Growing closer

I sat on the sofa with a first aid kit in front of me, along with cookies and little pastries. Milk was still warming on the kitchen stove.

A call came in about that black mist. Of course we couldn't give up investigating it.

During the conversation, I suddenly heard a familiar name, "Necronomicon"... Wait, I thought I'd seen that name somewhere before.

I went to the study and leafed through that thick stack of documents. There seemed to be something like that in the report on Jason's mother. Official files obviously wouldn't include such things, but there had been reports of something resembling a cult found in the basement of the house where Mrs. Pamela had lived outside the forest. Mrs. Pamela seemed to have tried to resurrect Jason through dark magic. After Ms. Pamela was killed, that book had vanished too.

I swallowed. I seemed to have found a connection, assuming that book really was that powerful. I was someone affected by the book, and Jason was its direct product. Jason could directly control that thing. No, that didn't seem right either. Logically, the book should have been in control, but Jason... So... Jason was that book?

My wild speculation didn't last long before the door burst open with a bang.

His left eye was high and his right eye low. The arrangement of his facial muscles looked as though they'd been ground up, taken out, and put back together. It was a face that would make anyone scream in terror.

Except me. To desensitize myself, I'd put a childhood photo of Jason in my room, making him the first thing I saw every morning-I was long since used to it.

The grown-up version... was a little more startling.

He panted heavily, and only when his eyes met mine did he seem to suddenly realize. He clamped both hands over his face and actually tried to run again.

I hurriedly called out to stop him. "Jason."

"Jason, come back! Where are you going?"

He seemed rooted to the spot, hesitated, then actually tried to run again.

I hurriedly caught hold of her, and he followed my pull and sat on the sofa.

Something was terribly wrong with his emotions. This was no longer the fury of an intruder trespassing, but despair, mixed with a sorrow so immense it almost engulfed him. He couldn't stop trembling, and his fingers seemed to dig into his flesh.

I said softly, "Jason, what happened? Will you tell me? You're hurt. Let me bandage it, all right?"

Jason kept both hands pressed tightly over his face, panting rapidly and loudly. There was a wound on his back, nothing serious, seemingly made by an axe or something similar.

I cut his clothes open, disinfected the wound, and applied gauze. Although I knew this minor injury would mostly heal before his bath tonight, it was necessary-emotionally necessary.

Then it was time to soothe him. I wondered what had happened. How had Jason gotten hurt? Never mind his strength and speed-with his current reflexes, probably only a real Superman could hurt him. What about his burlap hood? Where had it gone?

"Jason, can you tell me now? What happened? I'm very worried about you. Shall I find you a blanket to cover your face? Would that make you feel better?"

He muttered to himself. It was the first time I'd heard him make a sound, and I leaned my ear closer in curiosity. "Mom, Mom, Mom..." Just that one syllable.

It had something to do with Mrs. Pamela. I was a little dazed. Suddenly, I saw something flowing through the gaps between the fingers he held clenched over his face. Tears...

As though something had suddenly occurred to him, the eyes peeking through his fingers fixed on me. He abruptly lunged, pinned me to the sofa, and clamped his hands tightly around my throat.

I let out a breathy sound that was abruptly cut off and instinctively tried to struggle, but froze when I saw his face. God knew how I could see such shattered grief on a face that looked so much like an anglerfish.

I relaxed the hands that had been about to struggle, my strength gradually fading. I did everything I could to make my expression more peaceful.

Jason froze, unable to understand why I had lied to him, unable to understand why, when he was about to kill him, he could still look so peaceful.

Tears kept sliding from the corners of his eyes, dripping onto the forehead and cheeks of the man before him.

Without thinking, he gradually loosened his grip. He didn't understand how the man before him could still smile.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jason. I lied to you."

"The moment I first saw Mrs. Pamela, I knew he was dead." Jason didn't want to hear this. He wanted to leave this place. He wanted to sink to the bottom of Crystal Lake.

I reached up and covered the hands Jason had around my throat. "If this will ease your anger, please go on. If this will make you forgive me..."

Jason jerked his hands back as though he'd been burned. To keep him from running, I struggled up with all my strength and grabbed his clothes.

"Sit down. Please sit down, Jason. I'll be very worried if you go out like this."

I moved closer to Jason. "Tell me what happened, all right?"

I was grateful I'd taught Jason sign language. Between his disjointed signing and the breathy sounds from his mouth, he managed to give me a rough account.

