Summer of the Lake House

Summer of the Lake House



A/N: I wanna thank the people who reviewed, though there aren’t very many it’s still nice to hear, and it’s very encouraging to know people like my writing. Especially when you pick out those specific little things that you like in the story, let’s me know I’m on the right track. ^_^
Having said that I have to say I wasn’t happy with this chapter. I liked the ending because finally the fantasy is beginning but I had to get past all the ‘prologue’ bits first and some of it felt a bit lacking. Sorry it took so long but I hate skipping over everything just to get to the action, characters are hard to write about and boring to read when all they do is fight and run around from place to place.
Anywho, enjoy.

Chapter 3: When the storm hits you’d better be ready to run…

When I finally got up the stairs to the bathroom I was relieved to find the bath filling with water, towels, the first aid kit, and two clean pairs of clothes laid out on the vanity. The others were nowhere in sight though and I snorted in disgust. Of course they would leave me all alone to take care of the kid, just because it was my idea didn’t mean they didn’t have responsibilities. If I hadn’t been carrying Amenci I would have dragged their lazy asses over here to help me out, but I didn’t want to leave the boy alone and had to let it go.

“I’m going to put you down and I don’t want you to try to escape, alright.” I don’t know why I said it; he didn’t look in any condition to move anywhere but I felt like I had to keep reminding him. Paranoid much?

I set him down and checked the water temperature. It was pretty good and I sat on the edge of the tub to wait, every now and then sneaking glances at the boy who had lain down on the floor rug and seemed to be falling asleep. I didn’t try to keep him from falling asleep but took the opportunity to study him. He was definitely strange looking and it was no wonder we had mistaken him for a girl, he was prettier than half of the females at my school. It creeped me out, this weird androgynous creature that was curled up on the floor. He was clearly male, girls just didn’t have dicks, but something about him made me wonder if he really was a guy. Maybe it was his small, graceful limbs, or the slight swell of his hips, or maybe the pretty curve of his face….

I jumped and let out a small noise as the large brown eye’s opened and shook me out of my wondering. I grimaced at what I had just been doing. I had just checked out a guy, a naked guy! I shuddered and turned my head away. It was less than ten seconds before I cautiously sneaked a peek at the boy who was studying me sleepily. Our eye’s locked and I felt something in my stomach clench. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from those deer-like eye’s that seemed almost unnaturally large for his small face. It was strange but the more I stared at him the more I wondered if he really was Mexican. He sure looked it, caramel brown skin; shiny black hair that would have fallen into his large brown eye’s if it hadn’t been plastered to his sweaty forehead. But there was something, something I couldn’t put my finger on, maybe the strange tilt of his eye’s, or the overly long, arms and legs. I shook my head before I started checking him out again but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something slightly off about this boy.

A moment later I turned off the water and reached down to pick the boy up. He clung to me but didn’t protest or flinch as I gently lowered him into the water but he did hiss in pain as the hot water touched the many cuts and welts on his body.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, helping him to keep steady in the slippery tub. I grabbed the small wash cloth beside the tub and soaked it in the water before going to work on gently working off the dried blood on his body. Amenci sat still as I ran the cloth over his thin back that had taken the worst damage in cuts and bruises. As the blood began clearing away I was happy to find that the damage wasn’t as bad as I thought, the blood had made it look a lot worse but the cuts were mostly small and already scabbed over, a few were large and ragged but they to were already completely scabbed over. I frown at that, some of those cuts and scratches were pretty big but they were already closed after only half a night. That was odd.

I didn’t think much of it and continued running the cloth over his side. The water was soon red with both dried and fresh blood but the boy didn’t seem to notice. Frankly his silence was sort of unnerving me but I didn’t know what to do to relieve the silence.

When I was done with his back I turned his so I could get the front. His chest, like the rest of him, was small and slim and had greenish/yellow bruises all over it. They, like the cuts, looked half healed after only a few hours. That was just too weird and I couldn’t contain myself anymore. “You heal really fast, these bruises are almost gone.” I reached out to touch them.

Amenci raised his head, licking his lips nervously. “I-it’s nothing. I’ve always been a fast healer…it runs in the family, I guess.”

