Story: Camp Pawa: The other side of a coin (chapter 21)

Authors: Jdwheels

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Chapter 21

Title: Chapter 21 - A desperate heart

[Author's notes: When a heart sees the one they love in danger, the mind does not think clearly.]

Chapter Twenty One - A desperate heart


 Olivia looked at her watch probably for the hundredth time this evening. The time was nearly three thirty in the morning.  She sighed and looked up at the silence of the main area of Cabin Nine. The night was so peaceful at this time of day, but the woman was far from feeling peaceful..

 Something was bothering the middle aged woman, and it seemed like it was not going to go away.  Her councilor partner and new lover had not came back to the cabin as yet. The younger woman had left to talk to the police about something that one of the campers had heard when she had gone to the bathroom, then went with them as they checked things out. Now that Olivia had noted that the police had came and checked things out thoroughly... and already left roughly a hour ago now... there still was no Mandy.

 She was getting a little worried, and as she sat there in the near darkness... she was now having a feeling that something was wrong. She looked at her watch again for a second then cursed herself for doing it.
  “ Jesus Christ!! Where is she?” She whispered to the stillness, getting fidgety with every passing second.

 Mandy was the one who was always on time, even when she had not been.  Olivia took that as a sign that there was something out of place in Camp, and that what was driving her gut feelings about it.

 She stood up from the stool she was on and walked around the quiet area, trying not to get too upset. She sighed after about four minutes of moving, as it was not working one little bit.  She rubbed her hands on her shorts, trying to defuse her nerves a little... but that did not even start to help. She wiped her sweat cover brow and kept moving a little, as that was the only thing she could do.

 Irene came in to the cabin, and quietly went over to the woman.  Olivia frowned at the sight of the woman, it was not the one who she wanted to have been coming through that door.
  “ Pretty quiet out there now...” Irene whispered, her heavy accent making it hard to decipher. “ Only a hour ago it more busy than a worker bee in the hive with the cops and all.”
  “ Its pretty much quiet here too...” She said, but finding herself frowning. “ I take it all of the police out there are gone?”
  “ Only one black and white is out there at the moment, parked just in front of the admin building at the moment.” Irene said. “ I passed it a few minutes back, It seems like the other cops have left...”

 Irene was about leave to head back out, but Olivia stopped her with a hand on the shoulder.  When the thin woman looked at Irene, she could see a look in this eyes that made her stay put.
  “ Have you seen Mandy out there by any chance?” Olivia asked.
  “ Mandy... no.. I saw her out there awhile back talking to that really tall policewoman next to the boathouse...” Started the woman, looking deeply into Olivia’s face with a question. “ I have not seen her since... why? She’s not here?”

 Olivia shook her head and cleared her throat.... reminding herself that she might be just overreacting somewhat.
  “ She has not come back to the cabin yet.” She said as calmly as she could muster up.
  “ She’s probably out there having a cancer stick as usual...” Said Irene, with a smile that was soothing.
  “ For well over an hour?” Asked Olivia.
  “ After the few days like we have had... I’m about to pick up the habit myself!” Laughed Irene. “ She probably sitting there talking to someone who is having a smoke too, and simply was enjoying not thinking on all of this bloody crap any more.”

 Olivia smiled, it seemed like a very logical explanation.
  “ Guess your right..” She agreed, feeling a little better.
  “ It has been an hour?” She asked.
  “ Over an hour.”  She said, trying not to look like some mother hen.
  “ Here, I have one of my brilliant ideas...” The lady said back to Olivia, smirking with playful glee. “ I will stay here and watch over your little *coughs* ‘angels’ and you go and check.”
  “ You will?” She asked, with a smile creeping on to her face.
  “ Yeah... but don’t be long... I have my own little pack of demons to tend to..” She giggled.
  “Any one of these kids can be little demons... but we do love them you know...” Said Olivia, with a smile.

 Irene rolled here eyes, as she agreed with the woman’s little comment
  “ Sometimes I wonder about the whole ‘demon’ tag..” Sighed Irene, her playful smile lifting the mood a little.
  “ You wonder?” Olivia said back. “ About what?”
  “ It’s like once in a while... I have this urge to check if there is a ‘666' tattooed anywhere on some of them.... but only at times.”

 Olivia giggled at that from Irene... and wondered if the McCabe sisters might just be the ones that would have had the mark of beast on them. If any kids that had ever been in her care over the years, the fighting twins just  might be the ones who were the ‘Satan spawn’. She thought back and amended that thought for a moment, as the one called Tracy could very well be Satan’s child.  She giggled, that might have been the better choice for it.

 With a nod of thanks, Olivia hurried past the bony thin councilor and hustled herself out the door.  She seemed a little more lighter, as she headed off to find her diminutive partner whereabouts.

 Irene shook her head and took a seat on the stool that sat in the main area of Cabin Nine. She seemed to listen to the silence that hung there, and gave a small smile with the stillness around her.
  “ This will be a breeze..”  She said to herself, settling on to the stool.

