This all happened years ago. I’m okay now, and back home, safe and sound. But it took a long time to get here. And it will take even longer for me to feel normal again. Maybe I never will.

It all started like your typical week away at summer camp.

“Okay, you kids are with me,” the camp counselor said in a loud, friendly voice. “From this moment on, the eight of you are a group. The Buckeye Squad!”

He handed out red armbands which we would wear to distinguish ourselves from the other campers. We began to put them over our shirt sleeves, and I felt a moment of absurd pride. The Buckeye Squad looked formidable. We’d be a tough match for any other group I could see.

It was the first day of sleep-away summer camp and the counselors began showing us the bunks where we would be staying for the week. He opened up the squeaking door at the back of a large pioneer-style wagon and we all brought our bags inside and began to look around the sparse quarters for a few minutes, getting settled.

Circle Wagon Ranch was the name of the camp and it had an old western theme with horses and trail rides, as well as archery, swimming, and a ton of other activities. Instead of cabins or tents, we would be sleeping in what looked like old frontier wagons. Each wagon could sleep eight kids with two bunk beds per side. And they were really hot inside, I noticed. There were no windows and the only airflow was through the front door which couldn’t be propped open.

“It’s like an oven in here,” one of the other kids said before I could get the words out.

It looked like we'd be spending most of our time outdoors that week, I thought to myself.

We all rushed out of the wagon and back into the breeze. Suddenly the sun above didn’t feel so hot anymore - it was just nice to feel fresh air on my face. The cool wind coming in from the forest to the west was refreshing.

“Man, that’s hot as hell. We’re never gonna be able to sleep in there,” the kid next to me said.

He was about my height, which meant he was tall for his age as well. He was wearing a red shirt and cargo shorts and was smiling at me in a friendly way.

“Yeah, hopefully it cools down overnight,” I said. “Hey, I’m Jason, by the way.”

“No way! That’s my name too!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. It was a common name but still it felt pretty random to run into another Jason right away as soon as I’d arrived at summer camp. Aside from our names, we were near total opposites - I had blonde hair and he had black hair. His clothes were dark while mine were light and colourful.

Later on, I’d wish I’d never met this other Jason. A bizarro version of myself, bent on chaos. But for now it seemed as if we would be fast friends. He stuck out his hand and I shook it.

“Do you like pranks, Jason?” he asked me in a sing-song voice. He had a look in his eye that worried me. One eyeball was gazing past me while the other stayed fixed on my face. I didn’t know why at the time, but he made me feel unsettled. His tone was wrong, his smile just a little too wide.

“Yeah, who doesn’t like pranks,” I said nervously, looking around to see if there were any grown-ups nearby. There weren’t. They’d all suddenly disappeared.

“Oh, you’d be surprised. Some people have no sense of humor. But I can tell you’re a prankster like me. We’re gonna have a fun week, Jason,” he said, his teeth bared in what might have been mistaken for a smile. “We’re gonna have so, so, so much fun.”

“Yeah, for sure. I’m looking forward to it too,” I replied, shifting my eyes away from him.

I sidestepped as casually as I could, moving over to try and make friends with another group of kids a moment later, but it seemed like I’d missed the boat. Everybody had paired up into groups of two or three, and I was left with Jason. For the rest of the week, it would be just me and him.

The next day, the other Jason started his pranks. They seemed harmless enough at first, and I’ll admit I even went along with them in the beginning. If only because I didn’t want to upset him.

Besides, they were stupid, childish jokes at the start. Jason had all sorts of supplies he’d brought from home for these purposes, and I saw he had planned ahead to wreak havoc on the camp and all of its inhabitants.

It started with little things, like putting salt in the camp counselors’ sugar shaker in the mess hall. We watched the sour looks on their faces as they took sips of their morning brew and spit it out, standing up and looking around for the brats who had spoiled their breakfast. The two of us pretended we were casually eating and averted our eyes.

Next he showed me the fake spiders and snakes he’d brought with him from home - his duffel bag containing a large freezer bag full of them. He put them under counselors' pillows and in campers' shoes, and ran through the whole assortment of them as they were confiscated one by one.

After those were all gone, he showed me the stink bombs and whoopie cushions, silly spray and thumb tacks he'd brought. He had cling wrap which he stretched over the toilet bowls so it would splash everywhere when people went to take a leak.

Every time I thought he had run out of supplies he’d amaze me with some new way to harass the other campers.

By the time the week was halfway through, people knew there was someone causing all this chaos, but they still weren't sure who it was. I have to admit I felt a little giddy with the secret knowledge that I was in on all these little jokes, when even the other members of the Buckeye Squad had no idea.

