Page 41 of One Last Secret

“Celeste! Wait! Don’t do this!”

There’s no answer.

I jump over the ledge, and for the second time that day, I rush down the path that leads to Fairy Cove, the magical place where only a few short days ago, I took the first steps to breaking through Celeste’s depression and leading her to a better future.

“Celeste!”

I reach the cove and still don’t see her. The tide is low, but if she’s going where I think she is, then it won’t matter. I rush into the water and sprint out to sea. “Celeste! Where are you?”

There’s no answer. The slope is gradual, but the fairy treasure is only forty yards from the shore. The inlet stretches for hundreds of yards beyond that.

When I am one hundred yards from shore, the water is up to my shoulders. I swim, my eyes stinging from my tears as well as the saltwater. The water is clear in the calm of low tide, but I see no sign of her.

My arms start to burn, and water stings my injured scalp, but I don’t stop. I swim all of the way to the vanishing point, ignoring the fatigue that threatens to be my undoing. When I reach the row of rocks that protect the inlet from the might of the Pacific, I grab on and look for Celeste.

I don’t see her. Not out to sea and not in the waters of the inlet. She couldn’t have made it out here so fast, could she? I wasn’t that far behind her.

It occurs to me that I might be wrong about the vanishing point. This is the point the newspaper labels as the vanishing point, but Celeste may never have seen that article. It was written over a decade before she was born.

She might know about her father's hidden cove, though. She might have followed him there. Hell, she knows about the quartz and amethyst geode near the tunnel. She might have found it by accident.

I swim back. I am a good swimmer, but I rarely indulge, and the distance I have to swim is grueling. It’s only my fear for Celeste that moves me forward, and by the time I can walk, I am utterly spent. I see figures on the shore and recognize Evelyn, Jasmine and the officers. Jasmine cups her voice and calls for me to come back, but I ignore her.

I stumble toward the tunnel and pray that the tide will hold.

I move through the tunnel, calling her name. “Celeste! Please wait! Don’t do this!”

There’s no answer. When I burst into the cave, I see no sign of her. For a sickening moment, I think she’s gone to sea already, but then I look at the sand. It is still moist from the recently receded tide. It’s comforting to know that the water won’t rise anytime soon, but I don’t feel any relief. I walk onto the cave-sheltered beach and the sand molds to my feet, leaving perfect footprints behind.

There are no footprints here but mine. Celeste didn’t come this way.

I collapse to the sand and bury my head in my hands. I’ve lost her. She’s vanished, just like Victor. Just like Lisa. Just like Annie.

I force myself to my feet and back through the tunnel. I know if I stop for long, my muscles will cramp. Already, I can feel them starting to seize. I rub my arms and roll my ankles as I walk to try to stifle the inevitable stiffening. I need to reach shore first.

When I reach the shore, I see the officers rushing down the path towards me. I think they’re arresting me at first, but they are gentle, and when I collapse onto the sand, one of them asks with genuine concern if I’m all right.

“I’m all right,” I assure him. “I’m just exhausted.”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” the second officer says, looking at the vanishing point at the mouth of the inlet. “You must have swum close to a mile. I don’t think I could do that.”

It was probably less than half that distance, but it certainly felt like a mile. My legs and arms are spasming, and I have to lie on the sand and submit to the indignity of letting the officers massage them to soothe the pain.

That indignity pales in comparison to the smugness on Jasmine’s face. “If you’d just let me take her, this wouldn’t have happened.”

I don’t give her the satisfaction of a response. I stand by my actions regardless of what’s happened. Celeste made a poor choice that I should probably have foreseen, but there is no world where going to estranged family far from her home is beneficial to her right now.

Still, she would be safe. I don’t even know if she’s alive now.

And where could she have gone? I’ve found the vanishing point, and I’ve found the portal she’s dreamed about. Where did she go? What “vanishing point” did she travel to this time?”

Maybe the portal is different too. I realize that I've made the same mistake I made earlier. I assume the vanishing point is the one labeled by the article, the mouth of the inlet that feeds Victor's private cove. Then I assume it's the hidden cove, the haven that Victor writes about in her journal.

But I’m not looking for Victor. I’m looking for Celeste.

Inspiration strikes me. Victor recorded his vanishing point. Perhaps Celeste recorded hers.

I get to my feet, grimacing as a final few spasms run through my legs. Evelyn comes quickly to me. “You should rest, Mary. It’s hours until high tide, and if your leg cramps on the way up, you might fall.”

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