Aquamarine

Chapter 1 - Christina

The sun glared down on my suntanned frame as I flopped out of the palm leaf I used as a hammock. As I yawned, I wrapped myself in a fuzzy turquoise Stinger pelt. Stingers were my only lifeline on this island: along with fish, they provided food, shelter, lighting, and clothes. Who knew killing a giant, fuzzy blue scorpion could provide so much for a girl deserted on an island? I sat back down on the leaf. I rubbed my eyes and felt the same feeling as usual: don't get up. Sleep longer. Tired. But I couldn't let sleep swallow me up with its soft, warm clutches. Sitting alone when it wasn't night could get me killed, because Stingers hunted during the day.

Every day was a constant battle for survival. Food and fresh water were scarce, and shelter was a matter of where the food and water is. Every day I had to go out around the island to find a new place to set up camp, because of Stinger hunting habits. Somehow, I felt that today would be different. I had spent my whole life (that I could remember) stranded on this island, the tiny stretch of land I had called home for 11 years. I don't remember how I got here, only how I was once a screaming five-year-old as a wooden ship skimmed the water, heading towards the horizon.

I was sixteen now, and the only life I knew was on this island. As we all know, the memories of a human brain decay over lengths of time unless they were of some importance. I could remember vague glimpses of the past - my father's rough, heavily worked hands, my mother's soft caress. And a voice in my ear: "Christi... don't forget... you're special... more special than the rest of us..." I had no idea what that meant, except for that I was special in a way that I didn't understand.

Those memories were the hardest part of my life - I never really knew my parents. Loneliness made my emotions almost unbearable because I had no one to go to for advice, comfort. And I knew that someone from my previous existence was still out there. They left me here. A torturous fate: alone, abandoned, to die without anyone sitting next to your death bed as you saw the light. If only I had someone to talk to, to share my feelings with, even for a day. It would make my lonely life be so much easier, even though I knew it would never happen.

I tied the pelt around my waist, and my limbs passed through jaggedly cut holes in the pelt that I had sliced out with the razor-sharp blade of a scallop shell. Then I draped the only possession I had ever really, truly, owned around my neck. It was a golden chain, still shining when it should have been dulled from age. Hanging from it was a mysterious golden locket. It had obviously been a possession of my parents. How I yearned to open the fragile clasp on the locket, to find what was hidden in it, to solve its mysteries. But my chance to open the jewelry was gone. Around the locket was a set of tiny, unmovable iron bars. A minuscule keyhole lay at the intersection of the iron rods. There was one unavoidable problem - the key was missing.

I let my memories and emotions drift into the back of my mind, to lose the agony of loneliness. Even so, the pain stayed with me as I stepped under the refreshing shade of a palm tree. I shimmed up the tree, my watch post, to survey the island before venturing out for shelter. My eyes passed over the familiar features of my home - the lagoon, the Stinger caves, sand in every direction... and the Undetermined. I shivered. The Undetermined was the only unexplored section of my island. It had a dark, hellishly sinister feel to it. Opaque, black sands coated the ground. Lava lakes were everywhere, spouting up fountains, sizzling, popping and making it seem like there were monsters roiling beneath the surface. (Honestly, I didn't know, I had never investigated.) Silent, wispy forms drifted across volcanic formations in the ground, moaning softly as if their hearts were being torn to pieces.

I pulled my eyes away from the sight. Just looking at it made my stomach roll with butterflies. I had no intention to ever explore the Undetermined, as long as I lived. My mind diverted to brighter thoughts as I once again gazed around the island. Right there! A set of palm trees, around a small freshwater oasis. I was about to jump down off of the tree when I caught a small glimpse of crimson by the seashore. I knew my island like the back of my hand, and THAT was not supposed to be there. I felt... ATTRACTED to it. An unseen force was dragging me towards it, I needed something from that stain in the sand. I felt separated.