Chapter Text
"Michael! Michael!" A young boy that seemed relatively tall for his age ran into one of the cabins at Camp Crystal Lake. He had a severe facial deformation, hydrocephalus, an abnormally large head with reddish-brown hair strands, and a couple of mental disabilities. Despite that, Jason was the only person who truly understood Michael. His clothes were somewhat dirty, his knees especially. Michael turned his head around, his long, blonde hair covering his face in the process. But he didn't care about that, and he quickly hid something that he had in his hand and behind his back.
"What's up?" He spoke normally and clearly to the other, he only did this when the two were alone or far away from others so they wouldn't be able to hear him. He didn't like others talking to him, or Jason, no one else understood them other than each other. And he preferred that, actually. Usually, when he'd talk to others, he'll have an accidental voice crack or he'd start stuttering. Jason would avoid talking to others, much to Michael's happiness, but to avoid bullying and having others throw rocks at him, much to Michael's dismay.
"Guess what I found!" Jason's hand was in one of his pockets, probably holding something or trying to keep the shape a secret. Michael raised a brow and hummed. He scratched his chin, looking and thinking intensely. Jason giggled at this, bringing his other hand up and covering his mouth. Michael smiled at this. "What is it?" He leaned in, trying to get a good picture of what Jason could have possibly found.
"No, you have to guess." Jason turned away, quickly bringing the other hand that was in his pocket and overlapped it onto his other arm, crossing them. From a glimpse, Michael could see a rocky base, that had white and different shades of purple rocks on it. The edges seemed sharp, so he was kind of worried about Jason handling it. But he ignored that thought, he knew Jason could handle himself. So, he quickly tried to remember the name of the material. He had seen it before.
He smiled, and confidentially told Jason, "That's an Amethyst!" The look of amusement and surprise on Jason's face was priceless. "Hey.. How'd you know?" The other stretched out the words, and a couple of whines ended up leaving too. "I read it in a book once." He admitted. "Where did you even get that?" He tilted his head in curiosity, waiting for his friend to reply. "Oh! Near the lake. Don't worry, the others were nowhere in sight." He looked down at his feet, where he was shifting them uneasily under Michael's gaze.
"I see.. Do you think we can find more?" Michael put the secret item that he was holding in one of his pockets and fiddled with his hands. He sounded a little more excited than he hoped he would sound. Jason smiled and nodded happily and poked his head out of the cabin. After seeing nobody, he motioned for Michael to follow along. The two wandered outside and walked towards the area where he had found the crystal.
"Wow, the place is really living up to its name, right?" Jason hummed in reply and the two got on their knees and began digging carefully, just in case there were any sharp objects in the dirt. The dirt itself was a bit muddy, due to the lake being in close proximity. After a few minutes of no luck, they hit something hard. The two looked at each other before looking down to see what they had hit.
It was a relativity small box, it had a golden color outlining it while the box itself had a vintage look to it. The two began to dig a bit deeper and used the water to their advantage. After a few failed attempts to slide it to them, they decided pulling would be better. The only problem was the way they were going to have to pull the box, their backs would have to be turned to face the lake, and to pull as hard as they could. If they were able to do this then they would fall into the lake with what they found in hand. The water itself wasn't too deep to drown them, but the impact could hurt, or just get them wet.
The two didn't like the sound of pulling, but it had to be done. Digging wasn't getting them anywhere. They also weren't a fan of getting anyone else's help because they were afraid that what they had found would be taken from them. What if it was really valuable? They couldn't let that happen. So, the plan was that one of them was going to pull while the other was on standby, waiting to catch the other just in case they went flying into the lake.
Jason sighed. "I'll go-" He was almost immediately cut off by Michael. "No." Michael knew Jason was afraid of the water, he had a traumatic experience with it once. "I'll do it. You only have one pair of clothes left and you just took a shower. Not to mention, your mom is coming to pick you u-" Jason was cut off again. "She can wait. It's not the end of the world anyway." The pair went silent for a few seconds before Jason looked down and started shifting his feet again. "Are you sure?" Jason shyly looked back up at his friend, and Micheal answered as soon as the question came out. "Yes."
