella looked intrigued.

"They have police over there regularly," she explained with a shrug, "So it's better if we just stick around our side of the lake."

Emmett and Rosalie exchanged a mischievous glance, but nodded in agreement.

Mike huffed once and tossed the mask into the grass behind where they sat. Everyone started chatting again and Jasper turned to Alice, nudging her elbow.

"I scared you, huh?" he smirked.

Alice fought back a smile and stood up. "The second act needs work."

Jasper's smile faded as she made her way across the fit pit and asked Esme for a marshmallow. She then took a seat next to where Esme and Carlisle sat and stared across the way, pretending to be mad at him.

He grinned and shook his head, pretending not to care but every so often giving her pouty faces in an attempt to coax her back to his side.

"Hey man," Mike said to Emmett, "Can I, uh, have a beer?"

Emmett smirked, "After that lame-ass excuse for Jason?" He huffed through his nose, "Sure, why not? Anyone else want one?"

Jacob and Leah both reached for a beer, as did Bella, Jasper and Alice.

"I'm fine." Esme smiled, declining the beverage, as did Carlisle who slumped an arm lazily over her shoulders.

"Edward?" Emmett asked.

He grinned, but shook his head. "Maybe next time."

Esme looked back at Carlisle and took a deep breath. "Well... Jason really does exist." She looked back at the mask on the ground behind them.

He laughed. "Just a legend..."

She smiled at him and then reached for a small piece of chocolate on a paper plate next to where they sat. "Want one?"

Carlisle shrugged and Esme broke off a piece, playfully slipping the square of chocolate into his mouth.

"Hey..." Jacob pressed his eyebrows together, "Where's Steve?"

Alice looked across the way at Jasper, suddenly realizing he hadn't returned from the errands he was running earlier.

"I don't know," she said aloud.

"He could be back at the cabin," Rosalie said to them.

"He's not sharing the big one with us," Emmett pointed out, "So he's probably back at his own cabin. We left ours open with the list of jobs checked off that we did. I'm sure he doesn't want to hang with us all night."

"True." Alice nodded.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Jasper said with a shrug.

Alice nodded a second time, and then stood up to go sit back with him, snickering to herself as Jasper grinned in his victory to get her back to his side.

Bella took a swig of her beer. "That was probably the world's greatest icebreaker."

...

Steve toyed with the keys that dangled lifelessly from the ignition of his Jeep. Over and over again the engine purred but wouldn't turn over to get the car to start.

"Damn it." He shook his head and slammed his hand against the dashboard in frustration. For a moment he sat in silence and then climbed out of the car. Directly in front of him was the big yellow sign with an arrow that pointed him in the direction of his destination.

"Maybe this damn camp is cursed." He lightly kicked the front driver's side tire, shoved his keys in his pocket and began hiking out toward where his staff was staying. "Cursed." He said again, shaking his head. A moment later he felt the first rain drop, which was abruptly accompanied by a downpour.

Steve grinded his teeth, marching faster in the lake's direction. "This is ridiculous." Anger flowed through his body, and then he began to run, trudging through the sheet of rain until he was out of breath.

"I need to get in better shape," he said aloud.

Up ahead in the distance he saw a flashlight, though couldn't make out who was toting it.

"Hello!" he held his hand up above his eyes, attempting to see past the bulging beam of light.

When no one immediately responded he walked up toward them faster. "Alice? Jasper?"

No response.

"Hello!?"

Steve came up so he almost face to face with the mystery person in the woods, still peering to the best of his ability to see in the darkness. Before he could get a visual on the person's face he felt a pain in his midsection. At first it felt like a pin had pricked him, but the feeling quickly became more excruciating.

He looked down, the flashlight illuminating the wound to his abdomen.

Steve cried out in pain and clutched his body. Blood dripped from the wound that stemmed from an oversized machete that had been plunged into the area just below his chest. He looked upward again, unable to identify his assailant before collapsing to the rain-soaked landscape beneath him.