Forsaken (16 page)

             
“Come on, let’s take a walk and catch up.” We walked down by the water and she handed me the drink.  It was definitely alcoholic and probably the best thing I’d ever tasted.

             
“Mmm…what is it?” I asked her, as I stole another sip.  It tasted like a Caribbean vacation in a glass.

             
“Malibu coconut rum and pineapple juice.  My favorite.  I was hanging out at Banana Cabana with everybody and just needed to get away, so I decided to take a walk on the beach.  It always helps clear my head.”

             
“How’re you holding up?” I asked cautiously.

             
“The best I can I guess,” She took a long sip; “They came and took all of Nicolet’s stuff.  That was really hard.  But, I hid a bunch of it so I could keep a part of her.  I know somebody else will have to move in, but I’m hoping they’ll wait a couple of days.  I don’t know if I can handle that yet.  Her absence is unbearable, but having someone else in her room, her bathroom….” She looked so devastated, I wished there was something I could do to make her feel better.

             
“If you ever want to stay with us, just let me know.  You’re always welcome.”

             
“I might take you up on that.  It’s just so quiet at home since….” she sighed. “I just don’t understand how this could have happened.  She wouldn’t have killed herself.  I know she wouldn’t have.” The sadness in her face gave me new motivation to figure it out.  If for no other reason than to give Kira closure.  Nicolet didn’t kill herself.  She was murdered.  And I was going to prove it.

             
“What if she didn’t?” She looked up at me, startled by my question, “Is there anyone you can think of that would want to hurt her for any reason?”

             
She shook her head fiercely, “Definitely not, everybody liked Nicolet. She didn’t have any enemies.”

             
“Was she acting weird or anything?” I tried to dig a little deeper.

             
“Not really….she was always going on and on about some sort of conspiracy theory stuff, but I was used to that with her being a history major and all.”

             
“What kind of conspiracy?”

             
“I’m not really sure to be honest, she never really explained it.  But I’d see her reading books and writing things down in that notebook of hers.  I tried to find it yesterday to see if there may be something in there to tell me why she did what she did, but they had taken it with the rest of her stuff.”

             
I remembered the piece of paper she gave Willow and wondered if there was more meaning behind the mystery words than we thought.  If she was into conspiracy theories, maybe she was killed because she was getting too close to the truth.  I needed to get my hands on that notebook.

             
“Do you know what they would have done with her stuff?  Maybe we can find the notebook?”

             
“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say they sent it back to her family in Savannah.” She glanced at me worried, “You don’t need to worry yourself about this, Stasia.  You’ve got enough on your plate as it is.  You need to concentrate on your classes and making a home here at Lorelei.  If there was some sort of foul play, I’m sure the authorities will pick up on it and investigate it.”  She changed the subject back to me, “So tell me how things are going with you!  How do you like your roommates?”

             
“Oh they’re wonderful, Kira.  You couldn’t have put me with three better girls.”

             
“I had a feeling you’d like them. Any guys caught your attention, yet?  I bet their knocking your door down…” she grinned at me.

             
“I’ve seen a couple cute ones, but…” I decided to keep Finn a secret and go with the old cliché, “I’m keeping my options open.”

             
“Uh huh, I know how it is.  You don’t have to explain it to me,” she nudged my arm.

             
“No really!  I haven’t met anybody yet!”

             
She just smirked at me. “So what about abilities?  Do you have any questions, yet?  I feel so bad that we haven’t gotten to sit down and talk yet.  When things calm down we will.” I knew she was eager to help me, but Isadora and Priscilla’s conversation about questioning her kept repeating in my mind. I didn’t want Kira getting hurt.  Or worse, killed.

             
“Nothing specific, no.” Her face showed her disappointment, so I asked one question that seemed safe enough. “I’d really like to know what my trace means so I can figure out who I’m descended from.”

             
“Well I’ve been doing some research on that because it’s obviously rare and I knew you would eventually begin to wonder.  But I couldn’t find a trace like yours documented anywhere.  The only thing that I may have figured out is that the trace’s swirls are made up of seaweed.”  My mind automatically went to the sea weed reaching for me and surrounding me.  I looked down at my trace and ran my finger along the three swirls in the shape of an upside down triangle.  It would make sense I had a connection to it.  “but that doesn’t tell us anything, except that the Daughter you’re descended from has a connection with seaweed.  However that’s pretty common among the Nerieds.  What’s interesting about yours is the fact that the seaweed isn’t the whole trace; it simply makes up the design of your trace.  It’s only a part of it.  I’m not really sure what that means.  But I promise I’ll keep trying to find something.” She gave me a supportive smile.

