Chapter Four

~Day Three~

Today, I woke up before Jake. My eyes opened quickly and urgently, but settled on Jake's peaceful state. His hands were tucked under the pillow and it made me wonder how he slept in his own bed alone. I wondered if he sprawled out across the mattress, or curled into a smaller ball. The corners of my lips twitched into a small smile, but quickly frowned once I remembered the mission at hand.

I sprung out of bed and pulled out a t-shirt and some cut-off shorts. I threw my hair back into a ponytail and pulled on my North Face, unknowing of what the weather would be like outside. I pulled on some socks and my Nikes and practically ran out the door. I quickly made my way to Miriam's cabin; but before I could reach it, James stepped in my path.

"Good morning, Vanessa." He said with a smile. I swallowed hard, feeling a new lump in my throat. Was that fear?

"Good--" I coughed, bringing my voice back from wherever it disappeared to. "Good morning, James."

"How did you sleep last night?" What was he getting at? Why was he concerned about how I slept?

"Fine. And you?" I answered his question as politely as I could.

"Wonderful. Now listen," he started to walk away from the cabins, guiding me by my elbow, "I know you and Jake were listening last night. I think it best to keep your mouth shut and not call the police. Because if you do, I will kill Miriam and you before Saturday. Do you understand?"

I nodded reluctantly and we stopped. He let go of my elbow and turned to me. I refused to look at him. A low chuckle emitted from his throat and I glance up; there's a smirk playing on his lips.

"I like that..." He mumbles, something in his voice hides what's behind that statement. I'm too scared to think about it too much. "But you can go ahead and tell Miriam."

He used the back of his fingers to stroke down my jaw line, the smirk still playing on his lips. I jerked away and he glared slightly. I looked away quickly.

"Because no matter what you do, she's going to die."

I made sure to not show the fear that was continuing to rise up in my insides. He held my chin in between his thumb and forefinger for a second. I was careful not to jerk away this time. I didn't want to anger him further; I wasn't sure what he would do if I did it again. He pulled away, smirking again, and walked back to his cabin.

I quickly ran back to Miriam's cabin, knocking ferociously at the door. I was bouncing up and down on my feet, impatient with how long it was taking to open the door. Patrick opened it what seemed like hours after my knocking, and I rushed past him, knocking him into the open door in the process.

"Miriam!" I yelled after not finding her in the living room. She came out of the bathroom and I rushed over to her.

"James is going to kill you. Literally kill you. Saturday night."

"What?" She asked confused, but yet not at the same time. How could she not be confused? I didn't understand. I'd be confused in her position. God, I hope she would listen to me.

"James is going to kill you. You have to call the police. I can't or he's going to kill us both."

"Nessa," she said, pushing the thought away, "I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding."

"He told me himself!"

"Nessa," she said sternly. It was like she was trying to not believe it. Like she knew it was going to happen, but she didn't want to believe it.

"Don't worry, nothing is going to happen."

I huffed in frustration. One of the times she decides not to listen to me would of course be now...

"Fine." I said, frustrated, heading for the door. "Don't believe me."
I walked out the door, ignoring her pleas, past James' cabin into mine and Jake's, uncertain of whether or not I should ignore it until the time came or do something. I didn't even know how he was going to kill her. All I knew was that he didn't care if he got caught, as long as he killed Miriam. I just hoped I wouldn't be an accessory to murder. But how would he know if I made the phone call? Still, I couldn't take that chance.

I could have Jake call the police. He didn't say he couldn't call the police. A new found happiness arose in me. A happiness that I hoped would last awhile.

"Jake, you need to call the police as soon as we get to town." I told him as soon as I got into the bedroom. I was still slightly out of breath and he jerked his head towards me.

"I used the cabin phone last night when you went to sleep. They said someone should be out this morning." He replied, dropping the things in his hands back into his suitcase and walking towards me.

I turned to face away from him and walked to the living room. I looked out the living rom windows and already saw the cops going up to all the cabins. A policeman came up to our door and knocked just as I closed the curtain. I opened the door.

"Is this Jake Chekov's cabin?" He asked, butchering Jake's last name. Jake came up behind me, shocking me, and causing me to jump. He placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Yes." He answered for me. He squeezed my shoulder and I looked down at the policeman's shoes.

"Thank you for calling us. We checked out James Gregory's profile. Turns out he's wanted around California for many murders of women in the areas of Sierra, San Francisco, and some other cities."
"Why?" I asked, looking back up at him, eager to hear his answer. I wanted to know what was all behind James' plan to kill Miriam.

"Pardon?" The policeman asked, raising an eyebrow behind his Aviators. I blushed slightly. I guess my question didn't really make sense...

"I mean, why has he been killing them?"

"Oh. Well, it seems he's had personal relationships with them beforehand. We don't really know ma'am, and we can't say too much information. Sorry." I shook my head as if saying "it's okay". I understood, I don't know why I asked. There was no point.

