Not for the first time that day, Amara felt like creating a vacuum dimension that was detached from time and just screaming in there for three hours at a minimum, and it was only seven forty in the morning. Her family had exceeded her expectations yet again when it came to being late.

She'd been prepared for anything- she'd made sure Arya had packed all of her stuff earlier the previous day, quadruple-checked if Arya had put in her laptop and her tablet, packed all the chapatis along with the pickle (including her mom's extra chapatis because "You'll say you're not hungry, but then you'll buy all that kandravi outside food and get sick!"), changed all their alarm clocks to wake them up at 5AM instead of 6AM because she knew they'd procrastinate on waking up for at least an hour before they decided that missing their flight was probably going to be a lot more disastrous than missing some sleep. She'd even stolen Arya's phone and every single electronic device she owned so that she wouldn't scroll through some random story on Wattpad till 4AM and become a functional zombie and become slower than anything when she was supposed to be hurrying up and getting ready.

What she didn't anticipate was Arya tripping over practically nothing in the bathroom because she decided to pretend to be Taylor Swift at the worst time ever and mildly hurting her ankle. This obviously led to Arya collapsing on the couch and pretending like she was going to die if she wasn't taken to the bloody ICU, before realising that she'd forgotten to take her science textbook to study for her exam and she had to unpack everything to put it inside her suitcase. Amara had taken care of that by shoving the book into her bag, but Arya still wouldn't budge.

"It's because you're always on that stupid phone." Her mother scolded, while she answered with her usual protest, "I didn't even have my phone at that time, Amara stole it! And I tripped! What does my phone have to do with that?!"

Her mother snarked back at her before yelling at her to not answer back, which led to Arya's usual response when people told her to do something she didn't agree with: start arguing back angrily. This obviously didn't sit well with her mother, and they got into their famous mother-daughter arguments, which obviously drowned out all of Amara's constant cries of "We're gonna be late, stop arguing and hurry!". In the midst of all that, her father was on the phone with her grandmother, who had decided to call them and ask them when they were arriving, in spite of Amara sending out clear instructions to everyone the previous week and repeatedly sending them in the family Whatsapp group. That obviously didn't stop her grandmother from disobeying rule number one: Don't call unless we call you. As expected, that just increased Amara's frustration, which she was trying her best to contain by standing completely still while having her fists clenched tightly and deeply breathing in and out repeatedly.

She stared at the clock in the living room, clenching her fists tightly. She'd gotten out all their suitcases and bags, and even had a random sweatshirt for Arya to wear over her tank top. They were running out of time as usual, so she wasn't really bothered about her sister walking around an airport in My Little Pony sweatpants and a TARDIS sweatshirt.

She walked over to her father to at least get him outside on time before dealing with her mother and Arya. He was still on the phone as he paced around the kitchen, trying to calm his mother down, by the looks of it. "No Ma, we'll have lunch after we get there, we'll-"

His sentence was cut short as Amara had snatched the phone away and put it on her ear. "Patti-"

"Amara! How are you?"

"Everything's fine Patti, we're getting late now, we'll have to talk later." She snapped and hung up before anyone could say anything before putting her dad's phone in flight mode and handing it back to him.

"Seven forty five. Seven forty five! We're gonna miss the bloody plane!" She exclaimed in response to his look. "This is what happens when people don't listen to me!" She threw her hands up and walked towards the living room, where her mother and sister were still going strong. Her frustration had reached its breaking point by then, which resulted in her losing all her will to stay in control.

"Will you both stop arguing and look at the time!?" She screamed once she reached there. Her mother and Arya quieted for a moment before her mother said, "What have I told you about-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, no yelling in the house and no interrupting you, but that flew outside the window half an hour ago! We were supposed to be leaving forty five minutes ago!" She chucked the sweatshirt at Arya, who winced as it hit her face. "Wear that over your tank top and get here. You can take bath after we go to Chennai. No protests."

"But I'm wearing My Little Pony sweatpants, I can't walk in an airport wearing these!"

"Yeah? Well you should have thought about that before you decided to dance while singing 'Look What You Made Me Do' at the top of your lungs in the bathroom when you were supposed to be getting ready!" She rolled her eyes and turned to the kitchen. "Appa, where are you?!"

