Between the Devil and the Deep blue sea

Chapter 1

The night was pleasantly warm; a minor breeze prevented the temperature rising too much. The new moon was a barely visible crescent riding above the few clouds in the night sky.

Sarah dawdled beside her friends enjoying the banter passing between them. Jory was leading the way across the bridge and was engaged in a heated discussion with Tony over whom he towered at a height of six foot two above Tony's five foot six. His short hair stood up wildly upon his head, his chosen colour of the evening glinting deep red in the light from the street lamps.

James Marston walked a little way behind them on Sarah's left; his overly long hair fell into his eyes as he laughed along with their conversation. Further over a pretty dark haired girl walked hand in hand with her boyfriend. Amie and Bob (or Robert Wain) had been dating for the last eight months and were inseparable.

Amie's knee-high boots pleated mini skirt and black T'shirt was immaculate as was her hair and makeup. Next to her Sarah always managed to feel plain no matter what she wore. Never able to get her unruly shoulder length blond hair to stay in one style, she mostly stayed away from make up wearing the bare minimum of blusher and mascara for going out on nights like this.

Bob smiled widely as Amie brushed a hand through his dark hair, trailing her fingers through the long locks and earning herself a kiss in the process.

Chris Murray was alongside the couple animatedly discussing the new "Doom3" war game he had recently brought for his playstation2. Chris had exactly two T'shirts one was white with the shadow of a fighting samurai on the chest with a backdrop of Chinese writing, the other was the one he wore now. A dark yellow with two in facing capital E's which created a circle when joined at the centre. His jeans and trainers completed the look and his curly blond hair was nothing short of adorable!

Sarah watched as they passed over the wash lands noting the mist rising silently from the river to creep over the fields in the distance. The scene reminded her of the clique horror movies where the mist would coincide with the arrival of some evil creature. Giggling she pointed the mist out to Amie "Dracula's coming" she said in a mock serious voice. Amie rolled her eyes, Sarah grinned vampires were her new obsession; well maybe 'new' wasn't the right word. She'd been reading vampire novels for years. Anne Rice's sorrowful Louis and charismatic Lestat making her delve deeper into complexities of the undead.

It hadn't surprised her friends when "Van Helsing" had become her favourite film over night, how could it not be? The Characters and their struggles fascinated her and the moment she saw him on screen Sarah had been convinced that Dracula was the most tragic of them all.

Amie smiled when she remembered how she had been dragged along with Bob to the cinema to watch, in her opinion, one of the worst films she'd ever seen. That was two hours of her life she would never get back!

No one else had come along managing to escape Sarah's clutches that particular night although Amie could remember other films they had been less fortunate with, Jory still raved about Underworld being a complete rip off of the matrix while Sarah insisted it was a brilliantly original concept. Other cruder comments about the film made by Marston tended to a comment involving one guy transforming into a werewolf with a strange look on his face.

As was the usual on such walks home Sarah had moved up the group and was now keeping pace with Tony. It was an unconscious action but one which greatly amused the rest of the group.

"He was a poof!" Tony was saying "he didn't even have sex with her!"

"It was sensual! It meant more than sex; she was dressing him for battle!" Sarah pointed out. They had just watched "The Last Samurai" and as was traditional of the last two years, Tony and Sarah had to argue about it.

"No the guy was an idiot, man!"

"Sex would have ruined it, the tension would have been gone and he would have nothing to go back for! I'm right, right Jory?" she asked looking at the tall boy in the Jackass T'shirt.

Jory chuckled "No"

Tony laughed, "See it's all just about the sex"

Sarah smirked at him "Wow you're so not gonna be one for foreplay are you?"

Marston and Jory both laughed at that, "Disappointed Sarah?" Marston asked grinning.

Sarah blushed but recovered quickly "I just feel sorry for his future girlfriend" she said grinning at him. Tony made a disgusted sound in his throat; Sarah rolled her eyes and prepared herself for the inevitable rant that would follow.

Sure enough…"I'll have you know 'woman' that I'm fairly certain I can have any woman worshipping me as the pleasure God I am without having to resort to foreplay, I mean what the hell is that? It's a waste of time that is, you don't waste a good forty minutes on the foreplay when you could be up and done with the real thing!"

"Quick finisher are you Tony?" Chris yelled from the back of the group. Everyone laughed even Tony who finished mid rant.

"You'll have to ask your mum," he yelled back.

At the end of the bridge the group split up, Amie and Bob headed straight up towards Ferry Street. Marston and Chris took the alley to the left, and Sarah, Jory and Tony started to follow the river.

"Don't forget you all have to be at Amie's for 8:00 tomorrow morning!" they heard Marston yell as they walked off. Sarah waved to show that she'd heard.

School was finally over and to celebrate Marston had suggested going camping for a couple of days in the woods near Alton.

"How'd you get Amie to agree to it?" asked Jory curiously. Amie was not fond of nature in general and it had been a long month of persuasion on Sarah and Bob's part that had finally convinced her to agree to coming along with them for the weekend.