First, Ginny had pretended to be his mother and deceived him. Then, in his confusion, he'd seen his mother's head and abruptly realized his mother was dead. Finally, amid his immense panic, he hadn't killed Ginny.

"That woman was rotten. He deceived Jason. Even killing him wouldn't have been too much. I deserve to die too."

Jason tried to cover my mouth. He felt I shouldn't say that, but my logic was consistent: Ginny deserved to die for deceiving him. A friend who deceived him deserved...

I hugged his head and pressed my cheek to his. "Your mother is dead. You realized that long ago too, didn't you?" Jason suddenly began to sob, his whole body shaking uncontrollably.

"No one can replace your mother, but I'm willing to atone. I lied to you, but if you don't want to kill me, let me make amends. Let me take care of you like she did, all right?"

I cupped his enormous head and kissed his cheek. He instinctively tried to dodge, tried to hide.

"We can still live here together. You can keep guarding this place and give your mother, Mrs. Pamela, eternal peace. I'll take care of you, and you'll protect me. We'll live the way we did before, all right?"

"Why?" He forced it out between his teeth, the notes seeming stuck together, high and low.

"I love you. I can't love you more than your mother did, but I'm willing to love you."

He knelt back on his heels in front of the sofa, his arms tight around my waist and his face buried against me, bawling. Really, it sounded like some wild beast howling. I stroked his head and gently patted his back.

"It's over. It's all over. We'll have a new life soon..."

Jason didn't sleep. I'd realized that long ago, but he still preferred to lie in bed for seven or eight hours, hugging that little bear... big bear, medium bear, teddy bear... But now he really was asleep, his hot breath brushing my legs, heavy and steady.

After wailing for at least two hours, like a hippopotamus. An anglerfish. Fine, an anglerfish it was. At least he was rather cute when he was quiet.

Of course I couldn't sleep. From what Jason had just signed, he'd killed at least five people, plus one who hadn't ended up dead.

The police might already be heading my way, sirens wailing.

I made a call. Fortunately, things were still all right for now. No police reports, no requests for medical assistance.

That meant Ginny either hadn't come down the mountain yet or was still cowering in that cabin. The latter was more likely.

I arranged things with the police station in advance to keep the media under control, contacted people to search the mountain, and sent another group to clean up the traces.

An hour later, another call came. Jason had killed ten people in total: eight counselors who'd stayed behind, a police officer, and a resident of the town. There was also a girl still alive, in the same room as the most mangled corpse. She seemed to have fainted from excessive fright.

What else could I do? Deal with it or grease palms, whatever it took.

The next day, I watched the clock on the wall, turned on the television, and caught the news on time. "Packanack Town report: in the early hours, a horrifying wild animal attack occurred near the abandoned camp at Crystal Lake, leaving nine dead and one injured. Seven were young counselors who had recently moved into the camp, including their supervisor. One was a resident of a nearby town, and another was Deputy Winslow. Deputy Winsler went missing while responding to a call two days ago."

"According to a spokesperson for the Packanack Town police, the scene was discovered by other young counselors. Preliminary forensic examinations found multiple lacerations and bite marks on the victims' bodies. The wounds had irregular edges, suspected to have been caused by the claws and fangs of a large predator. No human weapons or signs of a struggle were found at the scene, only a small quantity of dark brown hair samples, which the technical department has sent to a laboratory for testing."

"'The evidence at the scene strongly points to a wild animal attack,' the sheriff in charge of the case said in an interview. 'The woods around Crystal Lake have a long history of black bear and coyote sightings.'"

"'The sole eyewitness suffered a mental breakdown from excessive fright and has so far been unable to provide useful information.'"

I'd spent the entire night making calls and taking calls. Fuck it, once this blew over, I was putting up wire fencing-electrified fencing!

"Following the incident, Packanack Town issued an emergency forest closure order, strictly prohibiting entry to private woodland and public wilderness areas within a five-mile radius of Crystal Lake. Nearby residents were also advised to lock their doors and windows and avoid going out at night..."

I switched off the television and rubbed my eyes. What followed would be nothing more than the police shooting a few brown bears, then paying out several large insurance settlements that even their closest relatives hadn't known about, because they hadn't existed in the first place. Then it would all be over.

I didn't understand. What I didn't understand was that too much had happened lately, and now I didn't even understand myself. Once that black mist disappeared, I should have gotten far away from here and gone back to enjoying my life of extravagant indulgence.

Instead of staying here doing Jason's laundry and cooking for him like a nanny. And now, why had I said those things? Did I want to be his mother?