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 did say in a blog last week that something new was coming. I'm sad to say this is not the continuation of A Starlight Summer that I'm sure some people wanted nor is this a sequel to Hello. This is a new story, something quick and light for the summer. I'm actually not sure how long its going to be but I'm currently writing Ch.5. I actually started developing the idea of this story months ago but kept putting it off for one reason or another. I have a pretty good idea where I want to take so I hope everyone enjoys the journey. Once again I'd like to thank Nyssa for taking on the job of Editor once again :) PS: This story is NOT realistic in the least, set in a world alternate to ours and NOT connected to ANY of my other stories in ANY way.

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1.

It was raining. I should have been scared of the rain, but I wasn’t. There was something tranquil about it. I liked to sit in my room like now, staring out the window at it. It was coming down pretty hard today. My little room overlooked the parking lot, but it was hard to see the cars today. That didn’t stop me from staring though. It was a good time to think too. To think about where it all seemed to go wrong.

It was the water.

It was ALWAYS the water.

I can’t remember the first time I was in the water. I’m sure it was when I was a baby, probably during some swim school or some such nonsense. Trying to remember that was just as hard though. Like the faces of my parents. It was all just one blur. That’s how memories were sometimes. My first true memory of the water was when I was about five. My foster parents had this little kiddie pool in the backyard. It wasn’t very deep, but I almost drowned. It was Jimmy’s fault. He was my older foster brother. He liked to roughhouse a lot. He took pleasure in pushing me around. No one was around, but I was certain he was the one who pushed my head under water. He was also the one who held it there.

I left that place after that.

There were other times though.

Other incidents.

None of them ever ended the right way.

I learned early on it was just easier to stay away from it. As long as I didn’t go near the water then it couldn’t hurt me. Everything was fine until elementary school ended. In middle school, PE class changed. There were locker rooms and showers. Bathing never bothered me though. I could take a shower easy. It was the same for the rain. Getting into a bath was a problem though. Pools were a big problem. There was something about a pool of water that terrified me. The idea of not having ground under my feet was a scary thought. The idea of putting my head under was even more terrifying. I’d like to blame Jimmy but I know it wasn’t him. I was scared to go into that pool long before he dunked me.

It was called aquaphobia.

The fear of water.

Well, more specifically, the fear of harm in water.

After Jimmy nearly drowned me and I left that foster family, I ended back with the State. Scared and not sure what to do, my Case Worker sent me to a shrink. He diagnosed me fairly quickly. He was certain it was the near death by drowning that caused me such trauma. I’d like to say that’s what caused my fear but I’m not honestly sure. I think it was always there. I know I couldn’t remember it but there was something about the water that unsettled me. Every time I looked at it, I felt abandoned. I tried to explain that to a shrink but they kept chalking it up to deflection. There were a lot of shrinks over the years. Each one always had the same theory. I was afraid about drowning again so I kept coming up with excuses to stay out of the water.

They tried to help me.

They tried exposure therapy first. Many of them were convinced that if they exposed me to water that I might be able to conquer my fear of it. Little by little they introduced me to it. They started small with things like glasses and buckets, then kept moving up. The smaller things didn’t bother me. It was when they brought me to a tub full of water. I would freeze up and start to tremble. I started to sweat and couldn’t breathe. A few times I even passed out. After that, I was usually moved on to a new shrink. Then they’d try it all over again. It was a vicious never-ending cycle.

It wasn’t the only thing they tried though.

Their second favorite thing was cognitive therapy. The power of thought. If I challenged my mind to conquer the water then I’d succeed. At least that’s how it was supposed to work. I guess my fear was stronger than my rational thought. That didn’t stop them from trying though. Just like with the exposure therapy, most of the shrinks kept pressuring me with it. They were convinced I wasn’t trying hard enough. It was all pretty damn stupid.

In the end, I stopped going to shrinks altogether.

I was thirteen when the foster homes stopped too.

They were always happy to get me at first. They were nice enough people, but the water thing always beat them. In the end, I think the State stopped trying. It was just as well. I didn’t mind the group homes much. I’d been in a few. They were all pretty much the same. Some of them even let me have my own private room. I was bounced around them a lot though. Over the last three years, I think I’d been in at least six. Now that I was sixteen, I always got my own room. There were very few kids my age and none of them older. In two years, I’d be an adult in the eyes of the State. I’d be able to leave and start my life on my own.

Not that that was any different than usual.

I was always alone.

I was used to it now.

A gentle knock on my door broke me from my thoughts. I didn’t turn away from the window though.

I didn’t have to because I knew who was there.

A second later, I heard the door open and someone step inside. It was Mrs. Price, my current caseworker. She was a nice lady, but she wore too much perfume. I smelled her before she got to the door. It was like the woman bathed in it. Like a little blue-haired lady but I knew she was only in her thirties.

“Cassidy, are you all right?”

I sighed.

I never knew my parents. I’m told they dropped me off on the steps of a church when I was a baby. I was wrapped in a blanket and had nothing else. Except a note. It was a simple note. It told the nuns to take care of their precious child, Cassidy, and let him grow to be a fine, strong boy. Of course, whoever brought me into this world had a sick sense of humor because they spelled my name wrong, they wrote, “Cassidae”. I looked it up years later, it was actually the name of a snail. More specifically, it was the family name for the large helmet or bonnet snail. The irony was not lost on me. My parents named their son after a water creature.

Of course, the nuns thought it was a misspelling too because they called me Cassidy. They gave me the last name of Parker, it was the name of the street. I never really liked either name, to be honest. So I gave myself a new name when I was ten. It stopped the other kids from picking on me so much.

“Bo,” I said with a bit of annoyance. “My name is Bo.”

Hey, it sounded cool at the time.

Bo Parker definitely sounded a lot better than Cassidy that’s for sure.

When kids asked me about it, I told them it was my middle name. They never questioned it. The only ones whoever called me Cassidy these days were my teachers and of course my various social workers.

Mrs. Price being the current one.

Her heels clicked as she walked further into the room. I turned and smiled at her. Mrs. Price was a woman that took good care of herself. It was clear that she ate healthily and exercised regularly. I overheard her once talking to another social worker about how she and her husband ran a mile every morning. Though she always dressed in a professional pants suit, I could definitely see that she had a toned figure underneath. I’d overheard other things about her too. Mainly boys younger than me fantasizing about her, wanting to do things to her that I would never repeat.

“Cassidy,” she said, emphasizing my real name. “I have some great news. There’s someone here who’d like to meet you.”

I sighed.

Here we go again.

I gave up on foster homes a long time ago. I’d been in quite a few over the years, none of them lasting more than a few months at a time. My longest had been when I was ten. They were called the Mitchells. They had a daughter Tori who was a year younger than me. I was with them for over a year. Everyone thought for sure that it would stick. My case worker at the time was Mrs. Glenn, an older woman who didn’t smile much. She was nice enough in her own right I suppose. She’d placed Tori with them a few years before. The Mitchells adopted her a year before I arrived. They were nice people. They lived in a large brick house with a white picket fence and had a great big pool in their backyard.

That’s where it happened.

It was all innocent enough at first. I’d been avoiding the pool most of that summer. The Mitchells were well aware of my fear of water. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop a group of neighbor boys. They weren’t cruel by any means but they were insistent. They wanted to use our pool. I knew them from school but I wasn’t really friends with them. The kid in charge of the group was named Tommy. He was a bit on the pushy side. His parents were rich so he always got his way. Well, one thing led to another and all of us were sitting around the pool deck. It was the closest to the water that my phobia would allow. The other boys jumped right in though. Tommy lingered back with me, trying to coax me into the water with him.

I wouldn’t call him a bully. Tommy wasn’t a bad kid. There were just a few misconceptions about me that Tommy, like a lot of people, made.
I’ve always been a bit on the dainty side. Not just in size either. My hair was silky smooth, the gold of spun gold as I’ve been told. My eyes were a bright blue, brighter than most people. It tended to draw a lot of attention. Even at age ten, it was hard for me to go unnoticed. It didn’t help at the time I liked to wear my hair a bit on the long side, generally at my shoulders. Most people mistook me for a girl at first glance. It didn’t help that Tori liked to braid my hair whenever she could. She used to say I was too pretty to be a brother so she treated me like a sister. I never protested because honestly, I liked the attention. She was the first person my age who was nice to me. I didn’t care if she wanted me to be her “sister”.

I never blamed Tori for what happened after.

Many thought I did.

Tommy started to tease me like boys his age did with girls. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew, he was trying to push me into the water. I panicked and reacted. Mrs. Mitchell wasn’t fast enough to stop what happened next. I shoved Tommy backward as hard as I could. He stumbled over the deck chair and hit his head on the corner of the railing. I didn’t kill him, thank god, but he got a nice gash. There was a lot of blood. He ended up in the hospital, had to have stitches. Shortly after that, his parents sued. There was a lot of back and forth for a bit between lawyers, but I was told later they settled out of court. It didn’t matter though, the Mitchells sent me back.

Unwanted again.

Tori told me later that she found the adoption papers. They were going to make it official. She bawled for three days after. We still kept in touch, usually through email and social media. She still called me her “sister” which of course the two of us laughed about. I missed her a lot though. We no longer lived in the same state anymore. Her father got a promotion two years ago and they moved. We never told her parents we kept in touch. I think it was all too painful.

Not just for them either.

I stopped caring after that.

I was in three or four more places after that, but none of them stuck.

Here it was nearing my sixteenth birthday, I wasn’t expecting much.

Now, this.

“I’m not interested.”

She sighed.

This wasn’t the first time she and I had had this conversation. She kept pushing these new people on me and I deliberately kept scaring them away. I was getting pretty good at it too. I had this emo act down pat now. It helped that I sold it with a few more piercings than usual and some dark eye makeup. I wore my hair in a typical emo fashion, cut with a lot in front to hide my eyes. I occasionally dyed it different colors too. Currently, it was black with a green streak. I topped the look off with some dark clothes, enough to make me look like I didn’t care.

It was an act that worked.

It was an act though.

One that she saw through all the time.

“We’ve been through this, Cassidy, you have to give someone a chance.”

We had been through this.

Many times.

It was starting to become a broken record.

“I don’t want to give someone a chance. I want to be left alone until the state throws me out.”

“This lady is different.”

I’d heard that before. She said that about the Mitchells. I was stupid enough to believe her too. They were good people. I was hoping they wanted me in their lives for the rest of mine. Then Tommy Kincaid ruined all that for me. It never stopped either. Tommy was still around, a little older but definitely not wiser. Of course, he and I didn’t travel in the same social circles. I was that dangerous loner, he turned into the jock. Big surprise there. For a while after the incident though, he and his buddies went out of their way to “bump” into me at recess. He seemed to think that I somehow tricked him into thinking I was a girl. It had nothing to do with me laying him out.

The bullying thankfully stopped when we got into middle school. He got a girlfriend and the novelty of me wore off. There were other bullies though. Thankfully my emo act scared them away too. It is, after all, hard to bully someone who doesn’t react at all to your taunts. Even pushing me around in the hall got tiresome to them. So in school just like life, I was all but ignored.

Except by Mrs. Price.

I sighed and jogged her memory. “That’s what you’ve said about all the others.”

“You didn’t give those…” She rubbed her temples. “No, I’m not going to get into this right now. What I am going to do is tell you to meet with this couple. They’ve come a long way and she asked for you specifically.”

Wait, what?

“What do you mean they asked for me?”

Mrs. Price shrugged. “They said they were looking for a boy named Cassidae.”

Cassidae?

“Cassidae and not Cassidy?”

Mrs. Price smiled. “I thought that might pique your interest. It certainly piqued mine. She’s waiting in Mr. Fraser’s office, would you like to meet her?”

I bit my lip.

Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.

Someone was asking for me. Someone who knew my name.

How could that be?

Mr. Fraser was the head of the Social Services department in our sleepy little hamlet. Grover wasn’t exactly a hamlet, more like a small village. It was so small that it rarely appeared on maps. Most of the older residents preferred it that way but a lot of the younger ones were racing to leave. Not me though. I liked it here. It was where the Mitchells lived, the only true place I ever called home. Sure they were gone now but that didn’t stop me from feeling close to them. I made a detour every day after school to walk by “our” house. There was a new family living there now, but the place still looked the same. I know it was brutal to do, reminding myself every day of what I could have had, but they still felt like my family.

No one else ever got close.

Not the kids here.

Not Mrs. Price.

Definitely NOT Mr. Fraser.

When we knocked on his door, we heard a grumble that told us to enter. Fraser was sitting behind his desk. He gave me a look when we entered. I knew that look all too well. The man didn’t like me. The feeling was mutual too. He’d called me an ungrateful punk more than once. He more than likely said a lot worse things behind my back. I know I did. Fraser was a fat, bald jackass. A pompous windbag who did his job half ass and half-cocked. He cared more about his quotas than he actually did about placing kids in the proper foster environments.

Looking around the room, I rolled my eyes at all his “awards” and certificates.

He was such a tool.

“Parker” he grumbled, not looking up from my rather thick file. “I see you’re back here again."

That’s how much he knew.

I grunted. “I never left.”

“Well yes, I meant this office of course...”

I shared a look with Mrs. Price, she returned a weak smile.

“Mr. Fraser, we’re here about the couple that showed interest in Cassidy?”

He looked at my file then to me. “Oh yes, right.”

He pressed the intercom on his desk, asking his secretary to send in the Spencers.

The Spencers.

A thousand thoughts were rolling around in my head right now. If they knew my name, my real one, could it be that they really knew me? Maybe they were distant relatives or even better, maybe… No, I wasn’t going to let myself get my hopes worked up. I gave up on my parents a long time ago. They abandoned me on the steps of a church. They weren’t coming back. I was going to have to accept it once and for all and move on. No, whoever these people were, they were strangers.

A moment later, the door opened.

I held my breath.

I was surprised at how normal they looked. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the couple that walked through the door looked like nice people. Both middle class, dressed in button-downs and khakis. They appeared to be in their mid-thirties, in good health. In fact, in great shape. The husband looked like he could run marathons. He hid it well behind the buttondown shirt and black frame glasses. I watched them carefully, wondering what their deal was. They took seats on the opposite side of the room, near the door. They looked around the office before their eyes fell on me. I still held my breath, waiting for the reaction.

It was the Emo disguise.

It always got them.

When the wife looked at me though, she smiled.

Well, that’s a first.

“This is him?” she asked, Mr. Fraser nodded.

Then the professional took over.

Mrs. Price cleared her throat. “Cassidy, this is Mr. and Mrs. Spencer, they’re from Richmond.”

“That’s nice,” I said, all part of the act.

I discovered if I acted how I looked it scared them away too.

I watched and waited.

Mrs. Spencer stared at me. I watched and waited. I was expecting it to come any minute.

The look of disgust.

Her reaction came fast.

It was not what I was expecting.

She was crying.

Wait, what was going on?

“He looks like her.”

She started to wipe her eyes with the handkerchief her husband handed her. He apologized as he started to rub her back. Me, I was surprised by this new turn of events. What was going on? Why was she crying? Who did I look like?

I was waiting for her to answer, but instead, she got up and rushed out of the room.

I didn’t know what to do.

Mr. Spencer was standing up to go after his wife but Mrs. Price waved him down. She got up and quickly followed the fleeing woman from the room.

Mr. Fraser grunted.

A lot of help he was going to be.

Mr. Spencer, for his part, looked at me. Then he gave me a weak smile. “So I suppose I should explain some things...”

That would be nice.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He fidgeted a bit. He was definitely nervous.“You see, my wife had a younger sister.” He took another deep breath and let it out faster this time. As he did, he burst right into speaking. “She ran away from home about twenty years ago. Christy was only sixteen at the time. Her parents did the whole search thing. The police got involved. After about a year, they stopped looking. Most figured she had run off with some guy.”

He bit his lip. “There was some bad blood between her and her folks.”

At this point, Mrs. Price came back into the room. “Mrs. Spencer needs a moment.”

Her husband nodded then continued his story. “Christy was a good girl but rebellious. I guess most teenagers are.” He chuckled, looking awkward. I wanted to roll my eyes but didn’t. I wanted to know. No, I needed to know. “Dawn never stopped looking though. She and her sister talked about everything. She was upset and felt responsible that Christy never told her about running away. Then one day out of the blue, she got a letter from Christy. It talked about how she made a mistake...”

I’m not sure I liked where this was going.

Mr. Spencer sensed it. “Now, son, I’m not saying you were a mistake. I’m merely stating the facts as I was told them. Your mother got involved with a man she shouldn’t have. When he found out about it, he wanted her to have an abortion. She openly agreed with him but secretly wanted no part in it. You see, he was married and had children of his own. She hid the pregnancy from him. When it was time to give birth, she did it in secret. Afterward, she made a rash decision.”

Now I was starting to understand.

“So you’re saying...”

“We believe so,” said Mr. Spencer with a sigh. “It took us some time and a lot of arm twisting. I’m a lawyer by trade. I had to call in quite a few favors. The only thing we had to go on was a relative age, an approximate date of birth and, of course, your name.”

I scoffed. “That took nearly sixteen years?”

“We didn’t have much to go on son,” he said as if it explained everything. “We weren’t even sure if your mother was telling the truth.”

My mother.

You know I’d been waiting sixteen years for answers. Sometimes waiting is enough because the truth can be even worse.

“So what happened to her?”

He lowered his head. “She’s dead son.”

Wow.

I think I always knew. Deep in the back of my mind, I had an idea. I tried to find her myself once. Of course, I didn’t even have a name. Mr. Spencer had a lot more to go on. He had the resources too. That didn’t mean it stung less. There were really only a few kinds of kids in places like this. Ones that were orphans, ones that were abandoned by their folks and ones that had parents who had to give them up for one reason or another. I always dreamed I was the latter but it turns out I was like the former. My mother got scared, couldn’t deal and threw me away. It was the story of my life.

I held back the tears. “What happened to her?”

“She had her demons,” said a voice from beside me.

I hadn’t realized that Mrs. Spencer came back into the room.

She sat in the chair next to me. She reached for my hand but I pulled away. This woman might be related to me but I wasn’t that desperate. She started to cry again, but she nodded, moving out of the chair and back into the one next to her husband.

“We finally caught up with Christy a few years ago,” continued Mr. Spencer, holding his wife’s hand. “By that point, she was a different person. An ex-boyfriend got her hooked on drugs. She’s been in and out of jail and the hospital several times. We tried to get her clean, but it never stuck. A few days after her last stint in rehab, the police found her in a motel...”

He didn’t need to fill in the blanks.

Mrs. Spencer openly cried on his shoulder.

So there it was.

Now I knew.

Well, part of it anyway.

‘What about my father?” I asked bitterly.

Mr. Spencer shook his head. “She never said. She told us it was in the past and to leave it alone so we didn’t press her.”

The room fell into silence after that.

Mr. Spencer let his wife cry it out some more.

Mr. Fraser looked disinterested.

Only Mrs. Price seem to care. She reached over and took my hand. I didn’t stop her. She gave it a good squeeze. She was the only one in this room that I could rely on. No offense to the Spencers of course. They seemed like nice people. I suppose they were family. I looked over at them. I looked from husband to wife. I stared a lot at Mrs. Spencer. I tried to see myself in her but it was hard. Sure we had the same blonde hair and her eyes were blue but I’m not sure I saw myself. Staring at her though, it was clear where I got some of my features from.

Did my mother look like her?

It was finally Mrs. Price who broke the silence.

“So Cassidy, are there any more questions you’d like to ask your au...I mean, Mrs. Spencer?”

I sighed.

Actually they never really answered my first one.

“Why did you wait so long then?”

Finally, it was Mrs. Spencers turn. She wiped her tears and took a deep breath. “When I finally found my sister, she was in rough shape. We got her clean, helped her get on the mend. Up to that point, we weren’t even sure if you existed. But then she started talking about wanting to find you again. We agreed to help. She gave us your name and the name of the church where she dropped you off. We followed the trail as far as we could, then it went cold.”

Mrs. Price filled in the blanks. “The church closed about five years ago. Any records they had were lost.Your official state file wasn't made until you were brought to us about a year after your arrival there”

She pointed to the file currently sitting on Mr. Fraser’s desk.

The dumbass was using it as a coaster right now.

Mrs. Spencer nodded. “It took us nearly a year to get that far. By the time we found the church, your mother gave up. She went back to the drugs...”

I didn’t need to know anymore.

They found me.

Now what?

It was clear what these people wanted. Why else would they track me down after all? It was a shock, to say the least though. Here I was planning to spend the rest of my life here until I was eighteen. It was the only true plan I had. I was counting down the days. Ok, so not literally because that would be nuts, but I knew it wouldn’t be long. I never really thought about family. Not since the Mitchells. I NEVER thought that my parents might have any family out there. Well, at least not in a long time. I just figured if there was any family out there, they would have come for me by now. They were stupid kid dreams though. I realized later that there was no true way for them to find me.

I guess I was wrong.

There was a long silence again.

It was finally Mr. Fraser who broke it:

“So, you want me to start the paperwork then?”

“What?” asked both the Spencers.

The large man chuckled. “Well, you spent all this time looking for the pu...I mean boy. I just assumed you wanted to take him home with you?”

I watched their expressions.

First shock, then surprise.

They smiled, held hands and finally nodded.

So that was it after all.

“Well,” Mrs. Spencer finally said. “We had hoped that Cassidae might consider it?”

All eyes were on me.

Great.

I bit my lip, looking from one face to another.

They didn’t expect me to answer now, did they?

I sighed. “Can I think about it?”

A family.

My real one.

This is NOT how I expected this day to go.

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

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 NoteI decided to post this chapter a day early. My plan is to post a new chapter every Monday. Except this upcoming Monday is my Birthday and my day off from everything important lol. This story is moving slower than I want narrative wise but I'm currently writing Ch.6 so and from that point on, the progression should be a lot faster. These first few chapters are necessary evils. Once again I'd like to thank Nyssa for her awesome editing skills. Also if you find a goof, please point it out in a PM and not in a comment.

