Chapter 24: The Curse
...
I stood in silence, shivering when the icy winds blew through me. I rubbed my goosebump covered arms, only wearing shorts and two short sleeved shirts. My original shirt, and the camp shirt. I heard the crunch of leaves and dirt from behind me. It was Carson. He placed his hands on his hips and sighed, staring in the same direction I was.
"I still don't understand why that woman is still part of the Council. I wish she got fired when she decided to open this damn camp back up..." I heard Carson mutter to himself from behind me as he watched the car my dad and Margaret were in. My dad's car lights disappeared amongst the trees. I turned to face him, then looked around him and noticed someone was missing at his side.
"Where's Jackson? Wasn't he just here?" I asked Carson, trying to change the topic. Carson kept his eyes on the road where my dad and Margaret had just drove on. "Jackson is around. It's hard for him being back here since this is where his older brother died," Carson said.
My eyes widened in surprise, remembering the day when I was at the general store. That's why Jackson blew up at Ralph Jr. He mentioned his older brother being a counselor and paying for the consequences. Jackson must still be dealing with the grief.
"What are you doing here at the camp?" he asked me, finally turning his eyes to me.
I hesitated. "I...I'm looking for something-"
"What are you looking for?"
"Um...something very important..." I replied.
Carson gave me a look. "How important?" he asked.
"Um...Catastrophically? Could bring an end to the world as we know it?" I hinted to him, but not revealing too much.
Carson gave me one of his suspicious glares, before turning away from me, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever you are looking for, it's not here. I made sure of that years ago," he said gruffly. We stood side by side in silence at the entrance of the camp for what felt to be a long time. A few of the counselors were already back in their own cabins, while my mom and Rod continued talking in low voices a good distance away from us. The trees swayed with more motion, as if possessed by a demonic being. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
"What did your dad say to you before he left? I noticed he looked pale," Carson finally asked. I hesitated on telling Carson what my dad told me, but at this point, I felt there was no reason hiding anything from Carson. He seemed to be on my side in this whole thing.
"He told me he saw Jason back when I came to this camp."
Carson was silent for a long time.
"Do you believe it was Jason who murdered the ranger?" I asked him. Everyone, except Margaret, seemed to believe that it was Jason who had killed the ranger. Was Jason really behind the murder? Or did we have another killer in the camp? If we did, was the Necronomicon in their possession?
Sheriff Carson hesitated before nodding. "I am not someone to believe in the supernatural...but ever since he drowned years ago...a lot of strange things have been happening around in this town...especially here in this camp," he admitted.
"Like what?" I asked him, trying to keep my face neutral and to not give anything away. Carson shifted uncomfortably where he stood. He didn't seem to like talking about Jason.
"This town has seen it happen over and over. The kids come here for the summer camp program. Then they come back years later to be the camp counselors...only to be slaughtered by him... And it's always on Friday the 13th when he comes back."
"Friday the 13th...that's the day the camp opens," I realized, remembering back to the announcement on the radio and the flyers Kenneth was giving out to everyone in town.
Carson nodded his head.
"What's today?" I asked him.
He gave me a look like I was crazy, but I explained to him that I had no phone or calendar at my dad's cabin to tell me what day it was. He nodded his head silently, understanding. "Thursday the 12th," he told me.
Tomorrow was the day.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked
"Because it's happening again. This...curse that has been put on the town. You and your ex. His girlfriend. All the counselors at the camp right now. You all came here to this camp fifteen years ago." He placed his hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. They were full of genuine fear.
"Please leave this camp. I don't want to see this town go through another massacre," he said. I stared back at him. Another massacre? That's right. Aaron mentioned that Jason had killed the counselors here when we came as kids.
"What happened to me fifteen years ago?" I asked him. Carson removed his hands from my shoulders and straightened up. He sighed, running his fingers through his messy grey hair, as if the memory disturbed him.
"I don't like thinking about it...but, I remembered it clearly...Your dad was going nuts when it happened. I remember getting the call from him, saying there had been a massacre at the camp...When me and the paramedics arrived at the camp, he came running up to me. He grabbed me by the shoulders. Shaking me. He screamed right in my face, saying something about you not breathing. Possibly dead. Once the paramedics came to get you, they saw that you were very much alive...soaking head to toe...but very much alive." He saw the look on my face I was giving him, causing him to nod his head. "I thought the same thing...but I witnessed it myself. You were ten or eleven years old."
