Theo had wanted that night to never end. Many other times that summer, they had recreated it together, grudgingly giving the tourists the days and claiming the nights for their own. Theo had found a solace in Casey that he’d never known before. But no one had ever told him before that he was free to be himself, that his art was not only a worthwhile endeavor, but also an exceptional one.
All winter, he had waited for this night, eager to propose to Casey, but wanting to do it here, in this place that had come to mean so much to both of them. She’d agreed to be his. Now there was nothing that could ruin their lives together.
* * * *
When they got back to his dorm room the next morning, Theo’s parents were there sitting on his bed, waiting for him with cool expressions.
“How long did you think you could hide this?” his father said angrily, before Theo could say a word. “I didn’t pay thousands of dollars for you to play with clay and paint—” His eyes looked scathingly at Casey. “—or to stay out all night. Start packing, Theo. We’re leaving.”
Casey’s hand tightened on Theo’s, giving him strength. “No,” Theo replied, his blue eyes flashing. “I’m not leaving.”
“I’ve paid for the classes this semester, but that’s all,” his father answered, not backing down an inch. “You’re dropping out, unless you can foot the bill yourself for this room this summer.”
Theo’s mother was already at his dresser, quietly folding his clothes and putting them into his duffel bag. Theo looked around, startled to see most of his personal affects had already been removed and packed into boxes.
“Have you ever even looked at Theo’s work?” Casey accused, her eyes flashing. “He’s talented—”
“I’m sure you think he is,” his father countered, his double meaning clear. “You must think so, to help him lie to us.”
“I didn’t want to lie,” Casey said quickly. “We were going to tell you—”
“We’re getting married,” Theo stated, his hand gripping Casey’s tightly.
“You do, and you’ll lose your trust fund,” his father threatened. He turned to Casey. “You have enough to worry about on your own, missy. Your parents were the first ones I called when I found out Theo had been lying to us. They’re waiting for you at your room right now.”
Casey’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve done nothing wrong—”
“Your brother’s in the hospital. He was in a car accident,” Theo’s father said, his tone gentler. “They came here to tell you and found you missing. They called us first, hoping you were at our house—”
Casey’s face went white, then her desperate eyes sought Theo’s. “I’ll be right back.” She dashed from the room.
Theo’s mother finished packing the last drawer. Without a word, Theo’s father grabbed the two full duffel bags and strode from the room.
“How can you let him do this to me?” Theo said brokenly to his mother. “Don’t you know how happy I’ve been here? And I love Casey.”
His mother patted his shoulder. “It’s for the best. Now please, grab the two boxes. I’ll get the last bag.”
* * * *
Theo didn’t speak to his father for weeks. He tried several times to call Casey, but her parents refused to let him talk to her. His letters were returned, unopened. Finally, he went to the airport, determined to buy a plane ticket to see her. But his card was declined at the terminal, and he was detained by security. An hour later, his father arrived to take him home.
“You can’t keep me a prisoner here,” Theo said angrily. “I have every right to see Casey—”
“I agree,” his father said, then gestured to the road in front of the house. “But you aren’t using my money to do it. You want to go, start walking.”
Theo cast his father a hateful look, then stalked inside.
* * * *
Before long, it was mid-August. Theo, desperate to see Casey, gave in.
“I’ll enroll in the chemistry courses,” he said grudgingly, forcing the bitter words out. “I’ll take any courses you want me to. Be anything you want me to be. But I have to be near her. I love her, Dad.”
His father looked up at him, his cold gaze suddenly softening. “I know you do. I just hope she loves you enough.” He gestured to the chair. “Sit.”
Theo sat, his heart relieved even as he steeled himself to doing his father’s will.
“I loved art when I was young, too,” his father said. “My parents encouraged me, and I got an art degree. Your mom worked down the street, at a bakery. She got pregnant right after we got married that following spring, after I graduated.”
Theo blinked. His father had loved art?
“I was good,” his father continued. “Very good. But no one would hire me. Sure, I got some small jobs for signs here and there, but that was all. That wasn’t enough to support a family, much less you. We ended up moving back in with your mom’s parents—your grandparents—right after you were born. I went to work for your grandfather. Over the years, I moved up the ranks in his company. I took over that company when he died a decade ago.”
“I know all that—about the company,” Theo said. “Why are you telling me like I’m a stranger?”
“Because I don’t want you to have to learn the hard way like I did,” his father said. “You can do art. I’ve seen your work, and it’s very good. But if you want a life for you and Casey free of handouts, then you need a reliable job. You can’t be a dreamer. You have to be a doer.”
“Casey isn’t like Mom,” Theo said, hoping his mother wouldn’t be offended, if she was eavesdropping outside the door. “She has a good degree—”
“Do you want her to support you?” his father said bluntly. “How long do you think it will take Casey to decide that working full time while you indulge your love for art isn’t her version of happily ever after?”
Theo didn’t reply, his conviction wavering.
