The Reservoir (7 page)

She startled when Zack wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Oh, sorry,” he murmured.  “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She turned her head toward him, noting he had bent toward her and brought his face close to hers.  Their eyes linked and a silent communication passed between them.  She nearly leaned in and kissed him, but common sense prevailed.  If their friends saw them kissing, it would only add another unsettling element to the events of the day.

Holly feared Kendall might also have a bit of a crush on Zack.  She had never said so, but sometimes when Kendall liked a guy, she showed it by giving him a hard time.  Kendall was forever razzing Zack, so it was likely she had feelings for him.

Sometimes, sorting out who liked whom among friends could be so complicated.  It was the primary reason Holly had a strict policy of never dating within her group of close friends.  A breakup could potentially signal the end of more than a romance—it could mark the end of a friendship if there were residual hard feelings.  But…

She liked Zack and had for a long time.  Maybe, just maybe, their solid friendship could withstand a stab at something more even if something were to go wrong.

Holly was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Zack chuckling softly beside her.  “Wow, the wheels are definitely turning in that head of yours.”

“Hmmm?”

“Where’d you go just then?” he asked, nuzzling his cheek against hers.  He stepped away from her and reached out to gently smooth a tendril of her hair away from her face so he could see her eyes.

She only shook her head in response and smiled.  “Nowhere.  Are you going to dry these dishes, or what?”

“‘Or what’ sounds more fun,” he quipped, but she silenced him with a warning glance.  He chuckled in response and contritely picked up a dish towel.  He began drying a plate, glancing out the window as he did.  Suddenly, he dropped the plate.  It landed with a crack at Holly’s feet, breaking into a hundred sharp pieces.

Holly turned toward Zack.  He seemed oblivious to the plate, oblivious to her, but was hypnotized by something outside the cabin.  Holly eyed him curiously for several seconds, and then turned to follow his gaze.  She screamed without realizing she had. 

There was a girl at the dock, but not
on
the dock.  She was actually hovering several feet above it, her hands spread wide.  Even from a distance, Holly could see the girl was not a solid form, but instead, a quivering, undulating human-shaped mass of liquid.  Her golden locks flowed away from her head, like a gelatinous version of static electrified hair.  From this distance, Holly could not see the girl’s eyes clearly, and on some level, was grateful.  But when the girl brought her hands in front of her as if praying, Holly took a quick step back, hardly registering the shard of glass that pierced her foot.

She glanced down distractedly, saw the blood, and then came out of her fright-induced stupor.  “My foot!” she cried.

Her tone snapped Zack into motion.  Thankfully, he was still wearing his tennis shoes, but immediately took note that Holly was barefooted.  “Ah, hell!” he muttered, scooping her into his arms in order to prevent her from further injuring herself.  “I’m an idiot!” he berated himself as he carried her to the small dinette table nearby and deposited her on a chair.

“Where’s the first aid kit?” he asked, glancing around as if hoping it would suddenly materialize.

“In the bathroom,” Holly told him, and then watched his retreating form as he ran out of the kitchen, through the narrow room, out the back door, and into the weirdly-placed bathroom.  He was back in a flash, having already opened the kit.

He pulled out a small bottle of rubbing alcohol.  “This is going to sting,” he murmured with a wince, and then dumped a bit of the disinfectant onto the wound.  He followed by dumping more of the alcohol onto his own fingers to sanitize them, and then carefully pulled the shard of glass from Holly’s foot. 

Still in shock from seeing the girl, Holly sat quietly.  She hardly noticed when Zack dumped more alcohol into the wound, dabbed it with antibiotic cream, and then applied a bandage.  “I hope you don’t need stitches,” he muttered worriedly. 

“Do you think it might?” Holly asked, catching his gaze. 

“It could really go either way,” he said.  “I wish we had a butterfly bandage.”

Holly shrugged.  “I’m sure it’s fine.  If need be, we can pick some up from the store.”

“I’m so sorry, Holly,” Zack said, rising and dropping heavily into a chair beside her.

“For what?” she said, watching him curiously.

He shook her head in disgust.  “Fat lotta good I was back there,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh.

“What are you talking about?”

“If I hadn’t dropped that plate…”

“Uh, Zack, all things considered, we’re lucky
we
didn’t drop.”  She searched his face.  “So … you saw … what … I saw?”

