Ocean Cove

My hand was bleeding. It was something I only became aware of when I saw blood on the last box I was moving. The cut wasn’t very deep, but it was long, cutting loose more than half of my left palm.

On my way out of the garage I saw the vase I’d moved out of my way and figured that must have been what did it. I headed straight for the first floor bathroom to patch myself up. Never in my life had I had the ambition to be a doctor, but I always enjoyed patching myself up when I got hurt. There was a certain gratification I got from it that I couldn’t really explain. I blamed E.R.

After I was finished disinfecting the wound, I bandaged it and set back out to the garage. Another one of Mom’s little chores was the reason I was there. There were still a lot of unpacked boxes in the garage which she wanted me to sort out so it would be easier for her and Dad when they finally got around to them.

I was actually glad to be doing it, to be honest, because it gave me something more to do than just sit around and think. That’s all I’d been doing lately.

I couldn’t stop wondering why Lyla didn’t want to be friends with me. For the entire time she was away, I couldn’t help but think about the day she got back. Now it was a little hard for me to believe she wanted nothing to do with me, even after saving my life.

My job in the garage was over quickly enough, leaving me with nothing to do and I really didn’t want to be hanging around because as soon as my mind had any free time, it began formulating ways and little plans to get Lyla and I to become friends, but before I could come

up with anything to do I always managed to pull myself together. My parents raised me to believe that if someone didn’t want to be in your life, you should leave it that way.

But Lyla was different. There was just something about her. She just needed a little push. And I was going to provide just that.

After making sure the garage would be up to my mother’s standards, I set off towards the Morgans’ under the pretense of seeing Nikolai. I chose not to think about the fact that we’d just become friends and I was already using that as a way to get to his sister.

When I got to the front door I rang the doorbell and didn’t have to wait five seconds when the door was pulled open by Lyla. I admit that I did get annoyed when I saw her exasperated expression when she realized it was me.

“Oh, you. What’re you doing here?” Before I could answer, her eyes shot down to my arm and my bandaged hand and her expression turned to concern.

“What happened to your hand?”

“Don’t act like you care.” I was happy at the chance to be just as nasty as she, but I immediately regretted it when I saw her flinch in shock.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, “I had a really stressful morning, but that’s still no reason for trying to take my feelings out on you.”

As she looked at me intensely I thought she was going to lash out at me, but instead, she reached out and took my bandaged hand in both of hers. This was the first time she touched me (when I was conscious) and it took me completely by surprise. Her hands were so soft, smooth and warm.

“There really is no need. I’m fine.” I said softly as Lyla examined my hand, but she ignored me.

“Like I said, no need.” I repeated when she saw that I was fine. At that moment she quickly let go of my hand.

“Why exactly are you here?” This time her voice was a lot softer.

“I want to talk to you. Please?” She shook her head and was about to close the door, but I held it open.

“Lyla, please. All I wanna do is talk.” She looked back into her house, then stepped outside and closed the door.

“Fine, but we talk out here.”

“That’s fine with me.” I sighed, relieved.

She led me over to a tree where she sat down on a small rock. I simply stooped down and leaned against the tree. Lyla didn’t look like she was waiting for me to say something and I was glad because even though I wanted to talk to her so badly, I really didn’t know what I was going to say.

“Why is it you think you will hurt me?” Was the first thing that came out of my mouth. “That’s not really a good reason.”

She didn’t respond to that and just gazed at the flowers around us. Anything to avoid looking at me.

“Lyla, you don’t know me. You know nothing about me, yet you made the decision that you and I wouldn’t be good friends just by looking at me. It’s like you don’t even care what I think or want and I know we just met, but it still hurts.”

“That’s the last thing I wanted to do,” she admitted hurriedly.

“But that’s what you’re doing. You know, believe it or not, it wouldn’t exactly kill us if we were friends.”

Lyla looked at me as though she wanted to say ‘yeah, right’.

“Okay Chase,” she said finally. “Let’s try it your way.”