"I brought her a pair of battery powered hair straighteners," Sarah said grinning. Tony snorted something that sounded suspiciously like "Women." Sarah glared at him.

The next day they all met up as planned and set off for the campsite.

Sarah clutched her seat belt around her as Bob took a corner too sharply "Oh God I'm gonna die." She muttered. Amie looked around from the front seat and patted her boyfriend's arm "You are going a bit fast honey" she said fearfully.

"I'm not, it says 70mph I'm doing 70!"

"Bob I'm pretty sure the national speed limit is 60" Sarah said reasonably as he forced the gear into second to make a sharp turn.

Bob had only recently passed his driving test and had volunteered to follow Marston's Yaris into Alton. Through the windscreen Sarah could see the small blue car just a head of them Tony and Chris in the backseat.

"Lucky sods" she muttered darkly. This couldn't possibly get any worse.

Suddenly the CD player began to work and the Calling blared out at her from the internal speakers. She groaned loudly as Amie turned up the volume and began to sing along.

"So lately, been wandering, who will be there to take my place…"

Sarah glared enviously at the blue car in front from which Marston's air guitar album was blaring loudly.

Her belief system tended towards a form of witchcraft known as Wicca and it was to this she turned in her desperate situation clasping her green pentagram necklace, "Goddess help me" she begged as the car screeched around another corner.

"Hey, they're stopping!" Bob exclaimed slamming on the brakes and pulling up behind the now stationary Yaris.

"Thank God for seat belts" Amie muttered from the front seat.

Sarah leaned over to her "Amie your boyfriend's trying to kill us" she whispered, Amie laughed and stepped out of the car.

The others were arguing over a road map on the hood of the Yaris "I'm telling you we should have taken the left turning and gone on to the A30 from there." Marston was saying tracing the root with his finger.

"I'm going to pee!" Chris announced walking towards the hedges on the opposite side of the road.

Jory walked over to Amie and Sarah who were sat on a grass bank, watching the others try to sort out directions. "We are so lost" he sighed sitting down.

"It's Bob's fault," announced Sarah Amie looked at her

"Why are you blaming him?" she asked surprised. Sarah grinned

"Makes life simpler"

Amie thought for a second and then nodded "Yeah it does." Jory laughed.

They sat for a minute in silence; Chris wandered over and sat beside them.

Amie watched the group huddled around the car, they were all insisting their way was the best. She sighed dramatically "Testosterone makes you crazy" she decided.

Sarah laughed "It took you how long to figure that out?"

Amie shrugged "two years maybe more."

Another few minutes past, Jory amused him self by making monkey noises.

"I think we're going," said Chris suddenly.

Sarah looked up hopefully "Really?" He grinned.

"No not really" Sarah sighed.

She watched as Tony finally figured the map out and pointedly turned it the right way up, she smiled as he began to point out the main roads giving Marston and Bob a crash course in map reading.

Amie watched her grinning. "So you still madly in love with Tony?" she asked cheekily. Sarah's cheeks grew hot and she blushed.

"You fancy Tony!" Jory said shocked. Sarah mock glared at Amie

"Thanks, that was a confidence I was hoping you'd share with the group." She said sarcastically.

Chris thought for a moment "Wow. Do you realize what your kids would be like?" he asked. Sarah rolled her eyes and Jory laughed.

"They'd be so cool, like Chinese/English hybrids!"

Jory's face lit up "They'd be amazing! They'd have Tony's Kung Fu Nun-chuck fighting skills and Sarah's witchcraft stuff!" Sarah and Amie laughed; Jory looked really impressed "Your kids would kick ass! You have to breed!"

Tony walked over to his friends "what's so funny?" he asked confused.

Sarah stood up and walked past him following Bob to the car "Apparently we have to breed" she said sweetly grinning. Tony looked more confused than ever. Amie walked after Sarah laughing.

Tony turned towards Chris and Jory "What the fu?" he asked. Jory stood laughing

"Tell you in the car" he said.

It was after midday when they finally made it to Alton. The several "shortcuts" that Marston took had turned out to be the long way round ending in an incident with a rather large mud puddle in which his Yaris had gotten stuck and everyone had to help push it out. All in all the supposedly one and a half hour drive had taken a full three hours.

When they finally pulled up into the car park there was a mad rush for the nearest toilet. The lads pushed and shoved their way in while Sarah and Amie calmly walked into theirs.

"Do you think they told him you like him?" Amie asked touching up her makeup in the sink mirror.

Sarah snorted "Yeah they did, they all looked really pleased with themselves when we walked past." Amie grinned.

"You sure that wasn't just the 'thank god a toilet!' relief?"

Sarah laughed, "more like the macho 'We knew where we were all along'" they laughed.

"See Sarah this is why you should have had a car, at least you can read a map"

They left the toilets and found the guys waiting impatiently at the edge of the footpath having unloaded the cars.

"Ok the site I found is about two miles away" Marston declared slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"You're sure?" Sarah asked grinning.

Marston smiled "Indeed" he said beginning to lead the way. Sarah stepped up beside Jory "God I hate it when he says that, you never know what he means."