Saving Senna

The wind swirled and the darkening clouds slowly rolled in over the bay, but Senna couldn’t see behind the tears welling in her eyes as she blindly ran towards the open water. Hitting the waves like a raging bull in a china shop, she lost her balance and fell into the foamy but shallow water, and prayed the waves would take her far away. Letting herself float for a few minutes while she closed her eyes, her brain replayed the incident automatically.

Only an hour ago, she had been having a ball laughing and chatting with her friends at Marigold Springs Café and sipping a iced Mocha latte with no cares in the world, when her mobile rang. It was her dad.

‘Senna, can you please come home?’ he had asked in his usual short tone.

‘I won’t be long dad, just down the road with the girls’ she giggled as her friend Ablett made mocking faces. They both knew what her dad was like.

‘It’s important, come home right now please’, than silence as hung up.

Senna looked at her phone and back up at Ablett, ‘umm sorry Ab's I gotta go, here you can finish this’ as she pushed her half-finished iced Mocha across the table and grabbed her purse.

As odd as her dad usually was, he seemed even more so, and this had Senna concerned. Hurrying to where her scooter was parked, she put her helmet on and made the trip home. Living on an island had its benefits and being able to get home quickly was definitely a perk. Five minutes later she was at the door of the little bungalow that she shared with her dad. Unlocking the door, she was unsure as to what she would find and taking a deep breath, she walked in.

‘Dad’ she called, ‘where are you?’ All she heard was silence.

Hmm I wonder where he is, she thought.

Walking through the kitchen and in to the lounge, her heart stopped. Her breath quickened as she saw her dad tied up in the middle and a hooded man standing behind with his finger on the trigger of a gun.

‘Dad?’

‘Honey it’s ok, just do as he says ok. He promised he wouldn’t hurt you.’ Her dad sobbed with a tear rolling down his cheek.

‘Daddy, nooo’ but her screams were drowned out by the gunshot. Her dad slumped over. She stood in shock and watched as the hooded man slowly walked towards her. Not thinking twice, Senna bolted in the opposite direction and with blood pumping she ran as fast as she could out the front door with tears streaming down her face.

Not even stopping for cars or green traffic lights, she was unaware of everything as she focused on getting away fast. Until she hit the sand. This was the downside of island living, water surrounded you.

Shaking her head back to focus as she remembered where she was, floating in foamy water. She had questions, but couldn't escape the fact that her dad was dead. Dead. Murdered. She was angry.

Sitting up in the cold water, Senna glanced around to see if she had been followed as she rose to stand. Besides a family up further building sandcastles, she couldn't see anyone else. Walking slowly onto the hard, wet sand she wrung her long brown hair of sea water and shivered slightly as a cool breeze crept up over the bay. In the rush, she had no towel, no spare clothes and no phone.

'What do I do now?' she whispered, 'I am alone'.