"I am so looking forward to tomorrow.” Madeleine excitedly chirped, toting her overpacked backpack down the side of the school. I eagerly nodded my head in agreement.

Tomorrow was the ceremony that Madeleine and I had anticipated the entire year. Myrian Academy, the institution we attended, held a special ceremony on the last day of our school year to celebrate how well we did on the final examinations. It was so refreshing to see everyone happy and not stressed like how we were before we finished our examinations. I remember the feeling of a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders when I got my marks back- all perfect marks, of course. It’s quite inevitable to avoid getting exemplary grades, as Madeleine and I were one of the brightest.

Of course, Madeleine and I were quintessential students- we always maintained our high rank on the nonexistent hierarchy that existed in our school. We spent much time preparing for our assessments and evaluations, never ceasing to disappoint our professors. Unfortunately, that resulted in a lack of relaxation and, well, happiness for us, as well as many of the other students at Myrian. Purely, that was why we were heading to the beach now- it would calm our nerves, that was for sure.

Madeleine and I spend the rest of our journey to the beach talking and laughing, joking about how we were nervously fretting about during the examination time. I always joked about her face turning bright red when she got nervous, as she was very pale. I, on the other hand, was tanned- with my dark brown hair and even darker eyes, people always thought I was a Latina and not a Canadian. Madeleine was of Irish descent, and you could tell by her red hair and the freckles speckled across her face. Madeleine was adventurous, while I was more on the calm side. I kept to myself most of the time, because I don’t trust most people. That’s how my parents taught me to act.

Once we arrived at the beach, we set our belongings down in a secluded area, and took off our clothes, leaving us in our swimsuits.

“I’m going to beat you!” I shouted at Madeleine, racing her to the crossroad of where the water meets the sand.

“Beatrice, don’t you dare!” Madeleine responds back, kicking her sandals off and closely trailing me into the sea.

I took a straight dive into the water, Madeleine jumping in right after me. She splashed me, saltwater filling my eyes and nose. I choked, expectorating the salty water from my lungs.

“You look like you’re drowning, ha-ha.” Madeleine teased me, laughing.

Ironic, huh?

My mouth opens, ready to give a response, when I stop. Suddenly, everything became eerily quiet. Madeleine noticed it too, and we both grew still.

However, the silence was broken by a deafening boom. Madeleine and I immediately knew what it was: a super wave. In the last century, we have depleted more than half of Earth’s remaining natural resources, and we are rapidly continuing. As a result, Mother Nature has become ever the more destructive, and our government consistently warns us to watch out for the signs of an unusually severe occurrence, such as a super wave, a super tornado, a super thunderstorm, etc. Madeleine and I never heeded any of their warnings, because we never experienced any of the superstorms. We thought that we were safe.

It’s funny looking back at how wrong we were.

“Get out, Madeleine! Go!” I shout.

Madeleine, panic-stricken, frantically paddled to the shores. We had always been top-notch swimmers, so I had no trouble swimming to the shore. When I washed up at the shore, I looked up, and was horrified by the twisted, gray sky and the monstrous wave that I was in the presence of. My heart beating rapidly, I slowly get up, feeling dizzy and light-headed. That’s when I realized something. Madeleine. She was gone. Where was she?

I screamed for Madeleine until my throat felt drier than the Sahara Desert, but I got no answer. I didn’t know what to do. Hours later, the sky returned to its normal blue, and the sea returned to its normal calm state, but I was still sitting on the beach, waiting for Madeleine to come running up to me and calling my name. But she never did.

Reality hit me harder than a semi-truck the next day. I couldn’t bear to go to school and see all of Madeleine’s former friends. I couldn’t.

My parents had always been somewhat of emotionless people, but even they were stricken with grief when I relayed the news to them, breaking into sobs midway. The worst part was conveying the news to Madeleine’s family. Madeleine’s mom went into a state of shock and was immediately emitted into the hospital, and Madeleine’s sisters cried and cried for hours. I felt so bad, even though I knew it wasn’t my fault. The worst reaction was Madeleine’s dad. He just stood there, staring at me as if I was the one who murdered his daughter. I couldn’t help it- I ran out of their house in tears.

Then I remembered- my 18th birthday was in a week. Our government implemented a policy that when on a person’s 18th birthday, they can choose to resurrect one person when they fill out all the proper identification forms and the body is in proper (or workable, for that matter) condition.

 However, there was one thing about that policy- if the person who you resurrect finds out that they were resurrected, then they will die the same way they did before. I knew Madeleine was especially inquisitive, and she knew when I hid things from her, but I didn’t care- I had to save Madeleine, even if it meant losing her again.

“I promise, she will never find out, Mom. I promise.” I begged my mom, who was being indecisive at the moment.

“Beatrice, I-” My mom stopped mid-sentence, trying to maintain her voice at a steady level. “Okay,” she sighed, “go fill out the forms.”

The next few days were a blur. I filled out the forms, and it took about three days for them to actually approve of it. Once they did, they scavenged the sea for Madeleine’s body and eventually found it, buried in the sand in the depths of the ocean. Even though her body had already started decomposing, it was still in a workable state. The examiners took her body into the operating room. The entire procedure took about two days. Coincidentally, she was ready on the day of my birthday.