* * *

It was Wednesday afternoon. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t deny or even hide how happy I was. Lyla and I were finally on good terms. That itself was enough to make me feel like I was on top of the world. I couldn’t imagine anything that could make me any happier and yet something did. I’d finally got my East Island’s driver’s license. Yes, it was true I didn’t yet have a car, but just knowing I could drive if I wanted to made me feel elated; it gave me a sense of… freedom.

The only thing that dampened my feelings was Kristian’s strange attitude towards the Morgans. It would have been fine if he just wasn’t friendly with them, though even that I couldn’t understand, but he seemed to really hate them, as though they’d done him something he couldn’t ever forgive.

“What’s Kristian’s deal with the Morgans?” I asked unexpectedly. Everyone paused and looked over at me. It was Justin, Brandon, Rachael, Maranda and me. We had once again taken a ride out to the lighthouse beach. We found a nice spot on the sand to sit and this time we brought a bag of snacks that we were already halfway through.

“What?’’ I didn’t like the looks the others were giving me.

“Well, it’s just you seem really interested in the Morgans lately. Especially Lyla.” Rachael revealed slowly. Justin piped in too.

“What’s even more is she seems interested in you, which is weird because the Morgans never take an interest in anyone, but they seem to have taken a real interest in you. Now why is that?”

I stared open-mouthed at the others. All eyes were on me as though they thought I was about to let loose some insider scoop on the Morgans that everyone’s been dying to hear. An

assault like this was certainly something I didn’t expect. I would have never thought they were watching this closely.

I was in love with Lyla Morgan. If I wasn’t sure about anything else, I knew that to be true. Whenever I thought about it I started to feel great, but I knew if Lyla found out, the way she acted, she would pull further away from me. Look how hard it was for me to convince her to be friends and even now I could still tell she was fighting hard not to retreat from me. The weird thing was that at the same time I could tell she liked spending time with me. So that’s why I’d decided to keep my true feelings for Lyla a secret. I wouldn’t say she was a fragile girl, just head-strange. Situations with her just needed to be handled with care.

“I don’t know why Lyla and Nikolai have such an interest in me,” which was actually the truth, “but we’re off the point, which is Kristian. What’s he got against the Morgans?”

“Well it probably has something to do with his being a Somorian,” Brandon suggested.

“You know how he’s always bragging on about that.” The others mumbled in agreement.

“Wait, um, what’s a Somorian?” I was more than a little confused.

“They were kind of the first settlers on the island,” Maranda simply said, but to me that wasn’t much of an explanation.

“You can’t just say that, you have to explain it to him,” Rachael told her.

“Somorians are said to be the first settlers on the island. I think they got here over three hundred years ago. No one knows where they come from, or at least, the Somorians themselves aren’t telling, but at the time it was only a couple hundred of them, according to the stories.” Maranda further explained.

“And no one even has an idea of where they come from?”

“Nope,” Maranda said. “And it’s not like we had satellite tracking that time.”

We all laughed at that.

“Their boats and pottery wasn’t like anything anyone had ever seen. And they were very superstitious, believed in magic and weird creatures and stuff.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with Kristian’s attitude with the Morgans?”

“I have no idea. Somorians don’t believe in that still, but maybe Kristian knows something we don’t. Maybe the Morgans are vampires, ohhh… or witches.” Maranda joked excitedly.

“How could they be vampires when no one’s disappeared or witches when nothing strange ever happens on this island?” Justin asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Maybe they’re the boring kind.” Maranda said. That got another laugh from us.

“The Morgans aren’t cool enough to be anything but human,” Brandon said. Everyone agreed with him, but I simply added “Hmmm.”

I wasn’t saying the Morgans weren’t human, but I just wanted to know if that’s what

Kristian believed, that they were something more, because he really did seem to be taking his

Somorian heritage a bit seriously.

When three o’clock arrived I was still on the beach with the others, who were already in the water. Everything Maranda said played on my mind, and then something came to me.

I needed a way to get more information without actually going to the source, so to speak. So I told my friends I had something to do for my parents and then left. I remembered that there was a small library in Bermintown and decided to try looking there for some answers. It might have seemed odd, the interest in Kristian’s dislike for the Morgans, but I just had to know.