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2.

I decided to take a walk to clear my head.

There were a lot of things I needed to think about. Too many things. Most of my life I had wondered about my parents. Who were they? What did they do for a living? Why did they give me up? In less than twenty minutes, I had all my questions answered. Most people in my situation would have been happy. Me, I just had more questions. Everything the Spencers had told me was too neat and tied up. I’m not saying they were liars, but I couldn’t help but feel there was more they weren’t telling me. Like my parents, for instance. I had long suspected there was something wrong about them.

I mean, I’m not an idiot.

Normal, well-adjusted people don’t leave their babies for others to care for. When I was younger, I used to like to pretend I was a prince in disguise. I was being hidden from an evil king to protect me from some dangerous secret. I tried to turn it into a game so the other kids would play with me but none of them had that much of an imagination. None except Tori of course. She was the only one who really wanted to have that perfect fairy tale life. Sure, she loved the Mitchells, but I think a small part of her wished her real parents would come back for her. We were similar in that respect. Except she had known what happened to her parents. They tried to sell her for drug money. It was a sad and horrible truth.

The fact that they tried selling her to an undercover police officer was just icing on the cake.

Tori lucked out though.

She got placed with the Mitchells fairly early.

I groaned.

Thinking about it pissed me off a bit.

I never hated her for it though.

I did hate them.

Well, for a time anyway.

It was right after all that stuff with Tommy. His parents really did a number on them with their lawyers. The Mitchells barely survived it. I didn’t know that at the time though. All I knew was that a month after the final court hearing, I was being shipped back to the home. It crushed me. Then the Mitchells moved away right after. I tried to forget them. Tori wouldn’t let me go though. She contacted me a couple of months later. We did the whole exchange email thing in secret, but I never actually thought she’d write me. I’m not going to lie, getting that first email from her upset me a lot. I cried myself to sleep for days before responding. When I did, I was a bit of an ass to her. I expected that was the end of it, but she kept sending emails and I kept writing her back.

My “sister” that never was.

Speaking of which….

My phone binged with a text.

I didn’t have to look to know it was from her. She was, after all, the only one I texted.

R U OK?

I sighed. I had no idea.

NOT SURE YET.

I texted her about everything as soon as I left Mr. Fraser’s office. I know the adults were hoping that I’d make a decision quick, but I wasn’t ready. It was a lot to put on my shoulders. I had a family, a real one. I now knew who my mother was and she had a sister. I also knew that my father was apparently an asshole who didn’t even know I was alive. When I told Tori about it I’m not sure who was more surprised. I mean, we used to talk about stuff like that. I think a small part of her was hoping that her parents might reach out to her someday. She always used to tell me how lucky I was, not knowing. It was easier for me to pretend that they were important.

Well, the truth sucks.

U HAVE LAPTOP?

I rolled my eyes.

Of course, I did.

There were only a few things that I actually owned in the world. My laptop was one of them. I never left home without it actually. It was, after all, a gift from her parents. They gave it to me on the only Christmas the four of us spent together. The Christmas after that, Mrs. Price gave me a carrier bag for it. The laptop was getting pretty old now, but it still worked. Mrs. Price offered to buy me a new one last year, but I refused. I don’t think I was ever going to give this one up. I used to tell anyone who listened that my “parents” gave it to me. Mrs. Price used to humor me about It but she would frown too.

GIVE ME 1 SEC. LET ME GO TO OUR PARK.

I was on my way there anyway.

It was the place I always went to think.

It was, after all, my special place.

Grover Park was only a block from the Mitchell’s place. Well, their old place. Our “father” used to take Tori and me there all the time. We used to play for hours. I used to think it was the most amazing place in the world. These days it was sadly not much to look at. It was a small section of green in between two roads. There was a swing set, a run-down jungle gym, and some picnic tables. There used to be a large oak tree, but the city had to cut it down because it was a traffic hazard. Every time I looked at the stump where the tree used to stand, I felt miserable. Tori and I used to love trying to climb that tree.

Today the park felt more dismal than usual.

Maybe it was because of the rain.

It was overcast and gloomy. The grass was a sloppy, muddy mess as I made my way to the tables. Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time I started walking. The sun was struggling to push its way through the clouds now. I was able to find a fairly dry table to do my “conference”. Taking the laptop out of my bag, it took me a little longer than usual to boot it up. As I said, it was pretty old. The WiFi was a little spotty too. The closest hotspot was at the coffee shop across the street. It was just wide enough to make it to the park but barely. As soon as I got it booted up though, I used Skype to call my “sister”.

It didn’t take long for her to answer.

We tried to video chat with one another at least two times a week. Lately, though it was getting harder and harder. It was nearing the end of summer and her cheer practice was starting again. She made the squad last year, one of the only eighth graders to do so. It was only JV but she gushed happily about it nonetheless. I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered how excited she was. She even video chatted with me wearing her uniform. I managed to stop her before she burst into one of her insipid cheers though.

“Hey bro,” she said happily as her face popped up on screen.

“Hey, sis.”

Most people would raise an eyebrow at this exchange. Tori was of a mixed race heritage. Her mother was mulatto, her father black. Her skin was creamy brown and her head full of bushy curls. The only thing that might make people think we might be related was the ring in her nose and the butterfly tat she hid on her ankle. Then there was me of course. The pale freak with the dark hair, blue eyes, and black eyeliner.

“You look thrilled,” she said with a giggle.

“Well, it’s not every day that complete strangers show up out of nowhere and say they’re my family,”

She sighed. “So what’ cha gonna do about them?”

I shrugged. “I want to go with them but at the same time it feels weird.”

“I get that. When I met my Mom’s family, it was a little awkward.”

I forgot about that.

Last year, Tori finally got up enough courage to find her mother’s family. Her mother apparently had five siblings and she had several cousins because of it. They lived in Florida and paid to fly Tori there. She spent a week with them. She said she had a good time but it was really weird too. After all, these were people who knew about her parents, knew what happened to her and yet never once bothered to contact her. Not only that, they didn’t try taking her in themselves. There were a lot of excuses thrown her way too. It had all left a pretty sour taste in her mouth. She tried to be civil with them since, through Facebook and the like, but she didn’t really have that much in common with them.

“So what would you do?”

She crinkled her nose. She always did that when she was thinking.

“I think you should give them a shot. I know it’s weird, but I can’t imagine what would have happened if it was me. If my Aunt Carla decided she wanted to track me down sooner and took me in. I’m pretty sure I would have been over the moon.”

“Yeah, but you have Mom and Dad now.”

I couldn’t help it.

No matter how many years it had been, I still felt like they were my parents.

She gave me that look.

“I’m sor...”

I cut her off before she could finish. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. We’ve been over this. I got over it a long time ago.”

I just never told her how long ago that time was.

Or that I was partially lying.

I’m not sure I was ever going to get over it.

“You’re full of it, you know that.”

Well, she could always read me like a book.

I decided I needed to change the subject so I asked her about her week. It’s usually how this worked. We talked about my dull week then she regaled me about all the awesome things she’d been doing. Most of it was about cheerleading. I didn’t really mind. Ok, I did, but I was just happy that she was happy about it. Give her a chance and she could talk your ear off about it. Though lately, it wasn’t the only thing dominating her mind. Or our conversations.

His name was Trey.

He was on the football team. A running back. They met last month and it was love at first sight. At least that’s the way she tells it. I’m not sure I liked him. She tried to reassure me he was a decent guy, but she was my little sister and no guy was ever going to be good enough. I still wanted to meet him though. She kept on trying to get him into Skype so we could have a “talk”, but he kept brushing it off. That’s what made me not like him as much as she did. It bothered me that he didn’t want to take the effort to get to know her family. Sure, Tori and I weren’t blood-related but we were siblings. If the jerk couldn’t accept that then he wasn’t right for her. If I ever got a chance to meet him, I’d tell him that too.

She shifted her focus to school.

Well, her upcoming school year. She was super excited to finally be a high schooler. I tried to be as excited for her as she was, but I wasn’t as enthusiastic. I knew what my sophomore year was going to bring. The very same disappointment as my freshman one. It was the same as every year. I never really could connect with anyone, except Tori. Even then it was a little hard because she was a year behind me. For a small period of time, I was friends with Tommy. Well, before the pool incident. There were a few others I might have called mutual acquaintances, but nothing close to friendship. I was used to it by now.

“You know what I think you need,” said Tori after she was done talking about herself. “I think you need a change of scenery. You’ve lived in Grover your whole life. I think it’s time you get out of that tiny little town and see what else is out there.”

I wanted to argue with, her but she made a good point.

Maybe it was time to get out of this place.

Maybe it was time to find a true family.

“You have everything?”

I looked around my room. I didn’t have much, to begin with. I never put any decorations on the barren gray walls, the furniture belonged to the state and any personal possessions could easily fit in my backpack. Save for the clothes on my back, because I was wearing those. I did have a suitcase with the rest of said clothes. I didn’t have a lot though. A few t-shirts, some jeans, even a pair of shorts believe it or not. The rest of my things were keepsakes from childhood. Nothing really important save the note my mother left. It was so worn after sixteen years that you could barely read what was there. It was my most precious possession. Well, that and the blanket I was found wrapped in.

“Is your laptop fully charged?”

Mrs. Price seemed more anxious than I was.

I tapped my carrier bag. “Yes, and before you ask, so is my phone.”

She smiled weakly.

“I can’t believe...”

She wasn’t able to get the rest out before she started to cry.

The next thing I knew, we were hugging. It was a strange thing. Besides the Mitchells and Tori, Mrs. Price was the closest thing to family that I had. Well, had been, anyway. Now I had the Spencers. But that didn’t stop me from caring about the real people. I found myself burying my face into her chest, savoring the warmth. This woman was like a mother to me. She took care of me, made sure I did my homework for school, ate right, and went to bed on time. She went out of her way to make me feel special and wanted. Everything that a mother should do for a child. I wish my own was around to see it. She could take a lot of pointers.

When we finally pulled apart, I was teary-eyed too.

I wiped my tears quickly before she noticed.

She touched my hair and laughed. “It looks different without the streaks.”

I sighed.

After I decided to go live with the Spencers yesterday, I figured it was about time to make some changes. First to go were the streaks in my hair. It was washable dye after all. I lost the eye makeup too. I never was fond of it, to begin with. It was a pain in the ass to put on and it took me forever to perfect it. Lots of online makeup tutorials and A LOT of trial and error. After I did away with the multi-color hair, getting rid of the makeup was easy. Unfortunately, not easy was dying my hair back to its natural blonde color. When I started dying it black a few years ago, I made sure I used a pretty long-lasting dye. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen myself as a blonde.

I did make a promise to myself though.

No more hair dye.

Once the black faded, I was done.

It was all a part of a bigger promise after all.

To Tori.

After our conversation in the park yesterday, she made me swear that I would jump one hundred percent into this new life of mine. It was actually her idea to drop the emo thing. When I told her it was all an act, to begin with, she only laughed. Then she informed me that the clothes, hair, and makeup might have been an act but everything else was all me. I feigned being hurt for a bit. After getting home though, I thought a lot about what she said. I eventually came to the conclusion that she might be right. Not that I’d ever tell her that of course.

“I needed a change,” I said finally as I ran my fingers through my hair.

“Does this mean that that beautiful boy is finally coming back?”

I sighed.

Beautiful Boy.

It was something that I hadn’t heard in a while. Well, not since I cut my hair and starting listening to depressing music. The makeup and the scowl were not just a disguise to scare off potential foster duds, they also hid me from the rest of the world. I’m not going to lie. I knew why Tommy was teasing me that day at the pool. He thought what a lot of other kids our age thought. After it happened, Mr. Mitchell and I had a long conversation. One that eventually ended with a barber and some tears. Not just mine either. Tori bawled her eyes out when she saw that my golden tresses were gone. I’d like to say it stopped the confusion, but sadly, it didn’t. In fact, it just made me stand out more.

I’m not sure I was ready to go back to it.

Baby steps though.

I was about to say something to that effect when her phone rang. She excused herself and stepped out into the hall for a moment.

I took a moment to look around my room.

I wasn’t going to miss it.

I’d spent the better part of three years here. Alone. Sure, I had a bunk bed but no one ever occupied the top bunk. It was quiet and lonely, but I preferred it that way too. If I had wanted, I could have requested a roommate. Though officially, the older kids were allowed their own rooms, there was nothing in the rules that said they needed them. I just preferred the solitude. Plus, after the Tommy incident, being around other boys my age frightened me. The Emo Disguise kept most away, but every once in a while I’d run into a bold one. Because of my pretty face, I would find myself unable to bluff my way out of an encounter with such people.

I blamed my lack of confidence.

No matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t bring myself to push them away.

Not anymore.

Not after Tommy.

Not after what fighting back had cost me.

I clenched my fists.

I heard Mrs. Price’s heels as she came back into the room.

“That was your uncle, I mean, Mr. Spencer...”

I sighed. It was going to take time.

An awkward silence filled the room.

“They’re downstairs waiting for you...”

Well, here we go then.

The Spencers were waiting downstairs by their rental.

They both looked pretty anxious.

Probably about as anxious as I felt.

I walked out of the building with Mrs. Price. She stopped me on the sidewalk right outside the door. We agreed to say our goodbyes here. She gave me a long hug. After which she slipped me her personal cell number on a piece of paper. She whispered that I should call her if I ever needed anything. She did it in secret because it was honestly against the rules. We’d known each other for so long that maybe the rules didn’t apply here.

“You take good care of yourself, Bo.”

Bo.

I started to tear up with her.

She hugged me again.

We finally pulled away. I gave her a reassuring nod and turned around, hefting my bags as I did so. No looking back, I reminded myself. I walked away from the building and toward the sedan. A few steps from the curb, Mr. Spencer came to retrieve my bags. He walked them around the back to put them in the trunk. While he was doing so, his wife stepped forward. She looked about as nervous as I felt. We stood about a foot apart, neither sure what to do. Finally, she broke the standoff with a very awkward hug. I returned it with just as much awkwardness.

Yeah, this was going to be weird for a while.

When we pulled away, she gently touched my hair.

“It was a washable dye,” I said as an explanation.

She smiled weakly and nodded. “It looks better without it, it’s a shame about the black though.”

I laughed nervously. “It will fade in a couple of months.”

She smiled and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Mr. Spencer came around and opened the door for me. I felt like royalty.

Climbing inside, I refrained from turning around. I didn’t look back until we were pulling away. The dull, gray building slowly disappeared the further we went, hopefully, to never darken my sight again. I sighed when it was finally no longer visible. This was it. This was my life from now on. No more foster care, no more group home. No more Mr. Fraser. I smiled happily about that last bit. He, I would not miss. I would miss Mrs. Price though. I would miss the idea of the Mitchells too. Thinking about them made me tear up slightly.

“Oh honey, don’t cry. Everything will be all right,” said Mrs. Spencer, passing me a tissue from the front seat.

She apparently misinterpreted my tears, but it was the thought that counted.

I smiled and thanked her, dabbing my cheeks.

After that, we drove on in silence for about ten minutes or so.

I watched as we slowly meandered our way through the streets of downtown Grover. When we passed my park, I started to tear up even more. I was in full on waterworks mode when we drove by the Mitchells’ old place. Home. I was leaving home. I was leaving all of it behind. I almost screamed at them to stop, to take me back. I wanted to tell them it was a mistake and I wanted to stay here. I wanted to go home. I didn’t though. I remembered what Tori told me. She wanted me to get away from this place, to put this life and its painful memories behind me.

A new life.

Wherever that was.

Wait, I really didn’t know.

Hadn’t Mrs. Price said something about Virginia?

“I’m sorry if this is a stupid question, but where exactly are we going?”

They laughed.

“There are no stupid questions in this car, Mister,” said Mr. Spencer joyfully.

“Richmond,” said his wife, looking at me from the rearview. “We have a nice house in the suburbs.”

I nodded. “Sounds nice.” Then as an afterthought, “Does it have a pool?”

She gave me a strange look. “No, but we can get one if you’d like?”

A feeling of dread passed over me.

“No,” I said a little louder than I should. “I mean, no pool...”

The color drained from her face. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry. I completely forgot. Of course, no pool.”

So they had read some about me.

That was good.

It was even better that they weren’t trying to run in the other direction. My fear of water had driven quite a few couples away. At first, they were convinced they could handle it. They were also convinced they were going to be the ones to cure me of it. That’s why there were so many shrinks in my life. Everyone had this hero complex. When none of their methods to save me worked, I was always sent back. Always with some lame, half-assed excuse. What it boiled down to was pretty simple. Parents didn’t want a damaged kid they couldn’t fix. That’s why I started to embrace the stereotype and prove how damaged I was. Like I said, the act worked wonders. I was done with it though. Done with the bogus charade. I’d been done with it for a while now. Pretending to be something I wasn’t was very tiresome. I wanted to be normal again, even if it meant going back to my golden hair and my pretty face.

Anything was better than the alternative.

I looked out the window as we drove through the rest of town, silent again. Bit by bit, Grover started to fade away. Until we were on a barren stretch of road going through farmland, heading south. Away from the airport.

“The airport is in the other direction?”

They laughed. “We know. We thought we’d take the scenic route."

“Wait, we’re driving to Virginia?”

They laughed again. “Of course.”

That was crazy.

I blinked. I quickly did the math in my head.

“That’s an eight-hour drive?”

“Nonstop, yes,” said Mr. Spencer. “We’re going to make a stop for the night though. Then tomorrow, we thought we’d head to Virginia Beach for a day or two. I hear someone has a birthday in a few days.”

Three actually.

It wasn’t a big deal.

Birthdays were just another day for me. I never really celebrated them. Mrs. Price would give me a card with some money every year but no one else ever bothered. Well, no one but the Mitchells of course. When I lived with them I had my first and only real birthday party. It was one of the best days of my life. After that though, I never even bothered. In fact, I still had all the money that Mrs. Price had given me the last couple of years. Adding it to my stash, I had about five hundred bucks. It wasn’t a lot, but it was more than most kids my age who didn’t have a job.

I was a bit surprised they mentioned my Birthday though.

“I usually don’t celebrate it,” I said as if it was the least important thing in the world.

Mrs. Spencer turned around in her seat. “Well, you will this year. After all, you only turn sixteen once, right?”

She and her husband shared a laugh.

I returned it with a shrug.

What was so great about sixteen?

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

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 was planning on posting this chapter yesterday but I got sidetracked. More importantly, I was reading some Whateley stuff and lost track of time. That universe can absorb you if you're not careful. I was talking a bit about this story with someone and I apologize if its taking a bit long to get to the point, I fear that's my writing curse lol. I'd like to thank Nyssa for all her editing work :) Secondary Note:I DO NOT WANT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IN COMMENTS FOR THE LAST DAMN TIME. READ MY END NOTE. SEND IT TO ME IN PMs.

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3.

Mr. Spencer laughed.

He and his wife were currently discussing one of their previous vacations. I tried my best to pay attention but at the same time to stay out of their business too. So far I had let them do most of the talking. It was a welcome distraction from the more recent silence we’d been having. I was trying my hardest to let these people have their space. They were, after all, strangers to me. Letting them laugh and talk without interrupting was my way letting them feel more comfortable.

It was making me feel less comfortable too.

It helped that I had my phone.

It also distracted me from the bland landscape outside the window.

We were currently driving through Pennsylvania, about three hours into our drive. We would make a stop for the night in Maryland before moving onto Virginia in the morning. I tried to distract myself as we drove, but was finding it increasingly difficult. Looking out the window only added to my boredom. It might have been more interesting if we’d been driving through the state proper, but we were on the interstate currently. There was nothing but fields and trees as far as the eye could see. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen so much green. An hour ago I was excited to see it. After all, growing up in the city I rarely got to see the countryside.

Now I was sick of it.

It didn’t help that they kept trying to engage me in their conversation.

“Have you ever been to the beach before?”

I sighed.

Here we go again.

“Once,” I said, remembering it fondly. “With the Mitchells”

I almost said my parents but stopped myself.

I saw her smile in the rear-view mirror.

“That’s the family you lived with when you were ten?”

I nodded.

Give the woman a gold star for reading my file.

“They were going to adopt you right?”

I clenched my fist.

Of course, I made sure she didn’t see. I didn’t want her to think she struck a chord.

In the short period of time that I’d been with these people, I discovered a couple of things. One, they were trying too hard. They were trying to make a good first impression and it showed. They were both acting far too nice for their own good. I knew enough about people now to know when it was an act. They were hiding something from me. I’m sure it was nothing sinister though. I knew how to spot that too. I’d had a few experiences with it. Say what you will, but people come in all kinds and most are pretty decent. There are a few bad eggs though. There are also a few foster parents out there that are looking to cash in on their kids. They play a role, act a part, then cash in the monthly check. Generally on booze or material possessions. I’d seen it once or twice and I’d heard some pretty horrible stories over the years. Not every foster parent out there was looking to give an unfortunate child a home.

The Spencers didn’t appear to be the scheming type though.

But there was something about them.

Mentioning the Mitchells, for instance.

I thought I saw the corner of Mrs. Spencer’s mouth twitch.

Almost as if she was jealous?

“I didn’t think there were many beaches in Grover,” she said, laughing.

It was almost condescending.

I forced a smile. “It wasn’t Grover.”

It was the Finger Lakes. I didn’t tell them that of course. It was none of their business. I couldn’t help but smile thinking about it though. We spent a whole week there over the summer. It was one of the best weeks of my life. The vacation itself should have cemented itself as the best moment in my life, but that was the icing on the cake. The greatest moment of the trip was when I got Charlie. He was my dog. Arguably my best friend in the whole world. Well, at least for the very short period of time the two of us spent with one another. I’m not going to lie. It broke my heart when I had to leave that puppy behind.

