| Character Infobox | |
|---|---|
| Ned Varner | |
| Known Relatives: | Unnamed mother |
| First Appearance: | Friday the 13th: Mother's Day (1994) |
| Status: | Deceased |
Ned Varner is a character in Friday the 13th: Mother's Day, a 1994 novel by Eric Morse. A large man aged somewhere in his fifties, Ned is the proprietor of Ned's Gas, a dilapidated service station located near Crystal Lake.
Biography[]
Living in a house atop a hill behind his gas station, Ned preserved his mother after her death, keeping the woman's corpse propped up in his living room, treating the body as if it were still alive. [1]
In 1996, Ned, noticing a group of travelers have parked at his gas station, exits his cottage and, walking to the gas station, greets the assembled group of campers. Surveying these new arrivals, Ned guesses they have come in search of Jason Voorhees, who he claims is dead and gone. Beginning to rant to his prospective customers, Ned states that Jason has pretty much ruined all the businesses in Crystal Lake and driven almost everyone from the town and goes on to say that the only people left in the area are the ones who cannot afford to move, like him and his mother. [1]
Finishing his speech, Ned, after being nervously complimented by one of the campers, a girl named Suzanne on his gas station, states that the station is a piece of trash before claiming the group are the first customers he has had all day. After saying this, Ned asks if the campers need the oil checked on their vehicles, as they would not want to break down in a place like Crystal Lake. After being politely refused, Ned begins to rant again, saying that the campers have nothing to fear even if they do breakdown anyway, reasserting his belief that Jason is dead, as well as burning in Hell, also saying that the area where Jason disappeared is rumored to be a gateway to Hell. Ned finishes his second speech by saying that with Jason gone, Crystal Lake will perhaps be peaceful from now on. [1]
As Ned finishes his second speech, one of the campers, Billy Boone, asks him for directions to Camp Crystal Lake, which surprises Ned, who advises the group to stay away from the camp, which he claims is populated by all manner of evil entities. Becoming increasingly annoyed by Ned's scaremongering, camper Paul Sexton tells him that they just want to use his bathroom and to buy some cola. Apologizing to the group, Ned, after stating that his mother always did tell him that his stories seem to scare people away, opens his store and lets the group use his facilities, eerily watching them and grinning from inside his shop. [1]
Later, Ned, while searching for a newspaper coupon in his cottage his mother claimed she had saved, finds the newspaper the coupon is in and yells to his mother that he will cut it out for her so she can put it in her scrapbook. Entering the room where his mother is, Ned finds camper Albert Harris, who had discovered that Mrs. Varner was long dead and embalmed, trying to flee from his house. At first dumbstruck by the sight of Albert, Ned, after the panicking Albert attempts to explain himself, calmly puts his newspaper down and, snapping his pair of scissors shut, charges at the terrified Albert with blades raised high. [1]
Chasing Albert through his house, Ned knocks aside a table Albert had thrown into his path and swings at the boy with scissors, only to slash his dead mother, who Albert had used to shield himself, across the forehead with the blades. Letting out a scream and staring horrified at what he has done to his mother's corpse, Ned barely manages to defend himself when Albert tackles him, causing the two of them to fall to the ground and the scissors to fly from Ned's hand. After Albert runs from his house, Ned, recovering from the boy's attack, runs after him, chasing him to the forest surrounding Crystal Lake. [1]
Following Albert to a clearing in the forest with a large stone in the middle of it, Ned, when Albert begins throwing rocks at him, screaming to leave him alone, stops dead in his tracks when he notices a hockey mask clad figure behind the boy. Ned witnesses the masked man brutally murder Albert with a hunting knife before he too is dispatched by the man, who stabs Ned to death with his knife. [1]
Ned's bloodied body is later found by Carly McDonnell, who stumbles upon it while flying from the Jason Voorhees-possessed Joe Travers, Ned's killer. [1]
References[]