She got no response. She threw her hands up again before balling them into fists and trying to contain her scream of frustration. Of course. Her father always- always went to the bathroom before leaving the house. And not just before- like right before they left the house. She'd been over the rules with all of them the previous night, and they were still late. Fucking typical. She turned back to Arya, who was sitting on the sofa with her hands folded. "What part of 'wear the sweatshirt' do you not understand?"

She shrugged, "I'm not gonna wear it. I'm staying here. I'd rather die than be caught dead wearing my pyjamas in public."

She rolled her eyes. "I really don't have the time for your nonsense right now-"

"Yeah? Well you should've thought about that before you made me wear something I don't like!" She imitated Amara poorly, and Amara took a deep breath as the familiar rise of irritation swept through her body. Once more, she contemplated running into her room and screaming for the next hour and a half.

"Arya, listen to your sister." Her mother said, and for once, Amara was slightly relieved. However, she knew that Arya would protest again, which she did. Thankfully, Amara had the perfect form of blackmail, which, other than complete yelling, was the only way to convince Arya to budge- and Amara knew that going full-Amara, as Arya liked to call it, would majorly backtrack them.

"Arya, remember that story you were reading yesterday?" She turned to her sister, pretending to look innocent. "Some book about the mafia, right?"

Her sister's eyes widened as she turned to her mother, who's eyebrows were raised. "Amma, it was for a school project, they asked us to write a report on the mafia!" She turned to Amara and scowled. "I'll wear the bloody sweatshirt. Whatever." She slipped it over her head and walked towards the suitcases, muttering about all the things she'd rather be doing, which included skydiving off a plane in the middle of a thunderstorm. Amara rolled her eyes, looking at the clock once more. Judging by the time, her sister being dramatic was the least of her concerns.

"Just get all the suitcases outside the house and put them in front of the lift before Appa comes." She shook her head, exasperated, "And hold the first lift that comes here." She pulled out two of the suitcases as Arya opened the door. She wheeled them towards the lifts and placed them in front of one of them, pressing the button. She went back to the house to see if everything was outside, where Arya was pulling out the last of the suitcases while her mother held the door open. Her father came running towards the door, muttering apologies in response to Amara's annoyed glare.

Arya handed over the suitcases to Amara before running towards the lifts and waiting for them to arrive. She held the doors open after pushing the suitcases inside, helping Amara as she approached it. Once everyone got inside the lift, Amara pulled out her phone and glanced at the time again, sighing. Looks like she was gonna have to drive exactly at the speed limit if they wanted to reach the airport on time. Well, barely on time, anyway. If Amara had her way, they would've already been there by then. This was why she never booked morning flights, and wouldn't have done it this time either, if it wasn't for her father convincing her to do so and assuring her that everyone would be prepared on time. Joke of the bloody century.

They'd reached her grandmother's house in Chennai about four hours later, only to be welcomed with the usual "Oh my God, you've grown so tall, Arya!" and the "Are you on a diet, Amara, you've grown so thin!" from her grandmother. Turns out they weren't the first people there, and her father's sister's family had arrived as well, which explained the clingy eight-year old rushing to greet Arya, who was flattered by the attention. Although that wouldn't last long- Amara estimated that she'd come running to her and start complaining about having no time alone in about two hours.

And she was right- two hours later, when Amara was sitting down and trying to remember the English language, which had betrayed her the moment she opened her document, the door of the room burst open, bringing in a very irritated fifteen year old.

"Eight year olds are the most annoying things in the entire planet!" She threw her hands up, pacing around the room as Amara looked up from her laptop, eyebrow raised, "You think I don't know that? I had to deal with one when I was sixteen."

Arya stopped her pacing and stared at her in disbelief. "I wasn't that bad!" She stopped when she saw Amara's other eyebrow raise, and asked in a high-pitched voice, "Was I?"

Amara shrugged, turning back to her document, "I don't know, were you?"

Her hands hovered over the keyboard for a moment before she pulled them back again, shaking her head. She felt the bed bounce as her sister jumped on beside her. "What part are you in right now?"

"The one where Ray tells Mia about the night Talia died. Or at least, I should be, but I'm still trying to write down the scene of her going all the way to meet him." She'd told Arya the exact details of what she was writing, knowing that her sister was good at keeping secrets. Plus, she needed a second opinion, and her sister was probably her best shot.

"That's right after she gets into an argument with Mayra and Elena about how that's dangerous, right?"

