Chapter 5
16 Years Ago
Alan emerged from the pond feeling a bit better. The water always managed to clear his head, no matter how bad his day went at school. It had been a really bad day. After drying odd and putting on his shirt, he sat at the clearing on the edge of the pond staring across the water. The sun was setting and orange and yellow light skipped and danced on the surface of the pond like it was on fire.
Alan's mind drifted, thinking about how much Ms.Jennings' words had twisted in his stomach. His heart hurt so much at the time. She was so beautiful, so goddamn beautiful.
She had rejected his inadequate gifts, along with dismissing his puerile feelings, but accepted another's. The thought of it made him feel sick.
He continued to stare across the hypnotic pond. As the sunlight faded, and the world around him darkened, he shovelled his emotions deeper and deeper into his mind, locking them away.
Yet the image of Ms.Jennings still haunted him.
He didn't know how much longer he had sat there in the dark. He only lifted his head when he heard a pair of soft voices beyond the bushes. Somebody was at the Hobo Hut again. He came to his pond often enough that, once in awhile, he would hear voices by the old shack. He never cared to know what they were up to, though.
Then Alan heard a woman giggle. He frowned, thought about it, then stood.
Silently, he made his way in the dark, through the thick bushes towards the voices. He felt like he was being pulled towards them.
As he approached the old shack, he moved carefully and listened intently. He heard the female voice again and his heart raced. He firmed his jaw, concentrated hard, steadying his breaths and his heartbeats, preparing himself as he moved forward.
He crouched low beneath the uncovered window of the shack, the glow from a lantern shining through the opening. Again he listened.
He heard urgent breaths and gasps. "Ahh," a woman sighed longingly. It was a gentle, sweet voice.
His blue eyes were fixed and cold as he rose up slowly and peered into the shack.
There were two people on a blanket on the floor, a man and a woman, their bodies aglow from the light of a single lantern. Alan dismissed the man, his shirt off and his pants at his ankles, almost immediately. Instead, he set his unmoving stare on the woman underneath him.
Her pretty dress was bunched up along her waist, pulled down off her shoulders and arms revealing her supple, quivering breasts, and lifted high over her milky thighs. Her pristine white bra and panties were crumpled on the dirty floor. Her long, wavy, soft caramel hair was tossed as she whipped her head back with each rough thrust of the man between her legs.
"Ahn," she gasped sharply.
Alan trained his eyes onto the glittering object that dangled and bounced around her pretty white neck: a silver locket-pendant.
"Ah! Ah! Oh god," Ms.Jennings groaned desperately.
The man bucked harder into her, straining out satisfied groans of his own. Ms.Jennings' beautiful body, her beautiful voice, her beautiful face implored him for more and more. He obliged, shaking the old shack rigorously.
Alan slumped down against the side of the shack. He breathed deeply through his nose as the illicit cries continued to saturate the air around him but he refused to let them into his head. He bit down on his lower lip, stifling a tortured whimper as he looked up to the sky, his hand feeling around blindly on the ground beside him. It touched something long, hard, and cold. He grabbed at it, pulled it onto his lap. It had a good solid weight to it. Still looking towards the darkened skies, Alan gripped the coarse length of pipe tightly in his white-knuckled hands and waited for the moans and gasps to end.
*********
Teri stood outside of the shack, "Hobo Hut", examining it closely. It didn't look like a place where people could have been viciously murdered by some crazed transient. In fact, it wasn't nearly as ramshackle as she thought it would be.
Alan walked up beside her holding the flashlight. He stood quietly, letting her continue with her observations.
"For some reason, I thought it would be more run down, spooky," she said in a hushed voice. It seemed almost as if somebody had been fixing it up.
Alan switched off the flashlight. For a minute, the shack seemed to disappear, but as her eyes adjusted to the moonlight above, it revealed itself to her once again. She looked at Alan, a soft blue, moonlit glow on his stoic face.
"You want to look inside?" he asked.
Teri, her eyes set on him, nodded.
Alan opened the door and followed her as she walked in. Teri stepped slowly inside the dark little room. The floor creaked a bit but it still felt solid underfoot. The smell of fresh wood filtered gently through her nose. Again, it wasn't what she had been expecting.
Alan stood behind her, his head tilted slightly as he watched her. He could barely see the outline of her body moving around in the dark. He knelt down and reached for something beside the door.
Teri blinked and turned around as a yellow-orange glow suddenly filled the room. She saw Alan stand up holding a large kerosene lantern.
"Oh!" she gasped and squinted through the sudden brightness. When her eyes readjusted she looked around again.
Now she was really surprised. She had been expecting dirt and clutter around the old shack. What the glow from the lantern revealed was a clean swept room. Wood walls that should have been faded or decaying, were capably re-enforced with fresh wood panelling, with two clean, unbroken windows on the sides. It was like a tiny cottage.
Teri felt her breathing intensify as she glanced around with a roll of her eyes, noting that the room was empty except for several heavy blankets folded on top of a long cushion in the back of the shack.
"You...you did this, didn't you Alan?" she asked watching her shadow on the floor stretch up the back wall, "Fixed this place up?"
Alan set down the lantern, took a couple of steps forward, and stood behind Teri. His shadow enveloped hers.
She could feel him behind her, his warmth, his smell, heard his steady breath. She hesitated for a moment then turned around to face him. As she looked up at him, she noticed his eyes sweeping around the room first, like he was making sure everything was in place, before looking back at her.
She had wondered how much planning the man had done. And now with the realization sinking in, she wondered how far he had intended to take those plans.
Just then his lips stretched to an impossibly subtle smile. It was an expression she had never seen before from him but she was able to read it oh so clearly.
Teri could feel the trepidation swell within her, but as she settled her gaze on his determined blue eyes, she couldn't deny the attraction she felt for this man.
"I have something for you, Teri," he said with a soft voice.
His eyes always on her, Alan reached into his pants pocket, pulling out a small chain and held it in front of her. Teri reached up and steadied the little object dangling at the end of it. It was a silver pendant-locket engraved with the initials "T" and "Y".
"Alan," she gasped as she looked at it, her small black eyes suddenly widening, "I..."
Her voice trailed off, unable to chose the proper words to say.
Without a word, he unclasped the chain. Teri bowed her head slightly as he reached behind her neck and put the necklace on. Her head remained tilted down as she looked at the pendant.
Alan stepped back slightly and admired the demure woman as she stood quietly in the little shack. Teri was already beautiful. Now, with the pendant around her neck and the soft glow of the lantern cascading a gentle light upon her, she was perfect.