by:

Cassidy's life has been lonely and full of heartache. Abandoned as an infant, bounced from foster home to foster home. He's never found a place where he's belonged. Then one summer as his life starts to turn around, something happens that changes everything...

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Author's Note:I wish I had some great explanation or excuse why I didn't post this chapter last week but I really don't. Honestly I got wrapped up in other things and forgot about it. Life sucks.

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8.

“Is she dead?”

My shock had finally worn off. I looked from the pretty surfer girl to the nasty mercenary on the floor at her feet. She wasn’t moving. I’d never seen anything like that. One punch and the bitch was down. It was so fast. She barely had any time to react at all. The girl turned her head slightly, looking down and shook her head.

“No, she’ll live,” she frowned.

She almost sounded disappointed.

I stared at her, then at the merc, and finally back to her.

What the hell was going on?

Who was this girl?

How did she know where to find me?

How did she even know who I was?

I mean, we met before I turned into a girl. It was only briefly too. Back then I thought it was one of those crazy random things. You know, like in a rom-com or something. Now that I thought about it though, it seemed a bit out of the ordinary. Some strangely beautiful girl just happens to stop and talk to me, awkward emo kid? Then she’s the one that points out the creepy guy across the street who was staring at me. The same creepy guy that she decided to get rid of for me. I shook my head. There was no way any of this was coincidence.

It was like a light bulb.

“That creepy guy from the boardwalk...”

She sighed. “Not with them. Good guess though. I’m sorry about that, by the way. He gave me the slip and before I knew it, he was back after you...”

So she did try to get rid of him.

That still explained nothing.

“Who was he?”

She shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say a Fed...”

A Fed? As in the government?

“Why would the government want me?!”

She smiled, then winked.

She didn’t say anything though. Instead, she directed all her attention back to the unconscious woman on the floor. Without even batting an eye, she bent over and lifted her off the ground. She dead-lifted her, throwing her onto a shoulder like she weighed nothing. I stood there with my mouth open again. As she started toward the bathroom, she shouted,

“Get the door and find something to tie her up with!”

I stood still for a few seconds.

Then reality came rushing back to me. I snapped to action without even thinking about it. I rushed forward and slammed the door, locking it for the second time. Then I began my desperate search for something to tie up a person. It was strange really. I wasn’t even sure why I was even doing it. This was my chance, after all. I could just grab my bags and bolt out the door. I had money now. I could be at the bus station and out of town in a few hours. Then I could put all of this behind me.

And yet, I wasn’t making any attempt for the door.

It took me a few seconds to register that I was staying before I started looking for what she asked. I’d seen this done in movies several times. I tried the lamps first, trying to see if I could pull the cords free. I couldn’t. It wasn’t as easy as it looked. I moved on to the bedsheets, wondering if I could rip them into strips. When that didn’t work, I looked for shoe laces. I groaned. There were no shoes? How could there be no shoes in this place? Defeated, I sat on the bed. I tried to weigh my options. I kept striking out and it was starting to frustrate me. In a last ditch effort though, I started looking through the suitcases left behind. I was surprised by what I found. I knew what I thought I might find – clothes, but when I opened one after another, there were no clothes to be found.

In one I found a really nice looking camera.

I didn’t know much about those kinds of things, but it looked pretty high-end.

In another, I found a brand new laptop. There were a few other things I didn’t recognize, but something I did. It was a bundle of zip ties. I’d seen those in movies a lot too. Picking them up, I absently rubbed my wrists. It didn’t take me long to realize that they’d been for me. I was slowly starting to piece things together and hated what I came up with. It was clear whoever the Spencers worked for had a bigger plan than I thought. One that involved me from day one. I’m guessing they were the first part of it. I was still a little rusty on all the details but the zip ties here confirmed some of it.

Drugging me hadn’t been a spur of the moment thing.

They planned it.

After I was out cold, they must have used these to secure me, then Dr. Chamber’s goon squad hauled me off to that pent house. The rest of it was pretty obvious. The one thing I was still missing was the Why. I was a nobody and yet they were all going out of their way for me. Not just them either. The government, this new girl from the statue, hell even Chloe to an extent. The thing was, I was completely clueless. I felt like I was walking into the theater with the movie half over. I missed the beginning and the ending was a complete mystery. It was a scary unknown that I’m not sure I wanted to see.

It was getting scarier by the second too.

