Chapter 11

Outside the night was deadly still. Dougie lifted his hood over his head to protect against the bitterly cold temperature. His mind couldn't help but wonder if Becca was safe. The eerie calm unsettled him. A million different outcomes, each more horrid than the last, travelled through his brain as he walked towards the cliff path.

All he knew for certain was that he had to be fast. The conditions did not bode well for a night under the stars. As he neared the edge of the cliffs, he scanned down the path that lay ahead. It twisted and turned its way down the steep cliff, often cutting back into the rocks to form small caverns. In daylight the winding path was an interesting feature, but come nightfall the patches of darkness, and the inability to see around the next bend became far more menacing. Halfway down the slope there was a small plateau upon which a children's playground sat. Dougie knew that he had to overcome any fear of what was ahead. He took a deep breath of cold wintery air, and started the descent.

The path, although steep, had a smooth surface, as it was a commonly used route down from the cliff-tops. Its meandering was broken up by the occasional set of wooden steps. Dougie slowed his pace as he came closer to one of the many caverns in the side of the cliffs through which the path travelled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. It cast a cold blue light into the cavern. Dougie's heart sank. He had half expected to see Becca huddled up on a ledge trying to keep warm, but the cave in front of him was deserted.

He walked on, noticing that he had made quite a bit of progress down the hillside. Dougie wasn't sure whether this pleased him or not. Part of him believed that he would find Becca sitting on the swings in the playground halfway down the slope, but pessimism seemed to have taken over his naturally optimistic nature resulting in the fact that he couldn't stop himself from thinking that the further he came without seeing Becca, the smaller the odds became that he would find her at all.

The sides of the path that had been bare at the top of the decent were now bordered by trees, through which the moonlight cast shadows on Dougie as he walked. His senses were heightened, with crack of a twig causing him to jump.

Slowly the ground began to even itself out, and Dougie could see the entrance to the small playground coming into view. His view of the playground itself was obscured by a copse of trees which stood in its way.

"Please let her be behind the trees, please, please, please!" Dougie repeated in his head. "This is it. I'm out of ideas...she has to be here!" Gradually his view of the playground became clear.

"No! NO! FUCK!" He cried in anguish. "She has to be here!! She has to be!" The playground was empty. The air seemed thick around Dougie as he frantically looked for any signs of life, but his search was in vain.

His breath caught in his throat, as he choked on his tears. His head was swimming. He sat down heavily upon the swings, which creaked underneath him.

"I don't know anymore Becca!" He shouted into the emptiness, his voice echoing randomly from the bare trees. "I'm out of ideas!"

The water looked completely lifeless; it's surface as still as a millpond's, completely void of any waves. Under normal circumstances, being in a place of such natural beauty would have cleared 

Becca's head, and enabled her to think, but the environment which surrounded her seemed anything but natural. The lack of movement was abnormal. She had hoped that her walk would help her, but the cold seemed to engulf her, making her thoughts in even more disarray than when she had set out. She had decided to stop walking, and sat on a large rock on the beach, in an attempt to slow down her mind. All it had achieved, however, was for her to become even colder.

She drew her coat more tightly about herself. "This really hasn't helped." She thought to herself, "You should have just spoken to him! He probably won't want to speak to you now you realise don't you! You've let him down. He went too all that effort persuading Fletch to give you a chance and You've thrown it in his face. You can't face him now. He'll hate you!"

"He's sure to hate me," She said quietly to herself.

Suddenly her thoughts stopped, as she became acutely aware of movement. Having spent so long in a night that seemed dead, this change sent a chill down her spine. Behind her she heard a crunch on the shingle beach. She froze.

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