Free The Reservoir by Rosemarie Naramore Page A

her wound. 
    She bolted upright and clutched her foot.  “Owww!”
    Zack bolted upright.  He glanced around frantically, and then his eyes lighted first on his friends, and then back to Holly.  He gave her a tired, loopy grin.
    “Dudes!” Niqui cried, “what’s going on here?”
    “You two didn’t…?” Kendall murmured, letting the implication of her words hang in the air.
    “Of course not!” Zack said testily, quick to defend Holly’s honor.  “Holly was scared, and frankly, so was I.  While you all drifted off to La-La land like this place is some sort of ghost-free zone, we had a semi-close encounter with Daniel’s dead girlfriend.”
    “Wha—!” Daniel cried from his place at the dinette table in the kitchen.  “You saw her?  You believe me!”  Daniel charged into the living room and stood at Zack and Holly’s feet.  “You really don’t think I’m crazy anymore?!”
    Zack ran a hand through his hair.  “Yeah, we believe you.”  He stuck out a hand toward Daniel, who accepted it.  They shook hands, Daniel watching Zack quizzically.  “Congratulations, son, you’re not crazy.”
    Zack rose from the floor then, doing a quick side-to-side stretch, before reaching for Holly’s hand.  “Did you manage to get any sleep?” he asked her, pulling her up in an easy motion.
    “More than I would have if…”
    “Zack hadn’t wrapped you in his tender embrace,” Kendall cut in, failing to keep the displeasure from her voice.
    Holly briefly watched her friend, attempting to read her.  Sometimes it was hard to gauge Kendall’s true feelings.  Unfortunately, she didn’t have the time or the inclination to try right now.  Courtesy of Kendall’s kick to her foot, it was throbbing and now bleeding through the bandage.  “Shoot!” she muttered.  “I’m going to get a shower and clean up my foot.”
    “How did that happen?” Kendall said, her eyes widened in stunned surprise at the sight of the injury.
    “You just did it when you kicked her,” Zack said.  “You probably shouldn’t go around kicking people.”
    “Holly, I’m so sor—”
    She waved off the apology.  “You didn’t do it.  I stepped on a broken plate.”
    “When?” Daniel asked, and Holly was glad to see he looked and sounded like his old self again.    
    “We’ll tell you all about it after Holly and I get ready,” Zack told them.  He turned to her.  “Need any help getting to the bathroom?”
    She shook her head and hobbled toward the back porch.
    “I need to get something from my truck,” Zack said, and jogged off.
    Their friends glanced at one another, eyes narrowed in speculation.  They sensed the shift in their friends’ relationship, and weren’t sure how they felt about it.  They knew as well as Holly that it could alter the smoothly functioning dynamic of the group if things didn’t go well.
    “I’ll start cooking breakfast,” Niqui said, spurring the others into action.
    “I’ll help,” Kendall said.
    “And I’m … going down to the lake,” Daniel said.
    “Daniel, no!” Niqui cried.
    “I don’t get you, Daniel,” Kendall groused.  “Why would you go down there, considering how scared you were yesterday?  Need I remind you, you were fully convinced you’d lost your mind until a few minutes ago.  Frankly,” she added drolly, “ we were pretty convinced you’d lost your mind.”
    “Well, news flash!  I haven’t.  Call me when breakfast is ready.”
     
    ***
     
    Daniel left the cabin and dropped down the dusty path to the water’s edge.  He scanned the surface and saw nothing out of the ordinary.  He took a hesitant step onto the dock.  His heart began to drum in his chest.  “If she had wanted to hurt me, she would have,” he told himself.  He repeated the words like a mantra.
    Finally, he managed to work up the nerve to walk to the end of the dock.  He stood silently, listening to the soothing sound of the waves as they lapped against the dock