Sure, they were stupid, juvenile pranks. At least nobody was getting hurt, though, I told myself.

At least not yet.

But people were starting to get suspicious. Everyone had their guard up now, and it was getting tougher and tougher to get away with these little tricks and gags.

“We’re gonna get caught pretty soon,” I told Jason one morning as we were standing outside the Buckeye wagon, waiting for breakfast to start. “Maybe we should take a day off. Let the heat die down a bit.”

At this point I was still having fun. I had no idea how bad things were gonna get.

“True pranksters never take a day off, Jason. You should know that by now."

He was holding his toothbrush and toothpaste in his hands innocently and I was wondering what exactly he was going to do with them. His eyes had a twinkle in them which told me I would find out soon enough.

“Go knock on their door,” he said, pointing to one of the other wagons. It was the green group, called the Cowboys.

“What are you gonna do?” I asked suspiciously.

“Just do it,” he told me, and the look in his eyes was serious, and a little mean.

I gulped and agreed, walking over to the wagon and knocking on the door. Meanwhile, Jason hid just outside, his back against the wall facing me, so that when the door opened, it would swing to conceal him standing there - if it didn’t smack him in the face. He waited and watched me closely with his back against the wall, his eyes wild and crazed.

“Hey, what’s up?” a sleepy-eyed camper said when he opened the door. It swung wide to camouflage the other Jason, who now hid behind it, invisible.

I was caught off guard. I hadn’t thought of what I was going to say.

“Morning! You guys have a… Do you have a towel I can borrow? I lost mine.”

“One sec,” he said, stepping away.

As I stood there, I couldn't help but wonder what Jason was up to behind the door a couple feet away. It was difficult to pretend with him standing right there. I felt sure we were gonna get caught.

The kid came back with a towel and I grabbed it and thanked him, telling him I’d be back with it. The door closed and the two of us snuck away from the wagon. Nobody had noticed what Jason did behind the open door, including me.

“One down, two to go,” said Jason with an impish grin on his face. It began to occur to me what his ridiculous plan was, but it didn't seem particularly clever, aside from the way he was going about it.

It was just another irritation - like the cling wrap and the salt in the sugar shakers. One more thing to set the rest of the campers against us.

Almost as if he wanted them to hate him. And to hate us.

Ten minutes or so later, the fun started. At least, what Jason thought of as fun.

“What the hell is this!? Toothpaste!?” one kid yelled, his hands covered in bluish-white goo.

“Awww, what the!?” another kid was shaking his hand off, flinging toothpaste everywhere.

Jason had managed to coat the inside of each sleeper wagon’s front door handle with toothpaste, so that when the campers grabbed the door handle to open it, toothpaste went everywhere, staining their shirt sleeves and pants. There was no running water except at the main building, so there was no way for them to clean their hands or clothing.

Like I said before, it was not a particularly clever trick. But it worked nonetheless. And the campers were all furious. Not only that they’d been fooled by another prank - but that this one had been orchestrated in broad daylight, right under their noses. They’d all been going in and out of the wagons all morning, so I couldn’t help feeling like it was pretty devious, and was more than a little worried we’d be caught.

It looked like more than one camper had ruined an article of clothing or two with the mess, and suddenly I felt kind of bad for acting as the distraction.

Someone from the Buckeye squad went into our wagon and yelled out in annoyance a moment later, and I realized Jason had done the same trick to our wagon, to cover our tracks. He'd rigged the door handle of every wagon, including ours.

“Who’s doing these stupid pranks!?” yelled Brian, a blonde-haired kid with toothpaste all over his bright orange shirt. The hoodie looked expensive, with a name brand design on the front - something my parents never would have been able to afford.

Brian was popular among the other campers, and people immediately rallied around him. He had been to Circle Wagon Ranch every summer for years. Rumor had it that his family knew the owners of the place personally.

“It’s those Jason kids," someone replied, pointing in our direction. "That one came to my door asking for a towel, then a few minutes later this happened!”

A group of them were surrounding us a second later like an angry mob and Jason hastily objected.

“Hey, wait! We didn’t do anything! Look, our wagon got it too! If anything, it was the Lonestar Gang! See, they didn’t get pranked! It’s obviously one of them.”

I was amazed to see the scheme had worked. By leaving the one wagon untouched we had managed to divert all the attention toward them. The other campers hesitated and muttered back and forth to each other with uncertainty.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true… Alright, maybe it wasn’t you guys.”

