“Don’t worry, Jason. You’ll be okay. I promise.”

I wanted to believe her. I had to believe her. My mother was right about everything. Come to think of it, she was my everything.

You see, I was sort of different. I didn’t look like all of the other kids at school. My head was big, my ears were crooked, and my teeth stuck out. People treated me like I was a monster.

As you can imagine, I didn’t have many friends.

The only person I could count on was my mother. She knew I was different, but she wasn’t ashamed of it. In fact, she was quite proud of me.

But when she told me to go to summer camp, I was scared. People laughed at me in school, so they would laugh at me in camp, too.

“No, Jason, this will be different. Trust me, things will change.”

My mom told me this before I got on the bus to go to Camp Crystal Lake. She kissed my forehead and I climbed aboard.

That’s when it started. First came the shocked expressions, then the hushed whispers. This happened all the time, so I was kind of used to it at this point.

But when I tried to sit down, people put their feet up on the seats and backed away from me. I ended up sitting at the front of the bus with one of the counselors—even she was afraid of me! —for the entire trip.

I knew it was going to be bad.

When I got off the bus, I tried to be friends with the boys I was sharing a cabin with. I knew they wouldn’t like me, but I had to try.

My mother would have wanted me to.

That night was awful. While I was sleeping, I heard the boys talk about something they wanted to do the next day.

“Should we do it?”

“What do you think?”

“I say we do it. All we need to do is make sure no one’s around when we do it.”

I wondered what they were talking about but I didn’t want to ask.

The next morning while I ate breakfast, one of my cabin mates came up to me and said, “Hey, your name’s Jason, isn’t it?”

I was nervous. “Um…yes, I’m Jason.”

“My name’s Michael. My friend Freddie and I are going swimming in the lake. Want to come?”

I shook my head no. “I don’t like the water.”

“Don’t worry! We’ll be okay. Besides, there’s some girls who want to go with us. It’ll be fun!”

I did blush a little. I had never talked to a girl before, besides my mother. Maybe this was what she meant when she told me things would change.

I really wanted to fit in. I wanted to have friends. So I said yes.

We finished breakfast and hiked down to Crystal Lake. When we got to the dock, there were already lots of kids waiting for us. Boys and girls were everywhere, and they all smiled at us when we came down.

Friends, I thought to myself. These are my friends.

But something wasn’t right—I didn’t see any counselors anywhere. We weren’t allowed to do anything without adult supervision. I kept my mouth shut though, since I didn’t want my new friends to think I was lame. I just smiled and acted like I was okay.

But I wasn’t okay. I felt like something bad was about to happen.

And sure enough, something bad did happen.

Michael grabbed me by my left arm, and Freddie grabbed me by my right arm. “Time to go swimming!” They said happily.

I was scared. “What? No! I don’t want to! I can’t!”

“Don’t be a pansy, Voorhees! Get in the water!”

They kept pulling me closer and closer to the end of the dock. I felt so betrayed.

“STOP IT! I SAID NO!”

It was too late. I had been tossed into the lake.

The water was freezing. It was all around me, like a dark wet blanket that was making it hard to breather. I tried to call out for help, but no one heard me.

I tried to swim, but it didn’t change anything. I was only making it worse by trying to save myself.

Eventually, the lake swallowed me whole. I never saw my mother again.

I hate bullies. Bullies made me into the person I am today. Because of those kids who drowned me back in 1957, I no longer trust anyone. My heart is so broken and so full of hate that my only instinct is to kill those who cross my path. It may sound evil, but when your life is overruled by people who stomp all over you, you’d want revenge too.

My name is Jason Voorhees. The next time you see someone weaker than you are, be their friend. The next time you see someone doing bad things, think about me. There’s a reason why they are evil.

The inspiration for this story can be found here.