Swell (Complete)

Chapter Fifty-Four (Part One)

"Waking up to a nightmare,
How the hell did I get here,
Giving in to my worst fear,
Tell me when it ends."

....

Iain frowned as Tom answered the door.
He stepped back and cleared his throat. "I'm here for Will."
"I thought he messaged you." Tom returned the frown. "I got a message saying he was meeting you and the girls at the cove. Didn't he send it to you?"
Iain pulled his mobile out of his jacket pocket and shook his head.
"No, I've got nothing, but to be honest, I'm not even sure Will has my number. Maybe he told the girls and they forgot to let me know."
"Well, his bike is gone, so I'm gunna say yea."
"You're not allowed to leave the house, right?"
"Nope." Tom looked down at the ground.
Iain swallowed a lump of relief. He felt unnerved by Tom's smooth face right now.
"Good." Iain turned around and started to walk away.
"Wait! Marti's left the tripod and camera here for you to take." Tom held a professional looking camera up and Iain huffed as he took it from Tom and then picked a heavy tripod up from the floor.
"Thanks. Bye."
"Have fun!" Tom called out to Iain's retreating back.
He sat in the driveway of the Taylors' house for a few minutes before he started the engine and headed out to the Escape.


Adora held her phone out to Marti, who put it in a pink drawstring bag.
"Will wanted to use his bike in some photos tonight, so he'll meet us at the cove." Marti smiled as she put her own mobile into the bag.
"Yea, I get it. Boys and their toys, right?" Adora laughed and looked at her reflection. The hem of her dress was already slightly discoloured from their first photo shoot. "I feel like a pretentious..."
"Princess? Cause you look like a princess." Marti smiled and put a pin in Adora's hair. She'd plaited two pieces from the front and then joined them together at the back.
Marti called it a crown plait, and she had put a grey ribbon in the plaits. Adora's shorter fringe hairs were left to frame her face.
Marti had insisted on doing her make up too, and it had felt like forever while Adora had sat still while Marti had lightly powdered her face, commented on her freckles and laughed about her light colour.
"You're like a doll!" Marti had laughed.
Adora looked at her eyes pop through the mascara and eyeliner though and knew it had been a good decision.
Marti knew what she was doing when it came to being a girl. Adora had never really been that way inclined, but she could feel the fun of it.
Marti's excitement was contagious and by the time Iain arrived they were almost running down the stairs into the first floor common rooms.

Adora held her dress up and had a light shawl over her shoulders. A snowflake pin held it together between her collarbones and she held her head up high as she went down the last stairs.
She was a little disappointed to not see Will next to her cousin, but she knew there would be slow dances and kisses at the hall, and the idea of trying to do photos in her dress with him and his bike at her favourite place made her smile.
"I've got the tripod and camera in the boot. Tom told me Will's meeting us there?" Iain had his hands over his chest and then lowered them as he looked up.
Adora felt her cheeks flushing as his eyes widened.
"Wow, you look like a Queen or something." He gave her a crooked grin.
"Isn't she a doll?" Marti took one of Iain's arms and Anne smiled at the three of them and held her phone up.
"Just some quick photos before you leave for the cove!" Anne insisted, starting to push the three of them together in front of the stairs.

They took a few nice photos and then Marti lifted a leg up across Iain and Adora. The next shots were Iain picking Adora up as she squealed in surprise and Marti held her legs up.
"I've always wanted this pose!" Marti laughed in delight.
"Can I touch the floor now?!" Adora had posed, pretending not to be terrified of being held up by her cousin and best friend, parallel to the floor.
Marti lowered her legs and Iain let her down. She put a hand on her chest and the other on Marti's shoulder. "Never do that again."
"We don't need to!" Marti grinned and kissed her cheek. "Sorry."
"Come on, let's get going to the cove, otherwise we won't have any light to take photos." Iain jerked a thumb to the door.
"You look beautiful, baby." Anne wrapped her arms around Adora and kissed her forehead.
"Thanks, Mum. See you tonight."
Marti sat in the back beside Adora, her drawstring bag around her wrist and her energy bouncing the seats.
"You're so hyper." Adora laughed.
"I'm excited! I've been looking forward to this so much!" Marti's smile was wide and her eyes shone with happiness.

