by S. E. Akers
I turned to look at Mike, who was just getting up off the ground. “Why in the Hell did you do THAT?” I demanded.
Mike rubbed his jaw. “Because you ran off like that. I figured he did something to you?”
After that accusation, Tyler leaped at Mike again. Swiftly, I jumped in front of Ty to hold him back.
“I didn’t do anything!” Ty insisted. “At least, I don’t think I did?” Ty tried to calm down as best he could, what with all that adrenaline pumping. “Shi, did I? Did I do something to make you run off?”
“No, you didn’t,” I impressed to him as I stared into his blue eyes that not only looked confused, but hurt as well. I turned to Mike and scowled. “He didn’t, okay. Ty didn’t do anything.” I shook my head and glared at both of them.
Ty pulled me off to the side. “Then tell me why, when we were getting ready to…kiss…you ran off like that? What happened?”
I longed to tell him the truth, but what was the truth? I was having a fabulous time dancing with him, having him hold me in his virile arms. That was true. I leaned in to kiss someone, but that “someone” wasn’t him — because I was having a daggone vision. That was also true. I decided to take the “easy out”.
“Ty, it’s me. You didn’t do anything. I’m really not feeling well tonight…That’s all.” What a cop-out, I thought as I continued to orchestrate my words carefully. “I think I just need to go home.”
Still a little groggy from his pummeling, Mike shook his head and sighed. “I told you this would happen… You drank the whole flask,” Mike declared (without thinking).
Ty ran over to Mike, grabbed him by his jacket, and threw him back against the retaining wall.
“What FLASK?” Ty demanded. Mike looked guilty as Hell. “You tried to get Shiloh DRUNK?” With that said, Ty started pounding on Mike again.
“STOP IT!” I yelled.
They weren’t listening, so I scooped up a huge chunk of snow and crafted a hard snowball. I aimed it at both of them. Right then, I really didn’t care which one of the Neanderthals I hit. The icy-wet ball of snow landed perfectly between both their faces. Ty finally let go of Mike, who’d actually made a much better showing during their second bout.
“Are y’all FINISHED?” I snapped. In an almost perfectly synchronized move, they each forcefully pushed away from each other. Evidently, neither wanted the other to get the “last hit”.
Mike surveyed the damage to his face in a nearby car window. Ty, on the other hand, removed his tuxedo jacket and draped it around my shoulders. Again — Totally perfect…
“Here, Shiloh. You’re shivering,” Ty insisted and then pulled me off to the side. “I’ll take you home, if you want?”
I smiled at him coyly as he started to rub his hands vigorously up and down my arms. “That would be ni—”
“Impossible is what that would be,” Mike interrupted as he pointed over to Ty’s black Chevelle. Several vehicles had his car penned in. He sneered at Ty. “Unless you want to go inside and ask every person blocking you to come out in the snow and move their cars. I’m sure they’ll run right out.”
We both realized what Mike had said was true. Not only would it take forever to locate all the cars’ owners, but surely none of them would be too thrilled at the idea of leaving their “good time” for a stroll out into a snow-covered parking lot, just to “let someone out”.
“Anyway…she’s my date, Ty.” Mike picked his Homecoming King crown up off the ground and flung it like a Frisbee over to Ty. “Yours is still inside. I’ll take Shiloh home,” Mike assured him as he grabbed my hand and then tugged me his way.
“I’ll at least see her to your car,” Ty announced with a raging scowl as he pulled me back closer to him and well out of Mike’s grasp.
Mike shot Ty a dirty look of his own as we headed over to the snow-covered Camaro.
Though the tension between Ty and Mike remained on its present course, I was starting to feel slightly more at ease, probably because I was finally getting out of here and would be able to confide in Daddy (at last). I could tell him about all the crazy things that had happened lately, and he would help me figure them out. Then again, the fact that I was starting to warm up in the comfort of Ty’s strong arms as we walked to the car didn’t hurt either.
“Hang on a second,” Mike spoke up. He popped his trunk and pulled out a snowbrush. “I can’t believe I need this thing already,” he mumbled as he started at the rear of the car, sweeping off the windows. Ty and I strolled over to the passenger-side of the Camaro.