             
“Do you think it’s because I was gone for so long?  Maybe it just morphed in to something new since I was never around any other Tydes?”

             
“No, that wouldn’t happen.  The design of your trace can’t change once it’s there,” Kira said and shook her head.

             
“Do they just magically show up or are we born with them?” 

             
“It’s beneath the skin at birth, but barely visible until that part of your body is exposed to the particular item you’re connected to.  Once that happens, it’s sort of…triggered, and it shows on top of your skin. Usually a child’s parents will expose them and bring their trace out at a young age.  So I’m assuming your parents did just that while you were still a baby.”  My parents.  That was a foreign concept.

             
“Are we born with our abilities?  Willow told me they reach maturity at eighteen, but do we always have them?”

             
“Yes, but they don’t start to come out until about age fourteen or fifteen.  Sometimes it can be younger though, or older.  Have any of your abilities started coming out yet?” she asked.  Getting the feeling she knew more than I thought she did about my abilities, I decided to give her a little bit of information, hoping that would satisfy her for a while.

             
“I was able to manipulate water a little bit in my Oceanic Experience class but that’s about it.” I tried not to make it sound like a big deal.

             
“Well I have a feeling your abilities will start to show themselves very soon, so whenever you want to talk or practice, you know how to find me.” She gave me another supportive smile but remained thoughtful.  I felt bad for not confiding in her, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.  If Isadora was grilling her for information, the best thing I could do was not give her any…for her protection and mine.  I could only hope I was doing the right thing.

Later that night, we gathered around the TV watching the Weather Channel while Hurricane Faye churned closer and closer out in the Atlantic.  Classes had been cancelled for Monday since the eye was supposed to make landfall mid-morning.  The weather was forecasted to go downhill swiftly overnight as Faye approached.  According to Carmen, the shield around campus kept the storm surge out, but the full force of the wind and rain would still hit us.  The Weather Channel had meteorologists stationed up and down the coast, but not on Bald Head.  We’d have a front row seat anyway, so we didn’t need to watch a meteorologist getting blown around on television to know what was going on outside.  I had to admit, I was a little bit giddy, having never been through a hurricane before.  Dee had called an hour ago worried out of her mind.  I couldn’t explain the shield around campus, but I told her there was nothing to worry about, that the school had been here for centuries and we’d be fine.  I thought I calmed her down, but I was still expecting several more hysterical calls tomorrow.

“Wh
at about this one?” Phoebe skipped out of her room.  She’d been trying on dresses all night, parading around the living room for our opinions.  Ian had, in fact, asked her to the Ball and after spending the entire day with him, she announced she was no longer creeped out by him.  Finn still hasn’t asked me and I wasn’t real optimistic that he was planning to.  Especially since he’d never been to one.  But maybe that’s because he had never had someone he wanted to ask.  Who am I kidding, there’s no way he’s gone through school without a girlfriend.  Instead of picturing Finn with another girl, which inadvertently made my blood pressure rise, I tried to concentrate on Phoebe’s newest dress.  It wasn’t my style, but somehow it worked for her.  It was bright pink, strapless, and very short.  From the waistline, it puffed out in several layers giving it a very 80’s look. 

“Maybe if you were
Cindy Lauper,” Carmen wrinkled her nose at it.  Willow smacked her arm and gave her a look.  Carmen shrugged her shoulders innocently, “What?  She said to be honest.”

“She’s right, it’s a little much.  Maybe something longer wou
ld be better...” Phoebe thought out loud and then disappeared back into her bedroom. 

“Did you guy
s hear that Keto was planning to visit Lorelei, but had to wait because of the hurricane?” Willow asked.

“K
eto is who the Sirens are descended from, right?” I said, proud of myself for remembering something.

“Yep, and she’s the leader of the Nerieds now. 
And therefore the leader of both the Tydes and Sirens.  So she’s kind of a big deal.”  Carmen told me.

“We’re doing a paper on Thetis and Kymo in History and one of the girls said that Thetis used to be the leader?  What happened to her?”

“Willow, you want to take that one?” Carmen deflected.  Willow looked up from her laptop.

“Well
, Thetis could never get the Sirens and Tydes to stop warring with each other and it finally got to be too much for her, among other things.  So, she actually ended her own life.  Keto took over after that because she was the second strongest Neried, and Thetis’s only child had been Achilles, who was killed forever ago in the Trojan War.”

