Through the Waves of Teal

Will the two friends survive the mysterious place together?

The dust and fog from the strong wind and flame was slowly blocking my vision. No matter what happened, I had to make it out alive.

“Yay! We are finally here!”

“You seem pretty excited, it's just Hawaii stop over reacting.” 

“What do you mean Austin? You have been here like a million times, but I have only been here once!” This is Austin, our moms have been friends since highschool, so we were friends even before we were born. He’s sometimes annoying, but mostly a very good friend. 

Since I'm in Hawaii, I am going to make this the best summer out of the 16 summers that have passed. We went into the car we rented. The landscape is beautiful, but even the most amazing view can't overcome boredom. The landscape started to look more dull as time passed on. When is this car ride going to end? To pass time I was talking about all the silly things me and Austin used to do when we were little. That is when my phone rang. Ding, Ding!

“Hi, Selena, this is Austin's mom. We made a last minute plan of going to the beach right now, can you tell your mom to change the route?” 

I shouted, “MOM! We are going to the beach right now! Austin's mom just told me!” My mom looked confused, but all I cared about was going to the beach and having fun.

We finally arrived at the beach and got out of the car, but something was off. There was nobody at the beach. Where is Austin's mom? Whatever, she is probably somewhere at the beach. Austin was on the other side looking at the waves with his wavy brown hair gently getting blown by the wind. 

Looking at the tides reminded me of Austin's big smile full of excitement and one of our favorite traditions, racing each other at the beach. I gently tapped his shoulder and the race began. 

“That was so much fun, I knew I was going to win!” I yelled at him while he was on the other side exploring. 

“Selena! I found a cave, come have a look!” 

“Austin, it is probably just a random old cave, nothing interesting about it.” I know I just said that, but my curiosity was through the roof! I needed to check it out right that second. 

Austins is very tall. He is almost 2 heads taller than me and still he looked very short in front of the cave. The cave is so big that it almost looks like a blackhole luring us into a cave with an endless path. 

“Wanna bet? I’ll give you $50 if it is just an ordinary cave, but if it isn’t you need to give me $50. 

Photo Credit: Dierks Photo

“Bet!” I said filled with excitement.

We turned on our phones’ flash and started exploring. There isn’t much to it, I thought. I'm going to win that $50. 

“Austin! I told you there isn't much to the cave. Give me my money. Austin? Austinnn… WHERE ARE YOU!” 

“Selena, come look at some stuff written on the wall. As soon as I heard that I ran over to the wall. When I looked at it something was off. My eyes immediately fixed to the writing, like something was luring me to it. It was ancient hieroglyphs, but it was glowing teal so bright that it was almost blinding me. I tried examining the writing and seeing if there was anything I was able to read, but obviously there was no way that I would be able to read a writing from thousands of years ago! 

“Austin, do you have any idea what the writings on the wall says?” 

“What do you think I am? A translator? There is no way I am able to read that, it almost looks like random scribbles on the wall.” That is when it hit me. We had our phones! We can use some sort of app that can translate all of this! 

“AUSTIN! We should try using a translator for it!” I yelled to him, flooding with excitement. I might be the first person to unveil the mystery of this cave! I immediately took out my phone and opened the app. It was taking some time, but I guessed it would get there eventually. In the meantime, we went deeper into the cave and explored.

“Oh my God! It is glowing inside the cave! Austin we need to explore deeper into this cave,  come quickly!” 

“Didn’t you say that there isn't anything interesting about this cave, because you sound more excited than I am.” 

“Are you telling me that you want to stop exploring and just look at the boring old waves?” I said almost like I was trying to force him to stay in the cave.” 

“Whatever you want, Selena.”

We followed the teal light. We didn’t know where exactly we were heading, but I definitely knew that there were lots of twists and turns on the way. 

 “Cling, Cling,” my phone rang echoing from the walls of the cold cave. 

“It is from the translator app! The results of what the hieroglyphics mean is out! Why is it written so small?” I squinted my eyes and put the phone up so close to my face it almost smacked my nose. “Going in…. from the beauty of the cave is… easy, but whoever comes in shall always be in the cave. AUSTIN! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!!! IT SAYS THAT WE CAN’T COME OUT OF THE CAVE. DO YOU REMEMBER THE WAY OUT!”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SELENA HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO REMEMBER THE WAY OUT!” 

