On Borrowed Time, page 13
part #4 of Dark Lake Chronicles Series
Lady thought back to the last time they had done the ritual. It had drawn the murderer out. She had also nearly drowned. It wasn’t an experience she was looking forward to repeating. Though she doubted Destiny had any more friends who had drowned and turned into a vengeful, manifested version of their rage. There probably wasn’t anything sinister lurking under the surface of the water any longer. “You think we’re going to see the murderer?”
Dom got to his feet, draining the wine cooler before answering. “Probably not. We don’t have a clear enough idea of what might have happened. We don’t even have a definite name.”
“But we did the ritual,” Destiny said with a yawn. “We might as well go see what we see. And you better hope we see something. I stayed up way too late for all this.”
“I’m sorry,” Crispin said earnestly.
Destiny’s scowl turned to a strained but genuine smile. “Oh, I don’t really mean it. I know this is important to you.” She reached out and gave Dom’s shoulder a friendly squeeze. “We’ll figure out what happened. With any luck we’ll find out tonight!”
“But probably not,” Dom said, tempering everyone’s expectations.
Otsuya sipped at her own wine cooler. “Everyone needs to stay positive. Come on, guys. Let’s go!” She headed for the door and everyone followed. Even Destiny. She paused to slip some flip flops on at the door, but she didn’t bother to change out of her pajamas.
Lady watched as Lion slipped out the open door in front of her. “Lion! Get back here!” She clicked her tongue, but he didn’t return. He wanted to come too, it seemed. Lady sighed. If he had made up his mind there was no forcing him. Not that she was particularly comfortable with the idea of him out there in the dark. He could probably see fine, but she wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on him. She didn’t typically need to, but not having the option bothered her.
“He’ll be fine,” Dom said, planting a hand on Lady’s shoulder then Crispin’s. “Let’s go.”
Lady tried to convince someone to grab a flashlight before they left, but Destiny was already in the lead. Dom insisted they didn’t need one. The moon was bright. If someone was drawn out by the ritual, the light of the flashlight might only serve to scare them off. He steered Crispin and Lady through the forest again himself, steadying them both more than once.
Lady was thankful when they finally made it out of the woods and out next to the familiar piers of the marina. They all stood there for a few seconds, scanning the whole of the place. “So, are we just watching the pier or…” Lady trailed off, hoping someone had a better idea than her of what, precisely, they were doing. She wasn’t sure what they were looking for. A person, ideally, sure. Would they just stroll up to the pier, though? Should they be watching the parking area?
“We should split up,” said Destiny. “Some of us should wait down here. The rest should watch further up.” She pointed toward the marina’s combination administration building and bait shop.
Dom nodded. “We should,” he agreed. “I’ll wait down here.”
Crispin glanced over to his friend. “I guess I will too.”
“Me too.” Otsuya piped up before Lady had a chance to say anything.
“Looks like it’s just you and me then.” Destiny put a friendly arm around Lady’s shoulders and steered her in the direction of the building. “I’ll give you a call if we find anything,” she told Dom.
Lady’s instinct had been to team up with Crispin. She supposed this didn’t matter, though. It wasn’t like them planning a date needed to change the group dynamic they had going. She followed Destiny without complaint. “I can’t really see all that well,” she warned her.
“Neither can I,” said Destiny with a shrug. “That’s why I’m watching the parking area. I figure I’ll be able to notice if a car pulls up.”
Despite her assertion that she couldn’t see, Destiny found her way to the building easily enough. She probably knew the terrain well after years of working there. “Hang on.” She pulled some keys from her hip and headed into the shop. She didn’t bother with the lights and emerged with a couple of folding chairs a few seconds later. “To be honest with you, this is the main reason why I volunteered to stake out this area.” She handed one chair to Lady and set up her own. “I’ve been on my feet all day. I’m supposed to be in bed right now.”
“I appreciate you helping us with this,” Lady said, and she meant it. She set up her own chair and sat down beside her.