“Shi, will you call me later?” Ty asked softly. “So I’ll know you got HOME OKAY,” he added in a rigid tone, with the sentiments behind his words and his steely gaze directed towards Mike.
Mike shot Ty his own dirty glare while he brushed the snow off more aggressively.
Ty turned to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “You know, um…because of the roads,” he rephrased.
I wasn’t buying his reason one bit, but I didn’t care about his motive. I was too flattered by his request.
“I will,” I replied, “but he’s dropping me off at the mine. Daddy’s working late, so he’ll take me on home.”
That seemed to put Ty’s mind at ease. Mike finished up the front window and maneuvered around to the other side.
“She’ll be just fine,” Mike advised Ty in a sly voice and threw him a taunting wink.
“I’ll call you later,” I whispered to Ty as I patted him on the chest to curtail his escalating rage.
“That’s kind of crazy,” Mike blurted as he stood beside the passenger-side door. “The snow didn’t stick over here.” He took a hold of the handle and pulled the shiny, red car door open. “Come on, Shi. We can go now,” Mike announced.
I noticed the leather seat was glistening with droplets of water. Why is the seat wet? I hunched down to slide into the car, but paused when I heard a faint noise.
“Did y’all hear that?” I asked them. They both shook their heads.
Weird, I thought as I proceeded to lean inside.
My eyes shot open and I defensively hurled myself back towards the ground. Wriggling around in the floorboard was another humongous rattlesnake! I let out a loud gasp as soon as my butt landed in the snow.
“What’s wrong?” Ty yelled as he noticed me pointing towards the car. His eyes almost exploded as he watched the monstrous reptile emerge from the Camaro and slither onto the ground.
Mike was the next one to officially “freak”. “Son-of-a-Bitch!” he screamed. “Where in the Hell did THAT come from?”
The serpent was heading straight for me. I started pushing myself back, plowing my arms and rear through the snow as fast as I could. My body was trembling from the icy snow stabbing my skin, but mostly from the terrifying creature that had its sights set on me.
Ty attempted to lunge at the snake. It paused only to tease him with a superficial, yet intimidating strike. That bought me a few seconds to get to my feet. The scaly rattler swiftly turned back to its intended victim — me. I kept my eyes focused on the vile creature as it began to close in on me. I could tell I was running out of room as I headed backward, towards the high retaining wall that hugged the school’s hillside. There was no way to climb it. I was trapped. I listened intently to the rhythm of the snake’s rattler echoing in my ears. Mike and Ty were yelling at each other. They seemed to be searching for something to kill it with — though I rather doubted if either of them had any daggone garden tools in the trunk of their cars.
I scrambled to strategize an escape, but unfortunately, there wasn’t one. The serpent started to recoil and took an attack stance. Too bad there wasn’t a little old blind lady around to save me this time. My ankle twisted around in my shoes as I postured myself for an expected assault. I looked down at my stiletto heels and realized one of the ribbon straps had come untied. Quickly, I yanked off the loose shoe and prepared to swing it with all of my strength.
I kept trying to convince myself, This thin
g’s no different than any other critter you’ve snatched before. Ty was running towards me to make one last attempt at grabbing the creature. Viciously, the rattlesnake thrust itself at me. I whirled my arm around to counter its attack and instinctively closed my eyes as my head turned to dodge its sharp fangs. Not a second later, my eyes flew open, and I became inescapably transfixed on my hand. The heel of my beautiful stiletto had struck my attacker, piercing the rattlesnake’s head right between its eyes, and it was now staked to the stone wall. Its scaly body twitched erratically as all signs of life drained from its muscles. I took a couple of deep breaths and slowly released my hand from the shoe.
Ty rushed to my side. “Shi, are you okay?” Ty panted as he stared at the scaly corpse that now donned my high-heel through the center of its ghastly head. He swiftly gave my listless frame much-needed tight squeeze.
The gesture was comforting. Hell, I needed to feel something. The shock of what had just happened, as well as the accuracy my aim, was downright mindboggling!
