Hi! Sorry for the delay, but I had to type a good portion of this from stuff I'd written. It takes twice as long with all the glancing down and losing your place and everything. But it's a long chapter. Hope you enjoy!

POV: Bethany

I kicked at the sand, and sighed for the umpteenth time. I scanned the road-again. No one. I never should have agreed to let Amanda come. I'd been waiting for her for almost an hour now. But I guess I had said yes for some reason. Maybe I wanted her to come because I was lonely...Maybe we'll become friends.

What gives you that idea? A nagging voice in my head jeered. No one's ever wanted to be friends with you.

Oh shut up. Don't you think I know that? I retorted to, er, myself. I plopped down on the sand with another sigh. Now would be the perfect time to reflect on past friendships. Unfortunately I couldn't do that. I hadn't ever been able to male friends for more than a few hours as a kid. In third grade, my family had moved from Kentucky to South Carolina. That's when I had decided I didn't need any friends. I resumed my pacing toward the beach where Ethan and I had been yesterday. It was tiny. Only about the size of a bus, and scattered with stones and boulders. But the waves were good. The beach part curved inward with a "C" shape, with a forest on either side of the beach where I was standing. The cove was about forty five minutes' walk from town. Above me, the land slopped upwards, covered with rocks and trees. I could see the narrow road that headed inland across the water. It was rarely used, in favor of the highway. It paralleled the shoreline until reaching the cove, before curving sharply inward. The shoreline approaching the cove stretched in a wide curve. From where I stood, I could see the small stretch of coastline, with narrow, well I guess they could be called beaches. Someone was jogging down them with a black and white collie type dog. I smiled to myself as the dog darted in and out of the surf. The jogger had dipped into the curve of the coastline and disappeared from view they would no doubt head back to the road. I wouldn't be able to tell because of one of the "arms" of tree covered land that created the "C" shape. Bored again. I turned. Through the trees of the other "arm", all I could see was the sparkling of the sun off the ocean, because the coastline curved so abruptly, it left Swallow's Cove jutting into the ocean. I turned back to the view of the road, only to see a car slowly make its way down it. It pulled over and he passenger door swung open and a blonde girl got out. Finally. I thought, watching Amanda retrieve a bag, and head into the trees. I tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for her to emerge onto the beach. Any time now...

"I though no one ever came here." came a statement of the obvious behind me. I turned, seeing the girl who had gotten out of the car, but not Amanda.

"Uh, me too." I said "But I thought that was stupid, so I came yesterday and I haven't died or anything yet."

"Oh. Well that's good. I just moved here, and my cousin told me no one ever comes here, so I thought it would be interesting." She said mischievously. The girl was blonde like Amanda, but up close, I could see it wasn't as long as hers, and it was a darker blonde than Amanda's platinum blonde locks.

"Yeah." I said lamely. "I wanted to have a look around."

"Me too. And I wanted to, you know, actually use the beach. The one in town is so-o crowded." She said dramatically. "I'm Noelle Lewis, by the way. I just moved here and I haven't met anybody."

"Uh, my name's Bethany Willis." I said quickly.

"Nice to meet you!" Noelle said enthusiastically, grabbing my hand and shaking it without my consent.

"Um, yeah. You too." I managed. Talking really wasn't my specialty. Noelle bent down and shucked her rope sandals.

"Wow, this looks like a great place to swim!" She half-squealed. I glanced down at my black t-shirt and denim shorts. I hadn't thought to bring a swimsuit. But then again, I wasn't here to swim. If Amanda wanted to, she would just have to swim with Noelle.

"Sorry I'm late!" I turned, to see Amanda finally arrive. "I couldn't get a ride, even though my mom told me she could take me yesterday. I guess step sisters are more important than keeping promises. I had to walk." She said, with a hint of bitterness. I shrugged.

"Its fine." was all I said. Behind me, Noelle piped up.

"Hi! I'm Noelle." She said brightly. "Did you guys have plans here?"

"Hi, Noelle. I'm Amanda. And yes, we were going to go exploring."

"Exploring?! That sounds way more fun than getting sunburned. Can I come?" Noelle asked. I offered my usual shrug, but Amanda said,

"Sure! The more the merrier, right, Bethany?" She elbowed me in the ribs. I flinched.

"I guess so..."

"Yay!" Noelle shrieked-right in my ear. "How big is this place anyway? Do you guys have a map? Have-" Before she could say anything else, a black and white dog sprinted past us, darting in and out of the surf, yipping excitedly.

