Notes

Her chest was tight, agony strangling her heart with greedy hands. Anahita shook her head as tears fell from swollen eyes that had witnessed her brother, Jeremiah, go through so much hell by drowning and her being unable to save him. Closing her tired lids, she tilted her head back on the sand and softly pleaded. "Please be safe little brother." The corner of her lips trembled when she sucked in a shaky breath. Desperation clawed its way into her core, controlling her every thought and emotion.

Anahita stared up at the sun. It looked like a glowing medallion in the sky. Her hair flows like a river of curls, shiny, cascading like a waterfall to her shoulders, and spread out along the sand, with a beach soft, bounce. Her body lied on the sand, her clothes wet and covered in it as well.

Anahita couldn't bring herself to view the ocean waters and see her brother floating dead.

Finally gaining the courage to stand on her two feet. Anahita rose from the sand and wrung out her drenched thin dress she was wearing over her bathing suit of the salt water she had come from. She could still remember the coolness of the water sinking on her heated skin. The refreshing feeling of a boiling stone being poured with water and sizzling. That is how she felt. She felt as if her skin was lava and that water would cease to cool off her sweat and boiling temperature.

As she turned to view the ocean, it wasn't there. Anahita believed she was still at the beach because she could still see miles and miles of sand and feel the sand stick on the balls of her feet.

She trudged along, beads of sweat clinging to her brow. Her heels, cracked and dry, scraped along the earth. She could barely see through her squinted eyes.

"Jeremiah!" She called but barely a sound escaped because of her swollen glands.

Her ears pop, all noise muffle and sound distant. She constantly blinked but her vision was extremely disorienting, and as she continued to walk, her skin clammy and the blood rushing from her head.

Darkness starts to cloud Anahita's brown eyes.

The sand was her only support during the fall. She lied back on the sand once again, looking at the sky. This time, she sighed, she could tell much time has passed since she started trudging on the hot sand. Her eyes only able to look up at the sky, gazed at the star-lighted sky and watched as they dazzled more brightly. If she were to tilt her head ever so slightly her head would pound and cause her to be dizzy.

Find the stars within yourself, I promise they exist. Her mother's words slipped in her mind like a constant reminder. If she were here she would probably tell her the same thing but after she finished panicking about losing her son. Soft giggles escaped Anahita's lips as she thought about her mother's face when she would panic, but it barely sounded like giggles and more like heavy coughs.

Gasping for air, she needed something to ease the pain for her Inflamed throat. She closed her eyes and only thought about cool fresh water slithering its way down her throat easing the swelling. Cutting her off from her wandering thoughts, she could hear the tympanic rhythm of someone's sandals as they shuffle against the sand. Feeling the small grains of sand blow against her face and sting her eyes. In her blurry sight, she noticed a tall figure standing next to her leaning over to her.

Her heartbeat drummed within her ears, she was terrified.

His gaze fell upon her sunken eyes that were encased with dark circles. Lying in the sand she'd spent too much time in, Anahita let out another painful moan. Her chest rose as she labored to take shallow, raspy breaths. "Help-m-me." Was all her scratchy swollen throat would let on.

As she felt his hands slide under her legs and her back she scampered in reflex kicking the air to be released. Although she asked him for help, she didn't think someone's touch would sicken her into believing she had asked the wrong person. The man's strength frightened her, but she was too weak to fight back and ask for a background check. It seemed she had no choice but to give into the man's help and wait for morning to come.