Sun May Shine | Paul Lahore

I

DROWNING - that was the best Coralline could come up with. Like her lungs were swelling expeditiously, filled to the brim with the bitter taste of denial and melancholy as her throat was clawed at by the piercing talons of her undying wrath. She couldn't breathe; feeling the air surrounding her thicken, trapping her in her frantic state whilst somehow she felt as if she was floating in a mist of nothingness all the same.

When Charlie Swan knocked on the door of the Mooney household that morning, Coralline held nothing but high hopes in her heart. That hopefully, her Uncle would turn up hand in hand with his youngest niece, who was hopefully not too unkept and dirtied, and all would go back to how it was supposed to be. Nothing to draw them into the spotlight or deem them 'gossip-worthy' for the rest of their prying town to see.

However, like countless other things in life, nothing ever turned out on the bright side for the her. Her Uncle appeared empty handed, with a small party of officers to initiate a final search for her sister. He and her mother sat in their kitchen, two cups of coffee remained almost untouched if it weren't for her mother's nimble fingers anxiously swirling her spoon through it's icy depths. The lack of steam the only indication of the several minutes the two had been seated; their conversation steering far from the elephant in the room, which in any other situation would've been quite humorous due to the large doe-eyes that stared plainly at them from behind a picture frame.

"I hear your Bella's coming down to visit." Her words were barely above a whisper, yet still somehow made the brows of her brother shoot up into his forehead, stress induced lines still heavily noticeable. Maybe it was the rasp of her voice, making it seem that she — much like her eldest daughter — was suffering that drowning sensation also. Or it could've been the bitterness behind each syllable, though he doubted it was deliberate. Donna loved Bella, like she was one of her own, and he guessed under any other circumstance she would've been delighted that her niece was visiting for the summer. It was just unfortunate it had to happen at all, especially to his sister. He couldn't imagine losing Bella. Though, in a way, Charlie guessed he already had.

Struggling to find his own words, Charlie mumbled out a response. "Yeah...next week." He didn't know what else to say, like all times it was like his mind went completely blank when it came to consolation — if any type. He was too awkward, he knew that, it was one of the main excuses for why Renee left. Taking his child with her.

"That's good. It'll be nice for Coralline to have some family around her for a few weeks, someone other than me..."

"You know I'll always look out for her." Charlie took a leap and grabbed hold of his sister's quivering hand. "And you. I know you don't think it, but Don', you need help just as much as she does. You're not as strong as you used to be, not after he left." He more or less spat the words, like they were riddled with poison that completely engulfed his mouth.

Her eyes flew up to his, holding a look so doleful, all previous signs of anger were completely burned out, like a fire ceased of its scorching wrath by the gentle waves of water.

Coralline watched from her seat perched behind the bannister of the stairs, lips quivering as her mother leaned into her brother's side, no longer trying to conceal the tears she had tried so desperately to hide. Coralline's little sister had been missing for almost a week now — completely out of the blue. No signs, no form of evidence, there was nothing. It was almost like she had disappeared in mid-air, and due to that there was nothing else the police could do. They had searched the perimeter of their house, then around the neighbourhood followed by the town, before trekking into the depths of the woods. That one took two days, yet nothing was found.

The first theory was that she had wandered into the woods and gotten lost, yet after a day or two many began to assume the worst. Her uncle suspected abduction, though as something so uncommon in Forks, many said death. It was never mentioned aloud, but the stares both mother and daughter received were a clear enough indication. They had lost hope, and it looked that her mother had too, but she wouldn't. Coralline knew Margaret like the back of her own hand, the two had been attached by the hip as soon as she had been born. She never would've left the house by herself, let alone into the woods or town without telling either Coralline or their mother. It didn't make sense; Margaret didn't just disappear.

The entire town believed her to be dead, and were entirely ready to let her existence remain a memory — a ghost story. Coralline wasn't about to let that happen, her sister wasn't meant to be a forgotten soul. She looked up to Coralline, she wouldn't want her sister to give up on her, as she would do the same if their fates were switched.

Coralline was going to find her sister, no matter what anyone said.

She wouldn't let her down.