Duality (slashers x reader)

6. A Night Like This

Keith was handing out marshmallows to toast, but I politely refused one, my stomach still in knots. The air was crisp, with the smell of smoke filling the air. There was something so comforting about the fire tonight, despite the horrific events of earlier.

Sarah was sat very close to me, our legs and arms almost squashed together, due to the lack of free space on the bench. The benches were practically completely full, many people either perched on the end or opting to just sit on the floor. I looked around and recognised a few counsellors from the cabin this morning, though I didn't know their names; a tall, nice-looking boy with curly brown hair; a blonde boy looking very intently at a large tree opposite him; and a ginger-haired girl in conversation with two others I didn't recognise. The couple verging on a disgusting display of PDA departed, giggling as they ran off towards a cabin together.

I turned my attention to Sarah, who was struggling quite comically with a toasted marshmallow, as strings of it clung to her chin and hands. She looked at me and mumbled 'help me', at which point I couldn't hold my laughter in anymore.

'It's not funny!' Sarah exclaimed, holding back her laughs as I couldn't control myself, my sides in stitches and my cheeks aching. She eventually gave in and laughed along with me. It felt amazing. I couldn't remember when I'd last laughed this much. We must have looked crazy to everyone else. Sarah was glowing in the moonlight, and she was turning red from laughing so much.

In a split second, I saw a figure over her shoulder. A figure that was bounding out of the shadows of the woods. It brought down an axe into Sarah's skull, then quickly pulled it out with ease. Blood splattered onto my face. With her face frozen in laughter and marshmallow still stuck to her chin, her limp body fell forward onto me, coating my torso and arms in even more blood. Screams erupted around me as I sat frozen in horror. It was only when the axe came swiping at me that I came to my senses, and jumped up from the bench, narrowly dodging a slash in my shoulder. The axe became lodged in the wooden bench, as the figure struggled to pull it out. I saw the splatter of blood and the crack in the hockey mask: Jason Voorhees. So I hadn't imagined him earlier. Hm, how comforting.

I saw my chance and sprinted into the woods, making the stupid decision to stay close to Keith. When had he ever given the impression of being able to survive a massacre? As I tumbled over logs and rocks, I heard a loud grunt from behind me, then heavy footsteps on dirt and twigs, knowing he was following me. Ignoring the burning in my legs, I pushed myself to run faster and faster, trying to reassure myself that I had a chance of outrunning him. I turned a sharp corner and crouched behind a bush for a second, trying to formulate a plan. A large tree stood to my left and I weighed my chances of being able to climb it. Unable to think of a better idea, I jumped onto a nearby rock and lunged towards the trunk of the tree. I gripped onto the sides as my feet scrambled for any sort of foothold. The bark was scratching my arms and face, leaving tiny red lines that slowly dripped crimson blood. I finally found a step in the bark and heaved myself up, desperation rising in my stomach. The sound of heavy footsteps grew louder as I made my way up the tall tree. I heaved myself up onto the lowest branch, which was a good 45 feet in the air. My legs dangled above the drop, reminding me one wrong move would result in me hurtling toward the ground to my probable death, or, at best, multiple broken bones.

I rested for a moment, breathing slow, shaky breaths, when I saw Jason down below. He was walking slowly through the trees, turning his head from side to side, clearly looking for me. He stopped right below the branch I was precariously perched on. Part of me considered dropping down onto his shoulders and strangling him to unconsciousness. I quickly decided that to be an absolutely ridiculous thought. I was almost guaranteed to mess up every single aspect of the plan, and I'd achieve nothing but being another corpse on Jason's evergrowing kill count.