I read about Achilles in 9
th
grade, but the only thing I remembered was that his mother had dipped him in the River Styx in order to make him immortal, by holding on to his heel.  Therefore, his heel was the only part of him left unprotected.  That very heel is how he was killed, which is where the term Achilles Heel came from.  I definitely didn’t think there was any truth behind it.  Boy was I wrong. 

“If Achilles’s mom was Thetis, why wasn’t he automatically immortal?” I ask
ed Willow.

“His father was human.  I can’t remember his name though.” 

“So, how did Thetis kill herself if she was immortal?”

“There are ways
,” she answered cryptically.

“I heard when K
eto visited the House of Eudora in England, she was magnificent. She held a huge party and even talked to the students.  That’s almost unheard of,” Phoebe said from her bedroom.  “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Isn’t she known for being
deceitful though?” I asked, “That’s what Kira said.” 

“That was just her reputation because of things that happened a long time ago
.  I think she’s a great leader,” Phoebe gushed, as she gave up trying on dresses and joined us.

“I don’t like it. 
The Goddess of sea monsters (aka Sirens) should never be the leader of the Tydes.  It’s just not right if you ask me.”  Carmen crossed her arm and glowered at Phoebe. “Our new Maven’s a Siren, too.  I don’t trust her one bit.”

“Priscilla?”
I asked.

“Yep.  She became Maven
a year ago after Vanora left.  She was transferred to another school.  In Australia maybe?  Something like that.” Carmen shrugged.

“Was Vanora a Siren too?

“She was a Tyde.  I don’t know why they transferred her.  Everyone loved her here because she actually cared about us.  She was very involved with everything.  Unlike Priscilla.  She’s always MIA.”  Willow explained to me.

“
Milking Innocent Animals?” Carmen sneered.  Phoebe snorted and I almost spit out my Mountain Dew.

“No! 
Missing In Action!”  Willow coughed, choking on her own laughter.  We laughed so hard we started crying, and then spent the next hour coming up with everything else M.I.A. could possibly stand for.

After the giggles subside
d, I followed Willow into the kitchen to make cookies. I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and noticed that my trace was shimmering and changing colors more than usual.  That was the last thing I remembered before it happened.  The world tilted and everything went black.

I
was standing on a long boardwalk facing the ocean.  The first thing I noticed was the all consuming darkness.  The second thing I noticed was lightning flashing.  From its brief sparks of light, I could see the turbulent waves, mere feet from the boardwalk.  A sign in the sand nearby was already half way under water.  The blades of grass on the dunes were completely bent over in the wind and I could tell it was raining sideways, but I didn’t feel either of them.  A piece of bright orange tape caught my eye, so I kneeled down to get a closer look.  There were four stakes connected by the orange tape, creating a square.  I could see writing on the tape and I tried to make out what it said.  It read ‘Bald Head Island Conservancy’. Something was being protected.  I pushed the sand aside within the square, finding small oval eggs.  I picked one up and held it in my hand.  Sea turtles. These were their nests.  The water was getting higher by the minute and would inevitably swallow up the eggs, crushing them in the surf.  There were more nests to my right.  More eggs. I squinted down the beach hoping to see some sign of civilization or help, but the only lights were far down the beach.  I didn’t have time to get help. I had to move them.  Jumping down off the boardwalk, I found a spot between two large dunes, and dug a wide hole big enough for all of the eggs.  I pulled myself back up onto the boardwalk and just in time to see a colossal wave engulf the entire boardwalk, taking the eggs and orange tape below with it.  “NO!” I yelled and jumped into the water.  I tried to grab the eggs I saw before they were stolen by the sea, but they were so slippery I couldn’t hold on to them.  One by one they were battered and smashed, then drug out into the ocean. “NO!” I yelled.  “Don’t take them!”  My heart broke over and over as if my own children were being carried out into the darkness, never to be seen again.  All those turtles.  All those babies…

“Stasia!
  Stasia, wake up!”  My eyes flew open and I pushed whoever was hovering over me out of the way, clumsily getting to my feet.  I ran into my room, found my flip flops and bolted out the door.  I had to save them.  I couldn’t let all those babies die!