I watched around the policeman as they pushed James into a squad car and Macy rush out to try and get him, screaming and crying. I'd be devastated too if it were someone I loved...but she knew about the plan...why wasn't she going into one of those squad cars? I shook my head, throwing the thought away. She was probably no danger or threat. They probably didn't know...but I didn't want to rat her out for some reason... Maybe I could finally not be so worried about the unknown evens to happen at the end of the week. I didn't see her as a threat either. Macy was...Macy. She was a blonde under pitch black hair.

"Come on, Macy." Miriam tried to reason with her through the cabin door. "How could you have known he was a serial killer?"

I could hear Macy's weeping from behind the door. I sighed, frustrated. Oh, she knew alright. My mind started drifting back to wondering why she wasn't pushed into a squad car. Macy must have convinced them s**t didn't know.

"No, I'm not going!" She shrieked. I clenched my teeth and rolled my eyes. This was just nuts.

"Let's just go, Miriam." Patrick said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "She can get some rest over what just happened."

Miriam sighed and nodded. We headed out to the van and drove to a nearby shopping landing. Miriam had apologized to me countless times after James was arrested and promised to listen to me whenever I told her something like that. I shrugged. I guess I couldn't really blame her...I wouldn't listen to someone if they gave me the information that someone was going to kill me. I'd just be paranoid.

We arrived and Miriam and Patrick went their way and I was stuck with Jake; although, I wasn't complaining. After watching them walk off in their "in love" actions, he smiled at me and I smiled back.

We headed to a local souvenir shop that was filled with many beachy things; from sand dollars, to "real" shark jaws. We stopped a swivel stand with all turtle things and I smiled, my mind filling with memories. Happy memories, of course.

"What?" Jake chuckled, probably directed towards my goofy smile, but I didn't care. I liked these memories. It was before the death of my mom. Not after.

"Turtles were my mom's favorite animal." I explained as I picked up a ring with a mini turtle pendant on it.

A turtle charm caught my eye. It was sterling silver with peridots, the same color of my eyes, for eyes. I had a charm bracelet my mother had given to me, that was too big for me, a week before she died. I decided I would wear it when I got home.

Jake was watching me, probably waiting for me, so I pulled myself away from the charm and looked elsewhere, while Jake lingered behind. Maybe he wasn't waiting for me. I shrugged it off and continued looking around. I walked out and waited for Jake. He was at the checkout counter and stuffed something into his pocket. I playfully raised an eyebrow, confused by his actions. He only smiled at me and we went on.

We went into a couple of clothing stores and I ended up buying a few things. Soon, we piled back into Miriam's van and drove to a restaurant that was farther away from our cabin than any other places we went so far this week. It was just a small, cheap, place, but it was relaxing. The lighting was dim, with mainly just candles just lighting the tables, but there were dim lights on the walls as well. We were seated at a booth in the middle of the restaurant. All of the booths and tables were raised on platforms.

"I heard a storm is supposed to come through." Patrick said as we sat down and looked at the menus. My eyes quickly lifted from my menu to him.

"Really?" I asked. I wasn't a fan of storms, but I usually ignored a lot of them. Except for the larger ones. The ones that bring hail and tornado warnings.

"It's supposed to be the biggest this city has ever seen." Now that just made it worse. But then again, it may not be as big as say, Sierra City's big. Ours was scary, as in, seeing a tornado in the distance from my own house, followed by a few more around that one as well.

"How big?" Jake asked the dreaded question. I didn't want to ask it, I just wanted to hopefully ignore it tonight. Besides, Jake would be in the same room as me. I would be safe.

"Bigger than our big." Patrick replied. Ah crap.

"Our big was pretty big." Miriam said. Thanks for reminding me, Miriam. I glared at Miriam, then soon relived the events of the big storm that happened that year. It was after mom died too. At least Jonathan was there for me. I'd say that it was mom's death that brought us closer, but we'd always had a close bond when I was little. He'd protect me from Taylor's teasing and picking on. Once school started, he and I played on the playground together if we were on the playground together. After mom died, we'd hang around school together until dad came there to pick us up. Once high school started, he was never embarrassed to drive his little sister around until I got a car. We were just really close.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." Jake said, noticing the look on my face. I looked at his reassuring look and relaxed a little. It couldn't be that bad...could it?

Our waitress came and took our orders soon after the storm conversation, thank God, giving us new topics to discuss. We discussed what to do the rest of the week and then we broke off into our own conversation. Jake and I discussed our college plans and what we planned to do at college and then we slowly progressed onto personal life stuff.

"So," Jake said after taking a drink of his soda. "I know it might be kind of weird because we're not dating, but I noticed you couldn't take your eyes off of something in the souvenir shop we went into and I thought that I should get it for you. Think of it as...a friendship thing."

He pulled out the turtle charm I noticed earlier. He ripped the packaging off around it, letting the charm lay simply in his palm. The simplicity of it made it beautiful all in it's own. I smiled.

