{TFWC} ~~~SEASHELLS~~~

AUGUST 1980
Sarah squealed and giggled as the icy water sloshed up between her bare toes, half covering them in brownish red sand.
"Oh, it's freezing today! Hailey come here!"
It was a chilly evening in late August,the first cool breaths of autumn had settled over the tiny island.This was the last weekend of many, that the two girls had spent here on this beach. It was the year they both had their tenth birthday, and the third year coming here on vacation with their parents.This was the best time, the best place, to be young, carefree, and happy.
The frigid sea sent them running to the contrasting warm sand, till the rough grains between pruned up toes, sent them back again.It was a game they played, laughing, running, splashing, dancing, till they grew tired and started walking along the shoreline indulging in their favorite pastime- finding seashells. Daily they had this ritual of combing the beach and filling their pockets to overflowing with the cast-offs of the ocean. It was their greatest treasure. Who found the most,the biggest,the prettiest;all summer it never ended. Each girl had buckets full of their favorites. Hailey treasured the gemstones of sea glass, while Sarah loved the swirls of snail and crab shells.
As they walked, leaving bare footprints in the sand, the tide swelled up and washed them away.The waves became higher and white foam now edged closer to their feet. The sky turned from golden yellow to a dim grey, and high above from the cliffs a cold breeze blew. The shrill cries of the gulls disappeared in the distance as they flew away.The beach had become a universe unto itself, with the sun setting at one end, and the moon rising at the other.
It was Hailey who first spotted the intrusion to their blissful evening." What is that? I've never seen that much before."
A Fog...thick like no other. A wave, an avalanche,rapidly rolling down the cliff.It came cascading like a pure white waterfall of fresh down, blanketing the sandy shore.It completely covered an entire span of the beach in front of them, rock cliffs and ocean waves alike.
Sarah, was mesmerized. Hailey was trepidatious.
Sarah, always the daring one, grabbed Hailey's hand and yanked her hard towards the now hidden stretch of beach. "Come on! Let's go closer!"
The fog became a luminous entity. It churned, rolled, twisted and danced in circles before them. Smokey tendrils reached out like fingers, pointing to them and coaxing them closer.
Sarah tries to bolt for it as if the wind blew in a giant cloud of cotton candy, oblivious to Hailey's look of dread.She pulled harder on her hand, and Hailey was certain Sarah was trying to dislocate it at the shoulder. She almost hoped she would, so that the rest of her body could stay at a distance.
"Stop!" Hailey whimpers, "I don't want to go!" It didn't feel right. Suddenly her stomach was fluttering with a hundred butterflies.
But Sarah, having no fear for as long as Hailey could remember,only shrugged,and dropped her hand.
" Just let me run inside and see what it's like. I'll be right back. You don't know what you're missing!" She laughed and she ran from Hailey's side and into the misty outstretched fingers that Hailey was certain she saw clench into a fist as they enveloped her best friend.
The sea breeze blew, and she waited. The waves behind her now crashed on shore more forceful than ever, and she waited. The white haze, hung suspended, completely still, whereas before, it moved swiftly towards the water.
Slowly taking backwards steps to keep herself safe,Hailey strained her eyes for any sign of Sarah. Nothing. She saw nothing. She heard nothing.
"Sarah!" she called out." I want to go now!"
Silence. But the fog began to dissipate.What was once blocked from her vision, now she was able to focus.The cliffs and the treeline beyond the beach were no longer shrouded.
"Sarah! Sarah Please!" Her voice now shaky and panicked. The sun had set beyond the fog and the moon was higher now, the sky much darker. The beach was not that long and she was sure that her friend could not have wandered far enough away not to hear her. By now the far side of the beach was visible in the murk and the fog that remained hovered over the waves and drifted out to sea.More and more as the tide rose, she could clearly see that the fog was gone,and so was Sarah.
She frantically looked all around her...the beach, the water, screaming for her lost friend. Was this a joke? Was she hiding, only to jump out and scare Hailey to death? There was no answer, no sign, no sound but the Atlantic between her toes and the cormorants resting on the newly uncovered cliffs.
She looked down at the sand,about as far as she could remember it was the last place she saw Sarah, before she disappeared, and there, in a small neatly stacked pile, were the seashells from Sarah's pocket.
Hailey could not stop the torrent of tears from her eyes as she ran crying for help......

