Nightmare Shore

Kasedy walks down the beach looking perfect in her one-piece swimsuit. I ran to ketch up to her aware that my old swimsuit bottoms were slipping down. My tangled, long, blonde hair streaming out behind my. 

"Megan! Are you coming or not?" Kasedy yells over her shoulder, "We have to hurry unless you want mom to yell at us!" I hurry to get home but I can't help notice how swiftly Kasedy jumps over a large log. Her blonde curls bounce around her head. She reaches the stairs that lead up to our house, slows her pace, and jumps up the first step. I know mom says we are the same I know for a fact I weigh ten pounds more, and that I am at least two inches shorter.Why did I have to be the ugly twin? Kasedy was good at everything, she was a soccer star, spelling bee champion, A+ student, and well she was just good at everything. I was average. My grades were often C's and D's. Mom never allowed either of us to tell each other our grades, but I could tell by the way Kasedy looked after mom had looked at her report card last semester that she had gotten straight A's. 

"Megan, are you all right?" Mom stares at me waiting for an answer, "You look a little unhappy."

"I'm perfectly fine. Just a little tired!" I say sharply, "I'm not hungry any more! I'll be back later I'm going for a walk." I jump up and run out of the kitchen before anybody can stop me. As I step outside into the cool night air I notice a small shadow at the end of our dock. As I slowly descend the steps it moves. I freeze in an awkward position. As it moves I see it take human form. The shadow is about the size of me. A little thinner, and a little shorter. Probably about an eleven. Then the shadow turns around and I see her face. It's pale white with two wide blue eyes. Her lips are light purple and she is wearing a ragged one-piece blue swimsuit. She starts walking towards, me staring at me. 

"Who are you?" I yell but instead of answering she comes up next to me and grabs my hand. 

"Come with," she whispers in my ear, "Come with me and take an evening swim." She pulls me down the steps towards the dock. When we reach the end she lets go of my arm and steps behind me. Then she puts out her arms out in front her and pushes me forward. I fall into the water sinking deeper into the lake. Just as I start swimming up someone reaches down and grabs my arm. They pull me on to dock. 

"Trying to commit suicide or something?" Kasedy looks down at me with a cute and maybe devilish twinkle in her eye. I ketch my breath and look up into my twin sister's eyes.

"Didn't you see her?" I ask hoping and waiting for her to say yes.

"Who? Nobodies out here but us." She looks around searching for someone, "Just us." I get up and run inside trying to avoid mom so she doesn't question my wet clothes. I go up to my room and look out the small window. There she is! The girl who pushed me in, standing rite on the road looking up at our house. 

In the morning I wake up early and leave note for mom saying that I will be home around noon. I pack a small backpack with some crackers, my swimsuit, a towel, my favorite pink water bottle and, my digital camera. I run back up stairs and throw on my pink lace tank top and a pair of denim shorts. When I reach the bottom step I almost trip at the sight of Kasedy glaring up at me.

“Going somewhere?” She asks, “Mom will be unimpressed. I try to push her out of the way, but she stands strong blocking my path.

“I was just going to take pictures of the beach and maybe swim for a bit.” I clench my fists and try to keep my face neutral, “Just move, ok.” She slides past me and slowly makes her way up the steps. I quickly run to the kitchen, grab my bag, and step out onto the porch before Kasedy could change her mind and try to stop me. I wasn’t planning on going to the beach. I wanted to find out more about that girl I had seen the previous night. Who was she and why did she try to drown me.

“Hi.” I turned around and saw her, “Sorry about last night, I was really tired and I didn’t mean to push you in.” I stare at her and I know she means it.

“It’s alright!”  I respond, “I’m Megan by the way!” I smile hopefully not to cheesily.

“I’m Chelsea Finn!” She opens her mouth then shuts it unsure of what to say. She starts walking in the opposite direction of the beach. I was about to ask why she wasn’t heading towards the beach but decide not to take any chances of ruining my “friendship” with this strange girl.

“Hey Chelsea, um.” I wasn’t sure what to say, “Where are you going?” She turns around and shrugs, then she keeps walking. I follow her up a steep hill and around a sharp corner. We end up on a tall cliff high above the ocean. I look down and wonder how high we are.

“C’mon we are almost there!” She shouts from the other side of a large boulder. I carefully climb up stepping in the small crevices in the stones rough edges. It was really high. I slide down the other side and almost fall off the cliffs sharp edge. Luckily Chelsea grabs my shirt and drags me over to a cave before I can fall. I slowly set myself down on a flat rock and sigh with relief that I had made it someplace safe.

“What are you doing?” She cries out, “You need to see my canoe!” I get up as to not disappoint her and stalk after her. We reach a long, steep, down hill. She slides down, no problem. But me. That’s a different story. At first I try to walk down but quickly I realize I must slide. My bare legs get scratch as I plunge towards the bottom. I fall rite into Chelsea, but quickly recover after noticing a large wooden canoe. Where had I seen that before? Then I remembered.  My mother’s old scrapbook had, had a picture of her and two other girls in that canoe.

“Where did you get that?” I yell.

“Somewhere!” She smirks with greedy little eyes staring rite into mine.

“You stole that from my family!”

“No I didn’t.”

“You’re a liar!”

