High Tide (9781481413824)

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  PART ONE

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  Chapter 1

  ADAM

  “Let’s go, Adam!” Mitzi cried. “Let’s really move this thing!”

  “You want fast?” I hollered over the roar of the water scooter. “You got it!”

  Laughing, I spun the scooter in a wide curve—away from the docks of Logan Beach and farther out into the ocean.

  Glancing back, I saw the tall lifeguard chair looming up out of the long stretch of white sand. Twenty minutes until I have to be on duty, I thought. Plenty of time to give Mitzi the ride of her life.

  “Hurry up, Adam!” Mitzi shrieked in my ear. “I want to feel this thing fly!”

  I laughed again. Talk about a great summer!

  Lifeguarding was hard, hot work, but totally worth it. After all, it’s how I met Mitzi. The day I spotted her walking by the lifeguard station, I practically drooled.

  Long blond hair, legs that went on forever, and a smile that almost knocked me out of the chair.

  And now here she was, riding behind me on the water scooter, her arms wrapped around my waist.

  As I said, a great summer.

  I took the scooter a little father out, then revved the engine and tore across the water. We bounced and rocked, zipping back and forth under the hot sun, laughing every time a big wave tried to slap us sideways.

  I could have done it all afternoon.

  But I had only ten more minutes before my shift on the beach.

  “One more pass!” I yelled to Mitzi. “Then we’ll have to take it in so I can go to work!”

  “Okay, but can we do this again tomorrow?” she yelled back.

  “Sure!”

  “And after you’re through working, let’s get a hamburger!”

  “Sure!” I repeated with a grin. “Then what?”

  “Then let’s take a long walk on the beach, under the moonlight,” she suggested with a laugh.

  As Mitzi squeezed me tightly, I grinned again.

  Did I say “great” summer?

  Make that excellent!

  “Hang on!” I cried. Turning again, I pointed the scooter toward the docks. Then I let it rip.

  As the scooter roared across the water, Mitzi tightened her arms around me and shrieked with laughter. She leaned her head against my back, and I felt her blond hair whipping around my neck.

  When we were halfway back to the docks, I spotted a huge wave rising up on our left. “Look out!” I shouted. “We’re in for a soaking!”

  I gunned the engine, hoping to get past the highest part of the wave before it tumbled down on us.

  The wave curled higher.

  Mitzi squeezed me tighter.

  “Whooooooaaa!” The wave slammed down.

  We beat it by a split second!

  As we slapped over the tail end of it, Mitzi’s arms suddenly dropped from around my waist. Over the roar of the scooter I heard a loud splash behind me.

  Girl overboard! I thought. Adam Malfitano to the rescue!

  I whirled the water scooter around in a tight circle and started back to pick her up.

  Through the spray of water, I saw Mitzi’s blond head bob out of the frothing ocean.

  Nooooo!

  Too close! Too close to me!

  I couldn’t stop in time.

  I cut back on the power and swerved to the side.

  Too late!

  The scooter bumped wildly as it rolled over Mitzi’s thrashing body.

  “Nooo!” I opened my mouth in a wail of horror.

  I spun the scooter around and gaped as a dark red stain spread out over the water.

  Blood.

  Mitzi’s blood.

  Turning the foamy waves pink.

  Darkening the blue-gray water. Spreading out . . . spreading . . . spreading . . .

  “Nooo!” I screamed again. “Mitzi!”

  I leapt off the water scooter into the cold, churning waters.

  Another wave tumbled over me. It shot me away from her, toward the shore. I fought the pull of the current and struggled to plow my way toward Mitzi.

  It took only a couple of strokes to reach her. She thrashed frantically, trying to keep her head above the water. I gasped.

  Streams of blood criss-crossed her face. Blood gushing from a jagged wound in her forehead.

  Her eyes wide with terror and pain, Mitzi opened her mouth to scream. Instead, she gulped water and began to sink again.

  I reached down and grabbed her arm to haul her up. Her arm was slick with blood, but I managed to pull her head above the water.

  Panicked, she threw her bloody arms around my neck—and started to drag me under.

  I yanked free, grabbed her around the waist, and hauled her up again.

  She kept fighting, spattering blood across my face. Her fist slammed into the side of my head.

  I lost my grip on her.

  I’ll never be able to get her ashore! I thought.

  I have to find help!

  A boat, I thought. A surfer or a swimmer. Somebody has to be out here to help us!

  Somebody!

  Blinking the blood and salt water from my eyes, I whirled around and gazed across the tossing ocean.

  And screamed in terror as a dark shape loomed up in front of me.

  Chapter 2

  The water scooter!

  It spun around.

  And now it was roaring at me!

  The sound echoed like thunder as it sped through the rippling water. But there was something wrong. Horribly wrong. The protective hull of the scooter had cracked open—and the propellor was exposed.

  Its deadly blades sliced the waves in half, coming at me like sharp knives.

  “Nooo!” I let out a shriek—and dove aside.

  Too late.

  Pain shot through me as the scooter roared by.

  My leg! It sliced through my leg!

