Dark Realms (9 page)

She touched my cheek. “Baby, it’s been a
long day and we’re in the middle of the woods. You probably saw a
bird flying by – or maybe even a bat. Don’t be frightened.”

My bedroom
was
several feet from
the ground, and truthfully, I really wasn’t sure what I’d seen.
Obviously, it had to be some kind of animal. “I guess that’s
possible.”

She held out a hand to me. “Come here and
see for yourself. Look how far up we really are.”

Of course, when I looked back outside,
common sense told me that we were too high for any person to be
looking in.

I closed my eyes. “Yeah, okay, maybe it was
just a stupid bat or something.”

“Honey, you’re obviously very tired. Why
don’t you go to bed and get a good night’s sleep? I’ll bet that
tomorrow, you’ll be laughing about this.”

“Is everything okay in here?” asked Nathan,
standing in the doorway in his blue flannel pajama pants.

“Everything’s fine,” she answered with
another reassuring smile. “Nikki just saw a bird or something
outside and it scared the hell out of her.”

Nathan’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? You
know, I thought I saw something out there, too, when I was in my
room watching TV. It freaked the shit out of me.”

I turned to see her reaction.

“What?” she asked, staring at both of us,
amused. “Come on… it’s some kind of bird. You know, there’s no
possible way a living person could stand outside of your bedroom
windows and look in. Unless Spider-man is vacationing in Montana
and has decided to scale this particular cabin to check us out. You
two are wigging out over nothing.”

“Still, I think we should take a look
outside,” said Nathan as he turned and walked away.

“Wait!” my mom hollered. She picked up the
bat and charged after him. “Don’t go out there without this!”

And she thought I was being paranoid?

I followed them both downstairs and watched
as he switched on the outdoor lights and threw open the front
door.

“Be careful!” I hollered, staying back.
There was no way I was going out into that unknown darkness,
harmless bird or not.

My mom hesitantly followed Nathan outside
while I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to remain calm under
the circumstances.

This is crazy,
I thought, when they closed the door behind them.
I wondered if it really was some kind of large bird checking both
of us out. Maybe an owl or eagle?

But with red eyes?

Owls were nocturnal so I
imagined it was possible, although, I was a city girl and didn’t
know the first thing about birds, other than they pooped,
a lot
, whenever they
felt like it.

I chewed on my lower lip and stared towards
the dark windows, suddenly wondering if someone or something was
watching me from the other side.

Oh, my God… close the blinds, idiot!

I leaped towards the windows, moving the
wooden blinds over the four large plated windows as quickly as
possible. Once they were all covered, I took a step back and began
breathing again.

While I waited for my mom and brother to
return, I couldn’t help it, I began to pace as the anxiety quickly
built up again. I was definitely wigging out just like she’d said.
I started imaging things like Sasquatches and aliens, freaking
myself out until I felt like I was almost to the point of
hyperventilating.

Jesus, Nikki, chill the
hell out.

Frustrated, I went back over to the sofa and
sat down, tapping my foot nervously. Seconds later, my brother
stormed through the front door, followed by my mom, whose face was
as pale as the moon. He picked up the phone and started
dialing.

My stomach tightened when I noticed the
strange look on Nathan’s face. “Okay, what’s going on?”

Nathan raised his hand to silence me and
then began speaking, his voice strangled. “Hello? Yes, I’d like to
report a dead body.”

Chapter Three

Three hours later, the dead body, which
they’d found near the dock, was examined, bagged, and finally taken
away.

“Well,” said Sheriff Caleb Smith, who was
standing on the porch. “It looks like it’s the teenage girl who’s
been missing for a few weeks, Tina Johnson.”

“What happened to her?” I asked, staring at
him. He was taller than I’d thought, standing well over six-foot,
had dark hair that hung just below his collar, and an almost
perfectly chiseled face, except for his nose, which was a little
large. I had to admit, though, for a guy in his thirties, he was
handsome.