She nodded, placing the laptop in front of her and stretching her hands out. "It's like my brain decided to temporarily shut down." She groaned, and Arya shrugged. "Writer's block can be a bitch. We've all had it at many points."

Amara turned and scowled at Arya. "I have a comprehensive outline and scene cards, and at this point all I need to do is write. I shouldn't be having writer's block." She buried her face in her hands and slid them down. "This was not supposed to be happening." She groaned in frustration before turning to the screen and scowling at it. "I had a plan, and this," She gestured to the laptop, "Was not part of it!"

"Come on, you're overreacting. We all get writer's block at some point or another."

She turned to her sister, scowling, "Yeah, you get writer's block at some point or another. I have everything set- this can't be- this shouldn't be happening!" She turned back to the laptop and glared at it, knowing full well that it wouldn't do anything even if she did so. It made her feel a little better, though.

Arya shook her head and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "You need a break. I need a break. We both need a break."

Amara shook her head, pulling her laptop towards her again. "No, I just need to power through and just write. It'll come back to me then."

"Believe me, I tried the brute force approach and it doesn't work." Arya tugged onto Amara's arm. "Even you tried it and ended up spending three whole days editing."

"But that's not how it's-" Amara protested, trying to stay on the bed as her sister pulled her off it.

"Supposed to go, I know, you already told me." She successfully managed to pull Amara off the bed and started pulling her towards the door. "But you need a break, you've been at this ever since we had lunch. You need to go off the plan and compensate."

"Paithiyam pudichudutha?!" She exclaimed, as she got dragged outside the door and into the hallway. "That's not me, that's you!"

Arya turned around, flipping her hair dramatically. "Exactly. And that approach is awesome. Like me."

Amara rolled her eyes as her sister led her to the main staircase that led downstairs. "That approach is bullshit. Remember the day before your bio exam when you had a meltdown because you were going to fail because you spent all day working on that new story idea?"

"That was a tactical boo boo, people make those, also, I'm sorry for feeling like Doctor Who is more interesting than classification of organisms." She turned around, stopping in the middle of the staircase for a moment. "And I will take no criticism. If you say classification is more interesting, you're wrong."

She turned back around and skipped down the stairs, pulling a very reluctant Amara with her. "I never said anything of the sort..." She mumbled as Arya reached the bottom of the stairs and jumped onto the swing in the living room. She sat on top of it when a little girl jumped on it too. "Akka!"

"Navya!" Arya ruffled her hair and pinched her cheeks. Amara shook her head, going to sit next to them on the swing. For all of Arya's complaining, she was completely attached to the little eight year old. She never stopped talking about her when they were back home. She was even up really late the previous night talking about everything she was gonna do with Navya and only went to sleep when Amara threatened to leak her search history to their mother.

About three seconds after Amara sat down, Arya turned to her. "We need a change of environment."

"No we don't." Amara frowned.

"You need writing inspo, and we're banned from screens because, according to Ranjani Atthai, family togetherness doesn't involve two people watching YouTube together, and there's literally nothing else to do here." She gestured to herself and Navya, who was nodding along. "So we need a change of environment."

"Can't you just talk or something?" Amara leaned against the side of the swing, pulling her legs onto it and folding them. "You do that every single time we video call them and never let anyone get the phone back till it's time for Navya to go back to sleep."

"We can talk in the car!"

"Car?" Amara raised an eyebrow. "What car, I'm not taking you both anywhere!" She got off the swing and started going back upstairs. "I'm supposed to be writing my draft and try to get as much done as possible before Sahana and Amritha come tomorrow."

"You have writer's block, you can't write when you have writer's block, it's literally called writer's block!" Arya protested, getting off the swing.

"I'm not supposed to be having writer's block, and it's not part of the plan anyway! I have to finish this chapter, I'm working a deadline!" She called out as she walked up the stairs and entered the hallway, making towards her room.

Well, turns out her plan was ruined anyway, because that evening, everybody decided to pile into the car and go to the beach because it was the first time they were together after a year and they needed to celebrate or something. And her mother, as usual, did not take no for an answer, and went on her usual tangent about how her family was more important than her job and that her document will still be waiting for her after she comes back. Well, looks like Amara was gonna have to pull another all-nighter. No issues, it wasn't like she had a sleep schedule anyway- getting ahead of her other schedules was a lot higher on her priority list.

