Of the Sea

Chapter Fourteen

Finding a girl half dead in your dock after being attacked by mermaids makes it pretty hard to trick one's mind into believing nothing is wrong. Normalcy had evaded Astrid for the past two days, and she expected police to come knocking on her door, but all was eerily quiet. No investigators had come snooping around, and Reece's parents hadn't even dropped by to thank her for finding their daughter. Strangely, this pleased Astrid. The less attention she got on the subject, the better she felt.

Especially since Morgan had agreed to stick around Bedford until the two could figure out what to do about the current circumstances. But that was the thing; how do you stop a force that could be anywhere at anytime? Astrid had almost completely stopped eating, and the past two nights she laid awake restlessly. Morgan had been restless as well, for Astrid could hear him late into the night making those wailing noises. Of all things, he was the only one that seemed normal to have around. Even Buoy had been acting strange, retiring out behind the garage with Goose.

Astrid had spent the past few days pacing her house, eager find out what was going on in town, what people might be saying about the case. She was afraid if she went poking around, people might become suspicious. She didn't even dare going down to the dock to see Morgan, worried someone might drop by and catch her down there. She had gotten into the habit of going from window to window, anxiously waiting for something to happen.

Eventually someone did come to her door. She half expected Celine West, or the police, or maybe even child services to question her about her missing father, but it was none of the above. She was glad to see that it was only Dupree.

"Hey," Astrid greeted a little less than friendly, almost relieved to see another living being.

Dupree looked rather uncomfortable, pinching her knuckles as she forced a smile. "Hey."

Whether from her lack of sleep or simple lack of social interaction for the past few days, Astrid quite inappropriately blurted, "Someone else missing?"

Dupree chuckled, but shook her head. "No, I just came by to see if you wanted to go see Reece today?"

"Um..." No excuse to oppose came to Astrid. In fact, she knew it was probably best to get out of the house for awhile. "Yeah, sure." She grabbed her sandals and pulled her hair back in a last-ditch effort to look halfway decent.

All along Astrid knew that Dupree could drive, but she was still surprised to see her little Nissan sitting in the driveway. Teens prefered to walk around her little town, afraid they'd miss any action if they drove, but a trip to the hospital was a direct responsibility.

There was an awkwardness that hung in the air when they set off down the road, almost like another presence in the car. Astrid waited for Dupree to fill the void with talk of Reece and how she was doing, or ask about how her day was going, or even talk about the stormy weather that was coming in, but Astrid knew from Dupree's steadfast gaze on the road that she was trying to figure a way to word a difficult question. Astrid had seen her do this in class.

When Dupree remained quiet a nagging feeling began to grow in Astrid's chest. Anxiety spread through her stomach and she wanted to spill the truth that she had bottled up inside her.

"Dupree-"

"We need to-"

They both paused, waiting for the other to speak.

"You first," Astrid offered.

Dupree sighed. "Reece hasn't been doing well, mentally. She keeps trying to tell us this...this...wild story of what happened to her. She hasn't slept at all, Astrid and I'm beginning to worry." Dupree looked over at her, "She's been asking for you."