The snake appeared from behind a “red” door… Just like the vision I had eariler, I thought quietly as Ty held me in his arms.
Mike hurried over. “What in the Hell was that?!?”
“Apparently a snake — Dumb ass,” Ty growled. “What I want to know is what in the Hell ‘IT’ was doing in YOUR car?”
Mike started flailing his arms and cussing. “Those sons’ of bitches from Princeton…I bet they came down here and did it! I wouldn’t put it past them! They were really pissed about the game…Not to mention the ass kickin’ Marcus and I gave a couple of their players. I’d bet anything they were behind this shit!”
I stood there quietly as Mike continued to curse and rant his suspicions.
“You’re keeping some pretty strange company,” Ty whispered. “This is twice today, isn’t it?”
My eyes never left the snake. “How did you know?” I asked surprised, only tilting my head in his direction.
“I stopped by Bea’s house on the way back from Pineville. Mr. Mayfield told me about the snake. He had it packed up in a box to take home with him. I asked Bea what happened. What a coincidence. Two rattlesnakes, roughly the same freakish size, attacking the same person — on the SAME DAY?”
Telepathy wasn’t needed here. I picked up on Ty’s disbelief just by the tone in his voice.
“Yeah…Imagine that,” I replied laxly.
Ty’s suspicions mounted. “You don’t seem too shaken for someone who almost had their neck ripped into by another twelve-foot rattler?”
“Shock? I guess?” I tried to play it off, but that wasn’t going to work — not with Ty. Clearly, we were both on the same page. We both knew the snake was not intended for Mike Riverside.
Ty pried the snake from the rock wall and pulled my stiletto heel from its head. He quickly tossed the gruesome reptile on the ground. The scaly corpse sank into a fluffy patch of snow.
“The only thing shocking…was your aim.” Ty rinsed the remnants of bloody snake brains off my shoe with some snow and wiped the tapering, blade-like heel clean using one of the legs from his pants. He gently guided my foot into my shoe and fastened the two ribbons around my ankle.
A subtle smile emerged as I thought, I would feel just like Cinderella…if it weren’t for the fact that she didn’t have a daggone serpent flying out of her pumpkin coach…
“Wait here. I’m going to check inside the car before you go,” Ty insisted as he rose from the ground. “Give me your keys,” he demanded to Mike.
“I told you. I’m taking Shi home, Ty. You’re not driving her in my car!”
Ty gave Mike a firm shove. “I’m going to check it for any other ‘surprises’…or do YOU want to?”
A look of fright surfaced on Mike’s face as Ty snatched the keys from his hand. Mike didn’t put up any more of a fuss, not after the thought of more of those things hidden in his car had crossed his mind.
“YOU DO THAT,” Mike barked. “Check it over good — and in all the compartments inside, too!” Mike jerked into shiver as he backed away from his car.
Ty opened the trunk and searched it thoroughly. He leaned inside the car and checked in every nook and cranny of its interior. Nothing. Then he popped the hood for a quick once-over, and just to be on the safe-side, he even looked under the car. Once Ty had given us the “all clear” sign, Mike ran over to him and snatched back his keys. He stood by the passenger-side door and glared at Ty.
“Come on, Shi. Let’s go,” Mike insisted.
“Go ahead and get in, Mike. I need a second,” I told him as I approached the car.
Mike shrugged his shoulders and walked around to the driver-side door. I looked up at Ty. His cheeks were rosy from the whip of the cold air and his dreamy blue eyes were glistening. He shifted around nervously in the snow for a moment, like he wanted to say or do something.
“Oh, before I forget,” Ty began as he pointed to his tuxedo jacket I was still wearing, “Your purse is inside my coat. You ran off without it.”
Sure enough, I felt around in one of its inside pockets and there was the beaded-black clutch, safely tucked away. I pulled it out and smiled.
“Thanks, Ty,” I said softly.
“Well, I didn’t want you to think that you’d lost it,” he replied.
“Oh…I’m not thanking you for that.”
“For what then?” Ty asked as he edged closer.
