Possessions by Nancy Holder Read Free Book Online Page A

the lake, black and deep. I couldn’t imagine how cold it was. Despite the heavy leather jacket I was wearing, my teeth had begun to chatter.
    “Drop it!” Lara called.
    A few took up the chant. “Drop it! Drop it!”
    And she did. She dropped the blanket, revealing her scrawny, naked backside to all of us, and placed one bare foot in the water. I saw her jerk to a stop, as if she were shocked by icy pain. Then she took another step, and another. Girls were laughing, cheering. They didn’t care how loud they were. They didn’t have to. We were a long way from our housemothers.
    She kept going. I felt sorry for her and mad at her; I didn’t want to watch, but I had to. I was afraid for her. I knew I would go in after her if she got in trouble, but I didn’t want to.
    Mandy’s got hold of the rope , I reminded myself, checking to make sure. Mandy and Lara were standing together, shrieking with laughter.
    But I didn’t know if Mandy would keep holding the rope. I didn’t know her at all. And I liked her less.
    Kiyoko went in to her knees, and started to back out. She stopped herself and staggered forward, up to her thighs, then her bottom, and then she pushed off and started to swim. Flashlights trained on her like searchlights. I saw her glow-sticks above the waterline, and the occasional flash of neon green around her wrists. She started to splash the water with opened palms. Did she even know how to swim?
    Mandy cupped her hands. “All the way under!” she yelled. “Get your hair wet!”
    Kiyoko started coughing. Her leg kicks were random.
    “No, get out now,” I said, but no one could hear me.
    As her head went under, the applause was thunderous. Cheers bounced off the lake.
    I watched, counting one, two, three . . .
    four . . .
    five . . .
    She didn’t come back up.
    The applause ebbed; the cheers began to fade.
    The lake was still.
    And I began to think the unthinkable, because bad things really did happen. People really did die.

six
    “Kiyoko?” Shayna called. “ Kiyoko ?”
    Shayna bolted into the water. I flew in after her. Mandy tried to grab my wrist as I darted past; I shook free and kept going—
    —just as Kiyoko breached the surface, screaming.
    “Something grabbed me!” she shrieked, shooting out of the lake and barreling past me, her tiny breasts bouncing. The rope was still around her waist, and her wrists and ankles glowed. As I turned around, she dashed onto the shore in a blur, hysterical, racing past Shayna and into the darkness.
    Then there was a flash and I turned in its direction. Mandy had taken Kiyoko’s picture with her cell phone.
    “And off to Lakewood,” she said gleefully.
    “You bitch! You unbelievable bitch!” Shayna shouted, heading for her.
    “It was the ghost!” Kiyoko cried.
    Mandy’s cell phone flashed again.
    Then, suddenly, a second figure shot out of the water, and everyone screamed and scattered.
    As terrified shrieks bounced off the lake, I crossed my arms and watched a guy in a body-hugging wet suit and scuba gear rise from the water, his dark face shining wet in the moonlight. Floodlights erupted from a rowboat, and two guys started laughing their butts off. Scuba guy had obviously swum from the boat, tracking Kiyoko via her glowing necklaces and bracelets, all to scare the wits out of her.
    Julie rushed over to me, grabbing my arm like a little girl, and I slowly shook my head at the intense meanness of it all. Shayna was shouting and Kiyoko was crying and almost everyone else who’d been watching now loitered on the outskirts by a cluster of tall pines, gossiping.
    I narrowed my eyes at the scuba guy, who was pulling off his hood. Skin like mocha cappuccino, eyes like dark chocolate, and more ringlets than even I had. Mega-cute.
    “Hey,” he said, looking through me, “this wasn’t the way you said, Mandy.”
    Mandy swirled around me and walked toward him, stopping short at the water’s edge. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t talk.
    “