The Waiting Room

17/01/11

The beautiful glowing sun was shining brightly on the deserted beach; its glittering golden rays casting shades of red, orange and yellow across the waves of the sea. The beach was completely empty, neither a person nor animal to be seen. It was seldom to see it like this; usually the beach was crowded with people and their pets, enjoying a day in the sunshine. It was a cloudless, sunny day and not a sound could be heard apart from the quiet roar of the sea. Looking around, all I can see is the vast stretch of the peaceful sea, and the sand flicking upwards as we walk across it. Holding tightly onto the hand of the beautiful girl walking beside me, I entwine our fingers and give her a small smile before continuing our journey across this beach. As we walked across the beach, we came across a spot just behind a little grassy mound, and decided to set down our blanket and lie there. We lay in a warm embrace, as we started at the nothingness around us. After lying for a while just staring, it became tiring. I started to drift off in the sunshine and fall into dreamland slowly.

As my mental state started to relax into the dreamland, my body started to relax with it. The dream so was so surreal, it felt like it could've been a reality. In fact, I wasn't exactly sure it was dream. We were back at home, our house on the beach. It was getting quite late, and we were once again cuddled up on the sofa watching some soap opera on TV. I wasn't paying much attention to it, too content with the pretty girl sitting in my embrace with my arms wrapped around her to notice whatever was playing on the TV. She wore minimal make up, a natural beauty in her own right. Her medium length caramel highlighted chocolate brown hair flowing just past her shoulders, coming to an end with a tiny flick at the end. She wore a pale pink top, with a pair of elasticated white shorts, showing off her long tanned legs. I noticed her stifle a yawn, and then she slowly rose from the sofa announcing that she was heading to bed. I replied with a small nod and told her I would join her in a moment. As she left the room, I sat and thought to myself about how lucky I was to have a girl like her, how happy she made me, and how happy we were together. I was suddenly broken from my thoughts by a loud crash sounding as if it were coming from the bedroom. I stood up from the sofa and slowly made my way to the bedroom to investigate.

"Quinn?" I called. No answer. I walked around the corner to the bedroom, with a quickened pace, only to see her lying on the floor, blood pouring from her chest. "Quinn!" I exclaimed, looking around to see if I could catch sight of whoever did this to my Quinnie. And at that precise moment, she was there. Standing by the back door leading to our back porch. The cold wind was swiftly blowing the light curtains about, and she stood in front of them, gun pointed at me, with her finger on the trigger. And that was it. In a split second, her finger grazed lightly over the trigger, directing the bullet right for my stomach. I fell to the floor, my hand clutching the targeted area as the bullet sliced through me. As I watched her disappear from view, I kept my hand firmly on my stomach, and lay back as everything became black.

I woke from the dream with a fright; bolting upright my eyes flew open. I looked around the area, only to realise it was only a dream. I must've frightened Quinn when I woke up so quickly, because when I looked to her she was looking at me with a questioning stare.

"Clay? What's the matter babe?" She asked, stroking my cheek with her thumb.

"I had the strangest of dreams, almost as if it was real." I replied, thinking about the strangeness of the dream.

"Well tell me about it then?" She said, moving to sit on my lap.

"Well we were sitting on the sofa, just after we came back from Utah. You got tired so you went to bed, and I said I'd join you in a minute. So I just sat for a minute thinking about us and how happy we were together, and then I heard a crash. So I came into the bedroom and you were lying on the floor, blood pouring from your chest. And then she was there. Katie. She was just stood there. With a smirk plastered on her face, and then she pulled the trigger and shot me too." I explained.

"Well it was only a dream, alright." She smiled, looking at me. "We're both here, and we're both fine, yeah?"

"Yeah I guess you're right." I said, finding nothing wrong with either of us.

We lay back down on the sand, enjoying the peace and serenity surrounding us for a few more hours. The beach had been deserted all day, and it continued to stay that way. Not a sound could be heard apart from the sound of the waves, crashing against the shore, and the quiet breeze of the summer wind, blowing lightly. No words were said, nothing needed to be said. We were happy just enjoying each other's company. Hours passed, and as Quinn woke again, I kissed her bare shoulder lightly.