Adora tilted her head and clucked affectionately. Secretly, Adora had been excited since she and Will had decided to go together, and her excitement was now ready to explode in her stomach.
"I want you to take some photos of the two of us on the top of the cliff first, Iain, is that alright?" Marti leaned between the front seats. "We should have nearly an hour of light left seem as there's no storm tonight. Thank goodness the storm blew everything it had last night!"
"That's fine." Iain turned into the cove's carpark and Marti jumped out of the car, almost before it had even stopped.
"She's way overexcited." Iain shook his head as he turned the engine off and glanced at Adora in the rear view mirror. "She did see they predicted another storm tonight, right?"
Adora shrugged. "She's a girly-girl. And it won't hit until we're in the dance, we'll be fine."
The cousins got out of the car and Iain grabbed the tripod and camera from the boot. He watched Marti show him the basic camera functions and leaned the tripod against the car.
"Did Will say a specific time that he'd be here?" Iain looked around at the noticeably empty car park. "I thought he'd beat us."
"He shouldn't be too far off, maybe he's getting something to add to the photos?" Marti wrapped an arm over Adora's shoulder and moved towards the edge of the cliff. She turned back to Iain and grinned. The sun was sinking beside them, and the ocean drew a straight line on the horizon.
The clouds were grey and fluffy, the air was thick and Adora could feel a strange tension as she smiled at the camera and Iain started to take photos.
Her eyes kept looking to the road, her ears prickling to hear the sound of Will's bike, but twenty minutes later, he still hadn't arrived.
"Marti, can I have my phone? I'm going to give him a call." Adora held her hand out near Marti's drawstring bag and frowned in worry as Marti handed her the phone.
She bit her glossed lips as the phone rang, and rang and then cut off.

The tide swept underneath his cheek and lifted his head off the ground slightly with its rolling.
Will felt the throbbing in his head before he realised he was waking up.
His leg was cold and he tried his best to pretend he couldn't feel it's heavy ache.
His head rose and fell with the water and it took a few minutes for the realisation to set in, and then came the panic.
The tide was getting higher.
His cold fingers twitched until he felt the stiff fingers attached to his wrist with the tape.
He remembered Debbie and any warmth that might have been left in his body washed out into the dark tunnel with the waves.
He could hear the water crashing against the walls, and he didn't know how high the water got in the cave.
He had purposely avoided coming into the cave, even with Adora.
He felt his chest burning with dread and closed his eyes to try and regain some composure.
Not seeing the shadowy walls and the white foam made his anxiety worse.

Will opened his eyes and closed his fingers around Debbie's stiff ones.
She was dead. She had to be.
Would he die down here too? Taped to her body and weighed down?
He tried to moisten the tape over his mouth with his tongue, but it was too sticky.
He felt something warm burning down the side of his face and tried to force his nose to take deep breaths as he looked up to avoid the water lapping at his cheek.

He had to get out, he had to get the tape off his mouth and he had to get out of the cave; broken leg or not. He had to reach Adora before the day was over.
What was the time now? He could see some light from outside, but he didn't know how long he had been unconscious.
What if he was already too late?
What if the tide covered his face before he could undo the tape?
He tried to poke his tongue between his lips, and felt the water brimming at his temples. The salt stung the gash from the rock and occasionally a wave made it high enough to burn his nostrils.

No, he wasn't going to die down here; he couldn't die when he knew how much trouble Adora was in.
But he couldn't breathe either, he tried to lift his body higher, to hold it up and realised the panic had set in, the ache in his head throbbed and his legs rocked with the tide.
A wave covered his face, water filled his nostrils for a few moments before the water ebbed away and off his face again.
Was it going to get much higher?
Was he going to survive?

**********

HEY GUYS!

Thanks so much for reading this far, I LOVE feedback and I'm desperate to know what people think of characters and the flow of the book.

ALSO! THERE'S NOT EVEN 5 CHAPTERS LEFT TIL THE END!!!

(Yes, I have actually finished this book)