by Young, Luke
"What? Who is this?"
"Oh, sorry." I take a pull from my beer before continuing matter-of-factly, "Emily this is Laura. Laura— Emily."
Emily glances at her with a scowl before returning her attention to me. "Who is she?"
"We work together."
"And you're seeing her?"
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes?" She scoffs.
I shrug. "You want a beer?"
"You're an asshole."
"What are you talking about?"
"What am I..." Emily shutters. "You ask me to meet you here and when I get here you've got your tongue down some skank’s throat."
"Hey," Laura says staring down the much shorter Emily.
"Hold on." I step between them and gently pull Emily toward me. "Look, I'm sorry I got the days mixed up, but I really thought we were seeing each other tomorrow."
"Uh-huh."
Raising my hands up, I plead. "And we never said we couldn't see other people."
She sneers at me. "You... I thought..." A tear streams down her face and my heart breaks. I remind myself again why I'm doing this. She turns away and covers her mouth with her hand.
"I'm sorry, I'm just not ready for anything serious right now." I put my hand on her shoulder and she pulls away from me and heads toward the bar. Closing my eyes, I rub my forehead and turn toward the wall fighting back my own tears.
Laura says, "Wow, that was mean."
"I know. I just had to." I down the rest of my beer. "She's better off. She'll get what she wants now. I'm sure of it."
Laura puts her hand on my arm and gives me a comforting smile.
I sigh and place my bottle on a table. "Let's get out of here."
I head toward the door with Laura following behind me and spot Emily standing in the corner of the bar speaking with some guy. We head out the door and I'm walking faster now with my pulse racing, feeling like I could pass out at any moment. I stop, grab onto a lamp post and close my eyes.
When Laura reaches me, she asks, "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. I think I just drank too much and I haven't eaten."
Pointing to a bench, she says, "Why don't we sit for a minute."
I sit down, lean back and let out a long slow breath.
She says, "I'll get you a hot dog."
"Okay. Thanks."
She heads off to the hot dog cart on the corner. I lean forward supporting my head in my hands as I play back my conversation with Emily in my head.
Suddenly someone rushes past me. Looking up, I see it's Laura's friend. She reaches Laura at the hot dog cart and I can't hear what they're saying, but Mary doesn't seem happy and Laura gives her a sympathetic look.
Together they head back to me munching on hot dogs.
"I need to give Mary a ride home," Laura says
I shrug. "Okay, sure."
"Mary, this is Ben." Laura hands me my hot dog.
"Nice to meet you," I say before taking a huge bite.
We head to the car with the girls enjoying their dogs. Holding what's left of her hot dog out for us, Mary says, "I'll bet he didn’t even have one this size."
Laura chuckles. "Who was the chick?"
"Just some bitch," Mary replies.
"What happened?" Laura asks.
"When I came back from the bathroom I found him talking to this girl he said he knew from Towson. He sent me to the bar to get beers and when I turned around I saw them heading out the door together. Her name was… Emily something."
I ask, "Was she short, dark hair—"
"Yeah, brown skirt." Mary replies.
"That's my Emily."
"You know her?"
"Yeah, she my, um… She's my ex-girlfriend."
We reach the car and climb in. I sit in the backseat and let Mary ride shotgun. We pull out onto the street and I ask, "So, this guy how well did you know him?"
"Not very well. We met here last week and he asked me out."
"But he seems like an okay guy, right?"
"The only thing I know about him is he's cute."
I relax back and close my eyes as Laura turns right merging onto the highway. I find myself falling asleep and wake when I hear Mary say, "I guess I should have agreed to go to the reservoir with him."
I groggily lean forward in my seat. "What?"
"He wanted me to go swimming with him tonight."
"Swimming." Suddenly my eyes shoot open with concern. "Mary what's your last name?"
"Lynn."
"Mary Lynn is your name?" I ask, my voice loud with concern.