He nodded, his eyes widened in stark terror.  “And, all I could do was stand there like an idiot.”

“I did too,” she said.

“At least you screamed.”

“What does that mean?” Holly said, eyeing him curiously.

“Your voice didn’t abandon you.”  He dropped his head in shame.

“So?”

“
Everything
abandoned me—my voice, my ability to reason, my ability to take a step…  I didn’t even register that I dropped that plate—hence, you cut your foot.  Yeah, I’m great in a crisis,” he muttered morosely.

“Yeah, well, it’s not everyday you see a ghost.”  She reached for his hand.  “Besides, you
are
great in a crisis.  You’ve proven it time and time again.  If you’ll remember, when Daniel was in the water, screaming for help, you jumped in to save him without any thought for your own personal safety.  You didn’t even hesitate.  Zack, I’d say you’re
great
in a crisis.  Frankly, during any crisis, I’d want you by my side.”

He hesitantly raised his head and met her eyes.  A smile played at the corners of his mouth.  “Really?  You mean that?”

“I do.”

A genuine smile creased his face and he leaned in and kissed her.  It was a quick kiss, but full of promise.

Suddenly, Holly remembered their friends.  She had screamed only moments before, yet, no one had come tearing into the kitchen to check on her.  “Zack, where is everybody?” she murmured fearfully.

Suddenly, his eyes widened with understanding.  The twosome turned slowly, frightened of what they might see.  Had some ghost appeared and carried their friends off? Holly wondered fleetingly, but dismissed the notion as quickly as it had come.  She was being ridiculous.  Her friends were fine.

Her friends
were
fine.  Daniel was in the recliner, somehow having managed to pull it back into its reclining position.  Holly couldn’t help wondering how he’d managed it, and if he’d done irreparable damage to a chair that was already on its last leg.  Niqui and Kendall had retrieved blankets from one of the bedrooms and had spread them out on the floor.  The two were currently lying parallel to one another, only inches apart and a few feet from Daniel’s chair.  Holly couldn’t blame them for wanting to stay close to each other.

“I can’t believe they managed to fall asleep,” Holly said with wonder.

“I’m glad,” Zack said, giving an audible sigh of relief.  “Daniel needs his rest and…”

“What?”

“I don’t feel much like rehashing our ghostly encounter with them right now.”

Holly gave him a hesitant glance.  “Do you mind talking with me about it?”

“Of course not,” he told her.

He took her hand and together they walked back into the kitchen.  “I need to clean up this mess,” he said, gesturing toward the broken glass on the floor beside the sink.

“I’ll get it,” Holly said, rising to retrieve the broom and dustpan.

“No, I’ll get it.  I made the mess.  I’ll clean it up.”

Holly sat down at the dinette table and watched as he pulled the broom and dust pan from a small pantry.  He first picked up the largest pieces of glass with his fingers, carefully avoiding the razor sharp edges.  He suddenly glanced up and frowned.  “This isn’t glass.”

“Nope.  That plate’s actually supposed to be unbreakable.  The commercial’s tout it as indestructible.  Guess they’re wrong.”

“Huh,” Zack muttered, and then swept the smaller pieces into the dustpan and dumped it into the trash below the sink, finally giving the dustpan a good tap against the trash receptacle.  He rose up, and Holly didn’t miss the apprehensive glance he sent toward the window.  He paused briefly, and Holly could see he was surveying the property out front.

“See … anything?” she asked.

“Uh, no, nothing,” he said, the relief evident in his voice.  After putting the broom and dustpan away, he crossed the room and took a chair beside her.  “How’s the foot?”

“Oh, it’s fine.”

Wordlessly, Zack rose again, strode into the living room, and retrieved the Tylenol he’d left beside Daniel’s chair.  He uncapped it and tipped out two tablets.  “Here.  Your foot’s going to throb if you don’t take them.”

She waved off his concern about her foot, but took the Tylenol when he insisted.  She settled into the chair, taking a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves.  Zack suddenly rose and grabbed a soda.

“Are you sure you want the caffeine?” Holly asked him.  “Didn’t you say you probably won’t do much sleeping as it is?”

