Chapter Text
Keenan felt the world spin around him and the ground came rushing up to meet him. The air felt cold and heavy on his limbs like he was struggling through the cold slush of a half frozen lake. As he tumbled forward, he hit the ground but unlike the hard surface that he expected, he broke through it like water and the cold forced the air out of his lungs. Bubbled fell from parted lips and floated upwards, the only glimmer of light in a completely black expanse.
He tried to gasp for air and was surprised when he didn’t feel the stinging knives of cold water filling his lungs. His chest rose and fell naturally with every breath he took and it confused him momentarily as he fell deeper into the darkness. Keenan leaned further back and the acceleration of the fall picked up. He continued to descend till he was falling at a speed that had his ears popping from the pressure. His mouth was open in a silent cry as he plummeted in endless darkness.
Keenan looked above his head to see something standing out against the stark blackness of the ocean. He was falling closer to it and as he got closer and closer, the features started to become more and more defined. Something whipped by Keenan’s head and he saw a pair of glasses floating upwards, untethered to the gravity of the ocean. They looked familiar but he didn’t have time to associate from where as the figure beneath him grew closer.
His breath stuttered as he recognized the form that was plummeting, bubbles rising from their parted lips. Their hands were raised up as if trying to grab at something no longer there and Keenan felt a pull towards the ten year old that looked exactly like him. He reached forward and took his younger self’s hand. There was a flash of warmth shared between the two of them like static and Keenan let out a shocked exhale as the other ‘Keenan’ opened his eyes and they looked up at him, black and pupiless.
It all made sense to him now. Keenan had no idea how but it did. The younger version of him smiled like he hadn’t a care in the world and did a slow backflip under the water, parting their hands. He watched with bated breath as he swam deeper and deeper, his legs kicking strongly as he moved into the depths below. Keenan continued to peer around him trying to catch sight of the ten year old but didn’t see anything for a long time.
A deep sound of mourning fell from Keenan’s lips as he continued to glance around. He couldn’t see a thing one second and then the next, the boy darted upward like a rocket. He was kicking his legs fiercely with a look of determination on his face. Keenan could feel that infectious sense of pride and grinned, rolling onto his back to look in the direction that he assumed was were the surface was. The fracture of darkness shattered as he broke the surface but unlike water, it cracked and splintered like glass. Shards fell all around him of all shapes and sizes and a large piece the size of a mirror almost hit him on the way down. He darted out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit and saw himself in the reflection.
His hair and eyes were darker than pools of ink. He looked far too pale in the darkness of the water but that brought the ridges of the diamond shaped brandings on his shoulders out. The piece of glass came and went far to fast for him to acknowledge any other changes but his hands were already seeking over what he had seen. There was a raise to his skin that went up the curve of his shoulders and ended symmetrically just at the nape of his neck. He scratched at the itch irritation and hissed at the feel of something pulling loose under his nails. It was like dried skin from being under the sun for far too long but far too thick and waxy to be natural. Something under the layer felt smooth and he tried to place where he had felt this scaly feeling before but the memories fell short.
Keenan saw another larger pieces of obsidian falling towards him, sharp and dangers and took a frightened deep breath as it came bearing down on him. He choked out the taste of copper and shot up from his laid down position.
His motion was halted roughly by something enclosed around each wrist and his shoulders burned from the strain before he collapsed again. His eyes were dazed and unfocused as he struggled to breath, his chest heaving with every inhale. The sheets around him billowed at the movement and he slowly associated the feeling with being in bed and yet, even though there was a pillow underhead, he couldn’t move his arms that appeared to be bound overhead.
“Wha..?” His words were slurred and his arms could only lift a few feet up before the ropes were pulled taut against the headboard. Keenan looked around the room that was sparse of all other furniture except for an occupied chair where a villager was sleeping. Or at least he had been till Keenan’s struggling woke him up. The man jolted up and seeing him pulling at his bindings, opened the bedroom door to yell out to someone.
“He’s awake.” There was a few seconds of distant muffling before another villager joined the first and they both stood in the bedroom to assess the situation. “What do we do?”
The second man stroked his chin in thought and hummed. “Baba told us to inform her when he woke up. But I don’t think now is a good time.”
Keenan pulled at the ropes again and gave them a glare, a look of disbelief on his face. “Why am I tied to a bed? What is going on here?!?” He was ignored for the most part as the two men continued to talk like he wasn’t even there. That pissed him off even more.
“Is she dealing with the lion right now?”
“Trying to.” The second man scoffed, meeting Keenan’s angry gaze before looking away again. “He’s not exactly making it easy to track him down. Him and his two friends.”
Something in what they were saying clicked in his head and Keenan finally realized who they were talking about. A searing anger built up in his chest and a growl fell from his sneered lips as he strained against the ropes. They were digging deeper into his skin but the pain was nothing but a faint pressure compared to the wrath that was bubbling over from every pore on his body. How dare they bind him down. How dare they ignore him. How dare they hurt…
“J͌ͥͥ ̓̄A̦̣͖̱̮͕̼ͤ̚̚ ̗͈̊̀R̼̮̞̭̥̓̒͗ ̪̗͔̬̟̮ͪ͂̄̍ͭ̿E̜̎͋̈́͛̇̚ ͩD̠̣̦̤͖̅”
The two men turned to look at him with horror in their eyes. Their fear only grew as Keenan pulled the headboard till the wood started to creak and bend at the strength. They backed up towards the bedroom door and just managed to cross the threshold as Keenan screamed out, loud and animalistic as he snapped the headboard clean off.
The wood went flying from the strain of the ropes and slingshot towards the two villagers who let out terrified squeaks and scrambled out into the hall. Keenan sat up on the bed and worked the ropes off his wrists before he heard a slam as the door was closed. There was a metallic noise as a bolt latch was slide into place, locking him within the confines of the room.
“Holy fuck, did you see that? He snapped the headboard clean off.” The voices on the other side of the door panicked much to the deep seeded pleasure of Keenan.
“You guys are so fucked once I get out there!” He noted that the room he was locked in had no windows so his only escape route would have to be the door they locked him in. It would be no easy feat, or at least that’s what he told himself. But there was another part deeper inside that was riled up at the thought of something being more stubborn than he was. Keenan was going to break down this door by shear force of will if it was the last thing he did. “And when I do, you’re going to tell me EVERYTHING!”
“Oh fuck… what if he gets out?! Baba isn’t here! She can’t help us!!” The second man was panicking and pacing as Keenan slammed his fists into the door.
The sting of the wood against his knuckles was but a mild sting in comparison to the pain of knowing that the man he had grown so close to was in danger. He still didn’t know if he could even trust Jared but there was one thing he did know. The man had stepped in between him and Baba. He had protected him from her in the past. Judging from where he was, the redhead was most definitely the lesser of two evils. He’d rather side with a supposedly dangerous man than a twisted old lady who kidnapped him and tied him up in a bedroom. There was no way he was going to let her hurt Jared. No one deserved whatever she had planned because it was definitely not good.
