The Ensnared (13 page)

No one had any answers, the people
in this city were overly friendly and she found it sickening. Yesterday evening
she had spotted the couple she had met that night, who had lied to her and
caused her to be trapped into the nightmare. The couple had walked as fast away
as possible, and were almost hit by a car.

Melissa took a deep breath and
looked all around her. There were still trees dotted all around the islet and
somewhere hidden beneath them would be the five tombstones.

She walked over to where she had
seen the tombstones and pulled away the branches from the nearby trees. There
should have been five tombstones, but to her horror she spotted five more of
them.

Her knees buckled then and she fell
down, unable to divert her eyes from the tombstones.

“No!” she cried as she saw the unmarked
graves. They couldn’t be dead, they just couldn’t!

She wiped her tears and got up,
walking all around the graves for any sign that would tell her if they really
did belong to who she thought they did.

Melissa covered her face and cried.
How could this have happened? If only she had fought harder to stay, she would
have been with Mark. What could have happened that night?

Her cell phone rang then and she
pulled it out of her pocket, wiping away her tears.

“Mom?” she asked.

“Where are you?” her mother asked.

“I’ll be there soon.” She said and
switched off her phone. She took a deep breath and was about to walk away when
she noticed something from the corner of her eyes.

She walked over to one of the
graves and knelt down, brushing off the dirt from the tombstones.

Sorry
Melissa. He failed.

Couldn’t
save himself or your friend.

---Rafe

Melissa felt a surge of rage rising
within her and started to rub away at the inscription. When it didn’t come off,
she burst into tears.

When she was finally able to gain
control of herself, Melissa got up and walked towards the boat. Her anger still
pulsed through her veins, but she knew there was nothing she could do.

As she paddled away from the shore,
a thought suddenly occurred to her. She dropped her oar and turned back, her
eyes widening.

Now she knew, why she had felt so
weird as she had stepped into the islet. The islet had somehow gotten larger as
if it had suddenly had life breathed into it. It lay there, challenging her,
threatening her and mocking her.

Melissa turned back and started to
paddle faster, trying to get as further as possible from the islet that called
to her--- when she heard the roar of motorcycle engines.