The Boy in the Union-Jack Trainers

Part 1: The Sirens

He'd woken up early, because of the seagulls - screeching like sirens as they soured overhead. Their angelic white wings spread wide, making them glide on the wind's back. Their voices raised, in a high pitched cry, like weird hags cackling. They haunted his every move. Couldn't they just fly off somewhere else?

Toby had been at Rippleside for over a month now, it seemed that those stupid birds' aim was to make his time there even worse than it already was.

He slid out of the side door pulling his raincoat over his messy fair head. The weather was foul. His shivering fingers fuddled with the buttons. It was cold. The hood did little to prevent the icy rain from running down his neck. The wind whistled through his hair - making it fly upwards like a golden halo, while painting his pale cheeks a rosy shade. He shoved his num hands into his pockets and made his way up the cliff path.

The footpath was was barely used - therefore it was over run with wild shrubbery: brambles clung to his jeans and nettles nipped his bare shins. His union-jack trainers, (which were a size too small for him,) squelched in the mud. Toby bent down next to a patch of long grass. The droplets caught on the stems and shimmered before running down the stalks and exploding.

Finally he reached the highest point of the cliff. And there it stood, Dad's bench. It was now covered in a blanket of rain and salt, moss grew on the sodden wood. But there was no hiding the names carved into the back of one of the rotting planks: Dylan & Anna.

Tears stung the boy's brown eyes. He traced the names with his index finger, before examining the layer of dust and dirt residue which now rested on his finger tip.

Toby stumbled away curling his fingers together, balling them into fists, his stubby finger nails digging, into his sweaty palms. Thousands of questions flew around his head like angry wasps in a nest. The questions kept piling up, and there were never any answers.

He stared hopelessly at the churning waves, letting the bitter spray tickle his nostrils.

His Dad used to take him up to this exact spot everyday when the weather was good, they'd sit together on the bench with their sandwiches - giving tidbits to the gulls, Something Mum would never let him do as she thought it encouraged them too much. She was right of course. She was always right.

As he gazed at the rumbling ocean he felt as sense of nothingness that he'd never felt before. It was as if he wasn't Toby Knight anymore... he wasn't anything anymore. He felt nothing. All those problems that nagged at him, eroding him away piece by piece, (just like the sea does the cliff face,) couldn't get to him anymore. He felt empty.

A quiver of a smile crept up his face, however it didn't reach his eyes. It wasn't a happy laugh or a pleasant grin it was: a sad smile - a tiny tug upwards of the lips. But it was a smile nonetheless.

Toby could sense the scenery around him closing in. He wasn't stood on the cliff he was back at Rippleside, his Mum's arms draped around him. A familiar silhouette blocked the doorway.

"Dad...?" Toby's clumsy feet fumbled forward towards the figure. His hands, once clenched - reached out, yet his fingers wrapped around thin air. The illusion was over just as quickly as it began. And he was falling, falling from high. Down he plunged, deeper and deeper still.

The water was freezing, so cold if took his breath away. The waves were treacherous, kicking him about like a ball in a football game. His throat stung, he couldn't even cry out for help - not that there would've been anyone there to listen.

The white winged spectators laughed. Toby tried frantically to escape but every time his fingers skimmed the surface the waves dragged him down again to the dark depths. Why try to fight it? He had no chance, no chance of escaping from the oceans grasp.

His lungs stung. His fingers shot upwards clawing for air. The boy had no fight left in him.

He gave up.

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Hello again, :)

I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my other posts: The Time Keeper and Gruesome Beasts.

Thanks,

- KP