If You Knew What I Knew:
Chapter 20

Howie

     “But...but...but,” I stammered.  I couldn’t get any words out.  “How?”
    She was waist deep in the water.  Her hair was tangled wild with the water.  Her hands were cut up with blood dried on them, the cuts going all the way up on both arms.  Her shirt was torn at the stomach.  Her face looked even worse.  She had purple-ish black bags under her eyes and her face was extremely pale.  She raised her arms out to me.  In each hand, she held two dead snakes.
    “How what?” She started to make her way towards me.  I backed away from her so fast that I tripped over the backless bench that was behind me.  I got up quickly and stood still.
    “You’re dead.”
    “Oh no, honey, I’m not.” She stepped out of the water and that’s when I saw her legs.  They were bruised and cut just like her arms.  She kept making her way slowly towards me, her arms still outstretched to me.  I couldn’t move.  My legs tuned to stone and I felt as if I were cemented to the ground.  When she reached me, she placed the snakes into my hands and put her hands on my shoulders.
    “I’m so glad you came.” She whispered into my ear.  I shivered.    
    “Polly Anna.”  My voice came out weak and quiet.  “You’re supposed to be dead.”
    “Supposed to be.” She placed her hands on my cheeks and pulled my face closer to hers.  “But I’m not.”  She let go and I immediately grabbed my cheeks.  Her hands were freezing.
    “You look dead.”
    She laughed, the same laugh that the caller had laughed.  I cringed at the sound of it.
    “Oh, Howie!  If you knew what I knew!  Do you wanna know?” I wanted to shake my head no but couldn’t.  “Of course you do!  Well I’ll tell you.  No!  Better yet, I show you!”
    “Oh no you won’t!” AJ’s voice came from behind the bushes.  All three of them came running at us.
    Polly Anna grabbed me by the arm and put me in a head lock with a strength that I didn’t not she possessed.  She screamed and pulled a knife out of who knows where.  She held the knife just inches from my throat.  She had stopped screaming and just growled.
    “What the hell is wrong with you?” AJ spat out, his face showing pure confusion and anger.
    “I’ll tell you what’s wrong!  Nick killed me that’s what’s wrong!  He didn’t even go for help!  He just left me there to die!  Thank goodness for Mark!  He had come to apologize to me and ask for me back when he saw me with Nick.  He followed us to the park and when he saw Nick push me in, he came down here to pull me out.”
    “So you weren’t dead?” Brian asked, his face paling.
    “Polly Anna’s dead, but I’m not!  Polly Anna’s spirit and faith in people died that night, that’s true.  But I lived.  I’m stronger than Polly Anna ever was.”
    “Who are you?” Kevin asked.
    “Who am I?” She laughed that maniacal laugh again.  “Who cares who I am?!  It’s what I’ve done that should be marveled at!  I’m responsible for Nick!”
    She still had me in a head lock but had released her grip somewhat.  I decided to take a risk.  I grabbed her hand that had the knife and took it from her, reversing the head lock hold on her and moved the knife until it was just inches from her throat.
    “Tell me what you did to Nick.”
    I watched her face conform into pure happiness.  This was a side of my sister that I had never seen, never known had even existed.  “I have him.”

Chapter 21
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