Chapter Five

Giles and Xander pull into Karloff's General Store & Gas Station in the town of Crystal Lake. Xander hops out of the jeep and heads into the store to get directions while Giles fills up the gas tank of their rented vehicle. Several minutes later, Xander exits the store with a bag of marshmallows in his hand, hungrily stuffing a couple of the treats into his mouth. Giles looks at the young man with a look of mild disgust. Xander just shrugs his shoulders.

"What?" he asks between chews, "I was hungry."

"Could you please refrain from eating for just a moment and tell me if you were able to garner any useful information?"

Xander takes out a can of Barques Root Beer, cracks it open and washes down the marshmallows before continuing. "Of course," he replies, "The cabin is right by the lake, which is about twenty miles north of here."

"How do we get there?"

"We just gotta take the main road north out of town. We follow it for about ten miles, until we get to the crossroads. You can't miss it, it's right next to an old cemetery. From there, we turn left onto an old dirt road. After about two miles, we'll come to a fork in the road. Now this part's very important. We have to take the road on the right. If we take the road to the left, we'll wind up at the abandoned campsite where this all started. Now, when we're driving along the path on the right, keep your eyes peeled on the left hand side of the road. Some of the side roads which lead to private cabins have become over grown, and not all of them have signs designating them as heading to one cabin or another."

"Does the Finn Family Cabin have a sign?"

"According to Mr. Karloff, yes it does. But he doesn't know if it's become overgrown or not. He says it's located about eight miles after the fork in the road."

"Then get in the car," says Giles, "I have a feeling we might already be too late."

The two men get into the rented jeep and drive off into the deepening gloom. Back at the cabin, Buffy and Riley finally make it back. The lights in the cabin are all dark, and there are no signs of activity. Buffy draws the dagger from its ankle sheath. Riley bends over and rests his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. He's in excellent shape, but doesn't have anywhere near a Slayer's stamina. When he sees Buffy is on alert, he draws his revolver and readies himself for whatever might come.

"It's quiet," observes Buffy.

"Too quiet," adds Riley. Buffy shoots him a you did not just say thatlook. "I always wanted to say that," he admits with a shrug.

"We'd better check things out," she tells him, "And I think I'd better be better armed. I get the feeling Jason isn't gonna be stopped with a couple of daggers."

"Right," agrees Riley, "You go to our room and grab your weapons. I'll take a look around out here."

"Are you absolutely mental?" hisses Buffy, "Don't you ever watch scary movies? Splitting up is a guaranteed way to get yourself killed! If we're gonna survive, we're gonna have to stick together."

"Whatever you say," agrees Riley motioning for Buffy to move ahead, "Slayer's first."

The two of them circle around to the back porch to enter through the kitchen. As they approach the kitchen door, a terrible stench assaults their nostrils. Buffy sees a puddle of blood on the patio floor. She kneels down to inspect it as Riley cautiously approaches the BBQ. As he reaches out to take the handle of the lid, Buffy suddenly realizes what the source of the stench was. She turns to Riley.

"Riley! Don't!" she warns him. Too late. He has already lifted up the BBQ lid, revealing his cousin's severed head cooking on the grill. The stench of cooking human flesh and burning hair is now overwhelming. Riley drops the lid back down, backing away with his free hand covering his mouth in disgust.

"Oh Riley," says Buffy, "I'm so sorry."

Riley swallows the lump that had formed in his throat. "Come on," he says, "Let's look for survivors."

Ever the soldier, Riley forces his sorrow for his cousin's death aside, replacing it with a cold hunger for vengeance. Buffy too forces her feelings aside. As The Slayer, she has lost many people to the forces of darkness. So far she had been fairly lucky. She had lost Miss Calendar to Angelus, Kendra to Drusilla, and Faith to her own dark side. But she had never lost a family member before. Riley has lost his best friend in The Initiative, Forest, to the demonic cyborg Adam, and now his cousin and best friend Johnny to the urban myth, Jason.

The two warriors ready their weapons and enter the cabin. Riley tries the lights, but finds that they don't work. He didn't truly expect them to. If half of the legends about Jason Voorhees were true, cutting the lights was par for the course with his M.O. Buffy takes the lead, as she and Riley exit the kitchen and go into the living room. No one is in here either. She and Riley head up the iron spiral staircase and search the second floor. They go into their room and find Buffy's bag full of weapons lying open on the floor with several of its contents spread about the place. Buffy quickly looks over her selection of weapons.

