Micah turned his head toward me. With what took a visible amount of effort, he said, "You…" and then he passed out.
I looked over my shoulder. With Shawn behind me I couldn’t tell who the ‘you’ was directed at, or what Micah even meant by it. Susan and Alex began checking his vitals.
Alex finally announced, "I think he is okay. He is just exhausted. He may not wake up for a while, but that is for the better. He needs to rest."
Susan nodded her head, blinking away the tears forming in her eyes. "Right. Let’s get him back to my place. I can hook him up to an IV there, just in case."
Alex got the boat underway. I sat on the deck with Micah’s head in my lap. Susan checked on him frequently, but never said a word to me. She didn’t even look at me.
Shawn leaned on the railing nearby, looking me over. "You really screwed up this time."
I shot him an icy look at him, but didn’t say anything. Susan was close enough to hear us, and did not come to my defense. I could only assume she agreed with Shawn. In a short span of only a few minutes, I had suddenly become the outsider. I was an outcast, just like at the Chakra. Only this time, I managed to put my only ally out of commission.
Once docked, Alex ran to hail a taxi and Shawn hoisted Micah up over his shoulder. I followed them off the boat and down the pier, watching Micah's dirty boots bounce in front of me.
Susan stopped me before we got into the taxi. "Maybe it would be best if you waited at the hotel. I’ll send word when it is safe to come and visit."
"I have to make sure—"
She raised her voice. "You can’t. Just...go to the hotel, Kaitlyn."
I was in no shape to challenge Susan. Once assured I would obey, she turned around and got in the taxi with Shawn and Micah. Alex stayed behind with me. He glanced at me before looking away again quickly. "I need to go turn in the paperwork for the boat. You can come with me, then we can go to the hotel together."
"No. I’ll just go to the hotel now."
Alex nodded his head without argument. I watched him walk away. When he was out of site I hailed my own taxi.
By the time I got back to the suite, it was mid-afternoon. Without thinking, I entered Micah’s room, and quickly curled up on his bed. I flung the large comforter over my head, cocooning myself in. I breathed in Micah’s scent and did the best thing one could do to pass the time; I slept.
Chapter 28
Girls Night Out
I slowly stretched, loosening tight muscles that had been in the fetal position too long, and pulled the blankets from my head. Darkness engulfed the entire suite and the clock confirmed the late hour; 11:36 pm. I got up to use Micah’s bathroom, purposefully avoiding my refection in the mirror. Walking back into the room, I looked at the crumpled sheets on the bed, debating if I should get back in or get something to eat. The suite’s doorbell rang.
I walked over to the door, hesitated, and looked through the peephole before opening it. If it was Shawn, I definitely wasn’t going to open the door. If it was Alex, I would make an excuse to get rid of him. It turned out to be neither – it was Susan. Oh, man. I didn’t know if I was up for the cat fight that might ensue. I looked again. She held a large bag from the café downstairs up next to her face and smiled. Ok – a peace offering. I opened the door.
She looked as beautiful as ever, especially, no doubt, in comparison to me. She held up the bag. "Peanut butter sandwich and chocolate chip cookies. The perfect end to a bad day."
I managed a weak smile, and motioned for her to come in.
She sat down on the sofa and began unloading the bag, setting everything out on the coffee table, even producing paper plates and napkins. Once everything was set up, we both just sat and stared at the food.
I broke the ice, "They didn't have tuna tonight?"
She shook her head, "Sorry – I don't do tuna. Too much international overfishing."
"Right. What about Sangria?" I was kidding, but looked hopefully at the bag anyway.
Susan laughed. "No, although it could be arranged… but first things first. Micah’s fine – he’s still sleeping and probably will be until well into tomorrow, but all his vitals are good. We had a doctor come check him out."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Can I see him now?"
"Yes, but first I want to talk about what happened today."
