C H A P T E R  T W O
" and bring on all the pretenders "

It was only in the darkness of the night that Piper McLean's life made sense.

She was entirely alone with the sole exception of the crashing waves. The Moon provided her only light, and she liked it that way. With the salty wind whipped at her brown hair that she cut herself, purposefully making it uneven. With the crunching, soft sand under her feet. With the quiet night air that was interrupted by gentle killing of waves.

Piper breathed in the air, finally content after a long day of acting like she gave a shit. She pushed herself off the sand, and grabbed the long surfboard that had been resting beside her. The Sun was rising in the distant horizon, painting over the black sky with deep reds and oranges.

Morning meant returning home, a place that Piper had grown to loathe. Her father always travelled, leaving Piper alone with her half-sister, Drew Tanaka, the human embodiment of spoiled. While Piper was content with nothing more than the ocean, nothing was enough to satisfy Drew's unquenchable desires. They were polar opposites, and despised each other because of it.

Piper sighed into the warm morning air, yearning to stay there for even an hour longer. Her damp wetsuit clung to her body like a second skin as she began her walk home, surfboard in tow. She dragged it on the ground behind her.

Sand shifted under her feet as she walked. Somehow, Piper managed to roll her ankle in every crab hole that must have existed on the beach. She winced in pain every time, but didn't stop. The early morning was the most dangerous time to be on the beach. It was when the Eights, reeking of cheap alcohol, stumbled to the ocean to wash themselves.

Piper did not hate Eights. But every part of her trembled in fear when she saw those drunk men freely gaze at her body. Drunk men were dangerous, and drunk men were Eights.

So Piper didn't stop walking across the cool sand. She squinted up at the sky, and watched as the Sun peaked over the horizon, casting light over the seascape.

It was in the Sunlight that Piper saw it.

A figure was standing no more than 100 feet to her right. She jumped, and stopped walking. The silhouette was tall, seven or eight feet. Taller than any man Piper had seen.

Her heart began to thrum wildly in her chest as she noticed that the silhouette wasn't standing on two legs; their torso melted into what appeared to be a long tail.

Piper knew that it couldn't be real. People didn't stand on tails. It wasn't possible. But, somehow, it was.

Piper's mouth grew dry. Suddenly, the wind no longer seemed comforting. The surfboard thumped onto the sand as she released her hold on it. Then, the figure moved towards her.

Piper didn't think to scream. Paralyzed with a foreign fear, the silhouette slithered to where she was standing. As it grew closer, she could make out a feminine face that was snarling at Piper.

Run, a voice whispered into her ear. This is not your fight.

Piper listened. She left her board where it laid on the sand, spun on her ankle, and sprinted as fast as she could. The sand slowed her down, but she managed to leap over small dunes and patches of spiky plants to separate her and the snake woman. Her lungs wheezed in protest as she sprinted out of the sand, and onto the paved streets that laid past it. Her feet screamed in pain as they slapped against the hard concrete.

What was chasing her? And how did it exist?

Her questions remained unanswered as she bounded up the stairs that led to her beachfront house. Piper slowed down enough to make her footsteps quiet as she opened the back door that she had left unlocked. Her heart racing, she slipped inside.

And found Drew staring back at her, her eyes too wide and face too pale.

"What were you running from?" she asked, her voice breathy and soft.

Piper looked at the girl that stood across from her, and noticed that Drew's hands were trembling.

"I saw you running," Drew continued. "What was behind you?"

Was it possible that Drew saw it, too? Piper panted heavily as she pulled her hair back behind her ears.

But before Piper could respond, Drew shook her head almost violently.

"Never mind," she said, a familiar venom returning to her voice. "Just another drunken Eight, right? Nothing to really be scared of. Why were you out there, anyways?"

Piper glared at her half-sister. "I wouldn't waste whatever brain cells you have trying to figure out that mystery," she retorted. "Don't think too hard; you might hurt yourself."

Drew narrowed her eyes. "I don't-"

But Piper was already gone, breezing past Drew like she was nothing more than a ghost. She silently went up the stairs, and straight to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Piper leaned against the door, her breath still evading her. The image of the snake woman burned in her mind like a brand. It was real, right? She really saw whatever it was that she saw.

She needed a shower.

Piper slipped the wetsuit off, and stepped into the shower, allowing the warm water to wash away the sand and salt from her skin, and the memory of the snake woman from her mind.

It wasn't real. It was a trick of the light. And it was dark outside. Piper couldn't be certain of whatever she thought she saw.

As she stepped out of the shower, she had convinced herself that the snake woman was fake.

But the image of Drew's scared face remained stuck behind Piper's eyelids. It remained there for the rest of the day, and she saw it every time that she closed her eyes.

Drew had seen something, possibly the same thing Piper thought she saw. There was a very small chance of getting Drew to tell her what she witnessed chasing Piper.

But a small chance was better than none, and that was the other alternative.

Piper wrung out her wet hair, and made a promise to herself; she would get the truth out of Drew. Even if it meant being nice to her.

"Did you fill out the application for the Selection?" Piper asked Drew that afternoon as they sat at the dinner table together, her face twisted into a warm smile. Sincerity flooded out of every pore in her body.

But it didn't work. Drew narrowed her eyes. "Of course I did; they were due last week, and we find out tonight. And you went with me to mail mine and yours."

"Right," Piper responded, her heart sinking. Out of all the questions to ask, she had to ask the dumbest one possible.

But it was one of the only things that they had in common. Though they were very different, they shared one thing: an ambition to become Selected. For different reasons, of course, but it was something that they both wanted.

Piper wanted to leave. And after she became eliminated from the Selection, she would be free to travel anywhere she wanted, claiming that she had met someone there. It was a plan that she had been scheming for years, and it was her one chance at an escape from this corrupted cookie-cutter life. Her chance to finally take control of her life.

"Do you think you'll be Selected?" Piper tried again, the smile still painted on her lips.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Every girl thinks she'll be Selected. Of course I do, too, and you probably feel the same. Don't you?"

Piper found herself nodding along to Drew's words. "Imagine if we were both Selected."

Drew snorted. "That's a nightmare waiting to happen."

And Piper laughed. Not a fake one; a genuine laugh. Caught by surprise, Drew stared at her. And smiled.

Another thing they had in common; a mutual hatred for each other.

Piper saw her chance. "What did you see chasing me?"

The smile evaporated from Drew's face, and a familiar snarl replaced it. "It's none of your business, McLean. And who says I even saw anything?"

"Your face was white as a ghost, and you looked ready to faint," Piper pressed, abandoning the warm and sincere disposition. "It was obvious that you saw something. What was it?"

Drew shook her head, and stood up, her chair screeching in protest. "You're a bitch."

And she was gone, leaving Piper alone with her aggravated thoughts.

Did she see something, or had she imagined it? And who spoke to her on the beach?