“Okay, so I was swimming just out there,” I said, pointing out to sea. “Maybe like twenty yards out, and I thought I felt seaweed, and then the next thing I knew, the damn thing had grabbed my leg.”
“Where did you see the thing once you were out of the water?” Jodi asked.
“Probably about the same ways off, like twenty yards or so.”
“Maybe that’s as far in as they can swim,” she said, and I found myself nodding in agreement.
“Maybe. I wonder, though, how they called to the kid if the mom didn’t hear them,” I said.
“Maybe he was in the water. You said the mom couldn’t swim; maybe he was in the shallows and she just couldn’t hear them,” Steven offered.
“Yeah,” Jodi said, her eyes lighting up as she continued to stare out to sea. “Maybe you have to actually be in the water to hear them.”
“That would be an interesting theory to test,” I said. I felt Steven’s hand tense in mine and my stomach curled up against my spine as if I hadn’t eaten in days. He was on the verge of being sick at just the thought of having to go into the water. “Steven, you’re not going into the water, calm down,” I whispered to him, waiting until he calmed down enough to ease both our stomachs.
“No, you can wait out here on the rocks, and Shay and I can go into the water and see what happens,” Jodi said, already reaching down to take off her flip-flops.
“Why both of you?” Steven asked, his voice still a little strained.
“Because two heads and two sets of ears are better than one,” Jodi answered, handing her shoes to Steven as I let go of his hand to take off my own pair. We were both wearing shorts, so we didn’t need to worry about getting anything else wet as we waded out to the shore, stopping when we were knee-deep.
“Feel anything?” I asked Jodi, but kept my gaze out on the water.
“No,” she said, and I could hear the disappointment in her voice.
“I didn’t feel anything different when I was in the water earlier, so that may mean nothing.” Jodi nodded, but I could see by the look in her eye she was already thinking of another idea.
“I think we need Steven to come out and try,” Jodi said, turning to look at me.
“Because he’s a guy,” I said, closing my eyes and shaking my head. As soon as she suggested it, I knew why. I hadn’t heard anything earlier, but the little boy claimed he had. Maybe only men could hear their call, in which case we might be dealing with sirens. “Okay, let’s see if we can get him to come out.”
We walked back up the beach, the sand creating a crust around our feet and finding purchase in between our toes as we walked. I saw that Steven had climbed half way up the rocks to sit down; I knew it was a subconscious effort to get as far away from the water as possible while still being able to watch us.
“Well?” Steven called out to us as we neared the rocks, but made no move to come down.
“Nothing,” Jodi said, reaching up and starting to crawl up to him. I stayed down on the sand, Steven’s feet just in reaching distance from where I was standing.
“We had a thought though,” I said, prompting Jodi as she sat next to him.
“Why do I think I’m not going to like this thought?” Steven asked, looking back and forth between Jodi and me, as if afraid to take his eyes off either of us for more than a second.
“Steven,” Jodi said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“No! Absolutely not!” Steven said a little too loudly. We didn’t even have to tell him our idea. After this past year, the three of us had been through so many things that had made our powers grow exponentially that oftentimes we could just read each other well enough that it was like speaking mind to mind. In fact, we could speak mind to mind, but we almost always had to be in physical contact with each other for it to work, and that was a conscious effort.
“Steven,” I said calmly, bringing his attention to me. “You don’t have to go deep, you just have to go out far enough so your feet stay underwater. That’s it.”
“But why, why do you think I can do something the two of you can’t?” he asked, his voice growing more and more shrill.
“Because you’re a guy. The little boy said he heard them and Shay says she didn’t. You’re the only guy in our little group right now to test our theory,” Jodi explained slowly, but I could see the knuckles on her hand that was on Steven’s shoulder had gone white and I realized she was holding him there, keeping him from running.
“Why don’t we call Jensen? He’s a guy, he’ll come down,” Steven offered quickly and it pained me to hear the fear in his voice, but I knew we couldn’t enable his fears; otherwise they would just continue to get worse.
“Because you’re here right now,” I said, reaching forward and grabbing a hold of his ankle and giving him a tug just as Jodi put her hand on his back.
“It’s not that big of a deal, now get down there,” Jodi said, pushing Steven, who reluctantly began to crab crawl down the rocks until he was standing next to me. I linked my arm through one of his as soon as he had his balance and held him fast to my side.
“We’re not going to make you go out by yourself, okay, sweetie?” I said gently, watching his face as I opened the channel between us again. His face was definitely paler than normal, but after he licked his lips and swallowed, he nodded once and took a step forward. I walked him out to the shoreline, where he stopped and I let him, not wanting to rush him, knowing just how great his fear really was. After a few silent moments, he nodded again and took a step onto the soft, wet sand that molds around your feet as you walk.
“Drake?” Jodi whispered Steven’s elemental name, touching her hand to his shoulder again. His eyes were wide and sweat had broken out over his top lip, but he wasn’t shaking, and I took that for a good sign.
