Le Petite Mort- The Little Death

The Twins lounged with Liz in the backseat of Kevin’s car while Becky and her boyfriend sat in the front. As soon as darkness fell they had all decided to go looking for Jomo. It was obvious that she was not coming back. All five of them were jittery and nervous, snapping at each other over the slightest thing. All of them but Kevin. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and didn’t speak. Carl and Charlie were watching him closely as he backed out of the camp and headed for the main road.

“Er, shouldn’t we be going that way?” Carl asked, pointing at the mass of trees they had just left behind. “Jomo wouldn’t leave this place without us, would she?”

Kevin kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead. They soon passed the Camp Crystal sign. This was when everyone started to realise something was wrong and demanded he stop the vehicle immediately and turn back.

“We go back, we die,” Kevin said shortly. He shrugged apologetically. “We’re gonna find a motel someplace. We park up, call the cops and get some shut-eye. Sorry an’ all, but do ya really wanna be worm meat for fucking Jomo? Trust me, she ain’t worth it.”

“Asshole!” Liz shrieked. She was no longer stoned and instead was, understandably, enraged. “She’s your friend! The amount of times she’s saved your ass after you’ve popped one to many pills… Look, just go back right now or I’ll-”

Their driver snarled over his shoulder at her.

“Do what, huh? Exactly. Nothin’.”

Then he seemed to get a grip on himself and lowered his voice.

“You’re all just gonna sit back and let me get us outta here. We’ll come back for the stuff later. Don’t gimme that look. I ain’t superman. We let the cops handle Jomo, and this Jason guy too. No worries.”

He now sounded so calm and detached it was unbelievable.

“But you said you were gonna kick his ass,” Becky whimpered pathetically. She was leaning as far back from Kevin as she could, looking at him as if he was some kind of monster. “More than once. What happened to that, Kevin?”

Kevin shrugged almost nonchalantly. Nobody noticed that he was shaking slightly.

“I had to say somethin’ to stop you freaking out. And Jomo’s a big girl. She’ll take care of herself. Probably that Jason dude too. But we haven’t got a damn chance against the fucker. You know what happened to Bobby. We don’t want a replay of that.”

“What about Jomo?”

Liz’s voice was cold as ice. She was narrowing her usually mellow blue eyes at Kevin with malicious intent, lips tightening across her teeth. The Twins looked at each other and shrank away from her nervously. However, Kevin was oblivious. He carried on talking and driving without noticing a thing.

“For crying out loud, Elizabeth, are you fuckin’ deaf? I said we’re goin’ without her. Any objections?”

“Hell yes, you lying fucktard!”

Before Kevin could breathe a word in his defence four pairs of hands wrapped around his throat, face and torso, half-throttling him in their outrage. One foot jammed hard into the middle of his crotch. It was really no wonder he lost control of the car and allowed it to swerve off road, hurtling across what seemed like stable ground until the vehicle plummeted down a three foot ditch that had been masked by a thin layer of bushes. All that could be heard in the next three seconds was the screech of pressured metal, the screams of two terrified teenage girls and a crash as the car hit the bottom of the ditch.

* * *

Jomo knew she had to think fast. Jason was going to kill her any moment and she was just standing here like an idiot. Her insides were churning with such a strong mix of terror and rage at allowing herself to become trapped and alone she was starting to feel dizzy. But she wasn’t stupid; in fact she was very intelligent, a valued student back at school. However, thinking in these circumstances was difficult. She decided to rely on her instincts and emotions to get out of this.

Do whatever first comes into your head, she thought desperately. It’s that or die. You know that dream you had of a quiet passing surrounded by loved ones? Well, that’ll be gone in an instant if you don’t get your ass in gear STAT.

So she tried not to shrink back from Jason’s formidable figure like a coward. Instead she squared her shoulders ferociously.

“Come on, big guy,” she challenged him in a cracked voice. “I can take you.”

Jason tilted his head to one side, considering her. Jomo wondered what he was thinking, if he was thinking at all, or if he was just a mindless killing machine. She decided to test that theory and see if he reacted. She was becoming reckless in her terrified hysteria. If she weren’t careful now, it would be her downfall.

“What are you waiting for? Huh? Why don’t you just kill me now?”

Jason seemed to shake himself and started to advance. Jomo quickly retreated, trying to buy time for herself. If this guy was human, he could be distracted and insulted like any normal person. So with her limbs tense and ready for a hasty getaway, Jomo parted her dry lips again.

“You stupid fuck. Come and get me!”

That did it. With shocking speed Jason moved towards her, machete raised above his head. Jomo, disorientated by the blinding speed of this approach, made for the woods again with a wild shriek. Even when she made it to the woods and surged through them like a streak of chubby lightning she knew she couldn’t keep running forever. Her chest felt like it was on fire now. This excruciating sensation worsened with every breath. She found herself coughing unstoppably. Jomo realised she was probably hyperventilating or having a panic attack of some kind, but she could hardly calm herself down. All she could do was hope she could get out of this alive, no matter how unlikely the possibilities were.

* * *

Jason followed the girl with murder on his mind. He was utterly convinced now that this little female was rotten to the core. His mother had told him this hundreds of times, although her voice now was little more than a whisper and dwindling still. Her mocking words had proved it. Jason knew very well that she had been taunting him. She was cruel, like the children who had plagued him when he was young. She deserved a slow, painful death now.

I’ll kill her mommy. Make her suffer. Rip her apart... Look at her. Dirt. Blood. Sweat. Torn clothes, caught on trees. Breathing hard. Slowing down. Must catch her!

