The yellow school bus, so old that it had probably transported the parents of those present, rattled and complained for almost two hours. The asphalt had disappeared long ago, giving way to a bumpy dirt road that shook the passengers in their cracked vinyl seats.
Finally, with a squeal of brakes that sounded like relief, the vehicle stopped in front of a large wooden sign, so faded by the sun and rain that the letters were barely legible: "WELCOME TO CRYSTAL LAKE CAMP."
As they stepped off, the air hit the students. It was cool and smelled intensely of pine needles and damp earth. Sunlight filtered through the towering trees, mottling the ground with shadows.
The camp was exactly like the old photos, a relic frozen in time: rows of small, rustic, dark wood cabins, a wide, misty lake stretching into the distance, and a wooden dock so dilapidated that it looked like it would collapse if more than two people stepped on it at the same time.
"Wow, this place is... super retro," commented a boy as he struggled to pull down a rolling suitcase that clearly wasn't made for a dirt road.
"Retro? This is a dump!" complained a girl next to him, looking at her phone screen with an expression of absolute horror. "Oh, great. Great. No signal. My God, not a single bar! We're cut off!"
The rest of the students poured off the bus in a chaotic wave of shouts and laughter, a mass of youthful energy eager to claim the best cabins and start what they believed would be a week of partying.
Lief and Carrie stayed behind, observing the scene without any hurry.
He, with his backpack slung over his shoulder, looked as relaxed as if he were taking a walk in the park, not entering a notorious slaughterhouse.
"You don't look disappointed at all," Carrie murmured, nervously observing the ruined state of the dock.
"Disappointed? Why?" Lief smiled, opening his arms as if presenting the location. "Think about it, Carrie. Rustic cabins, total isolation from the outside world, zero phone signal," he paused, nodding toward the noisy group already running toward the cabins, "and a herd of hormonal teenagers ready to make the worst possible decisions."
He looked at her with genuine satisfaction. "This isn't a camp; it's the opening manual for any respectable horror movie. It has all the classic elements. All that's missing is for the star of the show to appear."
…
As night fell, a massive bonfire became the center of the camp's universe.
The sound of a slightly out-of-tune acoustic guitar, several songs sung in chorus, and the youngsters' shrill laughter struggled to keep the dense darkness of the surrounding woods at bay.
Most were clustered around the warmth, some roasting marshmallows, others simply playing games and exchanging those awkward, hormone-charged glances.
Lief had no patience for any of that.
"This is not what we came for," he muttered to Carrie, giving her a gentle nudge. "Let's go look for the real attraction."
They slipped away from the circle of light and noise and, in a matter of seconds, were swallowed by the woods.
The silence was immediate. The moonlight barely managed to filter through the treetops, and the only sound was the sharp buzzing of insects and the crunch of their own footsteps on the dry leaves and branches.
"Lief, where... where exactly are we going?" Carrie asked, her voice sounding nervous in the stillness.
"To find the host. The star of the show." Lief pulled a high-powered flashlight from his backpack, and the potent beam of white light cut through the darkness like a knife. "According to the legend, he usually has a ruined cabin near the shore. Or, you know, his hideout is literally at the bottom of the lake. Let's start with the shore."
They completed a full circle around the lake. They found nothing, except for a couple of tool sheds so rotten and abandoned that they looked like they were one breath away from collapsing on themselves.
The dark water of the lake was a black mirror, still and silent beneath the moon.
"Maybe... maybe they really are just stories, Lief," Carrie suggested softly, looking warily at the blackness of the water.
"Impossible," Lief replied with absolute firmness. "A summer camp without a serial killer is like french fries without ketchup."
…
The next two days passed normally.
The students paddled canoes, swam, practiced archery, and generally enjoyed the camp. The supposed "Bloody Camp" was identical to any other summer camp, with the only exception being a frankly absurd mosquito population.
Lief had not found a single trace of Jason, no suspicious cabin, no size-thirteen boot prints.
His disappointment was evident.
On the afternoon of the third day, he momentarily gave up. He grabbed a fishing rod from the boathouse and sat on the edge of the wobbling dock, casting the hook into the middle of the lake.
"..."
Carrie sat silently beside him, hugging her knees.
She watched the tip of the rod, which Lief moved occasionally, more out of boredom than actual fishing technique.
"What are you supposed to be catching?" she finally asked.
"Jason," Lief answered seriously.
She blinked. "What?"
"Think about it," he said, not taking his eyes off the water. "He's been at the bottom of this lake for decades. It's likely he's evolved by now, that he has gills or something. And if he's hungry, maybe he'll take the bait."
Carrie let out a genuine laugh that she couldn't suppress.
