Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

On the Job

The Forest Green S-Mart was huge; per the corporate brass, it was "the largest S-Mart on the East Coast!" That wasn't hyperbole, either; the building was two stories tall and larger than a shipping warehouse! The outside was painted the traditional S-Mart "red-and-blue," but was also immaculately decorated for Christmas; multi-colored lights strobed around the upper ledges and fully-decorated Christmas trees lined the walkway around the store. There were also several in the parking lot near the cart corrals, where Carrie was bundled up in her heavy coat and taking a quick smoke break before going inside to clock in.

As she took a drag from her cigarette, Carrie glanced up at the building and took note of the LCD digital display that normally showed the store's current sales. Right now, it read "7 Days until Re-Dedication Ceremony!"

Carrie had lived in Crystal Lake her entire life and she didn't understand the point of the upcoming ceremony. The town had already changed its name to Forest Green once years ago, and then they changed it back to capitalize on the popularity of Jason Voorhees!

Now some indecisive bureaucratic assholes were changing the name back to Forest Green in the hopes of... what? Covering up the town's hellish history? That didn't make a damn bit of sense!

In fact, the town's association with the Voorhees Family (who used to be big land barons over a hundred years ago) had caused the local economic boom that brought huge corporations like S-Mart to this town in the first place and turned it from a backwoods Yankee-hillbilly village that was barely even a blip on a map, into a semi-bustling lake town with condos and resort cottages, legitimate fast-food restaurants, and of course, an oversized corporate retail store.

Carrie shook her head and snuffed the cigarette on the concrete curb that surrounded the tree under which she was resting and crawled to her feet.

"Carrie!" Carrie stopped as she heard her name. A young man with short blonde hair that was slicked back, and a boyish face was walking up to her. Next to him was a girl who looked to be slightly younger with curly red hair that. "What are you doing?" Jake Laughlin asked as he approached. "I thought today was your day off?"

"The boss called us all in," Carrie said.

"Wow. I guess Reggie's cracking the whip today," Jake said as he raised an invisible bullwhip and cracked it in the air, imitating perfectly the accompanying sound.

"Yeah, he is. What about you? Did you get called in, too?"

"No, hell no!" Jake said. "We actually came here to grab some food. Sandy and I decided to go up to the cabin early, get everything ready for our party tonight."

"Jakey, I'm cold," Sandy whined.

"Well, go inside!" Jake said loudly with a laugh. "You're not on a leash!"

"Not yet," Sandy said as she pinched Jake's ribs before heading off. Jake shook his head with a wide smile.

"I finally got it!" Jake said once Sandy was out of earshot.

"Do what?" Carrie asked; however, her confusion immediately cleared when Jake passed her a knowing smile. "No! Really?"

"Already got a ring and everything," Jake said. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a black ring box, snapping it open so Carrie could see it.

"Good God!" Carrie exclaimed! "That's a sinker if I ever saw one! How the fuck...?"

"The stone was my grandmother's. Dad paid to have it reset for Sandy."

"Oh, she's going to love it!" Carrie gushed. "Just make sure you don't do it until David and I get there!"

"Promise," Jake agreed. "Just don't let on that you know to anyone else. I don't want Raoul spoiling anything."