“So!” She grabs the canoe and my arm. I try to get away from her but we are going down hill so quickly I have to concentrate on not losing my balance and plummeting to my death. We reach the bottom of the cliff and Chelsea plunks the canoe down into the water.

“Finally I can have some fun in the water with you.” She cackles. She pushes me face first into the canoe. Suddenly everything goes black.

Splash! I feel the freezing cold water hit my body. I try to swim up, but realize my hands have been tied. My whole body shivers. As I look up my eyes barely are able to see the outline of a large wooden canoe. Chelsea! I grab the binding with my teeth and yank it apart. It had not been done very well. I reach down and undo the feet bindings. I swiftly swim to the top. Before I can ketch my breath something grabs me and pulls me back under the water. I accidently scream and let water flood my mouth. My ears pop. I keep sinking lower and lower into the water.

“Megan. Megan. MEGAN!” Kasedy screams into my ear, “Are you alright. You were um, talking in your sleep.” I stare at her, shocked that I was alive.

“What was I saying?”  I feel my body making sure I am all right. She looks at me and shrugs. She walks back to her bed and sits down before she tucks in her small feet. I peek at our clock checking the time. 11:56pm. I wasn’t tired so I got out of my bed and shoved my feet into my sneakers. I just HAD to find out more about Chelsea and that canoe. I knew that canoe had belonged to my grandfather but I hadn’t seen since, well I had never actually seen it before in person, just in old photographs from when my mom was a girl. The photos always had her and two other girls. I knew one of the girls was my aunt Shirley who had died in a car accident when I was two. The other girl my mom refused to talk about whenever I had asked her so I just left it at one of her childhood friends.

I silently tip toe to the kitchen and grab my bag filling it with a flashlight, rope, and my water bottle. I slowly step outside. My old short-shorts cling to me making my thighs sweat. My tank top, on the other hand, sways about my body. Suddenly I hear thunder in the distance. Lightning cracks the far off sky making me freeze. Maybe the storm had already passed by while I was sleeping and was going away from me.  Or not… The first raindrop falls on my head. Great, just great!

I start making my way away from my house towards the cliffs. I reach the one I had been to in my dream and climb up it. When I reach the top I notice the cave I had seen in my dream. I walk past it and almost trip as I reach the slope leading down to the water. I glide down swiftly and land on some soft moss covering the rocks beneath. I start making my way towards the spot were the canoe had been. When I reach it the canoe is gone. Suddenly I here a splash from the lake and I wade into the water trying to see what had made the splash through the fog. That’s when I notice the canoe floating on the water. Someone is seated in the canoe barely visible through the haze. I drop my backpack and dive into the water.  As I swim up to the canoe a pale hand reaches for mine and pulls me up, and into the canoe.

“Hey Megan.” Chelsea stares down at the water hardly even noticing me.

“What are you doing out here with my grandfather’s boat?” I ask. She just stares at me astounded.

“His boat?” She yells, “This boat has belonged to me ever since I was born. Your stupid grandfather loved it so much he let me keep it at his house in return for him using it with his two stupid daughters. This boat is mine, not yours, not your mom’s, not even your stupid uncle.” I scoot backwards in my seat.

“W-what?” I stammer.

“Oh yah! I forgot that you don’t know the whole story.” She sneers at me, “Well let me tell you.”

I was twelve years old. Your mom, your aunt, and I all went out on my canoe. We weren’t wearing life jackets like most twelve year olds. We were in the middle of the lake when a storm hit. It blew us this way, and that way. Suddenly as we were about to head back your aunt pushed me in. And guess what. Your mom just paddled away and let me drown. I did, drown.

I gaze at her astonished. “But if you died then how are you here?”

“I’m a ghost!” She yells, “And I’m going to get revenge!” She lunges forwards, towards me and scratches my arms. I push her back and leap into the water. She grins devilishly and plunges in after me.

“Now I have the upper hand!” She screams. I know she does. I suck at swimming, I always have. She speeds towards me splashing water behind. Just as she reaches me, I dive under and swim towards the shore. Suddenly, Chelsea reaches down towards me and grabs my leg. I try furiously to get away but her grip is too tight. Then I notice them, a pile of pearly whit bones underneath a large boulder. I kick free of Chelsea’s grasp and swim to the top to ketch my breath. I then dive under towards the bones. I reach the bottom and grab the small stack. I look up and see nothing but water.  Chelsea and the canoe were gone. I swim up to the surface and to the shore. Quickly I make my back home and up to my room.

“What’cha got in the bag?” Kasedy stops me, “Is like some dead animal’s bones or something?”

“Yah, totally.” I roll my eyes, “I went out in the middle of the night to smuggle a dead animal into our house.” Kasedy giggles but quickly returns her straight face.

“No, seriously. What’s in the bag?” She stares at me, “Tell me or I’ll tell mom.”

“Fine.”

“Wow!” Kasedy exclaims after I’ve told her everything, “So we have to bury her or risk an angry ghost trying to kill us for the rest of our lives.”

“I’m guessing that’s all she ever wanted.” I wipe a tear off of my cheek, “MOM! WE NEED TO HAVE A FUNERAL!”

The next week we had a funeral for Chelsea, and she never bothered us again.

The End.