I sat at the kitchen table, my gaze trained on the white wall in front of me. My body was numb. I couldn't think; I couldn't function. My brain had turned off. So I sat there, calmly inhaling and exhaling, letting my mind rest.

A ringing jolted me from my trance. W-what's that? I turned my head in the sound's direction to see my phone vibrating on the kitchen island. I pulled myself to my feet and hurried toward it, feet tripping over each other.

"H-hello? Who's calling?" I asked.

"Hey, Lani, this is Victor Gough."

"O-oh." Victor was one of my co-stars in the movie. I had finished filming all but one scene prior to Kiara coming, a scene that was primarily dialogue between Victor and I. The Director had phoned me yesterday, telling me that he couldn't put off filming any longer. I agreed, but secretly, I doubted I could even remember my lines.

"I was hoping we could practice for the shoot tomorrow. It's been a while since we, um, practiced."

I glanced at the analog clock mounted over the sink. The hand pointed to ten o'clock, though it seemed like it was only a few minutes past eight when I had woken up.

"Of course," I said with a yawn. I turned around, eyes scanning the room for my script. It had to be around somewhere. I had just gotten it out yesterday after the Director contacted me. Or had I just thought about doing that and never got around to it?

"Lani?"

The voice on the other line caught my attention. "Yes?"

"I was just asking you where you think we should start."

"Oh, uh...maybe the page before." I hurried into the living room to look for my script. My hands brushed aside piles of mail on the coffee table, lifted care-baskets from the floor.

"The page before what?"

"My...line." I raised the velvet cushions on the divans, only to find a few pens and a peppermint.

Victor was silent on the other line. "That's a different scene."

"I...know." I pushed the cushions back into place. "I just thought it might be nice to get into the scene."

Victor paused while I darted back into the kitchen. "Alright."

The drone on the other end of the phone faded. I massaged the back of my sore neck, desperate to remember where I left my script. My eyes ran over the granite counters, the kitchen sink piled high with dishes, the table littered with last night's pizza box and three empty coffee cups from this morning. How could I have been so careless as to misplace it?

Careless...just like I was with Kiara. I was so irresponsible to let her go swimming alone. Now she was gone.

Maybe she's perfectly fine and on her way home.

I stamped the thought down. Too often I'd stayed up for her. The false hope was suffocating. The chances were impossible...

Tears stung my eyes, forging down my cheeks.

But I can't give up hope. My hope may be enough to bring her home...

But if I think she'll come home, and she doesn't, I'll be even more crushed...

My mind was a box, cycling through the same thoughts every day. I didn't know what to think anymore. I just didn't know.

"Um...Lani?"

I snapped back to reality. "Yes...um...sorry. W-what were you saying?"

"I just said, 'what do you think?'"

It was too generic of a line. I couldn't pull the response out of my head; I needed context.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't remember how to respond."

There was a slight pause. "It's not a line. I was wondering if you think I should start crossing over the set in the middle of my line or at the beginning."

"Oh. Uh, either's fine."

"I guess I'll start mid-line then." Pages rustled over the phone. "Uh, do you want to write that into your script?"

"Oh, yeah." I grabbed a black pen sitting on the counter before remembering that I still had no script. The pen slipped from my fingers, hitting the granite before rolling toward the edge. I lunged to stop it, but it clattered to the floor.

"Alright, Lani. Where do you want to pick up from?"

My gaze caught on something beyond my floor-to-ceiling windows, something blue, moving up and down. I couldn't pull my eyes away, couldn't move, speak, think.

Faint words echoed in my head. "Um, Lani? Are you there?"

Waves tumbled together. It was a tumult out there. The blue rose into towers that dove over each other.

Someone could drown in that.

Someone did drown in that.

Kiara.

"Lani!"

I jumped. "Huh!" I realized that my cellphone was still on, still on call with Victor. My lungs sucked in a breath of stale air. "I-I'm sorry. I guess I'm not, I haven't...been myself lately."

"That's alright. Should I call back at a different time?"

"Um, y-yes. Yes, that would be better. Maybe we can discuss more at um..." My brain was struggling to recall times. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Four p.m. tomorrow?"

"That's when the movie shoot is."

No wonder it was fresh in my mind. "Then how about four a.m.?"

A brief pause followed. "Why don't we try again at this time tomorrow? That would be ten a.m."

"O-okay."

"I'll talk to you then. Have a great day."

I already knew I wouldn't, but it was nice of him to say. "Thanks, you too."

The receiver clicked off. I flopped backward onto a hard kitchen chair. I couldn't do this.

It will help you, my friends had said. You need to preoccupy your time, that way you won't dwell on your sister.

But I was in no condition to work. How could I throw on a smile and a bubbly personality when I was grieving? If anything, this added to my stress, not relived it.

I need a vacation. Just like Kiara...

My face dropped into the soft sleeves of my sweatshirt. Tears seeped into the gray fabric. I couldn't stand this any longer. I couldn't live like this any longer. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

A ring resounded, not from my phone, but from the living room. I threw my head back so hard that it whacked the chair's backing. My skull throbbed, both from the racket and the pain. I was sick and tired of my friends and coworkers poking their heads around here, like they could actually help. Part of me didn't even want to see who it was.

But the other part of me was curious.

The doorbell rang again. I felt a weight inside me crumple. I was so tired of fighting. This whole time I had been fighting my friends' incessant pestering, and even worse, my sister's fate. I couldn't take it any longer.

It had been a while since I'd seen anyone. Maybe whoever it was could distract me from my troubles.

"Fine, I'll answer this time," I called out.

I walked to the door before I could change my mind. Slowly, my fingers fumbled with the metal lock on the door, turned the knob, and cracked the door open. A whiff of salt met my nostrils, like the ocean had arrived on my doorstep.

My heart stopped in my chest, eyes frozen open at the person in front of me. It was a trick, a mirage. It was the best and worst of my imagination.

A girl stood in front of me, completely soaked, a white dress clinging to her skin. Auburn, water-curled hair cascaded to her hips, wisps of which framed her face. She stared at me with glistening brown eyes, ones just like my own, so familiar, so familial.

She looked exactly like Kiara.