Sheep's Clothing

by Gary Lewis

  The shrinking docks gradually faded into the darkness. Only a bright dot shown from the well-lit rock building on the hill behind it as they drifted further into the dark space, surrounded by wide open stretches of nothingness that splashed around them. A loud roar echoed from one side of the lake to the next. Another broke through the night. It came from one direction and then another. Each quieter than the last. Finally, after about an hour, all fell silent to the occasional smack of water that rolled beneath them, pushing the canoe slowly up and down.

  David withdrew his wet phone from his pocket and started to wipe it dry with his shirt. The screen lit up and reacted to the swiping motion of his clothes.

  "Good thing," Terry said. "Left mine in the car." His face dropped slowly to the thin puddle of water in the floor of their tiny boat. "What am I going to do? How do I explain all this?"

  "We're not calling the cops," David said. He waited for Terry's response through the void where they floated.

  "I know..." Terry sighed as his eyes dropped further. "Everyone is mixed up in a lot of shady shit and it would only get you guys in trouble. Besides, they wouldn't believe us anyway."

  David raised his head. It was the first time he ever heard Terry cuss.

  David set his paddle aside in its rest. "This is where it happened," he said as he turned to look toward the distant twinkling star that was once the well-lit docks that they had drifted so far away from.

  "It was shortly before the old rec burned down last year," David said slowly as Terry set his oar aside. "Jan and I had always been tight, but when she started seeing Vance everything changed. No more trips out on the lake with her and her dad. No more hanging out at the Sunset Diner, waiting for Tony to get off work and tell jokes around the table with our friends... Everything just kind of fell apart." The lake fell silent to the midnight air as the darkness itself became his audience pressing him to continue further with a crushing weight that made his throat heavy.

  "When Sarah and I hooked up it was kind of spontaneous. I don't know what we were thinking," David said, shaking his head. "It was a party over at Cory's place."

  "Yeah. I know him," Terry said.

  "It was Sarah's birthday. She was pretty drunk, but I was just a little buzzed. A fight broke out because Danny and Brad were getting high in Cory's living room, so me and Sarah left."

  David tightened his face as he gazed across the glimmering ripples that glinted through the darkness. "I was kind of tore up about Jan and Vance. Maybe I said something. I don't remember. Somehow we got the idea that her dad's boat would be the perfect place."

  "You wanted revenge?" Terry asked.

  "No. Well, I mean, not like that," David said. He studied the lines that etched their way across the damp boards across the floor of their damp wooden island of salvation that drifted through the night. "We were making out on the boat. I thought it would be fun to use Jan's camera she left lying around there and then Sarah had this idea."

  "Sarah was so drunk and she thought..." David took a deep breath and blew out a heavy sigh from the bottom of his painful gut. "It was just supposed to be a prank."

  "What happened, David?"

  "She crossed some wires or something. Said it would give whoever started it one hell of a shock. We didn't think that..." He raised his head to face Terry through the darkness. "You see, that's why I can't let you say anything. It's not just for me. For Sarah. Even for Jan."

  Terry shook his head side to side. His eyes pressed back with a grimly firm disappointment. As he opened his mouth to speak, they were jarred by a hard bump from his end of the boat. It rocked the entire thing side to side. The sound of splashing water became sharper as they came to an abrupt stop. Large black rocks came into view, stacked against a tall, muddy embankment and the forest became visible behind the shoreline.

  "Looks like we finally washed up," David said as he looked across at the nearby bridge and cautiously stepped onto the slick, muddy surface.

  Chapter 17

  As dawn crept from the other side of town, the early morning light casted across the mountain hills. The tranquility of Moss Lake was drowned by the beeping sound of a tow truck dragging Terry's car from where it had crashed near the stone restroom building.

  "A bear, you say?" Officer Benning's stern voice followed a raised brow as he wrote on the small clipboard and eyed the two teenagers with suspicion.

  "Yeah," Terry said, adjusting his glasses. "It just came out of nowhere, charging at David. It was the only thing I could think to do."

