Ghost Girl in Shadow Bay: A Young Adult Haunted House Mystery (3 page)

"Hey, Bry," she called out, catching up to
them.

He looked at her with surprise. "Hey! What's
up?"

"Nothing other than my morning run. Well,
more like a power walk in this case."

"Let me guess--you ran track back in San
Diego?"

"Yup, sure did. It was either that or piano
lessons."

Bryant laughed, producing dimples in his
cheeks. "Sounds like you made the right choice."

"Who's your not so little friend here?"

"This is Hugh," Bryant replied, petting the
dog's head.

"Hi, Hugh."

He jumped up playfully, practically knocking
Peyton off her feet.

"Guess he likes me."

"No doubt about it." Bryant grinned.

Peyton resisted the urge to continue running
as planned, preferring to spend the time with her new neighbor and
his dog.

"So do you have a summer job? Or do you just
work with your dad?" She hoped he didn't take her questions the
wrong way.

"Yes and no." Bryant rubbed his nose. "When
I'm not helping out my dad, I have a part-time job at a department
store. I stock shelves, tag items, and basically do anything they
need me to."

"Cool. Last summer, and just before we moved
here, I worked at a local mall. The pay wasn't much, but I got to
buy lots of nice clothes at a discount."

"Yeah, and probably check out all the guys
passing by, right?" He grinned.

"More like the other way around," she
teased.

"Hey, I believe it! You're definitely worth
checking out."

Peyton blushed. The truth was, most of the
guys she knew were too into sports or themselves to pay attention
to her.

Bryant stopped to let Hugh do his thing near
some bushes.

Afterwards, they headed back.

"How was your first night in the new house?"
Bryant asked nonchalantly.

Peyton looked at him as though he could read
her mind. Or maybe her dreams.

"It was a bit scary, to tell you the
truth--after I went to sleep."

"Nightmare, huh?"

"You could say that." Peyton couldn't
believe she was telling him about it. Not exactly the way to get a
guy to like you. What if it was a big turn off?

"I'm not surprised," Bryant said. "I've had
a few myself since we moved here, but I never told anyone."

You haven't told anyone until now
.
"Please don't tell me you think the house
and
cottage are
haunted
?"

He chuckled. "Only if you believe in evil
spirits. I don't. Not yet anyway."

"Neither do I!"

"Then maybe it's something in the water," he
suggested.

She batted her eyes. "Yeah, right. Heard
that one before."

"No, really. Most of it comes from the bay.
With the runoff from the sewage treatment plant and contaminants,
well, you just never know what it might be doing to our bodies and
minds..."

"Eww, that's gross!" Peyton wrinkled her
nose at the mere thought of ingesting polluted water.

"Don't worry," Bryant said, laughing. "The
water's not that bad, really. Once your body gets used to it, the
mind usually follows, along with hopefully some peaceful nights of
sleep."

Peyton was sure he was teasing, making her
like him all the more for having a sense of humor. And he had
helped turn her attention away from one bad dream.

She took out her cell phone, figuring this
was as good a time as any to videotape him and his dog, if Bryant
didn't mind. "I told my friends back home I'd show them who my new
friends are. Right now, it's you and Hugh," she said honestly.

Bryant grinned. "Go right ahead." He bent
down next to his dog. "We're happy to star in your video and say
hello to your friends in San Diego."

Peyton laughed, as Bryant seemed to have fun
playing to his audience and getting Hugh to cooperate.

She sent the video to Erica and wasn't
surprised that Bryant made a favorable impression on her.

"He's a catch," she said in their FaceTime
chat that evening.

"Tell me something I don't know," Peyton
responded.

"The dog's a cutie, too."

"Yeah, Hugh's great," Peyton agreed.

"Looks like they feel the same way about
you," Erica told her.

"Seems that way." Peyton refused to jump to
conclusions, but things certainly seemed to be moving in the right
direction where it concerned Bryant.

