My beloved Natalie(complete)

Evelyn

Helloooo! I know I have two ongoing projects, but this was one of the prompts that simply grabbed my attention. The tag says Short Story, but it has elements of fanfiction(not too big, you don't need to be in 39 Clues fandom, I explained it) and it's a one-shot. Final. Over.

Sea was a harsh and unforgiving mistress, no matter her beauty; Evelyn knew that all too well. She took her Dad away when she was but a baby, leaving her Mum, her brother Adrian and sister Kayla to fend for themselves, forcing them to move from idyllic cottage nearby sea to the outskirts of big mainland town. All of the children in her class talked about sea as something ethereal, magical even: Evelyn despised it, and preferred not to speak about it at all, which was easy considering she had no friends; apart from her family, of course.

Since they moved, Evelyn had been near sea only once, with her kindergarten, and that had been only for two days. Now, she was going with the class on the sea shore for nearly a full week: long enough to make her Mum sigh with sadness and Evelyn high-strung with anxiety and anger day before the trip. Adrian's only reaction to the fact was shutting himself in his room, and Kayla disappeared for two days, arranging a sleepover with her best friend May in record time.

The day one of the trip was not much better. The ride to the shore was anything but relaxing: the road was old, and in places asphalt was cracked and then clumsily patched up, making a four-hour journey extremely unpleasant with bumps and sways, not allowing Evelyn even a moment of sleep. To make matters worse, her classmates would simply not shut up about the sea: whether it was simply exchanging scientific facts between nerds, girly gushing and squealing at the front or boys planning to go on midnight dip in the back. Evelyn just wanted to scream at them. She didn't, though. They didn't know, and she was in no hurry to reveal any of her secrets - side effect of losing a loved one, her therapist had said. Evelyn didn't believe that for a second. She barely remembered her father as it was.

The sea shore didn't change a lot in almost six years since she had last been there: beach bars were more modern, tourists ruder and the sea was as loud as ever. It should've been nostalgic, Evelyn reflected as she walked down the beach. The thing was, she didn't have enough in her to feel anything: not the pain, or anger, not even sadness. She felt... empty, but not clean. It was as if her psyche was searching for something it knew was there, but her earthly eyes could not perceive. So lost in musings, she failed to register her surroundings, and stubbed her toe on something - something hard and, judging by the sound it made, made of glass.

'Damn it!' she cussed loudly, not caring about the scandalized looks some on the older ladies on the beach sent her. After concentrating for a few minutes, chasing away the pain in her toe and leaving only dull throbbing, Evelyn took a closer look at the thing she tripped over. At the first glance, it was nothing more than a normal glass bottle, maybe once filled with alcohol. Evelyn wanted to leave it there, but the idea of tripping there again (because that's just her luck), or someone tripping or worse, cutting herself or himself on the glass... she squatted down and started digging, sand flying every which way. After a minute or so she dug out the bottle by its neck, lifting it up to her eye level.

The bottle was capped with a cork, which she didn't notice before she got it out, confusing it with sand. That fact raised red flags in Evelyn's head, closely followed by absolute shock: the bottle was empty save for a rolled piece of slightly yellowed paper. The first thought was of her father: could it be one of the missing boat-in-bottle bottles from his ship? She quickly discarded the notion: there was no boat in here, just a tightly rolled up piece of paper. Curiosity taking her over, she carefully tugged at the cork, mindful of the air pressure which ensured so many dents in the house ceiling for New Year's, due to Adrian's nonexistent patience. After she wheedled it out, Evelyn tried to get the paper out without success. Undeterred, she carried the bottle and the cork over to the hotel she and her class was staying at. Luckily for her, her roommates were still on the beach, leaving her free to explore.