Andy discharged the flare gun, successfully distracting the two mermen coming towards them, giving Liam and the others time to escape back to the boat. Liam hated to leave Kaelin behind, but he knew that she wouldn't leave without her siblings, especially with them being so outnumbered.
Liam breached the surface and pulled the ventilator out of his mouth. He waited for the others to climb the ladder onto the rickety fishing vessel that Grandfather had "borrowed" from a friend - although, typically one asks before borrowing something, no matter if they know where the keys are kept or not. Once they were all onboard, Liam climbed onto the boat.
Like the others, Liam stripped out of his breathing apparatus and discarded it on the deck, heading towards the cabin where Mrs. Bainbridge waited, alongside Grandfather, while the old man kept a hand on the helm.
Liam pushed past the others to be the first one inside. "Get back to shore," Liam instructed, waving his arm out towards the land, or where he suspected the land should be.
Grandfather seemed confused, but he did as told.
"Where's Kaelin?" Mrs. Bainbridge shouted over the roaring of the winds and the booming thunder that cracked every three or four seconds.
"She's trying to stop all of this." Liam said.
Kaelin told him in a single burst of memory that she had a plan, one that she didn't know if she could successfully pull off, but a plan nonetheless. In that same moment, she informed him that the humans needed to get off the water. It wouldn't be safe for them if she succeeded, but she wouldn't risk it unless Liam agreed to go, leaving him to wonder if this was just a tactic to get him out of danger, so that he wouldn't get hurt.
The wind rocked the tiny boat as it traversed the choppy water, back to shore, where the tide was practically overtaking the beach, reaching up to the dunes which stood as a last line of defense.
Grandfather pulled up beside the nearest dock. It belonged to a McMansion that was up for sale, so there wouldn't be anyone to make a complaint about it. Liam and Andy jumped from the boat, onto the dock, and pulled the mooring lines to reel the boat in so they could tie it off. However, the wind didn't want to comply; it was so strong that it knocked the boat against the dock, causing both boys to stumble. Andy fell flat on his backside and dropped his rope.
The current caused the front of the boat to drift away. The boat was too heavy for Liam to hold it on his own. The rope that he'd wrapped around his forearm dug into his skin. It felt like it was trying to rip his arm from the socket. He knew he'd have to let go soon, or else risk an unwanted amputation.
Just as Liam was loosening his grip, a figure leapt across the ten foot gap between the boat deck and the dock, landing at Liam's side. Jesse popped up and offered a friendly nod before he dove for the second rope that was just about to slip off the edge.
Andy, now recovered from his spill, came to take the rope from Liam, who was struggling. The rope left bleeding cuts in Liam's skin that stained the heavy rope with red splotches.
Together, Andy and Jesse reeled the boat in again. While the boys held the boat steady, Gretchen hopped off with a noose that she hooked over one of the posts. Jesse and Andy moved quickly to wrap their lines around the other posts to secure the boat.
With the boat safely tied off, Mrs. Bainbridge and Grandfather climbed off. The intense churning of the wind and the water made the whole dock tremble and groan; it felt as if the dock was going to burst apart at any minute. The creaking of the boards certainly didn't help to alleviate that feeling.
They all rushed to get to solid ground in case the planks did give way. At the end of the dock they found a luxurious terrace designed to look like an ancient Grecian garden, with a giant circular pool as the centerpiece.
Suddenly, the ground began to quake beneath their feet. A nearby statue of a baby Cupid tumbled off its pedestal and lost its head, which rolled into the pool. The storm was getting worse. Out on the ocean, at least a dozen waterspouts had sprung up. If they reached land, they would tear the island apart and kill hundreds of people.
"What the hell is going on?" Andy shouted, in order to be heard over the thunder. "Since when are there earthquakes in Linda Cove?"
Liam was going to remind him that this weather was not entirely natural, but, before he could do that, Gretchen grabbed his arm to get his attention. She was staring out at the ocean where the black storm clouds erupted with too many bolts of lightning to count. It made Liam feel like he was in one of those end of the world disaster movies that killed off half the population.
"Do you see that?" Gretchen asked pointing to the water beneath the clouds.
Liam watched as the excess water receded from the beach, bringing his attention to a solid straight line that was rising out of the ocean. It stretched across the water as far as he could see in either direction, steadily growing taller.
"Son of a bitch," Liam mumbled under his breath.
"What is that?" Mrs. Bainbridge asked.
It seemed everyone else had noticed it, too. How could they not? It was a giant wall that surrounded the island just a couple hundred feet from the beach.
"I guess that's Kaelin plan." Liam answered. Although why she would want to erect a wall was beyond his reasoning.
Finally, the shaking of the ground stopped, but the storm remained in full force. Now, the lightning struck at the wall, breaking off huge chunks that fell into the roiling water below. The wind and waves changed direction to crash against the gargantuan wall, which Liam had surmised was made of ice by the sound of its cracking each time a piece was broken off.
Out of the darkness, three figures approached the group. When they got closer, the automated lights from the house turned on, and Liam saw that it was Kaelin and her brother and sister, as he'd suspected. Except they weren't fully transformed back into humans. They were caught in some in-between limbo state—neither fully human, nor fully merpeople. They had human faces, but their bodies were still covered in scales. They still retained their clawed, webbed hands and the gills on their necks. They had legs, though it was more like their tails had been split into two parts, rather than fully morphing to become legs; and their feet weren't feet but long, wide flippers. In this condition, they could easily be mistaken for people in specially designed diving suits.
Even though Kaelin wasn't completely human, Liam wasn't deterred from rushing to wrap her in his arms. She may have been a bit slippery and hard to hold onto, but he didn't care. Her inhuman features didn't detract from her beauty. He saw beyond all that, beneath the surface, to the heart of who she was. Beyond the otherworldly, mermaid part and the adorable, clueless human girl part, she was just Kaelin.
YOU ARE READING
What the Tide Brings
Fantasy[COMPLETED] She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She was ethereal and mystical and utterly impossible. Her mere existence challenged everything that he knew about the world. His mind screamed that she couldn't be real, yet here she...
