Taken - Before her very Eyes (31 page)

Breaking free from the picture,
she continued on to her bedroom. There she changed into her nightshirt then
crossed the room to the window. The sky was clear with only the brightest stars
shining through the glow of the streetlights. Lori scanned the darkness,
examining every hiding place, but there was no wolf lurking in the shadows
waiting for her to leave the safety of her home.

She bent down, opened the lid of
the window seat then lifted her sweaters and dug deeper until she found what
she was looking for. Her diary.

After opening the diary to the
last entry and reading it, she stared out into the night, thinking. Then
finally…

Dear
Diary — Friday

Mother’s
finally letting me go on a date. I know how hard it is for her to let go and
watch me grow up. I can still see the fear in her eyes whenever I leave the
house.

Jessica’s
getting Kirk to set up a double date for the dance. She told me that Josh had
been asking about me a lot. Who would have thought that Josh liked me? Sure, we
share a few classes and I have caught him looking at me. But here I just
thought he was looking at me and thinking ‘There’s one messed up girl’ but he
wasn’t. He actually likes me and by the way, he is cute and he does have a nice
butt, just like Jessica said.

I
was starting to wonder if I’d ever have a boyfriend. They all seem so scared of
me. It doesn’t help that Crystal and her new recruit Tanya spread all those
stories about me.

Lori felt her blood pressure rise
just thinking about that latest rumour. The previous one was bad enough, but to
spread a rumour that she was the one who’d killed her best friends, then turned
the knife on herself in a botched attempt at suicide. That crossed the line
from being bitches to slandering bitches.

Lori sighed.

Maybe
Josh is different. Maybe he won’t care what Crystal says about him dating me.
Besides, this could be the turning point in my life, going from such a screwed
up childhood, to some kind of normal life.

It
could be the beginning of a real relationship. Something that I thought this
scar on my neck would prevent from happening. But now I’m getting carried away.
We might not have anything in common, or he might change his mind and cancel
before Friday. Oh well, no sense in worrying about it, I’ll find out soon
enough.

Gotta
go

Lori closed the diary then placed
it back inside the window seat. With her sweaters hiding her thoughts, she turned
off the lights and climbed under the covers. The thought of Josh taking her to
the dance caused her body to tingle with excitement. It was a welcome change to
the dread that she normally felt, worrying about the nightmares and memories
that would inhabit her sleep.

The sun was high overhead as Lori
walked the two blocks to Jessica’s house. Her mind was reeling from the memory
of the dream she’d had last night. But at least it’d only been one of her usual
dreams. She dreaded reliving that memory of the wolf attack at the schoolyard.
The mere thought of seeing her friends being killed all over again sent her
stomach churning. She hoped she would never see that image ever again for the
rest of her life.

Just as she stepped onto the
sidewalk, heading up to Jessica’s house, the front door opened and out ran
Jessica. She grabbed Lori’s hand and pulled her quickly down the road.

“What’s the matter?” Lori asked.
“Your mother hounding you to work at the coffee shop today?”

“No, it’s her new
boyfriend
!”
Jessica’s jaw muscles were bulging. “She finally let it slip who he is.”

Lori wanted to ask, but waited
until Jessica finally spilled it.

“Ken Parry! I should’ve guessed.
He’s new to town and—”

“Ken Parry—As in Officer Ken
Parry. The same man who fathered Tanya, the Sasquatch?”

Jessica nodded. Her face looked
long and pale. “I should’ve known it was him. They’ve only been here for less
than a month and I should’ve known it was someone new by the way she was
acting. But, how could she find him the least bit suitable? Just look at his
offspring. It looks like he mated with a fucking Bigfoot. What’s going to
happen if they get along? What if they get married?”

“Then the fucking Bigfoot will be
sharing a room with you.”

Jessica slowed to a walk when
they were a safe distance away. “As if. I’d rather move out and live on the
street.”

“Did Kirk call yet?” Lori asked,
thinking she’d change the topic before Jessica got into full melodrama mode.

