After Leaving Louisiana

Warning: This short story contains sexual abuse and some scenes depicted will be hard for some to read.

On the open balcony, the cool night air was caressing against Kristian’s bare skin. Her body bristling with goosebumps and her naked breasts stiffened from the chill.

The salty aroma of the ocean was even more profound tonight. Seaweed and foam-lined the small fraction of beach that remained from tonight’s high tide. The beach waves were low and crashed against the balcony. The pulse from the waves rose from the soles of her feet to her resting hands.

Shine was bearing down on the water and glaring against her face. The full moon’s light was heavy and a feeling of safety came from the embrace of its light. A beautiful moment like this was so rare, something pure and unscripted. An image that would remain in her mind for years to come.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep inhale that lasted for many seconds. She held it there keeping the salt of the sea inside her lungs; clinging to the pleasant aroma. When she released, the night seemed dimmer than before. She rubbed her eyes assuming they were adjusting but the light wasn’t returning.

A pinch came to the back of her head where her skull and neck met.

“He will never give it back to you.”

A low and distant voice spoke. It wasn’t carried by the winds or whispered into her ear, it was like an infant vibration inside her head. A sharp pain waved from the back of her neck to the top of her brow. Like someone took a pencil and was tracing a line across her skull. She rubbed her brow, pushing down with force to almost feel if there was anything lying beneath the skin.

Waves crashed against the balcony she was standing on and her knees clacked against the rotted wood. Her eyes shut tight, but a strong blaze of wind forced her to peep at the sea for a fraction of a moment. There were two red lights standing beneath the moon where the dark horizon ended.

She knew it was only the light coming from a boat, but she had the notion to look again. She stared out at a distance, the two lights stood there, still as rocks anchored in the sand beneath the sea.

The lights were far too big too be coming from a boat. The waves started smashing harder. Never had she seen waves so violent, even at high tide. She gripped the wood tight to steady herself.

The lights at sea stood still no longer. They began rising and a black figure rose from the water with them. Cylindrical and tall enough to meet the moon, it stared at her.

“Kristian, get in here!” Her manager Arnold yelled from the sliding doors. She looked over her shoulder at him and when she looked back to see the figure, only the moon remained.

Arnold, a heavyset man with a bulbous nose came out onto the deck, slamming his heavy feet. He was the CEO of Golden Island Records, who owned the rights to anything with the name Kristian Kelly on it. He had discovered her when she was young and remained her personal manager to this day.

“Now!” The absolution was clear to her and she hurried back to him with her head down. She walked by him into the cramped hut he was staying at. The huts were small, but luxurious with bamboo fixtures with generic pictures of palm trees and a giant flat-screen TV facing the bed. The hot tubs were the main attraction though.

“Did you see that thing out there?” She asked him still refraining from eye contact. “It was so massive, you must have.” Arnold examined her near-naked body with discontent.

“What? The paparazzi that made thousands of dollars from getting a shot of Kristian Kelly’s tits?” His scowl was mournful with envy. Shutting the sliding door behind her, he pointed for her to sit.

On the coffee table were pictures of outfits for her to wear in an upcoming music video of her latest single. Pictures with women wearing red, black, purple, and gold pieces of clothing covered the table. The outfits presented offered more looks at skin than clothing.

“Doesn’t look like you’re too worried about showing them off,” She said with a faux playfulness to hide her displeasure.

“When we profit? No, I don’t mind it.” He walked over to the table and sat down, examining a picture that was sitting crooked near the edge. “This one has the look we want.” He handed her a picture of a model wearing golden leggings tight against every curve with a white bustier top that lifted the models C-cups up to her chin.

Kristian nodded her head in detached agreement. The outfit wasn’t even near one of the worst she had ever worn. Her mind was still too distracted from the shock to even pretend she cared about what she’d be wearing in a half-ass music video.

Was the figure at sea real? It was all she could think about.

“This should be perfect, right scheme, sexy, but still very subtle. It’s enough to make a man still want more.” Grim lust leaked off his tongue. His eyes welded on her while he held the picture in his hand. Kristian could see the inner lining of his pants move as he was becoming erect.

It was unusual for him to want to do it again so soon. She rushed to her laptop, but he did not relent. His hands grabbed her arm with so much force that there was a loud slap as he pulled her up from the chair and pressed his face to her neck. His jagged tongue lined down from her neck to her breast.

