Just Intuition (21 page)

Thunder sounded in the distance, angry black clouds blotted out the sunset, but despite uncomfortable blisters, Erin and Allie kept paddling. They needed to reach Blue Water campground before the sky fell.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Erin looked at the clouds. "Tell me how it feels when you get one of your premonitions." Talking seemed more productive than worrying about the approaching storm.

"You want to talk about feelings?" Allie laughed while she paddled. "That
's what, twice in one week? What's happened to my ever-practical lover?"

"I
'm only making conversation."

"I don
't know what to tell you. I'm new at this. All my life I have worked so hard to suppress all the weird feelings I get. Now I try to relax when I sense thoughts coming and let it happen," she said thoughtfully. "I guess I need to find a way to pay attention to what I'm doing too because I have no idea what I packed in my bag, and I didn't intend to destroy my car."

"I don
't mean to sound like a shrink but you're telling me what you do, not how you feel. How does it feel?"

Allie thought for a moment. "I
'm not sure how to describe it. When stuff like that happens, I'm not aware that I'm actually using my brain. It's purely sensory. Depending on the circumstances, it can be a draft in the room, the hair on the back of my scalp prickling, or an aversion to a certain person. I often get persistent thoughts and I know that if I don't go do whatever is bothering me, it will never leave me alone. I can't ignore it or they will get stronger until it gets so uncomfortable that I can't concentrate on anything else."

"Kind of like the night you felt we needed to go to Gunther
's place to look for Lily? She was there, you know. We just couldn't find her."

"I know. She was hiding and I couldn
't help because I let myself get too upset."

"It
's not your fault," Erin said. "What do you feel when you think about finding Derek?"

"It
's funny, but when I try to imagine where Derek took the girl, I get confused. It's like there is a whole other part of him that is a separate entity. We need to find Derek, but not Derek. It makes no sense. Like he is not himself, more like a part of his essence. Wow, that sounds strange."

"And confusing."

"What's also confusing is that I sometimes see a dark animal prowling. Like a cat. A dangerous wild one."

"All that confusion must have been hard for you, especially in your teens when everything is so dramatic to begin with," Erin said. Allie breathed more deeply talking about it and Erin recognized it as a relaxation technique she often used. She was reluctant to push Allie to talk about this if it made her so uncomfortable, but could not resist the one burning question she had left. "Is it scary for you?"

"Most of the time it's an ethereal sensation, like hmmm, would you look at that? That's interesting. If I do this, then that will happen, or I must do this right now. It's like I'm a spectator in a drama movie and it doesn't involve me, but there have been a few times when I've been terrified."

"You don
't have to—"

"Who else can I tell about this stuff? At least I can
't see your face so I can pretend you're not laughing—"

"I would never laugh at you," Erin answered before Allie finished her sentence. "Trust me that I love and care about you."

"I do trust you," Allie said. "Yes, there have been some disturbing times, and I'll tell you about one really bad experience. I was at the airport with my foster mom one time. I was around twenty-three, and we were on our way to Vancouver for a little holiday because I had recently graduated from U of T. We hadn't gone through to the gate for our flight yet and it was quite busy in the main terminal. It was a regular day and I was looking forward to the trip when my world suddenly tilted sideways."

"My entire field of vision narrowed to a single person, a man who was walking through the airport with a suitcase. Everything else
distorted until all I saw was him. He was such a strong figure, like a black mark on white paper, and I could not tear my eyes away." Allie stopped paddling when the memories came rushing out. Simultaneously, Fiona began to whine. The dog stood up and tried to circle but the canoe rocked so she quickly sat down again. She nosed forward until her muzzle touched the back of Allie's shirt.

"I knew, I just knew, that at that moment he was doing something bad, so unbelievably evil that I could not imagine the depths. I was terrified. I couldn
't breathe. I couldn't speak. All the air was virtually sucked from my lungs when he passed by me. I remember sheer horror and the overwhelming feeling that someone needed to do something to stop him. I was utterly repulsed. I felt like passing out and running away and following him all at once but, in the midst of all my panic, there was an overwhelming knowledge that it was not safe for me to follow him. I knew I needed to get as far away as possible. I rushed out the furthest doors and gulped air for at least ten minutes before I was able to tell my foster mom what was going on."

"That must have been awful." She almost regretted making Allie dredge up this memory. The dog
's whine intensified and she tried to stand up again. Erin reached out to stroke her fur until she laid down.

"What was more terrifying was what else I saw." Allie forced herself to fill her lungs before she spoke again. "I
'm aware that this sounds totally insane but he was not alone. He was a strong malevolent force making his way through the airport, but there were others, like wispy half-formed non-corporeal creatures, traveling with him. They surrounded and followed in his dark oily slipstream. They were very excited by what he was doing and were goading him on with more power." Fiona's high-pitched whine became a pathetic whimper.

"Omigod!" Erin exclaimed. If this story had come from anyone else, she would have walked away in disbelief. Instead, she wanted to wrap her arms around Allie and give her comfort. "What a horrible memory! I
'm sorry I asked you this. It was truly insensitive of me."

Allie
's words rushed out. "When he was near me, every particle in my body vibrated so wildly that I feared flesh would separate from my bones. I needed to get away before I would suffer mortal damage." She heaved a deep sigh and finished. "I did not go after him because I knew I was powerless to stop him."

My foster mom helped me to calm down. She was always so warm and accepting of my quirks, but it ruined our trip because it took me days to overcome the awful experience. I never did figure out what the man did but I
'm convinced my feeling about him was right. It still practically gives me chest pain to remember."

"Are you okay?"

"I have only told that story once before. It was easier this time. It's messed up, isn't it?"

"I can
't disagree," Erin said gently. "Is this stuff in your head all the time?"