  "Good thing you happened to be here just in time," Benning said sarcastically as he lowered the clipboard and raised his glance toward David.

  "Like I said," David began, "He was here to pick me up." He motioned his arm at Terry.

  "Something wrong with your car?" Benning glanced to the side of the lot before looking down to flip a page. David stood silently until Benning continued. "Insurance company is going to have a field day with you." Benning looked up at Terry. "Tell your folks I said hey." With a final nod, he turned and started walking back to his patrol car.

  #Janice#

  Janice's phone dinged from beneath yesterday's pile of dirty clothes strewn across her floor. She lifted her head from her cozy pillow to kick free from the tangled sheets. Looking around her room, she could see the disaster that infected her soul beginning to once again take shape. A few empty soda cans sat atop the night stand just above the small white cylindrical trash can filled to the top with crumpled tissues. Her clothes were piled in a corner near the bathroom door. No matter how neatly organized, it always began to crumble into the disorder that festered beneath the surface along with her painful thoughts.

  She sat up, scooting to the foot end of her mattress as she took her first step toward the next chime that rung from her phone.

  "Ouch!" she yelled, hopping on one foot. Janice carefully felt her heel for the sharp piece of whatever just jabbed into it. She saw pieces of her broken camera littered across the carpet just when she remembered busting it across the dresser the night before.

  Janice limped over to the ragged pile of laundry, kicking through it with her bad foot until a pair of blue jeans rolled over, revealing her phone laying underneath. Its screen was lit with notifications.

  The group chat had several new messages. Near the bottom, Janice read through a giant paragraph from Terry. With David. She huffed. Of course. She continued reading about their ferocious encounter the night before. A voice recording from Vance momentarily distracted her from the bottom as she scrolled slowly through Terry's story. Janice continued holding her breath tight as her suspense wasn't satisfied at the end of his message. There was no mention of why they were together at the lake and the questions that plagued her mind remained unanswered.

  Janice let out a long overdue sigh that rushed hot across her skin as she relented to hitting the play button on Vance's message. Only Sarah had also seen it so far.

  #David#

  The brightly lit road did little to focus David’s exhausted mind through the heavy weight of his eyelids while he drove past the small gas station at the foot of Bluff Mountain. Terry's snoring got louder as David rolled down the window for some fresh air. But as the sound of Terry's slumber cut through the air with annoying pitch, David reached over to hit the radio, turning the knob to full blast.

  Terry jolted up from where he previously slumped against the passenger door. After a few confused glances, his eyes faced David's phone where it laid on the console, hooked snugly to the car charger.

  "Still works," David said. He lifted the phone in his right hand as he steered with his left, tilting his head back toward the wind as it rushed through his hair.

  "Wake me up when we're there," Terry mumbled as he crossed his arms and scooted against the door side in the closest thing to a fetal position that he could probably manage while strapped into the car.

  As David began to set down the phone, he felt the vibration just before it chimed with notifications. "F
inally. A solid signal," he said. He took a careful gaze of the sparsely trafficked road ahead and readied himself to glance at his messages. Just then it started to ring and Terry raised again from his awkward slumber.

  "Answer. It's Sarah," Terry's scratchy voice grumbled as he slouched forward to turn down David's music.

  David hesitated with a forceful breath before reluctantly sliding the green icon.

  "Hey. We're on our way back to town now," David said as the trees cleared, giving way to an open view of the distant courthouse on Main Street.

  "David! Did you get the message?" Sarah's voice shouted through the speaker with a loud pitch that faded into choppy static.

  "Calm down," he said. "What is it?"

  "I don't know. It's Tony," she shouted again through the phone.

  "What?!" they both shouted. Terry snatched the phone from David's stunned hand as he continued driving.

  As he saw Terry switch the call to speaker, David shouted at the phone. "It's Tony or you don't know? Which is it?" David asked impatiently. "Did they find him? Is he alive? Where is he?" The questions couldn't get out fast enough as David sped toward the busy morning traffic that crowded Main Street.