“Call who?” Jessica shrugged her
shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lori gave her a playful shove,
sending her stumbling to the grass.

After regaining her footing,
Jessica gave Lori a long careful look. “Kirk said he’d call him sometime
today.”

Lori dropped her gaze to the
sidewalk. She felt her hope fading fast. After all, it had all been too easy.
To think Josh would actually want to be seen out in public with the girl who
was rumoured to have murdered her childhood friends then blamed it all on a
wolf attack, was preposterous.

“Hey.” Jessica put her arm around
Lori’s shoulder. “If Kirk doesn’t call by suppertime then I’ll make him call.
You’ve gotta understand, it’s not easy for a guy to ask another guy something
like that. They have all these macho hang-ups about being cool. And nagging
another guy just ain’t cool.”

“It’s just that I’m so excited.
Last night I couldn’t stop thinking about Josh and the dance. But, what if he
changes his mind and doesn’t want to go with me?”

“Then I’ll go over there and kick
his ass until he changes his mind.” Jessica gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t
worry. I’ll take care of you.”

They continued down two more
blocks then turned right at Len’s Corner Store. Once they rounded the curve in
the road, shimmering water danced between the gaps in the trees. At the far end
of the road, a pathway had been sliced through the thick grove of pines, carved
with care to form a perfect walkway. The branches were pruned high above their
heads, forming a peaked ceiling. No matter how many times they took this path,
it always seemed like they were following a secret pathway to some strange and
mysterious land far away.

The air seemed to drop ten
degrees as they entered the shade of the tree line. With each step taken, the
aroma of pine intensified as their feet stirred the fallen needles. They
followed the pathway for five minutes then the cool darkness gave way to
blinding sunlight reflecting off the clear blue water of the bay.

The beach was unusually barren
for this time of year. Usually a dozen kids or more would be swimming in the
water or playing football at the edge, but the cool spring had kept the water
cold, forcing the sun worshippers to pray for enlightenment on the beach
instead. Off in the distance only a few kids dared each other to go in the
water, but they were lucky to make it waist deep, before running back to the
warmth of the sand.

Lori and Jessica strolled along
the beach for twenty minutes, stopping occasionally to pick up a stone and skip
it through the waves, as they headed down toward the pier. The ancient wooden
structure creaked and moaned with each step they took. When the boards up ahead
looked too rotten to support their weight, they plopped down on the edge and
dangled their feet inches from the water’s surface as brightly coloured sunfish
gathered, circling below their feet, imitating Piranha readying for a quick
snack.

Removing her top, Jessica
revealed the bikini beneath then readjusted her contents as she lay back on the
wooden platform.

“When I called Kirk last night he
mentioned that Josh has been asking all kinds of questions about you.”

“He has?” Lori felt warmth
stirring deep inside at the thought. “Like what?”

“Well, he asked if you put out on
the first date.”

“He did not!” Lori felt the heat
in her cheeks and knew her face would be bright red. “He wouldn’t say anything
like that. Would he?”

“I’m just messing with you, but
apparently he has been asking if you have a boyfriend, and if you date and you
know, guy stuff. It sounded like he was interested in asking you out anyways,
so we’ll just get Kirk to give him a little shove in your direction.”

“This will be great. You know,”
Lori closed her eyes against the bright sun, drinking in the warm touch, “the
more I think about it, I have noticed him looking at me in class. But I thought
he took Monica Jones to the last dance?”

“He did. I remember seeing her
plump little body squeezed into that purple dress. You really should’ve come.
It was great. She looked like a fat grape ready to explode.”

“Then why would Josh ask me to
the dance? Why not take Monica again?”

“Just look at her. There’s no
contest between the two of you.”

“Stop.”

“No, really. Josh would be an
idiot not to pick you. I think the only reason he took Monica is that he wanted
to get a good mark in Miss Jones’s English class. You watch, if he dumps Miss
Jones’s little baby and takes you instead, his mark will nosedive.”

“Come to think about it, Josh was
looking at me yesterday in class. Maybe if I hadn’t ignored him, he might have
asked me to the dance then.”

