Chapter 13

“The fuck Lucas! You scared the crap out of me!” I yelled as I turned to see him settling himself on one of the rocks ringing the pool. 

“Have you forgotten what happened the last time you snuck up on me? Or does your face need a reminder!” I said through clenched teeth, sinking myself shoulder deep into the dark water.

“Sorry…. I just wanted to-”

“What Lucas? You just wanted to what? To find another way to invade my privacy? Or maybe you just-”

“I just wanted to apologize!” he shouted over me, cutting me off. “Look, I’m really sorry about what I did. It was stupid. But I honestly was just trying to do something nice for you, I didn’t think it through and I’m sorry.”

Taking a deep breath he hesitantly continued “I just don’t want you to be scared of me.” He added in a solemn tone.

“Why would you think I’d be scared of you?” I asked, feigning confusion. Knowing exactly what he was talking about.

“Most girls wouldn’t have gone toe to toe with me the way you did back there, after what happened in your house earlier. They’d probably leave running and screaming.” Lucas said, referring to him and the officer and everything else that followed afterwards.

Since getting in the jeep, I’ve tried to put the entire scene out of my head. Lucas slaughtering the offi-, I mean demon? like he was a just some rabid animal that needed to be put down. Lucas wasn’t wrong, in a way he did scare me, his strength and the brutality in which he went after the demon was more than intimidating. But a little voice in the back of head, probably my gramps’, kept whispering that I could trust them both.

I mean, I’ve been alone in the middle of the forest with both boys for almost two days now. If Daniel or Lucas wanted to hurt me they probably would have already, right?

I thought, dipping myself even lower into the water, hiding from the cool breeze that  began to make me shiver.  

“Lucas, he- that thing it attacked us. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t done what you did. You were just protecting us.” I said to him with sincerity and gratitude.

“Daniel said you were different from most girls.” He said to me, his mouth curving into another one of his panty dropping smiles.

“Lucas, couldn’t this conversation have waited till we were all back at the cabin?” I asked him, trying my hardest to stop my teeth from chattering.

“I figured this way you’d have no choice but to accept my apology.” He answered, his smile turning into a wide toothed grin as he lifted his left hand, holding out a soft yellow towel.

“If looks could kill.” He said with a short laugh.

“You’d probably be dead already.” I retorted, forcing myself to pull my eyes away from him before I was even more tempted to slap that grin off his face.

Sweeping my gaze across the river, my eyes landed on the spot where I glimpsed the unusual dark shadow. Now shaded by soft moonlight, the trees casting eerie shadows as their branches shifted in the wind. Flicking my gaze back to Lucas, I watched suspiciously as he folded the towel and neatly laid it on the boulder, next to my shoes and my drawstring bag

“Thank you. So very much.” I said dryly.

“You’re welcome!” he replied purposely ignoring my snide remark.

Jumping off the rocks he walked a small distance from the pool, close enough that I could still see him as he stood there with his back to me. More than ready to get out of the water, my fingertips all turned to prunes, I dashed out the pool quickly grabbing the towel and drying off, never taking my eyes off Lucas’ back.

“You don’t have to wait for me!” I shouted in his direction as I began wringing out my braid.

“Not a problem!” He replied barely tilting his head in my direction.

Finished dressing I shoved my toes into my shoes as I slung my used and damp towel over my shoulder and pushed my hand through the drawstring of the black velvet bag, I still hadn't opened. Grabbing Daniel's used clothes I walked past Lucas following the river downstream back to the cabin as he kept pace beside me, scanning the trees as we passed by.

Looking over to the other side of the river, back at the shades in the trees I couldn’t help thinking about it. The dark shadow and how-

“Looking for something?” Lucas asked, his warm breath close to my ear startling me out of my thoughts.

“What! No!” I blurted out, taking a step back from the delicious heat of him.