Turning back to me, she gives me a look like I'm out of my mind. "Yeah, it's Mary Lynn. Why?"
"Oh, shit."
"What is it?" Laura asks.
I pull the cell phone from my pocket and hit the button to bring it to life. The 11% power warning flashes on screen. "Shit."
Mary cranes her neck back. "That's cool, what the heck is it?"
Ignoring the question, I locate the video and hit play.
The body was discovered just around six a.m. floating in the water. The two hikers reported the sighting to police. The suspect Jordan Clarke was found sleeping in his car at the entrance of the Loch Raven Reservoir and was found to have a blood alcohol level of .09.
"Jordan Clarke? That's him." Mary says over the still playing recording, "What the hell is that thing?"
"Cell phone," I say quickly, motioning for her to keep quiet.
The body was later identified as Mary April Lynn of Catonsville, Maryland.
"Turn it off," Laura yells out. "Come on."
Mary’s picture appears on screen and I turn the phone so she can see it.
Her eyes widen when she sees her image on the phone. "Laura, what the hell is going on? Who is this guy?"
Turning the phone back toward my face, I press the button to pause the video. I stop breathing and the phone slips out of my hand to the floor. "Holy shit."
Laura explains, "He's… we work together and—"
"Yeah, but he's showing me a video on some tiny screen. I mean, what is that thing and what kind of a sick joke is—"
"Look, this is important," I interrupt her, leaning forward in my seat. "Do you know where the reservoir is?"
"Loch Raven?" Laura asks.
"Yeah, Loch Raven," I reply.
"I know where it is," Laura says.
"We need to go there, right now," I announce.
Laura floors it and I fall back against the back seat.
Mary asks, "Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on here?"
"Um…" I mumble.
"Tell her," Laura says.
"Okay, you might find this hard to believe, but I'm from the future."
"What?"
"He is. He's not lying," Laura adds.
"How?" Mary narrows her eyes, confused.
"I can't really explain it now, but my wife Emily is into those true crime stories, that's why I have that video on my phone."
"That's your wife?" Mary brushes the hair from her face.
"We're sorta separated, I guess you could say right now, but that's not… look it's just… You died at the reservoir tonight and Jordan was never charged. He said you were both drunk and you drowned while swimming. He says he tried to save you but blacked out at some point."
Mary's jaw falls wide open.
"In 2013 they re-open the case because of some new evidence or something. I don't know I didn't watch the whole thing." I turn my attention to Laura. "How far away are we?"
"Like ten minutes."
"Wait." Mary looks to Laura. "A guy named Jordan kills me tonight at Loch Raven Reservoir and you guys are driving me there?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't think that's going to happen because I think he has Emily, my Emily."
"But you don't know for sure do you? You don’t know what’s going to happen?"
"No, but just relax. We'll—"
"That's easy for you to say, you're not the one getting drowned tonight."
"Ben?" Mary interrupts.
"Yeah?"
"Fuck you."
Sighing, I rub my hands over my face. "Sorry, I'm not sure what I'm saying."
"Stop the car," Mary shouts.
Laura takes a hard right and we veer onto the off ramp to Loch Raven way too fast. The force causes me to slide across the seat behind Laura.
"I'm not going anywhere near that reservoir," Mary says, shaking her hands nervously. "Laura, I'm really getting freaked out here."
I return to the center of the seat and Laura glances to Mary, concerned. "I can't just let you out here in the middle of nowhere."
"I don't care. Just drop me at a gas station… Anywhere."
"We don't have any time to—"
"Ben, shut up." Mary unbuckles her seat belt, turns and grabs me by the shirt, pulling me forward like a rag doll. "Let me out of this car or I'm going to drown you in that reservoir."
"Um, Laura, I think we should pull over."
"Okay. Okay. I see a 7-11 up ahead."
Laura hits the gas, launching my body hard against the back seat. Seconds later she brakes hard, makes a sharp right turn into the convenience store, clipping the curb and bouncing the car up sending my head into the roof. I'm rubbing the top of my head and cringing when she slams on the brakes.