I raised an eyebrow at him and as my attention was averted I felt something brush my knuckles. I jumped and looked down, letting out a small, embarrassed sigh. Damn it! I was so jumpy. And it was only a necklace, a locket actually. Looked like real gold to. I guess the boy wasn’t as poor as I had first thought. Or maybe he had stolen it. A locket was a strange thing for a boy to have and I bet I was right.

“Nice necklace,” I commented softly, looking up at him.

He grabbed onto it and clutched it tightly as if he was afraid I would take it away. “T-thanks, it was my moms.”

“Oh? Where’s she at?” I asked, surprised to find myself actually wanting to know more about the boy. He really was a mystery and I could never pass up a good mystery. Any number of stories passed though my head about who he really was, from being an illegal immigrant to him being the son of some big business tycoon. None of these were probably true but I always did have an overactive imagination.

“She’s dead,” he responded casually.

Oh!” That threw me and for a moment I didn’t know what to say. “Um, sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” We both went silent and I finished cleaning him in silence until there was only one last spot to do, I had been avoiding doing it as if somehow it would magically fix itself. No such luck.

Cautiously I slipped the cloth below the waterline and brushed the base of the boy’s spine. He jumped and gave a small gasp, immediately shelling up again and hunching over protectively. His lips were pressed together tightly and his hands jammed between his legs. The change was so instant I realized just how much he had loosened up after hearing we weren’t going to hurt him but that one little movement from me had undone all of that. I felt bad again. It’s not like I was there to fix his mental problems, I just wanted all evidence of what we did gone so we could get rid of him but something in me wanted to make sure he was alright. We had probably scarred him for life.

“It alright, I’m not going to hurt you anymore. I just have to make sure you’re not going to get an infection.” I winced. Could I sound anymore like my mom? “Just turn around and…um, I guess count backwards from…twenty.” Ok, that was lame, I know, but what are you gonna do?

He looked up suspiciously. “I can do it, you don’t have to.”

Even better. I let out a relieved sigh and handed him the cloth, practically shoving it into his hands and turned my back. I was confident he wouldn’t try to kill me ask my back was turned; he seemed way too timid and beaten for such a bold move. The only noise I could hear from behind me was the soft movement of water and the occasional gasp of pain. I tried to block out the sounds but it’s almost impossible in a quiet bathroom when you’re only two feet apart, all I could do was wait and try to ignore it.

A short while later, though it felt like hours, Amenci finally spoke. “Um, I’m done now.”

I turned around. He was sitting where I left him, looking so sad and worried in the now murky red water, staring at the blood stained cloth in his hand. I couldn’t blame him for looking worried, there was more blood in that tub than I thought was possible for any person to loose and still be conscious.

“Oh man,” I murmured, taking the cloth out of his hands with my fingertips and setting it on the side of the tub. I reached my hand into the bloody waters and pulled the plug out of the tub and turned on the little handheld showerhead. As the red water left the tub I slowly washed the clinging droplets from the boy’s skin and gently cleaned out his hair. When all traces of red were gone I turned off the water, leaving Amenci shivering in the empty tub as I grabbed one of the fluffy white towels. All this was done in complete silence but this time it wasn’t uncomfortable, it wasn’t pleasant by far but at least it wasn’t suffocating.

I helped the boy stand and wrapped the towel around him as he stepped out of the tub and began drying him off. I know I didn’t have to do that but a part of me kind of wanted to. He stood, leaning heavily against me, as I ran the towel methodically over his tiny, shivering body and wet hair.

“I really am sorry.” I whispered finally, wrapping the towel around him and moving off to grab the first aid kit. “I was just drunk and stupid, we all were. But we’re not really like that, I’ve never hurt anyone before now...well, except maybe in football. I just…I want you to know that I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” I turned around, first aid kit in hand.

Amenci looked up at me and nodded slowly.

I sighed and opened the box, fishing around for the antiseptic bottle. “I’m not asking you to forgive me but I don’t want you to be scared that I’m going to do that again. You understand?”

He blinked, wide eyed, up at me. “I know…I think.”

I felt the corner of my mouth tug up as I looked at the boy. “Has anyone ever told you that you look like a deer?”

His eye’s widened dramatically. At first I thought I had said something wrong and was ready to go into some serious damage control but before I could say anything I saw his mouth twitch. Before I knew it he was smiling, not widely, but at least it was happy. “Yes,” he said slowly, “lots of people have told me that.”

