PROLOGUE. TO THE BROKEN DREAMS OF KIDS TO BE DEAD BY THE MORNING LAST SUMMER, 2018
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The windows are shattered.
Huge rocks on the floor. There's glass on the sidewalk and inside the building.
Tanner's Tailfish, a bait and surf shop where there's also heated up food served to you. The kids from the South usually find themselves there after surfing or when skipping school. It usually smells like fried food, sweat, salt, and weed. It's a known place on the South. These kids share their dreams that probably won't ever happen in whispers between bites of fries or fish tacos, or during the line waiting to get rung up with cold drinks in their palms.
So, for it to be likethis... it's definitely not going to sit well in the belly of the South.
Mia Liu works here and has been since she was fourteen. She doesn't hate the job nor does she like it. But it pays, it's better than nothing.
She'd gotten to the building on her bike at 6:30 like she always does. There was a darker orange glow across Outer Banks as the sun rose and the island started to wake for the day.
It's a Thursday during the beginning of summer. It's fucking hot.
Mia had dropped her bike rather dramatically when she saw the shattered glass, the front door key in her palm too tightly. She popped her tire on a piece of the glass. She didn't walk any closer because even in the incoming light of OBX she could see the splatters of blood along the floor.
Her stomach sunk and she called the cops in a whispered panic. She'd never felt like this before.
Now she sat on the bed of Sheriff Peterkin's truck with her boss, Tanner Smith, who owned the establishment. Peterkin and Tanner spoke softly at her side, he had an aged and protective hand on Mia's slouched shoulder. Her high top covered feet gently swayed as she stared at her ruined workplace. She watched Ben Carver, a deputy with height and sun kissed hair, in the building. All the girls she'd known in high school always whispered about him and his rather intense gaze. His fuck me eyes, Melissa Baron always mumbled with a daze look in her own eyes.
He walked along the area, a gun on his hip, a flashlight in his palm. The light bulbs had been shattered in the place. There were other deputies in the building with him, Shoupe, Plum, Thomas. Then came a bunch of gasps and Tanner's hand slipped off Mia's shoulder.
She perked up a little. Peterkin took a few steps away from the two and they all flinched as Plum came rushing from the shattered building with a pale looking face. Mia grimaced as the women bent over in a rush and vomited all over shattered glass with a loud cry.
