Underwater

by Brooke Moss

  The sound of feet crossing the parking lot sent a wave of terror down my back, and I turned in my seat in time to spot Evey and Hayden approaching the car. Both were staring down at the pavement, their eyes wide and scared, and their hands were clasped together tightly. Their shoes crackled on the broken glass as they passed.

  “My window…” Hayden’s eyes flicked toward the woods, and he grit his teeth together.

  There was a shift in the woods next to the car, and every hair on the back of my neck stood upright. Hayden pulled open Evey’s door, and she dropped into her seat stiffly. “Where are they?” She demanded, turning around to face me.

  “Shhhhh!” I hissed through clenched teeth. My eyes rolled from Evey’s face to the woods, then back again. “They’re out there.”

  Hayden opened the driver’s-side door and climbed in. “What’s going on? Where did they take Saxon?”

  Evey and I both drowned out his words with a low “Shhhh!”

  “Hayden, start the car.” I spoke through a locked jaw.

  He fumbled in his pocket. “I can see one of them…by the tree.”

  Evey looked out the window and whimpered. “Where are the keys, Hay?”

  “They took Saxon to Cape Horn.” I talked as quietly as I could. I could scarcely hear my voice over the sound of my heart beating.

  “We can be there in twenty minutes.” He switched pockets. “How many Mer are in the brush?”

  “Two.” I released a shuddering breath. “Hayden, we have to split. Now.”

  There was an eerie crack and a shuffle as Darrow broke his way through the brush, taking several twigs off of a tree as he emerged. His lips pulled back into a silent snarl as he watched us.

  Gasping, I pushed on the button to lock my windows furiously, but nothing happened. “Hayden! Lock the doors, now.”

  “The doors won’t lock until the engine is on.” Hayden dug into his pocket even deeper.

  A couple of juniors I recognized wandered into the parking lot, then proceeded to sit on the hood of the car right next to Hayden’s to share a kiss. My heart twisted. I already missed Saxon so much it ached in my core. But I was also relieved to be surrounded by horny teenagers, because it kept the vengeful Mer at bay.

  Evey’s hand clasped Hayden’s arm. “We need to get out of here—”

  Hayden yanked the keys out of his pocket and dropped them with a clink onto the floor. “Dammit!”

  Through the corner of my eye, I saw Bascom join Darrow on the edge of the brush. Their eyes were locked in a silent warning aimed directly at me, and it chilled me right down into my bones. “Hayden, they’re not gonna stay in the brush forever. Get the damn car started,” I growled.

  Evey pressed the button under her window, her voice becoming shrill. “Can we at least lock the doors? Please?”

  Scooping the keys off of the floor, Hayden jammed them into the ignition and pumped the gas pedal. “My car is old…they don’t work until the car is running.”

  Bascom nudged Darrow with an elbow, and the two Council members stepped completely out of the foliage. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, pushing all fear aside. I didn’t even bother to be discreet or quiet when I grabbed the back of Hayden’s seat and shook it. “Go now!”

  Darrow glanced at the nearby kids and took a threatening step toward the car.

  “Hayden!” Evey started to cry.

  He turned the keys and the engine choked. Bascom strode toward the car, his steps wide.

  “Lock the doors, Hayden!” I screamed, horror rattling my insides.

  Ev started to rock in her seat. “He’s coming!”

  Hayden turned the keys again. The Honda’s engine cleared its throat, but didn’t come to life. “Son of a—”

  “Hayden, lock the doors now!” My scream was so loud it made the kids stop kissing to stare at us. “Get away from here! Get back inside!” I ordered them through the broken window. “Go!”

  They hustled off, casting curious glances over their shoulders, just as Hayden released a string of expletives and punched the dashboard. Darrow crossed the parking lot in a matter of five, maybe six, strides. Ten feet…five feet…three feet. His fists went up above his head, arms extended.

  You worthless little humans…I’ll tear you all apart and leave your bodies to warn the rest of your kind!

  Bang! Two domes of metal and fabric concaved into the cab right above mine and Hayden’s heads. Covering our heads, Evey and I crouched down in our seats.

