Josh’s nostrils flared and he threw his arms out wide. ‘Seriously?’ He mouthed to me as I shoved him into the hall, and we walked back towards the main dining room. Isabelle was waiting for us by the door with a cup holder and three large drinks.

“Ernie say’s they’re on the house.” She shrugged and leaned back into the door, holding it open for us. She watched me carefully as I passed, but I pretended not to notice. “Shame on you, young man.” She murmured to Josh as they followed me out.

“Shut up.” He grumbled, rubbing his shoulder. “I swear that lady had bricks in that damn bag. Who even does that?”

The Reinerd Motel was a small family-owned motel at the edge of town. There were five rooms, a small fenced in pool behind the building, and an even smaller dining room in the main office which wasn’t much bigger than the rooms themselves.

TJosh put the Jeep in park and leaned back in his seat. He was watching me in the rear-view mirror again.

“Are we going to talk about what happened?” He asked, suppressing a yawn. I sighed and glared at the back of his seat.

“After we’re inside.” I said and unbuckled. I reached into the floorboards to grab my backpack. “We can talk inside.” I waited for Isabelle to push the seat forward and then I climbed out and crossed the few feet from the parking lot to the hotel door. I lifted the key to the lock as they came up behind me holding their bags.

I flicked the lamp on beside the door as we walked in. There were two twin beds and a pull-out couch that was still pulled out from this morning. The carpets were rough and gray and caught our socks as we walked across it. I’d had made a mental note of it after the first night and remembered to keep my shoes on until I was laying down for the night.

Dropping my backpack on the floor by the couch, I sat down on the nearest bed. Isabelle passed out the drinks and she and Josh took a seat on the other bed.

He rubbed his hands together while he debated how to approach the conversation.

I set my cup down on the nightstand between the two beds and looked between them. They looked as uncomfortable as I felt. Well, they were going to find out eventually anyways, so there’s no point in keeping it to myself anymore.

“I saw a woman. In the bathroom at Ernies.”

Josh rolled his eyes and sipped from his coke to keep himself from the sarcastic retort that fought to get out.

“She was drowned…a long time ago.” I looked down at my hands and fidgeted with my fingers as I tried to keep my voice steady. “When I was seven, I went to the lake house with my aunt and her boyfriend Jason. We were supposed to spend the summer up there while my parents were working abroad. They’re both journalists, you know, and they’d caught wind of a really good story about the catacombs in Paris and booked the next flight out and I got shipped to Aunt Katie’s. She and Jason rented a cabin out by Crady Lake and were packing when my parents dropped me off. Aunt Katie was absolutely thrilled to have me go with them, but Jason wasn’t thrilled about it. Back then, I thought it was just that he didn’t want a kid around, you know? But after everything happened—” My voice cracked and I reached for my shake, chugging it down and wincing at the oncoming brain freeze. I pressed a hand to my forehead trying to rub it away.

They sat quietly, watching, waiting for me to continue. I sat my cup back down and refused to look at them as I continued. “We were only up there a week when it happened. Aunt Katie and Jason took the canoe out one evening after dinner. I didn’t go with them because I was too scared of the water.” I chuckled and wiped away a stray tear. “I thought there were sharks in it.”

“You thought there were sharks in a lake?” Josh snorted. Isabelle elbowed him and he muttered an apology and gestured for me to continue.

I chewed on my lip and stared at the cracked in the drywall behind them. “I heard Jason hollering and I came running out onto the porch just in time to see him dive into the water. I remember running out onto the peer and screaming for them both. When Jason came back up, he looked absolutely horrified. He told me to go get his phone, but I couldn’t move. I was too scared. I wanted Mom and Dad, but they weren’t there, and neither was Aunt Katie. I was alone. Jason climbed up the dock ladder and shoved past me as he ran back to the cabin and when he did, I lost my balance and fell off the side. I don’t think he heard me, or at least he pretended not to, because he didn’t stop running. The water was so cold.” I glanced at the floor and wrapped my arms around myself as I relived the horrible memory. “It was cold, and it was dark, and I wasn’t a very good swimmer. I mean I’m still not a great swimmer, but it was much worse back then. I reached frantically for anything to pull myself up but all I found was water. I don’t know how long I was down there; it felt like forever. But then I felt a surge in the water next to me and I saw a bright light. It was so bright I had to turn away from it and—and—”

Isabelle reached across the space between us and squeezed my hand comfortingly. I looked up at her, unable to stop the tears that were freely falling now.

