The Devil's Circle

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Kareana!" I yell. "Kareana! Oh my god, please! Kareana!"

I'm still hoping her head will resurface, even though she went under for the last time about 3 minutes ago. Unless she's secretly a mermaid, the chances of her surviving this isn't good.

The water is calm now. Once she went under, the water instantly became still. It's almost like it didn't even happen. But it did.

"Where's Kay?" Cole asked, walking back toward us with Aaron flanking his left shoulder.

"S-s-she's in t-there," I barely get out, pointing toward the calm, empty lake.

"Haha, real funny," Cole says. "Seriously, where is she?"

"Cole, I wish we were kidding right now," Aly says. "She went under and hasn't resurfaced."

"And you're just standing here?!" He yells, stripping down to his swim trunks in the process.

"Cole-" I try to explain what happened, but he cuts me off.

"Don't talk to me. You guys didn't even try to save her. I'm going to find her," he snaps, walking toward the water's edge.

Cole dives into the lake, and I burst into tears.

"Kareana," I sob to no one in particular. "How can she be gone? She was here just 10 minutes ago."

"Kayla, let's go to the tent. It's not safe out here," Aly tries to comfort me.

"But Karea-" I start.

"She's gone, Kayla. It was bound to happen," she says.

"W-what are you t-talking about?" I stutter, confused with tears still streaming down my face.

"Nothing," she says, grabbing my arm and dragging me to the tent.

What is she talking about? Did she do something?

"Kareana!" Cole cries, desperate to find her.

He's in the water, frantically searching for her. I see him dive under, and then resurface about half a minute later for air. Then the cycle repeats.

I pull my arm out of Aly's grasp.

"Aly. Stop," I force out, "I'm going to help Cole look for her."

"Kayla-" she tries to stop me, but I ignore her and keep walking.

I pull my shirt and shorts off. I'm now down to my solid blue bikini that has different sized white polka-dots decorating it.

"Cole!" I shout. He jerks his head up and the sound of someone calling his name.

"What?" He snaps, once he realized it was my voice that said his name.

"She went down over here," I state, with sadness in my voice. I start swimming to the spot where I saw Kareana go under.

Cole and I both look for her together, but she's not here. She vanished.

How does the body of a 5'3" and 98 pound teenage girl just disappear?

It's around 5:30 pm, and I'm completely exhausted. I obviously didn't get much sleep last night and we've been searching for anything that could explain what happened to Kareana for a solid 30 minutes.

"Cole, she isn't here," I try to comfort him.

"I'm going to find her, Kayla. I care about her," he says, harshly.

"I cared about her, too! I loved her, Cole!" I scream. "You're not the only one who lost her! But she's not here right now. She wouldn't want this. You need to rest," I try to change his mind.