Summer's Children

19. Returning Home

Hellooo everyone.

So As you can see, I haven't updated in a month, and their is a reason for that.

My family is falling apart and it's too embarrassing to say the whole thing. And you shouldn't be hearing all of my problems anywayyyy so no excuses for such a late chapter!

This chapter is horrible because I felt bad for it being so late so I kind of hurried on it....but, here it is!

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Ch.19 Returning Home

"So, You aren't just my friend, you're my cousin."

"Basically," Ashley says putting a black gel from an old rusted jar onto her side where the mirror cut her.

"What is that?" I ask.

"It's made of ink from squid, jellyfish, fish scales, other things you wouldn't know. It helps heal cuts faster," she replies closing the lid and putting it back in her small net/bag.

I adjust my hood as I lock arms with Ashley to make our way out the city.

Turning around, I face the birth home of my mom (for hopefully not the last time).  Looking forward, the whirlpool starts to slowly swirl, and my land home appears.

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Bubbles and water swirl around me, and as I breathe in the water I cough from the change of ocean salt to pool chlorine. I come up from the water and see Ashley swimming to the shallow.  Swimming over to her, she slowly makes it to the steps and reaches for her bag.

She makes helpless attempts at reaching for her net, so I grab it for her and ask what to look for.

"Just hand it to me," she says breathing slowly.

I put the bag in her hand as she searches and pulls out a small syringe filled with dark red liquid. She squeezes not even a teaspoon into her mouth, squinting her eyes shut and swallowing slowly. She keeps her eyes shut  as the water calms down.

"Ashley?" I worriedly ask. She opens her eyes with a sudden burst and takes in a sharp breath of air. Her eyes are bright red, and just as soon as she takes a breath, they slowly turn back to their normal color.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"I'm fine. It's just that the poison I just took damages our mind, but helps with sustaining my power," she replies slowly squirming out the pool.

I sit on the step she sat on as I heat her tail with my palm. "What do you mean poison? What does it contain?"

"It's a mix between shark blood, mermaid blood, and a poisonous ink. The blood is what made my eyes red and partially helps sustain stability, while the ink helps with controlling my inherited power, but also damages our way of thinking. It also helps change back my eye color to my natural color."

"Damages our way of thinking?"

"Pepper, this medicine isn't made easily. It's for the rare inherited power I have. It's going to have severe side effects as I age on land. It just means that it's going to be harder to control me on a full moon."

"Oh," I say as she helps me out the pool like a beached whale.  I start drying my tail off as Ashley walks up to the back door.

"Do you think your dad is home?" She asks peeking through the window. I walk up to her and join in on stalking my own home. All the lights are off in the house, so I shrug and go back down the steps to get the key underneath the bottom step. Making my way back up the porch, I unlock the back door and walk in.

"Well, no one is here," I say walking down the hall and into the kitchen. Ashley follows trailing her hand on the wall. I turn on the kitchen light and sit down.

She walks over to the fridge and says, "Want something to eat?"

"Your asking me if I want to eat something out of my own fridge- no, and shouldn't we be going to Claire and Skyler's soon?"

"Nope," she says biting into an apple. I cocked my head to the side and watch her.

"What?" I finally say as she keeps eating. She lifts her finger to the ceiling as if on cue, the lights go off and thunder shakes the house. 

"I forgot to mention everytime you travel through the water portal, a storm follows," she says walking into the living room and sitting down on the couch.

"Great. Well shouldn't we atleast call them and tell them that we are back?"

"How do you suggest we do that, hotshot, since the power is off?"

"Well..." I said, looking around. Just as I was about to say something, Marie walks in.

"Where have you been for the past week?!" Marie scolds holding a flash light.

"Week? No, I've been gone for two, three days," I reply crossing my arms.

" Dad said you sneaked out on the roof and left. That was 3 days ago. How in hell did you get off the roof?"

"Why do you want to know?" I ask her.

"For one, you never sneak out," she pauses and looks at me sincerely (almost making me believe her),"and two, I need to know so I can sneak out," she pleads.

"No way," I strictly say.

She squints her eyes at me evil-like and says, "Whatever your hiding, I will figure it out sooner or later." Hearing a ringtone, Marie pulls out her phone and walks away.

"Wait!" Ashley screams jumping across the couch up to Marie.

Shocked Marie stares at her and says, "Uhm...and who are you?"

"No time for questions, I need to borrow this-" Ashley grabs her phone and runs up the stairs to my room.

"Hey!" Marie screams and runs after her. The door slams in her face and Marie slowly turns to me, face red.

"Get my phone back. NOW." She says slowly. I walk up the stairs laughing at the whole thing. Might as well..

As I go to my bedroom door, it opens and Ashley walks out cheesing, holding the phone out to Marie. "Thanks," she says bubbly.

Yanking the phone out of Ashley's hands, Marie stomps to her room in the darkness and slams the door. I look over to Ashley as she walks back in my room.

"So, did you get in touch with Claire or Skyler?" I say following her.

"Claire has been holding up at Skylers, so of course she didn't answer her phone but Skyler did," Ashley says not turning around.

"Thank goodness you got a hold on them. Did they...?"

Ashley turns to me and says, "Claire did today."

I suck in my breath, and wait for her to continue, but she never does. "What about Skyler?" I say.

Ashley shakes her head no.

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Uh oh!

Will Skyler turn?

All goes down in chapter TWENTY.

Again, thanks for reading, following me, commenting, and voting! Without all of your help, I wouldn't be no where near close to almost 9000 reads!

I love you all and thank you for your support. I will hopefully have chapter 20 out by next week or this week.