On Those Nights, I Wished to Come Back

It was early in the night and the beach had just closed. I was standing up by the staircase that led to the sand. The last car had just pulled away from the lot, a red van that looked like it was in its first time by the ocean. I rarely came here. Plus, I wasn't supposed to be there by myself that night, not because, as they say, girls aren't supposed to be out in the middle of nowhere by themselves, but because I thought someone was supposed to be with me, and I was never going to be alone again. And the sand called, and the ocean answered in a haunting harmony. When that battled over keeping things where they were, or letting the darkness take over, inviting me to float out there, to the place where the depth and the surface were the same color emptiness. That was a feeling. My eyes tried to figure out what was in front of them once the headlights disappeared behind me, And that's when the ocean even began to blend with the sky in one single infinite painting right across from me. It was then that I heard it, a voice coming from the darkness. Come back. It said, please don't leave me. My name is Edwin, and here is a scary story. It's a long story that I didn't want to bother anyone with that night, even when my friends called asking if I was okay and if I had seen the pictures on Instagram. He wasn't doing anything wrong, per se. It was just like him, but only I blamed him for half the outcome. Anyway, we see, we were sitting around the living room, each one of us on our own phones when I noticed that he was looking my way like he had something to say. I ignored it and kept scrolling, But then he suddenly put his phone down and told me that Abby had just texted him that her mom was in the hospital. I asked what was wrong and if she was going to be all right, but he ignored the question and instead started with one of his philosophical I want the best relationship for both of us speech, the same old stuff about how he wanted to be honest, how he valued transparency, and I tried not to roll my eyes as I looked in his direction waiting for him to continue. I knew what he was going to say, that he was going to go see Abby's mom, that they had been asking about him and all that that knot was twisting even tighter in my stomach. What I finally closed off the knot was when he spoke. He said that Abby had just asked him if he wanted to grab a coffee. Value your honesty, go have that coffee. I thought to myself, I didn't want to be that girlfriend. You know, my body felt a little cold when he said that. Some may call that intuition, that soft, nauseating feeling that tells you that something isn't right. But I nodded and turned my head back on my phone, even scrolled a little bit without looking at it. His eyes went back to his phone too. He got up after a little while and went to the room. He changed even put on the perfume that I gave him for his birthday, the bottle still full from how little he used it. Then he walked out of the room, a hint of excitement in his eyes as he said goodbye to me, saying that he was going to call. I should have yelled right then, demanded that he stay home, maybe even tell him that it bothered me and let him decide. And the moment kept spinning in my head like that, blending with the sounds of these growing waves. Did I encourage him? It was the beginning of the end, And just when I wanted to wash myself from everything, the van in the parking op all the way and heard the voice come back. I heard that looked in all directions. That parking lot had no lights except for the ones on a highway even higher up the hill. Please don't leave me, I heard it say again. Realizing I hadn't heard the full statement the first time, I turned around and saw a young woman around my age sitting somewhere in the middle of the stairs. She was thin, with dark hair, a dirty white T shirt and jean shorts that still seemed to glow in the same color of the crashing waves in that darkness, the van, I asked, looking back toward the road of the hill. I looked back and shrugged. There was no more car in sight. Now did they leave? She asked, standing up and wiping sand off herself. Coming a little bit closer, she finally reached the last step, just to the left of where I was standing. She hadn't look too concerned by this point, like I would be if my ride had just stranded me on a dark beach. She looked up the hill and saw the same thing. I did nothing. We stood there in silence for a few seconds. My mind wasn't ready to talk to a stranger, and I kind of wish she would walk out into the darkness and disappear like that Van had done. Then she said something that made me shiver, and it still does when I think of that night. Just leave him, she said. She found my eyes in the dark faster than I found hers. What I asked, how did you? That's why you would be out here by yourself at this hour? How did you even get here? The bus stop around the hill by the Starbucks On second? You walked here with the sunset? Didn't you some type of romantic scene walking along with the setting sun? You got here just as it was setting, right. I couldn't say anything, But then she continued, it was getting dark, too dark when you got here, and everyone was leaving. Not so romantic anymore, huh, kind of eerie. She locked eyes with mine when she said that. All I could do was stare the something about this girl that didn't quite feel right. She was by herself, completely comfortable there. I had I not been there, she would have been sitting in the middle of the stairs still at the moment, though I couldn't quite process everything. I needed my time alone, and now this girl had gotten in the way. So I know how you got here, but I don't know why you're here, she said. I don't know why you're here either, I said, bluntly, Tired of these guessing games. Like all the prior frustration I felt, just reached this tipping point where I could have slapped her right there and felt nothing. It wasn't exactly anger or hate toward anyone. I was just done. There was nothing to be done in the relationship. Now choices had been made. I walked away, and this girl, well, I didn't know her and didn't care how she ended up there or she was going to be able to leave on her own. So I simply stared out into the ocean for few seconds. Then I turned to look at her, dead in the eye. I killed someone today, I said, both to myself and to this girl. I didn't care for her reaction. I simply took a deep breath and kept looking out into the darkness. She said a few things, but I didn't hear her through the crashing waves at that moment. From what I could tell, she wasn't shocked. She smiled after the words came out of my mouth, until the shore finally went quiet. It wasn't calm. It was a kind of quiet that felt uneasy, like shutting off the radio mid song. The waves were moving, I could see them folding over themselves in the dim light, but no sound came out of them. That's better, the girl said. I turned to look