“Again?” She winced, bracing herself for the obvious answer that came as he drove his hands between her thighs. “Please!” Her voice was shrill and high. “Not again.”

Enraged by her disobedience, Arnold took the hand that was grasping her arm and moved it to her throat. He lifted her small body by the neck.

“Don’t say another word or I’ll force it down your throat.” He loudly whispered. In a fit, he threw her into the leather couch against the wall with a crash that broke the plaster behind it. Breathless from the impact, she could feel a bruise developing around her thin neck.

Such a loud and obvious to anyone nearby. A few seconds later her bodyguard Miller came into the room by busting open the locked door. The knob came rolling across the floor in front of the couch.

Miller looked at both of them and without needing to take any time to assess, he only said, “You ready to head back your room Kris?” With aching, she rose from the couch after regaining her breath and crossed Arnold to grab her laptop. She made no eye contact but could feel the heavy breathing coming from her attacker.

When she passed Miller he lightly grabbed her hand and she felt a somber sense of relief. It may be fleeting, but at least it was present. As she walked out of Arnold’s hut, towards her own she heard the two men talking.

“You should know better by now.” In the slick voice that she knew was Arnold’s.

“I know you need a new doorknob.” She heard coming from Miller.

Once in the safety of her own room she locked the door behind her and sat down at the end of her bed. Her hands were still shaking and her back twisted from the impact.

A knock on the door came.

“It’s Miller,” his voice was timid. He usually kept his distance but his timing wasn’t usually so on point for the save.

Kristian got up and unlocked the door. He walked into the room; his massive shoulders almost grazing both ends of the doorway. Red-faced, not only from the rage she knew he was feeling but from the burns he had inflicted while having to stand on the beach while she was tanning.

Pale with a bald head does not make for great sunbathing. The only hair for protection he had was his goatee.

“You know he’s gonna make your life miserable for that?” Kristian told him, a half-smile shown on her faintly tear-soaked face.

“He’s too busy making yours miserable to have time for me.” He said with a scowl glancing out passed her at the sea. “You need to start calling me when this happens.” His wide-set hazel eyes showed more concern for her then fury for Arnold.

“I can’t; you know I can’t.” Talking to him like he was an ignorant child. She felt horrible for being so curt at that moment, but her mind couldn’t handle it. Filled to the brim with worry and her body and throat ached making long speech difficult. There was always an understanding between the two of them, this will be no different.

“Yes, you can. I’m not afraid of him Kris.” Being arrogantly adamant. “I work for you not him. It’s my job to protect you, and I’ve let this happen for too long.”

“There’s nothing you’d be able to do.” She opened up her laptop and started to avoid eye contact. He was coming from a place of love, Kristian knew that he’d never allow this to continue so often if he could help it.

The unfortunate truth was that there was nothing he could do. Miller was always sweet and protective. The best care he gave to Kristian was simply listening to the stressful stories of her career and family. Often he’d confide those same problems to her.

They bonded over their experiences dealing with both their mother’s cancer. His with breast and hers with lung.

When Miller first caught Arnold raping her he had been working for her for a year or so. He heard her cries and threw Arnold off of her. The toss was so ferocious that Arnold went headfirst into a glass coffee table that broke into hundreds of pieces. A shard of glass slashed a scar across his wide nose that remains to this day. Earning him mocking jabs by his peers.

Miller wanted to take her to the hospital and wanted to call the police. But she wouldn’t allow him. All she thought about was every news site, magazine, and Twitter account that would talk about her sexual abuse. She didn’t want to feel the shame of not having control over her own body and then face the inevitable ridicule that would come.

Arnold wanted to fire Miller after that first altercation, but Kristian begged and bluffingly threatened to come forward with rape accusations. She couldn’t bear to face her daily life without Miller at that point. Arnold relented and allowed Miller to stay on.

Then she had to plead to Miller for him to stay. He didn’t want to leave her but he also couldn’t stand to turn a blind eye. To his credit, when he was first offered the money, he refused and was insulted by it. In the end, a son’s love can be more important than honor.

His mother’s doctor bills vanished and she was still alive today thanks to the hush money.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t stand outside your door knowing what he’s doing and not intervene.” Kristian put down her laptop, got up and grabbed the hands of her friend; his hands made hers look like those of a child.