I refused to let Tori talk about him.

He was almost six now, I guess.

I wouldn’t even let her show me pictures.

It was just too painful.

I started to tear up.

Shit.

I cursed again for cursing. I hated to swear. Mrs. Price used to scold me constantly for it. Apparently, I was too smart for it. According to her, only ignorant people swore. Well, it was a good thing I was only doing it in my head. Looking at the Spencers, I could see they were the type of people that might not tolerate it.

“Are you ok, sweetie?”

I turned my head from her. “I’m fine.”

She started talking again but I tuned her out.

I wasn’t trying to be rude, but she started on about a vacation she took to the beach when she was a girl. It didn’t sound all that interesting. She was about ten minutes into the story when she mentioned my mother.

“She loved the water,” she was saying.

I scoffed.

Define irony.

“Is something funny?”

I gave her a genuine smile this time. “Most not be hereditary, the love for water I mean.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Ummm, they said you’re afraid...”

I cut her off. “Yes.”

I didn’t need to be reminded.

I saw the look on her face. Interrupting her had hurt her feelings. I almost cursed aloud but stopped myself.

“Sorry,” I said and meant it.

She reached behind the seat and awkwardly fumbled for my hand. I met her halfway, she squeezed mine. “It’s ok, sweetie. No one said any of this was going to be easy.”

“It’ll get better though, kiddo,” said her husband, speaking for the first time in a while. “There’s just going to be a slow adjustment period.”

It was slowly starting to make some sense now.

“That’s why we’re going to Virginia Beach?”

His wife gave my hand another gentle squeeze.

She didn’t have to say anything though.

It was enough of a confirmation.

The promised stop for the night that Mr. Spencer mentioned was in Maryland.

We stayed at a little rest stop motel.

The stay was pretty uneventful. The place had been pretty dingy. After being on the road for nearly five hours though, it was a nice rest. It was all pretty ordinary and boring though. There was a nice little diner attached to the rest stop too. We had dinner there when we arrived, took our bags into the motel and all but crashed. It was just as well because we were on the road bright and early the next day. I had a fairly restless sleep. It was strangely quiet. I was used to a lot of noise, what with living in a building with at least twenty other kids. When I felt like I finally fell asleep, we were waking up again to continue our journey.

We arrived at Virginia Beach at midday.

My face was glued to the window.

This was, after all, the first time I saw the ocean.

It was amazing.

I’d never seen so much water before.

It was so blue.

I felt my hands twitch slightly. All that water, it was a pretty scary thing.

Sensing my apprehension, Mrs. Spencer tried to distract my mind.

“That’s our hotel resort over there,” she said, pointing.

The resort was amazing.

It had a large central building with several smaller bungalows dotted along the beach. All of them had this fake bamboo and thatched roof look to them. I’d see something similar in a movie once. Of course, those places had been the real deal. This resort was clearly trying to sell an experience to the tourists. I didn’t mind though. As long as we got one as far from the water as humanly possible.

We pulled the rental up near the large building. Mr. Spencer did all the talking.

We managed to get one of the prized bungalows on the beach.

Not exactly my idea, but they were very sought after according to the receptionist.

Mr. Spencer must have had some pull.

As we were walking out, he handed me and his wife a card.

“This is for the room.”

I pocketed the card.

The two adults excitedly talked about this mini-vacation. Me, I kept staring at the ocean. As we walked along the wooden path toward the beach, I felt my apprehension grow. Stepping onto the sand, I was nearly blinded by the whiteness of it. I didn’t know sand could be that bright? I shielded my eyes the best I could and followed my guardians toward Bungalow #3, our home away from whatever home for the next couple of days. Hopefully less. My birthday was tomorrow. I was hoping they’d get their fill of this place by then and we’d head to Richmond.

Away from the ocean.

Well, as far from it as the city allowed.

“Are you going to be ok this close to the water?” asked my aunt, concerned.

I surprised myself by thinking of her as my aunt.

So far she’d only been Mrs. Spencer.

It was inevitable I suppose.

I looked toward the ocean, trying very hard not to shudder. “It’s fine from this distance.”

It was, barely.

Our bungalow was just far enough away.

She came up next to me, squeezing my shoulder.

“It’s only going to be for a couple of nights. If it gets too much for you then we’ll move to a hotel further inland.”

I smiled and thanked her.

I also reassured her that it would ok.

Hopefully, I wasn’t lying. The last thing I needed was to have a panic attack here. Especially with all these people. Though the resort was far enough away from the shoreline, the beach was fairly crowded. It might have been a really lovely place if not for the ocean. It was strange though. I didn’t feel nearly as bad as I thought I would. Looking at the ocean now, I felt almost at peace. It was strange. This was the first time I’d ever felt calm near water. Especially such a large amount of it. Maybe it was only pools that did it to me? I shook that thought off immediately. I could clearly remember being scared around the lakes on that vacation all those years ago?

Maybe I was outgrowing the fear?

I bit my lip.

Maybe I should test it?

“Something wrong?” asked my aunt, probably wondering why I was standing there like an idiot.

Now or never.

“I think I want to walk around the beach for a bit, explore.”

She paused for a moment, as if she was about to say something but changed her mind at the last minute. She gave me a gentle smile instead. “I don’t see anything wrong with that. Just try to be back before nightfall if you can.”

I thanked her and handed her my bag.

I took my laptop with me though.

I wanted to have a quick check-in with Tori.

I found a secluded place not too far from the resort. It was in a little picnic area. I found a table as far away from the other vacationers as I could. Setting up my laptop with the free Wi-fi, I finally got a hold of her. As soon as her face appeared, I smiled.

She glared at me. “Where the hell have you been?”

I sighed. “On the road.”

I didn’t get a chance to tell her what was going on. Yesterday we were driving most of the day and the day before when we left, I was a bit out of it. So, naturally, I had to fill her in on all the gory little details.

“So you decided to go with them then?”

I shrugged. “I suppose I didn’t really have a choice.”

They’re family.

Though I didn’t tell her that.

She was the ONLY family I needed.

Well, she and her parents of course.

“You always have a choice. I think going with them was the right one.”

The jury was still out on that one.

We started to talk about her day for the last couple of days. She was halfway through a grueling cheer practice session when a group of bikini-clad girls ran behind me. She raised an eyebrow: “Where are you exactly; you never said?”

I didn’t?

“Virginia Beach,” I said with an eye roll.

She knew how much I LOVED the water.

“You’re kidding!”

I sighed. “Nope. Apparently, this is in celebration of my birthday.”

I said “celebration” with air quotes. I think it was just an excuse for the Spencers to come to the beach.

Her smile got enormous. “Cass, Virginia Beach is like six hours from here!”

She was practically jumping up and down in excitement.

While she was doing that, I pulled up a map on my phone.

I knew Tori lived on an island now. It was part of a much larger chain of islands off the coast of South Carolina. The Sea Islands. What I hadn’t realized was how close they were to me now. It felt like fate was dragging me here – the thought of being so close to her, to possibly seeing her and her parents again. Of maybe seeing Charlie again? I started to feel her excitement too. My family. I could go see my family. Finally, after all these years, I could go home.

My excitement faded quickly as reality set in.

“We’re moving to Richmond, how far away is that?”

“Not sure. Probably not far. It doesn’t matter though, you’re close to me now. Close to us. There’s no longer this massive distance anymore...”

She was still excited. I couldn’t help but smile at that.

While I was smiling at her animatedly going on and on about how cool all of this was, I couldn’t help but notice I was being watched. I noticed them as soon as I sat down – a group of kids around my age – but I was hoping they didn’t see me. Out of curiosity though, I kept looking their way. It was hard not to. There were at least three girls in the group, wearing bikinis. They had tanned, toned bodies and filled out those suits nicely. The two guys were hardbodies too. Surfer types. Not the type of guys that would enjoy me eyeing their girls.

Now they were watching me.

Great.

It didn’t take long for one of the girls to break off from the “pack”.

I groaned.

“Something wrong?” asked Tori, craning her neck to see if she could see behind me.

She couldn’t.

A moment later, the bikini-clad blonde came sauntering over.

“Hey there!” she said in a chipper voice. “I’m Brit, you’ve been sitting over here a while, all alone...”

I wanted to roll my eyes but that would have been rude.

Instead, I flashed her a fake smile. “I’m not alone. I’m talking to my sister.”

I pointed to Tori on the screen. She waved like an idiot.

Brit looked at the screen. “Oh...well, I guess I don’t want to interrupt then...”

I sighed.

Thank God for that.

“I gotta get going. I’ll call you later, bro!”

I wanted to stop her but before I could she closed the chat.

Damn her.

Brit smiled big. “Perfect! C’mon, I’ll introduce you to my friends!”

Yay me!

I shut down my laptop, returned it to its bag and followed her over to her table. I was dragging my feet a bit, but in truth, it’s not like I had to go. I could have easily told her “No” or just walked away. Instead, I was following. Maybe a small part of me wanted to meet them. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d just hung out with a group of kids my own age. Back home, I avoided most people. Besides talking to Tori almost every day, I didn’t socialize much. I woke, went to school, did my homework then went to bed. I did it day after day. Even meal times at the home I usually sat alone. I convinced myself that I preferred it that way. I also convinced myself that others didn’t want me around.

The thing is, I never really tried.

Walking up to the table, Brit smiled big. “Guys...this is….umm...”

“Bo,” I said, giving them the name I made up for myself.

One of the girls scrunched up her nose. “Is that a real name?”

I shrugged. “It is today.”

One of the guys laughed, the others, including Brit, stared at me funny.

Brit quickly did the intros. The two other girls were Mandy and Claire. Mandy was the one that commented about my “name”. The two surfer guys were Brody and Dave. Dave was the one that laughed. I tried to be polite, but honestly, they all intimidated me. They were beautiful people and I barely compared. Especially to the guys. Their height, their chiseled abs. I looked pathetic in comparison. It didn’t help that Brody was staring at me like he wanted to squish me. Dave was staring too but his gaze felt different. It made me a bit uncomfortable actually.

“Well scoot over,” said Brit, making room at the table for me.

I sat next to her.

She giggled.

After I sat, their conversation started. I quickly felt out of the loop. From what I could tell, they were from somewhere inland. They never said where. They were on vacation, this was the last leg of it. They were obviously staying at the resort, happy to be in such a beautiful place. I only half paid attention to all of it though. I felt out of place. More so because they didn’t bother to include me in their talking. It didn’t take me very long to figure out why I was here. Brit made it very clear when she grabbed my hand. They were all paired up. She was the odd woman out.

I felt so used.

I thought about leaving but I decided to go with it.

After all, we were only going to be here another day or so.

“So Bo, where are you from?”

It was Dave who was asking.

“New York, originally,” I said without giving it too much thought. “I’m moving to Richmond though.”

“That’s a drastic change.”

I shrugged. “Story of my life.”

He started to ask about my life but I wasn’t ready to tell a complete stranger about me, so I lied. I told him my parents died recently, and I was now living with my aunt and uncle. Not an outright lie, but it worked. It got me some sympathy, especially from Brit. It was kind of nice having a beautiful, half-naked girl press her chest against my arm. I certainly wasn’t going to complain. Me opening up to Dave, though, shifted the whole conversation toward me. Everyone was suddenly interested in New York. I tried my best to field questions, but as soon as they realized I lived nowhere near the City, they lost interest again.

Well, all of them except Dave.

He still peppered me with questions.

I answered them as best as I could. He mainly wanted to know about where I grew up and things like that. I lied well. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want these people to know the truth. They didn’t have the right to it. It wasn’t as glamorous as their lives either. So a few white lies between strangers was nothing. It seemed to work. He eventually lost interest too. He went back to hanging on his girlfriend which was just fine with me. Especially when the group got bored just sitting around and talking. It quickly became clear that they wanted to move their “party” elsewhere and I was free to tag along.

We moved from one place to another.

Not staying very long anywhere.

They were free spirits in a way.

We ended up at a pool for a while. It was one of those large, in-ground ones that a lot of hotels had. It felt a bit counterproductive to me though. This resort was on the beach after all. Why did they have a pool when the ocean was a stone’s throw away? When I mentioned it to the group, I got a lot of blank stares. Clearly, they thought nothing was wrong. Just as well. I’m just glad they didn’t ask me to go into the water with them. I was perfectly happy lounging in one of the poolside deck chairs. Brit did ask me why I didn’t want to go into the water. When I explained to her I didn’t have a suit, she gave me a funny look. It occurred to me then that I told them I was on vacation. So I quickly explained to her that I wasn’t a very strong swimmer and that got her to go away. Thankfully, we didn’t stay at the pool long.

We moved from there to a little bar area.

We stayed there until the sun went down.

I was sitting with Brit when the sun finally dipped below the horizon. She was resting her head on my shoulder. It was nice. If I could, I would have sat here for the rest of my life. It was a bit strange though. I’d only known this girl for half a day and yet she was determined to make me hers. If I had to guess, I was convinced she felt sorry for me somehow. I mean, why else would she have gone out of her way to get to know me? Most girls back home never gave me the time of day. Not that I went out of my way to get their attention. I was fine with being single. There was, in fact, only one girl that I ever had a crush on. Her name was Beth. She was my lab partner last year. My silent crush was a far as it went though.

Thinking about her made me smile.

“You going to the bonfire tonight?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t know there was one.”

“In an hour or so, silly. They do it every night.”

She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

We spent the next hour being lazy on the beach. When the bonfire crowd started to gather, I felt a bit apprehensive. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been around so many people. Especially my own age. In school, I tried to avoid large gatherings like this. Just as well, Brit and her friends were further back from the biggest group of people. The thing is, I thought I was going to hate it, especially being this close to the water. Once the food started cooking and the music started, I got lost in the excitement. Someone brought fireworks out about an hour or two into the party. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the drinking. Especially when Brit passed me a bottle.

“I’m only sixteen,” I said, causing her to stare in shock.

“Shit, I’m sorry...I thought...”

I sighed.

So that’s how it was.

After that, she was a bit standoffish. Well, all good things, I suppose. Her clingy behavior all but evaporated after that. Twenty minutes later, I was alone. She drifted over to a surfer who was all muscles and tan. Just as well. I was starting to feel a little under the weather. Maybe it was all the sun. Or maybe my phobia was finally starting to catch up to me. I’d been sitting here close to the water for about two hours or so. I pulled out my phone and cursed. It was longer than I thought.

Almost midnight now.

How did I lose track of that much time?

Mrs. Spencer was going to kill me.

“You ok?” asked Dave, who sat down next to me.

Where had he come from?

“Not really. I was supposed to be back hours ago...”

He laughed. “Brit bailed, I see. She said you were a child?”

I groaned. “I’m sixteen...”

Dave laughed. “She’s a hypocrite. She’s only seventeen...she made it sound like you were twelve or something.”

Twelve? Wow, that girl has issues.

Dave and I talked a bit more. I was so distracted by our conversation that I didn’t notice it turn midnight during our talk. As soon as it did though, I felt something. I’m not sure how to describe it. There was a tingle that ran up my arms. The air seemed to shift too. Before I could only smell the smoke from the fire but now I could smell something else. Something salty. Was that the sea? How could I smell the ocean through all the smoke? What’s more, I felt a bit lightheaded.

“You ok?” he asked, concerned. “You look a little green?”

I smirked. “I think I inhaled some of that smoke.”

I started to cough. Without thinking, he helped me to my feet and led me away from the fire. As we walked, I couldn’t help but notice how much bigger he was. When his hand touched my arm, I felt another tingle. I think he felt something too because he gave me a strange look.

“You’re a blonde?” he asked, confused.

I chuckled, still a bit out of it. “Yeah, I just dye it...”

I brushed some hair behind my ear.

Had it always been that long?

I giggled.

Something was wrong.

“I think…,” I coughed, my throat felt raw. “I think...I need to head back...”

“You want some help?”

I waved him off. “You go back to the bonfire, I’ll be fine.”

I stumbled my way down the beach. When I reached the wooden path, I was barely able to stand. I wasn’t sure what had come over me. One minute I was fine, and now the world was spinning. I took each step as if I was walking underwater. My body felt heavy. I’m not sure how I got back to the bungalow. When I reached the door, I pulled out my key-card. I almost dropped it as I fumbled to swipe it to open the door. As soon as I got the door open, I stumbled inside.

I heard someone shout my name but it was lost.

The world swirled around me.

Then blackness.

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

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: Here we are, its chapter time. I was going to post this on tomorrow but I figured this was close enough. Was talking to another author about this chapter and I told her that "at the end, I might be tarred and feathered", so please, I'm allergic to both :D. My editor also told me, "Wow", so I'm glad to see that the end of this chapter had an impact. I'm curious to see how everyone else reacts to it as well. Once again I'd like to thank Nyssa for her editing :).

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4.

When I opened my eyes, I was a bit confused. I was laying on my back, covered with a fluffy blanket, on a soft bed. How had I gotten here? I blinked, trying to remember last night. Everything was fuzzy. I remember going to the bonfire on the beach, I remember Brit ditching me for manlier men and I remember, Dave, maybe? I groaned, sitting up. As soon as I did though, my head started to throb. If I didn’t know any better I could have sworn I was hungover. Not that I knew what that felt like. I’d seen movies though. I imagined this is what it felt like. The problem was, I knew I didn’t drink last night.

The light in the room suddenly came on.

I groaned.

“Well, someone had fun last night.”

Mrs. Spencer stood near the door, smiling at me.

“I didn’t drink,” I said, hoping she believed me.

She laughed. “I know. Honey, if you’d been drinking, you’d of smelled like it.”

Well, that was a relief.

She walked into the room as I sat up fully. If I wasn’t drunk, then why was my head pounding so much? Through squinted eyes, I watched as she walked over to the window and drew the shades. More light poured into the room. I flinched again but not as bad. After opening the shades, she walked over and opened the doors leading out onto my little deck. Our bungalow had two bedrooms, a small living/dining area, and a large wrap around porch that both bedrooms had access to. All fit into a tiny little house built on stilts. If it wasn’t so close to the water, I might have thought it was all pretty cool. Just thinking about the ocean made me shudder. The strange thing was though, it wasn’t one of disgust?

“You’re lucky I found you last night, passed out like that,” she said, turning from the deck and the morning sun. “If it had been your uncle, I’m not sure how he would have reacted...”

Did I pass out?

I rubbed my temples, trying to remember. It was still a little hazy but slowly coming back now. I was on the beach talking to Dave and got lightheaded. I was certain it was smoke inhalation from the fire, but it knocked me for a loop. I vaguely remembered stumbling my way up the beach toward this place. I must have passed out as soon as I opened the door?

“I think I got too much smoke.”

She gave me a long look but said nothing.

When she spoke it was in a neutral tone. “Well, breakfast is waiting in the other room. I’ll leave you to shower and dress.”

She left me alone after that.

It took me a few seconds to get the rest of my bearings and leave the bed.

I wasn’t familiar with the room at all, having gone straight from arriving to the beach yesterday. Wow, had it been yesterday? I took a few minutes looking around the room, checking doors. The first one was the exit. The second led to a closet where my single suitcase was sitting. The third was what I wanted. An en suite complete with toilet, a small sink and mirror, and a shower. I relieved myself first then went to the sink to splash some water on my face as I washed my hands. While doing so, I grunted at myself in the mirror. Not only because I looked like hell this morning.

The dye was starting to fade. I grimaced. Cheap crap, it was supposed to last for months. I guess that was the last time I bought hair dye at the gas station. I grunted as I looked at all the blonde that was starting to show. Well, I did want to get rid of the black, but I was hoping it would still last longer than this? I wasn’t ready to give up my armor yet. Running my hands through it, I couldn’t help but notice that it was thicker. Did it feel softer too? Sure, I shampooed and conditioned every night, but my hair had never felt like this before. I wondered if the humidity here was affecting it? It was a lot hotter here than in New York.

Sighing heavily, I stepped away from the mirror and started to strip.

When I got down to my boxers, I tried not to look at myself.

I was always pale and scrawny. It was something I accepted a long time ago, but it was also something that fueled the bullies a few years ago. I tried my best to avoid them, but there were a few that refused to stay away. I think the whole emo thing pushed them even more. That and how scrawny I was. Most of the tormenting didn’t last long. Maturity and time got the better of them. It also helped that I busted the head bully’s nose. Logan Greene. He was bigger than me and thought for sure he could get the better of me. Growing up in foster care most of my life, in and out of the group homes, I learned to defend myself at an early age. Logan never scared me as much as he thought he did. I proved it to him one rainy day when he and his buddies jumped me on my way home from school.

Of course, no one ever knew I was the one who did it. Logan’s pride got the better of him. He made up some story about getting jumped by one of the neighborhood gangs.

The bullying stopped there.

Logan wouldn’t even look at me after that.

I laughed as I dropped my boxers to the floor. I hadn’t thought about Logan in years. Smirking I stepped out of my underwear and into the shower. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and turned on the water. I could deal with showers and baths, as long as I was in and out as fast as possible. Usually about five minutes, enough to wash and not linger. Any longer and I started to get nervous. Standing in the water now, I let it wash over me for a few minutes before opening my eyes. As I stood there, I couldn’t help but feel at peace. It was a very different feeling.

I sighed, losing myself as the water cascaded over me.

Something was wrong.

Something different.

My skin started to tingle.

It was almost euphoric.

I grabbed a bar of soap and started to vigorously scrub my body. I caressed every crevice, each one feeling more amazing than the last. I was a slave to the water and I let it take me. This feeling, it was overwhelming. I felt like it could last forever, but just as quickly as it came, it was gone. I opened my eyes, panting heavily. I slowly dropped the soap, barely able to stand. What the hell was that? I took a step back from the water stream, trying to collect my thoughts. Water had NEVER done that to me before. Take deep, calming breaths, I reached out slowly and allowed it to wash gently over my hand.

