Becoming Darkness

Good Guy Goes Bad

It seemed Ned had just closed his eyes when the voice of Manitou roused him. He sat up in the dark cellar and listened to the urgent instructions. Minutes later, he strode through the woods and found the trail where a marker pointed him in the direction of the Mississippi Headwaters.

A gentle gurgle alerted him that he was nearing water and moments later the forest opened on a bridge crossing a creek. Pausing to catch his breath, Ned saw that the stream was an outlet from a lake. The amount of people loitering at the area where the two bodies of water met baffled him, until he saw the pillar inset with the same sort of school bus yellow letters that he vaguely remembered from the Itasca State Park sign.

Was this really the-?

His thought was interrupted as he noticed a teenage girl holding the hand of a small child while wading in the stream near shore. Manitou had woken Ned after being alerted by a particular presence in the water. Crossing the bridge, Ned edged down the path, sticking to the shadows. His eyes followed the blonde girl as she carried a small boy to the bench.

Manitou had mentioned blood, and Ned wondered if perhaps the boy had scraped himself on a rock in the stream.

But the girl dried his tiny feet with a paper towel and then put his shoes and socks back on. As soon as she was finished, the boy ran off. Ned frowned as he watched the girl dry her own feet. When she paused with the towel pressed to her ankle, he spied the bandage in her other hand.

Aha. She was the one whose blood was in the water.

His eyes flicked back to the pillar and now he was close enough to make out the words: Here 1475 ft above the ocean the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on its winding way 2552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. The sign confirmed what he'd already deduced-this was the Mississippi Headwaters. Somehow he'd expected something a bit more imposing than the quiet, shallow stream.

His attention shifted to the girl as she bent to apply the bandage. The breeze fluttered in her hair, catching the sun's highlights. Ned guessed she was about the same age Honey had been when he'd met her. But where this girl was pretty in a sexy, girl-next-door kind of way, Honey had been beauty-pageant gorgeous.

He remembered the day Honey had been assigned as his lab partner. Man, he thought he'd won the lotto. Everyone knew her; everyone wanted to be with her. He was doubly flabbergasted when she'd climbed onto the stool next to him and said, "Hi, Ned." Honey knew his name? He didn't think she even knew he existed.

Looking back now, that should've been the first warning that things weren't right.

Although Ned was smart, almost assured a college scholarship, and on the way to a bright future as a chemical engineer, these were qualities Honey wouldn't have known nor cared about. What she would've been aware of is that he was poor-and a geek-a far cry from the mayor's football captain son she'd just broken up with.

Even so, she'd set her sights on Ned, and he'd been so enamored by her, he didn't figure out that she was intentionally slumming. In the beginning, she was probably out to piss off her ex-boyfriend, but what ultimately did it for her was how much her father disliked Ned.

He'd been a pawn to get her daddy's attention.

"I don't care what my daddy says, I love you," Honey had professed before pulling her shirt over her head and carelessly dropping it to the floor of his car.

It had been their fourth date, and Ned was taking it slow. He really liked her. But she slid across the seat and pressed herself against his chest, kissing him while she unbuckled his belt.

At seventeen, he was pretty much defenseless.

Besides, she said she loved him, so it was okay... wasn't it?

Fast forward to a month before graduation. He'd reached across the bench seat of his banged up sedan, but she pushed him away, whipping up some tears. "I'm pregnant," Honey announced.

Ned drew back, eyes wide. "But I always use a condom. Are you sure?"

"Yes." Her reply rang with reproach. "I took a test. And condoms don't work all the time." She managed a few convincing sobs.

"What do you want to do?" Ned had asked softly.

"I don't know-"

Ned snapped back to the present as a teenage boy passed by on the path. He bent and pretended to tie his shoe. The blonde girl had joined a group of people standing in front of the pillar for a picture. As they dispersed and began to disappear from view, Ned emerged from the shadows, brushing at the residual dirt on his clothes. He followed the group, doing his best to eavesdrop on their conversations.

That they were family members was apparent immediately. The girl's mother was unmistakable-they looked so much alike they could've been sisters. He noticed the woman glance occasionally in her daughter's direction, but otherwise respected her independence.

How nice that freedom must be.

Ned's single-parent mother was scared to death of her only son going off to college and leaving her alone, so when she learned of Honey's pregnancy, she had used it to keep him nearby.

On the other side, Honey's father wanted her to abort the baby, which only made her determined to keep it.

Naively in love, Ned proposed, thinking they could live in university married housing.

Honey looked up at him with her big blue eyes. "I do want to marry you, Neddie, but we can't go away-I'll need help with the baby and we won't know anyone."

Oh, how his mother had pounced on that idea. "It's bad enough you went and got her pregnant, now you're going to take her away from all she knows too?"

Like an idiot, he'd acquiesced and turned down his scholarship offers. A month after the wedding, Honey claimed she had miscarried.

Lost in his reminiscence, Ned realized he was trailing behind and picked up his pace so he could hear the two women in front of him chatting.

"....gift shop we saw on the way in."

"Me too," said the shorter woman. "I'm not usually big on souvenir shopping, but this trip is different."

The slightly taller brunette said, "I know what you mean, I bought a 'Rainbow Resort' t-shirt yesterday but I'd also like something related to the Headwaters."

Bingo. Now he knew where they were staying.

Ned strode past the women as they slowed at the Headwaters Center, turning away to hide his devilish grin.