XVIII: In The Cove's Water

"Let me just say this again," JD said to Mr. Avalon, "I can't thank you enough for letting me and my friend come along for this trip you are taking!" He gave JD a smile and nod. It was now summertime and Sakura's dad surprised her and Tory with a trip to the beach. Sakura was excited, but felt upset about leaving her friends behind. She offered to her dad if she could bring JD and Dot along and he agreed.

As for Madison and Eli, both of them were coming to the beach as well. Madison's mom surprise Madison with a trip to the same beach as well. She asked if Eli could come with her and her mom reluctantly agreed.

"You're welcome!" Sakura's father replied, "It's nice to always invite Sakura's friends along."

"I don't like him," Tory said staring at JD from the review mirror, "I have a big feeling about him."

"I have that kind of impression on many people," JD shrugged, "Can I help it?" Tory took a deep breath and let it out a big sigh.

"Just ignore him," Sakura said to JD with a smile, "He likes no boys I'm friends with. So don't worry about it." He nodded in reply with a smile and then Dot grabbed his ear.

"Stop paying so much attention to her!" she said to him annoyed, "Remember this, I'm your girlfriend and you shouldn't be more attention to our girls than me! Do you understand that simple statement?"

"Jealousy are we?" he replied annoyed.

"You bet your ass I am!" she jeered in his ear quickly, but threatening, "Just remember that and you'll be ok! You don't and you'll be girlless." JD rolled his eyes and ignored the rest of things she said next.

Everyone finally arrived at their destination after their long car trip. A friend of Aiden allowed him to use his summer home for a while since he wouldn't be able to use it this summer. Everyone headed inside and took their rooms. By request, Dot and Sakura shared a bedroom while JD had a room to himself.

"You unpacked quickly," Sakura said popping into JD's room looking around, "How did you do it so fast?" Most of JD's clothes were now packed into drawers and a few books were set up on the bookshelf.

"Easy," he said, "You just start throwing things around the room and hope they land in the right place. But truthfully, I didn't really bring much. It was the only stuff I had brought to Japan."

"Ok," she nodded.

"But this room is better than that old hotel room," he said dropping onto the bed, "And when Dot and me left, the hotel gave us the bill. 2,000 yen or something and all I had was American money."

"That was lucky," Sakura explained, "It's a lot cheaper if you pay in American compared to Japanese."

"Really?" he asked surprised, "Dammit! I paid in 2,000 American! I been ripped off!" She chuckled at that.

"Hey," Tory said to both of them, "If you two are going to be in the same room tighter, keep the door open wider than this!" He completely opened it all the way and then left.

"There you are!" Dot said running into the room and then jumping onto the bed which JD was laying on, "Hey! This bed is softer than mine and you don't have to share it!"

"Isn't it weird how life works out for people and it doesn't for others?" JD snickered. Dot then drove her heel into his stomach making him sit up and start gasping for air.

"Maybe we should start looking around the town now?" Dot asked, "It'll be a big waste of our sweet time just to stay here and hang around. Plus, we better find out where Madison and Eli are going to be." The teens nodded and headed out of the room.

When they reached the door to leave, Tory intercepted them. "Where are you three all going?" he asked them.

"We are just going to take a look around town," Sakura explained to him, "We hope we'll run into Madison and Eli. They said that they were going to be here in the town." Tory looked at them all and shrugged.

"Fine," he said, "Just get back here for dinner at 6, squirt. All right?" Sakura redden.

"Don't call me squirt in front of my friends!" she protested, "You're going to embarrass me in front of them!" Tory gave a small grin.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, "How about this then? Squirt, squirt, you little squirt! Or how about little monster? That's always good you little monster!" She shoved past him and ran outside quickly in order to escape his voice. Dot and JD went after her, but JD was stopped by Tory.

"Quick warning for you," he said to JD, "You better not make her upset or you'll won't like the consequences, alright… friend?"

"What's a little threat among friends right?" JD chuckled nervously as he reached for the door knob behind him. He reached, opened the door, and took off out.

"I wish he won't treat me like this!" Sakura said angrily to JD and Dot, "He still treats me like I'm 10 years old! I'm 14 and I'm a teenager! What gives him the right?" She was pretty much steamed by Tory's treatment towards her and continued to talk about it as they all walked around the small town.

"Umm…" JD said, "The fact that he is 21 making him an adult? Maybe that gives him the reason?" Dot gave him a look to shut up, because Sakura just lowered her head in shame at the age difference between her and her brother.

"There you guys are!" Madison said coming up to them running quickly with Eli in tow behind herself, "I was wondering if you were here in town or not! Glad to see that you are all here!"

"Nice to see you two," Dot said to Madison and Eli, "We were all just looking for you two just now." Both girls broke out into a deep conversation that excluded Sakura, Eli, and JD. After a few moments, it began to the bug the three.

"I can't understand them anymore," Eli said, "They are either speaking a different language or talking way too fast for me to catch."

"Wait a minute!" JD said to the two of them, "I just released something after all the time I have spent here in Japan. If this is Japan, how come you two and everyone else is speaking English clearly?! I thought you all should of spoke Japanese or something?!"

"Maybe we are," Sakura explained, "And none of us realize it! Let's not think too much about it. It's giving me a terrible headache all of a sudden." They all nodded just in time to notice Madison and Dot had stop talking. In fact, they were gone!

"Where did they go?" Eli said looking around.

"We should of notice that they were gone!" JD said, "It would have sounded quieter all of a sudden!"

"Hey you three!" Madison shouted from a distance at the other end of the street to the north of them, "Are you three going to come or what? You got to check this out!" They all took off and ran to catch up with Madison.