"No," A hint of uncharacteristic sarcasm crept into Allie
's voice. "Usually it's all sunshine, rainbows and puppy dogs." She paused until the sarcasm evaporated. "I think I've learned to block it out so well that, unless it's really serious, I have to make a deliberate effort to let that stuff in. Having a dog helps. My sweet Fiona is like an emotional barometer." The dog's tail whipped back and forth at the mention of her name. "Somehow she senses how I feel and lets me know when I should calm down. She's telling me to relax right now. It's okay, sweetie." The dog whined softly, and she scratched her under the chin. "I haven't had any trouble controlling it until recently. I'm not sure what changed."

"Maybe it
's because you're more open," Erin offered, "because of me."

"You do make me crazy, honey."

"I believe you. I believe you feel things, you see things others can't. I hope you understand that this does not mean anything is wrong with you."

"I
'm okay," Allie said. She sliced the paddle roughly through the water and Erin scrambled to keep up in the stern. "We need to paddle harder because the storm is coming!"

The long anticipated thunder grumbled above and accompanying rain spattered from the sky. In the distance, lightning zigzagged down from blackened clouds unleashing their fury.

"We need to get off the river now!" Erin called out.

"No!" Allie insisted. "This is not a good place. We have to go further." The heavens lit up and a flash blinded them, followed by an ear splitting crack of thunder that shook them to their spines. Panicked, Fiona was on her feet in an instant, ready to leap into the water.

"The lightning is close!" Erin yelled. "It's too dangerous to be on the water. We need to get shelter now!"

Despite Allie
's continuing resistance, Erin steered the boat to the closest reasonable landing spot on the river and Fiona fled over the side, swimming like a muskrat to shore and disappearing into the trees before they'd landed. Allie slung her pack over her shoulder and leapt out after the dog, leaving Erin alone.

Erin secured the canoe upside down under the trees and was on hands and knees clearing out prickly ground cover when Allie returned with the dog. She flattened an area under an overhang in the rock face and positioned the canoe as a partial windbreak.

"Fiona wouldn't listen to me," Allie's brows pinched together. "I don't know what's wrong with her." The dog strained at her leash, nose to the ground, and Allie tugged at one end.

"This is the first time I
've ever seen you chase after her." Erin crouched and held the dog's head in her hands. "What's the big deal, Fuzzy Fiona? Are you sick of being in the boat? Or is it the thunder?" She stroked the soft hair between Fiona's ears. "Lots of dogs are really afraid of thunderstorms." Fiona growled, a low sound deep in her throat.

"I
've never seen her like this." Allie pulled Fiona closer and put her arms around the dog. "You're not a tough girl, pumpkin. You're more of a lover, not a fighter, aren't you girl?" Fiona growled again, hair rising sharply along her spine. This time her nose pointed directly toward the forest. "I think the dog might be reacting to me."

"Maybe. You really did not want to stop here," Erin reluctantly agreed. "But we had to get off the river fast. It was too dangerous."

"It felt wrong. I don't know why. Perhaps I am being weird after telling you all that stuff that scared me. I must have short-circuited my brain." She twisted her mouth in a wry grin.

"I
'm prepared to cut you some slack because you've had a rough day," Erin quipped and Allie gave her a pained smile.

"I smell smoke," Allie faced upriver, "from that direction."

Erin crashed through the undergrowth to the river's edge and climbed onto a rock with the best view of the river. "They had to get off the river too!" she exclaimed. "I smell it now. Derek, that bastard, has a fire somewhere close, no more than a mile or two!"

"I don
't see smoke, but I smell it. Fiona must too."

"If we go at first light, we might be able to catch him before he
leaves his camp!"

"And we can still save the girl," Erin said.

Allie followed her back to the clearing by the rock. "Are you going to make a shelter? Can I help?" Without waiting for a response, she looped the dog's leash around a stump and foraged for wood.

Erin stomped down the rest of the weeds and collected branches under the trees. By the time she returned with an armful, Allie had used her yellow polypropylene rope to lash a beam and two support poles between tree trunks. A thick stack of coniferous branches was already piled beside her. Erin
quietly added her meager armful to the stack and stood open-mouthed.

Allie arranged more branches to complete the support for the structure, all without using the hatchet she
'd brought. Rain pelted down and they stacked layer upon layer against the support poles until it was capable of keeping out the worst of the weather. They shook water out of their gear and crawled into the shelter. Allie kept her bag close and pulled the watchful dog in after her. She unfolded her red Swiss Army knife and whittled a notch into the end of a stick.

"You bring marshmallows or something in that bottomless mystery pack of yours?" Erin
's humor was half-hearted. She was decidedly feeling outdone by her city-raised girlfriend. She rubbed both palms on her thighs in an attempt to scrape off tree sap, but it tore open her blisters. Maybe Allie had Band-Aids in her magic pack.

"I'm going to make a little rack so we can dry out these soaking wet shoes."

"Where did you—?" Erin caught the words in her throat. It would be rude to imply that she had believed her girlfriend incapable when it came to the outdoors.

"I read about it on the internet." She winked, amusement flickering in her dark eyes. "WikiHow."

"Ohhhh. Okay." As implausible as it seemed, Erin was not willing to argue the point.

Allie waited an interminably long time before she confessed. "I used to go to YMCA camp every summer as a kid in Toronto. They never let us leave the paved campground paths but we did learn how to tie knots and make shelters. I also earned the distinction of being the undisputed Kangaroo Wrestling champ for three years in a row." Erin couldn
't tell if she was pulling her leg. Allie rooted around beneath the overturned canoe and extracted a wad of dry birch bark, along with an armful of kindling. A package of matches appeared from her pack and she quickly arranged the bark under a teepee of kindling and struck a match.