Every story I come up with is connected to the rest… that’s what makes it hard sometimes, trying to untangle them so that they can stand on their own, yet still keep that center… So many different parts to consider… Maybe I’m just too mch of a perfectionist, having to make it into a single story subconsciously to preserve the themes… Threads and The Song are always there. I need to write more…
Sel had arrived at the campground she would be staying the weekend at that afternoon. After paying for her site she had found it easily by driving along the wide loop of the campground’s main road. Her site was surrounded by trees and far enough from the gravel road that she had the privacy she liked. A couple minutes’ walk away were both the campground’s convenience store and the stairs down to the beach.
It had taken her an hour to set up her tent and half an hour more to prepare her dinner. By six she had cleaned up and made sure her campsite was ready for the night. She had then walked down to the beach as the clouds started to move in over the fading light.
After walking a few hundred feet down the shore she had found a pile of dry driftwood and decided to start a fire. She arranged the wood used the switchblade she always carried to whittle a pile paper-thin strips of wood from won log. With a flick of her lighter a small, warm fire was soon hers.
The waves rolled slowly in towards the rocks and the sky seemed to be drawing ever nearer. The grey dome was shrinking over the expanding waters. For a moment Sel thought the smoke rising before her was feeding the sky and if only she’d put it out and brave the cold then the clouds would starve, wither and leave her a sky of stars.
The leaping of the flames brought her deep into their dance. The beauty of fire had enthralled her as long as she could remember. Mostly they reminded her of the bedtime stories her father had told her when she was a little girl, of a comfort that stayed with her. Heat, hypnosis, memories and the exhaustion of a day of driving combined and pulled her into sleep.
Sel opened her eyes in shock. A crisp, fluid cold moved over where her fire had been and made her folded legs wet. Her vision was still cloudy but she could already tell that the darkness was even greater now than it had been when the now water blanketed fire had been burning. She could see nearly nothing in any direction; the cliffs and clouds blocked any light. Her only sense of direction was away from the ocean now. She followed what little sense she could muster with the fog of sleep still over her mind and quickly got to her feet.
Rock soon replaced the sand beneath her feet. The unexpected terrain caused her to loose balance and fall forward. Her knees came down upon a rough rock. The pain shot through her and she cried out. When she brought her hands down the blood leaking from the tears in her jeans moistened them. She took a few tender, careful steps only to realize that her left sandal had been broken when she had tripped.
The fear of being trapped was building in her and she couldn’t help but cry. She was too scared to stay where she was but she also knew that to rush would only cause her to lose her footing again, or to end up walking away from the stairs which would take her back to the campground. Noticing her uneven breaths, Sel tried to calm down, or at least slow her breathing.
Rain began to fall lightly. Sel at last started forward, she felt along the rocks with her hands and tried to keep her left foot from the rocks as much as she could. She made steady progress but the rain was becoming heavier and coated the ground before her. She fell a second time, bashing her elbow and barely missing a large boulder with her head.
The rain became a downpour as she regained her feet and moved forward into the darkness. Her mind spun and she could barely breathe. She could hear the waves crashing, making her deaf to any other sound. They seemed too close, rushing nearer to break her on the cliffs. She felt she was about to die and could think only of how much this would hurt her family.
She sunk down to support herself with her arms, fear flowing all around her, keeping her static and without the ability to move. All she could think to do was run, to do something to stop what was happening. All she did was shake and let the tears mingle with the wave of rain.
Something touched her shoulder and stayed there. Then words broke the cocoon of fear. “Come this way. The way back is already flooded. We’ll stay dry in the cave over there,” yelled a loud, commanding, calm voice.
Sel opened her eyes slowly, letting them adjust to an orange light that made the rocks in front of her visible at last. She was nearly at the cliffs she had been heading for and could see them faintly through the rain. She turned around hesitantly, careful not to hurt her knees or elbow on the rocks again.
A hand extended towards her and she took it. She stood with her weight barely balanced on her right foot, raised her face to the rain and looked up at her rescuer.