Caperi Beach

It was the first day of summer when the bodies started to wash ashore. It was the smell that attracted to locals first. The pungent, suffocating stench of one hundred rotting corpses on the beach was overwhelming the town of Caperi. The Police Station hadn't gotten so many calls since the incident on the hill four years ago, where a girl had been murdered.Her murderer had never been caught.

The incident had sent the locals into a panic, locking their children inside as soon as dusk fell, buying security cameras, installing bars on their windows. It had taken two years for a single child to be seen outside, alone, after dark. The bars had been taken off, the cameras dismantled. Two years for the town to become peaceful again. The day the first body washed ashore reset everyone's alarm, and the citizens were back to cowering behind closed curtains, afraid to go outside.

There were lots of theories surrounding the bodies on the beach, of course. The same murderer had come back to finish off the rest of the town, they were sailors killed in a freak storm, or natives, who's island had been destroyed by a monster wave.

I lived on a boat near Caperi Beach. My father had disappeared the day the girl had been killed. Ironic, right? Man mysteriously vanishes the day a brutal murder is committed? I couldn't deal with the questions from our neighbours or the frequent visits from the police. I was just as confused as they were. So I packed up my meagre belongings and moved to the boat.

I never knew my mother. My father never spoke of her, except to tell me not to ask questions. It didn't matter though, I didn't want to know her anyway.

I had just stepped off my boat and was walking along the beach towards town when I heard the voices. It sounded as though they were coming from behind the old jetty, where the words 'you touch them, you're next' glittered maliciously in red spray paint.

Picking my way through the disembowelled, decapitated, rotting bodies was not pleasant, but I knew it had to be done. It was the only way to the road that led to the Main Street, and I had to know who the voices belonged to. Ducking under the yellow police tape, I turned the corner and came to a halt as I heard my name.

'...Hailey Bell. No, I don't know why he wants her, just get on with it!'

'Are you sure she lives around here?'

'I told you already, she lives in the old boathouse just round this bend.'

I crept slowly forward, curious as to whom the voices belonged to, and why they were looking for me. The old jetty was just a few steps closer, and I was sure the owners of the voices were behind it. I took a step forward, and-

Crack!

I froze, my other foot still in the air. I carefully looked down. I had stepped on someone's rib cage and broken it clean in half. It was then that I realised that the voices had stopped. I looked up, and sure enough, there were two men staring at me. One was rather short and chubby, with a long, scraggly, orange-blonde beard, while the other was tall, thin and had an enormous, filthy moustache.

'Hello, darling,' said Moustache. 'We've been looking for you.'

'Yeah, your gonna 'elp us 'elp the police solve the mystery 'f where all them bodies came from!' said Chubby, grinning maliciously.

I stood there staring at them. 'And what makes you so certain that I can, or even want to help you?' My voice sounded raspy and hoarse after years of misuse.

'Because,' said Moustache, slowly advancing, 'if you don't, we'll make sure that you join these bodies. We'll make sure that you rot in the shallows, slowing sinking into the mud. We'll make sure the birds feast on you decomposing flesh.' His nose was almost touching mine. I could smell his foul, putrid breath and see the clearly defined red lines in his bloodshot eyes.

He didn't scare me though.

'I don't think so. I'm just gonna get back on my boat, and you're gonna turn around and never bother me again,' I said, turning around.

Suddenly I felt a fat arm around my waist and my feet lifted from the ground. The next thing I felt was a sharp pain in the back of my head, and then the world went black.

When I woke up, I was in what I assumed was an old boat shed, what with all the ropes, anchors and water. The strange thing was, I wasn't alone. At least, I wasn't the only body in there. Stacks upon stacks of dead bodies, some still with full, red lips, whereas others were almost unrecognisable as humans.

I saw something glint out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turned my head, which was difficult due to the fact that I was bound and gagged, not to mention the searing pain at the base of my head. The object glinted again.

A knife! I thought groggily.

The knife was leaning against the far wall, shining in the light that was streaming through a crack in the wooden door. I sluggishly stretched my restrained legs out and pushed my back up the wall until I was in a standing position. I staggered over to the far wall, but before I could reach my tied hands out to grasp the knife, there was an almighty crash, and the door came thudding to the ground. Silhouetted in the early morning light was a man so vile I almost threw up.

His oily, matted grey hair reached his elbows, his eyes had sunken into his pale, sallow face and his blue lips were cracked into a grin, his black, broken teeth sticking out at odd angles.

'Hello sweetheart. Long time no see. You've grown.' His grin widened.

I couldn't say I wasn't surprised, but I knew that if I wanted to live I had to play it smart. Swallowing my surprise, I answered him as calmly as I could.

'Hello father. You've been busy, I see. Why deposit the bodies on the beach though? You know you never did like the ocean.'