“I don’t hear anything,” he whispered, licking his lips again.
“Do you feel anything?” I asked, watching his face. He shook his head in answer.
“Terra,” Jodi called my attention with my elemental name and I looked past Steven at her. She nodded her head once. She wanted me to let go of Steven, and I knew she was right in her thinking. Carefully, I relaxed my grip on Steven’s arm and started to slide my arm free of his.
“What are you doing?” Steven asked, his voice coming back to him, and he clutched at my arm.
“Drake,” I said, invoking power into my voice, willing him to have courage. “I need to let go; I need you to stand here without touching female energy.” I felt the power surge between us and my voice echo with power as he stared desperately at me, but I could feel he understood. He may not like it, but he understood. He held on for a few more moments, taking the courage that my magic offered him before he let go of my arm. His hands were trembling, but he turned away from me and balled them into fists at his side.
He was silent for a few moments as Jodi and I watched him. I could still feel the anxiety swirling in his stomach and ached with the need to reach out and soothe him, but it wouldn’t be long before I could lead him out of the water. Suddenly the anxiety was gone. I nearly stumbled, it was so unexpected, but no other emotion filled the void from Steven; he just wasn’t scared anymore. Just as I opened my mouth to ask Steven what had changed, he took a step forward. Jodi and I both were so shocked it took us both a moment to recover before we reached out and grabbed Steven by an arm. I realized then he had been able to take three more steps away from us.
“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to look at Steven’s face. His eyes were still wide, but had a glassed over look, as if he were in a trance. For a few more moments he didn’t seem to be aware of our presence or our weight, holding him back, as he kept trying to walk forward despite all our efforts.
“Steven!” Jodi yelled, very close to his face as she drove her heels into the sliding sand under us. I gripped his arm tighter and called up the energy from the Earth beneath me and gave a small but firm push of power into Steven, much like a slap in the face. He stopped short, blinki
ng and shaking his head.
“Drake?” I asked carefully, still watching his face, but not letting up on my grip on his arm.
“Get me out of the water,” he whispered urgently. Jodi and I turned him around quickly and guided him out of the water until our feet were back on soft, warm sand where Steven fell to his knees, bringing us down with him. He buried his fingers in the dry sand, clutching it in his fists, and I felt a prickle of power crawl up my arm that was still holding onto him, and I realized he was drawing the heat of the sun in the sand into himself.
“Drake?” Jodi whispered, leaning close to his face. I caught her eye and shook my head at her, telling her silently to give him more time before we pressed him for answers. The worry in her face was obvious, but she nodded and kept quiet. Finally, after a few minutes, the prickle of energy receded and I knew Steven was finally calming down. He sat back on his heels and looked up at the sky. He was probably the only person I knew who could look up into a bright blue sky and not squint against it. The light of the sun made his dark brown eyes shine with trapped fire.
“They don’t just call to you,” he said in a hushed voice, not looking at either of us. “They pull you to them, like they’ve reached inside and found a part of you and make you long to go to them.”
“Could you hear them as if they were calling to you?” Jodi asked.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, but still looking up into the sky, letting the sun’s rays warm his face. “Nothing like that.”
“Maybe it’s different since he’s not a child,” I said, looking to Jodi who nodded.
“Yeah, maybe,” Steven said, finally blinking and lowering his face, turning to look at me. “I just knew I really wanted to go to them.”
“Was it desire?” I asked carefully, worried about the answer. Steven was gay and these things had a very feminine energy to them, and if they could make Steven desire them, then we’d have a very powerful problem to deal with.
“No, no,” Steven said, reading my surface thoughts easily since I was still holding on to him. “No, it just seemed like it was the most important thing in the world to me to get to them, or it, I guess. I don’t really know how many or few were pulling at me.”
“So, it is just guys then,” Jodi said, sitting back on her heels like Steven, letting go of his arm and putting her hand on his back, running her nails in circles over it.
“Looks like,” I said, letting go of him as well and standing up. I turned and looked out at the sea, my hands on my hips.
“No idea what they wanted?” Jodi asked Steven. I looked down to see him shaking his head in answer.
“It can’t be anything good,” I said. “No person can swim out as far as they want them to without drowning.”
“Think that’s why they put the boy to sleep? To keep him from drowning?” Jodi asked.
“To what purpose though? Where were they taking him? And what where they going to do with him when they got there?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.
“Can we go?” Steven asked, looking up at me, and I had an image of a very young Steven, all chubby cheeks and dark curls, and for a moment my heart broke at the thought of what we just put him through. I reached down for his hand and helped him up. We walked back to the parking lot, only having Steven tense up for the moment it took us to cross through the small waterway that connected the river to the ocean. I got us into the car and out of the parking lot without another word, trying to give Steven some time to compose himself.
