in front of his feet where the torch light was wavering. It struck him that the beam wasn't as bright as it usually was.
'I don't mean to alarm you, but I think my torch is starting to go.'
Marinka turned and smiled. 'Is that meant to scare me?'
'No, I'm serious,' said Teun. He pointed the torch toward her so she could see.
Marinka saw that the lamp was indeed burning more of an amber colour. Well,' she muttered. 'Looks like we might have to turn back.'
Teun responded with a soft chuckle. 'Oh, of course… because we can't chase away the ghosts. Now, if I recall correctly you said you didn't believe in Grandpa's story. Was that not so? Or are you starting to get cold feet?'
'No.'
'Sure?'
'Yes.'
Teun looked across at his friend's light. 'Yeah all right then. But what if your torch goes out too? I mean, forget about ghosts for a minute... we might get lost out here. I can't see my hand in front of my face without my torch.'
Marinka sniffed. 'My torch will always work. It's got a kind of crank-up handle. Look...'
She flicked it onto manual mode and then pulled the handle up quickly a couple of times. A small motor raced inside, emitting a high-pitched whirring noise, and the little LED light bulb surged into life.
'See?'
Teun let out a doubtful groan. 'It's a pretty weak light though. What is that... about two candle power? Cheap piece of plastic junk if you ask me.'
'Hey,' protested Marinka. It's a cheap piece of plastic junk that works.' She flicked the damp hair out of her eyes. 'So… we carry on?'
Teun wasn't going to say otherwise. He bowed slightly made a swooping gesture with his forearm. The overly graceful movement was garnished with a sarcastic, high-browed expression. 'After you, m'lady.'
They walked along further.
The fog was so thick that the weak torchlight seemed to bounce straight back at them. The children could not make out where the water ended nor where the sand dunes began. The only thing they could see clearly was the wet glistening brown sand that lay directly in front of their feet.
Teun’s weak beam suddenly flashed across something lying on the sand up ahead. He stopped. He stood still. Marinka checked her step too and turned to look at her friend, her brow furrowed with a concerned expression.
'What is it?' she asked.
Teun took a moment to answer, and when he did his voice was a whisper. 'What is that?' he asked.
Marinka turned and saw the object on which Teun's light fell. It was about ten meters away. Her friend’s anxiousness made her doubly concerned and she stared at it with wide, fearful eyes. But she could only make out a dark outline. It was a rounded, elongated object. Motionless. Dead.
'I don't know,' she whispered back.
'It looks like...' Teun hesitated. He scarcely dared to say it out loud. 'A body.'
Marinka's heart was beating fast. Nevertheless she managed to build up the courage to take a step closer.
Teun couldn't believe his eyes. 'What are you doing?' he asked in an urgent whisper.
Marinka looked at him. 'Going to have a look.'
'Are you crazy?'
'Why?' said Marinka. 'How else are we going to find out what it is?'
'What if it is a body?' asked Teun.
Marinka looked back at him and shrugged. 'Then at least we'll know.'
Teun shook his head and took a step back. 'Don't go over there. Please. Just... let's go back.'
Marinka ignored him. 'You can't just walk away from a dead body and make like you didn't see anything,' she said, walking several steps closer. 'You have to report it to the police.'
She was closer to the object now… close enough to see what it really was. A smile flickered across her lips but it was hidden from Teun because she had her back to him. She suppressed it as much as she could, and turned around to look at her friend with a shocked look on her face. It was a pretence.
'If it is a body... what then?' she asked.
Teun's eyes widened. 'Get away from it!' he whispered urgently. 'Quickly!'
'Or what?'
'Hurry!'
Marinka let out a little chuckle. 'Or it will drag me into sea perhaps?' She put her hands on her hips and let out a little sigh. It was time to put her friend out of his misery. 'It's a fish, Teun. It's just a fish.'
Teun stared at her for a few moments and didn't say anything. Then he took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves before walking across the wet sand to where his friend was standing.