I smiled back at him and pulled out the antiseptic bottle and a q-tip. It didn’t take long to cover all his cut’s, they were all scabbed over but better safe than sorry, right? I once again let him deal with the wounds on the inside. That took a lot out of him and by the end he was once again in tears. I quickly got him dressed in the clothes the guys had left out, which were way too baggy on the kid’s skinny frame, dressed myself, and carried him out of the bathroom. I brought him to the bedroom that was as far away from the room we had raped him in as I could find. I decided it would have been beyond cruel to put him back in there, even with clean sheets. I made sure he was tucked in and sleeping before I left.

Now, to find my so-called friends.

It didn’t take long to find them, the freaking cowards who had left me to deal with everything. They were in the second living room on the first floor, talking softy until I came in. They all looked at me with identical expressions, half expectation, half guilt. Sure, they could feel guilty about it but did even one of these assholes bother to help me out or even tell Amenci they were sorry, I think not.

I sat down next to Tyler, glaring at them all. We sat for a while in silence with only a strange roaring sound coming from outside that I resolutely ignored. “Thanks for all the help,” I muttered sarcastically. “Really, you guy’s are the best.”

They all had the good grace to look embarrassed and you could cut the tension with a knife. I knew they were all dying to know what had happened but I’d be damned if I was going to volunteer information, if they wanted know they were going to have to beg. Well, maybe not beg, but they’d have to at least ask nicely.

“Is he okay,” asked Tyler softly.

I looked over at him. God, he looked worried, I really couldn’t blame him but Tyler was just such a bleeding heart. It was probably eating him up. “He’s fine, or as fine as he can be I guess. He’s sleeping now.”

Darren’s head popped up from where he had been staring at the floor. “You just left him alone? What if he tries to run?” He sounded uncaring but I had been friends with him long enough to know when it was all a mask. He was tired and scared and just as worried as the rest of us. Strangely, it made me respect him more to know he had a heart.

“Yeah,” said Jamie, “maybe we should buy some handcuffs or something.”

I glared at him. Unlike Darren, Jamie’s heart was next to non-existent. “Will you get off it? He’s not going anywhere; he can barely stand let alone walk the thirty miles to town. If you’re so fucking worried about it why don’t you go up there and stand guard, make yourself useful for once in you’re sorry life.”

Green eye’s flashed but Dominick held him back before he could attack me or say anything. “This isn’t the time, Jamie.”

The little shit scowled and crossed his arms over his chest, sinking back into the sofa. “Look,” I muttered, “we’re trying to make him better not worse. Handcuffing him isn’t going to help.” Nobody said anything; they were too wrapped up in their thoughts and were looking more and more depressed by the second. It was stifling. And to think, this was only the beginning, we had months left before we could leave and at this rate it looked like we were all going to get cabin fever and kill each other. I had to do something to lighten the mood

“Hey,” I said lightly, maybe a little TOO lightly, it sounded fake, even to my ears, “why don’t we go swimming or something?”

Darren snorted softly, leaning back and crossing his arms. “Not likely.” He muttered softly. “There’s a freak storm outside. It’s unreal”

“What?” I asked, surprised. We had been out there only about an hour ago; it was a perfect summer morning, sun shining, birds chirping, the works. The guys didn’t look like they were joking; in fact, they looked more serious than I had ever seen them before.

I got up and went to the window. When I opened the curtains I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I wondered how I hadn’t noticed it before. The surprise made me stumble back a step. I stared, open mouthed.

The sky was black, and not a calm nighttime black but a cloudy, stormy, violent black. It was probably the worst storm I had seen. The rain was lashing furiously at the ground, tearing the soft earth apart like it was made of sugar. Thankfully the window was protected by the overhanging balcony otherwise it would have broken from the force of the furious torrent. The wind was roaring, dulled by the walls but still insane in its volume. It sounded like a hurricane, a tornado, a maelstrom. I could see the trees around the lake house bending dangerously every time a flash of lightning arced through the sky and I was truly afraid.

I closed the curtains as fast as I could. What you can’t see can’t hurt you, right?

I looked at the guys. They were all tense and worried, not that I could blame them, I was freaking out myself. “W-what the hell was that? I was JUST outside, there’s no way we could have missed that coming.”

“It started about fifteen minutes ago,” Tyler whispered weakly, “but that’s not even the weird part.” He stood up and motioned me to follow him.

