Fury's Island

by Sue Perkins

  On her way to meet her mother, she glanced across at the shops on the opposite side of the mall and saw Eion. Her hand began to lift to wave hello to him when a girl about her own age rushed up, stood on tiptoe and kissed Eion on the cheek. He smiled fondly and the girl went to join an older woman, her blonde ponytail swinging freely.

  Tears rushed to her eyes as Fury turned away and took the final steps to meet her mother. A quick dash of the back of her hand across her eyes removed the moisture and with a deep breath she looked around.

  “There you are.” Her mother’s voice came from behind her. “What would you like to eat?”

  “I think I’d rather go home.” Fury tried not to sound whiny but her mother frowned as she looked at her. “I think I’ll take my drawing pad down to the beach. There’s so much to sketch down there and it’s stuffy here in the mall.”

  Her mother nodded and led the way to the carpark. Fury could hardly see for the blurry tears in her eyes. She kept her head down so her mother wouldn’t see her upset expression.

  Chapter Four

  Fury made up her mind not to let Eion know how much she fancied him. When they met the next morning she tried to be bright and cheerful, she tried so hard he looked at her with a frown on his face.

  “Is anything wrong?” he asked.

  “No, I’m excited about going out on the water again.”

  Eion had left his boards by the paddleboard shed and Fury went ahead to stop him questioning her again.

  “Don’t stay out too long,” the man on duty told them as they picked up the boards. “There’s heavy rain forecast for later.”

  Eion nodded and they took their boards down to the water’s edge. Fury paddled out into the deep water and the breeze blew away her concerns. She felt much better and made up her mind to enjoy Eion’s company while she could.

  The tide had turned against them and it took longer than usual to reach the island, but they made it and paddled round to rest on the far side before they headed back to the beach.

  “Can we go out a bit further so I can see the top part of the island?”

  Eion nodded. They paddled away from the rock then stopped a fair distance away. Fury looked back and shivered.

  “It looks exactly like a skull, only the eyes are lopsided which makes it look scary.”

  Eion laughed. “It’s only a rock. You don’t have to believe in the legends.”

  “What legends?” Fury pounced on his words. “You didn’t say anything about legends.”

  “Whoa, it’s only a story. The locals tell it to tourists to try and scare them. It’s time we went back, Fury.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me the scary story.”

  “They say the island has always looked like a skull and local pirates wanted people to believe the stories as they used the hollow inside to hide their treasure. They put lights inside the dark openings to make it appear there were eyes watching for anyone to approach from the sea. It’s why in the past people tried to climb the rock. They wanted to find the treasure.” Eion laughed as Fury shivered. “It’s only a story, Fury.”

  “It’s not the story, I’m cold. The sun seems to have disappeared.”

  Eion glanced at the sky and frowned. “The bad weather has arrived sooner than predicted, we’d better get back.”

  They paddled to the front of the rock but stopped in dismay at the sight that met their eyes.

  “Eion, I can’t see the beach! What are we going to do?” Fury could hear the panic in her voice as a gust of wind blew them in toward the island.

  “Calm down, Fury. We can’t paddle back if we can’t see where we’re going. We’d better go round to the other side. We can go ashore and the rock should provide a bit of shelter.” Eion led the way and Fury paddled furiously behind him, not wanting to lose sight of him.

  Fury hadn’t noticed the tiny inlet at the beginning of the rocky shoreline. They pulled their boards up onto the pebbled beach and looked around for something to weight them down so they didn’t blow away in the increasingly strong winds.

  “Look, we can wedge them in between the rocks over there.” Eion had to shout for Fury to hear him, as the wind howled around the rock.

  After they made the boards secure, they looked for somewhere to shelter.

  “I don’t think there’s anywhere but the ‘eyes’.” Fury looked up at the dark holes in the rock. “It’s too risky to climb up there in this wind.”

  “True, let’s go deeper into this cleft in the rocks.” Eion waved his hand to the narrow section behind where they’d wedged the paddle boards.

