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SUNDAY EARLY MORNING -COURTNEY'S BED
His warm breath on her neck, the knife's cool blade on her cheek, his clammy skin against her, and a soft whisper in her ear, "Tell anyone and I'll kill you."
His face disorts and turns to Chris then Tom then Mr. Whitaker. The faces change and change to the face of every guy in Courtney's mind.
"Don't act like you don't want this when I know you do." The voice whispers and then laughs sickly.
Courtney jumps awake in her bed. She breathes heavily, her heart pumping. When she finally realizes she's safe in bed, Courtney calms down a bit, but the laughter of the evil man still echoes in her mind.
Courtney knows after this dream she's not going to fall asleep again so she just pushes the covers away and checks her watch, 5:15 it says. She glances over to Brooke's bed and sees the girl wearing a sleep mask over her eyes and snoring heavily.
She walks to the window feeling suffocated by the warm wet air in the room so she opens it to feel the crisp cool air of the mountain gush to her face.
It feels so good Courtney decides to just go outside instead of standing if front of an open window like some lovesick airhead. She checks if the ceiling looks strong enough to hold her.
It looks fine, besides if this ceiling isn't safe enough to hold her half-starved body it wouldn't be safe to be under either, and Mr. Whitaker would never allow for that to happen.
She swings her legs over the ledge of the window and leans back enough to slip her body out the window barely touching the window's frame with her nose.
The wood ceiling is slightly slanted, but safe enough to sit on. Courtney steadies herself holding on to the window. She sits leaning her back against the wall next to the window and sighs.
The sight is breathtaking. The cabins is located almost at the top of the mountain. The forest beneath spreads under her like a green carpet glowing blue with the soft light from the fading moon. Pink clouds float above her like cotton candy and the sky glows purple.
Courtney is reminded of a song by one of her favorites bands. The song plays itself in her head and she's able to forget about the nightmare that got her here in the firt place.
In my field of paper flowers, and candy clouds of lullaby, I lay inside my head for hours, and watch my purple sky fly over me.
Courtney breathes in the fresh crisp air and fills her lungs with its goodness.
"Courtney!" Courtney hears her name being called. She takes a second to recognize the voice and to see if its coming from in or out her head.
"Courtney! Courtney!"
Someone's definetly calling her. She scrables to the window and hears Brooke squeal. "A bear!"
"No, no it's me. Shut up you bubbling idiot! You're gonna wake up the world." Courtney says in a fierce whisper as she peaks through the window.
"Courtney where are you?"
Courtney places a finger over her lips hoping to make Brooke shut up.
"Courtney? What are you doing out there?"
"Chilling." Courtney answers coolly.
"On the roof? In the middle of the night?"
"Beats the hell out of laying in a bed motionless for nine hours straight."
"You don't sleep?"
"Not for long enough to look as dead as you do. Did you know you snore?"
"I don't snore,"
Courtney snorts, "Trust me, yeah you do."
"Would you come back inside? You're making me really nervous."
"How?"
"You might fall and die." Brooke says stating what she and her friends are trying to avoid.
"Oh, what do you care."
"I'm your friend."
"Yeah why not." Courtney shrugs. Letting the girl call her a 'friend' is something she can get used to even though Brooke is quite annoying.
"So are you coming in?"
"No."
"Why?"
"'cause I don't wanna. Go back to bed and get your beauty sleep." Courtney turns away somehow dreading to go back in to the room as if the guy in her nightmare had really being there.
"But..."
"But what? Just Butt out." Courtney says not actually wanting to hurt Suzanne's feeling and yet wishing her away.
"No that's okay, I want to go out there with you too."
"You can't come out here."
"Why not?"
"'cause I don't want you here."
"Why not?"
"'cause you're annoying for Christsake."
"But I can't leave you out there by yourself. What if you fall and break your legs and there's no one there to help you."
"Oh please, that would only happen if your clumsy ass was with me." Courtney says knowing that it's true.
"Promise you'll be fine and I'll leave."
"Has anyone ever told you you're a pain, the biggest pain ever."
"Just promise."
"Fine, I promise." Courtney says exasperated.
"Cross you heart...?"
"And hope to die." Courtney finishes smiling at Brooke's childish choice of words.