Mary rushes out of the car and Laura says, "We'll come back and get you."
"Don't." Mary waves us away.
"Let's go," I say.
Laura hits the gas and squeals wheels as we turn back on to the road. A minute later she says, "I think it's right down here."
Still in the backseat, I'm rocking nervously and rubbing my forehead. "Fuck. Fuck. What have I done?"
She takes a hard left turn and my face smashes into the side window before I can steady myself with my arm.
"We're here," she says.
We pull into a clearing that leads to a small parking area. Our headlights shine on a lone darkened car in the lot.
I say, "Turn off your lights and stop right here."
She flips off the lights and stops the car.
"You have a tire iron or anything?"
"No, but I do have this." She pulls what looks like a steak knife from under her seat.
"What the hell is that?"
"I keep it for protection. I drive a lot at night." She hands it over.
Narrowing my eyes, I scoff. "I mean, if he's got a hibachi and some New York Strips, I guess we'll be all set."
"It's really sharp."
"Okay." I take a deep breath and pause a moment to think. "Turn the car around and lock the doors. Drive out to the entrance and wait for me there. If I'm not back in ten minutes, call the police. Don't come looking for me. I've done enough damage since I've been back. I don't want to be responsible for anything happening to you."
"All right." She nods her head quickly. "Good luck."
I step out of the car and my eyes struggle to adjust to the dark. I shuffle quietly down the road with only the moonlight shining through the trees, providing barely enough light to see the car. After trying the knife in several positions, I settle on one where the blade is pointing down, Norman Bates, Psycho style. My heart is pounding out of my chest as I near the car. The car suddenly rocks slightly and I hold my breath and freeze in my tracks.
Crouching down, I take the remaining steps until I'm hiding below the driver's side window. Slowly, I rise up and take a peek and find the seats empty. I hear groaning and what sounds like struggling and duck back down. Shuffling to my right, I gather my courage as I keep my head low under the back window. I check the grip on the knife, then lift the door handle up slowly. It's unlocked, but I hold it closed as I count one, two, three. Shifting my body to the right, I rip the door wide open and ready the knife. The interior lights blast on and I see a guy with his pants around his hips having sex with a girl, but I can't see her face.
Alarmed, the man pulls back from her. "What the hell?"
The girl's face is suddenly visible. She sees me and screams. It's not Emily.
"Sorry." I step backward, lose my balance and fall on my ass, dropping the knife. I scramble feeling all around the ground for the blade, but I'm unable to find it in the pitch darkness.
The guy gets out of the car and I panic, flailing my arms as I crawl backwards until I spin and get to my feet and run like hell. My legs are pumping as I fight to keep up the pace, staying on the darkened pavement. Up ahead I see a fork in the road and turn right, but that’s when I hear the scream coming from behind me. Backtracking, I take the other path and move quickly as I listen for more sounds. When I don’t hear anything else, I stop in my tracks, struggling to listen and catch my breath. Then I hear a girl's voice yell, "Get off me."
My head turns in the direction from where I heard the sound and I take off through the trees toward it. She screams again just before I hear a male voice say, "Shut up!"
Stopping behind a tree, I listen carefully. Behind me I hear a twig break and something moving in the woods. I turn toward it, but then hear the girl's voice again to the left. I move that way, quietly moving through the barely moonlit forest, following the sounds as they grow louder. Suddenly I come upon them— a large man pinning a girl down on by her wrists. Her hand slips from his grasp and she swings at him. He grunts and backhands her across the face hard, knocking her head into the ground with a loud thump— after that she's no longer moving.