"Damn it!" she says, "He has my crossbow."

"So now what?"

Buffy picks up her battle axe off the floor. "Now," she says, "I'm gonna axeJason a few questions."

"Buffy," says Riley, "Is now really the best time for punning?"

"Sorry," she replies solemnly, "Force of habit."

They quickly check the rest of the house. They find the bloodied beds where Robert and Heather were killed, and the bloody trail from where Jamie Lee was killed. The bodies are all missing, but there's very little doubt as to their state of health. They sneak back down the stairs. Riley silently signals that he's going out the back door, and that Buffy should go out the front door. Buffy nods her head affirmatively and heads to the front door.

Outside, Riley searches the treeline for signs of movement. Several feet behind him, Jason stands there aiming Buffy's crossbow at Riley's back. As Jason's finger begins to squeeze the trigger of the crossbow, a large steel dagger digs deep into the undead killer's forearm, throwing his aim off and sending the crossbow bolt flying out wide. It whistles past Riley's ear, sticking into a tree just ahead of him and to his right. Riley whirls around and unloads four rounds into Jason's chest with his Smith & Wesson 500.

"The head!" Buffy shouts to him, "Shoot him in the head!"

Riley puts his fifth and final round right in Jason's forehead, blasting a hole the size of a man's fist out of the back of the killer's skull. Jason just stands there breathing heavily in anger as he glares at Riley.

"Hey Jason!" shouts Buffy, "Didn't your mom ever teach you it's not nice to take other people's things?"

Jason takes a deep breath and draws his machete from his belt. He starts walking towards Buffy with his machete raised high poised for a strike. Buffy whips out the leather carrying case for her throwing knives and sends the four blades flying into Jason's body. Most of the knives sink deep into Jason's rotting torso, but the fourth one drives hilt deep into his left eye. Jason stops for a moment, grabs the knife that's stuck in his eye socket and pulls it out, tossing it aside. Then he pulls the heavy dagger from his arm and whips it at Buffy's head. With lightning reflexes, Buffy catches the blade in mid-air, just inches from her own face. Then shots ring out as Riley unloads all eight rounds from his .45 Automatic into Jason. Jason stops and turns towards Riley, giving Buffy a moment to grab her battle axe. Before the killer could move towards Riley, Buffy triggers her spring loaded wrist sheath, sending her knife directly into her grasp which she immediately whips into the back of Jason's skull.

Jason turns back towards Buffy, glaring hatefully. He reaches up and yanks the knife from his skull, and after looking the weapon over, tosses it aside almost as if in disgust. He closes the distance to The Slayer and slashes at her with his machete. Buffy blocks it with her axe, then retaliates with a solid thrust kick to Jason's chest. The undead psychopath staggers back several steps, but doesn't go down. He comes back at Buffy with a backhanded slash. She ducks under the attack, then kicks him in the mask with a leaping spin kick. Once more Jason staggers but doesn't go down. He attacks her again with a downward overhead slash. Buffy ducks under his swing again, this time slashing Jason across the abdomen with her axe, then burying the blade deep into his back, severing his spine. Jason drives his elbow into Buffy's jaw, sending the girl flying through the air to collide with the trunk of a large fir tree. Jason reaches for the handle of the axe buried in his back. Unable to quite reach it, he begins spinning around like a dog chasing its own tail. It would almost be humorous if not for the fact that, as far as Buffy can tell, he has killed all of Riley's friends and family.

Jason finally manages to grab hold of the axe handle and pull the weapon from his back. He stands there, looking at the axe head, all covered with the black sludge which presumably is Jason's blood, then whips the weapon at Buffy's head. If not for her amazing Slayer reflexes, she would have been killed for sure. Luckily, she just barely managed to dive to the side as the head of her axe bites impossibly deep into the tree trunk where her own head was sitting only a split second earlier. The Slayer scrambles to her feet, ready for the next attack to come. Jason walks right up to Buffy, machete in hand, when he suddenly gets hit with several bullets as shots ring out in the night air. Riley, having reloaded his guns, empties all five rounds of his revolver into Jason's rotting flesh. Then he holsters the weapon and draws his .45 Automatic, emptying all eight rounds into the thing that killed his cousin. Jason retaliates by throwing his machete at the ex-soldier. Luckily, Riley's military training allowed him to anticipate such an attack and he dives out of the way. As Jason's distracted by Riley, Buffy runs up and hits him in the back of the head with a flying high kick, which knocks Jason face down into the dirt. Buffy takes the opportunity to run over to Riley and helps him up to his feet.