SUNDAY MORNING -7:00AM
The sun is well set in the sky by when Courtney goes back into the room. Brooke's snoring loudly as she sleeps hugging a fuzzy pink bear. Is everything Brooke owns fuzzy and pink? Courtney wonders.
She shrugs and walks out of the room leaving the door wide open. When Courtney reaches the bottom of the stairs she hears the first signs of life for the day.
Mrs. Whitaker is banging pots in the kitchen as she struggles to get breakfast -for ten kids, her husband, and herself- ready.
Courtney walks to the kitchen, the heavy smell of butter, hotcakes, eggos and coffee drifting in the air and flirting with her nose.
"Would you like some help?" She asks a sweaty Mrs. Whitaker.
"Oh dear! You scared me." Mrs. Whitaker says grasping her chest. "You're the only kid up, can you believe that? We bring them to the mountain and they want to spend the day sleeping in their rooms."
Courtney smiles playing with a spoon and not knowing how to answer. She wanted to say that it was because they were a bunch of spoiled, know-nothing rich kids, but she doesn't want to seem rude in front of Mrs. Whitaker.
"Brandon's getting the boys, why don't you go up and get Brooke."
Courtney nods, "Alright,"
As she goes up, Courtney realizes how much good the morning's fresh air did to her. She feels alive and in a good mood. She reaches the top of the stair still playing with the spoon when an idea comes to mind. Why wake Brooke the boring way when she could give the annoying girl a good scare?
Courtney enters the room almost in her tip toes. She gets close to sleeping Brooke and giggles silently.
Courtney bangs the spoon on the wall, "Get up!" she screams to Brooke's ear.
"Aaahhh!" Brooke screams and Coutney laughs delighted. "Why'd you do that? you crazy bitch."
Courtney's still laughing pleased by Brooke's reaction. "Just for fun."
"Fun? you think it's fun for me to have a heart attack?"
"Naw, I just wanted to scare you, but good thinking, maybe next time."
"Why'd you wake me anyways? It's still early."
"Breakfast's ready, Mrs. Whitaker sent me to get you."
"Hey, you kept your promise." Brooke says remembering last night.
Courtney walks out of the room and mutters almost inaudibly remembering the promise she made Jimmy.
SUNDAY 7:30 -BREAKFAST
Courtney loads her plate with eggos somehow excited that for the first time since her parent's death she's eating something other than peanut butter banana for breakfast.
She walks out the kitchen to find Mr. Whitaker wanting to talk to her.
A chill goes up Courtney's back when she imagines walking into an empty room with Mr. Whitaker. Though the fresh air did help a lot, Courtney is still a bit shaken by last night's nightmare.
Mr. Whitaker senses her uneasiness, pats her shoulder and adds "That's okay, Mrs. Whitaker's waiting for us in my office."
Courtney's body relaxes a little though she's still nervous. Mr. Whitaker ushers her to his office and she walks seeing no other choice.
Once inside, Mr. Whitaker motions for Courtney to sit in a chair in front of his desk. Mrs. Whitaker walks over and sits next to her.
"You know you're here as a special request from Dr. Flint don't you?"
"Yeah, she told me."
"Good, that's good and I'm glad you're seeing her. She's a good person."
"Yeah, she is." Courtney says nibbling at an eggo with a fork, suddenly not hungry at all and feeling disgusted by the food on her plate.
"Listen, Dr. Flint told me what happened to you in... what you and..." He chuckles nervously. "I guess there's no easy way to say this." He shrugs looking at his wife and wiping his forehead with his trusted blue hankie. "About the guy who tried to rape you."
Courtney looks away feeling extremely uncomfortable. She somehow knew Dr. Flint told him, but him saying it out loud made her feel transparent and self conscious.
"Look what I'm trying to say here is that I want to help and that I'm not like that guy. If you ever need anything..."
Courtney gets up feeling as if the wall were closing in on her. "Thanks,"
"Is there anything you want to talk about?" Mrs. Whitaker asks warmly.
Courtney shakes her head, "No, I- I just need to go to the bathroom right now. Excuse me."
"Sure," Mr. Whitaker says feeling disappointed he didn't get anywhere with her. Maybe he should just let the mind digging to Dr. Flint and concentrate on surviving this trip.
Today's fishing trip comes to his mind and Mr. Whitaker gets sweaty all over again. He is supposed to handle ten hyper kids and take them to a river and make sure they don't drown and bring them back alive and... Holy Cow! What have I gotten myself into?! Mr. Whitaker thinks exasperated.