There was no tingling.

Frowning, I pulled my hand back then stepped back into the stream. Maybe it was a fluke? Maybe I was still coming down from whatever high I’d been on from the night before. Trying not to think too much about it, I finished washing. As I was shutting off the water and reaching for a towel, I stopped when I noticed something on my wrist. It was a bracelet of some kind? Had it been there this whole time? I fingered it gently, running my fingertips along the little red beads. There was something vaguely familiar about it. I wrapped the towel around my mid-section and stepped out of the shower.

I paused, wondering what I was doing.

Readjusting the towel around my waist instead, I walked into my room. As I did, I remembered where I’d seen such a bracelet. Brit and her friends had been wearing them. Theirs weren’t red though. Now that I thought about it, I think Dave was wearing one too. Had they given it to me and I blanked? A small portion of last night was still pretty fuzzy to me. It was possible the girls slipped it on my wrist without me even noticing it. I smiled at that as I started to get dressed.

Deciding to forego the whole “Dark Prince of Despair” look, I found a pair of normal jean shorts and a tee. Slipping on the shorts, I couldn’t help but feel they were a bit snug. I strained a bit buttoning them up. I chuckled, wondering when I wore them last. The thing was, the t-shirt was a bit on the tight side too. Mainly across my chest. The fabric felt a bit rough too. I grabbed the hem, giving it a sniff. When was the last time I washed it?

I shrugged.

It smelled ok.

Walking from the room, I found the Spencers sitting at the dining table. Room service had brought a nice spread of bacon, sausage, and eggs. I sighed at the heavenly smell. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ever had anything that smelled so good. Finding an empty seat, I didn’t wait to be served. The two adults gave me a look then chuckled. I was almost done with my first helping when my bracelet took center stage:

“That’s a lovely bracelet, honey. Did one of your new friends give it to you?”

Lovely?

I looked at my wrist and lied. “Brit gave it to me, it’s something that a lot of the kids around here wear.”

She smiled. “That was nice of her.”

I’d only known these people for a few days and I was already keeping things from them. I sighed. This was not a good way to start. I wanted to say something else but instead, I finished my food. Then for some strange reason, I got a second helping. I couldn’t remember the last time that I ate two helpings of anything. While I was eating, Mr. Spencer stared at me. I tried to pretend not to notice but it was hard not to when he was making it very apparent.

The meal fell into silence.

“So, what do you have planned for today?” he finally asked.

I shrugged. “Not sure. Brit and her friends were talking about the boardwalk yesterday. I didn’t get a chance to see it, so I thought maybe I’d take a look.”

Mrs. Spencer smiled. “Do you want some money?”

I didn’t say “No”. She got up to retrieve her purse. A moment later, she came back with a little change wallet. She pulled out a couple of hundred dollar bills and held them out for me.

It was too much.

“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head.

“Nonsense, it’s your birthday. Get yourself something nice.”

My Birthday.

I’d completely forgotten. Well, not forgotten but I had other things on my mind when I woke up. Mainly the pounding headache. A headache that I realized was long gone now. Whatever it had been, the shower seemed to sort it out. I was thankful for that at least. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like that. I was one of those rare people who didn’t get sick. I don’t mean got sick often either. I mean I have never been sick. There was a small chickenpox outbreak when I was in kindergarten, I was the only one who didn’t get it. During cold and flu season, I was virus-free. The thing is, I had the same shots and vaccinations as everyone else. I was like a freaky superhero with the power of immunity.

So feeling like that last night and this morning, it was a very new thing to me.

My mind drifted back to the bills she was offering.

With some reluctance, I finally took them.

“Thanks,” I said and meant it.

The thing was, I had no idea what to buy. Not a lot of people willingly gave me money and when they did, it was not this much. Like I said before, I rarely received gifts either. Except for the Mitchells of course. Mrs. Spencer giving me this money was a gesture of kindness I wouldn’t forget.

“You’re sure?”

“Of course we are, kiddo,” said Mr. Spencer with an award-winning smile.

“Besides,” said his wife with that same smile. “It’s not every day that someone turns sixteen, after all.”

I forced a smile.

They looked at each other, still smiling.

It was very creepy.

I’d never been to a boardwalk before. I wasn’t sure what to expect. After I left the resort, it was only a short ten-minute walk up the beach. I was surprised by the number of people here this early in the morning. Then again, this was a vacation spot and there were probably always people around. I did my best to blend into the crowd and hope I didn’t stand out too much. I got a few looks because of my black and blonde hair but for the most part, no one seemed to care. It was just as well. I was just like them, a tourist to see the sights.

And what sights they were.

On my right, behind the metal railing was the beach and the ocean beyond. To my left, towering way over my head were luxury hotels. Each tried to outdo the one next to it in size and grandeur. Scattered among those towering buildings were street vendors, food trucks and the sidewalk stalls. Lots of people crowded there, trying to grab a souvenir or two. I browsed with the best of them. I wandered up and down for a couple of hours, buying tiny things but not making a dent into the two hundred dollars my aunt gave me. At around noon or so, I stopped at a little cart selling hot dogs. I bought two and wandered over to a spot I thought might be cool to sit at.

There was a tiny little shaded eatery spot. It had some benches and a couple of tables. There was no one there, so it was the perfect spot. That was only part of the reason I chose it though. The other part was what was across from it. I’d been seeing the statue all morning. A giant depiction of King Neptune, holding a trident in one hand, his other resting on the back of a sea turtle. A quick google on my phone told me it was a pretty famous statue around here. Built-in the early 2000s, it was placed as a marker for the entrance of Neptune Park. That was only part of the reason I wanted to see it.

The other part was something else.

I felt drawn to it.

I couldn’t describe the feeling.

“It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it?” said a voice.

I turned and saw the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She was leaning against a potted plant next to my bench, stretching one of her long legs. She was wearing a skin-tight green shirt with long sleeves and a tiny green bikini bottom that matched. From her tan and toned legs, it was clear was a surfer. I followed her legs up to her face, trying not to stare but it was hard not to. She had the most vibrant blonde hair and that smile, it was amazing. My heart skipped a beat.

“Yes, it is,” I said dumbly.

She laughed. “You a tourist?”

I nodded. “Well, just here for a few days.”

She laughed again. She had a great one. “Yeah, that’s me too. I’m here for the waves. I’ve been up and down the coast for them.”

“That’s so cool,” I said and meant it.

I always wanted to learn how to surf. Sadly because of my hydrophobia, that was never going to happen. Unless, of course, I finally learned to control it.

“It’s a way to make a living,” she said, brushing some hair from her face.

When she did, I noticed a red beaded necklace around her neck. It was stuck under her tight shirt, so I only saw part of it. I looked at my bracelet. I hadn’t realized they were that common. Sure, Brit and her friends were all wearing them, but I figured it was a group thing. Seeing her with that necklace though, it didn’t make me feel so awkward to have this thing on my wrist.

She saw me looking and smiled. “Red is my favorite color.” She gently touched the necklace. “This thing is attached to me. What about yours?”

I shrugged. “My friend just gave it to me. It’s my Birthday today.”

She smiled. “Happy Birthday then!”

We talked for a few more minutes when I noticed someone trying to stay out of sight. It was strange really because out of all the people around, he seemed most interested in us. Or rather her. Maybe I was just being paranoid because he was dressed like a creeper with those dark sunglasses. The girl seemed to notice where I was looking and looked too.

“Well look at that, you have an admirer,” she said with a laugh.

“Me?” I asked, surprised. “I think he’s looking at you!”

It was hard not to notice her.

She laughed. “That’s sweet of you.”

She reached to touch my cheek but stopped halfway as if second-guessing her action. I wouldn’t have minded though. She could touch any part of me that she wanted. Shit. I lowered my head at the thought and she smirked. Now everything was awkward. Here I was thinking dirty things about this girl who I just met only minutes before. A girl that didn’t even go out of her way to meet me. She just stopped to stretch.

She started fingering her necklace. “That guy likes you,” She sighed. “I hate manky bastards like him.”

I tried not to show I was looking, but I took a glance. The guy was still there. He wasn’t even disguising the fact that he was looking our way either. It was very creepy. He stuck out like a sore thumb too, not just with those dark glasses. He was wearing a light blue polo shirt, tan khaki shorts and knee-high socks with sandals. Who was this guy trying to fool?

She sighed. “Well I think I’m gonna have to deal with this,” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Just when we were getting all buddy-buddy too. I’ll catch up with you later, ok?”

I nodded like an idiot.

I’m sure she said that to everyone.

After that, the Surfer Goddess made a big spectacle. She walked across the street, shouting a name, “Jerry, is that you!” She went right up to the guy across the street and grabbed him in a big hug. It took me a second to realize what she was doing. She was distracting him so I could bolt. While she was hugging him, she turned them around so she was looking at me. She gave me a gesture with her eyes. I knew the look well. It was the “get the hell out of here” one. She didn’t have to tell me twice.

I finished off the last bit of my second hot dog and quickly left the area.

I moved with the crowd toward the park, hopefully putting enough distance between me and the creep. It was just as well, I wanted to see this park too. After googling that statue, I started reading more information about the boardwalk. Neptune’s Park was known to have a lot of live music. There was a band playing now. They were a cover band, playing some trendy pop tunes I didn’t much care for. There were a lot of people crowding around the stage though, mostly girls trying to get a look at the young lead singer as he belted out some sappy love song. I tried to pretend like I was enjoying the music, but I was disappointed.

Moving through the crowd, I meandered my way over to a juice bar.

I ordered a fruit punch mocktail and tried to look like I belonged here.

I knew I didn’t though.

I continued to sip my drink, hoping that there might be something of interest.

When the songs changed and it was another pop tune, I knew this was not the place for me.

Defeated, I started to make my way out of this place. Pushing through the people, I was almost to the exit when someone grabbed my arm. At first, I thought it was an accident but they weren’t letting go. I tensed up as their grip tightened. Turning, I saw it was my stalker.

Damn it.

“Let’s not make this any more difficult than it has to be,” he said, something pressed into my side.

Wait, was that a gun?

He had a gun?

Why did he have a gun?

“What the hell is this?” I asked, scared.

I wanted to squirm. I wanted to scream. Instead, I let him hold onto my arm and move me back into the crowd, away from the large statue looming not too far away.

“Who are you?” I asked but either he didn’t hear me over the music or didn’t want to answer.

He continued to push/pull me.

He led me away from the group and toward the other end of the park. I looked ahead and saw a black van. What the hell was this? Was I being kidnapped? Was this some kind of perv who liked to abduct teenage boys? I needed to get out of here and fast. I looked around, trying to find a way. I was starting to panic, blood rushing to my head. I started to feel woozy again. No, not now. Whatever you are, please not now. The world started to swim around me. I stopped moving, feeling sick.

The guy seemed to take notice.

I think he cursed.

He touched his throat. “I think we might have a problem. Send some help...”

Help?

He was working with someone?

He started talking to whoever it was, but to do so, he took his hand off my arm. It was his mistake. Whatever dizziness I was feeling faded away quickly. I think “Jerry” realized his error too late. He grabbed me but I was already gone. I took off back toward the crowd, running as fast as I could. As soon as I hit the group of people, my momentum was cut way down. They didn’t stop me from moving though. I pushed my way through, not caring about all the cursing and yelling as I pushed people aside. He was right on my heels too. I heard people cursing and yelling at him as well. I didn’t stop though. If I could get through this crowd and onto the boardwalk proper, I could make a mad dash for it.

That was the plan anyway.

Not apart of the plan was the fact that he was a lot more creative than I was.

He got in front of me somehow.

I cursed as I ran right into him.

He grabbed my arms.

“That was stupid,” he snarled, tightening his grip.

I lashed out because he had no gun on me this time.

It was useless though.

He was a big guy. Bigger than me. He was stronger too. I couldn’t pull free from his grip.

“Stop making this harder,” he growled. “I’m not trying to hurt you...”

Bull.

I still struggled. The more I fought with him, the more his grip started to falter.

Just a little…

“Dude, what the hell!”

Shit.

At first, I thought I ran into someone in my attempt to fight off “Jerry”. I cursed. Then I smiled as I saw the one who had spoken. It was Brody from last night. He wasn’t alone either, Dave was with him. The two of them must have been at the concert, probably with the girls.

“What the hell are you doing with our friend, punk?” asked Dave, putting a hand on “Jerry’s” shoulder.

“Jerry” was an imposing guy in his own right. He was not, however, ripped like these two surfer boys were. They were a lot taller than him too. As soon as Dave laid a hand on the jerk’s shoulder, he instinctively let me go.

“This is my nephew, I’m taking him back to our suite.”

“No, I’m not,” I said, rubbing my wrists.

“You want to try that again, bro?”

Brody gave “Jerry” a shove.

They were starting to draw attention. Several people around us had stopped paying attention to the music. I couldn’t help but smile. It was going to be hard for “Jerry” to make off with me now. A few of them had their phones out, ready to record a fight. “Jerry” sighed, defeated. I smirked. Yes, thank you, Brody and Dave. I took a step away from “Jerry”, moving around so I was now standing behind my two rescuers. I could have kissed them if they weren’t boys. Just as well, I felt secure with the two of them here.

“You’re leaving now, bro,” said Dave, his hand still on “Jerry’s” shoulder.

He didn’t have to be told twice.

I watched him leave. I didn’t feel truly safe until I couldn’t see him anymore.

I felt like crying. I’m not sure why. Ok, so maybe it had something to do with almost being kidnapped but it was more than that. I’d never felt this emotional before. What’s more, I wanted to hug both Brody and Dave. I was happy when Dave put his hand on my shoulder.

“You ok dude?”

I nodded. “Thanks to you.”

“Who was that asshole?”

I shrugged. “No clue. He was following me earlier. Some girl scared him off, or so I thought. I thought he was gone, then he grabbed me in the crowd. He tried to drag me to this van...”

I lost it at that point.

I started to cry. It was hard not to. Dave started rubbing my back. It was all a little awkward, truth be told. He and Brody were able to steer me out of the crowd. They took me to a little sitting area where Brit and the girls finally joined us. This time I did get a hug. Brit held me tight and refused to let go. It didn’t take long for one of them to suggest calling the police. I tried to talk them out of it, but they insisted. So there we sat. The police arrived about twenty minutes later. They made me describe everything that happened, took our statements, then offered to take me back to the resort.

“I’m good officers,” I said, hoping it was enough.

It wasn’t.

“You going to be ok, now?” asked Dave as they were leading me toward their car.

“I’m good, thanks to you.”

He smiled at that.

I smiled too.

In the car, the police officers tried to make small talk. Because I was a tourist they started talking about the area. A good portion of the real estate around here was owned by Charles Bishop. It was a name I’d heard before. He was some big billionaire tech guru. His name was in the news a lot. Besides being super-rich, he was also a philanthropist. He donated millions of dollars all over the world. The man was the closest thing to a living Saint there was. Very few people with that kind of power and money would be willing to do all the good that he did.

I think the tourist-speak was all a distraction.

They were all business as soon as we pulled up to the resort. We parked, and I escorted them to our bungalow. I was a bit nervous when they knocked on the door. I was even more nervous when the door opened and Mrs. Spencer was standing there. The look of shock on her face made me wish I wasn’t born. I inwardly sighed. This was it. This was the moment. I’d been here before. Well, maybe not here exactly but I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen next. It was going to end the same way. Back to the Home waiting out my time until I turned eighteen.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

“Is there something wrong officer?” she asked, not even looking at me.

“Ma’am is this your nephew?”

She finally looked at me. “He is?” she said nervously.

The officer sighed. “He’s not in any trouble ma’am. Quite the opposite. Earlier today...”

He proceeded to tell her the series of events that led to all of us standing there. By this time, my uncle was standing beside her. They both listened until the officer was done. By that time, I had walked into the room to stand with them. My aunt put her arm around me. I felt safe and secure with her too. It was a strange shift. Almost getting kidnapped was enough to put my life into full perspective. These people were my family. They cared about me. I’d been foolish to think that they were just going to toss me aside after all of this. They were home. If anything else in the world happened to me I’d know that these two had my back.

“If it’s at all possible, I’d like to ask if you folks would be willing to spend an extra few days here,” he said politely. “Just in case.”

“Well actually, office, we just live in Richmond...”

“That will be fine then, sir,” said the officer.

He and my uncle shook hands.

Then the officer was gone.

As soon as the door was shut, my aunt pulled me into a hug. I lost it again and started to cry. She held me tight. It felt nice. I felt loved.
Nothing in the world was going to get between me or them ever again.

Then I felt a sharp pain. No, not a pain, a prick.

I pulled back quickly. She was stroking my hair with one hand, holding some kind of needle in the other.

“Now,” she said in a cold voice. “Look what you went and did now.”

The room started to grow foggy.

What the…?

I touched my neck. Did she just poke me with that?

“Kids these days,” said my uncle with a shake of his head.

I stumbled into the room, got a few feet and dropped.

No.

Darkness took me a second later.

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

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: Here's another Sunday posting. I'm seriously considering posting the rest of this story on Sundays from now on. Though I have considered possibly posting on Tuesdays as well. Mondays are fairly busy posting days on this site after all. I'm curious what everyone else thinks. I have to say this is a shorter chapter and it doesn't have all those juicy answers people were hoping for after last chapter's shocking twist. I'm once again like to thank Nyssa for her work trying to make sense of my scribblings and make them readable for everyone else :D.

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5.

A dim light shone into the room from a window off to my left. I turned my head, blinking away the groggy feeling. For a moment it felt like my whole body was floating. The weightlessness only lasted for a few more seconds and then I came crashing back down. I grunted. My mouth was dry and it felt like there was a great weight holding me down. As soon as I tried to sit up, I realized what it was. Straps. I wiggled, trying to see how much room I had. Not much. There were two. One across my chest, just under my armpits and another across my legs, just above my knees. Whoever put them there was bound and determined that I didn’t move.

I tried raising my arms but they were strapped down too, at my wrists.

The same with my feet but at my ankles.

A prisoner.

The only thing I could move freely was my head. In the dim light, I could see most of the room. It was large, the windows were floor to ceiling, they covered the whole left wall. The bed I was on seemed to be the center of the room. It had higher ceilings and very little furniture. I saw a dresser, what might look like a sofa and maybe a table. There were three doors. One was the exit, the other two must have been a closet and the bathroom door. This wasn’t the bungalow anymore though. The room was much larger than that. So I’d been moved. I would have spit if I could.

Right now though, I needed to figure out what was going on.

Things were a bit foggy.

I remembered everything up until being brought home by the cops. As the seconds went by though, more and more was starting to come into focus. After the cop left, I was hugging Mrs. Spencer and someone stabbed me with a needle. No, not someone. It was her. I could still feel the slight sting from it. I had stumbled into the room and passed out. I woke up twice before this. Once in a dark place where I was stuck with a needle again. Then again, strapped to a bed. More than likely this one. This was my third time waking, the first time they let me wake I should say. I say “they” because I could vaguely remember hearing voices that the second time.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember anything they were saying.

Not that that would help me anyway.

There was only one thing that could help me now.

Time.

So I waited.

I’m not sure how long I stared at the window but as I did more and more light started to stream through it. Dawn was breaking slowly. More light meant that more of the morning was coming. I’m not sure how long it took, but eventually, I heard something. I turned toward the door and waited. There was someone on the other side, someone with heels. A second later, the door opened. A moment after that, a woman came into the room. I would say she was gorgeous if the circumstances were a bit different. I’m not going to lie though, she was very nice to look at. Maybe late twenties, early thirties. Her dark hair was nice and tidy, held away from her face in a professional style. She had horn-rimmed glasses, professionally done makeup and was wearing a fake smile. Having been pushed from person to person over the years, it was easy to spot a fake smile.

“Good morning, Cassidy,” she said in a friendly voice. “I’m Dr. Chambers. It’s very nice to finally meet you."

She walked toward the bed, those heels of hers clicking.

I watched her.

She was tall. The heels only added to her height. Her long legs were cased in dark nylons, leading to a professional’s gray skirt and finally a tight white blouse. She said she was a doctor but she didn’t dress like one. I almost wanted to say high-end call girl, but that would have been rude. It was hard not to think so though, especially with her top button undone. This woman was either trying to get attention or trying to make me feel comfortable. My mind was trying to say the former, but I knew it was the latter. These people had all but kidnapped me.

“I’d shake your hand, but I seem to be a little tied up at the moment,” I grunted.

She smiled her fake smile again. “We’re terribly sorry about that, but we needed to make sure that you weren’t a threat to yourself or others.”

A threat?

Why would I be a threat?

“Yes, because all foster kids are dangerous criminals,” I deadpanned, hoping for a response.

None came.

Instead, she retrieved a chair from the corner of the room and brought it to within a foot or so of the bed. Far enough away that I couldn’t reach her, but close enough. We played the silent staring game for a bit. I spent our silent stare-off trying to figure out what this woman, and by extension, the Spencers wanted with me. It was clear now that they weren’t my aunt and uncle. At least, I was pretty sure they weren’t. It was the little things that I missed. They never told me their first names for one thing. For another, they never really asked me about myself. Most of the stuff they knew, it was from my file. At first, I chalked it all up to the awkwardness of it all, but now I knew the truth.

They didn’t want to get to know me at all.

“So what was the plan?” I finally asked.

I surprised her with the question.

“Excuse me?”

I sighed. “The Spencers. If this was what they were planning all along, they could have done it at any time.” I said coldly, watching her face. I saw her eye twitch. I smiled and continued. “So what was their original plan?”

She smirked. “They said you were a smart boy. I suppose not underestimating you would have saved them some problems...”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

She sighed. “No, I didn’t. To be honest, there was no solid plan in place. The vacation would have continued as planned. You would have left Virginia Beach in the morning and drove to Richmond as planned. Your life would have been uneventful.”

