Ghost

Wanderer - Angelo de Augustine/November - Wednesday

Her boots hit the small snickering stones one after the other. She was violently out of breath, each icy inhale hooking its nail into her ribs and twisting a stitch in her side. Her nose was numb, fingers and toes gone with their feeling. A voice rang out after her, scourging the Moorish wind like a seal through the waves of a storm. 

"ROE" The voice cried. "ROEEEE" 

His laughter tumbled and somersaulted along the way, keeping in time with the rhythmic swirls of dusty sand that rolled about in the aftermath of her heels. She felt her mouth spread ever wider, cheeks aching with the inability to stop as she pushed on faster and then slipped down behind a boulder, pulling her brown patterned sweater around herself in an effort to blend in. Secreted away within the nook between two rocks, she struggled to catch her breath, grabbing at it desperately as she heard the quick thumping of his sneakers crackle along the incline of the hill he had once been hauled up. She peered at him from the wedge, holding her breath in her mouth like she was underwater as he came into sight, back to her. He was crouching on the powder sand of the Cove's shore like a thief, feet pressed into a wide apart stance, arms dangling in the air like thick tree limbs. He was softly panting, sweat beading on his forehead and turning his white hair a light yellow at the scalp as it soaked the strands.

"Come out! I ken you're watching me, Roe!" He shouted, turning, voice cracking only a little and she saw a wide smirk plastered to his face just like the hair on his forehead. She held back a giggle and clapped a hand to her mouth, feeling her nose scrunch up as she suppressed the retort 'that's not how Hide n' Seek works.' He whirled on one foot, the smile growing bigger and his black eyes becoming sneaky from between their lids as though he heard her sarcasm. He was going to find her here, she knew it, and when he did she would shout that he had cheated (he hadn't) and not given her enough time (he had) and then he would apologize and promise her he'd give her an extra fifteen seconds this time (he wouldn't), just like always. She snuggled deeper into the wedge and hid behind her hair, peeking out from behind the curls as he prowled ever closer to her spot. 

Here, she could look at him without being caught. The game had brought a flush to his cheeks and nose, which was running from the cold. he kept sniffing in between breathes. she could tell he wanted to wipe it on the back of his hand. His grey sweater had been too hot for him so he had taken it off and folded it, set it on a rock before the game, ever aware of his surroundings. The t-shirt he wore underneath was heavy with sweat and she wondered why he was such a watery person. He crept toward the wedge and she heard her own intake of breath like Judas' trumpet. She saw the leer on his face morph into a victorious smile as he moved towards her place, arms outstretched, all in the span of one second. 

She erupted from the wedge, bolting away from it as though it was on fire, but he had thrown his arms out like a net, latching onto her from behind as she flew by. He was too strong for her to get away, even though they were practically the same height, and they collapsed on the sand, a wild cacophony of laughing, playful arguing, and incoherent yelling. 

"DIDNAE COUNT, DIDNAE COUNT!" She roared as she wrestled with him, sand flying everywhere, uselessly scrambling in his arms. She could feel him laughing and trying to get out that it did count, he had caught her, and she repeatedly jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, which made his grip loosen. She broke free, spinning out onto the sand and tripping to her feet, warily stepping back. He was covered in the sand now, it clung to him in a powdery gloss as he stood up, spitting mud onto the ground and holding his side like a wounded soldier. 

"Didnae count." She gasped out, hands on her knees. 

"How?!" He croaked, eyes bright as he wrinkled his nose at her. "I caught ye!"