Summertime || ONC 2025

Summer Erwin thought she had her life figured out.

At 23, she's a lawyer in California with a promising future, a sharp mind, and a determination to prove herself in a world that measures worth in status, trading her passion for surfing and the sea for long hours in courtrooms and juicy paychecks.

She lives with her adoptive father, a man haunted by secrets he's finally ready to share-secrets Summer has no time for, not when there's a hard-earned summer weekend calls for her.

But what begins as a carefree escape spirals into a chain of events that unravel the life she's carefully built. A moment of instinct, a split-second decision, and suddenly, Summer is pulled into something far beyond her understanding-a world where reality fractures, and the rules she's always known no longer apply.

Dragged into a world that defies logic, where ancient forces stir beneath the waves and reality twists like ocean currents, Summer must confront the truth: she was never meant to live an ordinary life. Not when her blood carries the echoes of something otherworldly.

Her past is a lie. Her future is a riptide she can't escape.

•𓂃𓇻°｡⋆𓋼𓍊☆𓍊𓋼⋆｡°𓇻𓂃•

Participant of the || Open Novella Contest 2025.

Main prompt: 28. On a beach vacation, you dive into the water, but it turns purple and suddenly, you're pulled under the sand. What's waiting for you beneath the surface?

Secondary prompts: 126, 130 and 135.

2025 Umi Moriko Original