They soon came to the spot and found her and Dot waiting for them all. "Check it out!" Dot pointed behind her, "Isn't it such a cool view?"

They all looked and gave a warm smile. Right out there was a cove with a large rocky barrier to left and a huge long sandbar on the right. The cove could hold at least 7 football fields and in the dead center was a floating wooden raft. From the distance, it had to be at least 10 feet in width and length. But at the far end of the cove was beautiful sunset.

"It's so beautiful!" Madison said looking out there, "It just gives you a warm feeling in the stomach doesn't it?"

Eli sighed and said, "Ok. I came and I saw. What now?" All the girls let out deep sighs of happiness as if they didn't hear him speak just then.

"I believe they didn't hear you," JD said to him.

He ignored him and said to the girls, "Can we do something else now? This sunset is boring me now."

"Ok," Dot said turning around annoyed, "What do you want to do? Probably want to do something stupid right?"

"No," he said looking past her at the raft in the deep center of the cove, "How about if we all do something like swim out to the raft and back? There doesn't seem to be much to do in the town now right?"

"Sounds interesting," JD shrugged looking down at his pants, "I'm already wearing my swim trunks so I'm ready!"

"I keep telling you!" Dot said annoyed, "Swim trunks are not a replacement for regular boxer shorts! Wear real underwear at least!"

"You are not my mom," JD mumbled to himself.

"I'm already wearing my bikini and bikini bottom," Madison said gleefully, "I'm all set for this!"

"I'm going to tell you something now," Sakura said to Madison, "A bikini set is not a real replacement for underwear and a bra. You know that don't you?"

"But I just love the feeling of the texture from it on my skin!" she protested, "Besides, you maybe my best friend, but you are not my mom!"

"This seems familiar," Eli commented, "I feel like I just heard this conversation before."

"Humph," Dot said to JD and Madison sarcastically, "You two think alike in the underclothing department! Why don't you two just date each other?" Both JD and Madison look blankly at her for a few moments before they turned their attention on each other.

A few moments Dot said angrily, "I'm being sarcastic! I'm not serious here JD!"

"I know that!" he said quickly darting his eyes between Madison and Dot, "I'm… just a little bit… surprised by that…"

"Well," Eli said looking back at the disappearing sunset and at his watch, "We pretty much don't have anymore time now thanks to you! It's almost 6 and everything is almost pitch black out here!"

"We'll just come back tomorrow," Sakura said trying to think positively, "Then we can do some nice swimming alright?" The boys mumbled something and the other girls just nodded sadly. Everyone then left the beach, but unknown to them, there were a bunch of pitch black gooey bubbles coming to the surface and then popping.

Later that night around midnight, a girl wearing a blue and green two piece swimsuit made her way towards the cove. She dodged the street lights but stayed near them enough to allow them to guide her way. She soon came upon the beach after feeling the sand between her toes. She let out a happy sigh.

"Whose there?" said a male voice flashing a light on her, "Is that you?" The girl was taken back by surprised, but knew she couldn't get away, so she stayed put.

"You caught me," she said sadly, "I was just about to take a cool dip. So what are you going to do to me?"

"Hi Madison," said the voice, "It's me. JD." She let out a happy sigh and saw him standing there now as he shined the light on him. He was a wearing black swim trunks.

"Let me guess?" she said with a big grin moving closer to him, "You came just out here to take a cool dip in the water like myself since we couldn't earlier right?" He gave a small weak smile in response.

She let out a small giggle and said, "You know, we think so much alike don't we? Maybe Dot was right about us dating right?" His smile disappeared revealing an emotionless stare.

"Then again," Madison said shrugging after seeing the look in his eyes, "Maybe not. But we are probably going to swim anyways?" He showed a small smile and nod.

Madison smiled and then JD said, "Ok, how about us swimming to that raft we saw earlier."

She nodded and he flashed his light towards the raft still floating in the middle of the cove. It must have been chained there. Both of them turned to each other, nodded, and dove into the cold water swimming towards the raft.

Soon enough, both of them were there and abroad the raft. Once they arrived abroad it, they then noticed someone laying on their back. Both of them were taken back and surprised by the appearance of the person. It appeared to be a 20 year old with shaggy brown hair. It looked like he had the life drain out of him. His head turned and focus on them. "You must be like the angels of death," he said woozily, "I never figured angels would look like that and wear things like that, but does it really mater anymore to myself?"

Both of them looked at each and raised their eyebrows. "Umm…" Madison said to the teen, "We aren't angels. We are normal teens. What happened to you?"

The teen's eyes focused on hers. "It," he said coughing, "It is was happened. It killed my three friends. It'll come back and kill us…"

Author Notice: This chapter was once again short, but I wanted to leave this chapter on a cliffhanger. What could this monster be this time? If you want to know… go out and buy yourself a copy of Skeleton Crew and read The Raft. Everything will become clear on what it is.

It is that time of month again! Time to announce the Top 5 Stories of the Month! The Top 5 for November are:

1. Synchronicity By: Alexia Kyrcek

2. ReiShine By: Digital Skitty

3. Yearning to be Free By: Amber20

4. Pokemon XSD: Windstorm of Cyclones By: Patinator

5. The Matter of Choice By: Dearing

You know what is also this month? At the end of this month, I began the competition for Award Show! All the people competing are listed on my Profile! Go see if you are competing, who you are competing against, or see who is in the run!

The next chapter, both Madison and JD are brought back by the police after being caught out late at night. Both of them state there is something in the cove, but no one believe either of them, not even their friends! They must find a way to get proof to make the town close down the cove, before things take a turn for the worse.

Next to Come: XIX: Our Story

Date: 12/10/06

Reviewers: Katie Legends

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