Ocean Cove

After I too got out of bed, Lyla told me she wanted to show me something over at her house, even though it was two in the morning. So without hesitation I pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt, then we went through the window, down the tree and walked over to her house.

A bright moon was in the sky, which provided us with plenty of light as we walked through the chilling night air. The sound of the sea crashing on the cliff was surprisingly soft, so I took that to mean it was probably low tide. Lyla and I didn’t talk on our way over to her house.

Though I wanted to stop thinking about it, images from that dream or whatever it was kept flashing through my head, striking fear in my heart. I really couldn’t put it out of my head. I just couldn’t get over the fact that it was Marcus who helped do those things, that it was he who attacked that woman. I didn’t want to entertain the idea that he killed her.

By the time we got to the Morgan house I wasn’t yawning so constantly anymore and had grown somewhat accustomed to the cold. Instead of knocking or using a key, Lyla just turned the knob and pushed the front door. But then why would you need to lock your doors when you were an Aquamun?

“Aren’t your parents going to be wondering what I’m doing here at this time of night?” I asked Lyla, following her up the stairs.

“They’re not home,” she replied, heading for the stairs, “though we can sleep, we don’t have too. At night, instead of sleeping, we usually go swimming. Much less chance of being spotted. Not like there’s a chance we’d be spotted in the day.”

“I saw Nikolai during the day,” I said defiantly.

“Only you saw him and we know you’re different.”

“Oh yeah, that’s true.”

We had just reached the third floor. Thinking on it, I realized I’d never been up there before. Unlike the others, the top floor had a very subdued look about it---the walls were the same color as the carpet, a deep blue. There were five rooms on this floor. Two on the left, two on the right and one at the end and all of them had huge mahogany doors.

Lyla turned both knobs on the second door to the right and walked in. It looked like a very sophisticated home library and it was as huge as the master bedroom, which I’d only seen once. All along the room, there were bookcases and shelves of books, most of which I figured were first editions from the way they looked.

“Chase, I’m going to explain everything you saw while you were sleeping, but first let me start by saying, my father wasn’t always the man he is today.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with my arms folded.

Lyla walked over to a table by the wall and began looking inside the drawers for something.

“I mean, he wasn’t always civilized. He used to live primitively like most other Aquamuns. Ah, here it is.”

She’d finally found what she was looking for: a silver key. She walked to the back of the room where a huge cabinet stood. She crouched and inserted the key into the keyhole of one of the bottom cupboards, and when she stood up she was holding a very large hardcover book.

“What the heck is that?” I asked, slightly taken aback at the mere size of it. The thing looked seriously old. Lyla shot me a quick look, but otherwise ignored my comment.

“It’s kind of a journal,” she explained as she walked back to the table. “You see, my father’s very old and believes some parts of his history are too important to our family to forget, so he records important events in here.”

She placed the huge book on the table.

“How old is your dad?”

“He was born sometime in the early fifteen century, though he doesn’t know the exact date or year. Aquamuns who live primitively don’t really keep track of time like we do. My father was born an Aquamun, but as a lot of Aquamuns used to abandon their young, he never knew his parents. So he was forced to raise himself and I guess you could say he never developed a conscience. I told you before we don’t experience emotions the way humans do and that’s true, but when you add to that an Aquamun who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong, well, let’s just say it’s asking for trouble and trust me, an Aquamun like that can cause more trouble than you can imagine.”

Lyla started flipping through the book, but only turned a few pages when she came to a chapter headed, “Viktor and the house of Aselhoff.”

“Sometime near the end of the fifteenth century, my father met him.”

Lyla pointed to a picture of a man on the next page, who I instantly recognized as the man from my dreams. It was uncanny how accurate the drawing of him was.

“What’s the deal with him?” I wondered aloud.

“His name’s Viktor. He just might be the oldest Aquamun alive and they say he is the strongest of us.”

“Um… exactly how old is he?”

Lyla shrugged. “Not many know. But father thinks he might be just over one thousand years old and he has the biggest house in the world.”

“His house?” I asked.

“It’s what we call a group of Aquamuns that live together,” Lyla explained. “Anyway, to put it simply, you don’t go up against Viktor or his house. Few have tried and even fewer have

lived to talk about it. Viktor is a tyrant and believes in Aquamun superiority. He believes we should subjugate as many humans to our rule as possible and sees any Aquamun who seeks to be human as a traitor worthy only of eradication.”

“But your dad doesn’t want to be human,” I explained.

“Well, yes that’s true. And in a weird sort of way, that was kind of the problem. You see, when Viktor first met my father, he saw a bit of himself in him. So he took father into his house and used his savagery as a weapon and father proved to be very useful to Viktor. Here.”

Lyla turned the page and pointed to the middle paragraph.

It read: “Of all the orphans Viktor had ever taken in, he seemed to take a high liking to me and saw it fit to use me on his assaults, both on humans and Aquamuns, and was very impressed with how I helped in destroying the Raze Aquamun house, something I very much regret these days. After that, Viktor was so impressed with me that he took me into his inner circle.”