  The cleft went deeper than they’d originally thought. It turned sharply to the right and then stopped abruptly at a dead end.

  “Let’s hope the sea doesn’t flood this cleft.” Eion looked worried.

  Fury examined the rock wall but there didn’t seem to be any way round it. As she glanced away she thought she saw something, but when she looked back it was gone. For a few moments she stared at the wall then looked away but reached out her hand behind her.

  Her hand met nothing! An empty space was where the wall should be. She shuffled sideways, trying not to look directly at the wall. To her surprise she had moved to the beginning of a pathway leading up inside the rock.

  “Fury, what are you doing?”

  “Come here, Eion. There’s a path hidden behind the wall.”

  He joined her and blinked in surprise.

  “How did you find this? I didn’t know it was here.”

  Fury didn’t want to tell him she thought it was part of her ability to see things that weren’t there, such as the ghost she’d found in her attic at her home in Cave.

  “Guess it was luck. Let’s climb to see where it goes. It will get us away from the sea if it comes in this far.”

  Eion led the way as they climbed upward. The storm had cut the daylight in half and the turn in the rock completed the job so they had to rely on the emergency lights attached to their wetsuits.

  “Where do you think this is going?” Fury shook, partly with excitement, partly with fear.

  “I have no idea,” Eion replied. “I’ve never seen this pathway before.”

  They continued in silence. Eion checked his luminous watch and said they’d been climbing for ten minutes although to Fury it seemed a lot longer. Eion stopped so suddenly Fury walked straight into him.

  “Sorry. There’s not exactly light up ahead, but it’s not as dark. We’d better go slowly, don’t want to drop off a ledge or fall over a rock.” Eion walked forward again and Fury followed, trying to keep enough distance between them so she could stop without bumping into him again.

  “Hey, Fury, look at this.” Eion pointed at the slightly lighter grey ahead of them. “I think it’s one of the ‘eyes’.”

  They crept up to the opening, careful not to go too close to the edge.

  “I can’t see a thing, can you?” Fury peered out into the deluge falling from the sky. The heavy clouds stopped them seeing past the long daggers of rain slicing into the sea.

  “I think the storm is changing direction.” Eion squinted at the rainy vista in front of them. “The wind has changed and is now blowing into this ‘eye’. If we stay here we’ll get drenched.”

  Again they moved, this time further into the rocky island. The path they had been following continued on to the other ‘eye’ then plunged down again.

  “I think we should stay here.” Eion suggested. “We’re far enough in so the rain and wind won’t get us, but if we go down there we don’t know what we’ll find. It could go deep enough for the sea to come in.”

  Fury nodded and they settled down with backs against the rocks to wait out the storm.

  “Are you warm enough,” Eion looked at her with concern.

  “A little bit chilly.”

  Eion put his arm round her. The physical contact didn’t warm her much, but the emotional feelings raged inside her, warming her body from top to bottom.

  Stop
it. He’s got a girlfriend.

  The inner words made her feel a bit guilty, but she didn’t move away.

  They remained silent but after a while Eion cleared his throat.

  “How did you find the opening to this path? I’ve been here a few times and I’ve never seen it before and neither have any of my friends.”

  “It was a bit strange. As I looked away from the wall I could see something out of the corner of my eye but when I looked back it wasn’t there, so I looked away again and reached out with my hand. When my hand met nothing but air I thought maybe the path was hidden.”

  “It looked so solid, how could it be hiding a path?”

  “If you think of how it was laid out it’s easy. Set one wall about a metre in front of the other. When you look at them head on they seem to be one wall. It’s only when you move to stand sideways next to the back wall you see the pathway.”

  “I’ll take your word for it but I still don’t really get how I could have missed it.”

  Fury wondered if Eion was a bit irritated that he hadn’t seen the pathway. She mentally shrugged. There was nothing she could do to make it better.

  “How long have we been here?”