******

 Olivia found the smoking area empty. There was no short pretty girl sitting out there enjoying a smoke or nothing. She felt her heart sink a little, as that same feeling crept back in onto her.  She had not passed the short woman on the trail or anything... this was getting really unnerving.  She walked around the building that housed the Councilor’s lounge, going to check out a hunch she was having.

 The woman went around and straight to the parking lot. The place was even more still, as the row on top of rows of cars sat in the quiet of the night, all were lit by the one huge flood lamp that was on top of a tall pole. She was not sure why her hunch had brought her hear, but at this lat of night, anything was worth checking in to.

 She scanned the many rows of cars slowly, looking for the one car that she knew was Mandy’s.  She had been thinking that the woman might have decided to sit inside her car and listen to the radio while having a smoke. Mandy had done that more than a few time she remembered.  That was exactly what her own mother had liked to do also when her father had quit smoking.  She was hoping that she was doing that tonight as well.

 Olivia came across an empty spot in the lot, it was the only empty place that was there. The woman’s blood ran cold in her veins, as she was absolutely sure that this empty stall was Mandy’s parking place.  She stood there and stared at the empty slot for a moment or two, her mind trying to make up a possible reason why the Mandy and her car was not there in the first place.

 She started to think that the Mandy had just gone off for awhile to take a bit of a drive while having a smoke to take a bit of a break.  Olivia did not smoke herself, but there had been more than one occasion that she had gone off to take a long drive to get the peace and quiet to think more clearly. She could relate to needing a little bit of a break herself from what had been happening around Camp.

 With all of this going on, she had thought about doing the exact same thing over the course of the last few days. She already knew the stress it had been putting on everyone in camp.
  “ She’ll be back in awhile...”  She said, assuring herself of Mandy just going for a drive.

 Olivia turned and was going to just head back to the cabin and simply wait for the woman to return from her drive. As she did,  something caught her attention when she had taken only a step or two away. It was something that really made her heart jump into her throat, and a very cold chill go through her.

 Illuminated perfectly by that huge flood lamp overhead, she had suddenly spotted on the ground, three very noticeable splotches of  red that was staining on the dirt of the parking place. She took a step closer, hesitant to look, as she was starting to be sure of just what it was that she was seeing.

 Being brought up on a cattle farm that did their own butchering for local markets when she was a little girl, she had already identified the pooling stain was a telltale trail of fresh blood. With it still sparkling in the light, she knew that blood had not been there very long, because it had not soaked into the dry earth yet.  Adding to all of this, she could not help but notice that the pooled trail of suspected blood was on the same side as the driver’s door would be.  Her mind felt numbed, as that reality clicked in her mind.
  “ Jesus fuckin’ Christ!! No!”   The woman spat with a gasp, whirling on her heals and to run away.

 On feet that pounded the dusty ground with ever stride she took, the woman hurried to get to where the lone police car was still parked. She knew she needed have someone look at what she had found, but she was desperately hoping that what she had discovered, was not what she had concluded happened.
  “ God... No please.. It cant be that...” She whispered as she raced straight for the black and white cruiser.

 Her mind had already started to fill in the blanks quickly, even though she did not want to even think of the possibility she was entertaining.  Inside herself, that tell tale little voice that had been nagging at her for what seemed to have been hours, now had grown to become a stabbing horror filled scream inside of her head. Something had happened to Mandy.

 With in the space of a minute, she had gotten Officer Livingstone and the two were checking out the empty parking stall.  Olivia was made to stand off to the side with a nightgown clad Alexis, who had came out to see what was happening after hearing the commotion going on.

 While the officer did her work, the two women stood there in the warmth of the night, each never speaking a word while they watched somberly.

 Both women looked very apprehensive, as they watched the officer who was kneeling down and doing something on the ground. At that moment, there seemed to be even a stranger silence going on around them, almost as if Mother Nature was holding her breath in waiting as well.

 The councilor looked at her boss, her face showing so many types of emotions she was having.
  “ You think something has happened to Mandy...” Olivia said, obviously her usually calm exterior was painted with everything she was experiencing.
  “ We don’t even know anything yet..” Said Alexis, yet her voice seemed to hold a air of being not convinced with herself. “ It could be just something else altogether... and a simple explanation for it...”
  “ Why do I always come back to Alison then.... could she have done something to Mandy?” Olivia asked, obviously not buying what the woman was trying to sooth her with.

 Alexis’s coming answer was cut off when Officer Livingstone was seen coming over to them.  She held up a long cotton swab and a small box like object in her rubber glove clad hands.  Olivia looked into the woman’s face, and found the Officer’s face had no smile, marking whatever she had to say or show them both... was not very good.
  “ I checked out the puddled substance you have pointed out to me over there...” She said.  “ I have to call this in... My test I have right here, it’s human blood, and it is not very old either.”  She frowned.
  “ Human blood...” Gasped Olivia, her eyes widening with horror.
  “ There is more...” The officer said, continuing without any inflection in her voice. “ On the ground there are two sets of fresh footprints in and around the blood... one is of a short adult person that is  barefooted, the other set is of another adult that is wearing a slip on type of shoe... that print is also small as well.”