“Hey, Cassidae, you find something?”

Crap.

“Yeah,” I said, running to the bathroom with ties in hand.

When I got there, Mrs. Spencer was lying in the tub, still unconscious. Her breathing was shallow but she was still very much alive.

“Oh nice,” said my Mystery Savior as she took the ties from me.

I watched as she flipped the merc over and securely tied her hands behind her back.

“We’re not going to kill her now are we?”

She gave me a weird look. “You’re obsessed with death.”

I scoffed. “Not really. I’m just...”

“We don’t kill needlessly. Too many bodies equals too many questions.”

Questions, right.

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“Our people.”

The way she said “our” surprised me. Did she mean her and me?

“What do you mean, ‘our people’? Do you know what’s going on here? Do you know who or what I am?”

She smiled, patting my cheek. “I’ll tell you everything, I promise. Right now though, I need to know how much this bitch knows.”

I opened my mouth to say more but this girl ignored me.

Instead, she turned back to our captive. She leaned down close to the woman’s ear and whispered something into it. No, not whisper. It was more like blowing. Except I could swear I heard a melody to it. A moment or two later, Mrs. Spencer opened her eyes. My Mystery Savior flipped her over, allowing her to sit up. Mrs. Spencer stared at us but there was something off about her stare. It was glassy, almost as if she was drugged. She looked at me but it was like she was looking through me too.

“Now then. Why don’t we start simple first? How about your name?”

“Zoe Trent,” said my fake aunt, her voice raspy and forced.

It was clear the merc was trying hard not to answer.

Whatever my surfer friend did to her, it was as if she was forcing her to tell the truth.

“Now, Miss Trent, who do you work for?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I never met them. I only dealt with the doctor.”

“You mean Chambers?”

Zoe nodded.

I was impressed. This girl knew a lot.

“Tell me about Dr. Chambers. Where is she now?”

Zoe talked for a good twenty minutes. Most of the questions she didn’t have answers for. She told us a lot though. She didn’t know where Chambers was. She’d only been to the penthouse once, but it was abandoned now. Compromised. After I escaped, I threw a wrench into their plans. They were scrambling to piece things back together now. My escaping had caused them some unwanted complications too. It forced their time table. I quickly found out that it wasn’t the only thing that forced their time table. Apparently, we were supposed to stay in Virginia Beach for a few more days. Then we would go back to Richmond. There was a house there. I was to spend time with them, learn to trust them, then they’d take me to Chambers. She would have acted like a psychiatrist; one meant to cure my hydrophobia. The eventual plan would have been done slowly. Lull me into a false sense of security for as long as it took, then they would have brought me in. Drugging me had always been Plan B. A plan they had to put into play after the authorities brought me home. It was unwanted attention they didn’t need.

My Mystery Savior perked up at the mention of the yacht. The very same one I was meant to be taken to in the helicopter.

“This yacht, do you know the name of it?”

“Something Gull,” she mumbled.

“Mooring,” I said, remembering.

My Savior cursed. “Fucking bastard, I should have known.”

“You know who owns it?”

She scoffed. “So do you. So does everyone!”

I was confused.

“How can I know...”

“Charles Bishop,” she said the name like it was the most vile thing in the world.

Wait, what?

I knew it of course.

She was right. Everyone knew it. He was a billionaire. One of the most famous people around in fact. He owned everything. It made no sense though. Charles Bishop was a good man. He was a philanthropist, not a kidnapper. He was always on the News, donating money to charities, kissing babies. That kind of thing. I always felt he was a little slimy and fake but I never suspected he was a criminal mastermind or whatever. I just coudln’t wrap my mind around it. Why would a man like him be interested in a nobody like me?

“I don’t understand...”

She sighed. “It’s about your Mum, kiddo.”

My Mom?

How could this be about my mother?

She abandoned me. She left me on the doorstep of a nunnery. She left me to this horrible life and disappeared off the face of the Earth. She was dead too. Though I’m pretty sure that was a lie. It was clear that pretty much everything those people said to me was a lie. I suddenly HATED myself for starting to believe them. Of course they were liars. It was all too convenient. Too good to be true. Here it was all over again. Another person with another story.

“I’ve heard lies before,” I said bitterly, crossing my arms.

