Undercurrent

Chapter 12

The rest of the week passed fairly uneventfully. Gloria loved the sound of our sketching project so we decided to get started with it as soon as we could. For me, that meant spending my Saturday shift at the café drawing the room around me in between taking intermittent coffee orders.

For a mid-September afternoon, the weather had started cooling pretty quickly and the sky seemed to be oddly dark. The heat of the summer seemed a distant memory. The whole concept of summer seemed a distant memory to be honest. I admired Mum's tenacity of planning to keep the café open over the winter season but I hadn't become any more confident that it was going to work. If anything, business was slower than ever.

"That's looking good, Nini." Mum appeared over my shoulder from the kitchen door as I was busy sketching the empty café.

"Hmm?" I looked up. "Oh, thanks. Not quite sure about the chairs but I'm pretty happy with the rest of it."

"Is this part of your art project?" Mum asked, smirking. "You know, the one with the boy you attacked."

I screwed up a napkin on the counter and threw it at her. "Very funny, Mother. As a matter of fact, it is."

"So you braved meeting up with him then. Was it as awful as you feared?"

I sighed. "No, not awful. Just... strange, I guess."

"Avoid in the supermarket kind of strange or call the police kind of strange?"

"Neither," I laughed. "He just wasn't how I expected him to be. Ollie takes his art very seriously apparently. More seriously than he takes anything else, it seems."

"That's no bad thing, Nini," Mum said. "At least he's not leaving you to do everything."

"Mm." I nodded, turning back to my sketch. "That's true."

Mum wandered back to the kitchen, leaving me to finish drawing. I thought about what she'd said. She was right, it was good that he was taking the project seriously. I didn't want to be lumbered with all the work. Yet, something about it unsettled me. Something about Ollie unsettled me. I just didn't know what it was.

I peered out of the front window that looked over the sea and watched as the clouds, which were getting greyer by the minute, swirled around the sky. It felt like a storm was coming.

I shuddered. I hated storms. Just the thought of them instantly transported me back to the night that Zach went missing. I could hear the hushed voices of the adults around me, trying to hide me from the awful news.

I wondered what Zach was doing now. I always wondered what Zach was doing when storms hit. I would sit waiting for it to pass, waiting until it was safe to go and check that he was alright, that he wasn't lost on the beach again. Luckily, it seemed to just have been a one-time thing. A freak accident.

I turned back to my sketching, the pencil strokes starting to blur in front of my eyes. Something didn't feel right but I wasn't sure what. I tried to push it to the back of my mind and focus on drawing but I just couldn't do it. For some reason, my thoughts kept turning to Zach and the beach.

It was only a couple of minutes' walk from the café. There was no reason I couldn't quickly run down the path and just make sure that he wasn't there, check that he was home and safe. I could have called him I suppose but he wasn't even reading my messages at the moment, so I doubt he'd have picked up. If I just knew that he wasn't on the beach when a storm was coming, I'd be able to relax.

I had to know.

I scribbled a quick note for Mum, telling her I'd be back in 15 minutes. I could definitely get to the beach and back in that time. She probably wouldn't even notice I'd gone; she was busy singing along to the radio and mixing up another batch of some kind of cake that would probably never get eaten.

I grabbed my jacket from behind the counter and pulled up my hood. The rain had properly started now – heavy droplets that ran down the windows like a waterfall. I opened the door, grimacing as I forced myself out into the downpour. I wouldn't be long, I kept telling myself, as I hurried along.

Drenched and clutching a stitch in my side, I made it to the top of the path down to the beach. There was no way even I would scale down the rocks in this weather. The rain had made the ground treacherous, the sand filled with craters where the raindrops had pelted it aggressively.

I started down the path, steadying myself on the rocks that lined it as I went. The wind had picked up and was hurling sand through the air. I stopped and looked down towards the shore, desperately hoping not to see Zach down there. I couldn't see anyone but the worry I felt in my chest didn't ease. I had to go on. I had to make sure.

I shuffled further down towards the sand, moving my hands from one rock to the next to help me stay upright. "What am I doing?" I said to myself, my voice getting lost in the howl of the wind.

I'd just about made up my mind that this was ridiculous and that I needed to turn back when I spotted a familiar blue hoodie disappearing between the rocks, into one of the little caves in the cliffside.

Zach.

I was furious.

How could Zach be so stupid? Hadn't he learned his lesson the last time? Everybody was convinced he'd died for God's sake.

Emboldened by my anger, I pushed on through the torrential rain towards the rock face, my feet sinking into the sand as it got wetter and wetter. I cursed as my foot came out of my boot and I had to hop, trying to get it back on without falling over.

When I finally reached the last few rocks before the cave, I took a deep breath. Now that I was this close, I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to say to Zach when I got there. I wanted to wait, to consider how to go about it, but time wasn't on my side. Angry forks of lightning started to flash against the darkening sky, as I forced myself forward, towards the rock face.

I couldn't see him from the opening of the cave. I hadn't really wanted to go inside, knowing that it was so easy to get trapped in there when the tide started to come in, but I needed to find Zach.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the cave. Still, I couldn't see him. I took a step onto the closest rock I could.

"Zach?" I called out. "Zach! We need to go! We can't be here – it's not safe!"

Nothing.

I kept going, determined to find him and drag him back up to the café if I had to. I started to edge towards the next rock inside, squinting in the darkness to work out where to place my feet.

A crash of thunder roared through the sky, taking me by surprise. My foot, suspended in mid-air, missed its intended landing and I fell towards the ground. I reached my hands up to try and keep my head from hitting anything but it was too late. I heard the impact of the rock against my temple but I couldn't feel it.

I couldn't feel anything anymore.