Chapter 4 - Is nowhere sacred?

D
espite the escapades of the night before, Tracey was still forced to wake up at seven thirty the next morning (which happened to be a Saturday), to go to the swimming pool which her parents owned to clean the pool.

She walked down to the pool, unaware of the fact that she was being followed.

When she got there she saw that there wasn’t much to do and therefore, she had plenty of time for a free swim.

She went to change but when she came back, there was something different about the water. It looked inviting and warm.

Tracey stuck out a foot to touch the water.

It was just the right temperature.

It sent shivers of delight up her spine.

Just as she was about to jump in, something else sent shivers up her spine.

She hadn’t put on the pool heaters yet and as such, the water should have been freezing cold.

Tracey slowly back away from the water, but it wasn’t having any of it.

Quick as a flash, a tendril of water (yes this sounds incredibly stupid) wrapped around her leg and began to drag her into the pool.

She screamed and grabbed the net that she had used to clean the pool and beat at the tendril viciously.

It immediately let go and slunk back into the pool.

Then from the centre of the pool a figure rose. A figure that Tracey had wanted to forget, but was somehow etched into her brain.

“Hello again,” River said as he walked over to Tracey.

“It is so nice to see you. You know after last night’s little mishap, I might have gotten into a bit of trouble for returning without the boy.” He said amiably.

Tracy scrambled back whispering, “Get away from me! If you take one more step I’ll…I’ll scream! Really loud, and then, and then you’ll have to go away or be exposed!”
River laughed.

“You can scream by all means, although you might hurt my ears slightly. There is no one here. There seems to have been an accident that blocked both roads here. Lucky we came before that happened.”

Tracey hissed as the truth sank in. They hadn’t avoided the accident, they had caused it.

Tracey made a quick leap for the exit, but was knocked back by a wave that River seemed to summon.

She turned to him in horror and he smiled.

“I’m a water mage, this is a swimming pool. I think you are out of your depth, pun intended, my little fire mage.” He said in an amused tone.

Then he waved his hand and Tracey was surrounded by water.

Tracey was trapped.

So she did the only thing she could do.

She stuck her hands out, closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.

Luckily for her, God must have been feeling that she deserved a treat for all the great stuff she had been doing.

When she opened her eyes again, she blinked to make sure that she wasn’t seeing thing.

The water was swirling around her hand but it didn’t seem bad, on the contrary it felt, good and right, like it was MEANT to be there.

River was watching her amusedly, he didn’t seem to mind that Tracey had developed new powers, or that her eyes were now fluorescent blue, on the contrary, he seemed rather happy.

“So, you’re a water mage too? I suppose I should have guessed. You are turning out to be much more fun than I had expected,” he said a little blandly, for his expression.

Just then the wall exploded.

Tracey screamed.

River laughed.

The two boys from the night before stepped through the hole that they had put in the wall.
“Nice to see you again,” one boy said as he reached for her.

Tracey batted his hands away.

“What do you WANT!” she shrieked.

River raised an eyebrow, but he was not the one who answered her question.

Clay sneered, “You know too much and you’re too dangerous to run around the way you do.”

However, while he had been speaking, the other boy, Rae, had snuck up on her and in a second, his hands were around her neck.

Tracey tried to struggle but she knew it was over from the moment Rae began to squeeze.

Just as she began to lose consciousness, the other wall of the pool blew apart.

The grip on her neck was gone in an instant, but all Tracey could say as she collapsed was,

“For the love of God, stop exploding those walls! Rich is going to kill me!”

Then she looked up and saw Rich, Reid and Toni, standing in the hole they had blown in the wall.

Rich dusted himself and said dryly to Tracey, “I normally would, but in this instance, I promise not to kill you.”

River coughed slightly. “Sorry to interrupt this touching reunion, but who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” He asked politely.

The moment Rich saw River, he blanched. Then his face turned a pale and sickly colour green.

“Y-you!” he whispered in awe. “Zack? Is that you?”

River raised an eyebrow, Tracey, Reid, Clay and Rae’s jaws dropped, but Toni looked like she was seeing River for the first time (which, to all intents and purposes, she was).

Then she asked tentatively, “Are you…Zack?”

River then clenched his rather fine jaw and said “My name is River Thompson. Not Zack.”

Rich and Toni seemed to deflate, but Reid who seemed to be the only one thinking straight, cried, “Come on Tracey! We’ve got to go!”
The moment he said that, everything seemed to snap back to reality.

“Grab her!” River hissed.

Clay was one step ahead of him.

Toni was two steps ahead.

She leapt and gracefully rugby tackled Rae, who fell into Clay, just as she had planned.

Then Tracey decided that it would be the perfect time to beat a hasty retreat, so she yelled to Toni, who had managed to wrestle Rae and Clay to the ground.

In a second, Reid, Tracey, Toni and Rich were in the conveniently parked Volvo and driving away, with Tracey at the wheel.

“Tracey! You shouldn’t be able to drive, you’re only fifteen!” Toni said in a scandalized voice.

“Oh please,” Tracey snorted, I’ve been driving for six months, and when your foster parents are Rich and Toni Brown, you don’t get pulled over.”

Tracey made a hard left.

“So while we’re on the subject of parenting, could you tell me what all that was about back there? You told me Zack was the son you lost!” she panted.

Toni and Rich exchanged looks.

“Tracey, I don’t know-” Rich began.

“RICHARD! I DON’T WANT ANY B-S!” Tracey barked, while making another dangerous swerve.

Toni sighed.

“We told you that Zack was our son and we lost him, that much is true. What we didn’t say was how we lost him…” Toni broke off.

Tracey, who was craning her neck to see if the vampires were following her, content to find no one, she prompted Toni.

“So what happened to Zack? Tell me EVERYTHING.” Tracy demanded.

So Toni began to explain the tragedy of her life to Tracey.

But just before she could tell Tracey the whole story, their car got rammed off the road.

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