The Cave

Day Seven: Jared

“Beth, slow down.”

“Why don’t you hurry up?!”

“Beth, wait!”

I kept running, struggling to keep up with her. It was like she’d grown extra-strong, super long legs. I was going as fast as I could, but Beth was always a few metres ahead of me- and she was walking.

Beth finally came to a halt when she reached the path that led to the beach. I caught up with her a few seconds later, breathing heavily. Clearly I needed to go to the gym more often.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked slowly. My eyes were actually beginning to water from the effort of running so far.

Beth turned, her long hair whipping around her face. She looked at me with disgust. “Did you come after me just to insult me?” she spat.

“No, I-I just-” I stuttered. “Where are you going?” I asked eventually.

Beth turned away from me, looking out to the sea. “Over there,” she said.

“The sea?” I asked, confused.

“Not there, there, you idiot,” she stretched her arm out, pointing at the rocky caves at the corner of the beach.

I frowned. “Why?”

She looked at me coldly. “You’ll see.” She started to walk again, and I followed her quickly, not wanting to fall behind again.

“Beth, what’s going on?”

She didn’t reply.

“Beth,” I tapped her arm. “Bethany. Beth.”

“Shut up, Jared!” She sounded more like her normal self then, but she was obviously still angry at me. I didn’t know why. Alright, so I’d taken Annaliese and Elle’s side over hers, but she’d beaten them up, for God’s sake. Beth, who wouldn’t even touch her fifteen year old brother (and he could be a dick sometimes) had beaten my friends up. It was completely messing with my mind.

When we got to the edge of the beach, Beth paused and took off her flip flops, letting her feet sink into the sand. I followed her in my trainers.

I tried to get her attention every few seconds, but she totally ignored me. We soon reached the caves.

“Why are we here?” I asked. I wasn’t really expecting an answer and unsurprisingly, I didn’t get one. The mouth of the cave was marked by a red rope. There was a little stand, presumably where the tour guides welcomed people in, but it was empty. Beth stepped around the rope and I followed her inside.

“Don’t say anything,” she whispered. I was startled to hear her speak. “Nobody can know we’re here.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but it was like she sense it; she turned round and put a finger to her lips, narrowing her eyes at me.

I could hear distant voices, which I assume came from the people touring the cave. To my surprise- what wasn’t surprising me today?- Beth didn’t follow them, but veered off in another direction.

It was getting darker and darker, and I began to feel a bit nervous. I had no idea where we were going, which worried me, but Beth seemed to know exactly where she was taking me, which worried me even more; why had she been here before? It must’ve been where she’d “gotten lost” when she was here with Amber.

After five minutes or so, Beth stopped walking abruptly. We were faced with a red rope like the one at the front entrance, except this one had a white plastic sign hanging off it: “NO ENTRY”. Yeah, like that was going to stop anyone. Beth took a large step over the rope, and I followed her in.