But, dammit, that was a big step to have to make; she liked the easy friendship they had and worried that that would change. It almost always did in real life, or at least in real life according to the novels she read and the occasional night time soaps she watched with her mom. She had no personal experience. Mark was the first guy she’d ever gotten serious with. She needed to talk to someone, but she sure as hell couldn’t talk to her mom and the only girl she knew who might have done the deed, was Sandy; how the hell do you approach someone and ask? She could see it now, getting Sandy alone and asking her directly; “Sandy, did you and Pete ever go all the way, before he was torn apart by animals? I mean, did you have enough time to find out if it had changed your relationship with him, before he was dismembered?” Oh yeah, that would go over well and her problems would be over then. She doubted Mark would be all that eager, after Sandy had finished tearing her legs off and beating her severely with them. She chuckled at the image in her mind, of her standing a total of three feet in height, pushing herself on a skateboard, as she attended the Prom with Mark. Well, she thought, at least the mouth would be at the right height. That sent her off on another little set of chuckles, which turned into half tears, as she worried that maybe he would blame her for having been shot. She hadn’t even called him to see how he was doing; it had been late when the taught crossed her mind and she was afraid that his parents would get pissed.
Thinking about it now, that seemed silly; Mark’s parents never got upset when she called, they were always glad to hear her voice, always friendly when she dropped by. That sent her off on thoughts of how nasty her parents were about the whole thing. They had all but blamed Mark for the shooting, even though he had literally saved her life. Sometimes, she really hated her parents, like now. She would have a great deal of trouble forgiving the accusations that had come from them.
They all but came out and asked if he was forcing himself on her and she snorted quietly at the thought. Hell, she had practically had to force herself on him just to get a kiss, when they had first started dating, and holding hands always seemed like enough to keep him content. With that, she was right back where she had started, thinking about whether they should go all the way.
The answer was right there for her and she had finally solved the puzzle; he would wait and patiently at that, until she was certain. Mark was like that, gentle and understanding. She smiled slightly as she closed her eyes, mind finally at peace.
Then she tossed and turned some more, wondering about whether or not she was ready.
5
Joe Howell felt impotent, filled with an unsettled worry about his son. Why the hell had some asshole shot at him, what had Mark done?
He knew it wasn’t drugs, Mark showed none of the usual symptoms that came with a serious addiction; he wasn’t overly moody, he wasn’t slipping in his school work, hell he was getting better in his scholastic achievements if anything. He hadn’t been blowing wads of money, thinking about it, no more than he usually did on his hobbies and girlfriend. There were no small but expensive knick-knacks missing and the money in his wallet and in Jenny’s purse never disappeared mysteriously. So why had the bastard shot at him?
Maybe, it had to do with Tyler’s big brother, what was his name? Paul, Patrick, Peter, something with a “P” at the beginning; it had happened at Tyler’s place and Joe still remembered the boy from the Halloween Carnival, how he had stumbled and slurred his words and the glazed look in his eyes. He frowned to himself and decided that he would have to talk to Patrick, soon. And if that didn’t produce answers, he’d just have to talk to the police. They had to have some kind of idea about what the hell was going on.
Beside him, Jenny rose from a light sleep and looked over at him, blurrily. He smiled down at her and reached out to gently stroke the side of her face; she smiled back and kissed the rough flesh of his knuckles, lightly. “S’matter, honey? Can’t sleep?”
“Hmmn, thinking about Mark, hoping he’s okay with what happened today.”
She smiled at him and moved her hand under the sheets, to tickle his side, until he cracked a grin. “You worry too much, he’s fine.” She noticed the look of bewilderment on his face and kissed him lightly on the chest. “A mother knows her son,” she assured him, as she moved her hand down lower. “Mark’s a very strong young man, just like his step father.”
She kissed his stomach and moved lower, pushing the bedclothes out of her way. He hissed as she nipped at him playfully and forgot all about his son’s troubles. They could wait. They could wait all night if they had to. He had other things to think about now.
6
After finally seeing the light go out in his parents’ room, Mark stepped lightly to the front door and slipped out into the chill night air. He needed to think and he did that best out in the woods.
He paused on his way to look up at the window of Cassie’s room. Knowing that she was there made him feel better and he stared for sometime before heading on his way.
He hesitated at the edge of the woods and held his watch out to catch the faint light of the moon. One-fifteen, plenty of time to go back in before the folks woke up; they always slept until ten on Saturdays. He slipped into the woods with ease, scarcely disturbing the mulched and rotted leaves on the way to his special spot. He wandered without real purpose and put his thoughts in order. He knew that what had happened today had nothing to do with him: he’d never seen the guy before. Probably just some sick bastard that got his kicks by fucking with people; Lord knew there were enough of them in the world.
He finally reached his destination—a ten minute walk through the woods as far as distance was concerned—almost a full hour later. No worries, no hurries. He idly picked at the scraggly grass growing near the rock where he normally sat and looked on, filled with happiness, as the Folk started scampering closer in towards him. He had been chatting with them for several minutes, when they all looked in the direction that led towards his house and disappeared as suddenly as they had shown up.