            Turning forward, I continued walking, feeling Lucas watching me. Refusing to meet his stare I wrapped my arms around myself to deter the nip in the air. It doesn’t snow or have four seasons in Troian but as the October month began the days grew shorter as the nights grew colder. 

“Can I ask you a question?” I hesitantly asked between the choruses of chirping crickets, my eyes staring straight ahead.

“You just did.” Lucas teasingly answered as the sound of the crashing falls faded away into the distance.

Chapter 12

           The gentle tumble of the waterfall behind us, along with the night forest’s sounds, helped to fend off unnatural silence as an awkward hush fell between the three of us. 

 “Hey, what’s that?” I asked Lucas, breaking the quiet. Tilting my chin at the dark bundle tucked under his arm, unable to see it properly as the sun vanished.

             
             “Oh!” he answered, almost as if forgetting he even had it before gently throwing it at me. Involuntarily catching it in reflex, my gaze never wavering from his, I saw Lucas’ brows shoot into his hairline in surprise.

“What is it?” Daniel asked curiously, peering down at the wad in my hands. Looking at them both in turn, touching the soft fabric that felt all too familiar to not know what it was.

            “It’s my batman t-shirt” I announced, more than a little confused. A wave a comfort washed over me as I felt the rip at the bottom of one short black sleeve, and a finger sized hole at the neck that told how old and worn it was and without a doubt, that it was mine. It took a minute or two for the surge of nostalgia to pass, by then the in-credulousness of what Lucas did, finally began to sink in.

“You went through my bag?” I said tight lipped, watching as his face fell.

“No!.....well…….well yeah. I just thought that, since you were out here at the falls that maybe you’d like to change into your own clothes.”  He rambled out in his defense. “I was just trying to do something nice for you.” Lucas added apologetically.

“And that makes it okay!” I snapped. Jumping off the rock and rushing to Lucas, ignoring the way he towered over me. “You dug through my stuff!” I said furiously, jabbing a finger in chest.

“I’m sorry. I-” he began, only to be cut of by Daniel.

“Alright, Alright!” Daniel laughingly said, stepping between Lucas and me and putting space between us. “October, why don’t you go ahead and wash up first, Lucas and I will just go back to the cabin, before he digs himself into a deeper hole than he already has.” He delegated, his lips still holding unto a small smile.

Folding my arms and starring at Lucas through narrowed slits, I sharply warned them both, not to touch my stuff, as Daniel dragged Lucas back in the direction of the cabin. Turning away as they both disappeared into the thicket of trees, I stared down at my batman shirt, unwrapping the bunched up cloth.

“You went through my underwear!!” I screamed at the empty spot between the trees where both boys vanished into, before looking back down at the matching baby blue bra and panties, sitting next to a pair of yellow shorts that were all swathed together in my shirt. Throwing the clothes next to the velvet drawstring bag and my shoes, I tore off Daniels clothes, still seething as I crawled up unto the huge rock and dove into the temperate water to cool off.

Swimming against the water flow to the pools floor, coming up for air beneath the waterfall and drifting languidly as my toes scraped the pebbles below the water, the falling cascade showering down on me. The sound of tussling bushes caught my attention, shifting my eyes away from the sky and the distant crescent moon above, barely lighting the night as the stars twinkled in one by one. It could have easily been the wind or any number of nocturnal animals rousing from sleep, but gramps always said that it never hurt to walk the line between cautious and paranoid. 

The sharp, shocking sound of twigs snapping had my head whirling toward the sound, my eyes gliding over the other side of the river, where the trees were denser and the shadows darker. Scanning the darkened woods, a flicker of movement in my peripheral vision had me staring at a black shadow that stood out against the gloom of the trees. I kept staring at it, my eyes finding it hard to leave until a few seconds later I lost sight of it as the blackness slowly slipped back into the shade. 

It must have just been the silhouette of an animal or something, I mean what else could it be  Right? I'm probably just still a little shaken up from earlier, that's all. Yeah, that's it.

