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Chapter Three
"Would you get me a refill?" Anna asked Geordy as they stepped off the dock onto the beach, pushing her cup in his hand, "I need to use the Ladies'.”
They had rented a port-a-potty for the night in order to keep the party out of her house. It was set up a ways down the beach and she made her way toward it greeting people as she went. Once inside she locked the door and lined the seat sitting heavily. She didn't need to use it, she just needed to clear her head.
The shadow men. She had first seen them shortly after her sixteenth birthday. If they hadn't appeared until after her mom's death she might have attributed it to a trauma induced hallucination, but that wasn't the case. Her first sighting had been at a train station about a month or so before her mother’s accident. There had been two of them, and at first she’d thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. When they were still there after some vigorous rubbing she’d sat staring at them numbly as a chill made its way up her spine.
In both cases they had seemed to be tracking someone. They had no real definite shape, just fluid blackness like a person’s distorted shadow. One had passed so close to her that she could feel its presence, an evil malice filled thing that made her mouth go dry and her skin crawl. She couldn't tell if it knew she was staring since there weren't any features, but the person it was following had seemed terribly agitated. He’d turned to her and said, "What are you looking at?" in such a way it had made her shrink into the bench mumbling "sorry" and "nothing."
Then more had appeared until she thought she might run screaming from the building, at which point she’d mentally shouted “NO MORE, MAKE IT STOP!”, and shut her eyes. That time when she’d re-opened them, they were gone. From then on it was always like that. Any time she spotted them she would squeeze her eyes shut and will them away.
She hadn't told a single soul about them. She'd considered it time after time, telling her dad, telling the girls or Austin, but when she played out the conversation in her head....yeah, she sounded nuts. So she'd half convinced herself they were figments of her over-active imagination. She had never seen them in a group of teens before now, and them being HERE, on her beach was not a good sign. Not a good sign at all. The shadow men, demons her mind supplied as it always did, and she shut the thought down as she always did, are growing in numbers, she thought grimly. And they were.
In the beginning she had only ever seen them when she'd been in or near a city. Recently she'd seen them in her town. And now they were on her freaking beach, THE BASTARDS!
Oh how she wished she had told her mother about them. She might have been able to make sense of it since she’d believed wholeheartedly in the supernatural. She wouldn't have thought her daughter was crazy. In fact it was the notion that her mom would have not only believed her but even had an explanation for it that kept her from feeling crazy, especially after the airport incident six months earlier.
She had been waiting for her dad to fly in from Tibet and had wandered into the airport bar when she saw him. A guy (HOLY GOD, HIS EYES ARE BLACK) wearing a professional suit and a charming smile, flirting with the bartender. And his eyes were all black, even where the whites should have been. She had turned away from him after the initial shock, praying he hadn’t noticed her, and then someone had touched her shoulder and she’d nearly screamed.
Her dad had turned her around to face him and she’d hugged him tightly, mumbling how much she'd missed him into his coat sleeve. After a minute or so she’d gained courage from his presence and looked at the guy again. Brown eyes, normal, nothing strange about him. And then she had looked away and thought, "I want to see it" and just like an on and off switch they were black again. She had quickly turned it “off” and pulled her dad away.
She knew that what she had witnessed that day was a shadow man possession. What she didn't know was why. Why did she see these things? What was the point, what could she possibly do besides scare herself?
Well at least I would not be suckered into flirting with him like that bartender, she thought with a sigh. She had watched the news for days afterwards, convinced the woman's face would be on it with the headline "Serial Killer On The Loose." But it hadn’t happened and she’d pushed it to the back of her mind.
Someone knocked and she realized she'd been in there awhile. She stood and pushed open the door-Geordy, crap.
"Okay seriously, what's wrong Anna, are you getting sick?"
She took the drink from him and shook her head. "I told you I just got a little dizzy, really it's nothing to worry about, I probably just need to eat something."
He followed her back to the food table, and she started getting irritated. She liked him but he was definitely interested in her a great deal more than she was him, and they didn’t have the kind of friendship to impart confidences, particularly of this nature. She scanned the people for her friends, trying to find a tactful way to ditch him.
Austin came striding over. "'Sup Geordy."
"Hey man."
Anna looked from one to the other, mentally rolling her eyes at their silent pissing contest.
"Something's wrong with Anna," Geordy stated.
She shot Geordy a dirty look.
Austin's brows arched. "What do you mean?"
"She got all pale on the boat ride, looked like she'd seen a ghost, fo’ real, then she just spent like ten minutes in the john."
