Page 56 of Beach Bodies

Empty. It can’t be. I turn, then turn again. There’s literally nowhere else to go. But someone has been in here: the electrical panel is open, a cable pulled out. And on the floor lies a pair of black electrical gloves, curled like dead, dark fish skins… and a hair dryer.

I pick it up with a shaking hand. The GFCI cord is cut off. Shit. And yet… it can’t possibly be the hair dryer I threw into the ocean. That one sank. No one could have possibly found it.

What the fuck is going on? A copycat crime? Some sick re-enactment?

I drop the hair dryer and return to the hall, just in time to hear the click of the emergency exit door across the way.

I follow, muscling the door to the stairwell open. It’s echoey in here, all cinder blocks and no carpet. The floor is cold against my bare feet. I can hear quick steps somewhere beneath me.

‘Carli!’ I shout, and take the steps two at a time, my voice taking on monstrous proportions in the empty stairwell. At the bottom of the stairs, I push open the heavy door that takes me outside the hotel.

The air is clammy, sticking to me like a skin as I run after the dark figure. Above, the sky is pulsing with heat lightning, illuminating Carli’s shadowy figure as she runs up the cliff. The natural stone path is harsh underfoot. To my left yawns a killer drop. The hungry, dark ocean rumbles its menacing presence somewhere down there, just waiting for someone to fall into its throat.

‘Carli! Stop! Let’s talk!’ I shout. And then, a light in a window flips on, bright and cold, stopping me in my tracks. It’s one of the Riovan’s luxury villas, the building appearing out of the dark like a slap, as if it wasn’t there a second ago and has simply materialized. I squint. There’s someone there. An outline. A man.

‘Daniel?’ I say.

Suddenly, I understand.

Carli hired Daniel to investigate me. To find evidence. To bring me down.

‘Aaah—’ I yelp, as something wraps around my throat. The pain is horrible; my breath is cut off.

An angry voice says, hot, into my ear, ‘You ruined me.’ It’s Carli. I claw at the thing around my neck. It’s a wire. It’s cutting into my skin already. I can smell my own blood and feel its wretched pulse as it oozes around the wire like a rising swamp.

‘Ca—’ I gasp. I crash to my knees. My lungs are in shreds. I feel her pulling tighter, now bracing a knee against my back. She wrenches my head up with her force, and I can see Daniel’s silhouette, still unmoving. Can he see us?

Help, I want to cry. But I have no voice.

‘You thought you could do whatever the hell you wanted,’ says Carli. ‘But you had no right. My career died with Michael. And it’s your fault!’

My hands keep working uselessly at the wire. They’re wet with blood. I’ve got to explain, make Carli see that Michael was actually destroying her– but my vision is swimming with spots.

‘No more playing God, Lily Lennox. You’re a murderer.’She’s speaking through a smile now. ‘Time to taste your own medicine.’

My lips move–No, you’ve got it all twisted around– but no sound comes out.

I fix my vision on the bright star of the villa. The silhouette, unmoving.

I fall.

*

I blink awake. The sky is fresh with a pink sunrise, the ocean happily splashing against the cliff.

I prop myself up slowly; my whole body hurts.

My fingertips brush my throat. I’m alive.

It was a dream.

But why am I outside, on a stone path? I gingerly sit up, feeling the knots in my back. Holy shit, I sleepwalked.

‘Motherfucker,’ I groan as I work myself to standing, my joints and muscles clamouring their protest.

I should feel relieved that it was all a dream. But sleepwalking is freaky business, especially when it takes you to the edge of a fucking cliff.

As I stretch the kinks out of my back, I register someone watching from the nearby luxury villa a little further up the path. Not Daniel idly observing my murder, thank God. A woman in a robe, standing in the sliding door. In sunlight, the villa is stunning, its clean modern lines contrasting with the natural edges of the cliff. The whole wall facing the ocean is made of glass. The woman straightens as she notices me and shields her eyes, clearly wondering what I’m doing here.

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