Soul Fire

find the killer, perhaps they will see me as Alice – a person in her own right. Strong, determined. Someone who never gave up fighting for justice for her
sister.

27
    Mum and Dad are out tonight: the first dinner party they’ve been to in almost a year. I half expect them to take the laptop with them to make sure I can’t use it,
but they’re giddy, like kids, and forget all about the ban.
    I wave them off into the dark night. Outside, red-grey clouds are coming down like an old army blanket, smothering the stars.
    But on the Beach, a ripe peach sunset is filling the sky.
    Danny is waiting for me by our rock, even though I’m visiting so much earlier with my parents out of the way. Perhaps he has a sixth sense, or maybe he spends most of his time here,
waiting for me.
    We say nothing, just hold each other. Our kisses get better and better. Danny isn’t the first boy I’ve kissed, but this is the real thing. A century could pass, or a hurricane could
lift us up and fling us back down to earth, and I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t notice a thing. And despite the passion, it never feels rushed. Danny, at least, has all the time in the
world.
    ‘You save me from going crazy when you’re here with me,’ he whispers.
    ‘And the thought of you saves me from going crazy when I’m not,’ I whisper back.
    ‘I never thought I’d meet a girl like you,’ says Danny. He’s stroking my arm, raising the tiny hairs with his fingers and then smoothing them down again. Every single
nerve in my skin tingles, and I feel safe. Cherished .
    ‘Especially on the internet.’
    He stares at me. ‘Yeah. Beauties like you don’t hang out on internet dating sites.’
    I’m not a beauty, but I can’t expect Danny to know what that’s like.
    On the Beach, everyone has their old imperfections airbrushed away, but I’ve seen the pictures of Danny when he was alive and he didn’t need any upgrading. His square jaw makes him
the perfect movie leading man. And he has thick blond hair that cries out to be rumpled, and those green eyes. They were the first thing I noticed about him, and they’re the last thing
I think of at night. They’re full of so much intelligence and sadness – though less sadness, since we found each other.
    Danny breaks away suddenly. ‘I need to show you something.’
    He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bundle of paper. There must be twenty different pages, each one yellow and brittle-looking, like an ancient manuscript or a message in a bottle after
it’s bobbed across an ocean or two.
    ‘What are those?’
    ‘They’re for you. I didn’t want to give them to you, but I . . . promised.’
    I hesitate, just for a second. They stink of damp and despair.
    Too late now .
    The handwriting on the first one is scratchy, as though the person who wrote it had never held a pen before.
    ‘ Please Alice, ’ I read aloud. ‘ You are only hope to get message to my family about water. The water kill me. My family must know or the same will happen. Thank you.
From Li.
    Danny takes the page and then points through the gap in the rocks to an athletic looking Chinese girl who is pretending not to notice me as she plays chess with a friend. ‘Li has never
written in English before. It took her hours. She thinks she was poisoned by the chemical works upstream from her village.’
    I take the second of the sheets. The letters are fancy, with looped js and ys and little circles over every i. This time I don’t read it out loud.
    Alice, the war in my country must stop before it destroys the new generation who could build a different future. The Beach is torture, knowing my people suffer. If they know I was a pawn, it
could be stopped. And maybe I will escape too .
    ‘That’s from Olivier,’ Danny says. ‘He was one of the ruling elite in his home country in North Africa. He was killed to stoke civil war. Thousands die each week, he
says. Don’t tell him I said this, but I think it’s hopeless. The UN have been there for twenty years and it’s made no difference.’
    Suddenly the letter feels red hot, burning my fingers. ‘They’re all like this?’
    Danny sighs. ‘After Triti disappeared, people thought it might have been a one-off. But since Gretchen left the Beach . . .’
    ‘I told you, that wasn’t down to me!’
    He raises his eyebrows. ‘ I know that. But they don’t believe it.’
    I look away. ‘Can’t they see I’ve had no new gifts? Nothing’s changed on the Beach,