Sylvia Okenji expected her final year of school to go like any other; surviving her classes, making memories with her friends, and not ripping her tangled hair out from stress over exams.
But when her eighteenth birthday ends with Sylvia disappeari...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
December 29th | Two days until NYE
The drive down to Clareville Beach was filled with tension, but this time, it wasn't a repercussion of my actions. Benji was driving at his natural slow pace, though Leah fidgeted in the passenger seat enough that he pressed the pedal to just touch the speed limit. Her fidgeting made him nervous but it was understandable given what news I'd told them.
Filling them in on Winnie's disappearance, I asked Benji if the three of us could use Christmas Day to help the mermaids find her. Benji was nodding before I'd finished saying anything and Leah was already reciting a list of things we would need when we went on the water.
Leah was quoting The Fast & The Furious with the situation being a 'ride or die' moment, but I didn't want to die. I didn't want Winnie to die either. But she helped me get safely to the mermaid's cave and away from Kay's clutches, even if it meant she was captured instead, and I now owed her.
The mermaids had tried to convince me to not go, but I told them I was going anyway. Meeting them on Benji's dinghy out at sea, helping them search comfortably in daylight and away from other people, it was the least I could do. The three of us on the surface could look on horizon, on land, and see more than they would.
So, to sea we sailed.
Benji had expertly lied to his grandmother about them taking a trip down to the shops for the day, perusing the Boxing Day sales for the bargains before the end of the year, but we had to be back by sunset.
Maureen had looked me dead in the eye and said sternly, that there would be no exceptions. So, we were planning on coming back three hours before sunset just to be on the safe side.
The last thing I wanted to do was upset Benji's grandmother, who had been nothing but a kind, wonderful woman the entire time I'd known her. Leah also agreed – we were all in the same boat.
I didn't realise my leg was bouncing until Leah reached behind the seat and rested her hand on my knee. I stilled, squeezing her hand back.
"You're making me nervous, Syl'," Leah tried to lighten the mood with a joke but we were all too worried to laugh.
"I know," I said. "I'm sorry. I didn't realise, I was lost in my thoughts I guess."
"Thinking of anything interesting?" Leah twisted in her seat with a glint in her dark eyes. "Anything...fun?"
"Ooh!" Benji slapped the steering wheel. "Please, if it's fun, we need all the details immediately. Don't leave anything out. We're starved!"
I laughed. "Well," I quickly tried to come up with a story. "There's this guy..."
Benji chuckled. "That's how all my troubles start."
Leah rolled her eyes at us both. "Continue, please, and spare the sappiness and get to the good parts."
