After checking the paperwork, she said, “Yes, Ms. “ Am I in the right place?” I asked, handing over my ticket, passport, and luggage. Even the pretty red-haired woman behind the ticket counter with her toothpaste-commercial–worthy smile. The air was cool with a note of pine and bleach, and… white marble flooring at an airport? It was spotless. If I’d never gone, this never would haveĬompetitions, the sheer number of stickers on it making it unmistakably mine-and made my way to the terminal. Were my parents worried? Had my mother cried? I wanted to believe my father would console her. Our plane hadn’t arrived, so they’d know we’d gotten lost somewhere along the way. Would I ever see my home again? My parents and friends? Did they know by now what had happened? They must have.

Only a few minutes had passed when I heard his breathing get deeper, slower. We already knew there was at least one deadly animal on the island, and I wasn’t interested in waking up to it chewing on my body. One of us had to stay awake and on guard. Besides, Miles was the only one who would be sleeping tonight. They were comfortable, though I could already imagine my skin sticking to the pale leather uncomfortably at some point in the night, but I wasn’t about to complain. “Yeah.” Luckily, we didn’t have to sleep outside on the sand but instead could stretch out on the seats inside. “We should go to sleep,” Miles said before I could and stood up, his things gathered in his arms. And if Miles could do what he claimed he could, maybe we’d find a way to get rescued tomorrow, would send some SOS and this awful nightmare would be over.

Echoes by Alice Reeds