I was driving blindly at this point, not too sure where to go from here, but wasn’t entirely surprised when I found myself turning into the parking lot of the bookstore. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find here that I couldn’t find at Deb’s shop, but at the very least I could buy us all a nice strong coffee to ease our nerves and feel like I was doing something productive, rather than just staring aimlessly at the ocean that was once a place of sanctuary for me and now was polluted with dangers that were as yet unknown.
Chapter Three
“Mother Goose, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and Hans Christian Andersen?” Jodi looked up at me as I set the books down on the table she and Steven had taken in the coffee shop area of the bookstore.
“Yeah,” I said, pulling a chair out with my foot and sitting down, opening the copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. “We grabbed everything Deb had on water myths. Might as well check these out too.”
“But they’re fairy tales,” Jodi said skeptically.
“Right,” I said, skimming through the table of contents looking for anything to do with water or creatures in water.
“So you think maybe one of those stories might be true?” Steven asked, sipping his iced chai.
“Most fairy tales are based on some belief the people held at the time it was written, so why not?” I asked, giving up on Grimm’s Fairy Tales and pulling Mother Goose over to me. Jodi’s cell phone rang then, and she turned in her chair to talk away from us. I could tell she was talking to her long-time boyfriend, Jay. As I skimmed through the glossary in the Mother Goose book, Jodi chatted away and Steven opened the Hans Christian Andersen that had been pushed in front of him.
“Hey, I didn’t know he wrote The Little Mermaid,” Steven said, looking up at me.
“Where’d you think Disney got most of their stories from?” I said, smiling at him. He pursed his lips and nodded. He flipped the pages until he found the story, and I scooted my chair around to his side so that I could read it too. I skimmed the pages quickly, finding that the animated movie followed the story very closely, you know, except for the singing crab and all. The description of the sea witch was also much more graphic, and Disney had glossed over the part about the pain the mermaid would suffer through getting her human legs.
But the most interesting change was what the mermaid had to accomplish to keep her human legs and stay on land with her prince: she had to make him fall in love with her so that he would share his immortal soul with her. It said mermaids weren’t born with souls, just an abnormally long lifespan.
“Wow, what a jerk!” Steven said as we reached the part of the story where the prince tells the little mermaid that he would love her if only she were the girl who had found him on the beach.
“Yeah,” I said distractedly, rereading the description of the mermaid needing to have a person share his soul with her to become immortal. “I’ve never heard of that,” I said, pointing to the passage.
“Creepy, right?” Steven said, sitting back in his chair and swirling the melting ice in his cup.
“What’s creepy?” Jodi asked, closing her phone and sliding it back into her purse.
“The Little Mermaid,” Steven said casually.
“How is The Little Mermaid creepy?”
“Because she’s trying to get the prince to fall in love with her so she can share his soul.”
“What? I don’t remember that part in the movie,” Jodi said, reaching for the book.
“Well,” I said, scooting my chair back over, “that’s a little much for Disney’s G-rating.”
“Huh, well, that’s interesting,” Jodi said, skimming over the page where we’d left the book open. “Wonder where he got that idea from.”
“Which part?” I asked, eager to hear their thoughts on the story.
“The whole living three hundred years, but being born without a soul,” Jodi said.
“I guess that’s the whole soul mate idea, isn’t it? Like there’s one person out there who’s your other half, all that sappy crap,” I said, reaching for my drink.
“Still think it’s creepy,” Steven muttered, sipping his drink.
“It is weird that he wrote a story about a half-human creature and said they didn’t have a soul; never heard that before,” I said.
“That’s what I meant. How’d he come up with that?” Jodi repeated, and I shook my head.
“Something to keep in mind,” I said.
“What? You mean for those things?” Steven said, setting down his
cup a little too quickly, making some of the liquid slosh out and down the side onto his fingers.
“Why not? We have no idea what we’re dealing with here,” I said, shrugging.
“You think they’re going after men for their souls like in the fairy tale?” Jodi asked, furrowing her brow at me, and I shrugged again. “Yeah, I guess I can see the similarities. Too bad it doesn’t seem like they’re hoping for true love.”
“After grabbing a five year old, doubtful,” I said.
“Wonder why they grabbed you though,” Jodi said.
“Good point, especially since I couldn’t feel their call like Steven did.” I looked at Steven who seemed to be avoiding eye contact. “You okay?” I asked, putting a hand on his knee under the table.
“Yeah, just still a little freaked over that whole thing.” He shivered then, shaking out his hands as if trying to shake off the chill of water.
“So why do you think that thing grabbed you if they’re after men?” Jodi asked.
“Maybe just because I got too close to it? Easy pickings, maybe? Maybe they can’t call to women like they can men, but if we get close enough, it wouldn’t stop them from grabbing us,” I said.
“Okay, well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to be a teenager, if only for a couple of hours,” Jodi said, packing up her purse and slinging it over her shoulder.
“Jay want to go out?” I asked as she stood up.
“Yep, let’s go.”
I drove Jodi home first before taking Steven back to my house to pick up his car. I went inside and checked in with my parents before calling Jensen. We hadn’t seen each other in a few days and he had been calling.
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