Fire Scarred

Chapter Two

   "Is she breathing?"

     "Will she be okay?"

     "Who is that?"

     "What happened?"

     "Who was she talking to?"

     "I thought she was human."

     "What did she see?"

     "What about that other girl?"

     That's when I woke up. My eyes swept over the crowd standing on the edge of the tank for the last face I saw before I went under, but he wasn't there. The water around me was normal temperature, no longer icy. Slowly, I sat up.

     "She's awake!"

     I looked around and found Mom. She was standing among everyone else just beyond the water's edge.

     I rubbed at the ache in my forehead and down to my temples. "What happened?"

     Mom and Dad exchanged a look. Then Dad said, "You mean you don't know?"

     I hesitated. Things started surfacing in my mind. Confusion came in clashing with whatever I may have been able to figure out. "I-I don't know."

     Mom looked worried. "We don't know either. We couldn't see," she paused, "it."

     My head started to spin. "It was big. Wasn't it?" My brain was fuzzy and I couldn't recall much.

     Dad shook his head. "I don't know, Coralynn, what happened. It just did."

     "Wait." Georgia broke from the crowd and took a step into the water, then jerked out as if it had shocked her. "How were you able to see it and the rest of us couldn't? I mean obviously something was there because you were like twenty feet off the ground and just dangling there talking to yourself. I don't understand."

     Raylynn stepped up. Apparently, my friends had momentarily forgotten about being angry with me. "More importantly, what was it?"

     I shook my head. "Ray, I don't know!"

     "Honey, you have to know something," Dad said. "Think. Tell us what you remember. You have to remember something or else you wouldn't still be shaking so much."

     Am I really shaking that hard? Closing my eyes, I tried to think. I could recall things in short bursts that began to fit together like puzzle pieces until they slipped away into confusion again. I could remember a boy who could see it too. And the monster's eyes changed colors. And- "It killed her. It killed her!" I shouted. It was all I could think. I watched as a girl got murdered!

     My mom looked towards me with a longing in her eyes, and then at the water like it was a snake about to strike. "We know." Her voice was deadly calm. It scared me.

     "She's dead! She's gone! Why do you all look so calm? A girl is dead!" I knew I was starting to sound hysterical, but I didn't really care. "She can't really be gone!" I broke down into sobs.

     "We know. You need to calm down, Cora. Tell us what happened."

     My gaze went to my mother, who was now just a blurred figure due to my tears and the nighttime haze. "I don't know!" my voice shook. "I-I don't know."

     More concerned looks were tossed my way.

     "What was it saying?" Mom asked.

      I looked around at all the students around me, shyness and embarrassment taking over. "Can't we talk about this later? Mom, I really can't remember."