Act 3 | Chapter 2

The Bates County welcome sign flew past of as we sped down the highway and out of the city. It was the first time I had actually left the County line. My mother never took us on vacation or even bothered to take us out further than the city's limits. I never thought I would ever leave, but here I was. Sitting in the passenger side seat of my girlfriend's car as the two of us drove down a long stretch of highway while listening to the radio. Rock music played as the two of us sang along and laughed for the first hour of the ride, then it became apparent to both of us how boring the ride would actually be.

"So where did we plan on stopping?" I asked Riley.

"Atlantic City." She smiled, "We can stop there, spend the rest of the day at the beach, and then drive to New York the next day. Did you ever find a motel we can stay at?"

"Oh, I found something better." On my phone was a website for a large forest a couple of miles away from the beach. They offered these isolated cabins that people could stay in. Judging by the pictures, they all looked like cabins straight out of those horror films, which got me really excited. When I explained the plan to Riley she gave me a nod of agreement and said: "Sounds like a plan." I turned around and looked into the backseat. Both seats had been put down to make room for our suitcases, both of them black and containing fresh clothes to wear along with a few other things we might need. I had my string backpack in the front seat with me and opened it up to pull out a book. It was a new fantasy series I was getting into recently, and hopefully, it would help me pass the time.

Eventually, there was a part in the book where the characters themselves arrived at a beach. Slowly, I looked over to Riley.

"Hey, listen to this." I said, before reading the paragraphs out loud, "They walked deeper into the jungle. Elias wasn't kidding when he said it was much hotter on the island. The further into the jungle they went, the warmer it became. The sound of music became louder and louder until it reached its peak once the group made it to a clearing. The sun shined brightly down onto the bay. Build around two massive rocks, that stretched up into the clouds. The smaller one was more jagged, and the larger one was smoother and more rounded. It had a flat top, with a watchtower built up at the peak. Between the two massive rocks was a bridge, connecting them. It arched over a river that ran through the sand, making it appear like the smaller rock was on a small island of its own. Along the beach where several huts. They were all lined up against the wall of jungle trees that ran around the bay area. Wooden platforms where constructed, and served as walkways. The beach itself was almost pure white sand. The waves crashed onto the shore and rolled back into the sea. There were hundreds of people on the beach. Elias was right. Some of them had wings, others were dwarves, and there were a few vampires, but very few." I had to take a moment to take a few deep breaths before continuing.

"On one side of the beach was a large connecting of hut's made from jungle wood, and straw roofs. They were built onto the water, with it being shallow enough to make a small town. The hut's where arranged in a circle, that outlined the edge of the shallow water. A distant part of the beach had several small tents put up. They looked like traditional tents one would take camping, only they were small enough to fit only two people. They were arranged in rows along the beach. The water was crystal clear, and a coral reef was just visible at the drop off into deeper water. Scattered around the beach where several water holes. They were like miniature lakes, that once jumped into, led to a series of underwater caves and tunnels to explore. Around them were stone structures to mark their locations. Each one was built like a pillar that stuck out of the sand."

"Sounds like a great place to visit." Riley joked, smiling at me.

"Yeah, if only this place was real. Sounds like a lot of fun." I relaxed back in my chair and started to read in my head, only for Riley to gently poke me from her seat.

"Don't stop reading it to me! I need something to entertain myself too!"

"Alright, Alright." I giggled and started reading the book out loud for her. It helped pass the time and only a good ten hours later did we arrive at Atlantic City. It was so beautiful, much more than our own Bate's County. When the two of us got to the beach itself, we both looked out at it in astonishment. It was amazing. The long white sand that stretched across the city's length, with hundreds and many thousands of people at it. A little while later we managed to find parking nearby, and we both climbed out of the car. I only grabbed what I needed. My towel, sunscreen and my bathing suit from the suitcase. Riley, on the other hand, started lifting her shirt off to reveal her own swimsuit underneath.

"You've been driving for ten hours wearing that?!" I asked, a bit confused.

"Why wouldn't I?" She tilted her head.

"Didn't it get uncomfortable?"

"A bit." Riley smiled. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"I'm going to go change, I'll be right back." Gesturing to wait for me, I left to the nearby building to go change in the bathroom. To my surprise, much like the rest of the city, the bathroom looked beautiful, with a floor covered in a layer of old pennies that were built into the floor itself. It looked genuinely pretty and I was tempted to take a picture of the design but chose not to instead. I closed the door to the bathroom stall and began stripping, taking my top of first and tieing the blood-red bikini around my torso, before doing the same to the bottom. One I was all done, I stuffed my clothes into my string backpack and left, meeting back up with Riley at the car. She looked at me and immediately, that same look showed in her eyes.

"You ready?" She asked, staring directly at my petite chest. She didn't even bother trying to make it look less obvious. I returned the favor to her, by glancing at hers, making it completely obvious, and causing her to blush and turn away slightly. I giggled and nodded.

"I am." I wrapped the string backpack over my shoulder as the two of us walked down to the beach.

