Night Swim

[rhiannon_lee]

As a girl, Rhiannon loved to swim. There were no pools in her neighborhood, save for the indoor facility at the YMCA and her father couldn’t pay the monthly membership, so she grew up with the mindset that swimming was a special treat. She learned by doing; when she was five years old, her father took her to the lake. The trip made a vivid memory. Mitchell Lee wore a pair of green trunks. His chest hair tickled Rhiannon’s fair skin as he strode confidently to the water. She saw herself reflected in the round, blue lenses of his sunglasses, and then she was airborne. He watched from the shore as she bobbed and sputtered and learned to doggy-paddle, never realizing her toes could reach the bottom.

Her mother, so pretty and healthy at the time, scolded him and wrapped her skinny, shivering daughter in a towel. “Again!” she shouted and Mitch was redeemed, long ago in a life so far away it ached.

She stood on a flat expanse of rock and looked down.

It was fifty feet or more to the surface. Lake Mohave was deep and cold, an anomaly in the desert. At night the surface looked as black as asphalt. Rhiannon unlaced her boots and set them aside. She stripped off her clothes and stood in her bra and panties. Years of running through a lawn sprinkler in her underwear had taught her that they were just as functional as a bikini. Who cared?

What would it feel like to dive down and swim to the bottom? Could she go so far that her ears popped and she ran out of air and her muscles seized up from the cold? If it happened, would she panic or decide it was okay? She stretched her arms overhead and inched to the sharp edge of the promontory. Her toes curled over it.

She imagined Duncan’s hands on her back. They pushed her.

Rhiannon fell into the open air.

[Thread: Open to Devin]

Comments

[devin_capshaw]

He stopped when he didn't feel like driving anymore. He cut the lights off, pulling out the single key. It was attached to a key chain the dealer had given him. Come to Walter Motors. Devin had a thing about key chains.

The blond man pulled the six pack off the passenger seat, shut the door, and made his way toward the lake. It was ink black, and he felt like he was at the end of the world here.

A resounding splash drew his attention. Devin didn't have time to catch sight of whatever had broken the water's surface. He set the beer down and walked closer.

[rhiannon_lee]

The impact stung her face and pushed all the oxygen from her lungs. Rhiannon’s body sliced through the water and it wasn’t as cold as anticipated. She swam in a blind search for the bottom until her fingers stirred the sediment and tangled in slick cords of aquatic grass. She tugged them loose and then used her feet to propel herself up. Although the water was clear, there wasn’t enough ambient light to tell her where the surface would be. When she broke it, she gulped at the air.

Looks like I won’t be drowning today.

She tread water and opened her palm to inspect the vegetation she had torn up by its roots. Water dripped from the tip of her nose.

[devin_capshaw]

When the person in the water finally surfaced, he felt like it was socially acceptable to open a beer. Devin was worried for a second he'd either have to do something heroic, or be the subject of a Phil Collins song.

"I'm guessing you meant to do that, then," he said, gesturing with the green bottle.

It was a beautiful night out, too beautiful to spend in his motel room. He had banged out about 2,000 words and felt that was all he owed the day.

[rhiannon_lee]

“Jesus!”

Rhiannon jerked in the water. When she flailed, her hands slapped at the surface and the prized blades of lake grass floated away. Water stung her nose and her chest hurt. It took her a second to understand that her pounding heart was the cause of the latter. She hadn’t experienced it in years. It was difficult to startle a Slayer, but he had done it.

“How long have you been there?” She squinted. The man had shaggy blonde hair and a beer can. That was the extent of what she could see. If he was standing there, undetected, while she peeled off her clothes, she was going to be severely disappointed in herself.

[devin_capshaw]

He sheepishly consulted his watch. "Um, maybe two or three minutes? That's tops." Devin took a guilty drink.

"I didn't mean to give you a coronary. I was worried you were drowning, or pulling an Ophelia."

Devin couldn't see what she was wearing, or not wearing, in the water. He watched the head settle in his Heineken.

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon lightly snorted. “Ophelia… She should’ve kicked him in the balls and slept with his friend, like any self-respecting woman.” She held her breath and went under to let the water wash her hair back from her face. Her legs bicycled to keep her afloat. She swam towards the rocks to get a better look at him. Decent height, an angular face he didn’t bother to shave with any frequency.

“So, stranger danger, will you be offering me a beer or just staring at your shoes all night?”