Mrs. Whitaker senses his apprehension and smiles. "Don't worry Brandon, it'll be alright. They're just kids you know."
Mr. Whitaker gobbles down his pancakes forgetting all about his napkins. He walks out his office moments later with honey dripping from his chin.
He sees Courtney sitting in a corner by herself and sighs. If there was a way to her Dr. Flint would find it, but it was still frustating to know why she was so messed up and yet have no idea as to how to help her.
SUNDAY LATE MORNING -WALKING TO THE BRIDGE LAKE RIVER
Courtney sees Chris slow down and come crashing directly to her. She panics but doesn't let it show on her expression. Why were Chris and his friend being so friendly to her anyway?
"Hey, Courtney. I heard you made friends with Brooke."
"Who?" Courtney asks wondering who 'Brooke' is.
"Brooke."
Courtney rolls her eyes, "Brooke who?"
Chris laughs, "You know, her." He points a stiff finger to Brooke. Courtney sighs, she had completely forgotten Brooke's name. Honestly, she never bothered memorize everybody's names, what for?
Courtney puffs and huffs. "Oh for Christsake, I just wanted her to shut up."
"That never works. Try punching her, it does the job for a couple of seconds...till she starts moaning that is."
"Maybe next time."
"So are you two having fun being the only two girls in the girls' dormitory?"
Are you two having fun being the only two girls in the girls' dormitory? What kind of lame chat-starter was that? "Are you having fun being the only idiot in the group?"
"Yeah kind of." Chris jokes.
"Look, if you go back to your friends. I'll consider not killing you in your sleep... or at least leave you for last." Courtney says. She really doesn't feel like being a bitch today, but Chriss presence is making her nervous.
"How about I go back to them and take you with me?"
"No deal."
"Fine, then I'm not leaving."
"Suit yourself."
They walk silently. Chris expecting an oral beating from Courtney and Courtney thinking about last night again. She could still feel the pervert's warm breath on her neck and a wave of vomit threatens to come out her tightly closed lips.
"Ever bungee jumped?" Chris asks interrupting her thoughts.
"Whatdaya want from me? First your little girlfriend won't leave me alone and now you? Can't we go back to our ignore-each-other relationship?"
"Why would you want to do that?"
"To have you leave me alone."
"I just want to talk, be friends with you. You know, the works."
Courtney sighs, "Are you doing this because you think I'm into drugs and I could sell you some cheap? 'cause I don't know where you heard it but I'm not so you might as well knock it off." She says knocking out that possibility. She doesn't think with their money they'd be hanging with her for a quick fix, but it's a possibility.
"It's not that, Courtney, God."
"Then what is it?"
"I don't know, I just thought I should try to make a move while we're in this mashed-potato-tray-free environment."
"It's not a rock free environment." Courtney mutters feeling mocked by Chris's comment. She really did not mean to shove the tray to him, it just happened.
Mr. W wipes his forehead with a blue hankie and warns. "Kids, be real careful now. This is a narrow trail." Mr. W says announcing the track of land ahead.
"Watch your step real closely now. Don't want to parent of yours suing me or the school."
"So I was thinking we could be friends. You know copy each other's homework, go to the mall, that kind of Ahhh!" Chris's foot slips and his leg hangs from the side of the mountain.
"Oh God, help me!"
Courtney grabs Chris's arm and yanks him up. In one swift motion, she has him back on track without even breaking a sweat. Carrying her drunk Aunt home from bars almost every week had paid off.
After that incident, Courtney walks ignoring Chris's comments or absent-mindedly answering his questions.
SUNDAY LATE MORNING -NON-SWIMMERS'S CLUB
Courtney jumps into the cold water after Chris. He's off in the middle of the lake drowning and screaming.
"They're just leeches rich boy, relax!"
Chris doesn't listen to her. He just screams and swallows gallons of water. Courtney gets to him, wraps her arm around his waist and drags him to shore.
She gets to a big rock and tries to pull herself out only succeeding in getting stuck there. By then, Adrian is already there reaching out to her.
Adrian grabs Courtney's hand, determination flashing in his eyes. He tries and tries to pull Courtney and Chris out, but is not able to.
Carlos comes and pushes Adrian out the way. Adrian falls without uttering a word, his eyes smoky and unbelieving.
