I let out a gurgled scream. I struggled as I pushed myself to the surface. I felt arms grabbing me, pulling me. I screamed as I broke the surface. My arms flailed around, hitting Dylan in the face.

“Whoa! What is it!” Dylan screamed.

“Look!” I screamed, pointing at the water. The body was surfacing. I screamed and kicked.

“Bre, listen! Calm down!” Dylan said grabbing my arms.

I looked at him incredulously. “Calm down? There’s a freaking dead body in here!” I pushed him away and started towards the ladder. Then everything went black.


I woke up staring into Dylan’s eyes. My vision was slightly blurry. I was wet and cold. I sat up. “What happened?”

Dylan hesitated before answering. “You hit your head and passed out. How do you feel?”

“Like crap.” I was sitting on the hard concrete of the pool room. Pool room? It all came back to me. The body! I jumped to my feet, almost falling down because I was so dizzy. “Where’s the body?” I shrieked.

Dylan took a cautious step towards me. “There is no body.”

I shook my head. “Yes there is! I saw it! It was right there!”

“No Bre. I checked, there was no body.”

“Dylan, I saw it! It touched me!”

“Chill out! I looked all over. It’s not there!

I shook my head. This made no sense. I cautiously walked over to the edge of the pool where I saw the body. I got on my knees. I peered into the water. Nothing.

“Dylan give me your flashlight,” I hissed. He gave it to me. I flashed the light on the pool. Still nothing. I stared helplessly into the clear blue water. Minutes went by. Dylan finally spoke.

“Bre, I think its time to go.”

I nodded. “It is.” I stood and walked passed him and grabbed my stuff. I slipped into my shorts and pulled my shirt on. I couldn’t think. Didn’t want to think. I didn’t tell him that I recognized the body. According to him, there was no body.

The body was my best friend, Hilary. I recognized her long brown hair and the brown eyes that were wide in shock. I knew that I seen it, that it was real. But why was Dylan saying it wasn’t there? And it was clear it wasn’t there anymore. I was scared. Very scared.

We climbed back out the window, well more like Dylan carried me. I was too weak to do anything and he insisted on carrying me, which was odd because he wasn’t exactly the buff kind. But we managed to get back outside into the street. We lived a couple blocks from the pool and a few houses down from each other.

We walked silently, well Dylan walked, I kind of dragged. I was suffering from some kind of shock. All I could see was Hilary’s frightened expression. Once at my house, Dylan said goodbye, promising to call in the morning. Instead of a goodnight kiss, he gave me a kind of awkward pat on the back. Wow, I thought, I must have scared him off.
I snuck in through the back and tip-toed upstairs to my room. Thankfully, no one woke up. Once in my room I lay in my bed, exhausted. I couldn’t understand what happened tonight. It didn’t take long to fall into a deep sleep.
The next morning I woke up to the sound of my mom’s hysterical voice. She was sitting on my bed, shaking me.
“What Mom?” I asked groggily. I rubbed my eyes and that’s when I noticed my mom’s tear-stained face. I knew the next words to come out of her mouth before she said them.
“Hilary’s dead.”