Sara Shepard - Burned

The girls tied the lifeboat to a natural outcropping of rocks and slipped into the cool, algae-filled water. They swam toward the narrow passage and into a dark, swirling pool. After a few more strokes, the passage opened into a wider cavern, where the water was much calmer and warmer. But it was pitch-black in there, too—Spencer could hardly see a few feet in front of her. It was barely better when she turned on the scuba flashlight she’d grabbed from the equipment room. The filmy, slimy seaweed kept slithering over her legs like leeches. She peeked worriedly at Aria, but she was bobbing comfortably in the life jacket.

She grabbed the necklace from Aria’s hand. “Wish me luck,” she declared, then disappeared under the water.

She sank down just like she had earlier that day. This time, her equipment worked, and oxygen filled her lungs. Once she was down far enough, she found an outcropping of rocks and pushed the necklace deep into the cove, dislodging a cloud of sand. When it cleared, the necklace was gone. It was hidden—hopefully for good.

When she popped back up, the girls were still treading water. There was a tense silence—Spencer could tell none of them had spoken the whole time she’d been down. Hanna’s teeth chattered. Aria was breathing heavily. Emily’s eyes darted back and forth toward the shore, which seemed a million miles away.

“It’s done,” Spencer said when she pulled the dive mask from her face. “Let’s go.”

They paddled back through the passage. The sea had grown even colder with the setting sun, and Spencer couldn’t wait to climb back on the lifeboat and head for land. She squinted at the tiny sliver of sun on the horizon. There was barely any distinction between the navy-blue water and the darkening sky. The only sound she heard was the peaceful lapping of waves. She looked right and left, disoriented. Something seemed different.

Emily surfaced behind her. Aria swam through next, then Hanna. They all treaded water with Spencer, looking around in confusion.

“Where’s the boat?” Emily finally said.

Spencer blinked. Just like that, her bearings came back to her. She saw the cruise ship far in the distance. And there was the finger-shaped rock she’d remembered from the dive earlier that day. But when she looked for the natural hook they’d tied the boat to, all she saw was a slack piece of rope. She pulled at it, feeling a weight rise up from the deep. An outboard motor appeared on the surface. After that, a limp shell of a raft, all of its air gone.

Aria gasped. Emily and Hanna exchanged a silent, horrified look. The waves lapped violently against the rocks. A thin, high-pitched giggle spiraled through the air.

Hanna let out a tiny squeak and stared at all of them with wide, terrified eyes. “I-I don’t understand.”

“Something must have punctured it,” Spencer suggested, her voice trembling.

Emily whimpered. “Is this actually happening? How are we going to get back to shore?”

They stared at one another, then at the vast distance between themselves and the ship. Spencer swung around and tried to judge the swim to the land, but that was much too far, too. Emily could swim it, perhaps, but next to her, Aria was thrashing around and breathing heavily, even wearing a life jacket.

“I should have stayed on the raft,” Aria blurted between gulps of sea water. “Maybe this wouldn’t have happened. I could have kept it safe.”

“Stop it,” Spencer said sternly. “What if you’d stayed on the raft, and it started sinking, and you couldn’t get out?”

Aria stared at the smooth walls of the cliffs. “How could something have punctured the raft anyway? It doesn’t seem possible.”

And then, as if in answer, they heard it again: that high-pitched giggle, seemingly wafting out from the ocean depths. It was a vengeful laugh, a satisfied laugh, a laugh that said, Now what are you bitches going to do? And suddenly, a tiny seedling of an idea formed in Spencer’s mind.

“Naomi did this,” she whispered.

Aria’s throat bobbed as she swallowed. Hanna’s chin trembled. Emily’s fingers shook as she pushed her hair behind her ear. As soon as the words spilled from Spencer’s mouth, she knew they were true. Naomi had seen them leave. Surely she had known what they were going to do, and surely, as A, she saw a foolproof opportunity. Spencer could just see the news tomorrow: Four pretty girls go for a joyride on a lifeboat when a cruise ship is evacuated. Boat springs a leak, the girls drown .

It had probably happened before. When the rescue teams finally found them, it would be deemed a horrible accident, but certainly not foul play. No one would go to jail. It was the perfect crime.

Everyone exchanged a haunted glance. “Naomi left us here to die,” Spencer whispered. “For all we know, she and Graham were in cahoots the whole time. Once his bomb didn’t finish off Aria, they moved on to plan B.”

Emily burst into tears. “What are we going to do ? I don’t want to die like this!”

“Help!” Hanna screamed out. But the waves drowned out her voice.

“We should have never come out here,” Emily blubbered.

“This is all my fault,” Aria blubbered. “If I hadn’t gotten that necklace, we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be in any of this mess if I hadn’t pushed Tabitha.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Spencer said.

“But it’s true!” Aria wailed. “I’m the only one who deserves this from A. You guys don’t!”

Spencer watched as a wave passed over Aria’s head. She bobbed back to the surface, coughing, when another wave took her under again. Her arms thrashed uselessly. There was terror in her eyes.

Emily grabbed Aria around the waist and pulled her to the surface. “You have to stay calm,” she shouted in her ear. “Panicking wastes energy.”

“How can I not panic?” Aria cried. “Don’t you see? A figured out a poetic end for us, tossing us out to sea just like the waves washed away Tabitha. Even if we survive, what’s the use? A is going to find us again and do something even worse .”

“Don’t say that,” Spencer soothed. “We’re going to beat A. We’re going to find a way.” But as she stared into the dimming light, she realized that everything Aria was saying was true. Being marooned at sea seemed like the worst possible death, but if they survived, who was to say A wouldn’t come up with something even scarier? How could she live, knowing A had something in store for her just around the corner?

Aria wiped water out of her eyes. “If we get out of this alive, I’m telling the cops what I did in Jamaica.”

Everyone whipped their heads around and stared at her. “No, you’re not ,” Spencer hissed.

“I can’t take it anymore!” Aria thrashed her arms. “Don’t you see what’s happening? A is using our guilt and fear to manipulate us—and it could go on forever if we don’t stop it! The only way we free ourselves of A is to confess. Then A has nothing on us.”

The sea was calmer for a moment. Hanna wiped water out of her eyes. Spencer sniffed back tears. Finally, Emily cleared her throat.

“Maybe we should all tell,” she said.

“We can’t let you do that alone, Aria,” Hanna added.

“And it’s true.” A wave splashed Spencer’s left cheek. “A is powerless if we confess. In a weird way, it’ll probably free us. Yeah, we’ll go on trial, and yeah, who knows what our futures will be? But at least A will be gone from our lives.”

Aria swallowed hard. “You guys don’t have to ruin your lives for something I did.”

Spencer rolled her eyes. “For the last time, Aria, we’re in this together. We’re all confessing. We’d never let you take the blame alone.”