Lost

Chapter 1

Waking up with amnesia is a really cliché beginning to a story.

But what can I say?

That's how it all began.

This is my story. This tale is special. It has meaning and feeling and power. So if you're going to let this book waste away in your library, never to be enjoyed, if you're going to read a few chapters and give up on it, then I feel bad for you. I poured, and am currently pouring my soul into these words. This book is for dreamers. This book is for the people who believed in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or monsters when they were children. This book is for people who still, even the teensiest tinsiest bit, believe in the impossible.

Do you know why?

Because those people are the only ones who will believe me.

***

Hot, scratchy darkness was all I felt at first. When I managed to open my eyes, the sun instantly scalded them. As I squinted against the sunlight, I turned my head to see where I was. Sand stretched out, pure white, and glittering waves lapped gently at its shores. Slowly, as my eyes adjusted to the intense light, I could make out shapes in the sand. Small things littered the beach. Coins, nails, hairpins, books, pencils, puzzle pieces, spools of thread, and endless socks. Thousands of other strange things that I couldn't identify covered that faraway beach. They poked up from the sand at random, like sailors slogging to shore after their ship had run aground. I lay there, unable to move, unable to think of who I was, where I came from or why I was here. Eventually, I drifted back into comforting darkness.

Something poked me on the forehead. I opened my eyes again, the world swimming before me. A pair of dark brown eyes peered down at me.

"Are you alive?" The girl attached to the eyes asked.

"Y-yes..." I croaked, my voice rough and scratchy and unfamiliar.

I managed to heave myself into a sitting position, my whole body screaming in pain. The girl silently took my arm, her dark chocolate eyes on me the whole time.

"Do you...know who I am?" I asked, thinking all the while, so this is what my voice sounds like!

"No. Do you know who you are?" The girl asked me, purely inquisitive.

"...no." The girl simply grinned, unfazed at my confession.

As she helped me to my feet, I got a better look at her. She had straight, dark brown hair falling just a little past her shoulders. Freckles splattered her nose and cheeks and those dark eyes stayed trained on me, filled with excitement and curiosity. She was a little shorter than me, her small body packed with energy.

"I'm Irene." The girl said, looping my arm over her shoulders.

"I'm...I don't know what my name is." I admitted.

"I didn't when I first came here. You'll remember one day." Irene smiled encouragingly at me.

"Will I remember anything else?" I asked, still confused and unsure of myself.

"...no...it's not likely." Her brown eyes clouded with sadness, although her smile remained stretched across her face.

"Oh..." I was too worn out to say anything else and I had a feeling that I shouldn't push the subject.

Irene practically dragged me to the edge of a lush jungle. The beach stopped abruptly and tall trees rose up.

"Alex!" Irene shouted, startling me, "I found something new!"

"I'm a someone! Not a something!" I snapped, suddenly tired of Irene's perpetual excitement.

"I know." Irene's excitement dissipated immediately. She turned a pair of large puppy dog eyes on me and frowned.

"Uh...sorry I got angry." I muttered. Irene confused me. She seemed genuinely hurt that I had snapped at her. If someone had snapped at me, I would have laughed it off.

"What did you find?" A voice called from the forest. The tall grass in front of us rustled and another girl leapt out, brandishing a machete.

She was a little taller than me with dark brown hair tied back in a long ponytail. Her eyes were brown as well although not as dark as Irene's. She was tanned and athletic, her smile somewhat careless and teasing.

"Alex! Look what I found washed up on the beach!" Irene grinned, her puppy dog eyes instantly gone.

"No memories?" Alex swung her machete at the tall grass.

"Nope. No memories." Irene laughed.

"Figures." Alex swung her machete harder.

Alex grabbed my arm and hauled me away from Irene.

"You can't help her if you're shorter than her. You'll both fall over." Alex sighed and looped my arm over her shoulder instead.

"You're mean!" Irene made a face and rushed ahead of us.

"Is she always this hyper?" I asked, glancing at Alex.

"Almost always," Alex kicked at the ground, "I'm Alexis. Call me that and you die."

"Right. Alex." I steadied my wobbling legs, "do you have any memories?"

"Nope." Alex said. Everything about her was casual, even the way she admitted to being an amnesiac. But I could detect a hint of sadness in the way she looked away from me and then hauled me into the jungle. We didn't speak until we reached the camp.

It was in a small clearing. Makeshift huts clustered in an uneven circle, like a group of old ladies talking after church. Irene was already there, poking at a fire with a long branch. There were others as well. Four boys lounged against a tree and five older girls sat around the fire that Irene was poking. As Alex and I crashed through the bushes, everyone looked up and stared.

Panic welled in my chest as ten pairs of eyes drilled into me. Ten pairs of eyes looked me up and down. So this was what I was afraid of.

People.