Destiny made a noncommittal hum. “Well, what are friends for?”
Lady liked that. She liked that Destiny didn’t hesitate to call her a friend.
“I’ll use this to cash in a favor later,” she said, stifling a yawn at the end of her sentence. “And I’ll try not to fall asleep on you.”
“Sounds fair.” Lady had to stifle a yawn of her own after seeing Destiny do the same. She brought in her knees, resting her feet on the seat of the chair. It seemed like they might be there for a while. She might as well get comfortable.
Lady wished her eyes would adjust some more. She scanned the gravel road and the edge of the trees, looking for any sign of Lion. She was sure he was out there somewhere. It was doubtful that he had gotten lost.
“So, you and Crispin, huh?” Destiny said, breaking the temporary silence.
The question startled Lady. “Um… Sort of?” It felt like the question implied that they were a thing. They weren’t exactly “a thing” yet. “We’ve got plans to make a date.”
Destiny snorted. “Plans to make a date?”
“Well, we were about to set a date and then all this happened.” She made a wide gesture all around them. “It’s not anything serious.”
“Do you want it to be?”
Lady was glad for the darkness all of a sudden. She could feel her face growing warm. “I dunno. I mean, I guess. Maybe. I wouldn’t have agreed to a date if I didn’t, right?”
Destiny shrugged. “I don’t know! I figured maybe it was just a booty call.”
“Yeah? Crispin strike you as the booty call type?”
“Hey, I mean, it’s not my place to judge.” Destiny laughed. “Seriously, though. I’m surprised. I didn’t really see this coming.”
“Why?” Lady couldn’t help but ask. Were they really that unlikely of a couple?
“I don’t know. I figured Otsuya had the crush on him.”
“She does,” Lady assured her.
“And how’s she taking all of this? Does she know?”
“She knows. She was mad at first, but she’s… Well, I wouldn’t say she’s thrilled, but she doesn’t hate me or anything. She has feelings for him, but she told me she didn’t have plans to ever act on them, so…”
“Makes sense,” Destiny said, more to herself than to Lady. “Being dead—I guess that kind of complicates your dating life.”
“I guess.” Something occurred to Lady then. “Who told you about me and Crispin?” She didn’t think either of them were being particularly obvious. It wasn’t like there was even anything to be obvious about yet.
“Dom,” said Destiny. Lady really should have guessed. She knew those two were buddies. “You know, if I’d put money on it, I would have guessed you and Dom would be a thing.”
“What?” Lady asked that question a lot louder than she had meant to. She quickly lowered her voice. “What?” she asked again, just as incredulous.
“What do you mean, what?” Destiny countered. “You two are always flirting.”
“We are not,” snapped Lady. She was lucky if she and Dom got along on a good day. If anything, they were sniping at each other more often than not. “When are we flirting?”
“You’re always…” Destiny trailed off as if searching for the right word. “I don’t know. You bicker.”
“Bickering is not flirting.”
“It’s not mean-spirited.” Destiny gave a huff, like she was frustrated with her own ability to communicate what she was trying to get across. “He likes that sort of thing. I should know. We had a thing once.”
“It’s not like that,” Lady assured her. “I don’t hate him or anything, but… It’s not like that at all.”
“Okay,” said Destiny. It sounded like she was willing to drop things there. The silence between them resumed.
For a few seconds Lady listened to the sounds of nature, to frogs and insects and the wind blowing through the trees. She couldn’t take it for long. “You don’t think he has a thing for me, do you?”
“Huh?”
“Dom.” Lady hated even saying his name in this context. She felt silly even asking. “He doesn’t… think of me that way, does he?”
“Does it matter?”
Lady couldn’t tell if Destiny was trying to frustrate her. “I want to know what he thinks of me, so yeah. It sort of matters.”
