[A/N This is just a one off. I won't be adding anything on to this.]
The golden sugar sand slipped between my toes as I walked above the sodden high tide line. The water was beginning to recede giving up the beach inch by inch as a mother would her first born. The sea mist still lingered on the horizon and lurked amongst the dunes as the morning sun gradually burned it into nothing. The wind played over the sand, teasing my hair about my face as though mocking my rigid restraint with its own limitless freedom.
I had been wakened in the darkest hours before dawn, when it seems the night will never end, by the most disturbing of dreams. Its contents whilst not obviously threatening caused me a great sense of foreboding. In my dream I had been walking along this same beach as I am now, dressed as I am now, garments haphazardly cobbled together over my nightclothes with no shoes or stockings. A young man who was dressed in an unfamiliar regimental uniform, a deep royal purple with silver braid unlike any military uniform I had ever seen, walked along the beach towards me. He checked over his shoulder regularly as though in fear of pursuers.
“My lady!” He ran across the sand towards me. “I must warn you before it is too late! They are coming! You must leave!” His voice became fainter as he came closer to me. “You...go...beach...” A sinister blackness descended upon me and I struggled to free myself from its grasp. I shot up in my bed, the sheets a tangled mess surrounding me. I tried to go back to sleep but every time I closed my eyes I saw that young man’s face. The fear upon it instilled a rare terror in me, which no matter how hard I tried I could not alleviate. Dawn broke and yet even with darkness broken by the first rays of the sun my heart still beat wildly. I decided a walk along the beach would help clear my mind of the cobwebs residing from the dream and hurriedly dressed.
The beach was deserted and would remain so for several hours yet. The waves lapped gently against the sand, sounding so innocent and peaceful but even they could not soothe my agitation. The young man and his words about the beach played over and over again in my mind. I could make no sense of them ‘you...go...beach...’ was very little to go on. Did he want me to come to the beach? If so then that was a fortunate stroke of luck for here I am walking alone along the empty expanse of sand with only the gulls and a fishing boat far out in the bay for company.
The air temperature dropped suddenly and the harh* rolled across the water and flowed over the sand turning the formerly clear horizon into a wall of white. I could only see a few feet in any direction; the fog was as thick as pea soup as it blanketed the beach, the sea and the dunes. The sound of the waves sounded muffled, as though they were far away. Something was wrong, the foreboding I had been feeling all night had finally been justified.
“I warned you. I told you not to come near the beach. Why didn’t you listen?” The man from my dream stood in front of me. I had not heard him approach.
“What do you mean? Why are you here?” I asked.
“It is too late for answers now. I wish you had listened to me.” He looked sad and defeated.
Suddenly I heard a wheezy chuckle behind me. I spun around but there was no one there. I turned back to face the man from my dream. An old man, leaning heavily on an ebony walking stick was almost nose to nose with him, his wrinkled face twisted with rage.
“How dare yeh warn the lass! Yeh’re a fool! A damned fool! Yeh could huv ruined ev’rythin’. I dinnae ken why yeh dun it but I dae ken that yeh willnae be daein it agin!” The old man shouted in the young man’s face. His accent was thick and he spoke fast, as he angrily jabbed his finger in the young man’s chest. “Yeh’re done sonny! Its yer turn tae meet yer maker!” The old man pressed his index finger against the young man’s forehead and there was a bright flash and he was gone, the only proof that he had ever been there was his boots, still sitting on the sand lightly smoking.
He turned to me and I saw his eyes for the first time. They were completely black, not just the pupil and iris but the entire eye was midnight black, almost like the eyes of a beetle. I opened my mouth to scream but I produced no sound. “Ach now hen dinnae fret ah’m no gonnae hurt yeh. Bu’ ah will if yeh try tae fight me. Got it?” I nodded. “Guid, noo take mah haund.” He stretched out his hand to me and I cautiously placed my hand in his. The fog swirled around us and the darkness closed in.
__________________________________________________________________________________
*Sorry for the random Scottish speech I’ll do a quick glossary so you know what they’re actually saying.
Ah= I
Dae= do
Dinnae= don’t
Fret= worry
Guid= good
Haund= hand
Harh = An old Scots word for a sudden sea fog
Hen =an endearment similar to love or pet
Ken= know
Lass = girl
Yeh = you
Yer= your
If there’s anything that you don’t understand please let me know.
