Serendipity's Interlude (Sequel to The Call)

Introductions

 Sorry, it's been a hot minute. Happy Thursday, hope you're all doing well as we procrastinate the studying required for Friday tests. 

"And that, my darlings, is why you must be careful. Guard your hearts! Loving a surface dweller is dangerous. The humans fear us, and what they cannot understand, they learn to hate" She says, absently braiding her deep blue hair.

"Let me out!" I shout, pounding on the door. I hear the voices outside pause briefly before resuming whatever discussion they are having about me. I groan and go back to anxiously pacing this space. The room of locked cupboards that feels like water that isn't here. I close my eyes and try to bask in the water in the adjacent room before I get an idea. My eyes snap open and I rush into the puddle room, jumping into the water, once again in the clothes Lacey gave me.

I wonder what happened to her.

It is of no matter, my priority needs to be getting me out before I can worry about getting anyone else out.

"Ocean Mother!" I shout to the water around me. "I need you!" I cry. I don't know if this will work, given that I'm not in the actual ocean.

"Madeline!" A voice cries from behind me. "Where have you been?" She demands. I heave a sigh of relief as I turn around, facing a very angry mother. She stands on the cold floor in a salt dress, fists on her hips. Yep, that's her.

"I'm stuck here," I say. "I went and found Lacey as you said, and I got the antidote, but we were going in a- what's the word... oh, a car! And someone came and attacked us. They made me lose consciousness and brought me here. They're outside talking," I frantically explain the situation. Mother's brow furrows, and as she glances around, something else settles in her eyes. Many emotions all at once, and based on the way the water is churning around me they are quite consuming.

I crawl out of the water and wring out my hair, waiting for her to do something.

She whips around and grasps my forearms- even though she's only a vague mist settling on my skin-

"Where are you," She asks in a low voice.

"I- I don't know, they brought me here and they won't tell me anything!" I say.

"Can you tell me about any of the people you saw, any of them?" She pleads with me.

"Uh, there were two I saw here, one of them is an older man with dark skin and an eyepatch, like in a child's pirate costume, and a man who called himself... what was it... Thor. That's all I know. It was dark when I saw the other three," I apologize. She groans and mutters something to herself before turning and going into the attached room.

"A locker room!" She shouts, angry. "They turned my apartment into a freaking locker room!"

This shocks me. She doesn't shout or say things like that. And how does she know what the cupboards are called? I follow her as she marches through the rooms, opening doors and closets and ransacking the space. Every time she finds something she mutters something, angry at someone.

"Can you go find them, help me get out, something?" I ask hopefully. She shakes her head.

"I'm only able to be summoned to water, to ocean water at that, and I can't pass through walls. I'm not a ghost, Madeline," She scoffs.

"Speaking of water, why do they have a pool of ocean water in there," She points towards the puddle, which I'm assuming is called a 'pool.'

"I don't know, but inside those cupboards-"

"Lockers," Mother interrupts.

"Lockers," I correct. "I can feel fresh water."

She nods, looking around, before her gaze settles on me.