𝙲 𝙷 𝙴 𝚁 𝚁 𝚈

13

1:00

FRIDAY

SANTA CARLA

CHERRY, BABY

"Don't you think this is a little theatrical?" I speak and although my voice wants to break, it doesn't and I flutter my eyes when I project my appreciation to whatever force is doing me the justice, "I've only come to find Michael."

"Michael is a little busy right now." David boldly states from his position on the cliff; his frame is shadowed by the night sky, trench coat light in the breeze, "He's laying his bed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I question, only removing my eyes from the leader when a voice perks up from my right.

Marko chuckles, "We'll just have to wait and see."

My brows melt together. I'm confused and their riddles are only making it worse for me to apprehend, "I said I wasn't a fan of riddles."

"Neither are we, Cherry." Paul is next to speak and I find that my throat tightens at the name he refers me as, "You like our little nickname for you?"

"I'd rather you didn't." I breath, chest inflated and shoulders pushed back; my act of strength doesn't go unnoticed by the leader.

"You scared, Sarah?" David asks, walking slowly but briskly across the rocks above us.

"Do I look it?"

"No, but you smell it."

For a moment I am startled and my mind tries to puzzle together what he could possibly mean, "And if you're trying to scare me, it's not working."

It is almost as if his previous statement is easily dismissed when none of the boys question him. I watch as he crouches down on the cliff above me, his eyes staring down at me as if he were born to cause mischief. It's dark, but I can easily make out the smirk formed like concrete on his pale face, "You're not as tough as you make out, Sarah."

I glare upwards and my hands tighten into fists inside of the oversized flannel; I'm holding my teeth tightly together, my eyes narrowed up towards him and as he leans closer, his sneer now illuminated by the lurid glow of the white rock in the sky. Again, I verbally charge back, "Because you know so much about me."

"It's not hard to guess." This time, his remark is even blunter, he emphasises his words carefully, "Bad life, Cherry?"

My lips open as I breath out lightly, careful to do it silently so they don't assume that I am apprehensive about how they are circling me. I almost feel like bait; sharks narrowing me out from from the heard, tormenting me and feeding off of my fear. Though I'm not afraid, "Would you stop with that fucking nickname?"

"You know..." David begins again, standing to his booted feet once again and disappearing further along the cliff so I can no longer see his darkened shape, but I can still hear him when he appears above the opposite rock across from the other, "Changing the subject won't help your situation."

My head snaps over to him, the breath in my throat getting trapped, "How did you...?"

"There are allot of things that we can do, Cherry. You had the opportunity to join us."

"I am not going to be apart of whatever cult this is." I spit the words as if they are venom, slowly walking backwards, converse scraping across the rocks.

The boys laugh and it echoes from the coast. Marko speaks up, "She thinks we're in a cult."

"She's hardly wrong." Dwayne is next in line, his laughter is something I haven't heard until now, it's more bitter than taunting, unlike the rest of them, and it makes my skin ripple.

"Don't worry about Michael." David tells me, "He's very happy right now."

"That doesn't make anything sound better."

"You run along home." He shrugs off my previous statement as if I didn't speak in the first place, "You don't have a place here."

Something about his words do not settle correctly in my stomach. Of course I don't have a place here, I don't have a place anywhere. It's a familiar feeling. Knowing that my purpose is no where, "You think I give a damn? I've had no place my entire life, I could give a shit."

I turn towards the entrance of the Crypt and march upwards. My flannel flies behind me in the ocean wind and the salt sticks to my nostrils. I hear no more noise behind me, as if the boys have disappeared. My converse scrape across the gravel when and when I find my way inside, I begin to climb up the timid rocks that coat the ground. For a moment I hear nothing, though I am mistaken when I hear echoes of the voices I was just speaking to. The vibrate from the crypt walls in chants of yells and laughter. My name is whispered in the air, is if appearing from nothing and then evaporating into equally as much as such. My fingers grip onto the cave walls and I twist my head in every direction, trying to find the boys, though my eyes catch nothing but the damp on the rocks and the flickering candle light from further down the tunnel. I swallow the feeling that is forming in my chest and let is bubble down with the remaining expression in my abdomen; I push forwards.

"Come on, Sarah."

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to dismiss the words that are blowing in the breeze.

"Cherry"

"Come on, baby."

Shadows begin to form against the walls and through the candle light, they walk and zoom around me. Appearing and disappearing again. The sounds of footsteps do not come with it and my breathing picks up. It's then that I begin to question wether or not I took my medication earlier today and when my hands begin to tingle and my lips start to go numb, I come to the conclusion that I didn't.

"Shit." I whisper to myself and wipe the sweat that is coating my forehead.

The laughs continue to bounce around the tunnel around me. I try to lift my foot but I struggle.

"Cherry, baby."

"Run along home."

I feel a presence behind me, but my head is spinning now; I can't turn but the feeling doesn't disappear. My back is now pressed against something much larger than myself and something tells me that it is a person, the smell of sea salt and pine lingers. A head tilts into my neck and hair tickles across my cheek. I feel the grace of a pair of lips run along my skin and the person behind me inhales through their nose. They are smelling me, though I'm not in the right mind to question it. 

"You don't have a place here, Sarah." The man behind me speaks.

The taunting laughs are still circling me and I feel a breeze pick up from behind my weakening body; the person behind me is gone though I heard no commotion of them taking their leave. The shadows of people continue to veil over the rocks and dirt, and disappear as I see them.

"Little run away, girl."

"Not as tough as you seem."

"Cherry." The voices torment me and elongate the nickname that they had given me.

The flicker of candle light begins to grow dimmer and I realise that it hasn't been put it, but the corners of my vision of blotching like raven ink. Someone walks in front of me and I fail to dismiss the feelings and flesh around my cheeks. Fingers brush along my cold skin. My breathing is still fast and I'm getting overwhelmed with the amount of oxygen that is getting to my head. I feel sick, though it doesn't come up. Before my eyes flutter to their last close, I feel something press against my lips. It's like ice, the kiss of frost and the first breath of night.