kai and the beach

Part 1

His eyes slowly press open, panning over to the terrain around him. His cheek buried deep covered in what felt like a million specks of sand. Kai jolts up, coming to the ever present realization that he hasn’t the slightest clue where he is. He can feel the fizzling waves grabbing each of his toes, poking the front of his foot with sharp icicles. The gleaming sun counteracting the frigid waves, leaving Kai at the perfect equilibrium.

The panic begins to set in.

As his eyes look around, he eventually catches a glimpse of his arm. The burnt, caramel skin is unfamiliar. Covered in black designs of birds, mountains, waves, a beach. With two fingers, he traces each of the images on his forearm. Yup, definitely permanent, he reiterates to himself.

He instinctively throws his hand through his tousled hair while trying to jog his memory. it’s longer than he remembered, more thick, he looks down at his hand and sees strands of blonde hair. This does not feel right, but he can’t recall what is right.

He pushes his brain to recall any sort of memory, but the only image flashing in his head is that of a mysterious black little book.

It’s not important, Kai tells himself, and begins to work on finding a way back to society. He spins in circles trying to spot someone, something. But, his pupils fill with images of sand, water, trees, shells, as far as the eye can see. What the hell.

And then, he spots it. There is something shining, sparkling on the shores. He starts towards it, muscles cramping, tight, as if they hadn’t been used in, well who knows how long. Each stride is more painful and straining than the last. Finally he reaches the object, an image of a boy stares back at him. Gray eyes, blonde and black mixed hair, wrinkle lines on his cheek leftover from what was probably a perpetual smirk.

The cracked mirror distorts his face.

Kai finally utters five words aloud,

“Who the fuck am i?”

Part 2

Kai fixates on his eyes, attempting to look deep enough to find answers. Lost in the tv static of his silver pupils for what could have been hours, days, until he is shaken out of the trance by the sound of a bellowing growl. Twisting his neck around and peering over his shoulder into the fields of foliage, Kai spots nothing.

The growling grows closer, louder, and a golden figure appears behind one of the palm trees. A beast, easily 100 lbs, a couple feet long. in the deepest voice he can muster with his hoarse vocal cords, Kai shouts at the figure, “Hello? Who’s there?”. Not intimidating, but better than being silent he thinks to himself.

The snarling figure begins to charge towards him at what must’ve been full speed. He can’t run, not with the current state of his muscles, so he buries his legs into the sand and attempts to hold his ground. The last thing he sees before being tackled is a flash of fangs, and the dark golden shadow takes him to the ground. He holds up his arm in defense, hoping to protect his face from the monster, but it is useless.

He expects the worst as his back falls softly into the sand, a buried mermaid. But quickly, the growl turns to whining. The beast of a dog begins licking his protective arm and he pulls it back only to have his face attacked by the canine’s tongue. What the hell, part two.

He slowly stands up, hoping not to come off as aggressive. The dog allows him to. He begins rubbing behind each of the dog’s ears while getting a good look at the creature sitting on his feet, tail thumping, kicking up sand into the air. He, or she i guess, was a beautiful dog with a closer look. A mixture of light streaks and dark golden rays, a fluffy tail, one blue eye, one gray eye. But he took a close look. On the surface, the dog's hair was matted down, knotted in other areas, he seemed to have a somewhat fresh cut across his muzzle leading up to his gray eye.

“Do i know you, boy?” Kai softly speaks to the dog, half expecting a response before realizing that was a foolish thought.

The dog continues to lift both of his paws onto Kai’s legs, attempting to slobber on him, but mostly just slapping the air with his tongue. it was the kind of reaction you’d expect from best friends, a father and son. The tail was still wagging, growing even faster, the excitement unparalleled.

Kai looks up into the twilight sky, the rays of honey and indigo shouting at him that the day was coming to a close.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, boy”, Kai says to the dog, this time knowing it was foolish, but not caring.

“At least i’m not alone.”

Part 3

Food.

I need food.

Kai wakes up to his newfound friend climbing atop his lap, but he brushes him off while squeezing the pain coming from his stomach. Sand rolls off the corners of his lips, the sun stings his body and his skin begins to crack. Kai musters his remaining energy to stand up and begin the search for something to drink, to eat, anything.

As he reaches his feet, which could’ve taken mere seconds or minutes, Kai looks around him only now there was simply a shadow where the dog was. Do I look for him? How long have I been here? Thinking becomes a difficult task so Kai focuses back on moving towards the forest past the beach. He luckily catches a glimpse of the dog disappearing behind foliage and takes off. Kai thinks he is running, maybe jogging, but he could’ve been walking or even crawling. By the time he caught up to the dog the breeze of twilight blew across his cheek. The dog was moving more slowly now, as if tiptoeing to not make a sound.

That is when Kai saw it.

A shelter. A cabin, maybe? He didn’t care what it was, all he could think of was water and something to eat. They slowly make their way inside to find an empty bed and seemingly abandoned home.

The dog whines, jumps, does anything to gain Kai’s attention, but he is fixated on the search for sustenance. He drinks murky water pouring out of the sink spout and opens each cabinet within the whole cabin. There were some cans, some expired snacks, good enough. He puts a can of some sort of meat on the ground for the dog as he eats until the aches slip out of his bones.

When he finally finishes and grants the dog his attention, his eyes land on something that throws him into a daze. Kai stumbles back, falling down, catching himself on the edge of the bed.

Hanging out of the dog’s mouth is a little black book.

Part 4

Empty?!

How could the book be empty? This book is the only thing he remembers, why is there nothing written in it?

Kai chucks the book at the wall across the cabin and throws his head into his hands. Through the cracks between his fingers he sees the can of food on the floor is still full. He looks up and catches sight of a piece of paper that was hanging out of the book. He rushes over, grabs the paper and holds it in front of his face.

“A check…?”

He was holding a check for $20,000 made out to someone named Kai.

It was tear-stained perhaps coming from his eyes or maybe it was already there? Once again, he had fallen into Time’s trap, he had no idea how long he had been staring at the check. He was holding more money than he had ever seen in his life and yet he felt claustrophobic. His head filled with darkness and his body weakened as he sat back into the bed.

Part 5

Drenched in sweat, Kai woke up in his apartment in Chicago. Dark golden fur and soft snoring came from his feet. He still felt itchy, aching, but most of all suffocated. He turned to his desk to pick up a familiar piece of paper.

$20,000. The signing bonus for a corporate job he was offered. He needed to make a decision today, but that wasn’t an issue anymore. He began packing up his apartment. Hours later, he was walking out the door for the last time.

On the way out, he triple checked that he grabbed his little black book, his poetry journal.

Kai attached a leash to his dog’s collar, slipped on his shoes and, right before he stepped through the door, tossed the pieces of the torn up check in the trash.

A breeze brushed his cheek as he knelt down and took his dog’s face into his hands,

“I think you’re gonna like the beach, Rayan.”