“Dammit.” Keenan screamed and brought his hand back before punching full force into one of the wooden panels of the door. The blow cleanly went through in a way that shouldn’t have been possible for a normal blow but Keenan wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The perfectly square hole was big enough for him to reach though and blindly seek out the latch that was keeping him locked in the room.
“Oh fuck.. Oh fuck..” That panicked cry was followed by the sound of something hard meeting aluminum. There was a long pause and a thud of a large object collapsing onto the ground.
“What the fu-” The second man’s words were cut off with another aluminum noise and another loud thud.
Keenan’s hands had just found the latch when another hand touched his and in shock, his fingers revolted from the lock. He heard the sliding of metal on metal and the door loosened up in the frame as it became unlocked. Someone standing on the other side turned the doorknob and Keenan watched with bated breath as the door completed its transition as it was opened. His expression became quizzical at the sight before him.
The two villagers that had been assigned to keep an eye on him were out like a light, crumbled on the floor in the hallway. At least, he hoped they were unconscious. He couldn’t really tell without closer inspection. Standing above the two men and holding an aluminum bat nervous between two hands was the brunette from the bird conservatory.
The boy wasn’t wearing the shirt he had been when they first met. His was in flip flops and swimming trunks which gave him a view of the bubbling tattoos that started small at his collar and curved over his shoulders. The dark wavy circles got bigger and thicker the further along the shoulder they went and at a glance, it almost looked like he was wearing a cloak of sorts. The tattoos, they were different but at the same time, the extent of them reminded him so much of the ones that Tanner and Jared had. There was no mistaking it.
Keenan’s nose scrunched as he tried painfully to recall what Jared had called him. He had only said it once in an offhand comment and there was a murmur in the back of his skull that offered the name like a gracious host offering to take one's coats. “Andrew?”
The boy perked up at him, the nervous energy sapping away immediately and his defensive stance loosened up. He had looked like he had been afraid of Keenan attacking him before he spoke up. “Yes, I’m surprised you remember.. Tanner was right, I guess. You really are changing quickly.” He seemed to assess the state of the door and his eyes fell to the broken headboard on the bedroom floor. “Very quickly.”
Keenan felt his hands flexing impatiently at his sides and the boy backed up, dropping the aluminum bat on the floor to put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. The bubbling tattoos were more visible as he did so. The thick circles having become small stippling dots the further down his forearm they went till they ended at his wrists. “Oh god, I’m sorry. Please don’t get mad at me. I’m already going to get into trouble with Jared for coming down here.”
“Jared..” Keenan breathed out, recalling what the men had said earlier about what was happening. Baba was looking for him. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t assume that what she was going to do was going to be nice. “Where is he?”
“He’s near the whistling coves.” At keenan’s raised brow, Andrew continued. “It’s the only place that’s nearly impossible to reach… if your human, that is.”
“Excuse me? Human?”
“Wow, he wasn’t… kidding.” Andrew let out a weak laugh. “You really have no idea what’s going on.”
Keenan threw his hands up in exasperation and sighed. “Yeah, no thanks to anyone. No one will tell me what’s going on. Everyone keeps talking all cryptic and shit. It’s driving me insane.”
Andrew stumbled back a few more steps until his back hit the wall and he held up his hands in surrender. He giggled nervously, terror in his gaze. “Ok ok ok.. Can we turn down the angry to a six, maybe a five?”
At the dry ‘what?’ he received, Andrew pointed two fingers at his face before pointing at Keenan’s. “Your eyes.. They are doing that thing that Tanner warned me of.”
Keenan pressed one hand to his eyelid and stormed over the bodies and past Andrew. Once he located the bathroom, he flicked on the light switch to see what the brunette was talking about. Sure enough, the entirety of his eyes were black, sclera and everything. He used his thumb and forefinger to hold his lid open wider and looked up and down to try and spot an edge to the inky blackness but there was none. His entire eye had become consumed by it and no amount of blinking was making it go away.
“I don’t understand. What is this? What does it mean?” Keenan braced his hands on the sink and leaned forward, nose almost touching the mirror. “If I’m changing… What exactly am I changing into?”
Andrew was at the bathroom door wringing his hands in front of him nervously like he didn’t know what to do with them. He looked up through thick curls and tried for a weak smile. “I don’t know.” Keenan gave him a frustrated look and he sputtered. “I mean, I have my suspicions but it’s crazy to think it’s even possible.”
“S̫̹͔͇̬̼ͦ̆ͦ̑ͮ̚ ̤͚̻̳̹̗̯͊̑̊̓̅P͋ͬ̋ ͓̲̙̘̔̽ͧͮͪI̗͎ ̉T̜̪̐̅ͩͩ ̱̩̈̔̑̑̌ͤͮ ̹̹̞͇̟̪ͦͨ͛̽ͦÌ̘̣̝̽ ͒T͈ ̩̠͂ ̙̟͖͕̝̓ͣͭ̉̎O̞̱̓ ͈̳̖̇̀Ṷ̟̤̥͇͙̃͛̈́̿̽ͅ ͔̰̆ͭ̀̿ͨT̼̫͍̻̟̅ͤͯ̈ͩ̇̚.”
Andrew squeaked and disappeared behind the doorframe. His hands came around the corner after a second to grab the edge before his head soon followed. He watched Keenan with a teary eyed gaze. “Ok, first of all. You need to stop… whatever that is.”
Keenan cleared his throat, feeling genuinely bad for how he had scared the other. He scratched the back of his neck and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I have no idea how to control whatever this is but I think it gets worse the more emotional I get?” He responded quizzically, not knowing whether that was true or not but all the experiences seemed to line up with that train of thought.
“Well, try and keep your cool then. I came here to help you, not to lose years off my life because of heart palpitations.” Andrew crossed his arms and looked away with a nervous jitter. “Thanks for that by the way.”
“I said sorry. Doesn’t that amount for something?” Keenan let out an exasperated sigh and walked past Andrew and entering the hallway. He toed at one of the men on the ground and rose a brow, pointing down at them. “Are they-?”
Andrew came up to stand on his left side and collected the bat that had rolled away when he had dropped it. He shook his head. “They are just out for a bit. Speaking of which, we should get out of here before Baba comes back. I’d rather not have to deal with her. She’s scary…”
“Amen to that.” That was one thing they could both agree on. Keenan didn’t need to be told twice and the two of them got up, heading through a familiar beaded curtain and past several rows of empty tables and chairs. It looked like the home that Jared had taken him to for lunch before. According to what he had said, this was Baba’s house. Keenan could not believe that he had been locked up in what he could only assume was her guest room.