“You’ve been rich your whole life,” his father said. “Your mother and I spoiled you, because we wanted you to have everything we did as children. But there’s going to be a day when we won’t be there for you to lean on. I need to know you’re prepared for that. I need to know that you’ll not just survive, but that you’ll have a good life, son.”
His father had been hard on him his whole life. How much more would he have understood, if his father hadn’t waited until he was nearly twenty to tell him all this? But would he have understood if he’d heard this when he was younger, before he’d loved someone? Probably not.
“I booked us a family trip to the Adirondacks next week,” his father went on. “I know how much you like the woods, especially as a muse. Your mother is coming with us. We’ll hike and talk this over.” He paused. “I know that you’ve completed your two year art degree, for the most part. I want you to think about transferring to a four-year school to pursue graphic design. Computers are essential now to most everyone. With an additional degree, you can pursue your art interests in a career that has a good chance of keeping you and Casey comfortable.”
Theo could live with that scenario, if not embrace it. He knew a little about computers, and his father was right. He had to take a more active role in his future, something he had always naively considered would take care of itself. However, he didn’t want to agree without inserting a term or two of his own. “So you aren’t against us getting married?” Theo challenged.
“Of course not,” his father said, irritated. “So long as you are ready to be married. Right now, you aren’t.” He nodded once. “But in a few years, yes, when you both graduate. In fact, we want to throw you both an engagement party this fall.”
“She probably thinks I’ve forgotten her or something,” Theo grumbled. “She might have moved on. We haven’t talked in weeks.”
“If she can forget you and move on, then she isn’t worth marrying,” his father said. Then he flashed a small reticent smile. “But I have it on good authority that she is just as much in love with you as you are with her.
I wasn’t the only parent that stopped their child from getting on a plane this summer.”
Theo was silent, considering. His father was trying to make amends. He had to try, too.
“Go get packed, son,” his father said. “We leave at noon, sharp. And don’t forget long sleeves. The most dangerous things in the woods aren’t the bears. They’re the ticks.”
“All right. I’ll pack. Can I call Casey first, though? I want to tell her about the party.”
“Yes,” his father said, handing him the phone. “I’ll be outside.”
* * * *
“Theo?”
Hearing Casey’s voice after months of just imagining her soft tone was enough to bring tears to Theo’s eyes. Immediately he wanted to see her, which just made knowing it would be several more weeks before he could that much harder to bear.
“It’s me,” he said, closing his eyes. “I’m coming back to school this fall. My father and I have worked out a deal.”
“How?” Casey stammered. “Did you give in?”
“Yes,” Theo admitted, “But he did, too. He’s right that I should be able to help us out financially. I never thought beyond creating, and I needed to. I needed to think about your happiness, not just my own.”
“I would have been happy with you,” Casey protested. “We would have made it work. I never cared about your family having money or about you leaving it behind.”
“We will make it work, Casey,” Theo said with conviction. “We’re going to have a good life together.”
Casey didn’t reply.
Theo had a moment of panic. Casey had used the past tense. Had she met someone else over the summer? “Do you still love me?”
“Of course, you idiot,” Casey snapped. “I’ve been waiting for you to call me for months now. I hoped every day to get a letter, a postcard even to tell me that you still cared about me. I was about to mail back the ring.”
“Your parents wouldn’t let me talk to you,” Theo retorted. “My letters all came back.”
“I thought you might say that,” Casey said, sounding tired suddenly. “My father acted guilty every time I asked him if you’d called. My mother was the same way when I asked about the mail. But I made sure to get the mail most every day. I believed them. I can’t believe they lied to me.”
“I understand my parents, but why yours?” Theo asked. “I thought they liked me?”
“My brother Carey is still recovering. His back was badly hurt, and he’s having to learn to walk again. I’ve spent most of the summer at his bedside, encouraging him to keep trying, even when it hurt.” She paused. “Carey was covering for me that night he was hurt, so I could be with you that last night we had together. He was in that car crash because of me.”
“I’m sorry,” Theo said, abashed. “Please tell Carey I never wanted anything like this to happen to him.”
“It’s not your fault. My brother doesn’t blame you and neither do I,” Casey said vociferously. “Come see me as soon as you can. I’m leaving for school next week.”
“I’ll be there,” Theo said passionately. “Our usual place?”
“Yes,” Casey said eagerly. “I’ll be there where you first saw me, wearing your ring.” She paused. “I love you, Theo.”
He would wait to tell her about the engagement party. He wanted to see the look on her face. “I love you,” Theo said tenderly. “I’ll see you in two weeks.”
* * * *
The trip to the Adirondacks was gorgeous. That first week was heaven to Theo, not just for the scenery, but for the extravagant lake house his father had rented.
They fished, went canoeing and then midweek went for an overnight camp out near Tupper Lake. That night, as they sat around the campfire, Theo and his parents discussed not only probable careers for him, but also the upcoming engagement party, which his mother was already in the midst of arranging. Dubious that Casey would want such an elaborate or formal party, Theo almost spoke up a couple of times to tell his mother that she should consult Casey before going farther with her plans. But she was so happy he put it off, reminding himself with a secretive smile that Casey had never had a problem speaking her mind.
