Broken, Chapter One: The Dream

A scream filled the night air, but no one heard. The rain pelted her long hair and lightening filled the sky constantly. Shortly after, the loud constant clap of thunder shook the earth. "Where am I?!" She thought out loud. Scared and helpless. Dizzy from the noise, she fell over. She stood and gripped onto what looked like the side of a small cabin. She stood and glared through the darkness. Finally it came to her. "How did I get here?!" She said full of fright. She was in the middle of the ocean in what seemed to be her father's boat.

She didn't remember getting on it. Was she on it alone? She couldn't tell. All of a sudden, the cabin door swung open and out came a figure, running across the deck towards the motor. "It jammed shut!" She heard a familiar voice yell. Who was that…?

Daddy! It was her father. Why was he here in the middle of the ocean? She started yelling out his name but he never heard her. She started being pulled over the side of the boat. She struggled to grab a hold of something to keep her up but nothing was there but the air. She slipped and fell over the side. She saw the cabin door open again and she caught a glimpse of the person, a woman, before she hit the water. The woman looked an awful like her mother.

Before she could think about it, she was overwhelmed with a wave of cold sea water that pushed her deep down under the boat. She tried to swim up. The waves kept coming, crashing over her and making her fall deeper into the water. She was close to out of breath.

"No!" Twelve year old Miley woke up all of a sudden. Tears streaming down her cheeks she looked around her room. Slowly coming back to reality. It was all a dream she realized. It wasn't real!

She got up quickly and got ready for the day. Soon the dream, or nightmare, was completely out of her head.

As she stepped downstairs into the living room, she saw her father sitting on the couch with the TV on. She over heard the conversation of a storm heading across the West Coast of the US. It was supposedly the worst storm they had seen since 1979. So far it had hit every spot on the coast…except Newport, Miley's hometown.

Her dad always went out on his boat. Sometimes he took her and her mother out on the weekends on the boat. There were a lot of memories there. But remembering the dream, she wasn't so sure she liked that boat anymore.

She skipped into the kitchen and met her mother, preparing breakfast of pancakes. She sat down and ate everything on her plate. As she stood to leave her mother asked her, "Hey Hun, do you want to go shopping with me today? We still need to get your Dad a present for his birthday this year." She asked hopefully. Miley turned and nodded, she had forgotten about her dad's birthday. As she started walking back upstairs she saw her dad walk towards the door in his work boots. It looked as if he were going on his boat. She ran towards him remembering her nightmare.

"Please don't go Daddy!" Miley cried as her father started for the door. He turned and laughed, "Miley, I'm just going to the store. I'll be back in a few minutes." She sighed and loosened her grip on his arm. He picked her up and hugged her tightly before putting her back down. He turned away, opened the door and walked out. The sun was shining brightly and Miley realized that it didn't look anything like stormy weather. There was nothing she should be worried about. In fact, as she walked back up to her room, she heard the news caster reporting that they were predicting that the storm was already ending and wouldn't come near Newport.

Little did they know that though her father would be coming back that night, he wouldn't be there much longer past the weekend…