Al Nightmare Long Chapter One
Chapter One
The sun had set a good hour or so ago, and the darkness had stolen across the lake with a drop in temperature. From under the dull lights that surrounded the shore line you could see soft tendrils of mist that drifted up from the surface of the water, the still, quiet night holding only the barest hint of a breeze.
He watched as she stripped from her clothes, standing like that, under the light from one of the lamps, she was a sight that was almost too wonderful to bear.
She was a pretty thing, long blonde hair, big blue eyes, and the sort of figure that would make a teenage boy blush.
He reached up and felt his hot cheeks.
She would laugh at him if she saw him blushing.
But damn it, she was pretty! And hot.
He'd dreamed about her.
He'd dreamed about her, a lot.
He's day dreamed, too.
In class.
In his room.
While doing his chores…..
And now, here they were, at the lake, after curfew, and she was taking off her clothes.
"Hey bro, you coming in or what?" called Andrew, and the other guys laughed at him standing there staring at Penny.
They all knew he had a crush on her, god, the way he blushed every time he looked at her, it wasn't hard to tell.
"Right there with yah!" he called back and pulled his t shirt over his head.
He'd left his boxers on, oh, he knew they were supposed to be skinny dipping, but so far no one had taken all of their clothes off.
And he wasn't going to be the only one to go commando.
Not with this freezing water.
Or the jibes that would come over his ginger pubic hair.
He was the second to last to jump in, the six boys and girls in the lake were already having fun, and Penny and he were the only two still on the bank.
She turned and smiled at him and he felt his face grow even hotter. He only prayed the dim lights from around the lake didn't show the extent of his embarrassment as he dived into the frigid water.
The shock of the sudden temperature drop was a godsend to the heat in his cheeks and he mentally shook himself.
He was going to have fun, and he was going to have fun without thinking about Penny, not two yards away, almost naked.
He felt his cheeks grow hot again. And again he was grateful he'd left his boxers on.
The eight teenagers were having fun, though they made sure not to get too rambunctious. They were out after curfew, if the camp leaders found out they would be calling eight sets of parents to pick up their wayward teens, and camp would be over for them this summer.
That would mean grounding, and that would mean no more Penny till school started back.
Penny swam close. "Daniel!" she called to him, and he swore the water was steaming off his blood read cheeks. "Daniel, come closer!"
He swam over to her and they faced each other, treading water as they both smiled shyly.
"Sherry says you like me" she whispered to him.
Daniel couldn't speak. His throat would not open, he couldn't even swallow. He felt his cheeks burn even hotter as his embarrassment rendered him mute.
"So, what, you don't like me?"
"Uh…um….Penny, I…" he stammered, as a hand grabbed the top of his head from behind and pushed him under water.
"Andrew, that was so not cool," yelled Penny.
Andrew laughed as the other kids swam up to them. "Aw, Penny, it's just that he's so into you, he can't even talk." Andrew laughed. "I was just cooling him down a bit"
"Well, it was mean, the poor guy has been dying to talk to Penny for ages, and when he finally gets the chance you go and dunk him" Sherry admonished as she swam over to Penny's side.
"Um, guys, shouldn't he have come up by now?" another boy called out.
Penny frowned, and scanned the water around her. "He's right. He should have been up by now"
The kids realized something was wrong. They dove, they called, they looked, becoming more and more frantic.
It took nearly ten minutes before a shout alerted the searching kids, and Andrew hauled a cold, blue, limp boy up to the surface.
They all helped get him to the banks of the lake.
One boy performed CPR as Sherry ran for help.
Penny took over breathing for Daniel as Andrew performed heart compressions, their panic held at bay, nearly silent as they struggled to bring him back to life.
Before long the camp leaders arrived and took over CPR, maintaining the fight until the emergency services arrived.
The only sounds in the hospital room were the machines keeping Daniel alive.
The beep from the heart monitor.
The whoosh and pump of the artificial respirator.
Daniel lay, still as death, his chest only rising and falling due to the compressions of the respirator, his heart beating mechanically in a steady, slow rhythm.
His brainwaves showed on another monitor. As steady, flat lines.
No movement, no variation, no bump or blip in the even patterns across the screen.
Apart from the machines, the boy lay still in the sterile hospital bed, no indication he was anything more than an organ donor waiting for his turn to part with his life saving components.
Her legs were long, slender, athletic, and very shapely.
He had fantasized over those legs for over a year now, ever since he transferred to this new high school.
He had watched them running track, in cheerleader practice, in volley ball.
He watched them as they shed their denim cladding, ready to jump into the frigid water of Lake Deamonn.
He watched them now, from below, as they moved sensuously back and forth, keeping her afloat, as she tread water, the dim lights from the banks braking and cutting the surface like a thousand pieces of dime store costume jewellery.
Was he dreaming? He didn't know how he got here.
He remembered swimming, then…drowning?
But he couldn't have drowned, here he was, back at the lake, watching Penny swim.
This time, it wasn't too dark to see.
This time, it wasn't freezing cold.
He smiled.
His cheeks didn't burn this time.
He didn't know why, because every other time he'd watched those legs his face felt like lava as his friends teased him and he held his hands over his unexpected erection.
This time, he felt calm.
Together.
Not the butt of anyone's jokes or innuendos.
He swam closer to those legs, those wonderful, silky blue white legs, and the discoloration from the water and the lights lending them an ethereal quality that he found even more attractive than her normal, daylight tan.
He knew she laughed at him, behind his back, with her friends, all poking fun at him and his red cheeks.
She would not laugh this time.
This time, she wouldn't even scream.
He grabbed one ankle, a slim, warm, feminine ankle, and pulled her under the water.
And held her close as the panic filled her eyes, struggling against him as her lungs started to burn for air.
Until she opened her mouth to scream, letting the slightly acrid water enter her mouth and fill her lungs.
He held her close as her eyes widened, her pupils dilated, and then all the light left them.
Only then he let her go.
"Mom! Dad!" screamed Laurie. "Quick!"
The sleepy parents tumbled out of their bedroom, the father hitting the light switch automatically as his sleep addled brain tried to make sense of his fourteen year old daughter standing in the hall, outside of her sister's bedroom, screaming hysterically.
"What is it?" the mom yelled, grabbing her daughter by the shoulders. "What's wrong?"
The father stood before her, taking in her panic and fear. "Laurie!" he shouted, trying to gain some control. "Laurie! What's wrong?"
The frightened child looked into her sister's room. "It's Penny! Help her!"
The parents pushed the door open to find Penny laying on the floor of her tidy room, her back arched, her eyes wide in fear and pain and she coughed up mouthful after mouthful of dirty water, unable to catch a breath.
"Call nine one one!" screamed the father as he rushed to her side and turned her, trying to let the water run from Penny's mouth.
And run it did, nonstop, not allowing the girl to take a breath as it flowed over her bedroom carpet, soaking the floor, spilling out like a fountain.
All the father could do was hold his daughter as she bucked and choked, unable to breathe, her eyes wide in terror.
He held her as she died, clawing at her throat, desperate for a breath of air.
[ Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Epilogue]
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