I tried to convince myself. I was still turned to the other side of the falls, staring at the trees where the silhouette receded, when I heard the thump of boots on rock behind me on the bank, and my name being called in a hushed whisper.

Chapter 11

          
           “You alright?” Daniel asked. His eyes revealing nothing as he studied my face, waiting for an answer.

“Yeah, I’m…..I’m fine” I said with heavy breaths, my hair spilling down around me as I sat up to avoid his gaze. “I must have just dozed off. It’s not a big deal.” I added dismissively.

“You sure?” he asked once again, situating himself to sit bare inches away, beside me on the sarsen.

Nodding a yes without looking at him, I scooted back, pulling my feet out of the pool’s cool water.

“You open it yet?” he asked with impatient curiosity as his eyes shifted from the bag next to me and back to my face.

“No, not yet” I said in irritation “But I will when I’m ready.”

Huffing out an exasperated breath, he leaned back on his elbows to reach back for something. Sitting back up, he held out a sandwich, haphazardly wrapped in a white paper napkin.

“Lucas made sandwiches. Here…” he said shoving the sandwich in my hand “You should eat something.”

Looking down at the sandwich in reverence, not knowing how hungry I really was until I held it in my hand. I said a quick thanks before turning all my attention back to my sandwich. They say when you’re hungry, everything tastes good and this was no exception. As I chewed my first bite of the turkey and cheese on plain white bread, I swore I could hear a choir of angels, singing halleluiahs in the background. Completely forgetting Daniel as he sat next to me, I practically inhaled the rest of the sandwich.

“Do you chew at all or is it just preference to swallow it whole like a snake.” He sneered in a teasing tone.

Turning to him and screwing my face up at his words, my mouth still full of food I was taken by surprise at his unguarded response as he looked down at me. Throwing is head back and laughing in a low and husky timbre, Daniel gave me my first glimpse of his dimples as they sank into his cheek.

 “You should see your face right now.” He chuckled, flashing me a perfect toothed smile before shaking his head and staring at the falls in front of us.

Finishing off the rest of the sandwich and dusting off my hands on my shirt, I turned to Daniel. Looking at him as he sat there, haloed by the sunset coloured sky, the ghost of his dimpled smile, still lingering on his handsomely boyish face. I couldn’t help but think how beautiful he looked.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” he remarked, his question breaking through my thoughts as if he could read them.

“What?” I asked perplexed, shifting my eyes from his face and shaking off my current train of thought.

“Sunsets.” He said, looking up at the multicoloured streaked sky, as if it should have been obvious. “There amazing. The world’s natural marker, of what has been and what is to come. Not just the end of one thing but the beginning of another.” 

Silent as his poetic words took root, I joined him in watching as the day turn to night.

“We should probably head back, Lucas must be wondering where we ran off too and left him.” I said to Daniel, breaking the silence. Pulling my hair back into a loose braid and tying it at the end.

“Lucas is probably more worried about what we’re doing alone together, than us leaving him behind.” He said with a chuckle so contagious, I couldn’t help but smile.

“Still, we should go.” I replied, neither one of us making a move to leave.

Carried by the night’s warm breeze, the sound of steady footsteps interrupted our conversation. Looking over my shoulder, in the direction the sound was coming from, I watched as a small shadowed frame came into view. Turning my back to the falls and facing Lucas, I watched him as he languidly walked over to me and Daniel.

“Hey.” Lucas said to us both in greeting, barely glancing at Daniel before focusing on me.  “You guys have been gone long, thought you were eaten by a bear or something.” He said with a smile, looking up at me as he braced his palms on my boulder, trapping my legs between them.

“There aren’t any bears in Marshall Woods. Foxes, Yes. Bunnies, deer and the occasional wolf, but.. no bears.” I corrected him.

“Good to know, Octopedia.” Lucas teased.

Clearing his throat in clear annoyance at Lucas’ and I verbal exchange, we both looked over at Daniel as he jumped off the rock to the ground and stood next to Lucas.