Chapter 1

The room was warmly lit, but felt cold. People wearing black suits and dresses crowded the homely decorated room. Soft voices could be heard murmuring conversations, but an uncomfortable quietness lingered in the room, like there was something everyone wanted to talk about, but they didn't want anyone to know they were talking about it.

There were pictures hanging on the wall of peaceful oceans, hopeful Christian images, and calm mountains. Photographs of a young man rested on stands around the room, bringing people back to happier days. Flowers rested on almost every surface in the large, neutral colored room.

Leon stood in the crowded room, but totally isolated from everyone else. He felt like all eyes were secretly on him. He just wanted to be left alone, but he knew that would never happen. His isolation would only be short lived. It was his older brother's visitation after all. The funeral would be tomorrow morning. His eyes were sore and dry from crying on and off all day. People had already gone through the line, hugging him and his little sister and offering their condolences. It was a gesture Leon appreciated, but right now he wanted to be anywhere other than with all these people.

A hand gently rested on his shoulder. He turned to see which old lady it would be this time. It wasn't an old lady at all. It was his younger sister Cassandra, but she went by Cassie. Her eyes were also red from tears, but otherwise her face was as petite and beautiful as ever. She always carried herself with a level of sophistication that Leon didn't often find in other girls her age. She had just had her twenty-first birthday a few months before. She was two years his younger sister.

She squeezed his shoulder lovingly, "How are you holding up?" She said quietly to him.

"I'm okay. I just want to go home."

"We could. Just up and leave."

"That would look bad. All these people came to support us."

"I suppose..." she said quietly. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and sighed. "I still haven't gone over to the coffin. Too many people." she looked down at Leon's hands and took them in hers.

"They're there to help." He assured her and gave her hands a slight squeeze.

"Will you go with me?"

"Yes."

The siblings, hands interlocked, walked solemnly over to the coffin of their older brother Chester. As they approached, all the people mingling around the coffin stopped their murmuring and stared with sad eyes at the siblings. The coffin was a light wood and totally closed. The mortuary manager had advised them to go with a closed casket due to the condition of their older brother's body. They approached the coffin and placed their spare hands on the wood.

It was as cold as death.

Cassie began crying. Leon placed his arms around her and cried with her.

"I wish mom and dad were here." she cried.

"Me too."

From the crowd, the siblings' grandmother approached them and embraced them both as she stared at the coffin.

"He loved you very much, you know." she said to them. Neither responded with a word. They only nodded their heads strongly and cried more audibly.

Their parents had died when they were young. Chester and their grandmother had been their primary caregivers as they grew up. It was Chester who had taught them how to swim, surf, and scuba dive. He had molded them into the young man and woman that they were now. Life didn't seem like it would be the same again. It wouldn't, and they knew it.

The siblings cried in their grandmother's arms. She also cried. The room fell silent except the sniffing and groaning from their crying spell. Everyone looked at them and felt the ache in their own hearts. The family had already been through so much. Many feared this was the last thing it would take to break Leon and Cassie. They loved their older brother.

Now he was gone. Forever.

As the night grew old the crowds filtered out family by family until it was just the siblings and their grandmother. She gave them both a great hug.

"I love you and I'm always here if you need me." she comforted them.

"We know. We're here for you too." Cassie said giving her grandmother another hug.

"Why don't you come stay with me for a few days? It might help."

"Thanks grammah, but I think we'll just go back to our place. I'd just like to be alone for a while." Leon explained. He wasn't entirely being truthful. He just wanted to be with his sister. She was the only one that really understood him and he her.

"Okay, but the invitation stands. Always."

"Love you." the siblings said and headed out into the night.

Destin was rarely quiet, but tonight it was. Usually there were tourists going everywhere all day and night. Walking the boardwalk, taking out pontoons, bar-hopping, and various entertainment venues were attractions Destin offered that most tourists enjoyed. Right now, though, was the short off-season that came just before the winter season tourists came. Most of the attractions were closed because the locals had no interest in them.

Cassie and Leon made their way down to the beach near where they worked. The water was still and quiet. The moon could be seen reflecting off the sea like a mirror. What was once beautiful to them to marvel at now felt like staring at a tomb, or even a murderer. Shark attacks were rare, but they did happen. It seemed like they were happening more and more frequently nowadays. An unfortunate, unpredictable reality of ocean-side life.