Jake was still lying in the road, totally in sight of the headlights. He rolled over to face his cousin. "I guess you can't wait for that part."

"I only do this because I care Jonah," she said walking over to help Jake.

Jason had already gone to Adam's side. At first, he was alarmed to find his younger brother lying on the side of the road, but that worry turned to anger very quickly.

"Hi Jas! How are you doing ol' buddy! You are never going to guess what happened to us!" Adam said with a slur. His eyes were very glassy by this time and Jason immediately knew that his brother was drunk.

"I can't believe you. You had me worried all this time that something had happened to you. Then I find you drunk," Jason said as he got up and walked away from his brother. "You disgust me."

Adam was taken off guard by his brother's comment. "What in the world are you talking about? I am not drunk. Why is everyone saying that I am drunk?" He tried to get up, but he was too exhausted from their scare that he flopped back down to the cold ground.

Stephanie was helping Jake get back to the Blazer when Jason walked up to him and slammed him up against the vehicle. He grabbed Jake by the collar and shook him. "What did you do to my brother? Don't you know that alcohol mixed with his medicine can kill him? I ought to just let you have it," he yelled as he cocked his fist back. But Stephanie stopped him. She gently grabbed his fist and lowered it back down.

"I know that Jake can act real stupid sometimes, but he would never endanger Adam. Tell him Jake. Tell him what you told me," Stephanie said calmly. She felt the tension instantly release in Jason's hand.

"We were invited to a party and someone spiked the Kool-Aid. I only had maybe a couple of cups, but Adam had more. They must have spiked it with some hard stuff," Jake said to the elder Kramer boy. "Adam is drunk, but he doesn't even know it."

Jason looked back at his brother, who was trying to get up. He let go of Jake and walked back over to Adam. "I am sorry Adam. I should have known you better than that."

Adam just looked up at him. "That is okay my dear brother." He then started laughing again. Jason had to bail Adam out of a lot of situations in the past, but he had never seen his brother drunk. He just picked him up and helped Adam into the backseat. Noticing that Adam was shivering from his wet and muddy clothes, Jason took off Adam's wet coat and placed his own over top of him. Adam was resting his head on Jason's shoulder, lost in his own world. Jake was sitting in the front seat, hovering over the heater.

"I sure hope you are proud of yourself," Stephanie started on him as she shifted the vehicle into gear.

"I don't need your lip Steph. I will take care of it okay," Jake muttered back to her.

The ride was quiet for a short while until Adam spoke up out of the blue.

"Jason, you do believe me right? I did not drink anything at that party. I swear," Adam mumbled in a low tone. Stephanie and Jake were too busy arguing again to hear the conversation between the brothers. "I can't even stand the smell of beer, it reminds me of that man."

"What man?" Jason asked. He had no idea what Adam was talking about at the time.

" You know, Bill." At the mention of that name, Jason felt a chill race all over his body and he felt his heart starting to beat a little faster. It had not been too long since his family had found out the awful truth about their father's "adopted" brother activities. Adam had told them about what had happened, but there was so much that he kept to himself. It was the unknown that scared Jason at times when he thought of his uncle.

"Why? What happened?" Jason pried. He was hoping that his cousins would not overhear the conversation.

"Every time he got ready to beat us and go after Maria, he would drink that nasty stuff. He even made me drink a whole glass of it once. Then he laughed at me as I threw up all night. I swear Jason, I did not drink anything but Kool-Aid tonight," Adam whimpered.

"I know Adam, I know. Don't worry about it. We are going to get you home and into bed," Jason said as he put his arm around his brother's shoulders. He had heard that sometimes alcohol could bring out the best and the worst memories of a person's life. Jason felt sorry for his little brother. It had been a rough four months on all of the Kramers. He prayed that things would be looking better, especially since they were now "home".

Instead of driving up to their grandmother's house, Stephanie drove straight to her Aunt Shelby's house.

"I don't think that Grandma is going to want to see the sight of her darling grandson drunker than a skunk. We will let Aunt Shelby handle this one," she said as she turned the Blazer towards the dark log home.

Stephanie and Jason helped get Adam and Jake into the house. Jason was amazed that the doors were not locked. It seemed that his family members just walked into each other's house at will at any time of the night. He figured that his Aunt Shelby was going to be furious at the intrusion, but he was wrong. Dressed in a bathrobe, Shelby was waiting at the foot of the steps when they walked in the door.

"What on Earth have you done this time Jake?" She said with her arms crossed and her long curly hair all in a frizzy state. Jason had laid Adam on the couch. He figured that his brother had passed out from the alcohol, but it was due to pure exhaustion. Shelby caught a glimpse of her nephew's still body and ran over to check on him.

"Oh Lord, what happened to him? Call your parents Jason, we need to get him to the hospital! Did he bump his head? What did you do to him Jake? I told you that he could not be thumped and thrashed around anymore. Oh, God your mother is going to kill me," Shelby ranted in a panic. But no one moved and no one touched the phone.

"He is fine I think. He is drunk," Jake spoke up. "They spiked the Kool-Aid and we did not know it."

You could see the fury shoot out of Shelby's green eyes. "Who spiked the punch?"