All of them seemed to agree, except for Brian. He didn’t look convinced. As the others began to move away, he stayed, watching us with knowing eyes.

“You two think you’re pretty clever, huh? Well, I’m not as stupid as all of them,” he said under his breath. “I know you just did that to throw them off your trail. I know it’s been you two doing this stupid bullshit all week. Well, I’m gonna catch you in the act next time and make sure you get kicked outta here. You ruined my best shirt with toothpaste, assholes. Now I’m gonna make sure you pay for it.”

He turned around and walked away, wiping his sticky blue hands on his already-stained shirt. I knew from my own past experience - nothing was getting that shit out.

Jason laughed when he got out of earshot, putting his hand up for a high five.

“Man, we got ‘em! That worked like a charm!”

I gave him a weak high five and looked down at my shoes. I didn’t feel like celebrating, I felt like throwing up. And once again I wished I’d made friends with anyone at camp except for the other Jason.

The next day was hot and we all went for a hike down to the river to go for a swim. It took an hour to get there, marching through the forests and swatting at mosquitoes the whole time.

When we found the water I was surprised to see it was a crystal clear river surrounded by cliffs on one side and forest on the other. A few of us went off to climb the hills and try to find our way to the tops of the cliffs, while others stayed behind to swim.

Jason and I had parted ways for a little while, and I had managed to join up with another small group who reluctantly took me in, despite the fact that I was from a different squad. Since it was a day trip and there were no competitive activities planned, it was easier to mingle with the other kids that day, and I was thankful to have an excuse to get away from Jason.

I climbed up to the peak of one of the cliffs with this group of kids and learned their names were Tom, Joe, and Brett.

“What’s up with that other guy you’re always hanging around with,” Joe asked, as we hung our legs off the side of the cliff and looked down into the blue river-water far below.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s weird as hell, man. Brian thinks it’s him who’s been playing all the pranks on everyone. To be honest, we thought you were in on it. But now that I’m gettin’ to know you, you seem decent enough.”

“I dunno,” I said, hesitating. “He’s… weird. I didn't really want to be friends with him. We kinda ended up just hanging out together….”

I tried to find some other way to explain, but couldn’t. He wasn’t a good guy, I knew that. Maybe I just needed to be honest about it.

I opened my mouth to say something else, I don’t know exactly what, when the camp counselors called us back down to the swimming area. It was time to head back to camp.

Jason was nowhere to be seen, and was conspicuously absent every time I tried to locate him. It made me feel uneasy. Like a wolf was lurking in the trees, in the shadows where I couldn’t observe him.

But still, I was relieved that I didn't have to hang out with him for a little while. He was starting to get on my nerves.

That night, Jason appeared beside me out of nowhere, as we were all sitting around the campfire singing songs. With the voices carrying high into the air all around us, he whispered something in my ear.

"I found something out in the woods, you gotta check this out, dude!"

I didn't really want to go with him, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept saying I just had to see this thing, I just had to. It was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen.

At that point I wasn't really thinking of him as dangerous yet. Just a little strange and eccentric, sure. But not dangerous. I thought maybe he’d found some hidden treasure or something. I was a kid, after all, and I didn’t know any better.

He seemed really excited about whatever it was - his face and clothes smeared with dirt and mud as if he'd been digging somewhere.

Eventually I relented and snuck off with him into the forest. The songs of the singing campers receded into the distance behind us, gradually fading away until they were just a memory. But still, we trudged deeper into the dark woods.

"Where are we going? This is taking forever! We're gonna get in trouble," I moaned, beginning to hope he would get tired of my belly-aching and turn around as I kept insisting. But he stubbornly continued moving forward, ignoring me.

I sidled up beside him to get a better look at his face and saw his eyes were gazing far ahead, almost as if he was in a trance.

“Jason?” I asked him sharply. “JASON!”

He finally turned to look at me and it seemed like I’d just woken him from a pleasant dream. He was smiling faintly, his eyes half closed.

“Are we getting close? I'm tired. I want to go back."

Just then I heard a sound coming from the forest, just off the path. It sounded like a hurt animal.

“We can't go back now. We’re there. Don’t you want to see?” he asked me, the smile on his face getting bigger. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

He pulled my arm and led me over a ridge, deeper into the trees. A shape could be seen up ahead, slumped behind the broad trunk of an oak. I realized as we got closer that it was moving - heaving up and down as if it were a person crying.

“What is this…?”

I heard the words come out of my mouth but they sounded as if they were coming from a great distance away. On numb legs I drew closer to the body, stumbling through the leaves and mud.

“It’s Brian! Or, at least what's left of him,” Jason said from behind me.