"Why was I soaking wet?" I asked him.
"You were found near the lake...so our guess was you somehow sleepwalked and fell into the lake," he told me.
The constant nightmares I had about drowning in water were beginning to make sense. They weren't just nightmares. They were memories. Must also be the reason how I can't remember anything when I was ten years old. I must have hit my head, and became unconscious. That's why my dad thought I wasn't breathing. That must be why I couldn't remember anyone who came here to the camp, or even going to the camp at all.
"Excuse me, officer," I heard my mom say as she came walking up to us. Rod stood behind her with a deep scowl on his face. "We're leaving," he said gruffly. I kept my face stoic. "Ok. Bye," I said. My mom shook her head and placed her hand on my arm. "You are coming with us," she told me, causing me to pull my hand away from her as if her touch hurt me.
"What? No. I'm staying here," I said, my eyes narrowing.
"Honey, please-" my mom started, but Rod intervened, taking a step forward. "You do as your mother tells you and get in the damn car!" he snapped. I saw Carson place his hand on his gun that rested in its holster, taking a step forward. "There's no need to get hostile, sir," Carson said calmly. Rod bared his teeth at Carson.
"I'm not leaving," I told them again. My mom gave me a look that was both disappointed and concerned. "We both agreed that this place is not safe and I don't want you staying here another minute," my mom told me.
"Well I didn't agree to anything," I threw back at her.
"You should go with your mother," Carson said, getting into the conversation. I turned my head to him. I couldn't believe Carson was taking my mom's side in this. "I can't leave till I find it," I told Carson, hoping he knew what I was talking about.
"I already told you. It's safe. I made sure of it," he assured me.
"I found it."
Carson's eyes widened. "...What?"
"It...called to me. I found it...and took it back to my dad's cabin...Someone broke in and stole it... Someone has it here at this camp," I told him, trying to keep it as discreet as possible. I didn't want my mom knowing I was once in possession of a demonic book.
The blood completely drained from Carson's face. "No...no...That's not possible..." Lightning flashed across the sky, followed after by the loud booming of thunder. The trees whipped and swayed around us as if dancing to the storm's song.
"We better get going before this damn storm reaches us," Rod said as he began half jogging, half waddling over to the white SUV parked in one of the dirt parking spots at the entrance of the camp. My mom grabbed my arm and began to pull me to the car. "Come on! Before it starts raining!"
I resisted her pull, turning my focus back to Carson. Carson hesitated before motioning me to go with my mom. "Go. I'll look for it here. I'll take care of it." I hesitated where I stood. Lightning flashed again, closer this time. Thunder boomed, causing us to flinch. My mom pulled me harder, forcing me to walk with her towards Rod's car.
Carson stayed where he stood and watched as I was pulled into the SUV. My mom closed the door behind me and went around to the passenger side. Rod started up the car and turned in a full circle on the dirt path, and out of the campgrounds.
The Camp Crystal Lake sign was seen in reverse through the rearview mirror. I felt a horrible churning feeling in my gut. I was getting away from the camp, but nothing was resolved. I felt like I was running away from the problems I had caused. I should've fought harder. Tears sprang to my eyes when Jason came to my mind.
I was leaving Jason. He thought I betrayed him. He hated me. My heart felt like it was splitting in two. Ripping at the seams. Jagged and bloody. I couldn't bare it. It was worse than my anxiety attacks.
"Oh! hon! I wanted to tell you the exciting news while you were away!" my mom interrupted my sad thoughts, bringing me back to the reality of being stuck in Rod's car that reeked of spilled beer and cigarette smoke. I mustered out a "What?" fearing for the worst.
"Rod and I are engaged!"
My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. No. The end of the world was already here. My mom and that piece of shit that pretended to be a human being were getting married.
