Kat Wright Tic Tocc 4

TIC TOCC 4 3/05/11 500 words

by Mooncake Lizzie

“Whilst admiring the peaceful sunset vista it was hard to imagine that the beach had been shut to the public all day following the unexpected.....”

Morgan glanced quickly up the beach. Some people, no bigger than matchsticks at this distance, bobbed about at the edge of the cliffside railings. He moved, protectively shielding the body from prying eyes and the telephoto lenses that even the smallest of mobile phones seemed to have. He had already covered her with his own coat, so no one could stare. Her dead beauty should not be revealed.

“Close off the beach.” he decided. Timmins looked doubtful.

“Really? Is it so important that we need to keep everyone away? Dont forget the Boardmasters is on and there's an overspill to these other beaches in the area. People will have no where to go if they're not into the music.”

“It's not up for debate. Do it. And keep everyone away until the specialist from Gweek comes. Everyone.”

Timmins shrugged and walked briskly off, waving his arms and speaking into his radio. The old Chief Inspector was a funny sort. He often wondered about him. Time he retired really. Ah well...

Morgan stared after him until he was well away then he turned and looked at the body. His professional mask slipped and tears welled in his green eyes. When he was well and truly alone he began to take off his clothes, quickly, all the while looking toward the top of the beach for the arrival of intrusive emergency workers. He realised with relief that they would be delayed by the heavy traffic of the music festival.

When the shoes and trousers came off his tail stretched and twitched into life, silvery scales sensing freedom as the constricting Mans clothing was pulled away. He lay gently down and wrapped her in his arms. Her beautiful face was almost transparent already, soon she would fade away. The fatal injury, where she had been hit by a dredger over in the harbour, formed a strange pattern, not of the sea, but reminiscent of land, metal and wood, like the man made vessel that had killed her.. A filigree of deep red leaf shapes was etched into her brain and down her back.

He held her close, tears flowing into her hair.

I should never have left you, he whispered into her pearly ear; with words of love she had waited so long to hear, but he had been interested only in pursuing career onland. Now, she never would hear them, unless- unless he went back...

A second, a tiny flash of recognition. The tide had turned. Long Atlantic breakers soon rolled in, thirty feet at a time, eating up the ridged wet sand. Painfully, he inched towards the water, every muscle straining, his tail gleaming with strength while hers faded further until the first curl of white water lapped at her sides. Then it shone with an illusion of life.

When Timmins returned with the team there was nothing left, not even a mark in the sand, even Morgan's clothes had been washed out to sea, wrapped around a barnacled chamber in a wreck out in the bay.