Dark Water (Cooper M. Reid Book 1) (8 page)

Using a slippery grip on the first rock and the awkward bobbing of his feet to guide him, he waded over to the space between the stones. He felt the hard rocky surface of one of the rocks beneath his feet, but wasn’t sure which rock he was standing on. One thing he
was
certain of, though, was that the current of water that ran between the two rocks was incredibly strong. He held tightly to the side of the first rock and still had to firmly plant his legs not to get swept away.

He wasn’t sure why, but something about the way the water flowed between that small V-shaped space between the rocks seemed strange. He had no doubt that if he were to let go of the side of the rock, it would easily sweep him through the space between the rocks. He then wondered if someone could get stuck between them and drown when the tide got high enough.

Those are stupid thoughts to be having right now,
he thought.

He looked to the second rock and was pretty sure that he could make it over there without the water sweeping him off to the other side of the rocks. But really, what was the point? If there had been a person up there earlier, what was he going to do? Swim after them and ask what they were up to?

Hardly.

And if his hunch was correct—if what they had spotted was a ghost or spirit or something similar—going to that second rock to find it was futile.

Defeated, wet, and with legs that were growing tired from fighting the tide, Cooper figured that it was time to go back. If there was something to be found here, he wasn’t going to find it at night, anyway.

He turned back, already anxious for the relief of the sandbar. But as he made his first sluggish stride away from the side of the rock, he heard something that caught his attention. It was slight, buried beneath the sloshing noise of the water that churned between the rocks. At first, he thought it was nothing and nearly ignored it. But once he heard it, it was hard to
not
hear it.

It sounded like someone pouring water into a bowl, only denser. It was hard to tell where it was coming from, but he thought that it was directly beside him. He lunged back to the side of the rock, catching himself along the side. He scaled the side of the larger rock and went to the back of it. He felt the water between the rocks sucking at him, trying to pull him away, but he clung steadfast to the side. He looked down to where the water was splashing against the side of the rock and thought he saw the source of the sound he had heard. In the dark, it was impossible to tell for sure, but he
thought
there was an anomaly there.

Curious, Cooper splashed back out into the water and with two labored strokes, made it back to the sandbar. He stood there for a moment and caught his breath. He then looked to Stephanie and held up a hand.

“I need the flashlight. Can you throw it this far?”

She looked at the flashlight, considering. He knew that she wasn’t wondering whether or not she could get it to him (she was stronger than he was when it came to arm strength), but whether or not she wanted to part with it. After a few seconds, she cocked her arm back and threw it in a perfect underhanded arc to him. Her aim was dead on and he caught it with no problem.

He turned to the rocks and saw that they looked almost slimy with the flashlight’s beam directly upon them.. Holding the flashlight up over his head, Cooper walked back off of the sandbar. He was ready for the drop this time and managed to keep his head above the water.

As he directed the light around the rocks, he got a very brief sense of familiarity—of venturing into uncertain places where any form of danger might be around the corner. Although his relationship with the FBI and the shadow organizations that had later sought him out had spoiled him and left him disenchanted over his career, he couldn’t deny that he had loved it. He felt a slight pang of regret over his past as he stood neck deep in the water, sketching the flashlight along the base of the two large rocks ahead of him.

Having only one free hand this time, it was harder to grab onto the first rock. He stretched his arm out and managed to dig into a sizeable crevice with his fingers. He pulled himself forward and shuffled his feet blindly under the water for some sort of foot hold. He found one and managed to pull himself up a bit as he climbed around to the rear side of the rock again.

He shone the flashlight into the V-shaped region of water between the rocks, looking for the source of the pouring sound he had heard. Now that he couldn’t
un
hear it, he thought that it sounded like rain water channeling down through a city drain. Only this drain would be very deep and the water was much stronger than simple rain spillage.

With the flashlight, it was easy to find the source. Roughly three inches above where the water was currently splashing against the rock, there was a large crack that was taking in water. The crack was roughly the size of a soccer ball and was located along a curve in the rock that made it hard to spot. If the tide had have been just a bit higher, Cooper would not have been able to hear it, much less known it was there.

Pressing the flashlight against the side of the rock, Cooper managed to angle himself over to his right in order to get closer to it. His footing slipped a few times in the muck along the submerged base of the rock but he somehow kept his head from going under.

He was now facing the hole and was able to place his fingers along its sides. He pulled himself up by it, having to fight against the surging water between the rocks. He aimed the flashlight into the hole and saw nothing. There was only blackness, but it was not the solid blackness that made up the rest of the rocks. He was fairly certain that he was looking into a deep, dark hole.

He could hear water splashing down inside of it. The sound it made led him to believe that the hole (if that’s what it was) was rather deep.

He leaned closer into it and gave a fairly loud
“Hello!”

His voice reverberated and gave a slight echo. Combined with the water, it was difficult to tell just what was going on in there. He felt around along the steep angled face of the rock, looking for small stones but found only slime and grit.

Knowing that there was a good chance that he’d promptly regret the decision to do so, Cooper cut off the flashlight and popped open the tab on the end of it. Doing this required two hands and he nearly slid right off of the rock and into the water. He pressed himself into the rock as he worked though, making sure he stayed tight to it.

He slid the batteries out of the flashlight and palmed them in his hand. He selected one and dropped it into the hole. He leaned forward and listened, making a silent count. He did his best to shut out the sound of the tide and the waves crashing on the shore.

One, two, three—

He heard the battery clatter off of something but sensed that it had not come to a complete stop.

