RETURN TO CRYSTAL LAKE
CHAPTER 5- DUMB KIDS


Kevin ran through the woods screaming, "Jessica! Jessica! I am coming baby, don't move!"

The forest was so dark, he could barely see his hand in front of his face. Still, the darkness and the pelting down rain didn't slow Kevin up one bit.

"Help me, Kevin, please help me!" he heard Jessica scream in the distance.

"Stay where you are, I'm coming!" yelled Kevin as he frantically searched for his girlfriend.

Then he saw her.

She was knelt down with her back toward him in a clearing in the middle of the woods.

"Oh, thank god I found you!" Kevin said, out of breath as he walked toward her.

Jessica remained silent with her head buried in her knees.

Kevin then gently placed a hand on her shoulder turning her toward him.

"Baby what's wrong?" he asked as she picked up her head.

Just then, a bolt of lightning flashed in the sky and lit up the tiny clearing as if it were in broad daylight.

Then Kevin saw the face of his girlfriend, or what he thought was his girlfriend.

What he saw looked like an old-fashioned, beat up white hockey mask, which hid Jessica's beautiful face. He barely caught a glimpse of her hand holding a long hunting knife, just as the tip of the knife pierced the skin of his stomach and plunged deep into his insides.

"Aghhh!" Kevin screamed as he woke up in a cold sweat in the backseat of Sean's Jeep.

"Are you ok?" Krista asked with a worried look in her eyes.

By this time, Emmy had also turned around in the passenger seat and was staring at Kevin with the same equally worried look in her eyes.

Kevin didn't answer, he just looked around frantically for Jessica.

"Ha, ha," Sean laughed, looking back at Kevin in the rear view mirror. "It's time to rise and shine."

"What are you so happy about?" Emmy asked turning around in her seat. "We've been driving for nearly three hours and still no camp."

"Hey, calm down there, cowgirl, we will be there in about 15 minutes, so just sit tight," Sean replied.

"I sure hope so," said Emmy. "Besides, its starting to get dark and I got a lot of stuff to unpack, and on top of all that, I gotta pee like a racehorse.

"Well it looks like you're going to get your chance here very soon," Sean replied, pointing to the Mobil station on their right.

Scott pulled into the station. Scott pulled his black Explorer up to one of the two gas pumps, and Sean parked his Jeep next to a White Chevy Blazer, the only other car in the deserted parking lot.

Scott got out and was preparing to pump gas, when he saw his other friends get out of the Jeep. He simply smiled and saluted them. Ashley stormed out of the passenger side and practically ran into the store. Emmy hurried inside after her friend to see what was wrong. Then Nikki got out of the back seat with a huge grin on her face as she walked over to see her sister. Sean laughed at Ashley as if it were the funniest thing he ever saw and Kevin slowly got out of the back of the Jeep with his hands in his pockets and looked all around him, taking in the scenery.

He saw nothing but trees and mountaintops for as far as he could see. He breathed in the crisp, sweet autumn air and thought to himself how much better this was than his downtown home in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

That and the fact that you could probably walk down the street at any time in the night and not have to worry about getting raped and killed. At the thought of that, he picked up a nearby rock a heaved it into the woods, trying to relieve his anger.

I got to stop thinking about this, I need to get my life back together, Kevin thought to himself. Then he made his way over to his cousin, who he just realized haven't really had a chance to talk to since he arrived in Newkirk.

"Hey cuz, what's up?" Scott said when he noticed Kevin walking toward him.

"Um, not too much," Kevin replied, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Damn, it sure is beautiful up here, ain't it?" Scott said as he stared up in the sky.

"Yeah, its nothing like back home," Kevin replied, also looking up into the evening sky. "I feel so free and alive out here."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Scott added, still sounding excited that they were finally here. Both him and Sean seemed to be like two little kids on Christmas morning.

***

"What the hell is going on Ashley?" Emmy asked as she finally caught up to her near the back of the convenience store.