  We were going to die. In a 1995 Honda. On prom night.

  Hayden pumped the gas pedal again, and with one more turn of the key, the engine turned over and roared to life. “Yes!” He slammed the car into gear, flooring it.

  Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. The doors locked, and we sped away from Oded in a cloud of burnt rubber and flying rocks.

  We squealed out of the lot. The moment our car bounced onto the highway, Bascom and Darrow dove back into the woods. I watched through the rear window as the hotel and the curious stares of prom-goers faded in the distance. The only sound in the car was the three of us panting and the chug of the engine. When I turned back around in my seat, Hayden was staring dead ahead, wild eyed, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. Evey sat up and buckled her seatbelt in silence.

  “Seatbelts,” she reminded us in a shaky voice.

  Hayden grabbed his belt and buckled it obediently. Fumbling for my belt, I peered out the broken window up at the sky. “We have to hurry. They’re going to sacrifice him to the Mere Monstrom when the moon is high.”

  Hayden gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. “How do you know?”

  I shot him a look in the rear view mirror. “I was there when they told him what was coming and then dragged him into the woods.”

  He pressed his lips together. “Right. Got it.”

  Evey leaned forward and peered out the windshield. “What do you think you’re going to do?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged one shoulder and blinked back tears. Fear rippled through me so violently, I practically bounced across the backseat. “But I have to try something…anything.”

  “What’s going to happen to everyone at the prom?” Evey breathed, her fingers pressing against her lips. “What if they hurt more people?”

  Tucking my tangled hair behind my ears, I shook my head. “That would be conspicuous. They’re probably going to wait for me back at Moon’s Bay.”

  The gravity of the situation thickened the air in the car. We’d escaped harm by seconds. A fraction of a second. Hayden shook his head. “We’ll go to Cape Horn. We’ve got to find Saxon.”

  I thought for a moment, my eyes locked on the domes that’d been punched into the top of Hayden’s car. We weren’t dealing with normal bullies here. The Council members were as big as Saxon, but twice as strong. “We have to go home first,” I announced suddenly.

  “What?” Evey cried at the same time Hayden snapped, “Are you crazy?”

  I closed my eyes, willing them to stay dry. I’d cried enough for one night. It was time to put my big girl pants on and save Saxon. “Just take me there. Those two Mer are on foot, and we’re in a car. I’d say we’ve got a head start. And I’ve got a plan. We can go over Crowley’s Pass and be there in ten minutes.”

  “Crowley’s Pass is the opposite direction of Cape Horn,” Hayden retorted.

  I chewed my lip. “I know. But we need a gun.”

  He didn’t ask questions. He simply put on the blinker and turned onto the old gravel road cutting through the woods to Moon’s Bay.

  “Why would they take Saxon to Cape Horn?” Evey asked as we bounced along the dark road. “I mean, why not just go down to the beach nearby and take Saxon out right there?” I sucked in a sharp breath. “Sorry.”

  “Because Cape Horn is where the Mere Monstrom lives.”

  “Oh…great,” she said weakly.

  I fixed my eyes on the dark trees outside my window. “Hayden, can you go any faster?”

&nb
sp; * * *

  The white farmhouse was lit up, and the sound of my parents arguing—again—was coasting through the open windows. We parked along the road at the end of the driveway, and I waited as Evey and Hayden snuck into the small storage shed where my father kept his lawnmower, tools, and his hunting rifle.

  He’d promised my mother countless times that he would lock up his gun and that the bullets would be stored separately. But, much like his promises to fix the dock and boathouse, he’d gotten too preoccupied to follow through. So after he’d used the rifle to chase away some raccoons in February, the gun and ammo were thrown in the shed and forgotten. Until now.

  Every sound I heard made me jump in my seat while I waited in the car. I hated sitting on my butt while Ev and Hayden snuck into the shed unnoticed. I wanted to be doing something, anything, to help Saxon. It was dark now. And the moon was growing rounder by the second.