The two of them made their way to the front door without looking back. Keenan stepped ahead of Andrew and opened the door only to be blinded from how bright it was outside. The inside of the home had all the curtains drawn and had been completely protected from outside light source so stepping out into the sun was a dazzling experience. He stumbled one step before his weight was caught by the nervous boy at his side.
“I got you.” Andrew called helpfully, steadying as he took the steps one at a time.
By the time he got to the bottom, Keenan’s vision cleared up and he could see the familiar sight of the villagers all around. His chest clenched up in fear and he looked over at Andrew who looked just as nervous. “How do we get out of here?”
“We should… just be able to walk through. Not everyone here is under Baba’s influence so we shouldn’t be stopped while walking.” Andrew brushed a hand through his curled bangs, eyeing everyone that passed with a suspicious glare. “I think.”
“I don’t like how unsure you sound.”
Andrew giggled nervously to himself. “I’m sorry. Just never done this before, you know? Never thought I’d be breaking someone out of Baba’s place.” The two walked down the steps and tried to play off their nervousness by awkwardly waving at people as they passed by.
“Where are we supposed to go? We can’t go back to the hotel.” Keenan mock whispered, eyeing a woman who was walking towards them carrying a basket of fruit. He held his breath as she got closer and exhaled in relief as she walked by them and continued on down the street.
“Actually that’s probably the safest place for you right now.” At Keenan’s confused gaze, Andrew continued. “Baba can’t grab you while your there. The nymphs won’t let her.”
“Excuse me? First off, nymphs?” Keenan laughed at the ridiculousness before letting out a sigh of acceptance. It honestly wasn’t the strangest thing he had heard since he had arrived and he doubted it was going to be the last one at the rate things were going. He stroked a hand through his hair and let out a long exhale, raising a finger to enunciate his point. “Secondly, she was literally in the hotel the first day I was here. I doubt she can’t just walk into my room and grab me.”
Andrew shook his head and let out a sound of disagreement. “No, there’s a difference between being allowed passage and being allowed to conduct business within the hotel. There are rules that even she must follow.”
“What rules?”
“Hell if I know.” Andrew shrugged casually. He diverted their walking off the main street and into treeline where the hidden path that led to the hotel was. “Jared knows more about this sort of stuff than I do. He’s dealt with them more than I have.”
Keenan gave him a long look. “You are really not being helpful, like, at all.”
“What do you want me to say? I grew up here but that doesn’t mean I know everything that goes on.” Andrew pouted, arms crossing his chest with a quiet ‘harumph’.
Keenan pinched his brow and stopped once they entered the safety of the trees. He faced and made a directing motion towards Andrew with both hands. “Look, I don't want you to think that I don't appreciate what you did for me earlier because I do. You got me away from Baba’s goons and I'm grateful. Really.” He rested a hand on Andrew’s shoulder so he would face him as he spoke. “But I need you to be honest with me, please. Why is she after me? I want to know. No, I need to know. If you have any information. Even if it's just a speculation. Please..”
He didn't care how desperate he sounded. Keenan needed answers and he wasn't about to go willingly with the flow of things any longer. He deserved to know what was happening to him and what a leviathan exactly was.
“Okay.. it’s only speculation but from what Tanner and Jared have been saying, we think Baba may be nearing her end.” Andrew lowered his voice and whispered like he was afraid that even saying her name too loudly would invoke her anger. He glanced over his shoulder and slouched nervously.
“What do you mean?” Keenan rose a brow, his fist balled at his sides. His patience was growing shorter at the lack of answers.
“Well, she’s not like us. She’s much, much older and I’m not just saying that cause of how she looks.” Andrew must have caught onto that fact cause his eyes darted down to Keenan’s hands and he raised his own on mock surrender. “Leviathans can supposedly live for several centuries before they die. Or at least that’s what Jared told me.”
“When she grabbed me earlier, she called me that. She told me to ‘wake up’ and ever since then, I’ve felt.. Off.” Keenan trailed off as the memories were slowly clicking into place. Everything that had been covered in a grey curtain before was being torn away to reveal what had been hidden underneath. It was freeing but at the same time, even more confusing. He had more questions than answers now.
Andrew hummed, a finger pressed to his chin as his brows creased in concentration. After a moment he looked up and shrugged. “Sorry, I wish I knew more. Jared and Tanner are the ones who’ve been running around asking questions.. Well, more so Jared than anyone.” A coy grin coiled across his lips and he elbowed Keenan. “He seems to really have a thing for you. I’ve never seen him so worked up before.”
Keenan stared down at the boardwalk with red cheeks and swallowed heavily. “I wish I knew him better. Last time we spoke, well, before the incident at the bird conservator, he told me that he was dangerous and that we couldn’t be together.” He stopped in place and rubbed at the back of his neck in a shy gesture.
“He didn’t!” Andrew gasped in offense and stared at Keenan like he was expecting him to say that it was just a joke but after a moment of silence, he realized that it must have been true and he grimaced. “Jeez.. I love Jared, I really do. We’ve been friends for years but that man carries guilt so deep, it’s pretty much ingrained in his blood at this point. It’s not his fault he was born a lion.”
“I don’t understand. The men that worked for Baba called him the same thing. Is that figuratively or?” They started walking again, the hotel coming into the view and they slowed their pace so they could talk in privacy before they would end up being surrounded by hotel guides.
“Nope.” Andrew popped the ‘p’ sound gleefully. He grabbed Keenan’s shoulders and gave him a little shake. “Lion as in lionfish. Man, we really need to catch you up to speed once we get you somewhere safe.”
“Let’s hope Nori isn’t around.” Keenan glanced around nervously as if expecting the green haired woman to jump out from some dark corner. “I have no doubt that she is literally going to kill me for abandoning her… yet again.”
“Yikes, then let’s try to steer clear of her.”
They walked through the front door and tried to play off their nervousness as they wandered through the lobby, past guides and employees that were already busy with other tasks at hand. Andrew was exactly subtle about things and laughed loud enough that one of them glanced over in curiosity. Keenan almost stumbled at the feel of his hand slapping his back and he let out a round of nervous laughter himself. Oh yes, this wasn’t suspicious in the least. They slipped past the man at the front desk who gave them a cursory glance as they walked to the elevators but he didn’t say anything to the two of them.
Andrew took that as a good sign and practically dragged Keenan by the arm into the elevator once it opened. He pulled so hard that Keenan swore his joint almost popped out of the socket as they reached his floor and he was dragged down the hallway. They passed by his room and he had to make a noise and point at the door they walked by to get him to stop.
“This your room?” Andrew asked, trying to handle despite the fact that it would obviously be locked. He looked up at Keenan who was patting himself down, his brows getting more and more creased as he slowly came to a realization.
“Shit..”