"Listen, I don’t know what happened." I resisted the urge to throw my hands in the air. "I didn’t take anything from Micah that he didn’t willingly send me. All of the sudden there was just this, surge. And it felt different. It was still Micah’s energy but something was wrong – I don’t think he meant to send it."
Susan held up her hand to stop my defense. "I believe you. I don’t want you to think I’m upset with you, I’ve just been worried about Micah. You have to understand we’re the only family each other has. But, that surge obviously caught you by surprise. I remember stopping you from going overboard."
I leaned forward, "But did you feel anything different when it came?"
"My powers only involve water. I can’t sense anything that goes on outside of it."
"Well, like I said, something wasn’t right." I rubbed at my temples. "It was all a little too much to handle at once anyway, with Micah and Shawn both interfering. I really think I could have done fine on my own."
Susan nodded her head. "Shawn and I were talking about it, and we came to the conclusion that it might be worth a shot to try it out again tonight, just the two of us, you and me. If you are up to it."
I was not entirely sure why Shawn would agree to that, seeing as how he thought I couldn’t do it without his help. Maybe he thought I would find out on my own that I wasn’t strong enough without him. Well, I was up for the challenge. If Susan and I were successful on our own, that would halfway make up for what a happened earlier today.
"Let’s do it." I stood and headed for the door, food untouched.
Susan followed closely.
I almost ran her down when I turned suddenly. "Wait, let me just get something." I ran to my bathroom and put on the butterfly necklace Micah had given me, taking a second to improve my appearance. Running the brush through my hair, I began to think how awkward this felt, Susan and I going out together, not telling anyone where we were going. What if something were to go wrong?
I walked back out to see Susan standing by the door. "Do you think we should leave a note?"
She considered it. "I’ll just give Shawn a call on his cell and let him know. Alex wasn’t in his room when I came up. Maybe he was going to my place."
* * *
Stepping out of the cab at the docks, Susan explained, "This particular pier leads out pretty far into the ocean. We should be able to find phytoplankton. They are usually present all throughout; it’s just a matter of locating a big enough concentration to produce results. I think I might be able to sense them on my own."
We walked to the end of the pier, taking a minute to look out into the inky, black ocean. A chill went down my spine. I had to remind myself that the ocean was Susan's world. If anything happened she should be able to protect us. Somehow. I inched a little closer to her and noticed she was doing the same.
"The only problem with doing this now is krill will feed on the phytoplankton at night," Susan said, quieter now. "So we need to keep them away until we are done. I can do that, but I won’t be able to give you the same tunnel I did earlier. You shouldn’t need it, though. The ground is a lot closer here."
"All right, let’s give this a shot." I took a deep breath. It was now or never. I felt her send out a strong signal, but couldn’t sense much of a change in the ocean.
"There are phytoplankton here. Not many, but we can still make this work."
I took her word for it and began to send out my own signal. Again, I used energy from within in order to keep it as pure as possible. It would be easier to heat the sulphate that way. The search was much more efficient this time; I was able to widen the area to dozens of square feet. I found m
any small pockets of sulphate, and discussed them with Susan, but since we had plenty of time and stamina we decided to find a larger concentration. After about half an hour of searching, I found what I was looking for, deposited a few feet under the sandy seabed amongst a group of rocks. It was hundreds of feet out, so my senses were distorted. However, there was no mistaking either the saline or the crystal qualities of the stash.
"I think I found some," I reported, voice a little high from my excitement. "Now let me just make sure…" I narrowed and strengthened the energy stream to heat the sulphate. It took longer through the water, but eventually I began to feel the crystal part of the granules disintegrate. "Yes, that’s definitely it."
"Okay, stay with it. Bring it up toward the surface. I’m going to take it from you and drag it closer to us." She kept her voice calm.
I did as instructed. It was difficult keeping the sulphate together through the currents. I lost some of it along the way. Waiting to find a larger concentration of it had been a very good idea.
"Steady, steady." Susan must have sensed the group getting smaller and smaller. "I’m going to take it from you now. Once you feel me, let go of it. Slowly."