She shook her head. “No lie this time. Bishop and your Mum go way, way back. He manipulated her, tried to use her. He almost succeeded too. Your Mum got away though. She got you away too. Bishop didn’t stop looking though. But we were always one step ahead of him. He wasn’t going to stop though, so we made a decision. We left you with the nuns. It wasn’t easy and it nearly destroyed her, but she knew her time here was growing thin. It was a desperate choice; the only one you see...”

“Why? Who are you? What am I?”

She smiled, taking a step toward me, gently touching my hair.

“My name is Eilish. I’m your aunt. Your real aunt.”

My aunt?

I looked at Zoe in the tub.

“I’ve heard that one before.”

“This is the truth. I promise. I could never lie to you. I can prove it in time. Once we’re safe and away from here. I’ll show you. I’ll show you everything. All our secrets.”

There she goes, saying “our” again.

Like she knew something I didn’t.

“You know what I am?”

She nodded. She took a step closer to me. She reached out and reached for my wrist. At first I thought she was going to grab my hand, but instead she touched the bracelet on my wrist. The red beaded one. The one that I was sure that Brit gave me, but I couldn’t remember. When she touched it though, I felt something. It glowed slightly and I felt a soothing calm rush over my body. Then she reached up and pulled something out of her shirt, a red beaded necklace. The very same one she showed me before.

“This is the source of our power, our mana flows through these beads.”

I touched my bracelet.

Power? Mana?

This was crazy.

It would have been even crazier if I wasn’t a boy who turned into a girl with a tail.

Now I could pretty much believe anything.

“This is my power?” I asked, holding up my wrist.

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “It changed you….”

Changed me?

So this bracelet was responsible for everything. This thing. I felt a surge of anger. It ruined my life. I grasped it, determined to tear it from my wrist. As soon as I made a grab for it though, she grabbed my wrist. She glared at me. I tried to pull free but I couldn’t. She was strong, stronger than she looked. My anger flared again but I still couldn’t break free from her grasp. I struggled but after a few seconds I gave up, realizing it was probably pointless.

“You can’t fight this. You can’t run from it. You need to embrace it. It's who you are now”

“I don’t...”

She frowned. “Neither did I. Neither did your Mum. It happened though. We learned to live with it. So will you. It will take time and a lot of patience, it's not...”

She stopped and snapped around toward the bathroom door. I looked too, but she was already heading out of it. I rushed to keep up with her, wondering what the hell was going on. In the main living area, she pointed toward the window. I gave her a confused look but did as she asked. Walking slowly over, I parted the curtains a tad bit to take a look. What I saw made my heart sink. There were at least three dark colored SUVs out there, each with black tinted windows.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what and who they were here for.

I cursed.

“It was only a matter of time,” snapped Eilish. “I thought we’d have more though. It turns out I underestimated them again...”

She quickly made her way to the bathroom, I followed on her heels.

Zoe was still sitting there, just as we left her.

“Are you going to kill her now?”

She gave me a look but all but ignored me. Instead, she walked over to our captive, bent down so they were face to face and blew on her again. This time though, I was sure I heard something. It was definitely a melody, almost like singing. It only lasted for a few seconds and when it was over, Zoe’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped over, unconscious once again.

“I charmed her,” she said at my blank look. “It's a kind of magic we can do. It's how I got her to tell us everything. And no, I didn’t kill her. She’s asleep now and will be for awhile. It's good news for us. When she wakes up, she won’t remember the last hour or so.”

“Charmed?”

It still sounded like she was speaking in riddles.

I was still no closer to the truth than I was before.

“What does that even mean?”

I never got an answer. A second later, a small green cylinder came crashing through the window. It immediately started spitting out smoke. Eilish was quick. As soon as it hit the ground, she snatched it up and threw it back out the window. The shit, as they say, hit the fan from there. The door smashed open and two men wearing black tactical gear came bursting into the room. They were carrying automatic weapons, clearly looking for a fight. She gave them one too. She went straight at them, almost faster than I could follow. The first one through the door was dropped instantly with a swift kick to the head. The other managed to raise his gun before she grabbed his arm, smashed his elbow up at a wrong angle, then flipped him over her shoulder with a crunch.

From there it only got worse.

For them.

She rushed out the door faster than they could react.

