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.
January 1st | New Year's Day
The sun bore down gently on my back. I stared at Whale Beach from the shade of tall trees lining the car park. The needle leaves bit into the soles of my feet as I walked to where mulch met sand. It was still one of the few densely shaded beaches in the area and I was ever grateful for the cooler ground as I jumped from the mulch to the sand.
This time, I didn't have to fear being caught near the sea, or even playing in the shallows.
I flicked my tight black curls over my shoulder, smiling as sand swept up around my feet. I watched the tide begin to come in at my presence as though it was welcoming me back to the ocean.
I was exhausted, both physically from the attack in Kay's alcove last night and the injuries we all sustained trying to save each other, and mentally. I was tired, my soul had been stretched thin the past six months, but in this moment I finally felt the weight off my shoulders.
There was no fear, for the first time in a long time. This time, as I sat on the sand and stared at the sparkling sea softly dancing before me, I smiled at the sight.
The sand was covered in people embracing the New Year's Day sun, from tourists to locals alike, finding pockets of free sand and basking in the glow of the new year, telling each other their resolutions, their promises to themselves that so many struggled to keep.
But today, it all felt possible – something new often meant something more, and under the first sun of the year, the lines of happiness and promise blurred.
I smiled when I saw Benji and Leah walking back from the café with ice creams in each hand – two in Benji's, one in Leah's with her go-to coffee. They were bickering with one another as they approached, sitting either side of me out of habit, and Benji wordlessly handed me my ice cream while not breaking conversation with Leah.
"–how exactly did you avoid getting banned from the Abercrombie caves?" Benji asked, swapping his glasses for his prescription sunnies. "Sylvia and I are banned for, what was it?"
"Five years," I filled in.
"Five fucking years!" Benji scoffed, licking his ice cream. "We 'fell' into one alcove and rescued our friends and what, we're punished for that?"
I raised an eyebrow. "We jumped a railing and explored prohibited cave tunnels."
"It's...Well, they can shut up!" Benji burst out. "But, again Leah, I ask, how'd you escape the banishment?"
Leah shrugged. "I guess it's because I'm a model citizen who spotted my reckless friends and rescued them from the abyss instead of following them over the fucking railing."
I snorted. "Since when are you a model citizen?"
"Since now!" Leah held a hand to her chest. "I am, and I quote, 'owed miraculous gratitude by you all, because I saved you from danger'."
