After what seemed hours of steep ascent and stumbling, we stopped, obvious excitement rising within the group.
"Are we there yet?" I grumbled for the millionth time.
"Yeap, we're definitely here." Seth answered, amusement playing in his voice.
A cool sea breeze hit me and I guessed that we were on a beach. Although the ground wasn't sandy, and we'd walked up a steep hill so it wasn't really possible. I let go of Seth's hand and grappled for the knot of the blindfold, eager to discover our location. An amazing but terrifying scene stood before me. I realised that we were in fact still on First Beach; we were just up way, way higher. We were on a cliff that stood on the far side of the beach; I remembered seeing it a few times while driving past. I looked at Seth, utterly astounded and shocked at the same time. He just smiled, like everything was normal.
"Told you it'd be big." He reminded me. The broad grin that I was so used too spread across his face. I stared at him in amazement.
"This is awesome! Thankyou so much!" I squealed as I gave him a huge hug.
"No biggie." He replied, hugging me back. "We would have come even if it wasn't our birthday. It's a perfect day." He explained, examining the sky. I looked around at the others and saw them all grinning broadly as well, thrilled that I wasn't cowering in the back like Kim and Lee. I smiled at them and they both managed to conjure weak, forced grins. We all laughed and Seth turned to us.
"C'mon then! Who's going first?" He yelled over the crash of the waves against the cliff bottom.
They all stripped off their shirts and moved forward, Kim and Lee saying put. Sam stepped out of the now quiet crowd, ran to the edge and swan dived.
"Show off!" They all taunted.
I gasped as my brother disappeared into the blue of the ocean, but breathed again as he bobbed back to the surface and waved. I clapped and the others half heartedly followed suit. I was still staring down at the crashing waves when I heard squeals from behind. I whipped my head around and saw the two girls struggling to get out of Jared and Embry's grip. Both girls looked severely angry, but I knew they secretly loved it. The boys ran to the edge, ignoring the cries of protest from their passengers, and jumped, much to the dismay of the girls and the amusement of us.
Next were Jacob, Paul and Quil. Quil shoved an unexpecting Paul off the edge at the same time that Jacob shoved him. They both tumbled down towards the water and landed with a huge 'splash'. Jacob, looking fairly chuffed, turned around just in time to see Sam, who had just returned from his jump, tackle him so hard they both flew over the edge, following Paul and Quil.
I was now laughing so hard at the boys' childish behaviour that I completely forgot about Seth standing next to me, and the next thing I knew he had picked me up. Now the boys and the two very sulky girls had arrived back and they were egging him on.
"Jump! Jump! Jump!" They were chanting, trying to get Seth to obey. I scowled at him, telepathically saying, "Don't you dare!" He smiled innocently and took a few steps towards the edge. I sent him another look, trying to dagger him with my eyes. I struggled to get free with all my might, but I had no chance as he was too strong and he had already made his decision. He leapt off the cliff, and I clung to his neck, absolutely terrified of the fast approaching water. We hit the surface and continued to plummet down, as the water swallowed us. I didn't have any sense of direction and my head swam from the lack of air, but luckily, Seth grabbed my hand and pulled me to the surface. I gulped down the air, happy to have it fill my lungs again.
"That was awesome!" I exclaimed as we swam to shore. He grinned in agreement.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it!" He replied. "C'mon! Let's go again!" He said excitedly, reminding me of his 10 year old self.
After racing up the hill and many more confident jumps from me, show off jumps from the boys, and reluctant jumps from the girls, it started getting colder and everyone ceased to jump. We all sat around the clearing doing various things.
"I think we should go down to the beach and have lunch now." Quil suggested. "I'm really hungry!" His stomach growled in agreement.
"Yeah me too! I'm starved!" Embry seconded. "Oi Lee! What's the time?" He called to her, interrupting her conversation with Kim. She blushed scarlet at the mention of her name but tried to hide it as she took out her phone.
"It's 1:00." She replied with a flirtatious smile. Embry nodded, completely unaware.
"We've been here for three hours?" I asked. Seth nodded. "Talk about time flying! C'mon then, I could go for some food too." I added. I retrieved my bag from the edge of the clearing and watched everyone gather their things. I realised someone was missing, although I didn't recall him leaving.
"Hey, where's Sam?" I asked nonchalantly. Everyone looked around, confused. "He didn't tell anyone he was going?" I asked, becoming more interested in the situation. They shook their heads. I grabbed my cell phone from my bag and punched in my brothers' number. After a few seconds the ringing stopped, which meant he had hung up. I punched in Leah's number, but I received the same outcome. I tried a few other people he could have been with, but no one was answering their phone.
"Something's wrong." I said bluntly to the others. I had no idea of what to do, Sam had never gone anywhere without telling someone. Seth was the one that took control.
"Ellie, it'll be ok. He's probably just at our place with Leah, and she probably turned her phone off to study. We'll go check there. Embry, Jared, take Kim and Lee and go ask around if any one has seen him. Jacob, Paul, Quil, go check his house, if you don't hear from one of us, tell his parents." He commanded. We made our way down the hill in a group but quickly disbanded once we reached the bottom, leaving myself, staring blankly into space, and Seth gazing intently at me. "C'mon Ells. He'll be fine." He assured me. I fixed my gaze on him and he crouched to meet it. "Would it make you feel any better if I gave you a piggy back?" He asked. Although nothing about the situation was funny, I laughed, and obligingly jumped on his back.
We decided to go to Jacobs' and tell Billy. Then drive Sam's car to Seth's, even though both of us were too young to drive, it was only a few miles. When we were half way across the beach I got sick of our slow pace, so I slid off Seth's back and started to jog. We were at the house in a matter of minutes; I didn't bother knocking and proceeded inside.
"Billy?" I called, thinking he would be home. There was no answer. "Billy?" I called for the second time. Again, no answer. "Maybe he's at Embry's, helping out with the bonfire." I said mainly to myself as I walked back outside and slid into the driver's seat of Sam's car. Seth came to stand in the doorway and he shook his head. "What! I can drive." I defended as I assumed his thoughts. He shook his head again.
"Ellie, you are in no state to drive. You'll be too disorientated. Out."He directed. Reluctantly, I agreed with him and manoeuvred myself into the passenger seat.
From Jacob's, Seth's house was only about five minutes. The drive was silent as I let Seth concentrate. In place of conversation, I stared out the window into the never ending forest. I wasn't staring at anything in particular, but out of the corner of my eye I saw something move behind the thick curtain of trees. I stared more inventively into the forest and saw a huge black wolf like figure step out of the shadows and onto the side of the road. It wasn't an ordinary wolf; it was about ten times bigger. It had black, shaggy fur which made it look all the more scarier. I squealed and grabbed Seth's arm, drawing his attention away from the road.
"What? What's wrong?" He yelled as he slammed on the brakes. He looked over at where I had been staring and then gave me a confused look. I followed his line of sight and realised that the wolf like figure had vanished.
"Wha-. But." I stared, dumbstruck at the now empty road. I calmed myself and turned to Seth. "It's nothing I just thought I saw something. All the worry about Sam isn't doing me any good." He looked at me thoughtfully. "I'm fine, sorry." I assured him, although I didn't believe myself. He nodded and restarted the car.
"Don't worry Ellie, he'll be somewhere." Seth said soothingly. I nodded and tried not to think about the bad somewheres he could be.
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