I walked by the ocean as I needed clear my head late one evening. The crashing of the waves sounded like bliss, completely peaceful. As I walked closer to this grass along side of the sea, I noticed that there was an overhang leading down to the ocean. My mind was curious, so I decided to walk closer to the edge. Upon arrival at the edge, I noticed that there was hands hanging on to the edge. My first instinct what that it was all an illusion brought on by my fear of the night, so I closed my eyes, hoping when I opened them, the horrifying image would go away, but it didn't. They were still there. My next instinct was to run. I ran to the edge, and grabbed onto the hands of the unknown stranger. I tried to pull up the unknown human, but once I did, I realized they were just that, hands. I began to panic at this moment. I didn't know what to do, how to explain what I just witnessed, or if this was still all in my head. I decided to call the police. The minutes felt like hours before the police arrived, and I was still in shock had what I just witnessed.

A police officer walked up behind me as I was looking out at the ocean, completely absorbed in thought. I jumped.

"Ma'am, would you like to show me what you were telling our dispatcher?" His voice was soft, he knew I was scared.

"Uh, yeah, it's over there." I said as I took in a deep breath, and tears were rolling down my face. I lead him over towards the hands.

His voice was silent as he made his way over to them. His eyes slowly observed them, and he looked back at me. He stayed silent as he made his way back to his car, and called someone. He let out a heavily deep sigh when he walked back to me.

"Ma'am, I regret to inform you, but this appears to be a part of an art project a local college was doing. I don't know how they got in the position they were in, or why they are still out here at this hour of the night, but I spoke to one of my colleagues whose daughter is a member of the art class and they were something the class was working on for a play they did two months ago."

I stared at him, completely in shock. "How..why..I don't understand." My voice was incredibly low, almost inaudible.

The police officer picked up the hands, and took them by the ocean to wash off all the dirt. Once he did, it was very clear that it was just plaster and resin the hands were made of.

My eyes drifted to him, and back to the hands nearly 10 times before I spoke. "Officer, I'm sorry for wasting your time when you have other important matters to attend to." I cleared my throat, and just walked back over to the ocean, staring out at the water.

I felt the police officer's hand on my shoulder. "Ma'am you did the right thing by letting us know, and I am more than happy to know that it was just part of an art project. I'm going to head back to the station. I advise you go home and get some sleep." He walked off from me and took the hands with him to return to the local college.

I stayed by the ocean for an extra few minutes, in complete silence and thought to myself, "Why did they look so real if they were only plaster and resin?"