That night, as Theo lay listening to the crickets, he again felt at peace. This was going to work out. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to use his hands to create sculptures, but he could still use them to make art. Maybe it wasn’t everything he had hoped for, but his father was right; he couldn’t live in dreams. He had to think of Casey.
There was a noise in the tree line, a rustling too big to be a rabbit or a raccoon.
Theo sat up, then waited, listening and watching.
The rustling came again, closer this time, then a long throaty snort.
Was it a bear? They’d hung their food over there in the tree.
Theo shook his father to his left. “Wake up,” he whispered urgently. “There’s a bear.”
His father woke, registered the words in a split second, then reached for his shotgun. His mother slept on behind them in her sleeping bag, oblivious.
Silence stretched, as Theo and his father waited.
A roaring erupted, a lanky shadow throwing itself at the hanging food. With a snapping sound the branch broke, the food cache falling to the ground.
“That’s no bear,” Theo’s father said in disbelief. “That’s a cougar.”
“There can’t be,” Theo protested. “There haven’t been cougars here in a hundred years.”
“Tell that to him.”
The cougar roared again. Theo’s mother awoke with a scream. Immediately, Theo and his father turned to comfort her. As they did, a long-limbed shadow burst from the treeline, heading straight for them. It was a cougar, tawny fur matted with blood, its yellow eyes angry.
It launched itself with a howl, tackling Theo’s father, knocking him sprawling. The gun went off with a boom. The cat screamed again, this time in pain, its back legs digging with claws, shredding his father’s jeans as it ripped with its front paws at his neck. His father grunted, trying to push the monster away and protect his throat at the same time.
Theo grabbed at the cougar, trying to get it off his father, his hands slipping in the bloodied fur. Desperate, he grabbed its ears, trying to pry its jaws away from his father.
The cat let go, then turned, its long fangs sinking into Theo’s arm. He shouted in pain, beating at the monstrous head with his free arm. The cat worried his arm, both forearm bones snapping with a sharp crack.
Pain was immediate and excruciating, sickening in its intensity. He went limp, losing consciousness.
* * * *
Theo blinked his eyes. It was morning. He was lying on his back. He sat up, then tried to remember.
The cougar had attacked!
His eyes found his father’s crumpled form. Theo crawled over, rolling over the bloodied body. His father was dead, his eyes glazed over, the blood at his ripped out throat still moist in places. His mother was also dead, her throat ripped out, her body partially eaten. Flies were buzzing around the bodies. Maggots had already been born in the wounds and were crawling about eagerly, feasting.
Theo turned and threw up. Then he bit his lip hard, using the pain to make himself move. He had to get help. He was injured; he’d heard the bone snap... Yet he was bracing his weight on that same arm.
Theo looked down at his arm, incredulous. While his shirt was rent, half dried blood still covering the flesh, the skin beneath was unbroken.
What the hell?
The crack must have been a branch beneath him, the pain from the sheer jaw pressure of the bite. There was no other rational explanation. What was important now was getting help. The animal had attacked without warning. That meant it was likely rabid. He would need shots very soon, unless he wanted to die.
Theo laid the blood spattered sleeping bags over his father and mother, then grabbed the gun, the few shells left, and his own pack. His father’s cell phone was so much smashed plastic. His own was nowhere to be seen.
> Theo began staggering back toward the house. He made it to the shore of the lake before collapsing.
* * * *
“Wake up, boy.” A boot nudged Theo hard in his side, making him moan.
He blinked his eyes. There was a boy his own age above him, looking down.
“Please help,” he said weakly.
“What the hell did you do?” the kid asked. “You’ve got blood all over you.”
Anger flared up inside Theo. He hadn’t done anything. The world had once again kicked him in the balls just as everything had been going right. “Do you have a cell phone?”
“Maybe,” the kid said. “But I’m not going to let you use it for free.”
“Call 911,” Theo said. “Please, there’s been a murder—”
“I know,” the kid said, bringing out a knife. “I saw the bodies.”
Theo looked at him, unbelieving. This couldn’t be happening...
“Give me your wallet,” the kid said, brandishing the knife. “I’ll put you in the boat, and you can make it back to civilization. That’s my one and only offer.”
Rage filled Theo. He had lost his father and mother, and this asshole wanted money. He staggered to his feet with a growl of fury, then reached for the kid.
The kid stabbed him without a word, the knife sliding into Theo’s side. At the sudden pain, the world went crazy.
Theo roared, his mouth suddenly too full, the sound muffled. He grasped the kid, even as the punk drew his arm back to stab down again.
His hands weren’t hands any more. They were paws, huge claws extended.
Those claws raked down, splitting the kid’s shirt like butter along with his skin. The scent of blood filled the air. The kid screamed, dropping the knife, pushing away, desperately fighting to live.
With a lunge, Theo buried his teeth in the kid’s throat, tearing and pulling. The kid gurgled, struggling weakly, then collapsed. Theo went with him, falling onto the body as he fed.
Promise Me Anthology Page 4