“For trying to save me. You distracted it. I saw you trying to stop it…So, thank you.”
Ty smiled and gave my hand a tight, lingering squeeze. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
His touch felt electrifying. I stood there wishing we were both back on the dance floor. It would’ve been my very first kiss, though I still didn’t quite know whom I would’ve been kissing. I could feel myself starting to blush, but hopefully the cold air on my own cheeks camouflaged any visible traces of emotion. Feeling Mike’s heated and awkward stare on us, I smiled and climbed inside the car. I gazed back at Ty in the side-mirror as we cautiously crept out of the parking lot. He had walked back over to the snake and picked it up to examine it closer. Not a few seconds later, Ty shook his head and casually pitched it off to the side. Unfortunately for Kara Leighton, who’d just walked up beside him, it landed on her, draped perfectly around her neck. Ty looked mortified. I cringed and turned my head. We could hear every single one of her high-pitched screams as we drove off.
The drive could have been a little quieter, in my opinion. Mike kept asking me — “If I liked the song that was playing?” — “Was I hungry?” — and my favorite was — “Do you want to go somewhere to talk?” I didn’t know what his deal was this evening, but I’d had enough. At that moment, the only question I would have answered, “Yes” to was, Do you want me to shut the Hell up?
We still had several miles to go before we would reach the mine. Mike was adamant about stopping at the Kwik-Serve for something. Finally, got a hint of peace and quiet while I waited in the car.
Tonight was my first school dance, my first almost-kiss (I think), and my first-step toward a one-way ticket to the nut-house. I was beginning to rule out schizophrenia, because some of the visions had actually come true. As I watched the snow dance in the night sky, I knew one thing that didn’t sound crazy — both of those rattlesnakes were no coincidence and somehow Mr. Estell was responsible. I was going to have to investigate that theory more extensively. Considering the series of events fate had thrown in my path, I only had one real concern at the moment. What was going to happen next…and when?
I noticed the snow seemed to be dwindling when Mike jumped back in the car. He had been in there awhile, but he didn’t return with anything in his hands.
“I thought you said you had to ‘get something’?” I questioned. It really didn’t make sense. He was so insistent about stopping.
“Yeah,” Mike muttered, appearing cagey as he started up the car. Mike revved his engine and peeled out of the slick parking lot, slipping and sliding in the
snow. I shook my head at the reckless, juvenile maneuver. For a moment I thought he was trying to distract me from any more questions.
I sure hope that dumb ass didn’t waste his money on condoms, I thought to myself. I need “peace”, not “a piece”!
Our side of Highway 52 was completely covered with snow. The only tracks that had been forged were in the oncoming lane, traveling from the direction of the mine. Though the pristine snow-covered lane was nice to look at, it would’ve been a lot easier to follow behind a plowed line of someone else’s tires. Mike even had enough sense to proceed with caution. He slowed down to about 5 mph. My “peace and quiet” would take a little longer than what I’d anticipated. We were about two miles from the mine when Mike finally broke the awkward silence booming inside the car.
“It’s going to feel pretty strange, what with my family not owning the mine anymore,” Mike remarked.
“Well, I guess you’ll just be known as ‘some rich guy’s son’, rather than ‘some rich guy’s son whose father is their dad’s boss’,” I quipped. “Don’t worry, Mike. I’m sure your popularity among Welch’s female population will remain intact.”
“Funny,” Mike replied with a smirk. He shifted in his seat and sat up a bit straighter. “I was being serious.” I watched Mike stare out at the icy, snow-covered road ahead. He seemed melancholy. “I didn’t want him to sell it,” Mike added in a low, somber tone.
I found that puzzling. Surely, he didn’t want to stay in Welch for the rest of his life, destined to run a coalmine. If anyone had the means and resources to get the heck out of Welch it was Mike Riverside.
Why on earth wouldn’t he want his dad to get rid of it and be richer for it?
“Why not?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Mike replied, shaking his head. “This deal came from out of nowhere, and well…there’s just something about Lazarus Xcavare that I don’t like. He’s been staying in our guesthouse for the past few days. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something, I don’t know—”
