The Child Catcher

Love is in the Air

The air was brisk on that late October night, but not too cold. Just perfect. Like so many other things. Not a single trace of cloud hung in the sky, allowing all the stars of the Heavens and the full moon to beam down upon the world. There was no wind; the air was dead, but filled with the sweet scent of fallen leaves and the coming winter. The night was perfect, but it mattered not at all to Abby Summers.

Tonight, all Abby cared about, thought about, and dreamed about, was her very new boyfriend Kyle Anderson. Abby had liked Kyle for some time now, ever since she had laid eyes on him back in September on her first day at her new school. He was a tall boy, just older than sixteen. He wore his short, black hair slicked down over his stern and prominent brow. His firm jaw was accented with sly, thin lips, and his smile was captivating and radiant, almost wicked. Every time he smiled, it looked as if he were crafting some sinister plan. It heated Abby's blood.

But most of all, she loved his eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen on a boy. They were grass green, and shimmered like pale moonlight, illuminating his cheeks. And tonight, his eyes were on her, locking her heart to his like gears in a wound clock. The two youths shared in the gorgeous autumn night, walking hand-in-hand outside Abby's new home, in a new town, under unfamiliar skies, lucid with fresh sensations. Her hands were cold and she was glad to have his palm clasped to hers, for it warmed her hands to the bone even up through her arms. Abby looked up from their locked hands and up into Kyle's eyes. He stunned her with his sinister smile, and Abby could see in it more than slyness; she saw vulnerability, that he too was feeling just as coy, tense, and apprehensive as she.

Abby was a five-foot-nothing young woman of fifteen. She would be taking her driver's exam in a week. Her golden hair fell straight over her small shoulders and curled about her slight bust. She had a runner's figure: slender, toned, streamlined, bursting with energy to rush great distances.

Though Kyle had not told her, on that first day of class, he too was overcome with her beauty upon eyes' first passing. Her hair shimmered in the early sun, and her full, ruby lips stood out from her pale, elegant skin. But most of all, he adored her eyes. They were full and seductive, a pale blue that he had never seen before in his life. Every time he looked into them, he was entranced and could peer deeply into her heart.

The two had been growing as friends over the preceding weeks, but as of two days ago, they were officially a couple, and both carried hearts that throbbed with infatuation. Kyle had finally been able to muster up the courage to take the next terrifying step into their relationship. And it had not happened a moment too soon, for Abby was unsure of how long she could bare to wait for him to ask. She feared she would either have to abandon all hope, or worse, ask him to go with her. Few indignities were more difficult for a young woman to surmount.

Tonight was the first night that they would spend in each other's desirable company. Kyle arrived after dinner that evening, and after Abby introduced him to her parents and they all made small talk for an hour or so, Abby asked him if he would like to go out for a walk.

"It's so perfect outside," she had said.

Indeed, it was, and Kyle was more than willing. Abby's parents agreed it was a splendid idea, as long as the young lovers promised to behave themselves and stay out of the woods.

"It's too dangerous at night," her mother said. "And Lord knows what kind of diseases you could pick up back there."

Now the two walked slowly, joined at the hand, in Abby's backyard just ahead of the woods that cut off her house from the rest of the painful world. The two spoke very little; they were too shy to carry a conversation, too filled with excitement and anxiety for this newly born love, too ripe with desires that might be prematurely proclaimed. Soon, Kyle could no longer bear the silence, and though he would later regret it, he was the first to speak.