  Eion looked at his luminous waterproof watch which he wore all the time. “Over half an hour. Hopefully the storm will start to fade soon.”

  Almost as if it had heard him, the bad weather began to ease so they retraced their steps to where they had left the boards. They reached the small beach to find it fully awash with the sea, but luckily their boards were still wedged between the rocks. So well wedged in fact they had difficulty wriggling them free.

  Fury looked at the sky but although the rain had stopped the sun still hid behind the clouds.

  “My mother will be frantic.” Fury nibbled her lower lip. “She’ll think I’ve drowned or some other lurid thing.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll soon be back on shore.” Eion led the way into the water and they began to paddle round to the other side of the island.

  No sooner did the shore come into view than they saw several boats searching the water. Eion lifted his hand and waved and one of the vessels headed in their direction.

  Chapter Five

  “Are you two okay?” Fury recognised the voice of the paddle board hirer.

  “We’re fine,” Eion replied. “We took shelter behind some rocks on the island until the storm had passed.”

  The man in the boat waited until they’d climbed on board, then he hauled the boards in. With a flick of his wrist the outboard roared up a notch and they headed for the beach.

  Fury’s heart sank when she saw her parents waiting for her on the sand. Her mother looked frantic and would probably forbid her going out on the paddle boards again. She’d no sooner clambered out of the boat than her mother rushed forward and threw a blanket around her shoulders.

  “Thank goodness you’re all right, Fiora. We’ve been worried sick about you.” The older woman tried to lead Fury up the beach, but her daughter dug her heels in and refused to budge.

  “Mum, Dad, this is Eion. He’s been teaching me to paddle board.”

  Fury’s dad nodded to the young man but her mother frowned.

  Oh no! She’s going to rip into him about taking her precious daughter into danger.

  “Thank you for taking care of our daughter.” Fury’s dad surprised her as he cut across his wife’s imminent tirade. “Will you be okay? Can I give you a lift home?”

  “Thank you but no.” Eion’s smile reminded her of the rays of the sun emerging from behind a cloud. “I live quite close by and, if I’m not mistaken, there’s my mother charging down the beach.”

  Fury looked to where he had indicated and saw a smart-looking woman rushing across the sand. A teenage girl followed and her heart sank when she recognised the girl from the mall.

  “Eion, why didn’t you come in before the storm?” his mother demanded. “I only found out you were caught out on the water a few minutes ago.”

  “It came up quite fast, Mum. One minute the sky looked clear, next there were big black clouds and a fierce wind. We couldn’t see the beach so we took shelter on the island.” He waved a hand at Fury’s parents. “Mum this is Fury and these are her parents. We were paddle boarding together when the storm hit.”

  Fury’s father stepped forward, held out his hand and introduced both himself and his wife. “John and Marva Laing. Pleased to meet you. We’re grateful Eion took care of our daughter.”

  “Lily Tyrone. I’m glad these two are safe. It could have been a lot worse.”

  Fury noticed nobody introduced the girl who’d accompanied Eion’s mother, but the teenager had sidled up to Eion and now stood next to him looking at him possessively.

  “Time we were going,” Fury’s mother stated. “Thank you again, Eion.” She turned to Eion’s mother. “Nice to meet you.”

  Eion’s mother nodded in reply and linked her arm through her son’s. As Fury and her parents left, Eion called after them. “See you tomorrow, Fury?”

  Fury turned and nodded with a smile on her face. As she turned forward again she saw the expression on her mother’s face which boded ill for any future paddle boarding.

  Back at the cottage her mother sent her up to have a warm shower.

  “You’ll be full of sneezes if you don’t warm up and put on dry clothes.”

  Anyone would think I was a ten-year-old. Doesn’t she think I’ve got any sense?

  Fury dreaded returning to the living room, but her mother had insisted she must come down after her shower and have warm soup to heat up her insides. She climbed reluctantly down the stairs and curled up in a comfy chair. Her mother bustled in with a steaming cup.

  “Here you are. A nice cup of tomato soup to warm you up.”