  I screamed in agony and swallowed a mouthful of water. Choking, I sank below the surface, then fought my way back up.

  The water scooter had turned. It was coming back!

  I had to get out of there before it shredded me to hamburger!

  Gasping and dazed with pain, I spun around, looking for Mitzi.

  I spotted her blood-streaked face bobbing out of the water. The roar of the water scooter filled my ears again. Grew louder. Louder.

  The scooter was roaring back at me!

  My left leg hung useless, throbbing and bleeding. I kicked with my right leg and tried to drag myself out of the path of the scooter.

  But it came too fast, racing toward me like some kind of evil monster.

  I thrashed my arms desperately.

  Kicked with my good leg.

  Tried to pull myself out of its way again.

  But the scooter moved too fast. It cut into my arm.

  Its monstrous roar drowned out my screams.

  Pain shot through my body. The scooter was on me again.

  Again.

  Cutting into my other arm. My back. Slicing across my shoulders.

  I kept screaming as the scooter roared back and forth, cutting me every time it rolled over me.

  “Adam! Help me!” Mitzi gasped and choked as she fought to keep her head above the water. “Please—help me!”

  Her head went under, then bobbed up again. “Adam, help! Help me!”
br />   The water scooter roar grew louder, drowning out Mitzi’s cries.

  Panicked and shivering with pain, I stretched an arm out and dragged myself through the churning, blood-soaked waves.

  As I grabbed onto her shoulder, Mitzi wrapped her arms around my neck. “Help me!” she begged. “Get me out of here, Adam! Help me before . . . before . . .”

  But I couldn’t help her. I could barely stay afloat.

  All we could do was cling together as the roar of the water scooter grew louder and closer.

  “Adam!” Mitzi cried my name once more. Then the bloody, foaming water surged into her mouth.

  The water lapped at my chin, over my lips. I tilted my head back and dragged air in through my nose.

  Holding tightly to each other, Mitzi and I sank beneath the surface of the ocean.

  The sound of the water scooter faded.

  Mitzi and I sank down. So quiet down here. So dark and quiet . . .

  So this is what it feels like to drown.

  Chapter 3

  “We’ll die!” I shouted. “We’re drowning!”

  “Adam!” a voice cried out.

  “We’re drowning. We’re dying!” I yelled.

  Someone grabbed my shoulder and shook it hard. “Adam!” the voice repeated. “Wake up, man! Wake up! You’re having a nightmare!”

  Gasping for air, I snapped my eyes open and stared up at Ian. Ian Schultz. My roommate.

  Ian gazed back at me, his features twisted in worry and surprise.

  “You awake now, Adam? You okay?”

  I sat up and glanced around. My heart still hammered, but it slowed down when I realized exactly where I was.

  In my bed. My apartment. The same apartment I’d shared with Ian last summer.

  A cool ocean breeze blew in the window. The sky outside was kind of a pearly gray, the way it gets just before the sun comes up.

  I could hear waves lapping against the shore, and gulls already shrieking as they started to search for food.

  Normal sounds. Everything normal.

  Ian ran a hand through his tangled, sandy hair and blinked at me. “It was the same nightmare, wasn’t it?”

  I took a shaky breath and nodded. “Yeah. Mitzi and I get ripped up by the scooter. And then we’re sinking, going farther and farther under the water. Everything’s black, and I can’t breathe!”

  I shuddered.

  The nightmare had started last summer, right after Mitzi died. We’d gone out on the water scooter together, just as in the dream. She fell off. And as I spun the scooter around, it slammed into Mitzi—hard. It tore open her forehead. Fractured her skull.

  Poor Mitzi.

  I tried to save her, but I couldn’t.

  Mitzi drowned.

  But in my dream I always die too. In my dream, the water scooter always goes berserk. It comes after me like some kind of monster.

  “It’s so real, every time I have it,” I muttered, still sweating from the horrible nightmare. “It’s so real. When is it going to go away? Will I have it my whole life?”

  “I don’t know, man.” Ian rubbed his face and yawned.

  He works in a boat-rental shop, but he had the day off. I knew he’d planned to sleep late. “But maybe you should think about switching psychiatrists.”

  “Huh? Why should I do that?” I asked. “Dr. Thall seems okay to me.”

  “Yeah, well, you’ve been seeing him for almost a year and you’re still having the nightmares,” Ian pointed out.

  “I know, but—”

  “Besides,” Ian interrupted. “I’ve seen the guy on TV. He’s on a talk show almost every other day.”

  “So what?” I asked. “He’s got all these new ideas about treating people, and he wrote a book about it.”

  “I know, and he seems to have some really wacko treatments, if you ask me.” Ian shrugged and yawned again. “Anyway, it’s only six o’clock, and since today’s my day off, I’m going back to sleep.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “What about you? You don’t have to be on duty until this afternoon. You going to catch some more zzz’s?”

  “Maybe.”

  Actually, I was afraid to go back to sleep. Maybe I’d just get up and take a walk on the beach. Or ride one of the biking trails.

  Anything to keep from sinking into that nightmare again.

