After a brief swim Rick sat down on a blanket near the edge of the water, and smoked a cigarette while he watched the others play. A few minutes later, Stacey got out of the water and plopped down beside him.
“Everything alright?” she asked, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Mmm-hmm. Just taking in the scenery, that's all.”
About half an hour later Mike climbed out of the water, shook his hair dry, and stood beside Rick. For a moment he didn't speak, watching Karen as she bathed herself in the deep water. She was holding a bar of soap in one hand and a bottle of Summer's Rain shampoo in the other. Meanwhile, Max and Lou were laughing hysterically as they wrestled one another in the shallows.
“I think maybe we should...” Mike's voice trailed off. He found himself captivated by the sight of Karen in the water. All he could think about was how much he wanted to hold her in his arms, how much he wanted to make love to her and kiss her and tell her everything was going to be all right. All he could think about was how much he wanted to protect her from the world.
“Earth to Mike,” Rick repeated.
“Huh?”
“You were saying?”
“Oh,” Mike said, looking rather dazed. “Yeah, I was gonna say that, well, maybe we should take another ride into town.”
Rick squinted up at him. “Do you think that's a good idea?”
“I don't see why not.” Mike rested his Coke in the soft sand so he could remove his T-shirt. “We need some extra clothes and stuff.” He ran his hand down the side of his face, where two days' worth of stubble had begun to form a shadow. “And it wouldn't hurt to pick up some razors and shaving cream, either.”
Rick nodded in agreement, rubbing the small, sandpapery whiskers on his own chin.
Stacey leaned over and used her fingers to trace the five o'clock shadow around his mouth. “Actually,” she whispered, “I think it's kinda sexy.”
She had tied her long auburn hair into a ponytail that rested between her shoulders, and her heart-shaped face looked radiant in the sunshine. Now, as she ran one finger over his lips, he began to smile. She wanted to tell him what that smile did to her, how it made her weak inside, how it made her want to kiss him, but she was unable to put her feelings into words. Besides, it was not the right time. She hardly knew the boy. She knew those things, but still she sensed that he could read her mind; it was in the way he looked at her, the way he touched her, so tenderly, that seemed to say it all.
Rick felt his face heat up. It wounded him, both physically and mentally, when Stacey touched him like that, because it constantly reminded him of Lori's own sweet touch. He looked at the river in an effort to distract himself, but all he could think about was Stacey and Lori, Lori and Stacey. For a few seconds, he forgot all about Mike's idea to make another trip into town.
Several feet away, Lou came up from the river gasping. Max had been holding him under, and Lou now grabbed Max in a headlock and began to turn the tables on the larger boy. This time they both went under. The water bubbled and foamed over and around them. Farther away, near the middle of the river, Karen was peacefully caressing herself with the bar of soap.
“If you want, I'll go,” Stacey volunteered.
“Actually,” Mike said, “I was thinking me and Rick will be making this trip ourselves. That okay with you, Rick?”
“What for? We got everything we need for now.” Rick squinted as he looked up at his friend. Mike's voice was almost robotic, Rick noticed, and his attention seemed focused on Karen as she bathed herself. But there was something else, something in Mike's eyes as he watched his lover gliding through the water. He looked older, somehow.
“I'm thinkin' we should call Kevin,” Mike replied. “Find out what's going on back home.” He kicked off his shoes, watching Karen as she massaged the soap onto her arms and shoulders.
“Do you think that's a good idea?” asked Rick. “I mean, what if his phone is tapped or something. Besides, I don't think he's out of rehab yet.”
“I heard somewhere that you get something like thirty seconds to talk before they can trace your call,” Mike said.
“Are you sure?”
“Sure, I'm sure,” Mike said, shrugging his shoulders and raising eyebrows. His jaw twitched ever so slightly, as if he had something on his mind, but wasn't quite ready to say it. He didn't want them to know his knowledge of phone taps came from watching spy movies, and cop shows on television.
Max and Lou splashed up from underwater, gasping for air, laughing and choking at the same time. “You're mine!” Lou howled.
Max cackled between breaths. He spat out some water. “Go for it, bitch-boy!”
They stood waist-high in the water, panting, bodies glistening in the sunlight, both too tired to make a move.
“Still, do you think that's a good idea?” Rick repeated.
“Yeah,” Mike answered with some degree of uncertainty. “We'll go tomorrow. Just the two of us.”
Pondering Rick's question, Mike folded his arms across his bare chest. Karen was tilting her head to the side, working the shampoo into her hair. As if she suddenly sensed that she was being watched, she looked up and offered Mike a cute little smile, and that was enough to chase his worries away for the moment.
Mike smiled back at her as he stepped into the shallows, wriggling his toes in the sandy bottom, watching the silver flashes of minnows as they darted to and fro. When the bottom eventually dropped off a few feet away from shore, and the water was sufficiently deep, he dove under and came up with his hair matted down against his head. He swam over to Karen, lifting her up into the air as he reached her. Karen laughed hysterically as she kicked her legs, and Mike let her down slowly into his arms and held her tight.
“You're nuts,” she giggled.
