In Too Deep (Blairon)

Never Take The Night Shift

There I stood. Still in the surf as pitch black, inky water lapped at my ankles.

I took a step forward and the water rose and soon, I had strode in until everything beneath my belly button had been submerged.

Staring into the dark, churning ocean, two small bright yellow lights flickered before me. Destorted by the waves.

The glow began to move as a figure started circling me. It's eight foot long shadow loomed around me before surfacing behind me.

A dark, clawed, scaly hand snaked around my pale torso. The contrast in skin tone striking. Chills ran up my spine as I felt a hot breath tickle my neck.

The creature growled. The sound rumbling out if it's throat, reverberating in the crisp air. It's voice was so ethereal I didn't think it was real. Gravely with disuse, it spoke.

"Wake up, little human,"

I gasped, choking on the air. My head flew off my desk in a flurry of papers covered ever so  slightly in drool. My eyelids felt heavy as I looked around the room. The precinct was completely empty and extremely dark, apart from the two lamps sat atop me and my partner's desks. I looked over at Harry opposite me. All I could see were his circle rimmed glasses sitting tangled in his dark mob of air as he slept. Breathing slowly.

"Harry. Mate. Wake up," I rasped and he flinched aggressively, sliding off of his chair with a screech and a grunt. When he heaved himself back up, a paper was stuck to his cheek and his glasses were askew on his face. He looked as sleepy as I felt.

"What time is it?" He whispered, fixing his appearance as he sat back down. I took my phone out of my pocket and sighed. "It's three in the morning. Only two hours left," I groaned and be replied by groaning back. Attempting to get myself organized after the nap I'd taken for who knows how long, the landline on my desk rang suddenly and both Harry and I looked at each other before I picked it up, clearing my throat.

"This is the Goldenville Sheriff's Department. Deputy Weasley here. How may I help you?" I said politely, trying not to sound too tired. Harry stared at me curiously and I shrugged. I couldn't here anything. "Deputy Weasley here, this is the Sheriff's Station. How can I help you?" I repeated. But nothing came out from the other end. I was just about to give up on the call and put the phone down when a voice rasped through the speaker that had my heart thrumming in my chest.

"Hermione?" I asked and Harry sat up, worry swimming in his now dark, forest green eyes.

"R-Ron-agh! Ron?" She groaned, breathing heavily. She was in pain. "Yeah, it's me," I replied, my voice ascending multiple octaves higher. Hermione's gravely, pained voice spoke again. But only two earth shattering words came out her mouth.

"M-mers... Gone."

Light slowly began to stream through the light of our house as the ambulance pulled up on our driveway. Harry and I got here the minute we ended the call with Hermione. And it seemed we had gotten there just in time. Hermione had two large bite marks around her torso. Human sized bites with sharp teeth. She had lost an immense amount of blood and if we had been merely a few minutes late, the blood loss would've ended her. I stared at the living room in disbelief, trying to ignore the blaring lights of the ambulance and more approachching cop cars outside.

The house was wrecked.

There were large scratch marks on the maroon couches, the fluff inside scattered across the floor. The glass coffee table had been smashed and our TV had fallen from its perch on a low table in front of the tattered couch. The armchair we had interrogated Theo in had been pushed over. The front door of our house had been ripped off its hinges and spots of blood dotted the floor like spots on a ladybug. There was a specifically large pool of the nauseating red blood where we had found Hermione.

I chanced a glance at the patio and shivered. The handcuffs were nowhere to be seen, but there were dents in the pillars as well as crimson scrapes along the bottom. Where Blaise had been flailing.

I wondered if the police would suspect anything. I could loose my job. I may as well could loose Hermione too...

Harry and I jumped into the back of the ambulance taking Hermione to the hospital after some nasty argument with the nurses. Once we got in, the scene of Harry and I sitting in the car with an unconscious Hermione vaguely reminded me of the two of us driving Theo to the same place.

Hermione stirred and opened her eyes wearily in the darkness of the back of the car. "Ron, Harry?" She called and I grabbed her hand gently, suddenly fighting back tears I hadn't noticed I was holding.
"Shh, it's alright. I'm here," I whispered, my voice cracking ever so slightly as I pressed a kiss to her hand. A faint smile flushed across her face, but was immediately shattered as we reached a stop light. She groaned in agony before blinking back her own tears. "I need to t-tell you, ah, I need to tell you what happened," she heaved. It looked as if every word she spoke caused her pain and I shook my head. Next to me, Harry brushed her hair out of her eyes and caressed her bloody cheek. His own hands covered in her blood. "You need to rest, 'Mione," he insisted but she shook her head angrily. Her tears flowing freely. "No, you need to h-h-hear this." She persisted, and knowing Hermione, I figured she wasn't going to back down. We let her continue.

"Draco and I were sleeping in the living room. Agh- It all happened so fast. The taller mer broke f-free from the handcuffs and attacked Draco before breaking Theo free. I tried to stop them, but, Ah-but Theo attacked me and the last thing I remember is crawling towards the phone to call you,"

Ice poured into my chest and I was overcome with rage. But Harry had another thing on his mind.

"But then...... Where's Draco?"

Hermione looked up at him. Her face momentarily illuminated due to the lights lighting up the road as we continued to drive downtown to the hospital. Fear and regret swam in her eyes as tears slowly cascaded down her cheeks.

"I don't know..."

"I-I DON'T KNOW! I SWEAR!"

I was harshly thrown onto the ground into the wet sand. The ran was pouring harshly on the North Beach as two large figures loomed above me like dark shadows with glowing eyes. One's were yellow, whilst the other were an unnatural fusia. The wind tussled my hair and every so often I was forced to wipe my eyes to rid it and the aggressive rain out of my face.

"Don't lie to us, human. They were wearing clothes like yours!" The taller of the two shouted above the wind and I whimpered, attempting to sit up but failing miserably. Blood was staining my white surgeon's coat, but in the dark night it seemed like black tar. "What clothes?!" I shouted back, my voice cracking. Something somewhere on my body really hurt. "Your coat!" The mer shouted, grabbing me by my collar to lift me off the ground until my legs could no longer feel the sand.

"Where did they take her!" He spat, his eyes burning with an angry fire that made me cower involuntarily as he strung me up in the air. I began to feel as if a noose were slowly being wrapped around my throat and I choked, the rain pounding on my body like bullets. As if perfectly on cue, I cried in agony when a gunshot roared over the sound of the rain and I was dropped back into the puddle of sand, blood and water. My vision began to blur, dark spots frustrating my eyes as I tried to focus on what was happening.

Shouts, multiple of them surrounded me accompanied by the loud thundering of boots. Lightning cracked across the sky and I flinched painfully when more gunshots were fired. The crashing of the waves on the beach loomed in the background of all the havock and the last thing I caught a glimpse of before I surrendered to my blood loss was the tall dark mer. He collapsed beside me. His yellow eyes fading back to brown, rolling into the back of his head. Blood pooled around him, he took a strangled breath before the world around me went dark.