I waited, wondering how I would know she had it. But she was right, I felt it. A small shock passed between our flows of power, almost like static electricity. Our streams wavered back from each other. I lost more of the sulphate.
"Try again, slowly…" Susan coaxed me through it.
The second time we tried there was still a shock, but it was expected and our power flows didn’t react. I felt a small, fluid circle of power surround the sulphate, and I released my stream.
"Good," Susan said, falling silent for at most a few seconds. "Okay – it is just a few yards in front of us now."
"That was fast."
"I’m used to working in the water," she smiled.
I sent out a signal once again and found it. It was the same amount of sulphate as when I let go. She hadn’t lost a single granule.
"Okay, take it back from me. Try to encircle it like I just did. Make the circle long but almost flat, like a plate just below the surface of the water."
We passed it off again with ease this time; we were getting good at it. It took a while to shape the sulphate as Susan described, and she mentored me along the way. Once done, she exclaimed, "Perfect! Now hold it just like that. I am going to sort of encourage the phytoplankton to absorb the nutrients."
I held fast. Something must have been happening, Susan’s face went from a look of deep concentration, to excitement, to disappointment, then back to concentration.
Another half hour went by and just as I began to feel the first effects of fatigue, she whispered, "It’s working."
"It is?"
"It is. They’re taking the nutrients. Can’t you sense the sulphate disappearing?"
I paid more attention, and did feel the mass start to dwindle. It was so slight that I wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t said anything. "Yes! I do feel it!"
"Keep holding it, if you can. Let’s let the phytoplankton finish off the iron sulphate," Susan nearly cooed, like they were a pet of hers, or worse, a child. We both sat down and even though we were tired, as the iron sulphate dwindled off it got easier to hold what was left. It had to have been approaching four in the morning by the time all of the sulphate was gone. Just as the last of it disappeared, the tide started to recede, noticeably.
"That was a fast tide," I said.
"That was an unnatural tide." Susan stood, suddenly alert, looking out into the ocean.
The chills on my spine were back. The world darkened even further. I looked up to see the moon disappear.
It didn't have time to register. Not until Susan screamed, "Wave!"
We ran, but we were no match for it. The cold water crashed into me like a freight train. My feet slipped out from under me. My head hit the pier, hard.
I choked up the salty ocean water, the taste clinging to my tongue. I turned around to search for Susan – she was nowhere in sight. The wave must have washed her off the pier.
"Susan?!"
She’ll be fine, I told myself. She can handle the water.
I heard the next wave before I saw it. I froze. I did the only thing I could do in preparation. I took a deep breath in, and hoped it wasn’t my last.
Chapter 29
Perro Gaurdian
Silence and darkness. I slowly, hesitantly, became conscious. Separated from my senses, I concentrated on recovering them. My limbs felt weighted and not just from the humidity. I was drained.
One at a time, I coaxed myself.
Sound came to me. There was a soft wind rustling through trees and grass nearby. Taste came next, something salty but acidic. Now for the hard one; sight. After several more minutes of mental coaxing, I mustered the strength to open my eyes.
I half expected to be floating in the ocean, but I wasn’t. I was lying in a large soft bed, covered lightly in sheets. From the feel of them against my skin, I knew I was bare. Even the familiar weight of the butterfly necklace had been stripped. Netting draped down over the bed from a central loop anchored into the ceiling above. I strained my eyes further and focused beyond the netting. The room wasn’t much larger than the bed. Two expansive glass doors took up an entire wall on either side. The doors were pushed open, letting the wind pass through. It made the net flutter open and closed.
The ground outside the doors was covered in low-lying, lush, green vegetation. Sparsely placed trees blocked most of my view, but I could hear surf pounding against a rocky shore in the distance. It wasn't the same surf as Costa del Sol, or the island of Simuleue. Out one set of doors was a large generator and further back sat what looked like a large, old feeding trough. Out the other door was nothing but nature and several small, two-man tents dotting the landscape. Occasionally, wisps of conversation floated in with the wind.