Carlos's muscles tense up and he had Courtney and Chris out in not time.
Courtney sighs relieved. The strong water current was about to take away her best pair of underwear. Oh yeah, and Chris too.
Courtney and Chris are surrounded by the other kids and Mr. Whitaker. Courtney feels overwhelmed by the group of boys crowding over her so she chooses to look away and there she sees, sitting under a tree, Adrian. He looks as a little boy who has just been told that Santa Claus isn't real.
Courtney wonders what's up with him. He had been in Dr. Flint's office so he must have some kind of messed up life.
He looks normal though. Not like herself choosing to hide under a shell of tough attitude and nasty rumors.
SUNDAY LUNCHTIME -WALKING BACK TO THE CABIN
"I'm fine, really. Would you let go of my hand?" Chris asks Mr. Whitaker.
"Fine? Fine?" Mr. W scoffs. "Then how come you're bleeding? How come you almost died?"
"I didn't almost didn't almost die. Besides, Courtney was right there."
"But what if miss Wright hadn't lied? What if she really couldn't swim? What would you have done then? Huh?"
"God would have saved me."
"Don't you joke like that young man!"
"I wasn't joking."
"Just shut up and walk faster before you bleed out." Mr. Whitaker snaps angrily.
Courtney walks behind them listening to the whole conversation. What's the big deal? She wonders, it's not like anybody died or anything.
"By the way," Mr. Whitaker turns to Courtney. "thanks for saving Chris."
"I had to," Courtney says. "He was wearing a watch I was planning to steal."
Mr. Whitaker's eyes open wide. "You - you know stealing is not allowed and punished don't you?"
"I was just kidding, God!" Courtney says. Everyone but Mr. W laughed at her joke. Mr. W is usually a pretty funny guy himself though his sense of humor seems to have been crippled by the big scare he'd just had.
The group silently walks back to cabin.
Courtney's clothes and hair are still soaking wet as she walks and her black shoes make as sort of splashy sound with every step.
She collects her sleek hair with one hand and twists it into a thick tress and pushes it under her shirt. It's not some kind of fashion statement or anything just that if she leaves it to dry with the wind it'd get extremely tangled. Long hair is very high-maintenance, probably why tough girls wore their hair short or in a bun.
But not Courtney because she likes how she looks with long hair and because she isn't a tough girl. She just acts tough to look tough to scare away creeps. Does that make her tough?
By when the outdoors club got back to the cabin their stomachs were gurgling so bad they sounded like a gang of angry bears.
Mr. Whitaker finally lets go of Chris's hand and runs to the door when he sees the cabin.
"Laura! Bring the first aid kit from the kitchen!" He howlers making his wife jump.
Courtney walks the last couple of feet to the cabin as the afternoon's plans extend in front of her. Screw the itinerary, she's going to fill her belly with whatever food Mrs. W, take a hot shower and then collapse onto bed till the next day's morning light touched her eyes the next morning.
Then, the image of one thing flashes in her mind and her plans change, but only ever so slightly.
Instead of sleeping till morning light (which she wasn't actually going to do anyway), She'd have to scatter Jimmy's ashes. Now that she know the path there's no excuse to postpone it any longer.
Courtney sighs as she walks into the cabin's open door. Tonight is going to be a long, long night. At least she's right in that much.
SUNDAY NIGHT 9:00PM -BACK AT THE CABIN
Courtney walks out the cabin. Brooke right behind her nagging about curfew.
Courtney closes the door behind her, Brooke's voice fades away.
The woods look cold today, dangerous even. Courtney is thankful for the flashlight in her hand. Mrs. Whitaker had given it to her when Courtney told her about her plans while Mrs. Whitaker baked oatmeal cookies.
The flashlight stubbornly cuts its way through the dark moonlit night. Courtney walks the path to Bridge Lake River. Rocks and twigs crunch under her feet and crickets sing (or cry?) but otherwise, the forest is quiet.
Courtney walks anxiously, Jimmy's touch cuts through her backpack as it bounces on her back with every step. She cracks her fingers nervously at the thought of what she's about to do. Tonight, she'll rid herself of Jimmy's heavy burden. She'll scatter his ashes in the river and give up his memory. Not that she wanted to, but keeping his voice, his memory, his face and his ashes so close to her heart was like pointing a sharp knife to it.