  I heard the lake’s waves lapping the dock beyond the house and felt a pang in my heart. Would there ever be a time in mine and Saxon’s relationship when it wasn’t riddled with worries and fear? When we weren’t trying fight off a vengeful beast of some kind? The pang turned into a crushing sensation, and I rubbed at my chest. Would I even get there in time? And if I did, would they even be above the surface? Or deep below, beyond my reach?

  A breeze rustled the trees, and I heard a twig snap in the darkness. If an angry Mer caught me alone, I was as good as dead. The passenger’s-side door popped open, and I yelped.

  “Relax, it’s me.” Evey climbed into the car. “Mom and Dad didn’t even hear.”

  Hayden climbed into the driver’s seat and handed the gun to my sister. “The safety’s on, but point it toward the floor just to be safe.”

  “Mom and Dad are too busy yelling at each other to notice their teenage daughter and her boyfriend stealing a freaking weapon.” Evey cast me a look that clearly said, Shut up or else, so I added, “Can we get going? Like, now-ish?”

  Hayden put the car into gear. “It takes forty minutes to drive around the lake to Cape Horn.”

  Our eyes met again in the rear view mirror. “Then you’d better drive fast.”

  Hitting the gas, we sped off. The headlights cast a dim beam on the road as we curved around the bend, Hayden’s fists clenching the steering wheel. Evey glanced back at me as we coiled between the trees and offered me a feeble smile. “It will be OK…it’s…gotta be.”

  A streak of white darted out in front of the car, and I grabbed the back of Ev’s seat. “Look out!”

  It hit the car—or, the car hit it—before Hayden had time to slam on the brakes.

  “It’s a person!” Evey gasped as the car turned sideways on the cracked pavement, and we skidded to a halt. We sat there for a second, maybe two, the three of us gaping with open mouths out the windshield. The person in question was sprawled across the hood, groaning, stark naked, and holding his right arm.

  My eyes focused in on his neck, when I saw that there were three lines underneath his ear that were opening and closing frantically.

  “Ian!” I belted out. “It’s Ian!”

  Ian rolled onto his side, pressing his obviously dislocated elbow close to his bare chest. His white-blond hair was wet and standing straight up off of the side of his head. When he opened his mouth to speak, he choked and gagged.

  “Hayden?”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I unfolded my chair with a snap and shifted myself into the seat while Evey and Hayden crowded around Ian’s shuddering body.

  Hayden paced back and forth, gripping his head in his hands. “I hit my brother with a car…I hit my brother with a car.” Ian looked at him with squinted eyes and made a choking sound. “Dude. What is he saying? What does he want?”

  Evey tried to hold Ian down. “I…I don’t know. Luna?”

  I grabbed the gun out of the front seat, then wheeled around to the front of the car. “He’s suffocating. We have to get him back in the water.”

  Evey looked around. “The Rogersons’ driveway. We can go down that way.” She looked at me, her eyes circled with smudged eye makeup. “Can you make it down there?”

  I nodded. “Can you guys carry Ian?”

  Hayden nodded and swiped at his eyes. Evey kicked off her heels.

  “Yeah,” they said in unison.

  “OK, let’s move.” Giving my wheels a shove, I started down the slanted driveway. The moon cast shafts of silvery light down through the pine trees, making lacey patterns on the ground in front of me. There wasn’t time to help Ian. We had to get to Cape Horn. Now.

  But how could I let Ian suffocate? There was a time when he’d been at the center of my universe. He’d been my first love, and even though he morphed into a colossal douche bag after my accident, I would always have a soft spot in the dark, dusty, farthermost corner of my heart for him.

  “Hold your arm still, bro, we’re almost there,” Hayden whispered as we slunk along the side of the Rogersons’ house.

  Ian groaned, and my head snapped up at the open windows above our heads. I could hear Mrs. Rogerson laughing at a sitcom inside of her bedroom. “You’ve got to be quiet, Ian. We’re gonna get busted.”

  Evey bit her lip and adjusted her grip on Ian’s knees. “We’ve gotta hurry. I’m gonna drop him.”

  Scuffling past the house, we found ourselves on the trail that ran between the two houses. I gestured back toward the white farmhouse. “We’ll go to the dock. Just keep it down.”

