THE SIXTH DAY: Chapter XX

The letter flowed as though he knew me personally, especially when he'd said he "missed us all." And yet... I'd never met him, as far as I could figure...

I wracked my brain, trying to recall anyone I might have met, even if it had been only once. Someone I'd exchanged even just a few words with. Perhaps a person I'd bumped into in the marketplace. Someone who may have looked at me for just a moment too long...

I didn't recall anyone in particular...

I was jolted out of my thoughts at my brother's scream.

The next second had us all on our feet and turned toward him to find him crying and pointing towards the ocean. For an instant, all I could do was breathe out in relief at the realization that my brother was not in danger, and then my attention was directed to the subject of his distress. I could only just see the bobbing figure in the distance.

A child's lifeline.

A beloved toy.

"Teddy!" my brother shrieked, and Echo rushed forward to stop him from following his toy into deep water. She held onto him, wrapping her arms tightly around his chest and keeping him in place. She shot me a look.

I moved past them deeper into the water, wrapping the excess fabric of my skirt around my waist to keep it out of the way. A wave came flowing toward me, picking up speed until it washed out, the water rising almost to my neck. And then when the water rushed back, the way a wave does when it has gone its distance up the beach, it took the toy with it. My brother's teddy bear bobbed on the surface of the water once, twice, three times. And then it disappeared.

Soaking wet, I reached the shore and squeezed the dripping water out of my dress and hair. Calix was sobbing in Echo's arms, but Madeline approached me unwaveringly and, after a moment of hesitation, quickly gave me a hug.

"He'll move on," she consoled. "You tried. There was nothing else we could have done."

Madeline carried my brother the short distance back to camp and set him down near the firepit that Echo was quickly attempting to revive a fire in. I carefully stripped off his wet clothes and wrapped him in a warm blanket as I felt Madeline draping another around my own shoulders. We hung the soaked articles of clothing near the fire to dry and Echo re-dressed him in another set while I went into the tent to change before setting off to find something for dinner.

Something hot would do us all good.

But two hours later, with a bowl of soup in front of me, my stomach hurt.

The fish was good - everyone said so - but I could not manage to take a single bite. Madeline was watching me carefully, an almost motherly concerned expression shining through her eyes. Echo was trying to avoid watching me with a guilty look on her face.

I wanted to tell her I wasn't mad at her.

I wanted to tell her that my issues were too horrible to share, but I didn't even know what was wrong. I set my bowl down and stepped into the tent without a word.

A moment passed in silence, and then I heard Echo burst out in a loud whisper.

"Madeline, I'm really-"

"Hush!" Madeline spoke in the same suppressed tone that my friend did. "Let her be, Echo. That poor girl has lost nearly everything. Let her be human for once..."

But I wasn't human.

Humans were worth something. Humans felt things.

They cried...

And I wasn't...

And I didn't...