"On your feet soldier!" she says, "We're getting out of here!"

"What?" says Riley, "But Jason . . ."

"Is still coming," she replies, and she guides his gaze over to where she knocked Jason down, only to see him back on his feet. "He's too strong," she says, "I can't fight him, not like this. I need to get in touch with Giles, find out this things weaknesses. Until then . . . We run."

With that, Buffy runs into the woods dragging Riley along behind her. He's resistant at first. Jason had just killed at least six of his friends, possibly even others. The soldier in him wants to fight, to seek revenge. But when it comes to the supernatural, he knows that Buffy knows her stuff. And if Buffy, The Slayer, says it's time to run to live to fight another day, then he's learned to listen to her. The two of them run almost blindly through the bushes. Riley takes the lead, as he's more familiar with the area and can guide them to the highway, and from there back to the town where they can call Giles and gather the necessary supplies to finally put an end to Jason's Reign of Terror once and for all. Riley could even call in his buddy Graham from The Initiative, get some military back up.

As they're running through the woods, the body of Riley's younger cousin Sean falls from where it was sitting in the branches overhead. The body is tangled up in ropes from Sean's tent, causing him to dangle in front of Buffy and Riley like a macabre marionette. Buffy takes Riley by the arm and tries to lead him away from the image of his younger cousin hanging in the tree, but comes face to face with the telephone repairman, Harry, who is nailed to a tree trunk with a large iron spike through his neck. They turn to run another direction and find Amy's naked body lying cold and stiff on the ground. They push through the bushes and find themselves stepping out onto the road to the highway. Standing right across from them, on the other side of the dirt road, stands Jason Voorhees. Jason stands there, glaring at them, breathing heavily in rage.

"You got any more weapons on you?" Buffy asks her boyfriend.

Riley pulls out his .45 Automatic, ejects the spent clip, pops in a fresh clip, chambers a round, and then hands the weapon over to Buffy.

Buffy pushes the offered gun away. "These things," she says, "never useful."

Riley pulls out his survival knife and hands that to her. "Now this is more like it," she says more enthusiastically. She also takes Riley's ballistic knife.

Jason takes a couple of steps forward. Buffy does likewise, her enthusiasm disappearing as she remembers just what it is she's going to be fighting. As she raises the two knives into a fighting stance, she glances at how pathetically small the blades look in comparison to the machete in Jason's hand.

"I wish I had something bigger to hit you with," says Buffy. Just then, Jason is blinded by a set of headlights just seconds before getting hit by a speeding jeep and being sent flying. "I wish I had a million dollars!" Nothing. Oh well, worth a try.

The jeep stops and the passenger door opens, revealing a familiar and surprising face. "Xander!" cries Buffy.

"Come with me if you want to live," says Xander in his best Schwarzenegger impression.

Buffy and Riley run and get into the jeep, then Giles floors it and runs over Jason again as they head back towards the Finn Family Cabin. "Not that I'm not happy to see you guys or anything, but what the Hell are you two doing here?"

"We got word that you might be in trouble," says Giles.

"Really?" asks Buffy, "How?"

"Cordelia called me."

"Cordelia?" asks Buffy, "What does she have to do with anything?"

"She had a vision that you were in trouble and called to warn you."

"Wait, Cordy's getting visions now? When the heck did this happen?"

"Apparently a few months ago," replies Giles, "Now can you please stop interrupting me? I've brought some important information that you'll need if we're going to survive this."

"Right, sorry," says The Slayer, "Please continue."

"According to Anya, what we're dealing with is a rogue revenant."

"A who's-a-what-now?"

"A rogue revenant,"says Giles, emphasizing each word, "A revenant is a form of undead which possesses it's former body to come back from the grave to avenge it's death. They're typically the victims of violent murders whose killers were never caught."

"Kinda like Brandon Lee in The Crow," adds Xander, "Only without the bird."

"Yes, thank you Xander," replies Giles, "Anyway, a rogue revenant is someone so full of hate when they died that they blame the whole world for their death. Thus their vengeance is never satisfied and they continue to kill indiscriminately."

