Cryptic Deaths - A Novel (Chapter 1)

I went to the park to have lunch with my friends. They’re Dave, Daniel, Kyle, Phoebe, Meg, and Marie. All of them were already in the lake that I was the last one to arrive. I didn’t expect to see them in the lake because it was 12 noon and the sun was warming their skin madly. As I was coming, they called for me to join them. But as I was preparing to go to the lake, I heard them crying Marie’s name.
“Marie!”
“Oh my God!”
“Help! Help!”
I didn’t know what to do.
I ran to where the sound was coming from and saw them at the lakeshore looking very scared. Phoebe and Meg hugged each other with Dave at their side. Daniel and Kyle stayed in the lake diving, took turns trying to find Marie under the water.
I was just standing there, thunderstruck. I was really confused and was unable to move any muscle.
Minutes passed and everybody was exhausted looking for Marie and crying for help. But after a few minutes, my friends argued again. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what had happened. I didn’t know how to react.
Darkness filled the night and all of us were silent, stunned about the circumstances that came our way. Marie was one of our dearest friends and we knew nothing to do if ever she’s already dead. We strongly asked ourselves what to do. Must we tell it to Marie’s parents, call the police, or wait for her to come back, hoped that she was still alive.
We had our camp there and tried to sleep through the night, but we couldn’t sleep. We thought “Is she okay?”
In the middle of the night, we’ve agreed to pack our things up and go straight back home to our families.
We got aboard Kyle’s car, which was the only vehicle that was there. Kyle started the car’s engine, but something went wrong. The engine failed to start. We were very frightened. We went very wild. Meg and Phoebe shouted and cried. All of us talked and screamed our lungs out and didn’t understand what the other said. I told them to calm themselves but it was no use. Seconds were wasted and our energies depleted. We went still. I felt something weird and saw that my friends felt it too. All of us looked back at the lake. We saw a woman standing over the water, dripping wet, with a sad face and a bloody head, with her hands trying to reach us.
We froze, stared at the woman’s face and it was Marie!
Again, Kyle tried to start the engine and thankfully, it worked. He stepped on to the accelerator and we were off quickly, running away from our friend.
We cried during our journey back home. Marie’s appearance played in our minds.
We were on the road for a long while until our nerves calmed and I was the first one to talk and asked what happened in the lake. Dave, the most outspoken in the group, said, “We were having good time there in the lake, swimming. We were amazed when Marie dived from a big rock but all of a sudden, blood spread in the lake. We panicked and tried to find her but we didn’t succeed. Then the rest, I think you know, and that will be our unforgettable history.”
“I think when we were leaving the place, Marie… Oh Marie!” Meg inserted.
“I know it’s not easy to accept that she’s already dead but we can’t do anything now, so continue what you were just saying,” I said.
“I can’t believe it, she’s dead!”
“No one can accept it that fast but let us try. Please, Meg, be calm,” I saw Phoebe was crying too.
Meg wiped her tears and continued, “When we were leaving the lake, I think she showed herself to tell us not to leave her. I saw her trying to reach us with her arms. Oh God! How I wish this didn’t happen.”
The day after, we came back to the lake. The police were there and told us that they have seen nothing, barely nothing.
Her relatives would keep on grieving for not having anything after Marie’s death, not even her body.
Marie would be in the lake and wait for her friends to go back and save her grieving soul. She would stay there and haunt anybody who gets there…forever....