With anxious eyes, Lily stood at a corner of Hope Island, lightly biting her trembling fingernails. It was a bad habit she had picked up from the mice—whenever she was nervous, she felt the urge to bite something.
The place over there, just around the corner, was the home she had revisited countless times in her dreams.
Over the years, Lily had often wondered how she would feel when this day finally came. She had speculated on all sorts of possibilities but never imagined she would actually be afraid. It was as if what lay around the corner wasn't her home, but a dark, all-devouring whirlpool in the depths of the sea.
She tried to suppress her fear, lifting a foot in its little boot to take the first step, but a second later, she quickly pulled it back.
What if Mom and Dad have forgotten me? What if they think I'm a liar, some sort of fraud? What if something happened to them after I left?
The more she thought, the more chaotic her mind became.