I watched her as she talked. She was lying. When people lied, they had a Tell. Like in a game of cards. I was always good at telling when people were lying. It was one of the side effects of being in the system for as long as I have. I learned things. Dr. Chambers’ Tell was easy: she tapped her foot. It was a nervous gesture, but she only did it when she was talking. So it told me she was either afraid of me – not likely – or she was lying. I thought about calling her on it, but decided I’d let her think she was in control here.

“So in this supposed plan, where did you come in?”

She gave me a knowing smiled again. “I’m your psychiatrist."

“Of course you are.”

“Well someone needs to cure you of your water fear.”

Cure me? Was that what this was about? It made little to no sense though. She seemed like a very important person. I was strapped to a bed while talking to her. Clearly, there was more to this than just my fear of water. Yet she made a big deal out of curing me of it? Something didn’t add up. Well, a lot of things didn’t add up, but she could have told me anything. Why did she say she was there to cure my fear?

“Why me?”

It was the most important question of the hour.

“Why not you?” It wasn’t really an answer. “You’re young. You have a long, full life ahead of you. This fear is a crippling thing. I want to help you overcome it.”

I struggled to prove a point. “Is strapping down your patient a part of that therapy?”

“That was….out of my hands...”

Out of her hands? Which meant there was definitely more to this than I thought.

I was about to ask her more when we were interrupted.

There was a knock on the door. Before she could even turn toward it, two men came bursting into the room. They were large, dressed in black, with buzzed heads.

“What the hell is this?” she snapped, jumping to her feet. “I need more time, I haven’t even started!”

“You’ve said enough” snapped one, pushing her out of the way.

“He’ll hear about this!”

The pushy man scoffed. “Who do you think told us to stop you.”

“I was in the middle of the interrogation...”

The other guy laughed. “You think that’s what was going on? You think you were in charge here? You weren’t interrogating him at all, Doc. We’ve been watching. The punk has been in control the entire time.”

All eyes were on me.

I tried to shrug but couldn’t.

The Pushy guy moved over to me. “We’re moving you. You try anything...”

He held up a cattle prod.

“You understand?”

I nodded.

“Mr. Stewart, I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Dr. Chambers, trying to push some control again.

She wasn’t very successful. She tried to make her way over to me, but the other man stepped in her way. He wasn’t going to move either. He was too big for her to push too. In the end, she stopped trying. I had been convinced she was the one in charge here. It was clear now that she was just the middle man. She probably thought she was calling all the shots, but these two men really were. Them, and whoever it is they all really worked for. There were still a lot of things that I didn’t know. Chief among them was why they even wanted me in the first place.

I was a nobody.

And yet, there were a lot of them for just me.

Things didn’t add up at all.

“Doc,” said the other man, trying to be more civil. “We can take it from here. We’ll see you again on the boat.”

Boat?

Dr. Chambers looked at him intently. Then looked at me. “He will hear about this...”

She sounded like a spoiled child, angry about losing her favorite toy.

She then huffed and stomped out of the room.

Both men watched her go, shaking their heads as they did.

I watched too. First her, then them. They didn’t say anything but the one without the cattle prod walked over to the bed. He started to undo the straps holding my ankles. His partner, Mr. Stewart, kept the prod pointed at me. They both watched me like a hawk. At this point, I’m not sure I could run even if I wanted to. As soon as he removed the straps across my upper thighs, the feeling started to return to my legs. I hadn’t realized how tight they were until now. I’m not sure how long I’d been laying here, but my legs were numb. Running was definitely out of the question.

Mr. Stewart stepped closer when his friend started to unstrap my wrists.

“You try anything...”

I grunted. “I can’t feel anything...”

They ignored the comment.

They finally finished undoing my last strap. I sat up with a groan. My entire body hurt. Both men were a bit jumpy. I thought for sure I was going to get stuck by that thing. Instead, they stepped back and gave me a moment. I started to rub my sore wrists, then my ankles. Those things were way too tight. As I started to rub some feeling back into my legs they stopped me.

“Enough of that, we have a timetable.”

I was all but dragged off the bed. When my feet hit the ground, I almost fell to the floor. It told me one thing, I’d been strapped to that bed longer than a night. If I had to guess, I would say at least a day or two. I missed my Birthday. More than that though, I missed my daily talk with Tori. If I knew my sister as well as I thought I did, she was probably in full-blown panic mode. It wouldn’t be long before there was a slew of men and women from different police forces looking for me. That still begged one question though. How long have I been missing? I knew it had to be at least a day, because the light from the window had grown lighter as the hours passed.

Was it the day after my birthday though?

Or the day after that?

I had no true way of knowing unless I asked.

“How long have I been here."

“Long enough.”

I was shoved forward but I stumbled. After all, I could barely stand. One of them cursed. I heard the prod and flinched. Nothing happened though. Instead, I felt a strong hand grab my arm and pull me along. It wasn’t any better, but at least with one of them holding me, I could sorta walk. I was half helped, half-dragged over to the door. A moment later it was open, and we were in a brightly lit hall. The light was overwhelming. I shielded my eyes with a hand. Now I knew I’d been in that dimly lit room for more than a day.

“Move it blondie!”

Blondie?

I was about to protest when we passed by one of the many mirrors in the hall. I stopped dead in my tracks, gasping. My hair was completely blonde now, but that wasn’t the only shock. It was long and wavy, past my shoulders and down my back. How was that possible? Hair didn’t grow that fast. Even in a few days. The length of my hair, it should have taken months.

“Move it!”

I was shoved again, this time I let them push me.

We moved along the hall until we passed another mirror. I caught another quick glance. My hair wasn’t the only thing that had changed. I couldn’t remember the last time my eyes looked that blue. There was something else. Did my face look softer? I didn’t get a good enough look though because I was shoved forward again. There was something wrong. Something that made no sense. Why did I look so different? Did they do something to me? I’d heard of some pretty extensive plastic surgery. I’d seen those shows. The problem was I had no bruises, no bandages. Didn’t things like that take a really long time?

We passed another mirror as we walked but I didn’t bother looking.

I didn’t want to see anything more.

Finally, we reached a set of elevators at the end of the hall.

They held me up as they called one, and the three of us waited impatiently. When it arrived they shoved me in. The interior of the elevator was a mirrored surface. I couldn’t avoid looking at myself now. They couldn’t push me around in here either. I watched as they pushed a button with an H on it. I assumed it represented the roof. Which meant they were probably flying me out of here. Which meant there was probably a helipad and a helicopter up there. I would have been more excited if not for the fact that they were kidnapping me. I tried not to think about it and concentrated on my reflection some more.

My face was different.

My nose was slightly smaller, my lips were bigger. Pouty, I think the phrase was. Everything was a bit softer. My scar was gone too. I used to have a tiny one on my chin, just below my bottom lip. I cut it on a piece of glass when I was four. Had to have a couple of stitches. I was amazed to see it missing. Had they done that as well? Was it even possible to remove scars like that? I squinted, leaning closer, wondering what else had changed. I reached up to touch my face when I noticed something else.

My bracelet was gone.

“Looking for something, princess,” scoffed one of the guards.

I looked at the reflective surface. My bracelet dangled in his fingers.

“Boss said I’m supposed to keep this safe,” he said with a laugh, sticking it in one of his pockets.

Why?

It was just a stupid bracelet?

Wasn’t it?

I didn’t get much time to dwell on it because the elevator finally came to a stop. The doors opened and I was pushed out onto the roof. A rush of air hit me, staggering me back for a second. Looking around, I saw familiar hotels. I was still in Virginia Beach. Trying to take a look around, I caught a glimpse of the Neptune and the park down below. They didn’t take me very far. I could even see the resort down there. I’m not sure, but I thought I saw the bungalow we stayed at. In fact, the Spencers’ car was still parked out front. It amazed me they were still there. It also told me something. It really had only been a few days. Which made no sense at all.

How did my hair grow so long?

How had my face changed so much?

I pushed across the roof, toward the helipad.

There was a shiny, black helicopter waiting. It had no markings that I could see, but it had one of those sides that had no door. I always thought those were really unsafe.

A man standing nearby came rushing off.

“Did you stick it yet?” he shouted, pointing at me.

“We were going to in air.”

The man didn’t look thrilled but nodded.

What did he mean, “It?”

That was kind of rude.

“Get in the helicopter!” shouted one of my guards, giving me a push.

I grunted, but did as I was told. The man followed me in, making sure he had the cattle prod close to my side. He wasn’t taking any chances. I still wasn’t sure why. How dangerous could a sixteen-year-old be? Did he actually think I could beat him up? He was bigger than I was, holding a pretty nasty weapon, and he had a friend. I was no match for any of them. Just as well, they seemed to be taking every precaution available. I mean the man who greeted us had a holstered pistol on his hip. What the hell was that all about? There was a guy in the front seat next to the pilot. I could see his gun as well.

Who were these people?

What did they want with me?

I wanted to ask questions, but I’m not sure any of them could hear me anymore over the whirring of the blades. They were putting on headsets, passing me one too. I was shouted at, so I put it on. I suddenly heard them talking:

“Where are we taking It?”

“The Mooring Gaul.”

“Is he serious?”

“He wants to talk to It first.”

“This is a bad idea!”

“He’s the boss.”

They stopped talking. The helicopter slowly started to lift off the pad. I couldn’t hide my excitement as we flew up into the air. We hovered over the building for a second before turning and flying toward the ocean. We flew over the tops of all the buildings, low enough that I could make out everything below. I was a bit nervous about being so exposed to the air like this though. I was strapped in, but I was still pretty scared about the lack of doors. I looked nervously at my captors. Only the two of them were in the back with me. Mr. Stewart and his less talkative friend. Stewart had the cattle prod and my bracelet.

I looked at his pocket and felt empty.

I shook it off.

I turned back to looking out the side as we flew. It didn’t take us very long to leave the beach behind us. We gained some altitude but not enough to be dangerous for us. A minute or so later, there was nothing but open ocean. Looking at all that water made me really nervous. It didn’t help that we were so high up either. I wanted to puke. My skin started to crawl and I felt a bit lightheaded.

“Where are we going?” I asked, barely able to get the words out.

“The boss has a yacht out there, he wants to see you.”

The boss.

“How far now?”

“ETA fifteen minutes,” said the pilot.

“Ok Stewart, enough of the bullshit, tag it now!” snapped the passenger.

Mr. Stewart sighed, passing his cattle prod to his partner. The partner passed him a little blue gun that looked like a squirt gun. He looked at me, shaking his head. A moment later, he grabbed my arm. Before I could even react, he put the little gun to my skin and pulled the trigger. There was a piercing pain. I cried out for about a second, then the pain was gone.

“What the hell was that?” I snapped, rubbing my arm.

He smirked. “Insurance.”

“Give me the thing to turn it on?” he said, setting the gun down and waving a hand behind him.

His partner handed him something that looked like a price tag scanner from a shopper’s market.

“Stick out your arm!”

I shook my head.

I had no idea what was going on, but I wasn’t letting them do anything more to me.

Mr. Stewart grunted. “Hold It still!”

His partner leaned forward, setting the cattle prod on the seat between us and made a grab for me. I’m not sure what came over me. I knew they were about to do something awful, and I reacted without thinking. One second I was pushing away from them and the next I was grabbing the prod. When I jabbed it into his shoulder and pulled the little trigger, I didn’t realize it was going to happen that quickly. The man screamed out in pain, snapped to the side and slammed into his friend. Mr. Stewart stumbled, I swung the prod around like a weapon and crashed him in the side of the face with it.

I heard a crack as a tooth flew from his mouth.

There was a scream from upfront. The man in the co-pilot seat fumbled for his gun, pulled it out and I stuck him in the arm with the prod. He screamed, fired a round through the roof and sent the helicopter sideways. The bullet sound ricocheted throughout the small pace, deafening all of us. The helicopter continued to spin about. It made a nosedive. The pilot was struggling to regain control. At this point, my two guards had recovered. They came at me together. I still had the prod though. I stuck one in the neck, giving him a nasty jolt. While he was stumbling back, I kicked out with both my feet. The force of the kick sent him backward.

And right out the side of the helicopter.

Oops.

The rushing air cut off his scream.

“You son of a bitch!” screamed Mr. Stewart, grabbing me.

He got my wrist, twisting my arm.

I screamed, dropped the prod.

The helicopter still canted about, tossing and turning. By this point my assailant was free of his seat-belt, trying to subdue me. He managed to get my belt free too. In a panic, I smashed the heel of my hand into his face. He screamed, losing his balance. While he was on the floor, I jumped on top of him. I smashed a fist into the side of his head, screaming like a maniac. The blow hurt but my adrenaline kept me going. I punched him again and again. He was barely conscious, his face a bloody mess. He gasped. I pushed away and reached for his pocket. I pulled out the bracelet, holding it tightly in my fist.

“Mine!” I shouted triumphantly.

I’m not sure why I wanted it so much, but once I held it, I felt better.

Almost powerful.

That’s when he shoved me.

I think it was meant to only push me off of him and it did. The thing was, I already didn’t have a great grip on anything. The helicopter chose that exact moment to swerve again. I tumbled backward. He was right with me, flailing. He grabbed me, trying to keep me from falling, but he didn’t have a great grip either.

Shit.

The next thing I knew, the helicopter was above us and we were tumbling away from it.

We spun in the air, facing the water below us.

I heard him scream as we got closer and closer.

I closed my eyes.

The seconds felt like an eternity.

I opened just in time to see the water inches in front of my face before I hit it.

Then nothing.

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

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: Here we are, FINALLY. Not only do we have a new picture---thanks to the lovely Miss Ginny Gardner---we also have no more male Cass. From this point forward, I generally refer to her as "Cass" as far as the story is concerned. This is pretty much where the rest of the story starts. Prepare for some exposition on some things in the next few chapters. I can also confirm that Ch.9 will be a chapter not from Cass's POV so that's something to look forward too :D. I'd once again like to thank Nyssa for her editing and ALL my readers for bearing with me until I got to this point :D. Quick Note: I forgot to add in her bracelet originally in this chapter, I amended things now that it appears. There were a couple of commenters who pointed it out, so thank you! :D.

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6.

There was no pain.

I thought when you died there was this excruciating pain then a bright light. There was no light either. Wait, no, that was wrong. I saw a light. It was above me. I was floating away from it though. The further I floated, the further away I got. Was it supposed to happen like this? I thought you were supposed to go toward the light when you died. Maybe I didn’t get the memo. Maybe I had one of those weird souls that shunned the light and I was falling further and further into the dark void. Maybe pretending to be an Emo all these years had damaged my eternal soul and this was my new lot.

Or maybe, I wasn’t really dying.

I stopped floating downward.

Reality slowly started to pull itself around me.

I wasn’t dead.

How was I not dead?

When people fell from really high places into water, they usually died. Their bones shattered, all their internal organs ruptured. I hit the water. I felt it. That should have been it. The world even went black around me. I should be dead but I wasn’t? I started to wave my hands about, they were moving. They were human hands, living hands. My hands. There was something different about them though. They looked smaller and my fingers were thinner, maybe a bit longer. They were webbed too. How did I get webbed fingers? There was something else too. I followed my hands down my arms. My thinner arms. I followed them to slender shoulders and my chest where…

Oh my God!

I grabbed them.

Two naked orbs of flesh on my chest.

This couldn’t be real.

How was this real?

I had breasts. By the feel of them, they weren’t small either. They were plump and firm and definitely very real. Squeezing them sent a tingle through my whole body. How was this possible? How was any of this possible? I let go of the breasts and wiggled my fingers. They were definitely mine. I opened my mouth to scream but stopped myself. I was underwater. I couldn’t scream. Wait, I was in the water. I started to panic, flapping around like a fool. I’d been so preoccupied about being alive and very different that I didn’t even realize where I was. This time I did scream.

I expected to drown.

I didn’t.

The water around me started to vibrate and I hard time keeping my eyes open.

Gasping, I put a hand over my mouth.

What the hell was going on?

Still in full on panic mode, I started to push my way toward the surface. When I kicked my legs though, something felt wrong. They felt numb. In fact, I couldn’t feel them at all. Looking down, I screamed again. My legs were gone. Where the hell were my legs? Where the hell did that come from? I reached down, running my hands across the scaly thing attached to my torso. It was greenish blue, shimmered in the water and looked almost like a tail. That was impossible though. Humans didn’t grow tails. Then again, boys didn’t grow boobs either.

Boobs and a tail?

I wanted to wrap my mind around it but I just couldn’t. I was too scared to think.

I would worry about all of it later.

Now I needed to get out of the water!

Pushing faster, I found that I easily glided through the water. I had no idea how far under the water I was but when I finally broke the surface I gasped. Throwing my head back, I felt my hair whip back behind me. It felt longer again. I would worry about that later too. Right now I needed to get my bearings. I started to tread water without even thinking about it. It was a weird thing. I didn’t even know how to swim and yet here I was doing it like a pro. It was as if any fear of the water that I had before had melted away instantly. I realized the panic attack from a few moments ago was something else entirely.

Something else I would think about later.

Right now…

I started to look around. I was in the middle of the ocean still. It was also pitch black. Night. Had I been unconscious that long or was it something else? The moon was directly overhead, it's light like a beacon. The air smelled crisp and the water was calm. It would be almost tranquil if I wasn’t so damn scared. Right, not now. I needed to figure things out first. The helicopter was long gone now. I half expected it to be a wreck somewhere nearby. It was in pretty bad shape when I fell from it. I think it was even smoking? I looked as far as I could see, wondering if I could spot it on the horizon. I stopped a few seconds later when I realized I didn’t know where the horizon was. Cursing, I chewed my lip. Without knowing where the horizon was, it was going to make it all that much harder to get back to the beach. That is if I actually wanted to go back. Sighing, I tried to think of my options.

I only had a few.

I could continue to stay out here in the water, being some kind of weird freak.

I could swim back to shore.

I could try swimming somewhere else.

They weren’t the greatest ones but they were all I had.

I immediately knew the first option was stupid. Sure I might be some kind of weird fish freak right now but I’m not sure how long that would last. As far as I knew I was hallucinating the whole tail thing anyway. Some kind of post-trauma shock. If that was the case, it was only a matter of time before that shock wore off. As soon as it did, I’d be a sitting duck out here. Not just from sharks either. Eventually, exposure and dehydration would get me. My third option seemed pretty stupid too. I had nowhere else to go. Which left me with option number two, going back to Virginia Beach. I cursed again. It wasn’t the greatest option but, it was the only true one I had. Once there, I could get my bearings straight and figure out my next course of action. Then maybe whatever shock I was in would finally wear off and I could truly panic about EVERYTHING.

I still had one problem though.

I still didn’t know how to get there.

Turning, I looked back the way I thought I came from. All of this was so disorienting. Everything out here looked the same. In the dark, it was hard to see anything. Except for the moon. It was my one constant. It looked so massive looming overheard. Its pale light was downright peaceful. In fact, I got so lost in that glow I almost didn’t hear the boat. It was coming in fast, the sound of the motor cutting through the stillness of the night. Cursing, I dropped below the waves. It was a good thing too because it stopped. A moment later, someone on board starting shining a light at the water. Underwater, I lingered just below the surface, hoping they didn’t notice me.

I think I managed to hide and for good reason too.

“You think it’s out there?” asked a voice, male.

There was a grunt in response. ‘We found Phelps and Stewart about a mile from here.”

“That was six hours ago,” said the first voice.

“The boss wants us to be thorough.”

Crap, it was them.

So they found the two guys from the helicopter, both presumed dead. Six hours ago though? Did that mean I’d been in the water that long? If so then why hadn’t I woken sooner? A mile from here too, which meant I somehow drifted. Or their bodies possibly did? Who the hell were these people? At first, I thought they were creeps, hellbent on doing some freaky shit to me. Now though I was starting to put two and two together. That doctor wasn’t the least bit fazed by the changes in my body from before, in fact, she never once mentioned them. I thought they did it to me, but now I was pretty sure I’d done it to myself. They knew about it too. They knew a lot of things. More things than I knew for sure.

That raised so many questions. I knew where to find the answers too. I was pretty certain that I wouldn’t like how these people gave them to me.

“This is a waste of time. We should try this in the morning when there’s more light.”

The flashlight beam left the water.

“Let’s just head back to shore. Tell them we found nothing.”

Yes, head back, please.

There was a bit of back and forth arguing, but eventually, the two of them started the boat again.

A moment later, they were on their way.

Taking a chance, I decided to follow it.

I took a deep breath and with only a slight thought, I surged forward. I was quickly amazed at how fast I was cutting through the water. I’d seen dolphins swimming on TV and movies. They always used to impress me. Especially because I was always too afraid to get into the water myself. I always wondered how something could move like that. Now here I was, moving very similarly. I was faster though, much faster. It was almost as if I was using the water itself to propel me forward. Shooting through it like a bullet out of a gun except I was losing no momentum as I went.

I was going so fast I almost eclipsed the boat.

I had to slow down to keep in its wake.

After twenty minutes of following it though, I couldn’t help but smile.

It wasn’t long before the boat started to slow. Taking a look, I saw other boats start to come into view. Many of which were moored. It had to be some kind of marina. I tailed the boat for a bit longer but soon realized that I didn’t want them to spot me. I decided to steer away from it, making sure to take note of it in case I ran into it in the daylight. I came to a complete stop a few seconds later, amazed at how quickly I was able to do so. I was amazed at other things as well. I went into full-blown swim mode without even thinking about it. It was almost as if all of it was second nature to me. Like I’d been doing it my whole life. I never once panicked either. About anything.

What was wrong with me?

I should be freaking out?

Why wasn’t I freaking out?

