by Alex Archer
Jenny stopped short and pulled back.
Annja took a breath.
Joey shook his head. "Wow, you guys really have some issues to work out, huh?"
"Shut up, Joey," Annja said. "This doesn't concern you."
"Fortunately," he said.
Annja leaned across the table. "Jenny, I just want you to be happy. That's all. I don't want David for myself. Honestly. I even debated telling you the truth because I knew you might take it badly."
"Maybe I should leave," Jenny said.
Annja put a hand on hers. "Don't. That would be a mistake."
"Cake's ready." David appeared in the doorway and looked at the scene. "Everything okay?"
Joey shrugged. "Female issues, apparently."
Annja frowned again. "Shut up, Joey."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Joey grabbed a plate of the cake. "May as well try this incredible cake and see what the big deal is." He ate a forkful and chewed slowly until a big smile spread across his face. "Holy cow, this is some great stuff."
David smiled. "See?" He put plates down in front of Annja and Jenny. "Ladies, enjoy."
Annja picked up her fork and took a bite. She chewed slowly and then felt the burst of flavor in her mouth. David must have used a particularly rich vein of dark chocolate in the baking because it tasted almost like warm pudding.
"Wow."
Even Jenny couldn't stop eating it. "It's really delicious, David."
"I'm glad you think so. It's an old recipe passed down to me from my grandmother. No one else in the family can make it as well as I do."
Annja kept chewing. "You have a big family, David?"
"Actually, no. Well, not anymore."
Jenny smiled sadly at him. "Sorry to hear that."
David bit into his own cake. "Well, we can't stop the clock, can we? Everyone dies eventually."
Joey polished off his cake. "That was great. Thanks for insisting we have it."
"The dark chocolate in the cake helps settle the stomach after a meal. Plus, it contains antioxidants. Important these days, I think."
Annja looked at David's plate. "You're not eating yours?"
"I think I might have had a bit too much potato salad. But I did try it. Pretty good if I do say so myself."
Joey reached across the table. "I'll finish yours off, then."
David tried to stop him. "Joey, don't—"
But Joey grabbed the plate and started eating. Annja watched him put a big forkful in his mouth and chew. After a few seconds, he frowned. "Hey."
David got up from the table. "Everyone finished?" He collected the plates, including Joey's, and took them out of the room.
"Something wrong, Joey?" Annja asked.
Joey finished chewing and swallowed. "His cake wasn't warm."
Jenny sighed. "What are you talking about now?"
"His cake. It wasn't hot. Like it hadn't been in the oven."
"How is that possible?" Jenny said. "We were all eating the same cake, silly."
Annja felt thirsty and reached for her beer. After she took a swig, she put the bottle down. "Actually, we never saw him cut the cake. He brought us out plates of it, remember?"
Jenny frowned. "So you're saying he gave us different pieces? Why would he do a thing like that?"
"Maybe he's drugging us," Joey said.
Annja took another sip of beer. "The cake didn't taste as if it had anything in it. Just rich and full of chocolate."
Joey got up from his chair. "I don't feel any different, do you?"
Annja shook her head. "Nope. And I've been drugged enough times to know what it feels like."
"There's a surprise," Jenny said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Annja whirled around. "If you've got something to say, you'd better just say it."
"What—you're taking offense at the fact that you're always off trying to save the world? No wonder you're alone all the time. You've got an ego the size of Texas keeping you from landing anyone around you as a potential mate. Meanwhile, I work my ass off and have little to show for it. But you, Miss TV Hotshot, you've got guys you don't even know luring you across the globe, trying to get in your pants. Must be nice, must be really nice."
Annja stared at her. "Is that what you think? Is that what you actually believe?"
Jenny got out of her chair. "I'm going to use the bathroom."
Annja watched her go and then looked at Joey. "It's not like that. Really."
Joey put up his hands. "Annja, I haven't known you all that long but if you even think that I'm getting anywhere near this thing, you're out of your mind. I'm keeping my nose out of it. All I want to do is see this supposed evidence and then get the hell out of here. No wonder I always feel so much better in the woods."
Annja sighed. "You're right."
David came back into the room. "Where's Jenny?"
"Bathroom," Annja said. "We had a little misunderstanding."
David put a hand on his chest. "Not over me, I hope."
"Shut up, David."
Joey smirked. "She's been saying that a lot tonight."
"Well, I hope she comes back soon. The evidence should be here any minute and I don't want any of you to miss it," David said.
"Miss it?" Annja frowned. "How would we miss it?"
