Chapter One

Jim

I cannot believe this is happening again. It's not my fault, it's not. Solar surfing is my passion. I can't stop doing it, no matter how many pink slips I get stating that one more fault will give me a one way ticket to juvenile hall. And yes, it is true that I am fifteen and really need a scholarship out of the Interstellar Academy in Montressor to help my mom with the Benbow Inn that she owns. She needs it; it's not exactly thriving. And my "getting in trouble" phase is not helping.

I sigh and run my hands against my hair. The cruel waves lap against the sand, and the moonlight drowns everything and turns everything the color of pure silver.

I wish everything would just fade away. My life has become nothing, useless, pointless. Just a dirty dishrag used to wipe up spills, thrown away afterward. I'm just a boy, not even a man. But I'm expected to act like one, even though I'm not. Because the man in my life—my dad—left when I was eight.

I'm alone.

A wind howls in my ear but I ignore it. My pain has become evident to me now and I realize how upsetted I've become. How upsetted I've let myself become.

I grab a stone from the pebbly shore next to me and hurl it as far away as I can. It splashes into the water and makes a tiny wave that merges with the big ones coming in from far out.

"Jim!" My mom hangs out of her upper window, her long straight brown hair hanging out.

I glance up at her and pick up another stone, squeezing it in between my fingers. She disappears for an instant and in a few seconds she's out the front door, made her way down the narrow wooden walk and is standing next to me on the sandy slope I'm sitting at.

She reaches down and touches my arm. "What are you doing?" she asks me quietly.

I stare out at the bleak horizon. "Sitting. And watching."

"Watching what, Jim?"

I glare and throw the stone again. It lands even farther than the last one. "That's not important, Mom."

"No, it's not," she agrees. "What is important are all the pink slips piling up in your room like dirty plates in my sink. Do you want to go to juvenile hall, is that what it is?"

I ball my fingers into fists. "Why don't you just leave me alone."

Mom sighs. "Jim, what have I done wrong? What did I do to make you like this? Every time I speak to you it's like I'm talking to a stranger!"

I close his eyes. "I just want to be alone. So if you'd go away it'd be most helpful."

"Jim!" Mom pleads. "I don't want you to throw away your entire future with this...vulgar...solar surfing."

She speaks it like it's a curse word.

"I can't give it up," I say softly. "You...can't...make...me."

Mom's blue eyes narrow. "Why not? And why can't I?"

"Why do you want me to?" I snap. "What's the problem with it?!"

"The pink slips!" Mom exclaims. "You just don't get it, do you? Your whole future is just dying away, Jim. It's become empty. It's become nothing. To fix that, all you have to do is stop being rebellious and stop solar surfing. And doing what you do."

I scowl. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Mom gets up and leaves, slapping her hands against her skirts. She's angry. But so am I. I'm angrier. I hurl a third stone so hard it disappears into the horizon.

She's gone, and minutes later, the light in her room blinks out and the window shuts, too.

I sigh. Great. So now I'm the bad guy. How come I always end up being shunned because of my solar surfing?

What was that she said?

Stop doing what you do.

I grit my teeth. This is ridiculous. Outrageous. Messed up. A boatload of crap.

As I pick up a fourth stone—I know, weird, but this is how I get my frustration out—I notice a slight bobbing amidst the waves. A flash of silver.

Then I turn again and see more silver to the sides. I move closer to the sealine. I notice more and more of them.

What the heck are they?

I pause. There was singing. Singing?!

It was soft and seductive and somewhat evil. I stared at the bobbing shapes. Suddenly, they emerged. They were women. Women that looked like ghosts with glowing eyes. They sang and smiled and danced, weaving through the water, their empty bodies flashing with moonlight.

One of them grabs my arm. I reel back, trying to step away as I was already knee-deep in water. They were kissing me all over my face, hugging me, bringing me farther and farther into the water. I wanted to cry out, let go and just run back to the beach, but I couldn't. I just couldn't.

I didn't want to.

I just let the women get all over me, these empty spirits, touching me, kissing me, pulling me deeper into the water.

One minute I was above, liking all the attention, then the next minute I was under the water, paddling and struggling to stay above. They were pulling me deeper and deeper in, farther and farther and farther until I began to think I was dying.

Mom...

I took a slow breath and suddenly water whooshed into my lungs. My eyes popped wide open. Their watery fluid hands never left my elbows, singing, laughing, dancing, weaving through the bubbles that issues from my lips and pulling me farther down...down...down...

Suddenly, a pair of solid arms grabbed me around my middle and started to swim upward. What the heck?

I began to feel like I was fading. My mind was a swirling labyrinth of memories and thoughts and questions.

I go upward, higher and higher until my head burst above water. I coughed up about a gallon of seawater and I paddled weakly towards the beach—but I didn't need to.

Someone grabs my arm and yanks me towards the sand until I flop onto it, spluttering and trying to locate my savior somewhere amidst the confusion meddling amidst in my brain.

I look up and see a girl with a cloud of bloodred hair all the way down to her back. That's barely what I can see. Vivid flame red hair, and blue eyes I think. And...where the heck were her legs? Her face and arms and hair were dripping with water and she looked concerned. She smoothed back my bangs and began to sing. And not like the strange silver ghost ladies in the water.

Beautifully. A sparkling melody.

I look up at her and then my eyes close.