“Father always said Viktor thought of him as a son, which brings us to this.”

Lyla turned two more pages and indicated the one with the heading “The Great Russia Attack”. Under that, was a huge picture depicting an image from my dream.

It showed the village burning, people fleeing and Aquamuns running after them. There were a couple of lines under the picture which read “The village of Ominesk. It was once a thriving place, that is until the Aselhoff house attacked. Within two hours, the once lively village was reduced to nothing, though to me, no matter what might have happened here, I will always cite it as the birth place of my new life, for that was where I met Salathia, and with her came the awakening of my consciousness.”

I looked over at Lyla, puzzled. I didn’t understand what I had read and Lyla felt that through our bond.

“Aquamuns aren’t born with a sense of right or wrong, which is why most of us never feel remorse. For those kinds, it’s only logic up here.” Lyla tapped a finger to the side of her head. “However, when we start to live civilized or become emotionally attached to someone, our own consciousness awakens. As our parents are civilized, ours were awakened at a young age, though Elizabeth was a bit difficult. “

“Who’s Elizabeth?” I asked. There really was a whole lot of Lyla’s life I didn’t know about. “She’s my older sister, but younger than Michael. Father told us she was very difficult to handle, so they had to live away from humans for awhile.

“Where is she now?” I was still surprised by this news.

“A few years ago she fell in love with another Aquamun and she went off with him to start their own family. Last we heard from her, they were living in Australia.”

Knowing Lyla had a sister in another part of the world made me wonder just how many Aquamuns passed as human. Something then occurred to me.

“Wait a minute, how was I able to dream about that if it was your father’s memory?”

Lyla dropped into the chair opposite me before she answered.

“My father passed those memories to us a long time ago. He did it so we would always know what he did in the past and how cruel some of our kind can be.”

Lyla sighed heavily and a strong wave of depression came through our bond. After getting to know her, I was usually able to comfort her when she fell into one of her depressed moods. But this time I just didn’t know what to say. All the information she had just given to me was still sinking in and my mind was focused only on that.

I sometimes thought that because she was an Aquamun, Lyla believed she didn’t have the right to be happy.

“Lyla, you have to remember that’s all in the past,” I said, sitting on the table and trying to cheer her up, “your dad’s a different person now. And even if he wasn’t, those were his mistakes, not yours. No one can hold you to them.

“Chase, you deserve to be with someone normal. You need to be with someone who can make you happy without all of this baggage. You don’t need all of this trouble.”

A surge of anger flared up inside me and before I could try to stop it from passing through our link, it was already to Lyla. She jumped out of her seat nervously.

“What’s wrong?”

At first I didn’t want to say anything, but then decided it wouldn’t be fair to Lyla not tell her why I was angry when she always opened up to me about what she felt.

“You say that all the time,” I said as I hopped of the desk and turned to her. “You always say I don’t deserve someone like you. And you know, that may be true, because I don’t know what great thing I could have done in a past life to be rewarded with having someone as amazing like you to love me. But sometimes when you say I… it just, it just feels like you’re trying to find reasons not to be with me.”

Lyla quickly reached out and grabbed my hand, and she was so strong that as hard as I tried, I couldn’t pull away.

“Don’t say that,” she said fiercely, “because you know that’s not true, so don’t even try

it.”

Lyla breathed slowly for a while, then released my hand and went back to her seat.

Probably just wanting something to do, she started flipping through the pages of the book.

Once I calmed down I walked behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that I get so worried that one day I’ll wake up and you’ll be gone. I haven’t known you very long and we’ve been together only a little while, that’s true, but I can’t be without you. I love you.”

The feelings flowing through our bond calmed us.

“I love you too,” she replied softly. “I don’t ever want to lose you.”

She was still turning the pages of the book. The lamp on the table was our only source of light. When one of the pages caught my eye, I dropped my hand on it to stop her from losing it.

The page had a picture of a very strange symbol.

“What’s that?”

She looked at the description beneath the picture.

“It’s a siduel. It’s what you call symbols and markings like these Somorians use to perform some spells. Why do you ask?”

Lyla was looking up at me for an answer, but I couldn’t take my eyes of the symbol, it just seemed so important.

“I think I’ve seen it somewhere before. But I can’t remember where.”

“Maybe you saw it in a Somorian community. They sometimes use their symbols for decorative purposes.”

“But I’ve never been to one.”

Lyla read the description more closely and then said with surprise, “Chase, it says here this siduel can be used to summon good magic as well as dark. Somorians who practice magic sometimes tattoo siduels onto themselves so they would be able to summon the power as well. Maybe you saw this on the person who attacked you.”

Lyla sound excited, but I didn’t want to get too optimistic.

“If it’s used for both kinds of magic, that might mean a whole bunch of… probably Somorians use it. I might have just seen it somewhere else and forgotten.”

