Chapter 4

“Hey! Has anyone seen Anna this morning?” Nicky asks as everybody is loading the cars ready to leave.
“Nope,” said Jai.
“Didn’t she stay with one of you last night?” Everybody said no.
“She didn’t come out with us last night,” said Narna. “Wasn’t she with you, Nix?”
“No. Where is she?” he said looking towards the lake. His thoughts started swirling with the water. Has she gotten lost or hurt? He couldn’t bring himself to think about the possibility that she could be dead. He brought himself out of the images of Anna running through trees and going round in circles.
“Don’t look so worried, Nick,” said Daniel. “She will show up before we leave in an hour.

The hours passed one by one. Everybody had been on a search round the local area and had now decided to call the police. Now they were sat in the police station in front of two officers. One was tall with short dark hair, brown eyes and introduced himself as Mr James. The other, officer Oslee, was the complete opposite of Mr James. He was short, chubby and blond. “Is there any reason why she would want to disappear?” asked Mr James. “Was there a fight between any of you?”
Nicky looked at Shane. “Well…” said Shane. “Something did happen between me and Anna.” Hollie who had been half asleep suddenly became alert. “Donna tried coming onto me while my girlfriend wasn’t around,” Shane continued. “I tried to stop her but she kept pushing me onto the sofa. The door was open slightly and both Nicky and Anna saw. At first they both took it as me and Donna having an affair but then Nicky overheard me and Donna having an argument about it. Anna wanted to tell Hollie that I was cheating on her because she really believed that I was. I told Anna that if she told Hollie then I would find a way to make Nicky hate her.” Shane started to cry. “I never meant it. I was just angry. She’s one of my best friends.” He turned to Hollie. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to get mad. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to her.”
“It’s ok Shane,” said Hollie putting her arms around him. “She will be fine.” But deep down Hollie feared the worst for her friend.
“Ok. Our main concern right now is to find her,” said Mr James. “She’s been missing nearly twenty-four hours now. Has anybody got a recent photograph of her?”
“I have but it’s in the car,” said Nicky.
“What does she look like?”
“She has longish blond hair,” said Nicky. “She always wears it up. She has a roundish face with greeny-brown eyes. She’s about five feet five inches tall and average built.”
“Can you remember what she was wearing?” asked officer Oslee.
Everyone shook their heads. The officer got onto his radio and gave Anna’s description to every officer on duty.

Anna didn’t dare to move. The tide had gone out, lowering the water level and the sun lit up the cave slightly but she still felt cold with fear. She was hungry and thirsty. The first thing she noticed when she woke up was a little piece of flat land in the middle of the water. When the tide was in there was about two metres square of land. She wanted to swim over to it but was too scared to. She curled up into a ball and started to cry.

Daniel, Jai and Mira went to find a hotel that would put them all up for a couple of nights while Cherie, Nicky and Kian went to look on the beach. They walked up the beach for a while then Nicky flopped down on to the sand. Cherie and Kian sat down either side of him. For a while Nicky stared at a piece of flat land a little way off shore. Eventually he covered his head with his hands.