"Now you have to start calling me dad," Rod said, but it sounded more like a threat to me. His eyes stared daggers at me through the rearview mirror. I felt like throwing up in Rod's SUV. I tried willing myself to do it, just so I could get out of this tightly enclosed car. The inside of the car was closing in on me. The retching smell of stale beer filled my nostrils. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't-
"Why?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"Because I said so," Rod snapped.
"I wasn't talking to you!" I snapped back at him, glaring at the rearview. His eyes widened. I stared at the back of my mom's head. "Why are you marrying him?" I asked her, my voice raising. My mom turned around in her seat to look me in the eyes. "Because I love him and he asked me the question. So I said yes," she said as a matter of fact. I couldn't stop myself, my anger was boiling over.
"Do you really love him? Or are you just getting with him just to piss off dad?" I asked her, my teeth gritting. I watched as my mom's eyebrows slowly knitted themselves together. I struck a nerve with her.
"He is better than your f-"
Rod slammed his foot on the brakes, causing my mom to hit her head on the dashboard, and me to hit my head against the back of her seat. "Mom? Are you ok?" I quickly asked when I heard the sound of her head making contact with the dash. She slowly lifted her head, rubbing it carefully. "Yeah...Rod. What's going on?" she asked him.
Rod didn't answer her, nor did he make sure if she was alright. Instead, he glared straight ahead to the road. He honked his horn. "Hey! Move it!" he shouted. There was a car in the middle of the one way dirt road. Its' rear lights glaring bright red at us. Rod tried to go around the car but then stopped when he realized he didn't have enough room to do so. On the left side of us was the thick forest, the right side, a steep mountain. Rod honked his horn again.
"Son of a bitch," Rod muttered angrily as he laid his hand down hard on the horn again. The car in front didn't budge. Suddenly, two figures appeared from around the car. One of them had a huge misshapen head that bobbed around in the winds. I tensed up, thinking we were going to get mugged, but then relaxed when their faces appeared in Rod's headlights and revealed my dad and Margaret's faces.
"What the hell are they doing in the middle of the road?" my mom muttered as she glared at her ex husband. Rod and my mom got out of the car and confronted them. Muffled yelling was heard outside the SUV. I caught bits and pieces of what they were yelling about. Something about a tree in the way. I unclicked my seatbelt and got out of the car. The four yelled while being two feet from each other. I walked around them and passed my dad's car.
Sure enough, there was a tree laying sideways in the middle of the road. Blocking the only route to and from the camp. The tree was around thirty to forty feet long. The trunk came up to my chest, and was as wide as the length of my arm. There was no moving this giant. I looked over to the base of the tree to see what caused it to fall over. I knew there was a storm happening right now but it wasn't that strong to start tearing trees out from the roots.
I noticed movement from the base of the tree. At first I thought it was a bunch of snakes, until I saw the green leaves. The branches were moving away on their own. I could hear strange whispering and hissing from them. Of course this wasn't a natural disaster. The Necronomicon didn't want any of us leaving this place.
We were trapped here.
Behind me, the shouting got louder and louder. My parents and their significant others having to yell over the fast approaching storm. "Why the hell are you guys just standing around doing nothing?!" Rod screamed, throwing his arms up to the sky. My dad balled his hands into tight fists.
"Margaret has been trying to get ahold of someone for the past ten minutes!" my dad snapped at him, pointing over to Margaret who was wandering around a short distance away with her phone in her hands. "Why is there no signal up here? This is absolutely absurd!" Margaret muttered angrily to herself as he lifted her phone high up over her head and wandered around in her high heels for a possible signal.
My mom glared with pure hatred at Margaret and her bouncy cotton candy like hair. "What do you see in her, Dick?! She can't even get help! She's wearing a hideous wig!" my mom shouted at my dad.
"It's not a wig! It's real!" Margaret shouted back at my mom.
The clouds were getting darker overhead, churning and roiling till it was a swirling void of black. The trees whipped wildly around us. Another tree suddenly fell between the two couples, as if tired of their bickering. It shut them up immediately as Rod started backing away, seeing the storm's power and heading back to the car.
"Get in the car now!" Rod shouted at my mom.