Jake remained silent as his mother came over and got directly into his face. Jason had always heard his mother talk about Shelby's temper and now he was seeing that she was exactly right. Maybe that is where Adam got his temper?

"I don't know Mom," Jake said, not daring to look into his mother's eyes.

"Let me guess, does her name start with an 'N'," his mother beckoned on.

"I am not for sure, Mom. Nikki said she made the stuff and she added something to it to make it taste different," Jake said innocently. Even though he towered over his mother, Jake was literally shaking, as he was being cross-examined. "She said it was called Berry Splash."

Shelby just hung her head when she heard his last reply. Stephanie just stood there snickering, that is until she saw Shelby look in her direction. "I think I had better get home now," Stephanie said and quickly made her way out the door. Jake's mother then just stood there with a blank look on her face and then hung her head down.

"May I ask what is this Berry Splash?" Jason asked. He had never heard of it.

"Berry Splash is what they call it when you take a clear liquor and add either Kool-Aid or food coloring to mask its appearance," She said with a sigh. It was evident that Jake did not know that either. It angered her that the kids got their kicks off of using Jake as the source of their jokes. What made it harder was that Jake considered them his friends. It seemed like Jake only had one friend and that was Steven Thomas, the boy from down the road. "They do it so if the cops come and they just look, then the police just thinks that they have punch or something. They even put it in Hawaiian Tropic plastic jugs to hide it along with other fruit juices. It is berries with a splash of alcohol so to say. They did it when I was young too. Your mother was a victim as well."

Jason was dumbfounded by her last statement and could not imagine his mother drunk.

"Well, I will call over and say that you guys just came over to watch a movie and fell asleep. We need to get those clothes off of Adam and I will wash them so he can wear them over for Sunday breakfast," his aunt said as she started to strip Adam down to his underwear. She instructed Jake to do the same and to get some quilts so she could cover him up. Jason slept in the recliner next to his brother. He was still amazed about how his aunt handled the situation. She covered for them. It seemed like she was a pro at it too. Shelby noticed her older nephew's puzzled looks.

"I know what you are thinking. But if you only knew how many times I had to cover for your mother when she started dating your father, then you would understand. There is no sense causing trouble, especially over something like this. And don't worry about your Uncle David, he won't say a word. He had been dead to the world since ten anyway. Just let me handle it," She said with a soft voice. She started to head up the stairs and turned back to see Jason turning off the living room light. "This is going to be a long day," she muttered. Jason had the same thought. How in the world were Jake and especially Adam going to make it through the morning rituals of breakfast and church? But soon the thought was lost in deep slumber and peaceful dreams.

"Wake up! It is time to get dressed and greet the morning sun!" A voice boomed throughout the house. Soon the living room's bay window became a blinding light and the whole room was flooded with sunlight. Adam groaned and turned over. Jason awoke with a yawn and then looked out the window. What a view his family had from the log home. He could see for miles and miles along the ridges and bare trees. The river fog, that glistening in the sunlight, blanketed the hollows and was steadily rising to greet the sky.

"Come on, time to get up!" he yelled over at his younger brother. He went over and threw the blankets back off of Adam's head. At first, Adam protested. Then Adam realized that all he had on was his underwear and his eyes popped wide open. His brother quickly and happily filled him in on his night activities. Adam recalled some of the events in his head. But there was huge blank voids. Jake made his way down the steps and flopped down in the chair beside the couch. "How 'r' ya doin' this mornin'?"

"Everything hurts. I feel like I have taken Codeine," Adam said with a mumble. Shelby came in, completely ready to go to Sunday breakfast. She threw Adam's now clean clothes at him and got her keys.

"You had better get moving. Breakfast is at eight and Grandma hates it when you are late!" she said with a smile and disappeared out the front door. David was taking care of the cattle and had already left so the boys were left alone in the house.

Both boys dragging, they each took their turns getting ready. As they were getting ready to go, Adam asked Jake. "So that red eyed thing was just my imagination right? Did we really get chased by that monster?"

At first Jake hesitated, but he could not lie. "Nope, I saw it too. Nearly scared the life out of me and I travel those woods a lot during huntin' seasons."

"What was that thing?"

"I have no idea, but don't say anything. People are going to think we have lost our marbles!" Jake said with a serious tone. "I can tell you one thing, that red eyed bird thing was not Big Foot!"

"Maybe we can go back up there and look around a little today," Adam asked. He wanted to get to the bottom of things and he knew that he needed Jake to find the spot. He would be horrified if Jason found out what he was up too. Jason made fun of the people who claimed to see paranormal or unusual things. He called them "crazy quacks" and Adam did not want to be the butt of his brother's teasing.

However, it was already too late. Jason was standing in the hallway and had obviously heard the entire conversation. He started to laugh hysterically. "I tell you, I would hate to be around you guys if you ever took up drinking. God knows what you would get into! You drink just a little bit of alcohol and you are already talking about red eyed creatures. I bet the next thing is going to be that you saw an alien!"

Jake did not seem to care about his cousin's comments, but Adam was not too amused at the sight of his brother making fun of his predicament.