Heart of the Lake

Chapter X: Tradition

Tommy had been knocked out after arriving, and had his hands tied behind his back. His back was leaned into a wall. A room up in the Higgins house seemed to be his confines, his upper body was stripped of its clothing which left him susceptible to being tortured. It was quiet, up until there were some footsteps that could be heard. Tommy felt anxiety building up as they got closer then stopped—the door was unlocked and it creaked open to reveal Marv on the other side, "You traitorous bastard." Tommy hissed, "I was like this before I even met Tracy." He gave a sinister smile and entered the room—the door was gently closed from behind and Marv laid his back on it, "I've been a part of the Black Lake Cult since the age of 13. My parents were murdered in an armed robbery, so I ran away into the woods and came across the cult praying around a bonfire. Andrew saw me watching from a distance and took me in as his son. He opened my eyes to Jason Voorhees, the scourge of Crystal Lake and slayer of both the weak and strong. We would feed him his kills, since any flesh that has been touched by him would give us lasting youth and keep us strong. Sometimes, we would even send our own to be offerings." Marv explained to him with both delusion and passion in his eyes, staring off into the ceiling before looking back at Tommy, "You will be our greatest offering to Jason, and his happiness will mean everything to us." Tommy was disgusted from hearing this, "You're all fucking sick. You won't get away with this, I can promise you that.", "Are you sure about that? We've already sent some of our folks over to where Jason is so he can be released." Marv folded his arms, lowering his head, "You know, I probably should've told you this sooner, but I had sex with Tracy in the woods. She might end up pregnant with my child, who would grow up to be the cult's sole heir or heiress. I have no feelings for her at all, so I'm only using her as a vessel for my seed and a potential offering to Jason. Her gullible nature is what got her to become infatuated with me, but she confessed to me beforehand that her heart belonged to you instead. A girl like her is easy to manipulate out of that, so it didn't take much." Tommy fell silent after being told this—there was some sadness and disappointment, but he didn't hold anything against Tracy for what she did, even if it was a reckless decision, "Cat got your tongue?" Tommy ignored him and faced the wall so he wouldn't have to look at Marv, "I thought so. Agor va dea, Thomas." Those last words puzzled Tommy, "What did you say?" He questioned Marv, still not wanting to face him, "It is a language invented by the cult. It can only be spoken by those that have consumed meat from a human that Jason killed, so we call it the 'Language of Death' since it is something that we revere. I was telling you 'burn in hell'. " Marv opened the door back up to leave the room. Hearing the lock click after Marv left brought some relief to Tommy, but all he could do was sit there and ponder the whole situation. He didn't want to accept defeat just yet, and wanted to see if someone would come to his rescue.

Falling asleep after a couple hours of being trapped, Tommy was exhausted in everyway possible, misery was already present and all he could do for now was rest. His head was laid on the hard wooden floor and he drifted to sleep. Andrew was in the living room area, sat in front of the fireplace with his hand on his chin. Marv approached his superior from behind, his hands held together, "Jason has been freed by my subordinates. He should arrive here shortly." He said with excitement in his tone, Andrew only gave a little nod, "Excellent work. Jason will surely be pleased with having his worst enemy as an offering." Andrew used a fire poker to mess with the burning wood and flames, "I can feel his energy. Jason craves new blood. It shouldn't be long now. Bring me the girl before he arrives, we have a little ritual we need to perform."

Jason heaved himself towards the camp, his mask having been removed from his decomposed face. His machete was hanging by his side as he carried it. It was stained with fresh blood, which showed that he had just recently killed some people. He may have ended up slaughtering his rescuers out of bloodthirst, but it didn't matter to Jason—all that mattered to him was killing. Higgins Haven would be upon him when he stepped out of the darkened forest that he ventured through. His intentions were clearly full of malice and the entire camp would be his playground. The greatest threat to Black Lake would be their most revered idol, and it wouldn't be long before they would have to face him.