“Well you certainly burst that bubble,” Lyla joked as she stood up, “If only we knew a Somorian who could tell us for sure.”

Lyla closed the book, put it back in its cupboard and then deposited the key back inside the table drawer.

“Lyla, before we go, there’s something I want to ask you. Well, actually, it’s something I want to do with you.”

Lyla walked back to me cautiously as though she was afraid of what I might ask.

“Okay. What is it?” She said slowly.

Excitement flooded through my body. “Just like that, you’ll do whatever I ask?” I said as she came to stand in front of me.

“Anything you ask.”

I smiled coyly. “Well, supposed I asked you something naughty?”

Lyla laughed and replied, “I trust you.”

“Anyway, what I want to do has to do with our connection. I want to know if you’re willing to do a little experiment with me. I just want to see how far our connection can go. Sometimes, when I’m relaxed, I swear I can go so deep into your feelings I can’t tell yours from mine, just like how Hilda experienced. I want to know if we can really do that.”

Lyla considered me for a while. I really thought she was going to say something like it sounded too dangerous or we should wait until we knew more about the connection, but she really surprised me when she sat on the ground, folded her legs and waited for me to do the same.

Once I did, she took my hands into hers.

“There’s nothing wrong with trying,” she said.

“How are we going to do it?”

“Well, I suppose we just have to get relaxed enough.”

“I can do that.”

Lyla tried to hold back a laugh, but failed.

“What?” I asked a little embarrassed. Lyla’s cheeks flushed red before she answered.

“Chase, you’re never really calm around me. Your breathing’s always fast, which means you’re usually nervous around me.”

“Well you can’t blame me.” I replied with a smile. “You’re the most beautiful person in the world. I mean I must look plain standing next to you. But it’s something I’m learning to get used too. I can do this.” I added seriously.

“Okay,” Lyla started, “just close your eyes, relax and allow yourself to be taken in by the bond. When that happens, just try to go as deep into it as you can.”

I closed my eyes and began trying to focus. Immediately and without any effort, I felt Lyla’s emotions push themselves onto me. But I wanted more than just what she felt at the moment, so I pushed harder on the link.

“Chase, just relax. You’re trying too hard,” Lyla whispered.

I tried to steady my breathing and instead of trying to pull the connection to me, I decided to just let it come on its own. And sure enough, before long, I found myself falling deeper into Lyla’s emotions.

Somewhere, I felt as if something was moving around inside me in a place I couldn’t touch and realized Lyla must have been deeper inside my feelings as well. It truly was a strange sensation. I couldn’t tell the difference between my own emotions and hers. There was something else too. Each emotion I felt obviously had a reason behind it. As I touched that emotion, I was able to tell the story behind it; the reason for it.

I was most intrigued by the love I felt inside Lyla, so I decided to explore that first. And the first thing that came to me was, well, me. The love in her heart was for me. There was no way, with us so closely connected, that Lyla didn’t feel the amazement flowing through me right then.

* * *

The rest of the week passed without incident. The most exciting thing that happened was that, with a little more practice, Lyla and I finally learned to control our link. It turned out it was possible for us to control what went through the link. Other than that, it was a pretty normal couple of days for us.

However boring it was, I was secretly dreading its end, because the following week was the first week of…

“School. Get up Chase. It’s your first day. You’ve got to get ready.”

Mom started lightly shaking me, but she didn’t need to, as I was lying awake with my eyes closed, wishing I had at least a few more days to mentally prepare.

“Chase, it’s seven o’clock. You’ve got to get up now,” Mom said a little more loudly as she turned to leave.

I groaned into my pillow and forced myself up. When I got out of bed I had to steady myself because my legs, along with every other part of my body, felt weak with nerves.

Somehow I found my way downstairs where Mom already had prepared eggs, hot dogs and toast.

“Ah, ready for your first day of school?” Dad said as he came in from outside, with Gibbons behind him.

“Not really,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the food before me. I was nervous and the smell of breakfast almost made me feel like I was going to be sick, but nonetheless, I started to nibble at it.

“Well, I feel sorry fah yuh, cause yuh startin’ school on de same day we goin’ diving,” Gibbons said a little too gleefully for me as he sat down at the table.

“What!?” I exclaimed, looking thunderstruck at my dad. “You couldn’t have done this before today? Dad you knew how much I wanted to go diving.”

Dad chuckled as if this was the time for it. “Sorry kid. Maybe next time,” he said as he patted me on the shoulder.

“You know, I bet I would have a much better day if I went diving with you guys today and started school tomorrow.”

“Absolutely not, Chase Rowland. Don’t you even think about it. Neither of you in fact,” Mom said, giving Dad a stern look. I was shocked to see that he was actually considering it. Damn, I should have waited until Mom left.

“Besides, it won’t be so bad and it’s not like you don’t already know people there,” Mom added. “Lyla and the others go to school there.”

“Do you need a ride or will you drive?” Dad asked.

