Ocean Song Beneath the Waves

How, can something so beautiful be so deadly? Or better yet, how can the thing she loves so much cause her such pain?

Serena’s hands are closed into fists that produce white knuckles. Tears glisten within her eyes as they stare out into the vast expanse of the ocean. Nothing in life has ever gone her way. If it had, then her mother would still be here.

Even now, she can hear her mother’s voice, screaming her name as she succumbed to the onslaught of waves amidst a storm.

For a brief moment, the skies appear dark and turbulent. The sea rages with misplaced anger. But then everything becomes clear blue skies with seagulls diving in and out of the water.

Her heart constricts painfully as the first of the tears slide down pale cheeks. No matter how hard she tries, she always comes back. Even when her family says she shouldn’t.

Just then, her phone buzzes in her pocket. One hand digs it out while the other furiously wipes at the tears threatening to spill over.

It takes her a moment to collect herself before she decides to look at the Caller ID.

Caspian Adamaris, her oldest brother. For a moment, she stares at the smiling picture staring back at her with similarly colored blue eyes. She can’t quite remember the cause for that smile since his manner is usually more subdued, but it was pleasing to see, nonetheless.

The phone gives another furious buzz, reminding her to answer it.

“Hey Cas,” she says softly, using the nickname he was given as a child.

Caspian replies distastefully, “Still going to the beach I see.”

Serena can almost see the grimace on his face at the mere mention of the offending place. After all, their mother’s death affected them all in some type of way. Caspian was just better at hiding it.

“What did you need?”

Caspian sighs too close to the speaker. “Do you see what time it is?”

Serena takes the phone from her ear for a moment to stare at the little white numbers in the corner. 7:45 AM. The warning bell rings in about five minutes.

She places the phone back against her ear as she turns and glances out at the ocean once again.

“Well, Rion already went ahead,” says Caspian before his voice fades out for a moment to talk to someone. “Zale should be waiting for you on the side of the road.”

Serena nods absentmindedly, only realizing a second later that Caspian can’t see her.

“I’m going, I’m going,” she murmurs quietly before uttering a quiet goodbye. She releases a little sigh as she picks up the indigo school bag sitting by a cluster of rocks. She shoves her phone in the pocket of the bag and slides it onto her shoulder as she walks.

In the distance, she can see the little guardhouse, the surf shop, and the frozen yogurt shop beside the main street. There, right beside a palm tree, is a grey 2006 impala.

Getting closer to the car, she can make out the face of the second eldest of her brothers, Zale. His wavy silver hair has been thrown into a messy low ponytail. Either that or he didn’t really care how he looked for work that morning.

That cheerful gleam in his green eyes does nothing for her mood. Nor does the goofy expression on his face as he throws open the doors.

A blank expression takes over her face as she climbs into the passenger seat and tosses her bag into the back.

Zale drives off and they spend about a minute in silence. But that minute allows the whole atmosphere to become tense.

After a few more minutes of silence, Zale asks, “So uh…did you happen to hear from dad while you were out there?”

A sinking feeling settles in her chest as she looks to the pensive expression on Zale’s face. All traces of humor had been drained away in an instant.

Serena swallows thickly as she replies, “No, no I haven’t.” She pauses and bites down on her lip. “He’s not answering his phone?”

Zale sighs as he comes to a halt at a red light. He squeezes the steering wheel until his knuckles are white. “We haven’t heard from him since he went out this morning.”

Serena looks away. This doesn’t make any sense. If their father decides to go out, then he usually goes to the beach. To the exact place their mother died. And Serena’s perch overlooks that spot so she would’ve seen him had he been there.

A misplaced sense of dread overtakes her senses as she pulls her phone out to try and call her father. But the phone keeps ringing and ringing—no one ever picks up and it goes to voicemail. She leaves brief instructions to her father to let them know he’s alright before hanging up. She stares at the phone in silence as the car begins to move once again.

She’s just jumping to conclusions. He had to have forgotten to turn his phone off vibrate. Surely that’s the case.