Someone managed to fire their gun but their bullets went all over the place as she drove her knee into his helmeted face. As that person fell, she used his body to spring into the air and land on two more of them. As soon as she landed on them, she was already in motion. I watched, mesmerized. It was like one of those action movies with overly powerful heroines. Eilish slammed her two assailants into the ground, rolled into the next one, headbutting him in the chin as she jumped to her feet. While he was falling, she spun into another, driving her elbow into his helmet to send him flying. More men came pouring out of their vehicles. It was hard to see though, because of the smoke canister. I could now just barely make out Eilish. There were some bursts of gunfire though, so I was pretty certain she was ok.

Then it was over.

It took her less than three minutes.

As the smoke started to clear, I saw her standing there.

She didn’t even have a scratch on her.

I walked to the door, looking at all the bodies lying around her.

She didn’t even look at them.

“Get your stuff,” she said calmly. “We’ve gotta move.”

I nodded numbly.

Who the hell was this girl?

“What the hell was that back there?”

We were driving. Apparently she had a Jeep parked not too far away. After grabbing my two bags, we made a quick retreat. We were now trying to put as much distance between us and the resort as possible. I still had no idea where we were going or what the hell was going on? This was all too crazy to comprehend still. She said she was my aunt, my real one. Maybe I believed her, maybe I didn’t. All I know is that she took out a squad of heavily armed men without breaking a sweat. She made it look easy too. It was scary how easy she made it look. If this woman wasn’t my aunt and she was out to harm me, I was pretty certain there was nothing I could do to stop her.

“That was sloppy, that’s what that was.”

Sloppy?

“You beat the hell out of those guys!”

She sighed, white knuckling the wheel.

We were driving just a bit over the speed limit.

“I shouldn’t have. It was messy. I could have handled it differently. Should have handled it differently. Too many witnesses...”

I had no idea what she was talking about.

“You want to tell me what the hell is going on now?”

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes.

We heard sirens. Several cop cars zoomed past us. She didn’t blink. She just kept driving.

Finally she said, “Not here.”

We drove to a secluded part of the beach. She picked a spot that seemed as far from the road as she could possibly get. Then we stopped. She didn’t say a word as she got out of the Jeep, I followed her silently. I watched as she opened the back, taking out a bag. She looked around, seemingly finding what she was looking for. I followed her as she went over to a large drum that was clearly being used as a trash can. Without saying a word, she opened her bag and dumped all the contents into the drum. Then she took out some matches and lit everything on fire.

“Good bye Laura West,” she said with a sigh.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She didn’t answer the question. Instead she stared at me intently.

“You have a phone?”

I nodded, reaching into my carrier bag and showing her. She snatched it out of my hand before I could react. A second later, she was tearing the back off it. She took out the sim card, broke it in half and tossed it into the fire. Then she did the same to my phone.

“What the fuck!”

She ignored me again. “What in the bag?”

“My laptop,” I said slowly, clutching the bag to my chest.

“Give it here.”

I shook my head. “Fuck you!”

She sighed, rubbing her temples. “We don’t have time for this. They can track you. The cell phone, the laptop...it’s all compromised now. You might not like it, but we’ve gotta trash it.”

No way.

I shook my head again. “Not fucking happening.”

There was no way I was giving it up.

It was the only thing…

It was mine.

She gave me a look. “I just trashed sixteen years of my life. You don’t think I get it? Trust me, I GET it. I’ve been here before. When you get to be my age, you’ll understand...”

Her age?

She sounded like an old man.

“You talk like you’re eighty years old,” I said with a scoff.

She laughed. “I wish I was still that young.”

Wait, what?

“You’re what, twenty three?”

It was a guess. The look on her face though, told me I was way off. I squinted. Dammit. Did I screw up and make her older? I mean, she was still very young and pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. That blonde hair, those blue eyes. She had a great body. If I was still me, I would be drooling all over her. I’ll be honest though, it was hard to gauge ages these days. Some older women took very good care of themselves. A thirty five year old could easily pass as a twenty something. The thing is, I was never very good at guessing. I was bad at compliments too.

“Ummm… I totally meant twenty one, right?”

She stared for a while.

Then she burst out laughing.

Shit.

“Nineteen?” I said, wincing from the perceived tongue lashing.

She stopped laughing.

Did I get it right?

“Believe it or not,” she said, very seriously. “I’m one hundred and twenty six.”

Oh, well then…

“You don’t look a day over fifty,” I said with a smirk and an eye roll.

If she didn’t want to tell me her real age that was fine. She didn’t have to be an ass about it though.

