Mysterious Scenes

A collection of events, seemingly unremarkable at first glance, but appearences can be deceiving.

Scene #1: Wet Sand
Families. Few, but spread out. The day is winding down. The tides are receding. The beach is but a memory from that day; a reverie, only confirmed by the inumerable grains of sand found in everything brought with them that day. As the families slowly disappear one by one, something moves, virtually unnoticed, down the beach, creating tracks that wander back to nowhere. Something is amiss. As the last family leaves, the sun beginning to set, they glance over at a small area, surrounded by rocks. They thought they saw movement. They could've sworn there was still another family on the beach. The youngest child walks about halfway to the rocks before being called back. The last remaining family leaves, and the adolescent comes out of hiding. He learned long ago how to walk unnoticed down the beach, pretending to be a child from another family, uninterested in spending the entire day at the beach. In fact, he is heavily invested in staying at the beach, for he knows something is about to happen here. It should've happened some time ago. It's supposed to happen. He's scared.

He finds his backpack in the small cove he discovered and opens it, realizing that he still has no clean clothes and cursing the fact that he didn't pack better. He had one clue to go on. And it wasn't terribly insightful. In fact he packed for a much shorter trip. He's been wearing the current clothes for several days, and they're starting to stink. He feels grateful for the fact that he brought soap and begins washing his clothes in the sea. Once all of the clothes are relatively "clean" he lays them out to dry. He cautiously looks around and takes off his current garments and washes them as well. Once his clothes are spread out, he decides to take a swim while they dry, knowing full well the sun will have set long before they are fully dry. While underwater, he contemplates everything. He's lost four of his closest friends. He's been seemingly missing for several years. And he's tired of everything. Maybe it would just be better if he surrendered himself to the waves. As he sinks, a voice only he can hear calls out: "You can still save them." Waking from his daydream, he quickly swims up for air, greatful for every molecule of oxegen in his lungs. And that's when he sees it. The thing he's been waiting for. He pulls it out of the water and back into the cold night air, dries himself off and quickly puts on some damp clothes. He sees what he's discovered in the light of the full moon. And suddenly he is very scared.

The next morning, a family, the fourth of many, arrives at the beach. The father trips in a sudden patch of wet sand, many yards from the tide. His foot hits a hard object. He quickly digs around and discovers a message in a bottle, much like those written about in fiction novels. Meanwhile, an adolescent not too far from the second family observes the note being read, knowing well what it says, and fearing that he'll never be able to complete the task assigned to him.