And not even a moment after the thought passes through her mind, her phone chimes. Looking down at the screen, she’s relieved to see her dad’s ID pop up.

Zale glances over, carefully gauging her reaction as she hurriedly opens her phone to view the message.

‘Sorry for scaring you all, my phone was off. I’m just fine. I took a little walk along the shore so you probably missed me. See you guys when I get home. Love you!’

Serena breathes a sigh of relief as her phone slips from her hand to wedge itself between the seat and door. All of the fear and dread instantly drains away.

“What was it?” Zale asks tentatively as he makes a right turn past a street full of shops.

Serena smiles humorlessly as she glances at him from out of the corner of her eye. “It was dad. He’s fine. Apparently, he took a walk along the beach and turned his phone off.”

Zale breathes exhales loudly as he comes to a sudden stop—narrowly avoiding running a red light. “That man is going to be the death of us.”

Serena chuckles. “At least he’s safe,” she says softly. “Did Caspian and Rodion know?”

Zale’s expression becomes a little troubled. “I just told Caspian right before you walked up and Rodion…” he trails off and scratches at his neck. The light turns green and they’re moving once more.

“What about Rodion?” It’s well-known that they’re brother has a penchant for finding and causing trouble. But he’s been pretty good the last year or so.

“I made the mistake of calling him at work, and hurricane Rod ended up being fired when he blew a fuse.”

Serena claps a hand to her face as a tired sigh leaves her. He’d barely had the job a whole year. His other jobs always ended in an altercation between him and his superiors. He was doing okay at this job—at least, he had been.

“Too late now,” she mutters as she leans her head back against the seat to mindlessly stare out the window. She pays no attention to the passing scenery, even when it gives way to the familiar path leading to Mariner High.

“Welp, here we are,” comments Zale. He completely disregarded her earlier comment as he comes to a stop a few feet away from the staircase. By this point, a lot of students are hurriedly rushing into the building before the second bell signaling the start of class rings.

Serena checks her phone. 7:55 AM. She only has five minutes to go to her locker and get to the other side of the damn building before math started.

She groans. It’s too damn early for math. Not that she isn’t good at the subject—it’s just a pain in the ass, especially when she has all the disruptive troublemakers in her class.

But Zale has reverted back to his annoyingly goofy self. He waves after her as he says, “Have a great day!”

Serena’s brow twitches at his chipper attitude. Suddenly, she feels too tired to go to school. But she sucks it up, gives a wave, and makes a beeline straight for her locker.

Another boring school day done, Serena runs to her locker, eager to get home and see her father. Simply getting a text from him isn’t enough.

Her heart thumps rapidly in anticipation—a growing need to see him with her own eyes. Once she sees him, then she’ll know that he’s truly well and still here. Still here… She just needs him to be here, and somehow, she knows that she’ll be just fine if that remains the case.

A sudden shove knocks her books to the floor in a spectacular show of papers and folders. She briefly glances up to glare at the perpetrator, Raquel Woods. Raquel Woods glares down at her, that sweet façade made only bitter without Serena’s brother around.

Only in front of the youngest of her elder brothers, Arion—affectionately known as Rion to his family—does the girl act like the world’s greatest Samaritan. “Hello Arion!” She sings loudly, causing Serena to cringe as she goes about picking her things up off the floor. Raquel stands in front of her locker, which is coincidentally placed right next to Arion’s. So, Serena won’t be putting the rest of her things away for the time being. Instead, she has to awkwardly stand aside until an opportunity presents itself to get into her locker.

In spite of this, there’s an amusing degree of entertainment in watching her dear elder brother squirm to escape. Arion glances at her, his gaze pleading, but he’s not getting any sympathy from her. It’s too entertaining, watching her big brother squirm before a girl way weaker than him.

“Arion? Are you alright?” Raquel asks in concern which makes Serena’s stomach churn. The girl is anything but sweet and hearing that sugary tone of concern causes her skin to crawl.

Arion returns his attention to her with a shaky smile. “Just fine,” he mutters through gritted teeth.

