There aren't usually any people on this section of the beach between our homes other than Remi, or the odd time, me. So when I see what looks like a couple laying near the dunes up ahead, illuminated by the moon, I move a little closer to the shoreline to try to stay out of their view and not disturb them.
At first, I try to keep my eyes averted, giving them the privacy that I'd want to have, especially at this time of night. But as I get closer to passing by in front of them, curiosity gets the better of me.
I peek at the couple again, but something doesn't look quite right now that I'm closer.
It's bright enough to see that it's a man straddling a woman underneath him, but what has my hackles raising is that the woman appears to be unmoving.
I can't tell if it's just my past experience that has the worst-case scenario coming to my mind first, and that I'm just seeing things that aren't really happening, or if I'm completely right and something terrible is going on.
I find myself changing course and walking toward them instead. At this point, I don't give a fuck if it turns out to be nothing and they see me. I just need to make sure everything is okay.
As I come up behind the guy and I see him tear open the unresponsive woman's dress, a wave of anger builds and explodes inside me. And she is unresponsive. I can't see her face, but her limbs haven't moved once the whole time my eyes have been pinned on the couple.
“What the hell are you doing?!” I shout.
“Care to join in?” the guy says over his shoulder when I'm barely a couple of feet away.
A red haze covers my vision, and I grab hold of his shirt, throwing him to the side with as much force as I can and then jump on him a second later. The whole irony of this situation isn't lost on me.
But I can't let it happen.
“You're fucking sick!”
The guy is as big as me and is clearly in shape, so I expect him to fight back or do something, but all he does is hold his arms up to block my hits to his head and makes very feeble attempts at hitting me back.
At one point between my swings, I catch sight of the guy's face and recognize him as the guy who was eating an apple against my truck that morning.Motherfucker.
A kind of gurgling, choking noise draws my attention and has me looking over my shoulder to the woman.
And then all the blood is draining from my face as déjà vu hits me like a tsunami.
No, no, no, no.
I'm frozen for a moment, locked in my own head as twisted memories of finding my teenage crush in that field that night flash in front of my eyes.
Now, seeing Remi lying there in the moonlight has some sort of traumatic reaction happening to me. It has to be the reason why I feel dizzy. Why I have ringing in my ears, nausea rolling around in my stomach, and I have this inability to move.
I'm snapped back to reality as if water was thrown in my face when I hear that sound again and then see the white froth dripping from her mouth.
Pushing off the guy, I scramble over to her, grabbing her face in my shaking hands.
“Remi,” I choke out. “Remi, sweetheart, can you hear me?”
There's no response except for more of the frothing at the mouth and her eyes rolling back.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” I frantically demand from the guy, not once looking away from her.
But I get no response.
I could kill him right now, but I can't leave Remi like this.
I turn her body to the side, trying to clear her airway, but I'm not sure if it's even helping.
Panic, like I've never known, fills me, sinking into my bones and making them feel like dead weight. Like I'm paralyzed. A decade's worth of pain and suffering pool together and converge on this very moment.
“Fuck, Remi. Please don't leave me.”
My chest feels so tight I can barely breathe. I would do anything just to hear her say something to me. Even if it's her yelling at me, calling me an asshole.