Lull of the Sea

Chapter Nine: Felix

I groaned and leaned against the brick wall in my bedroom. Why didn’t I just give in? Why did I have to fear something I knew was meant for me? I mean, it could still work even if I was called to the warm sand and the sun, and she was called by the sea and the salt. We were opposites but also so much the same. Outcasts and disregarded by our families. Both of us had lost something we loved. It would be tough, but I know we can find a way to be together. I just have to stop being a coward and dwelling on the negative outcomes.

Little did she know that if I had stayed one more moment with her, my mark would be on her forever. I couldn’t risk it if she also didn’t want to be mine forever. She had to want it as much as I do. I sighed, a deep desire burning within my chest cavity. When we fall in love, we fall hard, and once we have s*x, she will be mine in every sense of the word. I couldn’t, well, wouldn’t just do that without her knowledge. Or her consent.

I might be animalistic, but I wasn’t a full-blown monster, not like what the fishermen believed my kind to be. Yes, sometimes we lulled the unsuspecting into the sea, drowning them, making them one of us. But I wasn’t like that. I wasn’t like my family… not like my father. Memories started to flood my mind. Back to the day when I first saw Ceria, when we were both just young kids.

“Father, what are we doing so close to the humans?”

“You’ll see, son. I’m teaching you something important. Something that will make you stronger than you’ve ever been before. The thrill of the hunt will surely come out once you see me hunting in action.”

That’s when I saw the most beautiful human I’d ever seen before. She was my age. My father sang out, and her eyes fluttered towards the noise only she could hear. He was calling out to her! I panicked as she started to wade out towards the sound, the “tide” pulling her under, to drown her. I started to swim towards her, but my father grabbed me.

“This is in our nature, Felix!”

Luckily, that was enough to stop the lulling of the sea. She screamed a high-pitched wail. Her mother, not even taking a second to think, rushed into the sea, but my father sang out again. The girl’s mother pushed her towards the shoreline. Luckily, the girl made it back to shore, sputtering and coughing up salt water on the warm sand. Her mother was pulled under. My father smirked. He’d won, but I was more defiant than ever.

My head pounded as I gripped my temples, those memories rushing back like a tsunami. She was going to be mine, but she could never know that my father was her mother’s killer, not the unforgiving sea. Is that why I couldn’t finish what I had started with her? I was scared she’d reach into my mind and pull out all the monstrous things I’d witnessed, call me a monster, and send the fishermen after me.

I knew it was a huge possibility; there was one in town, the man with the red hair. He was the one who was there six years ago… on that damned ship that killed my sister. She was like me to a point. She was uninterested in harming innocent humans, but she was a threatening monster to the fishermen, killing them by lulling them into the icy water. She had no remorse for them, no concern. That’s where we were different. I didn’t even want to go anywhere near them. I wasn’t a fighter. No, I was a weakling. A coward. I was useless in battle.

However, I was done being the weak one; if he did try to kill me, he’d be going down first. I wasn’t losing my chance to be with Ceria because the fishermen thought I was a monster. That I was the enemy. If they wanted a fight to the death, then so be it. I slammed my hand down onto the nightstand, and it snapped in two. I would become the monster they thought I was if it meant I could stay with Ceria.

I walked over to the open window; the smell of saltwater and blood still lingered in the air. He was close, so very close. I had to be ready—after all, this was life or death, love or heartbreak. I wasn’t going to be the loser this time. No, I was going to be the champion. Watch me, Father. I will be that warrior you said I would become, but only if they strike first and only for the sake of love.