Haunting

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten 

Shannon woke to the feel of her phone vibrating in her pocket. “Ya,” she mumbled into the receiver, not moving her head from Jordan’s shoulder.

“Where are you?” Harrison roared.

“A party,” she whispered.

“At five in the morning?”

Shannon swore and hung up the phone. She looked down the cave and saw that most of the water had retreated. She could see the pink morning sky above her and shook her friends awake.

“Wha…” Joanie muttered jolting awake.

“The tide is almost out,” Shannon told her, pointing to the cave. “We’ve got to go.”

Joanie sat up and looked around the cave that was filled with sleeping teenagers. “Shit,” she whispered and scrambled off the ledge and towards the boat. She reached under the seat and pulled out an air horn and didn’t hesitate to let loose. 

The blaring noise echoed through the cave and woke half the kids in the cave. They all turned to glare at the wielder of the horn and cursed at her.

Joanie blew off the insults. “What fucker was supposed to wake us up half an hour ago?” She yelled into the cave. The others turned and pointed to a kid with a Mohawk and snorkel on his head. He ducked when the crowed all tossed empty cups at the boy.

The teenagers, even the severely hung over ones, got up and began cleaning the cave. Shannon was stunned.

“Do they always do this?” She asked Jordan who had dropped off the ledge and picking up trash from the ground.

“It’s the rules,” he explained and tossed Shannon a garbage bag. “If anyone finds even one cup in the ocean the cops will stop us from coming here.”

“Fair enough,” Shannon conceded.

When the cave was clean, the subdued group walked from the cave and back along the beach. The sun was rising above the horizon, sending bright light over the beach and sensitive eyes, eliciting groans from the group.

Shannon and Ben led Jordan, Flick and Joanie up the hill and along Hill View Drive towards Shannon’s house.

Shannon flinched when she saw a very angry looking Harrison standing on the front porch, his arms crossed on his chest.

“Run,” Shannon hissed under her breath to her friends who crossed the street and walked quickly up Ben’s driveway.

“Good morning Father,” Shannon greeted, a forced smile on her face.

“Shannon,” Harrison began, his frowned deepened. “You promised me you would stop this behaviour. After you were arrested you promised.”

“Dad,” Shannon held her hands out in front of her, like she was approaching a wild animal. Which she was, kind of, Harrison was livid. “It wasn’t like that I swear.”

“Please, tell me what it was like!”

“It was just a party, we were all safe. Hell, the cops even knew we were there. It was nothing.” Shannon defended. Not for the first time Shannon wished that she had never met Jess. One girl ruined a lifetime of trust and respect between her and her father, and she hated it. Sometimes it felt like it used to, but at others Shannon felt just like she did when her father came to pick her up from the police station. The disappointment was so thick in the air around them. Just a year ago Harrison wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.

“I apologise if your word doesn’t mean much to me anymore.”

Tears welled in Shannon’s eyes and a sneer formed on her face. She crossed her arms and shoved passed her father and into the house. She stormed up the stairs and passed an apologetic Fiona. Shannon dropped the frown as she passed her and let the tears fall as she slammed her bedroom door behind her.