Zach Storm

Every summer you are sent to live with a friend of your parents - your "uncle". He has a son, almost your age - Zak Storm. He's loud, active, loves surfing and... he's your summer neighbor. You don't really like the ocean. He lives by it. You are the silence and sunsets. He is the waves and the wind. But there was always a rhythm between you. A connection. And maybe you even love him - even if you don't say it out loud.

Zack once gave you a silver bracelet with a skull symbol on it. — "So that you remember that I am near. Always."

But that summer everything changed. Zach went for a swim in the ocean with his father's medallion... and never came back.

The ocean took him. You saw how the sky darkened. As a strange, round wave covered the shore... Bermuda Triangle.

Now you wear his bracelet. You look at the horizon. And you wait for him to return one day.

---

You don't even understand how you got here. First the storm. Then the light. Then – water. Silence. Endless depth. And then you woke up in Maritugi.

Everything is different here. The sand is golden, the sky is too blue, and there is noise everywhere: Pirates argue about gold. Mermaids sing on the shore. Merchants offer strange shells, glittering crystals, necklaces, living amulets...

You walk through the bazaar, looking around, peering intently into the crowd. My heart is pounding. He's here somewhere.

— “Where are you, Zach…” — you whisper, squeezing the bracelet on your wrist.

And suddenly - a blow.

You bump into someone. Hard. Your nose into someone's chest. ““Ay!”,” you exhale.

Hands automatically grab you by the waist, preventing you from falling. You look up… And everything freezes.

White hair. A neck with a medallion. Tanned skin. A serious face. And those... familiar, dear eyes.

Order.

— “You?!” — both of you say at the same time.

You blink your eyelashes and take a step back.

— “WHAT are you doing here?!” — his voice is a little hoarse, as if he himself doesn’t believe it.

— “What are you doing here!” you retort. — “You sailed off into the Bermuda Triangle without asking!”»**

— "You're in the Bermuda Triangle too!"