“Actually, I’m going to take the bus with the others.”

I tried to gobble down as much breakfast as possible without bringing it back up.

“Well, have a great day son. We’ll get going then.” Dad left with Gibbons following close behind.

I felt deflated. There was just something that made school almost seem like it would make me miss the important things in life.

“Okay. I’m ready to leave, unless you want me to stay to see you off.” I couldn’t believe that Mom was serious when she said that.

“Mom, I’m seventeen, not seven, I’m going to be fine.”

“The last time you said that to me, I came home to find the kitchen in shambles.”

“Mom, you’re still going on about that. It’s been over a week.”

“Okay, just remember the school bus comes around 8:15.” Mom gathered her things. “I’ve left some money on your dresser and Chase, and please, use a brush today.”

Mom actually stopped in her haste and watched me for a couple seconds. Then she rushed forward and hugged me.

“I know you don’t like it here much, but try to have, if not a good day, a tolerable one. You like what you have with Lyla and your friends. If you try, you can do that again, you can make this work.” She kissed me goodbye, then was quickly out the door.

I glanced at the clock. It was 7:20. Deciding I needed time to properly prepare, I left the rest of my uneaten breakfast and went to shower.

Even though I took my time getting dressed, I was ready before eight. My friends had told me that was when they would come by, but they arrived early.

“Awww, Chase, you look so handsome,” Maranda said when she got here with Justin, Rachael, Brandon and Kimberley.

“Really,” I said, relaxing a little, “Cause I think I look like a dork.”

Rachael scoffed. “I doubt you’ve ever looked like a dork in your life.”

“Clearly you’ve never seen my mother’s home movies,” I mumbled, looking at the door.

“I thought Lyla and Nikolai would’ve been here too,” Brandon said as we left the house and started walking to the bus stop. Just then second we saw them coming around the bend from their side of the cove.

Lyla looked amazing in everything she wore, but I never expected her to look stunning in her school uniform. Nevertheless, she did in her white blouse, peach skirt and school tie.

“Wow!” The others exclaimed at once.

“I almost forgot how they looked wearing simple school clothes,” Brandon admitted in a dreamy voice, looking at Lyla.

“Hey Nikolai,” Rachael said, in a little-too-high-pitched voice.

Nikolai’s eyes rolled over her and he smiled broadly, “Rachael, don’t you look amazing.”

Lyla rolled her eyes as she came to me and kissed me on the cheek.

When we got to the bus stop, there were a couple of other students there (some from our school, some from others) and everyone started chatting, but I found it hard to talk as every time I opened my mouth, my stomach started turning uneasily.

“You know, I felt every bit of nervousness you did this morning,” Lyla whispered to me as we stood a couple feet from everyone else, which wasn’t unusual because every other couple out here seemed to be standing by themselves.

“Really? I’m sorry, I forgot all about the bond.”

“It’s okay, it gave me a little practice on how to block it out, but I think I can say I didn’t enjoy the feeling. Anyway, you really don’t have anything to worry about; it’s all going to be fine.”

I agreed with Lyla, but that didn’t stop that strange tickling, nervous sensation from traveling through my body. The school bus finally arrived.

I got on before Lyla and Nikolai, but after the others. When I stepped on, everyone

didn’t stop talking, but they did turn down their volume and I noticed all eyes were on me, but

surprisingly, it didn’t bother me one bit. After all, I was the new guy.

However, after I got one of the last free seats and Lyla sat next to me and we started talking, silence fell upon the bus as if everyone was stunned speechless for a couple seconds and even when they returned to their chatting, there was with a lot less noise and a lot more glances our way.

“Okay. I know people are always curious about the new guy, but this is just crazy,” I said to Lyla. She giggled a bit (everyone seemed to be finding some kind of joke this morning when I was as nervous as ever).

“I think their interest in you is mostly because of me. I’m usually with a couple of my friends when I’m at school, but outside of them, I tend to keep to myself. I don’t have to tell you everyone at school knows the Morgans, so they’ve all gotten used to seeing me either with Nick or by myself when I ride the bus. So I guess they’re shocked to see us so close.”

I looked causally around the bus and saw that everyone was at some time shooting glances at me as though I was the most interesting thing after TV. But whenever I happened to look at any of them the same time they’d chosen to look at me, they quickly averted their eyes.

I could have sworn even the bus driver risked a glance in the rearview mirror.

Unable to shake off my growing nerves, I spent the rest of the ride in silence, being silently comforted by Lyla. When the bus pulled into the parking lot of the school, my heart started beating like a jackhammer.

“Chase, calm down,” Lyla said in my ear, “you’ll be fine. Come on.”

I followed Lyla and everyone else into the assembly hall, seriously resisting the urge to turn around and run.

The hall was packed with hundreds of students with teachers standing to the sides of the room. Everyone was looking towards the principle, who was addressing the school.