"Scott is being such a dick," Ashley replied angrily.

"What do you mean?" Emmy asked, even though she had a pretty good idea of what was wrong.

Every time Scott came within ten feet of another decent looking girl, he would be all over her, regardless of whether or not he had a girlfriend or she had a boyfriend.

In the past, Scott normally didn't flirt with other girls if Ashley was around, but now it didn't matter to him if she is in a different county or sitting on his lap. He flirted.

"Scott barely even acknowledged me the whole trip up here," Ashley said, now in near tears. "I would be asking him questions and he would reply with a simple shrug of his shoulders or a mumbled yeah. He just kept staring in the rear view mirror and talking with little miss Playboy bunny herself, Nikki. Then when I tried to hold his hand, he pulled it away and said, 'do you want me to wreck or something?'" Ashley said, imitating Scott.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with him trying to be a safe driver and keeping both hands on the wheel," Emmy said, trying to think of a way to make things sound better.

"Oh please," Ashley said. "I've done way more to him while he was driving than just hold his hand, trust me."

"And just what things might these be Ms. Arino?" asked a strange yet familiar voice.

Ashley and Emmy both turned around at the same time, and standing directly behind them holding a couple bags of potato chips and a six pack of Pepsi was Professor Hon and his wife.

"Hi, Professor Hon," they both simultaneously replied.

"I never expected to run into you kids up here," stated the professor. "I thought the voices that I was hearing way in the front of the store sounded familiar, but then when you did an impression of Scott it put the nail in the coffin. So me being the friendly man that I am decided to come back and say, what's that term you kids use now, 'Wassssssup,'" said the professor with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

Ashley and Emmy both started to giggle at the site of their professor imitating the Budweiser commercial.

"So, what are you doing up here professor?" Emmy asked. "Shouldn't you be back at campus thinking up our next twenty page report?"

The professor laughed and said, "Well, my dear, I have already explained myself to you in class, if you can remember what happened five hours ago."

"Oh yeah that's right," said Ashley, remembering that the professor had called off class on Friday so he and his wife could go camping at their new cottage along some lake.

"Yes, so now the question is, what exactly are you two doing up here?" asked the professor.

"Oh, us and about five of our friends decided to go camping at some old campground," stated Ashley. "I'm not sure exactly what the place is called, but it was Scott and Sean's idea and it seems like a pretty cool place."

"Campground?" Mrs. Hon gasped and quickly looked up to her husband in fear.

"This place isn't nearby is it?" asked the professor.

"I think I heard Sean say it's only about a 15-minute drive from here, but I'm not sure," said Emmy.

"You can go ask them, they are outside," said Ashley. "Why, is something wrong?"

"Not unless you consider death a problem," said the professor as he turned to walk outside.

Emmy and Ashley both exchanged equal looks of worry and hurried to follow the professor and his wife outside.

"Mr. Anderson, just what exactly is the name of the place you are going to be staying at?" asked the professor as he approached Scott just as he was entering the store.

"And just who wants to know?" Scott asked defensively.

"Scott, calm down," said Ashley, catching up to the group. "This is Professor Hon, I think you had him for class your freshman year."

Scott looked at him puzzled for a minute then finally realizing who it was, said, "Oh shit, I didn't even recognize you professor."

"I'm willing to excuse your poor English in return for the name of the camp which you are taking your friends to," replied the professor.

By this time, Sean, Kevin, Krista, and Nikki came over to see what was going on. The group surrounded Scott and the professor as if a fight were going to break out.

"Camp Crystal Lake, or something like that," Scott said. "Why? What's it to you?"

"Oh dear," Mrs. Hon gasped again.

"Leave, go home now," the professor said boldly.

"Look man, in case you haven't already noticed, we ain't in school, so we don't take orders from no one," Scott said, taking a step closer to the professor.