It was then that he heard the sound of someone walking through the woods, heading in his direction. Mark was not so much scared as surprised by the unexpected sound; and he could almost hear that person’s breathing as they came closer. With a small grin, he moved silently away from the flat stone and slid quietly behind a nearby oak tree. Slowly, the figure came closer.
In the nearly complete darkness, he waited and watched as the figure stopped near the stone and slowly walked a circuit around it. He was having great difficulty stifling the snickers that tried to erupt from within him. The figure slowly backed away from the stone, towards his hiding place and he stepped directly into the figure’s path.
When she bumped into him, Cassie turned quickly and seeing the dark shape before her, cut loose with a shriek of near epic proportions. He smiled at her, beatifically and said, “Boo.” She could have killed him, when she realized who it was.
“Jesus! You scared the hell out of me!” She wanted to be angry, but that smile of his melted the anger like ice on a hot skillet. She managed to hold her glare for all of three seconds, heart racing the entire time, before she broke into a grin and started laughing with him. Before all was said and done, they were hugging each other and walking back to the stone.
“What brings you out here, at this late hour?” Mark looked at her with a blend of amusement and curiosity.
“I could ask you the same thing,” she replied, as she wrapped her arms around his rib cage. He kissed her lightly on the top of her brow and enfolded her with his arms. “I was following you, silly, I thought you were sleepwalking.” Close enough to the truth, she had also toyed with him meeting another girl, or maybe running away from home. Apparently it was none of the above. “So why are you here? Meeting another woman on the sly?” She tried to keep it light and pulled it off fairly well.
Mark looked down at her with that same easy grin he’d developed of late and hugged her a little closer. “Not a chance in hell, you’re almost too mu
ch to handle on your own.” She pulled away from him in mock anger at the comment and he kissed her temple. She could almost feel his pulse in his lips. “No, I come out here a lot; it’s where I go when I need to think, or just to get some fresh air.”
She looked up into his eyes and tried to read what she saw there; for the first time, she couldn’t. She had a brief flash of fear, where she thought that maybe she was with the wrong guy and then he smiled again and the Mark she knew was back. “Tonight it’s just for the fresh air. I’m glad you showed up, I was just thinking how nice it would be to show you this place; it’s so peaceful, solemn, like a church.” The way he said it told her it was the truth and she looked around at the little area for the first time.
She could see his point, the place almost looked like it could be a church. The trees grew straight and proud, rising toward the clouds above as if in prayer. The ground was remarkably level, all the way to the path that had been worn over the last fifteen years by all of the children that opted in the nicer weather to walk home from the school, rather than take the school bus. And, the air smelled sweet with the remaining blooms of a dozen different flowers. All in all, it was almost a magical place; you could come here and forget that you had ever seen another person. Forget that you had responsibilities. “It really is a beautiful little place, how’d you ever find it?”
He chuckled deep in his chest and looked around himself, with a distant gaze. Then he looked back over at her and said, “I guess you could say it found me.” Seeing the confusion on her lovely face, he finished the thought, “This is where Tony and Pete and the rest of the guys landed on my back.” He slid his hand down her back and patted the seat of her jeans briefly, before continuing; it was the closest he had ever come to a forward move. “Your derriere is resting just around where I split my face open, when Pete tackled me.” The thought was vaguely repulsive and vaguely humorous at the same time. She would have been thoroughly repulsed, had it not been for the smile and the laughter in his voice.
“How can you stand it here? I thought it would have nothing but bad memories for you.”
He looked at her and his smile changed, softened as he stared her in the eyes. “If that hadn’t happened,” he started his voice barely above a whisper, “Tyler would have never introduced us. I never would have had the nerve to talk to you first and when we ran into each other way back when, it would have just been ‘oh, excuse me,’ and you would have been out of my life.” She couldn’t quite look at it in the same light, but she understood what he meant; to clarify even further he said, “I’d take a thousand injuries like that, Cassie, to be with you.” The look in his eyes made hers want to water. She’d never realized how strongly he felt about her, he’d never put it into words before. “Cassie, I love you.”
She had no answer to that. She still had to evaluate her feelings before she could say the same back. Instead, she hugged him fiercely and he returned the gesture. If she never said the words back, she knew he’d still feel the same way. It was almost scary the way he felt about her. Almost, hell. It was a little scary.
They were about to kiss, like one of those mushy scenes in the movies, she thought wildly, when they heard Tyler’s scream, from off in the woods.
7
Tyler’s plan, simply put, was to follow Mark. He had to know if Mark knew about the little monsters and see if he was being hurt by the creatures. Just because Cassie was out there too, didn’t mean that he was going to change those plans. Damn it, he was worried about his friend and he was determined to find out if he was in trouble.
What he hadn’t counted on, was that the little creatures might take offense to his following Mark. He could hear their whispered voices, calling out feverishly and he could also hear a strange noise that made him feel a little dizzy.