The small brunette tilted his head owl like. “What’s wrong?”
“My wallet and phone are gone. They must have taken them when they kidnapped me. I don’t have my card to get in.” He continued to pat himself down like the items he was looking for were going to magically manifest themselves out of thin air. No dice. He was stuck outside his room without his keycard.
“Oh, let me try something. I saw Tanner do it once.” Andrew rubbed his palms together for a few seconds and focused intensely on his hands like he was trying to collect something together. He stuck his tongue out and his nose scrunched up as he concentrated.
Keenan pinched his brow at the ridiculous display going on. “What are you-”
“Shh, I’m trying to concentrate.”
After a few seconds of rubbing them together, he reached forward and pressed the tips of his fingers one at a time on the reader. There was a long pause and Keenan looked at the light on the reader waiting for it to change colour or show any sort change. But nothing happened. “Uhh?”
“Dammit this isn’t working. How did Tanner-”
The elevator dinged again and both turned expecting to see a hotel guide or even worst Baba herself but instead stepped out Tanner. He walked over and took in the scene before him and a small smile appeared, his eyes rolling in a mocking tone. “Oh my, what have we here?”
Tanner started to walk over without a care in the world and an anger built up deep in Keenan’s chest. He was only a few feet away when Keenan lunged forward. Tanner hadn’t expected it and even Andrew had only caught sight of the pupiless black eyes for a second before he was throwing a fist at him. The blond stumbled back from the punch and Andrew yelped as his friend hit the ground hard. The impact had given him whiplash and split his lip open. Blood dribbled down to his chin and Tanner dabbed at it with the weak affixation of someone who had never seen it before. He looked up as Andrew stepped in front of him, putting his body in between the both of them and used his body as a shield. “W-wait Keenan..”
“No I’m not going to wait. That man… left me with her.” Keenan snarled, his voice getting lower and lower as he progressed forward two more steps. “He left me at the hands of Baba!”
Andrew shook his head back and forth with tears gathering in his eyes. “I’m sure there was a logical explanation. Tanner wouldn’t just do that. He’s not that kind of person.”
He looked up at Andrew and a part of him purred inside at the fearful look he received. “I don’t want to hear his e̲̗̲x̘̼c̮̱ͅu͕̯s͇͚̳̞̖es̹.” Keenan could taste the warp in his tone as he spoke. It was a strange vibration that got worse the longer he remained angry. The sour aftertaste left him scrunching his nose in displeasure which only worsened his mood. “I̲̠̦͍͎ ̤̲do̪̼̥n'̰͍̣̘͔t̮̬̫̰͇̭ ̳w̥ḁ̟͍̺̬n̩͖t̹̞͚̰̺ ̯̝̟̞̘e̱̲̖̝x̠̪cu̯s̫̦̺̳̼̣e̜͙s̗̣͕͕͈!̻̞̺”
“Then how about answers!” Tanner called back, the yellow glow bleeding back into the sclera of his eyes. That brought Keenan to pause so he continued. “I know you’re confused.”
“Nͦ͗͂̽ͯ̂ͨ̕o ͐͊ͤ̂̏ͮ͟s͌ͧ̈́͆͗̕hͣ͋͂̓͡i̛͌ͬͩͨtͨ͑ͦ̐̒̊!”
“I know you’re confused because I was as well.” Tanner got up on shaky legs and tried to stand tall despite how unstead he looked. He wiped his bottom lip with the back of his hand and stared down at the blood with a disdainful look before his eyes met Keenan’s. “I was just like you several years ago.”
Andrew lowered his hands to his sides but maintains his positioning. He peered over his shoulder at Tanner as he rested a hand to put him at ease. “Tanner?”
“It’s fine. Really. I deserve it. Honestly, me walking away from the situation didn’t exactly paint me in a good light.” He smiled at Andrew through the smeared blood. He gave his shoulder one last pat before walking by and standing right in front of Keenan. “But then again, how else was I supposed to tell Jared what was happening.”
Keenan’s eyes widened momentarily and the anger immediate bled from his voice. His vocal chords became unstrained from whatever had been crushing them earlier and he wheezed out a weak ‘is he okay?’ before his hand flew up to his throat.
“Unfortunately, I’m not sure.” At the sharp look he got, Tanner narrowed his eyes and raised his voice. “Don’t look at me like that. You think you’re the only one that has the right to worry about him? We’ve been friends for years and not knowing where he is driving me insane.”
Andrew looked like he wanted to say something but all he could manage was a weak noise as he rushed into Tanner’s back, wrapping his arms around him in a hug.
“I never meant..” Keenan choked out, his eyes going downcast as he realized just how narrow sighted he had been. He really had not shown any consideration to Tanner since they met. Then again, the man hadn’t shown him any respect either but they could at least try to find some mutual ground in the form of Jared. “I’m sorry. I saw you leave and thought…”
Tanner looked away and smiled sadly. “I know. But there was no way I could take her on by myself. You’re still coming into your power and Jared was taking care of Andrew. I had very little options available to me.” He glanced over at the door to Keenan’s room and indicated to it with a wave of the hand. “Look, let’s continue this conversation inside. I promise, I will do what I can to answer any questions you have.”
“Fine.” Keenan answered simply. He crossed his arms over his chest and tapped a foot impatiently. Again he felt like answers were just out of reach and they were being dangled in front of him like they were some sort of reward that they only gave when they felt he was worthy. He hated being tugged around and led on. If Tanner was willing to answer questions, then that was fine. But if he thought that Keenan was not going to go full on interrogation mode and not get as many answers out of him as he could, then he was mistaken.
Andrew let go of Tanner to approach his left side, he looked up at him through dark curls with a pout. “Yea, about that. I can’t get the reader to do the thing.” He whined and approached the door. Once there, he grabbed the handle and leaning backwards. He leaned his entire weight backwards like pulling hard on it was going to do anything.
“As I’ve said before, it has nothing to do with your technique. Electricity just so happens to be my specialty.” The blonde laughed and rested a hand on Andrews shoulder so he could approach the reader in his stead. Once he got his friend away from the door, he shooed him away to make sure he had enough room to work.
Tanner glanced over at Keenan and replicated what Andrew had been doing with his hands. The only difference was that his palms were actually starting to spark up like flint and steel being struck together. “You’ll need to move fast. I can only short out the connection for a second.”
Keenan nodded though he wasn’t quite sure he believed that the man was able to open his door just by rubbing his palms together. But then again, even if it didn’t work, he was willing to humour him if it meant there was a chance. He really didn’t want to have to find Nori who undoubtedly would end up having a key to his room. She would never let him hear the end of it.
Tanner pulled his hands apart by an inch and approached the door. His eyes were focused completely on the task before him and his brows were creased in concentration. “Get the door.”
