27. Tide
Date: 5-17-2024
Time: 0557
“Caspian.” My father murmurs, but I’m too focused on trying to make the bleeding stop but it’s flowing too fast. His hands clasp over mine, trying to slow my motions and pull my attention.
“Red.” He coughs out the words, but what the bloody hell is it even supposed to mean? I know there’s red— there’s so fucking much of it.
“Stop fighting, just let me…” I rush out the words, but his hands clasp my face, forcing me to look at him. I see my eyes staring back at me, the same crooked grin despite the worry lines between his brows.
“Feed them to the sharks and move on Caspian.”
My father's voice morphs into Moes screaming my name, thrashing within my grasp. It's no longer my father's body I'm cradling—it's Moes I'm straddling. My grip tightens around his throat, blood lines my knuckles and stains the sand below him where my father once was. Why can't I let go? He starts to shake his head, once red hair turns brown and grey eyes fade into bloodshot blue.
"Caspian." she gasps.
Her face turns bright red, my vision hazes with tears that beg to spill.
“CASPIAN!”
The words echo out, but they ring louder than a dream. It’s not my father’s voice, it's not Moes, it's not my little sirens, but it’s familiar. I can smell subtle hints of spearmint and hear rushed steps around, but it’s so dark. Something pushes at my shoulder making my body shake. Why the fuck does everything feel so painful? My head is throbbing like I drank a fifth of whisky and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
“What is happening?”
“I don’t know, just get him up!”
“God damn it, you should’ve gotten someone sooner! What the hell were you thinking?”
“You two stop yelling. It’s not helping!”
Who the fuckin’ hell is bickering this early? Whoever it is, is about to be running laps around the base until they throw up. I groan while trying to sit upright but my body feels like lead weight sinking me further into the mattress.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” I try to sound stern but my throat is so dry it comes out hoarse. I sit up with a sway.
“Shit Tide, what did you take? Open your eyes!” It’s not the voice I want to hear. It’s not my siren calling for me. I pry my eyes open, and everything feels brighter than it should. “Come on, man.” Messy dirty blonde hair shakes, making me focus on dead eyes darting between mine.
“Cordelia.” My voice is low, demanding for her to respond to my call. I’m jerked back to Sam while Jasmine storms around the kitchen, and Moe stands in the doorway with a face I can’t pinpoint. The last time I saw that expression was when I told him about our father. It’s a raging storm in his eyes attached to a calm body.
“Where the fuck is she?” I’m not asking a question, it’s just pure panic. I stumble to stand, needing to kick whatever is coursing through me. The TV still hums a theme song assuring me she is real and was here.
“She was seen leaving base with the redhead and hasn’t come back.” Sam mumbles. I grasp at the counter, trying to hold myself steady but something’s wrong. Everything is too loud, each knock of pots under Jasmine’s hands rings in my ears and Moe's motionless body looks as if it’s spinning around mine.
“Moe, get me some water.” I try to keep my voice as calm as I can, but I know it’s far from it. She’s not gone and if she is then she better be ready for whoever's blood I have to spill to get her back. I move again but trip over an object pulling my attention to neatly placed untied boots by the island.
“She was barefoot.” I state. Rubbing my finger to my neck I notice how her mark bulges further out than usual. My breathing is shallow, refusing to let air fully into my lungs.
“She didn’t plan on leaving unless she was in a rush.” Moe finally speaks, shoving the bottle to my mouth and tilting it until I feel like a spitting, sputtering mess. I’m pissed at how he’s trying to drown me, but at least I’m proud to know he pays attention when I try to teach him things.
“She wasn’t in a rush.” Jasmine says nervously as she rises to stand her full height with an odd object pinched between her fingers. I snatch the bottle from Moe and continue to drink it with narrowed eyes on her. Jasmine never liked my shark. She's lying. I try to catch her eye, but she just looks down which only infuriates me enough that I slam the empty water bottle against the counter.
“How would you know that?” I say through clenched teeth. In two very unstable strides I'm toe to toe with her, snatching the thin plastic vial from her hand. If I ever had a heart, it’s gone, sinking into the pit of my stomach where acid eats at it until it’s nothing.
She made me tea.
Bringing the tube to my nose, I inhale only to quickly pull it away from the way my throat starts to burn with a cough from the scent. Jasmine’s mouth opens but Sam cuts her off by throwing my tactical vest at the back of my head along with whatever clothes he just found. Ignoring the onslaught of fabric, I bring the tube in between mine and Jasmine's eyesight. It hardly looks like anything was poured.
“It doesn’t matter. Do you want to find her or not? Because I’ll gladly go back to watching the monitors.” Sam's threat is enough motivation to get me to throw on my clothes, snatching my boots from him and fumbling forward to slip them on improperly while following Moe out the door.
