Rules Are Rules

by MariaLisa deMora

  Rules

  are

  Rules

  If you could change one thing: A Tangled Fates Story

  MariaLisa deMora

  Edited by Hot Tree Editing

  Proofreading by Whiskey Jack Editing

  Photography by 6:12 Photography by Eric McKinney

  Copyright © 2019 MariaLisa deMora

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

  First Published 2019

  ISBN 13: 978-1-946738-35-6

  DEDICATION

  I have the best readers. Thank you.

  You make everything worth it.

  Contents

  New day

  When I find them

  Weird days

  What if

  The deadly pattern

  Flawed

  Are you prepared

  Love you, woman

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Here you are again, dear reader, picking up the second in what’s planned as the first trio of supernatural stories. Welcome, and be ready, because we’re about to head back into the territory of “what if” in a way you can’t yet imagine.

  I hope you enjoy Kevin’s story in Rules Are Rules. As I put him through his paces, digging a hole deeper and deeper under him while he tried to escape…his despair was exquisite. There is something to be said about a character that won’t give up.

  Thanks to Hot Tree Editing and Whiskey Jack Editing for your assistance in making my words so much better than they entered this world.

  “I’d do anything” is a bold statement carrying a weight of promise. Would you really?

  Woofully yours,

  ~ML

  Rules Are Rules

  Rules are rules.

  If offered the chance to rewrite history, would you? When you’ve lost everything precious in your world, what would you do to earn it back?

  Would you fight, rail against fate, balk at accepting the inevitable? Could you look past the surface and dig deep to find the truth?

  “I’d do anything.” If you could change everything with a word … would you?

  New day

  “I love it out here.” Kevin’s wife snuggled against his side and sighed happily. “Back in the city, it’s too easy to forget how quiet the world should be.”

  He wrapped his arm around Diane a little tighter. “One of my favorite places to be.” Pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, he reminded her, “Doesn’t hurt that this park is where our daughter was conceived, either.” She gave an ineffectual slap at his chest and giggled. He smiled and continued, his tone teasing, “Those are some fond, fond memories.” She giggled again as she melted against him. “Love you, woman.”

  “Love you, man.” Their words might be rote, but the sentiment behind them was anything but, and he smiled as he leaned them back against the windshield of their car. The blanket they were on slid a little, and they both froze, then laughed. She told him, “Don’t be getting ideas, Kevin. I’m too old to make love on the hood of a car.”

  He gave an experimental bounce, the vehicle’s springs groaning a complaint that made them share a smiling glance. Silence settled over them for a moment, comfortable and known, the easy companionship an oft-worn role in their years together. “Sun’s starting to come up. I wanted to watch the stars disappear with you.”

  “A new day,” she murmured as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I really do love it here.”

  “A new day,” he agreed. They were quiet as the coming sunrise took the dark indigo of the sky and lightened it, bringing pinks and oranges into play on the scattered clouds. Around them, the forest slowly woke. Claws of squirrels clattered in bursts of movement along branches while birds stirred in their nests, calling out softly. “Hey,” he breathed, “look.” A doe was coming down the path towards them, her head swinging alertly side to side with every tentative step. “Gorgeous.”

  “She’s so pretty,” Diane agreed, her voice whisper soft as she answered him.

  The doe froze in place, ears flicking forwards and back as she listened. Kevin and Diane were quiet, not wanting to frighten her. Another deer emerged from the forest, approaching the trail from the side, walking daintily to within five feet of the first before stopping in a mirroring pose. A crashing sound came from far off, as if something large was bumbling through the woods. It approached by fits and starts, and all the while the deer stood still.

  Kevin and Diane were in a remote lot of a national forest, near the trailhead of a long, looping path. Theirs was the only car present, so unless a hiker had been dropped off by shuttle, it was unlikely that the sound was human. Kevin tensed. They’d hiked and camped in this preserve for years, and he’d recently researched wildlife sightings—no black bears had been spotted, nor mountain lions. The forest was situated along the southern edge of their state, too far from the chill of northern climes to house a brown bear population. He’d required the confirmation before agreeing that their daughter, Chloe, a sensible, levelheaded fifteen-year-old, could hike the trail, camping out for three nights with her good friends Emily and Megan. The noise was most likely another deer. He relaxed slightly.

  Last night the girls had reported they’d progressed as expected and set up in the closest established campsite. Based on the schedule they’d set so far, they should be rolling out of their sleeping bags soon. Once there was enough light, Kevin and Diane planned to walk in and meet the girls, help them pack up the final time, then hike back to the car with them. He smiled. They’d be exhausted but full of confident stories about their adventures.

  Phones were the only electronics the girls had taken into the woods with them, and he knew from data usage that Chloe hadn’t been on hers much, probably just the thrice-daily check-ins he and Diane had demanded. Diane said she’d seen social media posts from the other girls and had shown him an image or two of their daughter acting silly and posing with her friends.

