The beach.

I stood on my toe, while widening the door.

Mary was now facing the exit door, she must have given up on searching for me.

I let out a breath of relief as she exited the house.

I counted some seconds, before stepping out of the room, still on my toe.

I walked past the corridor, down the stairs and into the parlor.

His house still looked the same.

no one visited, just like always even after his death.

What should I have expected?

I ran out to the street and boarded a taxi to the German beach.

I had only visited that place once, and that was when my dad still had time for me.

I retrospected the events that rolled out that day.

My dad lifting me up to the horse and clapping on how good I looked while riding it, I know he did that to stop me from crying.

We would usually seat by the shore and maje sand castled with the bucket we purchased.

I had always tried my best to make my castle much bigger than his, but it just never worked.

"5 dollars for the ride." I heard the taxi driver say which snapped me out of my past.

"5 dollars? Isn't it supposed to be 3 dollars?" I questioned with my brow raised.

"Not anymore, the war happening have caused the price of fuel to rise and the location of the German beach is quite far."

"I have only three dollars" I calmly replied.

I waited for his reply, but did not receive any.

I decided to believe that he has accepted my pay.

I did not notice when I slept off, but I woke up the screeching sound of the taxi.

"We are here" The baritone voice of the driver sounded exactly like Henry's.

It had the exact deep crack I always heard in Henry's.

No... No, I was just hearing stuffs in my head.

I looked out the window, and spotted that the taxi was parked at the gate of the beach, which meant that I would need to walk down to the river.

I was tempted to beg him to drive me in, but I recalled that Henry's letter had warned me not to let anybody know my destination.

Despite my wrapped coat and over the knee socks, the cold weather from the beach still got me shivering.

I stretched out my hand to pay the driver while staring at the the tide filled water.

I walked past the taxi, and stood by a palm tree.

When I heard the starting sound of the taxi, I turned to look at it.

My eye got caught in the rear view window on the driver's side.

It was Henry.

My eyes locked with that of the driver, and I could swear that it was the exact same emerald green eyes that Henry had.

His chiseled shaped jaw was stretched out in a smirk just like Henry's whenever he was about tricking me into doing something crazy.

A smile creeped on my face, when I realized that the driver was actually Henry.

Was I happy or scared? I really did not know.

I wondered how I had not noticed that he was wearing the Emerald green hoodie which I had gifted Henry on his 20th birthday.

I tried lifting my feet from my ground, to run to Henry, but it felt stuck to the ground.

"Henry?" I screamed out, and he kept starting at me from the glass.

Just when my legs finally left its spot and I took my first stride towards the taxi, He drove off.

I swept the sand under my feets while running after the taxi and shouting out his name.

From the mirror, I could still see the smirk on his face, like he was playing with me.

I kept running like my life depended on it causing me not to notice that I had created a scene among the road users.

By the time I noticed how aimless my race was, I had already ran a mile away from the beach and I was short of breath.

A lady among the crowd of people who stood by the pedestrian part of the road rushed out to me.

"Miss, what happened, did the driver run off with your money?"

" Gracie check if she is normal" Another lady recommended to the first lady.

" How can she be screaming after a taxi and is not even answering us?" Another male voice questioned.

I rose my face from the ground and walked past the crowd without saying a word.

I could not bring myself to tell them what I saw

I could feel their question hanging in the air, but I tried my best not to care.

My mind kept singing Henry's name.

I could swear that the driver was Henry.

It was him!

I didn't know when I had arrived the beach maybe because of my racing and questioning mind.

I hurried to the shore of the beach and stared at the sand.

where exactly would I find the exact place he was buried.

I recalled that after he got missing his body was found after a week inside the gutter.

I had made sure his body got taken to the mortuary and even paid in advance for the care.

While still mourning over a death, I got a news that his body was missing from the mortuary.

"What do you mean that his body is missing?" I asked the mortuary attendant.

"Miss, this morning, when I was about washing his body, I could not find it in his room.

I checked around, wondering if I had mistook the room, but I could still not find it"

I tried to hold down my hand from slapping the attendant out of anger.

"What... What do you mean, aren't you supposed to take care of his body... are you okay..." I ranted.

The attendant kept trying to explain, but it sounded surreal.

I remembered organizing a search party for his body for weeks getting into months, but nothing was forthcoming.