by Karen Binnie
Chapter 14
Clarintor watched as Kroil and Pete hoisted the body from the pool into the trunk, on top of the body of the car’s driver.
“Drive north, into the mountains, a deep ravine should do, plenty of foliage, bodies can be lost for years before discovery. Make sure you plant the bodies in the front as discussed, it must look like an accident.”
They both nodded at their mistress and went to enter the car.
“Wait, Peter you will stay, I want to know more of the place she has been taken, you will stay with me.”
Pete glanced across at Kroil in the driver’s seat, worried now about what Clarintor wanted, she could trick him into revealing the truth. Kroil nodded at him, echoing the fears on his face, “Be strong, you can be strong” is all he said before speeding off into the night.
Clarintor watched them, curious at their exchange she turned her back on the boy and re-entered the house heading out back towards the lake, knowing he would follow like an obedient puppy.
Pete wished he could move like the others, he struggled to keep up as she glided towards the lake, he was scared of her and tried to compose himself as he ran from the back door.
Clarintor sat on the bench of the summerhouse waiting for him, tapping her fingers impatiently against the seat, an unnerving sight indeed as she rarely sat in his presence.
“We shall have to do something about you, Peter.”
He eyed her warily as he came to a halt, he never knew if one-day she would finish him off, was she about to do that now?
“You are far too slow, come here boy.”
So this was is it, she was finally ready to finish what she had started before Kroil’s interference, perhaps he were better off dead but he had only just discovered the thrill of his snake like form, that would be lost forever. Clarintor held her left hand against his body and began to speak, the words were not harsh like before but more lyrical. Pete stood there a willing victim for he knew to run would be futile, she was a powerful demon and he even wondered if Kroil had matured enough to confront her.
Kroil wanted him to bite her once his venom had been perfected, enough to subdue her then the rest would be up to Kroil and if he failed? Pete shuddered at his thoughts, could she read his mind, he may have unwittingly betrayed their plan already.
He looked into her eyes, they had rolled back on themselves as she spoke, the blackness a haunting void, luring him in. Letting go of her powerful grip, he dropped to the floor like a stone.
“Ah! yes I should have released more slowly, I am sure you will forgive me, rise up Peter and try out your new power.”
Pete stood slowly, there was no pain this time and he was not completely dead, he rose steady to his feet, no pain anywhere in his body, what had she done to him?
“Well move boy, she how quickly you can run to the house and back” she commanded.
She watched him run, glide effortlessly and swiftly towards the house, the movement smooth and fast but he could be quicker, he would need practice at this new found skill.
Pete was exhilarated at his new found power, “thank you” he said bowing his head to his mistress on his return.
For a second she was almost human, she patted her hand on his shoulder and in a moment of weakness added, “Well done, try it again.”
On his fourth return, she stopped him, “enough now, you must return to the other side and observe, I will join you later.”
“I do not know how to?” he bowed, adding “will Kroil be joining us?”
She scowled at him and thrust her hand forward, her temper propelling his body out across the lake just inches from the surface, he stopped and hovered in mid air, his face frozen in terror and in a flash he was gone.
Kate wandered in the direction of the town, she had been here before and tried to remember where the supermarket was, she saw the large i of the tourist information centre, she could get a map for her journey that might help in determining a short cut.
On entering the shop she felt uneasy as the assistant looked up at her and stared, ok I may look like crap she thought but there’s no need to look at me like that! She walked over to the stand of free guides and looked for one with a map. The best one seemed to be a guide on fishing sites in the area which she took, glad to get back outside as the air became cooler and drops of rain started to fall.
Across from the information centre she could see the supermarket and ran towards the entrance as the rain began to fall heavily, her hair soaking once again. She took the dollar and thirty cents from Stanton’s wallet and decided to look for something to buy that would keep her going. As she meandered through the aisles, there were other shoppers, mothers with children crying, a pushchair in her way, a group of olds chatting about the good old days, a grossly fat woman eyeing up the cakes, her equally fat husband already stuffing samples from the cold counter in his mouth, all oblivious to her existence.