  “I am warm, Mum. I don’t need any soup.”

  “Nonsense, it will do you good.”

  Fury took the soup and sipped it, then put it down. Her mother raised her eyebrows but Fury shook her head. “It’s too hot. I’ll let it cool a bit before I drink any more.”

  Her mother nodded, then sat down in a chair opposite.

  Here it comes. No more paddle boarding. Stay away from Eion.

  “Fiora, I’m a bit concerned about you paddle boarding. You could have been drowned out there in such a storm.”

  “We weren’t in any danger, Mum. Eion has been boarding for years and he knew exactly what to do. We were on our way back when the storm ripped through.”

  “That’s another thing. Who is Eion? Where did you meet him?”

  “I met him on the beach and he offered to teach me to paddle board. He made sure we stayed next to the beach until I had got the hang of it, then we went out round the island. We’d only been so far once before.” Fury glared at her mother, daring her to put a ban on her excursions with Eion.

  “I think...”

  Her mother’s words were cut off when Fury’s father entered the room.

  “Feeling better, love?” His words were aimed at his daughter.

  “Yes, thanks, Dad. We weren’t in any danger. Eion took good care of me.” She waited for him to take over the ban on paddle boarding.

  “Good. He seems like a nice boy. I’ve been asking around and the Tyrones have a good reputation in the area. The board hirer says Eion is a good athlete and doesn’t take risks. As long as you’re with him I don’t think there’s any problem with you paddle boarding. Promise me you won’t do it on your own without telling me first.” Her father looked intently at her and Fury felt only too pleased to agree to his restriction.

  “John, I don’t...”

  “Now, Marva. We can’t keep our girl under protective custody all the time. She’s growing up and needs to be able to spread her wings. Be thankful she’s level headed and knows how to keep out of trouble.” He looked at the cup beside Fury. “Is there any of your delicious soup left?”

  ****

  The week flew past with Eion and Fury boarding every day. They went past the islan
d again once or twice but mainly they stopped on the far side before returning to shore. Once they landed on the island but didn’t go into the tunnel they’d found.

  “We really torches or headlamps to look in there.” Eion tilted his head to one side thinking through an idea. “Plus we need to come out in kayaks, not on the boards.”

  “Why?” Fury wanted to know.

  “We’d get wet on the boards, like we were last time. In a kayak we’d be reasonably dry. Plus it would be a bit awkward carrying any lights if we weren’t in a kayak.”

  “Shame. I’d really like to go down the tunnel on the opposite side of the eyes.” Fury laughed. “Perhaps we’d find the pirate’s treasure.”

  “I doubt if there is anything hidden there, but it would be interesting. Nobody I know has ever found a way into the rock before. Lots have tried to climb up to the eyes, but nobody’s ever made it to the holes.”

  They had been sitting on their boards on the far side of the rock, but Eion nodded toward the beach and they began to paddle with the incoming tide. Once ashore they returned the boards then went for a coffee.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Eion stirred the froth on the top of his cappuccino. “It would be good fun to explore the island. How about we go out in the kayaks tomorrow instead of the boards?”

  “Wouldn’t it be expensive to hire a kayak?” Fury felt she should offer to pay half, but her weekly allowance didn’t stretch far.

  “We have two at home. It’s supposed to be good weather tomorrow, shall we go out in the kayak instead of boarding?” Eion waited for her to agree, but Fury’s spirits sank. Her mother would need to give permission for her to go kayaking.

  “I’ll have to ask my...” An idea flashed into Fury’s mind. “Ask my father if it’s okay. Can I let you know in the morning?”

  “Let’s exchange phone numbers and you can text me once you’ve asked him.”

  Eion pulled a napkin toward him and grabbed a pen off the cafe counter. He wrote down his number and offered Fury another napkin and the pen. She wrote her own phone number and took the one with his on it. Their hands brushed in passing and Fury had to force the blush from her face. Eion glanced at his waterproof watch and indicated they should go.