Chapter ONE

The alarm on Spencer’s phone went off at 9:00 in the morning. She rolled out of the cushioned, soft bed and looked around the darkened room. Sometime during the night Garrett had gotten up and pulled the thick black curtains across the window. Spencer stumbled around the bedroom, groggily looking for something to wear. Slowly, she pulled on a pair of faded grey skinny jeans, and a green turtle neck. Spencer pulled on a pair of cowboy boots and walked over to Garrett’s side of the bed. She sat down on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on Garrett’s shoulder.

“Garrett, wake up,” she whispered. Like she knew he would, Garrett slowly rolled over and opened his eyes; staring at her with tired silver-grey eyes. “Do you want to go to breakfast with me?”

“Of course,” he groaned. He sat up quickly, his face only inches from hers; his large warm hand rested on her hip. Nervously, she stood up and walked towards the door.

“Meet me downstairs in the kitchen,” she murmured and shut the door behind her. Spencer skipped down the stairs and pulled the coffeemaker out of the cabinet. Moving quicker, she grabbed the coffee grounds from the freezer and dumped a few spoon full’s into the coffee filter and poured water into the back of the black machine. The flipped the lid shut and pressed start. Spencer jumped up onto the counter next to the coffeemaker and leaned back against the cabinets.

“Hey, you ready?” Garrett said, coming into the kitchen still buttoning up his black shirt. Spencer pointed to the coffeemaker that was slowly starting to drip pitch black liquid into the glass cup. Garrett chuckled and walked over to the counter where she sat swinging her legs. “What all do I need to pack for later?”

“Here, you can look at my list and add whatever you need,” she said. Jumping off the counter she grabbed her keys from beside the stove and ran out the front door to her car. Sliding into the passenger seat, she opened her glove box and grabbed a piece of neon green paper. She pulled a spare piece of paper from the notebook in her backseat, and copied the list down. Spencer folded the green paper and put it in her back pocket and walked back inside.

In the kitchen, Garrett had fixed two cups of thick, rich brown coffee. Spencer handed him the piece of paper in exchange for the hot coffee cup.

“Swimsuit?” he asked, inspecting the list over the rim of his own coffee cup.

“Yeah, there is a really nice lake nearby that we’re planning on going swimming in,” she explained. Garrett nodded and folded the piece of paper, leaving it on the counter.

“Where to for breakfast?” he asked.

“Wherever you want,” she laughed, “I don’t care either way. I’m just hungry.”

“How about Sun Up?” Garrett suggested, putting his empty coffee cup in the sink.

“Sounds great,” she said, handing him her cup. He put it in the sink and followed her out the front door. Garrett climbed into his truck and waited while Spencer dodged a car coming down the road before climbing into her own car. Garrett winced at the near miss; he hated how Spencer disregarded danger as though she were impervious to it. He waited for her to start moving before he backed out of the driveway. He followed her car down twisted streets in total silence.

Spencer turned into the parking lot of Sun Up Café and pulled into an empty spot. Garrett pulled in behind her, slamming the door of his truck behind him when he jumped out. Together they walked into the small diner and grabbed a booth near the tall front window. Their waitress strutted up to the table, her make-up covered blue eyes glued to Garrett.

“How can I help you?” said a syrupy southern voice. She was slightly leaning over, exposing as much of her ample chest as she could in her v-neck collared uniform.

“Two coffees and two orders of biscuits and gravy. One with grits as a side and one with sausage as a side,” Garrett recited, handing her back the thick plastic menus without even looking up. The waitress jotted down the order on her white notepad, took the menus, and disappointedly swaggering away. Spencer watched the whole exchange with a look of pure amusement on her face. She was use to this from strangers; Garrett usually attracted the attention of most girls in any room they walked into. Spencer thought it was strange that he never even tried to return the attention.

“You always know what to order,” she laughed.

“We always get that when we come here,” he said, staring at her.

