Dead Series (Book 3): A Little More Alive (20 page)

He kicked against
their death grips and, instinctively, took a breath of lake water. His body
convulsed with the liquid entering his lungs. A fuzzy silhouette of Boomer’s
tail appeared above him, hanging limply in the thickening water like a
discarded stick. Stu reached for it and something bit down into his left leg.
His body recoiled. More bubbles shot from his nose. The water turned red around
him and rushed into his lungs. Something bit into his backside and he released
a scream no one could hear. Arching his back, teeth sunk into his arm and tore
away a veiny chunk of his bicep. Gradually, Stu’s resistance weakened as
Boomer’s tail faded into the darkness pressing in from all sides.

Tanya stood in the
sand, the quiet pounding in her ears. Without moving her head, her wide eyes
jerked back and forth across the calming water. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my
God,” she murmured, paralyzed by the impossible. In the blink of an eye, she
was alone.

Finally mustering
enough body control to move her head, she looked up and down the shoreline.
Both directions were deserted. Then she heard something. Her brown eyes snapped
back to the water, expecting to see one of those…
things
standing there, watching her, coming for her next. She threw
her hands into the air and waved them over her head. “Hey! Hey!” she screamed,
slowly turning with a ski boat zipping across the lake. “Help!” She jumped up
and down, frantically waving both arms while a young girl skipped behind the
boat on a big yellow tube. The girl’s wild laughter faded with the boat around
a pine tree laden bend. Tanya dropped her arms and wiped the tears from her
eyes. “Shit!”

Hells Bells
started blasting behind her, dragging her
attention to something glimmering in the sand. Her heart did a stutter step in
her chest. Forcing her heavy legs to obey, she ran to Stu’s cellphone and
skidded to a stop when a tall man with long hair shot from the shallows like a
submerged buoy. Emaciated knees peeked through the holes in his slacks as he
ran toward her. Pulling free of the water’s drag, his speed quickened. Wet hair
swung wildly across his peeling face and Tanya darted to her left. He moved to
block and she stopped again, staring in horror at the moss covering his teeth
and nose. His skin was cracked and pale and it looked like he’d been in the
lake for years. But of course, that was impossible.

The tall man stood
there and examined her right back while a worm wiggled from his left nostril
and fell to the sand with a sloppy thud. Tanya’s scream spurred a horrific cry
from his broken lips that sounded like a dying animal. He tore through the sand
and tackled her, landing on her with all his weight and driving the wind from
her lungs. With a wet sounding grunt, he rolled to his feet and pulled her by
the hair into the lake. Kicking, she tried to scream but couldn’t find her
breath. Her hands wrestled with the slimy claw clinging to her long locks, but
the man moved fast and the water gushed into her mouth. He dove under and took
her with him.

Another flock of
geese flew by overhead, ignoring Tanya’s outstretched hand as the setting sun
lit up their feathery sides. They grew smaller in the distance and, gradually,
the water returned to a glassy reflection of the towering trees decorating the
lakeside. It was quiet. Peaceful. Stu’s cellphone began to ring again, blasting
Hells Bells
loud enough to make a
lonely Northern Pintail fly over and investigate.

Chapter
Four

Mary
The Scout Leader

T
he fire popped,
sending red embers bursting into the night. It was too hot for a fire but
camping without one just wasn’t the same. Jittery flames threw shadows across
the secluded campsite nestled between the woods and the lake, cloaking the
ground in things that weren’t there. A soft breeze whistled through the tall
pines while glowing faces stared at Clutch. He took off his flat-brimmed ball
cap and mopped the sweat from his brow, the fire glinting off the silver hoops
in his ears. Slapping the hat back on crooked, he took a long drink of his beer,
relishing in the attention. Rory tried to contain a smirk when he caught a
glimpse of Clutch’s gentleman’s haircut hiding beneath the hat, surprised he
didn’t have a mangy beard to go with it as well. The guy was a first-class
trend jumper but Rory didn’t hate him for it. Nor did he hate him for his
tight-fitting jeans and worn-out hipster boots that were probably brand new. Or
the jacked-up Rubicon without a speck of mud on it they followed here from
Doc’s. No, Rory hated him because Clutch got the girl.

His girl.

Kate stopped a red
Solo cup in front of her mouth, bangles sliding down her wrist in a clatter.
“Wait, what girl scout?”

“The one that went
missing out here. You didn’t hear about that?” Clutch’s lips pulled down at the
corners in a reverse smile. He shifted in the camping chair. “Legend has it,
one night after roasting some marshmallows, the scout leader took the girls on
a snipe hunt through the woods and…young Cassie never made it back to camp.”

Woody looked oddly
at the marshmallow he was roasting on a stick and threw the whole thing in the
fire, missing the smile it brought to Kate’s wine-stained lips.

Clutch took a long
pull from a bottle of Heineken, the flames winking off the green glass in his
hand. Another reason not to like the guy. Who brings glass to a beach where
everyone’s walking around barefoot?