Not just about the whole half-fish thing either. I was a boy mere hours ago and now I was a girl. I had boobs, I should be going ballistic. Yet, I was totally calm about all of it. It made no sense. Not that growing a tail made much sense either. I was too freaked to think about it earlier but now I wanted to know what the hell was going on. A small part of me still wondered if these people had done something to me. It was clear they put some kind of tracker in my arm back on the helicopter, so they definitely wanted to keep an eye on me. It was also pretty clear now that they never got a chance to turn it on. I suppose that’s what I stopped them from doing when I went all postal cattle prod on their asses.

It made me realize there was still a lot about all of this I didn’t know.

Swimming to the surface, I made sure I stayed out of sight. At first, I thought about swimming up the marina and coming ashore there. Then two things suddenly struck me. The first being I didn’t have any clothes. In the water before, I had a vague recollection of being topless. I fondly remembered groping myself. Now it was becoming pretty clear that I didn’t have any clothes at all. Whatever I had been wearing before was long gone. That was the lesser of my two revelations. The bigger one was whether I could even leave the water anymore. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t human anymore. I had no more legs. I was a…

I sighed.

I couldn’t even bring myself to think it.

Just the idea of it was completely ridiculous.

I would have said downright crazy if I hadn’t seen it for myself.

I forced the thought from my head.

I had other things to worry about at the moment. Chief among them was figuring out how I was going to get on land with a tail. I’d seen a few movies, wasn’t there some kind of magic or something? Magic. I would have said something like that didn’t exist. That was, of course, before I spontaneously changed genders and grew a tail. I bit my lip. What I needed was a Fairy Godmother or something. I knew it sounded stupid, but at this point, I’d believe in anything. I closed my eyes and like an idiot starting to chant in my head: LEGS, LEGS, LEGS. When I opened them, I half expected it to work. I sighed when I still saw my tail. Well, it was worth a try I suppose.

That’s when I felt the tingle.

No way.

A second later, there was a slight burning sensation in my forehead.

Then I watched in awe as my tail slowly started to pull apart and grow into a pair of legs.

You’ve gotta be shitting me!

The tingling and burning sensation disappeared just as fast as it came.

I wiggled my toes, just to make sure.

A second later, I realized the tail wasn’t the only thing that changed. My fingers were no longer webbed and the bracelet was back around my wrist. Where did that come from? More importantly, where did that go? I shuddered. A second later, I realized something else.My confidence in the water was gone. It wasn’t the only thing either. I panicked. My hydrophobia was back. I started to kick and flail. My head went under. I screamed, sucking in a ton of water in the process. I pushed back up to the surface quickly, coughing. Shit. I felt the tingle again. My thrashing stopped a moment later as my legs transformed back into a tail. The panic was gone. I took a couple of deep, reassuring breaths. So that’s how it was. I wasn’t scared of the water as long as I was in this… “form”. I guess it made about as much sense as everything else.

I cursed.

Note to self: Change back closer to land.

I took a moment before I made up my mind.

Then I started to swim away from the marina a bit. There were too many lights and boats around. I didn’t want to transform with the potential of being spotted. The last thing I needed was to become a science experiment. I traveled down the beach a bit until I finally found a secure and dark place near a rock outcropping. It took a few tries but I pulled myself out of the water like Ariel. In the pale moonlight, I got my first out-of-water look at my new appendage. It was the freakiest thing ever. I ran my hand along my flat stomach, stopping momentarily where flesh and scale met. It was a weird thing. It shouldn’t be real. When I touched my tail, the scales were smooth and wet. The tail was warm to touch. I wanted to freak out, but I couldn’t. Everything felt so normal.

I closed my eyes a second later and willed the tail away again.

When I reopened them, I had a pair of legs.

Naked legs.

A cool ocean breeze hit me, whipping my hair about.

I shivered.

Naked everything.

Crap.

I needed clothes.

Double crap.

The problem with finding clothes on a beach was, well, a problem.

Especially at night.

I spent a good twenty minutes walking quietly along the shoreline. I was staying far enough away from the water so as not to have another panic attack. I was extremely embarrassed. It was like one of those dreams where you end up in school naked. Except this wasn’t a dream, it felt like a nightmare and there was no waking up from it. Thankfully, my hair was long enough that I managed to cover my breasts with it. I could do nothing about down below other than walk with my hand covering up that foreign bit. I tried my hardest not to touch it. I was scared of what might happen. I was scared about all of it actually.

I had some time to think too.

It was clear my new female body and the tail were connected.

I was also convinced that I was cursed.

It was the only possible explanation.

Or maybe I was dead after all.

It definitely happened after I fell out of the helicopter. A fall that apparently killed my assailant but didn’t kill me. A fall that left me unconscious for a little while, only to wake up underwater a mile from where I fell and a woman. It made no sense. It had to be a curse. Maybe I fell on a tribe of water fairies. Maybe I trespassed on sacred magical land. Maybe I made a dying pact with a Sea God? Each explanation was crazier than the last, but all of them made sense. Ok, so all of them were crazy but so was ALL of this. Boys don’t change into girls, especially girls who can grow tails.

I wanted to scream.

I almost did.

It was a good thing I didn’t.

I was so preoccupied with my own thoughts that I didn’t notice the fire.

It wasn’t that far away.

It wasn’t just a fire either.

There was a pickup truck parked on the beach. Next to it was a tent. Someone was having themselves a little camp-out under the stairs. Someone who probably had clothes. I bit my lip. I hated the idea of stealing from a stranger, but it was either that or find a Nudist Colony. Cursing, I slowly crept my way over to the little camp. As I got closer, I heard soft talking.

The camp’s occupants.

A man and woman.

I stopped for a second, hoping they weren’t somewhere about.

Then I realized their voices were coming from the tent.

“Lance, stop,” a girl grunted.

“C’mon, babe, I’m horny.”

I rolled my eyes.

Not what I wanted to hear.

I listened for a few seconds more as Lance tried and failed to get lucky tonight. As soon as I determined they were going to stay in the tent, I started to poke around their little camp. I started with the truck, but it was no luck. The flatbed seemed promising though. I found a duffle there, but upon further inspection, I realized it was full of Lance’s clothes. Clothes I would have been happy to find if not for the fact that they wouldn’t fit anymore. I cursed. I knew where her bag was, but I also knew there was no way I was getting in that tent. Sighing, I was about to give up when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I jumped.

I snapped around, prepared for anything.

“Whoa, sorry,” said a girl.

The girl from the tent.

When did she come out?

I took a step back, not sure what I was going to do now.

I was like a deer in headlights.

“You ok?” she asked in a soft, concerned voice.

I opened my mouth to say something, but instead, I found myself crying. I’m not sure why. A moment later, she was hugging me. It was a strange thing. She held me for a bit, telling me everything was going to be all right. I’m not sure what was happening. She led me over to the camp fire and held me until I stopped crying. I never realized how cold I was until I got close to the fire. After she was done holding me, I stared at the ground for a while.

“You want to tell me about it?”

It took me a few seconds to gather my thoughts.

I wanted to tell her everything but I knew I couldn’t.

So I lied.

“I was with this guy. We were having a good time. Then he wanted to skinny-dip, so I said sure. The next thing I knew...”

She squeezed my hand. “Men are creeps."

At that point, Lance decided to make an appearance.

“Whoa,” he said, seeing me sitting by the fire.

The girl rolled her eyes. “See what I mean.”

“Chloe...”

“Go back to the tent idiot,” she snapped, “And bring my bag!”

He rushed into the tent, bringing her bag a second later.

Then she made him leave again.

Behold the power of the blonde.

“We might not be the exact same size, but I think we’re close,” she said, pulling some things out of her bag. “I’m Chloe, by the way.”

“Cassidae,” I said without thinking.

“That’s pretty,” she said with a smile.

The clothes she handed me were not what I would call clothing. They were better than nothing though. I just never thought I’d be wearing a bikini. I turned away as I pulled up the bottoms. They were a bit snug but not too bad. I struggled with the top though. She giggled and helped me tie it in back. After that she handed me a pair of jean cut-offs and a tiny tank top. The shorts were snug too, and the top was definitely a bit too small. I squirmed for a few seconds then felt a tingle. A second later, everything fit perfectly.

What the hell?

She gave me a strange look. “Weird, I could have sworn you were a bit bigger...”

I shrugged. “Maybe it’s the dark?”

Or maybe it’s magic?

Did I shrink to fit the clothes?

Or did the clothes grow to fit me?

“Can I come out now?” asked Lance, poking his head out of the tent.

“As long as you’re not a lech."

He scrambled out of the tent.

Lance was the typical surfer, sandy blonde hair, a body crafted for the sun. My eyes lingered on his rippling pecs for a second before I realized I was staring, and quickly looked away.

Great.

“So who am I beating the shit out of?’ he asked, flexing.

Chloe rolled her eyes.

“No one,” I said quickly. “He’s long gone now.”

We sat around and talked for a bit after that. They offered me a ride into town in the morning. We got no cell reception on the beach so we couldn’t call from here. I was happy for the help and told them so. After that, they couldn’t stop talking about themselves. The two of them were in college. This was the end of their break before they had to head back home. Lance was a bit of a meathead, but Chloe was nice enough. She was a Biology major, coming to the beach was her idea. She thought it was awesome when I told her how to spell my name. After all, it’s not every day you meet someone named after a snail. We talked a bit more. They offered me one of their beers, but when I told them I was only sixteen, they both looked a bit sheepish.

After a while, we were laughing. It was a strange but nice distraction. Especially after the weird day, I’d been having. Not to mention the fact that I almost robbed these people. Not that I told them that of course. All throughout the laughing though, Chloe kept giving me strange looks. Like she knew something but didn’t want to say. I tried to ignore her, but it was starting to get a bit unsettling.

“Well that’s it for me,” said Lance, getting up.

He started for the tent.

“Nope,” said Chloe. “Tent is girls only, you can sleep in the truck!”

“Seriously?”

She gave him a look. He grunted and walked over to the truck, his head held low.

“You didn’t have to...”

“That boy needs to cool off, he’s too damn frisky. He and his hand will have a good night in the truck."

We both laughed.

It was strange. Chloe and Lance had accepted me so quickly. They didn’t even bat an eye when I showed up. Then she quickly started comforting me when I started to cry. I was a complete stranger and they helped me without even thinking. People surprised me sometimes. I’d been having such a hard time with everyone lately, first the Spencers, then Dr. Chambers and her people. Now here comes Chloe and Lance and they’ve been nothing but nice to me. I’d only known them for about an hour too. I didn’t deserve this. Any of it. I wanted to run, but my feet wouldn’t move.

Chloe got to her feet, she held out a hand for me. “C’ mon, you can use my sleeping bag. In the morning, we’ll take you into town and you can get ahold of someone there."

I smiled.

So nice.

I let her pull me to my feet. As I she did, my hair flopped all over the place. I was never going to get used to that.

“I love your hair by the way,” she said with a giggle. “It’s so long, like a mermaid’s”

Mermaid.

The word that had been dangling over my head all night.

Was that really me?

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

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:Sorry about taking last week off from posting. I did it in my attempt to create a larger buffer between chapters but in the end that failed. I got caught up in another ongoing project and I didn't even touch Summer Tail. I plan to rectify that as soon as possible. I have a fairly good idea where I want to take this story. Its going to be a shorter one though. That was always my intention here. There will be enough of a resolution that I feel will satisfy most people. Thanks again to Nyssa for her wonderful editing :)

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7.

Something feels wrong…

Opening my eyes, I blinked. Where was I again? It took me a few seconds to register everything. Right, this was a tent. I was here because I turned into a mermaid and I had no clothes. That’s where Chloe came in. She and her boyfriend Lance were on the beach. I found them and she agreed to help me. Which brought me here. Sleeping in a tent with a beautiful blonde surfer girl only mere inches away from me. I should have been excited about that, but I found out last night that I wasn’t attracted to her in the least.

It was pretty unsettling.

It meant something else.

Something I did not want to think about.

Sitting up, I felt the foreign weight on my chest. That was something else I didn’t want to think about. I think the shock of it all wore off sometime last night. In fact, I’m pretty sure it happened the same time I realized I wasn’t attracted to Chloe. We just turned in for the night and she stripped to her underwear, telling me she usually slept that way. I expected to be embarrassed about being so close to an almost naked woman. I even braced for the inevitable hard-on that should have followed. When it didn’t, my new reality came crashing to the forefront. I was a girl now. I had boobs and a...well, not a penis. Everything about my life was going to be very different from now on and I still didn’t know how it happened.

It was a very eye-opening night.

I barely slept.

Just when I finally thought I was asleep, I woke up.

Life sucks.

Though not as bad as going bra-less.

I groaned, feeling the weight.

Why were these so big?

I felt a slight tingle. Then watched in awe as my breasts got smaller. Not tiny small but small enough that they weren’t such a nuisance. I blinked, touching them to make sure I didn’t just see things. It happened though. I don’t know breast sizes, but it was clear they were at a more manageable size. Like last night. I thought I’d imagined Chloe’s clothes shrinking to fit my body. Now I realized that it wasn’t the clothes but me. Somehow I’d managed to make my body fit her clothes. Whatever I did must have worn off last night while I slept because things felt uncomfortable again.

There was another tingle and whatever discomfort I got from the clothes was gone.

Well then…

Neat trick.

What did that make me?

I was clearly some kind of mermaid thing. That was pretty obvious what with the tail, webbed fingers and the underwater breathing. It felt like something right out of a Disney cartoon, minus the purple seashells on my new boobs. My boobs. That was still something I never thought I’d say, let alone think. Taking a peek down at my new chest, it was hard not to ignore them. It was hard not to ignore any of it. Something was wrong with me, something I’m not sure anyone could explain. What happened to me did not happen to normal people, and yet here I was, suddenly a girl.

It made no sense.

Movement drew my attention away from my chest. I turned and saw Chloe begin to stir. I silently cursed. I was hoping to be out of here before she woke up. I didn’t want to be rude, but the longer I stayed with them, the more lies I would have to tell. It was never good to keep on lying. Especially for me because I was no good at it. I was lucky to get this far on the ones I told last night. As it was, if I continued to stay here, eventually one of them was going to figure out how stupid I sounded.

She sat up, giving me a friendly look.

“You been watching me?” she asked with a friendly smile.

“No. Just woke up. Trying to work out what I’m going to do next.”

She brushed some hair from her face.

It was a great face. I never really stopped to appreciate her last night. She was gorgeous. Bright green eyes, pale blonde hair, a small smattering of freckles across her nose. She was the type of All-American girl one might expect to find on the beach. Mother Nature had been kind to her too. Though not as kind as she was to me. After all, her clothes were too small for me.

She gave me a funny look. “Did my clothes fit you like that last night?”

“Yes,” I lied, turning away.

Had she noticed?

I’m not even sure how I shrunk to fit them.

All of this was new and scary.

It was getting scarier by the minute too.

As was the awkward silence.

It was thankfully interrupted by Lance shouting for us. Chloe left the tent first; I crawled out a few seconds later. As soon as I did, I had to shield my eyes from the bright morning sun. Standing up, I brushed sand from my knees. I stretched and turned toward the ocean. I felt a tingle. For a second I thought it was my imagination. The longer I stared at the water, the more I wanted to pull off all my clothes and jump right in. It was almost like there was a supernatural force pulling me toward the waves. I found myself stepping toward it. One foot in front of the other. I couldn’t stop myself. I was almost there when I felt a hand on my arm.

“Hey, you ok?”

Chloe.
I snapped out of whatever stupor I’d been in.

I blinked.

“Yeah, I was just admiring the ocean."

She smiled, taking my hand. “It’s really great. It’s my first time seeing it. Well, at least the Atlantic.”

She started to talk about growing up out west and moving east a few years ago.

When she mentioned New York, I laughed.

“That’s where I’m from too.”

She smiled. “Small world, huh?”

She started talking about her hometown a bit. I only half paid attention though. I know it was rude but I couldn’t help but stare at the water. I did hear her say something about cows. I could only nod my head to it though. New York had a lot of cows and apples. She started talking about the family business when Lance shouted at us again.

“Can you guys stop yapping and help me!”

Chloe stopped talking and rolled her eyes.

“A real charmer that one, girls must be flocking to him…,” she said annoyed.

I was confused. “Wait, I thought...”

She laughed. “Only in Lance’s dreams. No, he’s my lab partner. He definitely wants to be more, but every time he tries, I just remind him that my girlfriend could kick his ass.”

Girlfriend? I was not expecting that.

She saw my confusion and only laughed more.

“C’mon, let’s help him pitch camp before he starts whining.”

It didn’t take us long to break down the tent and deal with their fire pit.

Then we were on the road back to town.

Back to whatever for me.

“You sure you want us to drop you off here?”

We were near the entrance to Neptune Park. I could see the statue from the truck. The only answer I gave Lance’s question was a quick nod. Then I climbed out of the cab. Lance stayed behind the wheel but Chloe followed me. This was all part of my “plan”. After arriving back in civilization, I used Chloe’s cell to make a call. I lied and said I was calling a friend. In truth, I called my own cell phone. It didn’t ring, which didn’t surprise me in the least. Wherever it was, it was probably not charged. Calling it though was enough of an illusion for them. When I hung up and told them I’d meet my friend here, they seemed to accept it. Which made me happy because I was tired of lying. I also didn’t want to get them involved with whatever it was that I was involved with. I certainly didn’t want to be involved in it. I didn’t even know what “it” was. All I really knew was that my “aunt” and “uncle” clearly weren’t who they said they were, and I was kidnapped. The group, and the doctor responsible, worked for someone else and now I’m pretty certain they knew what I was from the beginning.

Whatever that was.

There were far too many questions and no answers.

“You ok?” asked Chloe, gently touching my elbow.

It was a weird feeling. I’d only known her less than twenty-four hours and yet a total stranger seemed to have actual concern for me.

It was a new feeling.

Not unwelcome though.

“I’m good,” I said, lying again.

I needed to stop doing that.

Chloe turned to Lance. “I’ll be a minute or two.”

He looked annoyed but didn’t say anything.

She followed me away from the truck, toward the statue. For a few moments, neither of us said anything. She sat with me on a bench. I started fidgeting. Suddenly I felt really nervous. It had nothing to do with being close to the water either. I’m not sure, but I think it was Chloe. There was suddenly something about her, something that I’m not sure if I should be scared of. It was hard to pinpoint. I’m not even sure why I was feeling this way either. When I turned to look at her, it was almost as if those green eyes of hers could bore into my very soul. It was an unsettling feeling, but it was comforting too.

It’s also how I knew that she meant me no harm.

She sighed. “You’re a terrible liar by the way. Back at the beach, just now”

I gasped in surprise. “I didn’t...”

She patted my knee. “I understand, it’s ok. We all have our secrets. Trust me. You’re in trouble, aren’t you?” I nodded, she sighed. “Not from a boyfriend either. You’ve got some heavy shit on your plate. Trust me, I’ve been there too. Which of course makes this all the more difficult because I’d really like to help, but something keeps telling me I need to stay away. Which really pisses me off...”

She looked angry and for a moment, she glared at the sky?

She fell silent for a few seconds.

Then she bit her lip. A second after that, she took out a cash receipt then wrote something on the back. “This is my number,” she said, pushing it into my hand. “I’m not supposed to do this but you really do need help. So when the shit really hits the fan, I want you to call me, ok?”

I nodded, not sure what she was talking about.

“Lance and I will be in this area for the rest of the week…,” she said as she stood up.

I found myself standing with her.

She grabbed me, pulling me into a hug. “Take care, and watch your back,” she said gently in my ear then quietly added. “And trust her but only her.”

What?

She pulled away and smiled.

Then with that, she walked back to the truck.

“Wait!” I shouted, more confused than ever. “Who are you?”

She smiled. “I’m Nobody.”

Then she climbed into the cab and the truck pulled away.

Leaving me alone again.

I blinked.

There was something about that girl, something very strange. About as strange as me. I sat on the bench for a while, thinking about her. Then thinking about me. I was lost now. I had no money, no ID and the only clothes I had were the ones on my back. Everything I owned was gone now. My life was gone. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. There weren’t a lot of options at this point. I could try to get back to Grover. Without any money though, I’d probably have to hitchhike. It was something I might have considered before, but now that I was female, it was a scary thing to think about.

The other option was just as crazy.

Going to the Mitchells.

For one, I had no idea what their address was. I never wanted to know. I knew it was an island, and it was somewhere around here. When Tori told me I wasn’t very far the other day, I was surprised. Even if I did somehow manage to get there, I had no way of explaining who I really was. I mean, it’s not every day that your former male foster child comes knocking on your door as a teenage girl. Not to mention that once again I had no real means of getting there.

This sucked.

It really sucked.

Something else really sucked too.

I had to pee.

I’d been trying to avoid it for so long. The urge started on the ride over. I just didn’t have enough courage to ask for them to stop. Now I couldn’t deny it any longer. Cursing, I started to make my way to the little bistro across the street. It was some kind of Italian transplant, one that thankfully had a public restroom. When I reached the women's bathroom though, I couldn’t seem to step inside. I took a deep breath. It’s just a bathroom. It’s not like I was going to get arrested for stepping inside. Building up my courage, I found myself opening the door and sighing. See, I didn’t burst into flames.

I found a stall quickly though.

It was a bit weird not seeing urinals.

With my eyes closed, I finally peed.

Talk about weird.

Then, with a quick wipe and flush, I rushed to the sink. I wanted to get this over as fast as possible. The thing is, everything went into slow motion when I saw my reflection. I paused, mesmerized. The girl staring back at me was gorgeous. I could barely believe that it was me. I’d always had soft, feminine features, but I grew to ignore them and, for the most part, I learned to hide them. Most people didn’t look at the face of the strange emo boy as he walked by. The girl in the mirror was going to get a lot of attention. Those bright blue eyes, those kissable lips... I reached up and touched my face. My skin was so soft. I brushed away some hair. It was much longer now and a lighter shade of blonde. I opened my mouth, even my teeth were nice and shiny.