I spring into action, sprinting toward him at full speed, crunching branches along the way. At the last second, he looks up and his eyes widen as he lifts his hands up to stop me. I dive, catching him from the side and we go tumbling on the ground, then roll down a hill for a long, long time until we smash into a fallen tree. I push off of him, grabbing my shoulder in pain. Quickly rising to my feet, I spot him still down and kick him in the gut. Clutching his stomach, he groans in pain. I kick him again, but this time he wraps his arm around my leg and pulls me down. I land hard on my ass and flail my legs at him scrambling to get away. He takes hold of my ankle and I use my other foot to scrape off his fingers. He cries out in anguish as I stand up gasping for breath with my hands on my knees.
Struggling to breathe, I watch as he gets to his feet.
He lifts his arms in the air as if he might lunge at me as he says, "You're going to regret this."
I put my hands up defensively as we move in a circle shuffling our feet along the rough terrain.
Acting on instinct, I rush toward him and leave my feet, driving my shoulder into his stomach and tackling him hard to the ground. He yelps, then I feel an intense burning in my shoulder and cry out. I'm stuck on him somehow, but he's no longer moving. I try to lift off of him and the pain intensifies. Grimacing, I push harder, feeling something stiff pulling out of my shoulder and tearing at my flesh. I fall back on him groaning in agony. I gather my strength then push up at an angle slowly and suddenly I'm free of him. I stand, bring my hand to my shoulder and feel the warm wetness and jagged hole left behind.
He remains still as the moonlight illuminates his blood soaked shirt and the inch diameter branch sticking out an inch from his upper chest. Underneath him I see the rest of a large tree branch we fell upon. I step closer to him, leaning down for a better look and with my foot I push on his arm. He doesn't respond. Lifting my head skyward to take a deep breath, I close my eyes and feel faint before I fall to my knees.
I take a moment shaking my head and blinking my eyes before I return to my feet and head back up the hill to find Emily. She's unconscious lying in the same position with her clothes muddied and her face bruised. Falling down next to her, I remove my shirt and place it carefully under her head. "Emily. Emily."
Placing my hand near her mouth, I feel her breathing. "Thank God. Emily, can you hear me?" I tap her face gently. "Emily."
Her eyes flutter open. "Ben."
"Are you okay?"
"What… Where is he?"<
br />
"He's dead." I point down the hill. "Or at the very least he isn’t going anywhere."
"Oh my God. He was going to—"
"Don't talk. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry. I love you. I had no idea this was going to happen."
"You're bleeding." Reaching up, she puts her hand to my shoulder.
"I'm okay."
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you a baby." Closing my eyes, I feel dizzy and shake my head.
"What?"
"You can use Damien's sperm if you want."
"Ben, what are you talking about?"
I gasp. "I'll love it just like it was our own baby."
"Huh?"
"And I'm sorry that I never really listened to you. I promise I will now. I won't be just a jerk."
"What?"
"I love you."
"I love you too." Suddenly her eyes widen and she screams. Craning my neck, I look behind to discover the bleeding man standing over us swinging a thick tree branch down on me. I block it with my arm and feel the bone splinter with a horrible pop. I yell out in pain as Emily screams. Losing his balance, the man stumbles and falls to the ground.
I climb to my feet with my eyes locked on Jordan. "Run Emily, run." I hear her scramble away behind me as my right arm dangles uselessly against my body. I feel faint and struggle to stay on my feet as I back away from him.
I hear louder rustling and twigs breaking behind me as he gets up off the ground. He lunges toward me, knocking me down landing on me with the full force of his massive weight. I'm gasping for breath as my eyes flutter closed and I hear Laura call out, "Ben." When I open my eyes, I see the guy from the car reaching down to grab the man and that's the last thing I remember before everything goes black.
Chapter 33
The rhythmic beat of a heart monitor thumps in my head as I struggle to open my eyes. I feel like I was hit by a truck. Everything hurts, my head, my legs, my arms, even my eyes hurt. I move my hand and grimace, my lids open just enough to see a figure standing next to me.
"Ben, how do you feel?" A female voice asks.
"Huh? What happened?"
"There was an accident, but you're going to be okay? I'm going to get the nurse."