Guardian

chapter one

chapter one

Vic's pov

I woke up to the hot afternoon sun shining down directly into my eyes. Slowly, I sat up and waited for my eyes to adjust so that I could inspect my surroundings. The first thing I saw was blue, stretching far ahead of me and into the distance. I realized quickly that it was water and that I was not laying in my bed as I had originally presumed, but I was actually spread out on a towel in the sand. I scrunched up my eyes tight and then opened them again, only to find myself still seated on the itchy pink towel. I frowned to myself and pinched my arm (hard), still not believing the reality around me. When I still did not wake up I was forced to accept that I really had waken up on a beach. The only thing I could think was “how?”. Try as I might, I had no recollection of falling asleep here, or being here at all actually.

I took this chance to have a quick look at myself. I was relieved to find that I was, in fact, wearing clothes, even if they were pretty wet. It seemed as though they had the night to dry though. How had I not been freezing? I should have hypothermia from being wet and cold last night.

My breath didn’t reek of alcohol and my head felt just fine which lead me to the conclusion that I hadn’t been partying last night. This also meant that I couldn’t think of a single logical explanation as to how I got here. Carefully balancing myself (on the off-chance that I was actually just still drunk and didn’t realize it) I got to my feet. Something about it felt off though. It was if I was in an incredibly vivd dream based off of how effortless moving felt. I was so weightless I almost believed I could fly. Looking across the water I noticed something that only added to my puzzlement. I was sure that it was just across the large lake, my home was within walking distance. So how had I gotten all the way over here? It would have taken at least a half hour, unless I went straight across the water. The chances of me, a skinny teenage boy, being able to swim that far seemed a bit far fetched.

As I pondered this mystery, I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of a small child squealing. Sure enough, when I turned my head, I saw a family walking over to find a good spot on the beach before the crowd came.

“Hey!” I called out to the family. “Do you have the time?” Even though they surely were able to hear me from such a short distance, they didn’t so much as flinch at the sound of my voice. I began to walk towards them, frowning slightly, reasoning that they couldn’t ignore me if I was right in front of them.

“Excuse me,” I tried again, when I was only a few feet ahead of them. “I was just wondering if you ha-” I was cut off by the smiling father walking right through me. Shocked, I turned and watched them walk away, my jaw dropped and eyes wide.

“No…” I whispered to myself, unable to accept what had just happened. “But that’s not…”

“Hey! You! Kid with the long hair!” A voice called out from behind me. Thinking of my shoulder length brown hair, I pointed to myself in confusion.

“Me?” I called back.

“Yeah, you,” said a boy about my age with spiky dark brown and blonde hair. “Confused yet?”

“Um… yeah. I think I might have heat stroke because I’m definitely hallucinating. You’re real right?”

The boy smiled sympathetically. “Depends on your definition of real I guess,” he replied cryptically. “But I can see you and talk to you so I’m as good as it gets around here. Come on, let’s go sit down some place and I’ll explain everything.”

“Uh, maybe I’ll just go ask those people for the time instead,” I said, not trusting this stranger. I pointed towards a new family who had just inhabited the beach.

“Go ahead,” he said with a smirk. I gave him yet another confused look and made my way over to the new family. Before I could even begin speaking, the same thing as before happened. They walked right through me. I felt strangely violated.

“Are you going to let me explain now?” called the boy from where I’d left him. Panic-stricken, I nodded my head slowly. “Can you remember how you got here? Think hard.”

For half an instant I had an image in my mind of walking out onto a dock, but before the memory could finish itself it disappeared. I looked the boy in the eyes and shook my head. Honestly, I had never been so scared in my life.

“I hate it when they don’t remember… means I have to explain…” he muttered to himself. “I don’t really know how to say this so I’m just going to come out with it: you’re dead, Vic.”