He only shrugged in response and then reached across the table to take her hand.  She realized he was as frightened and on edge as she was.  She hated to bring up the ghost—hated to add fuel to the fire of their fear, but they really needed to discuss what they had seen. 

Was there a logical explanation for the ghostly form?  Had the trees cast unearthly shadows on the dock?  Was something reflecting off the water?  Was a large bird hovering over the dock?

When Holly presented Zack with each possible scenario, he rejected each like a goalie deflecting a ball.  He recognized she was desperate to find an explanation, one that didn’t lend credence to Daniel’s supernatural theory, but in his gut, he knew what they’d seen and he knew what it was.  And he knew, so did Holly.

“Maybe one of the neighbors happened to walk down to the dock,” she suggested hopefully.  “Maybe a tourist got confused and didn’t realize this is private property.  It could happen…”

“Show me a tourist who can levitate and make her hair jut out of her head like that, and I’ll show you a…”

“Dead tourist,” Holly said wanly.

Zack laughed without humor.  “What do you think she wants?”

“Who?” she said obtusely, and Zack laughed.  He squeezed her hand and chuckled at her attempt at a joke.   “I wish I knew what she wants,” Holly muttered. “And, why was she praying?”

Zack shook his head in puzzlement, his brows drawn low over his eyes.  “I don’t think she was praying, exactly.  It was more a gesture—you know, like she was imploring us to help her.”

“Zack, that’s what Daniel said!  He insisted she needed his help.  Remember?”

He nodded, but soon shook his head uncertainly.  “What could a ghost possibly want from us?”

Holly shrugged this time.  “And what’s she doing in the water?”

“Maybe she drowned,” he speculated.

Holly’s eyes widened.  “Or … maybe somebody killed her and disposed of her body in the reservoir!”

Holly tossed and turned as she lay on the floor in the living room.  She and Zack had spread out two blankets, side-by-side, like Niqui and Kendall had done earlier.  Holly knew her mother wouldn’t approve of her sleeping so close to Zack, but it couldn’t be helped.  She was terrified and needed her friends within close proximity.  All of them.  The fact that Zack held her hand across the divide between them served to quell her rising panic in a way nothing else or no one else could. 

Despite the warmth of the late summer evening, she was freezing.  A frightening thought struck her.  Had the temperature suddenly plummeted because the ghost had entered the cabin?  Isn’t that what always happened on television?  A ghost in the room equated to a cold room.  Terrified by the prospect, Holly bolted upright.  Her hand slipped from Zack’s grasp.

She glanced around her frantically, groping for the flash light she had stowed beside her.  Unable to find it, she nearly cried out, but she somehow managed to stifle the noise by biting down on her lower lip.  It wouldn’t be fair to wake her friends, who thankfully, were getting a good night’s rest. 

She turned toward Zack, surprised to see he had propped himself up on one elbow and was watching her.  She could just make out his heavily-lidded eyes in the dark.

“Are you all right?” he whispered.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t.  I can’t manage to fall sleep.”

Holly sighed.  “I can’t find my flashlight.”

“Do you need it?” he asked.  “Do you need to go to…?”

“No,” she said, glad he hadn’t seen her face turn red.  “Something scared me.  That’s all.”

“That’s all, huh?”

She watched his face, attempting to read him, but the darkness veiled his expressions.  What little light there was danced off the planes of his handsome face, creating a fascinating study in blacks and muted grays.  Holly found herself entranced by the beauty of his long lashes as they cast shadows on his cheekbones.

“What are you staring at?” he asked her, his voice husky with fatigue.

“You.”

“Oh, yeah?”  His voice sounded slightly lighter.

“Yeah.”

“Tell me what scared you,” he urged in a gentle voice.

She shrugged and he took her hand, giving it a squeeze.  “Me?  Did I scare you?  Do I snore?  Talk in my sleep?  Did I try to take a bite out of your neck?”

Holly gave a nervous chuckle.  “Just what we need.  Another blood sucker in the room,” she muttered. 

Zack gave her a perplexed glance.  “What?”

“Each and every one of those mosquitoes humming around us is a tiny blood sucker,” she pointed out, slapping her hands in a futile effort to keep them at bay.  “Stupid broken screens.” 

“Try not to think about the mosquitoes,” he urged, sending shivers up her arm when his thumb began working slow circles on her palm.