This was unreal.

It was as if whatever changed me had made me into the most beautiful girl it could.

I was scared.

I still had no idea what was going on or how this happened.

Grunting, I splashed some water into my face.

As soon as it touched my face, I felt a tingle.

Smiling, I left the bathroom.

Sticking my hands into my pocket, I found the slip of paper that Chloe gave me. There was something else with it, something I hadn’t noticed. Unfolding it, I found a pair of twenties. When did she do that? I would have protested if I’d seen them, but as it was, it was a nice gesture. Especially because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had something to eat and drink. I knew I probably couldn’t afford the food at the bistro, but I found a food cart not too far down the street. I bought a couple of hotdogs and a bottle of water. I never thought something could ever taste this good.

Now that all three of my base needs were taken care of, I had to think of other needs.

Like shelter.

I had about thirty bucks left now.

Not enough for a hotel room.

I’m sure this place had a shelter somewhere, but I didn’t like my chances.

I thought while I walked.

I didn’t really know where my feet were taking me, but soon I was leaving the boardwalk and onto to the beach. Before long, I realized where I was walking. The resort. Why had I walked back here? I didn’t have my room key, and of course, at this point, my stuff was probably long gone. I had a hollow pit in my stomach thinking about losing that laptop. Especially because it was the only true way I could contact Tori. She was probably having kittens by now. If I knew her, the Coast Guard was probably out looking for me. Thinking about it made me smile, but reality quickly set in. Without my laptop and phone, that part of my life was gone.

There was the other problem too.

How would she recognize me now?

I mean, I didn’t exactly look like her brother anymore.

I sighed.

It was hopeless.

Being here was pretty hopeless too. It’s not like…

Wait.

Is that the Spencers’ car?

I stopped walking and stared in awe. Yeah, no doubt about it. That was their car and it was still parked at the bungalow. It made no sense though. Why were they still here? I mean, I thought I saw it from that helipad days ago, but I thought for sure they’d be gone by now. Then again, why would they? For all, I knew they were just on vacation. Sure, they drugged me and let Dr. Chamber’s people take me but I wasn’t sure how much involvement they had in all of this. They were bad people, but were they THE bad people? I bit my lip. I took a step toward the bungalow, keeping low and out of sight.

There were no lights on inside.

Cursing, I tried the door.

It was unlocked.

Are you kidding me?

I opened it up slowly, taking a slight peek inside. I couldn’t see anyone, but then again it was dark inside. I risked opening the door more to take a better peek. No, there was definitely no one inside. I bit my lip. Fuck it! I pushed the door open all the way and slipped inside. I still kept low, making sure it wasn’t some kind of ambush. I stayed near the door, ready to run just in case. I sat there for at least ten minutes, waiting in stealthy silence. Finally, when I was sure no one was waiting in the dark, I stood up. I let out a sigh of relief, closing and locking the door behind me.

Not worth the risk.

Stepping into the main area of the place, I was surprised to see everything where it was left. Almost as if the Spencers just left everything in a rush. You know, drugging a kid and dragging him out of the place, that probably didn’t leave a lot of time to pack. I looked around further, finally spotting what I wanted with a smile. I rushed over to my carrier bag, clutching it to my chest. Opening it up, I pulled out my laptop and sighed. It was still here. I had no reason to doubt it, but who knew? Ignoring it for a second, I rummaged in the side pocket where I found my phone. It still had a little charge left.

I checked my messages.

No surprise, there were well over thirty from Tori.

I skimmed them.

At first, she was friendly, then confused. That confusion turned to concern, then downright panic.

I felt a hollow ache in the pit of my stomach.

Poor Tori.

I thought about firing off a text, telling her I was Ok, but second-guessed it.

I’d seen the movies, I knew how these people worked.

That’s why I also knew being in here was probably a very bad idea. Sure, everything was left right where they left it, but that didn’t mean they weren’t coming back. No, the faster I was out of here, the better.

I slung the bag on my shoulder and rushed into the little bedroom area I never got a real chance to sleep in. I found my bag sitting on the bed where I left it. I rushed over, unzipped it and rummaged inside. At this point, I knew the clothes were worthless to me. They weren’t what I was after though. I always took any the cash I ever earned, rolled it up with a rubber band and never spent a cent. I stuck it in the bottom of the bag, inside a sock. I smiled when I found it, pulled it out and stuffed the wad of cash in my pocket. There were a couple hundred dollar bills there I think. Not a great fortune but enough to run with.

With my cash in hand, I dumped my clothes.

I took the empty bag and went back into the main room.

I raided the mini-fridge.

In fact, I cleaned it out.

Those bastards deserved it.

I took a quick look at their bags, wondering if they had any cash. Knowing them though, it was probably all credit cards. I was tempted for a second, but realized how stupid that was. Credit could be traced. It was Dumb Criminal 101. It was a very easy way to get caught.

Finally satisfied, I hefted my second bag on my shoulder. I turned around to head out the door only find it blocked by a figure.

A second later, the lights in the room came on.

I froze, like a deer in headlights.

“Well, you certainly are prettier than we thought,” said Mrs. Spencer with a smile.

I looked from her to the door beyond.

I thought about running, but I didn’t like my odds.

Especially with that pistol resting against her thigh.

Shit.

She smiled. “It’s good to see you again, Cassidy,” she said sweetly. “Though I’m not sure if that name is appropriate for you anymore. I’m sure we can give you another.”

“What is this?” I snapped. “What did you do to me?”

She chuckled. “Me? I did nothing. We did nothing. This is all, you honey.”

She turned her head slightly. I made a step toward her but she raised the gun, wagging it back and forth. “We have her. She sprang the motion sensors at the bungalow.”

Motion sensors?

I looked around quickly but saw nothing.

Shit, who were these people?

“I told you it was smart to keep this place up and running.”

When she spoke, her voice had an edge to it. She was completely different from that sweet woman from all those days ago. It wasn’t just her voice either. Her whole demeanor had changed. Gone was the plain soccer mom. In her place was someone severe and not to be messed with. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, she had dark eye makeup and a sneer. It matched well with her skintight leather pants and snug tank-top. This was the type of woman that a man might fear trying to pick up in a bar. Her transformation was surprising though I couldn’t help but wonder which one was the true disguise.

“Yes, I’ll secure her and make sure the chip is working this time,” she said, annoyed.

Chip?

I started to scratch my arm.

Finally, she turned to me, glaring. Her conversation was clearly over because all her attention was back on me.

“You cost me a lot of money you know,” she waved the gun at the couch. “Sit, we’re going to be keeping each other company again for a while."

I didn’t have much of a choice so I walked over to the couch and sat.

She kept the gun on me as she sat in the armchair across from me, staring.

“It’s really remarkable. When they told me about it, I didn’t believe them. Then they started showing me some of the camera feed from the penthouse. I saw some of this change...”

“Who are you?”

She scoffed. “No one important.”

“Then why do this?”

She shrugged. “Money."

I guess I wasn’t that surprised. “I was a job then?”

“A very well paid one, or it should have been anyway...”

I didn’t like the way she was glaring still.

“So if securing me was a job, then who paid you?”

She smirked. “Don’t let the good looks fool you, kid. This isn’t my first rodeo. I know what you’re doing, trying to get me to spill the beans about all of this. But I’m not falling for it. I’m a lot more trained than that...”

I looked at her bare arms. They were toned but there were no distinguishing marks. That told me she wasn’t military or at least any military that would advertise itself.

Was this training or something else?

I took a stab in the dark.

“You don’t know, do you?”

Her fidget was enough.

She had no more idea of what was truly going on than I did. It made sense I suppose. Hire a private contractor to do your dirty work for you. I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what they all were. Some kind of private firm, maybe even security for hire. That told me whoever was fitting the bill had a lot of money to throw around. I mean, there were helicopters and automatic weapons involved. Not to mention the motion sensors and hidden cameras. Someone was going very far out of their way and all for me. I might have been flattered if I wasn’t so damn terrified.

This kind of thing reeked.

“It’s my turn for the twenty questions,” she said, smirking. I shrugged. “So what are you?”

I shrugged again. “Damned if I know. I fell out of a helicopter, woke up like this.”

She scoffed. “Fine, keep your damn secrets...”

They weren’t secrets though.

I had no idea who or what I was.

I was hoping that she might have the answers.

She licked her lips, ready to ask a few more questions when there was a knock on the door. She gave me a surprised look, then went toward the door. “That was faster than I thought."

She stood up, holstering her gun.

She stomped to the door, clearly annoyed that her “interrogation” was being interrupted.

“About damn time…,” she said, pulling open the door.

I had a good view of the door from my seat. What I saw was not at all what I expected. There was a girl there, blonde, wearing a rash shirt and jean shorts. That wasn’t what shocked me the most though. It was that I knew this girl. From the other day, at the Neptune statue. Mrs. Spencer blinked, trying to go for her gun. The girl was fast, faster than I could follow. I saw her lash out, landing a blow to my captor’s throat. It was so quick though. One minute Miss Bad-Ass-Leather-Pants was standing on her two feet, the next she was in a crumpled heap on the floor.

The blonde girl smiled, stepping over her as she walked into the room.

She looked at me. “There you are!” she said with a happy smile. “See, I told you I’d catch up with you later.”

My mouth hung open in shock.

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

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

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: Sorry for the long delay in posting this. I wrote this chapter, which is far shorter than the others. Then I wrote I wrote chapter 10 and ran into a typical situation of mine where I just can't figure out where to go from there. I think I might end up rewriting 10 so there might be a gap between the posting of this chapter and that one. Sorry about that. As far as this chapter is concerned, Cassie does not appear in it and as you'll soon see, its told from the 3rd person POV.I hope it doesn't confuse or throw people off.

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9.

Onboard The Mooring Gull

She followed the dark-suited gentleman along the deck, staring out at the calm ocean on the other side of the rail. She used to love the ocean as a girl. Things had been simpler back then. Her father used to own a sailboat. She and her brother used to take it out all day, sometimes into the night. That was before, though. Before the accident, before her father went to the bottle. Things were different after Jeremy was gone. Her father was different. She was different. Looking out at the grayish blue of the water, she couldn’t help but think where she might have been if there hadn’t been a storm that day.

Maybe she would be somewhere else.

Maybe she’d be someone else.

“Right this way, Miss Trent.”

She nodded and allowed the man to lead her into a room. It was dark inside and all she could make out was a single chair. He pointed to the chair, waiting for her to sit before he left her alone. She heard the door click as he closed it. So they were locking her in. She supposed it was meant to scare her, but if that’s what they thought, they had another thing coming. She didn’t scare easily. The boys in her unit had found that out the hard way. They didn’t much like a woman in the Corp with them, but there wasn’t a lot they could do about it. She learned to keep her head down and her mouth shut. She was patient.

Her patience paid off two years into her tour.

That’s when Onyx came-a-calling.

On paper, they didn’t exist.

A clandestine black ops arm of the military, so secret that only two people in the world knew they existed. The training was harsh. They broke her down, bled her raw and then built her back up. It was worth it though. Onyx was cutthroat. After the shit life she had, it was a breath of fresh air. She always felt the world was tailor-making her for a job like that. Most of what they did was classified. All she was ever told about her mission was she was doing it for the good of the country. That was enough for her.

She served in Onyx for three years before she decided to retire.

There was no future in killing for nothing.

She went into the private sector.

Ended up with a security firm called Frederickson.

It was a few years after that that she found herself here.

She still knew next to nothing about her employee. She was told it was better that way. Being a good soldier, she never once questioned things.

That was until this most recent assignment.

It was supposed to be simple.

Pair up with another agent, assume the identity of a suburbanite. She and her partner were meant to be married. Told if necessary they had to do everything in their power to make it real. She’d done it before. When she was given the full assignment, she never questioned it. Her orders were simple: acquire this kid by any means. He was sixteen years old, orphaned. His name was Cassidy. She and her partner were to pose as his aunt and uncle, make sure the kid had everything he needed. Until they called upon them. “Make him comfortable.” That was the assignment. She knew there was more to it. She was told the kid was dangerous. If necessary, they might have to subdue him. Everything was going perfectly until he was brought back by the cops.

The mission changed from there.

They got their orders.

Take him.

So they did.

After subduing him, they passed him off to the extraction team. Her job was over.

At least that was the plan.

The kid escaped.

That’s when they showed her how dangerous he was. They showed her a tape. It was over twenty years ago, a bit on the grainy side but she knew what she saw. That person had a tail. She pulled a man into the water and strangled him to death. It was so quick. They showed her other things too. Things dating back centuries. Whoever was paying for this new job had a pretty vivid imagination. She tried to humor the man. He was writing her her checks after all. She was very willing to play along. That is until she met the kid again. Except it was a girl this time. One that looked very similar to the one from that grainy video. They could be sisters. Or mother and daughter.

Things only weirder from there.

She absently rubbed her neck. It was still raw.

She was a believer now.

She was pissed too.

She couldn’t remember when someone had gotten the drop on her like that.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the door to the room opened. Light spilled in, framing a figure in the doorway for a moment. She squinted for a moment then the door shut.

“Good morning, Miss Trent, did you have a lovely sleep?”

That voice.

Dr. Chambers.

The woman who dropped the ball.

She grunted. “So this is why I’m here. You’re passing the blame.”

Sure, she had lost the girl, but it was Chambers’ people who screwed up in the first place. Amateurs. Now their screw up was her problem. A problem she was not properly briefed about.

“Blame? I’m not the one who let the girl slip through my fingers.”

Zoe scoffed. “It was bad intel.”

It was too.

None of the information she was given ever said anything about the kid having backup.

“An oversight on our part. One we hope you can take care of in the future.”

Zoe laughed. They couldn’t be serious.

“Me? Look, I’m done lady, pay me my money. Book me a flight out of this fucking freak show!”

Dr. Chambers didn’t laugh. She’d been walking around the room, probably around her. All Zoe could hear was the annoying tap of her heels on the polished floor. Now those had stopped. Being a smartass in a dark room with a psychopath like Chambers was a risk. The woman easily had the advantage here. For all Zoe knew, she could see everything. Pushing the wrong buttons wasn’t smart but she was done with this shit. She was a highly trained soldier, had years of combat training. That woman took her out with one punch. She saw the surveillance video from both the motel and the SUV dash cams. She saw what that woman did to their strike teams too.

She wasn’t human.

There was no way to stop that.

No, she was done.

This was WAY above her pay grade.

Dr. Chambers finally spoke: “You seem to forget our deal, Miss Trent. You bring us the girl, you get paid. I don’t see the girl here. So, no girl, no money.”

Bitch.

Zoe laughed. “You can take the money and stuff it.”

“We’ll double it.”

Zoe laughed. Yeah right.

“Triple it and we’ll talk."

Dr. Chambers didn’t even pause. “Deal. What do you need?”

Zoe was flabbergasted. She was also pissed that she didn’t renegotiate higher.

She licked her lips.

She didn’t even skip a beat when she told this crazy woman what she needed:

“More men and a big gun.”

“You’ll have it.”

Zoe smiled.

Now, this was going to be fun.

In The Room Next Door

“Damn Mercenaries.”

She opened the door and stepped into the stateroom. She didn’t even blink an eye at all the expensive décor. Her employer had a flair for the dramatic. Most of this stuff probably cost more than she made in a year. Everything was high end and untouched. The Mooring Gaul was not a pleasure yacht. It was bought and furnished for one purpose: housing their soon-to-be guest. Mr. Bishop had spared no expense. He wanted this place to be comfortable and feel like home.

She walked into the room.

Rich people disgusted her.

All her life she’d been dealing with them.

First as a waitress at the country club during her teen years, then the spoon-fed bastards at Harvard Medical. She came from humble beginnings and earned every cent of everything she ever achieved. They got it all handed to them on a silver platter. Under different circumstances, she might have even admired this Parker kid. He was a lot like her. She never knew her parents either. She was bounced around the System until she was eighteen. After that, the government spit her out and she struggled to stay afloat. Thankfully, she was able to land herself a scholarship. It paid for college and her side projects paid for medical school.

She managed to establish a small practice for herself in Manhattan. She figured if anyone knew how to deal with rich-people problems, it was her. They had a lot of problems too. She struck fame with a special patient though. A young man who believed himself to be descended from the Gods. He was an interesting case. The young man whom she referred to as “Patient H” had convinced himself that his father was Zeus and that Zeus had visited him in his dreams; told him things. The man’s delusions went so far that he thought he could fly. He eventually tried. Suffice to say, like most mortals, jumping off a building only led to a swift fall. The man’s tragedy had put her name out there though.

That’s how Bishop found her.

He approached her through a third party.

At first, she was skeptical of the whole thing until they sent her that video. From there, she was intrigued. She agreed to a meeting. More material was shared. A lot more in fact. She thought for sure she was there to evaluate the billionaire’s own mental health until she started to believe. He had an infinite amount of resources at his disposal and proved it to her. He had years of research as well. It was ultimately the research that had convinced her. The blood samples were the thing that sent it over the top for her. They weren’t human. When she saw them, she started to second-guess everything.

It was how this started.

It was also why she was needed.

Bishop told her about a boy. A boy who possessed this same blood. A boy whom he wished to meet. A boy he was convinced would solve all his problems. So they hired a pair of mercenaries to acquire the boy for them. He handled all the legal aspects. It was their job to pick him up. They succeeded too. There was a plan in place. A perfect plan she helped craft. Sadly, nothing ever goes to plan and when they had to improvise, things happened. They let the boy slip through their fingers, not once but twice now.

Heads were going to roll.

She was going to make sure one of them was not hers.

Confident she could handle what was to come, she walked over to the mini-bar to pour herself a drink. Mr. Bishop always kept it well stocked. Generally, she didn’t drink during the day, but she needed something to settle her nerves. She poured herself a glass of Scotch. She was just finishing when Mr. Bishop’s face appeared on the large flat screen in the room. She set down her glass and plastered on a fake smile. The man was in his seventies but didn’t look a day over sixty. His silver-gray hair was slicked back; the dark suit he wore cost more than her house. Charles Bishop was an aloof man. He never held any of his meetings in person anymore.

“That’s enough of that,” he said in a stern voice.

She cursed under her breath.

“Good morning sir, it's nice to...”

He cut her off. “Skip the false pleasantries, Doctor. Tell me what you know.”

She sighed. “Not much at the moment. Your crack-shot mercenaries dropped the ball and your security professionals got beaten by a mere boy...”

She had no problem speaking the truth to the man.

After all, if he wanted an Ass-Kisser, he would have hired one.

“The Mercenaries served their purpose, the security failure is on you.”

She expected that and didn’t argue.

After all, those men were under her watch at the time.

She wasn’t about to take the full blame for it though.

“It's hard to do my job when I’m not informed of all the details. You assured me that the boy was alone and had no friends. Then this woman appears out of nowhere, takes out your highly trained professionals without breaking a sweat.”

Mr. Bishop never showed any kind of anger.

He was an emotionless man.

“We were ill-informed. The situation will be handled. This opportunity is not without merit though.”

“How so?”

He smiled. It was the first time she saw him do so.

“We thought there was only one of them. There’s two now. This is wonderful news.”

She gave him a fake smile again.

His smile vanished quickly. “I have a team in the field narrowing down their location as we speak. These creatures might know how to hide but they can’t run from modern technology.”

That didn’t surprise her in the least. Bishop had his hands in several different things. His software and security devices were all over the country. All of it linked to one central network. This network could monitor most security threats around the world. It wouldn’t be long before they found them and brought them in.

They could run, but they can’t hide forever.

“There’s something else too,” he said, clasping his hands. “Something I want you to handle personally.”

“What kind of something?” she asked, concerned.

“Insurance.”

She smiled.

She knew exactly what he meant.

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

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...

---

 
 

Author's Note:Someone just messaged me earlier about Ch.10 and a continuation of this story. I actually wrote 10 whole chapters before stopping. I planned on writing more before posting this one but my venture into Whateley got in the way back in August and I never got back to it. I'm hoping to get back soon but I got a little stumped after finishing this one. I do have a solid plan in place for the rest of it though :). I'd like to thank Nyssa for her great editing :).

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10.

“Cassie Young?”

I was holding the ID in front of me, scrutinizing it intently. The girl in the picture barely looked like me. It said she was 18 too. All of this was too much, too fast. It was all a part of her grand plan though. The plan she came up with two days ago, right after she told me we had to run. We didn’t get very far though. We left the beach and ended up in a little motel not too far away. Eilish told me that hiding in plain sight sometimes worked best. It also gave her some much needed time to plan our next move. A plan that involved fake IDs and a lot of cash.

“Where did you get all that money again?”

She was in the process of sorting out several hundred-dollar bills into two neat piles.

She sighed. “The bank.”

“Wait, you didn’t...”

I looked toward the door of our dingy room, waiting for the police to kick it down any minute.

She laughed. “From my safety deposit box!”

It made sense.

How old did she say she was again?

Over 200 right? Which meant she probably had a lot of money. She told me last night when we got here that she traveled around a lot. She traveled light, usually in a van or some kind of jeep. When she paid for the room for a few nights in cash I was a bit surprised. All she would tell me then was not to worry about it. Now I knew why. She must have had cash stored all over the place. Being as old as she was, she probably moved around a lot. I still didn’t really understand it all.

Even after she tried to explain more.

“You age slower than humans…?”

She nodded, putting some of the cash in a duffel. “We age slower than humans. It's hard to know how slow, but let’s just say my boobs have been this perky for a long time and leave it at that."

I looked down at my own chest, suddenly very embarrassed.

I had so many more questions now.

My brain was still trying to wrap around the idea that she looked so young.

She frowned, sensing my confusion. “I’m not going to lie. It doesn’t get easier.”

She stopped sorting money and reached for another bag nearby. A moment later, she pulled out a stack of passports. She laid them on the bed one at a time. There were at least twenty or so there. I stared.