Dama…barca…isla.
Men, without a doubt. Spanish, most likely. But a different Spanish than I had heard in Spain.
Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I cocked my head. A small, white and dark-gray penguin waddled into the room. A penguin? I blinked several times, willing my eyes to conjure something more believable. A dog, a monkey, hell – I would have even taken a tiger. In this humidity an exotic cat would have been more appropriate.
The penguin took a few more steps to the bed, looked up at me and squawked. Surprised that such a cute and tiny thing could make such a loud and annoying noise, I lifted my head and gasped. A sudden gust of strong wind came in from outside. It took hold of the glass doors and blew them in hard enough to shatter; tiny shards of glass flew toward me and the penguin.
The penguin, as startled as I was, jumped onto the bed and flailed its flippers irritably, squawking the whole time. I crawled backwards to the other side of the bed. My movements were weighted, as though I were in thick mud. Just as my gasp was met with a strong wind, my crawling was met with a slight rumble under me. The ground didn’t shake; it rolled, enough to toss me off the bed. I lay on the floor deathly still, fearing what another movement might bring. The vicious penguin now stood on the end of the bed, towering over me, still squawking.
I heard cautious footsteps enter the room, crunching glass under them. Suddenly, a squat, dark man with curly black hair poked his head into view. Another face appeared beside him, then another, and another. Soon I was surrounded by them.
Someone from the back of the group shouted, "El pingüino la paró."
The rest laughed and cheered.
One of them picked up the penguin and they started chanting, "Perro guardian, perro guardian".
The penguin looked down from its newly established pedestal and I could swear it was smirking at me. I had never wanted to kick an animal so badly in my life. I placed my hands flat on the floor in order to lift myself up, and the earth rumbled in warning. The men felt it too and their cheers turned to fearful gasps as they struggled to keep their balance.
I slowly laid my arms back down by my side.
"What’s going on?" a familiar voice interrupted. Shawn pushed his way through the group of men and stopped by my side. His scanned the scene. As his eyes passed over me, I realized I still had nothing on. I reached up to grab a sheet from the bed for protection, but Shawn stopped me.
"Don’t move," he commanded. "You’ll sink this island right out from under us."
I believed him.
After he was satisfied I would obey, he pulled a sheet off of the bed and flung it over me, barely covering the essentials. Turning to the group of men, he began giving orders in Spanish. They jumped into action, cleaning up the glass and disassembling what was left of the broken doors. The penguin was ushered out; giving one last squawk which I was sure was directed at me.
After the bed was made up and the netting put back in place, Shawn lifted me from the floor, taking no notice that the sheet slipped off, and laid me in the bed. He turned me to one side and started pulling out small slivers of glass that made their way into my back. I heard packages of Band-Aids being ripped open and discarded. After I was bandaged, he rolled me on my back and pulled the blanket up to my chin. The other men were finishing up their tasks and began filtering out.
"Now listen carefully," Shawn leaned over me. "We are on one of the most active islands in the world. This place contains things found nowhere else on Earth. Just as the Chakra gave you strength, these islands will drain you. If you’re here long enough, they will kill you. This place reacts to your every movement – it doesn’t want you here."
Moving my lips as little as possible, I asked, "Can I talk?"
Nothing happened, no wind and no earthquake.
He laughed, "Yes, although I wouldn’t try yelling."
"Galapagos?" I guessed the location.
"Smart lady. La Isla Isabel, to be exact. You are on the wild, remote, and forbidding northern end, home to the largest Marine Iguanas on the islands as well as the Galapagos Penguins, to which I see you’ve already been introduced." Shawn gestured outside to the penguin, now happily accepting fish from one of the men. "A new addition to our little tribe found yesterday snooping around the food supplies. I believe they have just named him dog, as in guard dog, in honor of your little incident."
Water Page 18