“I need you here, there’s no way I could do this without you.” He stared at her and squeezed her hands tight. She was right and he knew it, and even he knew he wasn’t going anywhere. It wasn’t about the money, not completely. As she already knew as well, he couldn’t leave her here to deal with it alone.

“You need to find a way out then. There has to be a way out. I’ve been talking to-” Kristian stopped him.

“You haven’t talked to anyone more informed then I have. It’s five more years no matter how you look at it.”

A stupid contract for a young teenage girl living in New Orleans who had dreams of becoming the greatest singer of all time. If only then she could’ve seen a better way back then. Greed and the potential to fulfill a dream came at the ire of due diligence.

Singer-songwriter, It was the title Arnold had given to her and all she ever wanted since she was a little girl jumping around jazz clubs. That title seemed so far out of reach for someone who on paper already is one.

Escaping back to New Orleans, even in her mind was welcome during these low moments. Anytime she pulled out her notebook to work on a new song she saw those smoky neon lights shining out from the stage and the smell of fried seafood that was always present no matter where you went. It was her home, her inspiration.

The sounds were what drew her though. When sax, drums, and trumpet started to fill the room with its rhythm, her mother would always spin her around, dancing to it all. Her mother’s favorite part though, when Cameron LeGould came on stage. Still to this day, Kristian can hear her mother saying that man had the most beautiful voice in Orleans. It always drove her mother to dance a mess and then in the blink of an eye, it could make her cry tears of admiration.

Kristian was too young to understand what love was. But she could see the emotion on her mother’s face when she would see him and when she spoke to him. Everything she had learned of making music had come from Cameron.

All that she had learned, and all the good it did her. One song an album. That was all he allowed her and with four albums to her credit, none of her original songs were singles.

In her own thoughts, she hoped that it was because she wrote such a different genre of music than her normal. They could take inspiration from her mother, growing up in New Orleans, all the friends she had lost along the way. Darker moments that have come after leaving Louisiana were prevalent in her notebook. The thought of what Arnold would do if he ever saw those sent a cold rush up through her sore spine.

One song was all she gets, and it was always picked by Arnold. Everything else was club pop that blasted ten times a day on every top forty stations.

Her favorite song she had recorded she wrote herself, called ‘Apple Nose.’ It was wrote about Cameron and how much his voice meant to her own. Her mother would often tease him about the shape of his nose, and how it looked like an apple. His nose was fat in the middle with the sides of the nostrils and the septum hung down abnormally far, looking like the bottom of an apple.

That night, she slept with Miller outside her door. If she woke up in the restless night she would walk up to the door and hold her ear against the thin wood. Listening to his heavy breathing as his back leaned against the door was pleasant. Knowing he was there was more comfort than any luxury could afford.

When she did sleep; in her dreams, she saw her mother. Back at their home in New Orleans. The dark blue walls that she scuffed with her toys as a girl. The antique furniture that was too uncomfortable to actually use so she’d sit cross-legged on the floor. Even hearing the hum from the furnace in the basement.

Along with the hum was a partnered rattling that she heard coming from below. She followed the sound down the stairs. Louder and more impassioned as she crept down each decrepit step.

Into the cramped windowless space she arrived and in an instant, the rattling stopped. There was no one down there to be making a sound.

On a workbench she saw a tiny disfigured looking doll, sitting there with small holes beneath its head right into the neck. It was such a familiar face, something that resembled Cameron in the worst way possible. There were no ears or mouth, but she saw the resemblance from the nose.

Red dust flittered against her back and passed her head. It filled the small space around her and engulfed her body. She looked down at her hands to see the dust sticking to her like a thick powder.

When her eyes arose she met the gaze of her mother standing in front of her with a rattle in her right hand and a collection of needles in the other. Her thin nose and plump cheeks covered in the powder.

“You lost it girl” Her voice echoed lowly as if she was miles away. “He will never give it back to you.”

“Who?” Kristian tried to ask but no words escaped her mouth. They were stuck in her throat as she grabbed wildly at her windpipe. Unable to speak, she only stared in awe of her mother’s presence.

“This gift,” she hissed, “this gift blessed to you and to throw it away.” The red powder started to tighten around her mother’s body. She was fading away. “Take it back!” She shouted with the powder coughing from her throat. The powder seeping from her throat attacked Kristian’s face and she squeezed her eyes tight.