The girl was tiring of the chase now. She was struggling to carry on. Jason could see that she was limping slightly; she had just caught her foot in a tree root and had wrenched her ankle. He was just about reach out and grab her by the hair when all of a sudden she vanished from sight. Jason blinked hard. It wasn’t a trick of the dim light, or a mistake on his part. She had, quite simply, gone. Jason was confused, and this irritated him. Things he didn’t understand were always quickly removed, but this situation would be difficult to deal with…

“Jason, it’s all right. She hasn’t escaped from you. She’s just hiding like the filthy, cowardly little whore she is. Find her and punish her well.”

Jason nodded vaguely and, silently, began his search. The foul-tongued girl would pay for her misdeeds dearly. She had better pray he never found her.

* * *

Jomo slid down the back of a tree, exhausted. Her right foot was throbbing with pain now, adding the endless number of complaints her body was making. Still, at least she was alive. This was a miracle as far as she was concerned. After her mindless taunting of him she was sure Jason would catch her in seconds and gut her. Kevin was always violent when she made fun of him. Most guys were. They got all defensive if their pride was wounded.

Jomo assumed it would be the same for a machete-wielding psychopath, and she had been correct. No matter what his mental stability was like she knew he would understand she was insulting him, even if it was just from her tone of voice. She didn’t like to think how angry she had made him. Instead she concentrated on quieting her breathing and keeping a still as she could.

Please God, I know I’m an atheist and all but if you really are up there, help me out, just this once, and I promise that I’ll go to church for the rest of my life.

Jomo held her breath as a twig snapped to her left. Out of the very corner of her eye she could see Jason’s legs as he walked by. He was searching for her. Instinctively Jomo dragged herself around to the other side of the tree, making herself as small as she possibly could. The fact Jason was close enough to touch made her skin tingle unpleasantly. The thought of touching the killer of one of her best friends was repulsive.

He’s moving away. Can get up and make a run for it? He might catch up with me before I can even leave the camp. But I have to leave sometime…

Sure the coast was clear, Jomo unbuckled her boot and removed it. She inspected her ankle apprehensively. It was already horribly swollen and bruised. It was also twisted at an odd angle. Jomo knew from countless science lessons that it was most likely sprained, not broken, and would need minor support and plenty of rest. There was no chance of it getting either of those things right now though.

Sighing, she put the boot back on so that she didn’t hobble when back on her feet.

That done, she got down onto her hands and knees and started to crawl very slowly. She figured the lower down to the ground she got, the less likely it was she would be spotted.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” she muttered to herself, feeling like a fool. Her hands and knees were picking up every splinter and bit of dirt available to be found. “If I survive this, I won’t just pick up a religion, I’ll go and be a freaking nun.”

Jomo carried on crawling for about a minute, losing her way several times, until she thought it was safe to get up and start running again. Her heart had a slowed to a nice steady beat, and her chest no longer felt like somebody had held a lighted match to it. The woods around her were reassuringly silent, apart from the odd owl hoot here and there. So gently she rose to her feet and wiped her soiled palms on her skirt.

Immediately a hand clamped over her mouth and another held a machete to her throat, pressing the point hard into her windpipe. She tried to scream but the clammy flesh of the hand muffled the sound into an irate squeak. Jason must have been following her all this time, toying with her. Desperately Jomo thrashed feebly in his iron grip and shrieked obscenities but he ignored her completely. He simply wrapped his arm around her waist and hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of old bones. As frightened as she was, Jomo was outraged by this treatment. With her newly freed lips she yelled at him stupidly.

“Put me down right now! What the hell are you doing?” she roared, not quite grasping the seriousness of the situation in her confusion of emotions. That soon changed when Jason squeezed her ribcage so hard she thought every bone in it was about to snap. At once Jomo quietened down and started trembling instead. She was completely at his mercy. He was probably going to find a flat surface, lay her down and gut her like a pig.

* * *

“Please, I’ll do anything, just don’t kill me,” she whimpered pathetically.

Jason blanked her. He had heard that plea countless times and had never yielded to it. This girl was no different from all the others. She was just somewhat smaller and less into alcohol. His mother’s voice, although little more than a murmur, was telling him to do such things to her all of his other brutal kills paled in comparison. Jason blankly thought of his previous murders with little emotion. All of them were merciless, horrible, and gory. Fitting punishments for the crimes committed. Like the unspeakable things naked teenagers did together. That was bad. Although sometimes, his mother had once said, it could be good- if done in the right circumstances with the right people, in the right way. But for these wicked people, she had added with conviction, it was never good.

Whilst he carried the tiny girl back to his cabin (as his mother had instructed him) Jason wondered when exactly that dirty thing could be good. It was different from drugs and drink, which were always unforgivable. It was still just as serious and sinful though. Jason could see no way that this could become in some way correct. Perhaps he had misheard his mother or simply imagined those exact words. It didn’t seem like his all-knowing, virtuous Mommy to think that abhorrent acts between naked people could ever be acceptable.

The girl on his back had begun to beat her fists against his coat. If she thought this would bring about her freedom she was sadly mistaken. Jason just tightened his grip on her waist, almost cracking her pelvis. She gasped and became limp again.

Don’t struggle. Bad girl. Warm, soft, weak. Ready to die. I caught her, Mommy. I’ll break her. Take her head and smash it. Cut her skin. Make her beg.

These were the things his mother wanted him to do. She wanted to see the girl’s pretty face beaten and bloody. She wanted to hear her loud, confident voice cry out for mercy again and again. And soon she would. Jason would make sure of it…