"Let's go outside. You'll be able to understand better out there."
"What about Jenny?"
"She'll be along, I'm sure. She's a big girl. She can figure out where we're at." David waved them out of the dining room. "Now, come on and see."
Joey glanced at Annja and shrugged. "Guess we find out what the big deal is, huh?"
"I guess."
Annja blinked. She still didn't trust David and this whole thing might be some elaborate setup. It had certainly happened to her enough times in the past.
She walked through the kitchen on the way to the back door. As she passed the counter and the sink, she saw the dishes stacked inside it.
"Annja?"
She turned. David stood in front of her. "Yeah?"
"You all set?"
"Yeah."
David grinned. "Then let's go."
Annja took a final glimpse at the sink, noting as she did so that there were two cake knives and two pans in among the dishes.
Two knives.
Two cakes.
She frowned, but then walked outside after David.
Chapter 26
The darkness beyond the glow of the porch lights seemed to spread off in the distance forever, an endless horizon of impenetrable shadow. Annja tried to adjust her breathing so she was more relaxed and hopefully more in tune with her surroundings. At the same time, she switched from trying to focus on everything and allowed her vision to become softer, knowing that at night this was the better way to see in the dark.
"It shouldn't be long now," David said. He stood right behind Annja. His presence was so close it made her feel uncomfortable. She wished Jenny would see how aggressive he was and how Annja was not encouraging him in the slightest.
She sighed. "Get away from me, David."
Joey glanced at her and grinned, but then went back to watching the woods. "What exactly are we waiting for here, Sheriff?"
"Just keep your voice down and be still. If it hears you, it won't come out of the woods."
"It?" Jenny said as she approached them. "You don't actually mean the Sasquatch is going to come here, do you?"
"I certainly do."
Annja shook her head. "There'd better be a good explanation for how you managed to achieve that miracle."
"Simple. A few months back, I noticed some obscure tracks on the periphery of my property. They weren't like anything I'd ever seen before. Of course, my skills aren't nearly what Joey's are so I couldn't be sure of anything, really."
Joey frowned. "Well, you certainly could have asked me."
David shrugged. "I guess I wanted this to be my discovery and mine only. I wasn't ready to ask for any help. I just wanted to make sure this was wha
t I thought it was and not some big mistake."
"So what did you do?" Annja asked.
"I set up small feeding stations around the edge of the woods back there. And then I started sitting out all night long, making notes of when the creature came in and for how long. What it liked to eat, what spooked it, that sort of thing."
"That's pretty intriguing," Jenny said. "Did you think to set up a night-vision camera or some other method of actually capturing this thing on film for the rest of the world to see?"
"No. I didn't want to spook it before I was ready to, at long last, unveil this to friends. That's you guys."
Joey sighed. "I don't buy it."
Annja smiled. "Me, either. How did you keep this to yourself? Most people would have busted at the seams with the urge to tell the world they'd discovered the truth about the Sasquatch. And yet you kept it quiet. Why?"
David shrugged. "Guess I'm just better at keeping secrets than other people."
Annja nodded. "Sure seem to be."
Jenny looked at her watch. "Well, when does the nightly entertainment start around here?"
"Should be right about now," David said. "If it keeps to its normal patterns and comes by. Of course, it could also be spooked by the presence of you guys."
"But it's fine with you seeing it?" Annja asked.
"Well, sure. By now it's gotten used to my scent being here. I'm not a threat anymore."
"And we are."
David frowned. "Annja, if you were a creature like this who had survived for so long by being so careful, then wouldn't you feel a little threatened if you smelled someone you hadn't before? Even someone who smells as lovely as you?"
Joey groaned. "Dude, please."
Jenny's voice grew terse. "So what exactly are we supposed to be looking at, then?"
"The outer border of the lights. Sometimes you can see it moving just beyond the glow."
"And you think it will be here tonight?" Jenny asked.
"I refilled the feed bags earlier today."
Annja glanced at David. "What in the world did you use as bait?"
"Venison."
Joey groaned. "You killed a deer?"
"I found a dead deer by the side of the road. It was still fresh. Someone must have hit it and kept going. It wasn't spoiled and it seemed a shame to waste it. So I used it. I thought you'd be proud of me for not wasting it."
Joey frowned. "It wouldn't have been wasted, anyway. It would have been food for the other creatures in the forest."
"And it is," David said. "It just so happens that the creature in question is a bit larger than the scavengers that would normally get to the deer first."
"You've done this before, then," Annja said.