With a nod, Keenan grabbed the handle and he could see a flash of something jittering back and forth between Tanner’s palms in a barely controlled matter. The flashes of blue caught his eyes to the single crackle of lightning being held delicately like a small child. He let out a gasp as the blond rested a hand on the card reader and the light on top flickered red and green in rapid succession. Without needing to be told, he pulled the handle and was fascinated as it opened without any resistance.
“How?” Keenan asked, holding it open. Andrew darted past him without a word and threw himself head first onto the bed. The covers puffed up around him and hid him from view but underneath them, giggling could be heard.
Tanner, on the other hand, took his time walking into the room and paused in the doorway. He shook his hands in front of them as they steamed and smiled coyly at Keenan. “As I said before, I have an affinity towards electricity.”
Keenan sputtered for a few seconds at his audacious behaviour and pinched his brow again. A headache was starting to come on and while he doubted ibuprofen would help, he could certainly go for it regardless. He refused to accept that there was going to be a simple explanation for the situation he was in. A part of him was both scared and excited at that thought. “I will punch you again.”
“Please don’t..” Tanner begged, blowing his hand off. He finally made the transition through the doorway, joining Andrew on the bed. Unlike the brunette who was laid out on his stomach in the puffy duvet, he sat at the foot and rested his hands on his lap. He interlocked his fingers and looked up at Keenan, worrying the bloody lip with his tongue.
Keenan grabbed the pills from the foil and started to pop one out, feeling Tanners stare on him. “What?”
“Advil?” Tanner inquired with a finger poking at his chin.
Keenan furrowed his brow at him. He made a face at that unyielding stare and sighed. He rotated the foil packaging in his hands to show it off to him. “Yeah, so?”
“Well, I wouldn’t recommend it.” At Keenan’s narrow gaze, he carried on with a wave of his hand. “You got a headache right? Taking drugs are only going to delay the inevitable. I know, I was popping them like candies myself and trust me, the resulting headache once you go off them is sooo not worth it.”
There was a long pause as Keenan rotated the little white pill between thumb and forefinger in contemplation. He looked up at Tanner and chewed his lower lip before he came to a decision. Keenan slammed the fingers holding the pill on the table and it made a loud noise, startling Andrew and causing him to sit up. He let go of the pill and brushed the dust off his fingers, walking over to stand in front of Tanner completely, crossing his arms over his chest to stare him down. “You promised me answers.”
“That I did.” Tanner agreed with a nod. He moved his hands off his lap as Andrew moved to curl into his side. The brunette rested his head on his leg and watched the scene unfold around him, eyes half lidded as if he were close to falling asleep. “What do you want to know? And please keep them one at a time. I know you have a lot to ask but I am just one person.”
“Fine, what are you?”
“Our kind have several different names depending on the century and the part of the world you are in. Naiad’s, water spirits.. Mermaids.” Tanner shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “There are as many different types as there are different types of people in the world.”
“Like?”
“Well I’m part electric eel from my mother’s side, I think?” Tanner stroked the top of Andrews hair with a content smile as he thought more on the subject. “I only recently discovered my heritage when I came here. The call is strongest when you’re around others of your kind.”
Keenan looked down at Andrew who was staring back at him with twinkling blue eyes. His pupils had grown like dinner plates and his smile grew lazy. They looked as dilated as when he had first seen them. In the bird conservatory.
“And Andrew here is a sea pancake.”
“No I’m a manta ray.” The boy pouted. His cheeks puffed up and he exhaled in frustration. “Why do you always call me that?”
Tanner and Keenan just gave each other a long look but didn’t say anything. They were the only ones who had grown up off the island so of course, the reference was not missed on either of them. Andrew on the other was glancing back and forth between them, looking for some sort of explanation and getting none.
“Well anyways...” Keenan coughed into his fist to get everyone back on topic. He pointed at the other two and then himself. “Look, your going to have to give me a little more than just ‘mermaids’ cause frankly, I’m finding this whole thing hard to believe. You say your part eel and all I can picture is someone fucking an eel.”
Tanner sighed with a pinched brow and looked down at Andrew. He gave him an encouraging smile and nodded towards the ocean outside the window. “You mind giving us a bit of a show and tell?”
“But I want to know more about Baba too. Why can’t you go out?”
“Because you’re doing the showing, while I do the telling.” At Andrew’s pout, Tanner laughed and gave his cheek a gentle nuzzle. He made a kissing noise while doing so, much to the frustration of his friend who was trying to push away his face with a hand to his chin. Tanner just grinned and backed up one moment before shooting forward to catch him off guard with a kiss to his ear.
The boy turned red at that and squawked. He rolled off the bed and landed with a thud. Before anyone could check on him, he shot up to his feet, hand already scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “I’m okay! I’m okay!” Andrew brushed down the front of his swim trunks and looked around the room. He spotted a towel sitting on the side table and he grabbed it, pointing at it with his free hand. “I’m going to borrow this. Don’t start explaining till I get back.”
“Just go. The faster you hit the water, the faster you can come back.” Tanner clapped his hands together and made no qualms about rushing his friend out the door. Once Andrew was out in the hall and the door closed behind him, he let out a long sigh. “Thank goodness. Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty.”
Keenan raised a brow at him. “I don’t understand? We’re not going to wait for him to come back?”
“No we’re not.” Tanner stated as a matter of fact. At the look he received, he leaned forward and rested his chin in his palms. “Look, I love Andrew. I really do. But he doesn’t need to get involved with this more than he has to. I didn’t even want him to go after you but he insisted on it because he’s a big supporter of you and Jared hooking up.”
Keenan nodded in understanding and tried to ignore the obvious disdain in Tanner’s tone at the mention of him and Jared being together. “You didn’t want him to get hurt by Baba.”
“Of course not. Were it up to me, I would have left this place long ago and found a place far enough away that she wouldn’t even be a thought in the back of my mind anymore.” Tanner looked away before shaking his head. “But..”
“But?” He pressed on, urging Tanner on with an incline of his head. Keenan sat on the bed next to him and took in his tired features. From the light coming in through the glass walls, he looked much more worn down.
“But this is his home. Taking a manta mer away from his home is like taking a tropical fish and putting it into a fresh water spring. It’s not natural and it would only make him sick. In more ways than one.” Tanner looked down at his lap and clenched his fists together till the knuckles turned white. He let out a breath and looked up after he composed himself more. “But you’re not here to listen to our life stories. You want to know more about what’s going on and I promised you answers. So, let’s talk about… her.”
“Baba?”
Tanner nodded. “She was here even before I showed up. Before Jared came to the island.
Even before Andrew was born. She’s been around long before Andrews’s parents from what they told me. But then again, being what she is, that’s the usual.”
“She’s a leviathan?” Keenan was stroking his chin as he thought more on the subject. It had been something that she said to him and it had felt so impactful at that moment. It was like hearing your name for the first time and learning that was what you would be called for the rest of your life. Strange but also familiar.