"If you were wise, you would heed my advice," stated the professor coolly.

"Why, what's so wrong with the camp?" Nikki asked from behind Scott.

"Camp Crystal Lake is jinxed!" shouted the professor. "It's got a death curse."

"Ha, Ha, Ha!" laughed Sean, as he slapped his thigh in amusement. "That's gotta be the stupidest fucking thing I ever heard in my life."

"Yeah, you laugh now," the professor said. "But you are too young to remember."

"Remember what?" asked Emmy.

The professor sighed.

"OK, I will tell you," the professor said, giving his wife the groceries.

"There was this boy named Jason Voorhees who drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957. The two counselors who were supposed to watch him ran off and got promiscuous, and left him all alone at the lake," the professor stated.

"You mean they fucked?" Sean asked, immediately bringing out laughter in the group.

"Yes," the professor calmly replied.

That was it. The mere mention of sex and he had their attention. He would have to remember that for future classes. Now it was down to business.

"Well, a year after Jason drowned, the two counselors ran off into a secluded cabin and continued their escapades," he continued. "But someone brutally murdered them with a hunting knife."

"Oh my god," Ashley said.

The others didn't say a word; they just had a stunned look on their face.

"This is where it gets weird," Professor Hon added. "They shut down the camp, and for the next 30 years or so, the Christy family tried to re-open it, but every time, something always screwed up their plans. You name it, it went wrong. The water was poisoned, the camp set on fire, and then came the real trouble."

"Real trouble?" Scott asked. "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me. Let's go."

"Chill out, Scott, I want to hear this," Ashley replied.

Pissed and annoyed, Scott continued to listen.

"Well, in 1979, they were gonna finally re-open the camp, but someone brutally murdered all but one of the counselors and Steve Christy himself," Professor Hon continued.

"The killer turned out to be Mrs. Pamela Voorhees, Jason's mother. The one counselor that survived chopped her head off, ending the rampage," the professor added. "Or so everyone thought. Five years later, the murders started up again, and many people believe that Jason rose from his watery grave and continued the killings to avenge his mother. And the strange thing is, they never recovered his body from the lake when he drowned."

"Can we go now?" Scott asked, "This is bullshit."

"Shut up, Scott, and listen!" yelled Ashley.

"No, I am not gonna listen to fucking Kwai Chang Kane spout off about some local legend that isn't even true," Scott yelled.

That sparked the professor.

"Excuse me, boy, my name is not Kwai Chang Kane and this is not Kung Fu," the professor shouted, "You will find out when Jason gets you, too. Don't come crying to me when you come face-to-face with a hockey-masked maniac who then proceeds to slaughter you."

That made Kevin think.

And remember.

In his dream, Jessica was wearing some kind of hockey mask. No way, Kevin thought, No fucking way.

Discouraged, Kevin ran off to the Jeep, with Krista close behind.

"They say Satan himself came from Hell and took Jason under," Professor Hon said as everyone was leaving. "But I don't believe a word of it. He's out there and I would go home if I were you."

Scott was already in the driver's side of his SUV sitting down, and he punched the steering wheel in frustration, causing the Jeep to make a funny noise.

"Oh, great shithead, you broke it," Scott said to himself.

"Let's go, everybody, let's get the hell outta here!" he yelled.

"Please, I am begging you kids to go home," Professor Hon told Scott leaning up against the door of the SUV. "Too many people have been hurt and I don't want to see you good kids become the next casualty," Professor Hon said, making his final plea.

"Sorry, we came for a good time and we are going to get one," Sean replied from the Jeep.

"OK, but do me one favor, if things get weird or you get lost, just pack up and get the hell outta here," the professor said, escorting his wife into their Blazer.

"Yes, Grasshopper," Sean replied, rubbing salt on the wound of the whole Kwai Chang Kane/Kung Fu thing.

As the group sped off down the road, the professor watched in horror.

"Dumb kids," he said.


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