Ass.

Swallowing, Clutch
pinched his gaze and sent it around the circle of friends, stopping abruptly on
Rory. “And as luck would have it, by the time the scout leader and a few of the
moms gathered their flashlights to go find young Cassie, a bad storm blew in,
making it impossible to search for the missing camper.”

“Does this guy
ever stop talking?” Rory whispered out the corner of his mouth, catching a
playful smile from Ashley in the chair next to him.

Woody shushed him,
taking Rory’s annoyance to a higher level. Not only did the guy never shut up,
but Woody clung to his every word like he was the messiah. It was embarrassing
and what Rachel saw in this self-absorbed prick, Rory Callahan would never
know. Tipping a cold can of beer back, he tried not to make eye contact with
his ex but the long-stemmed legs spilling from her cutoffs made that
impossible. And Woody was right, she looked amazing with short hair and he
hated her for it. He could still feel her smooth skin beneath his hands, taste
her lips on his tongue...

“So the moms
ushered the girls back to their tents, but the scout leader was determined and
set off alone with lightning flashing and hair plastered to her face as she
called out the little girl’s name.” Clutch stared into the fire, like he was
seeing the whole thing play out against a curtain of flames. “The other girl
scouts could hear their leader calling out Cassie’s name, over and over again
until it faded completely away.”

The fire popped
and Woody jerked his gaze to the tree line behind him. He froze in the camping
chair, staring into the amorphous shadows slipping through the woods like spilt
ink. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

Ashley nervously
scanned the woods, hair falling over her shoulders in long rivers of honey.
“Hear what?” she whispered back.

“When the others
made it back to their tents…” Clutch paused to light a smoke. “They found
Cassie had made it back on her own and, outside of being scared and thirsty, was
none the worse for wear.” Smoke trailed from his nose. “The storm raged all
night long and by morning was still again. When the moms discovered the scout
leader still missing, they alerted the park rangers and a search party was
quickly formed.”

“Did they ever
find her?”

Clutch’s eyes
jumped to Kate and narrowed. “No trace of her was ever found,” he said gravely.
“The old-timers say that, to this day, you can still hear her ghost calling out
that little girl’s name.” He leaned forward, the chair creaking beneath him,
fire dancing in his eyes. “Cassie,” he whispered. “Caaasssieeee…” Gazing into
the trees, he cocked his head to one side and put a finger to his lips.
“Listen, you can almost hear her now.”

Everything got
quiet. Rory’s eyes searched the trees to a symphony of crickets, frogs, and
locusts. A cloud passed beneath the moon, plunging them into darkness.

“CASSIE!” Kate
screamed at the top of her lungs, scaring the holy shit out of everyone but
Clutch, who leaned back and bellowed with laughter.

“Goddammit, Kate!”
Ashley held her cup out over the sand, pulling on her yellow summer dress where
it looked like she’d been shot in the stomach. “You made me spill wine on my
dress, you bitch!”

Kate and Clutch
howled with laughter, holding their drinks in one hand and their stomachs in
the other.

“Oh my God, that
was perfect timing!” Clutch cheered her with his bottle.

Kate got to her
feet, eyes as dark as her long hair. “That was seriously the funniest thing
I’ve ever seen.”

“Jesus Christ, I
think I’m having a heart attack.” Woody placed a hand over his chest and caught
his racing breath, looking around like this ghost story wasn’t over yet.

“I can’t believe
you were in on that with him!” Ashley slapped Kate’s leg. “You guys are such
jerks. This is a brand new dress too!”

“I’m sorry, Ash.”
Kate stifled a laugh and tucked a strand of bangs behind an ear before going to
the picnic table sitting between them and the woods. “I will get it dry
cleaned, I swear to God.”

Rory accidentally
traded a glance with Rachel like they used to do when they were still a couple
and something weird happened somewhere. She rolled her eyes at him and he
turned away. His gaze landed on Ashley who was staring at him over the rim of
her Solo cup through mischievous eyes.

Kate handed her
some wet paper towels. “I’m so sorry, Ash. How bad is it?”

“It’s okay,” she
said, taking the towels and dabbing at the dress. “And it’s not brand new; I
made that up.”

“I know.”

“Bitch.” Looking
up from the stain, Ashley flashed Rory an impish smile. “Hope you brought your
Tide stick
?” she whispered, drawing a
heated look from Rachel that brought a grin to Rory’s lips. Ashley knew that
Rachel and Rory used to be a thing but in a town this size, the statute of
limitations ran out in 1.5 years. Otherwise, no one would ever date and the
town would eventually die.

Clutch set his
beer in the chair’s cup holder and lit up a joint, casting a yellow glow over
his strong jaw and small nose. “That’s the local legend anyway,” he said,
passing it to Kate. “But you know how the old-timers like to talk.”

“Didn’t that story
sound a little like
The Blair Witch
Project
?”

