Moonlight Lovers

Twenty-eight

THE DAYS in Clessau had been surprisingly quiet and uneventful. Despite the urgency in his parents’ voice the last time they were calling him, Caleb could not sense fear in their disposition now that he is around. If all that was just a ruse to make their son return to their home, that would be too much. But then again, it wasn’t really their consistent begging that made him come back. It was an entirely different matter, so he couldn’t really blame them that he was bored to death right now.

He sighed as he went down the stairs to get the vacuum cleaner. He needed to do something to occupy his mind, to keep himself busy. He couldn’t stand just laying around the house. Sure, his mother would sometimes ask for his help even to the things that she could clearly do by herself, just to let him know how much he is needed around the house, but mostly there was just nothing to do. It’s the end of the Spring, he could do a little cleaning in his room before it starts to get too cold.

“Caleb! Caleb!”

Caleb looked over his shoulders and found his younger sister, Amelia, looking incredulously at him, her hands on her narrow hips. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs while he carries the vacuum up the stairs.

“What is it, Ames?” He asked.

Amelia sighed and rolled her eyes. “What’s going on with you? You just vacuumed your room this morning. How many times do you need it cleaned?”

“Oh.” Caleb looked at the vacuum. “I did?”

Ames approached him and grabbed the cleaning equipment from his hands. “You need to relax. You are getting stressed. Mom is worrying so much about you. Seriously, what’s the matter?”

It was Caleb’s turn to sigh this time. “I just can’t find something better to do around here.”

Amelia starting walking down the stairs with the vacuum. “Well, I kept telling you to go with me and my friends to the beach but you keep saying no.”

That was true. The second day after he arrived in Clessau, Amelia had been asking him to go to Hilena Beach with the girl she introduced on the night their mom hosted a dinner for his return. But he had been holed up in his room most of the time, and when he comes out, he wanted to do something with the free time he’s got but always says no to anything his sister asks him to do.

“Just once, maybe have fun with us. Like we used to do when we were kids. I know that you miss your friends in Clairhill, but you’re here now and you have friends here, too, and they miss you,” Amelia said before finally disappearing at the bottom of the stairs.

Caleb looked outside the window by the stairs. It was a lovely sunny day. It doesn’t look like such a bad day to go to the beach.

CALEB HELD the video camera up as Amelia smiled and waved at the camera, holding a little girl in her hand who was picking seashells on the sand. The girl was their second cousin, their Aunt Yolanda’s daughter, who were both staying as guests in their house.

When he told Ames that he wanted to go to the beach that day, she could not even believe him. When she realized he was telling the truth, she excitedly started making calls to see who wants to go with them. It was a weekend but most of her friends already had prior plans, the only one she got to agree to go with them was Alisha, and Alisha’s brother and his girlfriend, Max and Sue. Their mom asked if they could bring their Aunt Yolanda’s daughter with them, saying the adults were going to have some emergency family meeting or something.

Amelia wanted to complain to their mom, but Caleb agreed to take the child with them. He really didn’t want to stay long at the beach. If they take the child with them, he would have a good excuse to go back early.

They went to the beach in Max’s car and everyone started walking around the shore and playing in the water. The video camera was Ames’s idea. She loves documenting get-togethers like this. She said it would be a good way for her to look back into the happy memories when she’s older. Caleb just didn’t argue anymore and did what Ames want.

Alisha, Ames’s friend, was walking slowly next to him. He noticed that she pretty quiet throughout the drive, too, she was sitting next to him in the back of the car.

“Are you okay, Alisha?”

The girl’s shoulders stiffened and her face flushed. “Y-yes,” she said in a slightly higher voice.

Caleb found her reaction cute. He thought she was probably just not used around him yet. So, he returned his attention to his sister and young cousin from the camera screen.

“Caleb!” She waved. “Take a video of us near that boulder.”

Caleb followed Amelia’s hands and saw a part of the beach where huge, smooth rock formations stood. “Okay,” he said.

Caleb and Alisha walked further, following Amelia and the girl. Then the duo stopped and posed near a tall rock looking at the camera. Caleb laughed watching Amelia teach their younger cousin how to pose.

But his smile slowly disappeared when he noticed something wrong in the video. He saw a face from the crevice between the two boulders where Ames and the girl stood. The face was so pale, Caleb thought that it was a faded part of the rock at first. But its eyes, its crimson red eyes, looked so alive, he knew someone was lurking behind those boulders.

“Ames! Ames!” He started shouting. His sister turned to him. Her face registered worries as panic rises in his voice. “Ames, get the hell out of there!”

Alisha was beginning to be scared beside him, too. “What’s going on, Caleb?”

Caleb dropped the camera on the sand and rushed to his sister, pulling them away from the boulder and checking the crevice.

“Caleb, what’s happening?” Amelia was hugging their cousin who was starting to cry.

He was panting, searching all around the boulder. The face was gone! No one was there!

“Friggin’ tell me, Caleb! You’re scaring us!” Ames shouted.

Max and Sue came near them when they heard the commotion and were both looking concerned.

“I saw someone with a pair of red eyes in the crevice,” he gently said, head lowered down. Realizing now, that maybe it was just his imagination, and starting to feel embarrassed of himself. “I thought I saw someone.”