Echoes of the Deep

The Man Beneath the Waves

Chapter 1

Episode 5

The Man Beneath the Waves.

The sun hung low over Crescent Bay Harbor as Naeven made his way toward his old high school. College classes had ended hours ago, yet instead of going straight home, his feet carried him somewhere he hadn't visited in years.

The school looked smaller than he remembered. Students had long since gone home, leaving the campus almost silent. Naeven walked past the athletic fields and around the back of the gymnasium until he reached the steep grassy slope that overlooked the ocean.

He paused. This was the place. Slowly, he climbed the hill. The wind became stronger with every step, carrying the scent of salt seawater. Finally, he reached the top. The overlook stretched out before him. Far below, jagged rocks disappeared beneath crashing waves. The endless ocean shimmered beneath the afternoon light.

Naeven stared quietly. Then the memories came flooding back. Rain, thunder, the roar of the sea and Vincent clinging desperately to the cliff's edge. His fingers white from gripping. Further below... Vivenne, crying, terrified, trying desperately not to lose her grip. "Pull us up!" Vincent's voice echoed inside Naeven's mind. "Please..."

"It all happened so fast..." Naeven whispered. He squeezed his eyes shut. He could still hear them. The panic, the screaming, the desperate cries for help. He had reached for Vincent. He had tried. But the cliff was soaked from rain. Vincent's fingers slipped. Then Vivenne's. And then... Silence.

Naeven slowly sat near the cliff's edge, letting his legs dangle over the overlook. The ocean stretched endlessly beneath him. "Back then..." He laughed bitterly. "I really did have a crush on Vivenne." It had been embarrassing obvious to him. He'd admired her from afar. She was beautiful. Confident. Popular. Everything he wasn't. He had written letters. Thrown most of them away. Worked up the courage to leave one in her locker, only for Vincent to find it.

Naeven smiled sadly, " I never even got to talk to you..." The truth was... He'd never approached Vivenne because he was terrified. Terrified she'd reject him, terrified she'd laugh, terrified she'd hurt his feelings. She probably wouldn't have become his friend anyway.

Not back then. She belonged among the popular students. He was.. Just Naeven. Vincent had been his bully. Vivenne had been his impossible crush. And then... They both disappeared from the world in a single afternoon. Naeven sighed. The twins hadn't been kind people. Everyone knew that. Vincent especially made high school miserable for him. Yet... He understood something now that he hadn't understood then.

Neglect.

His father rarely came home. Rarely spoke to him. Always buried himself inside the laboratory. Naeven knew what loneliness looked like. Sometimes... Children acted out because no one looked at them, no one listened, no one cared. It didn't excuse what Vincent had done. But... It made him wonder if things could have been different. "They were still just kids..." He whispered. "So was I." He stood and slowly walked back down the grassy slope.

Instead of heading toward town, he wandered farther along the shoreline until he reached a secluded cove surrounded by towering cliffs and large mountains in the distance. Nobody ever came here. The water lapped gently against the sand. Naeven crouched near the shore. The water looked peaceful. He reached down. His fingertips barely touched the surface. "Cold." Very cold.

He stared into the endless blue. Somewhere beneath all of this... Vincent and Vivenne were gone forever. No proper graves. No bodies. Only the ocean. Their final home. Their final resting place. "They belong to the sea now..." Naeven murmured. A sad smile crossed his face. "God... I'm going to cry over my own bully. Isn't that ironic."

Suddenly- Something grabbed him! A gray hand burst from the water and clamped around his wrist. Its fingers were unnaturally long, ending in sharp black claws. Naeven's eyes widened. "AH!" He yanked backward. The grip didn't loosen. Another gray hand shot upward. This one grabbed the front of his shirt. Before he could scream again, SPLASH!

The creature dragged him beneath the freezing water. Naeven's lungs instantly burned. The icy water stole every ounce of warmths from his body. He kicked wildly. Thrashed. Pulled against the creature's grip. Its claws dug painfully into his arm as it dragged him deeper into the darkness.

No..

No...

This can't be happening...

Is this really how I die?

His heartbeat thundered inside his ears. The surface grew farther away. His lungs screamed for air. Then- THUD! Something slammed into the creature. A horrifying screech echoed through the water. The sound was so sharp it made Naeven instinctively cover his ears.

The creature released him. Its grip vanished. Everything became chaos. The water churned violently. Naeven couldn't see anything. Darkness surrounded him. He desperately flailed upward. Or... At least he hoped it was upward. Instead... He slowly began sinking.

His vision blurred. Suddenly- strong hands wrapped around his waist. Powerful and steady. He was pulled effortlessly through the water.

Faster. Higher. Then... The surface exploded around him. Naeven burst into the open air, coughing violently as he gasped for breath. "Hah..!" "Hah..!" He wiped water from his eyes. "W-Who's there?!" Something surfaced beside him. A man. He appeared almost unreal. Long black hair floated around him like ink in the water. A deep crimson veil covered his face. His skin looked impossibly smooth, almost like polished marble. He remained completely silent.

His strong arm still supported Naeven so he wouldn't sink. "W-Who..." Naeven stared. "You... You saved me?" The stranger blinked. Then slowly pointed to himself. "Vaesryn..."

"Your name is Vaesyrn?" Naeven nodded quickly. "O-Okay... I'm Naeven, you just saved my life. Do you know that?"

The stranger tilted his head. Again he pointed toward himself. "Vaesryn." Then he pointed toward Naeven. "Naeven..."

"Yeah, that's me." Naeven blinked, "Can you understand me? What language do you speak?" No response. Only quiet curiosity. As though Vaesryn understood names... and little else. Then Naeven noticed something beside him. A long bone trident. Fresh black blood dripped slowly from its wicked points. His breath caught "W-What, did you? You killed that thing?"

Vaesryn simply looked at him. No answer. No expression. Only those piercing crimson eyes watching him from behind the veil. Naeven's curiosity slowly overcame his fear. "Why do you cover your face...?" Silence. Carefully, very carefully. He reached toward the crimson veil. His fingertips gently lifted the sheer fabric.

Beneath it. His breath caught. Perfect skin. Not a single blemish. No visible pores. Sharp features sculpted as though carved from stone. Brilliant crimson eyes unlike anything Naeven had ever seen. Beautiful. Almost impossibly so. Suddenly- "HISS!" Vaesryn jerked back with a sharp hiss. He caught Naeven's wrist before he could touch him again. Naeven froze. "S-Sorry!" Vaesyrn studied him for a long moment. Then, without warning, he guided Naeven through the shallow water until the young man could stand safely on the sand. Only then did he release him.

With one powerful flick of his tail, Vaesryn turned away. His massive black serpent tail broke the surface, sending seawater splashing into the air. Naeven's eyes grew impossibly wide. "A-a tail?" He stumbled several steps into the knee- deep water. "O-Oh my god..." He watched the figure disappear farther away. "HEY! WAIT! COME BACK! W-What are you?! A merman?" His voice echoed between cliffs.

No answer came. Only the endless sound of waves. Naeven looked around frantically. The secluded cove was empty. Towering cliffs enclosed the beach on every side. No roads. No houses. No witnesses. Had anyone else seen him? No. Just him standing alone dripping wet, trying to convince himself that the impossible had just happened.

Far beyond the mouth of the cove, hidden beneath the darkening sea, Vaesryn paused. For the first time in centuries a human had touched him. And somewhere in the abyss below... Something else had noticed.