Too Many Risks

I watched the moonlight dance across “Angel’s Pond” in silence, breath taken with
it’s beauty. There it was, what I had taken so many risks to see...

I must have been standing there a long time because Melanie waved her hand in
front of my face, “Hello? Are we going to do this or not?!” she exclaimed. “Okay, okay,
I’m coming,” I replied.

I quickly put my bag down under one of the willows and got out my towel. I
walked over to the edge of the pond and peeked in. Just making sure that nothing just
might look right back up at me.

My name is Rachel, I can’t tell you my last name, or my friend Melanie’s. Because
well, to make it simple... what we were doing wasn’t exactly... legal. See, Melanie and I
were kind-of dare devils, we loved taking risks. Just the excitement was the only thing we
lived for. Even though, most of the time I had to talk her into it. I was always the one that
got us mixed up and involed with the risk, then she’d be the brave one and some how get
it over with and pretend nothing happened. Melanie was tall, thin, with long dark brown
hair and green eyes. I looked almost just like her. I was tall with long light brown hair,
hazel eyes, but not as skinny as she was.

It was midnight, and we were able to sneak out of the house with no problems. We
decided to make a custom of coming to Angel’s Pond every year on September 13th. The
main risk was... we were trespassing, and we knew it. We just had to come, it was the
kind of pond that you just wanted for yourself, something that you wished was all yours.
The small pond was in the shade of several willow trees and the grass was long and blew
back and forth in the wind.

“Awww Dang it!”

“Shhh!” I hissed at Melanie. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My watch!!”

I groaned, “And lemme guess, you just lost it.”

“Yup, help me look for it, I think it’s somewhere over there.” She pointed under
the farthest willow from the pond where we had climbed over the brick wall.

“Okay, fine, but let’s hurry,” I said.

I combed the grass almost sure we’d never find the stupid watch of her’s. After a
while I got up frustrated and turned to find Melanie when I heard something... Sounded
like a car door slamming. I peeked out from behind the thick blankets of willow leaves and
saw a red Cadillac start up noisily. Whoever the person was put on a black baseball hat
and turned around to make sure no one heard, and that’s when I got a glimpsed of the
face... Jake Travis. One word to describe this guy, JERK. A total jerk. He was one of the
most popular kids at school and makes fun of everyone. He must have been held back a
couple years because he was a lot older then most of the kids in 9th grade. The only thing
that he was good at was gym. He would beat up anyone that pissed him off. Hmm... I
wondered what he was doing here, as he drove away with his lights off.

I sighed and turned around to find that Melanie was behind me. “Gee, he was
acting weird,” she whispered.

“I know.”

Then she realized that she left the dang watch at home! Aurgh! We crept over to
the old wooden bridge that went about four feet into the water.

I stepped back, preparing for a canon ball but Melanie pushed me in. *Splash* The
water was FREEZING but I came up laughing anyway. She did one of her “All Star
Dives” and we then swam under the bridge. Yes! My name was still etched in the wood:

“Oh just great,” I said sarcastically. As I tried to scratch out the “sucks” part.

“Looks like someone knew you!” Melanie said with a laugh.

There were other names all over the under side of the bridge, but some of them
were so old and worn that you could barely read them, let alone in the dark. Melanies was
still there, too.

We were getting bored so we swam out to the far side of the pond. I floated on my
back and looked up at the starry sky.

Then, I felt something brush against my arm. Knowing that there were no fish in
Angel’s Pond, I rolled over wondering what it was. I was in shock to see a human face
stare right back at me, a pale, thin ghostlike face. Every second seemed to take forever
and was all in a blur. The body was rising closer and closer... I felt frozen in absolute
shock. My lungs were screaming for air but I couldn’t move. Then I broke free from the
watery eyes and thrashed wildly! I came up for air only to get a mouth full of water. I
banged my elbow into the soft fleshy stomach. I was coughing, gagging, and choking as I
came up for a breath of air. I jabbed my knee into the leg of the body kicking wildly to get
away. Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to shore. I screamed nonstop at the top of
my lungs.

“Will you shut-up?!” Melanie yelled.

I’m not sure how long it was till I stopped coughing, but when I was able to speak
I was hysterical! “Did you see that?!” I said wide eyed.

“Yes, any idiot could see it, and here’s your towel, let’s get out of here,” she
whispered.

I got to my feet and wrapped up in the towel. I staggered over to get my stuff and
then we some how climbed over the wall. As we walked across the small field to the street
we burst into debate, “Can you believe that?! Who was that?! What happened to that
person?! Did they drown?! And you saw Jake, in that car, he looked over his shoulder
suspiciously as well, and why do I have a feeling that he has something to do with this?!” I
said as strong and sure as I could even though I was as pale as a ghost and still trembling.

“I don’t think Jake Travis could go as far as murder, but we don’t even know if
that body was put there by him,” she said. “Do you know who that was when you saw the
face?” she asked.

“I saw the face, but I didn’t recognize who it was... the person would be missing
and people would be looking for him, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find out who it...”
---“SCREECH!!!”

My head snapped around. “Quick hide!” Melanie whispered raspy. There were no
trees, or bushes! We were standing at the edge of the field! The car was coming closer and
we started running as fast as we could to the cemetery, which was the closet place to hide.

The lights were on this time as I watched them wash over me.

Melanie was ahead of me because she was a much faster runner of course. She was
almost hidden completely while moving through the grave stones.

I heard the tires of the car speed up on the dirt road as I finally came to the
cemetery fence. Just my luck to have to hide in the classic horror spot!

I jumped the fence easily and my muscles ached and my lungs were having a tough
time which I wasn’t surprised about. What was hurting the most was my throat which felt
as if I had just drunk acid.

I looked over my shoulder to see the Cadillac come to a stop. Jake jumped out of
the car. “Wait! Stop!” he yelled.

My foot tripped on a rock and I screamed as I fell to the ground. *THUD* I got
up and ran into the woods. I hoped I would lose him without losing myself or my dinner.

I wasn’t sure how long I ran. I heard someone behind me, chasing me, but only for
a short while. Melanie was far out of sight and I had no idea where she was.

I stopped when I came to the stream. I was still as I could be to see if someone
were still here.

I walked east from the stream where I knew Main Street was. There it was, Main
Street. My house was a little less then a block from here.

The window to my room was still open. I crept over to the bushes to get the
ladder.

“Rachel!!” Melanie whispered. I nearly jumped out of my skin! “Are you okay?
What happened?” she exclaimed.

“I’m all right, I was chased through the woods, but lost him,” I replied.

“Good, and you have to promise not to breath a word of this!!” Melanie
whispered.

“I swear. We can talk about this tomorrow. Play sick even though you might really
be tomorrow,” I said.

“Okay, bye,” Melanie whispered hoarsely.

“Bye,” I replied.