 Olivia gasped, as her mind flooded with thoughts.
  “ Oh... my god...” She said, her words coming out as almost stammering every syllable. “ I remember that Mandy had not put on any shoes when she had gotten up the first time... she was still barefooted the last time I saw her when I sent her to talk to one of you Officers....”
  “ I was afraid that you might say that..” Said Officer Dana, her face showing it had lost all color.
  “ Why?” Asked Olivia, her only word wavering as she spoke it.

 The officer answered back with a very direct statement of her own, almost the instant that Olivia had finished..
  “ Because... I have see the shoe tread before... it had been left by the person in the shoes... they were all around Allen and that young girl’s bodies that we had found, and they were also the exact same prints that were found at the burglary scene in town as well....” She said, so plainly.
  “ Dear god.. is it Allison?   Is that what you are saying?” Olivia choked out, her mind seemingly reeling from the information.
  “ I am afraid so...It can’t be nobody else but Alison... these footprints are the same shoe prints we have positively identified as belonging to Alison Grey.” She grimly yet honestly answered. “ I have looked at the prints many times, and they are right down to the same wear patterns on the soles.”

 Olivia looked at the officer with her face now ashen white, her knees seemed to almost wanted to buckle right there.
  “ Alison has Mandy hostage?” She whispered, so afraid of verbalizing what was being suspected.
  “ Seems that could be one of the scenarios in play here.....” Said Dana, putting her hand on Olivia’s shoulder to comfort the woman a little. “ We need to contact our Police Headquarters as soon as we can... I need to know right now just what make and model that Mandy’s car is so I can get out a APB as fast as I can.”

 Alexis was quick to give the officer the information asked for, knowing it already because of the parking arrangements that had been made for all of the Pawa employees. As the two talked, Olivia slipped away quietly, her face showing that she had been crying a little as the others spoke to one another.

 A few seconds had passed and Officer Dana could hear the obvious roar of a car come to life. She quickly glanced up and saw Olivia was in her car, and was starting to drive off. She knew exactly what the woman was up to, and she felt her heart pound harder as this reality became all to real.
  “ Stop it you idiot... let us go and find them both... Alison is much too dangerous at this point of time for you to run amuck and play cop!!” She yelled out, frantically waving her arms as she tried to step in front of the car.

 The vehicle stopped, and the woman inside rolled down the window more, as the Officer tried to close the distance as quickly as possible.
  “ You do it your way, but that takes time...” Screamed Olivia out of the car window as she started to drive past the officer, making sure that the Police woman did not have any chance of stopping her. “ I am going to find them myself... and save time and hopefully save Mandy!”
  “ But you know that she already has murdered two people..” The police woman yelled out, as the car began to speed past her. “ She could very well ending up killing Mandy... or even killing you!”
  “ Waiting for all of you fucking cops is not an option... Alison will just have to fucking kill me if I find them...” Shouted Olivia, as her car lurched forward as she punched the accelerator and plunged into the night. “ Do what you need to, Officer... I will do what I need to do...”

 Alexis and Officer Livingstone could only watch helplessly as the woman in the car raced down the exit path and tear out of the camp at a high rate of speed, throwing a cloud of gravel wildly as she hits the main road that passes the camp.
  “ I need to call this in now... Alison is armed, and that damn foolish woman in going off half-cocked!.” She said, frantically hurrying for her car. “ Alison is dangerous enough on her own... with her having a hostage, she will be that much more unpredictable!  She just might kill Mandy, if she has not done so yet... and it would not be a stretch that she would kill Olivia if she succeeds in finding Alison out there”
  “ I fear that Olivia could be more dangerous than Alison and her gun is at this point..” Said Alexis calmly. “ Way more...”
  “ More dangerous?” Asked Dana, flashing a look of disbelief at Alexis. “ What the fuck are you sayin’?  Are you going completely nuts also?”

 Calmly, the head of Camp Pawa looked right at the policewoman, her eyes were solidly locked on to the officers.
  “ A woman that is in true love for the first time is more dangerous than any person with a gun...” Alexis said. “ Gun or no gun... Olivia is on a mission, and it might be Alison that needs to be protected at this point...”
  “ You think she is that dangerous?” Officer Dana asked, her mind seemingly now to understand what the head of Camp Pawa was saying to her.
  “ That... I have to say yes to..” Calmly said Alexis. “ She is now protecting the one she loves... that can block out anyone’s sense of right and wrong right there.”

 Taking a few steps towards her police car, the officer seemed to now get what was being warned about.
  “ Then we have to stop Olivia then... and then we can hopefully find Alison... and  a still alive Mandy!” Said an angry Dana.
  “ I hope that you can... it might be the only way to stop more killing...” Said Alexis, so calmly that it was spooky.

 The officer only nodded as she hurried over to her cruiser, she knew that Alexis might be firmly correct all too well.  She already had enough of death right now, this all had to come to some sort of end.

 As the officer radioed in, Alexis just stood and watched Olivia’s taillights fade off into the distance.  She could not see the lights after a few moments, and she turned to head back in to the administration building. She knew that the end game was now going on, and hoped that another tragedy was not in the mix.

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