Forsaken

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…

“Stasia! Stasia, wake up!” My eyes flew open and I pushed whoever was hovering over me out of the way, clumsily getting to my feet. I ran into my room, found my flip flops and bolted out the door. I had to save them. I couldn’t let all those babies die!

“Stasia! Where are you going? Wait!” I vaguely hear d them calling after me, as I took the stairs two at a time and made my way out the back door of Maren. Flying down the boardwalk, I jumped onto the sand and sprinted up the beach as fast as I could. People were behind me yelling something, but I wasn’t listening. All I could think about were those eggs. The baby turtles. I couldn’t let them die. After running for what felt like hours, I finally spotted it. Orange tape. I flopped down beside the first square and started digging. About ten whole eggs were cradled in the cool sand.

“Stasia! Please stop and tell us what’s going on!” Willow tugged on my arm, but I shook her off and moved on to the next nest. One by one, I made sure the eggs were safe. At the last nest, my legs gave out from under me and I fell on the soft sand.

“Thank God they’re safe!” I sighed with relief.

“You better have a damn good reason why we’re running for our lives on the beach in the middle of the night!” Carmen sat down beside me, breathing hard.

“Stop being so dramatic, Carmen,” Phoebe said, “Tell us what happened, Stasia.” She rubbed my arm supportively.

“I saw them die. They washed away. All of them.” Hot tears burned my eyes and I was helpless to stop them from spilling over. If these eggs were safe, what nests did I see get destroyed?

According to the tape, I was on Bald Head. The boardwalk I had stood on was right above us. It had to be these eggs. I watched the waves rolling in to the shore and noticed how much bigger they had gotten since this afternoon. It hit me like a ton of bricks. The hurricane. I remembered the wind. The blinding rain. The rising water. I wasn’t having a reverie or even a dream. I was seeing something that hadn’t happened yet. I was seeing into the future. A new panic took over. “We have to move them!

Before the hurricane comes!”

“But they’re protected by the shield! They’ll be fine.” Carmen dismissed my worries.

“It doesn’t extend this far. They’ll wash away. I saw it happen.”