* * *

A week later, convinced that Bryant was
exaggerating about the contaminated bay, Peyton went for a swim.
She had to admit it was nice to have a bay practically in your
backyard. Wasn't the same as being right on top of the ocean like
in San Diego, but definitely trumped the typical boring swimming
pool.

The water was chilly, but pleasant. Peyton,
who had been swimming since she was five, tried the breaststroke
for a while, then the backstroke and butterfly. She went under the
water, enjoying being surrounded by it, before coming back up for
air. Beginning to tire, she started to swim back to shore.

But before she could reach it, Peyton
suddenly felt herself being pulled under. Startled, she held her
breath and looked around, not sure what--or who--grabbed her ankles
and yanked her down forcefully. Were there actually sharks in
Shadow Bay?

There was only murky water.

Maybe I blacked out or something for an
instant
.

Peyton's eyes widened when she suddenly
found herself staring into the face of a girl around her age and
size. She had long dark hair and blue unblinking eyes. Her lips
were discolored and pursed into something resembling a grimace. She
was wearing what looked to Peyton like some kind of retro print
swimsuit.

Where had she come from?
I never saw
anyone in the bay.
Had the girl been swimming under the water
the whole time and could hold her breath like forever?

A frail arm suddenly shot out from the
girl's side and a wrinkled finger pointed at Peyton threateningly.
She jerked backwards, wanting to get away from the girl as quickly
as possible.

Peyton swam up to the surface, petrified and
feeling lightheaded. She was sure the girl would try to reach out
and pull her down again, leaving Peyton to drown.

She sprang out of the water, trying to catch
her breath. Using every ounce of strength she had, Peyton sought
the refuge of the shore. As her arms and legs flailed desperately,
she could think of nothing but escaping her scary pursuer.

When she reached land, Peyton ran and ran,
afraid to look back.

* * *

"Calm down, Peyton," Vance said, trying to
understand. He and Melody surrounded her. "You're telling us that a
girl was in the bay...and pulled you under?"

Peyton shivered beneath the towel wrapped
around her. "Yeah, that's what happened," she stammered.

"Why would she do that?" he asked
skeptically.

"How do I know?" Peyton raised her voice,
wondering the same thing herself. "Maybe she was high on drugs or
something. Definitely looked like she was out of it!"

"And she didn't follow you out of the
water?" Melody asked.

"Well, I didn't exactly wait around to find
out, Mom."

Peyton could taste bay water and began to
think about runoff from the sewage treatment plant that Bryant had
mentioned. It made her feel queasy. She suddenly wondered if the
girl had actually been in trouble and did not mean her any
harm.

Maybe she'd been overcome by the nasty water
and was delirious till I came along?

"Someone has to help her!" Peyton blurted
out.

Vance looked at Melody and back to Peyton.
"I thought you said she was trying to--"

"I'm not sure exactly what she was trying to
do," Peyton cut in. "Maybe I should have stuck around a bit longer
to find out."

"Well...was she drowning?"

"Yes. No. I don't know." Peyton batted her
lashes wildly. "I only know that I saw her in the water and she was
just weird...and motionless, till her creepy arm moved toward me.
So I think she was still alive--"

"My goodness." Melody looked at her husband.
"We have to do something!"

"All right," he said. "Show us exactly where
you were before you got out of the water."

Peyton didn't want to go back out there and
face that eerie girl again. What if she really was out to get her?
But Peyton didn't want to have the girl's death on her conscience
either.

* * *

An hour later, a diver from the Sheriff's
department came up from the bay. He approached the group that
included Peyton, her parents, and the sheriff named Dan Hagen.

"There was no one there, Dan," the diver
insisted. "I couldn't find anyone."

"Are you sure?"

"Not unless she was a ghost and hiding from
me," he said humorlessly.

The sheriff's brow creased. "Sorry to put
you through the trouble, Cody."

"Yeah, so am I." He shot Peyton an icy look
and walked towards some onlookers who had begun to gather.

"Well, maybe she swam away," Peyton
suggested, knowing full well how lame that sounded even to her. The
girl in the water seemed too listless to go very far by
herself.

