Haunting Greg - Book 1, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Twenty-One

I have been on the beach for so long now; many days, wandering and walking, that I have lost track of time again. There is nothing stopping me leaving, apart from my own fear. No invisible force holding me here, nothing to keep me from walking away forever. But where would I go? What would I do? Hang around the village watching people I don't know? Or maybe I could become the Littlest Hobo ghost, walking the country for eternity?

So I stay.

For days on end I walk the beach like a sentinel with nothing to guard. Alone, except for the screeching seagulls. They do not see me; they have no sense of me at all. Odd as it sounds I like it that way. The familiarity of going unseen and unnoticed comforts me. I have spent years being invisible and forgotten…that is the way it should be.

I watch as Greg's daughter runs down onto the sand. She is running in a stumbling way as if she cannot see where she is going. I see her head towards the cave, but eventually I resume my watch on the ocean. Greg's daughter no longer interests me. She is part of a life I cannot live. I fix my gaze on the horizon and watch the sun go down. The storm blows in from nowhere, but it does not affect me. The wind and rain mean nothing to me now. I look over to see if Katy will leave the cave with the onset of such horrible conditions but she does not appear. So I stand invisible, even to the weather.

My peace is broken a few hours later by the appearance of Charlie and a man I don't know, arriving on the beach, calling for Katy. Curiously I glance at the entrance of the cave, but she doesn't respond to their shouts. They walk the beach yelling her name for a while, even though it is futile in this weather. The tide is racing in now; it's much closer to the cave mouth than it was when she first went in there.

Charlie and the stranger are walking away and they are too far away to see when Katy finally emerges from the cave. But I can see from the look on her face that she's realised she is stranded. I watch her lips move in a silent scream to the men as they climb the iron steps only slightly ahead of the tide themselves. Katy is jumping up and down, screaming and waving her arms but there is nothing they can do for her, even if they could hear her.

Helplessly I stand and watch Katy turn and begin to climb the rocks, up the cliff in a desperate effort to get away from the furious rising ocean. The wind buffets at her, the rain lashing down, making her grip tenuous and slippery on the rocks. In an instant I am next to Charlie, screaming his name but he cannot hear me and does not see me. He walks away from me, even as I wish that Olivia had been with him, knowing that every minute counts.

But I am dead and no use to anyone.

Grief rips through me as I realise I am going to be the only witness to the fate of Greg's daughter. She has stopped climbing; too tired to go any further and she clings desperately to the rocks, perched on a tiny ledge while the wind and rain screams around her.

I cannot - WILL NOT - witness another person die. There has to be something more to my life than watching people die. For once, just for once, I NEED to save someone. I have to save Greg's daughter. I cannot bear the thought of watching him lose the only family he has left. I will not let someone else go through the grief that has swallowed me alive.

Stillness settles over me; a perfect calmness steels through my soul and suddenly I know how to save Katy. I have to be brave. For the first time in years I have to face up to the truth. It is the only way to save Katy. I cannot hide anymore: lost in the past, frightened of the future and hiding from my present. I have to confront all that I have hidden from and step up to the truth. Resolutely I close my eyes and allow myself to fall.

When I open them I am no longer on the beach. The wind, rain and darkness have been replaced by a softly lit magnolia room. I am lying on a bed and next to me there is a teddy bear I recognise from my childhood and there are photos stuck to the wall. Weakly I swing my legs round and sit up. There is a phone on the bedside table next to me and I snatch it up and dial 999. In a croaky voice I request the coast guard, impatiently repeating the details and waiting endlessly to hear that someone has got to her in time.

The smell of disinfectant and freshly cut flowers prickles at my senses. Wonderingly I crush the fleece blanket I am sitting on between my fingers and revel in the feel of my feet on the cold tile floor. The room is strange, but familiar to me. I feel as I have never seen it, yet I recognise it and the things in it.

"In all the years I've worked here, no one has ever made an outside call from this room," a woman says, as she opens the door.

She stops short and looks in amazement at me sitting on the bed with the phone pressed to my ear. She is not much older than me; dressed in a smart, crisp light pink uniform and she has greying hair pulled into a bun. Her face breaks into a gentle smile and she walks towards me.

Her tone is gentle, as if she is talking to a child. "Grace, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I’m doing?" My voice is husky and I touch my throat.

She gasps and says, "Oh my word! Grace, look at me."

I look her in the eye and she beams at me. "You came back, Grace." She sits next to me and whilst I'm still on the phone she holds my wrist in her hand and takes my pulse. And I can feel it, throbbing against her fingers, beating beneath my skin.

"Mam, you need to put the receiver down now, thank you, for the help," the operator says in my ear. Obediently, I put the phone down.

Softly, the nurse says, "Who were you ringing, Grace?"

"I was trying to save Katy," I murmur. "Greg saved me, I had to try and repay him."

"I'm going to call your doctor, darling," the woman says, patting my arm gently. "I don't know who Greg is, but if he got you back into the land of the living then he has my never ending respect."

I smile at her, shyly. "What's your name?"

"My name is Jean and I've been your nurse for nearly twenty years."

I look around the room again and whisper, "Where am I?"

"You’re in Riverview nursing home. You've been here a long time; we thought you'd never get better." She smiles and hugs me suddenly. "Doctor Kariol will be so pleased to finally see you talking and making eye contact after all these years."

She reaches for the phone and while she makes her call to the mysterious Dr Kariol, I lean back, wearily. I can feel the bed underneath me, holding all of my weight, and the wall against my back. 'There will be no more falling through bloody walls' I think with a little giggle. I delight in the soft texture of my night gown against my skin and I inhale deeply, feeling my chest rise and fall; breathing in the scent of Jean's perfume.

Once I was dead.

Greg brought me back to life.