Free Mind Games by M.J. Labeff

line rose to the girl’s neck. She thrust her hand above the surface and waved goodbye. All Sparrow had been able to think as she looked into the girl’s soft blue eyes was: You Know-What You-Must Do.
    The girl’s head went under the water, her hand protruding above the surface, until all Sparrow could see was her fingers before the tide took her completely under. Panic gripped Sparrow as she watched her friend take her life.
    The frothy waves pulled the girl under. She stared at the killer ocean. From its mighty depths the girl’s body popped up, gasping for life, but death pulled her back under. Blue turned pitch as night. Total darkness consumed Sparrow.
    Sparrow’s eyes flew open. She glanced around the yoga studio. The students were gone. Rolling up to a seated position, she stretched her arms and hands forward, reaching out to touch her toes. Breathing into the stretch, she exhaled the memory away. She couldn’t remember the girl’s name, but the thought she’d had earlier when Derrick asked her to help him find the injured runaway resonated loudly.
    The last time I helped rescue a runaway, she ended up dead.
    She shoved the jelly-rolled yoga mat onto the stack with the others. A strange chill cascaded over her. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The dead girl from the ocean filled the doorframe.
    Sparrow screamed and ran for the emergency exit at the opposite end of the room, scooping up her overstuffed bag as she went.
    Inside the safety of her Toyota Prius, she sat shivering. The cool leather seats seeped through the thin fabric of her yoga pants. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, rubbing her hands along the sides of arms. She threw back her head against the seat, closed her eyes, and collected her thoughts.
    Who was the girl running beside her on the beach that dreadful, dusky night? They had both waved broken pieces of driftwood in the air and carved their names in the sand. Sparrow concentrated on the girl’s jagged handwriting, trying to bring the image to life in her mind’s eye. First, the girl had carved the word SPARE in crooked letters. Sparrow’s heart rate hitched in anticipation, and she searched her mind for the elusive girl’s name, but the ocean rushed to the shore. The girl’s name disappeared in the rushing water. It was no use. In her meditative state she hadn’t captured the most important piece of information. It wouldn’t come to her now.
    Why had the girl written SPARE in the sand? No one called her that. Dr. Von Langley and her mother frowned upon nicknames. According to her father, it posed a potential threat for borderline personality disorders, and none of her peers in Crystal Cove had been allowed to call each other by anything but their proper birth name. Dr. Von Langley had made certain that any child who “got out of line” took full responsibility for their actions. “You must realize your shortcomings,” he’d said. The more Sparrow thought about it, the more ridiculous she found it.
    Since Derrick’s return she’d been thinking a lot more about those short summers he’d spent in Crystal Cove, helping his father and hanging out with the older boys in the neighborhood. Some of her memories emerged clearly. Others were fragments of things she couldn’t remember, like running on the beach with a girl she felt had been her friend. She searched the files in her mind for the name but came up short.
    Street sounds obliterated her ability to think back to almost fourteen years ago. It was no use. She was wasting time. Derrick would be at her house soon; she needed to get home. She opened her eyes and started the car.
    A sudden movement caught her peripheral vision. She snapped her head to the right. Sitting in the passenger seat was the dead girl from the ocean. The same girl she had witnessed drowning.
    Sparrow blinked. The girl didn’t fade from her sight. Her transparent, sad eyes gazed directly into Sparrow’s. Sparrow swallowed down the fear and