Boys Will Be Boys

Kyle gave Amelia an appreciative look as he sat at the bar. He banged his glass on the scuffed wooden surface to let her know he wanted another beer. He caressed her hand as she reached out to grab the stein. The shapely barmaid pulled her hand away from his roughly. He smiled at her while keeping his eyes firmly on her breasts. She walked over to the taps then slid the glass back down the bar to him. Beer and foam sloshed out onto his shirt. “Watch out, you stupid little….”

“You just watch your mouth, Kyle,” Doug said, getting in his face. He owned the bar and was a hulking sort of man. Heavyset and very tall, the barkeep was normally peaceable, a gentle giant. But he quickly took offense if he thought someone was mistreating one of the girls who worked there.

Kyle was a little too drunk to heed the warning. “Alright. Just calm down. Amelia and I are friends, aren’t we, babe? Had some fun the other night, didn’t we, babe?”

Amelia had retreated to the other side of the bar with her arms wrapped around herself. That was weird. She had always been friendly to him. Word was she was “friendly” with a lot of guys in town. She had been giving him those looks for weeks. He had seen her walking home from the bar the other night, so he offered her a lift. They had taken a slight detour on the way to her place. She had protested at first, but he had won her over. She was probably just upset he hadn’t called her since then. Girls got way too possessive way too quickly. Kyle wasn’t ready to settle down. Besides, Amelia was a bit of an odd one. Probably because of her hippy-dippy parents. She wore those beads and amulets and believed in witchcraft and fairies and all that. It was ridiculous. Still, he’d be willing to hit her up again.

Doug had gone over to talk to Amelia. Tears were running down her face. He squared his shoulders and turned back to Kyle as the girl fled to the back room. Doug grabbed his rifle from under the bar and pointed it at him. The entire bar went quiet.

“Now see here, Doug. I don’t know what she’s been telling you….”

“Get. Out. Now.” The man said dangerously. “If I ever see you back in here, I won’t hesitate to unload both barrels into you.”

Kyle sneered at him and finished his beer. Doug cocked the rifle. “Alright, alright. Everyone knows you water down the beer here anyway.” He pulled on his coat as he walked to the door. He could sense the rifle pointed at him the entire way.

“What was that all about?” Jerry said as he followed him through the parking lot.

“Beats me.” The frosty ground crunched beneath his feet. “Hey, the pond should be pretty well frozen over what with this cold snap. You want to get the boys together and play hockey tomorrow?”

“Sure. See you there at ten?”

“You know it.”

The following day Kyle put on a few extra layers. It was bitterly cold out there, but he’d warm up in no time once he was into the game. The slightly hungover man parked his pickup by the pond and walked down to sit on the old log by the water’s edge. He was pulling on his skates as the rest of the boys arrived. A couple of cases of beer were set in the snow to chill. Soon they were skating and laughing together like when they were kids. Kyle loved days like these.

A few beers later, he was slightly less steady on his skates, but that was fine. Just as hammered, the rest of the boys staggered about on the icy surface. Kyle laughed as he fell-face first onto the ice. He was surprised by how clear the ice was, considering their skates had been etching their paths into it over the last couple of hours. He was pushing himself up again when he saw something under the ice. A body floated up until it hit the underside of the ice. It was a woman.

At first, he thought it was Amelia. She bore a resemblance to her but how she could have possibly gotten under the ice was beyond him. It was pretty thick, and they would have noticed if it had any cracks wide enough for someone to have fallen through overnight. Blond hair floated around her serene-looking face. She looked so peaceful in her death that it was almost mesmerizing. Suddenly her eyes flew open, and she smiled at him. They were oddly purple eyes. Bubbles erupted under the ice as her mouth opened to say something.

Kyle pushed up and backward quickly with a yelp of surprise. He could hear the creaking and cracking of ice breaking. His friends were yelling at him to get off the ice. How was this happening? The ice was too thick to break like that suddenly. He scrambled backward, trying to get away from the expanding crisscross of fissures forming around him. Frigid water enveloped him as he crashed through and slid below the surface, quickly soaking through the heavy layers of his clothes. The woman grabbed at him with sharp claws and dragged him under the icy water. Kyle fought frantically, but he wasn’t strong enough to fight her off. His body was becoming numb, his lungs burning for air, as she brought her face close to his. She said something before putting her mouth on his. The black specks in his vision led to a lack of being.

“No means no.”