The Cave

Day Six: Amber

After what happened to Tyler, none of us wanted to leave him alone. We knew we were being overprotective- after all, it wasn’t like someone had attacked him, and there was no water around the tents- but we were still so scared for him. I didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Jared hadn’t gotten to him in time, but I kept imagining it in my head; Jared pulling Tyler’s lifeless body out of the sea, paramedics covering him up and pulling him away on a stretcher...

“Amber.”

I was shaken out of my reverie by Elle tapping me on the shoulder. “We’re going to bed, are you coming?”

“Yeah.” I stood up, brushing grass off my legs, said goodnight to the guys and followed Elle into our tent.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Almost one,” said Annaliese. It explained why I was so tired.

We all got changed in silence, and got into our sleeping bags. Despite being really tired I had trouble falling asleep, and while the others slept, I was still awake.

I tossed and turned for a while, and eventually I felt myself start to drift off. It was bad timing, though; I was just starting to dream when Elle sat up suddenly.

“I feel sick,” she moaned. She wasn’t next to me, but I shifted away slightly anyway. “Did you eat something funny?” I asked nervously.

“I don’t think so,” she replied, looking increasingly worse by the second. “I think I’m going to go to the toilet...”

She went to stand up, and her movement seemed to wake Annaliese.

“What are you doing?” she asked sleepily, pushing her wavy blonde hair out of her face.

“Going to the toilet, I feel sick.”

“Oh. Wait, I’ll come with you,” Annaliese said, sitting. “I think I drank too much water before bed. Are you coming Amber?”

I shook my head. Beth was here, still asleep, so I’d be fine. Elle and Annaliese left the tent, and I settled back down.

A few seconds later I heard Beth stir next to me, but I couldn’t be bothered to talk, so I pretended to be asleep. Or at least, I tried.

You can feel it when someone is looking at you, and I could feel Beth’s gaze on the back of my head. I did my best to ignore it, but it was pretty irritating. I heard her moving again, and this didn’t bother me until I felt that she was right by my side.

I flipped round to see that Beth was no longer lying down. She was kneeling next to me, looking down at me oddly.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Beth didn’t reply. Her expression still blank, she stretched her arms out towards me and went to grasp my neck with her hands. Instinctively, I moved back, but Beth was too quick; she wound her hands around my neck.

At first, I thought she was messing about, playing some strange, not at all fun game. But it soon became clear that this was no joke. The uncomfortable feeling of her hands on my neck worsened as she began to tighten her grip slowly.

“Get off me!” I yelled, slapping at her hands and trying to yank them away. It was no use. Beth didn’t even flinch, and she was much stronger than I was.

“Beth!” I shouted, beginning to panic now. It was becoming difficult to breathe and if she carried on, I would suffocate. I tried to stop panting to save breath, but it was almost impossible. There was nothing I could do.

I felt my eyes well up and tears began to spill out of my eyes. This was, without a doubt, the worst thing that had ever happened to me. It felt so bad that I wanted to die- then I realised that I soon would.