"I thought you might like it, I don't know what you're going to put it on, but I thought you'd find something to put it with."

I looked up at him to see him smiling at me, which made me smile even more. I gently took the charm out of his palm.

"Thank you, Jake." I said, letting it lay in my own palm. "It means a lot."

"I know. I just hope we can be friends for a long time."

"Me too." And maybe more. I thought.

We finished dinner soon after and headed back to the cabins. In the van, Jake and I decided that we would go check on Macy. Miriam and Patrick were visibly grateful for our offer. They either were already tired of Macy and James, or they wanted "alone time". I shook my head at the thought.

Once we got back, we went straight to Macy's cabin, not stopping at our own cabin first. I just wanted to check up on her and then go back and go to sleep without the thought of the storm ringing in my mind. I didn't want to hear the storm before it came. I didn't look up at the sky, afraid I wouldn't see any stars.

"Macy?" I asked while knocking on the door, shaking away the thought of the storm.

"Go away." She said as harsh as she could make it sound. "You two are the reason James is in jail."

"Macy," Jake said, confused, "he was going to kill your best friend.

"So? I don't care. I loved him." She replied. It felt like my jaw dropped to the porch of the cabin. What happened to "sisters before misters"? Out of all the guys that I dated, and Miriam dating Patrick, we always made sure a guy wasn't going to dictate us on how we spent our time. If we wanted to spend every waking moment with our boyfriends, we'd still find a couple of days in the week to see each other. So all of that was one thing, but killing your best friend is another. Jake and I looked at each other, a new glare set on my face and Jake's eyes slightly wide.

"Fine then." I said harshly. "Stay in there. I don't care either."

I walked back to Jake and I's cabin and walked in, not even bothering to close the door since Jake was going to follow me in right after.

Macy's always had problems, but that was f*****g weird." I told Jake. Which was true, but that was beside the point. Macy was always "different". Sometimes a lot of people asked us if she had mental problems. We'd answer "no", but Miriam and I talked about it after the first time someone asked us. We concluded that we actually didn't know if she did or not.

"Oh well," Jake said, running his hand through his dirty blonde hair. "Let's just go to bed, it was a long day, and we all need sleep."

"I'm not tired." I replied, simply. Jake sighed, running his hand through his hair for a second time.

"Me either. Wanna play cards?"

"Go Fish?"

"Sure."

Jake pulled a deck of cards out from his bag and sat down at the card table. I remembered sitting in the van with him and playing solitaire on he lap desk I lent him in the van. I sat down in the chair across form him at the table. I pulled my legs in Indian style position and he dealt out the cards.

As we played, the thunder started to roll in. The smaller, rumbling thunder didn't bother me. Once they started making cracks, I got nervous. Now the sound was getting louder with each crack, and I jumped every time lightning flashed or thunder boomed. Jake studied me with curiosity.

"Do storms scare you?" He asked me. Was that not obvious? I didn't enjoy that I was afraid of them. An eighteen year old afraid of thunderstorms? That sounds mature.

"No..." I said, but then a loud crash of thunder caused me to hold back a scream, resulting in a yelp. Good job, Ness. Way to make it even more obvious.

I didn't like how we were so close to the window. If it was supposed to be as bad as they said, it could break from hail crashing into it. The thunder started to get even louder and more frequent.

"Let's go to the bedroom. There's only a small window at the top of the wall--" Jake suggested, seeing that I wasn't liking the lightning. I didn't even tell him "yes". I cut off his statement and bolted for the bedroom and Jake chuckled slightly; although, I didn't see what was so funny. He reached the bottom of the bed and reached for the light, but the power went out.

"There's going to be a tornado, or a water spout, or something!" I cried, clutching the sheets in front of me, certain for death. Jake laughed and I felt the bed shift with his weight. He put his arm around me and laid me down gently, pulling into him and using his arm to keep me to him.

"I'm not going to let the storm get to you." He whispered in my ear. I shudder at the sudden warmth in my ear and  a flash of lightning made the whole cabin light up. I turned into his chest, knowing what was going to happen next.

Sure enough, a loud crack of thunder shook the cabin. Jake's arms tightened around me, keeping me against him. I buried my face into his chest. He rubbed my back gently, trying to calm me, and I remembered how my ex-boyfriend, Jason, wouldn't have done this for me. He would have just told me to ignore it.

I pushed the thought out of my head and slightly chuckled to myself as I found out that I was attracted to "J"s. Guys with "J" names. Before Jason was Jack. Before that was Jackson. Before that, Jared. All starting with "J"s. All ended up to be jerks with a capital, wouldn't you know it, "J". I hoped this "J" wouldn't turn out to be a Jerk. I didn't think he would. I certainly hoped he wouldn't.

Jake pulled me even closer as the thunder continued to get louder. I breathed in his scent. It smelled like ocean and my favorite cologne, Aqua Di Gio. Except on him, it made me like it even more.

I smiled. I could feel and hear his heartbeat and it lulled me to sleep.