The rain drummed on the metal roof as she scanned the shelves, a few of the other customers eyed her suspiciously, or was it the floor they were looking at? Kate turned to see a trail of water along the aisle she had just been in, perhaps the store had a leak. Rounding the corner she found baskets of bread piled high and took one of the budget loaves, she had just enough to pay for it. More stares from other shoppers were beginning to unnerve her, an old man in front of her at the till seemed to take forever, his arthritic fingers struggling against the folds of his wallet.
Staring up at her from the shelving were the sweets they always placed at the tills to entice the children and annoy the parents, some chocolate right now would have been good but she did not have enough money. Finally she got to the assistant and placed her measly loaf on the counter beside the money, there was something wrong, the assistant just stared at the counter in a kind of trance, Kate took the bread and left. These people were weird, everyone staring, perhaps the townsfolk were unhinged, she began to wonder if she had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
The rain still pummelled against the roof as Kate stood next to a line of trolleys wondering what to do next, she was clearly drawing far too much attention to herself as she clocked the two security guards whispering to each other as they watched her every move and she hadn’t even done anything wrong.
Kate ran across the car park towards a street of houses opposite looking for shelter, halfway down the street she spied an empty looking house with a carport at the side and ducked down the driveway. She was pretty wet again and sat upon a pile of logs against the side of the house under the carport waiting for the rain to subside. The drips turned into a torrent as they spilled over the edge of the plastic roof, this summer downpour had to end soon.
Feeling the bulge in Stanton’s jacket she decided it was time to have a look at the old book, after all there was nothing else to do as she sat there. Not much bigger than the palm of her hand, the battered old leather binding had seen better days, she flicked through the pages, what she did try to read didn’t make a lot of sense, Latin or something like that, she smiled at the painful memory of Stanton reading the text. On the centre page she stopped flicking and stared at the pages in disbelief, the black and white picture before her had four leather bands hand drawn on the yellowing paper but there was no mistaking the familiar pattern of Jol’s leather wrist band, she had seen it the night before when her best friend had put it on for the party, written on the page underneath it were the words, Jannes Ore Luissenn.
Startled by a movement to her left she caught sight of people walking down the street, a lot of people, there was something strange about them, the rain had now slowed to a drizzle, she returned the book to the jacket pocket and grabbing her loaf she decided to go and see where they were headed. As she approached the head of the driveway, each person turned their heads to look at her then faced forward again as they walked on. That was weird she thought, looking down the road they had disappeared, looking back in the direction they had come from there were more heading in her directi
on, this time she would watch where they were going.
As they approached, in turn they all nodded at her as the others had done when her attention was drawn to a barking dog. Down to her right he came wagging his tail, he sat down beside her, “Hello cutie, you look just like my old dog Jasper but when he was a lot younger.”
She bent down to pat his head and he licked the side of her face, tickling just like it always used to. Realising the flow of zombie figures had stopped she turned to look down the street and they had disappeared again, it was strange, she wondered what was going on. The rain now stopped, she turned to look down at the dog by her side, “better go home before you're missed my friend, time I was off.”
Kate had been travelling the road for about an hour or so on foot, she had passed Tokaanu with the lake to her right, when the river came into view up ahead, she remembered the bridge from her childhood holidays, this was a good sign, at least she was headed in the right direction. She had considered thumbing for a lift but common sense prevailed, she knew that could be dangerous. She reached the bridge and descended underneath to sit by the river for a while, it dawned on her that she should have been planning what they saw at the movies by now with Jol for her birthday treat, they still hadn’t decided what they would see so she wasn’t really missing out on anything.
Where was her best friend? she checked Stanton’s cell phone, there were no more messages, ‘happy birthday Jol’ she sent the text hoping it would reach her friend in time, she knew she should eat, trouble was she didn’t feel that hungry.
Sitting on the grassy riverbank she heard panting from behind and turned to be met with a large pink sloppy tongue washing her face.
“Hey Jasper stop it, where did you come from?”
There was no sign of anyone else in the area, he must have followed her from the town. Her Jasper look alike lapped at the water’s edge then turned to head off downstream when he stopped and looked back at her, walked a bit more then stopped again, sensing that he wanted her to follow, she picked herself up and went after him.
Reaching the mouth of the river he disappeared through some bushes.
“Hey wait a minute” she called, “I can’t get through.”
Looking for a way, there was a small gap to the side which she managed to crawl through, to find Jasper inside a small wooden boat wagging his tail, “you clever boy” she said as she ruffled his ears, “what a good idea!”