Continued next post

AUGUST 2006
It was so surreal to be here, Hailey pondered over her own traumatic recognition. So long ago, yet the fear still just as fresh as yesterday.Perhaps it was a mistake to come here, to try to relive the good memories of being here with Sarah, in hopes of burying the bad one deep somewhere irretrievable.She remembered the warm sun kissing their cheeks,the briny scent of the breeze caressing their hair,the echoes of their laughter off the rocky cliffs, and the pain in her chest from her heart pounding with fear as she ran.
So vivid as she walked along the beach. She smiled at how they laughed and played here, as one salty tear fell to the sand and mixed with trillions of other salty tears.
For two weeks they had searched,the beach, the cliffs,and as far out in the water as they could.They found no trace of Sarah.In the end, it was decided that she must have wandered into the water,and was unable to find her way out in the fog and darkness, her body lost to the sea.
Hailey carried with her years of guilt as she walked the shoreline for the first time since that day. It was her first trip to the island, since growing up, getting married and having a daughter of her own. Her daughter Sarah, was in every way a mirror image of her mother.
As they both walked barefoot in the sand, Hailey paused and smiled,realizing how she herself looked at that age, spending every waking minute here, all summer long.
"Mommy, can I look for seashells?" Her voice filled with excitement at the prospect of indulging in her mothers long lost favorite hobby.
Hailey smiled and nodded as ten year old Sarah ran for the far end of the beach.
Hailey, sighed and looked all around her. Not much had changed here. The cliffs were a bit less jagged, and now more eroded. The shape of the shoreline had changed, and what were once favored clustered of boulders for sitting or hiding now resided near a sandbar further away in the rising water.Aside, from that...it felt the same, smelled the same, and if she closed her eyes, SHE was the same. Skinny little ten year old legs running through the sand, counting freckles that appeared overnight from mid-summer sun, hair dripping with saltwater and sand while goosebump covered arms reach for warm towels.
Opening her eyes she saw a glimmer on the ground;the sun reflecting off something. Thinking it may be a piece of broken glass, she approached it and bent down to pick it up. It was glass, and it was broken, but not in the dangerous way she thought. Holding it up to the sun she admired a perfect specimen of smoothed down sea glass.She placed it in her pocket, thinking this was a good start to more happy memories.
She began walking towards her daughter, who was now crouched over something, examining it closely.
" Look mommy! I found lots of shells! All right here!" Sarah looked down at the neat little pile of swirls. A twinge of fear shot through her like a jolt of electricity.
" They were all right here Sarah? Just like this?"
" Yes mommy, they were. " She smiled up at Hailey so eager for approval. " The little girl over there showed them to me. She said I should have them. But she kept calling me by your name mommy, and calling herself my name. I told her she was being silly and she ran away."
Hailey's breath caught in her throat, choking her. " Who Sarah? What girl? Where?"
Sarah, her daughter, pointed up at the high cliff over the beach. There surrounded by billows of white mist,appeared to be Sarah, her friend, in the same clothes, the same body....
Hailey could not move, could not speak. Her daughter played quietly at her feet, unaware of the terror that just completely took over her mother.
Sarah, in the fog, floated down the cliff, like an angel with no wings, till her form appeared hovering over the beach a short distance away. She looked confused, sad.
Hailey was sure that she was having a hallucination, but Sarah her daughter, had seen her too, spoken to her. She looked down at the young girl at her feet. " Honey, is that the girl over there that gave you the shells?" She managed to whisper in her ear, pointing down the shore.
" Yes! She's the one! Mommy, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Hailey hadn't realized she was, but the more she stared at the vision in front of her, the more the tears blurred her sight.
THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING. THIS CAN'T BE REAL.
Sarah, in the fog, opens her mouth to speak, but only gurgled sounds come out, as if she is under water. The density around her thickens and blocks the view once again of the scenery beyond.
Hailey wants to bolt, but she is frozen. Just as mesmerized now, as Sarah was all those years ago. Her little girl keeps looking back and forth between the two and her young blue eyes are now wide with fear." Mommy,Mommy!"
The fog whirls around Sarah, blowing at the frays of her now tattered clothes. She looks down at her feet, her hands, and touches her face. Looking back at Hailey, her own tears now mixing with the salty mist, and she understands...
" Mommy whats going on? I'm scared."
Hailey knelt down to her daughter, and buried her face in her sweater, wrapping her arms tightly around her.
Just steps away, Sarah in the fog,grows. From a young girl in pig tails, her hair breaks free of the elastic. Her young body taking shape of a woman, her breasts form and swell, and her hips curve with maturity, and her clothing gives and bursts at every seam.Sun-spotted freckles and wrinkles of time appear across her face, and she reaches out to Hailey with a pleading look on her face.
Hailey was transfixed. To blink meant to miss years passing by in front of her. She felt even more helpless to Sarah now than she had years before.
Sarah's now long flowing hair, turned to ash grey, and her mouth collapsed inward as if all her teeth disappeared.Her limbs now shriveled and became brittle, and as Hailey watched in horror, her best friend fell to sand in a heap of painful broken bones, taking one last breath.
Before she could move, the body of Sarah, never lost to the sea, but to the fog and sands of time, began to dissipate.Wisps floated up from it. Tiny tendrils at first, then like thick smoke,and as it did Sarah in the fog, became Sarah the fog. It churned and rolled and danced in the air.It mixed with the mist and the wind of the sea, and it moved-closer.
Closer to Hailey, closer to Sarah, her daughter.In the fog she heard her name..."HAILEY..." and seashells began to drop at her feet.
She grabbed young Sarah,and ran and ran down the beach, far away....and never once looked back.

reply to post by AccessDenied


Well... that was darker than Marylin Mansons basement photography suite. Good lord!

Good job S+F

reply to post by TrueBrit


Thanks TrueBrit! Once the darkness starts flowing out of me, it's hard to stop. That's just my style.

reply to post by AccessDenied

What an extraordinary story, AD. That was very special. The sadness, the regrets, but above all, the closeness between the two friends -- it was very moving.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

~Mike

reply to post by JustMike


Hello Mike. Thank you for the comments. They say, write what you know...well right now the sea is what I know.

What a chilling story! Well done.

I thought there for an instant the mist would get the younger Sarah as well, and was holding my breath as I read. Nice ending.

SnF.

reply to post by Druid42


Oh, believe me Druid, I had almost thought of adding that element to the story, but couldn't figure out where to take it from there.

A dark read, indeed! I was so hoping the mist would release her! But then what??
Like Druid, I thought the daughter might be carried away as well, but I'm really glad she wasn't...

Enjoyed it!

- AB

AboveBoard
A dark read, indeed! I was so hoping the mist would release her! But then what??
Like Druid, I thought the daughter might be carried away as well, but I'm really glad she wasn't...

Enjoyed it!

- AB

I almost took it in that direction, but at the last minute...