As soon as I heard that none of us knew the way out, I sat down from the hopelessness tears streaking down. What about our parents? What if I die in this cave? Hundreds and thousands of questions went past my mind, but we didn't have time for this. We needed to get out of the cave no matter what we had to get out. So, I stood back up and told Austin that there needs to be a way out of this cave. It’s impossible that there is a way in, but isnt a way out. 

We decided trying to walk the way we went in was the best idea even though we don't even know the direction we went in. It was dark and cold just like it was in the middle of a cold winter night. The only thing we could hear was our footsteps until it wasn’t just 2 people's footsteps, There were a bunch of other ones ahead of us!  

“BAMM!!” I saw something fall from the ceiling of the cave. I quickly warned him to move, but it was too late. Whatever was falling down was going to hit us. I close my eyes, heartbeat racing, as I wait for it to fall down. However, nothing hit me, just echoing of  whatever just fell. I slowly opened my eyes and what I saw wasn’t the wall of the cave, or the unknown thing that had fallen, but it was Austin, blood streaking down his shoulders. He had got hit by it instead of me just to protect me from getting hurt. 

There was no time for us to worry or figure out what hit Austin. A giant gush of wind blew towards us, all the rocks in the wind hitting us. There were angry teal flames following the wind like it has finally found the villain who has messed everything up.

That is when I heard a faint cry for help, “Selena! Help me!!” It was a monster, giant and terrifying with green juice oozing all over its body. I really wanted to help, but there is no way I’m going to touch that thing! What if it kills me? The dust and fog from the strong wind and flame was slowly blocking my vision. No matter what happened, I had to make it out alive. What should I do with Austin though? I can’t just leave him in this cave to be attacked by those monsters, but how am I going to save him? He did make it until here, so maybe he could find a way out on his own. I know this isn’t a good idea to leave someone who is getting attacked alone in a cave, but at least one of us has to make it out alive. If we don't, what should our parents do about this situation?  

Photo Credit: TullipStudio

“I know you're strong enough to fight them! I believe in you.” I shouted as I ran out. I saw his face, tears streaking down his ocean blue eyes. I knew it was wrong and I felt the strong guilt in my heart like something was pushing it down. However, I kept running through the endless path of the cave. I kept running, until I made it out of the cave and forgot about Austin, but the guilt kept getting bigger and bigger, making me in more pain every step. It was like my heart was going to explode. Austin was always the kid that would protect me while I was the clumsy one. Once again he had protected me, but I just left him helpless with the torturing flames and wind. 

I turned backwards, and started running again. The guilt and shame I had could not stay with me forever and I also can’t live without Austin. I ran as quickly as I could. 

When I finally got back, the wind was gone and I saw Austin lying down on the ground, eyes closed. I shouted his name into his ears, but there was no answer. Did I kill him? What do I do now? I cried tears pouring out. Just as I was about to give up on everything. I heard a faint voice.

“Are you ok? Are you hurt or anything?” As soon as I heard the voice a gush of relief flooded in me. 

“I am, but are you? I'm so sorry for leaving you. I know it wasn’t supposed to just leave you like that”, I said while crying so much that it didn’t even sound like English anymore. 

“Selena, look I'm perfectly alive. I know you were also very scared too. Let’s try to find a way out together.”

I finally calmed down, and tried to remember if I found any clues to the exit.

“I know the exit! When I was running out I saw light, not teal, but the color of the sunset. It is pretty close to where we are right now.”

We quickly picked up our belongings and started running again. It was very tiring to run again, but I could endure it as long as we could escape this mysterious cave. The more we ran the closer we got to the light. The more we ran I saw more hope that we could finally get out of this cave. 

After we kept running the endless path we saw the sun kissed sky with the breeze playing with the flowers. At the same time we stepped out of the cave, which was the best feeling I had in the entire world. 

“We did it!” I yelled filled with relief. Austin also looked very relieved that we were finally out of the cave. 

“By the way Selena I won the bet, so now you owe me $50.” 

“Ok, fine, but what do we tell our parents about your shoulder? They’re definitely not going to believe us if we say whatever just happened?”

“Don't worry, you know I am the best at making up stories.”

We looked at the cave once and walked through the sand where the teal lights from the cave shined behind us.