“He hasn’t said anything to me about it,” said Destiny. Lady wasn’t sure if she was feeling relief at the news. She didn’t have time to find out. “But, personally? Yeah, I sort of think he does.”
“Why?”
“Like I said, I’m his friend. I used to be an item with him. I like to think I know him pretty well. You’re his type. I don’t know how else to put it. You and he have the sort of rapport he has with people he dates.” Destiny paused. “Or… whatever you want to call it. People he’s in a relationship with. We didn’t go on too many dates, per say. He’s not really a romantic.”
Lady had a little more time to dwell on her mixed feelings. Her heart had definitely sped up. Hearing this made her… nervous. The idea that Dom might like her changed things. How could it not? Part of Lady wished that Destiny hadn’t said anything. This was something she could have gone without knowing. At the same time, another part of her was… kind of excited. Knowing someone had a crush on you was flattering. At least it was in situations where the person with a crush on you was attractive. There was no denying that Dom was attractive. He was attractive in a kind of dangerous way that Lady wasn’t used to.
“Not that you and Crispin wouldn’t make a good pair,” Destiny said when Lady didn’t reply after a while. “I didn’t mean to discourage you from pursuing that. I didn’t see it coming, but that doesn’t mean anything. You’ll probably be good together.” It didn’t sound like she necessarily meant that. It sounded more like she felt obligated to say something to that effect.
Lady nodded but still didn’t have a reply. She gazed off into the darkness again, waiting for something to happen but mostly thinking about what Destiny had said.
***
It was difficult to gauge the passage of time sitting there and waiting like they were. Her mind kept going back to what Destiny had said. That probably helped to pass the time a little but not much. A couple of times she saw Destiny slouch down in her seat. The fifth or sixth time it happened, Lady heard the sound of faint snoring.
Lady didn’t have the heart or the motivation to wake her. It wasn’t like there was a pressing need to wake her up. Nothing was going on. Plus, like she said, she had work tomorrow. She needed to get some sleep. If something of note happened, Lady would wake her.
It wasn’t long before something did happen. It was like whatever it was had been waiting specifically for Destiny to go to sleep. Either that or it was just an inconvenient coincidence. Probably the latter.
Lady leaned forward. She had seen movement but not much else. It was hard to make heads or tails of things in the darkness.
She stood and took a step forward, away from the building and onto the gravel road. The shape of what was moving solidified for her. It was Lion.
“Lion,” Lady hissed, keeping her voice down. She didn’t want to wake Destiny. There was certainly no point in waking her up over her cat.
Lion didn’t even look in her direction. He pounced at something, spun around, and ran off toward the woods.
Lady swore under her breath and followed after him. She didn’t plan on going too far. She wasn’t about to wander off into the trees by herself. That was how horror movies started. “Lion,” she hissed again, a little louder this time since she had put some distance between herself and Destiny.
Lady expected Lion to be out of sight again. She had even less visibility beneath the shade of the trees. It was something of a surprise when she spotted him right away. He was a few feet in front of her, still paying her no attention. She took a slow and careful step forward, hoping she could snatch him up before he ran off again. At the very least she could have some company while she kept watch for something that may or may not happen.
Lion spun. For a moment Lady thought he was trying to get away from her. Instead he was slapping his paws down over something in the pine needles. “What’s that?” Lady took another step forward. She nudged at Lion with the toe of her sneaker. If he had managed to catch some sort of small woodland creature, she wanted it free. Either he was planning on eating it or he was toying with it. Neither was good.
Lion was forced to one side, revealing a small salamander. The light wasn’t good, but Lady was sure it was red. She gasped as the thing took off further into the woods.
Lion’s head snapped in Lady’s direction. If a cat could look betrayed, he did. A moment later he had taken off after the salamander again. Lady followed suit. She had decided against going deeper into the woods, but all that was out the window now. She had to go after that thing. Her instincts told her that. Ignoring them wasn’t an option.
