Waters Edge

Chapter Twenty-One: Make me Yours Again; I Beg You

 I stare up at the ceiling for a long time and when I check my phone it is two in the morning, the moon shines brightly into my window and I sigh. I get up and kick off the covers I go to my bag and dig around until I find them. My old beat up swim trunks. I shiver just holding them but I need this. I need to know why the water keeps calling my name like this. I pull on a hoodie and the shorts before grabbing a flash light and sandals and making my way down to the beach that used to be mine.

When I pass one of the more popular beaches I notice a few tents pitched on the sand and I hope that no one will have got the motivation to go to the far end of the island to my beach. When I climb down the rocky path and see that no one is there I smile to myself and close my eyes taking a deep breath. I turn off the flashlight before putting it down, the moon gleams bright enough to light up the whole beach. I sit high up on the beach and take in a deep breath of the fresh ocean air and smile to myself. Why did I ever leave this place? It is so beautiful. I look out at the calm water as it laps against the shore lazily and suddenly it feels like I have been sucker punched in the gut when I look at the rocks and the memory of my boat crash hits me full force.

The storm rages on above me as the waves toss the boat around tipping it to angles I did not even know were possible without capsizing. I sit cowering in the tiny cockpit underneath the steering wheel as rain pours down upon me soaking into my clothes and I shiver. My fingers feel numb from the cold and I have a chill down to my bones. The wind tosses bits of my equipment out of the boat into the great unknown. Water begins to fill the boat, the drain ports unable to keep up with the onslaught of water.

For every bucket worth, I throw out the sky dumps in five more. My feet slide against the wet floorboards and the waves cause me to sway and stumble around the floor. The water is now ankle deep and the boat dips dangerously close to the waves. The wind rips the bucket from my hand and sends it out into the ocean. I stare at it as it disappears under the black waves. The water starts to get deeper then a loud SNAP rings out and the boat kicks violently causing me to lose my footing and slam into the side of the boat. I scream as pain shoots through my body as I sit in six inches of water. I realize the anchor chain has snapped leaving me with only one anchor against the storm.

I try to no avail to turn the wheel so the boat can face the waves head on and glide over them but it causes it to turn and hit the waves sideways. I hold desperately onto the chain for the second anchor as it threatens to rip from the wood of the boat. It cuts my hands and hits me in the forehead. The boat begins to surge through the water and it causes me to fall into the waves. They swallow me whole and I begin sinking down into the black nothingness.

I shake my head willing the memory away. The next thing after that I remember I was on the shore; how did that happen? I stare out at the water and get the feeling of someone watching me. I squint out to the dark waves and see someone's hair and eyes peeking out of the water. I nearly scream when I see them incredibly creepy and ominous out in the water. They stare at me for a moment longer before diving back down. Did I catch a skinny dipper at the wrong time? My cheeks burn with embarrassment as I sit up and my eyes scan the water yet again. I want to tell them its okay and I won't tell anyone I saw them.

Hell, I would even hand them their clothes if they wanted. I stand and walk up to the water, but yet I see no one. I start to get worried as the person is nowhere to be seen. Maybe they weren't real? That sounds stupid and I hope I am not starting to hallucinate as well because wouldn't that just be the cherry on top of all of this. I see a flash of movement and hear a faint splash and I take an uneasy step forward. But when the water splashes into my sandal I scream and stumble backward onto the beach falling on my ass.

I take a few deep breaths trying to steady myself. This is too much too soon I should just go home, but when I look up the person has returned and their whole face is above water. I stare with my mouth agape at the man in front of me.

He looks so familiar and my heart aches with an unknown pain. When our eyes meet he ducks back down into the water. I sit and stare at the rippling water. Another memory hits me but it is only fragmented. I had a fish net... Why does that seem so important? I crinkle my brow and frown. What happened to that piece of junk anyway?

I remember I had spent a whole day untangling it and I had cast it out. Then it hits me; that was when I found the necklace. When I pulled in the net it was tangled inside it. But that doesn't really make any sense because how would a fishnet, that was bobbing along near the surface pick up an object that would have been buried at the bottom of the ocean?

Even now as I try to remember more about it the memory seems cracked and transparent. Like it never really happened. When I close my eyes and try to ponder over the memory more I see a flash of blue-green scales struggling on the side of a boat.

My boat.

In my fishnet.

Then the image is gone just as fast as it came. I frown and run my hands through my hair. I look back out into the water. Whoever is out there has some serious explaining to do.