Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Honeymoon Part 1

I almost forgot to post something for Saturday! I know it's like 2 in the morning, but I still call this one a win. I don't have time to finish the D&D character now, so if I need to I'll deal with that another time.

In the meantime this is a story I came up with in a dream. Really. Start to finish, it played out in my head like a movie. I had to do a lot of filling in the gaps, but for the most part it was fully formed in my head before I ever wrote anything. This is incomplete, but it has all the main stuff, and I do plan to come back and do some more. So here it is, part one. Part 2 to come tomorrow.  (Sunday that is.)

 *********

The drive had been long and tiring, but really gorgeous as well. The first week of September was really considered by most to be the beginning of Autumn, even though it wasn't officially. But even on Labor Day it still felt more like Summer.

There were a lot of cars going in the other direction too. Labor Day marked the end of the holiday weekend, and the end of the season for the Kotumpka Bed and Breakfast. Jack and Dani Simmons had thought themselves pretty clever for booking their honeymoon/vacation for the week following Labor Day, and the Walters', the old couple who ran the B&B were happy to keep the place open for a few more days, provided they could agree on the menu in advance, so they wouldn't have to keep the cook on, and that they wouldn't have to keep a housekeeper on staff. Jack and Dani had agreed to clean up after themselves in their room.

It looked perfect. There was only one road in or out of the little place, apparently an aborted railroad tunnel. There was no cell service, but rooms had internet access. No TV service, but TVs with DVD players, and a radio in each room.

They pulled their car up to the main lodge, and got out looking around.

"Look look look!" said Dani excitedly, pointing.

Jack looked where her finger led, and saw two deer who had paused to look at them, about thirty feet away through the sparse trees. He smiled, and looked at Dani's enraptured face.

"Aww," she said, in a high cutesy voice. Jack smirked. "They're so cuuute," she cooed. She started fumbling for her cell phone.

"What are you doing?" said Jack. "There's no service here."

"I want to get a picture," she told him, fiddling with the phone. She held it up at arms length, at about eye level and tapped the screen. Half a second later the phone made a familiar double beep, and shutter noise, and the flash went off. The startled deer, turned and bolted gracefully through the trees. Dani made a disappointed noise, which made Jack laugh.

They checked in at the front desk where Mrs. Walters exclaimed how cute they were, then they were shown to their room.

It was a corner of the building, with it's own exit, in the form of a heavy glass door. They unpacked, and checked out all the features of the room, then fell delightedly into bed together, naked.

A bit later when they were both hungry they decided to get dressed and head over to the dining room. They were surprised to discover that they weren't the only couple there. The man was charming and seemed very confident, the woman was very attractive, but didn't seem very intelligent. When they asked Mrs Walters about it she said that someone else had asked about coming in on Labor Day, and since they were going to be open for the Simmons's anyway, they figured there was no reason they couldn't be open to anyone else.

"Maybe," said Mrs Walters, "this will become a regular thing with couples, wanting to avoid the press, have a more relaxed vacation. It could become huge!"

During the salad, which Mrs Walters brought out to both tables at the same time, the other man who had been glancing over at the Simmons, got up and went over to them, and said, "Listen, I don't mean to bother you, but my wife and I were talking, and... it seems a little weird to be the only ones in here, and sitting separately. We were thinking that maybe Mrs Walters would have an easier time if we were all just sitting together."

Jack was usually nervous in social situation, which Dani had been trying to help him get over. He looked a little unsettled, but she nodded encouragingly at him, and he agreed.

A couple hours later  they were laughing like old friends and drinking together as the Simmons told the ridiculous story of how they met, which involved the differences between real rock climbing and climbing a rock wall.

[In this scene you get the impression that the man Terry, is charming, intelligent, and confident, but somehow a little off. Bridget on the other hand is amazingly attractive, but a little vapid, but well meaning. However you can't help but notice the difference in their relative intelligence (B v D), and Terry in particular seems quite intrigued by Dani's intelligence, as if noticing Bridget’s lack of intelligence for the first time, even though they just got married.]

After a bit the Simmons excused themselves, implying in rather explicit terms that they intended to go back to their room and make much love. In passing they mentioned their plans for the following day, Jack intending to go fishing on the lake, noted for being at the top of a waterfall, while Dani wanted to go hiking through mountain woods. Terry, suggested that he might be interested to join Jack, (who seems a little reluctant) and that Bridget (who also seemed reluctant) could join Dani, who seemed eager to have another girl to talk to.

