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"I don't have much of a choice if we want to find that necklace," Phoebe replied as she waited for Chloe to turn on the camcorder. Once she gave a thumbs up, Phoebe took a deep breath and began to talk. "As most of you know, my sister died of an accidental drowning eleven years ago this month. It's come to our attention that my sister's spirit can be seen every now and then. Graveside Mysteries has covered a lot of supernatural mysteries, and I feel a lot of those were restless spirits who needed help crossing over. But if there is any evidence that my sister's death wasn't accidental, I owe it to her to discover the truth. That's why Chloe and I have decided to…"
Phoebe was grateful to have something to do instead of recalling the panic and fear she had experienced after discovering her sister underneath the ice. Nothing would ever erase those overwhelming emotions, but being distracted from reliving them helped as every step took them closer to the pond.
"…so that is where we are at right now—trying to locate a necklace. We've brought a metal detector with us, and we'll let you know what we find." Phoebe came to a stop right before the clearing. Her heart rate had never really returned back to normal, and there was even a coat of perspiration on her forehead. She steeled herself as she looked directly at the camera. "Thank you. Talking to you while walking this path…well, it helped. I appreciate each and every one of you."
Chloe turned off the camcorder.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," Phoebe replied with a curt nod. She didn't want to dwell on what it would be like to step into the clearing. It was better to just do it. "Let's get this over with."
Phoebe stepped forward, leaving behind the leaves and twigs that had been crunching underneath her boots. She stepped out onto the thin layer of snow, noticing that there were spots of grass from where the wind had blown away the powdery blanket.
The frozen pond was a perfect oval of opaque ice.
Phoebe's steps faltered before she came to a complete stop. Her father's fishing boat was still in the same place it had been all those years ago. She doubted that the motor even worked, and the black color of the tarp had faded from the elements.
Everything was so different, yet so much the same.
"Here," Chloe said softly as she reached for the metal detector. "You take the camcorder, and I'll start walking around the pond."
"I'm okay," Phoebe said rather hoarsely. She turned on the metal detector. "Let's see if we can find anything around the shoreline. There's hardly any snow, so it shouldn't be a problem locating the necklace if Jenna buried it near the pier."
Methodically, Phoebe began sweeping the device over the ground, listening intently for any telltale beeps. Chloe followed behind silently, having turned the camcorder back on to record their search.
Phoebe scrutinized every inch of the shoreline.
When she had done the same with the pier, hoping that maybe the necklace had fallen and gotten stuck on one of the boards, it was time to call it a day. Both she and Chloe were practically chattering from the cold wind whipping across the pond.
"You've never told me exactly what happened that day," Chloe said softly as Phoebe stepped down from the pier. "After you went to get the hot chocolate, I mean. I know you found her, but..."
"It's not something I like to think about," Phoebe replied reluctantly as she turned off the metal detector. As she thought it over, she decided that sharing her memories with Chloe could be a good thing, just as doing so had with the camcorder. "Maybe telling you will help me remember some details from that day."
Both of them began to slowly walk around the pond to where the entrance of the path was located in the tree line. Phoebe chose to start her retelling of that day from where she usually left off, which was right when she reached the clearing.
"When I got back here with the thermos, it was so quiet," Phoebe shared as she made sure to lift the metal detector far enough off the ground so that it didn't come in contact with the snow. She had truly thought being back here would have had the words stuck in her throat, but a part of her was eager to share the details from back then. "Eerily quiet, Chloe. I remember just standing on at the edge of the clearing thinking that something must have spooked all the birds. I looked over at the pier, but Jenna wasn't around. My skates were next to Jenna's boots, which meant that she had to be there. Yet…no Jenna."
Phoebe paused, flashes of memory playing all over again in her mind's eye.
"I called out her name. Numerous times, but she didn't answer me back. As I got closer to the pond, I noticed a dark hole in the ice near the end of the pier. That's when I knew. I knew something was wrong, and I dropped the thermos. It never entered my mind that the ice would be thin. I just ran out onto it thinking that she would be clinging to the edge of the hole."
Phoebe's throat tightened at the memory, and she couldn't prevent her gaze from being drawn to where the ice had broken off.
"I was maybe twenty feet away...and the color of her sweater caught my eye. Jenna was just staring up at me through the ice. Eyes open. Floating right there, yet I couldn't reach her. I knew instantly she was gone."
Chloe had been listening intently, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. Phoebe inhaled unsteadily, but her chest didn't tighten the way it typically did when remembering the most awful day of her existence. The more she discovered about that time in Jenna's life, the more she needed to remember.
"Honestly, after that, it's kind of a blur," Phoebe said as she turned her face away from the bitter wind. It didn't help much, but soon they would be rounding the far side of the pond. "I remember running back to the house, screaming for my parents. I could barely breathe, I was hysterical. I don't think my dad even understood a word of what I had said, because he just took off from the house. He didn't even have a jacket on."
"Pheebs?" Chloe stopped, and she put her gloved hand on Phoebe's jacket for her to do the same. "When you just remembered looking down at Jenna through the ice, did you see the necklace? Was Jenna wearing the silver moon?"
"No," Phoebe replied after taking the time to close her eyes and pull the memory back in place. "No, I didn't see the necklace."
As Phoebe opened her eyes, the first thing she observed was the barren tree line. A dark figure stood still near the edge, as if he had been observing them the entire time. Anger surged through her, because she finally understood the amount of fear that Jenna must have experienced in the weeks leading up to and the day of her death.
"Don't make any sudden moves," Phoebe whispered in warning as she slowly handed Chloe the metal detector. "Someone is watching us."
"Someone real, or someone…