"Honey! Come back over here," my mom called to me. I hesitated where I stood. I did not want to go back in that car. I didn't want to go back and be reminded about what Rod and my mom were about to become. It was a future I didn't want to be a part of. I looked past the fallen tree towards the other side of the road. The dirt road curved along the side of the mountain while the forest followed alongside it.
My eyes followed the road till it disappeared, and something flashed different colors from it. I blinked in confusion and looked again. Red and blue lights flashed from the other side of the mountain. Police cars? The police cars that came to the camp? If it were the same emergency vehicles that came to retrieve the rangers corpse, they should've already been at the town by now. They didn't get stopped by the tree because they were on the other side of it. What was going on?
I ignored the yells of protest as I lifted myself over the tree's trunk and slid down it to the other side. The winds played with my hair while whistling in my ear as I walked along the dirt road. The lights got brighter as I made my way around the corner. I stopped when the breath came out of my lungs. I was right. It was the ambulance and police cars. They were off the road. The front end of the ambulance's hood wrapped around a tree, while the police cars crunched the back end.
The vehicles and parts of the trees were on fire. The lights flashed red and blue, but no sounds of the sirens were heard. Vines were seen moving on their own as they wrapped themselves around the trees, trying to snuff out the fires. Tiny, high pitched inhuman screams were heard as the demonic spirits possessing the foliage tried saving itself. I didn't see any of the police or the paramedics. Did they make it out of the accident? The cars didn't look like they had anyone inside them as I walked closer. The fire's heat burned on my face and arms.
"Hello? Is everyone ok?" I called out, my voice quivering with worry.
"...I...I..." I heard a weak voice say from one of the police cars. I edged closer. All the windows were shattered. The police car was crumpled up like an aluminum can. The tires deflated. "Hello? Do you need help?" I asked, feeling silly since its usually the other way around in this kind of situation.
The driver's door swung violently open. Broken glass came off the window and shattered into even smaller pieces onto the ground. The police woman's hair was matted and in her face as she hung her head down in her lap. Her uniform was tattered and her arms were pale like she lost a lot of blood. I rushed up to her and grabbed her arms, only to recoil back in terror. Her skin was ice cold.
"I..." She grabbed my arm at lightning speed. Her nails were sharp and black as they dug into my skin. Blood welled up from where her sharp nails pierced my flesh. I cried out in pain, pulling my arm away, only to leave red stripes of blood on my arm. A low cackle escaped her. Her shoulders shaking.
"I...I'll swallow your soul!" she screamed as her head snapped up to me. Her eyes were white, ringed with red, sinking deep into their sockets. Her mouth was elongated with jagged yellow teeth and blood pouring out of them. I jumped back in fear, wrenching my arm free from her grasp.
I cried out when she left deep gashes along my forearm. Blood trickled down my arm and into the dirt ground. Before I could process what was happening, she came rushing at me with inhuman speed, sending me down to the dirt ground. I screamed loudly as I kicked and thrashed under the undead police woman. Her laugh sounded like multiple demons within her decaying mottled body as she pinned me down with her weight.
My anxiety instantly restricted my breathing. Adrenaline kicked in, my body suddenly feeling full alert. I got one of my hands free from the panicking and thrashing. In a quick last resort, I pressed my thumb into her right eye. She shrieked an inhuman shriek that sounded like nothing that belonged to this planet. She reared back on me, giving me enough time to bring my legs out from under her, and kick her in the stomach. She fell backwards into the dirt as I got to my feet, breathing heavily. Her clawed hands hovered over her damaged eye as green blood dripped from it. She stood hunched over, whimpering softly. She glared at me through her matted hair.
"You'll pay for this!" she shrieked. I looked around for a weapon. I was about to pick up a fallen branch, but thought better of it. All the trees and plants were alive somehow, I didn't want to risk it attacking me in the process. She stood up straight and began to convulse. I stood still, watching her. I had no idea what she was doing. For a moment, her face flickered from undead corpse, to healthy living person, then back to undead corpse. She stopped shaking after a few minutes then stared at me in confusion.
"Impossible...You can't be..." her voice faded as she stared at me. Before I could ask shat she meant, a strange whispery sound echoed through the forest. It was something I had heard before: Ki Ki Ki Ki...Ma ma ma ma...
