Page 5 of Vacation Friends

Maddie’s watch showed she was right on time.

Wait . . . there were a couple of surfers farther down the beach. And a couple of people jogged a trail in the distance, barely visible except for the light from the softly glowing moon above.

She shivered.

Had coming out here been a mistake? Probably.

But she was already here.

She would wait a few more minutes.

Maddie glanced at the waves as they crashed on the shore. Black rocks bordered the sand, and a cliff rose in the distance. When she’d arrived on Sunday, she’d been warned about how dangerous the cliffs were with the jagged rocks poking out of the ocean below. Many people had lost their lives being too adventurous and careless near the cliff edges.

She’d be staying far away.

Maddie squinted as she stared at the ocean.

Something caught her eye as it floated in the water. What was that? It wasn’t a dead mammal of some sort, was it? She’d heard about whales and dolphins occasionally washing up on the beach. Was that what she was looking at?

She crept closer and let out a gasp.

That wasn’t a whale, she realized.

That was a . . . man.

Just then, he lifted his head and yelled something.

Yelled for help.

Maddie’s adrenaline surged, and her heart began to thrash in her chest.

She glanced around. No one else was close enough to help.

Only her.

She reached for her phone.

It wasn’t in her pocket.

She must have left it in her room. What a terrible mistake!

She glanced at the ocean again. She couldn’t let the man die!

Taking a deep breath, she rushed toward the water. A wave nearly took her out before she was even ankle-deep.

But she didn’t stop.

If she could get past this line of shore break, maybe she could reach the man.

Despite her fear, something compelled her to keep moving forward. If there was any chance she could help . . . she couldn’t leave him there to die.

Another wave hit her, and she fell back. Water engulfed her.

As it passed, she stood, coughing to expel the salty water from her lungs.

She only had a few seconds until the next wave crashed. She needed to move faster.

But wave after wave knocked her down. The undercurrent tugged at her legs. Water filled her mouth—her lungs—as she fought to get to the man.

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