"Like that native American vengeance spirit that attacked us last Thanksgiving and gave Xander syphilis?"

"A native American vengeance spirit gave you syphilis?" says Riley.

"It was a mystical infection so it went away after Buffy slayed him," replies Xander defensively, "And I thought we agreed to never bring that up again!" he adds, pointing the comment directly at Buffy.

"Sorry Xand," The Slayer apologizes, "It's been a rough day."

"Anyway," continues Giles, "we essentially have three choices on how to deal with this Jason chap. Number one, we can cremate him."

"I don't think that'll work," says Buffy, "Have you seen that guy? He's all slimy, wet, and gross. I don't think fire will do much good. Or even if it would work, if he would sit still long enough for us to burn him into ash."

"It'll certainly be more difficult than setting a vampire on fire, I grant you," says Giles, "but it is the one way to assure he will never rise again."

"What are the other ways?" asks Riley.

"We can return him to his grave," replies Giles, "Bury him once again in hallowed ground. I've brought holy water and the necessary chants to sanctify the area. As long as his grave remains undisturbed, he will remain dormant."

"Similar problem," says Buffy, "I don't see Jason as being the type to sit politely and wait while we dig his grave and then bury him."

"Well he would have to be restrained somehow, obviously," Giles replies.

"Hence the problem. I hit him with some of my best moves earlier and he barely even noticed. He's strong. I mean reallystrong. Like stronger than me type strong. Restraining him is easier said than done."

"Well that leaves our third option," says Giles.

"Which is?" asks Riley.

"To return him to his original resting place, where he drowned as a boy back in 1957. We have to bind him to the bottom of Crystal Lake."

"That sounds more doable," agrees Buffy, "Any ideas on exactly how we're gonna pull that off?"

"Not a clue," admits Giles.

Giles parks the jeep right next to the Finn Family Cabin. Everyone exits the jeep, and then Giles and Xander start pulling all of their equipment out of the back. Buffy starts looking through it.

"What's all this?" she asks.

"Supplies," replies Xander, "for stopping Jason."

Buffy picks up a crossbow and a coil of heavy steel chains. She looks down to see a machete and wood axe lying on the ground. She glances around the yard, then sees the path leading to the lake.

"I have an idea," she says.

Sometime later, Jason approaches the Finn Family Cabin. He sees the jeep which had run him over just a little while ago. It appears to be deserted. He draws his machete and walks up to the vehicle. No one is there. Buffy steps out of the shadows by the path to the lake. She has a machete belted to her hip and an axe in her hand.

"Hey Jason!" she calls to him.

Jason looks over at her and glares. Without another word, Buffy whips the axe at him. The axe spins end over end as it flies through the air, imbedding itself deep into his forehead. Jason grabs the handle and pulls hard, but cannot dislodge the axe. He pulls again, this time not only pulling the axe out of his head, but also taking the hockey mask off with it. Jason stands there, the axe in one hand, his ruined hockey mask in the other, looking at the items with an expression that could only be described as shock. Then he looks up at Buffy, his one good eye narrowing into a baleful glare. Buffy finally gets a good look at Jason's face, a face that was anything but pretty with or without the water logged carrion which passes for his face.

"You are one ugly mother fucker," Buffy says.

Jason tosses aside his ruined hockey mask, then let's the grip of the axe handle slip through his fingers, causing the axe head to drop towards the ground, grasping it firmly the second the end of the handle is in his hand. Guessing what Jason has in mind, Buffy turns and runs down the path towards the lake. Jason hauls off and hurls the axe back at Buffy, but by the time he's done throwing the weapon she's no longer standing there. The axe soars through the air and buries itself deep into the trunk of a tall pine tree. Jason picks up his machete and starts after The Slayer.

Jason steps out of the path, onto the lake shore. He sees Buffy, standing out in the open right by the boat house. She sees Jason too, and draws her own machete. Holding the weapon ready in one hand, she motions for Jason to step forward with the other. The psychopathic monster wastes no time. He storms towards Buffy, a monster on a mission of destruction, until he gets to the edge of the dock. Then he stops. He looks about the dock, as if not sure how to proceed. Perhaps even sensing a trap.

"Hey Jason!" shouts Buffy, "Come and get me!"

Jason doesn't move.