Clutch frowned at
Rory. “That was nothing like
The Blair
Witch Project
.”

“Yeah, I guess
you’re right.” Rory sat back and gestured with his beer. “It was just the whole
crazy lady, and the little kids, and the house in the woods. For a second
there, it all sounded very…similar.”

“House in the
woods?” Clutch glanced at the others, tugging on an earring. “Fuck you talking
about, dude?”

“Wasn’t there a
house in the woods?”

“No, there wasn’t
a house in the woods.”

“Oh.”

Woody canvassed
the thick trees bordering the campsite. “Okay, that time I heard something for
real and I’m not even kidding.”

“Woody,” Ashley
groaned, tending to the wine stain. “Stop trying to freak us out.”

He took the joint
from Kate and brought it to his lips, making the end glow red. “Something’s out
there,” he said, holding his breath and passing it to Ashley.

She waved him off
and tossed the paper towels into the fire. “I’m too freaked out right now.” She
scooted her chair closer to Rory and looped an arm through his. “No more pot
for me.”

 
Rory took the joint from Woody and soaked up
her heat, simultaneously soaking up the way Rachel stiffened when Ashley
snuggled against him.

“You think that
story was crazy, you should’ve heard some of the stuff the villagers told us at
the Mayan ruins in Mexico.”

Rory took a hit
and snorted, smoke jutting from his nose. The beers were making him cavalier
with his facial expressions but if he had to hear about one more exciting
vacation this guy took, he might actually swim to the marina on the other side
of the lake. The bar was open for two more hours at least. “Let me guess, the
jungle vines came to life and ate all the people.”

Clutch’s eyes
landed hard on him, making Rory wish he would’ve kept his mouth shut. “Huh?”

“It’s a movie,”
Woody sheepishly explained. “
The Ruins
.”

“God,” Clutch
laughed, looking around the group. “Does this guy ever talk about anything but
movies?”

Rory’s face
hardened, blind to the fact that everyone was staring at him. “I was just
talking about climate change being a scare tactic to expand the power of the
federal government a few minutes ago! Does
that
sound like a movie?”

Clutch rested his
elbows on his knees and exhaled, letting the crickets fill the awkward silence
stretching between them. “Look, I get what’s happening here, Rory, but things
don’t have to be weird between us.”

“Clutch!” Rachel
gasped, slapping his knee.

“Babe,” he
laughed, gesturing with his hands. “I don’t want it to be like that. It doesn’t
have to be.”

Surprised laughter
escaped Rory’s lips. “I’m not making things weird, I’m just saying.”

Lowering his
voice, Clutch spread his palms. “Truth is, I was hoping we could hangout
sometime. Maybe grab a cup of Joe or catch a show together. Something.”

Rory swapped a
confused look with Rachel. “Why?”

“Why not?”

He smiled,
thankful for the campfire camouflaging his ruby red face. Taking a long drink,
Rory swallowed what he was about to say next and hid behind the can for as long
as possible. His gaze rose to the blanket of stars above that were always so
much brighter out here. “Man,” he exhaled. “I could really go for sending out a
tweet right about now.”

“Don’t even think
about it!” Kate snapped, toying with the bangles on her wrist.

Ashley laughed and
squeezed his arm. “Are you jonesing that bad?”

“Just a little
something to take the edge off.”

Rachel giggled and
shook her head.

Rory stared off
into the night. “Even if it was one of those dumb memes like,
in order to be someone, you must first be
yourself.”

Kate laughed and
choked on her wine, sitting up to avoid a spill of her own. “God, I hate
those.”

“Or how about,”
Rachel started, taking a deep breath and searching the sky. “
Some people feel the rain, others just get
wet
.”

Ashley laughed out
loud. “Or…
to the world you may be one
person, but to one person you may be the world
.”

Woody leaned
forward in his lawn chair. “Or what about –
no
matter how dumb you are, you can never convince someone smart they are smart
.”

The smile fell
from Kate’s face. “Mmmmm, I don’t think that’s how it goes, Woods.”

Ashley giggled.
“That made no sense.”

“Okay wait!” Woody
shot a finger into the air. “
No matter
how wide a river, a bridge always runs through it
.”

Rory shook his
head. “Not even close. You just ruined the whole thing.”

Woody leaned back
and shook his head. “You just ruined the whole thing,” he grumbled, returning
his attention to the campfire that crackled and popped and dusted the campsite
in smoke.

Kate lightly
slapped Woody’s knee, making him jump. “You’re so weird.”

Rachel finished
her cabernet in a single gulp and got up. “Anyone?”

Everyone shot a
hand into the air at the same time and erupted into laughter.

“I’ll help you,”
Ashley said, following Rachel to the sun faded picnic table.

A log popped and
shifted and Rory thought Rachel smiled at him as she passed by.

“So did you really
get high with Kenny Chesney in the Keys?” Kate asked, breaking the silence
settling around them.