FADE TO BLACK
TILDE
Our camp fire was crackling away as we all sat around it in a circle, feeling totally stuffed full of burgers and hot dogs. I watched as Anna handed the guitar to Nialler chops and went inside to the bathroom. I felt really happy that she'd got the courage up to play her song for us. She seemed like a different girl to the shy little thing I'd met in the airport in New York just a few weeks ago.
"Holy shizzle! How fudgin' talented is that girl?" I said, looking around the group. "We have to get her in front of your music people boys." Harry, Niall and Liam nodded in unison. "Ok, when Zayn gets back, you need to do your special version of 'Little Things' for us girls again." I gave Louis and Niall my bestest pleading look. "Pleeeeease, it made me almost pee my pants when you did it for us in New York."
"Jesus, dat seems like ages ago," Niall said shaking his head. "Ha, ha...remember Louis' room service phone call?"
"Tampons!" I shouted loudly and everyone cracked up laughing. "Remember when we hid from Liam and jumped out on him and he nearly has a heart attack? That was totes hilarious!" As I looked over, I noticed Beth and Harry exchange a look before Beth blushed and looked down at the floor. I guessed they were both remembering their little moment together in the closet.
I looked up at my Nialler chops, knowing that he couldn't resist my puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeeeease sing it again. It's sooo funny and it'll mean we won't have to listen to Cruella murdering an innocent song when she comes back from the bathroom."
Niall grinned, then leaned over and hugged me hard, his big booming laugh making his whole body shake. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped when Zayn appeared at the door and started scanning frantically across the beach. "Where's Anna? Did she come out here?"
Seeing the worried look on his face, I stood up. "She hasn't come out here. What's wrong?"
"Something's happened," he ran his fingers through his hair. "We need to find her. Check the house. Check the beach."
"What's happened?" Liam put his guitar down and started to walk towards Zayn who went to say something, then stopped. "I'll tell you later. We just need to find her, I'm...I'm worried...for her safety."
At that, everyone sprang into action. Harry Beth and Louis ran to check all the rooms in the house and the gym, Niall and Liam searched the surrounding beach and over by the trees where the hammocks were. Zayn went into the garage and pulled out three large flashlights, handing one to me. I'd never seen him look this stressed before.
After ten minutes, everyone emerged, having searched inside and out. Harry came in from the front of the house. "She's not here. We've looked in all the rooms."
We all stood looking at Zayn, who was staring into the distance. "Ok, where else might she go?"
We all thought for a second before Liam jumped in. "The cove. She might have gone there. Is she ok mate? What's going on?" He looked distressed, his eyes pleading with Zayn to tell him something.
"We just need to find her bruv." He gave Liam a strange look, like he wanted to say something but couldn't. "Tilly, you've got a flashlight, come with Liam and I to the cove. Guys, keep looking around here and call us if she comes back." With that, he set of at a mental pace down the beach towards the cove, Liam and I struggling to keep up with him.
"Fudgin' hell Zayn!" I shouted, my chest burning from running so fast. "Slow down at bit, I'm dying!" Liam slowed enough to let me catch up with him. He put out his hand and I grabbed it, letting him pull me along so I didn't fall too far behind.
When we reached the cove, I bent over double, gasping for breath while Zayn shone the flashlight down onto the sand below.
Liam stepped forward. "ANNA!" He got right up to the edge of the overhanging rocks and looked around the beach. "ANNA! Zayn, can you see her?"
Zayn shook his head, desperately flashing the light over every inch of the sand. "She might be under the tree, I can't see under there. I'm climbing down." As he started scrambling down the steps, Liam turned to me, worry etched over his face.
"What's going on Tilly?"
I shook my head. "I...I don't know. Don't you worry though, we'll find her," I squeezed his arm gently and noticed there were tears in his eyes.
"If anything's happened to her..."
"Hey, she'll be ok, C'mon," Catching hold of his hand, I led him down the rocky steps to the bottom where Zayn was emerging from under the large palm tree.
