“Explaining,” I said.
Mom and Mr. Gibbs sat together on a loveseat opposite the couch, where I plopped down with Troy, Ophelia (whose perfect posture put us all to shame), and Airianna. Trey, having given his spot to Airianna, propped himself on the arm of the couch next to her. Meikle grabbed a chair and slowly dragged it across the room, making a horrendous screeching sound as she did. Stopping alongside my end of the couch, she twisted the chair around and straddled it; Bobby rushed to take post behind her.
“Okay, let’s see, I sent Benji to update Mrs. Waterberry on everything, so…everyone else here, then?” asked Doctor Tenly.
“We’re missing the feathers,” said Treeva.
Doctor Tenly sighed. “Manakel! Meeting time!”
“Not sure why I have to be here, Doc,” said Manakel, diving down from the ceiling.
“Marina,” whispered my mom, “that man has wings…gray ones. Is he suspended from wires? Maybe he’s dressed up for some early Christmas play prep or something?”
“Uh…not exactly,” I said, looking to Doctor Tenly for help.
“Our feathered friend up there is Manakel,” he said, pointing to the hovering angel.
“What’s a Manakel?” asked my mom.
“It’s his name,” said Troy.
“Well, not really. I mean, it’s an angel label. He’s keeping his pre-death name a secret. Lame,” I said, shooting him a glance.
“He’s an earth angel—one that doesn’t exactly reside in heaven, for reasons that will become plainly obvious, but who protects our seas,” said Treeva.
“Uh-huh. Pardon my disbelief, but I’ve just had a fuzzy wad of make believe shoved in my ears,” said my mom.
“Promise we’re not screwing with you,” said Treeva. “Everything you’re about to hear today will hit you like a damn riptide of emotional turmoil.”
“‘Damn riptide of emotional turmoil.’ Great line,” said Mom. “Scaring me a little, but…great line.”
“Wish I could take the credit, but it actually originates with my BFF in kick ass fun, Ash. She heads up the Splashzers Puncture Patrol—as in she bashes those brainless fin-eaters into worm food. Ash and her team protect the United States from a zombie invasion. See, Splashzers are mer-zombies, and they have the power to awaken walking zombies on the mainland. It’s all very scary, super top secret, hush-hush, stuff.” I just looked at Treeva and shook my head. “Too much, too soon?” This time, I closed my eyes and slowly nodded. “Um, so, David, maybe you’re better suited to do the whole mythological creature talk thing with Marina’s mom?”
“Ah, this is your mommy, then?” asked Manakel, turning up the sexy.
“Yes,” I groaned. “And don’t even think about it.”
“'Bout what?”
“About being your usual horny, semi-angel self around my mom,” I warned.
Mom, her face entirely expressionless, blinked her eyes about a thousand times at Doctor Tenly, Treeva, and Manakel before bursting out laughing.
“Oh, this is so not going to go well,” I said as Troy rubbed the back of my neck.
Doctor Tenly rushed over to his hidden cupboards, grabbed a glass, and filled it to the brim with something from an ornate, purple potion-like bottle. “Drink this, Mrs. Valentine. I promise you’ll feel better momentarily.”
“What are you giving her?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Just some specially aged root beer. It’ll help her absorb the shocks a bit better,” said Doctor Tenly as Mom literally downed the entire glass in one gulp.
When she slammed it down on the coffee table between us, Ophelia gasped and leaped up.
“Wet glass on wood—bad. Coasters, coasters, there must be coasters,” she muttered, rifling through drawers. “This will do!” While Doctor Tenly refilled Mom’s glass, Ophelia hurried over to wipe down the table and place a coaster upon it.
“There’s no easy way to say this, Mom, so I’m just going to blurt it. Apart from the Normals—uh, students from institutions—and their relatives, every single person in this town is a...merperson,” I said.
“Mer-what?”
“Merperson,” I repeated.
“As in mermaids, like me,” said Airianna.
“And mermen…like me,” said Troy.
“And scales and tails…not like me, thank the good Lord himself,” offered Manakel. Troy subtly flipped him off.
Mom slowly picked up her glass, raised it to her mouth, and, once again, downed it all at once. HICCUP. “So, let me get this straight…the town is full of Merpeople, which would mean my daughter is dating a mermaid?”
