Her name was Crystal

When the morning hours came and the sun began to peek through the leaves outside, Jason started to pack.



He was normally very quiet in everything he did, but that morning he made sure to clank a few things around as he worked, making noise. His desired effect was achieved when Crystal appeared at the door of the bedroom alcove, yawning and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.





"Mmmm.. Jason?"





She wandered over to the table he was standing at to see what he was doing. He had a large backpack opened, and was putting different things into it. Some sort of springed trap and a chain, a large knife covered in a leather sheath, a bundle of black arrows with wickedly sharp tips, some rope, a small canteen of water, and a couple of cans of the same pasta she'd eaten the night before.





"You're going hunting?" She asked, and Jason nodded, closing up the backpack and swinging it into place on his back. He reached for his bow, which was hanging on the wall behind him. This he pulled over his head and shoulders, so that the string was taut across his chest and held in place.





"Will you be gone long?" Her voice sounded small.





He nodded. Yes, he probably would be gone for awhile. His hunting trips didn't end till he caught something. It had alot to do with luck. He was a master at tracking down his prey and killing it, but he had to find something to track first. Sometimes that took days.





He pulled down another can of pasta and set it on the table before her, then motioned to where she could find more while he was gone. He showed her where he kept his drinking water, then gave her a goodbye nod and headed for the stairs that led outside.





She caught him by the sleeve of his jacket.





He turned to see what she wanted, then startled when she walked into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She was hugging him. Well.. more like clinging to him. He hadn't been hugged by another human being since his mother was killed.. so many years ago. He was so surprised that he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to think. He just stood there, ridged, stock-still and confused.





Her auburn hair rose a little and stuck to his shirt with static as she rubbed her face into his chest. He could feel her trembling. Why was she trembling? Was she frightened of him? If she was frightened of him, she shouldn't be hugging him. This didn't make any sense.





"Please... come back soon.." Crystal whispered.. and then Jason understood. She didn't want him to leave. She was worried he wouldn't come back.





Slowly, carefully, he put his arms around her. It was awkward for him, but when he felt her begin to relax.. he did too. He began rubbing her back the way he remembered his mother used to rub his when she hugged him. She stopped trembling, then looked up at him and gave him a shy little smile before letting him go. He gazed at her for another moment, then turned and left the cellar.







Crystal watched him go. She wrapped her arms around herself to try and replace his warmth, but it was no use. A cold, lonely, frightened feeling settled in her chest now that he was gone. She considered dashing up the stairs to follow him outside but quickly made herself dismiss this idea as foolish. Jason had his hunting to do and she was still too hurt to even think about going with him.





She sat down on the couch and rocked back and forth, still hugging herself, trying to ward off the frightened feeling. She wasn't sure why she was afraid. There was nothing to be frightened of. She and Jason were alone here. Even if they weren't alone there wasn't any reason anyone would come in and hurt her. Was there?



She closed her eyes and covered her mouth to stifle a sob. She was starting to panic in Jason's absence and she didn't know why. She didn't want him to hear her and have to come back and see what was wrong, so she tried not to cry. She had to move. She had to do something.. keep herself busy in some way until he came back. Until he came home again.





She took a few deep breaths and looked around Jason's cellar. It was a mess. Sort of like a typical bachelors pad, except covered in three inches of dust and really big, nasty looking spiders. Those would have to go. Yes, that was what she'd do. She'd get rid of the spiders, the cobwebs and the dust.







It was quite a job.





She'd found an old mop and spent about an hour pulling down the spiders and their homes. She squashed them with a flyswatter she found sitting on an old, broken kitchen chair. She'd worried that Jason had a fondness for spiders or something, since there were so many. More than likely it was just because this was a cellar and cellars were spider central.





Once she was satisfied the place was more or less spider-and-web-free, she set to work on the dust.





After awhile her lungs were hurting from sneezing so often. What she wouldn’t give for a Swiffer Sweeper.





She did find an old feather duster buried in a pile of dirty, ripped clothes and she did her best with it, swiping it at everything and anything. When the dust in the air grew too thick though, she had to give up. Simple dusting wasn’t going to get this place clean. She needed water and something to wash with.





She returned to the pile of dirty clothes. They were Jason's clothes, obviously, and all were in serious need of a good washing. A couple shirts were so torn they were ready to fall apart. She couldn't imagine him actually trying to WEAR them.. so she picked one and decided to use it to wash the cellar with instead.





