Free Thirteen Days By Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell Page B

a few yards of it, and was starting to marvel at how nearly human its shape remained even at this distance, when it spoke his name.
    Ray stumbled backwards, and his feet skidded from under him. His fall would break some of his bones, if he didn't drown from panicking in the dark. He sprawled on his back in the water, which surged into his eyes and filled his nostrils, denying him any breath. He threw out a hand under the water, stubbing his fingers on the jagged wall. He managed to grab the rock despite the throbbing of his fingers and hauled himself to his feet. As he struggled to stand on his tremulous legs while he spat and spluttered and fought for breath, ripples and their giggling echoes swarmed away from him. His ears were so waterlogged that at first he wasn't sure he heard the voice repeat his name.
    He was even more uncertain where it was in the echoing dark. As he poked at his ears and tried to shake them clear of water it said "Can you hear me? Are you in difficulties?"
    By now he couldn't mistake Julian. He turned in the water as fast as he dared and saw a succession of ripples precede the swimmer into the larger cavern. "I'm quite all right," he felt bound to declare.
    "I thought it would be best to see for myself," Julian said, presumably not about Ray, and jerked his head up. "What's that behind you?"
    "I was just about to look," Ray said, peeling open his hip pocket to take out the phone. He shook every drop of water off it before wakening the screen and touching the flashlight icon. While he took care not to swing around too fast the beam trailed across the water. It barely reached the limit of the cave, but he was able to make out a gap several feet wide in the rear wall. No doubt the movement he'd glimpsed there earlier had been a stray reflection that had outlined the gap, appearing to fill it. The light grew more concentrated as it glided towards him over the wall, so that by the time it reached the bobbing object it was a white glare. For just a moment Ray was loath to aim the beam directly at the object—he thought he'd already seen too much and then the light caught it. "Good God," Julian said, and in case this failed to convey his shock "Good God."
    The shape had once been much more human, but now it seemed to sum up age and decay. It looked as withered and contorted as the husk of a spider's victim. The man's head was thrown back as if it had been paralysed in the act of uttering a final cry, which had shrunk the lips back from the teeth in a tortured grimace. The hands might have been lifted to fend off or deny his fate, unless a convulsion had raised them. Although Ray had no means of judging how long the corpse had been in the water, perhaps the immersion went some way towards explaining its state, because the flesh that dangled from its bones resembled perished rubber. He was staring at it in helpless dismay—he felt unable to move the light until he or Julian managed to deduce what had happened to the man—when the corpse winked at him.
    He saw it take a breath as well. No, the reflections of the ripples that were wagging its hands and nodding its withered head were at play among the shadows of its ribs, enlivening the collapsed bare chest as the beam shook in Ray's hand. But the drooping eyelid had certainly stirred, although only because a crab had emerged, bearing off a prize. "Come away, Raymond," Julian said as though rebuking a child. "We've seen quite enough. We need to make sure nobody sees who oughtn't to."
    It took Ray some moments and a good deal of resolution to turn his back on the restless corpse, though he'd looked away quickly from the sight of the crab crawling askew down the ravaged pallid face. Julian was treading water where the cave narrowed. "Will you be all right to make your way out," he said, "while I go and deal with the others?"
    Ray saw this was scarcely a question. As he mumbled a reluctant assent Julian struck out for the sea, and in seconds only his wake