Crossing the Line (3 page)

“He gave you a quarter pound?”

“Yeah, but there was a condition to it,” Chandra said. A mischievous smile spread across her face.

“Do I even want to know?”

“I promised I would get him a date with Anna.”

“That’s so totally not going to happen. Anna doesn’t want anything to do with Thad. He damn near raped her at the Halloween party.”

“He was on X and he’s apologized for it countless times. Besides, you of all people should know that I never keep good on my word. He’s been smoking this shit every day for the last month, by the time
we
get back he’s not going to even remember giving me the dope.”

“I hope you’re right, because if he tries get Anna to go out with him she’ll
most likely cut his balls off.”

“And he’ll deserve it. I have no sympathy for the devil, believe me.”

“Yet you will still beg dope off of him.”

“Once you smoke a joint of this shit you’ll understand why.”

“Driving around with that much pot is stupid as hell. You’re lucky you didn’t get pulled over or something.”

“You know me, Trace, I’m the luckiest bitch on the planet. I smoke weed every day, drink like a fish, never study, and still have a three-point-nine.”

“Yeah, but that’s because you blow the teachers.” Tracy laughed and nudged her friend in the ribs. Chandra feigned anger and acted as if she was going to punch Tracy.

Tracy had known Chandra since the third grade. Their friendship had guided them through life and once Chandra was accepted to UCLA it was a no-brainer that Tracy would go as well. Tracy had been accepted to four of the six colleges she applied to, including two prestigious Midwestern colleges, but she refused to leave her best friend’s side.

After all of the luggage, booze and dope was inside everyone moved to the back patio. Dinner was done and set out on a table cloth that Lynne had thrown over the picnic table. Lynne’s irritation was forgotten. She chattered along with her friends as they prepared their plates.

Som
ething glinted in the forest across the lake. This time both Lynne and Anna saw it. “What the hell is that?” Lynne asked.

“What the hell is what?” Chandra asked.

“There’s something in the forest across the lake.”

“Call it an educated guess, but I’m figuring it’s probably a tree. That is what forests are made of.”

“No, smartass, it was something metal or a mirror or something. It caught the light and glimmered.”

“Ooh, maybe it’s one of those sexy vampires from
Twilight
,” Marcy grinned. She got to her feet and raised her shirt, revealing her breasts to the forest. The glimmer repeated and this time all of the friends saw it. Marcy quickly lowered her shirt and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What the fuck was that?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but it definitely responded. I think we should get inside,” Anna said.

“How do you know it was a response? It could just be a reflector on one of the trees. The light hit it and made it seem like it was responding.”

“Whatever it was, I don’t want to be out here anymore.”

Everyone was in agreement. They gathered up the remaining food and wrapped the garbage up in the plastic tablecloth. Once inside Lynne and Anna stared out the window overlooking the lake for a fu
ll five minutes but did not see
the glimmer return.

“This is posted property, isn’t it?” Marcy asked.

“Yeah, there’s not supposed to be anybody around for miles in any direction.”

“It was probably just a reflector. They most likely have them all over the place so you won’t get
lost if you go hiking in the forest,” Ivy said.

The explanation made logical sense, but at the same time logic did little to defuse the creepy sensation they were all feeling. To Marcy the glimmer had looked more like a flash; a camera’s flash.

4

“What do you think?” Clint asked. He was sitting with his back to a tree and smoking a cigarette. “I’m pretty sure they already suspect that we’re out here.”

“Did you see all that booze and pot they had? They’re three sheets to the wind already. Give them a couple of hours to calm down and they’ll forget they were ever even nervous.”

Fritz spat a stream of tobacco juice into the brush and shook his head. “Goddamn stupid idea to be taking pictures of them,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of time to get up close and personal as long as you dumb fucks don’t mess this up.”

“I wasn’t trying to get pictures of them. I was trying
to get pictures of my product. We need to get that shit back before these dumb cunts smoke it all,” Thad snapped. He set the digital camera down and glared at Stan. “I swear to God if you’re lying about who snatched my shit I’ll cut your fucking balls off.”

“I ain’t lying, man. She came by last night and fucked my brains out. I woke up in the morning and the shit was gone. Who else could have taken it?” Stan said.

Marty laughed as he lit his cigarette. “How in the hell are you going to be so distracted by that fat bitch?”

“She sucks a mean dick, man. She ain’t really fat anyway, just built bigger. And, for the record, she was tight as hell. I could barely fit a finger in her.”

“Know why she’s so tight?” Stan smirked. “Because she’s a fat ass cow in a school full of little hotties. I got a damn good picture of Marcy’s tits. Now
that’s
a sexy bitch. I would almost understand losing a QP to her, but to the fat chick? That just proves you’re an idiot with horrible taste.”

Quentin walked briskly through the forest to their stake out spot. He knelt down and
looked at the massive house. “This is stupid as hell,” he said. “Why not just go to the door and demand that they give us back the shit.”

“Because you don’t let a thief get by with fucking with my stash. I’ve got clients riding my ass already. This is spring fucking break. No one wants to be sober on spring break. We need to teach the little bitches a lesson.”

“Even Anna?” Justin asked.

The group turned to the massive man, shocked that he had said anything at all. Justin was a foot taller than any of the rest of them. He weighed close to four hundred pounds and only had a slight layer of fat. If not for his abilities with the pigskin he would have never made it into college. The only hope that he had of a future was if a scout picked him up and moved him into the NFL.
He was brought along only as muscle, an intimidating figure.

