It was one night at the beach when a teenage boy washes up onto the shore, breathless, dazed and confused. No one knew who he was or where he'd come from. And Rowan Mercetti was willing to find out. But, she hadn't planned to set herself up for dang...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Picture: Rowan Mercetti
THE BEACH IS MY, go-to place. Some folks like their fancy coffees: cream and sugar with cream and sugar on top. But give me the pebbles that move under boot with their loud crunch — louder than fall leaves and present all year. I suck in the salty air like it's an elixir, to me I think it is. It tastes like home. Scanning the beach, I check to see if anyone is out for an evening walk. The beautiful sunsets often draws people down, but I see no one.
"Roe." Allison says quietly, calmly.
She was pointing. And then I realized something was different.
The waves were wild horses, rearing up before crashing down onto the beach, pounding the sand with their white foam hooves. That wasn't new. The birds singing into the sunset. Nope not new either. But now, there was a boy who lie in the sand as if he was sleeping. Except, he wasn't moving. That was new. Especially, since he hadn't been there seconds ago. I squint my eyes at his lifeless body laying against the shore. The waves smack against his unmoving body on the sand, the water moves his body slightly.
"He's dead," Allison said, as if I couldn't tell.
Taking a few steps back makes me feel safer. If I were to make any sudden movements, he might attack me. Maybe he was an experiment gone wrong. A zombie perhaps, although zombies aren't necessarily real, but he sure looked like a potential zombie.
Allison drops her pointed finger and cautiously takes a few steps forward as I stutter a few steps back. If she took any more steps forward her feet would be inches away from the dark haired boy's breathless body. His hair moved in the evening breeze and his dress-shirt billowed — the rest of him utterly still.
"Alli, we have to go home," I say watching her with widen eyes as she continued to step towards the body.
"His eyes are closed." She reported.
"I believe we should get home," I panicked.
"When your eyes are shut that means you're dead right?" Allison narrows her eyes over her shoulder at me before facing the boy beneath her toes.
I internally debated with myself on abandoning Allison with this potential experiment gone wrong zombie person, but decided against it. My eyes are steady to the horizon, face aglow with the last orange rays before twilight beckons the stars. Tearing my eyes from the sunset I gaze around the beach. We were the only two people here, not counting the dead body. His lips are blue and his skin grey, he was in all likelihood, dead.
Allison takes another step, squatting down. "What do you think happened to him?" She asked. "Maybe he was a surfer lost at sea or something."
I build up my courage and grabs onto her shoulder shaking her lightly, "Alli we need to leave."
"Ah." She screams stumbling backwards and landing on her rear with a thud and placing her palms into the sand behind her, scooting back.