  "Listen to Vance's voice message," Sarah said. "I still can't figure it out."

  "Play it," David told Terry as he turned onto Central Avenue.

  "We'll head to your place," Terry said to Sarah. "See you in a few."

  As Terry hurriedly hung up the phone and opened the group chat, David pulled into the Sunset Diner. He swooped the car into the closest parking spot and screeched to a stop.

  "Play it!" he shouted again as Terry fumbled his thumb with a look of concern aimed at David.

  David took a huge breath and held it to listen. Crackling background noise sounded. Vance's voice was barely audible in the first garbled words. Terry held the phone between them as they both leaned an ear to it in the car.

  A horn honked from behind them, startling David. He turned to see the driver of a large black pickup truck waving and shouting at a couple walking into the diner. Roy Perkins and the rest of the Big Buck Hunting Club.

  "Shit!" David said, rolling his window up in frustration. "Play it again."

  The loud static sounded again from the recording. "-got a message from Tony-" More indiscernible words were finally followed by "-is the werewolf! For sure!" Then more inaudible chatter followed. "Meet at my place tonight." Vance's recording stopped there as Terry and David looked at one another.

  "Who?" Terry asked.

  "I was hoping you heard it," David said.

  Terry shook his head, deflating his belly as he hung his head in defeat. David knew he had slept much more recently than Terry. "Listen, Terry. I'm going to give you a ride home. Get some rest."

  "I'm sorry, David." Terry's worn eyes looked across at him.

  "It's okay, man."

  After dropping Terry off, David's thoughts swarmed with possibilities. "Are you alive, Tony?" he asked aloud in his empty car as he passed Vance's trailer park. His truck was nowhere to be seen. If so, why didn't you contact me? So many scenarios played out in his head. I wouldn't put it past Vance to lay the blame on a convenient scapegoat if he were the werewolf. David hit the steering wheel with frustration. For once, he hoped that the monster wasn't Vance. That the calm, carefree voice would be there to call him "little bro," again soon.

  The crumbling gravel of Sarah's driveway did little to welcome him as the suspense continued to tie knots in his stomach. His tires skidded to a stop just beside Sarah's car. David bounced out from the driver seat with a slam of the door. He jogged up to her front door just in time for it to swing open. Sarah extended her arms out to him.

  Why is she trying to hug me? He gave a half embrace before gently shrugging her off. "What is it?" David paced into her living room. "Did they find him?"

  "I don't know," Sarah said, her wide, round eyes staring across at him. "Are you alright, David?" she asked slowly.

  "Of course I am. What do you mean?"

  "Nothing," she said softly before slowly lowering her eyes. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

  David paced around the living room, playing the recording over and over while Sarah sat silently on the couch.

  "Got message from Tony. Something. Someone is the werewolf." David repeated the few words they could understand.

  Sarah offered her hand as she quietly spoke. "I guess we need to meet him at his place tonight like he said."

  David wrestled with the idea that Vance might have heard from Tony. It boiled inside his chest until the steam had to release. He turned and slammed his hand onto the dining area table, beside the heavily marked map and stack of books that remained from their first meeting. "Of course Vance wants to pin this on Tony! He was right here when I had the idea about the camera trap at the Perkins farm. Right here!" David swiped his palm to where Vance had previously stood. "He's the only one who didn't need any convincing at all. Just paraded in here making light of it all."

  Sarah stretched her arm out to interrupt. "David, that's because he already saw the thing at the barn."

  "Oh yeah,” he said sarcastically. “That's right." David raised his hand out. "The barn he was burning down in the middle of the night?" David shook his head up and down with purpose. "Seems legit to me."

  He watched Sarah's head slump as she took a loud breath. No doubt, she didn't find the losing end of an argument a very fun place to be. But this time David had enough. "Why the hell are you always against me anyway?" he shouted. He raised his voice higher with each step as he paced toward where she sat on the couch. Her face remained hidden from view as she stared at her lap. "You've never wanted to just be there for me until you're standing by to cut me down when life sucks. If you hate me so damn much, why didn't you just leave me the hell alone a long time ago?"