The following day Jack woke up early hoping to get out on the lake early, and - though he never said so - avoid Terry. However Terry was waiting outside, getting his tackle box ready. They went out on the lake in a little rowboat. The lake was stocked with various types of compatible fish, and was a stopping point for trout from further up the river that fed into the lake.

Terry asked many questions about Jack and Dani's relationship, Terry noted that he could hear them all the way from his room, which made Jack a little uncomfortable.

However in a small fit of manly pride he said, "Well she is kind of a wildcat in bed... I could tell you some stories, but well, it wouldn't be polite to go spreading tales about a lady."

They laughed, but Terry seemed jealous, and confessed that Bridget, though very well built, was rather unimaginative in bed. "I think now, looking back, that she never had to work at it. Men just flocked to be with her because of how she looked. She wasn't as interested in the sex, as she just wanted the attention, so she never really developed a technique, didn't ever have to work at being considered sexy." He went on to say that women like Dani were considered sexy because they had to work harder to be considered so.

Jack, who had always considered his wife to be gorgeous, took issue with this. "You make it sound like my wife is some kind of un-confident attention seeker who needs to turn herself into come kind of slut in order to get attention."

Terry considered this for a moment. "Are you saying that's not the case?"

"Yes!" said Jack in disbelief. "My wife intentionally held back from having sex with me for nearly a month when we first started going out. We'd just eat, she's always been a terrific cook, and hang out, watch movies, but... I guess there was always this... Anticipation I guess... then one day just before she was going to leave to visit some family over Fourth of July weekend..." He floundered for a second.

Terry just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

Jack started to smile, then laughed. "Okay, so maybe she lured me in with food, and the anticipation of sex, but honestly? That just made her seem MORE confident. Like she was worth the wait. And not a slut either, because she didn't sleep around. And she didn't come off as desperate, otherwise I imagine she wouldn't have waited. She just wanted to be sure there would be something more than just the sex." Terry was nodding along distractedly, when suddenly there was a bite on his line.

They reeled in the trout, and laughed and celebrated a moment. Jack mentioned that he was planning on doing catch and release, as they wouldn't want to take the time or effort to clean them.

Terry said nothing, but just stared at the fish, holding it up, as it struggled, and gaped for water. His eyes looked intent, and focused, and his hands seemed to tighten around the fish, very slowly, whispering under his breath, "You belong to me."

"Hey." Jack nudged him in the back, breaking whatever spell had snared him. "Are you going to toss him back, or skin him and eat him?"

"Her," said Terry. He held the fish vertically, where tiny clear eggs were coming out.

Jack smiled. "Oh yeah. Well then you have to throw her back so they can re-stock the lake. It is spawning season after all, and I'm pretty sure this is a spawning pool."

Terry nodded, and lowered the fish into the water, but paused at the last minute. The fish wriggled in his grasp, and he started to squeeze, but then he blinked a few times, as if coming out of a haze, and lowered the fish back into the water, and let it go.

Dani and Bridget hiked through the woods along a trail. Dani was entranced by the wildlife, laughing and pointing out a woodpecker. Bridget seemed a little nervous though. When Dani asked her about this, and what she was worried about, Bridget told her.

"Bears?" Dani laughed. "Sweetie, I asked Mister Walters about that before we came here. There are no bears. They were all hunted out about a hundred years ago."

"I don't know, Terry warned me to be careful of bears, and mountain lions," she shook her head and looked around.

Dani was perplexed by her behavior, but more that Terry would have made her so scared. Dani had been a little worried about wild animals, so she had made the effort to call Mr Walters ahead of time and check with him, even though Jack though it was silly. Maybe Terry was just more cautious about this kind of thing, but the idea that he hadn't checked seemed a little odd.

"Bridget, sweetie, it's okay. I made a special call to Mr Walters just to make sure that there wasn't any danger hiking through the woods here, and he said that he's lived here all his life, and he hasn't seen anything more dangerous than deer since he was like twelve and they had to hunt down a mountain lion." She chuckled. "Unless you count humans that is."

Later that night Jack and Dani were in their room, talking about the days events.

"It was just weird, like he was trying to scare her," Dani was saying.

Jack shook his head bemused. "He didn't seem to concerned while we were out fishing. At least not that he said. Maybe he's just not one to let things get to him."

"Yeah. And dinner tonight was a lot better. With Bridget. It seemed like she really opened up. I'm even thinking about going to one of her interior decorating parties."