at her, and then I noticed for the first time that her clothes weren't only dirty, but they were also wet. And the dirtiness I had seen, in part was from the slimy green stuff that sticks to your clothes, the kind that floats around in the ocean when you're there for a really long time and sticks to you, strands of it coming out of her hair and over her shoulders. So you said you killed someone, she continued, Her head was now tilting a little bit, studying me, like if she was trying to remember something or only waiting for me to say it. I took a step back. I didn't mean it. Yes, you did. You killed someone today, That's what you said. Her voice was still correcting me. Have a thought that I had already gotten out of my head and into the wind. The girl stayed quiet. I just told him to go, I said, trying to stop myself. I knew what he was doing, I knew what he meant. I just didn't stop him. She smiled, but not in the friendly way. It was as though she was relieved. Yeah, she said quietly, that's how it starts. I could feel a cold wind coming from the ocean. Now it was sudden and fast, sliding down my back. I hugged myself without realizing it. How it starts, I asked, and she kept looking at me. She then turned her head backed over the water. Do you know what happens when a guy does that, Like when he leaves you and gets all excited over some girl. They already decided what they want. You're the last one'll find out. He's just trying to justify everything. I didn't say anything back. Well, that's how it happens sometimes, she continued. Might not be your case. But you, on the other hand, you start to disappear, she said. Little by little, you say things that you don't mean. You let things happen that your friends will call you dumb for things that you'll regret taking from him. Next thing, you know, you'll stop feeling like yourself, making little worlds out of everything. She paused, her eyes getting smaller to over the darkness of the sky. And then one day I felt my chest tightening. Then you're not really there anymore, poof gone. But I'm still here, I said, not expecting to get so defensive. She looked at me, but her expression had it changed. It was more serious, but generally the same. Are you Are you still here? She asked? It was quiet again. I opened my mouth to say something, but suddenly up the hill I saw something, headlights, a car. It came down to the parking lot like it was trying to figure out where to turn from, and my heart jumped. That could be I started turning back to her, but she wasn't looking at the car. She was looking at me. You should go, she said. The way she said it, it sounded like a final thing, like a goodbye, and add a piece of advice. Well, I can't just leave you here, I said, glancing between her and the road, Surprised by how my lack of a single care in the world suddenly flipped. She let out a small breath. I thought that she was about to laugh. That's what makes us different. I want you to see this, she said, as she was stepping past me and down towards the stairs, toward the sand. Wait, I said, reaching out by stopping myself just before my hand touched her arm, and she just kept walking. Did they leave you, I asked, my voice echoing a little bit in that strange silence. But she kept walking. They always do, she said. Her feet had reached the sand, leaving footprints that were filled back in right away with the dark water. I watched her move closer to the shoreline, the hands of the ocean reaching out like a flat, endless surface. Hey, I called out, louder than before. You don't have to go in there, don't go that way, Just come back. Everything is gonna be fine. Just come back. But that's when she stopped. For a second, I thought that she might turn around and run back up, but instead she spoke just loud enough for me to hear I can't and everything paused. He didn't come back, she said. My stomach dropped. What do you mean, I asked, my voice about to fall apart. She slowly turned her head just enough for me to see the side of her face. You saw the van, she said, and then she stepped forward into the water. I rushed down a few steps, automatically, yelling at her to stop, but she didn't really act. The water reached her ankles, and then her knees, and then her waist. The water had gone silent again. There was no sound of the crashing waves, no splashing, just that same unnatural silence come back. I shouted, and the words hit me. Then the voice that was the one I heard before, same volume, everything, It was me, and she kept going. Her shoulders had disappeared, and then her neck, and just before her head went under, she looked back at me completely for the first time. Her face wasn't panicked, she wasn't scared. It was empty. My feeling I knew a little too well, that same feeling I had just experience before she showed up from those stairs, and then she was gone. The sound came back all at once, the waves crashing violently against the sand, louder than before, but they had been building up, just to explode all at once. I stumbled back a step, covering my ears. I stood there, staring at the spot where she had disappeared, waiting for something, anything, to give me a sign of her. But nothing did. After a while, I forced myself to turn around. There were no more headlights up the hill. The lot was empty. For the first time that night, I felt completely alone as I stood there at the edge of darkness. So I walked up the stairs slowly, each step heavier than the last, and then when I reached the top, I couldn't help but look at one more time. She was still there. The ocean had stretched out the same way and had done before. It was endless, dark and waiting for something. I don't know how long I stood there, but I do know one thing. When my phone finally rang, I almost didn't answer. It was his name on the screen and a picture that we took outside of the train station on our way to Mellows, where we had our first date. For a second I thought about letting it ring, just to see what would happen, just to see who I would turn into if I didn't pick up. But I answered the entire world in my mind out of a silly little outing with someone, and vanished. But still, when it's quiet enough, sometimes I still hear it. Not from the ocean anymore, from somewhere closer. Come back, it says, And I don't know if it's the darkness behind me, calling me again to that edge where people disappear. This story was written and produced by me Edwin Kowar Rubez. Now I want to hear your thoughts on the story or ideas for upcoming ones. All the information to reach out it's in the description of this episode. A huge shout out to our Scary Plus members. By the way, thank you for supporting the stories and the other shows that I have on here. I don't know how we do this without you, guys, so thank you. And if you're listening to the AD supported version and you still want to support, you can just leave a review like five stars. 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