—four, five, six—

He heard the battery hit something else. This time the sound was more solid. Cooper was pretty sure it had hit bottom. He wasn’t quite sure what this meant, but his mind returned to the fact that on the other side of the beach, closer to the road and where they had parked Stephanie’s car, the ground was rocky and uneven in most places.

It made him wonder just how expansive the open spaces beneath this rock might be.

“Cooper?”

Stephanie’s voice was remarkably clear over the sounds of the sloshing water between the rocks and the waves. He carefully inched his way along the side of the rock, carrying the now useless flashlight in his left hand. He got to the side of the rock and looked out to her. With no light source and no way to really investigate the hole at night, he figured it was time to head back anyway.

But then he saw her face. Even in the muted moonlight, he could see that she was scared. She was frightened and she was pointing directly at him.

No, not at him.

Behind
him.

Cooper turned his head, not daring to let go of the side of the rock, and screamed.

10

A man stood on the second rock behind Cooper. His face was rotten and he had no eyes, only black sockets. When he grinned maliciously at Cooper, the man revealed teeth that were nothing more than brown shapes that looked like wood.

The scream that came out of Cooper’s mouth sounded strange to him. After all he had seen in his line of work, it took a lot to frighten him and he had developed something of a tolerance for fear. But this gruesome figure had come out of nowhere and was standing less than three feet away.

Only, the man wasn’t standing.

There was no way to firmly plant his feet on the sloped surface of the second rock. From what Cooper could tell, the man was floating or, more likely, he was not a man at all.

It took Cooper less than two seconds to take all of this in. He finished his scream by allowing his fear to also control his hands and feet. He released the rock and went into the water. The current between the rocks caught him at once, tugging him hard to the right. He let it take him and when it pulled him under, he swam furiously until he felt the push of the tide, carrying him towards the shore. He then realized that he was now on the opposite side of the rocks and that the sandbar was nowhere to be found. He swam with it and did not swimming until he could fully place his feet on the bottom.

Still, he managed to stand up and when he did, he felt the undertow tugging at him. He lost his footing and went under, his head still craned back as he looked for the figure on the second rock. All he saw, though, was the water as it went over his head. He took in a mouthful of salt water and started coughing and gagging as he tried to swim towards the beach.

When the next series of waves came surging forward, he caught the current and swam with it again. He kept stroking forward until he felt his knees dragging on dirt. He then stood up and ambled the rest of the way to the beach, still coughing up sea water.

He turned back to the rocks and was not at all surprised to see that the eyeless figure that had so badly scared him was no longer there.

Steph came running to him as he went to his butt in the sand. Between the exercise of maneuvering around the rocks, the genuine scare, and then fighting against the current to get back to shore, Cooper was winded.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He gave her a thumbs-up as he coughed up more sea water. Again, he looked back out to the rocks, hoping that they might offer up their secrets again.

“Cooper, what the hell was that?”

“I don’t know. A ghost, for sure. But I don’t know which kind.”

“There’s more than one kind of ghost?”

“Yeah. Intelligent, residual, poltergeist, and demonic entity.”

“And which was that?”

“Are you telling me you believe in ghosts now?”

Stephanie looked to the rocks and shrugged her shoulders. “Cooper, the man—or ghost or whatever it was—was
floating
. I didn’t even see his feet. So yeah, I’m off the fence now.”

“Welcome to the crazy side,” Cooper said. “As for that ghost, I don’t know which kind it was. Pretty sure it’s not demonic. But it’s impossible to tell for sure without knowing more about the location.”

“You think it’s related to the Blackstock’s house?”

“It would be
really
coincidental if it wasn’t. So yeah, I think it might.”

Stephanie was still looking out to the rocks. Cooper saw that she was trembling slightly. He didn’t think it was because she was cold.

“Did you see its face?” Cooper asked.

“Not really.”

“Good.”

He stood up, realizing that he still had her flashlight in his hand. He offered it back to her and she took it as if she had never seen it before. Cooper was beginning to wonder if she was in some sort of minor shock.

“Did you find anything?” she asked.

“I don’t know. There’s a crack in the rock—a small hole that I couldn’t really see into. I’m pretty sure those rocks are part of the exterior to a tunnel or cave that run under the beach.”

“Can you tell me about it somewhere else?” she asked. “Quite frankly, I’m ready to get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah. I can’t really do much about this at night anyway.”

“You mean you’re not done? After coming face to face with that…
thing
, you’re going to keep looking?”

“Of course,” he said.

He then placed his arm around her shoulders and escorted her back towards the small rocky hill they had come down to reach the beach. She stepped closer to him, leaning into him. They walked back to the car like that, Cooper’s arm around her as they walked as closely together as their bodies would allow.

Despite the adrenaline and fear still surging through him, Cooper noticed that she was not shying away from him. In her own fear, she was seeking his comfort.

Another small victory,
Cooper thought as they climbed back up the rocky hill and walked to her car.

11

It was shortly after eleven o’ clock when Cooper pulled Stephanie’s car back into the restaurant parking lot. They made the drive with the windows rolled down, trying to dry Cooper’s pants as much as possible. Stephanie had made him sit on a hooded sweatshirt that she had taken from the trunk of her car, not wanting him to soak her seat.

Cooper pulled her car into the spot beside his own car but did not get out right away. He looked over to her and saw that whatever shock she had been creeping towards on the beach was gone now. He assumed that also meant that whatever lapse in her guard she had encountered afterwards—allowing him to put his arm around her and comfort her—was also gone.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked her.

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Do you need me to come back to your room with you?”

She gave him a playfully disappointed look and rolled her eyes. “Well played,” she said. “But no thanks.”