OCEAN EYES

Chapter One The first thing I learned about the ocean was that it never gives anything back. Not the dead. Not the lost. And definitely not the secrets. Yet, somehow, it had always known my name. “Good morning, class.” I looked up from my notebook. Thirty-two faces turned toward the door as our principal walked in, followed by a girl I had never seen before. She was beautiful. Not the ordinary kind of beautiful that made people stare for a second and then move on. She was the kind that made the entire room go quiet. Her eyes swept across the classroom. And then they stopped on me. I froze. For one strange second, I couldn't breathe. Her eyes were blue. Not light blue. Not sky blue. Ocean blue. The exact shade I had seen every night in my dreams. She smiled. And whispered something I couldn't hear. But I knew what she said. My name. “Amara.” My pen slipped from my fingers. It hit the floor. Everyone turned. I bent down quickly to pick it up, pretending nothing had happened. When I looked back up, the girl was still staring at me. Only now, she wasn't smiling. She looked afraid. “Amara, meet our new student, Isla,” the principal said. Isla. The name sounded familiar. Too familiar. “Please take the empty seat beside Amara.” My stomach dropped. She walked toward me. One step. Two. Three. With every step, I felt something inside me changing. The classroom seemed colder. The voices around me faded. And then Isla reached my desk. She leaned closer. Close enough that only I could hear her. “You shouldn't have survived.” My heart stopped. “What?” Her eyes flickered toward the window. Beyond it, far past the school fence, the ocean glittered beneath the morning sun. Then she looked back at me. “You were never supposed to come back.” I stared at her. “I don't know what you're talking about.” She sat down. For the rest of the lesson, she didn't say another word. Neither did I. But something had already changed. Because for the first time in seventeen years, someone had looked at me like they knew exactly what I was. And I was terrified that maybe... she did. That afternoon, I went to the beach alone. I always did. It was the only place where my head felt quiet. The waves rolled toward my feet as I stood at the edge of the water, staring at the horizon. I had been coming here since I was a child. My mother hated it. She never told me why. Every time I asked, she would say the same thing. Stay away from the water, Amara. I never understood. Until tonight. The waves suddenly stopped. I frowned. The ocean had gone completely still. No wind. No movement. Nothing. Then I heard it. A voice. Soft. Beautiful. Coming from beneath the water. “Amara.” I stepped backward. My heart began pounding. The voice came again. “Come home.” I should have run. Instead, I stepped into the water. One step. Then another. The water reached my ankles. My knees. My waist. Something cold brushed against my leg. I gasped. Then the ocean pulled me under. I tried to scream. But instead of drowning... I breathed. My eyes flew open. And beneath the surface, everything was glowing. The darkness was gone. The ocean stretched endlessly around me, filled with strange blue lights and shadows moving between them. Then something passed above me. A tail. Silver. Huge. Beautiful. My blood ran cold. Another figure appeared. Then another. They were watching me. Waiting. And among them was a girl with long black hair and familiar ocean-blue eyes. Isla. She smiled. But this time, I could hear her perfectly. “Welcome home, princess.” And that was the moment I realized the ocean had never been trying to kill me. It had been waiting for me.