Her name was Crystal

There were eight men left. Eight men chasing one girl through the forest of Camp Crystal Lake.





Jedd veered off the trail to try and run ahead and cut Crystal off. Three men followed him. Four remained on the trail, chasing hotly after her.





Crystal wasn't tall. She barely reached over five feet. As she dashed down the trail the top of her head just barely brushed the wire that was tightly strung between two trees. The taller men running behind her, however, did not see the near-invisible obstacle in front of them. They ran smack into it and fell back to the ground, tripping over each other, coughing, choking and sputtering.





Dazed, confused and stumbling around to get back onto their feet, the four men did not notice Jason emerging from the forest behind them. He grabbed for a head and twisted it around sharply, snapping the mans neck. He pushed the body aside and went for the next head, grabbing a fist full of hair and pulling it back sharply. With his machete he slit the mans throat and severed the head off completely. He tossed the head aside into the bushes and went for the next man. By then the two men left alive had realized the danger they were in. Though they were still disoriented from their crash into the wire, they tried to attack the killer who towered over them. One threw a sloppy punch towards Jason's midsection but Jason caught his fist. He twisted the mans arm around until the bones snapped. Then, screaming, the man was thrown into his friend and the two were sent rolling on the forest floor once more. Jason quickly freed their heads from their necks with his axe.





He rolled his shoulders, his neck cracking, then he stalked forward and ducked under the wire before taking off to run after the rest of his prey.









The lake tapered off into a river a few miles outside of the camp. The water flowed faster and faster the further it went, until it reached the point where it fell, crashing downwards into a deep pool. It was a beautiful waterfall, and it was not far from the burning place.





Crystal's feet pounded the trail as she fought to stay ahead of Jedd and the others. When the trees cleared and she ran into the open, Jedd stopped and set his shotgun on his shoulder. He peered into the sight, aiming at the girls head, but she jumped over a small hill and disappeared from view before he could shoot her.





He cursed and motioned for the three men to follow him, running to the spot where she'd vanished... then stopped short when he nearly fell into a huge pit. It was a small, old quarry. Crystal had jumped down into it, and had hidden somewhere. Cans of gasoline were thrown everywhere on the gravel and stone floor, and in the centre raged a huge bonfire, it's flames reaching into the sky.





This was Jason's burning place.







"Shit.."







Jedd peeked over the edge to try and see how the girl had gotten down so he could follow her. He saw movement from the corner of his eye and looked to see a large man with a goalie mask on his face standing near the river.







Jason Voorhees.







Jedd cocked his gun and aimed at Jason this time, but like lightning Jason was gone again, disappeared back into the trees.







"You two go after him," Jedd waved his gun at two of the men, then motioned to the one remaining, "you stay with me," then he turned his attention back to climbing down into the quarry.







The two men who'd run after Jason made it to the bank of the river and looked around. The waterfall was only a few feet behind them. Within seconds both men were sent flying over the falls, an ice pick embedded in the eye-socket of one, and a small hatchet buried deep in the skull of the other. They splashed down into the water and sank, the pool turning red with their blood and flowing further down river.









Jedd and the last man had climbed down into the quarry and were looking for Crystal. There were huge rocks riled all around them. Crystal was moving in between them, staying hidden as best she could.







"It's over, you stupid bitch!" Jedd called. His voice echoed off the walls of the quarry. "You wont be able to climb out of here without getting shot! I'll tell you what. If you just come out nice and quiet, I wont kill you. I'll take you back to your folks and get my ten grand and we'll call it even. We'll even leave your boyfriend here so he can keep on killin' all them teenagers, just the way he likes."







Crystal, hidden behind one of the piles, shook her head. No way. She wasn't going to leave Jason. She didn't care about her old life anymore. She didn't want to go back. She wanted to stay here, with the man she belonged to. The man who belonged to her.







She looked up saw Jason at the top of the quarry, staring down at her. He nodded to her... and she knew that the rest of the men were dead. They were down to these two.





They were so close...







She took her bow from her back and grabbed an arrow. She set the arrow in place between her finger and thumb like Jason had taught her, and took a deep breath as she pulled back on the cord.





She stepped out from behind the rock pile and aimed, then shot at Jedd and the other man.





Her arrow hit the man in the arm with just enough force to embed itself deeply into his bicep.







He yelped in surprise and stepped back, then tripped over a couple of the gasoline cans... and then fell into the middle of the bonfire. His screams of horror filled the air.







Jedd whirled around and had his gun trained on Crystal, his finger on the trigger. Jason jumped down from the edge of the quarry and landed on him, tackling him to the ground.







The man who'd fallen into the fire was still screaming. He tried to roll himself out, his skin melting away as he went. He managed to push himself up and stumbled backward, falling onto Jedd and Jason who were wrestling nearby, trying to kill each other.







Jason recoiled from the burning man, kicking him away. In those few seconds that he was distracted, Jedd pulled a hand gun from his belt.







A loud shot echoed through the quarry.







Jason sunk down to his knees, clutching his stomach. Blood was gushing from his wound.







Jedd struck Jason hard over the head, knocking him over, then aimed at him again to finish it off.







"NOOOO!!!"