At least I didn’t have to stumble around looking for where I belonged because as soon as I was in the hall, a teacher came up to me and after hearing my name and consulting her clipboard, directed me to stand with the class I was placed in: 5-S, which also happened to be Lyla’s class. I managed a small sigh of relief.

On our way across to our class I noticed that most students’ heads turned to see who I

was.

After assembly we were issued our timetables and I was glad to see I was continuing all my subjects from my old school. Lyla and I shared my first two classes of the morning, Math, and Carlyle, Justin and I had Biology together. By the time lunch arrived, my nerves were gone and were replaced with excitement.

“You know, I don’t even know what you were so worried about in the first place.” Nikolai said as he picked at his lasagna. We were having lunch in front of the school under the shade of a tree. Justin and the others were also with us.

“I think you two are causing a commotion,” Brandon joked. It seemed like everyone in the school wanted to walk by just to see this new guy that Lyla Morgan was hanging out with for themselves, who now had his hand cozily around her waist, and who obviously had to be her boyfriend.

“You know, I understand what you told me about them being surprised you let someone get so close to you, but I still can’t help but feel a little insulted,” I said, enjoying the gentle breeze. From the tone of my voice, my friends knew I was joking.

“Oh really? Insulted about what?” Lyla asked calmly. She was propped against my chest as I, in turn, was sitting against the tree.

“When they all see me, they have this really weird look of surprise on their faces, as if they thought you would have considered me out of your league.”

At that moment, everyone dropped something and they all started babbling at once, but I did catch a few words like, “No, that’s crazy,” and “ Why would anyone think that?” but my personal favorite was Nikolai’s “Duh, of course you’re out of her league.”

“Har-har guys. Very funny,” I said as Lyla laughed away.

I’d never told anyone, but I did think Lyla was out of my league. It didn’t make me feel bad, because I was happy and it didn’t mean anything to Lyla.

Then I heard someone clear their throat next to me as if they were trying to get my attention. I hadn’t even noticed someone had come up to me. Before I could even look to see who it was, Lyla sighed.

“What is it, Dre?” She said exasperatedly without even looking at him. Dre turned out to be a guy who was about my height and age. He had light brown skin and his hair was braided down to his neck. It looked kind of cool.

“Just wanted to say ‘hi’ and welcome you back to school.” He said it innocently enough, but there was something about it I didn’t like. I noticed the others had all gone weirdly silent, but Nikolai was smiling as if he was about to get some joke.

Dre was looking at Lyla longingly, but she looked as though she was trying not to notice him. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on, and it was kind of awkward.

Reluctantly, it seemed, Dre finally turned to me and dropped his smile. I could tell he didn’t like how close I was to Lyla.

“You must be the new guy everyone’s talking about,” he said. There it was, undisputable proof that everyone was talking about me. Through our bond, I felt Lyla’s irritation at having Dre around.

“His name is Chase, Dre. Now I don’t know what everyone is saying,” I bet she did. “But he is my boyfriend and it’s best if you give up chasing after me. I told you before, I’m not interested in you that way.”

Dre’s eyes flickered back to me and a nasty sneer spread across his lips.

“I’ll see you later.” He strolled off with his friend behind him.

Lyla sat up and looked after Dre and said with a sigh, “he’s going to do something, isn’t

he?”

“Bet on it.” Nikolai confirmed.

It seemed that my fears about school were unfounded, because over the next few days things just seemed to be getting better. I was a little ahead in the subjects I was doing, but that didn’t last for long as the teachers were going through the course work quickly but carefully.

Also, unkown to me at first, I was becoming popular around the school. “Hey Chase”, “Yo Chase”, “Chase, what’s up?”; I would hear this all over school from people I didn’t even know.

“You certainly settled in fast,” Maranda said to me on Friday evening after school. “Adjusted and popular in your first week, now that has to be some kind of record. Where’s Lyla?” She asked, looking through the crowd as we headed towards the car park. That Friday was the first time I’d driven to school.

“Oh, she’s got some after-school thing. She told me not to wait for her,” I told Maranda when we got in the car. I had promised earlier to take her home.

“I think she tutors. That’s good. We’re supposed to be involved in some kind of extra-curricular activity. It looks good on a college application.”

“Well, as long as it’s not mandatory, I think I’ll take my chances.” I said.

After dropping Maranda home my intention was to go straight home myself, it really was, but as I turned around, the path to the Somorian development caught my eye. I knew going there might be a bad idea, as whoever was trying to harm me could be there, but as nothing had happened in a while, I thought I could risk it.

I just couldn’t help it. I couldn’t pass up the chance to get to know more about that symbol I saw in the Morgans’ book, and as it turned out, I did know a Somorian who could help me. I had just never thought of him before.

Being careful of what feelings went through the bond in order not to worry Lyla, I drove into the Somorian community. I really didn’t know what I was expecting to see. For some reason, whenever I thought of the Somorian land, images of log houses always came to mind. But driving along the main road I saw that everything was as modern and normal as the rest of the island, though admittedly it took a little of the magic (so to speak) out of the place. I only stopped briefly to ask someone for directions, which, thankfully, weren’t hard to follow. Had I just kept on driving, I would have found the place on my own… well, eventually.