“Merman,” said Troy, shifting his eyes.
“Think she had it right the first time,” Manakel quipped.
“Swear to God,” Troy said through clenched teeth, glaring back at Manakel.
“Aw, you should never swear to God, fishy,” said Manakel.
“Yes, Mom, I’m dating a merman…and, um, so are you.”
Mom shut her eyes, scrunched up her face, and said, “So, you’re saying I…slept with a merman?”
“Oh, God.” I slapped my hands hard over my face.
“Well, technically, you slept with a fish,” said Manakel.
“Oh, heaven help me. I had sex with a fish.” Mom waved her glass at Doctor Tenly, who dutifully filled it up.
“Dude, you’re not helping!” I shouted at Manakel.
“No, Marina…HICCUP…the chicken is right—”
“Angel,” Manakel clarified.
“Huh? Oh, chicken, angel…no big diff,” said my mom, her body looking far too relaxed and her eyes just a tad glassy.
“There bloody well is a big diff. I’m no cluckster! Not to mention there’s a completely different feather quality. Mine are designer-like.”
“You know, I think Mrs. V. is right,” said Troy. “Both cluck and crap when scared.”
“Aw, you want to talk living where you crap, sardine?” growled Manakel.
Mom flung her arm in the air and waved it about. “Gotta question.”
“It’s not a classroom, Mom. You can just ask it,” I said, eyeing Doctor Tenly, who was so obviously avoiding making eye contact with me.
“What if I’m pregnant?” blurted my mom.
“Excuse me?!” I said.
HICCUP. “Well, things aren’t exactly foolproof. So, will I birth a bass? Maybe a beardfish?”
“This is a nightmare,” I said, rubbing my forehead.
“Hey, Mommy’s wasted!” said Manakel, laughing. “Gotta love a woman who can take the drink and make a show of it.” He pointed to my mom and sexily growled, “I like you.”
Oh, save me. Mom just bit her lip, winked, and gave the horn-ball angel the ‘come hither’ finger.
When Mr. Horny Feathers made the slightest movement towards her, I stood up, flipped around, and uncorked on him. “DON’T YOU DARE MOVE ANOTHER INCH, OR SO HELP ME, I WILL HAVE YOUR ASS!”
“Kinky,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
“Please, go ice yourself.” Swiveling on my heel, I directed my anger at the guiltiest face in the room. “Doctor Tenly, what the hell did you give her?”
Doctor Tenly nervously scratched his chin. “I told you, some aged root beer…that apparently has an alcoholic effect on humans.”
“Can we please just drive this conversation away from the town of embarrassing escapades and hormonally charged trysts?” I asked, watching my mom tap the rim of her glass for more. This time, Mr. Gibbs obliged.
“Yeah, all right. Won’t be as much fun, though,” said Doctor Tenly. I glared at him, clenching my teeth. “Moving on! Ophelia, our newly returned Normal, what is your talent again?”
Ophelia’s eyes bugged. “It’s no big deal,” she said, anxiously bouncing her knees.
“She’s a witch,” said Meikle.
“No, no, I’m not. That was a misnomer,” said Ophelia, playing with the strings on her plaid skirt. “I, um, can freeze time.”
“Really?
This I have to see!” said Doctor Tenly giddily.
“Oh, uh, I can’t really do it on demand or anything, it’s more of a spur of the—”
Before she could finish, Doctor Tenly picked up a vase and threw it at my head; Ophelia’s eyes shifted from violet to crystal blue, and her long, black ringlets grew into wild blue locks. Her eyes locked hard on the flying vase and, in an instant, stopped it midair. Ophelia shook her head as her eyes and hair returned to normal.
“—moment,” said Doctor Tenly, finishing Ophelia’s sentence while retrieving the vase from the air. “Incredible!”
Tossing my hands up, I said, “Really? You had to pick my head to throw it at?”
“Well, your head is the most visible, isn’t it? It’s the hair,” said Doctor Tenly.
Yeah, that was just so many levels of sarcastic awesome.
“That freezing thing was pretty epic,” said Meikle.
Leaning over to Ophelia, I whispered, “And that counts as tacit acceptance from Meeks.”
