Mysterious Chime (Book #1)

C H I M E 1

¹ |PROLOGUE

Seagulls. Powerful waves. Breezy wind.

I cracked my eyes open to take in the environment I was currently at. Without a delay did I realise that I'm no more at home, cozied up in my bed waking up like a normal person upon the crack of dawn. In fact I was lying on the shore with grains of sand squirming underneath my weight as if trying to free away from me and feet apart was the sea with translucent tidal waves hitting the shore constantly making it appear like they were on shore cleaning duty-tidying up the harmless mess people have created: sandcastles and footsteps. I inhaled a fresh breath of air just as the gentle salty wind brushed past me bringing the sensory faculty back. Getting up slowly, I gazed up with squinted eyes observing the earth born behavioral display of the seagulls.

What am I doing in the beach? How did I get here? Questions of thousand kept pondering in my head and as much as I preferred to search past my mind about yesterday, ere yesterday or voyage across the past I couldn't seem to remember a thing. It was as though a boulder was at the entrance of my mind, force-stopping my access to my own memories. A headache of slight instantly brought my efforts to a halt temporarily.

What's wrong with me? I panicked at this point as I started looking around me frantically trying to figure out if someone was accompanying me, a friend or family but to no avail there was none, not a soul to be found. My brows furrowed with curiosity and thorough concern as I wondered if this part of beach was private owned with property rights because usually people living nearby would step out for a run first thing in the morning. Can it happen? If so, I'm at the wrong place in the wrong time which would definitely get me in trouble for trespassing. Maybe I'm just over thinking because obviously I'm surrounded by sand- hard pressed by people's feet plus I clearly saw a sand castle getting choked by the water. The irony of the situation was that the beach did nothing to relax my brain cells except otherwise.

Kneeling on the place I was lying at I dug my fingers into the heavy sand, like a dog doing its best to unearth the spot where it's favorite bone laid at, trying to find something: a phone, an earing, a photo? Something! One thing I missed in the comparison is that the dog memorize the path it took while I didn't. I have no memory of any sort.

"There has to be something," I whispered hoarsely welcoming the tears of frustration. My sobs turned to quiet whimper when a dangerous thought crossed my mind.

Was I kidnapped and left here?

Swallowing the notion all the way down my windpipe I scanned myself searching for any sign of damage. The white dress I was sporting on looked perfectly fine with no spots of dirt stains or torn marks. I was at an indispensable desperation to see the way I looked for I couldn't recollect my own face and it's features in specific. I let my fingertips trace the arc of my eyebrows that felt thicker moving it slowly down to the length of my nose, I figured it small and then moved to my parched, cracked lips. Checking myself out felt like an alien on its first day on planet earth in human form. Learning well about my face I raised my hand to feel my hair wondering if I should tame it down if wild just then I noticed a formed bruise on my wrist making me forget the idea about my hair. The bruise appeared fresh although I had no idea how it got there.

My movements stopped briefly when something stole the spotlight bringing my undivided attention to it. My inquisitive eyes were laid onto that one thing, in particular. Moving away from where I stood I inched closer to the water and out of the blue a sound pierced my ears making me wince in response. The more I got closer, more the sound intensified. Inspite of being cautious with my steppings, my feet kept staggering with a possible fear of death.

Nevertheless the idea of death didn't stop me as I walked closer and closer to whatever the force that was making me produce an obedient bee line towards the sea. To harness the fear is to face the fear.