After a while I pulled up to a garage called ‘Taylor Mechanics’ near the edge of a forest and saw Kimberley and Kristian’s father, Jack, working on a very outdated truck. Upon seeing my car he stopped what he was doing and walked over to greet me as I got out.

“Well, this is a surprise,” he said after wiping his hands on his work clothes, then shaking my hand. “To what do I owe this pleasure? Wait, don’t tell me you’re finally going to let me work on your car?” His eyes moved longingly over Sheila.

“No, no,” I said quickly. “I came for something else. I need some advice on… well, on magic,” I said cautiously. He regarded me strangely for awhile, then took the cloth over his shoulder, tucked it into his back pocket and asked me to take a walk with him.

We didn’t go very far, only out to the stream in the woods. His house was still in sight through the trees. The sun was now a deep orange and was now starting to fall behind the trees, which told me it was probably close to 6:00 pm.

I sat down on one of the rocks near the stream.

“Tell me Chase,” Jack started, “what do you know about the supernatural?”

He spoke in a voice that was so unlike his usual carefree tone. As I needed to know all he could tell me about the symbol, I decided that the truth was my best option, so I told him everything I knew.

“I knew there was something different about you,” he said once I was finished, “but as I knew the Morgans would never want to turn human, I didn’t know what to think.”

“You might want to tell that to your son,” I mumbled as I stared into the stream. I was surprised to hear him admit he knew the Morgans didn’t want to change.

“What do you mean?” he asked. Apparently he heard me.

I told him all about Kristian’s hatred for the Morgans and his attitude towards me because of my relationship with Lyla. Jack shook his head sadly, but before he said anything, I asked, “Does he really know about all this, or did he just guess right or put the pieces together or something?”

“He knows,” Jack confessed recently, “but only recently.

“And Kimberley?”

“Kimmie will never know about any of this,” Jack said. I swore there was a note of gratitude in his voice.

“Why?” I asked, a little surprised. “Shouldn’t she know about her own abilities?”

“Kimberley doesn’t have nor will she ever develop any kind of powers. You see, every Somorian doesn’t know about the supernatural,” Jack began, taking a seat himself. “And that’s because, all of us don’t have magic. Only the first-born inherit the magic. Kristian is the oldest, so he got the magic, so Kimmie will not develop any powers. And once you don’t have any powers, you’re not informed about the supernatural world. We see it as a way of keeping the family safe. No need to drag innocent people into this, you see. Anyway, what did you want to ask me about?”

Remembering why I was there in the first place, I rummaged in my pocket and pulled out the drawing of the symbol I made and handed it to Jack.

“Do you know…”

“Where did you see this?” Jack asked in a more serious tone.

“Well, that’s just it. I can’t remember. That’s why I came to you. I figured you could tell me what it means.”

“This siduel is used to focus certain types of uncontrollable magic.”

“Dark magic,” I offered, but Jack shook his head.

“Death magic,” he said darkly. Strangely, outside seemed a lot darker all of a sudden. “It’s the most dangerous kind of magic there is. You see, even power like dark magic abides by the rules of nature. But not death magic.”

Jack started shaking his head again as if he was trying to rid himself of a bad thought.

“It’s the worst kind of power anyone can use because it’s so uncontrollable and it’s a crime against nature to use it because you need a sacrifice to make the spell work. Equivalent exchange, see. You need to use the life energy of something alive to make the spell work, that’s why it’s so powerful. Using this kind of magic would destroy a person, but with this siduel, the person using it gains some sort of control over the magic. But I can’t understand why you would recognize this, because it’s a Somorian mark. No other culture in the world uses this and trust me, we know well enough to stay away from this kind of magic.”

“Well, someone’s being using it on me and I want to find out who. We… I already went to Hilda, but she couldn’t find who it is. Anyway, can you help me?” I pleaded.

Jack turned his eyes to the running water for a couple seconds, then slowly said, “There is something we can try, but it will be risky.” He handed me back my drawing.

“Look, Mr. Taylor, I understand you don’t want to put me in any danger, but I really need to find out who is trying to kill me and why. I may not have much time left,” I wasn’t referring to my attacker. I said this because I felt a pang of concern through the bond, which meant Lyla knew I was up to something she wouldn’t like.

“Okay,” Jack agreed. “Let’s get back to the house. The kids are out, so we will have some privacy.”

When we got back to his house, Jack introduced me to his wife Alisa and he surprised me when he told me he didn’t have any Somorian magic, but his wife did. Jack led me into their living room while Alisa went to get some things ready for whatever we were going to do.

“Mr. Taylor, tell me something,” I said as I took a seat, “If you don’t have any magic, how do you know so much about this stuff if you weren’t to be told?”

