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  I took a deep breath, threw down my water bottle, and headed over to meet him.

  There was something about the way he was walking toward me that reminded me of when we were kids, back in fourth grade. I flashed back on our science project and how we were talking about it as we walked to his house.

  We had chosen volcanoes as our topic and we had to give a presentation to the class. I had my backpack filled with color markers and books and I was holding one of those giant white poster boards. Jesse pushed his bike alongside me, and we talked about Mt. Vesuvius.

  “What’s that for?” Jesse said, looking at the blank board in my hands.

  He was shorter than I was back then and I used to like looking down at him.

  “Duh,” I said. “It’s for our volcano project. I think you should draw it, being that you’re the artist and will get us a good grade.”

  His green eyes sparkled in the sun.

  “No way,” he said, tugging on his cap. “We’re not drawing it. We’re blowing it up! We should build a volcano and I’ll rig it so lava flows out the top as we give our speech. It’ll be so cool.”

  “You know how to do that?”

  “Of course. I’ve been building volcanoes with my dad since I was little.”

  I smiled at the memory as I watched him. I was surprised to see him at all. I hadn’t called and was trying to figure out how to explain about Ty, how to say it right.

  “Jesse,” I said, pushing down the guilt. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Hey, stranger,” he said.

  We found an empty bench and I closed my eyes, the sun warm on my face, giving me strength. When I opened them, Jesse was staring at me.

  “It’s okay, Craigers,” he said. “Stop freaking out. I’m okay. Anyway, believe it or not, I’m not here about your love life.”

  I laughed nervously.

  “I love you too, Jesse,” I said.

  “I know you do,” he said. “We’ll always have that. Nothing takes love away. But I’m glad you have him too.”

  A tear slid down my cheek.

  “What’s up then?” I asked, my voice cracking.

  He paused, fumbling for the right words as my heart hammered in my chest.

  “What is it, Jesse? Tell me.”

  “Something is happening around you again,” he said. “I don’t really know what it is, just that the energy around you is different. Darker. Something is coming up, seeping in from the sides. It’s like when you were in the lake and the black water surrounded you.”

  I sat back and tried to calm down, thinking what it might be.

  “You don’t know what it’s about? No idea at all?”

  “No. Just that sometimes it blocks my view of you. It’s been getting worse lately.”

  I took a breath. Then another.

  “The last time you told me something like this I was kidnapped,” I said, trying to push away those terrible memories that haunted me long after the fact. “Is that what’s going to happen? Is this about Jack Martin? Is he back here in Bend?”

  “I don’t know. I’m sorry, I wish I could see more. I was just glad to have found you now. It’s important that you know. You need to be prepared.”

  I nodded, my eyes darting back and forth at the people walking by.

  I sighed and he put his arm around me and I fell back into him, scared.

  “I’m tired of it,” I said. “I’m tired of being in that lake. It feels like no matter how much I try to climb out of it, it sucks me back in, one way or another.”

  “I know,” he said. “But you’re not alone. I have your back. I won’t let anything happen to you like that again. Not ever. I won’t.”

  I nodded, staring at the people around us, searching.

  Looking for Jack Martin.

  CHAPTER 27

  Ty and I met out in front of Amber’s house for the party. I brought a red pepper dip and a few baguettes. The other guides were already there when we walked in, along with the front office staff and a few other people from the company that I didn’t know that well.

  Small paper lanterns and lights were strung across the front yard. The Ramones played in the background.

  It was fun. We told stories and drank beer. As twilight fell it brought along cool air. There were still some warm days ahead but summer, as a long block of time and as a state of mind, felt like it was over.

  We took our drinks and sat down on the sofa. I looked around. It was a small, older house with arches in the doorways and molding around all the windows. It had a lot of character.

  “So what color are the walls?” I asked Ty.

  All I could see was that they were dark.

  “Well, it’s like a lot of grape stomping went on in here. All sorts of purples and reds. It’s cool.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to remember purple. My high school soccer jersey was purple.

  Hey,” Ty said. “Isn’t that your friend from the bar out there?”

  I got up and looked outside. Someone was standing in the street, looking at the house.

  “What’s she doing here?” I said.

  It was hard to see her face, but it was Paloma, dressed in a flowing skirt that whipped around her in the breeze. She just stood there, staring.

  “I’m going to see what she wants,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

  She must have been looking for me, but I couldn’t figure out how she knew where I was.

  “All right, but don’t be long. I’ll just be here missing you.”

  I walked through a cloud of cigarette smoke and passed a group of people talking loudly on the front porch.

  “Hey, Pal o’ mine,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

  She didn’t say anything. She just nodded slowly and then held out her arms.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  “Look,” she said, her voice cracking. Black mascara streaked down her face. “Look at what he’s doing to me!”

  I peered down at her arms in horror. I couldn’t be seeing it right. It must have been the moonlight or my mind playing tricks.

  “Oh, my God,” I said.