Austin was looking closely at her now and she grabbed his arm pulling him away from Geordy. She leaned up and whispered, "I'll tell you about it later-can you help me ditch him, but nicely?" She knew the request would distract him and it worked like a charm. His chest even seemed to puff out with the “I'm the Winner” thing that guys did.
"Look man," he told Geordy, "she doesn't wanna talk about it. Don't worry, she's in good hands."
A hurt look flashed across Geordy’s face.
"I said nicely," she whispered fiercely. She stepped away from Austin and gave Geordy a quick hug. "I appreciate your concern, but really I'm okay. Don't feel bad, I just don't want to talk about it, I’d rather party like it's 1999," she grinned reassuringly.
"That's cool. Do you wanna be my pong partner?" he asked hopefully.
Austin stepped in between them, "She already has a partner," he stated and steered her away. He looked a little pissed, probably because of the hug, but that was his fault.
"Where are you leading me?"
"Away from him like you asked, remember?"
"Oh yes, I remember the word nicely too."
"So? The guy's hot for you, do you really want him puppy dogging you all night?"
She shook her head, "No, but I don't want to make him feel bad either."
"Whatever."
"Okay, so now you're mad at me for not wanting to stomp on his poor little heart."
"I'm not mad, Christ."
"Ohhhh yeah, because you usually swear at me when you're not mad."
"Anna....hey look, it's your girls." They stopped in front of Marina and Jenna. "I'll find you when it's our turn for pong, okay?"
She looked up at him questioningly. He bent down and kissed her forehead, an ‘everything is cool’ gesture, then saluted the girls and took off in the direction of the horseballs game. She followed his progress thinking....thinking what?
"He really is good-looking, isn't he." It wasn’t a question, and the surprised looks on the faces of her friends told her she'd spoken aloud.
"Whoa, are you actually considering...."Jenna started.
"You and Austin?" Marina cut in.
She shook her head to clear it. "I don't know. Maybe. I don't know, bleh."
Jenna giggled and started to say something but was interrupted by Jess calling Anna’s name. They turned and saw her standing near the dock waving at them frantically.
“What’s got her all excited?” Marina laughed.
Jenna and Anna shook their heads in unison and the three of them hurried across the beach to find out.
"Guess what?" Jess whispered excitedly when they reached her. "You are NOT going to believe what I just heard!"
"Out with it!" Anna laughed.
She leaned in, her eyes widening dramatically. "Leo is going to ask you on a date!"
Anna blinked. "What, wait, Leo?"
"Yeah, as in Luscious lips Leo, as in Holy Crap he is so freaking hot Leo!"
Leo Giovanni had graduated the year before her and to this day was the most gorgeous guy to ever grace the Halls of Sentinel High. She hadn't even noticed he was here but now that she did, damn. Hot, definitely hot.
"Who told you this?" She asked suspiciously.
"Carrie Wesler, she said she overheard him talking to Bob Billings and he was saying you had the most beautiful eyes he's ever seen, and he's been all over the country, and that he didn't know you well, but you seemed like a sweetheart, and then he said he was going to ask you to dinner and a movie!" She took a breath and clasped her hands together.
She was so excited you would think it was her that he was asking. It was a very endearing trait of hers to always be happy for the good fortune of her friends.
"Okay, he hasn't even talked to me...." Anna trailed off as she watched him start across the beach toward them.
"Oh my God," Jess gripped her arm hard.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry, just OMG."
When he reached them he graced Anna with a very slow, very sexy smile and she briefly wondered if he practiced that expression in front of a mirror. Has to, she thought as she stared at him, smiling uncertainly in return. His dark hair fell over his eyes which were golden with flecks of green on a perfectly sculpted face. He was always dressed sleek, his apparel made you think sports car, and his face made you think (angel).
"Great party Anna," he said holding out his hand in greeting.
"Th-thanks." She took his hand. Please do NOT stammer like an idiot, she berated herself.
"Do you play beer pong?"
"Oh, yeah, I love that game, I’m actually pretty good at it." STOP gushing, be cool!
"So...do you wanna be my partner, I'm up next."
"Sure, yeah great. Oh damn, I already told Austin...
"Aww come on, you guys are buds, I'm sure he won't mind, he can find someone else."
She found herself nodding stupidly in agreement as he took her arm to walk her up the stairs. She threw a "Holy shit" look over her shoulder to the girls who grinned at her, waving dramatically as she went.
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