“I know,” she said, shaking her head. “I just meant-“

“I know what you meant,” Garrett chuckled. The waitress sauntered up to the table with the silver coffee pot and two mugs. She set them down and walked away without a single word. They poured themselves some coffee and added a substantial amount of cream and sugar.

“Didn’t you need to stop by work?” Garrett asked.

“I can grab it when we get back from camping. After breakfast I need to run home and finish packing,” Spencer said, checking her phone for the time.

“Alright, I need to go pack before I pick James up,” he said, glancing at his watch. Their food came out shortly after their second cup of coffee.

“Do you miss high school?” Spencer asked in between bite of biscuit and sausage gravy.

“Getting up early, teachers, homework every night? Not at all,” he said shaking his head.

“I guess but what about the good parts,” she wondered. They’d only had their graduation three weeks ago.

“What good parts? All I remember was the amount of homework, the amount of skin girls felt they were required to show, and the awful exams,” Garrett said, scraping up the last of his gravy. Spencer shrugged. “What did you like about it? Besides that a*****e Scott or what’s-his-face.”

“Ashton,” Spencer coughed.

“Whatever,” Garrett said, waving his fork. “What happened with him? You never actually explained that to me.”

“It was nothing,” she muttered, hunching her shoulders. Garrett made a face and shook his head, not pushing the subject anymore.

“Who is Drake? Or Patrick? I don’t remember them,” he asked, handing his empty plate to the overlooked waitress.

“Drake was a soccer player; he made it to varsity our junior year. Patrick was a football player; he’d been on varsity since our sophomore year.”

“Okay but how do you know them?”

“I’ve had Latin class with Drake for years. I had Spanish with Patrick every year starting in 8^th grade. Other than that I’ve had random classes with each of them. We’re close friends,” she said, pushing her empty plate away. Garrett nodded as she talked.

“So you know them well?” Garrett asked, raising an eyebrow. Spencer nodded and stood up. She left $4 on the table and walked out. Garrett ran and caught up with her. She started to open her car door when Garrett pushed it shut.

“Hey,” he whispered. “I’m sorry if I made you upset when I mentioned Ashton. I didn’t know it would bother you so much.”

“It’s fine,” she murmured, tears filling her eyes.”I need to go home and pack.” She turned her head away from him, hiding her face. Garrett let go of her door and watched her pull away. Spencer drove without the radio on, her hands gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white. She bit her lip, the pain keeping the hot tears away until she pulled into her driveway.

Hot tears dripped off her cheek, splashing against the steering wheel. The taste of salty blood filled her mouth where she’d bitten her lip. Her hands shook, ice running through her veins. Absently, she heard the car door opened and large, warm hands pulled her tenderly out of her seat. Spencer buried her face against Garrett’s chest, her tears soaking into his shirt. She felt his chest rumble as he murmured quietly into her hair. Slowly the tears dried on her face and she couldn’t cry anymore. But still she stood there being comforted in Garrett’s tight embrace.

“Spencer, I’m sorry. I should’ve known you’re still upset about him,” Garrett sighed, leaning back to look in her face. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it.” Spencer shook her head, taking a deep breath.

“It’s not your fault,” she murmured. “I haven’t talked about what happen with anybody. I guess it’s all bottled up and,” she broke off, sucking in another breath. Garrett gingerly rubbed circles into her back.

“You shouldn’t have to talk about it until you’re ready,” he said.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “You should get going. You need to pack before James gets mad at you for being late.”

“Are you sure that you’re alright?” He asked. Spencer nodded and gave him a little push towards his idling truck. Garrett gave her a worried look and walked away. Spencer shut the door of her car and walked inside.

She stood inside the gigantic marble entry hall. Spending so many nights sleeping over at Garrett’s house, she often had to get use to the immense size of the mansion she actually lived in. Before her dad had died he’d made a fortune on some invention that big industries bought and gave him millions of dollars for. Their house wasn’t technically considered a house; it was, in all honesty, a mansion.