Looking out across the lake she could see a familiar looking beach further along and realised that rowing there would take half the time as walking. If borrowing the boat, it would be best to leave at dusk, less likely to be seen, so she settled down for an afternoons snooze with her faithful dog at her side, she just felt so tired lately.
Several hours later Kate struggled to open her eyes, Jasper was pressing his cold nose against her cheek willing her to wake up. It was dark now, far too dark, maybe she had missed her chance but maybe she could manage in the light of the moon.
The moon was beginning to wane but still gave plenty of light to the clear night sky, from the lakes edge the stars seemed so close and magical in their reflection on the water.
“What do you think boy?” asking her faithful companion as she sat upright on the grassy bank, “shall we do it?”
Jasper barked in agreement. Strangely it did not echo.
Picking herself up, the boat moved with incredible ease as she gently pushed it into the water.
Kate was finding the boat difficult to manoeuvre and was sure she had passed the point of her original heading, the currents too strong. It didn't help when the cloud had drifted over obscuring the moon several times, she began to feel that she would be drifting until morning. Jasper began to bark, alerting her to the shore, now lit up once again by the moon, there was a small patch of sand, she had to go for it. As the boat hit the bank Jasper jumped onto the shore watching helplessly as Kate struggled to pull the boat in. Luckily for Kate the trees canopy reached as far as the water’s edge, she did not have far to drag the boat out of sight. Exhausted she collapsed onto her backside with the final tug on the rope.
Looking into her companions deep brown eyes she whispered, “I'm too tired to go on mate, let’s just rest here a while.”
She fell back against the grassy bank, her mind spinning, closing her eyes she felt the thud of Jaspers body against her back as he snuggled in to sleep, it was good to have the company although his body offered no warmth at all. So much had happened since arriving at the party, her aching limbs sent a numbness creeping through them, Stanton’s jacket still held his musky smell. Kate longed to turn back the clock, to be able to warn him not to start this charade, all of this had been his fault, he had started it all yet her heart ached for the man she had known only briefly, she tried to erase the image from her brain of his floating body in the pool.
Her mind a sea of images, the dream began with a swirling mist that at first covered the crater lake until it rose up into the clear night sky, forming the shape of a great blue whale which jumped and flipped over swishing its tail before diving into a sea of mist. The smoke crept to the edges of the lake which sparkled now like the stars, a galaxy of lights living under the surface, the lights grew stronger, so sharp and intense it was blinding until at last they formed the shape of a crystal which ascended to the heavens, spinning as it rose. Kate was walking across the water trying to reach the crystal, mesmerised by its splendour.
The whispers stopped her in her tracks, 'He will find you, he has found you, your soul will be his, you cannot hide from him.'
She woke with a start, Jasper frantically licking her face to wake her, she looked closely at him, “can we hide Jasper?” she asked as she threw her arms around his neck for comfort.
His thoughts blended with his memories and the present as he tried to remember Jol, her face eluded him, lost in the shadows. He could hear her voice, he had surprisingly never held a proper conversation with a girl before but remembered their talk. Her voice soothing him at first, then another interfered with his thoughts.
This voice was older, it sounded like his bedside angel but he couldn't be sure.
“Hello JD, it’s only me, I've finished my shift now, just thought I would pop by for a little chat. Its 2 am, not that I suppose that helps you much. I’ve been keeping a close eye on you when I can. I wish I knew your name son, I'm calling you JD cause that’s the initials on the inside of your jacket. I've been wondering what the J could stand for and I've settled on Jerimiah, hope that’s ok with you? Anyway now we are alone I can tell you this is the start of your third day here at the hospital, you are in intensive care, in a coma. No one knows who you are but don’t fret I'll not tell them what I think. You are a very handsome young man, but don’t go getting your hopes up, I'm old enough to be your great granny, no doubt you have a young lass somewhere who'll track you down. I'm just going to sit here and do some knitting, be warned if you lie there long enough you'll end up with one of my famous jumpers, and you don’t want that. Now funny thing is I've only got black wool left and I've a feeling that could be your colour, going by what you were wearing when you came in. You know Jerimiah you remind me of someone I used to know once a long time ago.”