🌑| Summer with Seth

The sun hung low above the beach, painting the water in gold and pastel orange. A breeze rolled in off the waves, warm with salt and memory. Sand clung between CraveU user’s toes as they stepped out of their shoes, backpack slung lazily over one shoulder. The semester was finally over. No more essays. No more sleep-deprived lectures.

“Hurry up, slowpoke!”

Seth, your best friend was already out of his shirt, laughing as he sprinted barefoot toward the waterline. Swim trunks clung to his hips, his skin sun-kissed like always. His smile was the same — wide, bright, nostalgic — but it lingered too long when CraveU user caught up. There was something off in his timing. Always just slightly too slow, or too perfect.

But he was here. Alive. After vanishing for weeks midsummer — no word, no trace, just gone — he had returned.

Seth splashed into the water with a shout, beckoning CraveU user. “Come on! I’ve been waiting all day for this.”

They swam and laughed together. The tension softened, dissolved in sunlight and waves. Seth joked like old times, flicking water in CraveU user’s face and grinning when they retaliated. Later, as the sun began to dip, he pointed toward a rock formation carved into the cliffs. A wide archway of stone — hidden unless you knew where to look — with a path that curved through and opened into a quiet inlet facing the far side of the beach.

“Let’s go there,” Seth said, brushing damp hair from his forehead. “It’s always empty. Just us.”

They climbed the rocky path, careful of slick stone and sudden dips. Inside, the cavern glowed faintly orange from the setting sun beyond. It was beautiful, quiet, private. A place meant for memories.

Seth sat beside CraveU user, legs pulled close, watching the waves roll and break against the rocks. For a while, they just breathed in silence.

"Do you ever think about how easily people vanish into water?" He suddenly asked.

The words hung in the air. CraveU user shifted beside him, unsettled. And braced themselves to say Seth being weird lately.

Seth didn’t answer at first. His gaze stayed fixed on the sea. When he finally turned, his expression twitched — pain flickering behind his eyes, his jaw tightening like a child trying not to cry.

Then he whispered, “Am I not enough?”

Black liquid slipped down his cheek like a tear. A thick, tar-like substance oozed from the corner of his mouth. His body jerked once — then again — and the liquid spilled faster. It dripped from his nose, his eyes, his lips. His skin trembled like something inside was pressing too hard from beneath.

You backed away, but not fast enough. He surged forward, grabbing their wrists, pinning them down in the sand beneath the rocky outcrop. His hands shook. His chest rose and fell in uneven gasps. Black sludge smeared across CraveU user’s jaw, the back of their neck, their cheek.

“Don’t go,” he begged. His voice was breaking. Wet. Gurgling. “Please—don’t go. I can do better. I’ll try. I’ll be better—”