A Sea of Stars - Reedsy writing competition

Weightlessness. Melissa’s body floated in the warm shallow water of a calm sea. The waves rocked her awake as she started to focus on what was above her. The moon peeked through dark grey clouds as her vision cleared. The smell of salty sea air along with the rolling water running onto land, and then back out to her, pulling her closer. Each time the waves rocked her, more of the feeling started returning to her body. She had no idea how she got there, or what she had been doing before. There was only the feeling like she had been lowered from some great height with care. She wasn’t in any pain, but a weird sensation trickled down her spine. Heat radiated from her mid back throughout her body as if her limbs were being used for the first time. Her mind raced as the final wave rolled her body up unto the sand. It sank as the water retreated back out to sea giving her the last jolt of sensation to rouse her awake. Taking a deep breath her shock started to wash over her after having felt such an amazing calm. She found herself alone in the pale moonlight on a small island. It took her awhile to stand to her feet, as her body still felt strange. Standing there she took in her surroundings while trying to ring the water from her clothes. It was odd that she wasn’t cold, although there was a cool breeze blowing in from the sea. Her body wasn’t sure whether to make goosebumps or draw tighter from the water. She looked out unto the water. There wasn’t a boat or other landmass for as far as she could see. Her mind pondered on how she could have gotten so far out alone, and the tingling sensation returned. This time it was at the back of her neck causing her to roll her shoulder in response. That was when she noticed that a pain that she had for years was gone. What happened? It was an accident from when her and her brother were going on a road trip. Flashes of faces started running through her head until her eyes widened.

“Brandon!” She said aloud. That’s right, she thought. She had been searching for her brother. He had gone missing while out studying some strange phenomena. Her mind was still drawing blanks but then a familiar buzzing sound snapped her out of it. She started rubbing at her pants pockets patting them searching for something. The moon finally broke through the cloud cover again shining light down unto an object embedded in the sand. She made her way over to find a cell phone. Another random memory flashed in her mind of her standing with her brother in the phone store.

“Hey if you’re going to be out on the water, you need a waterproof phone.”

“You sound like mom.”

“Well, you look like her.” They both laughed, but his face his blank to her horror. She comes to and the phone is in her hand. The sand starts to feel coarse against her hands as she tries to wipe it clean to get the screen on. The lock screen is a picture of her and another faceless being causing her to drop the phone again. She yells in frustration and then falls to her knees. Feelings of hopeless started to wash over her, but she didn’t really know what she had to feel hopeless for. Why couldn’t she just remember her brother’s face?

“What you want?” A strong islander accent asked. “You should go home.” Her memory flashed to following a tall slim man towards his fishing boat. His face was also missing.

“I need to find my brother.”

“I can help you find fish. Not your blood.” He stops and turns his faceless head around towards her. “If you go out there, you won’t find either.” Her mind snaps back to the present where she takes a breath and then tries to unlock the phone but there is a passcode.

“Come on…” She said softly, when something snapped a twig in the bushes nearby. There was only that little section of bushes and a handful of small trees. “Hello?” She said, hoping that no one would answer. All she heard was the song of the waves on the beach to her relief. Maybe it was some small animal she thought. She put the phone in her pocket and made her way towards the thick bush. Hesitant at first, she slowly reached down and parted the leaves to get a better view when she was met with an orange glow. There was a small fire going in the middle of the clearing, and strangely she only felt cold upon seeing it. The weather had just a moment before been tropical but now she was hugging herself as the fire called her towards it. The next step she took was in the snow with her parents closely in front. They were walking towards a warm cabin with her little brother in their arms.

“It was an accident I swear.” She said, trying to reach out towards them. Her father grabbed her shoulder and leaned down.

“We know you would never hurt your brother, but you know you have to be careful. He’s special.” Warm tears rolled down her cheeks, but she was too afraid to look up at her father. She knew he wouldn’t have a face, so she just reached up to hug him tight. She snapped back to the present with the fire warming her as she stood above it.

“Where are you Brandon?” She said, pulling his phone out. “Where am I?” The phone buzzed, startling her. She almost dropped it into the fire but recovered. Racking her brain, she tried to think of what his password could have been. “Knowing you, it wouldn’t have been a password at all.” Her eyes lit up as she remembered something. She pressed 3 numbers, successfully unlocking the phone. “How long does it take for light from the sun to reach Earth?” She asked. “Eight minutes and twenty seconds.” Brandon’s voice repeated. Even as a child his mind was exceptional, he was smarter than anyone she ever met, till this day. He was sensitive to light, but also intrigued by it. Especially light from the stars. She first attempted to make a few calls, but there was no reception. Going to his messages she saw some between him and his colleagues. Some names she recognized from science magazines and tv shows. They all ended the same way. “Stay out of the triangle.”  Melissa took a deep breath when she saw her brother’s last message to her. He was asking her to come with him. Her fingers trembled when she read her response to him. “Okay, next time.” Brandon’s final message to her. She scrolled down and saw more undelivered messages. “I’ve found it. It’s beautiful. It doesn’t hurt, Mel.” There was a video but when she clicked on it, the phone died. More tears dropped on the phone screen.

“I’m sorry Bran Bran.” She said, hugging her knees by the fire. It wasn’t like she could have just up and left her life to go on an adventure with her little brother. Still, the result would have been better than what happened in the real world.

“It’s okay Mel.” She heard next to her. The scream she let out echoed across the island causing the few birds to fly off into the night sky.