Jack snorted. "You mean the one where you get all kinds of home decorations and go redecorate a room in someone's house?" He started to chuckle until she threw a pillow at him. "Hey!" he laughed.

"Don't laugh, she's really proud of her little enterprise, and the decorations sound really pretty."

Jack could tell she was trying not to laugh herself though. "Oh god," he said. "You're not thinking about doing one of the rooms in our house in those god-awful decorations are you?"

"Well," she started, a little defensively. "If I really believed in something like that I would really want to know that it was helping someone. She's nice, and they only live a few hours from us in Boise."

"You did used to do that whole cosmetics thing, so I guess I can't really object," he said a little more kindly.

"You did like me with those false eyelashes on, right? You said it did something for you," she smirked at him as he grunted.

"Yeah," he growled. He crawled across the bed to her and pulled her onto it. She yelped and laughed, then moaned as he kissed her...

Outside in the darkness, unnoticed by either of them, something stirred.

Someone was knocking on the door. Hard. Frantically.

It was morning, and light was filtering through the trees outside, but still one spot of light managed to focus itself right onto Jack's left eyeball. He groaned and tried to roll over to get the light out of his eye, but the pounding resumed on the door. Insistent pounding.

Jack rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of boxer shorts, and stumbled to the door. When he got there and opened the door, Terry stood there looking a little crazed, and scanning over Jacks shoulder into the room beyond.

Jack tried a couple times to speak but seemed to be having issues. He tried clearing his throat, a few times then said, "'Srong Tree?"

"Have you seen Bridget?" Terry looked uncharacteristically upset, and panicky.

Something in Terry's voice got through the sleep-haze of Jacks mind. "She's-" He coughed a couple times and tried again. "She's not with you?"

Terry shook his head. "I think she got up in the middle of the night to take a walk, and she never came back."

"Okay, um..." Jack looked back at Dani a moment, trying to make up his mind. "Okay, I'll help you look for her, just gimme a minute to get dressed." He shut the door on Terry, and started moving around the room looking for his clothes.

Dani stirred, and sat up on her elbow, squinting at Jack tiredly. "What's wrong?" she slurred.

"I'm helping Terry look for Bridget. Apparently she wandered off in the middle of the night." Jack sat on the edge of the bed and started pulling on socks.

Dani gasped. "S'she okay?" she slurred again, obviously concerned, but still tired.

Jack thought about it for a second. "Yeah, probably. She probably just got lost out there somewhere, or she's fallen asleep or something." His brow furrowed, as he pulled on his pants, and shirt. As he slipped on his shoes, he said, "Did you get the impression that there was anything wrong between those two? Like they were having problems or something?"

Dani was sitting up in bed blinking now, and reaching for a tank top to wear, and some pajama pants. She shook her head. "No," she said. "As far as I could tell they seemed good. D'you think she left him, or she's mad at him or something?"

Jack sighed and shrugged, shaking his head, and pulling on his jacket. "I don't know. Something about this situation feels a little... hinky."

Dani nodded in agreement.

Jack reached for the door. "Do me a favor and stay here," he said. "If anything is going on I'd rather know that you're safe."

"Okay. Be careful sweetie."

He smiled and winked at her, and went out the door.

Terry was waiting near the front door of his own cottage when Jack came out. He looked a little shaky and nervous. "I'm kinda freaking out a little here," he said, starting off toward the hiking trail. "I'm starting to regret coming out here, this really isn't her kind of place. I could have chosen Maui, or Santa Barbara, Jamaica, Barbados, Sicily-"

Jack cut off his rambling before he built up a head of steam. "Do you think we ought to wake up Mister Walters about this? I mean he might have some kind of idea where she might go..."

Terry stopped suddenly, causing Jack to halt behind him. His nervousness seemed to evaporate, and he was very still for a moment, but Jack couldn't see his face. Then Terry took a deep slow breath, as if calming himself, then turned back to Jack. "No, I'm just overreacting, I'm sure. There's no need to wake them up, we can find Bridget on our own."

Jack was a little taken aback by the sudden change in Terry’s demeanor, but shook it off. The man's wife was missing. It was bound to make anyone a little unnerved. He nodded at Terry. "If you're sure then. I think if we don't find anything for a while though we might want to consider it."

Terry nodded, a look of gratitude settling on his features, and he turned and started once again down the path.

As they walked Jack picked up several little things, but in his distraction he failed to piece them together. For example he noticed several broken branches on bushes, a dead branch that had fallen in the night cracked in the middle, a large boot print in some deep mud on the side of the trail going in the opposite direction.