  On the inside of both arms, thick veins were bulging out of her skin from her wrists up to her elbows. And they were moving, creeping up and down, pushing up, like tiny snakes inside her. Whatever it was looked alive, using her arteries as passage ways and crawling through her body.

  “It started an hour ago,” she said. “He’s in me, Abby! Help me! Please, help me.”

  “Come inside,” I sputtered, not able to take my eyes off the moving veins. “Paloma. We’ll get you some help. Don’t worry.”

  “Help me! He’s in here with me. He’s in me, Abby!”

  I could feel the heat radiating off her body. I reached out and touched her forehead. She was on fire, a torrent of sweat pouring off her face. She started coughing, slapping at her forearms.

  “Paloma,” I said. “Come inside. It’ll be all right.”

  But looking at her arms I had a hard time imagining exactly how it would be all right.

  “No!” she screamed, her voice echoing up and down the street. She started backing away, her crazed eyes darting back and forth.

  I followed her. I could hear footsteps behind me. Ty caught up to me.

  “You okay?” he said.

  “Paloma’s sick,” I said. “She needs help!”

  She screamed once more and then took off, sprinting down the dark street.

  Down toward the river.

  CHAPTER 28

  We ran after her, following her down streets and alleyways. But we couldn’t keep up. She was too fast and we eventually lost sight of her.

  “Where’d she go? Do you see anything?”

  “No,” Ty said. “Let’s go check the river.”

  The river bank was made up mostly of brush on our side and was hard to walk through. There was a park across the way. I stared at the dark black water sliding by, listening for any clues.

  “Paloma!” I shoute
d.

  “Ty, you should have seen her arms. She’s really sick. We need to find her.”

  “It’s too hard to walk over here,” he said. “I’m going to cross the bridge and see if I can see anything from over there. You have your phone?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  He squeezed my arm before taking off toward the footbridge.

  I kept looking and calling her name, slowly making my way downriver through the thick brush. I heard voices coming from the park. It didn’t take Ty long to get over. I waved at him.

  My phone buzzed a moment later.

  “I see her, Abby,” he said. “She’s just around the bend, a little bit farther down from where you are. Keep going. She’s standing in the water.”

  “What’s she doing?” I said, picking up my speed.

  “She’s just standing there. She’s just standing in the water, looking up at the sky. It’s like she’s praying or something.”

  I suddenly realized we weren’t too far from the spillway.

  The spillway was the sight of numerous accidents. There were plenty of warning signs posted in the water, but every year a few people, usually in inner tubes or small rafts, got sucked into the waterfall. Once in a while, someone even drowned.

  “She’s not far from you now,” Ty said. “Can you see her?”

  I spotted her a second later.

  “Paloma! Get out of the water!”

  She was still close to shore, her face and torso illuminated in the moonlight. But as I got closer, she suddenly dove into the river and swam out toward the center.

  “Paloma!” I yelled, but it was no use. She just kept swimming downriver.

  I looked over toward Ty and noticed that a small group of people were now watching.

  “Paloma!”

  “Don’t do it!” I heard someone shout from across the way.

  I glanced over and saw Ty taking off his shirt and shoes.

  “No!” I shouted but he was already in the water, swimming hard toward her.

  I stood there paralyzed, almost too afraid to watch.

  He was closing the gap but they were heading into the section where the current picked up speed.

  I finally got my legs to work and stumbled farther down the shore.

  “This can’t be happening,” I said out loud.

  A moment later he reached her, grabbing her around the waist with one arm. For a few awful seconds, the current swept them downstream, but Ty kicked furiously at the water and slowly started making progress.

  If he could just reach that boulder in the middle of the river. The water flowed fast on either side of it, but if he could make it to that rock, they would be rescued. They would be all right.

  I could hear a siren in the distance above the sound of my pounding heart.

  If he could just make it a few more yards to that boulder, he’d be okay.

  A few more strokes, Ty.Just a few more.

  But he never got any closer to the boulder.

  Instead, he turned and started heading for shore. Paloma didn’t seem to be helping, just floating there lifelessly.

  Ty started losing ground. The spillway was getting closer. They weren’t going to make it.

  No, Ty. No.

  I screamed.

  My vision blurred behind the tears. I couldn’t see them anymore. First Jesse. And now Ty. Why, God? Why!

  But the next thing I saw was Ty backstroking his way through a calmer stretch of the river. Near the far shore. Two men jumped into the water and began dragging them out onto the grass.

  The siren was closer now. I ran back up to the footbridge and over to the other side. I pushed my way through the small crowd that was now surrounding them.

  Ty was coughing and sputtering, trying to catch his breath. I squeezed him long and hard, his chest heaving, water dripping down my hair and face.

  “Are you okay?” I said after a while.

  He nodded and blinked.

  “I’m gonna check on Paloma,” I said.

  The paramedics had arrived and were asking her questions. Her eyes were open but she didn’t answer them. Then she turned and looked at me.

  “Abby,” she said, her eyes wide and terrified. She pulled on my hand. “What happened? Why am I all wet? Where am I?”

