Chapter Twenty - The coldness of a broken soul
Pawa’s usually lazy night was full of action, breaking the quiet. Many police officers had descended on the sleepy camp in one large group, and then they fanned out around the boathouse area like ants at a picnic.
Mandy was standing out there too, just beside the large structure that was being searched. The young gal seemed to be a little hesitant with getting too close to the place, as the attack on her still played in her mind. She watched the officers as the looked inside and out of the boathouse, waiting to hear if they were going to find anything at all that would explain the noises heard by Shelly.
Officer Dana strode out of the large building and glanced over at the shorter girl who waited so intently. The tall policewoman looked at Mandy and made no attempt to smile as she approached.
“ No one was in the boathouse...” The officer started, then adding. “ But there is clear evidence that some things have been moved around a little though...”
“ Moved around?” Asked Mandy, tilting her head slightly... as that was quite interesting.
The tall lady cop nodded and sighed a little, then looked at the smaller gal that waited on her to speak.
“ There are a few canoes stored in there that definitely have been moved in haste... almost as if who ever had tried to move one, then another on their own... only to end up finding that they could not budge either of them alone.”
“ Any of the inflatable rafts we have... are they gone?” Mandy asked.
“ By the list of how many that was given to us, it seems like they are all still there.” Said Officer Dana. “ They are checking the lists to see if anything is missing from there in the first place... that will tell us what this person was after, although it looks like some transportation.”
Mandy nodded, understanding that the cops were being thorough. She paused and thought on the information for a few seconds.
“ Do you think it could have been Alison who was trying to take a canoe like that to get away somehow on the lake?”
“ Perhaps it was Alison... perhaps not either...” Stated the Officer slowly, her eyes telling that she was thinking the same way at least on her own. “ We are right now collecting any fingerprints we can find to see if she even had been there in the first place... but there is no clear cut sign if it was her or not.”
“ Do you think then... that it was Alison or not?” Asked Mandy again, wanting to get a sense of what Dana might be fully thinking.
The officer shrugged her shoulders at the question posed by Mandy. She paused as if making sure of what to say next.
“ I am not sure what your camper named Shelly really had hear coming from in there...” She started slowly. “ ... but what we have found in there makes up pause to think... It does raise more than a few questions when you see a that a few canoes are moved compared to others in there.”
“ So are you tryin’ to say that it could have been Alison in the boathouse earlier?”
“ Like I said... we are not sure of anything right now.... other than things have been moved.” She said, then added. “ We suspect that it was... yes, but we have no basis other than that.”
The officer’s deep unsureness did not sit well with Mandy. She wanted to know for sure if it had been Alison or not in the boathouse, but even the cops seemed not to have a solid clue to it. She had a feeling in side of herself, that it just might have been the girl that was still evading the police... and that did not sit well.
Mandy shook her head and began to walk off as she felt her frustration building inside of herself, leaving the police to do their jobs. She headed off in search of something to do for awhile because it felt like sleep was not in her vocabulary at this point in time despite the lateness of the hour.
She looked at the water for a moment as she walked off, looking at how calm the lake was around the end of the dock. She eyed the long wood dock for a second or two, as something had attracted her attention, but nothing was even there... she had no clue what had attracted her to look over. Everything seemed to be as normal as it could be, and she wondered if her mind was playing with her a little bit.
“ I think I need a smoke...” Her mind told her without a flinch, continuing up the path and away from the lakeside.
She got to the smoking area, after stopping in on the cabin to check on things with Olivia and her sleeping bunch, and to grab her cigarettes while she did. Lighting one for herself, she took a seat and just listened to the voices of the officers she could hear from even this far away, yet her mind still was thinking on whatever it was that had made her look at the dock in the first place. It had now taken over her every thought she had.. because she had no explanation for it
After a long while of being out there in the heat of the night, she had to take a pause. She was surprised when she soon had came to realize that she had already smoked three cigarettes in the space of an hour... she had been out there that long. It was clear by how quickly she had went through the cigarettes, which she never does normally, just how stressed she was because of this crap.
