Read Online Coming Home (Norris Lake Series) by Amy Koresdoski - Free Book Online Page B

years from now was plainly unimaginable. 
    Goosebumps formed under her skin as a cool breeze blew in from the lake.  About 15 feet from her she heard splashing.  It must be Michael coming to beg her to come back.  She knew he’d come. 
    "Michael, I am sorry I swam off like that.  I’m just upset about all of this,” she whispered still unable to see through the dark blanket of night.  The splashing started again behind her.  Startled, she turned expecting to see Michael standing behind her.  He was always one for sneaking up and pulling tricks on her. 
    “Don’t you ever run away from me like that again!” he said menacingly.  She could hear the grinding of his teeth and the muscles working in his jaws as he spat out the words.  His face was contorted in a black rage.  He grabbed her upper arms and held her face close to his own.
    “You have to get rid of it.  A baby will ruin my life.  Think about it,” he said shoving her away from him.  She lost her balance and sat down heavily on the bank in the wet grass catching herself on her elbows and palms.  “Get rid of it or I will and you won’t like it, if I have to do it,” He threatened. 
    “But, Michael, you said that you loved me.  I thought we would get married….” Her words drifted off into the night, she grimaced and then covered her face in her hands great sobs heaving from her chest as if a dam had just released its floodgates. 
    “I don’t care what you say.  I won’t,” she cried as she grabbed a nearby tree and pulled herself up onto her feet and stumbled through the woods, the tears blurring her vision.  She ran for ½ mile through the woods heedless of the consequences. Heaving, gasping for breaths between sobs, she slipped.  Suddenly tripping she went down on all fours, breaths caught in her throat surprise turned to consternation.  A figure emerged out of the darkness.  She wasn’t sure if it had come from the land or the lake. Her mind couldn’t even focus on what the figure was. Tired from her forced flight she blinked rapidly. It was as if she had seen a spirit. She had three options she thought as time ran in slow motion.  She could scream, except her throat was so tight suddenly that she could hardly even breath; she could run, but her whole body was paralyzed with fear or she could just quit. 
    A loud splashing could be heard toward the shore as if someone was running through water a couple feet deep, accompanied by Michael’s shouting. The teenagers all looked at each other in surprise as Michael ran toward the waterline from the woods. 
    Frantically, he repeated himself, "Please, y’all, help me.  I can’t find Beth.” Michael turned and ran back into the woods.  He ran erratically for a hundred yards and then stopped.  Barefooted he could feel the cool wet dirt between his toes.  Peering into the pitch black, he hungered to hear any sound.  There, over to his left.  It was a movement through the trees.  He took off again towards the sound.  His friends disturbed by his wild eyes.
    In the distance Beth could hear the boys swimming towards her and Michael’s shouting as if it were a long way off but knew that she wouldn’t be saved.  No one could save her now.  So she chose to quit.  Her mind shut down and real darkness covered her world, as she fainted.  As the blows came, her last thought was that at least she wouldn’t have to tell her father about the baby now.
    "Rodney, come on, something happened to Beth,” Curtis yelled as he dove into the water. 
    Surfacing, he turned to Cat, "You and Sarah stay there on the boat.  Don’t you two dare move."  Rodney dove into the water, with Curtis close on his heels, struggling to follow. 
    Rodney and Curtis swam to the edge of the bank and stood as soon as their feet were able to touch the soft brown mud of the shore.  They waded through the water trying to run in hip deep water splashing their hand in front of them with swimming motions as