It meant Jason was near.
A sharp blade suddenly protruded out of the undead police woman's rotting skull and good eye. The gooey, milky white eyeball stuck to the tip of the blade. The female corpse screamed an inhuman scream from the sudden attack, thrashing her arms around wildly.
Jason appeared from behind the corpse. He pulled his machete out of her skull before bringing it down on her head, cutting her in two. Green smoke snaked out of her gaping open wound as green blood bubbled and frothed out of her body. Jason's mask was splashed with the disgusting substance as he pressed his boot into her back and yanked the sharp, rusted machete blade out of her flesh.
Her cries of pain came out gurgled, collapsing into the dirt road. Jason lifted his foot up and brought his heavy boot down on her fractured skull, crushing it into a disgusting gooey paste. Jason didn't realize I was there till he lifted his masked face to me. It was like he had been in a trance.
"Hi, Jason," I was able to say. For a moment, I saw his eyes shining from the sockets of his mask, then quickly disappeared as he turned his back to me.
Before I could stop him, several loud shrieks pierced the night air. The other police officer and the two paramedics appeared from behind the burning ambulance. They too had white eyes, and bleeding mouths filled with sharp teeth. Their faces were distorted into demonic features. Their hands clawed with sharp nails. Jason backed up a few steps till he was nearly standing next to me. His machete raised.
"What are these things?" I asked him nervously. Jason slowly shook his head in silence. He had no idea what these things were. The three demonic beings laid their moon white eyes on me and pointed at me in unison. "I'll swallow your soul!" they said at the same time. Jason widened his stance and raised his machete, standing in-between me and the demonic beings.
The police man attacked first, jumping fifteen feet into the air, claws open and ready to attack. Jason swung his machete up, stabbing the demon into the stomach like a human shish kebab. The creature shrieked and flailed as he dangled from the air. Jason still had his arm up, as if the very weight of the undead corpse was as light as a feather. It tried snapping its sharp teeth at him, while raking its claws inches away from Jason's mask. Jason chucked the hideous demonic human away from him, sending it flying across the road and smacking against the side of the mountain.
"Jason! Watch out!" I cried.
One of the undead paramedics was sneaking up from behind Jason while he waited for the one he just attacked to get back up. Jason turned his head to me and his eyes widened from behind his mask. Before I could react, two blood covered arms wrapped around my neck. One of the paramedics had snuck up from behind me as well.
It chuckled in my ear, its breath smelling of rot and decay. "I'll swallow your soul and feast on your flesh," it threatened while I struggled in its grasp. Then I heard it making this low growling noise and opening its hideous gaping red mouth. Then it stopped. I felt its arms loosen a little, giving me a chance to escape its grasp. I moved away from it and turned around. The white eyed bloody ghoul stared at me. It had the same shocked and confused look the first undead police woman head.
"Impossible..." it said.
"Wh-what's impossible?" I asked it, my breath shaking.
It continued to stare at me with the whites of its glowing eyes. "You can't be...one of-"
Its head exploded into a million pieces. Its body stayed stagnant on its feet for a moment before collapsing into the dirt road. Jason appeared from behind with his gloved hands hovering where it used to be standing. The other paramedic was on the ground a few feet away, its legs and one arm missing with its head crushed under a rock. The undead police man was on fire, twisting and writhing on the ground. Jason had taken care of both of them while I dealt with the second paramedic. Why did those things question me like that? It was weird.
"Thank you," I told Jason.
Jason stared down at me from where he stood. His posture was stiff. His eyes were still hidden in the dark void of his mask. He continued staring at me as I watched his right hand reach down for his machete. The blood drained from my face as I watched him unsheathe his machete and hold it in front of him. He took a few steps towards me. I held my breath and braced myself...only to hear him walk past me and into the forest.
"Jason! Wait! Don't leave!" I cried out as I bolted after him.
Jason's footsteps were heavy and deliberate through the forest. It reminded me of an angry toddler stomping their feet to their room. The moon played peek a boo through the trees, painting their leaves a bright shiny silver. I sped up my pace to keep up with him. I could hear Jason swinging his machete violently as vines and branches got in his way. They hissed in anger when the sharp blade sliced them in half. Smoke trailed out from the ends.