I didn’t realize until that moment… I had been so preoccupied with looking for Jason during the hike earlier, I hadn’t even noticed Brian’s absence. He had been gone for the exact same length of time. Even the camp counselors hadn’t noticed.

As I circled around the tree to get a better look at his face, I saw why he was whimpering. Jason had done terrible things to the boy. He was barely hanging onto the last thread of life, breathing in shallow wheezes, blood dripping from the wounds which had been cut into his face, and all over his body, making him nearly unrecognizable. His ears were gone, as were his lips and nose, eyelids and fingernails. Both his legs were stacked like firewood in a heap nearby.

“Aren't you happy,” Jason asked quietly, gazing at me with his one lopsided eye. I had never felt so terrified in all my life. “Now we can keep having fun! Nobody's gonna get in our way!”

“Why would you do this to him?” I asked, backing away. “Why the hell would you ever think I would want this!? YOU’RE A PSYCHOPATH! STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU FREAK!!!”

His eyes darkened and his brows furrowed at that word and suddenly he looked very angry. No longer the fun, trickster Jason I had been friends with. Now he looked very much like someone who could do the terrible things I had just seen.

“You don’t mean that,” he said quietly. “Say you didn't mean it. Say you’re my friend. Say you want this.”

“No… no, you're insane!”

I turned and tried to run, and made it a few steps, but felt myself trip over a root a moment later. Falling over hard, I felt my jaw snap shut painfully as I hit the ground and it hurt worse than any pain I'd ever felt.

As I tried to scream but couldn't, all I could think was that it felt like my jaw was broken.

Getting up slowly to my feet, I began to have a very bad feeling about what would happen next.

I heard him rushing up behind me, the dead leaves crunching beneath his fast-moving feet. He was breathing fast and heavy, and he was roaring like a bear.

Something hit me hard in the back of the head and I fell down, collapsing on the ground. I remember tasting dirt between my teeth and on my tongue, and then everything went black.

When I woke up there was a bizarre scene happening all around me.

The first thing I saw was that we were still in the forest. The other Jason was wrapped in a blanket and talking with several police officers. He was crying, his face red with tears, and he was pointing at me, saying something about how scared he was.

“Sick freak,” someone said. I turned to see it was Joe. He was standing with Tom and Brett - the three friends I had made when the other Jason wasn’t around.

“I can’t believe you killed him,” Brett spat. “Guy didn’t do anything to you.”

My mind was racing, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And then I realized.

He was pinning the whole thing on me.

I tried to speak but when I did it felt like someone was driving a nail into my jaw. The pain was excruciating!

Not knowing much about these things, I did remember when my uncle broke his jaw once and it had to be wired shut until it healed. He couldn't talk for weeks.

And neither could I.

Attempting to overhear the conversation which Jason was having, I felt my heart begin to pound even faster.

"He kept pushing it further and further," the other Jason said. "I thought it was just supposed to be little pranks, that's what he said at first, but things kept escalating. He brought all this stuff from home - fake spiders, fireworks, cling wrap. I thought it seemed harmless enough. But now this!? If I'd known what he was gonna do, you have to believe me, I would have told you guys."

He was crying, putting on such a good show for the grownups. I almost believed it myself.

Except I knew what he had done. I'd seen it myself.

"Where's Brian!?" I tried to scream. "He tried to kill him! He tried to kill me!"

But no sound came out except for a muffled clicking and my strangled scream afterwards. The pain of trying to talk was horrifying.

"Shut up, freak," the cop said to me with no sympathy. Then he looked back to the other Jason.

"Almost done, kid. You're doing great. Just one more thing. What about his face? Did you see him do that to himself?"

I felt it then, at the corners of my mouth. A pain which I hadn't noticed before. A terrible, searing agony. The fractured jaw had outweighed it sufficiently that I hadn't felt it until that moment, but it was exquisite. And different from the other pain.

I'd been cut with a knife blade on the corners of my mouth on both sides. Upwards, like a Joker's smile.

"He just said he thought the pranks were so funny, he needed to laugh about it more. He wanted to keep laughing forever," Jason said.

"Geez," the cop replied, shaking his head. "Well, you did a good job reporting this to the adults. Now, do you have any questions for me?"

The other Jason thought about this for a moment before asking his next question carefully.

"Will he be allowed visitors? In prison, I mean."

"You want to visit the accused?" The cop asked suspiciously.

Jason grinned, his one eye looking at me while the other looked at the police officer.

"Of course. We're best friends. You know what they say. Best friends are forever. Even if they are a little crazy."

JG

TCC