On The Lake
Part Three
By Ritaann
er_aussie@hotmail.com

"And that's where the neighbors found me the next morning." Said Kate wondering what this man would think of her now that her story was out.

"Did He - did he.." Asked John. Should he ask or was rude. Before he could find out, Kate cut him off.

"No, no he didn't rape me, thank goodness. Actually, the man is no longer alive."

"He was sentenced to death?"

"No, he judged himself... "


flash back

"Get up you piece of shit! Come on, i can't carry you all day." He yelled. Not getting a response, he slapped the left side of Kate's face. A huge painfully black looking bruise began to swell up on her face, yet Kate remained comatose and showing no physical signs of acknowledgement to the abuse he had inflicted upon her. "Alright, you've had the chance." He said and getting a firm hold of her arms, dragged her into the bathroom. Then, he lifted her up as if she was a stack of newspapers and put her into a large bath tub. He held her head under the tap's.

Without a bit of difficulty, He turned the water onto Kate's face at full blast. He washed her face which was covered in cuts, but she still remained silent and unmoving, in her own world, oblivious to all that the man had done to her.

"What are you, dead or something?" asked the man as he turned off the water after blasting Kate's face with the icy cold water for roughly two seconds. At this sudden realization, His face turned a deathly white and not knowing what to do stood there
for a whole minuet contemplating all his options.

"No, no, no this can't be right!" He yelled, "This wasn't ment to happen. No!" Looking round the Large bathroom, he spotted a razor, pen and a box of tissues. "Good bye all, no looking back for me uh-huh!" He said as he took the pen into this disorientated fingers and began to write, not noticing that his thought to be dead hostage was slowly waking up.

Kate, too tired to move slipped back into sleep, not caring about what would happen to her or the guy. A phase running backwards and forewords in her mind. "I don't want to die. No, please don't kill me.."


End Flash back

"That's where they found me and that bastard the next day. He just lost it and killed himself. I got an invitation to come to states and jumped at the chance." said Kate as she rubbed her eye's, trying to get rid of the redness that she instinctively knew was
there.

"So, do you want to go back?" asked Carter gently.

"No. I've made up my mind. I can't go back to all the stares of pity and shamefulness that even my friends gave me. The only friend i had left had her own problems." She said sadly as she unintentionally looked at her watch, which was a beautiful silver
and had a blue clock face. "Oh, I'm, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have kept you... I, I gotta go." said Kate realizeing that it was awfully late in the night.

" No, It was perfectly ok..." said Carter standing up to watch her walk hurriedly away. " Are you sure that your alright? I could drive you..."

"No, no I'm fine! Thankyou for listening, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me!" yelled Kate as she broke into a full blown sprint.

"No problem..." yelled back Carter as he watched Kate disappear into the darkness of the night.



"What a bloody asshole I am." thought Kate to herself as she fiddled with the key's to her apartment. "I just blabbed on like a physco to the poor guy." said Kate softly as she put the kettle on the stove to boil. She sat at the tiny wooden table and looked
around at her apartment. There was no TV, just a lone couch, one of those corner ones. It was a beautiful maroon colour that was glowing in polish and age. There was a large wooden book shelf which took up a whole wall, stuffed with books of many
kinds. Just in the room adjoining the lounge room, was a bed and a small dresser and a large desk. Empty except for a laptop that sat proudly on the solid surface. The kitchen was bare, except for a kettle and a loaf of bread, still in it's plastic wrap on the bench. The only sound that could be heard was the soft humming of the fridge which had a picture of a collie, stuck there with a magnet which read 'Jack' in large red letters. Kate wiped a tear away as she thought of her best friend back in Australia who promised her that she would take care of Jack for her. The kettle whistled loudly, bringing Kate back to earth and out of her thoughts as she poured the boiling liquid into the waiting cup. She jiggled the tea bag up and down as she sat back down again and sighed. Her eye's fell on a large rectangular box-like figure standing in the corner of the lounge, which was covered in a thick black cloth. Leaving her tea on the table, she walked slowly towards it and drew back the covers to reveal a shinny deep-red surface. Lifting up the lid which hid the pearly white key's from view, Kate pulled out a rectangular stool and sat down, facing the beautifully kept instrument and placed her extraordinarily long fingers on a couple of chords, barely touching the key's as she went through a couple of chords before choosing a particular one. With that chord, she began to play, slowly and softly at first and then, as the song progressed, she began to 'feel' the music. Placing her feet on the gold plated peddles, the grand piano began to come alive and seemed to float on the notes. Her fingers moved up and down as she lost her self in the sweet melody which seemed to come from deep within the wood. As suddenly as Kate had started the piece of music, the string of chords came to an end and she began to play softer and softer till the notes ceased to exist. Exhausted, scared, confused and feeling very sorry for herself Kate lay her head on her hands and began to sob quietly. So quietly, you wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't seen the salty tears that made tiny streams on her cheeks, drip onto the wood of the piano.



'Christ..' thought Carter to himself as he looked out towards the never ending waves of the black waters. 'I was stupid to let her go. I should have taken her home or something.' He turned back to the spot where the stranger had disappeared from.

"Poor soul. I wish I could just, help." Looking back out over the lake, Carter began to pray. "Hail Mary, full of grace...."



Thanks to everyone who helped me with this fic. Please send me feed back at er_aussie@hotmail.com if there are a lot of mistakes in this fic, please let me know. I've just fixed my spellcheck and i'm trusting it. (not wise, but what can i do?)