  Evey moaned. “He’s…he’s heavy. I-I can’t…”

  “Put him down,” Hayden ordered. Once his brother rested on the ground, he slipped off his suit coat and discarded it into the bushes. Ian fumbled to stay sitting up, dirt and pine needles sticking to his skin. “Keep your arm close to your chest, and I’ll grab your other side.”

  Ian nodded, his skin rippling as the shift began. “We don’t have much time,” I said. “Pick him back up, Hayden!”

  Hayden bent down and hoisted his brother over his shoulder, farmer-style. A gurgle-type growl emanated from deep inside of Ian’s chest. With a grunt, Hayden slowly rose to his feet, then gestured for Evey and me to keep moving.

  My sister grabbed the handles on my chair and broke out in a run. My wheels bounced over twigs and rocks on the path as we flew toward the dock. I could hear Ian choking behind me as we flew across our driveway, taking a hard left and skidding down the boardwalk.

  “Get him in the water.” I tried to speak as quietly as possible. The last thing I needed was for my parents to find out I wasn’t at the prom…oh, and that Ian was actually alive and choking to death on the dock.

  Evey helped Hayden slide Ian off of his shoulder, and the three of them fell into a heap on the warped wood. “What do I do? What do I do?” Hayden hissed.

  “Roll him off of the deck.” Evey shoved Ian’s limp body off of her legs.

  “No!” Hayden raked a hand through his hair. “He’ll drown. He’s…he’s sick.”

  I put a hand on his shoulder. “He’s part fish. He’s sick because he needs to be in the water.”

  Hayden looked up at me, the moisture in his eyes reflecting the moonlight. Ian released a long, drawn out gurgle, and his legs snapped together like there were magnets underneath his skin. “I-I can’t lose him again.”

  I blinked back my own tears. “Then get him into the lake.”

  Together Evey and Hayden shoved Ian over the edge of the dock. He landed in the water with a heavy splunk, then sank straight down. We all sat watching the blur of white skin disappear without a word. I could hear Hayden panting.

  “Gone.” His voice cracked. “He’s gone.”

  “I…” My mouth froze, open, and I stared down at the black water.

  “We have to go.” Evey stood up and touched Hayden’s arm. “There’s no time…we…” Her voice petered out, and she looked at me helplessly.

  Fingering the handle on the rifle, I cleared the emotion out of my throat. I wouldn’t let Saxon die without at least tryi
ng to save him. I couldn’t not try. “Hayden, we should go.”

  He covered his face with his dirty hands, and the sound of crying was his response. Evey crouched down behind him, putting her arms around Hayden’s shaking shoulders.

  I leaned down in my chair. “Hayden?”

  They’re going to do it soon.

  Hayden’s sobbing stopped as abruptly as it started, and all three of our heads popped up. Ian’s voice filled our heads, rough and jagged from pain. “Ian?” Hayden cried, leaning over the edge of the dock.

  Ian swam upwards from the dark bottom of the lake, his white-blond hair coming into view slowly in the darkness. I’m here. He cradled his arm against his trunk. His tail was long and ridged with muscles, and the gills on the sides of his neck opened and closed rhythmically. He stopped just short of breaking the surface.

  “I thought you…” Hayden wiped his eyes. “Your arm. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  It will be fine. Things heal differently down here. They have plants and medicines. It will be fine. He lifted his good arm out of the water and grasped Hayden’s hand. Brother. I’ve missed so much.

  I scowled down at him. “Why were you out of the water? I told you you’d die if you came out of the water.”

  Ian shook his head. I was trying to stop you. I tried to get Hayden and Evey’s attention while they were stealing that gun, but they didn’t hear me.

  Evey’s eyebrows rose high on her forehead. “I heard splashing, but didn’t want to look down at the lake.”

  I sighed. “We’ve seen a lot already tonight. Swimming might be out of the question this summer.”

  I wouldn’t blame you for that.

  Hayden scanned the water all around the dock. “Why are you here? Aren’t you being watched?”

  The entire clan is at Cape Horn for the Mere Monstrom sacrifice. I was left behind with a couple of Mer, but they…well, I’m here now.