Ophelia bounced a little. “Thanks!” she said, beaming.
My awe was suddenly crushed by an icy realization: Ophelia and Odette are twins, born on the same day, so why was only one of them hooked up to Zale’s network of Normals?
“We need to talk about Zale’s matrix,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s an area I’d like to hear more about,” said Mr. Gibbs. “Lay it on me.”
“Not here, darlin’,” said my mom, patting his leg.
Shooting Mom a ‘what the hell’ look, I said, “King Zale and his crazy-ass-merqueen have been kidnapping Normals the night before their seventeenth birthday. Apparently, within our seventeenth year, we’ll either show an extra-special talent or we won’t.”
“If Normals don’t display anything more than the talent they’ve always had, Zale hooks them up to his matrix, a network of Normals, if you will,” said Airianna. “All of the relatives are inserted immediately upon delivery.”
Facing Ophelia, I said, “Which begs the question, why was your twin sister hooked up to the grid, but you weren’t? I mean, neither of you showed any kind of extra power within a year, yet you were allowed to stay in that cage. Why?” I may have sounded a bit more suspicious than I intended. As much as I liked Ophelia, the Zale’s could not be trusted, and if there was any chance she could be an informant, we needed to know now.
Ophelia’s eyes started filling with tears, and I instantly felt like dung. “I—I’ve been asking myself that for months.”
“Think I can answer that one,” said Doctor Tenly. “Your gift, Ophelia, is incredibly rare. My guess is they had an inkling of what your greater power will be and wanted to give you more time to hatch.”
“Will be?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, it’s coming. Your inherently polite nature has been keeping it at bay. You see, Ophelia, you’re a time-altering ninja.”
“As in mutant?” she whimpered.
“As in turtle,” said Manakel.
“MANAKEL!” I shouted. “Stop contributing!”
“Oh, that’s very bad,” she said, standing up to pace in tight circles around one spot.
“Well, for someone who is gracious and well-mannered, I would imagine ‘bad’ is the ideal word for it. Don’t fret! You’ll eventually come to love beating the ever-loving snot out of someone.” Doctor Tenly walked over to her, patted her on the head, and went back to stand with Treeva.
Ophelia paused her pacing and stared at Doctor Tenly, her mouth gaping. “Ever-loving…snot?”
“MOVE!” shouted Trey, running for Ophelia, barely catching her before she hit the floor.
“She’s a fainter?” asked Doctor Tenly.
“Yeah, big time,” said Trey, carrying Ophelia back to the couch.
“Huh. Well, she’s going to be great fun to watch!” Doctor Tenly giggled goofily.
“See we haven’t worked on the bedside manner, yet,” I scoffed.
“Oh, he doesn’t need any work there,” said Treeva. Troy just closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What’s the purpose of the network, exactly?” asked Mr. Gibbs.
“Ravenflames empty all of their ‘weak’ feelings into it,” said Trey. “The only ones they keep are rage and hate.”
“My Poseidon,” whispered Mr. Gibbs.
“What happens to Normals who show some extra talent?” asked Manakel.
“King Zale said he empties them of all emotion and sends them back into our world,” I said.
Manakel frowned. “And how does that work if they’re still banished?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s the million sand dollar question, isn’t it? They wouldn’t say why or even how, but I’m guessing it has something to do with Prehendo Animus. The soul snatching stones have to tie in with Zale’s network of Normals somehow, maybe even with the Normals they’ve sent back to the mainland.”
“Don’t think I won’t be looking into that,” said Doctor Tenly. “Now, I want everyone’s attention. Trey, can you wake our little ninja up, please.”
“Not a problem,” he said. Clearing his throat, he shouted, “Ring around the collar!”
Ophelia shot straight up. “What?! Where?!”
“Great. A clean freak. That’s just sad,” Meikle grumbled, smirking slightly at me. In that moment, I knew Meikle really liked Ophelia…or as much as she can like anyone.
“Now that we’re all alert…” Doctor Tenly spun around, picked up two jars, and placed them on the coffee table. Inside each jar was a ruby red stone.
“Ooh! Had a thought!” said my mom, somewhat disconnected from the conversation.
“Lord, give me strength,” I muttered.