Tanner appeared surprised at first but he composed himself quickly. His eyes flickered yellow for but a second but he spotted it before it disappeared. It must have been a subconscious response because he didn’t seem aware that he had done it. “So you’ve heard it then?”
“I’ve heard Baba say it but I don’t know what it means.”
“Oh.” Tanner looked down at the hand and scrunched up his brows. He looked confused.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just, when I asked if you had heard it, I meant the call.” Tanner glanced over at him in scrutiny. His eyes darted all over Keenan’s face as if looking for something that could only be revealed if he squinted hard enough.
It didn’t take long for the meaning being Tanners words to get through to him. It’s not the first time someone had mentioned a call. Even Jared had mentioned it one time. Keenan had felt it as well, it was like a magnet pulling at something in his chest and directing him in a way that he was helpless to control. Was that the call? Not a sound but a feeling? If what Tanner said about it being stronger around certain people were true, did that mean he was less than human?
After everything that had happened to him in the past few days, it should be obvious at that point. Especially since his eyes have been changing and his temper has been harder to keep in check. He’s felt more possessive and pent up, a part of himself pacing as he wanted out. He wanted to run more and dig his fingers into the sand more often and eat more meat and more, more, more…
Was that the call?
He wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps it was something simpler than just a feeling inside him. Perhaps it was more like the sound that seems to follow Baba wherever she goes. It was haunting noise that trailed her like dark stormy clouds and left the air chilled once she passed by. It was almost like the room would get ten times colder with just her presence alone and it would draw the oxygen from his lungs till he was gagging and gasping for breath. The call, he realized, was like the noises of the whales he use to be so fixated on as a child.
“The call. It sounds like whales?” Keenan’s voice trailed off into a question at the end like he wasn’t quite sure if he was correct but at Tanner’s impressed look, he must have gotten it right. “But that can’t be right.. If that’s true then, I’ve been hearing the call all my life.”
“Is it really that ridiculous to assume it to be true?” Tanner inquired, nodding in a coaxing gesture. “You’ve heard the call all your life because of your heritage. There’s fae in your lineage.”
Keenan stood up and walked away from Tanner, his hand raised to his hair and ran through them. He continued the gesture again and again like he had no idea what to do with his hands as he thought more on the subject. His eyes darted around as he tried to understand the situation he was in. “But my parents. I swear, they’re normal unless-”
“It might not even be from your parents or even your grandparents for all we know. These things tend to skip generations especially when the kids grow up not knowing about that half of themselves.” Tanner approached him and rested a hand on his shoulder. At Keenan’s panicked look, he gave him a reassuring smile. “But trust me when I say that somewhere in your line there is fae blood. It explains the call, the change, the fear.”
“All my life I thought I was scared of the depths.” Keenan turned to face the blonde and looked over his shoulder at the glow of the water behind him. It seemed less scary than it had been when he first came arrived on the island. It was almost inviting in a way. That thought still had him stealing his nerves but he was finding himself becoming more adjusted to the idea of being in the water. “But really, I was scared of what was down there. I thought there was something in the deep that was going to pull me down if I let it. But… that was the call, wasn’t it?”
Tanner nodded slowly as he connected the dots. “There’s two parts of us. They try to find balance but as we get older, a choice has to be made. Your human side tries to put reason to the feelings you have and slowly as you grow older, the faes call grows fainter till it quiets completely.”
“Still, I don’t understand something. If it quieted down after all these years, why did it get so loud all of a sudden? It’s not just me being at this island that started it. I’ve been feeling it in my chest for so long.” Keenan couldn’t shake the feeling like there was a piece of the puzzle he was missing. Things that Tanner had told him clicked nicely with some of the other speculations and evidence he had but there was still too many unknown factors hidden behind a curtain of grey. Not having all the answers really sucked and it was maddening him, driving him to the brink of another headache. He was really wishing he had taken those pills now.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The two of them looked at each other before they glanced over at the sound of tapping. The window became overcast with a dark shape in the foreground. Tanner didn’t seem too distracted by the figure on the other side of the window but Keenan was drawn into the humanoid shape waving back excitedly with webbed fingers.
“Is that..?” Keenan asked over his shoulder, not taking his eyes away from the person outside his hotel room. He walked up to the dining area at the back of his room and rested a hand against the cool glass. Sure enough the curly haired figure did a little swoop and approached the glass as well. There were two pinpricks of blue light that Keenan slowly came to the realization were eyes. They were bioluminescent with tiny, round pupils that he had seen before on the discovery channel. He recalled that it had something to do with helping deep sea creatures detect movement and prey in the dark.
Tanner nodded and came to join him near the window. “Yes, I assure you. He may look different right now but that’s still Andrew. In a way, this is the real him.”
Those blue flickered as the brunette glanced back and forth between the two people within the room. Andrew grinned and did a few twirls in the water, his mouth opening and closing several times and he made a few conversational gestures with his hands. After a moment, his brow scrunched up as he realized something.
“We can’t hear you Andrew.” Tanner made a show of pointing to his ears with a shake of his head.
His friend nodded and did a playful backflip in the water appearing to be unbothered by that fact the minute it had come to mind. He was playfully swooping expertly with his new features that were made for easy mobility in the water. Andrew’s arms had long blanketed flaps of skin that started just below his wrists and formed long flat wings that spanned down to his hips. Below the curve of his hips were small squared fins that propped out angled downward. Where his legs would be was a long tail that started around the same size of his waist but grew tapered at the end. The very tip was sharp and had the same type of barb that a manta ray had.
Keenan noticed that his skin was mottled with smears of navy blue coloration that started in small bubbling dots at the back of his neck, just below his hairline. The dots got bigger and closer together the further down his spine till they completely covered his shoulders and back in that dark blue tone. His chest faded down from his skin tone to the white underbelly of his wing flaps and ended at his dark blue tail. He gasped as he realized that the circular markings on his body almost matched up perfectly with the tattoos he had seen earlier.
Keenan was having a bit of an inner turmoil at that fact but mostly because of the mer that was swimming and gliding around outside like he hadn’t a care in the world. The way Andrew moved by gently flapping his arms was mesmerizing but also terrifying at the same time because it meant that he couldn’t just pretend anymore. It wasn’t just a story or make belief anymore. It wasn’t just a fairy tale. It was real and in his face. Another piece clicked in the puzzle and he realized what the tattoos meant now. Or at least, he had a very good idea. He jolted at a hand on his shoulder and looked over with a darting gaze at Tanner who had touched him.
“Don’t freak out on me.”
Keenan frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m fine.”
“You’re panicking.” Tanner reached forward and brushed two fingers along his brow, he pulled them away and shows the dampness left there. He came up to Keenan’s side patted him on the back, soothing a hand down his spine in a calming gesture. “You need to calm down and take a deep breath.”
