Stripped bare, the wind at their naked backs, the two girls peered downwards - past the cliff face, past the edge of the rock and into the sea below. The grey ocean crashed and swelled with great ceremony, its roar echoing into nothingness beneath a sky that threatened to open at any moment.

Jump rock, as it had always been known, was a rocky outcrop that jutted out from the headland into a deep, dark pool. On a clear day, it was easy to make out the submerged rocks that lay kept sentry below; now, they were obscured beneath the roaring tide, covered over by whitewash.

Yesterday this leap of faith had all seemed like a great idea, as such things usually do when you’re young and have the world at your feet. To face their fears together as sisters, to be brave and to overcome everything that had transpired over the last month - the last year - and shaken them both to their foundations.

Now, they weren’t so sure. The younger of the two were girls looked around; she felt a sudden unease at being so exposed, but thankfully, the headland around them was deserted save for the two of them.

“Tammy, I’m scared….”, she said, taking a backwards step. “It’s a lot higher from up here…”

“Yeah…well…we can’t chicken out now Kayla. We both agreed - after mom went, we’d jump, ‘member? together, like we said we promised.”

Kayla looked upwards as the sky began to rumble, as if searching the rapidly darkening clouds for something, anything - a sign, something to tell her that everything would be alright. The first raindrop fell on her face, cold and heavy; bare to the wind, she began to shiver, her hands now wrapped around herself. She wished she’d remembered to bring her swimsuit before the two of them had taken the moment upon themselves and rushed off, away from the quiet silence of home.

As she stared into oblivion, she knew her sister was right - if she backed out now, if she changed her mind and went home she’d never forgive herself, and she knew her mom wouldn’t either. Deep down, Kayla wished she was brave she had always been. She would have looked into the crashing waves and grinned, and she would have faced them the same boldness and spirit that had carried her through so much in her short life and kept her going even in the hardest days.

“Come on Kayla, I can’t do it by myself…” said Tammy, her voice slipping beneath the roar from below. For the first time, Kayla realized her sister was scared too, even if she didn’t show it. Then again, she’d always been braver. She peered downwards once more, and regretted it immediately as her head began to spin.

“It’ll be OK. We just have to jump right out, past the rocks - if we both get a run up we’ll land in the right spot. On three.”

Kayla gulped in quiet resignation as the sea below jeered and thrashed, spurring them on.

“One…”

Before Kayla was ready, her sister grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the cliff face. She could feel the loose rocks beneath her feet, sharp and hard as the edge approached.

“Two…”

There was no way out now; nothing but the past and shared grief above and cold white oblivion below. Tammy nodded slowly in her sister’s direction, and then they jumped.

“Three!”

The world around them seemed to hang for the briefest of moments, before dropping away entirely beneath them.

The water below rushed upwards with a quickness; the two girls slammed into it feet-first with force, the cold whitewash knocking the wind out of both of them and filling their mouths, their noses, invading all their senses and drowning eveyrthing in swirling white.

Kayla couldn’t breathe; she could no longer see or feel or hear, and in the whitewash she’d lost hold of her sisters hand. Panic rose in her chest as she began to fight, to struggle, buffeted by the waves. She was alone now, without her mother or her sister to help her.

Above her, the waves roared on, now a deafening cadence. The current was strong, far beyond her control, and she felt herself being pushed sideways, her ribs colliding with an unseen group of rocks, sharp and rough. She opened her mouth to cry out, and in doing so sucked in water; It burned and stung and ached, a kind of pain she’d never felt before, but through it all she knew she knew she needed to find her sister, to make sure she was OK. The problem was that she couldn’t seem to find the strength - her thoughts were clouded, as if they were somebody else’s echoing in her - her sister’s, her mother’s. Her body weak now; she could feel herself slipping downwards, but she didn’t quite know what to do about it.

Suddenly she felt herself being pulled upwards, something gripping her hair, almost pulling it out by the roots. With a sharp intake of breath she broke the surface of the water, gasping and coughing and spluttering with everything she had. She could see her sister’s face, grinning at her from above the waves.

“See? Told you it’d be OK.”

Kayla panted as the air returned to her body; the sky had opened now, rain stinging her face, but despite everything, for the first time in a long time she smiled. She couldn’t help but grin back at her sister, and the two of them began to whoop and cheer, alive again with long-forgotten exhilaration, the sound of their voices rising for the first time above the crashing waves, and above the noise and the pain and the grief and the uncertainty that had weighed so heavily on their young shoulders for so long now.

The two girls didn’t how proud of them their mother truly would have been; as sisters, and for facing their fears together.