Underwater Treasures of Fourteen

I met Sarah on the same day that I had moved into this neighborhood. My mother, sister and I had just transferred from a different province where my father and I used to live before he died the previous year. After his death, we were forced to go back to my mother's hometown, so that's how it all started.

I remember being so hesitant in approaching her because she looked like the most beautiful girl in the whole world. She was sitting on the bench with a little boy and his mother, and as I walked closer to them with my sister, she suddenly turned her head towards me, looking at me in surprise.

"Hey," I said abruptly, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. "We're new here."

"So you're new here." She responded without changing her expression or pushing her bangs out of her face.

"Yes." My sister ran towards them and sat down on the bench too, jumping over the seat between Sarah and the little boy. "My name is Maria!" She smiled widely and gave a little wave. The little boy smiled too, but Sarah remained expressionless.

"Hello Maria," Her voice was soft and gentle, making me shiver a bit. "My name is Sarah." As if she sensed my thoughts, she turned her head to look at me again. "And who are you?"

I didn't know what to say, so I said what I thought was the most normal thing to say: "I'm John." We stood there for a short moment looking at each other's eyes until Sarah finally broke our gaze with a smile and said: "How about we introduce ourselves properly? Why don't you start?"

"Um... My name is John." I began, scratching my cheeks nervously as she continued speaking: "Very nice to meet you John! Now your little sister Maria can introduce herself next", then she turned towards Maria who was jumping up and down happily while saying: "Hi! My name is Maria!" Then she pointed at me without missing a beat: "and my brother's name is John!"

You could say that after that day our relationship grew really quickly; we became best friends within a few days. That little boy that had been with Sarah that day was actually her brother named Balthazar (or Balthy for short), who at first wasn't very fond of us but soon warmed up to us when he realized that we weren't monsters or anything like that. As for me? Well... It took me a few weeks before I finally got guts enough to ask Sarah if she wanted to go out with me on Friday night. Of course she accepted right away!

In those days we spent almost every minute of the day together; it felt amazing! We'd play videogames together while watching movies, we'd listen to music while drawing pictures together... But sometimes things didn't go so well between us; mostly because Balthy used to get jealous when he saw us hanging out together (which was weird because he never used to do that when we only used to play videogames).

But something strange happened one Saturday morning; instead of seeing their usual cars in front of their house, there was one car which completely caught us off guard; an expensive black BMW with tinted windows parked quietly in front of their driveway. It looked suspicious so Maria immediately told me about it but when we went inside their house it seemed empty. There were no traces of Balthy (who usually made loud noises) nor there were any signs of Sarah or her parents anywhere in sight; only some pristine white sheets covering everything in sight including the furniture which made us think that they might have left on some trip or something like that but why would they leave the house all messy like this? Ugh... It made no sense! So we decided to take a look around their house for clues but it seemed completely abandoned; there were no clothes in their closet or kitchen cabinets or anywhere else for that matter! We didn't understand why they would leave their house empty unless something bad had happened there! So we decided not to stay there any longer and called the police immediately after leaving a note on the door telling them where their house was located and that everything seemed suspicious inside it! Ugh... What if something bad had really happened there? What if someone kidnapped them? Or worse...? What if they were dead?! Oh god!! *uuggghhh* I don't want to think about it anymore! It makes me feel sick just thinking about it!!

Afterwards we rushed home as fast as possible because we couldn't stop worrying about Sarah even though neither one of us knew what could have possibly happened there!? Oh god!!! Oh god!!! Oh god!! Ohhhhhh please let them be okay!? Please let them be alive!? Please let them be alive!!!! OH GOD PLEASE LET THEM BE ALIVE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEAAAAAAASE!!! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! LET THEM BE OKAY!!!!! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEAAAAAAASE!!!!!!