Keenan felt a suspicious tingle in the back of his head and his power reared up in warning but there was no forced calmness on his nerves. There was no pull like the call trying to get him to relax and obey. One glance up at Tanner confirmed that the man wasn’t trying anything with him. There was no yellow in his eyes but they were focused on Keenan’s features like he was trying to find where the stress was physically manifesting.
He tried to talk but his voice came out weak. The words wouldn’t form properly, like his tongue was lead. Keenan was confused and rubbed his brows with his forearm and wiped away the sweat. He couldn’t believe it. All this time, he thought that he had been taking the situation rather well. But his racing pulse told a different story. Tanner gave him another reassuring nod and Keenan took a few more deep breaths before he swallowed the lump in his throat. After another pause he tried to talk again. “This is real. I mean, this is really real.”
“That was my reaction when I first found out as well.”
Keenan watched the manta mer do a few circles in the water. The boy was swishing around and chasing his tail, putting on a big display as he swam around. The grin on Andrew’s face was infectious and he found himself smiling as well. He was torn away from the figure swimming back and forth by Tanner’s words and he glanced over to take in the blondes features.
He looked longfully at the water and rose a hand to press a palm to the glass. His eyes were distant, like he was seeing something far away that no one else could spot but him. Andrew came up and pressed his webbed hand to the other side of the glass and their eyes met, Tanner being shaken from whatever melancholy he had fallen into. He looked over to see Keenan gazing at him and he fumbled over his words for the first time ever. “I mean, I didn’t have it as hard as you with- you know, Baba and all that.. But, I did have a hard time figuring stuff out.”
“You weren’t born like this?” Keenan inquired with a quirk of his brow. He was very interested to hear this tale. Maybe it would help to fill more blank spaces in his disoriented puzzle.
Tanner rapped on the glass with his knuckles to get Andrew’s attention and when the brunette looked over at him, he made a beckoning gesture. Once the mer swam out of sight, he turned to face Keenan. “No, I was like you. I was raised human and as I got older, the call I felt got weaker till one day it just went away.”
“What happened after that?”
“I uh..” Tanner chuckled and scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I got an invitation to an island resort and that part of me sort of woke back up.”
Keenan made an irritated noise at that and the blonde looked at him curious as to what the interruption was for. He cleared his throat and rubbed at his brow before shaking his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean- Uh… please go on.”
“Well, I was raised in the city by my parents. I hear there’s a fae community in-land but I guess they stick to their own community or something.” Tanner shrugged at that. “I don’t know, I never met anyone like me until I came here. Then I arrived and it was like mer central.”
“I’ve only ever met you, Andrew and Jared though. There really are that many mer living here?”
Tanner let out a bitter laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, most of them live in the village now. Baba made sure of that. She’s a biiiig fan of segregation. Likes to keep the communities separated so she can keep an eye on things.”
There was a sound of rapid knocking on the front door and both of them glanced over, being pulled from their conversation as Andrew started mock whispering on the other side. “Guys, uh guys…”
“What is it Andrew?” Tanner started to walk over towards the door when the card reader beeped and he took a step back with a worried expression. “Uh…”
The door swung open and Andrew was standing on the other side, hair still soaked and looking sheepishly with his hands in his pockets. Holding him by the towel wrapped around his neck was Nori. Her brows were furrowed and her cheeks were puffed out in irritation.
“Tanner, can you please take your boyfriend back and please remind him that swimming around while we have tourists is not a good idea.” Nori glanced over and saw Keenan. She smiled brightly and let go of Andrew se he could run over to the blonde. “You know why it's prohibited.”
Tanner grabbed the towel from Andrew and started to ruffle it in his hair to dry him off. He shook his head at the hotel assistant. “Save it Nori. He already knows.”
“He.. knows.” Nori trailed off, her smile remaining but it twitched ever so slightly like she was having a hard time maintaining it. Her hands pressed together in front of her in a patient gesture. “Tanner, I know you’re still new but surely you know the rules.”
“Yeah I do. But do those rules ever apply to Baba?”
“She’s… a special case, you know that.”
“So you allow her to just grab people then?” Keenan crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. At her balk, he continued with a sneer. “Cause that’s what she did to me. She dragged me off and tied me up in her bedroom, her goons holding me hostage.”
“Keenan? I don’t-”
“He’s telling the truth Nori.” Andrew looked up with static in his hair. His locks stuck up every which way from being dried off from the towel. “I overhead a bunch of people in the village talking about how they were holding a leviathan till she got back.’
Nori paled at that and her eyes went wide. She brought a delicate hand to her lips and gasped into them. The gears seemed to be clicking into place as she gave Keenan’s angry look a once over. “Oh my go, that means.. It makes sense now.”
Tanner stared down at his hands as the static raised the hairs on his arms. It tickled along his skin in visible flickers of blue light before it was absorbed into his body. “Nori, your people are supposed to stop this from happening. She’s been getting away with so much lately.”
“Look, I understand your frustration. You think I like the idea of this happenings? I wish I had more say in the matter but I’m only one person.” Nori huffed, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.
“Nymph.” Tanner repeated, ignoring the glare he got from her. He was watching Keenan now and could see the tension straining behind his eyes. “Look. I understand you want to play the whole ‘goodie goodie, no one has ever been taken on my watch’ part but now is not the time for that. Not sure if you can tell but the air is getting a little heavy here.”
Nori followed his gaze and chewed her lower lip. “Keenan, I know this looks really bad. But I can explain.”
“Then do so because I am getting so sooo sick and tired of people telling me that. They keep saying they’ll explain but then they don’t. Up until a few minutes ago, I had no idea what was happening and even now, I still don’t know what a leviathan is!” Keenan voice rose the angrier he got and was only calmed down when Nori pressed a hand to his chest. He felt his rage roiling under his skin, demanding to be let out. It snarled at her touch but the sound grew more and more distance, like someone had thrown a blanket over the problem.
“Ok ok. Sit down, I’ll try to explain the best I can.” She took his hand and brought him over to the bed. Once she was seated, she took a deep breath and composed herself with her hands on her lap.
Keenan stared at her quietly, nodding as their eyes met. If Nori was a ‘nymph’ as Tanner had put it then that meant she must have known more about the fae than she let on. She would definitely know about Baba and why she was obsessed with him. She must know what that lady is doing to the island. Then again, if he recalled his earlier interactions with her, she hadn’t exactly been subtle about what she was.
“I’m trying to figure out how to start. There’s a lot to cover.” Nori counted on her fingers in a nervous gesture, refusing to meets Keenan’s pupiless gaze.
“How about from the beginning.” Andrew helpfully suggested, adding to the conversation in a happy tone. At Keenan’s black eyed stare, he scratched the back of his neck and ducked slightly behind Tanner. “Sorry..”