It seemed cruel to push Jimmy out of her life, but life is for those who are alive as Dr. Flint often says. As painful as it is to accept, Jimmy is dead and nothing can change that now.
Courtney walks hurriedly for another ten minutes when she hears a breaking twig.
She turns to look for whatever made the noise. Courtney sweeps the forest around her with the flashlight's powerful beam. Nothing.
She turns around a bit shaky and keeps walking.
Another twigs breaks.
Courtney turns around again. Her long sleek hair slaps the side of her face as the wind whips by.
"Hello! Anyone there?"
No answer.
Courtney reaches in her bag's front pocket and takes out the knife. Though she's scared, she keeps walking.
Two twigs break.
"Knock it off, it's not funny!" Courtney screams nervously.
No answer.
Courtney gives another five steps and then she hears someone, somewhere running. There's definitely someone following her and now Courtney knows it.
She doesn't know what to do. Run and hide or stay and fight. It could be just one of the guys playing a joke on her.
"We have a curfew you know." Brooke's voice echoes in Courtney's head. Nobody could possibly be outside, Mrs. Whitaker wouldn't let them.
Courtney runs back in the direction of the cabin. Her heart pumping, her legs shaky.
"Who the fuck's following me? We're in a goddamm mountain for Christsake!" An angry voice asks in Courtney's head. Worst of all, the mound of courage Courtney had been saving up to say good bye to Jimmy was slowly being eaten away by her current fear. And now she is really beginning to panic.
The footsteps behind her sound heavy. Whomever is following Courtney is probably bear sized. "Get over here!" A slightly familiar voice screamed.
He is gaining over Courtney who tries to speed up, but fails. She breathes heavily, her mind half gone to give way to all the fear she feels.
"Get away freak!" Courtney screams back.
The man draws closer, he grabs Courtney's arm and yanks it off. Courtney looses her balance and slams the side of her face with a tree, her knife flies out her hand. She groans.
"Whatchu got in there lil' girl?"
"No! don't touch that, let it go bastard!"
The man laughs at her request, grabs her head with a huge hand, yanks her hair and sends her flying to the floor.
The man rips the pack open and finds the jar. Jimmy's jar. He takes it out delightfully chucking.
"What could it be? What could it be?" He asks waving the jar in Courtney's face.
"Give that back!" Courtney screams getting up.
The man casually kicks her in the chest. Courtney falls on her back not able to breathe, her lungs feel as if they were in a pressure chamber, completely squished out of air.
"Money, is it? Maybe jewelry? Ha, ha, ha."
"Give it to me!" Courtney tries again. She can't see his face in the dark, but he sees hers.
"Oh so it's you," He says pulling a knife out his jacket. He leans over and slashes Courtney's left tight.
"Ahh!" Courtney screams, pain shoots up her leg.
"Yeah, you like that bitch?" He eyes Jimmy's yellow jar. "If this is so precious to a whore like you," He raises it high. "then it should be destroyed. Ha, ha, ha." He laughs shoving it hard against a tree.
The jar shatters with a loud thump and the ashes are blown away by the wind.
"Noooo!!" Courtney screams.
The man laughs some more, "Now it's your turn lil' girl." He approaches her. Courtney grabs a handful of dirt and shoves it to his face.
It hits him right in the eyes and he covers them with both hands. Courtney kicks him hard between the legs and runs, runs back to the cabin.
The wind is blowing hard and her hair whips at her face fiercely. Courtney pushes it away with both hands feeling as scared as she had running out that fast food restaurant bathroom, only worse.
She runs and runs half out of her mind. Not a scream leaves her lips afraid to give her position away, but tears are about to escape her eyes. She just lost Jimmy again, and again she didn't get a chance to say good bye.
She pushes those thoughts to the back of her mind forcing herself to concentrate on staying alive.
She runs and runs and then suddenly stumbles on someone.
"Ah! No get off!God!" Chris's voice screams.
Brooke and Sebastian scream. Tom takes off running.
Chris kicks and fights. "Get off! What do you want! Leave me alone!"
"Get up! Let's go!" Courtney yells afraid she's losing precious time. If that guy, whomever he is, catches up to them. He isn't going to have any sweet pity, he'd give no second chances.
STOP...
...FAST FORWARD...
PLAY...
And now from were we left off...PAUSE
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