Serena watches Raquel with a careful gaze. Unfortunately, she has already commenced her natural back and forth against the lockers. Every so often she’ll lean off Serena’s locker, but immediately return. The action only serves to elicit a silent groan from Serena. It’s after another three minutes of Raquel repeating this action alongside her mindless chatter that Serena moves in to open her locker. Raquel scowls at her, choosing not to make a big fuss of it like she usually would because of Arion’s presence. It also didn’t help her that the hallway is still filled to the brim with people, all of whom are trying to hurry up and go home with teachers milling about between them.

Raquel immediately returns her full attention to Arion. Meanwhile, Serena proceeds to place her remaining books into her locker. She rummages around for about a minute more in search of her phone. Afterwards, she shuts the locker and stows the object away in her pants pocket.

She begins to stride towards the exit, and Arion immediately calls out, “Hey! Where are you going?” He didn’t want her to leave him behind with Raquel.

So she replies, “Home. I’ll see you later!” And she takes off before he can say anything more.

He returns his attention to Raquel. The girl is still babbling about some new makeup she got or some such nonsense. He averts his gaze to the ceiling in exasperation as he releases an inward groan. If only she’d at least have let me drive her there. He sighs. Of course she would say no, as she always does whenever he offers, but it doesn’t stop him from worrying. Call him overprotective, but Serena’s all they’ve got of their mother. She looks the most like her so he and his brothers can’t help it if they feel like they’d lose her as well if they looked away.

He turns back to look at Raquel once more, who’s still talking. If only someone would have mercy on him…

She should’ve gone home so see if her father returned. And yet, she ended up out here instead. Of course, her brothers don’t know this. If they did, they’d probably show up to drag her off back to the house. Then they’d proceed to lecture her about coming here. Well, except Zale. Zale’s devil may care attitude has always given her the most leeway growing up.

So here she is. Sitting here, and singing like she always does when she comes out here.

“Swayed by the waves that set you free,

Will the ocean carry you back to me?

Many long years I have waited,

To meet again is surely fated...”

Serena exhales after the last verse. Her mother’s lullaby always manages to soothe her when she’s feeling some type of way. And her earlier encounter with Raquel definitely gave her reason to sing it. She releases a sigh as she looks out over the ocean from her perch on the cliff. Her eyes slide shut as she basks in the sea’s breeze.

“Swayed by the waves that set you free,

Will the ocean carry you back to me?

Many long years I have waited,

To meet again is surely fated...”

Her eyes pop back open as they dart about the ocean. Someone had to have sung that because it sure as hell wasn’t her—and there’s no way that there’s just a disembodied voice singing back to her. But everywhere she looks, she sees nothing but ocean and no one’s on the beach today. There’s actually no one around. Not even her father. Despite there being a stretch of beach that extends for miles, she knows her father wouldn’t walk that far. So who else could it have been?

At that moment her vibrates. She pulls out her phone, seeing Rodion’s name and picture pop up on the Caller ID.

“Hey Rod. What’s up?”

“Hey, has dad shown up around your little spot?” His concerned tone sets off an internal alarm.

“No. Why?” She tilts her head, almost a little surprised that he didn’t start lecturing her about being here. “I thought he went home.” Earlier feelings of dread begin to surface once again coupled with the déjà vu of having experienced something like this before.

Rodion heaves a loud sigh. “He hasn’t been back here since he left earlier this morning and he’s not answering his phone at all now.” Her breath hitches, but she rushes to calm herself. She just needs to remember that she shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe he turned his phone off again.

But it might be for the best if she goes home and waits with her brothers. “I’m coming back. See you in a bit.”

“Yeah, alright.” And with that, she hangs up. She gathers up her belongings into her bag before standing up from her place on the ground. She looks out at the sea, the waves lapping the shores, the sea gulls crying out in the distance. Nothing appears to be out of place.

And yet, unease coils inside her chest. She shakes her head, pressing her phone a little too tightly to her ear. “I’m on my way back. See you in a bit.”

She hangs up, clutching the phone in her hand with a vice. Her gaze stares at nothing as dread seems to leak into every part of her body.

It can’t happen again. It just can’t…