The Cave

Day Five: Tyler

Thursday 21st July 2011 was the day I nearly died.

I’ve never been one to over exaggerate, and when I say I nearly died, that’s exactly what I mean. It was no accident either, but I can’t quite bring myself to say attempted murder.

We were all at the beach again the day after Ryan’s party, and although we weren’t doing much other than sunbathing, everything was fine. It was the hottest day of our trip so far, and my light brown hair was sticking to my forehead.

I propped myself up on my elbows, and looked around at the others. Elle and Annaliese looked like they were deep in conversation. Amber was sitting next to me reading, and Jared and Beth were simply stretched out on the sand, possibly asleep.

“Anyone wanna swim?” I asked, standing up and stretching. The girls shook their heads, while Jared and Beth didn’t seem to hear me, and said nothing.

I walked down to the shore, which wasn’t too far away, and waded in. I was hoping the water would be freezing, but it was surprisingly warm. I swam quite a way out, then, because I was only getting warmer, stopped and floated in the sea, looking up at the sky. The sun was bright and I wished I had my glasses, which I’d forgotten in the tent.

I squeezed my eyes shut, so that all I could see was a red-tinged light. I might have fallen asleep, if it wasn’t for the gush of water that suddenly slashed over my face, causing me to fall into the sea. I thrashed around for a second in surprise, the swam up, flipping my hair out of my face with one hand. Beth was in front of me, a massive, mischievous grin on her face.

“Hi!” she said.

“Hi,” I replied warily. Sure she was Jared’s girlfriend and everything, but she was being a little too friendly, considering we hardly knew eachother.

“Watcha doing?” she asked.

“Just...swimming,” I said.

Suddenly Beth’s face fell, her smile vanishing. She frowned slightly as if remembering something, and then looked back at me. She seemed very different to the girl who’d just playfully splashed me. She stared at me, unblinking. Her blue eyes suddenly seemed darker.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I floated away from her very slightly.

“I’m fine,” she replied, but her voice was dead, monotone.

“I think I’m going to swim back now,” I said. As I turned away, Beth splashed me.

I looked back at her. “Beth-”

“I’m only playing,” she said. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She kicked her foot upwards, and water hit me in the face. “Come on.”

Feeling kind of stupid, I used my hand to flick water lightly at Beth a couple of times.

She splashed me again, then pushed me with much more strength that I would have guessed she had. I fell forwards, my face just touching the water. I could feel something on the back of my neck, and when I lifted my hand to get at it, I realised it was Beth’s hand.

“What-” I started, but my mouth and chin were in the water and it came out as a gurgle. Beth was trying to drown me.

I had no time to think about the ridiculousness of the fact that my best friend’s girlfriend was trying to kill me. I needed to focus on actually staying alive. I thrashed around, hoping to knock Beth away from me, but it was no use. I tried to peel Beth’s hands off me, but she was grabbing on with a superhuman, vice-like grip. As she submerged my head completely in the water, my panic deepened. I wasn’t sure how long it took to drown but it couldn’t be long, and it was a horrible way to die. I was beginning to tire, too exhausted to fight...

Suddenly I was released; the pressure on the back of my head vanished, and I was yanked up out of the water, gasping and coughing furiously.

“Are you alright?!”

It was Jared. He must have pulled me out of the water. He looked as panicked and scared as I felt.

“I- yeah,” I said shakily. I couldn’t believe what had happened, and I was already starting to wonder if I’d imagined the whole thing. Beth was next to Jared, looking at me with the same mixture of fear and panic.

“Come on, let’s swim back. Can you swim okay?”

I nodded, and we went. I made sure I wasn’t next to Beth.

Back on the beach, the others seemed to have realised what had happened. They were all standing up, waiting for me and looking terrified.

As soon as I stepped onto the stand, Annaliese ran over and wrapped me in a hug.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” she sounded very scared.

“I’m fine,” I said numbly. I realised I was shaking.

I sat down next to Amber and Elle. Amber took her towel and wrapped it around my shoulders.

“What happened?” Jared asked me. “You seemed fine and then suddenly we saw you thrashing around like crazy. I could see Beth trying to help you but it didn’t look like it was working, so I swam out...”

Beth trying to help me? Of course that was what it looked like. I didn’t know what to say; there was no way Jared would believe that Beth had tried to kill me. I could scarcely believe it myself.

“Tyler? What happened, mate?” Jared looked concerned.

“Er-” I glanced at Beth. Her face showed no expression. “I don’t know...” I couldn’t think of any sensible explanation. It wasn’t like I couldn’t swim, and I wasn’t scared of water like Elle.

“Maybe you caught your foot on something?” said Amber.

I nodded quickly. “Maybe. I think that’s what happened, I did feel something touch my foot,” I lied.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asked Jared. “We were going to call an ambulance...”

“No,” I said hastily, shaking my head. “I’m fine, honestly. I just don’t think I’ll be going back in the water for a while. Can we go back to the tents?”

“Yeah,” said Jared. He helped me to my feet, despite my multiple claims that I was okay.

I walked back between Jared, and Annaliese, who linked my arm with hers. As we walked down the side road that led from the beach to the campsite, I glanced at Beth, who was the only one of us not talking. I was freaked to see that she was staring straight at me. I looked away and focused my attention on what Annaliese was saying, but all the way back, I couldn’t escape the feeling of Beth’s stare.