"Grab his collar!" someone yelled behind us. Amanda ran after the dog, her long blonde hair flying. A petite girl ran onto the beach, and I recognized her as the jogger I'd seen earlier. Noelle fumbled her sandals back on and ran after Amanda and the dog. "He got away from me. He just took off and wouldn't come back. He never does this." She said breathlessly. We watched as Noelle and Amanda tried unsuccessfully to corral the dog between them. The dog wagged his tail and barked excitedly, as if it was all a game. The girl whistled, as if it was all a game. The girl whistled a high-low-high tone. "Oreo!" she yelled, "come here!" The dog lunged just out of reach of Amanda's reach, sending her tumbling into the sand. He sprinted towards us, trailed my Amanda and Noelle. All of the sudden, he turned and raced away from the beach and into the sloping forest. "No!" She shrieked. Amanda and Noelle gave chase. The girl and I followed. "Thanks." She called as we ran. "I'm Thalia."

"My name's Bethany" I said between breaths. Oreo's barks echoed through the pine trees, as did the others whistled and yells for him.

"Where did he go?" I heard Noelle yell.

"I don't know! He was right up there a second ago!" Amanda answered, obviously frustrated. Thalia and I crested the rise, only to see Amanda and Noelle.

"Do you see him?" I asked them.

"Not anymore." Amanda said, gasping for air. "He just disappeared." Thalia groaned, pushing her chin length hair back.

"He never runs off like this." She muttered.

"We'll help you find him, right guys?" Noelle supplied for us, before introducing herself and Amanda to Thalia. Suddenly, distant barking pierced the air.

"Oreo!" Thalia shrieked. She took off on the direction of the sound at a run. Noelle glanced at Amanda and me and shrugged. We followed.

"This is a great way to get in shape for soccer." Noelle muttered, matching my pace. I was suddenly grateful for my numerous early morning jogs.

"I hate running!" Amanda gasped, behind us. Pine needles and rock shrapnel crunched under my tennis shoes as I ran. The trees ended gradually, and the steep grade leveled out slightly as we got higher. Ahead of us, Thalia stopped, below a sheer rock face. The trees had all but stopped, creating a meadow of sorts, but the ground was rock. Sunlight sparkled off a small stream at the base of the cliff. Thalia whistled for Oreo again. No response. She bit her lip.

"Where could he have gone?" she said softly. Noelle glanced out at the ocean through the trees.

"We're pretty high up." she said nervously.

"We'll be fine." Thalia said, glancing around. Amanda sighed, drama queen style, and plopped down on a rock.

"What do we do now?" she moaned. I edged away from them. Teamwork wasn't my specialty.

"Yeah, what now?" Noelle echoed. I took a step backwards, wishing I could disappear. Thalia spun away from us.

"I don't know about you guys, since you lost him, but I'm going to find my dog." Thalia said, rather arrogantly. Amanda and Noelle exchanged glances, and Thalia stalked off. She reached the stream, and jumped across. And then she was gone. Just like that. Gone. Amanda and Noelle both screamed and ran to the spot where she'd disappeared.

"Thalia? Thalia?" Noelle yelled frantically. "Are you okay? Where are you?" She turned to us, trembling. "She was right here..." she said with a whimper. "And then she jumped across and disappeared." She prepared to jump. "Where could she have-" As she leaped across, she disappeared with a shriek. Amanda screamed again. But now that we were closer, we could see where she had gone. It was a small cave-like thing in the rocks, in the hollow where the stream flowed. We both kneeled the opening.

"Are you guys okay?" Amanda yelled. We waited. Silence. "Noelle? Thalia?" More silence. And then a faint cry-"We're okay. I think." I couldn't tell if it was Noelle or Thalia though. Amanda and I sighed with relief.

"Can you climb out?" I called to them.

"I don't think so." One of them yelled back, I was pretty sure it was Thalia. "It's pretty steep." I sat back on my heels. Amanda stared at me as if she fully expected me to take charge of the situation.

"What now?" She said.

"Um, I'm going down to see if I can help them." Amanda nodded vigorously. I took a deep breath and eased my legs into the cave. I tried to climb down slowly, but the grade of the slope was too slippery and there were too many pebbles that I skidded rapidly down instead. My feet hit dirt and I jolted painfully to a stop. I stood up, bending slightly because of the low ceilings. "Are any of you hurt? I asked them, squinting in the low light. Thalia shook her head, but Noelle motioned to her bleeding knee.

"It's not bad, it just hurts a lot." She said, wiping off the blood with her sleeve. Thalia winced, and looked away. Her face was pale.

"Are you okay? You look awful." I asked her.

"Blood freaks me out." She whispered hoarsely. "But don't worry about me."

"How are we going to get out of here?" Noelle asked, obviously scared.