“When I looked away from the light, I saw my Aunt Katie. Her face was twisted, and her mouth was open and her eye—” I shuttered. “I woke up in the hospital with Mom and Dad. I thought it had been some—awful nightmare, but—but it really happened. Aunt Katie was really gone.” I looked over at them. Isabelle’s other hand was over her mouth, her eyes full of sorrow. Josh, as still as a statue, sat across from us staring at the wall behind me. His face held no expression, but I knew, as I always did, that there was a storm of words and thoughts swirling around in his big head.

“Kara, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you went through any of that.”

“Nobody outside of my parents knew.” I wiped my nose on my sleeve and cleared my throat. “Well—I suppose the entire town of Crescentville knew because it was blasted on the local news for months, but my parents were the only ones that knew here.”

“What’s that got to do with you freaking out in the bathroom?” Josh asked, fighting to keep the bitterness from his voice.

“It was my aunt.” My throat tightened as I said it.

“Why?” A muscle feathered in his jaw. There was so much he wasn’t saying. I could see it roiling beneath the surface and was grateful for that restraint that he barely had a hold on. I don’t know why it bothered him that I hadn’t told him anything. Isabelle was my best friend, and I hadn’t even talked to her about it until now. I didn’t owe him any parts of me, especially not those parts.

“Because it isn’t the first time I’ve seen her.” His eyes narrowed at me. He didn’t believe me. Of course, he didn’t believe me. I don’t think he even believes in ghosts; I’m pretty sure that he just puts up with all of this ghost hunting stuff for Isabelle. “After it happened, I kept having dreams about her. Nightmares. They never started out the same, but they ended the same. One minute she would be smiling and the next she would be staring at me with that horrible, twisted face and water would be falling out of her mouth every time she tried to speak. She would blame me, and then she would drown me with her.”

Josh sighed, mulling over my words, and crossed his arms over his chest. Isabelle was watching him too. She hadn’t said anything else beyond the sympathetic apology she’d given a few moments ago.

“That still doesn’t explain your hallucinations.”

“It wasn’t a hallucination!” My jaw clenched. “It was real. I know it was.” I shot to my feet and snatched up my backpack. Inside the main zipper pocket was a manilla folder. I jerked it out and stalked back across the too small room and shoved it towards him. He hesitated, but took it, opening it up.

Isabelle gasped.

Inside the folder were stacks of newspaper clippings about the fire at the Divine Creek Apartments as well as printed off pages from the ghost hunter's websites that I’d found them on. And behind those were the faded newspaper clippings from thirteen years ago at Crady Lake. He sifted through them all reading over them slowly and thoroughly. When he’d finished, he handed the folder to Isabelle and turned back to me, his grey eyes blazing.

“You lied.”

“I didn’t lie,” I said a bit too defensively, my brows narrowing. “I just…wasn’t entirely honest.”

“That’s the same thing, Kara!” He snapped. I flinched at the sharp tone, and he growled under his breath as he rose to his feet and began pacing. “You said that you found this case online. You said that you were interested in the shadow people.” He said the last part with air quotes.

“I was.” Why the hell was he so mad? This literally has nothing to do with him. With either of them technically.

“Oh, you were, alright, but you neglected to tell us that your aunt’s killer lived in those apartments.”

Isabelle’s eyes shot to me, but I pretended not to see it. Josh pointed to the article on top of the stack Isabelle was holding and she scanned it again. I shifted on my feet when she finally looked up.

“It’s not what you think.” I protested. Josh snorted in response.

“You don’t want to know what I think, Kara.” His shoulders were rising and falling with his agitated breathing. He raked a hand through his blond curls, pushing them back from his forehead.

“Then I will tell you what I know you’re thinking. You’re thinking I lied to you to get close to Jason. You think I made up these big grand scenarios to get you guys to agree to come here with me. You think that I’m on some personal vendetta mission to—”

“What I think, Kara, is that you should have told us from the beginning! What I think is that maybe you don’t trust us like you say you do! Maybe we aren’t as close as we all thought we were! What I think is you used us!” He bellowed, whirling on me.

