Page 60 of One Night Years Ago

In a feat of incredible strength, the man threw the woman’s body far into the air and over the cliff.

“Nooooo!” Natalie wailed.

The man roared with laughter and ran away towards the forest.

Natalie stood frozen in place, her face a mask of horror. Hunter knew Emma might be dead already, but there was only one way to know for sure.

He placed his hands on Natalie’s shoulders, gently shaking her from her stupor.

“Call Rob, Natalie and get him out here! And make your way to the beach!” he yelled to make sure she heard him over the roaring wind.

“The beach? How’s she going to swim to the beach? Her legs were tied—” At that moment her face registered with horror what Hunter was proposing. “Hunter, no, it’s a hundred feet!”

Hunter squeezed her shoulders for a further instant then let go and started running towards the spot where he’d seen Emma disappear. His sneakers squished in the muddy ground as he picked up speed. He barely felt the rain anymore. Adrenaline and fear spun through him, making him feel dizzy.

In his youth, he’d often come to the clifftop to drink and smoke with friends. His friend Ray had told him he’d jumped once, but Hunter had never quite believed him nor had he ever been even remotely tempted to try it himself.

He pumped his arms to give himself more speed. He didn’t know much about cliff jumping, but he knew he needed to get as far from the edge as possible. Dropping into the water from this height might feel like hitting a concrete wall, but it still beat being pulverized against the cliffside.

The edge grew closer and closer. Just before he ran out of ground Hunter leaped off the cliff. He kept his body straight as a rod. He needed to hit the water feet first. He didn’t need a physics degree to know that if he flipflopped in the air and ended up hitting the water headfirst, his neck would crack like a twig.

The water rose up to meet him. He tensed, locking his arms by his sides, and waited for the landing. The pain in his legs when he hit the water was so intense that, for a moment, he thought he’d miscalculated and landed on rocks. Then he realized the ground was shifting. He was in the water.

His brain told him he should take a breath while he still could, but he was too slow. By the time he opened his mouth to draw breath, he found only water coming in. He choked and gasped.

He panicked as he felt himself sinking deeper and deeper. His lungs burned, the urge to breathe in again almost overwhelming even though he knew he was underwater.

Fucking idiot. Stay calm or you’re going to die.

He forced himself to slow down. Then he realized everything was slowing down. His descent had broken. He opened his eyes underwater. Everything was murky, but he could make up what he hoped was the water surface, fifteen feet away. He kicked his legs hard and pulled up with his arms.

His right foot protested, pain radiating upwards from the foot all the way to the knee. Hunter thought he might have broken it in the fall but now wasn’t the time to analyze it. He kicked harder with his other leg to compensate.

Finally, when he thought his lungs were going to explode, his hands breached the water. Then his head. Finally, he could draw a deep breath. It was the best feeling in the world.

Suddenly his face was under again. Disoriented, his first thought was that he was sinking again, but that didn’t make any sense. Then the wave passed over him, and he found himself treading water again.

Hunter looked around him before the next wave hit, grateful that there was a full moon so he could at least see something.

He looked around desperately for Emma as the waves pulled him relentlessly towards the cliff side. What had seemed like a mild storm from above was a full-blown tempest in the water.

He wasn’t going to be able to swim against the current much longer. He searched around desperately for something white, but there was nothing there, just the ocean and him. He turned one hundred and eighty degrees.

The current’s trying to push you to the cliffs. The same thing will have happened to her.

He let the current push him for a moment, concentrating only on keeping his head above water. Suddenly he saw a pale hand sticking out of the water. He swam hard towards that spot, hoping his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. This time, the current helped him. In a matter of seconds, he’d reached what he thought was the right spot.

Hunter didn’t want to go back underwater but knew it was the only place to look for her. He took a deep breath and went under, kicking hard to gain some depth. It was dark and murky. He threw his hands out in front of him and to the sides, touch being the only sense he had left.

Soon his lungs began to burn.

This is impossible. Like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

And then he touched something that seemed too silky to be seaweed. His lungs throbbed. He had to get out and take a breath. But if he surfaced, he knew he might never find her again. He ignored the instinct and went deeper instead. His left foot had gone numb, but he could still kick with the leg.

And then he found something. It was definitely hair. He pulled up hard, as if he were trying to pull a carrot up by the roots, and was rewarded when the body floated up beside him.

Yes!