Now You See Me

Eighteen: Communication Breakdown

I was only dimly aware that I wasn't where I'd been when I fell asleep.

I just hoped this wasn't going to become a habit.

"Damien?" someone said, and their voice echoed and warped as if I was listening through water; which, I realised with a small jolt, I was. "Damien, can you hear me?"

My eyes snapped open and bubbles streamed past my face as my gills opened wide. I sat up, my head breaking the surface so suddenly I sent water flying everywhere. Leia, who'd been knelt by the tub, scooted back but received a fair dousing anyway. To her credit, she managed to keep a hold of her temper.

Courtney was also present, worrying her lip as she leant on the sink. As I watched, the skin split and bled, leaving a thin trail of red down her chin. Leia handed her a few squares of loo roll without looking away from me and approached the tub again.

"You scared us for a minute there, sailor," she said, eyes locking on my chest as it began to heave in the throes of hyperventilation. My eyes burned with unshed tears, and I ran a hand through my hair, only to bark my scalp with my own claws.

"What happened?" asked Courtney. "Was it another dream like the last one?"

"It was real this time." I watched the water lap around my waist and refract the light shimmering off my scales. I ran a hand along them. Whoever had given them to me had saved my life, but how could I be any more deserving of it than Chris? It was a backhanded miracle that I had survived, but I was starting to wonder whether things would have been easier if I hadn't.

"What was it about?" The tub creaked as Leia sat on the edge, bringing her legs up to tuck underneath her and using her hands to keep from slipping off. Her green eyes glowed in the dim light getting into the room through the crack in the door, but they turned flat again as Courtney stood and switched on the shaving light. The piercing sensation still lingered.

"It was before the boat sank," I replied, ignoring Courtney's sharp intake of breath. "It ended as the announcement came on over the speaker system." I looked up, and met Leia's intense stare. "I knew it was going to happen before they told us. There was a girl... Her picture..." I trailed off, looking away, eyes unfocused as I tried to put the pieces together in my head. "The writing...it kept changing. Crayon. It was in crayon. It was red." I stared up at Courtney, who was beginning to get alarmed. "The girl at the diner left a red crayon on my seat. She knew. She was staring like she knew, she must have done..."

"Woah, woah, slow up... The writing changed?" Leia said. "One thing at a time, let's work through this logically. What do you mean it changed?"

"Whenever I turned the paper over and flicked it back again, the message was different."

"Right." Leia rested her chin on her clenched fist and stuck her bare foot in the bathwater. I was too shaken up to tell her it was uncomfortable.

"What did it say?" asked Courtney, when the sorceress didn't speak for a long moment.

"It told me we were going to drown, that I was going to lose Chris. Then there was a countdown to the announcement."

Leia started to trace circles in the water with her toe. "And the picture? What was it?"

"Me and Chris," I murmured. "Even though the girl had never seen Chris, let alone us together. He was in the men's room when she drew it."

A shot of alarm crossed Leia's face that she quickly tried to cover up, but not before I'd seen it. I hung my head; rings of ripples expanded from the tears that fell to the water.