"Yes."
"Each time with deer?"
David shook his head. "No, it was a very interesting trial-and-error system. I tried berries for a while and they didn't work. It just left them untouched. I tried leaves and plants, testing to see if it was an herbivore. Not so much."
"So what beyond the venison actually worked?" Jenny asked.
"Honey."
Jenny nodded. "I can see that. Sweets are always a good way to break down barriers with animals and people alike."
Annja went back to watching the darkness. Her eyes couldn't pierce the cloaked environs beyond the reach of the lights, but somewhere deep down inside her she felt something moving out there.
Slowly.
"What time is it?" she asked.
David checked his watch. "It's about that time."
Annja nodded. "I think it's out there."
"Are you sure?" Jenny moved closer to her. "I don't see anything."
Annja smiled at her. "Too much time in the classroom. Let your eyes go out of focus and deepen your breathing until you're more relaxed. Sense the rhythm of the woods and then you'll start to hear and see things."
Jenny took a breath and released it slowly, exhaling in one smooth stream. "I feel like I'm meditating."
"You are, sort of," Annja said. "Now just let your awareness expand outward in concentric circles, almost like radar."
Annja went back to watching the woods. Her senses were heightened. There was definitely something moving out there. She shivered. Having something like the Sasquatch lurking on her property would have made her distinctly uneasy at night. She wondered how David the lothario fared.
Joey leaned his head forward, and his voice, when he spoke, was the vaguest whisper. "It's here."
David snaked his head in next to Annja and Jenny. "I told you it would be here. Do you believe me now?"
"I can sense something out there," Annja said. "But I haven't seen anything yet that proves it exists. I'll withhold judgment until I do."
"That shouldn't be long," David said.
"I still can't see anything," Jenny said.
David smiled. "Want to get closer?"
Annja looked at him. "Are you crazy?"
"We're not in danger," David said. "And I really want Jenny to see what this thing is that I've been dying to tell her about all this time."
"When you weren't luring me out here," Annja said.
"We can discuss that later," David said. He looked at Jenny. "What do you say? Shall we get closer?"
Jenny nodded. "I'm in."
Annja frowned. "Well, there's no way you two are going without an escort. Joey and I will come with you."
"Great," Joey said. "This better not turn out like the last horror movie I saw."
David led them off the porch and onto the grass. Tall weeds reached up, threatening to entangle their shoes, but David took them on a route that spared them from the largest plants.
Annja's senses were on high alert and she could hear vague snaps of twigs and branches as whatever lurked beyond the clearing moved smoothly through the woods at a slow pace.
This doesn't feel right, she thought. We ought to be back on the porch where we can see. In the darkness, anything can happen.
Joey stalked through the grass next to her and she marveled at how silent he was. He was half crouched over and his legs came up out of the grass and back into it like a stork moving through the water in search of fish. He glanced over and whispered to her. "Old stalking technique."
Annja nodded. She'd seen similar movements in martial arts training. She was always fascinated by the way different cultures, isolated geographically, could sometimes develop similar techniques.
David stopped moving and pointed ahead of him. Annja saw it before the others did and she froze.
On the edge of the woods, a large shape appeared, partially obscured by branches and a tall shrub. Was this the Sasquatch?
Jenny froze in her tracks and then glanced back at Annja, her eyes wide. "Oh, my God, Annja. That's it."
But Annja couldn't see any detail, just a shape and that bothered her. I need to get closer, she thought.
Next to her, Joey held her arm. "What are you doing?"
"Getting a better look. All I see is a vague shape. That's not enough for me to become a true believer."
Joey sighed. "You're on your own, then."
Annja nodded and stalked farther on, past David and Jenny. Behind her she could hear Jenny whispering at her to come back and not be a fool. But Annja hadn't gotten to where she was in life by being afraid to take a chance. Or many chances. And this time was no different. She needed to know. She needed to see.
She approached the edge of the woods. Still, the shape kept moving, and Annja could see something hanging from a tree close by. That must be one of the feeding stations, she thought.
Was it eating?
I just need to get a solid look, she thought. That's it. If I can actually see the creature, I'll go back and leave it alone.
She moved even closer, bridging the gap between the open field of David's yard and the clustered shrubs at the edge of the woods. Twenty yards separated her from the thing moving around in the bushes.
She advanced farther.
At ten yards, she stopped a
gain, aware of how much she was sweating. A long time ago someone had told her how difficult it was to move quietly and slowly. She hadn't believed it back then, but she did now.