Behind Closed Doors

Chapter 11: "Give me some credit!"

I'm so upset. I'm eighteen. I've graduated high school. It's October thirtieth.

And we haven't found anything else.

We've searched those woods too many times.

"We can do it any Halloween." Mom reminds us.

I'm laying on the floor of my bed and all of us are in my room.

Why would the screaming just stop but they aren't able to find the body?

"I really don't want to wait another year!" Julian groans.

"Me either." Everyone says buy me.

I'm thinking.

I read in another book that David Jefferson hated the Salem Witch Trials.

Didn't they kill witches by tying them up or something? They had a ton of ways.

What if he considered Alan Jones as a witch?

No, if he tied him up, we would definitely have found him by now.

That damn lake is the only place we haven't checked.

A memory tugs at my brain.

"Maybe he drowned." I say. He frowns.

"I don't know...he had magic...drowning seems..."

"Too easy?" I ask.

"Yes."

I gasp. "Oh my god!" I jump up and put on my boots and tie my hair up and grab a flashlight. "It all makes sense! Let's go!"

"What?" Mom asks as all of us run downstairs. I stop by the garage and grab goggles and a snorkel and I run outside, down the road. Everyone sprints after me.

"What?" Will demands.

I run through the woods, tripping, until I find us at the lake, the same lake Julian and I were at.

"What?" Mrs. Jefferson asks, pulling Sara closer to her.

"I didn't make sense, right? How there was all this yelling and then none?" Everyone nods. "Your uncle didn't like the Salem witch trials! Back then, they would tie the witches and toss them in lakes with weights on their ankles! The lake is the only place we haven't checked!"

Everyone is silent. "You're going down there?" Mom asks.

In reply, I strip down to my black spandex and yellow tank top. I climb a tree that hovers over the lake and turn on the waterproof flashlight in my hand.

"Harper, please be careful." Mom says worriedly. I hover over the lake and pull on the goggles and snorkel. The water is almost clear. I stand up on the branch and dive into the water. I soar down, looking around, shining the flashlight. He's down here, I know it.

Fish swim away from me, and I look around, looking for anything.

I come up for air, and dive back down, looking around wildly. I swim all around the lake, and as I swim up for air, I see something, a rope.

"I think I found him!" I call. Everyone moves closer, near the side of the lake I'm on.

I dive back down and swim over to the rope. I give it a tug, and I can't help but scream.

A human bone is attached to it.

I scream underwater and then go flying to the surface.

"What?" Mom asks frantically. I get to shore faster than I've ever moved, crying.