"Jason! Please. Listen to me! I am not a camp counselor! It was just a disguise!"
Jason stopped and stared down at me.
Thunder boomed, causing a light rain to sprinkle down from the black sky. I stood two feet from him. Beads of rain outlined his mask. I slowly took a step closer to him, closing the gap between us. I explained to him how I had the feeling that the Necronomicon was in the camp, and tried sneaking in, only to be caught by the counselors and forced to wear the shirt.
"It was the only way I was able to get inside and look for the book." I explained to him. "I would never betray our friendship over being a counselor," I added. Jason stood silent for a long time. Something poked the side of my hip. I reached down and felt something in my pocket. My eyes widened when I realized I still had it. I pulled the object out and held it out in front of him.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was hoping that it would be easy to find...but I still haven't found it," I admitted to him.
The bear carving seemed to glow in the moonlight in my outstretched hand. Jason tilted his head to one side as he stared at the bear carving; the machete in his hand slowly lowering down to his side. Gingerly, his free gloved hand lifted up to the carving. He took it and held it in his palm.
"I found it in the Arts and Crafts cabin," I told him.
Jason turned the bear carving to one side, then the other. He turned it upside down till he saw his name written on the bottom before turning right side up. He closed his fingers around the carving before looking up at me. His silence was deafening. I realized I had been holding my breath, as well as the forest. It was so quiet between us.
Jason lifted his machete again, aiming the tip of the sharp blade at my stomach. I guess the power of friendship wasn't strong enough. My whole body tensed up in fear. I tried backing away but stopped when I had brushed up against a trunk of a tree. Jason took another step closer to me, closing the gap. The blade inches from my waistband. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the sting of salty tears in my eyes. I felt the machete slip under the camp counselor shirt-
Riiiiiipppppp
I opened my eyes when I felt the machete lift up, slicing through the fabric of the camp counselor shirt. It ripped down the center in two. Becoming a vest. Thankfully I still had a shirt underneath that shirt. Heat flooded my cheeks at the idea of being suddenly naked in front of Jason. Jason sheathed his machete before going down on one knee. He slipped the tattered camp counselor shirt off my shoulders and wrapped it around my bleeding arm. Stopping the blood.
"I...Oh...Th-thank you," I stuttered, my face burning in the cold night.
Jason tied the ends of the shirt into a knot before getting back up to his full height. He signed something to me, which I hoped was "I forgive you" in ASL. Suddenly, I heard my name being called through the howling winds behind me. I turned around and saw my mom loudly trudging through the woods.
"There you are, honey! I was looking all over for you! Why did you run away?" she asked me. My words were caught in my throat. Jason was standing behind me still. Did she see him yet? My mom brushed some branches out of the way before staring at me. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." I looked over my shoulder.
Jason had disappeared.
I sighed with relief. I was not ready to explain to my mom about Jason. My mom scolded me for a while, then filled me in on what had happened. When I had ran off, the four had continued bickering until they finally decided to work together to get the tree out of the way. Even with all four of them pushing and shoving, the tree wouldn't budge. Then they all tried calling the police on their cell phones, but there was no signal. Rod tried nudging the tree with his car at one point but he ended up damaging the hood of his car which made him even more mad. Then they went back to bickering. Then my mom realized she could just maneuver around the tree and go looking for me, which was how she found me.
"What happened to your arm?" she asked me.
I looked down at my arm with the makeshift cast. "A branch snagged it," I lied. My mom gave me a look. "Ever since you came here to spend a summer at your father's cabin, you've been acting very distant. I know you are keeping something from me...and I wish you would open up and tell me," she told me. I sighed and shook my head. "You wouldn't believe me if I did," I admitted to her.
A final loud drum of thunder came. The dark clouds broke, rain came down on us, soaking us to the bone. My mom tried covering her head with her arms. "Hurry! Let's head back to the car!" she said, turning around and trudging back the way she came. I followed after her. I stopped for a brief moment to look over my shoulder. The forest hissed and whispered insults to me in response. I turned back and followed after my mom back to Rod's car.