Snatched -- Completed
Stranded -- Completed
Destroyed -- Completed
~~~~~~~~~~~
What would you do if you were lied to your entire life?
For young, 16-year-old Phoebe Miller, her hometown, Treedon Island, has always felt off. The leaders alway...
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Chapter One: The Send-Off
Carnival Day.
The dreaded carnival day of Treedon Island.
To celebrate the children of the island and their educational achievements.
But 16-year-old Phoebe couldn't stop thinking about the main event.
The Send-Off.
The Send-Off was the first event of the festival.
A week before school ended in Treedon's high school, every 16-year-old took an exam. An exam that determined who got sent off to 'improve their skills'.
Skills were everything on Treedon Island. Kids didn't play sports. They went to school, did their homework, and went to bed. That's how the it always was in their society.
But Phoebe had always known that something was wrong. Every single one of the Island's leaders always seemed so serious, so uniform.
And oftentimes scared.
Phoebe looked through the cracked mirror leaning on her bedroom wall. She wore dark skinny jeans with black slip on shoes along with a silky, yellow shirt covered by a black cardigan that ended mid-thigh.
Her mom pulled her hair in two french braids down her back, then slid a yellow headband over the top. She took a final look in the mirror and took a deep breath.
She looked down at her feet and bit her lip in nervousness.
A hand softly touched her shoulder and her mother's warm voice filled her ears, "Honey, you need to relax. Only ten children will be selected for the Send-off. There is no way you did bad on your exam. You are brilliant...just like you father."
Phoebe turned to look at her mother, "Mom." she didn't know what to say, "You're not gonna lose me like you lost him. I promise." She leaned in to give her mother a hug.
Phoebe's father left for a 'walk' two years before but never came back. Her little brother, Jacob, claimed that he tried to take him with him . Phoebe cried and cried when she found out one day after school that her father was gone, but she got over it quickly. She didn't want her father to hold her back. Especially when she would be 16 two years after that.
Now that she was of age, she barely remembered her father's face. But she never really wanted to remember the father who left her.
Phoebe felt someone shaking her shoulder out of her reverie.
"Phoebe?" her mother asked, "We should get going to the festival."
Phoebe nodded, looked in the mirror one more time, and walked out the front door with her mom.
They walked down the sidewalks until they reached the center of the island. Phoebe saw several of her friends within the crowds . They waved at her as she jogged over to them.