She felt herself fall into her bed as if she had been floating in mid-air. She was awake now. No powder on her skin or in her bed. There was no sign that anything at all had changed in the room since she fell asleep.

Crossing her legs, she sat in her bed and looked into her hands for any signs of red. With a grunt, she cleared her throat to make sure she could still make any kind of noise.

Seeing her mother with her eyes open for the first time in so long, even in a dream was overwhelming.

Miller must’ve heard her because he walked in on soft feet and moved towards her bed. He looked around the room; checking to see if someone else was in there.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, not getting too close. Prepared to leave the room at a moment’s notice if asked to.

Wiping away her tears she looked up and smiled at him. She couldn’t have told him why she was smiling after what she had dreamt about. It wasn’t meant to be pleasant imagery but she still found joy in it.

“I had a dream about my Mom.” She told him and he felt safe to walk closer to her bed. The back of his balding head was shining from the moon through her balcony door. “She was young and beautiful. Not like I remember her.”

“What were you guys doing?” He asked.

“She was yelling at me.” She said with a laugh and shaking her head daisily.

“So a normal interaction between you two?” He shared her laugh and the two grinned weakly at each other. “Can I tell you something to sleep on?” He asked with hesitation, not wanting to burden her. There was a look in his eye like it was something that he needed to say.

“You have every right to be scared and to handle this in your own terms. I just hope you know you’re not the only person whose going through something like this. A lot of other women around the world are dealing with the same thing. Your situation is no better or worse than anyone else’s, but if you can’t find the bravery to stand up to this, how can anyone else?”

Miller grabbed her hand and left her there to sleep. His words laid heavy on her mind. The thought of her abuse becoming public was one she mentally prepared for, but it still sent a chill across her body and a nervous twist in her chest.

Her mother didn’t return to her dreams that night. The faces of many other women started to enter it in her place. Salvaging any sleep she could, the faces of women she’d never met haunted her subconscious.

The next morning, Arnold forced Kristian out onto the beach through a reluctant Miller. Arnold was standing against the ocean in an expensive pair of sandals and board shorts that were far too short for a man of his size and with such milky pale complexion on his legs.

Approaching him with her arms crossed and eyes focused on the sand imprints from her feet. She stopped a few paces behind him.

“I brought you here to help cheer you up.” He said still gazing at the ocean.

“I appreciate that.” She said, portraying as much empty empathy in her voice as she could muster.

“Then why are you acting like this?” He spun around and that tactful look was in his eyes as he glared at her. His demeanor calmed when he glared up behind her to see Miller standing at a distance.

Even if he hadn’t slept all night, Miller still could’ve tossed Arnold into the ocean like a busted seashell.

“You’ve done nothing but mope around this whole resort that I’ve rented out just for you!”

“My mother died.” She said with haste but without any sharpness.

“You haven’t talked to her since you signed your contract years ago.” He said, disregarding any love she had for her mother. Arnold shook his head and walked past her, kicking sand into the air that rushed back to her legs by the wind.

“We have one more day left, I don’t know about you but I intend to enjoy myself.” He said with an insidious look in his eyes as he shuffled away. “Don’t forget about dinner this evening with the sponsor.”

Kristian raised her head up and closed her eyes and let the sun’s rays burn her face. A pain that was at least her own making. There was an easy breeze blowing from the ocean. She decided to go for a walk; Miller followed nearby but at a distance.

The water was chilly when it splashed at her feet. The suds were swarming around her as she saw minnows desperate to get back to the sea. A wave pushed a shiny white circle out towards land, first look, it appeared to be a giant durable bubble.

As she moved closer it’s shape started to emerge from the water. It was a moon jellyfish, a dead one. Kristian bent down and pressed her finger against the hard surface where a soft head once was.

This reminded her of her first beach trip when Cameron took her to the beach and they found a moon jelly. It was the first jellyfish she’d ever gotten to see up close. When he told her to grab its tendrils she thought he was nuts, but he explained it was dead and couldn’t sting her.

It was one of the last memories she had of Cameron LeGould. Shortly after that day, he left their home. She never knew why and her mother never explained. What was stranger, his voice was never heard in New Orleans again after that night.

No bar owners had heard from him and nobody could explain it.

She was confined to her bedroom when it all happened and the only thing she remembered hearing from the fight between the two was a raspy noise coming from the basement. Like someone was trying to scream but the only thing coming out was dry air.

