Camp of Legend A novel

Chapter Three-June 13, 2013

Nate Chambers smoked a cigarette.

He was driving the van towards Camp Crystal Lake. He knew that somehow there was a sense of finality in his way of thinking; he smoked until he was out of cigarettes.

"Nate, there's a sign. Read it!", Mary Lower stated.

"I am!", Nate said.

***

Billie Glow struggled with the map.

"There it is", she uttered.

"Fine, we can't miss it", Craig Harrison said.

They were about to turn left past the CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE, EST. 1935 sign, when dark patches of heavy rain fell onto the van.

"Trust our luck to have rain in summer", Billie said.

"Yeah, real tough luck. Mary and Nate is going to join us at the camp", she said. By the time that they traveled through the Native American totem poles, the small group smiled at each other. Once they opened the doors, the atmosphere in the camp was chilly, leaving all of the new campers to put all of their luggage under their bunks.

***

"The camp is freezing", Nate complained.

"I know that. It is always cold, even in summer", Mary said.

"Some people say Jason Voorhees is here", Nate  piped in.

"Jason Voorhees is dead. We're the new camp counselors. Several other teenagers are meeting us soon", Billie informed them.

"I heard other campers last year left after a camper was murdered", Nate said.

"I don't think Jason is here", Mary added.

"He's here", Nate finished smoking.

"If he's here, we'll call the Sheriff", Craig said.

And they didn't laugh at the news.

***

Mary peered at the other cabins.

She wore a yellow CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE, 1958 retro T-shirt, blue shorts, black socks, and black shoes on her small feet.

She had read about how Marta Sanders had escaped from the camp the previous summer with several other campers when one of them was murdered by Jason Voorhees.

She shuddered, as she wondered whether her friends would spend Friday the 13th at the camp; she shuddered until she lost her senses.

In her mind, she wanted to be excited by the summer ahead.

And, for her, summer was a way forward not backward.

And she prayed to God, because she didn't want to be a victim of the so-called 'Death curse', that Crazy Ralph, the seventy year old doomsayer who told every camper in town in nineteen seventy-nine, and nineteen eighty, that they were all going to die if they stayed overnight, as he rode his old bicycle, and making Officer Jon Dorf to go to Camp Crystal Lake looking for him so that he could take him into the jail cell to cool off.

Suddenly she saw a canoe in the glistening water.

It was covered in fresh blood.

She backed away in horror.

And she was about to scream when Craig laughed at her.

"Scared, huh?", he asked.

"Yeah. The camp is scary", she answered.