Kelsey bit him. With one quick jerk she twisted her mouth free and brought her teeth down on his hand, tasting blood. With a cry of pain, Isaac staggered back, and Kelsey hurtled toward the beach, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Justin! Justin! Somebody help me!”

And at first she thought it was her screams resounding in the far corners of her frenzied brain…her voice bouncing off the rocks, coming back at her in stereophonic panic—

“Help—Somebody help!”

She stopped, totally confused. Behind her, the path was empty. Ahead of her the party was going on, oblivious to her cries. But someone besides herself had been screaming…was still screaming…even now…

“Help—drowning—help—”

It was far away yet terrifyingly close, that awful sound, water being gulped down…choked back up…arms thrashing…helpless…mad with terror…

Kelsey’s eyes went wide. Sobbing, she ran for shore—My God, where is she?

“Help—help me—”

Where was everybody—couldn’t they hear? “Help!” Kelsey shrieked, hating the sudden silence, worse than the screams. “Where are you?”

Something broke surface…flailing…struggling… In a daze of horror Kelsey saw the arms come out of the water—ghostly in a sliver of moonlight … and they reached for her…and went under…

“Justin!” She raced toward the lights, and she was still screaming, screaming, she didn’t think she had ever stopped screaming…“Justin!”

But someone had seen her now. Someone, at last, had seen her, people running, gathering around her—Skip from one direction—Justin from another—Neale from still another… It was Neale who reached her first, who caught her, trying to decipher the gibberish that spilled from her lips.

“Hurry—someone’s drowning—”

“What?” Her teeth rattled as he shook her. “Kelsey, where? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure—I heard her—I heard her—” She felt Neale’s slap across her cheek, heard Justin telling him to stop and Neale snapping something back, and Skip and all of them running, and she was running, too, leading them to the spot where she had seen the body go down…

They left her on shore, and she watched them in a hazy blur, diving in, swimming out. Someone—Skip, she thought—ran to call for a rescue crew, but was back again so quickly she thought she must have only imagined he’d gone. And everyone was running out now—the party stopping—word spread by invisible waves of fear. They stood around watching, waiting, as the waves buffeted the lifeguards around like so many broken shells.

“I can’t find her!” Justin cried.

“Leave it!” Skip’s voice swelled above the surf, joined by the deeper shouts of Neale.

“The rescue’s here, Justin! Leave it! Swim back!”

“NO!”

Someone grabbed Kelsey’s arm—she swung around and stared into Donna’s frightened eyes. They held onto each other without speaking. Silence stretched on and on, until Neale shouted again, pleading, “Justin! Come on—you can’t do any more—”

For as long as she lived she would never forget Justin’s voice then, the uncontrollable desperation echoing back to them through the wind and the water.

“I can’t find her, Neale—I can’t find anyone—”

“Justin! Come back!”