"And maybe that overactive imagination you
brought from California doesn't work too well in Shadow Bay," Dan
snorted angrily.

Peyton refused to back down. "I was not
imagining her--no matter what you think! I wouldn't make up
something like that just for you to make me out to be some spoiled
rotten teenager looking for attention."

Melody came to her daughter's defense.
"Sheriff, I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this. Your
diver may not have spotted the girl, but it doesn't mean she wasn't
there...or might not still be--"

He scratched his receding hairline.
"Anything's possible, I suppose. But it ain't very likely that some
mysterious girl tried to drown your daughter, then fled or drowned
herself. Not when there's no evidence to support it."

Vance did not argue the point. "Look, I'm
sorry for dragging you out here, Sheriff. But it seemed like the
right thing to do at the time."

"It was," he said, softening his tone.
"Better safe than sorry, I guess."

His expression clearly suggested otherwise
to Peyton. She wondered if it could have been some sort of optical
illusion or maybe it was just her own distorted reflection she saw
in the water.

No, that made no sense. There definitely was
a girl in the water, whether anyone chose to believe Peyton or
not.

But who was she? And why was the girl after
her?

CHAPTER FIVE

"You're giving me goose bumps, Peyton,"
Erica said to her in a video call that night.

"How do you think I felt?" Peyton was
sitting in her room. She had just told Erica about the girl in the
bay and how everyone else seemed to think it was her imagination,
if not an outright lie.

"You really believe she was trying to kill
you?"

"It sure seemed like it. I mean, she did
pull me under."

"So why didn't she go after you once you
bolted?"

"I don't know. Maybe I caught her off guard
with my ability to swim fast."

Peyton wasn't sure she believed that.
Something told her that the girl was probably just as fast a
swimmer as she was when it came right down to it.

"Are you sure she was even alive?" Erica
hummed some spooky music.

"That's
so
not funny!"

"Sorry," Erica said unconvincingly. "So
maybe the girl was already dead and you just literally bumped into
her in the water."

Peyton conceded that the girl certainly
seemed lifeless...but dead? No way.

"It wasn't like that, Erica. I was grabbed
and pulled down against my will," Peyton said. "And the girl
definitely lifted her arm and pointed her finger at me. Not exactly
what you'd expect from a corpse."

"Maybe it was some kind of reflex action,"
Erica suggested. "It doesn't mean she was alive--at that time."

"Hey, whose side are you on anyway?"
Peyton's nostrils flared, starting to feel that Erica wasn't
listening to her.

"Yours, of course. I was just pointing out a
possibility that you could've missed."

"Well, alive or dead, the mysterious girl
was nowhere to be found by the diver and it made me look
crazy."

"So she's an enigma then?"

"Yeah and one I could do without."

"That might be difficult since, like it or
not, you're caught up in the middle of whatever's going on."

Peyton hated to admit Erica was right. She
could run, but couldn't hide from the mystery surrounding the
missing girl.

"But at least I can avoid going in the bay
again no matter what," Peyton said. "If she's still out there, I'm
not about to give her a chance to come after me again."

Erica groaned. "Sounds to me like that bay
is haunted." She hummed the spooky music again.

Peyton worried that it might only touch the
surface of the strange things were going on within Shadow Bay.

"I don't know what to believe," she said.
"Right now, I'm just going to pretend the whole thing never
happened."

As if she could.

* * *

Caitlyn waited till Peyton left the room
before appearing. She'd listened as Peyton talked to her friend.
Caitlyn wished she could have friends again, but it wasn't possible
except for maybe Peyton herself.

It was through Peyton that she had gotten
her strength. Caitlyn had used it to go into the water, hoping that
Peyton would understand and not be afraid of her. After all, she
was not the one who wanted to hurt Peyton and her family.

Instead, Caitlyn had scared Peyton half to
death and she'd swum away so fast like a shark was after her.

I need you to help me, Peyton
.
We
can help each other. And we will.

It would just take time, Caitlyn thought,
knowing that time was in precious short supply for them all.