Jennifer’s face went white and her breath began to hitch. The balcony dissolved, becoming the desolate cove once again.

Dusk settled over the water, elongating the already malevolent shadows.

Kids no more than sixteen or seventeen, preoccupied with tearing each other’s clothing off, and stumbled into the clearing, kissing and pawing at each other.

Neither one saw the beast rise out of the water, but Jennifer did.

“Run.” The word came out in a rush of an exhale; her lungs screaming in protest at letting the last of the breath go.

The kids didn’t notice until it was upon them. The screams cut off as soon as they began.

“Jenny!” Steve yelled, shaking her gently.

Her eyes refocused on him, darting between Tracy and Steve, her breath coming in tortured hitches in her chest.

“Breathe,” Steve said calmly. “Just look at me and breathe.” He kept eye contact with Jennifer. “Tracy, go get me a glass of water please.”

Tracy immediately obeyed.

“Two teenagers. It got them,” she wheezed after Tracy disappeared into the kitchen.

“Breathe,” Steve demanded.

Jennifer did as he instructed, staring into his concerned blue eyes. When Tracy returned with the water, Steve held it for Jennifer to drink.

“Jesus, Jen,” Tracy said, setting a hand on her forehead.

Jennifer broke eye contact with Steve to look at Tracy. She offered a slight smile and a shrug, and then looked back at Steve. Her breathing slowed to a normal pace. “I’m okay,” she finally said. She wanted to run, to get away from the apartment, to get away from Brooksfield and the nightmares plaguing her. “I need to change if we’re going to go.” She slowly stood.

“You sure you want to go?” Steve asked.

Jennifer nodded.

“I got her from here,” Tracy said, escorting Jennifer back toward their rooms. As soon as she was out of Steve’s earshot, Tracy stopped Jennifer in the hall. “What did you see?”

Jennifer shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

“Bull. The last time you did that, you saw Tom die.” She scooted Jennifer into her room. “What did you see?” she asked again. A cold draft slipped out of the closet, making her shiver. She glanced at the open doorway and turned to see Jennifer staring with wide eyes.

“Get Steve,” Jennifer managed to wheeze.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tracy said and walked over, switching the light on inside. She looked back at Jennifer. “Nothing to worry about.” Jennifer made no move to come closer, still struggling for air.

“What do you want to wear?” Tracy stepped inside.

“I don’t know,” Jennifer said, catching her breath again.

Tracy glanced at the clothing and pulled out another pretty spaghetti strap sundress, pale blue-green like the waters in the Caribbean. “I like this one,” she said and grabbed the matching flip-flops on the floor. As she rose, she heard a faint voice from the back of the closet.

“Bring her to me,” it said.

Tracy shook her head. She left the closet, closing the door behind her and smiled at Jennifer, handing her the dress and shoes. Paleness overshadowed Tracy’s face, the look of harried shock when she came out of the closet replaced with the plastic expression she presently wore. “See, nothing in your closet but the big stuffed bear that got you the other day.”

“The closet freaked you out.”

”It’s cold in there,” Tracy conceded. “I’ll have my Dad send someone up to look at the air-conditioning.”

“There isn’t an air-conditioning duct, I looked.”

“I’ll still have him send someone. There’s got to be some sort of issue. You don’t just get drafts like that from nothing.” Tracy headed out of the room.

Pressing her back to her door, Tracy stared at the lake. She shook her head again. “No,” she said aloud, and then changed into a sundress similar to Jennifer’s. She would do everything she could to make sure Jennifer wasn’t yanked out of her life by whatever it was that wanted her.

When Tracy came out, Jennifer was standing by Steve, twirling her car keys.

“I think I’m going to pass so I can make dinner with Bill,” Tracy said. She didn’t want to be stuck as the third wheel.

“You sure?” Jennifer said.

“I’m positive, you two go, have fun and I’ll see you later.”

The dryer sounded in the background. “You think the clothes are dry?”

“Go check,” Jennifer said.

Steve disappeared. He came back a few minutes later in the clean, mostly-dry clothes. “We don’t need to stop,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head.

“I need to make a quick stop at the mall to pick up a birthday gift for my Mom,” Steve said as the settled into his car. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. I have to pick up some lotion anyway, so this is perfect,” Jennifer said.

Steve nodded, although he would have preferred not to have her in the mall at the same time. “You can grab what you need while I pick up something for my mom and then I’ll meet you in the food court.”

“You don’t want my help?”

He smiled. “I’m just going to get her a charm for her bracelet, but if you want to come with me, you can. I just thought if we separated, it would be much quicker and I could get you down into the salt air quicker.” He sent her a wink.

Jennifer smiled. “Fine, I’ll go do my thing and meet you in the food court.”

At the mall, Steve stood looking at the directory with Jennifer standing at his side calculating the window of opportunity he had. It would be tight, but he smiled and tapped the shop she was heading to. “You need to head upstairs, that way,” he said and pointed to his left. “I’ll meet you in the food court,” he added and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

He waited until she was out of sight and took off to the right, to the jewelry store three spots down on the main floor. He walked inside scanning the rings and his gaze fell on a similar set to the one he saw in Tracy’s magazine. He swallowed the nerve bundle in his throat and looked at the clerk.

“I’d like to see that set,” he said, pointing to the pair of rings and praying his voice didn’t shake with the bundle of nerves that attacked.

The clerk beamed and took the set out of the case and put them on the velvet holder for Steve to see. “These are exquisite. The center diamond is one carat and flawless. The clarity is a B, which is excellent. The smaller diamonds around the band total to another carat, each being roughly a tenth of a carat itself all packaged in twenty four carat gold.” He smiled. “The diamonds in your band are roughly an eighth of a carat each for a total of a carat and a half. The pair is on sale today for six thousand dollars.”

Steve nodded. “That wouldn’t happen to be a size five and a half, would it?”

“Unfortunately, no. It will take a couple weeks to resize the bands to that size.” The clerk took out the ring measure and measured Steve’s ring finger. “I would need to resize yours as well.”

Steve glanced at the mall and nodded. “Fine.”

The clerk wrote each item up and took the credit card Steve handed him.

“You don’t happen to have student discounts on top of the sale?”

“Not on engagement rings,” the clerk replied and scanned the card. “But with the sale you saved twenty five hundred dollars. The retail price for this set is eighty five hundred.”

Steve whistled and signed the slip. He scribbled his cell phone number on the slip. “Let me know when it’s in.” He tucked the papers away in his wallet.

“Thank you, Mr. Williams. I would expect them to be ready in a week or so. We’ll give you a call.”

“Thanks.” Steve found a bench facing the food court and sat, waiting for Jennifer. His stomach rumbling with nerves and he took a deep breath. The romantic beach proposal he had envisioned would have to wait. He closed his eyes. “I must be insane,” he whispered and opened his eyes. It was way too soon for him to pop the question, yet something was driving him in that direction.