Ginny, Chris and Trish were back at Crystal Lake and traveled towards Tracy's home, "She said it was the first house by the pine forest?" Ginny questioned Chris, who nodded, "Yes. She doesn't seem to live that far from society though." Trish smiled at them but that would soon fade when she began to think about Tommy, "I hope Tommy is alright." She said, "I'm sure he is, Trish. His friend seemed nice enough to take care of him." Chris gave a little smile, but Trish shook her head, "He can take care of himself. He's a strong-willed boy." This made Chris think—the remark reminded her of herself, and had a feeling that Trish was mostly right. The house was right where Tracy said it was, and all three walked up to it, with Chris giving a soft knock. Tracy answered and was in a bathrobe. This showed that she had just gotten out of the shower and her hair was damp, "I'm glad to see you Ms. Higgins." She motioned for them to step in and closed the door behind them once they did so. Rocky barked and darted from the couch to happily jump on his owner, his leg was taken care of and Wendy rested in the recliner with dried tears in her eyes, "Would you girls like some coffee? I made some not too long ago." Trish seemed to oblige, and so did Ginny, but Chris wasn't interested and just sat at the couch with Rocky cuddling up in her lap, "Marv got Tommy out, but didn't say where he was taking him." Hearing this from Tracy put some confusion in Chris, "That's odd. Why wouldn't he?" Her intuition kicked in, and immediately felt something was wrong. Tracy only shrugged as Ginny and Trish prepared their coffee cups, "This doesn't feel right to me for some reason." Chris scratched her head and didn't have much else to say. Ginny and Trish sat with her at the couch and carefully sipped from their cups, "Why did you have sex with that man, Tracy?" Tracy became nervous and was unsure of how to answer Chris' question, "I just really like him. He's been really good to me." This didn't satisfy Chris one bit, but she only gave a skeptical nod. A sudden knock at the door made her flinch and Tracy went to answer it. Chris had to move Rocky from her lap to follow Tracy. Rocky trailed behind his owner and gave a soft bark when the door was opened to reveal Marv, "Marvin!" Tracy jumped on him to give him a tight hug. Chris knew something was up when her dog's barking grew louder, waking Wendy up, "Where is Tommy?" She questioned and stepped towards him with Tracy pulling away from the hug, "Home.", He replied "Do you know where he lives?" This very question from Chris made Marv pause for a moment, so he gave a calm smile and spoke up, "He gave me directions. Tracy, why don't we go see him together?" She gave a little smile and trotted upstairs to get dressed. Chris stared up at him, and even though he was towering her, she was not intimidated by him at all. "I know what you are." Marv was somewhat stunned by this announcement but chuckled. Ginny and Trish sat their mugs down, peering over the couch to watch them, "So you do." He screwed his face in and this indicated some sort of hostility building up. Tracy would eventually come back down in pumps, overalls , a t-shirt and her oversized denim jacket, "I'm ready to g-" Chris raised her arm in front of Tracy, "Tracy. Get Wendy to the car right now." She commanded. Confused, the blonde obeyed her anyways and went over to pick up a concerned Wendy up in her arms, carrying her out the backdoor. Rocky curled his lips back and snarled. It was almost instantaneous when Marv unsheathed the bowie knife that Chris had given Tommy and lunged at her. Chris grabbed his wrists and held on tight but was overpowered into a wall. Rocky went to bite at Marv's leg, who only winced from the pain. He used one hand to hold Chris by the throat and the other to swiftly stab Rocky in the back. A shrill yelp escaped the dog's mouth with Ginny and Trish stepping in to pull him away from Chris, "Rocky!" Chris cried out with her dog whining and laying in the floor, an open wound could be seen in his back. She turned her head to see that Marv slung Ginny into a wall and Trish was thrown onto the table of the dining room, breaking it. Chris, infuriated, tackled him. Before Marv was able to react, Chris used every ounce of her strength to push both of them out of a window. Falling onto the wet grass with glass shards showering everywhere, Chris used her fists to pound at Marv who only blocked them. Ginny, who was only a little injured, regained some energy to get up and heard Chris screaming angrily. She looked over at Trish who was also standing up and rubbing her head, "Trish, grab Chris and meet me at the car!" Ginny propped herself up and collected Rocky, she went towards the car which was running and Wendy was in the backseat. Trish, alerted, did what Ginny told her to do by running outside to pull her off of Marv, "Chris, we need to go!" She cried out and held her wrist as they both ran to the car together. Jumping in, Chris was panting and noticed Rocky was bleeding out in Ginny's arms. Anger was still present, "Tracy, go to Higgins Haven, now!" She demanded with Tracy pulling out of the driveway and onto the road. Marv slowly rose from where he laid and watched on as they left. He knew where they was headed to and laughed to himself, "Good." He murmured to himself and went back to his car.