What he did not know, was that They wouldn’t have hurt him at all, They simply meant to confuse his sense of direction, to scare him into running back home, out of the woods and away from Mark.
What They didn’t know, was that Tyler needed those big thick lenses of his to see. They took them off of his face and threw them far away from where he stood, before he knew what the hell was happening. They also ensured that he would not see Them, when They did it; the Folk were very good at not being seen.
So Tyler, believing that his glasses had simply fallen off, bent to the ground, trying desperately to find them, unaware that they were no longer in the vicinity. Confused by this strange behavior, the Folk touched his mind, with delicate mental fingers and discovered Their error. This new knowledge brought with it the makings of a fine joke and as everyone knows, the Folk love a good joke.
They retrieved the glasses and placed them just out of his reach. Naturally, he attempted to reach them just the same, becoming more and more frantic by the moment. They kept sliding them ever so slowly out of his reach. Tyler was already spooked, thinking about the very creatures that now, unknown to him, tormented him. The thought of their little faces snarling at him gave him a case of the grade A industrial strength heebie jeebies. Being in the woods, a place he had never been overly fond of, did nothing at all for his sense of well being. Add the darkness of the night to that and he was half a step away from a full scale panic attack.
When he accidentally knocked one of Them over, in his frantic search for his artificial eyes, It bit him, lightly, in warning. And It hissed.
We all have our deep seeded fears and you may rest assured, that the Folk know them all. Tyler was terrified of snakes; the thought of being bitten by one of the venomous little creatures, of rolling on the ground, as his body filled with deadly poisons and bloated beyond recognition, was nearly enough to make him wet his pants. In a truly divine terror, Tyler shrieked in fear and started running. He ran over three of Them, in his haste to get himself to the hospital and They were all quite taken aback by the speed with which the blind friend of the Chosen One moved. Right up to the moment that he tripped over a jutting root and slammed himself into the ground with enough force to break his nose and knock him unconscious.
Oh, how They laughed at that one, until the slightly more sober ones, those still pushing themselves out of the blind giant’s footprints, pointed out that the Chosen would be very angry indeed, should he find out what They had done. In the distance, They could hear the thunderous steps of the One and could hear in his bellowing cries, the worry he felt over the blind one’s dilemma. They quickly retrieved the seeing device, placed it near the unconscious form of the Chosen’s friend and ran like the wind to ensure no sign of their involvement. They chastised the biting one, as They raced through the woods, but not too harshly; it had been funny and he had been run over by the blind one. In moments, the sound of Their laughter had faded to naught. This was definitely a joke that They would remember for a long, long time.
Even the Folk make mistakes, the wind whispered. Ooops.
8
When Tyler woke up, he found himself facing a broad back, that undulated in place, before him. It took him a moment, to realize that he was being carried over someone’s shoulder. He started struggling frantically, thinking that he had, perhaps, been kidnapped and that he would be ransomed and then shot in the head and left in the woods, his body to be found some year, by a red neck hunter and his pack of huntin’ dawgs. He stepped thrashing when he heard Cassie’s voice above and behind him, tell him to calm down. He almost sobbed with joy when he saw the vague image of his beloved glasses in her hand. Never, he swore silently, would he complain about their need again.
Mark grunted and set Tyler down on his two none too steady feet. The grin he flashed Ty, apologized for the inconvenience and queried as to why he was in the woods so late at night, simultaneously. “Ty, for such a skinny guy, you weigh a ton.” Mark rubbed at his lower back and grimaced. “My spine may never be the same.”
Tyler grinned and lightly punched Mark on the shoulder, switching targets when he remembered the bandages on Mark’s right side. He was a good sport and obviously felt that
whatever Ty’s reasons for being in the woods, they were his own. Not so Cassie, she put her hands on her well formed hips and stared him in the eyes, with exasperation written on her face. “What were you doing out here in the woods? I thought you hated the woods.”
Tyler grinned sheepishly, flushing crimson and fessed up. He went on, with his usual accentuations and expansions, to tell of his being lost in the woods and panicking when he dropped his glasses. By the time he was done, all was forgiven. He also assured them, that his nose wasn’t a serious problem; “Damn thing breaks at the drop of a hat, has ever since good ol’ Tony broke it in the fifth grade.” He then regaled them with the story of why good ol’ Tony had felt it necessary on that long ago date, to cave his face in. They settled at the edge of the woods for over an hour and whisper-talked about a dozen things, never really getting back to the issue of why he followed Mark, for which he was grateful. He was and had always been, a lousy liar. The Old Tyler Charm, had saved his ass again. It was almost dawn, by the time they got home.
It was several hours later that Cassie said her good byes and headed for the airport in Denver. Her father woke her at nine o’clock, to tell her that her Grandmother had passed away in the night. They had to go to Florida and settle the funeral arrangements. The look on Mark’s face when they parted, was almost enough to break her heart.
She promised to be back as soon as possible and lamented that Tyler’s late night accident had stopped her from carrying out her plans; she didn’t know how long it would take her to build up the courage to offer herself to Mark again.
Under the Overtree Page 16