Beached: Lisa

The weekend had finally come. Finally, meaning here, at long last. The girls of room 113 had thought that the weekend had left them and gone elsewhere. Neither Lisa nor Mara had seen a Saturday in- well, in about 6 days. They had been looking forward to a good long Saturday at the nearby beach. Nearby, meaning here, a couple hours away.

They headed for the beach at about nine in the morning, which was early for a college student. The beach, they knew, would be crowded, so they had told themselves to get up earlier than normal to get a good spot. Good spot, meaning here, not a mile from the actual shore. That would be good.

They finally got to the beach. Ah, sun! Ah, spring! Ah, salty air! Ah, weekend! They were overjoyed to find the beach almost completely empty. It wasn't even lunch time, and it was so open and quiet. It was beautiful. Even the life guard stands were somewhat empty, only every other one occupied at all. Every other one had quite a distance between them, so there was no worry of being disturbed, but they were close enough that, if an emergency called, at least two life guards would be ready to help.

Lisa and Mara hit the water with no delay. They raced each other to the waves and threw themselves into the swells. The waves seemed calm and caressed each of the girls. Mara drifted a ways down the shore, so Lisa carried on where she was, trying to reach the bottom of the ocean floor. It was harder than she thought, and each time she resurfaced, she laughed at how terrible she was at her simple task.

Almost an hour passed before Lisa noticed that Mara was still missing.

Where had she gone? Lisa shaded her eyes and scanned the shore first. No sign of Lisa there. Actually, no sign on anyone there. No one at all. That was slightly unnerving. Lisa turned to the swells down the shore, where she had last seen Mara. Nothing. Mara was a very capable swimmer- she had been swimming for much, much longer than Lisa herself had been. It didn't make sense for her to just disappear like this. Lisa gulped. Where had Mara gone? Maybe the bathrooms?

She pulled herself out of the water and ran to one of the high life guard stands. She shaded her eyes and stared up at the still person sitting on top. "Hello?" She called. No response. Not even a slight movement. "Hello?!" Still nothing. She yelled as loudly as she could. The person on top was still and stony.

Lisa shook the stand, fed up with the life guard. The person swayed, then slowly- too slowly, as if in slow motion, fell from the stand. Lisa gasped. "What on earth?"

She bent over the person laying face up in the sand.

Dead eyes stared up at nothing. A dead mouth hung open, as if in a silent, long-since-stifled scream.