Jason wasn't going to argue. Michael was the most stubborn person he had ever met and there was no getting past that blank, cold stare he gave everyone. Well, almost everyone. Jason gave him a nervous smile and backed away a couple of feet, but not too far that he wasn't able to catch Michael when he flew backward and into the lake. Michael crouched down and looked for a way to grab the box. There was a rusty handle in front of the dirty box that was a bit small but was still grabbable. He grabbed it and got up as high as he could before he began pulling.
After a couple of tugs, he got it loose, and it came out with a small 'pop'. Michael stumbled backwards but was caught by Jason. "Are you okay?" Jason had a worried look on his face. "I'm great, actually." Michael smiled at him and the two stepped back from the lake and inspected the box. It was bigger than it looked when it was once in the ground and quite heavy. Michael turned the box to view its sides and even flipped it upside down. There was a loud 'clanking' noise in the box. It sounded like multiple objects too, but because it sounded like glass, Michael was careful with the box.
"Let's head inside." Michael turned around to face Jason and the other followed suit. Once inside he set the box down on the small table and the two gathered around to see it better. "What do you think is inside?" Jason looked curiously at Michael and then at the box. "I'm not sure.. How do you think we get it open?" It was Michael's turn to glance at his friend with curious eyes and the other began to think. He hummed and smiled, "I think my mom has something we can use! I'll be right back." Just as soon as Jason was about to walk out the door again, he was grabbed. This caused him to spin around, confused.
"I can get it for you." Michael offered. "No, that's okay." Jason tried to shake his arm free, and it worked. "I'll be quick, okay?" He turned his head and smiled at his friends before walking out the door again. It had been a few minutes and still no Jason, but just as Michael was about to walk out through the door to go fetch his friend, Jason returned. With a machete in hand.
Michael jolted backward, nervously eyeing the weapon in Jason's hand. Jason was confused before following Michael's gaze, "Oh! This? it's nothing to worry about." He said with a smile, it almost seemed psychopathic. Michael was going to believe that, Jason wouldn't hurt a fly! "Did anyone see you?" Michael said. "No," Jason replied. "There was no one there, which was pretty weird." His eyes fixed on the floor, a worried expression forming. "Don't worry about it, that should be a good thing." Michael smiled.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jason smiled back at Michael and fixed his grip on the machete's handle, careful not to swing it around carelessly that could end up getting them both hurt, or worse. Jason headed towards the table, and then he eyed the machete. "Shouldn't we do this outside?" He turned to Michael, who glanced nervously out a window. "We should do it somewhere where the others won't see us." Jason nodded and headed out the door, Michael grabbed the box and followed Jason.
After wandering outside and into the woods a bit, the two found a perfect spot not too far away from the camp. They could still see the cabins from afar, there was still no one in sight. Michael placed the box down and Jason brought the machete up, aiming for the perfect spot and bringing the machete down as hard as he could. The machete almost cut through the box but got stuck. Jason then proceeded to pry it open, and to his surprise, it worked.
The box's insides were filled with gorgeous jewelry made of shiny crystals. Dirty crystal towers tumbled everywhere and a couple of small broken jars held crystal chips. There was some old paper with smudged handwriting. There was so much to look at but it was getting quite dark out, so they headed back to their cabin. Well, Jason's cabin. Michael broke in as soon as he got to meet the other and told him they moved him in, which was a complete lie.
Once in, they set everything down on the table. There was so much to look at, from bracelets made from crystals and necklaces with crystal pieces to chunks of raw and tumbled crystal pieces, they were all mesmerizing to look at. They were all polished and glistened from the nearby lighting in the room. "Oh wow.." Jason looked breathless and picked up a tumbled piece. It had different shades of blue, but what was so interesting to Jason was the milky white veins that looked like reflected water. "Aren't these so pretty?" He admired the piece in his palm.
"They are." Michael picked up a raw piece and inspected it. The crystal he chose was a dark orange color, almost brown. It had black outlines that looked like a zebra's stripes and brightened up when it was shown to a bright source. It was so shiny he swore he could see his own reflection. That's when Michael noticed the paper from earlier. "Hey, Jason? Can you pass me that paper?" Jason nodded and reached over to grab the paper and handed it to Michael. Under close inspection, he could only determine that it had been a buried treasure left by a pair a couple of years ago. Maybe even before the two were even born.
