Read Online The Reservoir by Rosemarie Naramore - Free Book Online Page B

Daniel’s chair.  He uncapped it and tipped out two tablets.  “Here.  Your foot’s going to throb if you don’t take them.”
    She waved off his concern about her foot, but took the Tylenol when he insisted.  She settled into the chair, taking a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves.  Zack suddenly rose and grabbed a soda.
    “Are you sure you want the caffeine?” Holly asked him.  “Didn’t you say you probably won’t do much sleeping as it is?”
    He only shrugged in response and then reached across the table to take her hand.  She realized he was as frightened and on edge as she was.  She hated to bring up the ghost—hated to add fuel to the fire of their fear, but they really needed to discuss what they had seen. 
    Was there a logical explanation for the ghostly form?  Had the trees cast unearthly shadows on the dock?  Was something reflecting off the water?  Was a large bird hovering over the dock?
    When Holly presented Zack with each possible scenario, he rejected each like a goalie deflecting a ball.  He recognized she was desperate to find an explanation, one that didn’t lend credence to Daniel’s supernatural theory, but in his gut, he knew what they’d seen and he knew what it was.  And he knew, so did Holly.
    “Maybe one of the neighbors happened to walk down to the dock,” she suggested hopefully.  “Maybe a tourist got confused and didn’t realize this is private property.  It could happen…”
    “Show me a tourist who can levitate and make her hair jut out of her head like that, and I’ll show you a…”
    “Dead tourist,” Holly said wanly.
    Zack laughed without humor.  “What do you think she wants?”
    “Who?” she said obtusely, and Zack laughed.  He squeezed her hand and chuckled at her attempt at a joke.   “I wish I knew what she wants,” Holly muttered. “And, why was she praying?”
    Zack shook his head in puzzlement, his brows drawn low over his eyes.  “I don’t think she was praying, exactly.  It was more a gesture—you know, like she was imploring us to help her.”
    “Zack, that’s what Daniel said!  He insisted she needed his help.  Remember?”
    He nodded, but soon shook his head uncertainly.  “What could a ghost possibly want from us?”
    Holly shrugged this time.  “And what’s she doing in the water?”
    “Maybe she drowned,” he speculated.
    Holly’s eyes widened.  “Or … maybe somebody killed her and disposed of her body in the reservoir!”

Chapter Eight
     
    Holly tossed and turned as she lay on the floor in the living room.  She and Zack had spread out two blankets, side-by-side, like Niqui and Kendall had done earlier.  Holly knew her mother wouldn’t approve of her sleeping so close to Zack, but it couldn’t be helped.  She was terrified and needed her friends within close proximity.  All of them.  The fact that Zack held her hand across the divide between them served to quell her rising panic in a way nothing else or no one else could. 
    Despite the warmth of the late summer evening, she was freezing.  A frightening thought struck her.  Had the temperature suddenly plummeted because the ghost had entered the cabin?  Isn’t that what always happened on television?  A ghost in the room equated to a cold room.  Terrified by the prospect, Holly bolted upright.  Her hand slipped from Zack’s grasp.
    She glanced around her frantically, groping for the flash light she had stowed beside her.  Unable to find it, she nearly cried out, but she somehow managed to stifle the noise by biting down on her lower lip.  It wouldn’t be fair to wake her friends, who thankfully, were getting a good night’s rest. 
    She turned toward Zack, surprised to see he had propped himself up on one elbow and was watching her.  She could just make out his heavily-lidded eyes in the dark.
    “Are you all right?” he whispered.
    “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to wake you.”
    “You didn’t.  I can’t manage to fall