Hi everyone! My second fic has arrived! Be sure to check out my first - Validians. Read and Review please.
By the way, I'm not sure if the genres I picked are accurate for this story, but it's a good story none the less.
"Summer! Get over here, now"
I took one final look around her, staring at the vast blue ocean, then ran to my mother.
"Where's your brother? Where's Skylar?" My mom demanded, hands on her hips.
Tears filled my eyes, and I stared down at the water, the words bleeding through my shut lips. "I... I don't know."
The memory flashed through my eyes. That was five years ago. Five long years of my parents crying at night, holding each other and sobbing. Five long years of people giving me sad, sympathetic looks. Five long years of not seeing his shining face and deep brown eyes. Five long years since I've been back at the beach. It's been five long years since Skylar disappeared.
I begged my parents to let me take him out into the water. I told them, I'm ten now, I can take care of Skylar. But I was wrong. With the reluctant permission of my mom, I grabbed my three year old brother's hand and took him slowly into the cool water. We didn't go deep, the water barely went past my knees. Skylar laughed as he splashed the salty water at me. "Look!" I called out to my parents, who were watching carefully from the sand, "He's my little brother"
They laughed at that, not quite understanding how me and Skylar could love the ocean, when my mom wouldn't go deeper than a foot in the water and my dad just managing over four feet. Looking down at Skylar, whose smile was too big for his face, I was ecstatic that he was like me, he loved the water as much as I did. With his little fingers still holding tightly onto my hand, I splashed the water with my free hand. "Ocean," I said. "This is the ocean."
He looked up at me, his eyes glowing with delight. "Ocean," he repeated.
I laughed, I just taught him my favorite word.
Suddenly, Skylar's laughter died down, and his expression became confused. "What's the matter? Do you need the bathroom?" I asked him, my own laughter gone now too. He looked up at me, eyes wide, "Ocean," he whispered, and was gone.
Right before my eyes, he disappeared. One second he was holding my hand, the next he was gone.
I looked around me frantically, with no sight of him. Bending down, I began moving my arms around me under the water, searching for his little hand. But I knew I wasn't going to find him. He didn't go under the water, he just disappeared. Disappeared into thin air.
"Summer! Get over here, now!" My mom called, I glanced over at her. She was standing a foot deep in the water, hands on her hips, fuming with worry and anger. There was a life guard standing next to her, staring at me his hazel eyes. My dad was already splashing through the water, trailing behind another lifeguard, towards me and the spot where Skylar disappeared. Taking one last look around the ocean, I turned and ran to my mother.
"Where's your brother? Where's Skylar?" She demanded, her brown eyes piercing my own brown ones.
My eyes filled with tears, and I broke my gaze from my mother's, staring down at water. "I... I don't know." My mother turned to the life guard, "Skylar's about this tall," she said, holding her hand up to demonstrate the height of my three year old brother, "With brown eyes and light brown hair."
"You're sure he didn't come to shore?" The lifeguard asked.
"One second he was in the water, the next he was gone. He went under. I didn't take my two eyes off of him. He's only three!" The life guard nodded, and then took off, sprinting deeper into the water to join my dad and another lifeguard in the search.
"Mom," I whispered, tears streaming down my face.
"Summer, tell me what happened," he voice was strict, but I could see she was struggling to hold composure. She was melting on the inside.
"I... I was holding his hand. We were laughing, I taught him the word 'ocean.' Then he was gone."
We were there until sunset, when one of the lifeguards came to us saying to my mother, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I truly am."
At that my mother collapsed. She fell to the sand crying hysterically, and my dad went over to her and wrapped his long arms around her, crying as well.
I looked around me, at the few people left at the beach. Happy couples, happy families, happy teenagers. How can life still go on when our world just fell apart?
After that, everything was a blur. The police were contacted, and my parents did everything to find my brother, convinced that he was still alive somewhere. Days went by, weeks, months, with no news about Skylar.
It took my parents about three months to get their lives back together. But I didn't think I'd ever get mine back together. I was forbidden to go to the beach, my parents wouldn't go back, and I wasn't allowed to go with friends. They were being over protective, too paranoid, I told them, when I asked them for the millionth time.
But my mom kept her word to a strict "no." I got mad at her, then yelled, "I'm not three years old like Skylar was!" and watched my mother crumble. I'd hit her with the strongest, cruelest words ever.
That summer, five days after I'd turned fifteen, my friends invited me to the beach for the day. Without even consulting my parents, I turned them down, told them I couldn't go. Walking in through the front door, my mother met me in the kitchen doorway, her brown hair dangling loosely around her shoulders, different from the usual tight bun she often wore.
"Summer," she said quietly, "Go have fun at the beach with your friends."
I looked at her in astonishment. Wondering what caused her sudden change of mind. After five years of being forbidden to go to the beach, she suddenly said I could go? Without her?
I ran and hugged my mother, whispering "Thank you, thank you," a million times.
But now I'm at the beach, my legs in knee deep salty water. The sun beating down on my bare shoulders, my blonde hair blowing across my face. I'm at my favorite place in the whole world, and yet, I'm not happy.
"Hey, Summer!"
I turned my head to see who was calling me. My friend, Kelly, threw me a Frisbee. It was off aim and I watched it soar over my head and land in the water behind me. I plastered a fake smile on my face and tried to enjoy the one thing I loved the most; being in the water. I chased after the Frisbee and grabbed it where it was floating in the deep blue water.
Picking it up, I bent my arm to throw it back, when suddenly, and odd feeling over came me. My body felt all tingly and I shivered.
"Over here!" One of my friends yelled, waving their arms above their head, motioning for the Frisbee.
I looked around me, everything becoming suddenly blurry. Darkness began encasing me, and the voices of the beach faded away until it was eerily silent. Growing and growing, the darkness covered me, until I could no longer see a thing.
Like it? Constructive Criticism is wanted. Please Review.