“Ok, you’re right. The beginning.” Nori looked up and forced a smile. “Alright. Well, this island. It wasn’t always like this. I mean, it was always pretty but there wasn’t always a hotel. It was very much like a lawless zone and while it was nice for fae to be able to do whatever they want, it was also dangerous.”
“Baba wasn’t the first leviathan to reside on the island. Many years before I even came to this island, there was another who supposedly ran things. From what Dulse told me, he was even less pleasant than Baba. He had been pushed from the mainlands for hunting others of our kind near the shoreline.” Nori’s voice get strained as she recalled what her friend had told her. Her hands clenched in her lap and her eyes shut tightly. “He was ruthless and killed so many people till he eventually forced away by sheer numbers. Dulse told me that he started to gather powerful fae and mer who were lost and easily fell in under his reign. But they needed a place to settle. Not everyone that followed him was a waterborne creature. Some needed land to live on.”
Keenan nodded as that piece of the puzzle clicked in. Slowly he was starting to understand what was going on. “This island. This was the one he came to.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Yeah, he established some villages here and there for his forces. They grew in numbers and I think he had plans for storming the main lands again.The places have changed since that dark time though. Lots of family trees have branched down so far that they don’t even recall the original reasonings for being here anymore. I guess it’s a good thing that he passed away but Baba took over shortly afterwards. She’s not as bad as him but.. she’s close.”
Keenan grit his teeth at her. “You think?!” He watched her physically flinch at his tone and he exhaled to try and calm himself. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just… I can’t believe you let me walk around knowing what she was capable of! You say she was allowed to get away with certain things? Why?”
“You have to understand Keenan. Up until now, leviathan mer were marked down as ‘doomed to extinction’. Baba was the only one left and being in her twilight years, she couldn’t exactly branch out her family tree. She used that to her advantage, lied to everyone about what she was doing.” Nori glared at his hands, looking both angry and helpless. “Everyone else was all too happy to pretend that what she was doing was justified. That as long as they didn’t see the people going missing, then it was okay. But it wasn’t!”
“She was really just looking for another leviathan to carry on the bloodline?” Tanner inquired, head cocked to the side. He had a hand pressed to his chin and a thoughtful look on his face as he chewed over her words. “Or was she trying to continue where the other leviathan left off?”
Nori shook her head back and forth. “I don’t know. Maybe even that’s also a lie she told everyone. When I first arrived here, I swore I wouldn’t let something like that happen. I promised to protect the people I was assigned and- well, we all know how that turned out. Thanks for abandoning me again.” She laughed sadly at her attempt to lift the heavy mood that had filled the room.
“She’s raising some sort of army.” Tanner crossed his arms and looked back and the brunette standing behind him still. “Andrew lives in the village. He can confirm this. Just yesterday she was rounding up people and notifying them of some big changes that were going to be coming.”
Nori looked over at Andrew with trepidation written across her face. Her usually cheerful features were creased in worry now and she got up from the bed to approach the manta mer. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yeah. Mom and dad told me to stay inside when she showed up to talk. Next thing I know-” He sniffled and pressed his face into Tanner’s back. His cries became choked as he tried to bury himself in his shirt. His hands clung to the fabric there like a child needing a blanket.
Tanner turned around and cooed at him in a soothing gesture. He wrapped him in his arms and ran a palm over his back to calm his hiccups. His yellowing gaze directed to Nori. “She took his parents. They’re still there but… not completely. I came over yesterday and they were glassy eyed and unresponsive. Like dolls.”
Keenan stood up and clenched his hands at his sides till the knuckles turned white. His lips curled down into a scowl and he walked to stand in the middle of everyone. His gaze flickered around to take in the three people in his room. Nori looked horrified, Andrew was sobbing and Tanner was trying to be brave but was faltering at the feeling of the trembling boy in his arms. “Why are we letting her get away with this? If I’m really a leviathan and I’m as powerful as her then we could stop this from happening, right?”
Nori grabbed his arm and looked up into his black eyes. “Keenan, listen to what your saying.. I know that your coming into your power and you feel like you could probably take on the world but Baba doesn’t play fair. She will not take it easy on you because you are young.”
Silence filled the room at that and quietly a few notes started to play. It was very familiar and Tanner and Keenan both rose eyebrows at the sound of the ‘super mario theme’. The cheerful tone picked up and got louder as Nori turned red and pulled out her phone. She answered it and put it to her ear.
“Hello?” Nori stared off into the distance and tapped her foot as the person on the other line spoke. Slowly the tapping stopped and her face paled more, expression becoming horrified. She stared at Keenan and her hand trembled as she hung up. “It’s started…”
“What’s started?” Keenan stepped forward. He felt the anger boiling in his stomach at the sight of pure terror written on his guides face. He grimaced but for the most part, managed to keep his cool as she turned to face him.
“Baba and her people are on the beach right now. They’re marching towards the hotel and..” Nori swallowed heavily. “Dulse is calling me to form up with the others.. I have to go.”
Keenan stared at her. “I can go with you. You need the help.”
She was already halfway out the door but turned back to cross the room and give him a small hug. “No, you need to stay here. You’ll be safe.” She pulled back as quickly as she had embraced him and gave his arm one final stroke.
Tanner lifted a finger to indicate to himself and Andrew. “Keenan is right. You’ll need the numbers. Her forces are huge at this point and-”
Nori made a double crossing motion with her arms, slashing an ‘X’ in the air. “And I said no! You need to stay here. We have been handling things here for years, we can take care of a little rebellion.” She gave one last warning at the three boys in the room and turned on her heels. The front door closed and the sound of her shoes could be heard growing further away.
Tanner and Keenan stared at each other for a long silent moment and Andrew glances back and forth between them before clearing his throat to get their attention. “So- are we..”
“Yeah.. no.”
“Like hell I’m staying here.”
Both of them said at the same time still staring at each other with determined expressions. For the first time, the two of them seemed to agree on something and there was a mutual kinship at the fact that neither intended on doing what Nori asked them to. Tanner grinned at Keenan and it was returned in requited defiance.
“Lͬ̓͐̿̓ͣeͤt’'̄̇ͨ̈s̓ͭͪ̎ ̆̍̋̓g̅ͤ̀̽̇e̊t̆̍̓ ̐̈͑t͊́h̉͗e̐̋͋̌͑ ͗͗ͥf̽̏ͯ̔̿ucͫ̋kͤ̎ͧ̌͐ ͊oú͌͂t ͐ͯ͐ofͪ̔ ̌h̑̏̐̿͋͆e̾͆ͯͭͧrͨ̎eͧ̇ͣ͊!̾ͣ” Keenan growled, letting that reverberating power take hold of his vocal chords.
***