Chapter Fourteen #2
When I stepped out, I looked around at the stretched-out fields that were already marked for parking.
Signs were labeled for the different schools to arrive.
I flipped my locs back before hurrying to walk alongside Silas as I linked my arms with his.
The dome looked like a glass ball situated in between thick trees swaying gently in the wind.
There were stadium lights on from inside and I could hear shouting and hammering when a loud booming sound went off.
We kept walking along the path that was paved for spectators until we walked through the gates that said tickets.
The floating banners and colors for Drew Collins decorated the otherwise dark hallway leading to a direct path of the lit arena.
“You designed this?”
“For the most part,” he said as he looked up, staring at every detail.
We drew closer to the opening of the arena until my mouth dropped at the sheer size of the place.
The maroon seats warped around in a circle, sitting up so high with the dome made up of glass that showed the night sky from outside.
Just below was a large field made up of people hammering away at what looked like a large sandbox.
When we got closer, it was four squares made up of different terrain.
One square was filled with short blades of green grass freshly cut.
Maybe one or two baby trees no taller than my hip.
Another square was filled with sand, the first box I noticed and the other two were water and concrete.
The few people that were here working on it simply nodded at Silas in greeting before going back to work.
“Is this it? The big games? They’re going to fight in one of these little squares?” I asked as we came up on the four-square field. “The water looks no higher than my ankle?”
“You said you wanted to be in the water,” he said. “Go ahead then.”
I looked at him before pulling away from his body and stepping up towards the square filled with water no deeper than a basic puddle. The water rippled and waved constantly as I looked back at Silas. He was already talking to someone else who was showing him something.
“Can I just step in it?!” I shouted back, kicking my shoes off.
“You a siren right?” A deep voice let out as I turned around. The man with the chubby cheeks wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with a hammer in his hand, stared tiredly at me. More or less, I nodded to being a siren. I wiggled my toes over the water.
“This is like a puddle, anybody can get in this,” I retorted before lowering my foot in.
As soon as I saw the water reach up like it wanted to grab my foot, I could hear Silas call my name just as my body got pulled into the water like a suction cup.
I gasped as the water rushed over my head with bubbles surrounding me as the current suddenly carried my body back up.
I gasped for air and picked my head up over the water as I looked around.
“What the fuck?” I coughed. Pinching my nose and wiping my face, I looked around for any sign of life, but it was cloudy, and the water stretched like the ocean.
I dunked back into the water and looked around as I exhaled, letting bubbles shoot out of my nose and mouth.
It was no sign of anything, but I began swimming down, pushing past the current as my body waved and flowed.
When it began to get darker, I suddenly turned back around and stared before screaming out.
Bubbles scattered from my mouth, capturing my screams until I heard it. My name.
“Asha?!”
I whipped around, knowing that voice and it wasn’t my man. He only screams my name when I get him on the brink of sexual destruction, and this wasn’t it. I knew that damn voice though.
“Asha?!”
I looked up where the surface was nothing but a distant swim until turning around and seeing the cascading swirls of white hair floating around me.
“Maggie?” I let out. I couldn’t see her face, but I could see the smile in between the white strands. I screamed out her name as the bubbles went flying, distorting what was only a mere illusion of Maggie. The white hair dissolved into the water like a tablet, but I could still hear her.
“I’m coming back Asha. Tell them we’re coming back and we’re okay. Let him know I’m okay…”
I felt a large arm wrapped around my stomach and jerked me forward as I screamed.
I looked up seeing Silas’s body shooting towards the surface as his pointed ears slunk back against his thick locs that grew long down his back, and the scales on his skin hardened.
My scars opened and closed, breathing in the water in every part of my body until we reached the surface.
Silas was the first to pull himself up out of the water with everyone standing around watching.
His thighs were thick with scales and veins covering his legs as he flipped his shrinking locs back until they were comfortable sitting against his shoulders. He turned around to help me up.
“I didn’t think you’d actually get in,” he said, wiping his face down with his hand. “You good?”
“Baeeee?” I hissed with a low whisper. Looking around, I mean mugged anyone that dared to stare at me before turning back to him. I cupped the side of his face, brought his head close to my lips, and whispered in his ear. “I heard Maggie…and I think…I think I saw her.”
Looking back at him, he stared at me with a slight jump of his brows. He couldn’t pretend to be interested if he tried.
“You sure? That pool is meant to fuck with your head a little,” he said. Looking back at everyone, I leaned in close to him again.
“It was her,” I stated. “I’m sure of it.”
Silas rubbing his hand against his ear, getting the rest of the water out when he cut me a look.
“Alright so what are you gonna do about it then?”
The race back to the grounds just before sunrise felt like a race against life and death.
I was sure that was really Maggie trying to communicate with me.
I wasn’t going to even question how I was the only one that can see or hear her.
Not right now. I needed to get the message to Namir but the first person or thing I ran into was Quan.
He was sitting at our usual spot underneath the tree when I quickly ran up to him.
He looked up, resting on his bent front paws as he silently hissed at me.
“Where the hell is everybody?!” He shouted before standing up with an arching stretch of his back. “I come back and see–––”
“Come back from where?” I asked. “Where are you coming from this time because as far as I know? You’ve been MIA.”
“I’ve been with Namir.”
“I’m sure,” I nodded before looking around. “Is he back here yet?”
“What? You’re gonna try and sleep with him behind Maggie’s back now?” He asked.
I stared at Quan with my mind briefly going to kicking him in the side and watching his body fling in the air like a football through a goal post. Instead of going off like I really wanted to, I knew my man was coming up behind me, so I chose peace.
Not everything needs to be a fight but the way I could yank him by the tail and toss him like trash? He wasn’t worth it though.
“Don’t ever disrespect me or Maggie like that again,” I said before turning to walk off. “I’ll tell him.”
“Wait a minute?!” Quan yelled after me. “Tell him what, Asha?!”