Restless Waves

Chapter 4

The boat rocked dangerously when one of the creatures dragged Bo from the boat and under the waves alarmingly fast. Rowan shoved his back to the boat's side, mainly because his mother forced herself in front of him.

All Rowan could hear over and over was Bo's scream before the water silenced him. He didn't resurface, and the panic set in. Rowan could die just as quickly.

Mandy had been trained for an ambush, and the boat was designed to keep her and her team alive. She made eye contact with Wez, knowing Bo was long gone. With a single nod to the head, Wez pressed a button, and over thirty spears cut through the water from underneath, impaling the creatures who surrounded them. While they cried in agony, Mandy threw herself across the floor and turned the engine back on.

The boat roared into action, but the injury free Thalassic Mortals acted fast. The boat had barely moved a foot before a webbed hand latched onto Mandy's arm and nails dug into her wrist. Mandy cried in pain and lifted her boot.

Rowan looked away when she kicked the Thalassic being in the head. A freakish noise escaped the creature who looked just like a human man, and he let go of Mandy and fell into the water.

"That duffel bag!" Mandy screeched, and Wez kicked it to her. Rowan watched in shock as his mother's veins started turning black. She had been poisoned and only had thirty seconds until it paralysed her. Mandy always carried the cure to the sea creatures poison in liquid form so that she could inject it into her bloodstream.

Rowan knew what would happen to his mother, so he quickly caught her and moved her to the wet floor before she fell out of the boat. The poison would paralyse her anyway, but the liquid she had injected into her wrist would stop it from killing her, and she would be able to move again in a few hours.

"ROWAN!" Wez yelled while the eighteen-year-old rested his mother's head on a bag. Rowan looked up as Wez threw his mother's spear device at him. Rowan caught it before it could hit him in the face, and he turned to where Wez was pointing.

Two Thalassic Mortals chased the boat. They could swim faster than the engine and Rowan didn't doubt that they were taunting them.

"Shoot!" Wez yelled, swerving the boat, hoping to catch one of the creatures in the propeller underneath. "Rowan, shoot! Now!"

Rowan lifted the device and aimed it the way he had been trained. He pointed it at the creature in the water. He could only see one now and hoped the other one had given up. Rowan didn't want to shoot, but if he didn't, the creature would most likely kill him, and they had a better chance of survival if he could just pull the trigger.

"Now!" Wez screamed, so Rowan did. The spear shot from the device and sliced through the water, straight into the creature's tail. It screeched in such a high-pitched noise that Rowan dropped the weapon to cover his ears. That's when the other creature made their appearance.

Rowan could barely take a breath until hands latched onto his thighs and dug their nails in through Rowan's wellington boot. He flinched and punched the Thalassic Mortal in the face. The creature almost fell and dragged Rowan with him, but the creature latched onto the side of the boat instead of his leg.

Rowan acted fast and picked up his mother's spear device and quickly slotted another spear into place. He lifted it and aimed for the supernatural creature staring back at him. The Thalassic Mortal looked his age. Everything about him was human until his waist, and his skin blended perfectly into beautiful scales that changed colour when the light hit them. His tail curled around the boat, and Rowan was half mesmerised and half terrified.

The spear pointed at the creature's head, and Wez screamed at him to pull the trigger. Rowan's mother lay paralysed on the floor, but if she could move, she would have killed the Thalassic Mortal in an instant. Rowan wasn't his mother.

"Go!" Rowan shouted with as much power as he could. "Leave us alone, or I will shoot this thing!" He had to yell over the noise of the engine, but the Thalassic Mortal heard him because he smiled, showing his sharp teeth. "I mean it!" Rowan yelled.

Either the Thalassic Mortal didn't believe him, or he didn't care because he lunged for Rowan, and Rowan was forced to pull the trigger.

The creature moved a few inches to the left in time to let the spear skin his arm and not impale his head. Rowan almost stepped on his mother while fumbling around with another spear. The Thalassic Mortal was given enough time to grab the human again.

This time, the creature's nails dug into Rowan's skin, poisoning him. Rowan cried out and tried to kick him as his mother had done, but it was too late. The Sea Mortal wrapped an arm around Rowan's boot and uncoiled his tail from the side of the boat, pulling Rowan into the water.

"Rowan!" Wez yelled and spun the light around, frantically searching the water. He couldn't hear anything other than the engine and saw nothing but ripples from the boat. It happened so fast. The eighteen-year-old was gone, just like Bo. "I'm sorry Mandy. I'm sorry," he breathed, and instead of turning the boat around again, he moved back towards the cliffs and to the shore. "I'm so sorry."

All Mandy could do was scream for her son who had been dragged away under the waves.