Don't Breathe a Word

I have to do this, or I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.

Esther reached the bottom of the cobbled path, pausing to steady her breathing. Strands of hair clung to the nape of her sweat-beaded neck and the wind swiped at her cheeks with pin-pricks of sand. Glancing both ways down the pitch-black coastal path, she felt assured that she was completely alone. Heading right, she began to check the number of each run-down beach hut.

Twenty four… twenty five…. Then the doubt began creeping its way into her mind.

Why am I doing this?

Thirty two… thirty three… Fear partnered itself with doubt, and together they clouded her thoughts.

It’s okay. Fear is normal. It’s just a fear of the unknown.

Thirty nine… forty

...and there is nothing more ‘unknown’ than the answers to the questions I’ve had since I was 20 years old.

Forty seven. Esther stopped.

So I have to do this. I need to do this. 

Thunder rumbled out at sea as lightning illuminated the oppressive bank of cloud on the horizon. Reaching for the rusted padlock, Esther bent down and slid each digit into position. For a brief second she remembered the sight of those numbers, mapped out in the form of pebbles. At the bottom of the lake. 

The temperature in the beach hut felt no different to the muggy August night outside, but the air was dank. Continuous flashes of lightning flickered through the tiny window, providing enough light to reveal a single, empty room. Esther’s eyes rested on a rusted handle set into the floorboards. Gripping it with both hands, she heaved it open enough to wedge her legs underneath. Peering into the gloom below, she could just about make out a floor of soft sand.

The drop is about 6ft. I can’t open this trapdoor fully, let alone leave it all the way open. How am I going to back out?

A sudden rush of adrenaline and the giddy desire for adventure suppressed the negativity sparking in her brain. Inching herself forward, she gave the door one final lift and slotted her body into the gap, plunging down into the sand. The sound of the door slamming echoed around the dimly lit cave that swallowed Esther whole. All the walls were slick with seaweed and a salty humidity coated her skin. There was nothing in the cramped space but a small area of water, lapping gently against the low rocky ceiling just a few metres away. Ensuring her aqua socks were tightened, Esther scrambled to her feet, closed her eyes and calmly exhaled.

Not knowing who I might find is better than knowing nothing at all.

She walked into the pool, the top of her head caressing the ceiling as she went under. 

Malcolm cleared his throat and surveyed his audience. A number of torches placed strategically around the cave provided a cosy ambience, the light brushing the dripping faces in front of him with a soft glow.

“Welcome. I’d like to thank you all for coming.” He paused for a moment, the next sentence catching in his throat a little.

“This is meeting number eighty five at the location of Lands End, Cornwall, England. Location number one of nine-hundred and thirty seven tested locations.”

Hopelessness seemed to hang in the air like cobwebs. He stood up straighter, nudging his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“We’ll proceed with the agenda as usual. Although I think it’s fair to say we can skip the introductions at this point.” He smiled weakly and a titter ran through the group.

“Carole, would you like to begin? Any ground-breaking updates for us?” He quickly planted himself on a rock and gestured to the woman to take the floor.

Carole slapped the top of her thighs and rose with vigour.

“Hello all! Lovely to see you again”. The broad smile across her raspberry-pink cheeks carried a spritz of energy that misted through the low light.

“Now, I just want to say - and I know that I always do - it is just fabulous that we are all here. Wonderfully unique individuals who have found each other! Really though, what are the chances?”.

Her eyes shone as she clapped her hands together with joy.

“Forty five years! Completely alone, not a blimmin’ clue why I was different to everybody else! Malcolm, love, I know we still don’t have a lot of answers, but isn’t it miraculous enough that four of us are sitting here together tonight?”

Malcolm smiled faintly in response, bowing his head in a slow nod. 

Carole continued with the same gusto.

“I’ve nothing new to add, except I do think we need to revisit the Age theory… the lung maturity thing. All I know is that this began the weekend of my twenty-second birthday when I spent the weekend at the Lake District with my boyfriend at the time, young Jimmy Davies”.

The rest of the group seemed to nod in unison, familiar with this particular snippet of nostalgia. Malcolm reached for the small whiteboard propped up against the wall near him and tapped a bubble of green writing in one corner. “All noted, Carole. Thank you.” 

Trying hard to mask the despondence emanating from his aura, he forced some positivity into his voice.

“Daniel, anything to add? Stumbled across an ancient library book of watery secrets yet?”. More chuckles through the gloom. A short man in his early fifties stood up awkwardly, letting out a nervous laugh.

“No..no. I’m afraid not Malcolm.” His thinning hair was plastered to his head with a salty concoction of seawater and sweat.

“I have nothing of note to add. I would, however, like to consider something.” He shifted from one foot to another, seemingly hesitant to press on with his own comments.

“I think we should speak to people who suffered near-drowning experiences at a young age.”

Silence around the room.

“I believe that this could be a way of finding others like us”, he continued. “As this is one major thing we all have in common, I think this could be the cause of… well, the cause of… it.”

He suddenly sat back down on his designated rock, looking flushed. 

A young girl muttered something out of the darkness. Arms folded and leaning against the rock, her sharp, pale elbows were just about visible.

“Sorry?” Daniel asked.

A set of piercing green eyes burned into him from across the small space.

“So you’re just gonna go around askin’ strangers if they’ve been through some life-changing, traumatising crap that’s now left them with a non-human, crazy-stupid ability that no one else has? Yea, great plan.”

Her sodden, black hair draped over her skinny shoulders like a viper. 

“We can definitely think about that, Daniel”, Malcolm interjected kindly. “How about you, Kristal? Anything new?”.

She rolled her eyes at the charade of it all and sighed.

“It’s Krissy. And no, Malcolm. Nothing. I’m a freak, we’re all freaks, and none of this makes sense. So let’s just let it go at some point, yeah?”.

Kicking some sand into the pool of water nearby and huffily folding her arms, she slumped back against the wall. 

Thunder rumbled somewhere above their heads and Malcolm willed himself to feel just an ounce of Carole’s positivity.

“Thank you everyone. I know this isn’t easy for any of us, and our pledge of secrecy can be difficult…” he trailed off, Krissy scoffing somewhere nearby. “...but it’s critical that it stays this way. The media attention we’d get, the potential... experimentations.”

He slid his glasses back into position.

“And we’d lose any chance of anybody else ever coming forward with new theories or information.” 

Daniel sighed sadly, and even Carole seemed a little more dejected than she had just a few moments previous. 

A low bubbling sound broke through the hush, and the four turned their heads to look at the pool of water. Emerging as if simply walking through a meadow, Esther clasped her hands to her mouth in shock at the eyes blinking back at her in the low amber light. 

“I saw the message - your message. I… I had to come and see whether…”. She broke off, her eyes brimming with tears. Her voice cracked as she spoke something she knew was a fact, not a question.

“You're all like me.”