It was a final note from the pair. The ink has smudged a bit, but it was still readable. It was almost like a will, and their personal stuff were the crystals that they have found. It was a cute love letter nonetheless. It wasn't until he flipped it that he saw the pair, a picture of the two with both their fingerprints forming a heart. "Till death do us part." He murmured the quote that was written under the fingerprint hearts. This caught the attention of Jason. "Did you say something?" He glanced up from where he was sitting, his legs were crissed-crossed.
"No." Michael told the other, and Jason seemed to believe it as he went back to admiring the other pieces of jewelry. Michael went back to observing the picture. It had a man with short brown hair with emerald green eyes that wore the camp gear and a woman with the same gear but she had golden hair and locks that fell onto and decorated her facial features and had soft blue eyes. They held hands as they both smiled for the camera, touching shoulders.
Michael couldn't help but smile softly, the two looked inseparable. He glanced away from the paper to look at Jason for a few moments, silently admiring him from a distance. Did couples really last that long? What does the average relationship look like? What's love? What does it do to a person? Is it as cute and soft as what the elderly will tell you? Does it look like the photo? He was snapped out of his thoughts when Jason spoke out softly.
"Hey.. Are you okay? Did I do something?" Jason glanced up at Michael nervously, fiddling with his fingers a bit. "I'm fine, you did nothing wrong. It's just.." He trailed off for a few seconds before handing him the picture. "Take a look." Jason took the picture and looked at it carefully. After a few minutes, he smiled and looked at the picture and then the jewelry. Michael knew that he had pieced everything together. "This is cute." Jason giggled, got up, and set the picture on the table. He sat back down to wipe some of the dirt away from the jewelry so he could see them better.
While Jason was doing that, Michael was reminded of what was in his pocket. He sat down on his bed and saw the outline of the object sticking out of his pocket. He grabbed it and took it out. It was a small wooden animal, holding its paws out holding nothing. There was a gap, and Michael failed to find something to complete the carving. That's when an idea struck him and he turned to look down at Jason. "Hey, Jason? Do you mind passing me a crystal?" The other looked up and then looked around himself, before picking one up and getting up to hand it to Michael.
He smiled and took it, returning to his small carving and placing it in between the paws. It fit perfectly, and he was glad because of that. There was a knock on the door, startling both of them. They exchanged nervous glances at each other before moving swiftly, putting everything they have found under a pillow and brushing off as much dirt as they could before answering the door. Pamela, Jason's mother, was standing just outside, a couple of inches away from the door. Deborah, Michael's mother, was admiring the lake and the tall trees. "Jason, dearie, Michael has to go away for a while, alright? His mom's here to pick him up." She smiled sweetly at her son, before turning to Michael.
"I know you've been great friends with Jason, and I'm sure he's upset that you'll be going away, but there are always different ways you guys can keep in touch." He didn't mean to, but he stopped paying attention to her and focused his sights on Jason, who was standing in the doorway awkwardly and his eyes glued onto the floor. After a couple of seconds of his silent admiring, his mother stepped in. "I'm sure we're good to go, right Michael?" She bent down to his level. "How'd you get this dirty?" She eyed the dirt stains, "That's okay, I have an extra pair of clothes you can wear when we get back home, alright?" She smiled and got up again, turning to the other woman. "Thank you for taking care of my son for the week, I really appreciate it." She stuck out her arm and Pamela shook it. "No problem, Mrs. Myers. We always have room in case you guys want to come over again."
Deborah smiled and looked down to face her son, "That's if Mikey here wants to." Michael looked up to face his mother before looking over at Jason. "Yeah.." He said it so silently, that she could barely hear him. She sighed and turned to face Jason, crouching down to see him. "And that you for keeping my son company." She smiled, Jason smiling back ever so shyly. Michael didn't like how she was getting too close to his friend. "C'mon Mikey, it's time we leave now." She turned and headed for her car, which was at the front of the lake. She halted, feeling that Michael wasn't following her.
"Michael, what's wrong?" She turned around, confused. He was fishing something out of his pocket and quickly handed it to Jason, whispering something to the other, and jogged behind his mother, holding her hand. She looked up to see Jason handling the gift ever so gently. "A gift? Is there one for me too?" She asked playfully, but she wasn't expecting a reply. She already knew the answer, which kind of saddened her but made a cute sight to see nonetheless. The two reached the car and hopped in. "So, how was it?" She asked while doing her seatbelt. "Michael?" She looked up to see her son clutching onto another boy he snuck on. Jason. Holding him possessively and glaring at his mother.
"Michael!" She screamed.