“Erica!”
Brynna opened her mouth and grinned, feeling the cold water slide through her teeth. The hand tightened on Brynna’s shoulder, pulling her back toward shore. Brynna pushed off and broke the surface, gulping in a deep breath of salt-tinged air in time to see Michael in front of her, dragging her behind him.
Brynna looked around for Erica and felt her heart swell with relief when she stepped onto shore and spotted Jay swimming in.
A thousand feet seemed to pound the beach, and Brynna spun back to the beach house, seeing half the party vaulting toward her, led by Ella. Her cheeks were red and her lips drawn.
“Come in!” someone called. “Get out of the water and come in!”
“What’s going on?” Brynna asked. “Where’s Erica?”
“You can’t swim there at night,” the same voice said. “There’s a goddamn riptide. Get out of the water!”
Brynna blinked. “A riptide?”
Jay trudged out of the water, eyes darting across the sand and slicing through the group of kids. “Where’s Erica?” he said.
“I couldn’t find her, man,” Michael answered.
Heat raced up the back of Brynna’s neck, and her stomach started to churn.
“Brynna?” Ella asked.
Bile itched at the back of Brynna’s throat, and the world dropped into slow motion. The waves took their time swelling and curling; their crash was gentle and calm as fingers of frothy water crawled toward her feet before being sucked out again by the tide.
Somehow, Brynna knew someone was talking to her. She could vaguely hear the sound of her name, could vaguely feel people touching her, but she felt like everything was encased in cotton. Cotton stuffing her ears and muffling sound, cotton keeping her a thousand miles from the arms that reached for her.
“No.” She was finally able to push the word over her teeth. “No!” The towel that someone had slipped over her shoulders flopped into the sand, and Brynna was pushing forward, pushing through the crowd. “I have to get Erica. Erica!”
She barely felt the water as her feet plunged into it, as it slapped against her calves. “Erica!” she was calling, straining to be heard over the surf. “Erica!”
She was waist-deep before Michael grabbed her, bear-hugging her around the waist and yanking her backward. But Brynna fought back, clawing for the water, trying to dive out of his arms.
“My best friend is out there! Let me go! You have to let me go!”
She dug her toes into the wet sand, praying for some traction, but Michael just hauled her backward as if she weighed nothing.
“Erica!”
Terror like an icy hand gripped at Brynna’s heart, and she struggled to breathe, her eyes darting across the undulating water. Every swell was Erica breaking through; every crash was Erica kicking her legs.
“She’s out there,” Brynna whispered, the tears burning over her chapped cheeks. “I have to find her.”
Somehow, the paramedics made it down the beach with flashing lights and wailing sirens that Brynna didn’t hear. A medic asked her some questions; she jostled out of the blood pressure cuff he tried to slap on her.
“No,” she mumbled.
This isn’t happening.
Fear like a lead weight settled in her gut. Her skin felt too tight. Erica was here. She was here.
Brynna turned out toward the water again, breaking away and darting for the crashing black waves, but someone was gripping her, the pain of their hands at the crook of her elbow surging up to her shoulder.
“Brynna—don’t.” It was Michael, his eyes a flat black.
Brynna looked over him and saw two police officers stepping out of a squad car parked on the sand. They looked so out of place with their drawn faces and pristine black uniforms, pant cuffs clouded with sand, but Brynna beelined for them anyway.
“Have you found Erica?”
The younger of the two officers, with a buzz cut and thick, black slashes for eyebrows, scratched his head. “Ma’am?”
The other officer pushed in front of the first and looked down at his phone. “Are you Brynna Chase?”
Hot tears clouded Brynna’s vision. “Yes, but it’s Erica. Erica is the one who’s missing. She’s—” Brynna turned toward the water, something breaking inside of her.
Erica was gone.
Past the breakers, the ocean was glass-topped and flat. The red and blue flashing police lights reflected off the water, a terrifying stained glass window, the image searing itself into Brynna’s mind forever.
TEN