"So what do you want to do first?" I asked, carefully laying my blanket down on the soft sand. The feeling of it between my toes was relaxing, like that satisfying feeling where it makes your feet tingle.

"Swimming?" Riley rolled her eyes, "That's why we came. Plus it's super hot out right now."

I stood up once my towel was placed down and my bag was placed onto it. There was some concern that it might get stolen, but we were pretty close to the waves, so if I just kept an eye on our belongings it should be okay. I looked to the water and watched as small and large waves formed, and crashed into the beach, making large portions of the sand wet.

"Bates County doesn't have a beach like this," Riley commented, taking a deep breath and looking around.

"No, it just has that one really big lake." I stared at one person in particular as they were knocked over by one of the waves. "We aren't going to go too far out, are we? I'm still not really a good swimmer."

"Sure. We don't need to go to like, the really deep ends, just the shallow ones." The two of us walked up to the beach and slowly reached the water. Once it hit my feet, I jumped back with a small yelp. The water was freezing, like ice cold. It made me shiver, and wrap my arms around myself as a chill went up to my spine. Riley laughed a bit and went to take my hand.

"Come on." She said and helped pull me deeper into the sea. With every other step, more water splashed onto my bare skin, making me shiver more. When the water got up to my thighs, I stopped and looked at her. "It's okay Zoe, just take it slow. The more you swim the warmer it will get." Riley commented. I gave her another nod and kept walking. It became increasingly difficult to do so, with the water forcing me to use my legs harder and push against it to walk. IT wasn't until the water was up to our stomachs that Riley stopped and turned at me. Waves would crash by us, and she soon had an idea. "You maybe wanna step in one?"

"In Front of the waves?"

"Yeah, but first, we should make sure you know how to swim properly."

"I know how to swim properly, dummy, I'm just not any good at it." I giggled. Riley took my hand and started leading me into the path of an approaching wave.

"Alright, so here's what you do, face the wave with your back and when it gets closer, jump with it, and it'll carry s back to shore."

"What? Wouldn't it just knock us under if we did that? And how do we see the wave coming if our back is turned?" I started questioning Riley's plan.

"You can usually feel when a wave is coming, now come on. Don't think about it." She turned me around and the two of us waited. She was right in the sense that I could feel when the wave was approaching. "Wait for it," Riley said, holding my hand under the blue sea. "Now!" She jumped backward, alongside me and the two of us where forced under the water as the wave knocked us down and drowned us. It was even colder to be completely submerged in water. In a slight panic, I swam back up quickly and gasped for air when I reached the top. I rubbed the saltwater from my eyes and looked around. I couldn't see Riley. She hasn't come back up yet.

"Riley, I asked, looking back and forth. There was no sign of her anywhere. My heart started to race as I looked down and tried feeling under the water for her, "Riley?" Suddenly, there was a loud splashing sound followed up by a pair of hands grabbing at my back. A scream was let out, causing me to jump and swim forward, away from the stranger. I quickly turned my head and saw Riley laughing while pushing out a lump of her wet hair out of her eyes.

"Are you serious!" I yelled, getting back to my feet and standing on the ocean floor. Riley tried to follow through with her joke and made a gurgling noise with the water that was still in her mouth. She kept her arms outstretched and slowly started walking over to me, making animalistic sounds. "No!" I started backing away from her, starting to giggle myself.

"Scared yah!" she laughed, spitting the water out and gagging a bit.

"Yeah. You did at first. I was worried that you may be drowned!" I started approaching her.

"Zoey, I was literally just underneath you."

"I couldn't see that!" I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Glancing past Riley, I saw another wave approaching. It looked bigger than the last one and an idea popped into my head. "Alright," I smirked, "Now it's my turn to scare you," I said with a mischievous chuckle. Though in my head, it wasn't going to be any traditional scare.

"You know, telling someone you're going to scare them before you actually do, makes it less scary." Riley crossed her arms.

"Oh, you'll see." I waited in patience. Once the wave got close enough, Riley felt it and turned her head slightly to see the large wave come crashing down onto us. She let out a yelp and I quickly dove under the water just as the wave came over me. Riley was pushed underwater and close to me. This was my opportunity. I grabbed at Riley's sides and brought my hands down the waistband of her bikini bottom. Quickly, I slid it off her leg until it was off completely, then quickly swam back up to the surface.

Riley emerged from the water and looked around, bringing both her hands to cover her privates under the water. "You did not just..." She had a look of shock on her face. I smirked and tossed it behind me into deeper water.

"Better go get it before anyone sees you~" I smirked and moved out of the way as Riley quickly swam past me, trying her best to keep her torso below the visible water level as possible. This was the fear I had in mind. Being see bottomless in public. When Riley got the bottom half of her swimsuit back, she put it on and swam back to me. Her face was still bright red with pure embarrassment, and she had that shocked expression on her face still.

"You sick pervert!" She said, sounding a bit mad, but cracked a smile anyway.

"Told you I could scare you~"

"You are so bad!" Riley chuckled and swam over to me.

"Am I~?"

"Yes, yes you are!" she laughed and grabbed me with both arms pushing me under the water, giggling.