“Brandon!?” She stood up quickly but couldn’t see her brother. “Where are you?” her head continued twisting around.

“Wait, I’m still trying to get this part right.” Suddenly a figured appeared next to her.

“What in the world!?” She nearly fell back down and towards the fire, but a hand reached out and grabbed her. She watched as it went from cold clay to brown skin as it gripped her own. Whatever this thing was it wasn’t normal, but it wasn’t dangerous. It felt familiar.

“Brandon?”

“Yes and no.” Melissa slowly shook the confusion off and then threw it away from hearing the sound of her brother’s voice.

“I’ve been looking all over for you. You had me worried sick. Going out into the Bermuda triangle for some kind of research its way too dangerous?” Brandon laughed.

“You really sound like mom now.”

“Why can’t I see your face? I can’t even remember it, or anyone else’s.”

“I’m sorry. I was never any good with remembering faces.” Melissa took a deep breath. “Like artists not being able to draw hands.”

“Am I dead? Are we dead?” She asked. Brandon was quiet for a while and then walked over to the middle of the clearing and looked up. The clouds were still covering the night sky.

“Something beautiful is waiting just beyond those clouds, I wish you could see it, but I know once you do you will be gone.”

“What do you mean? Brandon what is this?”

“When I was studying light and stars, I made a startling discovery. There are signals in the light deep out in space, which are very similar to those in deep parts of the ocean. Especially within the Bermuda triangle. I too made the mistake of focusing so much on the stars that I failed to realize that our oceans and seas are mostly unexplored. I found a study from an older scientist who believed something similar.” Brandon moved his hand and a rotating planet formed within the trees made of leaves and wood. He pulled the sand up from the ground and used the grains as stars surrounding it.

“This is amazing.”

“I want to show it to you up there, but it still isn’t time.”

“Time, time for what?”

“You’ll know when it happens.”

“Damn it, Brandon, I’m not as smart as you. Let’s just go home and talk about it there.” Brandon’s shoulders slumped.

“I can’t.”

“You can’t what?”

“I can’t go back with you.”

“Why not?” Brandon’s figure turned towards her and then grabbed his chest. He pulled it open showing swirls of light and stars inside. Melissa had to shield her face from the intensity. When the light stopped, they were back on the beach.

“My God. What happened to you?” He paused for a moment

“I went swimming in a sea of stars.”

“A sea of stars?” A pointed out towards the endless sea and small lights started to flicker beneath the surface like bioluminescent bacteria.

“All of my research had brought me to one conclusion. This place was special. The light above it didn’t hurt but why was I always so sensitive to light in the first place?”

“Dad said it was a medical condition.”

“Yes, one so rare like being hit by a shooting star.”

“So, what else could it be?”

“Maybe I was never anything more than light trapped within a body. At least that’s what I believe now. It was never pain that I felt. It was always a feeling that something was wrong. It made my skin itch.”

“This doesn’t make any sense Brandon. You’re my brother, you’re my light. Mom and Dad’s light.”

“Oh, I think I have it now.” Brandon had only smiled a couple of times in his entire life. All of those times where with his sister. He pushed all of that feeling into one clear smile on his now full face. Melissa ran towards him and hugged him harder than she had ever hugged anyone before.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come with you. I was afraid. Afraid that you were too smart for me to be around. That what you had in smarts I could make up for in success, but I was failing. Mom and Dad, they always knew you would be special. I just wanted them…you to be proud of me.”

“Mel…you found me. You found me deep in space.”

“What?” He lifted his hand and the lights from the water all flew up towards the sky. The moon was finally visible, but now she could see that it wasn’t the moon. It’s the light of a portal with clouds circling it. Just like Brandon’s model earlier. “How?”

“You think I was the only one born special? I wasn’t the one creating those things alone. I was just putting the pieces together from what you gave me. The beach, the phone, the fire. Information travel’s differently up here. You were even able to keep your body. I lost mine within the first 1,000 years. Don't worry it will make sense later.”

“I…” She looked around herself in complete disbelief. There was no way they were in space right now, let alone some kind of weird portal in the Bermuda triangle.

“Amazing isn’t it?” He points towards the hole and other things besides the clouds or coming in and out of the hole. Planes and ships out of time, some frozen in the air, others moving faster than the eye can see. "I'm sure it must have been strange going through the portal, like using your body for the first time?" She looked down at her feet and felt that weightlessness again. This was what she felt right before she found herself in the shallow waters of the sea.

“You have to come back with me.”

“Don’t worry. I’m getting the hang of this.” She started floating upwards towards the hole.

“Wait!” She reached out towards him, but he started growing brighter and brighter almost as bright as the sun. She opened her eyes, and she was on the deck of a boat, immediately coughing up water. Two people stood above her, one being the tall fisherman. He leaned down showing his full featured face.

“You alright girl? I told you about coming out here.” The other woman there was a coast guard who had performed CPR. She radioed in stating they had found one of the siblings but the other one is still missing. She tried to get up, but the coast guard told her to sit tight. Apparently, she had gone under for 8 minutes and 20 seconds. The fisherman had followed her boat out to make sure she would be alright. She had tracked the GPS on her brother’s phone and head out on her own. Melissa looked down and had it gripped tight in her hands. When she looked back up towards the clear night sky, she saw a light far away, moving gracefully. It was almost as if it was swimming in a sea of stars.