I remember waiting outside the operating room. Saying that I was anxious was an understatement- I was a nervous wreck.

Then she walked out.

Doctors were guiding her and holding her by the hand, but she looked like how she always did- independent, strong, and well, Madeleine. Her mom yelped and pulled Madeleine into her arms, her dad and sisters soon following. Her parents never thanked me for using my resurrection on her, but I wasn’t surprised. I knew they blamed me for what happened to Madeleine.

Madeleine never took her eyes off me. She hugged me last.

“How was your leg surgery?” I asked her. They told Madeleine that she just came out of leg surgery, and we all had to go along with it in order to keep her from finding out what really happened to her.

“It went well.” She smiled. She smelled like chemicals, along with the damp, ocean smell. I cringed at the thought of the sight of her body before they performed the operation on her.

“Great.” I beamed.

No one knew that she was resurrected except for us and the government. Our government kept tabs of everyone who gets resurrected, so they were up-to-date with all of the information. People at school noticed that Madeleine seemed a little different, but I don’t think any of them were suspicious. Even if they were, it’s not like resurrections weren’t common- I've had friends who were resurrected. Unfortunately, most people who get resurrected don’t survive for very long because they eventually find out they were resurrected. That was what my parents were worried about when I was in the process of making the decision to resurrect her.

Weeks later, I invited Madeleine over to my house so we can study for an upcoming test. We always studied together because that was when we got the best marks.

After we were finished studying, Madeleine and I sat down and talked for a little bit.

She laughs. “Gosh, I’m so bored. We should go to the beach or something.”

I tensed up. I forgot that the incident was erased from Madeleine’s head- she remembers everything that happened in her life except for the way she previously died.

“Um, I don’t really feel like it. Why don’t I go grab us some drinks?” I got up and bolted out of the room before she could respond.

I went to my fridge and pulled out two waters, and then quickly trotted back upstairs. My heart dropped when I saw Madeleine.

She was holding the forms that I filled out in order to resurrect her.

Oh no. I thought. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. She found it.

“Beatrice.” Her voice quavered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” I tried to play dumb, but I couldn’t fool Madeleine.

“Why didn’t you tell me that I died?”

“I-” I stopped. Madeleine’s eyes suddenly turned wild- her pupils dilated, and her face became a sickish green. That thing- it was taking over her. When a person finds out that they were resurrected, some chemical takes over them, causing them to become rash and violent. Ultimately, the same fate happens to them again because of the way our government wants to ‘punish’ them. Our government is based on secrecy- they say that if you can’t keep the secret that you resurrected someone, then the person you resurrected must die the same way they did before. I hated our government, but Madeleine respected it. We were polar opposites in some ways, but identical twins in others.

“Madeleine?!” I couldn’t believe it- it was happening again. Madeleine was going to die- again.

Madeleine shoved me and made her way to my bedroom door.

“Where are you going?!” I shouted but got no response.

I grabbed onto her leg. She shook me off.

“Let GO of me!” Madeleine growled.

“NO! Stop!”

Madeleine ignored me. She bolted out my door and started running faster than I have ever seen anyone run. I tried so hard to keep up with her, but I could see that I was rapidly falling behind. I didn’t care- adrenaline was pumping through me, and I knew I had to keep pushing in order to save my best friend.

I could see the beach’s clear, crystalline waters in sight, and Madeleine was not far behind.

She’s going to drown. I thought.

“Madeleine, please stop!” I screamed.

Madeleine stopped. I was shocked. Tears were rolling down her face.

“I’m sorry,” she looked at me, “but I can’t control it, Beatrice. If I don’t die this way, then our government is going to find some other way to kill me.”

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t do anything except to just stand still and listen to Madeleine.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered. And with that, she walked towards the ocean.

-

That was seven years ago.

I’m 25 years old now. I mourned her for a long time, but eventually, the government erased (or tried to, at least) her from my memory by injecting a serum into my head. It didn’t work, of course, because it must have been a defect of some sort. But Madeleine was erased from everyone else’s memory. As far as others know, she never existed.

I’m starting to suspect that the government knows that Madeleine is still etched into my memory, into my mere existence. I’ve been noticing that three distinct cars have been trailing me wherever I go- a red Ford Fusion, a white Nissan Sentra, and a black Honda Accord. 

I, for some reason, can never see the faces of the people who drive the cars though. I have tried multiple times to find out the drivers’ identities, but all of my attempts result in failures.

After Madeleine’s death, I’ve been questioning everything- more often than I did before. I valued little in life, and I learned that I should have valued the things that were important to me a little more. Madeleine’s death changed me. I was secretive then, but now, I talk to no one. I treat my parents like strangers. They don’t notice, of course, or even if they did, they don’t care. People who I talked to every day strayed away from me, careful about keeping their distance. I’m unphased by all of this, as I’m perfectly content with my situation.

Wait, actually, no- I'm not content. I’ve spent years trying to expose my government, trying to find out information about them that will let the public know who they really are. I haven’t succeeded. Several times, I’ve wanted to give up, stop, and continue with the normal life I once had. I wanted to go back to the days where I was a top student in class, where my friends and I joked and laughed about the exams, where I was, well, happy.

But the normal life I once had was with Madeleine, and that will never happen again.