It was like a door that had been left open invitingly. On impulse he stepped through and immediately regretted it. He had barely taken a step onto the other side of the stone archway before the air turned stale and the atmosphere changed. What had once been a perfect view of the bluest waves and the most golden sand was now the frightening view of churning masses of deep green sea and dull littered sand that scratched at his feet. The warm light air filled with the salty freshness of the water he spent most of his life in had thickened and tasted of bile. Jay, looked around frantically ,his golden blond hair swishing back and forth across his ice blue eyes. The always comforting presence of his best friend Ally, had disappeared. His heart sank to his knees when he realised she was no where in sight. His brow creased with confusion.
'She was just here,' he thought, 'Right here next to me.'
He dropped his surf board and turned back to the archway. Through it he could see the dirt track leading away from the beach he thought he was stepping into when Ally and him had found the stone archway.
'She's probably on the other side waiting for me,' he thought.
He could picture her leaning on the wooden table near the dirt path arms crossed and smiling when he came out. Jay could almost hear the teasing note in her voice as she would say
'What took you so long?'.
He smiled in spite of the situation. Flashing a set of perfect white teeth. She would flip her wavy brown hair over her shoulder and walk off on him. He was about to step back into his normal world when a high pitched shriek sounded over the crashing waves.
'JAY!'
He knew that voice. It was the same voice that had urged him forward at the beach paradise.
Ally.
He turned towards the violent water and his heart turned to ice. There she was being thrown around between the smashing waves like a cat throwing a mouse between it's paws. She edged closer to the sharp jagged rocks protruding from the sea. A few more pushes and the waves bent on destroying her would cause her to crash into them and stain the ocean with blood. He awoke from his shocked state and took off at a run toward the water. His eyes never once leaving her petrified brown eyes. He dived into the bone chilling water. Any other time and his bones would have frozen with the cold and forced him to retreat to the warm comfort on his towel. But now fear kept his muscles working.
'I can't lose her too,' was the only thought in his head.
The current was pushing against him and it took all of his strength to keep him moving toward Ally and not be swept away in it. He reached for her arm as she threw them over her head, the skin on her fingers had turned a deep blue.
'Not good, not good,'he though over and over in his head. He hauled her head above the water. She spluttered, spitting half the water out of her mouth and half the water down his bare chest as he pulled her toward him.
'OK, OK she's going to be OK now i just have to get back to the beach,' he thought.
The crashing water seemed to have read his thoughts and was enraged about him thinking he could go without drowning first. Wave after wave veered up into the sky and came crashing down like a tonne of bricks over their heads. They were pushed down into the depths of the water as Jay tried to keep Ally's head above the surface. Ally reached down and yanked Jay up after her. She dragged him toward the beach as he took hold of her arm. Together they fought against the waves untill the scratchy surface of the sand was beneath them. Ally collapsed against Jay and she clung to him with shaky fingers. With the last of his breath Jay whispered a soothing reassurance into Ally's hair. His own was drenched and clinging to the side of his neck. After that they lay there together neither willing to move. The exhaustion kept them in place as they barely had the strength to breathe after enduring the torment of the churning water. Sweet relief flooded through Jay as he saw Ally was not only OK but the blue tinge to her fingertips was gone and her lips were no longer purple from the cold.
'I saved her,' the thought so sweet Jay could taste it on his lips. 'I saved her like i couldn't save Dad.'
He remembered the archway and turned to find it still showing the dirt path they had been walking down just moments before. He pushed himself up onto his elbows but couldn't sit up before Ally's fingers tightened on his chest.
'Don't leave,' She whispered in the tone so like the one she had used when she was a little girl and wanted him to check for monsters under her bead. He lifted her up with him and they stood standing together on the nightmare of a beach. She threw her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder. He could feel her whole body shaking as he lifted her into his strong arms and carried her towards their escape. Once he stepped back through the thing he had once thought could only lead to a good time he closed his eyes, the warm summer air drying his skin and hair. The dirt comforting on his bare feet as he walked toward the wooden table and placed Ally carefully down and sat beside her. The silenced stretched out until Jay asked the question he had been wondering about ever since he dragged Ally out of the water.
'Do you think that's what happened to my dad?' he whispered head bowed. Ally looked at him concern seeped into her brown eyes as she say he was shaking.
'I...I don't know,' she sighed. Jay nodded and said-
'This was the last place anyone saw him and they never did find...his body.'
They sat together thinking about it.
'Can you take me home now?' Ally whispered wanting to retreat to the covers of her bed.
'Yeah,' Jay said getting up and taking her hand. 'I'll take you home.'
And that was the last time they saw that deceitful archway.