She shook her head and started to laugh at herself a little, all the while she was lighting up another smoke. After three... one more was not going to hurt anything
“ A beer or two would go nicely with this about now...” She mused with herself, finding it rather funny that she was even thinking like that.
Mandy finally finished up her smoke, and found that it might be the time to go and try and sleep. Whatever was happening around camp was under control, now was the time her body was telling her.
” Exhaustion sometimes is such a good thing... now and then...” She said to herself, finding that she ended up even laughing at that little self-statement.. “ Lord... I must be really be damned tired... Think I’m going Just a little crazy here.”
Mandy had stepped only a few feet between the two buildings that would lead out to the main area of camp and the path that led back to Cabin Nine... when she felt something jabbed in her back. It was hard and round, instantly she know that it was a gun.... and her mind flickered to her suspicion of who it was
“ Hello there, Mandy...” Said a voice, familiar yet cold from behind her.
Mandy’s mind was in shock, as she already knew it was Alison’s voice behind here... and it was also Alison who apparently had a very large gun jammed into her spine. She felt the cold hand of fear grip her, as she came to the realization of what was happening to her.
“ Alison...” She stammered, feeling all the blood leaving her face.
“ Nice to see you again... My dear sweet Mandy...” She said, her voice having no inflection to it.
Alison’s voice was so flat, it held for Mandy nothing in the way of anything to it. It was as if the woman she had loved, was taken over by some unknown entity... no love or anything was in that voice, only a desperate growl. She could hear the voices of police off in the distance, and knew she could not call out to them in no way.
Thinking on her feet the best she could under the circumstances, the short petite girl tried to keep herself calmed down.
“ What is it that you want?” She asked with a little waver in her voice, trying not to show her fear.
“ Just a little bit of help here from you...” Alison coldly said back, her voice totally was void of any feeling or emotion.
“ You should just turn yourself in you know... That would be the best thing right now...” Said Mandy, trying to keep the conversation going to giver her a few more precious second to think. “ The police are here at camp and they are actually looking for you in a big way...”
Alison let out a laugh that was bordering on unsettling, sending a chill down Mandy’s neck. The woman had clearly lost her mind.
“ They are looking for me, I know it’s because of that goddamned rat of a boyfriend I left for dead back there with that little whore slut he was fucking right in front of me!” She snuffed, eyes flashing with the redness of anger. “ Those cops should be giving me a medal for that...”
“ You... killed them?” Mandy stammered, now hearing the truth for herself... and the fear that came with that knowledge.
Alison smirked calmly, almost as if she was proud of what she had done. It was chilling to the young girl at the other end of the gun.
“ That bitch led him on... wanted to get fucked... so he took her to that clearing and made her give what she was so wanting to give...” She spat, with evil venom. “ Then he want to fuck me, and did... so when he was done and looked so smug about it, proud that he had fucked a little girl and then me.. I up and shot him, then I knew I had to kill that little crotch rot of a girl as well...” She smirked even more evilly. “ Ands that felt so damned good.”
“ You should just turn yourself in and tell your side of the story... He raped that girl, and you... they might go easier on you knowing what he had done...” She pleaded. “ Listen to me...you have to think of the little life growing inside of you as well... give yourself up for at least the sake of that baby you were so happy to get!”
Alison’s face turned even more blank, as she levered her gaze at Mandy. She seemed to have this wild anger flash through, an anger that made her look not even human. She patted her stomach and gave this wicked look at Mandy.
“ You know, that little skanky bitch wanted to get raped, and that fucker Allen obliged her. It was clear that he did not want me, or his baby, just my fucking cunt to slam when he wanted, and get young stray stuff as well... so I needed to kill them both... that is why I am trying to avoid the whole ‘getting arrested’ thing here...” She said, with a giggle that seemed to be almost as fear inducing as the weapon she held. “ He had it coming, you know?”
