in your dreams ⇒ JJ Maybank

THREE

CAROLINE BUILT UP WALLS when she was younger. She grew up with a family that told her to get over it. Who wouldn't truly listen to her. The only two people on earth that were ever able to truly break down her walls were Kiara and Sarah. She let them in because they made her feel safe. Like she could show her true self around them and nothing would change. They would still look at her the same. They had a mutual level of understanding between the three of them, and could relate to each other in ways that they couldn't anyone else. That's why when the group split up, Caroline put the walls back up.

Just a month into summer vacation, Hurricane Agatha hit Outer Banks, devastating half of the island. All would be well on Figure Eight, where the kooks lived only a few days after the storm. For the south end of the island, it would be months before everything was back to normal.

"Woah." Caroline breathed as her and her brothers stepped out of the house for the first time since the storm. The old willow tree that once gracefully shaded their house from the sun had fallen into the pool.

"Don't worry," Tanner brushed it off like nothing, "Dad said workers will be here all week cleaning up this mess."

The girl only side eyed her brother before kneeling down to pick up a wind chime that had been whipped off the porch.

"This means I can't swim." Beck complained.

"Pretty sure you being able to swim is on the bottom of mom and dad's list of things to worry about." Caroline stepped up onto the porch and hung the wind chime back in its rightful place.

The big glass doors leading from the dining room of the house to the back porch swung open to reveal Robert and Heather, clearly distressed looking out upon what was once their beautiful backyard. Pieces of siding and wood beams scattered their lawn, an old boat belonging to god knows who washed up in their marsh. And Robert's Grady-White that he had just bought the week before, gone.

"Alright." Robert sighed. "We have some jobs for you kids."

The teens groaned in unison. "No complaints, we need some extra help now that Bertha won't be here until tomorrow and the cleanup crew is coming later today, so your mom and I need to be here."

Heather walked up to her daughter fixing a strand of hair that was out of place. "Caroline, could you please do us a favor and go to the store. See if there's any non-perishable food basics left over."

Rob spoke to his two sons. "I need you two to go buy some backup backup generators, we need as many as we can get."

"Okay." Caroline agreed, the two boys nodding their heads.

She went to go get dressed and headed out the door, feeling grateful that she filled up her car with gas before the storm once she turned it on.

Caroline could usually never drive without music, but after flipping through all the stations, it felt right to just sit in silence. As she drove to the market outside of Figure Eight she started to pass houses that seemed to be in worse shape than hers. One, the roof being completely torn off. She felt her heart drop.

Suddenly, her attention was drawn away from the houses and back onto the road just in time for her to come to a screeching stop. She surprised herself with her reflexes and her body flung forward, seatbelt locking. She had caught sight of some kind of animal in the middle of the road, but wasn't sure exactly what it was and a wave of sweat ran down her body as she prayed he hadn't hit whatever it was.

"Shit." she muttered to herself. "No, no, no, no, no." and unbuckled her seatbelt, flung her door open, and ran to the front of her car, where a small yellow puppy laid, ears drooping, whimpers coming from its throat.