She was right. It was just some marine animal. However, it clearly wasn't a fish. It looked more like a seal or sea lion... or some other such slippery black mammal with a large grey body. It was quite damaged. Along its sides were heavy serrated wounds, and one deep gash by its tail that had separated the flesh into two large pink chunks. Its upward facing eye was glistening and staring into nothingness. Obviously the creature had succumbed to its injuries.
Teun screwed up his nose at the stench permeating from the animal. Even the numbing cold couldn't hold back the sickly odour of rotting flesh.
'It looks like a shark got him,' he said. 'Have you ever seen anything like that?'
Marinka shook her head and put her hand up to her nose to block the smell.
Teun gave her a weak smile. 'A bit grizzly,' he said.
Marinka nodded back. She had the same eerie feeling in her bones as Teun. The sight of the dead animal seemed like something of a premonition - a forewarning of bad things to come. It told her to turn around and go back home before it was too late. This night was a strange night… a strange night where strange things were likely to happen. Best not to tempt fate. Best not to wake the things that shouldn't be woken.
'We can go back to the beach house now if you want to,' she said. The last word of the sentence was followed by a nervous little laugh but she wasn’t smiling on the inside.
Teun was keen to go too. But he thought he would look rather meek if they went back right now. Like a pussycat… a Nancy boy. Marinka had shown courage and then some by walking up to the dead animal and checking it out, whilst he'd stood in the background like a yellow-bellied coward shaking in his boots. How could he finish this daring night excursion on that note? How could he live with himself? Shown up by a girl? No thanks. Not in this lifetime.
'I'm fine to go on,' he lied. 'But hey, if you've had enough...'
Marinka sniffed indignantly. 'If I've had enough? I'll have had enough when we're at Tobban's Bay. I thought maybe you'd had enough.'
'No, no,' said Teun. 'Not me. But, um... aren't you a bit worried about your parents?'
'My parents?'
'They might have discovered we're gone... you never know.'
'Ah, I'll take that chance,' said Marinka, who seriously doubted that her parents were the foremost thing on Teun's mind right now. 'I don't think it's very likely. And anyway, we've come this far.'
'You sure?'
Marinka flashed her torch at her friend. 'Sure sure.'
'Okay,' said Teun resolutely. He pretended to be relieved that the question was out the way. 'Let's carry on then.'
He started walking along the sand. He set a pace that was so quick Marinka had to march quickly to catch up. They then continued along the beach side by side. Teun pulled his collar tight to protect his throat against the biting cold and Marinka buried her hands deep into her pockets in an effort to keep them warm. On their left they could hear the monotonous drum of breaking surf waves, the usual rumble snuffled by the mist, and on their right the strange nightly noises emanating from tree branches - creaking and snapping and unnatural chirping.
At one point they left the wet sand. They headed up and over the loose sand of a small rise, following a narrow, well-trodden track through the tussock grasses.
Teun hesitated a step when he saw another shadowy shape that looked a just like a person. It looked like a man crouching between the grasses. And he was moving. It was not the sort of place that some innocent soul ou
t to catch a nightly breath of air would be, but that some sinister soul laying low and stalking with malicious intent would be.
However, he was too embarrassed after the last incident to dare point it out. Instead he carried on toward it with a watchful eye and hoped for the best. He was glad he did. The object turned out to be nothing more than an ordinary piece of driftwood lying high and dry on a little sandy rise. It was a slightly off the ground and therefore cast a shadow that appeared to move as they approached. Funny how moving shadows could make an innocent object come to life. Another false alarm.
Still, it seemed to him that the bad omens were compounding. First the fading torchlight, then the slain animal, now the contorted piece of driftwood. In his mind they were a series of signs crying out for the pair of them to turn about and get the heck out of there as fast as they could. Was he being stupid to ignore them? Was he being stupid to shun his strong sense of intuition?
Who would be in this place at this sort of time anyway? Who would be so foolish? The night was blindingly dark. The air was cold and clingy. It was a dangerous enough place to be on a normal night but on this night there was an unmistakable touch of death in the air. And maybe, just maybe... a hint of something