She sipped at the lake water running down her face.

[devin_capshaw]

"It's on the house tonight," Devin answered. Usually he caught himself in his own thousand-yard stare before anyone else could. He must have been off his game.

"You going to drink it on land, or should I toss you one?"

Passing clouds shifted the light, and he caught a clearer glimpse of her face.

"Fair enough. I think a lot of those tragedies could have been solved the same way. Tybalt? Didn't have to kill him. A kick in the junk would have sufficed."

[rhiannon_lee]

Much as she savored the swim, Rhiannon couldn’t see herself bobbing in the lake with a glass container in her hand, trying to avoid a case of the dropsies. “Hang on, I’m coming for it.” She reached up to the nearest rock and latched on with her fingertips. The brunette hauled herself up smoothly, a feat that an athlete could have accomplished with a little effort, so it wasn’t too out of place. There were times when Rhiannon forgot what a normal body was and was not capable of doing with ease.

Once she gained her footing, Rhiannon squeezed her hair. Water split-splattered on the ground. Her undergarments clung wetly to her skin, but she didn’t rush to cover up. She picked up her tee shirt and navigated the tricky footing to where he stood. Flailing about like a sea lion under attack was enough embarrassment for the evening; she didn't need to add falling on her face.

“Thanks.” She reached for the bottle.

[devin_capshaw]

Devin watched her climb out of the water, but looked politely away when he realized what she was wearing.

Nothing worse than being startled, and being startled by a perv on top of it.

"So, I have to know. How's the water?"

[rhiannon_lee]

She looked over her shoulder at the lake, which had returned to its black semi-stillness. “Not as cold as you’d think.” Using her t-shirt for grip, Rhiannon twisted the cap off the beer and she took a sip. The bitter fluid washed across her taste buds. She shook out the cotton fabric of her top and pulled it overhead one arm at a time. “I take it you haven’t been out here before?” On one side of the lake, a recreational area sprung up in the form of recreational vehicles and rough-hewn public restrooms. She figured him for a meandering type who stayed in one of those campers. It wasn’t a bad idea. After that showdown in the city, maybe she ought to look into it.

Rhiannon pulled her hair through the neck hole.

[devin_capshaw]

He leaned himself against one of the rocks, not quite sitting, not quite standing. The beer was losing its coldness, but he didn't mind. Devin had taken a two week trip to Ireland once, so he was okay with drinking it a little warmer.

"You'd be right. I'm pretty green here."

A satellite glowed its way above them, blending into the smattering of stars. He traced its path with his eyes.

"I'm used to Lake Michigan. It's like taking an ice bath, no matter the time of year."

[rhiannon_lee]

“Oh yeah?” Rhiannon’s toes curled around a broken piece of rock and picked it up. “I grew up in Detroit.” She thought again about the family trip to Lake St Clair, her father’s grunt as he hauled her up, how she dug her toes into his freckled shoulders and jumped. In the beginning, he had wanted to be a daddy.

Too late, she remembered that sharing personal information with a stranger might not be the best idea. He could be affiliated with the Council, a contractor hired on to locate the Slayer and report back. Well, so be it. They knew her social security number, blood type, fingerprint, probably even her cup size. What harm could she do?

Rhiannon swigged the beer.

“Never thought I’d end up here.”

[devin_capshaw]

He was nursing his own beer; he had always been a slow drinker. Devin leaned down to scoop up a large pebble, then tossed it toward the water. He watched it splash with a lopsided smile.

"So you started in Detroit. That's a long way from here. What was in between?"

And this he liked, other people's stories. It was his own adult way to get someone to read to him. Devin would never admit that to anyone out loud, of course.

[rhiannon_lee]

She thumbed the label on the bottle. "Cities even farther away. New York and Pittsburgh." It made life easier to leave out England, as any type of travel abroad piqued curiosity and she didn't like maintaining complicated lies. "I've done urban industrial to death. Thought I'd try something sparkly for a change. What about you?"

A fish plopped in the water.

[devin_capshaw]

"Oh, right. My turn. Um..."

Devin looked at her sitting on the rock, and she reminded him a little of a mermaid.

"Have you ever been to one of those fake old west towns? I don't know if they have these in Michigan. But when I was a kid, we took this weekend trip to one.

