Annie Armstrong And The Haunted Beach, Pt. 1

My name is Annie Armstrong, girl reporter. I may be a petite Asian girl, but that doesn't mean I'm a pushover. I've come to the small town of Sea Point to investigate rumours of a haunted beach, and I'm not going to stop until I get to the bottom of them.

I have to decide where to start my investigation. I could head straight for the beach, or maybe I should take a look at some old houses nearby. Ghosts often like to hang out in old houses.

I decide to start with the beach. It's probably the most obvious place to start looking for ghosts, so it'll give me an idea of what else might be around here.

As I walk along the shoreline, I see nothing out of the ordinary. There are several people playing volleyball and sunning themselves in swimsuits, but no sign of supernatural activity. Maybe there aren't any ghosts here after all?

All of a sudden, I catch sight of a girl. She's kneeling in the shallow water several feet offshore, and she looks nervous. I realise that she isn't wearing any clothes, and I get embarrassed when I realise that I've been staring.

I turn away, but I can't help peeking from again. She's still there. Her face is red, and she's looking around as if she's trying to hide from someone.

I walk closer, trying to see who she is. She looks young, around my age. She has long, curly black hair and beautiful green eyes. I realise she looks a little like me.

I call out to her and ask if she's alright. She looks up, and when she sees that it's a solitary girl, her expression changes to one of relief.

"Hi," she says. "I seem to have lost my clothes. Do you think you could help me get home?"

"How did you lose your clothes?" I ask, thinking that this happens to be the perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon. The blushing girl looks very cute, and though I should probably help her I can't resist the urge to have a little fun at her expense. Besides, maybe she knows something about the ghost.

"I was swimming, and the current pulled my bikini off. I get kind of nervous in the water. I'm really embarrassed," she says, covering her face with her hands.

I decide to tease her a little bit more, just to see how shy she really is.

"Don't worry about it. I've seen it all before. Here, let me help you back to your friends," I say, pointing to the people playing volleyball down the beach. The girl blushes.

"But they'll see me naked," she says.

"Don't worry about it. They're used to seeing naked people around here," I say. The girl's blush deepens, as does my grin. I can't believe how much fun this is.

I gesture for her to walk towards the beach, and she does so slowly, nervously. She comes out of the water and stands on the sand, dripping wet, looking around nervously, covering herself with her hands. Some of the people on the beach are starting to look in our direction.

"Can you please give me something to cover myself?" she squeaks, looking more embarrassed by the second.

"In a minute. First, I need you to tell me everything you know about the ghosts."

The girl is silent, and looks even more nervous.

"There are no ghosts," she says in her high-pitched voice. "Come on, let's go find some clothes."

"I know there's a ghost here. I can sense it."

"No, there isn't. Now, will you please give me some clothes? I need to get dressed." The girl is starting to get annoyed with me.

"It's your choice," I say. "You can tell me about the ghost, or you can walk back to your friends in the nude."

The girl is quiet for a moment.

"Well, I'll tell you about the ghost, but can we please go now?"

I nod, smiling.

"Alright, let's go get you some clothes."

The girl sighs in exasperation, but nods. I begin walking down the beach, and she hurries to catch up.

"Okay," she says, scurrying along behind me, doing her best to simulate a bikini with her hands. You can tell she doesn't like the situation, but right now you're her only hope to avoid a naked run home. "So, the town of Sea Point is haunted. Has been for years. Everyone knows that. Back in the day, a sea captain got a hold of some old books that contained dark rituals. She used them to summon some sort of demon. A succubus, I think."

I nod, and the girl continues as we walk.

"She took a liking to the captain, so she made her fall in love with her. Then, every time she looked at another woman, she made her... well, you know what she made her do."

I look curious, as the girl bites her lip nervously. Now she's getting to the good bit.

"Every time the captain thought about... you know... the sea succubus would make her do something.. like make her sing, or make her dance, or..."

The girl stops, blushing profusely.

"Continue," I say.

"She'd... umm... do..."

I stare at the girl, waiting. She turns away, and continues.

"She'd have to... get naked. It didn't matter where she was. If she so much as thought about touching another woman, the succubus would make her strip down completely and..."

The girl stops, turning to me and blushing brighter than the sun.

"And?" I ask.

"Well, that's it!" she says. "She had to strip naked and dance and sing for all the townsfolk. Isn't that bad enough?"

"I guess. So what happened to the captain?"

"The town didn't like her behavior, so they tied her up and threw her into jail. Then, the demon left her and went back to hell."

"Doesn't sound very fair," I say.

The girl shrugs.

"Life's not fair. Anyway, the captain was so embarrassed by the whole thing that she left town, after she got out of jail. Nobody ever heard from her again. But people say she came back after to haunt the place, and to lay a curse on the town so all the women here would forever be as embarrassed as she was."

"How do you know all this?" I ask.

"Some of it I heard from my friends. Some of it I heard from the older villagers," she says.

"Do you believe it?"

The girl looks at me, frowning.

"I guess it's just another story to scare people," she says. "You don't really know if the demon really exists or not, so it's up to you."

"But here you are. All embarrassed and naked."

The girl bites her lip, looking away.

"Yeah... I guess so."

We're approaching the volleyball players now, who have stopped the game to watch us. A pretty blonde in a red one-piece grins as she sees us approach.

"Well, look who's coming to the party after all!" she says, grinning. "Plenty of room over here, gals!"

The girl scowls, but walks over to the group. Other women show up, forming a circle around us.

"What's your name, darling?" the blonde asks the girl.

"Hazel," the girl says.

"I'm Summer. Why are you naked, Hazel? Did you lose your clothes in the ocean?"

The girl bites her lip nervously, and the blonde cackles.

"She's scared," she says to the group. "Look at her blush. She wants to be naked, but she's scared. Why is that, Hazel?"

"I don't want to be naked! Everyone will laugh!" the girl says.

"Oh, I promise they'll do more than just laugh," Summer says. "So... are you planning on dancing for us, darling? Or should we give you something else to do? Maybe play a game?"

The girl looks up at her, blushing brightly.

"I... I don't know how to dance," she says.

"That's OK," Summer says. "We'll teach you."

As the girls crowd around Hazel, I take a step back. Now seems like the perfect time to slip away. I got what I wanted from her. Of course, I broke my promise to find her clothes, but that's just life when your town is cursed.