“Baby girl, when you and Troy break up—”
“If we break up,” Troy clarified.
“Uh-huh, whatever. When you two split, and I say oh-so-comfortingly, ‘There are plenty of fish in the sea,’ I’m literally speaking the truth.” Mom then began belly laughing. “Here a fin, there a fin, everywhere a fin-fin!”
“Well, that was most enlightening, Mrs. Valentine,” said Doctor Tenly, mouthing an ‘I’m sorry’ in my direction. “Shall we move our attention back to the jars? These are the soul snatching stones, otherwise known as Prehendo Animus. Study them. Memorize them. They will always be red and may be any size or shape. There are six total, meaning two are unaccounted for. Remember, Normals and angels can safely touch the stone, but Merpeople cannot, unless they fancy being covered in boils.”
“Then how did Airi get the one from the merwhore?” asked Meikle.
“Oh, I never touched the stone,” said Airianna. “Only the bracelet part. Actually, even that was unusually hot.”
“If the stone is encased, and you can avoid actually touching the stone itself, then a merperson can retrieve it without fear of Zale’s painful alert system,” said Treeva.
“Terribly risky, particularly for someone not predisposed for confrontational situations,” muttered Bobby.
Airianna dropped her head and whispered, “But, I did it. I succeeded.”
“You were lucky, Airianna. Your sweet, angelic nature does not allow you to go about doing risky things. The odds are far too great for failure. I simply will not have it!” shouted Bobby. “Leave the ‘saving the day’ exploits to those more equipped to handle both the positive and negative outcomes.”
With her head still hanging low, I saw Airianna quickly brush tears from her eyes. Bobby worried about Airianna—and truthfully, so did I—but it doesn’t justify quashing someone’s confidence, particularly someone who was finally finding her independence.
“Bobby, I know you mean well, but without Airi’s perseverance, we wouldn’t have another stone,” I said.
“I don’t care. Her safety means more to me,” said Bobby, folding his arms.
Trey, who had been watching Airianna very closely, leaned forward, faced Bobby, and said, “Maybe having faith in someone you care about should trump the fear of them getting hurt.”
Air
ianna’s head popped up. She stared at Trey with wide, grateful eyes and a growing smile before turning to Bobby. “Between fear and faith, I choose the latter, and if you can’t do the same, Bobby, then I’m sorry, but this—us—isn’t going to work. I’m finding me. I need someone who’ll let me do this and support me all the while.”
Bobby stared at her, frowning. “Well…if that’s how you feel.”
“I’m afraid it is,” she said.
“Fine. I will not support a decision that endangers you.” Bobby shook his head and glared at the floor.
The room became very quiet as we all sat uncomfortably watching two of our friends end their relationship.
“Um, did two fish just break up? Because I honestly have the intense urge to say it—there are more fish in the sea, you two!” said my mom, wagging a finger.
I rolled my eyes for the umpteenth time; when I did, my gaze fell on the two stones. Looking closely at the stones within the jars, I noticed something different about them: each stone had a pair of black eyes. “Doctor? I might be going crazy, but have these stones suddenly sprouted eyes?”
“You’re not crazy, Marina. Once Airi brought the second stone to me, both birthed eyeballs. Bit frightening aren’t they? You should see how angry they get when I coo at them. It’s terribly entertaining to upset them. I’m guessing it has something to do with their communicative abilities. I’m confident the stones will inherently reveal clues to me, especially now that we have a pair.”
“And Zale has a pair. Doctor, are you sure you’re not worried about the stones communicating with one another, trying to piece together?” I asked. “They could lead Zale to you.”
“Nah, like I said, I’m crafty. Besides, it’s their communicative abilities that will lend to my understanding of them. Risk worth taking, Marina. Anyway, my pair is bigger than his,” said Doctor Tenly, winking, while Treeva bit her lip.
“Now we need to get Zale’s two, take the lead,” said Trey.
“More than that, we need to try and find those last two stones before Zale,” said Manakel.
“Got stones?” said my mom. “Bet the chicken has stones of steel.”
“MOM! Stop being a Robinson!”
“Actually, if we’re talking literal age, I’m older than your mom…by a lot,” said Manakel.
OVERFALLS (The Merworld Water Wars, Book 2) Page 2