There was a fake gun fight at noon, a sheriff, the whole bit. You could get your picture as a Wanted poster. What I remember most, though, was they let kids think they could mine for real gold. We got to keep what we mined, these little nuggets of -- something -- covered in gold flake paint."

He took a drink, a breath. "When I found out it wasn't real gold, I was pissed. That doesn't really explain it, does it? I read about this place and its history. I want to write something that really gets into people's heads, you know. The American DNA. Greed and wealth."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Whatever you do, don't leave out the violence," she said. "It's in the blood." Rhiannon wondered what he meant about the history of Searchlight. She had not researched the town before going to it. She hadn't planned out her escape from the east coast at all. The idea had been this: the less she calculated the move, the less chance that anyone would anticipate her next move. She simply rode a series of buses until it felt right to stop.

Well, so much for that idea, now that Julianna had shown herself.

Rhiannon weighed a rock in her hand. At home, the rocks were weathered and smooth. Here, they chaffed the skin.

"So you write professionally? Journalism, fiction, nonfiction...?"

[devin_capshaw]

"No," Devin mused, "I definitely won't forget the violence." And he smiled at her, because she was on the same page, so to speak.

What he wanted, and what he aimed for, was to make people believe in monsters again. What better way than to explore what really scared people? Almost half of his new book took place underground, and there was something in the collective conscious that feared what was underneath.

"The way you're holding that rock," he pointed out, "makes it look like you'll lob at me if you don't like my answer."

A beat, and then, "Fiction, and yes, professionally, depending on who you ask."

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon smiled and let the rock slip from her fingers. It bounced and skittered until it struck water. “I can’t say I like journalists. Granted, I haven’t had to deal with one, but I can’t imagine wanting to be nosy and intrusive on a professional basis. That entitlement, you know? It just pisses me off. There are so many things people have no business knowing.”

She rubbed her toes against her ankle bone.

“I like fiction, though. What kind? You look like a Vonnegut kind of guy.”

[devin_capshaw]

Devin gave a half-hearted shudder. "Journalism is definitely not for me. I'm not a 'just the facts, ma'am' kind of person. I like to embellish too much."

He looked up at the dark sky thoughtfully. "Not...quite. I'm the guy who picked up Slaughterhouse Five thinking it was about something else entirely.

"I like scary stories," he explained. "And I write them, too."

[rhiannon_lee]

“Really?”

She angled her face. Boy, you’ve come to the right place… And he had come to the desert because of its history. It was definitely time to do some historical digging. Well, if she stayed. Rhiannon’s patience with that hotel room was wearing thin, but as much as she wanted to evade the Council, she wanted to be where the action was even more.

“I have a love/hate relationship with scary things. What scares you?”

She drank her beer and swirled the contents.

[devin_capshaw]

He tapped his fingers against his jeans-clad thigh, then set his empty bottle back in the cardboard holder.

"The unknown, I guess? Sometimes not seeing what's there is scarier. Like," Devin gestured to the lake, "what's hiding down there? You could have jumped in and been swallowed up by some -- seaweed monster, or something."

He laughed at himself. "Okay, that was a lame example. But you don't seem scared of a whole lot. I could be some crazed serial killer, but here you are, talking and drinking with me."

[rhiannon_lee]

“Oh, I’m pretty tough.” Rhiannon said. “Besides, bad guys don’t avert their eyes when you’re caught in your underwear. Unless they're gay.” Accidentally tear your shirt in a fight and even vampires took a second to leer. At least they died happy. She polished off the bottle and set it beside her.

She lifted her hair and squeezed it again. Moisture had spread across her shirt so that it stuck to her uncomfortably. She peeled it away from her shoulder. A towel would have been genius of her.

“What I be right in guessing you’re afraid of the dark?”

[devin_capshaw]

Devin couldn't think of a smart-assed enough reply to that one. No one's too tough for a seaweed monster. No, that was horrible. Instead, he picked up a fresh beer and popped it open with his thumb.

"It depends on the type of dark. This kind of dark is normal. You have the moon, the stars, you're here of your own volition. Your purpose is to be alone, or, well, as alone as you can be with me here.

But then there's the dark where you wake up in a cold sweat and you can't even see your own hand, and you swear there's someone watching you, and then you hear a noise -- "

Devin trailed off.