My mother, who was staring up at him as if
he was Superman, cleared her throat. “Before you answer that, would
you like to come in and have a cup of coffee, Sheriff?”

He grinned widely and stepped inside.
“Thanks; don’t worry about the coffee, though. I really need to be
leaving soon.”

“So, was she murdered?” asked Nathan, still
freaked out about finding her bloated body sticking out of the
water. He’d described it so many times to me that I could see the
image in my head, as if I’d actually been there.

The sheriff shook his head. “I don’t think
so. She had a history of drinking and left a party pretty
intoxicated at the time she went missing. She may have simply
fallen into the water and drowned. There will be an autopsy,
however, so we’ll know more later.”

Nathan, who watched a lot of C.S.I. shows on
television, crossed his arms over his chest. “So, there were no
witnesses? Nobody at the party actually saw her leave?”

The sheriff put his hand on the wall and
leaned against it. “No. That particular party got a little out of
hand and we ended up arresting a few minors for intoxication that
night. It was an ugly mess.”

“Goodness,” said mom. “What a horrible thing
for her parents. I can’t imagine what it’s been like for them.”

He nodded, looking very somber. “Just like
us, they’ve been frantically searching for her all over this town
and the next ones over. Well,” he sighed, “at least they have some
closure now.”

“How tragic; I can’t possibly imagine how
I’d cope in their situation,” she said.

He nodded. “I agree.”

“Sherriff, are you sure you wouldn’t like a
cup of coffee? It’ll just take a minute to brew.”

“No, Anne, but thanks again for the offer.”
He straightened up and patted his pockets, as if searching for his
keys. “I’d better get going; my daughter’s expecting me home
soon.”

“You have children?” she asked.

He smiled proudly. “A daughter, Celeste. She
just graduated.”

“Oh, you’re a single parent?” she asked,
smiling as if she’d just won big on a lottery scratch-off.

Ugh, could she look any more thrilled?

He nodded. “Yes, been single for quite a few
years now, in fact.”

“Being a single parent is difficult with
normal hours,” she replied quickly. “I could only imagine what
you’re going through, with such crazy ones.”

“It’s not too bad. It’s
just Celeste, and she’s… fairly manageable. You…
you
have twins. That
must be quite a handful.”

“Not really. They’re pretty good kids.”

He smiled. “Good, then they won’t have to
see much of me.”

Mom burst out laughing as
if he’d said
the
funniest thing she’d ever heard.

“Oh, hell, I’m just kidding. Most of the
other kids around here are pretty well-behaved, as well.”

“Good, then I can relax when these two start
meeting other kids in town and go out at night.”

He tilted his head and
leaned forward. “I wouldn’t go that far. They
are
still teenagers”.

“So very true,” she sighed. “Well, thanks
for making it out here so quickly. We were all pretty shaken
up.”

His lips thinned. “I’m sure. What a horrible
experience for your first night in Shore Lake, too. I’m sorry you
had to go through this.”

“So are we,” she said, frowning. “It was
certainly an eventful evening. Crazy, huh?”

“I’d say.” He put his hat on. “I’d better
get going. I hope the next time we meet it’s under much better
circumstances.”

My mom followed him to the door. “Me, too.
Goodnight, Sheriff.”

“Caleb,” he said softly, looking down at
her.

Her cheeks turned pink. “Goodnight,
Caleb.”

It was actually early morning but mom and
Caleb didn’t seem to notice. They were too busy staring at each
other with their lonely middle-aged hormones.

“Goodbye, Sheriff,” called Nathan from the
couch with a shit-eating grin. Like me, he’d been studying them
quietly, and from the look on his face, he also knew they were into
each other.

“Yeah, see you,” I added
with a wave, hoping he’d just
leave,
already.

Caleb smiled once more
with his gleaming white teeth and then
finally
walked out the front
door.

“He’s such a nice man,” said mom, looking
into space with a stupid grin. “It’s so refreshing to know this
town has a great guy like him patrolling the streets.”

“Oh, you hardly know him,” I snapped,
getting off of the sofa. “He might not really be that nice. It
could be an act.”