Spencer jogged up the tall winding staircase to her bedroom. She threw open the heavy, oak double doors and walked inside. Her rich purple four-poster bed had gauzy canopy trimmed in gold. The floor was hard, cold wood with several fluffy pink and purple rugs tossed about the large room. In the corner were a tall oak dresser and a door that led to an even bigger walk-in closet than the one at Garrett’s house. Every inch of space in the closet was being used by hangers with clothes or shoes.

Spencer grabbed an empty duffel bag from under a pile of clothes in her closet and dropped it on her bed. She spun around the room like a tornado, pulling open drawers, grabbing clothes and dumping them neatly in the duffel bag. She grabbed three different bathing suits from the dresser, three towels, spare blankets, hairbrush, hair ties, and everything else on her crumpled green list. Once everything was assembled in the large red bag, she zipped it shut and set it on the ground beside her bed.

Dragging her feet, Spencer walked down the hall to the storage room and flipped on the lights. Random stuff was neatly organized in boxes and cabinets, courtesy of her OCD mother. Spencer crossed the room and opened a tall metal cabinet labeled ‘Camping.’ She twisted the silver handles and struggled to pull the doors open, they were stuck tight. Eventually they gave and opened up wide, revealing a heavy looking green fabric bag that contained the parts to an enormous 3 room tent. She lugged the heavy bag back to her room and set it next to her duffel bag. Spencer walked back to the storage room and grabbed the black draw-string bag from the camping supplies cabinet and stuffed it in the minute amount of spare space in her duffel bag.

Struggling, Spencer slung the tent across her back and started down the long staircase with her duffel bag in hand. She dropped everything next to the table in the large dining room just as the loud clanging doorbell resonated throughout the house. Spencer walked down the long marble entryway and pulled open the front door. Garrett and James stood on the front porch with similar duffel bags slung across their shoulders. She smiled and waved them inside. The boys followed her down the hallway and threw their stuff in a pile with her bags.

“When are-“Garrett was interrupted by the loud clang of the doorbell. Spencer quickly ran down the hall and let Patrick and Drake in. Together the 5 of them stood around the long dark wood table staring at each other.

“Is everybody ready?” Drake asked, staring at the pile of luggage next to the table. “Do you know how to get there?” He asked, looking at Spencer.

“I have my GPS and the address,” she said.

“Are you two taking a separate car? Do you know how to get there?” Drake asked Garrett and James.

“They’re going to be in my car,” Spencer said, before Garrett or James could respond.

“Alright, well you can put the tent and one of the duffel bags in my car,” Patrick said. “I’ve got my SUV so I’ve got plenty of room.”

“That’ll work, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough room for all of our stuff,” Spencer said.

“Alright then we should head out, it’s a long drive,” Drake said, picking up his bag. Spencer handed Patrick the large tent case and Garrett’s duffel bag. The group headed outside and loaded the cars. Spencer loaded her bag and James’s into the trunk and slid into the driver’s seat. Drake walked over and rapped on the window with his knuckles. Spencer rolled down her window and looked at him.

                “Be careful,” he said, hands resting on the edge of the door. “I’ve heard the roads getting to the campground are kind of dangerous especially during and after a good storm.” He looked around, indicating the wet ground left over from the storm the night before.

                “I’ll be careful,” she said, smiling. Drake nodded his head, let go over her door and walked back to Patrick’s car and jumped in. James slid into the car seat next to her and Garrett sprawled across the backseat, legs taking up the whole seat. Spencer punched in the address to the campground and set the GPS on its holder on the dashboard. She pulled out of the driveway and set off in the same direction as the black SUV.

                After the first hour Garrett was sprawled across the seat out cold. James was staring out the side window, watching as the suburban landscape gradually became countryside. Spencer was starting to get antsy, she needed to get up and walk around for awhile. The GPS still read that they had at least another 35 minutes until they reached the campsite. Spencer drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, leaning back in her cushioned seat.

                “Tired?” James asked, looking at her. Spencer looked at him, smiling.