  I put my hand on her forehead again. But she was cool now. Cold even.

  “Abby, I’m so tired. I don’t know what’s happening.”

  She started sobbing quietly as the paramedics placed her on a gurney.

  “You’ll be okay, Paloma,” I said, holding her hand. “You’ll be okay.”

  “We’re taking her to St. Charles, miss,” the driver told me before they pulled away.

  “Crazy shit, what that guy did, man,” one teenager said. “Even for a crazy hot babe like that, I wouldn’t have done that.”

  “He saved her,” I heard a girl say. “He totally saved her.”

  CHAPTER 29

  A paramedic checked Ty over and gave him a blanket. He seemed okay, but looked completely exhausted. He was drinking from a small water bottle when I went back over to him.

  “How are you doing?” I asked, hugging him. “Are you really okay?”

  He shrugged.

  “Yeah,” he said. “But I’ll sleep well tonight. That’s for sure.”

  “I was so worried, Ty,” I said, my shaky voice betraying my intention to be strong for him.

  “Worried?” he said. “Come on, with these guns?”

  I smiled weakly.

  “You saved her. She would have died if you hadn’t gone in and pulled her out of the river.”

  “I guess. You know, she fought me at first,” he said. “When I was out there swimming over to her, she was screaming at me to get away. I was just going to take her over to that rock, get her out of the current. I figured the rescue team would have ropes and it would be better to wait for them. But she was so weird. She kept saying that I wasn’t in time. We were near the boulder and she looked at me with these insane eyes and then, like that, went out cold. Maybe it was the water temperature. I had to get her back.”

  He suddenly started shivering and I wrapped the blanket tighter around him.

  “We should get you home and into a hot shower,” I said.

  “Let’s wait a few more minutes,” he said. “The cops will probably want a statement. I saw you talking to Paloma before they took her. What did she say?”

  “She said she couldn’t remember anything. She didn’t even know what happened and was confused about where she was.”

  We watched as a police car pulled into the lot.

  “Listen, Abby,” Ty said. “Let’s meet up later. Go get lost in the crowd. There’s no reason you need to be here for this. You don’t need any more publicity. Okay? I’ll call you when I’m done.”

  I started to argue. I didn’t want to leave him, but he insisted.

  “Go,” he whispered. “Before it’s too late.”

  I kissed him hard and then walked away slowly. There were still a lot of people around, some talking to Ty and calling him a hero.

  ***

  I saw a news van from the television station drive up. I waited in the dark for a little while before I left. A couple almost bumped into me as they stared at the flashing lights.

  “Do you know what happened?” the woman said to me.

  “No,” I said. “No idea.”

  I walked over to Galveston, then up to Ten Barrel and ordered a beer. I found an empty chair outside and tried to make sense of the evening.

  Paloma was burning up, that much I knew. She had a fever and seemed delirious. But what kind of illness would make her veins crawl around like that in her arms?

  It was good that she was going to the hospital. Maybe the doctors would be able to come up with a logical, medical explanation.

  I texted Ty, hoping he hadn’t jumped into the river with his phone, and told him where I was. Then I called Kate and told her what happened.

  “She would have gone ov
er the spillway if Ty hadn’t gone in after her. I’m sure of it,” I said. “I think she’s okay now. They took her to St. Charles.”

  “That’s terrible,” Kate said. “Do you think she tried to kill herself?”

  “I dunno. She had a pretty high fever. I think she was out of her mind with it. Maybe it’s something like the plague.”

  I wouldn’t normally have come up with a theory like that, but I remembered hearing some customers talk about a few cases of it in a neighboring county.

  “Or maybe it’s drugs,” Kate said. “I’m sure they’ll do a tox screen at the hospital.”

  Somehow I didn’t think it was drugs.

  “I’m glad Ty told you to stay out of sight. Do you need anything? I’m coming down to get you guys.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m okay.”

  “What are you thinking?” Kate said, after I was quiet for a minute.

  “I’m wondering if something else happened to her tonight. Something worse.”

  “Worse, how?”

  “The ghost that was haunting her. I’m wondering if he tried to kill her.”

  CHAPTER 30

  In about half an hour, Kate and Ty arrived. I ran up to the car.

  “How are you doing?” I asked, getting into the back seat.

  He turned and nodded, but his eyes looked a little vacant.

  “I need a hot shower and a pillow,” he said yawning. “I talked to the cops but they still want me to come down to the station. I told them I would stop by in the morning. I don’t know what else I can say. I already told them what happened.”

  “At least they didn’t have you go in tonight,” I said. “Did the press talk to you?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said. “The guy was a real deep thinker. He seemed more interested in finding out how old I was than what happened. But it was no big deal. I just told him I swam out and brought her back. I kept it vague.”

  He eased his head back and closed his eyes while we drove. When we got to his house, I helped him out of the car, my arm around his waist as we walked slowly up to the door.

  “She really flipped out, Abby. I keep thinking about it, remembering more. The things she was saying when I got to her. She was calling me all sorts of names. Things a crazy person would say.”