  I stretched my arms, then rubbed my eyes. I took hold of the sheet and started to throw it off.

  And froze in terror.

  “Nooo!” I screamed. “No! Ian, look!”

  “What?” Ian spun around, fear in his eyes. “What is it? What’s going on?”

  “My legs!” I shrieked.

  I pointed at the bed, where my legs should have been. “They’re gone! My legs are gone! Help me! Ian—where is the rest of me?”

  Chapter 4

  Staring hard at me, Dr. Thall leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk. He’s a short, thin, middle-aged man with a bald head and a feeble chin.

  But his blue eyes are like lasers.

  “And so, Adam, you thought your legs were gone?” he asked quietly.

  “Yes.” I forced myself not to shudder as I remembered that moment—remembered looking down to the foot of the bed and seeing nothing but empty space where my legs should have been.

  “Of course, my legs—they were under the sheet,” I said. “I was perfectly okay.”

  “You haven’t had any hallucinations in several weeks,” Dr. Thall commented, shaking his head.

  “I know.” The last time I had one, I thought my arms were gone. And before that, my eyes.

  That was the worst, thinking a fish had eaten the eyeballs out of my head.

  But Dr. Thall was right—the hallucinations had stopped three weeks ago. Until this morning.

  Dr. Thall rubbed his chin and frowned. “Has anything happened recently to upset you, Adam? Is anything new troubling you?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to think. My first year of college had ended two weeks ago. I went home to Shadyside for a week. Nothing special happened there. After seeing all my old high school friends, I packed up and came to start work at Logan Beach.

  I opened my eyes. Dr. Thall still stared hard at me, studying me.

  “Maybe it’s summer,” I suggested. “You know. Being back on the beach again.”

  “If that’s what is causing you to see things, maybe you should give up being a lifeguard,” the doctor suggested, studying my face.

  “No.” I stood up and jammed my hands into the pockets of my shorts.

  “Just think about it,” he urged me. “It’s possible that being back on the beach is too distressing for you. Perhaps you need to find a job somewhere else. In a different town. Indoors, perhaps.”

  “No,” I repeated. I shook my head and began to pace around his office. “I have to face it. I have to conquer it. Mitzi died last summer. It was an accident. A horrible accident. I lost control of the water scooter, and she died.”

  “And you blamed yourself,” Dr. Thall added.

  “You know I did,” I told him. “Anybody would. I mean, I was driving the scooter. I felt guilty for a long time.”

  I stopped in front of his desk and stared at him. “But I don’t blame myself anymore.”

  “All right, Adam. But something is still bothering you,” he pointed out. “Something is still troubling your mind. Isn’t that obvious to you?”

  “Sure,” I replied. “But what am I supposed to do—keep away from beaches for the rest of my life?” I shook my head again. “No. I have to stay here. I have no choice. I have to face my fears,” I insisted.

  He nodded. “Very well. I can see you’re determined to stay, and I’m not going to try to stop you. I’m glad you aren’t taking the blame for the accident anymore.” He frowned again and leaned back in his chair. “Now. Why do you suppose you had a hallucination after so long?”

  I shrugged. “All I can think of is that I’m back at the beach. The same beach where it happened. I’m even in t
he same apartment, with the same roommate. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

  “To have nightmares—yes,” he agreed. “But, frankly, the hallucination surprises me.”

  “You and me both,” I muttered. “But maybe it was just this one time. The shock of being back, as I said. Maybe I won’t see any more crazy things.”

  “Maybe not,” he said softly. “Just be sure to stay aware, Adam.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have to listen to your subconcious mind.” He tapped his fingers on the desk and glanced at me sharply. “It may be trying to tell you something. I think there is something inside your brain struggling to get out.”

  “Like what?”

  Dr. Thall smiled. “That’s what we’re here to find out. Now, let’s get to work.”

  • • •

  Half an hour later I stepped out of Dr. Thall’s office and stopped at the receptionist’s desk.

  “Same time next week?” she asked cheerfully.

  I nodded. And the week after, and the week after that, I thought.

  Would I be seeing Thall for the rest of my life? Trying to figure out what my stupid subconscious mind was trying to tell me?

  I sighed, then glanced at my watch. I had to be on beach duty soon. Dr. Thall’s office was half a mile from the beach, but if I hurried, I could make it.

  I’d better make it, I thought. I took the appointment card the receptionist handed me. If I’m late, Sean will probably get in my face.

  Sean Cavanna is another lifeguard, and we’re usually on duty together. He’s okay, I guess. He talks a lot, and he likes to joke around.

  But he also gripes a lot. And sometimes he gets in these really bad moods. His dark eyes turn as cold and mean as a shark’s, and he looks ready to explode.

  Being late wouldn’t make him explode, but it would definitely make him gripe. And after the nightmare and the hallucination, I didn’t feel like listening to him complain and carry on.

  I shoved the appointment card in my pocket, picked up my duffel bag, and hurried out the door.

  I walked through the streets of Logan Beach Village, then finally reached Main Street. Across from it stood the boardwalk, then the beach.