As he got closer to us, I could see the panic on his face had intensified. He threw his hands up in the air. "She's not here."
"I don't know where else she would be." Liam said, his hands brushing over his mouth in worry. I wanted to hug him, he looked so distraught.
A strange look came into Zayn's eyes and a second later, he aimed the flashlight out to sea, slowly scanning the water, causing a cold shiver to run all the way down my spine. "Oh my God! Zayn! Why are you looking out there? Why would she go out into the ocean at night?"
He turned and I swallowed hard when I caught sight of the grim expression on his face. "Look..." He saw the growing desperation on Liam's face and faltered for a second. "All I know is that something was said and that she was in a pretty bad state when she left."
I looked confused. "What? What was said?"
"Something...upsetting."
"What, bad enough to...?" I looked out to the black expanse of water then back to Zayn who's expression hadn't changed. "Ok, you're scaring me now. I started screaming at the top of my lungs, panic setting in. "ANNA!" I cupped my hands each side of my mouth and shouted out to sea, trying to make my voice heard over the dull crash of the waves. "ANNA!"
Zayn moved the torch, slowly panning across the water, sending a long, narrow beam of light out towards the horizon. We all squinted, following the light but it was almost impossible to see anything clearly because the waves were so choppy and the water was so dark.
Suddenly, I saw something white reflecting in the torchlight. My heart was pounding in my chest. "WAIT! STOP! Go back to your left, I see something." I grabbed Zayn's hand and redirected it back across the water until the light found the white object again, keeping the flashlight on it as steadily as I could with a shaking hand. I gasped loudly as I realised what it was. "OH MY GOD! That's Anna's white shirt! She's in the water! Oh my God! She's in the water!"
Before I could even finish my sentence, Liam and Zayn were running full speed towards the sea. Just as they were about to dive in, Liam caught hold of Zayn's shoulders and pulled him back. Liam said something to him but I couldn't make out what it was, then he turned him around, pushed him up the beach away from the water's edge, stripped off his shirt and ran into sea, disappearing with a dive into the blackness.
As Zayn came back towards me, he ran his fingers through his hair and kicked up the sand in anger. "God damn it! This stupid fear of water! Liam just reminded me I can't swim."
"Hey, It's not your fault.Liam will get her and anyway, we need you here, we'll need your strength to get her up onto the beach, Liam'll be tired by then. Here," I handed him the torch. "You have to do the flashlight, my fudgin' hands are shaking too much."
He placed the spotlight on the white of Anna's shirt, concentrating hard to keep it focussed and not losing sight of it for a second so that Liam could see where he needed to swim to.
After a few minutes of us both staring at the one spot, Zayn shouted out, "he's there! He's got her!"
"Holy Jesus on a boat! Thank God!" I sank onto the sand. "Please let her be ok."
We were both at the shore line as Liam swam in, holding Anna in his arms. He staggered out of the water, struggling to stay upright with the force of the waves. Zayn swooped in and took Anna from him, carrying her up the beach. Her head was arched back and her arms and legs were dangling like a broken rag doll's
Zayn laid her out flat on the sand and lifted up her arm to check for a pulse. He was there for what seemed like forever, finally lifting his head up slowly to us, his eyes desperate, his voice cracking up. "No pulse...there's...nothing."
"NO!" I yelled. I could hear the words coming out of my mouth but they sounded muffled and distant. "NO!"
Liam dropped to his knees beside Zayn. "Can you do CPR?" Zayn shook his head and Liam looked down at Anna. "Ok, I'm not sure if I can do this right but I have to try." He put one hand over the other and began push down firmly on Anna's chest. It felt like I was watching some medical drama on TV as I watched Anna's head arch back slightly with every chest compression. Liam counted steadily and I tried to stop myself from shaking as everything began to feel totally surreal.
