Under The Sea

Chapter Forty Seven

He didn't sleep in. The vibrations if his cellphone early that morning had woken me up, but I pretended to be asleep when he slipped from the bed; when he took the call in the hallway; when I heard him changing; when I felt him place a soft kiss to my temple. I didn't stop him because I knew it must have been urgent. The second he was out the front door, I sat up, fully awake, and completely aware of the ache in my chest that was caused by broken promises.

It wasn't so early in the morning. The clock read 6:00, and I noticed how the beginnings of the sun peeked through the cracks of the curtains and shot across the the soft carpet, like hair spread across the pillow of a sleeping beauty.

I didn't know how long I sat there for. Relaxing my mind and watching the warm strands of the sun stretch and pull as the day shifted. No one came to check up on me, but I didn't mind. I didn't mind if I was in this house alone, I liked the quiet; it reminded me of the sea. But the quiet under the sea was much different from the quiet above the sea. Under the sea, the quiet was real, but up above the sea, quiet was unreal. It was never truly there. It's always killed by a roaring in the ears, or the deafening pound of your heart. It happens with anticipation, and humans are always waiting for something, wanting something. But the merpeople were never anticipating, we lived the simplest lifestyle, without time, or structure.

It's the reason why the silence under the sea is not something that can be heard as it is above the sea.

My eyes started to droop and I drifted slowly back into that blissful darkness that came with sleep.

I felt cold lips on my neck, teeth tugging at my skin, tongues licking and sucking. Hands were on my shoulders, holding me down and lifting me closer to those ice cold lips. When I felt a hard bite on my neck, I awoke with a start, gazing fearfully around the room. But there was nothing, no one. I furrowed my eye brows, pressing fingers against the pulse at my neck, where the lips had been. It ached there from the dream.

Odd, I thought.

⏺⏺⏺

When I woke again, much later in the day, it was dusk. I thought I might hear snippets of conversation floating in from downstairs, or perhaps a tendril of the scent of the food I hoped was cooking. But I heard nothing.

Well, I heard the silence, and it was starting to make me uncomfortable.

I quit my eye rubbing and slipped from the soft sheets of the bed and padded over to the window. The sheer white curtains didn't block out much of the outside world, and the tiny bits of sun that were left in the sky cascaded my face. Looking out into the forest, I spotted camouflaged guards in the trees, their fumbled forms from afar being the only giveaway.

The trees swayed with the light wind, and leaves fell like rain from the sky. I dressed in a warm sweater and a pair of leggings, knowing that the warm summer air was long gone, and the coolness of the night was settling in. I scoured the house, checking each of the five bedrooms the house had, every bathroom, the study, the closets, the backyard, the kitchen. No one was home.

Upon peeking out of the window, I spotted a familiar raven haired boy, stationed by a tree. I opened the door and rushed toward him just as the last remnants of the sun slipped from the sky.

"James! Hey, where is everyone?" He turned towards me with the hint of a smile on his face.

"Aran is handling business at the pack house. Jacin is training with the other wolves there."

I sighed. "Alright, I'll be back." I turned heading towards the pack house to fetch my mate, but I was stopped.

"Whoa, whoa, you know you're not supposed to leave
the house, Forest."