Times Square was drowning in light.
Giant screens flashed advertisements twenty stories high. Neon colors bled across wet pavement from a rain that had fallen earlier in the night. Tourists wandered with cameras, taxis honked endlessly, and street performers shouted over the noise of the city that never slept.
To most people, it was just another Friday night.
To Rennie, it felt like standing in the middle of a battlefield.
She pushed through the crowd, gripping Tyler's arm so tightly her fingers hurt.
"Keep moving!" she gasped.
Tyler stumbled beside her. "Where are we even going?!"
"I don't know!"
Behind them, people suddenly began screaming.
The sound spread through the crowd like a ripple across water.
Heads turned.
Phones lifted.
And then everyone saw him.
Jason Voorhees stepped out of the subway entrance and into the blinding lights of Times Square.
For a brief second, some people laughed.They thought it was a street performer.
A guy in a costume.
A publicity stunt.
Then they saw the machete in his hand.
And the blood on the blade.
The laughter died instantly.
Panic exploded across the plaza.
A tourist couple stood frozen near the subway entrance.
The man raised his phone.
"Dude, that's an amazing costume—"
Jason grabbed him by the jacket and slammed him face-first into the metal railing of
of the subway stairs.
The phone clattered across the pavement.
The woman screamed.
Jason lifted the man again and hurled him down the stairwell.
His body tumbled out of sight with a sickening crash.
People began running in every direction.
A hot dog vendor abandoned his cart as Jason stepped forward into the chaos.
Someone crashed into him while fleeing.
Jason grabbed the man's shoulder.
The man turned, eyes wide with terror.
"Wait—!"Jason shoved him violently into the side of the hot dog stand.
The metal cart flipped, spilling boiling water and food across the pavement.
The man collapsed beneath it, motionless.
Steam rose into the cold night air.
Rennie and Tyler pushed deeper into the crowd.
Police sirens screamed somewhere nearby.
Blue lights flashed between the buildings.
"He's not stopping!" Tyler shouted.
Rennie glanced back.
Jason was still walking toward them.
Slow.Relentless.
People ran around him like water around a rock.
Anyone who got too close paid for it.
A street performer dressed as the Statue of Liberty tried to run past him.
Jason grabbed the costume's crown and ripped it off, yanking the man backward.
The performer struggled wildly.
Jason shoved him into the side of a parked taxi.
The windshield cracked under the impact.
The driver inside screamed and scrambled out the other door.
Jason didn't even watch the performer fall.
He was already moving again.
Toward Rennie.Always toward Rennie.
Police cars screeched to a halt at the edge of Times Square.
Four officers jumped out, guns already drawn.
"DROP THE WEAPON!" one of them shouted.
The crowd scattered even faster.
Jason stopped.
He turned slowly toward the officers.
The neon lights reflected across his hockey mask.
The officer fired.
Gunshots cracked through the square.
People ducked behind cars and barriers.
The bullets struck Jason's chest.
He staggered one step back.
Then he kept walking.
"Holy—" one officer whispered.
They fired again.
Jason reached them.
He swung the machete.
The nearest officer barely raised his arm before the blade struck.
He collapsed instantly.
The second officer tried to retreat.
Jason grabbed his vest and slammed him into the hood of the police car.
Metal dented with the impact.
Jason lifted him and threw him across the pavement.
The other two officers froze.
They had never seen anything like this.
One dropped his gun.
The other ran.
Jason didn't chase them.
He turned back toward Rennie.
Tyler nearly tripped over a fallen barricade.
"Why is he following you?!" he shouted.
"I don't know!" Rennie cried.
But deep down, she feared she did.
Ever since Crystal Lake…
Ever since the visions…
Ever since the water…
Jason had been watching her.
Like she belonged to him.
A helicopter thundered overhead.
Spotlights blasted down onto Times Square.
Police voices crackled through loudspeakers.
"THIS AREA IS BEING EVACUATED!"
"CIVILIANS CLEAR THE STREETS!"
The light landed directly on Jason.
He looked up.
For a moment, the entire world seemed to stop.
Cameras from nearby news crews captured the image.
A massive figure standing in the middle of Times Square.
Blood-stained machete in hand.
Police lights flashing around him.
The hockey mask staring up into the sky.
Jason moved again.
Straight toward Rennie.
A group of teenagers tried running past him.
One of them slipped.
Jason stepped forward and grabbed the fallen boy by the hoodie.
The boy screamed.
Jason dragged him across the pavement and flung him into a stack of metal barricades.
They collapsed in a loud crash.
The other teenagers ran without looking back.
Rennie pulled Tyler into an alley between two buildings.
"Through here!"
They ran down the narrow passage.
Trash cans overturned under their feet.
Somewhere behind them, footsteps echoed into the alley.
Heavy.
Slow.
But getting closer.
Tyler looked back once.
Jason had entered the alley.
The neon lights barely reached this far.
The shadows swallowed him whole.
Only the pale hockey mask floated in the darkness.
Tyler's voice cracked.
"He's not human…"
Rennie didn't answer.
Because she knew he was right.
The alley opened onto another street.
They burst out into traffic.
Cars screeched to a halt.
Drivers shouted angrily.
Rennie grabbed Tyler again.
"We have to lose him!"
Sirens grew louder.
Dozens of police vehicles were converging on the area now.
Roadblocks forming.
Helicopters circling.
But Rennie knew something the police didn't.
You couldn't stop Jason.
You could only slow him down.
Jason stepped out of the alley seconds later.
Cars honked furiously.
Drivers stared in confusion.
One man rolled down his window.
"Hey buddy, watch where you—"
Jason smashed the car door inward with one brutal shove.
The driver screamed.
Jason pulled him halfway out of the car and threw him onto the pavement.
The surrounding vehicles began reversing in panic.
Jason stood alone in the middle of the street.
Sirens closing in.
Lights flashing everywhere.
Yet he didn't move.
He simply looked down the road.
Watching Rennie disappear into the chaos.
Waiting.
Because Jason Voorhees had patience.
And Manhattan was a very big hunting ground.
High above the city, the helicopter camera zoomed in.
The reporter's voice trembled over the live broadcast.
"We are witnessing… something unprecedented here in Times Square tonight. Authorities are responding to an unidentified attacker—"
The camera focused on Jason's mask.
He slowly tilted his head toward the helicopter.
The reporter's voice faltered.
"Dear God…"
Jason lifted the machete slightly.
And the entire city realized something terrifying.
This wasn't a random killer.
This was something worse.
Something unstoppable.
And it had just arrived in Manhattan.