Jedd looked up in time to see the girl rushing at him, her knife in hand. She jumped on him, screaming and stabbing wildly at him with the blade. Another shot ripped through the quarry, but Crystal didn't stop. She buried her knife in Jedd's chest, throat, and face as many times as she could. Tears blurred her vision. Only when she realized that Jedd was dead and she was stabbing into his mutilated, bloody corpse, did she throw the knife aside.







She was dizzy. And she was getting dizzier by the second.







She looked down... and saw her own blood soaking the front of her shirt. Jedd had shot her in the chest. Her life was draining from her.







She strained to get to her feet, her hand covering her bullet wound. She felt blood gurgling up into her throat and she coughed. Her vision was starting to fade. But she didn't care.







There was nothing left to live for anyway. Jason was dead.







His lifeless form lay on the quarry ground not far from the roaring fire. She made her way to it, dragging her feet. She stumbled and fell to her knees... so she crawled the rest of the way.







She collapsed on him and with the rest of her strength she pulled his arm around herself.







"I'm... coming with you... Jas...on.." she coughed, her blood spattering his mask as she brought her face close to his. She kissed the cool plastic, too weak to lift the mask and kiss his face instead.







"I..'m... co..ming... with... you.."









Crystal died there on the floor of the quarry.







She died in his arms.









* * * *









Hours later, the raging bonfire had died down into nothing but glowing embers. It barely gave enough light for one to see their way around. It was dark. Night had fallen.







Two men and one girl lay dead on the ground there. A third man, larger than the others, was stirring.







Jason's lungs began to fill with life giving air. A moment later he sat up violently, as if fighting off some unseen force. Where he had been floating in a dark, silent world of painless rest moments earlier, he was suddenly and unwillingly thrust back to the living world.







A small, limp body dropped away from his arm. It lay motionless on the ground beside him.







The crickets chirped in the distance.







Jason couldn’t look.







He couldn’t.







Somewhere an owl hooted into the night.







His eye closed. He knew.







……he knew…







Crystal.









He gathered her up into his arms and cradled her close. He bent over her lifeless little body. He tore his mask off and threw it aside so that he could bury his face into her hair, begging her silently to come back. Come back.. please.. come back. He couldn’t live without her. She was everything to him. She couldn't leave him. She had to come back and smile again. She had to come back and laugh for him. She had to come back and live with him until they got old and died together. She couldn't die now. She... couldn't.







The world in its cruelty could not even afford Jason the ability to cry out in his anguish. Only one eye could shed tears.







He rocked her, shaking with his silent sobs, petting her hair and pressing his deformed lips to her cold skin. His tears rained over her face and dripped down to her lips, washing away the blood.







He was the same as he had been as a little boy, weeping in the rain over the headless body of his mother.







He'd begged his mother not to go, but she was gone. He begged Crystal not to go, but she was gone too. And Jason was alone.











He was numb as he carried her back to the camp. He could not hear, and he could not see. He could do nothing but feel… and it felt as though someone had torn his chest apart and ripped his heart out and smashed it against a rock.







He took her to the cellar and set her on his bed. He covered her with his blanket the same way he had on the first night he’d found her. He sat next to her and gazed at her face. A small, fleeting hope that she would open her eyes and smile at him passed through him. He waited a long time for it to happen, watching her. If he denied the truth hard enough he could pretend that it was the year previous… and that Crystal was only hurt… and he was waiting for her to wake up.







It did not happen.







Jason stood and left the bedroom alcove.







He gathered all of his flammable liquids and doused the entire cellar with it. He went upstairs and did the same.







He left the cabin and lit a match, tossing it onto the porch. He stood and watched the flames reach high into the night sky and consume the only happiness he’d ever known.







He stood there until the morning dared to show its face. There was nothing left of the cabin and the cellar but ash and smoke.







The light from the sun and the morning songs of the birds were starting to make him angry.







How dare life continue to go on while his Crystal was no longer a part of it.







There should be no more life. There should be nothing. No one should be alive and well and happy when Crystal was gone forever.







Jason’s hand went to the hilt of his machete, tied at his leg.







‘That’s right, Jason dear…’







It was his mother.







‘Now turn around and walk away.’







He turned and headed for the old dirt road.







‘I want you to kill everyone, baby. They’re all guilty. They took your Crystal from you, and now they have to pay. Kill them all, like a good little boy, Jason. Kill for Mommy!’







Jason nodded, his mask firmly back in place. The village would be his first stop. Then the rest of the world.







-----------------------------





The night opens her lap

The child's name is loneliness

It is cold and motionless

I cry softly into time



I don't know what your name is

But I know that you exist

I know that sometime

someone will love me



He comes to me every night

No words are left to say

With his hands around my neck

I close my eyes and pass away

I don't know who he is

In my dreams he does exist

His passion is a kiss

And I can not resist



I wait here

Don't die before I do

I wait here

Don't die before I do



I don't know who you are

I know that you exist

Don't die

Sometimes love seems so far

I wait here

Your love I can't dismiss

I wait here



All the houses are covered in snow

And candle light in the windows

They lie there together

And I

I only wait for you

I wait here



Don't die before I do

I wait here

Don't die before I do

I don't know who you are

I know that you exist

Don't die



Sometimes love seems so far

I wait here

Your love I can't dismiss



Don't die before I do



---------------------------------------



End.