“But do you love me?” Mike whispered.
“You know I do,” she replied, and kissed him gently on the mouth. “Let me wash your hair.”
“You wanna wash my hair?” Mike chuckled. “How 'bout I wash yours, then I'll think about it, okay?”
Holding her by the waist, he guided her back until her hair was under, and only her face was above the surface. He then leaned forward, kissing her tenderly on the lips, moving slowly up and down her neck.
“Mmmm...” Karen moaned, closing her soulful brown eyes.
“I'm not hurting you am I?” Mike asked, raking his fingers through her thick hair.
“Nooo, that feels good.”
Mike continued to kiss her neck, supporting her weight with one hand between her shoulders and the other under the small of her back. Stroking her hair, he pulled her smooth, wet body against him.
“Now, when do I get to wash your hair?” Karen giggled, and Mike quieted her with another kiss.
It's going to be alright, Mike thought as he kissed her shoulder and the side of her neck. Everything's gonna be alright. I'm gonna get us all outta this, Karen. I promise you, I will.
On the riverbank, Stacey got up from her blanket and looked at Rick. “Feel like taking a little walk?”
“Sure,” Rick said, wiping the sand from his hands. “Where are we going?”
“Up there.” She nodded in the direction of the hill that towered above them. “Let's go check out the view.”
Rick stood and followed Stacey up the grassy slope. When they reached the top Stacey sat down in the matted grass near the edge of the cliff, and Rick sat down beside her. Below, the others continued to frolic in their separate ways, in the place that was now the nucleus of their lives.
Although the cliff was no more than twenty feet high, the river, the fields, the forests, and the mountains beyond seemed to lie before them like some intricately detailed board game. And the four people in the water below were, of course, the players. The game, Rick supposed, if there had been such a thing, would have been appropriately titled Taking Chances.
If anything, it was one game they were all good at.
But could they win? That was the million-dollar question
.
“It's so beautiful here,” Stacey said in a dreamy voice, and leaned against him. “So peaceful…”
Rick was silent. He wanted to tell her that she was beautiful, and smart, and sexy, even though he hardly knew her. He wanted to tell her that she made him feel alive. But he knew it would be better just to tell her to leave him alone, because he had a promise to keep with a dead girl. A promise that he would never love another person as long as he lived. Besides, Stacey was a college girl; what would she want with a boy just out of high school?
“Rick, about last night...”
He looked at her guardedly.
“I just wanted to tell you, it's not your fault. I know how you must feel. Karen told me the whole story, and...”
Rick stood up in a hurry. “How I feel?” he asked sharply. “God, I’m so sick of people telling me they know how I feel. You can't possibly know how I feel.”
“I-I'm sorry,” Stacey stuttered in surprise. She rose to her feet. “I didn't mean to...” She reached out to touch his shoulder, but he pulled away.
“Don't.”
“Please...” Stacey pleaded, her eyes welling with tears. “I didn't mean to...”
“You wanna know how I feel? Huh? I feel like I'm dead. Is that what you wanted to hear?” Rick muttered, and with that he started across the meadow, in the direction of the cabin.
Tears surged down Stacey's face as she stood atop the cliff, watching the angry boy as he walked away. There was something about him, something she could not quite explain, that made her want him more than anyone she had ever met before. Sure, he was handsome and tall, but it was more than just that. His mere presence had opened a floodgate of feelings in her, the likes of which she had never felt before. Feelings she never knew existed until a few short days ago. The simple truth was, until she met Rick Hunter it had never occurred to her that she'd never truly been in love before.
When he was no longer in view she sat down in the tall grass, not wanting the others to see her cry. All I've ever wanted, Stacey realized, was to be loved by someone, and to love that person in return. “I'm sorry,” Stacey whispered to no one.
Below her, like an undulating road to nowhere, the river wound its way through the valley. And the game of life went on.
~Twenty-Eight~
Twilight penetrated the forest in murky yellow rays, shimmering with pollen and dust. The sun was almost gone, and the forest hummed with life.
He was in the forest again, hovering over the dark, scum-covered pool as it consumed the girl he had taken last night from the parking lot of the Futawam Theater. She floated, face down, as the water flowed over her naked buttocks, her narrow shoulders, her plump calves. He knew he was safe here, in the forest.
The state and local police were still looking for the missing girl named Kelly Brine. Although they would not admit it to the girl's family, or to the media, they had already called in the cadaver-sniffing dogs. After all, there was no reason to believe she was still alive. These were killers they were dealing with, not kidnappers. All they could hope for was to find the body, and possibly some clues that would lead them to their suspects.
But that didn't bother him. The truth would never be told, because he'd find the missing youths before anyone else. They were kids. Just stupid kids. It was actually quite fascinating to think that they had made it this far. But they were bound to make a mistake sooner or later. And it would be the last mistake they would ever make. He'd see to that.
He looked at his reflection on the water as the body bobbed onto its side. Even from his distance, he could see the bruise he'd left on her neck. It was dark and puffy, in the shape of his hand. Most of her face was submerged, but one wide, unblinking eye stared at him accusingly. He had liked her eyes. They were a pretty shade of green, and so very expressive. But she was a sinner. The pool had told him so. It told him that, sometimes, sinners look like angels and angels look like sinners.
