A Twist to Twilight

Chapter 15

Althea POV

We arrived safely in Durban, South Africa. We booked a hotel close to the harbour. We all decided to take a much needed rest for a few hours, it was still quite early in the day here. I phoned Paul again, but he must've been on patrol, so I sent him a message instead letting him know that I am safe and have arrived at our destination. We all ate some lunch and then we were on our way to the harbour and when we arrived, there was a boat already waiting for us. Turns out, there's this pastor here who is attuned to nature and was gifted with foresight, it's his ability and he felt a disturbance in the air. He is a little strange, 'but aren't we all?' I think.

He got us a good enough boat to travel to the stingray and a GPS with the coordinates we got from the tidal wave research. Marijke, Johan and Arniel worked together during the long flight and even now with little rest to send my conscious to the stingray I now have dubbed 'Ray Ray' that would make Emmett proud of me.

I am wearing a scuba diving wetsuit. I at least have the proper equipment this time, such as the wetsuit and an oxygen tank. Arniel, Johan and Marijke drew these symbols around my head like a crown, even on my scalp through my hair, around my wrists and ankles and a circle of them around my heart on my chest and back. I am not sure why but that's how it works apparently. They used an ink that won't be washed away by the ocean water alone. They called this 'runes'. I hid my face with a hoodie when we went out in public. On the boat, we travelled over nine miles out to sea. The closer I got, the more nervous I became. 'I don't know if I can do this'.

All I had to do was get close enough to it and the spell would activate.

We arrived at our destination.

"Are you ready?" asks Johan nervously.

"I think so" I reply just as nervously. "Are you ready as well?" I ask them.

"We believe so" he responds, nodding towards everyone else who looks nervous as well.

We discussed different scenarios in case things went wrong. If I did not succeed, and they would notice the weather changing and that shit is about to hit the fan, that they would get out as soon as possible even if it meant leaving me behind.

The spell would be active for as long as I wish it and would bring me out of its mind immediately if I put an end to it.

"I'm ready" I tell them.

I take a few deep breaths and then dive into the water. I swim down as fast as I can and then stop as soon as I spot the stingray. I float around in the water close to it. It's about fifteen meters away from me. Surrounding it are hundreds of stingrays. 'It's beautiful' I think looking around in awe. I try not to get to close to it in case it flees again and causing disturbances all around the Indian ocean. We don't need Durban, Madagascar or any other place on the coastline of the African continent to get flooded by massive tidal waves.

I have to put my right wrist across my heart to activate the spell. I do it and then nothing happened. 'Damnit!' I curse, 'I have to get closer'.

I swim a few more meters closer, nothing has happened so far. I try again. I move my right wrist towards my slow beating heart, symbols meeting symbols and the spell activates.

'Argh' I groan in my head. I look around and I'm no longer looking at the stingray, I am still under the ocean, and literally standing on the bottom of the sea, but everything looks clearer and brighter. There are so many colours around me. I turn around and there is a naked man standing there, just staring, not just any man, a grey man, meaning his skin is grey and his hair is white. My eyes widen at the sight. 'What the...?' I think.