“It was Alisa who actually brought me into all this,” he said with a smile. “See, she was told about her heritage when we were in our late teens and at that time, she was very rebellious. If you didn’t want her to do something, just tell her the opposite. When she was forbidden to tell any non-magic users, she came and told me everything.”

“Did she get into any kind of trouble?”

“Oh, no,” Jack said quickly, “What they fail to tell you is there isn’t any real punishment for telling people. Besides, it was okay, Alisa telling me, because when she did, we were already engaged. As you can imagine, I was very intrigued by this. So I made sure to learn as much about it as I could, even though I knew I would never have the power. Though I have to admit I am always a little jealous, it must be amazing to be able to do some of the things they can. Now, Chase, I think it may be possible for you to find whoever is after you through the spirit world.”

“Come again?” I asked, taken aback. Jack didn’t look surprised and merely smiled.

“It’s not as absurd as it sounds, or at least, not fully. The spirit world is simply another place of existence. It’s not a place where souls go when we die, it’s… well it’s kind of hard to

explain, but essentially, from over there, you should be able to find out who is attacking you. All magic comes from the spirit world, so there will be some trace of their magic over there and with it, their identity. I should tell you though, that most people who’ve been trying for years have never been able to cross over and even if you do, there may be things over there that might want to hurt you. So if you do cross over, you have to be very careful.”

“If I get hurt over there, will I get hurt here?”

“Your conscious mind goes over with you as well. You will believe you have a corporeal body, even though you won’t, so yes. If you get hurt over there, you will get hurt here as well.”

I’d watched enough movies and TV shows to know what that meant.

Pang! Another tug on the bond, this time along with irritation and concern. She knew where I was, but not what I was about to do.

“Honestly Mr. Taylor, right now, those aren’t what I’m worried about. At least not fully,”

I said.

“In that case,” Alisa said coming back into the room with a tray in her hand laden with several items. “let’s begin.”

Jack and Alisa shifted the furniture a little, then instructed me to sit on the floor. Once I did, Alisa took a tea cup and pot from the tray, poured a cup of tea and offered it to me, which I refused, feeling this was hardly the time, but Alisa pushed the steaming cup towards me.

“This tea is made with a special herb which helps with the crossing over.”

“Then why do some people take so long to cross over if all they’ve got to do it drink this?” I asked, taking the tea then sipping it. I had to stop myself from spitting it out. It tasted like brewed grass and the fact that it had no sugar was no help.

“Because the tea alone won’t let you cross over. We like to think of it as something that merely speeds up the process.” Jack said.

As we didn’t have time to waste and the cup wasn’t big, I straight-pulled the tea, but it left a taste trail from my mouth all the way down to my stomach. As much as I tried, I couldn’t get it off my tongue. Alisa handed me another cup, this time it was a clear liquid. I almost groaned, but Alisa simply chuckled. “I’ve had that tea before so I know how it is and the bitterness can last for hours. This is water, to wash down the taste.”

I thanked her and quickly downed the water and was grateful when the bitterness in my mouth subsided. They made me lie on my back, then Alisa took up a small container with plain dirt, which she used to form a circle around me with.

“The spirit world is a place where newcomers such as yourself can easily get lost. Not in the sense were you can’t find one place or another, but where you may become so confused, you won’t be able to get back to your body.” Alisa said once she had formed the circle. “This circle of earth will act as a link, keeping you somewhat tied to this world, so I can pull you back should I need too.”

I wanted to say I understood, but my head now felt so groggy and my words were slurred so I simply nodded, or at least, I believe I did. My state of mind seemed to be affecting my bond with Lyla, because I felt it going out of focus. I still felt her emotions, but they felt so distorted, I couldn’t tell what I was feeling.

“Now, if it works, when you get over there, things may seem a little strange, but just remember to focus on your goals and you will be fine. All you have to do is think about your attacker and the spirit world should provide you with some answers.” Jack said to me. He then told me to close my eyes, which I did, and he and Alisa started chanting.

The tea made me feel I would have quickly fallen asleep from the second my eyes were closed. But I was simply lying there with Jack and Alisa chanting in my ears for hours. Finally, feeling disappointed, I decided it wasn’t going to work and was about to tell them when I opened my eyes and saw that I was wrong.

It was such a strange feeling. I knew my eyes were still closed, I could almost feel it in fact, but still they were open because I was seeing everything around me. I was standing in a

forest with trees so tall they seemed to stretch all the way to the clouds. Sunlight was pouring down on me but when I looked up, I saw no trace of the sun in the sky.

Time seemed to move strangely in the spirit world, because some things were moving fast while others went along at a slow pace. It was all so fascinating to watch, but I had to remind myself that I had a purpose. This was surprisingly hard to do.

I remembered what Jack told me, so I thought about finding out who my attacker was, and as soon as the thought entered my mind the trees in front of me disappeared, leaving a clear path. But did they disappear or were they simply never there in the first place? It was so hard to tell over here.