"What? You afraid you might have met your match?" she says, "Well you're right! I'm The Slayer! I take down monsters scarier than you on a daily basis! You wanna keep your title as The Big Bad around Crystal Lake? Well you're gonna have to beat me first!"

Jason still doesn't move.

"Hey momma's boy!" cries Buffy, "I hear you mom was a real nut loon! They should've kept her in the loony bin where she belonged!"

Jason raises his machete, but other than that doesn't move.

"Your mom was so stupid, she thought a quarterback was a refund!"

Jason appears to be fighting the urge to charge forward, but still doesn't move.

"Your mom was so ugly, she had to wear a pork chop around her neck to get the family dog to lick her face! Your mom smelled so bad, the neighborhood cats buried her in the sandbox! Your mom's teeth were so rotten, when she smiled she looked like she had a mouth full of dice! Your mom was so fat, she was on both sides of the family!"

Jason is now so mad he looks like he's about to explode.

"Hey Jason! When your daddy divorced your mom, were they still considered brother and sister?"

That was it, Jason could stand no more. His memories of past defeats forgotten, all thoughts of being trapped or ambushed ignored, he charges forward with only the destruction of this puny (though impossibly strong) girl who dares to insult his beloved mother. Jason swings his machete at Buffy. She blocks it with her own, then counters with a slash across his abdomen. Jason slashes at her again. She ducks beneath the swing, stabbing Jason once in the gut, then pulling the blade out and slashing him across the chest. The two attacks barely faze the killer. He raises his machete up over his head and brings it down towards Buffy's skull.

Buffy blocks the attack with her machete, grabbing Jason by the wrist with her off hand. In three quick movements, she drives her heel into his kneecap, shattering the bone, then kicks him twice in rapid succession, once in the groin and once in the chest. Jason releases his grip on his machete as he staggers back a couple of steps. Buffy takes his machete from his grasp then leaps up high, delivering a powerful jump kick to the face, and landing gracefully on her feet with a machete in each hand. Before Jason can even recover, Buffy charges him, driving the blades of both machetes into his chest and pushing him up against the diesel pumps for refueling the boats. She drives the blades all the way through Jason's body, puncturing the fuel tanks. There's a high pitched squeal as the blades scrape against the metal tanks. Once the handles of the machetes touch Jason's ribs, Buffy reaches behind her and draws Riley's survival knife and a hunting knife given to her by Giles. She drops to a knee, driving the blades of the two knives into Jason's feet, nailing them to the deck.

Jason grabs at the machete handles as Buffy ducks around to the side of the fuel tank. In seconds, a heavy steel chain is wrapping around Jason's neck. Buffy leaps over the fuel tank and pulls the chain taught, then wraps the end around one of the tanks legs. Pulling it tight, she locks it in place with a padlock. She grabs another length of heavy chain and runs out across Jason's path. Jason is struggling to pull the machetes from his chest, the handles sticking out at forty degree angles. Buffy wraps the chain across Jason's chest, pinning his arms at his side. She locks the chain down the same as the first. She picks up an anchor off the dock and swings it, driving it's point into Jason's gut. The whole dock now reeks of diesel. Buffy turns and runs towards the speed boat.

"Now!" she shouts.

The tarp covering the boat flies off. Giles, Xander, and Riley stand up. Giles raises the crossbow he had bought. There's something white on the head of the crossbow bolt . . . a marshmallow. Riley takes out his Zippo lighter and lights the marshmallow on fire. Giles shoots the flaming arrow into the pool of diesel fuel that is growing about Jason's feet. The puddle bursts into flame a second before Buffy and her friends dive into the lake. The flames engulf both Jason and the fuel tanks. A moment later the tanks explode, sending Jason flying through the air and landing far out into the lake. He floats there for a moment, then a large chunk of the fuel tank lands on top of him, along with a piece of the roof of the boat house. The flotsam and the killer beneath it sink down to the bottom of the lake.

Over on the lake shore, Buffy, Riley, Xander, and Giles come staggering out of the lake, completely drenched. They collapse on the sand, thoroughly exhausted. Buffy looks over to Riley.

"What?" he asks.

"Next time," she says, "Iget to choose our vacation spot."

"You know," says Xander, "I hear Springwood Ohio is really nice this time of year."

"Come on," says Giles, "Let's go home."

Then the four of them head back to the rented jeep.

THE END