After the first ten compressions, Liam put his ear to Anna's mouth and checked her pulse. His shoulders fell. "Nothing." He waited for a second, then started again.
It felt like he'd been going for ages, compression after compression and with each, I was praying as hard as I could that the next one would be the one that would jump start her back to life. My nails were digging into the palms on my hands. I'd never been so scared as I whispered over and over "Come on Anna...come on..you can do it...please come back Anna...please come back."
After each round, Liam's response came back the same. "Nothing."
Liam had been going for what seemed like forever when Zayn touched his arm and said gently. "Mate." The realisation that he could do no more suddenly hit Liam and he collapsed over Anna, letting out a low pitched cry that echoed out across the water as he touched her face, tears streaming from his eyes. "Please, no....no...Anna please come back to me...please come back...."
I stood there frozen to the spot, unable to believe what was happening, even though I was looking straight at her lifeless body lying in front of me on the sand. As my tear stained eyes moved over Anna's face and down to her mouth, I could hear her voice in my head, singing 'Stay Gold' such a beautiful singing voice to come out of that mouth...such a pretty m... I stopped suddenly, my eyes fixed on Anna's mouth for a second before I heard myself shouting out "AIRWAY!"
Throwing myself down onto the sand like a woman possessed, I tilted Anna's head back and put my fingers down her throat, looking up at Liam as I did it. "Always check the fudgin' airway first! I'm so stupid, I totally forgot, that's what they told us in School, we had a guy in but I wasn't really listening as much as I should have been because Amy had bought some cupcakes in so I was..." I pulled my fingers out and with it came a long string of seaweed followed by a jet of water that was propelled by Anna who, with the blockage cleared, suddenly choked back into life coughing and spluttering out what seemed like it was half an ocean's worth of salty sea water.
"Anna! Oh my God! It's ok, it's ok..." Liam put her on her side and wrapped his arm around her as she coughed out the remainder of the water that had been blocking her airway.
Zayn hugged me so hard that he lifted me off my feet. "Tilly, you're a genius."
I grinned. "Imagine what I could have done if I hadn't have been distracted by food and had listened to the whole lecture!'
Eventually, Anna managed to sit up with some help from Liam. As Zayn shone the torch on her, she put her hands up to shield her eyes from the bright light. The long sleeved shirt she was wearing had ridden up her arms where Liam had hauled her out of the water, so as she lifted them up, the light fell onto them, making us all gasp silently at the sight of hundreds of ugly, red scars, remnants of deep cuts with a sharp object over almost every inch of her pale skin. I was unable to hide my shock, my hand went to my mouth and Anna noticed straight away, struggling to pull down the wet shirt sleeves.
"Anna, it's ok." I reached out and touched her hand but she pulled it away. "Get off me!" She desperately tried to hide her scars with her shirt. "Yes, I'm a freak, ok?" A detached look glazed over her face and she turned her head away. "Just leave me alone, all of you. I didn't want to be rescued, you should have left me there. Just go away."
Liam looked at us both in shock. I bit my lip and shrugged my shoulders, unsure of how to handle what was happening. I had no idea how much trouble Anna had been in emotionally all this time. I really thought she had started to come out of her shell over the last few weeks, since she'd been spending time with Liam, she'd seemed happy. What had happened to make her like this?
Liam put his hand gently up to her face, there were tears in his eyes. "It's ok Anna, whatever's happened, it's ok, I'm here for you. I'm..."
"I DON'T WANT YOUR PITY!" Anna spat. "And don't tell me that's not why you're with me because I know now."
"Anna..." Liam's face was a mixture of confusion and devastation.
Suddenly Zayn got to his feet, he was shaking with rage. "This is wrong and I'm sorting it out, right now."
As he turned on his heel, I got to my feet and locked eyes with his. I was still shaking. "What's going on Zayn? Where are you going?"
He looked at me for a second, his eyes blazing with anger, then he turned and started off in the direction of the house, shouting as he went.
"TO SEE MACKENZIE."
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