Women are so damn sensitive.

She didn’t say anything for a minute or two. Instead, she turned and looked at the ocean. She absently started to rub her necklace. I stared too. It took me a second or two to realize I was rubbing my bracelet. There was that tingle too.

“You feel it, don’t you,” she asked with a heavy sigh. “That pull. It's overwhelming at times. Now that you’ve changed, you’re not going to be able to get far from the sea. I try to stay close. It's why I mostly live out of my Jeep. You’ll get used to it….eventually.”

I was still staring at the ocean.

All that water…

I shuddered.

“Does it get better?”

She shrugged. “I find taking a swim helps. It lessens the need, but it doesn’t last very long. Baths are better than showers in that respect.”

I think Mother Nature has a sick sense of humor.

I walked up and stood beside her. “So, do you, you know...in the water...”

I tried to mimic a tail with my hand but failed miserably.

She smiled. “The first thing you need to understand is that you’re not human and never were.”

I think I figured that one out for myself.

She turned and pointed to a bit of sand a few feet away. I followed her and we sat.

“So what am I then?”

She didn’t answer, not right away. When she did, I’m not sure she could really put it into words. “There isn’t really any true definition for us. Sure there’s stories, lots of stories. I know what you’re thinking and you’re not wrong. I’ve thought it too for a very long time. The thing, we don’t really label ourselves. Humans have come close though. I guess the best term to describe us, using their language, would be Merrow."

Merrow?

What the hell was a Merrow?

She smiled, answering as if she read my mind. “It's a sea creature from Irish mythology. Though I use the term creature very loosely. We’re Daughters of the Sea; I guess you could say. We have extremely long lives and can transform our legs into tails while in the water.”

“I discovered that one for myself already...”

She nodded. “That was the first one. It's generally the worst. Very disorienting and confusing. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you. Usually, when one of us changes, there’s a Sister there to help us. We don’t like to leave the young ones without someone.”

I huffed at that.

“You left me.”

She sighed. “Not intentionally. You have to understand something very important. When we’re born, we don’t have these gifts. We’re born human, like our fathers. Upon our birth, our Mothers can no longer stay on land for more than a few hours at a time. So as infants we’re passed to our Fathers to raise until we come of age. Then we hear the Call of the Sea and transform under the waves. Do you understand so far?”

I nodded. I still had questions though.

One big one.

“If our fathers raise us, then where’s mine?”

“He died,” she said in a soft voice.

Wow.

I mean I was expecting it. I’d been an orphan all my life. I really, truly did wonder what happened to my parents. I thought the Spencers had the answers, and they did, but they were lies. Then along comes Eilish with a different story. She’s my aunt, my real one. Now my real father truly was dead…

“What about my mother?”

She squeezed my hand. “She’s out there,” she said, pointing to the ocean.

I looked but I couldn’t see anyone.

She chuckled. “Not out there, out there. She’s far away from here. Too many bad things here. But she’s out there, waiting. It's why I'm here too. When we realized we couldn’t leave you with your father, we made a decision. It wasn’t a smart one, but we were running out of time. We didn’t have a choice. I hope you understand that. I tried to stay close though. You might not have noticed, but I’ve never been very far away from you...”

I started to tear up.

It's not every day you’re told that you were abandoned for a reason. I always had questions. I wanted to know why my parents didn’t want me. I was sure I was some kind of mistake. That they were throwing away something horrible they didn’t want. Now, I knew I was wanted, but I couldn’t be kept. The tears started to flow freely and wouldn’t stop. Before I knew it, Eilish was hugging me. I wanted to pull away but I couldn’t. Her touch was comforting.

She had a nice smell too.

Like the ocean.

She held me for a long time. When we finally pulled away, she brushed some hair from my face.

She’d been crying too.

I could see the tear streaks on her cheeks.

“I’ve wanted to hold you like this, in my arms, for a long time...”

That led us to hugging again.

This one lasted a bit longer.

I’m not sure why, but I felt safe with this woman.

Finally, I pulled away again.

“So what do we do now?” I asked, craning my head to look at the ocean. “About Bishop and the rest of this?”

She didn’t answer for some time.

When she did, it sent chills up my spine.

“We run.”

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Anything critical you have to say, PLEASE do so in a PM. Pointing out people's flaws or mistakes in a comment is hurtful and NOT appreciated.Thanks in advance...EOF