“ Your crazy...” Said Mandy, knowing fully that her ex-lover’s mind was now twisted.
Alison laughed manically, still training her weapon firmly onto the woman that stood there.
“ Maybe I am... but I am smart enough to know that with this gun... you will help me get away...” She whispered so cooly, getting this far away look in her eyes. “ I know that you still love me, still feel for me.... You never cheated on me ever, so I know that you will help me...”
The woman with the weapon then fell silent for a moment, which made Mandy’s fear responses go into overdrive. What Alison was telling her that happened, made no sense to Mandy, all she knew was that she had just admitted to killing both that poor young girl and Allen. That was not a good thing to know at this time, as that same killer gun was still in the murderer’s hand... and that person was far that mentally stable.
The now unrecognizable bookworm then let out a long sigh and poked the gun hard into the back of Mandy.
“ Enough of this for now...first we take a little walk together...” Flatly said Alison, turning Mandy around so she could shove her to walk in the opposite direction. “ ... then we can have a nice chat once we are far away from all of the police that are around here...”
Bodily whirled around by Alison, Mandy finally was finally placed face to face with her ex-lover for the first time since the messiness of the break up. What Mandy came face to face with, made her gasp with total disbelief. This was not the woman that she had known and loved all of this time, and now seeing her now standing there with the cold grey steel of a gun right at her with nothing to loose... put that point home.
Alison looked very disheveled, as here clothes were all smudged and wrinkled from the days she was on the run. There was a thick caking of dirt all over that pretty face, those normally pretty eyes that were behind the very smudged glasses were what disturbed Mandy the most with her appearance. Those eyes were cold and hard as the rocks out on the sandbars in the lake.. there was no hint of any life left in them.
As Mandy stared nervously at the large caliber gun that was still leveled at her... she could see only stoniness was left in those brown eyes of Alison’s.... they were so hard with not one inkling of any emotion whatsoever held in the girl.
“ Where are we going then?” Mandy asked, trying to keep herself as calm as she could be, as the woman shoved her to keep moving... Away from the floodlights at the front of the buildings.
“ Why... to your car... What else?” Said the woman, her tone was almost a smug sort of flat.
“ My car...” She stammered, knowing that if they went the way she was being pushed, no one would see her with Alison.
Mandy thought quickly, she knew that she had to really get some plan up to try and keep herself alive. Alison was totally off her rocker at the moment, and with that gun she held... there was no telling what she might end up doing. The fact that she has killed already, haunted the young councilor... it very well could be that Alison was perfectly capable of now killing her.
“ I don’t have my keys with me.... They are in my room back in the cabin...” She said, trying to buy some time to think of what to do.
“ Nice try...” Said the bookworm so coldly, a air of superiority creeping through her words as she jammed the barrel of the gun harder into Mandy’s back. “ I happen to still have a copy of your car key right here with me, and avoiding any need to try and get them from you...”
Mandy swore at herself in her head. She had forgotten that Alison had a set of keys to everything, because they had not settled their break up yet. Apartment keys, Car keys and even a key to her own safety deposit boxes back in the city. Alison still had everything... including that gun in her hand. In the world of cards... Alison had a straight flush... while she held only a pair of deuces. The pot seemed empty.
“ Then if you have a key... why take me?”
“ Like I said... I need you to help me get away from this hell-hole of a place.” Flatly said Alison
Unknowing what to do next, she kept on walking with Alison kept pressing the gun tightly into her back. Mandy had no idea what to do... fearful to even calling out for help. That large gun was a great silence motivator.... and with children still around, even if they all were tucked in bed, it could end up being a virtual bloodbath, all starting with her.
She went along with Alison’s forceful request, hoping that she could wrangle her way out of this, without getting shot in the process. It did not look good... she saw no way out... and no way to tell why she wanted her with her