With a third body in the car and with sitting up hurting more than it was worth, Ben had opted to lie in the back seat while Claire drove them to their temporary vacation spot. He knew without asking that she’d suggested the place as a way to pick up his spirits, but Ben couldn’t help feel guilty that he was preventing her from picking up another job.
Truth be told, he wasn’t exactly looking forward to The Dells, either. It wasn’t as though he’d be able to swim or anything, but people watching had its appeal, as did seeing her enjoying herself. On the trip up he mostly slept, fading in and out as Jesse and Claire made small talk.
They still had plenty of money left on his card to pay for a hotel, but it conveniently became less of a problem when Jesse produced enough money to pay for four nights from his wallet. Ben was really too tired to argue over the ethics, especially considering most of his money had been earned in less-than-moral ways over the past seven years.
Jesse was happy to pay for the place, even though he was skeptical about what kind of “beach” there would be in the middle of nowhere. Still, for the first time since lighting up in the woods, things felt back to normal.
( “This is what people have to do around here? They couldn’t just move to the ocean for a real beach?” )Looking like she did, Claire got a lot of attention from the young male population. Which didn’t bother Jesse, until the splashing started getting out of hand. “Hey, hey, we gotta breathe guys,” he said, raising a hand as he got between Claire and the little gang.
Despite the way she cordially smiled and went a long with the gaggle of adolescents--mainly because she had nowhere else to go in the crowded lagoon, Claire was grateful for the blockade--she could handle a lot of things, but kids weren’t one of them. They were like exotic animals to her, sometimes. “Yeah, time-out, or something,” Claire muttered. She swiped at her face with her palm and shook water out of her left ear. Everything was a little muddled.
“How ‘bout a game, then?” one of the older boys called out. He appeared to be the closest thing to a ringleader, because all the other boys immediately went quiet and looked back at him. The boy put a hand through his wet blond hair, his blue-green eyes flashing with mischief. “Marco polo?”
Jesse gave a snort. “Yeah, kid, we aren’t twelve. You go for it, though.”
The boy made an ugly look at Jesse, turning his eyes to Claire. “C’mon, it’ll be fun.” Claire looked at Jesse, smirking, then back to the kid. Right--wander around a crowded pool with her eyes closed. Sounded like a great idea.
“Next round. Sure.” Claire didn’t exactly have a normal teen-hood. She had no idea how to deal with this situation, so she stayed in her default politeness.
“Your loss,” another boy called out. They immediately started rough housing again, though there looked to be some orchestration to it because one minute they were all pushing and shoving each other then the next, the older boy was roughly shoved straight into Claire. He seemed to be somewhat ready for it, given the placement of his hand as he fell into her chest-first.
Her eyes widened, the moment seemed to slow in time. There was no mistaking the press of a wet, but warm hand covering most of her breast, and one at her hip, just over the surface of the water. A momentary snap of memory forgot that the kid was, in fact, a kid. Claire snapped at his wrist and twisted him sharply around, until his knuckles grazed the tips of his shoulder blades. A beat later, she shoved him away from her with a huffed breath.
Jesse was only halfway to Claire when it was over. Except there was a flash of maroon that came away with the kid, and out of the corner of his eye he could tell Claire was showing more flesh than before, and covered quickly with both arms folded over her chest.
“Give it here, you wanker,” he snapped, grabbing the kid’s arm and yanking it back. The kid dropped the top immediately and it floated to the surface, bobbing with the motion of the water. As he snatched the bikini top back, Jesse added, “Acting like that, your hand’s the only thing your dick’ll ever see.”
But the kids hardly heard Jesse, already tumbling over themselves with laughter and congratulations before heading off into the masses.
( However, before Jesse could get back to Claire, he felt a very strong grip settle on his ankles beneath the water and tug him suddenly and sharply under. )****
“And you’re sure you weren’t hallucinating?” Ben asked him once they were back in the hotel again. Jesse had told them what had happened while on the way back in the GTO, but he’d been panicked and unable to formulate proper words. Now that he’d had a smoke and a few minutes to collect himself, he’d told them the whole experience in the finer detailed. Claire seemed honestly uneasy at the description of the creature, but Ben had a pretty good feeling that it was just a mental projection of some sort. There was
no way something that ugly could just be walking around the water park without causing mass panic by anyone who saw it.
