Chapter 3 (Beside the sea side)

Today's events seemed nothing but a distant memory now. Evra's words no longer bombarded my ever thought, the hurt had all gone away, thanks to one man, who opened up to me and showed me his caring and understanding side. All he did was listen and it all went away, now I'm riding on his back, flitting. I wasn't paying attention to the sights; I was just enjoying the closeness. I lent my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.

"Darren?" he shock me gently, "We are here." He let me down off his back slowly. Rubbing my eyes free from sleep, "where is here exactly?"

"We are at the beach." He pointed out to the sea shimmering in the moon light. I was speechless "Why did you bring me here?" I didn't mean to say it in a nasty or hurtful way it just came out. Mr. Crepsley rubbed his neck. "I thought you may of liked to of come here, I thought I was doing the right thing." He sighed miserably. I immediately clicked that my words where quite harsh. "NO; NO; NO… I didn't mean it like that honestly," I ran over to him and flung my arms around his waist. "I'm really grateful you've brought me here, really I am." Mr. Crepsley shuffled around a little uneasy about this 'public display'. When I noticed his discomfort I released him, "Sorry about that." I smiled apologetically at him, "I know you don't like public displays, you would of thought I would remember by now." He was about to say something when I ran off down the beach. "COME ON!" I shouted back at him. Mr. Crepsley just smiled,

"I HAVE TO ATLEAST GIVE YOU A HEAD START!"

I just laughed 'His miles behind, how in paradise is he going to catch…"

My thoughts where interrupted by a streak of red that had just zoomed past me, and there a few meters in front of me stood a very smug looking Mr. Crepsley, I stopped running and skidded through the sand, eventually stopping a few inches from him, I looked up at him and doubled over trying to catch my breath back. "That was… unfair… you cheated."

"No I did not," he placed a hand on my back and forced me to stand up straight so my lungs could hold more air in, "For one you did not inform me at the start we were going to race," he lifted my chin up so I could take in more air, "and secondly you never said anything against flitting." All I could do in reply was pop my tongue out at him and all he did was snigger, and sat down on a piece of beached drift wood, where he tapped a part of the log next to him where I came to join him. He ruffled my hair and placed his hand on my shoulder, and that is how we stayed for a good handful of hours. We watched the moon float across the star filled sky; and the sea role effortlessly across the sandy beach. It was enchanting and hypnotic all at once. The silence was finally broken by Mr. Crepsley's small voice.

"I remember the first time I came to the coast as a child. I was 7, my older twin brothers James and Joseph where both 11, and my younger sister Elizabeth was 4," I looked up at him in amazement, I was honoured he was searing part of his human life with me, "My Mother Anne, had brought a simple pick-nick with her, and My Father Richard, was fishing." He looked sadly down at the sand, obviously he was reopening memories which where long hidden away in the furthest part of his mind. I could see it was painful for him to remember his past human life, I felt sorry for him, I would talk about my human life to anyone, but Mr. Crepsley was a different story.

Something must have happened to him to make him want to forget his human life completely. I couldn't take seeing him this way. I got up brushing the small pieces of wood which had attached to my back side off, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Come on. We can have a trip down memory lane when you're good and ready, meanwhile I think we should try and find a bucket and spade, most parents make their kids leave them for other kids to use." He smiled, appreciating I wasn't going to rush him into telling me anything, as he was getting up and brushing himself down as I just did he asked, "Why do you need a bucket and space for?" I looked blankly at him and blinked a few times, "To build sand castles… Didn't you make sand castles when you came here?"

"No, we made sand mounds with our hands, but never castles." He started thinking, and I had a sneaky suspicion he thought we were going to make a full size castle made of sand. I almost burst out laughing at the image of Mr. Crepsley making a sand castle that big but I managed to hold in my giggles and walked off quickly.

After a small hunt we managed to find a pair of bucks and spades. I gave one of each to Mr. Crepsley who looked at them confused. I knelt down on the sand and signalled for him to join me. "Now you use your spade to fill up your bucket with sand." I showed him how to do it. Once the buckets where filled with sand I continued. "Now put your spade aside. Ok now grab both sides of your bucket and…" I tossed my bucket upside down with lightning speed and slammed it to the sandy ground. "See; now you do it." He gave me a blank look but as before did as I had done, he managed to toss it over quicker them me and slammed his bucket in the ground with some force, but smiled at his triumph. "Now grab your spade again, and gently tap the top of the bucket so no sand gets stuck, and gently lift your bucket up." I lifted the bucket and there standing proudly was my castle, and it looked pretty good. "Ta-da, your turn." And like before he did exactly the same as me. However when he came to tapping the bucket he smacked the space on it. One half of the spade went flying down the beach leaving the other half in Mr. Crepsley's hand, and as for the bucket a giant chunk was missing, bits of broken plastic littered around the castle.

We shared a surprised look at each other then, out of nowhere, we burst out laughing. "It now…looks more… like a ruin." Mr. Crepsley pointed out, which didn't help, it just made me laugh even more. "I've just…had a brilliant…idea." I said trying to get my breath back. I started making little mounds of sand to represent people from my Castle, and made it look as they had invaded Mr. Crepsley's castle. I was wiping the tears from my cheek, when Mr. Crepsley on his own accord, started making smaller mounds to represent the dead people from his castle. When we had pulled ourselves together, we stood and had a good look at our sand castle war scene.

"Very good…Very realistic." Mr. Crepsley said slapping me on the back.

"Yes it does look rather good, if I do say so myself." And I in return slapped him on the back and looked up at him. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I'm really glad I came with you instead of Evra, I've had a really nice time."

And yet again for the second time that night I had left him shocked and speechless. "How long till dawn?" I asked looking up at the sky.

"Regrettably we must be leaving soon." He put his hand on my shoulder, "Come. I shall take us back to camp." And with that I took one last look at the sea and sand and one last look at mine and Mr. Crepsley's sand war, I smiled and jumped on his back and we flitted away.

A short time after we set off, we grinded to a halt. I looked over Mr. Crepsley's shoulder and there right in front of us was a half beaten and bloody body crawling toward us.