What Remains (open)

[samuel aron willows]

Sam carefully knelt down on the sand, being sure not to sit on his bottom because it was still sore from the night before. The guy he had been with was really rough and he said a lot of strange things and he was really intimidating. Most of them were. He cried thinking about it. Ha hated thinking about it and he knew that he should try not to but, when it stayed sore for so long, it served as a constant reminder.

He wanted his father. His dad had died only a few months ago. They said that it would get easier as time passed, and that he wouldn't miss him so much. That wasn't true because, when his mother couldn't pay the bills, she gave him a special, horrible job to do and now Sam wanted his father more then ever.

Sam reached into his pocket and took out Spotty, his pet leopard gecko. He placed him on the ground and was watching him crawl through the sand when someone else stepped onto the beach.

[valencia melanie scott]

"Airyn, wait for me!"

Valley chased the young boy down the beach. The sand slowed her down, but seemed to have no effect on the two-year-old; he was halfway to the water before she caught him.

"You can't run away from me like that," she said sternly, leading him away from the waves.

He seemed unfazed by her warning. "Swim?" he asked instead.

Valley smiled. "Maybe later, Airyn. Let's build a castle instead."

Airyn's eyes lit up, and he took off running again. "Castle!" he shrieked.

Valley took a deep breath before taking off after the toddler again. I'm never bringing him to the beach again, she thought to herself.

She managed to catch him a bit more quickly this time; he had stopped about ten feet away from a boy. He couldn't have been more than seven or eight, and he was alone. Maybe it was her maternal instinct, but Valley didn't like that such a young boy was out on his own. Where were his parents?

Airyn had settled himself into the sand and begun digging around, so Valencia knew that he wouldn't want to move on anytime soon. It would give her a chance to talk to the other boy.

"Hi," she said to him. "Are you..."

She started to say 'by yourself', but it sounded creepy in her head for some reason. She quickly changed course mid-sentence.

"Are you ok with us sitting here?"

[samuel aron willows]

Sam glanced up as a little kid and a women walked onto the beach. The kid ran out to the water and the women scolded him. The women brought the kid back up on the beach and asked if they could sit there. Samuel nodded, finding it strange that she had asked him that. This was a public beach. Anyone could go to public places and nobody could make them leave, at least that what Sam's father had once claimed.

It occurred to Sam that he had stopped watching Spotty. He looked back down to the ground and saw that he had moved only a couple of inches away from him and had stopped to swing his tail back and forth in the sand.

[valencia melanie scott]

Valley took a seat on the ground between the two boys. Airyn was playing in the sand, while the other boy was focused on a lizard or something that was crawling on the sand in front of him. Valley wasn't by any means one of those girls that ran screaming for the hills anytime she saw an animal, but ones like lizards and snakes gave her the creepies. Still, she decided to put on a brave face for the boys.

"He's cute," she said. "Is he your pet?"

[samuel aron willows]

Sam looked up at her and nodded, then he looked back at Spotty on the ground. "His name is Spotty. He's a leopard gecko" he muttered. He wasn't sure if he had said it load enough for her to hear, but he didn't really care.

Spotty was getting too far away from him, so Sam reached over, picked him up and moved him. Then he put his finger in the sand and drew a circle around him, but Spotty crawled out of the circle. Sam knew that the circle couldn't keep him out. He wasn't sure why he had made it.