  David’s heart jolted as Sarah raised her wet face. Bloodshot eyes glared angrily at him above flushed cheeks that shined with streams of tears that ran from her blue eyes. Her pressed lips opened as she screamed at him.

  "Hate you so much?! Are you fucking serious?!" Her voice rippled in pitch as she cried out across the living room, shoving her finger in the air at him. "Never there?! I get front row seats the entire time you're following Janice around like a blind puppy! You have your head shoved so far up your ass that you can't even see what you have right in front of you!" Her voice began to break as her arm dropped into dead weight against her side and she raised her palms to her face, sniffling. “Just leave,” she said softly in a defeated tone between light gasps and a sniffle. “I don’t want you to see.”

  A heavy weight of realization crashed from David's head into his chest. David slowly stepped closer to Sarah as she was about to sit back down. He swept his arm behind her lower back, stopping her as he pulled her weeping face into his chest. "I’m not going anywhere,” he said calmly. “You’re right, Sarah.”

  They stood against one another in front of her couch. David caressed her back as she buried her wet, slimy face on his dark gray t-shirt. "Ugh... Gross," he chuckled softly.

  Sarah smirked at him, her eyes still holding their slant of malice as she shot him a glance. "Serves you right, asshole," she whispered and rubbed her nose clean on his sleeve before sniffling and backing up to look at him.

  "Here," she said softly, letting out a long sigh of exhaust as her eyes drifted past him. "I'll throw it in the damn washer already." She reached around the shoulder of his shirt. As he felt the fabric sliding up, he lifted his arms. She swiftly tugged it all the way off. He watched her bunch it up and pass it off from one hand to the other as her eyes darted around him with uncertain direction. Her bright blonde hair slung across her elegantly thin face that tilted downward, hiding her eyes. David's heart thumped firmly in his chest as his eyes followed their way down to her shoulders where a tight, blue shirt pulled firmly against her bra. The pale skin of her narrow belly was exposed at the bottom of her shirt and the white lace trim of her panties lined
her hips just above her cutoff blue jean shorts.

  As she shifted side to side to find a way around him, the sight of her smooth, white legs started filling his body with purpose and strength. He could feel it pulsating into an urge from his core, building pressure in his blue jeans as she drifted to his right to walk past him.

  David grasped her shoulder and turned toward her. Sarah's eyes brightened directly into his with a hint of a smile. "My turn," he said as he stared into her glistening blue eyes above the blood red lipstick on her relaxed open mouth. She stared back as he slowly slid his hands beneath the bottom of her silky, blue blouse. His fingers brushed their way up the smooth skin of her slender sides until he clenched the bottom of her shirt and slowly lifted it to reveal the pale skin her firm abdomen. Her ribs shown slightly as she stretched to lift her arms. Medium breasts pressed together tightly by the white padded bra that gave extra bulge. Sarah tilted her head back exposing her throat before she wrestled her arms from the sleeves and flung her shirt onto the armrest of the sofa.

  David sunk his face into the side of her neck, squeezing her skin together with his lips while he caressed his hands up and down the soft skin of her waist. Sarah quietly moaned as her head remained tilted back. He slid his right hand firmly up the bare skin of her back, massaging his way to her shoulder blades until he felt the tight straps of her bra. With a pinching twist, he unsnapped it. As soon as her bra popped loose, Sarah quickly pulled it off around her shoulders and slung it aside in the floor. Bright red nipples pointed outward from her small, but perfectly curved breasts.

  When Sarah’s face lowered back to him, he grasped the back of her neck and pressed her lips between his. Her arm wrapped behind his shoulder and she pulled down as she rolled onto the couch.

  David crawled on top, tasting the naked skin of her breasts before he nibbled his way up her neck. Sarah’s head tilted to the side as his lips met the bottom of her ear lobe. Her huffing breaths blew across his ear as he pulled at hers between his lips and moaned deeply with satisfaction against the side of her face.