  When Chloe first proposed the hike as a last-gasp adventure with her friends before school resumed in a couple of weeks, he’d been resistant. The idea of three teenaged girls camping on their own in the woods seemed like a lead-in to a terrible B-rated horror movie. But in an unexpected move, Diane and the other two mothers had been the biggest advocates and had vetoed the concerns of the fathers involved, telling the girls to have fun. Kevin had still checked in with the forestry service, verifying that the trail was patrolled and that there weren’t any dangers lurking in the form of known wildlife predators, and eventually overcompensated for his concerns by buying each of the girls a kind of panic button that was linked to all of the parents’ phones.

  When pushed by Diane’s questions last night, he’d had to admit that the excitement on Chloe’s face when they’d dropped the girls off three days ago had been worth it. Now, however, it was time to bring his baby girl home. She was their only child—not for lack of trying, but years ago, he and Diane had stopped the expensive and exhausting efforts to conceive and left it up to fate. Which meant she was their princess, the light of his life, and as frustrating as the tween years had been, she’d blossomed into a person he was proud to say was his daughter.

  Sunlight tipped the tops of the trees to the east, and he shifted against the hard metal underneath the cushioning blanket. The does’ heads swiveled as one to look in their direction, and then, with a graceful bound, the animals were gone. The crashing h
ad ceased, and the forest was again silent.

  Overhead, the stars dimmed and slowly disappeared in swaths of sky as it gained color and light, the sun cresting the horizon and gracing the world with its brilliance. An hour passed, and he heard Diane’s breathing grow deep, even, interrupted every few minutes with an endearing snort that told him she hadn’t remembered to take her allergy medication before they left home. He smiled, staring up, watching as the treetops stirred as if with the touch of an unseen hand, the heat from the sun rising off the evergreen needles and hardwood leaves, creating waves of a growing breeze.

  Another half hour found Diane stirring next to him. She cleared her throat and sniffed, reminding him that she would need to get into the car for her purse and pills. “Was I snoring?” She cleared her throat again. “Should we hike in yet?”

  “Not much, no.” He mimicked the loudest possible snore, the sound echoing off the trees and disturbing a covey of quail nearby, sending the small birds into a frenzy of flight. “Just like that.”

  She was laughing as she threw an arm over his chest, and he was already arching away from her fingers, expecting the pinch before it landed. “Jerk.”

  “I’m your jerk.”

  “Yes, you are. And right now—” She sat up and stared down at him, a soft smile curving her lips. “I’m seriously questioning my judgment.”

  “Let’s go get the girls.” He let her slip off the hood before following her down, the blanket bunching up around his hips. He gathered it in his arms. “You should take one of those allergy pills. It sounds like you’re stuffy.” She cleared her throat again and nodded. “I got this,” he said, when she reached for one end of the blanket. “You do you, boo.”

  “That’s terrible.” Diane laughed and shook her head as she opened the passenger door. “Seriously questioning.”

  Blanket stowed, he locked the car and watched Diane as she tucked one ankle behind the other and bent at the waist, stretching out her hamstrings. “It’s not far,” he told her. “Just over a mile.” She smiled up at him from her position, then placed her fingertips on the toes of her boots. “Seriously, Diane.” Bringing her arms over her head, she arched backwards and he huffed a laugh. “You’re doing this on purpose.”

  “Mmhmm.” She twisted to one side and then the other, never losing her balance. “You just wish you could do the same.”

  “Now I’m seriously questioning my life decisions.” He turned his back on her and headed towards the trailhead. “Catch up when you’re ready.”

  “Oh,” she called, voice filled with that throaty laughter he loved so much, “I’m ready now. I was just trying to irritate you.”

  “Mission accomplished,” he lied and held out a hand. A moment later, her strong fingers folded around his. “Love you, woman.”

  “Love you, man.”

  When I find them

  Heart pounding in his throat, he stared around the campground, trying to make sense of what he saw. Two tents stood along one side of the clearing, a third half-flattened to the ground, a couple of the support stakes uprooted and a nylon tiedown loose, twisted amidst the lumpy fabric. The firepit was stacked with wood and tinder, and the girls’ food bag hung from a tree a safe distance away. Nothing else was disturbed.

  But the girls weren’t anywhere to be seen or heard.

  He and Diane had spent about half an hour looking around, Kevin’s gut rolling because that signature silence of the forest was heavy on the clearing. His breath came shorter with every slow step he took. A thousand possibilities raced through his head, nearly paralyzing him. Diane was on the phone with the other girls’ mothers now, on speaker, and he could hear the forced calm in their voices.

  Blinking away tears of frustration, he studied the ground, taking another step forwards before pausing and sweeping the area with his gaze, looking for anything out of place.

  There was no obvious breakage in any of the bushes around the clearing, and the main trail leading into and away was heavily trafficked, boot prints of many sizes visible even to his eye. He’d already been through the three tents, finding the girls’ packs and clothing tidily stored. Their phones were missing, but that looked to be the only thing gone. Other than the girls.