"Today's been perfect" She said, turning round to face me. "Thank you." She smiled, and kissed me lightly.

"You're welcome. So what do you say we make the perfect end to the perfect day…you get dressed, and we'll head home?" I asked.

"We can do that." She giggled, rolling over and grabbing her top. As she stood up and turned it the right way, she pulled it over her head. I grabbed my shirt, and as I did so, Quinn called my name. "Clay…Clay! Clay what's happening?" She panicked.

She had her hand over the right side of her chest, and as I looked towards her hand, I saw the blood pouring from her. It was all over her top, and all over her hand. I looked down to my own chest, seeing the blood also pouring from me. As I remembered the strange dream I had earlier that day, I sighed and snapped back to reality.

"It wasn't a dream." I said simply.

"What do you mean it wasn't a dream?" She questioned.

"Quinn, just listen to me. That dream I told you about. It wasn't a dream. We really were shot. We need to go." I explained, as quickly and simply as I could.

"Okay, fine." She said, just following my lead. I quickly walked hand in hand with Quinn back to the beach house, to try and figure out our situation. As we got to the house, we saw Nathan knocking on our front door.

"Nathan!" Quinn tried, trying to get the attention of her brother-in-law.

"There's no point." I said blankly. "He can't hear you, he can't see you. Quinn we're like ghosts. Nobody can see us but each other."

Unfortunately for us, Nathan was too dumb for his own good. He didn't think to check round the back. He just figured we weren't in. We heard him on the phone to his wife, and Quinn's sister, Haley.

"Yeah, they're not answering. It's strange I know. No neither of them are answering their phones. I'll leave a message. Alright, bye. I love you too." He said, flipping his phone down and putting it back into his pocket. He tried the bell one last time, but to no avail. He gave up trying to get us to answer the door, and got back in his car and drove away.

"Clay what is going on?" Quinn questioned.

"I don't know for sure, all I know is that whatever this place is…we're the only two here. We can only talk to each other; the people around us can't see or hear us. We're stuck here until somebody finds us." I said, just explaining what I thought I knew.

"Right, so we're stuck here then." She said, obviously not enjoying the idea that we're trapped here.

"Pretty much." I replied, pulling her close and kissing the side of her head in an attempt to calm her. She soon relaxed into me, as I wrapped my arms around her and cuddled her tight. Neither of us was best impressed by the fact that we were trapped here, but at least if we were trapped, we'd be trapped together. "Just try and relax." I whispered into her ear, stroking her hair lightly as she hugged me.

"I'm trying…but it's harder than you think. Having no contact with any of my family or my friends…I mean if I have to be trapped I'm glad it's with you, don't get me wrong. But knowing that nobody can see me, and nobody can hear me, apart from you…it's just not the best thought." She sighed, craning her head upwards to look at me. I leant down and met her halfway, giving her a light kiss on the lips, trying to calm her worries.

"It'll all work out, I promise you. We will both be fine." I said, squeezing her hand tight. Being trapped in this world, if that's what it was, we had no sense of time, so hours could've passed for all we knew. But eventually, Quinn's younger sister, Haley turned up at the house. She followed the same actions as her husband had done earlier.

"Haley…Haley!" Quinn exclaimed, standing right in front of her sister, waving her hand in front of her face, all to no avail. Nobody could hear us. Nobody could see us. We were trapped here together.

"Quinn…baby I've told you. She can't hear you. I know how much you want her to be able to hear you. And I wish she could. I really wish she could hear you. But she can't. You have to just listen, and see how it pans out, okay?" I said, stroking her hair as she sobbed into my chest. I kissed her head and stroked her back, hoping it would come to some sort of reassurance.

"I know…I know. I just wish she could." She cried, looking towards her little sister. Haley was never one to give up, and she was smarter than Nathan was. Nathan didn't think to check the back door. Luckily for us, Haley did.

"Quinn…Clay? Guys I'm preg..." She cut her sentence short when she discovered our bodies. Her piercing scream could've probably been heard from miles away. She fell to the floor in shock as she saw her older sister and her boyfriend lying lifeless on the floor of their bedroom, blood pouring from each of them.