Chapter 21

Of all the people Lois expected to get a call from, he was the last person she figured would call. Okay, if she was being honest, maybe next to last as the General would probably be the last person she'd expect to call. Anyhow she'd gotten a very excited Jimmy Olsen to slow down and explain why he'd called her; though getting him to stop ranting tested the limits of her civility.

If ever pressed for a reason as to why she'd agreed to his query, Lois would simply state that he'd caught her amidst the natural high she was experiencing from having gotten her first by-line at the Inquisitor. No other explanation accounted for why she'd agreed to meet up with him and drive up to Lone Pine, otherwise known as 'make-out point' that evening. Now, with nothing going on but the windows of the cars around them cycling through various degrees of getting fogged up, Lois was wondering what was really going on.

"Okay Jimmy, you wanna explain what we're doing here again?"

"I'm not exactly sure of all the details Lois. Like I told you earlier, I picked-up an anonymous tip that there's something really weird going on up here. I thought this would make a good story, and seeing how fired up you were on researching that story for the Inquisitor, I thought you might wanna check this out with me."

"Uh-huh, well the only thing weird I see going around here is two people up at make-out point not making out."

"Huh? Oh, that, um, well I guess we could work on being a little more convincing, seeing as we're supposed to be undercover." He tentatively reached an arm over and around her, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"You're kidding right, Jimmy, are you hitting on me?"

"What…me…no, no…I'm just trying to put on a believable front. Uh, did you want me to?"

Lois liked Jimmy well enough, and yeah he was sort-of cute; in that school-boy, bow-tie kind of way, but she thought of him more like the little brother she'd never had. She contemplated grabbing his hand and bending his fingers back until they cracked, or possibly putting him in a head-lock to drive her point home, but deemed these actions to be overkill for the guy. Instead she reached over and removed his hand from her shoulder, and went with the tactful approach.

"Uh…I'm not sure what you thought would happen out here tonight, but I most certainly don't want you hitting on me. Look, you're a nice enough guy, but I'm not interested in you like that."

"No, no, hey its cool. Like I said, I was just trying to put on a good front. It's not like I…"

Jimmy was interrupted by a girl's blood curdling scream from deep in the woods. They both turn to look out the car's side windows, but were unable to see anyone.

"Whoa, that doesn't sound like someone having a good time. I think it came from just down the trail, come on let's check it out Jimmy."

"Yeah, right, we should certainly go chasing after a scream like that in the dark woods."

"Would you can it, you were the one that said there's something weird going on up here; maybe this is it. Let's go."

Jimmy sighed in defeat as Lois grabbed a flashlight from the back. Apparently not a big fan of the outdoors, at least at night anyway, Jimmy stuck to Lois like glue as they headed down the path. They called out to see if anyone was there but got no replies. They stopped every so often to pan around the area with the flashlight, looking for any sign of the girl they heard cry out. On one of their stops, Jimmy posed a question.

"Why in the world would anyone leave the comfort of their cars this time of night to wander off into the woods?"

"Well, it's just a hunch, but I'd say the girl and her beau were probably going to the lake."

"I think this is a lousy idea, we don't know what we're going to run into out here. We ought to head back and call somebody."

Lois lets out a shrill whistle and yelled, "Hey! Is anybody out there?"

"Uh no, I was thinking more along the lines of us calling those trained for situations like this; like the police, maybe?"

She disregarded his pleas to call off their search. As they ventured into the woods, they began to run across articles of clothing that the guy and girl had been wearing. They followed the trail of apparel until they reached the girl's shirt. Lois handed Jimmy the flashlight to examine the shirt for any signs of foul play.

However, there were no rips, tears, or holes in the shirt; it's simply been discarded. Lois motions for Jimmy to pan the light around the immediate area, looking for anything else out of place, but neither of them saw anything.

Lois sighed, "Well, that's it I guess, the trail of stripped-off clothing runs out here."

A strange tapping sound began and Jimmy turned the flashlight back to the girl's shirt. The flashlight reveals a drop of red liquid, beginning to soak into the shirt's material. As they both examine spot more closely, Jimmy asks the obvious question.

"Is that…"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know blood when I see it."

They turned their heads skyward, looking for the source of the blood dripping down. Jimmy ran the flashlight over the tree branches near them. The beam from the light revealed the young girl they heard scream out from the forest. The girl's face was badly bruised, her eyes fixed in a terrified gaze, and there were a myriad of gashes oozing blood from her lifeless body. As Jimmy scanned the light back over her body, they see where the girl's been impaled through her midsection by two ragged limbs.

Even Lois, who has seen a great deal of gore in her life, was taken aback by the sight before them, and just loud enough to be heard uttered, "oh, my God…"