Written by Katharine Kim
The sun was shining so bright on the beach that the sand below started to fry anyone
who dared to walk out barefoot. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and no sign of any kind
of storm that could ruin this perfect day at the beach. Finally! Some time to relax.
I sat down in my chair, and looked into the beautiful blue ocean. Children were
splashing wildly and screaming playfully.
Then, my eyes drifted down closer to me, in the sand. There, my little sister was giggling
and building a sand castle. I really couldn’t tell, it looked like a lump of mud. I sighed. I really
missed her, my little sister. My parents were nowhere in sight. They must have been
somewhere around.
While I was deep in thought, I looked into a newspaper, not mine, but I had
just found it on the ground. The wrinkly paper looked old, and weathered, as if it had been
soaked into water many times. I looked into it, and highlighted in a bright yellow ink, was a
picture and some printing. The girl in the picture was me. I wasn’t surprised. Below the picture
was a short passage:
HAVE YOU SEEN ME?
Date missing: 10/10/1995
Name: Tracy
Hair color: brown
Gender: Female
Age: 12
It had some more text on it, I was sure, but I got cut off by my own thoughts. It was silly,
how everyone thinks I’m still alive. My life ended instantly, the day I was kidnapped. I still
remember, there was a car crash in the hassle to get away from the cops when they were
following the kidnappers. I even remember that one of the kidnappers had gotten away. He was
still alive. He was the reason I was dead. I’m a ghost now, but I don’t really know why. Aren’t I
supposed to go to heaven or something?
Either way, I am gone. I have no purpose anymore.
This is going to be me. Forever. But I long to show the one who had killed me. The police still
haven’t caught the killer. In fact, because there were two kidnappers, one died and one
escaped, the police had believed that the one kidnapper who had died with me was the only
kidnapper. So they now believe that the one who had wronged me was dead. Clearly, that isn’t
true.
But thank goodness that that wonderful day came. The day that my 8 year old sister tried to
contact me.
That day changed my life. Well, my *dead* life.
Katharine Kim is a writer from sunny California who ironically has an affinity for dark, humorless poetry. As a passionate spoken word artist and just at 15-years-old, she has participated in performances across the country and hopes to go international.
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