Le Petite Mort- The Little Death

Jomo stumbled backwards, shaking badly. Her eyes never left the man. He didn’t make a sound, or advance on her. He simply tilted his head ever so slightly as if to say ‘Well now, what’s this?’. Jomo’s gut was wrapping itself in such complicated knots it hurt. Kevin and Becky, who hadn’t noticed the figure in the trees, were embracing nearby. Becky was looking at her questioningly. Jomo heard her ask what was wrong yet the words seemed to melt into the air. Her fear had deadened her limbs, stolen her breath, and muffled her hearing. Nothing seemed real anymore- except the hulking god of death ahead of her.

“It…it’s Jason Voorhees…”

Jomo’s voice was so choked with terror the words were barely audible. She hadn’t told her friends about the horrific murders in detail (not that she needed to, now they’d seen Jason’s handiwork for themselves) and they truly were something to curdle the blood. It was no wonder she was so afraid of Jason. He was so brazenly unnatural and merciless that even looking at him made her feel weak. But Jomo wasn’t the type of girl to stand around and get slaughtered. With her dark eyes still fixed on the inhuman behemoth before her, she took a step backwards.

Right into the dripping corpse suspended from the tree branch.

It was only then Jomo allowed herself to scream. She knew it was a dreadful sound- high pitched and unbroken like the shriek of a banshee. Without even closing her mouth Jomo took to her heels and ran for her life. She could hear Kevin and Becky beginning to pursue but Jason remained still. She carried on screaming until she tripped and her mouth filled with puddle water. Jomo didn’t stop to spit it out. She simply picked herself up and carried on sprinting unprofessionally onwards. One small hand fumbled in her skirt pocket. Kevin’s car keys were still there, safe and waiting. At once Jomo knew what she had to do.

As soon as she sighted Kevin’s car she unlocked it and tore the door open. Then she slid inside and slammed the door shut behind her with a crash. Liz and Bobby emerged from their tent, looking hot and ruffled. They seemed surprised to see two of their friends running with furious expressions while one sat, pale and trembling, in the driving seat of the car.

Jomo’s heart was thudding so hard in her chest she thought it would bust its way out. She wanted to leave this godforsaken camp immediately, and if the others wouldn’t leave then so help her she’d go alone.

“Jomo! Get the fuck out of my car!” Kevin roared. This was such a radical difference to his usual lazy drawl Jomo was shocked. His face was a picture of rage crossed with confusion. “I don’t know what you’re tryin’ to pull here but if you don’t move your ass I’ll…”

“I want out, Kevin,” Jomo said plainly. “Either you get in, or I go without you. You saw what Jason did to that boy. And I’ve just seen him so our chances of survival are, let’s face it, very little. Let’s scrap this idea and go party, like you wanted all along.”

“She has a point,” Becky mumbled to Kevin, clinging to his arm. “I don’t wanna have a branch through my chest. Now I don’t think this Jason a zombie or whatever. He’s probably just some sick crazy freak. But whatever he is, he’s real and he’s killed somebody, Kevin. Don’t you think…”

“NO! OUT”

He’s been drinking, Jomo thought miserably, there’s no reasoning with him now. I’m gonna have to try and drive this wreck out of here and leave all of them to their inevitable doom.

But although she was scared out of her wits Jomo was not cruel enough to abandon her friends when they were in danger. So ofcourse Kevin took his chance to wrench open the car door and drag Jomo out with so much force she felt something in her arm crack. Jomo kicked and wriggled in his grasp, feeling like a worm on a hook. She noticed that Liz and Bobby were still watching in calm interest as if this was a show they had decided to put on. In frustration Jomo lodged her elbow into Kevin’s crotch and skidded across the ground.

“What’s going on?” Liz asked pleasantly. “What’s up with Jomo?”

Jomo saw red. “I’ll tell you what’s fucki…”

“We’ll explain later,” Kevin muttered. Jomo was too slow to avoid his arm as he swung her over his shoulder. She knew this meant they wouldn’t be leaving the camp, no matter what. She was disgusted beyond words that Kevin was endangering all of them for some unknown reason. So in one last attempt to get away Jomo yelled at the others beseechingly.

“Stop him! We’re all going to die if we stay here a moment longer! Please believe me! Becky, you saw the dead body. Make him put me down! At least let ME go! I’ll walk home if I have to, just get his goddamn hands off me! I’m begging you-”

Kevin had by now carried Jomo to the entrance of her tent. He tossed her inside it and came in after her, straddling her waist so that she couldn’t move. She snapped at his hands with her teeth and knew at once she’d gone too far. Kevin slapped her across the face with a jerk of his wrist, busting her lip. She gasped, feeling dizzy. Her sight blurred. Kevin’s face appeared to be floating in the air.

“Enough,” he said in a fierce growl. “Now you listen up, short-ass. We’ve come this far and we sure as hell ain’t goin’ back now. If this Jason guy causes any shit I’ll go and finish him. Right? And another thing, Jo fucking Mong. If you even look at me wrong one more time I’ll slap you some more. Understood?”

“I understand that you’re an ass-wipe,” Jomo said disrespectfully. “I don’t give a damn what you do to me. It’s Jason I’m worrying about. He’ll kill us- all of us- without a second thought. I think you know that deep down, and you’re just as chicken as the rest of us. You just try and act like the bad man to make yourself look big. Well, I can see right through your cover, mister.”

Kevin paused. He was giving her a hard look. She felt uncomfortable about this and shifted awkwardly beneath him.

