Chapter One

I could see where the day was going. Dad was already out on the water and Jack had woken up late. He was hurling abuse miserably at everyone especially me. I couldn’t help myself. I slammed things and spoke louder. Jack was more annoying than most brothers – at least in my opinion he was. He was ratty, self involved and on the rare occasion that I saw him, he seemed irritated by everything any of us did. Don’t get me wrong – he had his moments when he would astound me with filial support and shockingly kind acts. But on the whole, we just seemed to annoy the crap out of each other.

‘What the hell did you do that for?’ he yelled as I bumped a dish over.

‘Like that was on purpose, Jack!’

‘Bite me,’

‘Not unless you have a tetnis shot up your sleeve.’

He barked at me to shut up and I bit back that I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary and that if he didn’t like hangovers, he shouldn’t drink.

‘That’s enough, Emily Jane!’ Mom shot an angry look at me.

She would side with him. Weren’t mothers supposed to have a thing for their sons? And fathers for daughters? Well, if that was the case, our family was the quintessential family stereotype.

I grabbed my backpack irritably and stormed out the house. Some holiday I was going to have when we finally broke up. I shoved the sound of my iPod in my ears. Jeffes’ Perpetuum Mobile soothed my irritation and blocked out my family and the people around me. I focused more on the nature of my environment and my breathing eased. North Beach was a small holiday town. Dead out of season, but noisy and crowded in season. The town had two main roads and it literally took 20 minutes to walk from the top of either main road to the bottom. The houses seemed to be built right up to the very edge of the encroaching sand of the beach. The beach was heavenly. A wide expansive of yawning white sand stretched up and down the coast. Walking to the left of the beach, you eventually reached protrusions of black rock circling their arms around secret rock pools that resembled man made swimming pools. The sea was wild and ferocious. Swirling currents dragged and battered anything foreign until only fragments washed to shore as unrecognisable bits of shell. Swimming was completely out of the question unless one ventured into the pools. It seemed ironic that those jagged rocks served more as protection than destruction as long as you were inside the pools and not on the outside. To the right of the beach was an area surfers flocked to. The rocks were slightly less daunting and the sets of waves curled with a glorious temptation and a monotony that made all bleached blondes salivate at the mere sight. There was just one exception in this utopian surfer location. Dead Man’s Gulley. Legend said that every leap year swimmers or surfers who dared to venture near Dead Man’s Gulley were never seen again. The warning was so ingrained in the local psyche, that not even fishermen ventured near the spot during leap year.

As I walked I breathed the fragrant fynbos in deeply. I loved the smell. I loved how in the heat of the day, the fragrance grew stronger and always seemed to be a open invitation to the beach. The fynbos stood like a giant green wall at the brink of the sand. Gaps in the 2m high bushes revealed paths to the beach and it was along one of these that I saw the body.

I stopped dead immediately. Oh, this was typical. Dad had warned me about walking around alone. What did I do now? Go and find help or check if the body was still alive? I couldn’t help myself – as nervous as I was that the body might be a repulsive corpse, I walked forward anyway. At this point, I must just say that I do not stop at road accidents to watch – in other words, I really don’t have a morbid fascination with death and disaster. I walked up to the boy. He looked older than me. His skin was dry and flaky and I instinctively folded my hands behind my back. His lips were dry and cracked with blisters on his cheeks from the sun. In spite of obvious dehydration and sunburn, he had the whitest skin I had ever seen. I leaned closer to check if he was breathing – it was shallow and he was close to death. His eyes shot open and I yelped and jumped back, pulling the phones out my ears at the same time. His eyes were shocking. They were a deep rich viridian colour – far too dark for his pale complexion. I reached into my pack for the water bottle and tipped it gently into his mouth – but his reaction surprised me. He gagged and spat the water out as if I’d fed him brak or sea water. He gripped my arms with surprising strength, interrupting me smelling the water to check that it was okay.

‘Get me to the sea,’ his voice was a hoarse and raspy whisper.

‘Are you sure?’ I frowned suspiciously. ‘You look seriously dehydrated, I-‘

‘The sea!’ He snapped – almost growling at me.

I sighed. Ah, the male species.

He wasn’t heavy as I helped him up. I guessed that he was using me far less than I gave myself credit for. We passed the sand dunes and I felt him slacken against me. I turned to the left but he shook his head and pointed straight ahead.

‘Now,’ was all he could manage to gasp.

I dropped my pack and helped him toward the churning water, his weight resting more heavily on me. As soon as his legs were knee deep, he threw himself into the rough sea. I followed, frantically trying to raise his head above the waves that kept churning down to the shore. If felt like an hour as my limbs became weak from fighting the sea and dragging his dead weight up and out the water. In reality it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes.