“What are you doing?” I call out behind him, but he ignores me. If he thinks he’ll be a part of this then he’s sadly mistaken. Jasmine’s steps hurry behind, distinguishable from how light they are against the floor compared to ours. I have no clue where we’re heading, but I’m not the one to be questioning things when I was dumb enough to let down my guard and get drugged. My little siren lured me into my demise.
Sam walks around the corner in front of us from the armory with a loaded tote. Thank God he’s always one step ahead since my head’s still spinning enough that I have to question when he left my line of sight. It’s not from the poison but the fact she could’ve killed me. Moe is ten feet ahead when we push through the bulletproof door, not nearly as affected by the light bit of rain sticking to his skin.
“She went that way.” Jasmine points in a general direction as we walk through the training grounds’ exit. Sam places a pistol in my hand along with a clip, where I quickly shove it into the holster. Each crash of waves against the sand does little to overbear the rush of blood in my ears. Jasmine tries to walk past me, but I pull her back by her arm. If she thinks for a second I’ll ever let her back near my girl again, she’s got another thing coming.
“How long ago?” I question and she swallows looking over my shoulder at Sam then back at me.
“About two hours ago.”
“You’re not coming,” Sam says, catching both of us off guard.
“Make sure everything we’ve been working on is ready for her when she gets back. She can see in plain print everything she fucked up.” He continues with an eye roll when I shoot him a glare. None of us know what’s happening, so there’s no need to jump to conclusions until I have the facts.
I let go of Jasmine, making her fumble in the sand. Moe is so far ahead he barely looks like a spec. I don’t know what got into him, but I’ll worry about that later. We’re both in shock, so I know there’s no stopping either of us. I glance back at Sam to ensure he’s following as I take off at a stride to catch up to Moe. Sam leans into Jamine's ear, before she nods and turns away.
Just as I get close enough to Moe for the back of his t-shirt to graze beneath my fingers the smell of smoke hits me. He smells it too because he takes off at a dead sprint towards a large fence and disappears behind a building.
“Moe!” I shout as I round the edifice, but he’s nowhere to be seen. The only sight in front of me is a toppled-over plane up in flames.
Sam sprints past me, but I can't move when it feels like my world is burning with the cargo container. She wasn’t going to leave me. I was going to give her everything she ever wanted. The ash falls from the sky, making it look like it’s snowing just as it did when her ship blew but the heat coursing against my skin says otherwise.
I was going to make her want to stay.
Pressing my body weight on the structure beside me, I try to hold myself steady while I stumble towards the wreckage. I should've told her while she was in my reach with that stupid piece of toast. No matter how fast my head darts around, I can’t find a single body. The air is suffocating, filling my lungs with soot the closer I get.
“It’s not true if each breath you take feels like your lungs are filling with water…”
My little sirens' words replay in my mind. I never knew what to think when she said them, but now I don’t have to. I can feel what she meant. Moe runs out from a lining of old rubble, darting his head around until he’s staring at the destruction.
Walking to him I do the only thing I know to and wrap my arms around his shoulders as I pull him back from the ruin that surrounds us. The yell he lets out is everything I’m feeling inside: rage, anguish, confusion. My grip tightens around his shoulders as he fights against me.
“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.” He mumbles into my shirt, his hands balled into a fist barely grazing the skin at my waist. I understand what he’s saying more than I’ll ever admit. The only difference is that I will do it. Whoever is leading this chaos took something that was not only important to me, but my little brother and they will pay for it.
Sam comes tumbling out of the plane, pulling the respirator from his face and shaking his head. A large black cloud surrounds him, following the flames licking at crates that had tumbled off the ramp. Pulling Moe behind my body, I focus on the look on Sam’s face. Just get it over with, tell me what I already know. Burn the rest of my world down with that sodding plane, just say–
“She’s not in there. There were bodies, but all men.” He coughs out the words flailing his hand in front of his face to wave off the lingering smoke around us, sending my stunned state into sobriety. I haven’t changed my mind, I’ll still burn every fucking building I come across if I get the slightest hint that a Bay member has been in it. Do they want war? What we were doing was child’s play. Now I’ll show them what a fucking battle is.
Where are you, little siren?
I straighten my shoulders and head towards the building. It’s eerily quiet. If anyone was in there, then there’s no way to know. Even worse, we’ve lost the element of surprise.
Just as I approach the door, I hear something clatter to the floor. As badly as I want to rush in and tear apart every person hiding, I can’t. If she’s still breathing, then I can’t risk it. Grasping Moes’ shoulders, I urged him towards the way we came.
“Go back to base, please.” I can’t lose him too. I hope my siren is still waiting for me, but he’s all I have left besides her. He nods once with a determined look in his eyes and turns away.
Sam is already surveying the structure forcing my attention to his hand raising towards the side where a small entrance is, and I follow the motion with my body. They come onto my territory, fucked with my sirens head, and have the audacity to try and hide? Sam’s close behind, sliding a pistol into his hand as I pull mine from its holster and load it.
Unlike Bay, I don’t like watching things sink, but I’ll gladly watch them burn when she’s back in my hands.