"Amanda's up there. She can go get help if we can't climb out." I said. Suddenly, there was a scuffling noise behind me, and a high pitched shriek. Amanda stumbled into view. I groaned.

"Why didn't you stay put?" I demanded.

"I thought you needed help." She said simply.

"How are we going to get help now?" Noelle moaned. "We're stuck down here." Amanda scratched her head.

"Sorry, I didn't really think things through." Thalia rolled her eyes, and I echoed Noelle's groan. Amanda flinched slightly and looked away. Thalia knelt by Noelle and helped her up. "There's a passage that way." She said pointing. "But I don't know where it goes. It might lead out." In the dim light, I could only make out a black space, but there was no way any of us would be able to climb back out. Besides, Thalia and Noelle were already disappearing into it. I started to follow them, but Amanda hung back. "Come on." I said. "It's my fault I didn't tell you to stay there." Reluctantly, she followed. It was even darker in the passage.

"I hate behind confined." Noelle whimpered.

"I have my phone." Said Thalia. "We could use the light of the screen to see." She pulled it out of her pocket and turned it on. The glow of the screen illuminated the darkness somewhat, but not much. "It doesn't have much battery left though." We walked along in silence. It was probably evening by now. Who knows where Oreo had gone. The passage fairly wide, but the ceilings were still low.

"This isn't going anywhere!" Amanda moaned behind me. We kept walking. After about half an hour of walking, Thalia's phone died. Immediately, I stubbed my toe in the darkness.

"Look-" Noelle said, pointing. "Light." Far ahead, I could see a faint light. We hurried to it. As we got closer, the passage brightened. The four of us entered a fairly wide, circular, domed space. Above us, the top of the dome opened up, revealing a darkening sky, with a few early stars shinning faintly. Taking up a good portion of the "room" was a perfectly round pool full of azure water. But the passage ended.

"It's beautiful," breathed Amanda.

"Yeah, but it's a dead end." Thalia said.

"If it connects to the ocean, it's not. We could swim out." I said. "Look, it has waves." They were tiny, barely noticeable. Thalia shook her head.

"No way. I'm not swimming into a shark infested hole. What if we get stuck down there?"

"There's no other way out." I stated. Noelle huffed a sigh and sat down on the sandy floor of the cavern room.

"I'll go first, just to be sure." She said, tugging off her sandals. "Wait here. If I'm not back soon, well, don't follow me." She waded in on a small ledge, and then jumped in the rest of the way. She treaded water for a moment, and took a deep breath, before disappearing below the surface. The wait was agonizing. We took off our shoes so they wouldn't fill with water and slow us down, and tied them around our wrists.

"She should be back by now!" Amanda whined. Just then, she appeared.

"It connects. It goes right into the open ocean, on the far side of the cove. I swam around a little and I saw the beach we were at earlier. Oreo was sitting there, waiting, Thalia."

"No way. I'm not going. I've never swam in open water before." Thalia protested. "I never even saw the ocean until a few months ago." I waded in to join Noelle.

"Come on, we'll help you. There's not even a current." She just shook her head.

"No, I can't do it." She said meekly. Amanda pulled off her bracelet and tucked it into her pocket.

"It'll be fine, Thal. There's no other way out." She took Thalia's elbow. "Let's go." She climbed into the water, Thalia reluctantly followed her, trembling.

"Wow, look, the moon's rising." Noelle said. I looked up. The full moon loomed over the edge of the top of the dome. It cast silvery light into the room. But when it touched the water, the water...glowed and bubbled. The moon moved gradually over the dome, until it fully covered the sky. By now, the whole pool was fizzling and glowing and tingling.

"Um, I don't think that's normal." Amanda said, after the moon had passed over the dome. I rubbed my arms. They still tingled.

"Let's go. I'm exhausted." I said. "I'll go first." I ducked under water. It was dark, and spooky. The sooner we get through, the better. I swam forward, after making sure the others were following me. When the tube of rock ended, I clawed my way to the surface, gasping for air. Thankfully, three heads popped up behind me a few seconds later. It was too dark to tell who was who.

"This way." I heard Noelle say, and we followed her. It took both Amanda and me to help Thalia, but we did it. After we dragged ourselves out of the water, we were greeted by a bouncing, excited Oreo. Amanda groaned.

"Now we just have to walk back! My step dad's going to kill me."

"Yep, I've defiantly got some explaining to do." Thalia joked. "I'm never coming back here again, that's for sure."

Nearly an hour later, I finally fell into bed. But sleep didn't come right away. For some reason, the weird moon incident stuck in my mind.

What did it mean?

Yeah, a little cheesy. If you leave a review, you get virtual hugs!