Sylvia Okenji expected her final year of school to go like any other; surviving her classes, making memories with her friends, and not ripping her tangled hair out from stress over exams.
But when her eighteenth birthday ends with Sylvia disappeari...
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December 28th | Three days until NYE
It was only a few days until my ban lifted and I could fully embrace the ocean again. I couldn't believe the past six months were almost done with, those hellish, lonely, anxiety-ridden weeks almost over.
Three more days – then I'm free.
For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel like I was drowning in my own mind. With the feeling of hope on the horizon, of levity and freedom, it was the weight off my shoulders and the ability to breathe easier. When you're stuck in your own head for so long, weighed down by everything horrid, dark, and anxious, it's hard to remember to lift your head above the murky waters.
Sometimes someone helps you, family or friends, maybe even two best friends that act like an angel and a demon on your shoulder, but sometimes something magical helps.
Like a mermaid called Henry, holding your head up when you're at your lowest depths.
Chatting to them all yesterday only lifted the weight off my shoulders more – talking to people who understood sinking to your lowest and bringing yourself back up again, and again – and we'd organised to meet up tonight.
Maybe it was the Christmas presents I gave them, our matching bracelets; mine was still shining on my wrist. I had a smile on my face as I trekked across the rocks lining Whale Beach, leaping the trench in a single jump. The sun was beneath the horizon and the blue light streaked across the sky bathed Siren Bay in an ethereal glow.
As soon as my feet hit the beach, a hand was already on the gateway between sand and sea. I beamed as Winnie's face came into view, her black hair floating in the waves that stretched to kiss my shoes.
"Are you ready?" Winnie said, her smile wide. I nodded as I grabbed my goggles out of my back pocket and slapped them over my head, quickly adjusting my bun so my hair didn't stick to the sides. I slipped off my shoes and began to slowly wade into the water, hissing between my teeth at how brisk the ocean was.
Winnie noticed the goosebumps race over my legs. "Yeah, the sea's a little colder tonight, but when we're there you'll be okay," she said, holding out a hand.
I grasped it tightly, gritting my teeth as the ocean swallowed my legs, and I dove through the gateway, with Winnie's help, into the water next to her. Her hands quickly wrapped around my arms as I adjusted to the choppy waves, the current trying to pull me deeper, and the gentle swish of her tail by my legs.
"It's...very cold!" I spat out, shivering. It was peak Australian summer but it felt like a brisk winter's eve. Dark clouds littered the sky. The wind was ice. The sunrise was earlier than predicted, so the night with no moon bathed everything I knew in shadow.
"I've got you," Winnie assured, silently moving away from Siren Bay's shore and into the open sea.
"Is this why you're h-here," my teeth began to chatter, "and n-not Henry?"
