.1.A thousand miles away from home.

I had been to the beach a thousand times since my mom passed away. I came here to escape reality. The reality of how lonely my life was, so boring and lonely it was pushing me to the brink of depression.

I went to the beach so early and left so late, I would do anything just to get away from the hush that greeted me back at home. In school, I was a rich girl who had everything but little did they know that I would give anything to have their lives. I wanted a family who would love me, a real home. But what I had was a big mansion filled with people who worked for my father who was always traveling the world.

I had friends, most of whom I didn't really consider as friends. I didn't consider most of them as friends because they were just friends with me. After all, I was the daughter of a billionaire business mogul, most of them knew more about my dad than they did about me. Most of them except Zaynab. Zaynab was the only true friend I had but I still preferred hanging out on the beach with her to going to my father's mansion. I hated the house so much because it reminded me of the family I once had. My mother and older brother lost their lives in a car crash a year ago and my dad has delved into his business ever since. I guess that was his way of coping with the loss but it didn't change the fact that I felt abandoned.

I met Zaynab some months after my mom's passing, she was a girl from the north who was only able to afford my expensive private school because she won a scholarship. She was all alone in a strange place because the rich kids wouldn't even talk to her and I was in a bad place.

We started talking and I discovered how brilliant, open-minded, honest, and loyal she was. The popular kids soon accepted her because she was with me and we started hanging with them sometimes. We both knew their friendship was fake and we even made fun of them behind their backs.

My life was always happy and bright until the time I would have to go home and everything would go back to normal. Normal for me was gloomy and lonely. Back to those empty large rooms devoid of happiness, back to those faces, and their "welcome ma'am," that made me angry and even sadder.

That was all before I met them though before I met him. The Omishores had just moved into town when I met them. I was on the beach that early morning, waiting for Zaynab. It was during the holidays and the beach was full of people, not the few rich people who normally came but since it was during a holiday, even the lower class people could make time to come to the beach. They weren't busy working their asses off just to get paid scraps at the end of the day.

Everybody on the beach was staring at some people and I initially ignored them until I heard one of the girls on the beach whisper to another:

"They must not be from around here."

I was about to pay attention to who it was they were whispering about when I heard Zaynab scream my name.

"I'm sorry I had some things to help my uncle with," she said.

"I was worried you weren't gonna show up, how is Papa Fatomi by the way?" I asked.

"Oh, you know how he is...old," she laughed.

"Remind me never to get old, Zaynab. I can't imagine myself as an old woman."

"I can tell you something though no matter how old you get, you're still going to be beautiful," a strange voice interrupted.

I looked up and there he stood in front of me, dressed in a sleeveless shirt and shorts, his silver-haire shone in the sun, at first I thought he dyed it because black people don't have silver hair. His muscular body blocked the light of the sun for a moment. Tattoos of sea creatures, mermaids and fishes, and monsters shone on his skin. His ice-blue eyes staring into mine made me skip some breaths and I was speechless.

"This must be the person those girls were talking about," I thought to myself.

"Hello, I'm Lokun," he extended a handshake to me and I shook him without saying a word.

"Well, this is the part where you tell me your name too?" he said with a smile.

When I couldn't talk, Zaynab interrupted what seemed to be a forever of silence.

"Her name is Bisi and I am Zaynab."

"It is a pleasure meeting you, Zaynab. You are indeed a loyal friend with a good heart."

"Wow! Handsome and...charming," Zaynab giggled.

"Bisi is not a person of many words is she?" he asked.

"She is actually a chatterbox. I wonder why she suddenly went mute when you got here," Zaynab laughed.

I wanted to say something but when I looked up I noticed the whole beach was staring at us and slowed down a bit.

"You're not from around here, are you?" I murmured.

"Oh she finally decides to join us," Zaynab said.

"I and my family just moved here. How could you tell?"

"Your accent, of course.Where from?" I asked.

He was about to answer when two angry looking people, a female, and a male who looked like him approached us. They had the same body build, the same skin color, and tattoos. They also had the same silver hair color.

"What part of don't mix with the locals don't you understand?" the male said, ignoring us totally.

"Hello, the locals are not that bad," Zaynab interrupted.

The girl just kept staring at me and Zaynab in a strange way that gave me the creeps.

"Meet my older brother Kunbi and my twin sister Shunbunmi," Lokun said.

Shunbunmi came closer to Zaynab and ran her hand down her hair. Zaynab stared for a moment and shrugged it off.

"I can help you make the same style if you want," Zaynab said.

"Yes, I would like that very much," Shunbunmi said softly.

"Good, I would like to help."

"I heard you guys do something...you call it party?" Shunbunmi asked.

"Alani is throwing a party tonight. I think you guys should come!" I said.

"No, we won't be attending any of your parties, let's go Shunbun," he started to go but turned back when he noticed nobody followed him.

"I want to party, Kunbi. If we are going to be living in this strange place now, we might as well learn how they do things here." Shunbunmi said.

"You know you cannot stop her now," Lokun said smiling.

"You know what your problem is, Lokun?" Kunbi screamed.

"Please tell me, big brother."

"You play too much and we don't have time for parties and games. We have no time for relating with these humans!"

"Hmmm, did he just call us humans?" I asked Zaynab.

"Yes...he definitely just called us humans. Strange."

"Well then since you are not our father, shouldn't we ask him what he thinks? Lokun said.

Shunbunmi just kept staring into space. She found everything fascinating, the sun, the people, the sand, and the birds.

"We ask father and his answer is going to be final," she suddenly said and started leaving.

"We know father wouldn't support any type of time-wasting," Kunbi said.

"Father supports anything Shunbun wants and she wants to party, big brother. She wants to."

Kunbi stormed away, looking angry, and Lokun turned to me.

"Can I have your number? So that I would be able to find the party of course."

"Of course," Zaynab murmured.

We exchanged numbers, he turned to leave and said:

"See you at the party."

"Don't you find them strange?" I asked Zaynab.

"Yes they are a strange bunch, but wow! they look good, even Kunbi. And I think Lokun has a thing for you."

Those were the days before the violence, the lies, the murders that followed the Omishores.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. Vote and comment as you read, though. I'm kind of new and I welcome polite criticism. Thanks.