I looked back to the others but they offered no help. I swallowed and followed Tyler, wondering what could be stranger than that freak storm. I don’t know if it was a hurricane or a tornado or what but I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of it.

Tyler led me up to the second floor and across the living room to where the balcony door was. I couldn’t see what was outside because of the curtains, and to be honest I didn’t know if I wanted to.

“Go, check it out,” Tyler urged me, pushing me lightly towards the balcony.

I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself by acting scared so I walked steadily up to the curtains and pulled them back all at once. The storm hit me again like a blast and I felt my stomach quiver. Did I mention I hate storms? That’s probably the reason it took me so long to notice what Tyler wanted me to see but when I did it gave me one hell of a pause.

It took me awhile to see it. It was hard to notice anything but the lashing rain and lighting. I squinted, trying to get a better look when I saw it. Off in the distance, not even a mile away was…blue skies. Pure, cloudless, blue summer skies that cut off abruptly in a straight line, giving way to the black storm clouds that were hovering over the lake house. There was no midway between them, no scattering of clouds over the blue sky, no rain or lightning it just ENDED. I looked further out and saw something even stranger. The line dividing the black and blue skies curved around and out of my sight in an arc. I ran to the opposite side of the house, to the kitchen window, and peered outside. The divide was there, on the other side of the house and on that side it to curved out of sight on both sides.

“T-that’s impossible.” I whispered. Now I’m no meteorologist, but even I know that having a storm cut off in a perfect, unbroken circle and confined to one area, specifically the place I was staying at, was impossible. Freaking impossible, that’s what it was. “Impossible.”

“Yeah,” Tyler said, a lot calmer than I would have given him credit for, “That’s what we all said. We were going to come get you but…” he shrugged. “It hasn’t moved in the entire fifteen minutes. You should have seen when it started, the clouds formed out of nowhere. Like it was in fast forward.”

He sounded WAY to calm. Like the kind of calm you hear before someone pulls out a chainsaw and tries to hack you to bits.

“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” I asked, desperately, “We could make a run for the truck.”

Tyler shook his head. “Darren tried that. Lightning hit the truck before he could even step outside, the car to.”

I stared at him in disbelief. He stared back at me and slowly the calm demeanor melted away. His entire personality seemed to change before my eyes as worry filled his eyes and the pale face scrunched up in obvious distress. He tugged at the end off his shirt in an oddly childish gesture.

“Dion,” He whispered, “I didn’t want to say this in front of the guy’s but I’m kind of scared. I-I think someone is causing this.”

“Someone?” I gave him a ‘you’re crazy’ look. “You think someone conjured up this storm? Who in the hell would conjure up a storm over this place, Harry freaking Potter? Come on, Ty, it’s weird, I’ll give you that, but it’s not magic.”

My words sounded confident but to be honest the thought had crossed my mind as well. But only for a second. I don’t believe in magic and all that other crap.

Tyler didn’t look convinced. “Dion, is THAT normal,” he pointed to the storm.

“No. But there’s probably an explanation for it.”

“Yeah, somebody’s pissed off at us! Who do you think has a really good reason to be angry with us, Dion?”

“Oh, come on. You expect me to believe that that kid caused all this? I was with him the whole time, I’m sure I would have noticed him chanting up a storm.” It was true, the whole time he had been too tired and hurt to stand by himself, somehow I doubt he could have done all that in his condition and without me noticing. “I know you’re into that whole Dungeon and Dragons crap but you can’t be serious.”

Scowling he snapped, “Don’t make fun of me! How much do we know about that kid? Nothing! Where did he come from, where are his parents, why was he walking on the highway all alone at night? And…when you guy’s were about to… to shoot him, I was watching.”

“What!?” I yelped in surprise.

“Listen! I was watching him…he doesn’t look normal.” He took a deep breath and continued on a little more calmly. “It’s like watching someone through a reflection in the water, you can see it, sometimes it fades out for a split second but then it’s back but you can still see what’s underneath when it happens. I mean, he looks normal enough to pass…but…it’s like he’s only pretending.”

I looked at him strangely. He sounded crazy, REALLY crazy this time, and I was a little worried. “Pretending what?” I asked cautiously.

Tyler looked me straight in the eye. “To be human,” he said softly, “I think he’s pretending to be human.”

A/N: ARGH!!! A cliffhanger, I know, but I think 6 pages are enough for one chapter, don’t you?