The beach was crowded, as usual, but she was glad to get out and get there as it was miles better than sitting in a car full of people who were all in close proximity. She got out after Navya jumped off her and ran to Arya, who was holding out her hand.

They were all in front of the water- well, most of them were, the mothers and their grandparents decided to sit on the sand a little way away from the water while the fathers decided to take everyone to the water and hold onto their hands so that they didn't fall in. Although Amara was old enough to handle herself, so she didn't explicitly need to be there. However, Arya had dragged her and made her stand next to them because "If you get drenched in the water, it'll wash off your writer's block". She didn't even give Amara a chance to respond to this ludicrous statement.

Amara gave in and went to stand with them- half an hour in the water wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to her, except for the sand sticking to her all over- but thank the Lord she brought towels with her to prevent this exact thing from happening.

She rolled her jeans up as the first wave started to come towards them. She grabbed onto Arya's hand before it hit them- she knew her sister was old enough, but old habits die hard. Navya screamed with joy as the cool water hit them and jumped up, splashing Arya with water. "Don't do that, I'll get wet!" Arya winced as the next wave hit them. Amara shook her head. "We're at the beach, Arya, the whole point is for you to get wet."

"Yeah, but we're not even in the major wet zone at this point!"

"And there's no way we're going there." Her father said from Navya's other side. Arya started protesting again, but her father shut down any hopes of them going further in, which Amara was perfectly fine with. Sure, it didn't look dangerous, and there were many people literally bathing in the ocean, but she didn't want to risk it.

"Amara, tell him!" Arya turned to her, and she turned to their father. "Appa, I agree with you."

Arya scowled at her. "Ey, I was telling you to tell him to take us further di, loosu!"

"No, you said, 'Amara, tell him'." Amara shrugged. "You didn't specify exactly what I was supposed to tell him."

Arya rolled her eyes and turned towards the water, "Ellarum eppa pathalum emmala than ippadi pannuvenga." (Everyone always keeps targeting me)

"Nee ippadi loosu madhiri irundha vera enna pannaradhu nu neeye sollu." Amara said, and she scowled and turned to Navya. (What else should I do if you keep acting like an idiot?)

"Anyway," Amara said, pulling her hand out of Arya's grasp, "I've had enough of the water, and I don't want to get too wet and accidentally catch a cold, so I'm gonna go and sit with them or something." As she turned back and started walking away, Arya yelled back, "You're gonna open Google Docs and continue writing, aren't you?"

Amara didn't answer- however both of them knew the answer was yes, so why bother answering anyway? She walked towards the rest of her family, when she tripped over something and fell face-first into the sand.

She slowly peeled herself off it, running her hands across her face to try and get all the sand off it. She scowled as she managed to shake off the majority of it. Her face itched because of the sand, but thankfully, it hadn't gotten into her eyes. She opened her eyes and frowned. The space in front of her was empty- an open expanse of sand throughout, with no people in it.

"What the-" She whirled around to look at the ocean and double took at the sight in front of her. There was nobody there either, and the ocean was a lot choppier than it had been before. The waves were a lot higher, and one of them was making its way towards her. Her eyes widened as she screamed and ran towards the mainland, missing the wave by an inch.

She stopped, bending down and breathing heavily. The wave crashed a little ways in front of her, splashing her with water. She blinked, gasping at how cold it was. She then backed away, gasping for breath. She stumbled and fell back as another wave started forming.

She scrambled backwards, trying to get up, but failing. She wasn't even able to move her legs properly. She felt something heavy on her feet and felt something tickling her hands.

She looked down, her heart dropping when she saw what was happening. The sand was alive. And it was encasing her limbs. And it was slowly sliding around the rest of her body.

She screamed and tried to pull her hands out of the sand. That was useless, though. All that happened was the load of sand pushing back and slamming her hands into the ground, covering her with more sand.

A huge shadow over her made her look up. A huge wave had formed, and was making its way towards her. She struggled against the sand, but was unsuccessful. The wall of water was in front of her, and a huge part of it was above her. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She was stuck. There was nothing she could do. There was no way she could've even known what to do. This was not supposed to be happening. This shouldn't have been happening.

She closed her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the impact of the wave as the sand trailed around her skin, encasing her in even more. As if she wasn't trapped enough. The impact was like someone had dropped a huge weight on her entire body. It knocked her out the moment it hit.