                “Not exactly,” she laughed. “I’m jittery, I don’t like sitting still for long periods of time.”

                “School must have been torture for you,” he chuckled.

                “You know that it was,” she shook her head and changed the radio station.

                “Do you want me to drive?”

                “No,” she sighed. “That won’t help. I just need to be able to walk around and move my legs.” James laughed and shook his head. Spencer smiled, glancing at him. James’s hand snaked over and covered Spencer’s frozen hand resting on the middle console. When she didn’t pull her hand away he relaxed slightly, holding onto her hand even tighter. They stayed like that until the obnoxious GPS voice order her to turn into the campsite parking lot.

                Spencer pulled into the parking spot next to Patrick’s empty SUV. She turned the car off and jumped out. Rounding the corner of the car she walked into the check in office and nearly ran over Drake.

                “Whoa slow down there,” he laughed, catching her by the shoulders.

                “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” she chuckled and stepped back.

                “I can tell. Anyways,” he pointed to the closed door behind him, “Patrick is in there talking to the owner guy, making sure our reservations are legitimate. So far we’ve found our campsite,” he pointed to the map in his hands, “and the guy told us that every morning in the meeting house they have a complimentary continental breakfast for all the campers.”

                “Really? That’s wonderful. People don’t usually do that,” she said, raising her eyebrows.

                “I know, he says it starts at 8 o’ clock and ends at 11:00. We just have to get checked in and then we’re allowed to go down to our campsite and set up.” Just as he finished speaking, a middle aged man led Patrick out of the office and walked over to the two of them.

                “Alright, you guys are all set and ready to go,” said the man with a wide, friendly smile. Patrick shook his hand and ushered them out the front door.

                “Alright, we know how to get down to our camp ground so we’ll lead and you just follow,” Patrick said nodding to their cars sitting in the parking lot. Spencer nodded her head and jumped into her car.

                “What’s going on?” James asked, looking at her.

                “We’re following Patrick and Drake down to our campground,” she explained.

                “Ah, I see,” he said, smiling at her. Spencer smiled back and started the car. Silently they followed the hulking black suburban down a narrow paved road that twisted and wound its way through dense forest. On the horizon they spotted a large body of water. Nearby was a tall brown sign that read in white lettering “Camp Ground 77.” Spencer pulled into the same spot of dead grass where Patrick swung his SUV. Finally, Spencer leaped out of her car and jumped around, excited not to be cramped up again.

                James came around the car and helped her pull their bags from the trunk. Spencer pulled open the backseat door and stared down at Garrett’s blonde head. Spencer reached down and ruffled his hair. Slowly he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

Turning away, she walked with James to the sandy shore next to the small lake. They picked a spot far enough away that the water wouldn’t reach them but close enough to see the water itself. Spencer dropped her bag and turned around to see Patrick hobbling towards them with her tent bag.

                Spencer took the bag from him and, with James’s help, started setting up the large tent. The deformed blob of fabric and metal rods began to resemble an actual place where they could sleep. A couple of feet away Patrick and Drake set up their own tent. Clumsily, Garret joined them. His shirt was disheveled and his hair was tousled and unkempt. Spencer chuckled; Garrett looked and acted like he was drunk when he first woke up.

                Within 15 minutes, James and Spencer had their tent set up. Spencer stood up and walked towards her duffel bag on the ground and tripped over a spare string attached to the tent. She started to fall hard and fast towards the ground. Warm arms wrapped tight around her waist, pulling her up before being caught in the force of her plummet. The body above her twisted sharply; putting him between her and the ground. Spencer looked up, into the face of a laughing James. Their legs were tangled together; Spencer’s ankles had a tight wrapping of nylon cord around them. Her arm was bent against his chest, pressing uncomfortably into her rib cage.