[rhiannon_lee]

“I generally operate under the assumption that someone is watching me.” Rhiannon got to her feet and retrieved her pile of clothes. She returned to his side and tugged her jeans up one leg. “Ghost, monster, creepy neighbor. The only reason to worry is if they plan on doing something.” She hopped into her pants and buttoned them. “But I know what you mean about the cold sweat.”

She shook out her socks. “So can I buy your books in a store?”

[devin_capshaw]

"So you believe in all that?" Devin crossed his arms, his curiosity piqued. "Are you used to being watched by things? Because that would explain the toughness."

Her next question brought him back to reality. "Just the one book. I mean, I've had some short stories published, but that doesn't count. I had one in Playboy, but my expectations of who actually read it are...realistic.

"But I did get recognized here, at a gas station of all places. It was pretty random."

[rhiannon_lee]

"I've been watched by a few things. It doesn't make me any different than most people. I just notice." Rhiannon put on her socks with some difficulty and began to work the knots free in her shoelaces. "Anyway, I believe in everything. I believe until experience proves otherwise. It seems safer." She balanced on the ball of each foot and crammed them into her boots.

[devin_capshaw]

Devin shrugged, watching her put on the boots.

"I don't know what I believe. I always thought it was easier to accept monsters and demons and whatever else were behind evil deeds. Isn't it scarier to think humans can naturally be that bad? I always thought so."

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon looked up at him through wet strands of hair. In the few weeks she’d been in Searchlight, she had behaved like a loner, holding real conversations with few: Tristan (a vampire), Elfleda (some kind of hell creature), Julianna (a watcher), and now a horror writer who believed in demons. Tallied together, the odds alarmed her. In the world of the supernatural, coincidences were rare. People and demons were alike in one way: they were marionettes dancing on strings controlled by bored gods and demons, and Earth was a puppet theater.

She finished tying her shoes and straightened up.

“Let me ask you a question. Why’d you come here, really? Was it something you read in a library book or a feeling, down deep in your guts, that you were supposed to? Because what you’re saying--” She cut herself off and rubbed her lips together. “It’s like what you said about the fan you met in the gas station. What are the odds? You believe in demons. You run into me, and so do I, and it’s not a commonly held belief.”

[devin_capshaw]

His first instinct was to avoid her gaze, but he didn't. He could have waffled, backtracked, but why should he? She had a point.

"A gut feeling," Devin admitted, then rubbed idly at his face. "I've ignored them my whole life, and thought maybe I should try for once. See what happens.

"The kind of scary thing? I think I like it here. I can't really pinpoint why, but I do. I feel like I should be here."

He shrugged. "So, are you here to find the demons?"

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon stared at him. What to say? He wouldn’t be the first civilian to hear the truth from her mouth. However, she didn’t do it often. People reacted poorly, first to the news that the world was an even shittier, more complicated place than they realized, and second to the idea that she was physically stronger than them, by a lot.

Keep it simple, stupid.

She hooked her thumbs into her hip pockets.

“Yeah.”

“I find them and, in exchange, you get to keep a world where the scary things are unknown. But if you stay here? They won’t be for long.”

[devin_capshaw]

He nodded, letting that sink in. "I'll take that into consideration."

He wasn't going to leave Searchlight, not just yet. Devin had tried the living near the homestead thing, with limited success. Around his family, he was just one of the kids. On his own, he was more himself.

In a way, he felt a little like a nomad. He could never get settled in one spot before a greener patch of grass called to him.

"So. Night-swimmer, demon-finder, ball-busting Ophelia...do you have a more official name?"

[rhiannon_lee]

"Rhiannon."

The wind blew harder. With so much open land, the gusts came at a clip, and when they picked up sediment, the air stung her cheeks like the cold had done in Michigan. She combed pieces of hair away from her cheek.

"You? Assuming that beer chugging, horror writing, peeping tom doesn't suit?"

[devin_capshaw]

"Yeah, mine are decidedly less flattering."

He poured out his half-full bottle onto the ground, then tucked the bottle away. He was calling it in.

"I'm Devin. I'd shake your hand, but it would make me feel like a tool."

[rhiannon_lee]

“Intention noted.” Rhiannon picked up her empty bottle. “I’m gonna get out of here, but the way things are going, I think I’ll see you around.” She contemplated him a little longer, then cut around Devin and picked her way to the car. She looked back once.

“Don’t get eaten by a lake monster.”

One thing was coming clear. She was meant to be here. They all were.