“Anna’s mine,” Thad said. “No one is to lay a hand on her except for me. Am I understood? I’ve been waiting a long ass time to get a piece of that pussy and none of you are going to cock block me tonight.”

“We know the score, Thad,” Stan said. “Besides there’s plenty of pussy to be had. I have a feeling it’s going to be one hell of a memorable spring break for us all.”

Thad produced a bag of weed and packed a bowl. He took a deep hit off of the pipe and held it in for a full minute before releasing the sweet smelling smoke. “Okay, so how’s this all going to play out?”

  “I thought we were going to go with the initial plan. We wait until they’re gettin
g tired and then we bust in. We demand your shit back and pack up and leave before they have the presence of mind to contact the police.”

“That’s a pretty good plan, except for the fact that they know who we are. There would be a police report within minutes.”

“Oh yeah? What are they going to tell the pigs? ‘A bunch of guys we know from school broke into our rental cabin and took back the pot we stole from them?
’
Come the fuck on, guys. They’re not going to call
the cops on us,” Clint chuckled.

“No, they aren’t
going to even think about calling the police.”

“So we’re just going to sit out here and wait unti
l they’re trashed, right?” Stan
asked.

“That’s the plan.”

“Then maybe I should go look for Tommy. He’s been gone for over an hour now.”

“He’s probably just off somewhere beating off. That kid’s got the libido of a porn star on X. He’ll be fine.”

Stan
looked around at the others and saw that they were all in agreement with their self-appointed leader. He didn’t like it, though. Tommy was a horn dog, but there was no way he was out in the forest jerking himself off. The kid could get any piece of ass that he wanted, why would he waste time masturbating?

Still, the idea of getting lost in the woods looking for his kid brother was not very appealing. He decided that he would wait it out a bit longer and wait for Tommy to saunter back with some hair brained story about getting turned around in the dense forest.

.
5

Tommy pulled the tourniquet tight on his bicep and tapped the syringe one last time to make sure there weren’t any bubbles that he had missed. He held the needle between his teeth and rolled up the bottom of his sleeve. The tracks were running all over the inner fold of his elbow, but so far no one had noticed. He knew it was just a matter of time and then he would have to either run or face rehab again. Rehab hadn’t been bad the first time and he didn’t guess it would have gotten any worse in the couple years he had been out.

He needed the fix. He had to get his mind off of what Thad had confessed to him earlier. The others had no idea just how far their friend planned to take this. If they knew they would have never come. If it wasn’t for Thad’s ability to get him the H he needed to survive he would have never come along,
n
either. That was the only thing he hated about his addiction, it always seemed to grab him by the nut hairs and drag him into situations he was not mentally prepared for.

The weed had nothing to do with why Thad had followed the girls up to the cabin. He wanted something much more than drugs. And if Tommy was right with his assumption about the situation there was going to be a lot worse going on than a little rape.

Tommy was a lot of things, but he was not a murderer. At least he hadn’t ever planned on becoming a murderer. Now he was hooked again on the narcotic and the man he had always thought of as a best friend was using that to get him to do
something he found morally impossible. The church sermons from his childhood had taught him that above all else you went to Hell for murder. Killing one of God’s children was inexcusable.

He hissed with pain as the needle slid into the knot of scar tissue over his vein. He drove the plunger down and pulled the needle out, tossing it aside with disgust. As he pulled the tourniquet off of his arm the warm sensation started almost instantly. He felt his mind begin drifting away from the horrors of the world.

He leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. Soon the warm, fuzzy sensation would calm his wrought nerves and he would be able to rejoin his friends in their stake out of the lake house.

He had almost drifted off to sleep when he heard the loud
crunch
of something moving through the forest to his right. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction, but didn’t see any source for the noise. It had sounded like something enormous moving through the brush, but he couldn’t be sure if that wasn’t an exaggeration brought on by the heroin.

“Is there anybody out there?” he asked.

His question was met by silence. He decided he had probably just heard a ground squirrel or something of that nature. He was just paranoid. No doubt about that. He had started using the drugs to keep himself from going into constant
panic attacks. Of course he should have gone the legal route and gotten some Xanax, but the idea of going to see a shrink about his problems just so he could get a script for some drugs seemed like a ridiculous notion. He didn’t want to tell a complete stranger about his problems, he just wanted them to go away.

After a moment he began itching all over. He scratched at the phantom itches for a moment and got to his feet. By the time he got back to the others he would be in control of his high. He had wandered far enough away so that he could do just that.

He had only taken a few steps when he heard the
crunch
behind him again. He turned around quickly and still saw nothing. His heart beat began thumping so hard that it was painful. His eyes lost focus for a moment.

“Come on, guys, don’t fuck with me. You know I have a problem, right? There is no reason to rub it in,” he said.

A louder
crunch
and a
snap
came from behind him. He turned around quickly. Vertigo came over him and he dropped to a knee.
He pressed his palms to his eyes, trying to shake away the dizziness. His stomach did a flip-flop.

He removed his hands from his eyes and groaned. He had taken too much. He was overdosing and he knew it. There was no way that what he was seeing was real.

Standing just a few feet from him was a man that exceeded seven feet tall. He was covered in homemade clothes made of the fur of animals. A mask made from the skull of a wolf or coyote, or maybe even a dog, covered the top half of the man’s face.
A long beard covered his chin. Beneath the hair a dog collar was visible with the single word “
Brute” etched into the leather.
Long, matted hair fell all the way down to the middle of the man’s back. In his hands the mountain man was holding what looked like a hybrid of a pick-axe and a scythe.