The architecture of the small Bermintown library made it look old. It reminded me of an old Anglican church. When I went in, I handed my bag to the security guard, as bags weren’t allowed inside.

“Excuse me, I’m wondering if you can help me,” I said to one of the people behind the main desk, a young librarian who was sitting behind the desk on the computer. When she looked up at me, she adjusted her glasses and smiled.

“Well of course, that’s what I’m here for.”

“Do you have any books on Somorians? More specifically, books on their superstitions?”

“I think we have one or two,” she said, walking around the desk and leading me up stairs. She took me to the back of the room to a book shelf that was labeled Caribbean History. The librarian ran her fingers along the spines of the books until she found the one she was looking for, which she took down and handed it to me.

“Caribbean Legends. They’re a couple chapters in there about Somorians. If you need any more help, you know where to find me.” With a last look and giggle at me, she walked off.

There were a few empty tables upstairs, so I decided to just sit and read up there. I walked over to a table in the corner by the window and sat down. After consulting the table of contents, I saw the chapters on Somorians.

As I was turning the pages someone said “What is that you’re reading?” next to me. I was so anxious to get started that I hadn’t even noticed Kimberley approaching, so I was startled when she spoke, which caused me to accidently drop the book.

Before I could even move to pick it up, Kimberley already had it back on the table in front of her, where she’d taken a seat.

“So you know,” she said to me after she read the title. She took her long hair and placed it in one with a ruffle she had on her hand. That’s when I saw the gray shirt she was wearing. I just had to comment on it.

“You know, I like the chipmunks.” That actually got a chuckle out of her. “What do you mean by ‘I know’.”

“That I’m a Somorian.” She pushed the book back to me. Suddenly I felt like I was being very intrusive.

“Yeah, I found out today, but I’m not… it’s not like…”

Kimberley chuckled. “Chase, it’s okay. It’s not like we have some huge big secret or dirty past or anything. I just took it as weird that you’re trying to learn more about Somorians because people don’t find us that interesting. And with good reason, because the truth is, Somorians really aren’t that interesting. So what is it you want to know?”

It had never occurred to me that I could simply ask Kimberley about her brother. I guess there was a source after all.

“Well, it’s not Somorians in general, I’m just a little curious about your brother.”

“Why?” I had stifle a laugh when Kimberley said that because she made it sound as if anyone would be crazy to have any kind of interest in Kristian.

“Because I want to know why he hates the Morgans so much. I mean they’ve never done anything to him or your family, so why is he like that?”

Kim sighed deeply and looked through the window for a while, like she was contemplating something. She licked her lips for moisture a few times then turned back to me.

“In the old days, a lot of my people were superstitious. They believed in everything and then some. But over time, many began to rely on science as you would expect, and leave the old ways. However, there are still Somorians today that believe in the supernatural, mainly a few of our elders. Kristian was always fascinated by that stuff, I don’t know why, but he always liked it, so when he met some of those people, about a year and half ago, that still believe, he began thinking it may still be true. That there really is some kind of magic in the world.”

“Okay. So he might believe in a spiritual path. That’s not so bad. But what’s that have to do with the Morgans?” I asked.

Kimberley leaned closer to me as if it was important no one else hear this.

“Some people believe Somorians to be warriors of nature, agents of innocents who protect nature. Nature would be the earth and everything from it, including humans. The reason my brother doesn’t like the Morgans is because some of my people believe they aren’t from nature. And anything not from nature or the earth, seeks to destroy it and everything it holds.”

“Wait a minute,” I said as something clicked in my head. “Are you saying, that they don’t think the Morgans are human?”

Kimberley nodded.

I chuckled nervously and was about to say “But that’s crazy,” but instead I said: “So what do they think they are?”

Kimberley looked like she didn’t want to reply, but eventually she said:

“They believe they are creatures of the sea, mermaids. They are really called –”

“Aquamuns,” I finished.