  Kevin caught sight of a tiny trail that started just inside the woods, and he waved at Diane to come over, but she wasn’t looking, her attention split between the phone and the empty tents. He cocked his head, hearing the tinkle of flowing water faint and far away. “Diane, there’s a creek or something this way. Maybe they’re just cleaning up.” She murmured something into the phone. “I’m going to go look.” He had to have something to do. Otherwise, the panic clawing his insides bloody would break free. “Did you hear me? Call me if they come back before I do.” That was his hope talking, because why would the girls have left the campsite at all, much less leave expensive pieces of equipment in disarray. That wasn’t like Chloe or the other girls. The women all joked that their kids were neat freaks, and for the two families who had other children, they held them up in contrast, citing incidents of laundry, dishes, or bodies left unwashed, forget folded, put away, or exercised.

  “Kevin.” Diane’s voice cracked, and he looked back at her. “I’m going to stay here and wait for the sheriff.” She dashed at her eyes with the back of one hand. “If they come back first, I’ll call.”

  “And when I find them”—he was trying not to promise, but the determination in his gut would be answered only by success—“I’ll call you. You okay here on your own?” She nodded. “Okay. Okay, I’ll be quick.” He paused. “I love you, Diane. I’ll find them.” She just stared at him for a long moment.

  Her phone rang, and she answered it immediately, lifting it to her ear and turning away. “Hello?”

  He started at a steady pace down the small path. If it was a route to a water source, it made sense it wasn’t as large or well-maintained as the main trail. He tried to remember if he’d seen the girls’ water gear, but knowing they each had pouches inside their backpacks equipped with drinking tubes, he hadn’t thought to look for the filtration system he’d bought Chloe. Each stride came faster and faster, until he was sprinting towards the growing noise of running water. It sounded larger than he’d expected, and he fruitlessly attempted to recall a map of the area so he could put a name to the stream.

  Kevin burst through the trees and onto a rocky apron at the edge of a bluff. About fifty feet up from the water, it overlooked a broad reach of shoreline and trees. He felt a sense of relief, because if the girls had known about this, it would have been the perfect place to watch the sunrise. Remembering how Diane had dozed off in the early dawn, he pulled in a breath, and for the hundredth time since he and Diane had stumbled into the clearing with the tents, he shouted a question. “Chloe, where are you?”

  Only the sounds of the forest greeted him: branches rubbing together in the light breeze, cicada calls resonating through the trees, and the unending happy splashing of the water against the banks. The river was about twenty feet across at this point, narrowing at either end of what he could see, the placid water turning white as it churned over debris and rocks.

  “Chloe, Emily, Megan.” Just their names, hoping he could cast those sounds wide enough to wake them from their post-dawn sleep. That’s what he told himself, that they were sleeping somewhere he couldn’t see, having followed the path to the water. He saw where the trail arrowed straight to the top of the bluff and stepped to the edge. To one side, it looked like the path continued about halfway down the cliff face as it faintly wove back and forth down the sloping surface, stones and logs shoved into the dirt to make steps where the surface was too steep to be easily traversed.

  A small expanse of bank was still in shadow, the sun not yet having risen high enough to cast its illumination there. He leaned farther over and stared. There were splotches of color in that murky area, stains against the dark ground of pink, yellow, and white. “Chloe, Megan, Emily.” Nothing moved except the surface of the water. A s
mall log floated past, and he watched as it encountered the first obstacle downstream, twisting, one end ducking under the roiling surface as it turned sideways, adding to the blockage of rubble. “Chloe.” He took a breath. “Megan.” The happy chuckling of the stream made him furious, and he screamed louder, feeling something break in his throat. “Chloe, Emily.”

  Movement caught his attention, and he focused sharply on the shadowed stretch. The pink splotch had stirred, was shifting position slowly, edging towards the base of the cliff. It elongated, much as an amoeba had under his microscope yesterday, shifting sluggishly as it searched blindly for something to anchor to. He stared another moment, a breath, no longer, then things snapped into sharp focus and he realized the pink was Chloe’s favorite hoodie, something she would have worn to watch the sunrise, and in scanning his recent memory, he couldn’t remember having seen it in her tent.

  He twisted to look back the direction he’d come from, yelling, “Diane. Di.” His shout ricocheted off the thick wall of trees, and he was certain it wouldn’t have penetrated back to the clearing. He looked for a better path down to the water, finding nothing.

  Three steps to one side and he saw a scuff mark, a furrow in the dirt. The gouge led straight towards the cliff. Kevin fumbled his phone out and dialed Diane, frustrated at the double beep that told him she was still on the call with the other mothers.

  Thumbing frantically at the screen, he pulled up text and sent a quick message: Found something. He didn’t want to raise her hopes, but he needed someone to know this thing that terrified him and caused his blood to run cold in his veins. “Chloe.”

  Just in front of him was a space where the grass had been flattened, recently enough it hadn’t sprung back to its normal upright surface, stretching towards the sunshine. Another hour or two and it would have been gone, but Kevin saw.