Suddenly, he stood up. By now he was waist deep in the water. He was taller than me by a head – it would make him just over 6 feet. His skin was smooth and white – I would only notice later that it was a completely different texture to my own. His eyes seemed to have lightened considerably – they were more turquoise. I wondered about his strange contact lenses. I was completely mesmerised and as he moved backwards I continued following him, oblivious to the apparent danger that I knew so well and that had claimed the lives of many – some I had known – in moments of stupidity much like this one.

‘What’s your name,’ I spoke and seemed to break the spell. He looked surprised, but smiled.

‘Gilgamesh,’ I took a tiny step back towards the shore.

‘Thank you for saving me,’ I began to feel that cold uneasy feeling you get when you sense danger and your body is screaming warnings at your mind.

‘I suppose that means you owe me one,’ I grinned back. Panic seized my chest as I realised the current was dragging me into the depths.

‘Emily!’ I turned to see Eli waving at me from the shore.

‘Sorry,’ I smiled apologetically. ‘You’ll have to make it up to me some other time.’ His glare was intimidating, but I smiled sweetly anyway and turned to the shore. I fought my way back to shore, Eli walking into the water to help me out.

‘Are you okay?’

I was shaking violently and suddenly my legs gave in. Eli caught me and helped me to where my pack was left behind. I turned and looked at the water – Gilgamesh was gone.

‘Emily?’ Eli shook me.

‘I’m fine,’ I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks. I think you just saved my life.’

‘What was going on?’

Did I tell him? It would sound insane – a complete stranger had me in a trance and was enticing me to my doom? Not likely. ‘Not much, just some crazy guy in the water.’

Eli looked at the water and back at me.

‘What did he say to you?’

‘Nothing, really. Just his name and he thanked me for saving his life.’

‘Why do you look like someone just tried to drown you?’

I looked at him quickly. ‘I think someone just did.’

‘How?’

I looked at him sceptically. ‘I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you.’

‘Try me,’ he made himself comfortable on the sand next to me.

‘I think he made me tired and then put me in a trance.’

Eli didn’t laugh. That made me worried. Shouldn’t he be saying ‘Ha, ha! What have you been smoking?’

Actually the fact that Eli was speaking to me at all was rather disconcerting – he barely made eye contact with me never mind actually speaking directly to me. How did he know my name? Wait, that was probably through dad. Eli knew my dad quite well.

If anybody had a story to tell, it was Eli. But since he never breathed a word to anyone except dad, nobody knew his story. Eli and his family were foreigners, but nobody knew where exactly they were from. Some said Canada, some said America and some said Ireland. If dad knew, he wasn’t saying anything. Mom told me a little of what she had heard from dad. Eli’s mom had become ill while he was at university. He studied marine biology and was forced to stop for an unknown time. His father had died when he was much younger, but had left the family with a comfortable fortune. His father’s profession was also something of an enigma. He was a professor, scientist or weapons development specialist in the military – depending on who you spoke to and what the current movie trend was. Eli’s younger sister Ophelia had been a victim of a religious cult. This had been one of the reasons for their sudden arrival in our small town. Ophelia was the archetypal beauty – as were all the Freeman clan. She had soft pale skin, a clear unblemished complexion, sparkling blue eyes and straight, corn coloured hair. Unlike Eli, Ophelia loved attention and thrived on company and adoration. Eli’s elusive older brother was unseen and unheard of. Mrs Abigail Freeman was struggling with her final battle with cancer, yet she still looked magnificent and stylish. Her beautiful almond shape eyes and gorgeous brown curls captivated everyone who spoke to her. Her style and dress looked more European than American, and she once again threw everyone’s hypotheses about their nationality into disarray.

I felt sorry for Eli. I wondered if he wasn’t resentful and frustrated at having to postpone his life to be with his mother. Where was his brother, for goodness sake? Why should all that responsibility fall on his shoulders?

Eli was just average height – maybe even a little short for a man. He had short, thick dark hair. From beneath a permanent scowl, his intense blue eyes seemed to glower permanently, but on the odd occasion that he smiled, his face lit up and dimples appeared in his cheeks.

‘What are you doing tonight?’ Eli broke into my thoughts.

‘Huh?’ I asked stupidly – this was a rather unusual time to be asking for a date.

‘I think you should see something. I’ll pick you up at 8.00.’ I suppose it would be a natural assumption that I wasn’t busy – 14 Starfish Drive wasn’t exactly the “get-on-down” and “happening” high spot of town. And yes, the people who started our town had very little imagination when it came to naming the streets. Could you believe that in our town actually had two Dolphin Drives? I know, it boggles my mind too.

