- Anaya, they said that was my name, but now it feels more like a word in a language I don't speak.
It feels rough on my tongue and awkward when I say it. Everyone recently has been treating me like a dog that got hit by a bus, starting at me with sorrowful eyes like I'm lost. I'm not lost, but I have lost something; myself. -
After an almost-fatal accident, Anaya has been diagnosed with amnesia, and is slowly putting her life back together, and trying to figure out what happened the day she lost her memory.
Meanwhile, her cousin, a bright four year old named Noah, and her former best friend, Willa, are trying to help her remember who she was, and are the only people who don't act like she's, well, different now.
In the midst of all this, Noah's mother and four siblings have been hospitalized due to the same occurrence that made Anaya lose her memory, and the authorities are trying to find Anaya's mother.
Will Anaya get her memory back, and will she remember what happened the night she lost her memory?
Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld.
*****
When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying!
[[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]]
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]