There was an old, deep sink behind the table. There were all sorts of different things piled inside it which Crystal carefully took out and set aside. Then she tested to see if the water would work down here.. and breathed a sigh of relief to find that it did.





She used Jason's old shirt and hot water to wash every surface she could. She cleared the floor of debris and mopped it. Then she gathered any and all dishes she could find and put them in the sink to soak. She didn't have any soap to wash them with... She wondered if there might be some in one of the other buildings of the camp. There must be a main kitchen here somewhere that would have some soap. Jason's mother had been the camp cook, and she must have had a big kitchen to cook in. It had to be in the main building she saw in the picture. She wondered if she should venture outside and go and see.





The thought of leaving Jason's cellar made the cold, frightened feeling come back again. No, she wasn't ready to leave yet. Not without Jason. So Crystal would have to do her best with what she had.







Any effort put towards cleaning the cellar was a good one. A couple hours later had her sitting on the couch again, tired out from all her work. The dust was gone, the spiders and webs were gone, the floor was more or less clean, and she'd made an attempt at organizing Jason's things. There was more space to move around in and she'd cleared off the table. She had piles of clothes sorted out for washing - if she ever found any soap - and for mending. She figured if she could find a sewing kit, she'd patch up the tears in his clothes for him. It was the least she could do.





During her cleanings, Crystal had come across a pile of old books sitting behind the couch. They were mostly romance novels she assumed Jason's mother once read, but there were a few fantasy stories, some mystery novels and a book with a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's writings. She thought she remembered that she loved H.P. Lovecraft, so she settled onto the couch and began to read to pass the rest of the time Jason was gone.







An hour later she startled when the cellar door opened suddenly. He was home.





Crystal tried not to jump up off the couch with excitement and throw herself into his arms with relief. She was quite certain Jason wouldn't appreciate such an enthusiastic welcome home just yet, no matter how much she missed him. She'd felt lost without him.. even though he was only gone for a few hours. She felt as if she and Jason were the only two people left on the planet, and that was fine with her.





She stood and waited, wringing the front of her blue nightgown between her hands nervously. Would Jason be happy that she'd cleaned his home for him? Would he be upset that she'd moved his things around?





He came down the stairs, looking expectantly for her. His hunting trip had been unusually short. He'd found the prints of a deer in the mud not far outside the camp and tracked a doe down and shot her clean in the head with an arrow. He'd tied her upside down from a branch of a nearby tree and gutted her on the spot. Her meat was wrapped in cloth and waiting outside on a picnic table for cooking. Jason had hurried back home, excited to have something better to offer the girl to eat. He'd come in to get his lighter fluid and to see if she wanted to come outside while he got a fire going.





When he noticed the changes in his celler, Jason stopped in surprise and looked around. He tilted his head.





What in the world had the girl been doing while he was gone? He moved further into his home to inspect all of the changes she'd made. It was.. clean. All the dust was gone from the floors, shelves and table. There were no insects hanging from the ceiling. And she'd moved things so that there was more space. He'd never seen the cellar this clean before. When he'd decided to abandon the cabin he and his mother used to live in years and years ago to come and live downstairs in the cellar.. he'd never bothered to move anything. He'd dragged a bed from another cabin in so he could sleep on it, along with a table and a couch, but other than that he really hadn't thought to do anything with his living space.





He.... liked it. He liked it nice and clean like this. He liked what she'd done. It reminded him of the way his mother used to clean his childhood room for him.





"Do you like it?" Crystal asked, sounding nervous. She couldn't hear his thoughts. He'd have to let her know somehow that yes, he loved it. She was looking down at the floor, fidgiting with her feet.





He reached for her chin, tilting her face up gently. He looked into her eyes and nodded slowly.





She smiled. She could see the approval in his eye and it warmed her from head to foot. She walked into him again, hugging him tightly, and this time he didn't hesitate to put his arms around her and hug back.





A small idea came to Jason then, as he placed his hand on her head and started to pet her soft hair.





What if the girl stayed?





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Yeah, yeah.. now we get into the silly romantic stuff. Jason Voorhees being romantic. Weird, eh? But I figure the poor guy would have had a somewhat normal life if his mom hadn't been killed... and he hadn't grown up by himself in the middle of nowhere. He's a human being, and no human is designed to live by themselves for long periods. He'd be hurting for some company that isn't terrified of him.



Besides.. it's fanfiction!! Hehe. ^_^