“Sorry, angel,” the man said in a grim voice. “But I had to do it. I saw the devil in your eyes.”
The eye showed him no sympathy. It continued to stare at him. He looked away, then back again. He admired, from where he stood at the edge of the water, her one visible breast, the curve of her thigh.
“You look so beautiful now,” he whispered. “So clean.”
As if in response, the body rolled slowly onto its back, exposing both of her breasts, her firm stomach, and her neatly trimmed pubic hair. And, of course, that one reproachful eye.
He looked down at his open hand, where her other eye rested in his palm. He had used one thick finger to dig this one out of its socket after she had tried to put up a struggle, but that had only sent her into shrieking spasms, twitching and flopping about like a fish, until the bitch had finally died of shock. Now that pretty green eyeball sat looking up at him from the palm of his hand, trying to bore its way into his brain. In a sudden rage, he flung the eyeball at the pool, where it disappeared beneath the surface with a small plop.
The pool's trying to test me, he thought. It's using her to try and seduce me. Well, I'm not gonna fall for it. I'm not gonna wade out there and fuck her dead like it wants me to. No way! No way you’re gonna get me to do that. Not now, not when I’m so close…
“YOU CAN'T TRICK ME!” he screamed, pointing a thick finger at the black liquid. His voice echoed through the forest. The pool was testing him, trying to tempt him.
He watched as the pool pulled the body down slowly, so that only the girl's face and breasts protruded from the surface. Panting, he looked at his reflection on the surface and smiled at that other, younger, more beautiful image of himself. He would look that way soon, when the pool allowed him to enter its secret realm, where his parents would be waiting. It promised him it would ease his pain in time. It would lead him to The Truth.
He sat his bulky frame down on the bank near the pool, swatting mosquitoes away from his face, and watched as the pool finished devouring his offering. He moaned in ecstasy as her nipples disappeared below the surface, where she would remain forever. Suddenly, he became envious of his master.
The pool sucked on her body all at once, he knew. It could have all of her, all of them, at the same time, without a struggle.
He could only have them one piece at a time. He could only undress them with one hand, because the other was needed to cover their mouths and noses, or to pin them down by their throats, or to hold their arms. Because of this, he could only use one hand to touch them. He wasn't allowed to kiss them, but the pool could kiss them everywhere at once. It could be in them and around them. It could make love to them without boundaries, which was something neither he, nor anybody else, could ever do.
As she vanished beneath a flotilla of bubbles, he promised aloud that he would not forget her beauty, and that he would be with her soon to make everything better. Closing his eyes, he envisioned each of the twenty or so girls that existed in the domain of the pool; their hair, their lips, their breasts, the way they smelled; which ones struggled, and which ones did exactly as they were told without so much as a whimper of protest. So many bad, bad girls. But he had saved them all. Yes, saved them from themselves.
He imagined that he was the pool right now, flowing in and around them. Kissing them all over, sliding into all of their forbidden places as only liquid could. With his eyes still closed, he began to moan softly, licking his lips. He'd be with them soon. He could feel it. He'd just have to play it cool. Act casual, so that no one would suspect anything. And as soon as those nosey little shitheads in the T-bird were dead and gone, his job would be done. And the pool would keep its end of the deal by giving him a better life. By making him all that he had ever hoped to be, by giving him all that he had ever desired; all the secret pleasures that society could never understand.
The body disappeared completely from view about the same time as the sun disappeared completely from the sky. The surface of the pool smoothed over the place where Kelly Brine's body had been, as if she had never real
ly existed at all.
~Twenty-Nine~
Mike Swart hesitated at the cabin door. “I'll catch up with you in a minute, hon. I wanna talk to Rick for a minute.”
It was late at night, and a cool mist had settled in the valley. After swimming and lounging all day long they'd spent another evening by the river, cooking the remainder of their hot dogs, eating potato chips, drinking Gatorades and Mountain Dews, while engaged in deep conversations, such as those which were sparked by Karen's question: “What would you do if you won a million dollars?”
Such as those that followed Mike's question: “Do you think there's life on other planets?”
Such as the debate which arose over Max's question: “If you're considered a legal adult when you turn 18, then why do you have to wait until you're 21 to buy alcohol? It's so fucked-up! You can go to jail, and join the army and fight in wars, but you can't buy a six pack? You know, you have to be twenty-five to rent a fuckin' car! What the hell? Who comes up with this bullshit?”
And, finally, it was Lou's question which had brought on the most heated debate: “Who do you guys think is hotter: Britney Spears, Michelle Branch, Lauren German, or Eliza Dushku?”
Now, some twenty minutes later, the others had wandered off to their makeshift beds. Only Karen, Mike, and Rick remained on the moonlit porch.
With a playful suspicion in her eyes, Karen smiled and kissed Mike on the cheek. “Should I wait up?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah...I'll be there in a minute.”
“Alrighty.” She waved her hand. “G'night, Rick.”
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