Jessica turned on her side and
faced Lori. “See. I told you he liked you—or just wants to get in your pants.”

Lori turned, slapping Jessica’s
thigh hard. A red handprint rose immediately.

“Hey,” Jessica rubbed away the
sting. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

Lori raised an eyebrow and
smirked. “From what I’ve heard, Kirk spanks your ass harder than that.”

“Yeah, but my ass has more
padding. And besides it makes me really horny when he does that.” Jessica
spanked her ass then let out a long exaggerated cry of pleasure. “Just think. We’ll
be going on our first double date Friday night. Me and Kirk, and you and Josh.
Hey, maybe Josh might give you a little spanking in the back seat then we’ll
hear you moaning and groaning.”

“Oh, stop it.” Lori shook her
head. “Like I’d put out on the first date. I’m not you.”

“Yeah, you couldn’t handle being
me.” She rolled on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. “Hey,
since when do you sleep past seven? At first, I thought your mother was trying
to get rid of me when I called this morning. I thought there’s no way you could
still be in bed at ten o’clock.”

“Um… I didn’t sleep so well last
night. I… I woke up during the night and, um…”

“And what?” Jessica sat up and
looked Lori in the eye. “Another nightmare. Which was it this time, the school
attack, or the other?”

“It was the other. I was
wandering through the woods again. It feels so real like I’m actually there,
but…” Lori swallowed hard. She remembered how dirty she felt when she finally
realized what had happened last night and she still couldn’t get over the
embarrassment of it. “When I woke from the nightmare, I was… naked.”

Jessica shrugged her shoulders.
“So we’re all naked sometimes. Hell, I sleep in the nude all the time. One time
I got up and started downstairs for breakfast. I was halfway down the stairs
when I realized that there was a breeze in the valley below.”

Lori shook her head. “No, it
wasn’t the fact that I was naked, but that when the nightmare ended and I
finally woke up, I was standing in front of the window.”

“Exhibitionist,” Jessica gasped.
“Now that’s what boys like. Me, I’ve never tried that, but hey—”

“I felt so dirty standing there
in front of the window. I couldn’t believe that I’d stripped down and stood
there for… for god only knows how long.”

“Was the light off?”

“Yeah, but what—”

“Well, the most anybody walking
by would see is the outline of your body. It might be enough to horn up the old
man who walks his dog late at night—or freak him out. Either way I don’t think
you have to worry about pictures being posted on the internet or anything like
that.”

“But why would I do it? I’ve
never done it before.”

“What’s different this time?”

“Nothing—Just the nightmare the
other night of when I was bitten. That was the first time I’d had it since I
moved here four years ago. I used to wake every night after the attack from
that exact nightmare, but then we moved here and it disappeared. It was like
the distance severed the tie to it.”

“More likely you just relaxed,
not having to worry about the wolf around every corner.”

“Or the distance broke the
control the wolf had over me?”

“Don’t say that again. You’ve
told me what happened, and yes, I’ll admit it’s pretty fucked up, but I doubt
there was anything special about that one pissed off wolf. You guys probably
stepped into its territory and disturbed its den or something like that.”

Lori knew Jessica’s viewpoint on
the wolf attack and knew there was no way to change her mind, but if only she’d
seen what Lori had seen then there wouldn’t be any problem convincing her.
“Maybe you’re right Jessica. I guess I’ll just have to pin the drapes shut
tonight. I can’t stand the thought of waking up naked in front of the window
again.”

“Just in case, I’ll call Josh and
send him over. What time should I tell him?”

Lori smacked Jessica’s thigh
again but Jessica just laughed and lay back on the dock, watching the clouds
float slowly by. “So, what do you think you’re searching for in all your
nightmares?” she asked.

Lori shifted on the rough wooden
planks then sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. “I don’t know, all I can
remember is walking around searching, but I don’t think I ever found what I was
looking for.” Lori’s eyes blurred with tears. She sat there staring off into
the bay while the images replayed through her mind.