Somehow, Lady managed to find the salamander again. She saw it on the trunk of a tree, scurrying about while Lion swatted at it like it was waiting on her. As soon as she caught up, it took off again. Lion was right behind it.
It was much easier to follow Lion than it was to chase a salamander in the darkness. It was still rough going, though. Lady stumbled more than once and fell to her hands and knees twice. The second time she did was especially painful. The impact to her right knee was sudden and hard. She hissed a breath through her teeth as it sent a shockwave of pain through the rest of her.
All the same, she got to her feet and followed the salamander. It probably should have occurred to her that there was the very real possibility that she might get lost in the dark. There wasn’t time to think like that, though. Not if she wanted to catch up with the salamander. And she did. She wasn’t sure why she did. It was a need she had, an instinctual one.
Fortunately, Lady came out the other side of the woods. She found herself on asphalt. This wasn’t the gravel road of the marina anymore. She was closer to the main road. Lady tried to get her bearings. She was behind a building, but which building? It certainly wasn’t the marina’s office. Lady began to turn on the spot to try and get a better idea of where she was. Instead, a sudden burst of light drew all her attention.
There was a car a few yards away from her. No. Not a car. It looked like a car, but it was made of a blue light that glowed and pulsed and was a bit fuzzy around the edges.
Lady froze, staring at it, trying to determine whether she was dreaming, if this was all in her head. Maybe she had fallen asleep like Destiny. Maybe she was projecting again.
The car made of light was a police car. There weren’t colors, but it had a distinguishable shape to it. The details were a bit fuzzy, but Lady was sure it was the car she had seen by the stream. It was Lawrence’s cruiser. Sure, it was indistinguishable from any other Dark Lake police cruiser, but… It was Lawrence’s. Lady knew it was, could feel it down in her bones.
Projection or not, this was something that needed to be investigated. Lady moved forward. She did so slowly, afraid that approaching too fast would disturb the spectral image before her. It seemed fragile, floating there like fog, like it might blow away on a slight breeze.
The image wasn’t disturbed as she got closer. She looked in through the driver’s side window. The interior of the car was visible. It was as hazily detailed as the rest of the car, but she could still see that there was no one there. There was no one in the passenger seat either, though she thought she could see some sort of shape between the seats, sitting in the back.
Lady moved down to the rear window. Even with the car being made of light, it was difficult to see through the back window. She had to lean in a bit, getting closer as she would have to with physical tinted glass. She dared not touch the window for fear of the whole thing evaporating.
There was indeed a shape in the back. It looked like a person sprawled out across the seats. They weren’t moving, though Lady wasn’t sure if that was because they were dead or just asleep.
Lady took a step back as something new caught her attention. There was another spectral shape. This one appeared to be a person and they were moving. The details were difficult to make out. They were jogging over to the car. They stopped at the window across from Lady, peered in, and then—Everything vanished.
It happened so suddenly Lady nearly fell over. It hadn’t even faded. It was just ‘poof’ then gone. Lady looked around, hoping for some additional clue. A new spectral image, the salamander, anything.
All she saw was Lion. He was sitting a few feet behind her, casually licking a paw. Lady sighed, walked over, and picked him up. “What do you suppose all that meant?” she asked. He answered with a soft meow.
Lady turned and tried to get a sense of where she was again. She had to walk around the building in order to place it. It was the old, run-down bait shop near the marina. It wasn’t far. It wouldn’t be much trouble to walk back to where everyone else was and tell them what she had seen… That was if she could find her way back, of course.
***
Lady pulled out her phone after waffling between going back through the woods and walking down the main road for a bit. She wanted to do neither.
“Did you find something?” Dom answered after only one ring.
“I’m lost,” Lady said plainly.
“What?”
“I’m lost. Come find me, please.”
“Why are you lost?”
“What’s happening?” asked Crispin’s voice in the background.
“Is it Lady?” asked Otsuya’s voice. “I bet it’s Lady. She’s lost.”
