Chapter 34: Mutation

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Mutation

Chapter 34: Mutation

After hearing Rob Dier’s explanation, Axel Vance immediately understood why the young man kept returning to Crystal Lake. Sandra had almost certainly been one of Jason Voorhees’s victims, and Rob had spent years refusing to accept that her killer was truly gone. Whether Jason was buried, hiding in the woods, or somewhere beneath the lake in this twisted version of events, wandering around alone with a hunting rifle was still a terrible plan.

Axel glanced toward the calm water and said, "If you’re convinced the killer is still connected to this lake, you might have better luck draining the thing than walking around these woods every day." Rob frowned at him and muttered, "You sound exactly like another guy who used to say things like that. Everyone called him crazy, and last I heard, he ended up institutionalized."

Axel raised an eyebrow but decided not to chase another local horror story before finishing the conversation already in front of him. Rob seemed to remember something as he studied Axel more carefully and asked, "Wait, you’re not from around here, are you?" Axel nodded and finally introduced himself properly as the new forest ranger temporarily transferred from the Miami Police Department.

Rob’s remaining hostility faded almost immediately. "So you’re the officer they sent out here. People in town have already heard about that." Axel was not surprised that Woody’s phone call had spread through a community where a new KFC probably counted as major news.

Axel rested one hand on Rob’s shoulder and said, "I’m sorry about Sandra. I’m not telling you to give up, but if you find something dangerous, don’t go after it alone." Rob gave him a bitter smile and replied that everyone already thought he was crazy, but none of that would make him stop looking.

Axel waved once and headed back toward the trail. "Then at least try not to get yourself killed before you find your answers." Rob remained beside the lake while Axel disappeared into the trees, still staring toward the water as though expecting Jason to rise from it at any moment.

By the time Axel returned to camp, Ethel was standing beneath one of the cabins and shouting at a child who had somehow climbed onto the roof. She looked ready to lose what remained of her patience, and the moment she saw Axel she pointed toward another cabin. "Where have you been? Russell locked himself inside and won’t come out, and I’m already dealing with one future mountain climber."

Axel immediately headed toward Russell’s cabin and knocked on the door. "Russell, open up. It’s Axel." Instead of the energetic response he expected, a frightened little voice answered from inside that he did not want to come out because it was dangerous outside.

That answer made Axel’s expression change. Russell had spent the previous day running around the grocery store, fighting over snacks, and asking endless questions about video games, so suddenly being terrified of leaving a cabin made no sense. Axel knocked again and told him, "Open the door. I brought something that might help."

The door slowly opened a few inches, and Russell peeked through the gap. His normally round face looked pale, his eyes were red, and all of yesterday’s energy had disappeared. Axel immediately remembered the exhausted high-school students he had seen in town because Russell now looked disturbingly similar to them.

Axel stepped inside and closed the door behind him before crouching to Russell’s level. "Tell me what happened. Are you sick?" Russell shook his head and whispered that he had fallen asleep for a while and awakened from the worst nightmare of his life.

"It hurt," Russell said, his voice starting to tremble. "I don’t even remember what happened in the dream, but I remember how much it hurt. When I woke up, everything was gone except the fear."

A name immediately surfaced in Axel’s mind.

Freddy Krueger.

The pattern was disturbingly familiar, especially after seeing several teenagers in town who looked as though they had been avoiding sleep for days. Still, Russell had no cuts, burns, bruises, or other injuries, and Axel refused to decide that a dream-killing supernatural murderer was responsible based on one nightmare alone.

Axel remembered the bottles stored inside his pickup and reached into the small pack he had carried back from the truck. He pulled out one bottle of homemade Holy Water, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to Russell with a reassuring smile. "Drink this. It’s special courage water, and monsters hate it."

Russell studied the ordinary bottle suspiciously. "Really?" Axel nodded with complete seriousness and told him that no demon, ghost, or nightmare monster would dare bother someone protected by it.

Russell finally took several large drinks. Within moments, some of the fear in his face seemed to ease, and his breathing became noticeably calmer. Axel could not tell whether that came from the Holy Water, reassurance, or both, but any positive reaction was useful.

"See?" Axel said while rubbing the boy’s hair. "Now lie down and get some sleep. I promise nothing is getting through that door without dealing with me first."

Russell hesitated before nodding.

