Blood Runs Thicker than Water (The Shape of Water Fanfic)

Relocation

 I barely knew what to do, or think. Rick was coming? Torren wanted to help me? My mind could hardly let all of these rapid pieces fall so quickly into place.

Josie had run out of her house by now, alerted by the commotion.

"What?" She cried in confusion. "Rick's coming? What do you mean?"

"There's no time to explain to you," Torren insisted. "Just get in the truck. You too, Storm. We need to leave. Now."

"I don't even know you!" I retorted, backing into the side of the pool. "You could be leading me right to him, for all I know."

"For all you know," he said, chuckling. "Well, turns out you don't know much from your perspective, Storm. You have to trust me. Think about it. If I am telling the truth, and Rick is coming, you're going to confront him pretty soon. If I'm untrustworthy and I lead you to him, that outcome is the same as if you stayed here. If you just trust me, you won't meet him."

I spotted several flaws in his logic, but I understood at what he was getting at. However, there was one major setback with this getaway. Alpheus.

As if on cue, he rose from the water to see what all of the commotion was about, his gills fluttering in confusion. Torren's jaw dropped at the sight of him.

"Yeah, that's a setback," he said quietly, his face going pale. He shook his head. "I have a thousand questions for you two, but I am afraid there's no time to ask them now. Grab some wet towels and put him in the back of the trunk. We're not going far, he'll be fine."

I had no choice but to trust him. I grabbed the towels we used to transport Alpheus here and explained everything as fast as I could to him. His fiery yellow eyes were wide with fear and confusion, but I gripped his talon in comfort and led him out of the pool. He laid down in the back of Torren's truck and I wrapped the wet towels around his skin.

"I'm sitting back here with him," I told Torren.

He opened his mouth to argue, but then thought better of it and hopped in the front seat. Josie seated herself in the passenger seat, and then with a roar and a cloud of dust, we were off to who-knows-where.

Wind whistled past my head in the open back of the truck. I spent my focus wetting Alpheus' gills with the towels, which were fanning open a little too wide for me not to be concerned. His shapely lips were open wide in gasping for breath, and worry pricked at my heart.

"I know this is crazy," I told him through the roaring of the rushing breeze. "But that's what you signed up for being siblings with me. Trust me, it's not exactly a cup of tea for me either."

I was sure he didn't understand my expressions, but he laid down his head on my lap and heaved a deep sigh. It could've only been fifteen minutes and already his brilliant scales were fading into a shade of grey. I gritted my teeth. If Torren didn't hurry up I would crawl through the back window of the truck and pull over myself.

Thankfully, the bustling of busy life slowed around us, and soon we were alone on a remote road. Torren pulled over at the side of a random pond, and then helped me assist Alpheus to the water's edge. He wasn't as fatigued as last time, and took to the water quickly, submerging himself into the murky depths.

I examined my surroundings. We were at the side of a remote pond, in the middle of marshlands. I assumed we were at a nature park of some kind. At least Torren knew where to go.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Josie exclaimed as she clambered out of Torren's truck.

"I'd like to know myself what that fish-man was doing in your pool," Torren answered stubbornly. "When I decided to rescue a human girl with scales on her back, I was not asking for an entirely different species to be part of the equation. This was already crazy enough."

Uncalled-for irritation rose within my fiery heart. It wasn't like I had asked for this life! "I didn't exactly ask to be a freak at birth, despite your assumptions," I snapped at both of them. "Also," I said, directing this at Torren, "that 'fish-man' is my brother, Alpheus."

He breathed out heavily, running a hand through his sweaty blond hair. "I don't understand any of this," he said, sounding defeated. "All I wanted to do was be good for once and help people out. This isn't easy for me. Rick was my friend, or I guess he still thinks I'm his friend. He doesn't know I'm betraying him. But when I heard his crazy schemes, my moral compass pointed out to me that it wasn't exactly something to model myself after."

"Oh, please, don't make yourself sound like the victim here," I groaned. "I'm the one being hunted down like a mutant."

"Your life isn't the only one being changed, Storm!" Josie yelled out of nowhere. "Believe it or not, but we're real people too. I know it's all really dramatic for you and everything, but it's not a piece of cake for Torren and I either! I didn't exactly ask for you to bring Alpheus and this entire situation to my home!"

Torren and I blinked at her in surprise. Josie never voiced her opinion. She looked at both of us, and blushed. "Just my opinion."

The surprise was gone. Irritation and annoyance took its place. Yes, I didn't have any right to be more angry than them, and Josie had made valid points. But the truth of those things just made me angry. Angry at myself, angry at my life, angry at whoever the heck my parents were, that they decided to have freak children. Didn't they stop to think how wrecked our lives would be?

"You know what? Whatever." I threw my hands up in the air like I was thirteen and rolled my eyes, and then proceeded to stomp away into the bushes, huffing and puffing like the mature twenty-year old I am.

They didn't pursue me, which made me even more irritated. I growled at nothing, and sat down in the mud at the pond's edge, not caring whether my clothes were muddy or not.

Alpheus' eyes peered at me, just breaking the water's surface. "Go away," I hissed at him.

Hurt flashed in those eyes, and they sank back into the water. Guilt struck deep. He was probably a thousand times more confused and scared than I was, and yet his only friend and family member was yelling at him.

"I'm sorry," I said brokenly. "I'm really scared, bud. I'm not mad at you, just myself."

It seems he heard me, as he broke the surface again. This time he swam all the way over to the marshy bank, until he was on his belly and looking up at me, near my legs. He placed what was probably meant to be a comforting webbed hand on my calf, and rested his cheek on my ankle. He looked up at me with mournful eyes, and I wanted to cry for getting him into this position.

"Oh, Alpheus, you're being so brave," I told him, my voice cracking. I lowered myself into the water, so that we were at eye contact. He was much taller than me, but with him now sitting on his knees, I could easily kiss his forehead like I did now. "I'm so glad we found each other."

He wrapped his scaled arms around me and pulled me into his powerful chest. I rested my chin on his shoulder and smiled as his gills tickled the tip of my nose. He stroked my hair with the surprising gentleness of a lover, weaving the brown hairs through his talons. His scales sparkled with bioluminescence, meaning he was quite happy.

That's when I felt a powerful stinging prick my shoulder, and I gasped, feeling my back. I pulled out an object, and just as I saw that it was a dart, my vision started to spot.

I lost consciousness to the ferocious roaring of Alpheus, and gunshots to match.