Us. Us. Us. Since when was he one of us. It was me and Isabelle. It has always been me and Isabelle. He keeps saying ‘us’ and ‘we’re friends’, but when has that ever been a thing between us? When have we ever been anything more than bully and prey to each other?

“You don’t understand! You have to believe me; it wasn’t like that!” I throw my hand towards the manilla folder laying open in Isabelle’s lap. “Look at the clippings! There’s more to it and you’re completely missing it!”

“Then enlighten me!” His nostrils flared and his face was turning redder by the minute.

“The shadow people.” Isabelle piped in. She offered up two newspaper clippings. One from then and one from now. Josh, face tight, yanked them out of her hands. He read through them both. Twice. Three times. Then his eyes raised to mine, and his lips tightened.

“The shadow man,” he said at last. “That’s your excuse? Really?”

My hands were beginning to shake as I nodded.

“You’ve got to be shitting me right now.” Josh’s voice was getting louder.

“No, Josh, I’m serious.” I gestured to the folder. “This isn’t about Jason at all, it’s—”

“My ass it’s not about Jason!” He tossed the clippings on the floor as he yelled. “You expect me to—expect us to sit here and buy this bullshit? The shadow man, really, Kara? What are you, twelve?”

“Hey! Take it easy!” Isabelle jumped in. My eyes dropped to the clippings now scattered over the floor.

“What? I’m not wrong!” He turned on her now. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! There’s no such thing as shadow people!”

I crouched down to scoop up the papers and lifted them to the light. I’m not crazy, I know he’s here somewhere, I just have to show them.

The black and white picture showed Crady Lake and the canoe that had been tugged up on the bank. There was police tape strewn across the posts of the dock and beyond it in a dinky rowboat was a cop talking to a diver. I held the picture closer and squinted at it. My friends were still arguing above me, but I tuned them out as I scanned the page. There! In the tall weeds on the far bank of the lake was the silhouette of a man. So dark it looked just like a damned shadow.

I shot to my feet, wincing as my head caught Josh’s elbow in the process. He spun on me, about to tell me just what he thought about it when I shoved the article back in his face.

“There!” I jabbed my finger at the picture. “He’s right there! You can see him!” Josh sighed through his nose, his nostrils turning white from the flare, and pulled the article back from his face so he could look at it.

“That’s what you’re so worked up about? A stupid smudge?” He showed it to Isabelle. Her eyes were on me though. Concern written all over her beautiful face. And—pity. Pity for me. I opened my mouth to say something, to say anything to get them to listen. To understand. I promptly closed it and shook my head. There was no point. She’d agree with Josh to keep the peace, and he’d get his way about this.

“Just—forget it.” I mumbled taking the article back before she could get a look at the so-called smudge and gathered up the folder and remaining clippings, shoving them back down into my bag and zipping it.

“Look, Kara, we want to believe you but—” Isabelle tried, but she couldn’t find the words to make this situation any less tense.

“It’s fine, forget I said anything.” I grabbed my discarded pj’s from the foot of the fold out and locked myself in the bathroom.

The yellow light above the mirror made my skin look sallow as I stared at my reflection. There were dark circles under my green eyes, proof that I hadn’t been sleeping well. The nightmares didn’t happen as often now as they used to, but they still do, and they’ve been rearing their ugly heads a lot since I’d found the articles about Divine Creek. Whether it was because it was influenced by the flashbacks from the reports of the shadow man sightings, though, I’m unsure. I slipped out of my jeans and grey t-shirt, folding them haphazardly and setting them on the toilet lid. Then I pulled on my black basketball shorts and red INK t-shirt.

Turning on the faucet, I let the cool water run while I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste from the pouch we’d left stationed on the towel rack. I dipped the bristles in the cool water and applied the tooth past. As I brushed my teeth, I could hear the whispers die down from the other room. They must be in bed already. I spit into the sink and rinsed off my toothbrush before recapping it and placing it back in the toiletries pouch.

Cupping my hands under the water I waited until it overflowed and then splashed my face twice. The water was colder on my heated face than I had expected it to be, and I shivered slightly as I used the hand towel to dry off. I turned off the water and ran the brush through my brown hair before pulling it back into a low ponytail. I glanced at my appearance one last time and didn’t miss the sadness reflected back to me.

Maybe it would be better if we did call it off and just head home.