Axel waited until the boy climbed back into bed before leaving the cabin. The moment the door closed behind him, his relaxed expression disappeared because Russell’s condition lined up far too closely with what Axel had seen in town. One frightened child could be a coincidence, but several exhausted teenagers and another victim at camp began forming a pattern.

He found Ethel still dealing with the other children and said, "Keep everybody close for a while. I’m going back into town to pick up a few things and ask some questions." Ethel barely looked away from two children arguing over a ball before waving him off and telling him to come back quickly.

By evening, the town felt noticeably different from the cheerful little place Axel had visited that morning. Most storefronts were already dark, traffic had almost disappeared, and the streets were strangely empty for such an early hour. The only brightly lit business near the intersection was the recently opened KFC Russell had proudly mentioned earlier.

Axel parked nearby and walked inside. The same group of teenagers he had seen on the street were gathered around several tables, but none of them looked remotely interested in eating. Untouched cups of soda sat in front of them while they slouched in their seats with bloodshot eyes and expressions of total exhaustion.

Axel pulled out an empty chair and sat across from them. "Evening. I’m Axel Vance, the new forest ranger working around Crystal Lake, and every one of you looks like you lost a fight with a week of insomnia." A blond teenage boy barely lifted his head and asked why some ranger cared about their sleeping habits.

"Because one of the kids at my camp suddenly became terrified of sleeping this afternoon," Axel replied. "I saw you people earlier, and now I’m wondering whether that’s a coincidence." The blond teenager’s expression immediately changed.

"We haven’t slept in three days," he said, suddenly far more alert despite his exhaustion. "Every time we close our eyes, that thing comes back." He explained that they had tried drinking, pills, coffee, and anything else they could think of, but none of it stopped the nightmares.

Axel leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Then start from the beginning. Tell me exactly what you see when you fall asleep." Before anyone could answer, the restaurant door suddenly slammed open and a familiar figure stumbled inside.

It was Lionel Cosgrove.

He looked far worse than when Axel had encountered him in the grocery store. Sweat covered his face, his eyes were almost completely bloodshot, and he kept glancing over both shoulders as though terrified something might have followed him inside.

Lionel rushed toward the counter and hurriedly ordered several large servings of fried chicken. Axel stood and approached him, asking, "Lionel, what happened to you?" The young man nearly jumped out of his skin before recognizing Axel and releasing a shaky breath.

"Nothing," Lionel answered too quickly. "Low blood sugar. I just need food." Axel looked at the trembling hands and terrified expression that clearly had nothing to do with missing lunch.

Before Axel could push further, Lionel grabbed the bags of chicken and hurried toward the door. "My mother’s waiting. I have to go." He disappeared outside almost as quickly as he had arrived.

Axel watched him leave and quietly wondered how one small town had accumulated this many strange residents. Between Crystal Lake, the exhausted teenagers, Lionel, the old psychic woman, and whatever had frightened Russell, his supposed vacation was beginning to look suspiciously familiar. He returned to the table and focused on the teenagers because their problem was the one currently threatening children under his supervision.

Across town, Lionel hurried through the front door of an old house with the bags held tightly against his chest. Before he could even close the door properly, an angry female voice shouted from deeper inside, "Where have you been? Bring that food over here before you decide to abandon your own mother!"

Lionel flinched automatically.

His mother, Vera Cosgrove, sat hunched at the dining table while Lionel placed the fried chicken in front of her. She seized the food immediately and began shoving pieces into her mouth with frantic speed, barely chewing before reaching for more. When pieces of paper wrapping stuck to the food, she swallowed those too without seeming to notice.

Vera glared at her son between bites. "Fried garbage again. You’d be completely helpless if I weren’t here to tell you what to do." Lionel lowered his head and said nothing because arguing with his mother had always been difficult, but lately it had become terrifying.

Everything had started after Vera encountered a bizarre animal at a local zoo exhibit. The creature had been called a Sumatran rat-monkey, and when it bit her, everyone initially treated the injury like an unpleasant but ordinary animal attack. Afterward, Vera’s appetite exploded, foul sores began spreading across her face and arms, and her personality became even more vicious than before.

Lionel stared at the raw lesions along her skin while she devoured another piece of chicken. He still had not told anyone what he witnessed earlier that afternoon because saying it aloud would make it impossible to pretend his mother was merely sick. Vera had looked down at one badly infected finger, bitten straight through it, and swallowed it.

She had not even screamed.

She had not reacted to the pain at all.

Lionel stood frozen beside the table while Vera kept eating as though nothing unusual had happened.

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