“Fuck you, I’m not crazy,” Jesse snapped. The cigarette had calmed his nerves, but that just left the anger behind. Anger that he’d been accosted on vacation. Anger that something had threatened his life. Anger that he couldn’t have one moment of normalcy. Not since he met these two. “Why would I even hallucinate something like that?”
Ben put his hands up in a sign of defense. “Just want to clarify. We
did find you in the woods smoking dope after all.”
Maybe now’s not the time to joke, he thought to himself. “I’ve just never heard of a creature like that.”
Claire sat on the bed, Indian Style as always, tapping away at the laptop in front of her. “How’d you say the eyes looked? Like a cat?”
“No, like a fish. Big fish eyes,” Jesse said, taking a breath and turning from Ben. “And what in fuck’s name is the source?”
“Could be a lot of things.” Claire was having trouble picturing this... whatever it was, without keeping the shudders down.
Ben attempted to get up from his chair, using his arms to lift his body weight. His arms ached, but it hurt a lot less than trying to sit up the regular way.
( “So much for a marketing ploy.” )***
That was the thing about big, crazy hotel resorts, or
any big, crazy place of business that held their particular interest; upper management rarely had that firm a hold on the lower level employees that it was easy to slip through the cracks, especially for an hour or two. Two days, tops--but Claire was hoping this wouldn’t be dragged out. The incident at the pool still left a sour taste in her mouth, and the female version of the Lifeguard swim suits she managed to snag from the linen storage on the sub-level were little more than a sports bra and a pair of thick-fabric underwear. More than the bikini that’d failed her, but still--she was a little gun shy.
“Just promise me you won’t try to save some drowning kid if you don’t know how,” she whispered at Jesse as they headed into the employee break room, where she’d heard the ‘shift leader’ was supposed to be taking his lunch. She twisted her hair into a somewhat wild ponytail, and put on her best Abercrombie smile.
( Jesse gave a snort as they entered and said, under his breath, “I’m not going near the water; that thing is still in there.” )****
Ben’s eyes had started to burn with how hard he’d been staring at the screen. There was only so much online that he could look up without having access to city databanks like the library and the newspaper, but he cross-referenced on creatures using the description Jesse provided. He came up with at lest three, but the closest that came up was a river creature called a Mannegishi. He would have to show Jesse a picture of one of the images he’d found to see what he thought.
Ten minutes passed after he finished printing out everything. With nothing else to do, Ben’s eyes moved up to the wall clock and then to the door as if expecting them to arrive. They didn’t. Ben chewed his lip. Did he make for the shower and the privacy of a locked door, or could he get a quick jerk in with some “aid” while he had an empty room to himself? Technically he
could bring the laptop in with him, but he was too afraid of dropping it on the tile or getting it wet.
Fuck it, he thought to himself, clicking open one of his favorite sites and scrolling through until he found a video that looked good.
Party scene. Nice. Keeping the sound down out of paranoia, he slid his hand between the elastic waistband of his sweats and clicked the video open.
Claire was pretty quiet the entire elevator ride and walk back to the suite. She was going over the game plan in her head; everything they’d learned, even if it wasn’t a lot, at least it was a lead. She was admittedly looking forward to seeing if Ben had found anything interesting in his research--focusing on the job that’d fallen in their laps was a bit easier than facing the awkward tension that she and Jesse had left with Ben.
She slipped the key-card in the electrical slot and pushed the room latch down smoothly, and shouldered into the room in front of Jesse. Her eyes naturally found Ben at the table across the room--but only after a second or two of processing did she actually realize what she was
seeing. Ghosts, vampires, demon fish-people... shocking, all of them, but none made her eyes go as wide as they did right then.
“
Ohgod!” Her cheeks flash-burned as Claire whipped around, nearly colliding into Jesse’s chest.
