Excerpt: Flight of the Black Swan

It had been many months since she set foot on this beach. How often had she yearned for this moment and imagined in her mind what it would be like to feel the grains of sand sifting between her toes? Whenever she had closed her eyes, she could smell the wind fresh off the sea, hear the cry of the gulls as they hunted their prey, and see the sheer power of the waves as they crashed onto the alabaster turf, persistent in their cycle.

Now, her yearnings were reality. And yet, she felt oddly empty, like a vessel that had run its course. No longer did the waves allure her; no longer did the sun’s reflection on the water capture her interest. Even the blue sky seemed gray to her as she slowly made her rounds of the once familiar beach, her treads slow and soft.

Memories. They rushed into her mind in floods, probing every corner, even the ones she thought she had closed off. What was the use? She tried fighting them, but in the end, the memories came...memories of the past months, the months her country had nearly been torn asunder from within. A year ago, this beach had been filled with the sound of laughter as children fished and collected shells and other bounty from the shores. Now, all was silent.

It was unearthly. No, this could not be the place she once knew.