“We can’t stay in one place long, we can’t be one person long. It takes about a decade for people to notice, sometimes longer if we’re lucky. It was harder after I turned. All my friends started to age faster than me. Our Dad was no help. Thankfully I had your Mom. Celeste was great. If it wasn’t for her I’m not sure what I would have done. We tried to stay around, but people started to notice. Dad knew of course. Leaving him was the hardest thing we ever had to do...”

“Did you ever go back?”

She nodded. “Once, toward the end of his life. We kept our distance, but we watched him. He remarried, started another family. We never resented him for it. We were happy for him. He had people to grow old with, people to take care of him. I’ve tried to keep in touch with them, generally from afar… make sure they’re all right...”

Wow, that had to be hard.

I could only imagine…

No, I didn’t need to imagine.

It was now my life too.

I raised the fake ID, taking another look. Was this my new life now? How long would I have to pretend to be this girl before burning her away in a fire barrel? What about the next? What about all the ones that came after? If I lived as long as Eilish claimed, would I lose myself to time? What about my friends and family? Tori was human. Her parents. I’m not sure I could sit by and watch them die. I could tell them the truth, but would it be fair to them if they knew? Could I even tell them the truth knowing that it might put them in danger?

“Wow, that’s a heavy face.”

Eilish reached over and grabbed my hands. “I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking,” she said, giving my hands a squeeze. “I’ve been there. When it comes to loved ones, cherish the time you have with them. It's not ideal, but it's better than the alternative.”

I nodded slowly, but I had a thought. “Have you ever tried staying?”

She sighed. She didn’t say anything though.

Her silence was enough.

She held my hands for a while, but neither of us said a thing. For a few minutes, you could almost hear a pin drop in the room.

Finally she let out a forced laugh. “Way to kill the mood, kid.”

I chuckled.

More silence but not as a long.

“Ok then. I want to show you something important.”

She took me by the hands and gently led me toward the bathroom. It was one of those tiny motel bathrooms, barely big enough for the two of us, but we managed. She stood me in front of the mirror. I was still a little surprised to see that face when I looked at my own reflection. It was hard to connect the pretty blonde girl with me.

“Take a good look, what do you see?”

I frowned. “Me.”

“What else?”

I looked from me to her. I didn’t notice it before, but she looked a lot like me. Well, the new me. Her blonde hair was a little lighter and longer, and her eyes were blue, but I could see the family resemblance. Except of course for the ring in her nose. She was also wearing way too much eye makeup. But she was my aunt, there was no question about that. Except of course that she looked young enough to be an older sister.

“Us?” I asked, after a few seconds of reflecting.

She laughed, nudging my side. “Well, I see two totally bodacious babes ready to take on the world!”

I laughed. Eilish had an affectionately carefree attitude.

I couldn’t help but frown though.

“You’re frowning again. You gotta stop doing that, kiddo. I get it, trust me. It’s hard to get used to. It's not going to change. Well, not without help, anyway...”

I was about to ask her what she meant when something happened.

My mouth dropped open as Eilish’s reflection changed before my eyes.

Gone was the spunky blonde with the ring in her nose. In her place was a cute redhead with a smattering of freckles across her nose and bright green eyes.

This new girl giggled.

A second later, she was gone.

In her place was a black girl with tight cornrows.

Then an asian girl a chin-length bob.

She transformed into various other girls, all of different ethnicity and size. Finally, she turned back into herself, smiling as she did so.

“What was...how did…?”

She touched her necklace. “This is not just a piece of shiny jewelry you know.”

I looked at my wrist, at my bracelet.

“Like I said before,” she continued. “It’s the source of our mana. Not only does it allow us to form a tail while in water, it also allows us to use a Glamour to hide and blend in.”

“We can turn into different people?”

“Yes and no,” she said, turning back into the redhead. When she spoke again, even her voice sounded different.”There are limits. Those girls you saw me transform into, they’re only for me. I can try to be someone else...” She transformed into a copy of me. “But you’ll find it doesn’t last very long.”

She didn’t turn back right away, but it happened on its own about a minute or two later.

It was still mind blowing.

It made sense though.

“So all those passports are you?”

She nodded. “There’s IDs too. These faces are for emergencies though. Transforming like that takes a lot out of us. I can only do it so often and quickly because of practice. It's another one of the limitations I’m afraid.”

I nodded.

I think I understood.

It was the freakiest thing I ever saw. It got me thinking though. If she could change like that, did it mean I could too? If I could, then did that mean I could turn back to myself? My real self. Not this female version of me, but the male version I want to be.

“Do you think you could teach me how to do that?”

She smiled. “Thinking about the old you?”

Wow, was mind reading one of her powers?

She sighed heavily. “I can teach you, but you have to understand something too. There’s no going back. This form,” she said, poking me in the boob. “This is you. We’re called Daughters of the Sea for a reason, kiddo. There’s no sons or brothers. Trust me, I know...”

Wait, did that mean?

I sighed.

Maybe this ability wasn’t as cool after all.

I practiced well into the night.

It definitely wasn’t as easy as Eilish made it look. After about five hours though, I did manage to make myself look somewhat like Cassie Young from my fake ID. Eilish kept checking on me, giving me pointers when she could. She also made me take tiny breaks. Expending mana like I was, it took its toll. After first I didn’t know what she meant, but after a few dizzy spells, I caught on pretty quick. During my lessons, I asked questions when I could. I wanted to know everything about us. About me. She answered what she could. She talked about her childhood with my mother and where they grew up.

I was actually surprised to discover they weren’t American.

“So Eilish wasn’t a name that you randomly picked then?” I asked as we were walking out of the bathroom for another break.

She shook her head. “It belonged to me Mum,” she said, letting her accent slip in.

“Did she leave you guys too?”

Instead of answering, she took me by the hands and led me over to one of the beds. We sat on the corner of it. For a minute or two, she stared off into space. There was sadness in her voice when she answered, “Being who we are is no easy thing. We mate for life. When we meet the man we know we’re going to have a child with, we feel it in our bones. It's a Calling. Most of our kind can go centuries before the Calling takes us, for others it’s very quick. That was our Mum. She met Da shortly after changing. She didn’t really know how to handle things back then. Like you, there was no one there to guide her at first. She was lost and confused. When she had a pair of twins, something very rare for us, everyone was so excited. She couldn’t cope. After she left us with Da, she...”

A tear ran down Eilish’s cheek.

She didn’t have to say.

I understood.

I gave her hand a squeeze and hugged her tight.

I held her for a while. I waited until she calmed a bit before I asked about the twin thing.

“I thought you said Mom was the older sister?”

She laughed. “Oh she was, by about five minutes. She never let me live it down!”

She talked a bit about my mother and their childhood again. She was pretty vague about a lot of things though. Mostly her. It wasn’t my place to pry, but her earlier words got me thinking. She was a boy like me once. It was pretty obvious. It was the way she talked about it. How she knew what I was feeling and the longing I could hear in her voice. I quickly started to realize talking about these things was painful for her, so I asked more questions about my mother. She brightened up when she spoke about Mom.

“Celeste was a firecracker,” she said with a laugh. “Well is a firecracker. It's been so long...”

I squeezed her hand, realizing I needed to change subjects again and quick. “How many of us are there?”

“Merrows?” I nodded, she shrugged. “From what Celeste and I were told, there’s several families. Some are larger and have more importance than others. It depends on the place and region. We have territories, but we’re not overly territorial. Our kind are generally not hostile toward one another.”

The way she said “generally” though made me think.

“Are there bad Merrows?”

She didn’t answer me in the way I wanted: “There are good and bad people everywhere, kiddo.”

She left it at that.

It made me think of something else.

“Those men back there, the ones who attacked us, you could have killed them, right?”

She turned away from me and looked toward the window. She stared in silence for a long time; when she answered it was simple, “Yes.”

I’d been thinking about that fight for the last couple of days now.

Growing up like I did, I wasn’t completely defenseless. There was an older boy at the group home. His name was Rodney, but we all called him Hot Rod. He was bigger and older than the rest of us, but he didn’t pick on us like he could have. He protected us. He also told us how to protect ourselves. He never told us where he learned how to fight, but he was no slouch at it. He took a great interest in me because I was so small and girly looking. I met him shortly after that incident with Tommy, after the Mitchells returned me. When Hot Rod heard about it, he told me he was going to make sure that no one pushed me around again. He did too. Every chance he got, he took me aside and taught me how to fight. This went on for about two years or so. Then he turned eighteen and left us, left me. I remember crying for a while, but then life came into perspective for me. Shortly after I started the whole Emo thing and stopped caring. Later, I heard that Hot Rod had joined the Army. I was happy for him. He always talked about going out and seeing the world. I thought about him from time to time, especially when I was in that helicopter fighting.

A lot of what Hot Rod had taught me had come back then.

If not for him, I probably wouldn’t have been sitting here in this room.

Sure, it was all a sloppy mess but I was still free.

It got me thinking though. I really needed to defend myself. I saw the way she did it, and I knew she had had training. She said she was over one hundred years old so it was probably a lot of training. Training I could desperately need if these people didn’t stop chasing me. The thing was, I wasn’t sure how to broach the subject with her. Especially after she told me she probably could have killed those men. There was no remorse when she said it. It made me wonder if she had done it before?

Finally I took a chance. “Who taught you how to fight like that?”

She laughed. “So many questions….”

She didn’t answer though.

She made some excuse about having to get our gear ready. I sighed, but like before, I didn’t press it. She was a very guarded person and I respected that. I watched as she continued to pack the money and some spare clothes into a pair of waterproof daypacks. I guess she thought it was easier than the duffels. I tried to preoccupy myself with watching her because I didn’t have anything else to do. She had agreed to let me keep my laptop, but it was but worthless now. The only way I was allowed to keep it was to fry the hard drive. I wasn’t happy, but she told me they’d be able to track us if we didn’t. She had taken it into town with her yesterday. She never said where, but when she brought it back, it was like a giant paperweight.

Looking at it sitting on the table near the door, I couldn’t help but think about Tori.

She was probably flipping out.

How many days had it been now?

Five? Six?

I lost track.

If I knew my sister, and I did, she was probably going nuts. After one day, she was probably ballistic. Without my phone and laptop now, I had no way to tell her I was all right. I tried to bring this up with Eilish, but she told me it was better this way. The two of us needed to run and disappear. That meant no more contact with our old lives. The thing was, it wasn’t that simple. Tori wasn’t just someone in my old life I could easily forget. She was my sister. Even after all the things I’d been through, all I could really think about was her. I needed to talk to her. I needed to see if she was ok. I needed to tell her that I was ok.

Even if she didn’t know it was me.

Making up my mind, I checked the clock on the wall.

The sun was just going down.

There was a phone at the front desk. I saw it when we arrived.

I bit my lip. “Elle, you think I can take a walk?”

She asked me to call her “Elle” earlier.

She narrowed her eyes. “It's getting dark.”

“I’m going stir crazy in here. I wasn’t going to walk very far. Just around the parking lot or something. You have any idea what it's like to be cooped up in here for two days straight?”

I was hoping it was enough. After all, she got to leave the room numerous times already. She said me going out was too dangerous. We discovered the other day how far Bishop was willing to go to “acquire” me. Last night there was a story on the news, they were flashing my school photo across the screen. They said that I, Cassidy Parker, was kidnapped, and wanted for questioning in my kidnapping were two women. Those two women were us, well, Eilish and my new self. They showed an artist rendering of Eilish but they had a fairly decent photo of my new face. Neither one of us were sure how they got it, but there it was.

Eilish went paranoid.

That’s why I now had a new ID.

It was also probably why she was so hellbent on teaching me how to change my face.

The thing was. It was night now. I didn’t plan on going anywhere where people could see me. I just needed to use a phone, call Tori, and let her know I’m all right. Easy peasy. I knew it was a risk, but I had to make sure that she was ok. I was worried about her. I also had to let her know that I wasn’t kidnapped or whatever. I would make a quick call, no one would know.

I waited for her response.

It was quick and damning.

“No.”

Now, most people would have accepted that as a final answer. Not me. I pretended to accept it though.I tried to stem my boredom with the TV. I only partially succeeded. After everything I’d been through so far, most of the programming held little interest. Half the stuff was commercials anyway. After the umpteenth time seeing a Whisper Pines dairy commercial, I shut the damn thing off. Watching TV killed another few hours though. When I stopped it was around ten. She was still on the bed next to me, sorting things out. I wanted to ask her more questions, but her need to share information had clearly passed. At least information about herself. She was more than willing to talk about our plans.

“Tomorrow morning, we’ll leave bright and early,” she was saying, moving around two new bags near the door.

Like I said before, they were daypacks, small and easy to carry.

The type of thing for two girls on the run.

Two girls.

Even thinking about it made it feel wrong.

“Where are we going again?”

“Southwest,” she said, rubbing sweat from her brow. “I know a guy in Arizona who said he might be able to get us over the border. I have a cousin in Cancun, we can sort things out from there….”

She talked about the rest of our plans for a bit, but I blanked them out.

After another hour, we finally crashed.

I lay awake, waiting.

I didn’t move for another hour.

I needed to make sure that she was finally asleep. Getting up, I slid out of bed slowly. This was, after all. not the first time I’d snuck out like this. I used to be an old pro at it. At the group home, lights out happened at ten. There was a curfew too. As long as we were in our rooms by eight, they would sometimes let us stay up later. At least for kids my age anyway. It didn’t take me very long to get bored of video games and bad TV, so I used to sneak out. I got pretty good at it. There was only one guard in the whole place and I got to learn his routine pretty well.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, I slipped on a pair of my new shoes.

Eilish went shopping for me yesterday. She got me a few pairs of shoes, some shorts and some shirts. She didn’t bother with sizes, we could change to fit. She told me the clothes needed to be light and practical though. Something that I could slip on and off with ease. She also bought me a bathing suit. It was almost as if she thought I was going to go anywhere near the water again. When I told her it was a waste of time, she laughed. She told me I could try avoiding the water all I wanted but it wasn’t going to work. I didn’t believe her of course. I was my own person. I wasn’t going to let something control me. She tried to point out that’s exactly what I had been doing with my hydrophobia, but I ignored her.

As I was putting on my new sandals, she stirred awake.

“Where are you going?” she asked, half awake.

I nearly panicked.

I was quick on my feet though.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I said and grabbed the empty ice bucket. “And we’re out of ice. I’m going to the machine to get some...”

She grumbled something I couldn’t understand before dropping back to sleep.

I let out the breath I was holding.

I waited a minute or two just in case.

I started out the door, stopped and grabbed one of the day packs. They were small, but big enough for some quick essentials. I watched Eilish pack them earlier with money, some quick snacks and various passports and IDs. She called them bug-out bags, but they were a lot smaller than what I was expecting. When I mentioned it to her, she said they were only needed for a little while. Once we got where we were going and were stable, then she’d think about more needed things. She wanted to travel light, which I was more than used to. Even now, I only owned my laptop and the clothes I was wearing. Most of everything else I left behind at the bungalow. Thankfully, I wasn’t really attached to any of it.

Slinging one of the packs on my shoulder by the single strap, I slipped out of the motel room.

The night air was warm.

Which made me look like a weird freak wearing my jacket. It served a purpose though. I wanted the hood to hide my face.

I was a ‘Wanted Woman’ after all.

Slinking through the parking lot, I made my way to the little office.

The kid behind the counter was only a few years older than me. A bit overweight, covered in acne and bored as all hell. He only slightly perked up when I stepped inside.

“Hey, you think I can use your phone?” I asked, pointing to the phone on the counter.

“You don’t have a cell?”

I frowned. “It’s busted.”

Not to mention probably roasted to a crisp now.

“There’s a payphone at the convenience store down the street.”

Payphone?

I smiled and thanked him as I walked out.

No use arguing, I suppose.

I was surprised that there were even payphones left. Didn’t those things die out like last century or something?

I started walking, remembering that I saw a convenience store not too far.

When he said ‘down the street’ though, he really meant down the street.

I cursed after my nearly twenty minute walk.

Walking into the store, the dinging bell above the door announced my presence. The teenage clerk behind the counter leered at me. It made my screen crawl.

“Payphone?”

He looked surprised for a moment. “Outside, around back.”

I grunted and left.

I found it easily enough. I fed it my fifty cents and decided to call Tori’s cell first. I knew it was late but she was up a lot later than this. It rang a few times then went to voicemail. I cursed and hung up. I didn’t have a plan up to this point. I mean, she was expecting to hear from her brother after all. I definitely wasn’t him anymore. I sighed. I was NEVER going to be him again either. I was still getting used to it. How many days had it been now? Three, maybe four? It was hard to keep track. I still wasn’t freaking out about it though. I should have been having a heart attack with all this crap. I asked Eilish about it, after we left the beach. She told me it was all part of the process. There was something in the magic that helped us accept our changes. Apparently, that included flipping genders.

The strange thing was, I didn’t feel different.

I was still me.

Even when I looked in the mirror and saw my new reflection, I still saw me. I guess that was part of the magic too. I’m not going to lie though, it was all pretty strange. Especially in the shower. I had yet to fully “explore” my new body and didn’t intend to anytime soon, but I’d seen it. I thought I was going to freak out, but once again, I didn’t. I’d seen naked girls before. Not in person of course, but in movies and in some of those scummy magazines. They always felt like this foreign thing. Something far off and unobtainable. Now I had my very own naked girl body and I felt nothing for it. It was a hot body too. All the leering and the lingering looks from guys was enough to tell me that.

I cursed.

This was all stupid.

That didn’t stop me from trying again.

I got her voicemail again, but this time I left a message:

“Hey Tori, you don’t know me but I’m a friend of Cassidy’s. He asked me to call and tell you that he’s ok. You don’t need to worry about him. He said he’ll call you when he’s safe.”

Short, simple and to the point.

A lie too.

I sighed.

I hated lying to her, but I didn’t have a choice.

Finally satisfied that I called her, I had another pressing matter that I needed to attend to. I walked back into the store, already annoyed at the little bell on the door. The clerk smiled when he saw me. Something about him sent shivers down my spine.

“You have a bathroom?"

“In the back,” he said with disinterest.

I nodded, meandering through the narrow aisles until I was in the back of the store. It was the frozen food section, the whole back wall lined with those giant freezers. I made a quick mental note to grab an ice cold drink before heading back. The bathroom was wedged into the corner. Grunting, I squeezed myself inside; it was pretty small. It also smelled horrible. I’d probably been in several bathrooms that smelled this bad and none of them bothered me before. Now, I was disgusted by it. Especially because I was going to have to sit on that seat. I closed my eyes and held in the urge to vomit.

I peed quickly. As soon as I was done and wiped, I jumped off the seat.

I washed my hands in the dingy sink, trying my hardest not to touch anything else.

I left as fast as possible.

“Dude” I shouted. “That place is disgusting. I’m calling the health...”

I was walking while talking. As soon as I got to the end of the aisle, I looked at the counter, but there was no one there.

Well, where the hell did the guy go?

I started walking toward the front of the store when I noticed a pair of feet sticking out from behind the counter.

Oh shit.

I made a mad dash for the door, wondering why I never heard the stupid bell.

I was almost there when someone stepped out in front of me.

He was big, dressed in black. His head was shaved and he had one of those SWAT earpiece things dangling at his collar. I think he was just as surprised to see me. He started to reach for a gun on his holster. I snapped around, grabbing the first thing I could get my hands on. It happened to be a large bottle of cooking oil. I swung it at him, striking him in the head. The plastic bottle exploded all over the place, spraying both of us and the floor. He staggered, made a grab for me and slipped.

I didn’t stick around.

I quickly snapped around him, but I soon realized he wasn’t alone.

I was almost to the door when a shot rang out.

A bullet whizzed past my head through the glass door in front of me.

“That’s far enough,” said a familiar voice.

I slowly turned around.

Mr. Spencer was standing behind the counter, pointing a gun in my direction. My heart was hammering in my chest. These people!

“You really are a pretty little thing, aren’t you?”

He stepped around the counter.

I looked past him to the clerk, I could now see a pool of blood starting to form.

How had I not heard the gun go off?

He saw me look and smiled, holding a bloody box cutter in his other hand.

“I didn’t shoot him.” He waved it in his gloved hand, then dropped it to the ground. “I didn’t stab him either. Tragically, you did. You see, he recognized you from the news. You panicked, grabbed the first thing you could find, and stabbed him.”

I looked next to the counter. There was a carbon display of box cutters there.

Who the hell sold those in a convenience store?

“You’re a sick fuck!”

He shrugged, then looked past me. “Johnson, get your ass up!”

His partner slipped a few times before getting to his feet.

I didn’t take my eyes off of Spencer.

There were a thousand thoughts going through my mind. One of them kept bubbling to the surface though. I cursed myself for my stupidity.

“You traced the call,” I said with realization.

He smirked. Still with the gun firmly centered on my chest, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone. It had a glittery pink case.

No….

“Didn’t need to,” he said, tossing it on the floor at my feet. “Your friend Miss Mitchell was nice enough to let us use her phone.”

No….

I felt something.

Something I never felt before.

Pure anger.

Before I even knew what I was doing, I snapped around and slammed the flat of my hand under Johnson’s chin. I caught the man off guard. He staggered from the blow, allowing me to spring, grab the front of his shirt and launch him over my shoulder. He was as light as a feather. I watched in awe as he sailed through the air and slammed into Spencer, sending both men sprawling into a heap. Before they could recover, I snatched up Tori’s phone and ran out of there.

I dialed as I ran.

“911, what’s your emergency...”

“There are two men shooting up the convenient store on...” I said, giving her the directions.

She was about to ask me to stay on the line, but I ended the call.

Tears were streaming down my face.

I should have stayed, but I ran.

I needed to get back to Eilish.

More importantly though, I needed to rescue my sister!

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