Not really paying attention before, Jesse’s heart jumped at her words. He clutched her close, ready to bolt as he took in the room. And just saw Ben. At the table. Looking like a mortified teenager, with a bulge. He let out a laugh. “You want a minute, mate, we can go.”
Ben cursed vividly, his entire face flushed with embarrassment and effort.
Fuck fuck fuck shouldda used the shower. Please God, just kill me now. He’d hit the mute button at the very least, but the damage had been done. He’d never be able to look either of them in the eyes again.
“I’m good,” he croaked out.
“Yeah,
I bet...” Claire’s voice was muffled into Jesse’s shoulder--she was a little too mortified by awkwardness to chance a look over hers. In a few minutes, she’d be able to fully realize the ridiculousness of the situation. As for the moment, she’d rather let the heat in her cheeks burn away all the images that were suddenly in her head.
Despite Ben’s words, the best thing to do would probably take the mortified Claire out of the room and let the mortified Ben resettle himself. With a slight smile, Jesse shuffled them into the room, closing the door before shifting around Claire, who cleared her throat lightly and moved to the bed, dropping her bag to the floor.
“So what’d you find, besides Busty Asian Beauties?” Jesse asked casually.
Ben had closed the laptop and was currently face down in his arms. The angle
hurt, but it was better than letting them see his face. He gestured with his hand at the papers in a pile on the tabletop.
“Look for the photo,” he muffled out in reply.
“Photo? Someone got a photo?” Jesse said, suddenly serious. He shuffled through the papers, finding a picture of a drawing. It looked pretty human, but those eyes. “That’s her.”
“One’a the lifeguards says he saw her too,” Claire added from her spot by the bed, her fingertips rolling a chewed pencil back and forth, back and forth, almost ritualistically.
Hearing Jesse’s tone was enough to finally bring Ben’s eyes up, but Claire’s movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he immediately put his head down again.
( “It’s a Mannegishi.” )****
Dan clicked off the television and chucked the remote to the other end of the couch as he stood up. His little studio apartment didn’t really have much in the way of a bathroom, just a little stand-up shower, much to his continual disappointment. Some days, his body ached so much he would have loved nothing more than to soak in a hot tub until the water went cold, but it was all he could afford on his wages. Such was life.
It was just another average evening, save for the weirdness at work that kept creeping up in his thoughts. The two new employees and their questions had left him feeling anxious, and flashbacks to that brief moment in the lagoon the prior week plagued him for the rest of the day. His doctor hadn’t mentioned any chemical reactions to his meds but he
had given him a referral to a psychotherapist. Dan had sighed and stuck the paper into his back pocket, then forgot to take it out when he’d ran his washing. The paper had been reduced to pulp. He’d call his doctor in the morning and ask for the number again.
( Maybe it was just stress. Stress made people hallucinate, didn’t it? )***
The GTO eased to a stop in front of a plain brick apartment complex, building number four. Claire, who had donned the sleek gray and charcoal suit commonly used for impersonating professionals, took time for a long breath, and looked at Jesse. Pretending to be some college drop-out lifeguard was one thing--this was another entirely.
“Okay, so...” She rolled her lips, trying to figure out the best way to go about this when the idea struck her. Her eyebrows lifted simultaneously. “Can you--y’know,” she made a sort of ‘magical’ hand gesture. “
make a professional looking camera?”
“Um. One that can work?” he said, his eyes overly large. He hadn’t worn a suit in...ever, and he had no idea how he was supposed to act, and it
showed, at least--to Claire. She shook her head a little and stuffed her keys in the inner pocket of her blazer.
“One that looks and
sounds like it works.” She turned a glance out the driver’s side window, watching the city detectives leave in exchange for the coroner and his intern, who disappeared inside the building. “Also, take off the jacket and tie.”
“Yeah, I can probably do that,” he said, shrugging off his jacket before dealing with the tie. Holding it in his hand, he concentrated a moment, until he was holding a basic SLR camera. “Alright. For me or you?”
Claire smirked faintly at him. “
You want to be a corporate insurance adjuster?”
Jesse smiled back. “No thanks, I’ll be the dumb grunt with the camera.”
( She smiled a little easier, then slipped out of the car. )TO BE CONTINUED...
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