Beached

3- Luca & The Mission

"I'll be right back," I enunciate. "I'm going. To get. Help."

He watches me unresponsively. I stand up slowly and back away. He follows me with his stare.

"I'll be right back," I repeat calmly. Right now I'm incredibly confused, my brain feels like it's about to short circuit. I don't know what to do. 

I run over to the neighbor's house and tap the window on the side. This all feels like a dream; a crazy, crazy dream. I hope he's awake this early. If not, he's going to me. I press my lips to the window screen.

Luca,"  I hiss. He's been my next door neighbor since we moved here. We've been friends longer. We're the type of kids that, because we chose not to be with the in-crowd, we keep to ourselves, and because we keep to ourselves, we're assumed to be braniacs.

"Luca, I need you to come outside. I'm freaking out, you're not gona believe this. Luca."

The lump on his bed stirs and he lifts his head.

"What are you doing?" he asks groggily.

"Come outside, you're not going to believe this."

"It's seven-forty five in the morning."

 "Don't be a wuss, come on."

He lays back down. "Fine. I'll be out in a minute."

I lean against his porch until he stumbles out of the house. I push off the rail. "Come on."

I jog down the beach.

"It's too early for this," he complains. "Wait, is that a guy? Who is that?"

I stop and let Luc settle at my side. I glance at him. He's staring wide eyed.

His face turns to me slowly. "Julie. There's a mermaid on our beach."

"Thank you," I retort, crossing my arms. "I didn't notice."

We stand side by side, looking down at him: the boy. He looks between me and Luca, not sure how to react.

Luc hesitantly lowers himself to a crouch. "Uhhh, Hi. What's your name?" He studies Luca, his hair bristled like an irritated dog's. "Do you speak English?"

I kneel beside him. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't speak at all." The boy looks between both of us, clearly yearning to escape.

"So... he's like... an animal."

"I don't know. I guess. But... he did this thing to me."

"What? What do you mean?"

"He touched my forehead and I saw... I think they were his memories."

Luca looks at me incredulously. "His memories?" I nod. He turns back and looks at the harpoon in the boy's... tail.

Luc runs his finger through his blond hair. "What do we do? ... Just hope he leaves? He's kind of bleeding a lot."

"First aid kit?"

"Out here? With the sand everywhere?"

"You have a better idea?"

"I don't know. What if he won't let us help him?"

"He did attack that guy."

He raises his eyebrows. "What?"

"The memory thing. I'll explain later."

"Okay," he hesitates.

I inch a little closer to the boy. "We're going to help you," I drawl, indicating to his wound. "Don't go anywhere." He looks down at the harpoon and back at me. "Yes," I agree. "We're going to try and fix it." He wraps his hand around the shaft. "I wouldn't... do that."

His muscles tense and he yanks it out.

"Ahh, not good, not good. Luca, we need the first aid kit!"

"I don't think a band aid's gona do much, Julie."

The boy looks up at me, teeth clenched in pain.

A rush of images of the mermaid girl blots out my vision. I blink them away in surprise and look at the boy.

"You want me to help you find her," I mutter.

He doesn't answer me, but something about the look in his eyes tells me the answer's yes.