Both my mom and brother stared at me in
surprise.

I raised my chin. “Sorry, but it’s
true.”

She shook her head. “Oh for Heaven’s sake,
Nikki, don’t be so quick to judge other people.”

I started walking up the steps to my
bedroom, ready to fall into that soft pillow-top. “Whatever, I’m
going to bed.”

“She’s just being a crab-ass,” said
Nathan.

“I heard that!” I hollered.

I knew it was true, though. It had been a
long day and I was ready to sleep for the next two.

Chapter Four

I slept until almost eleven the next
morning. Mom was already up, drinking coffee and working on her
computer, when I padded downstairs in my bare feet.

“Morning,” I said, pouring some coffee for
myself. Normally, I wasn’t a coffee drinker, but I really needed
something stronger than orange juice to perk me up. Especially
after the last few hours.

“Good morning,” beamed my mother, who was
always a morning person no matter how late she stayed up.

“Where’s Nathan?”

“He’s outside by the boat. We were thinking
about taking it out on the lake within the hour.”

I yawned. “I’ll eat something and get
ready.”

“Good.”

I took a drink of coffee and walked over to
a large window facing the lake. The skies were blue and it looked
like a beautiful day. Then I thought about the dead girl from last
night.

“Um, did you really actually find her in the
lake?” I asked. The idea of swimming in the lake when there’d been
a floating body in it the night before was harrowing. I seriously
doubted that I could even put my foot in the water.

“Why?”

I could tell from her expression that she
knew where this was going.

I shrugged. “It’s just kind of gross to
think about swimming in it.”

My brother entered the kitchen. “Don’t
worry, Nikki, that lake is so freaken big, I’m sure there are
plenty of other bodies lost somewhere beneath the surface. People
still swim in it all the time.”

I shot him a dirty look. “That’s gross.”

Mom groaned. “Thanks,
Nathan. Listen, people drown and it’s just a fact of life. I’m sure
every lake has stories of people disappearing in it, including the
ones
you’ve
swam
in the past.”

I walked towards the
doorway with my coffee. “That doesn’t make it sound any more
enticing. I think I’ll just enjoy the view on the lake and try not
to think about what’s
under
it.”

“Just make sure you’re ready to go in an
hour!” hollered Nathan as I stepped out of the kitchen. “Or we’re
leaving you behind.”

~~~

An hour-and-a-half later, I’d changed into
my new orange and pink bikini, and we were racing across the lake
in a twenty-five-foot Stingray. Nathan was grinning from ear to
ear, my mom was also smiling and desperately trying to hold her
straw sunhat onto her head, but I was still thinking about the girl
in the lake. I just couldn’t shake the horror of knowing there’d
been a body near the cabin we were now staying. I had to admit, the
fact that my mother and brother were able to push it aside was a
little disconcerting, too. It was almost like they’d forgotten all
about it.

“This is great!” yelled Nathan over the
motor as his light brown hair whipped in the wind. “There’s hardly
anyone out here and we have the entire lake to ourselves!”

It was true, but it was also early in the
week. From the look of all the boats docked near the shoreline,
this place was pretty busy on the weekends.

Nathan slowed down after crossing the entire
lake and set the anchor. “Okay, I’m going for a swim,” he said,
smiling eagerly.

“Sounds good,” said mom as she pulled out a
book from her tote. “You know what I’m going to do – read and work
on my tan.”

I handed her some sunscreen. “Not without
this. You’ll be a lobster tonight as it is.”

She smiled and began rubbing some of the
coconut scented lotion into her skin.

“Coming in, twerp?” asked Nathan, removing
his bright red T-shirt.

“Quit calling me that,” I
snarled. “Maybe later I’ll come in and drown
you
.”

He dove into the dark water. When he
surfaced, he yelled, “Wow, it’s really nice! Come on out, Nikki.
Don’t be such a wimp!”

The sun was shining, it
was already eighty degrees and as I stared at him in the water, I
had to admit, it did look
very
enticing.