While Crystal Lake Camp maintained its apparent, boring calm, hundreds of miles away, at the Connor house, a party was in full swing.
…
The music boomed so loudly that the bass vibrated the glasses in the kitchen. Empty beer bottles and snack bags covered every surface in the living room. Bee, proving to be a very unconventional babysitter, had invited a few friends over to "have a good time."
The group was exactly what one would expect from her: there was Max, a huge guy with a neck covered in tattoos and muscles that barely fit in his T-shirt, Allison, a beautiful blonde woman with a crop top that defied logic, and Sonya, an Asian girl with such intense smoky makeup that she looked like she hadn't slept in days, accompanied by a notably nervous friend wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses.
And watching it all from a privileged position was Lillith.
Sitting on the highest step of the staircase leading to the second floor, she hugged her teddy bear while swinging her legs in the air.
She watched with curiosity as the adults played a game that she, in her infinite wisdom, considered ridiculously childish:
Truth or Dare.
The empty beer bottle spun on the carpet, slowed down, and ended up pointing mercilessly straight at Bee.
"Well, well. The hostess," Max's deep voice boomed. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare, of course," Bee replied languidly from her corner of the sofa, as if the answer were obvious.
"Good," Allison intervened, leaning forward with a mischievous smile. "I want something good. You have to kiss everyone here and it has to be on the mouth."
The living room erupted in whistles and cheers.
Bee didn't even blink.
With that same languid smile, she rose from the sofa with a sinuous movement. She approached Max, held his tattooed face between her hands, and gave him a deep kiss that made the guy laugh. Then it was Allison's turn, a quick but intense kiss that seemed to surprise her.
Afterward, Sonya, who received her with a knowing smile.
Finally, Bee stopped in front of Sonya's friend, the one with the glasses. The man was visibly overwhelmed; he turned bright red, almost purple, and his hands went up to nervously adjust his glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"And now, it's your turn," Bee whispered to him.
She leaned slowly toward him, blocking his view of the rest of the room.
Just at that instant, lightning tore across the sky without warning.
….
Over Crystal Lake, black clouds that hadn't been there moments before began to swirl with unnatural speed. The wind roared through the pines, whistling loudly.
A deafening thunderclap fell vertically, striking precisely the deepest center of the lake.
The calm surface exploded skyward in a column of water and steam.
Beneath the surface, an electrical current crackled through the murky water, spiraling down until it found a swollen, chained, and heavily decomposed corpse on the muddy bottom.
The corpse's fingers twitched.
…
In the Connors' living room, the music was still playing, but all attention was fixed on the center of the room.
Facing the shy and expectant gaze of the man in the glasses, Bee's sweet smile remained fixed.
But in the last instant, just as he closed his eyes, the expression froze. Her hands, which seemed to be going to caress his face, moved with terrifying speed.
Instead of a kiss, she pulled out two thin stilettos she had hidden in her lower back and, with brutal force and without hesitation, plunged them deeply into each side of the man's head, cleanly piercing his temples.
!
The man's body tensed in a spasm.
His glasses fell off, while his now wide-open eyes reflected absolute disbelief.
Blood immediately began to well up around the metallic handles, flowing without stopping.
The party smiles of Max, Allison, and Sonya faded, but they were not replaced by horror, but by a religious fervor.
No one screamed.
No one seemed surprised.
They observed the bloody scene as if it were just one more step in a ceremony they knew by heart.
"The impure blood has been offered," Bee proclaimed, releasing the handles of the stilettos and letting the body slump heavily onto the rug.
And with a casual gesture, she wiped a drop of blood that had splattered on her cheek.
With that, she turned, her gaze cutting through the chaotic living room to fix on the top of the stairs.
The other three imitated her, their eyes settling precisely on the girl who was watching them.
"..."
Lillith was still sitting in exactly the same place, hugging her teddy bear, but she didn't show the slightest hint of fear.
She simply tilted her head, her eyes calmly reflecting the image of the corpse bleeding on the rug.
"And now... it's your turn." Bee's voice no longer had anything syrupy about it. It had become strange, resonating with a chilling authority. "My dear Lillith. We knew you were special. We need your... pure blood."
She extended a hand toward the girl, her perfectly kind smile now twisted into a mask of ecstasy. "For our great teacher! Lady Dorothy, the Witch of Death of the Underworld, needs your soul as an offering. By mixing the blood of this sacrifice with your purity, she will finally grant us eternal life!"
Max, Allison, and Sonya were breathing heavily, their eyes shining with eagerness and blatant greed, fixed on the little human offering.
At the top of the stairs, Lillith observed the four of them. And then, suddenly, she smiled.
"Alright, come and get it."
________
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