“I ain’t the only one with a cover,” Kevin said. His voice was ominous. Jomo realised that he was clambering off her but as he was blocking the tent entrance there was no chance of escape. “Something’s up with you, Jomo. I’m gonna keep my eye on you, get it? Oh, and before I go, you might like these…”

He dropped a couple of photos into her lap and backed out, zipping up the tent as he went. Jomo ignored the photographs for the moment. She leapt at the tent door and tugged, but to her fury and despair she heard the sound of duck-tape being torn of in strips and slapped down on the outside.

“Kevin! Stop screwing around and let me the fuck out, you jerk! I saw Jason Voorhees out there, and he is going to kill someone! I’m not kidding! Open this damned thing right now!” she bawled.

She heard Kevin mutter ‘stupid fat bitch’ before his shadow mooched off to join the others. Jomo didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t sure whether to scream again, burst into tears or go insane. In the end she simply turned very pale and bit her lip until it bled. She felt as if she was ready to kill Kevin.

Although if Jason pays him I visit I may not have to, thought Jomo.

Her eyes were drawn to the upturned photograph lying deserted on the floor amongst her suitcases and the sleeping bag. Breathing shallowly, she flipped them over and immediately wished she’d throttled Kevin while she had the chance.

The bastard had taken a picture with Bobby’s camera while Jomo had still been in her underwear. He must have made the clicking noise she’d heard in the cabin before getting changed.

Without a word Jomo snatched up the photo and tore it into a thousand pieces.

* * *

Jason stood on the far side of the lake watching the teenagers. He could see the glow coming from their campfire, and the dark blue shapes of their tents. In the deathly quiet of the night it was easy to hear them arguing amongst themselves and fighting like animals. Disgusted by their behaviour, he turned away. His machete was erect in his hand, tarnished with the blood staining its blade. Jason was itching to kill again. The young male intruder he’d impaled was only one of six who needed death. He could hear the taunting voices of the others screaming at each other like squabbling birds. Every word reached him clearly.

“’Sup with Jomo, Kevin? She was nearly shitting herself when we saw her.”

“Eh, there was a dead dude in the woods. One of my crew from back home. Got himself spiked on a tree. She freaked. Nothin’ new.”

“Jesus, he was dead? That’s bad, man. You think maybe we should hit the road?”

“Naw, it’s ok. Whoever got him ain’t gonna get us. If we see him, we mob him. There’s five of us, one of him. He ain’t got a chance.”

“Kevin, baby, I’m still scared. I wanna go home! Jomo’s right, this Jason’s real dangerous! He’ll probably-”

“Sit your ass down and quit squealin’, Becky. We ain’t goin’, ya hear me?”

Jason noticed two figures brawling beside the lake, one trying to escape, the other stopping her. They continued to wrestle against each other until somehow their fighting softened into a wild embrace. While he watched, the pair tore at each other’s clothes in an animal-like frenzy. Their grunts echoed across the water so loudly Jason jerked back, startled. The other teenagers were watching, laughing noisily and swigging from a can of something. Alcohol. Liquid filth. Jason could hear his mother spluttering in contempt at the sight of it.

They soon finished one can and moved on to another, cheering their friends and egging them on in their disgraceful act. It appeared that now the male and female were having sex. They were moving upon one another and the girl kept crying out with short, sharp moans. Jason shifted from foot to foot. He’d seen enough.

“What are you waiting for, my special boy? KILL THEM!”

Jason was only too happy to oblige. With stunning speed for his size he skirted around the edge of the lake and made purposeful strides towards the camp. Then he stopped dead. One of the drunken pair had risen to his feet, running a hand through his sweat dampened black spikes. He could barely stand straight on his two skinny legs. The boy grinned unfocusedly at the others and slurred an explanation for leaving- something about ‘taking a leak’- before he staggered tipsily towards the woods. Jason tightened his grip on the machete. His second kill of the night was coming to him like a lamb to the slaughter.

* * *

Bobby’s head was spinning. Or was it the world around him? Either way, the trees and the path were both lurching all over the place in a most distracting manner. His bladder was full to bursting point by now too, so that added up to two bodily aches. Two… Bobby stared at his fingers, trying to remember how many of them equalled that amount. Damn it. Even the simplest mathematical sums had escaped him now. If only he hadn’t drunk so much beer he might be less disorientated. He’d knocked back a few in the tent when he was getting busy with Liz, and shared a couple more with her outside while watching Kevin and Becky’s little show. It had all been fine up until the moment he stood up. Now he felt horribly sick and dizzy.

I’ll be ok, he told himself, wobbling a few more steps. All I need to do is pee and get back to the guys. I can call it a night and sleep the drink off then.

Bobby leant against the nearest tree and unbuttoned his jeans. This took him quite a time but in the end he managed. Within seconds he had done his business in the roots and was once again working with that irritatingly fiddly button. The stupid thing seemed to want to stay open. Bobby shrugged. What was the harm in letting it? The others wouldn’t care whether his dick was in or out of his pants. Except maybe Jomo, but Kevin had taped her inside the tent where she couldn’t spoil the fun with her frigid virgin attitude. She was cute. If she just loosened up she might even be fuckable. But it would take a lot to get that stick out of her ass. Jomo really was a prude. She’d only had about an inch off her own beer.

Bobby was starting to feel queasy. Shit. He should have followed her example. There was going to be one hell of a hangover in store for him tomorrow. He’d better get back to camp now before he tripped and did himself some kind of injury.

Nah.

He didn’t believe in that Jason everybody was talking about, nor did he believe he could hurt himself. After all that alcohol, he was invincible. He could take on a whole army of killers if he had the…

What the fuck was that?