Swell (Complete)

Chapter Fifty-Four (Part Two)

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

....

Something was wrong, Adora didn't know how she knew, but she could feel it.
"He didn't answer." She muttered quietly.
Iain and Marti looked at her with a frown and she walked closer to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the half-risen tide.
Her lips parted as her eyes wandered over the sand and her heart froze with the wind as she saw the metal half buried in sand.
"Oh my gosh." Her arms started to shake. "Iain call emergency." She grabbed her skirt in her arms and headed towards the stairs.
"Why?"
"Will's bike is down there!" Her voice got carried away with the wind as she tried to race down the sandy steps. Again she was grateful for ballet flats on her feet as she felt the granules of sand kicking up against her ankles.
"Will?" She screamed as she reached his bike.
Her eyes stuck on his motorbike, abandoned in the sand beside the cliff wall. "WILL?"
Had Tom managed to slip away from his parents' guard?
She felt the wind nipping at her skin, and she tried to control the terrified shaking. Where could he be if his bike was down here?
Would Tom be able to carry him back up the stairs?
What if he'd left Will to the tides?
The cave...
What if he'd left Will in the cave?

Adora dropped her skirt and held her phone out before her, her cold fingers trembled across the screen to turn the torch on as she waded into the lapping waves.
Her dress got heavier as she went further into the water, she held one hand against the cliff wall as the water grew higher.
Over her ankles, reaching her middle calves, and then up to her knees by the time she reached the mouth of the cave.
"Will?!" She screamed into the cave, the waves hit the walls louder than her voice and she held the phone up before her, her eyes panicking as she watched the white foam crash against the walls and bounce back in in-containable swishes around her.
The mouth disappeared behind her and her eyes searched the tide before her. "Will?" It was barely a shaky whisper as she felt tears leak from her eyes.
She was getting closer to the back of the cave, she'd taken Tom down here, she'd taken Marti down here, but Will had never wanted to see it.
Had that been a mistake to leave him with no knowledge of it?
She saw the back wall of the cave before her eyes saw the damp ground.
Words caught in her throat as she hurried and sank down beside the two bodies.

"Will? Will?" Her hands shook as she pulled the silver tape off his mouth and turned his face upright.
The tide wasn't high enough to drown him now, but how long had be been taped up down here?
She put her phone down and looked from his face to the body taped with his wrists.
"Debbie..." Her trembles grew uncontrollable and she felt her face contort in grief.
This was her fault. Tom's fault.
"Will?" She tore her eyes from Debbie's face to Will as she felt him stir against the layers of her skirt.
"Adora?" His voice was hoarse, but his eyes flickered open in the dim light.
"Oh my gosh. Oh my..." She wrapped her arms around his and held his cold body against hers. "Will..."
"Where's Marti?" He shivered and tried to struggle against her embrace.
"She's up on the cliffs with Iain, they're fine. We have to get you out..."
"My leg's broken, I think. It's not Tom. Where's Marti?"
Adora started unwrapping the ring of tape around Will and Debbie's wrists, trying not to get distracted by her old friend's stiff hands.
She could hear Will trying to hold back grunts of pain. "What do you mean?" She crawled over the rocky ground to his ankles.
"It's Marti."
"What?" Adora stopped at his ankles as he cried out in pain. Her trembling was violent now and from the phone's torch she could see a gash on his temple.
"The killer. It was never Tom." Will sat up and cringed as his legs moved.
"Marti?" Adora let her fingers drop from the tape and Will moved to finish unwrapping his ankles. "No... She..."

Iain.

"Come on. Does your phone work down here?" Will shakily picked her phone up as he threw the tape into the back of the cave.
"No, there's no reception until we get back out near the stairs. Is it..."
"Help me get up." He wrapped an arm over her shoulders and tried to brace his other arm against the wet cave wall.
Her layers washed around their ankles as they used the wall to start guiding them out. "Marti?" Adora repeated, her head still shaking in shock.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Will was cringing with pain as the mouth of the cave appeared before them.