After nearly an hour of walking calling out for Bridget, Terry slowed to a stop squinting and looking through the trees. Jack moved up next to him and looked in the same direction. Terry pointed, and Jack saw something bright bubblegum pink, but covered in dirt in a thicket of trees ahead.

Terry looked a little shaken. He gulped. "Could you ah... I don't think I can... um..."

Jack understood. If it had been Dani he wouldn't be able to look either. He clapped Terry on the shoulder, and gave it a squeeze, and headed off through the trees to check out the sighting of pink.

It turned out to be a pink sweatshirt laying on top of a mound of what seemed to be freshly dug earth. Jacks breath caught as he walked closer, and looked over the mound.

Bridget's body, her eyes open and lifeless, her face slack, and a small red hole in her forehead lay on top of a bed of dirt, branches and leaves in the bottom of the hole, stained red by her draining blood.

Jack fought back the urge to vomit as several things passed quickly through his mind. The bootprints, the broken branches... Terry's sudden change in demeanor.

Then he heard the sound of a gun hammer being cocked. He froze, every muscle in his body tensed.

"I'm sorry Jack, but I'm afraid we're going to have to swap wives. I married Bridget for her looks, but when we met you and your wife, I realized that Dani has a bit more... Substance."

The gun went off. Jack's body flinched violently as he felt the bullet impact the top of his head, and he lost his balance, and fell forward as the whole world went very bright, then faded to black.

****

It was about an hour later that Dani heard the frantic thumping on the door. She ran over, and opened it, and gasped as Terry all but fell into the room. "Oh my god!" she nearly screamed through her fingers.

Terry was a wreck, covered in dirt and leaves, his clothes torn and he seemed to be bleeding from several places. He was panting heavily. "Jack... " he gasped.

"Is Jack all right?" Dani was suddenly even more in a panic. If something had happened to Jack she wouldn't know what to do.

But Terry was shaking his head. "No- he... tried to... kill me," Terry rasped. He was struggling to his feet now.

Dani was in shock. Jack try to kill Terry? To kill anyone? It wasn't in his character. They had known each other for a couple years now, and she had never seen anything in him that might suggest that he was capable of murder.

Terry was catching his breath now, and starting to speak a little more normal. "He told me that he'd gotten up in the middle of the night, and seen Bridget and followed her into the woods." He started to become a little emotional here, looking about ready to cry. "He said he- said he-" he collapsed into a chair nearby.

Dani stood there in disbelief for a moment, then sat down on the edge of the bed. She put her hands over her mouth for a moment, and forced herself to calm down. Her heart was racing. Jack couldn't do something like this.

But Terry wasn't done yet. "He said... he told me he was coming to kill you too. That's why he'd brought you out here. Because of all the open woods... lots of places to do it without being heard... tree cover. A lake to dump the body...."

Dani stopped listening at this point, as he continued, and just sat on the bed, her head in her hands, thinking. First of all, Jack wouldn't do anything like this. He felt bad about hitting squirrels on the road, and when a bird had rolled over his windshield, he'd nearly been reduced to tears. And he couldn't have gotten up last night, then come back to bed. Any time he got into or out of bed, it woke her up, and he hadn't moved last night, not even to go to the bathroom. And finally, there was the trip. It had been her idea the whole time, she'd booked it, researched it online, and convinced him to come along after weeks of indecision from him. In the end he'd had to admit that he had no place better in mind, and that settled things.

But all this meant that Terry was lying to her. Trying to get her on his side....

"Where is Jack now?" she interrupted him.

He shrugged. "I only hit him with a branch. I think he might be slowed down, but he seemed pretty disoriented. He was still lying on the ground last time I saw him. He... he had this..." he showed her the gun, held flat in his hands, like he was afraid of it. She gasped. Terry must have shot Jack... she could only hope that somehow that it hadn't been fatal.

She reached forward tentatively for the gun... "Can I..?" she asked, looking at him.

He offered it up to her with apparent relief. She took it, stood up, looking at it, and walked a few steps away. She didn't have much time. If Jack was out there somewhere, bleeding slowly to death, he would need her to find him as soon as possible. She made up her mind. She turned, and pointed the gun at Terry.
****




Ha HAA! Cliffhanger. Now you HAVE to read part two or you'll never see how it ends!

Thanks everyone, comments and suggestions welcome, and thanks for reading!

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