“Stasia!  Where are you going?  Wait!”  I vaguely hear
d them calling after me, as I took the stairs two at a time and made my way out the back door of Maren.  Flying down the boardwalk, I jumped onto the sand and sprinted up the beach as fast as I could.  People were behind me yelling something, but I wasn’t listening.  All I could think about were those eggs.  The baby turtles.  I couldn’t let them die.  After running for what felt like hours, I finally spotted it.  Orange tape.  I flopped down beside the first square and started digging.  About ten whole eggs were cradled in the cool sand.

“Stasia!  Please stop and t
ell us what’s going on!”  Willow tugged on my arm, but I shook her off and moved on to the next nest.  One by one, I made sure the eggs were safe.  At the last nest, my legs gave out from under me and I fell on the soft sand.

“Thank G
od they’re safe!” I sighed with relief.

“You better have a damn good reason why we’re running for our lives on the beach in the m
iddle of the night!” Carmen sat down beside me, breathing hard.

“Stop being so dramatic
, Carmen,” Phoebe said, “Tell us what happened, Stasia.” She rubbed my arm supportively.

“I saw them die.  They washed away.  All of them.” 
Hot tears burned my eyes and I was helpless to stop them from spilling over.  If these eggs were safe, what nests did I see get destroyed?  According to the tape, I was on Bald Head.  The boardwalk I had stood on was right above us.  It had to be these eggs.  I watched the waves rolling in to the shore and noticed how much bigger they had gotten since this afternoon. It hit me like a ton of bricks.  The hurricane.  I remembered the wind.  The blinding rain. The rising water.  I wasn’t having a reverie or even a dream. I was seeing something that hadn’t happened yet.  I was seeing into the future. A new panic took over. “We have to move them!  Before the hurricane comes!”

“But
they’re protected by the shield!  They’ll be fine.” Carmen dismissed my worries.

“It doesn’t extend this far.  They’ll wash away.  I saw it happen.”

“What do you mean you saw it happen?” Phoebe’s forehead scrunched in confusion.

Suddenly exhausted
, I tried to explain, “When I blacked out….I had a vision.  I saw it happen.”

“Are you talking
about foresight?”  Carmen shook her head unbelieving.  “You have reveries, Stasia, not foresight.  No descendent has ever had foresight.”

“It couldn’t have been a reverie, the hurricane isn’t here yet!
” I threw up my arms in frustration. “In my vision, the hurricane was here and it washed all of the eggs out to sea.  We have to hurry!”

“Are you sure?”
Carmen asked at me, still skeptical.

“I’m sure
, Carmen.”  I closed my eyes hoping to stop the tears, but that just caused them to come faster. 

“We could move them closer to our beach where they’ll be pr
otected by the shield?” suggested Phoebe.

“You know it’s illegal to
touch the eggs,” Willow countered, “We should call someone from the island to come and get them.”

“There’s no time.  We have to move them now.  It could be too late by the time we went and got someone.  We don’t have much time.”

“She’s right,” Phoebe agreed with me, “we can’t just leave them.”

             
After several more convincing arguments, Willow gave in.  We decided the best thing to do was go back to Maren and get our clothes baskets, pad them with towels, and then transport the eggs to our protected beach.  We took off running.  I just hoped we made it back before it was too late.

Twenty minutes later, c
lothes baskets and blankets in hand, we split up and each made our way toward a different nest.  The weather was quickly going downhill.  The rain was coming down in sheets and persistent wind howled around us. Phoebe jogged down to the last nest.  It was closest to the water, therefore more susceptible to the increasing waves.  Carmen and Willow ran past me to the other nests. 

             
I knelt down and gently removed each egg from the first nest, placing them into the clothes basket.  I secured them with the blanket, preparing them for the walk back.  I moved onto the next nest and did the same.  The water had risen to my calves and the rain had started blowing sideways.  I could barely see Phoebe down the beach as she struggled in the much larger waves.

             
Carmen made her way over to me and set her basket down.  “I got them all except for one, it slipped out of my hand!” she yelled over the wind.  Her dark hair was plastered against her head and mascara was running down her cheeks.

             
“I just hope we can get them back without breaking any!” I called up to her. Willow joined us, having retrieved as many eggs as she could.

             
“Where’s Phoebe?” she yelled.

             
“She was right over there!” Carmen leaned into the wind and pointed up the beach.  The nest Phoebe had been emptying was now under at least three feet of water and her basket was floating away, held captive by the waves. I looked around frantically, but didn’t see her.

“Take the baskets!” I yelled to Carmen
and Willow, “I’m going to find her!”