“Yeah,” Kimberley said, shaking her head. “Just crazy. Anyway, I just came in here to pick up some books. I’ve got some vacation assignments I need to finish. I guess I will see you later, Chase.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said when I realized she was looking at me with her eyebrows raised.

She waved at me and walked away.

* * *

After leaving the library I did some exploring of Bermintown on my own. By the time I decided to head home it was just past 7:00 pm. I wasn’t that familiar with Bermintown, so I did get lost a few times. Which was how it all started.

I’d made a left turn onto a street. I didn’t even see the name, but it was completely deserted. All the stores were closed and only one street light was working and that was all the way on the other end.

I was used to walking alone at night and even though I was always careful, I’d never actually felt afraid. But as I walked down the unknown street, a strange feeling came over me. My spine tingled like something slimy was crawling down my back. I suddenly felt afraid. I kept glancing around just to make sure I was alone, but visual confirmation wasn’t enough, as the feeling only got worse.

And then I heard it. Something that made me feel like my heart actually stopped for a second. A deep, low, bone-chilling growl which came from in front of me just beyond the rays of the street light.

I was just about to hop onto my bike to ride off in the other direction. I wasn’t going to be like those stupid teenagers you see in movies. Then whatever made that awful growl stepped into the light. Before it even did, I saw two blood-red orbs like objects moving towards me. The strange thing about them was that they seemed to hold some kind of strange power that kept me from moving, no matter how much I wanted to.

The creature finally moved into the light. I wanted to scream. Oh, I wanted to so bad, but I just couldn’t remember how. It was a dog, but not like any I’d ever seen or even thought existed. It was huge. Like four or five feet tall, with fur as dark as the night sky. Even with the distance between us, I could clearly see it had huge fang-like teeth in its open mouth, where those growls were still coming from.

Without any warning, and with lightning like speed, the animal pounced at me. And with about twenty feet between us, it was actually going to make it. When the creature was about

ten feet away from me in the air, something collided with it in midair and sent in crashing into a wall.

“Chase, get on your bike and go, NOW.”

Lyla shouted when she landed in front of me, though she didn’t take her eyes off the dog. I didn’t move a muscle, because from the moment she landed in front of me I seemed to get control over my body again and I wasn’t going to leave her, but she said, “Chase, please. Just go. Just trust me, I will be fine. GO.”

The urgency in her voice was enough to make me comply. Without another glance at the creature I hopped on my bike and peddled off. I was in such a state, I didn’t even know where I was going. When I turned what I figured was my fifth corner, I saw Lyla standing in the middle of the road. I pulled hard on my brakes and stopped just in front her.

“You and I really need to talk,” she said before I could get one word out.

* * *

“Lyla, what’s going on? And what the hell was that creature? And how the hell did you hit it so hard?”

We were sitting in the middle of a play park by ourselves. Lyla had led me there because she told me she was going to explain everything. She stood up and started pacing then rounded at me.

“I told you being friends with me was going to be bad, didn’t I? Did you listen? No.” Lyla was almost shouting.

There was suddenly a tidal wave of fury inside. I had no idea where the anger came from, because moments before I wasn’t angry. Scared and confused, but not angry.

“Are you saying this is my fault?” I said, the anger beginning to show.

Lyla looked at me hard, took a deep breath, then said in her normal voice, “No, that was not your fault. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Lyla.” I said, that strange anger disappearing. “Lyla, please tell me what that thing was.”

“It was a Shadow Hound.”

“A what?” I was perplexed. I wasn’t even sure I’d heard her right.

“It’s like a magical dog. But I can only think of one reason it was here.”

“Lyla,” I said forcefully. She stopped pacing and turned slowly towards me. “Please explain to me exactly what happened.”

Lyla sighed. “I can’t tell you everything. I don’t even know how we got here. To this point, I mean. I don’t know what’s going on.” She sighed again. “Chase, I’m not exactly what you would call normal. This may sound foolish, but you have to listen. There is magic in the world, real magic and from now on, you will have to be very careful.”

Despite all the things I wanted to say, I simply asked, “Why?”

“I think someone summoned that dog to kill you.”