“What have you done?” A shaky voice cried out from beneath the house, it was masculine and she always assumed it was Cameron’s but she never knew for sure. She heard him leave shortly with a slam of the door.

Her mother never talked about him after that. It was like the man that was a father to her never existed at all and without any explanation given. The courage to push the issue for answers never came through.

“He hurt me in a way that I will use everything in my power to make sure never happens to you, my love.” Was all she said after he left that night and It was the only time Cameron was ever mentioned again.

She bent down to grab the moon jelly, but another hand grabbed her wrist tight, her mother’s hand. The grip was so firm that Kristian felt like a child again, trying to break away from her grasp but not being able to move an inch.

“I gave this to you.” She said scolding her daughter. Kristian’s eyes were so fixated into her mother’s that she had no idea whether Miller or anyone else was seeing the same thing as her. “You were given a gift and gave it away.” She said now grabbing her other hand and pulling Kristian in close.

“What do you want? How are you here?” She pleaded for an answer.

“I want you to take back what belongs to you.” The waves began to crash beneath their feet and more moon jelly’s started to line the dark sand where the water met the land. Minnows swam away from the sea instead of towards it. The sound of waves crashing got heavier as she looked out to the sea and saw the same creature from last night.

It’s bright red eyes still shining, even during the day. Its head shaped like the balding head of a man but there were no ears or a mouth. Only a coal-black face with red shining eyes staring at Kristian as it began to rise further. It was a monstrous being, hideous and deformed but it had a face that was familiar to her.

A nose shaped like an apple.

A building wave hid the creature and cast a shadow over Kristian’s entire body. It came crashing down over the top of her mother and her. Kristian floated uncontrolled in the water flailing for the surface.

“Take it back.”Her mother’s voice echoed from the depths.

Kristian washed up onto the shore and taken into the arms of someone she could not see before wiping the salt water from her eyes, revealing Miller.

“Did you see it? Please tell me you saw it?” She repeated herself three times before Miller’s dumbfounded look finally gave her the unfortunate answer.

On her knees, sand hardened beneath her and she took her fists and pounded into it with every ounce of strength her frail body could produce. Two holes cratered into the sand. Neither her nor Miller said a word. Kristian lifted herself off from the sand and walked back to her hut.

She was there for eleven hours. Miller standing in her doorway, she was working on her computer the entire time. Didn’t request food, drink, or anything at all. Night came and the full moon rose in the sky, the same as the night before. Peace was with her until voices boomed from outside her door, and in came Arnold with Miller trailing behind him.

Arnold walked in and slammed the door on Miller’s red face. Drunk, he stomped over to her, placing his plump nose against her cheek as she turned her face away. Coconut rum was still on his breath. His face greased with sweat that had drenched the chest of his blue dress shirt.

“Do you have any inkling of an idea in that tiny brain that you missed tonight? Are you too Goddamn stupid to remember the one thing on your empty itinerary?” He shouted it with a mumbling tone that spits his coconut stained breath onto her clenched face.

Kristian had her eyes closed tight, so it caught her off guard when the smack from his hand went wide across her face. A jolt ran across her cheek and the force pushed her into the desk where her open laptop sat. She gripped a pen on her desk and threw it with all her force at the heinous man’s face. It missed by several feet, but the intention was clear to him.

“You cost us the chance at so much financial backing for the music video in sponsorship dollars that the label wouldn’t have had to give a dime!” Arnold’s eyes turned veiny and his knuckles were turning red from clenching. “All because you couldn’t leave your room for two hours to feed your skinny ass a steak!” He grabbed a sturdy wooden chair and scraped it across the floor to the already locked door of her room. He mounted it tightly against the door.

“I was here praying you’d choke and die on that steak you piece of shit!” Her scream was so high and shrill that she could’ve sworn she heard it bounce off the walls and echo inside the room.

It had been years since she lashed out at him. The shock was evident on his face as the scar on his nose was snarling up to his widened eyes.

“You’re a hideous waste of human existence!” She darted to him with a possessed look in her eyes that for a moment even seemed to startle her attacker. “All you are is a manipulative, controlling, evil little rapist!”

She stammered to get her last word out before a sharp pain hit her abdomen. A well-powered and placed punch to her stomach dropped her to her knees. Air was stuck in her throat as she searched for the strength to breathe but couldn’t find it.

