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“Not much to do for the evening shift,” Erin says as she strolls towards the exit. She doesn’t want Stella to notice that she’s in a hurry.

“I know Sam is taking you somewhere”. Stella says in disdain. “You can start running now.”

“That’s none of your business!” Erin snaps as she hurriedly reaches the top of the stairs, slamming the door behind her.

As she starts running along the steel suspension bridge towards the coast, Erin bounces eagerly in long strides while the strong wind pushes her forward. She breathes in deeply, tasting the salty water droplets suspended in the air, her lungs flooding with the brackish aroma.

Stella keeps looking through the window until the fast-running figure shrinks to a small dot on the other end of the bridge. As she looks through the lookout telescope by the window, she spots her brother Sam running towards Erin.

“Ah, those two are inseparable,” she mutters as she watches them jumping onto Sam’s speedboat and setting off towards the cliffs. Seeing Erin sitting next to her brother, her resentment grows. “I never wanted my brother to be so close to that weird girl,” she grumbles.

Stella tries hard to concentrate on her shift’s tasks. Hours go by, but she keeps thinking about her brother and Erin.I wish something could happen that would make her instantly disappear. And anything will do—a lightning strike, a shark attack, a sudden fireball.

The phone rings insistently for a few seconds before Stella comes out of her damning stupor.

She perks up as she hears the worried voice of her father, Bill Sheppard, the maintenance manager at the tuna farm and a veteran member of the ARA’s rescue brigades.

“Is Sam with you there? He should be picking you up,” her father asks her as if expecting a positive answer.

Stella checks the time, and it’s already ten o’clock. Sam is never late.

“No, Dad, he isn’t.” She checks the car park once again through the glass window.

“Did you see him today?”

“Yes, he met Erin after she finished the shift. They went in the direction of Diablo’s cave, on Sam’s boat.”

“I’ve been calling him … but there’s no response.”

“What about Erin’s parents?”

“Yes, I contacted them, but they’ve not heard from Erin either,” Sheppard replies gloomily.

“Well, you shouldn’t worry yet. They’ll turn up soon! They must be somewhere close by … fooling around,” Stella says in a fake encouraging tone.

Surely, they’re up to no good, she thinks. But an uneasy thought lingers on, at the back of her mind.

“I’ll come and get you home!” Sheppard says, this time sounding more annoyed than worried. “Wait for me!”

“Yeah, I bet he’s home when we get there,” Stella replies, trying to sound hopeful.

But later that night, the Sheppards keep waiting anxiously by their phones, with no news from Sam or Erin.

Right after midnight, Mr Lobart arrives.

“No news yet. For now, they are intent on hiding,” Lobart announces as he looks at Sam’s parents and sister with a disgruntled expression.

“It is so unusual for Sam.” Martha Sheppard sits next to her daughter and hugs her. Mother and daughter are so much alike—the same curly black hair, long thin eyebrows, thin nose, and the same brown eyes covered in tears.

“Everything’s going to be okay.” Stella comforts her worried mother.

“We need to go now and check all the obvious and less obvious places—even if we have to go inside Diablo’s cave,” Bill Sheppard states while putting his working boots on.

“I wonder why Erin was in such a hurry today,” Stella says while looking probingly at her father. “She was in a hurry to meet Sam, and he waited for her by the coast … far from the control tower,” she adds, purposely stressing her words.

“Hmmm.” Lobart starts pacing around, looking down while gathering his thoughts.

“Hmmm, what?” Stella prompts him.