Chapter One
The last time she walked this trail, Emily Fields combed sand out of her hair for weeks. She still scolds that damn tiny dog for crossing her path and sending her flying face first into the Cape May beach. She was five then. A girl who thought being seventeen would mean she was close to death. Needless to say, she had a long way to go.
Emily's toes padded along the damp sand. The cool feeling providing a much needed relief from the heated beach grains earlier that day. The hues of the slowly setting sun begin to glisten off the ocean water offering an array of oranges and yellows. The beach is nearly secluded now as families are packing up their belongings to head back to their summer homes. Her senses heighten with the straggling dogs running behind them. She doesn't need any repeats from childhood.
She sits herself at the perfect destination near the rocks and places her shoes to the side. Her intentions are focused on nothing except relaxing and watching the beautiful setting sun. Her toes dig into the sand as she catches a silhouette teetering along the furthest end of the rocks. From her spot she can make out a girl, seemingly trying to take in the sunset as well. Switching off on each foot to balance on single rocks.
Emily's eyes drift past the mystery woman to spot the lighthouse on the horizon. Its begun its usual duties for the evening as the light guides the small collection of boats. The waves are lapping a bit hard against the rocks today and Emily wonders if there might be a storm brewing off the coast. She's thankful when she spots no clouds in the distance. The walk back to her grandma's would not be fun soaked in rain water.
The brunette shuts her eyes briefly, taking in the serene and soothing sounds of the water hitting the coast. A week of this and she'll be rejuvenated enough to start fresh to yet another town she's being forced to move to. She sighs thinking about what a pain it's going to be to do senior year not knowing a soul. Well, not completely. She has one old friend from camp that lives in Rosewood. A friendship that was mostly kept up with on social media posts.
The overwhelming feeling of having to come out to a new group of people wasn't exactly anti-anxiety inducing. Coming out to her mother this year had been hard enough, so right now, this was just going to be a nice, drama free, soothing peaceful mom-
A shrill scream in the distance causes her eyes to shoot open and dart to the direction the piercing noise originated. The girl on the rocks has vanished and Emily's stomach drops. She stands swiftly and shoves her Vans back on as quickly as possible, hobbling up to the rocks at the same time. She sprints down them, but careful not to wind up slipping herself.
As she reaches the edge, she frantically searches for a body and hopes that they're still above water. Her heart starts to race as she spots the girl face down in the ocean. Blonde wisps of hair are sprawled and floating atop it. Instincts kick in as she slides herself down the slippery edge to the safest point where the rocks meet the ocean. Emily stretches her arms out and finds that she can't reach her from here. The tide carries the body out further from grasp and begins to sink.
She dives in and hopes any ounce of swimming practice has prepared her for this dire moment. Thankfully, the body has only travelled a few feet and she turns it around so the head is now above the water. Her left arm snakes firmly around the stranger's shoulders. The coast is too far for Emily to reach promptly and she's not sure she has the time to spare. Luckily, the rocks aren't piled too high and she begins to pull them both up to a flatter surface.
She places the girl's head down trying to be as gentle as possible and notices she can't be any older than herself. When she draws back her hand, a small patch of blood coats her palm and her panic heightens. She struggles to recall every CPR class she's ever taken and prays too much water hasn't entered the girl's lungs. She begins the motions of pumping her diaphragm and holds the girls nose, lips sending air into the blonde.
Emily tries not to panic when the first few tries aren't working and she's still not breathing. "Come on, breathe." She whispers to herself on pump number 120. Its when she reaches pump 400 that her arms begin to tire. She transfers two more breaths and checks again for any signs of breathing. She wants to cry, wishing that there was anyone anywhere to call an ambulance. She tries another thirty compressions, two more breaths.
She waits. Desperation clinging as much as her soaked clothes are to her body. "Please don't die." Because FUCK. What a way to end the summer. She pounds her fist onto the pavement, creating scratches in the process.
The blonde starts to cough, water sputtering out of her and Emily wants to cry tears of joy. She watches her carefully as the blonde's eyes flutter open and back to life.
"Are you okay?" Emily asks, but internally scolds herself. Of course she's not, you idiot.
She coughs again as more salt water is released from her lungs and tries to speak. "W-what happened?" The blonde clutches Emily's hand as she tries to sit up slowly, her chest in pain from all of Emily's attempts to revive her.