                “Watch your step,” he laughed. Spencer gave a choking laugh and struggled to roll to the side, off James. Her ankles had begun to collect the cords while they set up the tent but she’d walked too far away and tightened it. Spencer’s fingers flew over the white rope, loosening it with every touch. James’s long, pianist fingers pushed hers out of the way and undid the rest of the twists and knots. He pulled the cords from around her ankles and pulled her to her feet. They stood toe to toe, chest to chest. Every breath he took, she felt.

                “If you two are going to kiss, then do it already. I need help with the mattresses in the trunk,” Garrett called from next to Patrick’s SUV. Spencer blushed and walked towards the suburban, leaving James behind. Garrett pulled open the double back doors, revealing three futon-like mattresses. Spencer and Garrett grabbed a mattress each; James followed slightly behind and grabbed the third mattress. Patrick directed two of the mattresses to Spencer’s tent and the third to his and Drake’s tent. Spencer and Garrett easily maneuvered the two mattresses into the small rooms of the tent and threw their spare blankets on top.

                “Who wants to go swimming?” Drake asked when Spencer and Garrett reappeared from inside the tent. Spencer cheered and grabbed her duffel bag. The boys laughed and grabbed their own bags. The four boys found their swim trunks and piled into Drake and Patrick’s tent. Spencer got the big tent all to herself to change. She dug through her bag and picked the rich, scarlet bikini. Changing into it, she grabbed one of the towels she brought and crawled out of the big tent. The boys were all standing in a circle outside the second tent talking about something. The second she emerged they dropped the subject and began walking towards the lake. Spencer threw the fluffy purple towel around her shoulders as she walked, the cool breeze off the lake raising goose bumps across her body. James threw an arm around her waist, rubbing circles into her hip bones. Spencer laughed quietly and leaned into him. Garrett kept glancing back at them, a small smile playing at his lips. Almost simultaneously, the group all threw their blankets on the sand and finished the few foot walk to the water. The lukewarm water lapped at Spencer’s unpainted toenails. Gingerly, she walked the rest of the way into the water until it was above her chest.

                “Don’t go out too deep,” Garrett called. “I’ve heard that this lake just kinda drops off at some parts. There’s been two people that have drowned out here that were reported.” Spencer nodded and spit water out of her mouth.

                Suddenly, hands wrapped around her waist and dragged her down through the murky water. Spencer struggled, twisting until she faced her attacker. James’ long legs were stretched out behind him, propelling them farther into the middle of the lake. Spencer clung to James’ shoulders, terrified she wouldn’t make it to the surface if she let go.

                Finally James stopped swimming and they rose to the surface. Spencer gasped for breath the second her head broke the surface. James slipped from her grip and she immediately sunk into the water, her feet feeling nothing but water. She let out a yelp, bubbles erupting from her mouth. James reached out almost reflexively and pulled her towards him, lifting her head out of the water. James was over a foot taller than her so he easily stood with his head above water. He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her to him. Spencer kicked her legs, absently trying to keep herself afloat. James leaned forward so that his face was right next to hers.

                “Stop. You’re kicking me,” he whispered in her ear. Spencer’s legs froze, now she just hung in his arms, trusting that he wouldn’t let go and have her sink. James rested his forehead against hers. His dark brown hair was plastered to his head, sticking up where her hands had ruffled it. She’d never noticed the shocking amethyst purple color of his eyes. Spencer smiled and wiggled out of his arms, swimming as fast as she could. Within seconds she was several feet away from James who was standing there bewildered, water lapping at his neck.

                Spencer laughed and kept swimming. It was barely a second before he caught up with her, dragging her backwards by her feet. She screamed, pushing at him; breaking free and swimming away again. She glanced back when she was far enough away. He stood still, just laughing as he watched her swim.

                Suddenly, Spencer saw something over his shoulder. A figure dressed all in a pitch black suit. His hair was the same color as his suit, blank, empty, colorless. The only color the man was a blood red mask that went across his cheekbones, small holes cut for the eyes. The man stood on the shore for barely a second before he disappeared into thin air. Nobody in the group noticed the mysterious man except Spencer, who immediately froze up and sunk into the murky water.