Chapter 19
Later that night, we gathered around the TV watching the Weather Channel while Hurricane Faye churned closer and closer out in the Atlantic. Classes had been cancelled for Monday since the eye was supposed to make landfall mid-morning. The weather was forecasted to go downhill swiftly overnight as Faye approached. According to Carmen, the shield around campus kept the storm surge out, but the full force of the wind and rain would still hit us. The Weather Channel had meteorologists stationed up and down the coast, but not on Bald Head. We’d have a front row seat anyway, so we didn’t need to watch a meteorologist getting blown around on television to know what was going on outside. I had to admit, I was a little bit giddy, having never been through a hurricane before. Dee had called an hour ago worried out of her mind. I couldn’t explain the shield around campus, but I told her there was nothing to worry about, that the school had been here for centuries and we’d be fine. I thought I calmed her down, but I was still expecting several more hysterical calls tomorrow.
“What about this one?” Phoebe skipped out of her room. She’d been trying on dresses all night, parading around the living room for our opinions. Ian had, in fact, asked her to the Ball and after spending the entire day with him, she announced she was no longer creeped out by him. Finn still hasn’t asked me and I wasn’t real optimistic that he was planning to. Especially since he’d never been to one. But maybe that’s because he had never had someone he wanted to ask. Who am I kidding, there’s no way he’s gone through school without a girlfriend. Instead of picturing Finn with another girl, which inadvertently made my blood pressure rise, I tried to concentrate on Phoebe’s newest dress. It wasn’t my style, but somehow it worked for her. It was bright pink, strapless, and very short. From the waistline, it puffed out in several layers giving it a very 80’s look.
“Maybe if you were Cindy Lauper,” Carmen wrinkled her nose at it. Willow smacked her arm and gave her a look. Carmen shrugged her shoulders innocently, “What? She said to be honest.”
“She’s right, it’s a little much. Maybe something longer wou ld be better...” Phoebe thought out loud and then disappeared back into her bedroom.
“Did you guys hear that Keto was planning to visit Lorelei, but had to wait because of the hurricane?” Willow asked.
“Keto is who the Sirens are descended from, right?” I said, proud of myself for remembering something.
“Yep, and she’s the leader of the Nerieds now. And therefore the leader of both the Tydes and Sirens. So she’s kind of a big deal.” Carmen told me.
“We’re doing a paper on Thetis and Kymo in History and one of the girls said that Thetis used to be the leader? What happened to her?”
“Willow, you want to take that one?” Carmen deflected. Willow looked up from her laptop.
“Well, Thetis could never get the Sirens and Tydes to stop warring with each other and it finally got to be too much for her, among other things. So, she actually ended her own life. Keto took over after that because she was the second strongest Neried, and Thetis’s only child had been Achilles, who was killed forever ago in the Trojan War.”
I read about Achilles in 9th grade, but the only thing I remembered was that his mother had dipped him in the River Styx in order to make him immortal, by holding on to his heel. Therefore, his heel was the only part of him left unprotected. That very heel is how he was killed, which is where the term Achilles Heel came from. I definitely didn’t think there was any truth behind it. Boy was I wrong.
“If Achilles’s mom was Thetis, why wasn’t he automatically immortal?” I asked Willow.
“His father was human. I can’t remember his name though.”
“So, how did Thetis kill herself if she was immortal?”
“There are ways,” she answered cryptically.
“I heard when Keto visited the House of Eudora in England, she was magnificent. She held a huge party and even talked to the students. That’s almost unheard of,” Phoebe said from her bedroom. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
“Isn’t she known for being deceitful though?” I asked, “That’s what Kira said.”
“That was just her reputation because of things that happened a long time ago. I think she’s a great leader,” Phoebe gushed, as she gave up trying on dresses and joined us.
“I don’t like it. The Goddess of sea monsters (aka Sirens) should never be the leader of the Tydes. It’s just not right if you ask me.” Carmen crossed her arm and glowered at Phoebe. “Our new Maven’s a Siren, too. I don’t trust her one bit.”
“Priscilla?” I asked.
“Yep. She became Maven a year ago after Vanora left. She was transferred to another school.
In Australia maybe? Something like that.” Carmen shrugged.
“Was Vanora a Siren too?
“She was a Tyde. I don’t know why they transferred her. Everyone loved her here because she actually cared about us. She was very involved with everything. Unlike Priscilla. She’s always MIA.” Willow explained to me.
“Milking Innocent Animals?” Carmen sneered. Phoebe snorted and I almost spit out my Mountain Dew.
“No! Missing In Action!” Willow coughed, choking on her own laughter. We laughed so hard we started crying, and then spent the next hour coming up with everything else M.I.A. could possibly stand for.
After the giggles subsided, I followed Willow into the kitchen to make cookies. I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and noticed that my trace was shimmering and changing colors more than usual. That was the last thing I remembered before it happened. The world tilted and everything went black.
I was standing on a long boardwalk facing the ocean. The first thing I noticed was the all consuming darkness. The second thing I noticed was lightning flashing. From its brief sparks of light, I could see the turbulent waves, mere feet from the boardwalk. A sign in the sand nearby was already half way under water. The blades of grass on the dunes were completely bent over in the wind and I could tell it was raining sideways, but I didn’t feel either of them. A piece of bright orange tape caught my eye, so I kneeled down to get a closer look. There were four stakes connected by the orange tape, creating a square. I could see writing on the tape and I tried to make out what it said. It read
‘Bald Head Island Conservancy’. Something was being protected. I pushed the sand aside within the square, finding small oval eggs. I picked one up and held it in my hand. Sea turtles. These were their nests. The water was getting higher by the minute and would inevitably swallow up the eggs, crushing them in the surf. There were more nests to my right. More eggs. I squinted down the beach hoping to see some sign of civilization or help, but the only lights were far down the beach. I didn’t have time to get help. I had to move them. Jumping down off the boardwalk, I found a spot between two large dunes, and dug a wide hole big enough for all of the eggs. I pulled myself back up onto the boardwalk and just in time to see a colossal wave engulf the entire boardwalk, taking the eggs and orange tape below with it. “NO!” I yelled and jumped into the water. I tried to grab the eggs I saw before they were stolen by the sea, but they were so slippery I couldn’t hold on to them. One by one they were battered and smashed, then drug out into the ocean. “NO!” I yelled. “Don’t take them!” My heart broke over and over as if my own children were being carried out into the darkness, never to be seen again. All those turtles. All those babies…