Restless Waves

Chapter 6

When Michael felt someone lean against him, he shoved Mandy away, and she fell onto the built-in seat on the side of the boat. "This is all your fault!" he yelled over the engine. "If I never see my son again, I'll kick you over the edge, and the Thalassic Freaks can get you!"

Michael had the boat light on full blast, as well as a big torch in his hand, pointing it ahead. He was almost at the Shroud Island, clinging onto hope that his son somehow got away and dragged himself to safety. Thoughts of Rowan struggling for his life underwater made Michael sick to his stomach. He was ready to heave the content of his stomach overboard, but he wouldn't stop searching until they found Rowan, dead or alive.

"They had been hunting us. I didn't know-" Mandy stopped when Michael looked at her with a sharp stare, glazed in bitterness.

"You forced him to go. Don't you dare try and make excuses!" Michael growled and turned off the engine when he saw the seaweed coated island. "ROWAN?" he roared loud and deep. His voice echoed across the water, but nothing moved for miles. "ROWAN!"

Mandy couldn't stand for long without support and picked up a flashlight and a spear, just in case.

They searched the tiny island, and agonising sorrow started to form in Michael's stomach. He had said to Rowan to go on the hunt for his mother's sake. He should have listened to what his son really wanted. If Rowan didn't turn up alive, they were both to blame.

"He's not here!" Michael said with a hand on his head, looking around desperately.

Mandy heard the strain of grief in his voice. She knew her son wouldn't make it back alive, so she had already started searching the water for a body. Mandy's insides turned stale. She felt like a robot and looked like one. She had stopped crying and pushed her emotions to a place she couldn't reach until she was alone.

"He might have been able to reach the cliffs. Let's look there," Mandy said, not daring to speak about the odds of their son turning up alive. Michael knew in his heart that he wouldn't see Rowan alive again. His brain refused to believe it.

"Good idea." Michael turned the engine back on and steered away, being extra careful to scan the ocean all around him in case he saw someone in the water.

When it reached 2 am, Michael and Mandy were searching the beach by Mandy's home and Michael went back to the house to check if their son had returned too. Rowan hadn't. Mandy had at least hoped that they would find his body by now.

She hated herself for thinking so negatively, but she had watched the Thalassic Mortal stick his black nails into her son before dragging him off the boat. Rowan would be paralysed like the poison paralysed her. If the creature did let him go, Rowan would have most likely drowned.

Mandy wished that she could be as optimistic as Michael, but her mind was too rational. She had lost hope, and a hole formed inside of her, the one she had filled when she gave birth to her only son.

* * * * *

The rise of the sun seemed to reach Mandy and Michael too quickly. The longer they looked without finding anything, the more the sorrow festered within them.

"We'll find him," Michael muttered to himself. "He's a smart boy. He knows how to look after himself."

Every time Michael said something about their son, Mandy's lip quivered. Michael was overly positive. It was evident that he tried to cover up the part of him that was losing hope.

"Heard anything from Wez?" Michael asked, wiping a hand down his face. His skin was wet with the splash of the sea water every time the boat went over a wave.