"I'm not sure, but I think you slipped on the rocks. Might have hit your head on the way down the water?"
The stranger winces as she moves to touch the spot on the back of her head that's pulsating. It has trickles of blood, but not enough to possibly warrant any real cause for alarm. Her vision is slightly blurred, but slowly comes back into focus as she shifts her attention to her supposed savior. "You saved me?"
Her eyes are welling with tears, but finally begin to make out the person's form. The brunette is her age or older, clearly beautiful even though she's soaked head to toe.
Emily shrugs, but sighs with relief. "I guess so. You're lucky I heard you scream. There's no one else out here. What's your name?" She asks, hoping all the things she's seen on TV about head injuries are true.
"Alison." Clearly, Emily can tell she's still in pain.
"I'm Emily." She gives her a small reassuring smile. "Who's the president and how many fingers am I holding up?"
"Huh?" Alison's confused and hopes this doesn't require a visit to the hospital after all.
"You have a head injury. That seems to be what people ask on TV." Emily holds her hand up again.
"Three."
Emily nods to confirm the correct answer. "Think you can stand up?"
Alison just nods, still discombobulated. Emily stands first and holds out both of her hands for her to grab onto. She complies as the brunette carefully lifts her and throws an arm around her shoulders to help steady herself. They watch out for any potential slipping on their journey back across the rocks to the shore. When they both jump down, Emily winces as the impact triggers a calf injury she didn't realize she acquired from her rescue attempt.
"You're bleeding." Alison begins to bend down to inspect, but Emily stalls her.
"I'm fine, just a scratch. Do you feel like you need to go to the hospital?"
"No, I think I'll be okay. "
"Where do you live? Can I at least walk you home?"
"It's okay. It's not very far -"
Emily cuts her off immediately. "Can I please? Otherwise, I'll be up all night wondering if you collapsed halfway there and then some psycho sea turtle decided to bury you."
Alison raises an eyebrow. Who say's that? "Psycho sea turtle? I think I'll take my chances."
"Please? I insist." Emily clasped her hand onto Alison's forearm and the blonde looks down at it in surprise. No one else would ever dare to do such an intimate touch to her back in Rosewood. She realizes even if she say's no, Emily would probably follow anyway. "Okay. I'm just up the street."
Their trek is mostly in silence, Emily glancing over every now and again in concern. Alison decides to start the conversation to ease this poor girls nerves. "So, are you here for the rest of the summer?"
"Only a week or so. Just a pit stop before moving off to a new town."
"Where did you come from before?"
"Texas."
"No accent?" Alison rakes eyes over Emily. She's clearly the antithesis of big, blonde and overly hair sprayed. Although, who knows what kind of product the water washed out.
"My Dad's in the army, so we move around a lot. Never had the chance to pick up one on the way."
The conversation doesn't last very long as they finally meet the edge of the beach and cross to the first block over. "I'm just up at the house on the corner."
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
Alison nods slightly. "I promise. My mom's inside and I'm positive we have a first aid kit to clean up my head."
"Okay." Emily shuffles awkwardly on her feet and Alison seems to mimic the same as they bathe in each other's awkwardness. "So, I'll just head off then." The brunette points off into an undisclosed distance behind her. "If I were you, I'd avoid those rocks from now on."
"You can count on it." Alison smiles faintly and watches as Emily begins to walk away. She berates herself as she realizes she didn't even bother thank the girl for saving her life. "Emily, wait!" She jogs to catch up with her and pauses in front of her for a few seconds. Emily's looking at her expectantly and Alison flails her arms around her body. "Thank you for saving me."
Emily's surprised at first, but wraps her own arms timidly around the shorter girl. "You're welcome."
Its short lived as they part and exchange another goodbye. Emily shoots her a look back to make sure she hasn't collapsed, only to see Alison still staring at her retreating form. Alison seems to catch on how creepy this may seem, so she hastily waves and heads straight down the direction she pointed out to Emily.
Emily grins and stuffs her hands into damp pockets. Her mind drifts to think about that boring first day of class assignment all schools seem to do every year. No matter how old you are. What did I do this summer? I saved some strange girl from drowning and a rabid pack of ocean life from devouring her corpse. Seems like a great opening line. She congratulates herself on her achievement - even if she had to miss the sunset.