SOLITUDE

SOLITUDE

Rebecca had saved for this vacation for months, and was now in her car, heading up to Vermont. The ad that caught her eye was of a remote cabin resort in the northeast corner of the state. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of the city, she was really looking forward to the peace of the mountains.

The drive would only take five hours, including stops for coffee and lunches along the way. She had the relaxation part down pat, and was planning on enjoying every minute.

It was just outside of Summersville that she saw the young man hitchhiking. Normally, she would not stop, but he looked rather forlorn, and thin.
She pulled over to the side of the road and waited for him to get to the car.

"Hop in", she said, when he reached the door. He smiled and got inside. Rebecca offered him a sandwich, which he ate ravenously. She reached in the backseat and got a soda from the cooler, and handed it to him. He thanked her and took a long drink of the cold liquid.

"Where are you headed?" she asked, and he looked out the window as he said "Deer Creek Resort; I have a job up there starting tomorrow morning."
"Why, that's where I'm going!" Rebecca said. "I'm on my first vacation in months!"

She drove on, as signs of a sudden storm began to appear. "I hope it holds off until we get there!" she said. He didn't reply. "What's your name?" Rebecca asked. For a moment, there was no response, then "Frank...Frank Barnes." Once more he turned his eyes to the window.

In less than an hour, they reached Deer Creek Resort, just as the clouds burst open and the sky flashed with lightning. They made a run for the office, where she signed in. The clerk seemed surprised to see Frank standing behind her. "Are you together?" he asked. "Oh, no", she said. "Frank is -". Just then she felt the sharp blade on her back.

"I'm starting work here tomorrow" he told the clerk. "I'm supposed to see Everett Morrie." He showed no sign of emotion. "That's great" the clerk said. "We sure can use the help here! Just go down to the first cabin, you'll find Everett there."

Rebecca didn't dare to breathe for a full minute after Frank turned and left the office. Her face was white as a sheet. "What's wrong, miss?" the clerk said. "Oh..nothing..I am just overtired and probably imagining things." she answered. It could have been her imagination, she thought. She was overtired, and pulling a knife on her there made no sense at all. She decided she needed a strong cup of coffee, and went over to the counter where coffee and creamers were laid out for the guests.

She couldn't turn around and leave. The storm was too severe, and she didn't like driving at night. She got the key from the clerk and followed his directions to the third cabin. She brought her suitcases inside, and was relieved to find that it was warm, comfortable and clean. There was no sign of Frank, and there was a young couple in the next cabin. She began to relax, after making sure the door was locked tight.

She showered and got ready for bed, picking up the newspaper she'd bought at her last stop. The headlines jumped out at her 'SERIAL KILLER BELIEVED TO BE IN AREA'. "Oh, this is great bedtime reading" she said to herself.

She fell asleep with the light on. It was early morning when she awoke, and she could hear birds singing. "What a great change from horns blaring" she thought. She dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and opened the curtains. It was going to be a bright, beautiful day. All thoughts of fear were gone, and she was hungry!

As she approached her car, she noticed that one of the back doors was ajar. She was sure she had closed and locked the car last night, but perhaps she had been in too much of a hurry to get inside. She looked in and saw Frank, sound asleep. Rather than wake him, and order him out of her car, and her life, she angrily strode toward the office.

The clerk was sitting behind the counter, almost lying on his desk. Rebecca spoke to him and got no response. She inched her way past the counter to shake him awake. His body shifted as she touched his shoulder, and he fell with a thump onto the floor. She recoiled in horror. A fisherman's knife protruded from his back. She fought the urge to scream or vomit, and backed away to the other side of the counter. She reached for the telephone, and got no dial tone. Someone had cut the wires!

She turned and looked out the window. No sign of life from her car, Frank was still sleeping. She said a little prayer and started to leave when she saw another man's body near the rear exit. This time she didn't go near to check on him. It was getting to be too much for her, and she gasped for air. Rebecca's only recourse was to head for the lake, it seemed. She dashed out the front door and started running.

A row boat might be her only means of escape, and she looked frantically about when she reached the beach. Sure enough, there was one, a rickety looking thing, but it might serve its purpose. "I wonder if the couple are all right" she thought, as she headed toward the row boat. Her objective at this point of the morning was to get somewhere away from here, where she could get help.

She climbed into the row boat and started rowing away. It was then that she saw the long blond hair floating in the water, face down, undoubtedly dead. She froze for only a fraction of a second, and rowed away toward the other end of the lake. She thought she heard shouting and cursing from her car. A door slammed, and the sound carried across the water, and she heard the engine of her car roar to life.

The road seemed to follow the lake around, and her car was losing no time trying to get to the other side to meet her. She began to think there was no way out, when she noticed another boat nearby. "Oh, thank goodness!" she said, as the other boat pulled up along side her. The man in the boat made no effort to be cordial. "You're in great danger, here, missy" he said. That, she thought, was an understatement!

He helped her into his boat and started the motor.
"We've got to get to the police!" she said, as he nodded in agreement. "I saw what happened back there" he said. She was sure Frank was coming after her, and told the man to hurry. The boat created waves as it sped toward the end of the lake. There was no sound of her car.

He steered the boat into the dock and climbed out.
As he reached for her hand, a shot rang out, and he crumpled back into the boat. Horrified, she pushed him out of the boat and tried to restart the motor. It was no use. She couldn't get it started, and there, on the dock, was Frank.

He reached down and grabbed her arm, pulling her up out of the boat and onto the dock. Rebecca fought with every ounce of strength she had, and tried to remember every self-defense move she'd learned in the class she'd taken a year ago. It was pretty effective, she had him on his knees and moaning.

"Wait a second, Rebecca" he groaned. "It's not what you think!" He turned a bit and pointed toward the police cruiser that had just pulled in.
Rebecca saw two officers running toward them. She fainted.

"Great job, Frank", one said, "but you shouldn't have tried this on your own. We've got another cruiser over at the cabins, and it seems everyone else is dead!"

"I know", Frank said. "I saw him go after the clerk and the owner. They had seen him take the girl out to the lake and come back alone. He couldn't afford to leave any witnesses."

Rebecca was awake now and listening intently to the exchange between Frank and the officers. Frank turned to her. "You see, Rebecca, that man in the boat murdered my sister. I have been on a quest to find him ever since."

"But - you had a knife on my back in the office last night" she stammered. Frank grinned. "No, Rebecca, I didn't. I had no intent to scare or hurt you. What you felt on your back was your car keys that you had dropped. The nudge in your back was to get your attention to them. That didn't work so I laid them on the counter."

Frank helped her into her car, and drove back to the cabin to get her things. It was checkout time, she was ready to leave the quiet, the solitude and head back to the city.

New headlines in the local paper praised Frank for finding the serial killer. There was a photograph of him smiling and shaking the hand of the police chief, along with a picture of his sister. who had been an earlier victim.

Rebecca began the journey home, and silently cheered every mile marker she passed that led her away from the multiple murders. The city would seem a quieter place now.