Chapter 7 - Insanity
The first thing Alexis was aware of was the fact she was lying face down on something rough, like sand. Warm water was lapping at her ankles. The sun beat down on her exposed back, neck and legs because she was still in her underwear. And there was a gaping hole where her heart should have been.
The edges of the emotional wound were raw and red and wth every beat of her heart it sent agony coursing through her body. It was too much to bear by herself. Everyone she knew and loved, everything she had, her whole life... gone. In the space of a heartbeat. She screwed her face up and clenched her fists, fighting to stop the tears from flowing and the screams from tearing from her throat. She still had no idea where she was. She didn't want to know. She didn't care.
How long she lay there she didn't know. She just kept wishing over and over to herself that she had never left the beach party, that she too had been swept away and now lay at the bottom of the sea with her whole life. Maybe by wishing, she thought, it might happen. And she couldn't get over the fact that the last conversation she had ever had with her boyfriend was over something as stupid as her attitude, something she now sourly regretted,
"Don't think that way," came a voice from above her.
Nothing but the shock of hearing that voice again could have made Alexis forget her despair and look up. And when she did she nearly had a heart attack.
It was Carter, complete with a fedora, standing there, smiling at her. He offered his hand and Alexis took it. He pulled her to her feet and she promptly pounced on him, giving him a bone crushing hug and knocking his fedora off,
"I never thought I'd see you alive!" she half screamed, half choked. Tears were now rolling thick and fast down her face but she didn't mind for they were tears of bliss, not grief,
"Same," he said with a smile, "Why aren't you wearing anything?"
"Sorry," Alexis sniffed, now wiping the tears off her face with the back of her hand, "I tried to find you after the wave hit. I swam out to sea and not even I can swim in a dress,"
"I like it," He said simply.
Alexis blushed,
"How did you survive though?" she asked,
"Honestly? I haven't got a clue. I just remember being very cold and wet for a very long time and suddenly BAM! here I am,"
Alexis didn't question that. After all the exact same thing had happened to her.
The more she stopped and thought about it the weirder it seemed. A giant wave had come out of nowhere, destroyed just one little stretch of beach and receded again. Now Alexis was no expert but she was pretty sure tidal waves didn't confine themselves to one stretch of beach. They just carried on going until they ran out of energy and flopped, making everything wet. And it also seemed a weird coincidence that it had just HAPPENED to happen when the entire town was on the beach.
Now if Alexis had not met Lady Agua she would have said she just had REALLY bad luck. But she knew better and she understood that some divine force was really trying to mess up her day. She also couldn't fathom what it had hoped to accomplish, except maybe unbalancing her. It was very close to success. Only the presence of Carter was keeping her from going insane. Apart from madness the only thing she felt was a furious desire for revenge. And she intended to get it.
A pair of snapping fingers in front of her face brought her back to reality,
"Hey! Do you have any idea where we are?" Carter asked, looking around.
Alexis looked around too. It was a beach with white sand and a small copse of trees on the horizon. That was about it. Alexis shook her head,
"No,"
Wherever she was she figured it was a long way from her little coastal town in England. The climate was wrong. It was a lot hotter and a lot more humid. And the trees were palm trees.
"Me neither," Carter said with a hake of his head, "Anyway what's the story? I know you know more abut the wave than you're letting on,"
Looking him in the eye Alexis knew she couldn't lie to him. She launched into an account of the last few weeks. She didn't leave anything out. She told him her dream and her meetings with Lady Agua and the cryptic warnings she had been given. All he time she talked Carter didn't relax from the thoughtful pose he was standing in,
When she had finsihed he walked up and down in front of her once, then spun on his heel to face her,
"Let me get this straight: You have a strange dream about the end of the world, a weird water lady tells you Mother Nature will awake and kill everyone if you don't help help crazy lady put her back to sleep?"
Alexis nodded once,
"Crazy lady wouldn't happen to be her would it?" Carter asked pointing over Alexis' shoulder.
Alexis turned and gasped. Lady Agua was walking calmly toward them on the crest of a wave. Touching down on the sand gently she made her way toward the two of them,
"It is time," she said to Alexis as soon as she was in earshot, "for you to wake from your living nightmare,"
"What do you mean?" Alexis asked, frightened,
"I will take you to your home where you may recuperate from your loss," she said
"If you're taking me you're taking Carter too," Alexis said, defiantly.
Lady Agua shook her head,
"Alexis, child, he was never here. He died in the wave with everyone else,"
"That's not true!" Alexis cried, "He's behind me!"
And to prove it she turned around.
Carter was gone. There was just an empty beach.
Alexis fell to her knees, eyes not seeing. She had lost him... again,
"I am sorry, child," said Lady Agua, "but you must master your emotions so this does not happen to anyone else. Come,"
She took Alexis by the hand and pulled her to her feet. With a strange twirl of her hand, Lady Agua caused the sea spray to rise in a funnel cloud and envelope Alexis.,
"I really am sorry," She repeated,
Alexis nodded and, once again, everything faded to black.
A/N
Fingers hurt... I type too fast :( aww well...
I guess only one person would have expected that because you gave me the idea :)
Thank You Chloe :) :)
PeaceOut x