Arnold’s hands grabbed her by the back of her head. His pants began to unbuckle and while she was still searching for air, they fell below his knees.

“You stupid talentless bitch; I gave you everything!” He slapped Kristian’s mouth until she would open it, and pulled her to him. With her mouth full and her nose pressed against Arnold’s thick hairy stomach, breath didn’t come any easier to her. “Stupid bitch, stay there!”

Kristian was becoming light-headed for the lack of air. It had been more than a minute since she had taken a breath. Her eyes closed and her mind started to empty as she remained forced into him.

“Take it back!” She heard her Mother’s voice echoed in her head.”Take it back, Take it back, Take it back!”

“Take it.”

Every last bit of strength she had in her beaten body she used to force her teeth down onto Arnold. In less than a second, his grip was gone, but he remained inside her. No sound came to her ears. Kristian watched as Arnold grabbed at himself like an animal and fell to the floor with his mouth agape.

Breathing in finally through her nose, she rose from her knees with the small piece of him still in her mouth. She walked with a limp passed his bloody wallowed pit and to the sink in her kitchen. Once there, she spit what she had left of Arnold down the drain and flipped the switch to the garbage disposal. A small chuckle escaped her blood smattered lips as she listened to the tearing and ripping of flesh.

The red light coming from her laptop camera caught the corner of her eye. She walked with a brisk pace now, grabbing it and stepping over Arnold as she made her way to the door. Her adrenaline wearing low, ringing dissipated as she began to hear his screams. A silent satisfaction flowed through her mind.

The chair placed in front of the door was jiggling, surely Miller attempting to break-in. As she moved to unlocked the door, Miller burst through with his face red with fury. But, his face started to turn white once he saw Kristian and the blood around her mouth. Arnold writhing on the floor was an obvious shock to him as well.

Her arms extended to hand him the laptop.

“There’s a folder in my documents labeled with your name.” She said to him with an impassive glee to her. “It’s going to have many videos of Arnold and me on it. I want you to release them to the media.”

Tranquility was the last thing she expected to feel at that moment, but this placid feeling was welcoming. Miller, yet, had the look of any man who had walked in on another man who had just became relieved of his manhood. Nervously, he took the laptop in his hands, his eyes never leaving Arnold who was still wallowing in his own blood.

“I need to call 911 first.” He said.

“That’s fine. But after you do that I need you to release the videos, I have something else I want you to put on the same account. There are 24 unreleased songs that I wrote and produced myself. I want you to leak them.” Kristian spoke with authority.

“That’s a major breach of your contract.”

Kristian turned her head to look at Arnold. “I think my contract just went down the drain.” A venomous smile shined across her bloodied face.

“Don’t you wanna do it?” He asked.

“Please,” she said taking a deep breath, trying to keep this calm demeanor. “Do this for me, please. After you call an ambulance.”

Kristian walked passed Miller as he gripped her laptop tight and pulled out his cell phone. He didn’t follow her, but he didn’t move to aid Arnold either.

As Kristian walked outside, the night wind blew waves through the blood pools that were all over her face. As she walked onto the beach, that same moon was shining up in the sky across the ocean. The water rushed beneath her, it was warm now, and rinsed any blood that had dripped from her chin down to her feet.

The waves started to grow larger and red eyes once again came rising from the ocean. Kristian watched as the full-body rose from the distance. It was far enough in the distance that its size seemed that of an average-sized man. It came closer, crashing through the waves and the moon’s rays shining down on his black body.

It was fully exposed as saltwater dropped stories from its body. A full torso of coal-black skin carried massive arms that ended in tentacles that stretched down to his bipedal knees. It came close enough to cast a shadow across the beach.

It was not alone. One by one, more eyes started to rise on the night horizon, following behind. Hundreds, even thousands of giant atrocities came rising from the deep sea. Each one creating their own enormous wave, coming to engulf her.

Kristian walked towards them all as large waves built up from each step the giant creatures took.

Rising and rising until the waves reached their peak and began coming down towards the Earth. Kristian did not waver, she was not scared, not anymore, she walked on. The skyscraper-sized wave plummeted on top of her, but it did not move her.

Saltwater dripped down her face. Kristian Kelly stood with her fists clenched and her feet deep in the soggy sand. Staring up at the thousands of atrocities that were before her. She stood there, ready to take every wave that would come crashing down.