Having no other option, I took the path before me, but before I got too far along it I heard a familiar sound, one that sent shivers through my spine. It was a sound I had been hoping I would never hear again.

It was a series of strange growls and barks that couldn’t come from any earthly animal, but I couldn’t tell which direction they were coming from. With fear now pumping through me I started running ahead on the path before me, but strangely enough, it was as if the further I got, the further I was from where I wanted to go, and the closer the growls and barks got.

That’s when I saw them ahead of me. Huge, black dogs with glistening, blood red eyes, like shinning rubies. And the teeth! Those were what I noticed first. Long, yellow, pointed, dagger-like teeth which had ropes of saliva dripping from them.

Shadow hounds.

“Run, Chase, run!” A voice in my head that sounded just like Jack’s said, though I didn’t need to hear it as I was already running. I didn’t risk looking back to slow myself down, but I knew they were catching up. After all, this was their world.

Then, just like that, I was out of the forest. And I wasn’t even running anymore, nor was I breathing like I was just running for my life… or for my soul. When I looked back toward the forest I could still see the eyes of the hounds shining through the darkness of the forest that

wasn’t there. Suddenly the hounds bounded out of the forest, but as soon as they did, they just disappeared.

Unconcerned with them now, I turned my back on the forest, only to realize by what I saw before me that something was wrong. Standing just a couple feet away from me was… well, me. I was just standing there in the sunlight, watching the real me. I don’t know why, but upon seeing myself there my first instinct was to run. But somehow, against all the laws of physics (not that they would apply here), when I turned around, I was shocked to see I was still standing directly in front of the fake me.

“Tell me, Chase Roland, what are you doing in a place like this?” Fake Chase asked tensely. I didn’t even want to indulge him in conversation. I just turned on the spot and made to run off, but when I did, fake Chase was already standing there, already in front of me.

“You don’t understand this world do you?” He said, indicating everything around us.

“This world changes according to your thoughts. Here, it really is mind over matter. But in our case, its mind over mind because this world will respond to the strongest thoughts, the strongest mind, and that’s mine. Now back to my question. But I think the answer’s obvious. You’re here to find me, aren’t you?

“What are you?” I asked, suspense getting the better of me. Fake Chase smiled darkly. “I’m the one after you and I’ve got to say, you have certainly been able to get yourself out of those situations I sent your way. Not without help though.” After seeing how I was looking at him, he went on. “This,” he gestured towards himself, “like everything else here, our appearance, also depends on our thoughts. You look like yourself because you came here expecting to look like you do. I, on the other hand, look like you because I figured you would think anyone I appeared as was the one after you, even if I told you I was just using their appearance and I didn’t want anyone being blamed for something they didn’t do. True, there are other forms I could have chosen, and it would be clear to you that I was just using their appearance, but I just wanted to see the look on your face when you came here and saw yourself and I have to say, it was priceless.” He started laughing.

“Why don’t you show me who you really are and stop hiding?” I shouted, my anger starting to get the better of me. Fake Chase remained still and said, “Because I can’t have you or anyone else getting in my way any more than you already have. Chase, the truth is, I would rather not hurt you. If I thought you could separate yourself from the Aquamun, I would leave it up to you. But I know how connected you two are. I know you will never leave her. I can’t let you become what you will if you stay with her. Don’t you see? I’m saving you from yourself!”

“And what is it I will become? You think I will want to become an Aquamun myself?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let it happen.”

There was a kind of deranged look on his face, but I didn’t have time to ponder that as he reached out with one hand and grabbed me by the throat and lifted me into the air with ease.

As he squeezed, I felt my real body crave more air. I tried to focus my thoughts to getting me away from him, but it seemed to become a hundred times harder to think all of a sudden. The pressure was becoming too much.

Suddenly, there was a kind of presence that took hold of me. The feeling was so intense I had to shut my eyes and when I opened them again, I was glad to see I was looking up at Alisa and Jack, both of whom seemed gravely concerned.

Immediately I started coughing badly. Jack helped me into a sitting position and Alisa handed me another cup of water.

“What happened over there?” Jack asked.

I finished my water, then said, “I saw him. The person attacking me, but he looked like me, so I still don’t know who he is.”

After insisting I was fine, thanking them for their help and promising I would keep them updated, I left and headed for home. While on the road, many things flashed through my head.

I had just entered another world; I did confront my attacker, but still didn’t know who he was.

The thing that kept bugging me was knowing that I’d forgotten something.

When I got home, the house was in complete darkness, which meant my parents weren’t home yet. I was so tired I just went straight to my room. When I got up there, I just dropped my bag on the floor and fell into the bed. But I almost jumped back up at once when I realized someone was already there. However even in the dark, I knew it was her.

Damn it, that’s what I forgot, I thought to myself, Lyla.

I flipped on the light switch in time to see Lyla stand up and look dangerously angry.

“You better have a really damn good excuse.”