Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

"Careful," David said, now up to his waist in the cold, swishing pool of blackness that glimmered with the light of the moon.

A loud howl blasted the midnight air from behind him as David turned to see the creature standing beside the rock building at the top of the hill. Its arms stretched low to its sides as it curled long, slender fingers tipped with dark blades. It poised its long snout to the heavens, ears tucked back and cried out its song of death to the stars. The howl rang loud enough to hurt David’s ears.

"Start paddling," David said as he carefully balanced his weight onto the rocking boat and crawled onto its damp surface.

The werewolf's tune finally abated as David watched it lower its gaze toward them. He grabbed a paddle and began forcing it through the heavy water with all his might.

"Keep up with me," he said.

Terry gasped for air while tugging the paddle from his side.

The beast charged downhill toward the docks.

"We're not gonna make it!" Terry said frantically as he pushed even faster through the water.

"Keep rowing harder!" David shouted.

"I'm trying!"

Just as they passed the series of wooden posts, the beast rushed onto the clanking boards. They were about ten feet out from the platform. In an instant, it closed in. David braced the edge of the canoe, squeezing for life. The monster skidded to a hard halt just at the end of the walkway. David noticed they had finally drifted beyond jumping distance as the hairy beast swayed its head side to side across the murky depths that surrounded it. It snarled wildly as they paddled further away.

"What's it going to do now?" Terry's shaky voice did little to draw David's attention as he continued rowing them further away from the menacing evil that glared across the rippling fluid barrier. It was all that separated them from certain death.

The shrinking docks gradually faded into the darkness. Only a bright dot shown from the well-lit rock building on the hill behind it as they drifted further into the dark space, surrounded by wide open stretches of nothingness that splashed around them. A loud roar echoed from one side of the lake to the next. Another broke through the night. It came from one direction and then another. Each quieter than the last. Finally, after about an hour, all fell silent to the occasional smack of water that rolled beneath them, pushing the canoe slowly up and down.

David withdrew his wet phone from his pocket and started to wipe it dry with his shirt. The screen lit up and reacted to the swiping motion of his clothes.

"Good thing," Terry said. "Left mine in the car." His face dropped slowly to the thin puddle of water in the floor of their tiny boat. "What am I going to do? How do I explain all this?"

"We're not calling the cops," David said. He waited for Terry's response through the void where they floated.

"I know..." Terry sighed as his eyes dropped further. "Everyone is mixed up in a lot of shady shit and it would only get you guys in trouble. Besides, they wouldn't believe us anyway."

David raised his head. It was the first time he ever heard Terry cuss.

David set his paddle aside in its rest. "This is where it happened," he said as he turned to look toward the distant twinkling star that was once the well-lit docks that they had drifted so far away from.

"It was shortly before the old rec burned down last year," David said slowly as Terry set his oar aside. "Jan and I had always been tight, but when she started seeing Vance everything changed. No more trips out on the lake with her and her dad. No more hanging out at the Sunset Diner, waiting for Tony to get off work and tell jokes around the table with our friends... Everything just kind of fell apart." The lake fell silent to the midnight air as the darkness itself became his audience pressing him to continue further with a crushing weight that made his throat heavy.

"When Sarah and I hooked up it was kind of spontaneous. I don't know what we were thinking," David said, shaking his head. "It was a party over at Cory's place."

"Yeah. I know him," Terry said.

"It was Sarah's birthday. She was pretty drunk, but I was just a little buzzed. A fight broke out because Danny and Brad were getting high in Cory's living room, so me and Sarah left."

David tightened his face as he gazed across the glimmering ripples that glinted through the darkness. "I was kind of tore up about Jan and Vance. Maybe I said something. I don't remember. Somehow we got the idea that her dad's boat would be the perfect place."

"You wanted revenge?" Terry asked.

"No. Well, I mean, not like that," David said. He studied the lines that etched their way across the damp boards across the floor of their damp wooden island of salvation that drifted through the night. "We were making out on the boat. I thought it would be fun to use Jan's camera she left lying around there and then Sarah had this idea."

"Sarah was so drunk and she thought..." David took a deep breath and blew out a heavy sigh from the bottom of his painful gut. "It was just supposed to be a prank."

"What happened, David?"

"She crossed some wires or something. Said it would give whoever started it one hell of a shock. We didn't think that..." He raised his head to face Terry through the darkness. "You see, that's why I can't let you say anything. It's not just for me. For Sarah. Even for Jan."

Terry shook his head side to side. His eyes pressed back with a grimly firm disappointment. As he opened his mouth to speak, they were jarred by a hard bump from his end of the boat. It rocked the entire thing side to side. The sound of splashing water became sharper as they came to an