Sea Stars & Wishes

Chapter 9

Lyrika

Everyone stops moving and watches in shock. Lyrika, still halfway hanging off the pier edge, not falling into the water due to the guard's hold on her ankle. She looks into the water, waiting. Her heart still pounds in her chest, but it slows. A horrible feeling in her stomach makes her nauseous, but she swallows her salvia to hold it down.

Song still hasn't resurfaced. Did he swim away? Did the ocean water heal him? She has no idea how much magic is in polluted seawater. Song never gave her that lesson. Eventually, bubbles start rising.

"Was I too late?" She quietly asks herself. Her question snaps the guards out of their shock. Lyrika is yanked back upwards onto the pier. Her shirt and jacket ride up her back and her skin cut on the pier's cemented surface. She yells out in pain. She twists her ankle and leg around to loosen the man's grasp. If she can break free, she too can jump in the water and swim away. She still has a chance of escaping.

"Oh no, you don't. Fabian, gras her!" One of them orders. Lyrika finally looks at the guards' faces. Drew has a hold of her and Fabian is the other one. Fabian grabs Lyrika's arm. And pulls her around. Draw releases her leg and quickly grabs her other arm. Lyrika still fights in their grasp.

"Stop fighting it!" Drew snaps. With his free hand he grabs the hood of her jacket, as well as her hair and yanks back. Her head and neck snap backwards and she yells out in pain.

"Let me go! You're hurting me!" She screams. She swings her legs around, trying to hook onto anything so she can pull herself out of their hands. Both their grips tighten on Lyrika's arms, and she screams out again.

A loud crackle of thunder, almost deafening, silences the three of them. They all stop moving. They look up towards the sky, and watch in horror as storm clouds move in at an alarming rate. Normally clouds in the night time give the sky a brownish hue, but these clouds only make the sky look even darker. Lightning ripples through the clouds, and some fall and strike the water further out. Another round of thunder booms, but much quieter. The sound of the waves crashing against the pier and shore below the three humans silences all together. Everything becomes eerily quiet and still.

Tricking water suddenly fills the silence, and slowly water rises like walls around the three open side of the pier, boxing off the water exits. Leaving one way out- the way they came.

"I suggest letting her go," a deep, chilling voice ripples along the water as if sitting in a surround sound movie theater. Nobody has yet to move, and the water continues to rise towards the sky. The water stops rising, but instead reaches across to one another. Creating a dead-end air tunnel around Lyrika and the guards.

An illuminated pink flash zips from the left to the right before disappearing back into the water. It startles the guards who loosen their grip on Lyrika, but she's struck with fear and does nothing to break away from them.

"I said," the voice rings out once more, but louder. Song's head pops out of the water above them; he looks directly down on them. His white hair now a deep vibrant pink, and his long silver tail is pink too.

"Let. Her. Go," Song says slowly, clearly, and loudly. Drew and Fabian release Lyrika, who falls onto the pier with a thud. The guards sprint away, tripping over one another more than once as they flee from the horror. Leaving Lyrika to fend for herself, but she looks up at Song in amazement. His eyes are glossed over, glowing a bright white with a tint of pink in them. His tail shimmers despite the dark water and the lack of any light from the world.

Song disappears back into the water, and the water quickly recedes back to where it naturally belongs. The clouds in the sky remain, no thunder, but the lighting bounce around like children playing tag.