Unlike most families, telling my parents I was going out with a new friend – especially a boy – was not a big deal. I liked to think it was because I was trustworthy and reliable, but I think the reality was that my parents were worried that I wasn’t behaving like a “normal” teenager. I think they got frustrated that I was home all the time. When I finally went out, they made absolutely no fuss whatsoever. My only character flaw was that I was as observant as a blind mute, in fact, no – that’s insulting blind mutes, let’s just say I have no powers of observation and leave it at that. Especially considering the crime that had spilled like crude oil into our small town. Walking alone with one other person was pretty much the equivalent of sticking one bullet in a gun and spinning the barrel – I couldn’t help myself. I was more interested in finding out who the mysterious Gilgamesh was and why he’d want to lure me to my death like some enchanted merman. So, mom and dad didn’t bat an eyelid when I told them what I was doing. Dad offered his torch, mom reminded me to charge my cell phone battery and I shovelled down supper, not even taking note of what the meal was.

Eli and I walked carefully in the dim light of our torches. On our way to where ever it was we were going, we ran into some familiar faces on the beach. A group of students and kids from school were waiting for the turtles to lay their eggs. Eli chatted to them briefly, dispelling my theory that he had no friends and was as interesting as the paint drying on Mrs Thomas’s house. He promised to return once he had his specimens for his research.

After what felt like an hour of walking, he finally stopped and dropped his bag in the sand. He pulled out something heavy and large – it looked camouflaged when I flashed my torch on it.

‘Night vision binoculars,’ he explained briefly. Eli never wasted words – it was like he had a daily allowance and didn’t want to use up all his airtime before 10pm.

He arranged our stuff between 2 small dunes and we sat quietly for a while as we waited. My adrenalin was throbbing against my throat and I put my hand to my neck on more than one occasion to ensure that it wasn’t pulsing up and down for everyone to see. Not that they would in the dark, but you know how it is when you start getting self conscious about something.

I tried to make small talk, but Eli had slipped back into silent mode and I got the impression he was getting irritated with my company.

‘So,’ I cleared my throat and tried to sound casual after an hour and a half of absolutely nothing, ‘What exactly are we looking for?’

‘Something’s wrong,’ he muttered to himself.

You bet your tight little butt something’s wrong, I thought. You are a freak and my dad doesn’t know it. Or maybe he does and he still let me go out with you. Doubtful. Time to go.

‘Well, I’d better get going,’ I stood up stiffly and picked my things up.

‘Yeah,’ he stood up, but I could see by the concerned frown that I was incidental to his whole experience. I was just a spare wheel that might be a witness.

In spite of thinking that Eli was a complete lunatic, I had to acknowledge that something was wrong. The person called Gilgamesh seemed to be an imitation – even it was a very accurate one – of a man. I had to know more. I suppose that was another character flaw: curiosity. I couldn’t let this go.

I was uncomfortable with Eli’s silent broodiness. Sure, he was great eye candy, but after almost 2 hours of scant, barely audible, monosyllabic answers to my questions, I was beginning to understand why he was notoriously unattached. I began to wonder if he was just too intelligent for the rest of us. Maybe our arbitrary conversations bored him as much as his silence lulled me into a semi conscious state.

My mind spiralled back down to suspicion. I began to consider the possibility that he had thrown whatever his suspiciously enigmatic theories were before his marine biology professors and classmates and had been asked to leave.

That’s not the kind of thing that was going to be shared with anyone.

There were a couple of students making their way back to their cars when we passed. Eli stopped to chat again and then we walked back to my house.

‘You probably think I’m insane,’ he stopped a meter away from our front door.

‘Yes, but you’re a harmless crazy person. And since you saved my life, I’m willing to overlook some minor character flaws you might have.’

He smiled and I returned the favour. He looked so much better when he smiled.

‘Look, I know there’s definitely something unusual out there – I suppose I’m just wondering what it is and why you’re so secretive about it.’

He shrugged. ‘You’ll find it hard to believe even after you see it.’

He shoved one hand in his pocket.

‘If you see any weird looking pale guys with freakish green eyes that look like a new contact lens, make sure you avoid them.’

‘Aren’t we going to try and see them tomorrow?’ I asked nervously.

Eli shook his head. ‘We’re taking my mom to hospital in Port Elizabeth tomorrow for her tests and medication. We’ll be back Saturday.’

It was Tuesday. Three and a half days alone. I could ensure company and avoid strangers with strange eyes for that time. What I couldn’t do was shake the nervous hollow in my belly. That was usually a fairly bad sign.