"C'mon, Sarah! Hurry up!," calls the boy in a hushed whisper.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming! Ew, there's so much mud," she says wearily, as she tiptoes towards the lake, trying to avoid as much mud as possible.
"Remember, it was your idea to go skinny dipping at one A.M. in freaking September," he reminds his girlfriend, throwing his hands out for emphasis.
"I know. Okay, gosh, let's just get this over with," she says, as she comes to stand beside him at the edge of the lake.
They begin to remove their clothing. Her shirt gets tossed down, then his, next both pairs of pants, underwear and her bra. They hold hands as they enter the bone-chilling water, releasing hisses from the effects of the sudden drop in temperature.
Finally, the water reaches up to their necks and they can no longer find their footing at the bottom of the lake. They face each other and chuckle.
"Get over here," he says and pulls her closer to him.
Cold, wet lips meet and a battle for dominance ensues. Tongues clashing and arms wrapping around each other, preserving the little heat remaining between them.
Suddenly, she giggles and pulls away, "Oh my gosh, Steven, stop! I'm not about to have sex with you in this freezing water right now."
Puzzled, the boy quirks his brow and asks, "Stop what?"
"Stop brushing your hand up my thigh, for God's sake," she replies.
"I'm not".
"Then - wha-," she starts to question as she reaches down and latches onto something cold and pruny. She shrieks and drops the object. "I don't know what that is, I tried to pull it, but it's heavy. I'm getting out of here".
"Oh my gosh, stop being such a baby. It's probably just a dead fish. Let me see what it is," he tells her before he feels around in the water beside his girlfriend and pulls on the object.
A pale, glistening joint emerges as he pulls the object upwards, followed by more pale expanse emerging as perpendicular from the joint. Another joint, this time a shoulder, leading to a neck, a head, and a mass of tangled, sopping black hair dangling from her head. Frosted, dead eyes stare blankly ahead and chilled lips hang open as water runs from between them.
A dead girl.
He quickly drops the arm from his grasp and pushes himself further out into the water, with a splash, in attempts to get away from the body.
His girlfriend's screams and shrieks pierce through the veil of the cold midnight air.
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Emergency vehicles with their lights flashing and caution tape tied from one willow tree to the next block off the crime scene.
News reporters and their crews stand beside their vehicles reporting live from the scene.
"A body has just been discovered in Windermere Lake and it's been identified as none other than Victoria Mason, Fallmount high schooler and our very own resident star cheerleader. We'll get back to you when more information becomes available. This has been Bonnie Brooks for your local FTN News."
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The shrieks and weeps of agony from the mother of the deceased could not be missed as she broke down while trying to get around an officer, who was holding her back from the crime scene, to see her little girl one last time.
"My baby! That's my baby!", Wendy Mason cried in a husky voice, as she broke down in the refusing officer's arms.
The five closest friends of the deceased stood and wept, leaning on each other for support, while awaiting more news from the police.
The couple that found the body stood, shaking in large blankets, recounting their story to a police officer.
The moonlight reflecting on the opaque water told an ominous tale as the medical examiner finally zipped the body bag up, loaded the body into his van, and carted away.
Feeling a watchful presence, a dark brown-haired boy, a friend of the deceased, sharply turned his head in time to catch a dark-haired girl peering out of the second story window of a house about 10 yards away. The moon reflected off of the window - much like the lake - making it hard for the boy to make out her facial features, however, she could see him perfectly clearly.
His dark and soulful eyes held hers for a couple seconds, and she peered right back into his.
He blinked and that seemed to snap her out of her trance. He could see her gasp and jump, visibly frightened from being caught, then she let the curtain fall back into place, hiding her face from him.
The boy turned back around, his face visibly puzzled. That was the old Harrow house; no one had inhabited that place for months.
