I swear this day just keeps getting better and better.

I turned around and sighed, crouching down, "Laddie, what are you doing here?" He looked feverish, sickly almost, but he kept a smile on his face. "I've been looking for you!" Laddie said happily, but a look of upset crossed his childish features. "You didn't come back for a while... was it because of me?" He asked and I exhaled sharply, "no, Laddie, of course it wasn't because of you, it was because-" I began to explain but Laddie cut me off. "Of Dwayne?"

I pursed my lips, flattening them into a hard line, "because I was busy. Let's leave it at that." I lied. It most definitely was because of Dwayne and what happened last time I visited the boardwalk. But how are you going to tell a kid that his older brother kissed you to shield your face from your shrill, banshee of a mother and then you threw up? That didn't sound like it would go over well in my head.

"Will you walk with me down to the beach?" He asked out of the blue, and I furrowed my brows, "it's ten at night, Laddie, the water's gotta be freezing." I said and he shook his head, "no, not to swim, silly." He said, "when my mommy was still around, we used to go to the beach at night and pick up seashells, we'd hold them up to the moon and they'd be real pretty." I didn't want to give in. I really didn't. But I just couldn't refuse a face like that.

"Alright, but only for a little bit, I don't have much time." I told him, and a smile lit up his face better than a Christmas tree. I took his hand and we walked together down to the beach. On the way down, we talked about random stuff, made fun of a few Surfer Nazi's as they passed, and eventually we made it down to the tide.

He led me a little farther down, to where there were no people so 'no one could disturb our seashell collection', as he says. I rolled up the pant legs of my jeans to my knees, tugging off my shoes and socks and placing them in my bag, putting it farther up shore to help him look for shells. Then, we got to work.

We were laughing, having fun as we splashed each other a few times, stumbling upon a few really good shells. "It's too cold, Laddie!" I squealed as an absolute shower of water splashed against me, getting my shirt, face and hair wet. "Oh you're gonna get it!" I yelled playfully as I ran at him, but I lost my footing under the water and I slipped, toppling into the cold, shallow abyss and something plunged into my stomach.

I screamed in agony as I pulled myself up, the pain worsening and Laddie helped to drag me out of the water. "What happened?!" Laddie asked, freaking out from above me as he tried to figure out what was wrong. His eyes scanned down my freezing, shaking body when his eyes zeroed in on what was stuck in my stomach. "It's a shell. It's stuck." He told me, his voice sounding like he was entranced. "What?! Get it out!" I exclaimed, reaching down to rip it out when his hand closed around my wrist.

He was surprisingly strong for a child, to be able to stop me entirely and keep my arm still. "Laddie - what..?" I felt my breathing quicken it's pace in fear as he got closer to my now bleeding stomach. It soaked my shirt, and his hand closed around the shell shard sticking in my stomach and ripped it out with one pull.

It felt worse coming out than it did when it happened. I cried out and it felt like it tore my muscle and skin on the way out. The look on Laddie's face was murderous, looking at the bloody shell and the blood on his hands. "Sophie..." He whispered, closing his eyes, and when he opened them - everything changed. Everything became clear: he didn't lose his brother, that was just to trap me in. I was a target from the get-go. I was nothing but a source of food - just a walking, talking bag of blood. I felt so stupid, so naive.

"I'm sorry."

/Its really short but I HAD to leave it there. :) - Kari