Lewis drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he drove. There was a sombre mood hanging heavily over the two of them as he drove. He’d tried to have the radio on for a while, but he’d been too distracted to really listen to it. Sophie had finally twisted the dial to turn it off and he was glad that she did. The silence was suffocating, but the slightly grainy music had been worse.

He pursed his lips and kept himself steady at the wheel, but found his gaze drifting briefly to the woman he loved. Sophie was turned away from him, staring out her window silently. He could see her reflection in the glass, from her haunted gaze to her gaunt expression and pale complexion. She looked like hell. He wasn’t surprised, he felt like it too.

They’d been driving for a little over an hour now, and they’d barely spoken since they started. She didn’t seem to have the heart for chatting and he didn’t know what to say.

Her hand was curled limply in her lap, so as he redirected his gaze to the road, he reached out and twined their fingers. He gave hers a squeeze and she clenched his hand in response.

“How are you holding up?” he inquired. He stroked the bridge of her hand with his thumb and only glanced at her again when she didn’t immediately respond. “Soph?”

Sophie had her cheek pressed against the windowpane. Her eyes were closed and she swallowed heavily. “I want to go back,” she warbled. “I know we can’t, but I want to. I can’t stand not knowing they’re all alright.”

Lewis sighed and squeezed her hand again. He was tempted to pull over, but it was better they keep driving. “I know. I hate it too. But we have to choose to have faith that they’ll all be alright,” he reminded her.

“I know it’s selfish…I’m concerned for all of them, but I’m really worried about Katie. I know Riley can look after herself and Luna’s got her parents, and Nero’s not going to let anything happen to Karina. But Katie…she’s a liability to them, really. She doesn’t have anyone to stick with her-”

“She has Riley,” Lewis interrupted. “Riley was willing to throw her freedom away for Katie, for you. She won’t abandon that now. And you know that Luna would never, ever forgive her family if they forced her to leave her sister behind. Katie is surrounded by the best protection she could have at the moment. You’re feeling guilty, Soph, but there’s nothing more we could have done. And what we still can, we’re going to do.”

“I-I just…I can’t stand to think about everything that has gone wrong and that can still go wrong. They’re not safe. Katie…Riley…Luna…we, I promised to protect them, and now…The more I think about it…I can’t breathe.”

Lewis glanced over at Sophie again. She was pulling at her hair with one hand and had the other pressed to her chest. She was quivering and gasping and pale. “Should I pull over?” he suggested. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

She was silent for a moment and swallowed noisily, then he saw her shake her head out of the corner of his eye. “No. No, keep going. We have to keep going so we don’t turn around.”

Lewis chewed on his bottom lip as he drove. They were on a desolate backroad. It was the long way around to the shipping yard, but it meant fewer traffic cameras and other means of potentially tracking them, which he wanted to avoid. They hadn’t done anything wrong to be on the run from the law, but he wasn’t certain how far Lemuria’s resources stretched and figured it safest to avoid public areas altogether.

He hated the idea of leaving Sophie to her thoughts, however, since he knew she was prone to hyper-fixating, so he cleared his throat. “Do you still know Roxanne’s number?” he asked. The name left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he shoved the awkward feelings down.

“As long as she hasn’t changed it since last year, yeah,” Sophie replied. “Why?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do. Luna was right when she said that we’re the only ones who want to preserve the truth now, and they’re all right that we should spread it. Mer aren’t a secret anymore and hiding what Lemuria has done doesn’t benefit any of us. The world knows that mermaids exist, now they need to realize that the Mer are people, not pretty animals in a cage to admire.”

“What does that have to do with Roxanne?”

“We’re going to need a spokesperson. Someone well known to share the truth with the public. She’s very well known in the States especially, ever since she started acting.”

“But why would she help us?” Sophie pressed. “I tried for years to get her to come around again, but she wants nothing to do with Katie and she hates me. I don’t know how she feels about you, but she’s never called or come to visit. Why would she risk her reputation on any of us now?”

Lewis pursed her lips. It was true that their relationship with her wasn’t great. It was practically non-existent. Even back in high school, Roxanne had only tolerated him because he and Michael were buds. She was pleasant, but always in her own world.

When he and Michael drifted apart – they never fought, life just got busy and Michael and Sophie had always been the closer two friends – he stopped hearing from Roxanne altogether, hadn’t even seen her since the last time he’d been over to their house when Katie was still a baby. And Sophie had been in Roxanne’s bad books for years due to her friendship with Michael. Even before Katie was born, Roxanne had always been jealous. She never said or did anything outright, but anyone could see it; she saw Sophie as a threat to her marriage.

It wasn’t an unfounded belief. Lewis was fairly certain that if Sophie had asked Michael and Katie to stay with her, Michael would have left Roxanne. He’d loved her in high school, but stayed with her out of obligation later. They weren’t compatible. Roxanne was a workaholic who wanted to exist in the most popular social circles that she could, and she was consumed with that in her adult life. Michael was a family man who wanted kids and a happy, mundane family life.

They tried not to talk about it because it wasn’t fair, but Katie was Roxanne’s last-ditch attempt to preserve her marriage when she truly believed Michael was going to leave her. Once it became clear that he wasn’t going to cut Sophie from his life and wanted to shower all his attention on their daughter, Roxanne had lost interest in Katie entirely. Katie was only a year old when her mother went from viewing her as a necessary annoyance to a burden and a failure.

Sophie was right to believe that the woman would have no desire to help them now, but she might be their only chance. “It’s worth a try,” he sighed finally. “She’s the only one who knows us enough that she might take our word without hard proof. Whether it’s us or the Mer themselves who do it, this secret Lemuria is trying to keep is going to crack wide open eventually. It would be great for her image to be on the front of a charitable situation like this, trying to save people; children, families, a mother and her newborn, from such a terrible fate. At least there’s something in it for her.”

Sophie drummed her fingers on the side of her door and hummed. “Even if we convinced her to help, we’re still going to need proof. She could believe us and dive headfirst into the cause, but the public, news networks, activists, and especially anyone in power to make a permanent change...they’re going to need proof. They’re not going to take us at our word, even with Roxanne’s help.”

Lewis nodded. “Actually, I do have some; I just don’t have access to it right now.”

“What proof?” Sophie inquired.

“I have some video footage of you and Riley playing chess, back when she was first brought in. Back then, I was documenting some things to compare how similar Mer were to people. She was a fascinating discovery, a fully sentient creature with a culture, a society, and the capability of communicating with us directly…I wanted to have footage to validate what we were seeing, experiencing with her. I stopped recording after a while when she started coming back around more and more, felt too much like treating her like a case study than a teenager who wanted some social affection.

But I kept the footage stored on a secure online database. I used a different account than my usual and never told anyone so Lemuria shouldn’t know about it. When Katie and Luna were delivered to us, I added to it again. This time, it was meant to be a failsafe in this situation. I have them interacting with one another and Katie responding to and recognizing the identity of the human girl who supposedly died. I kept it all stored away just in case, but when keeping them hidden was the safer option, I never thought we’d need to use it. Now, I’m thinking we should,” he reported.

He glanced at Sophie and could see her mulling over what he’d said. “I want to say that I wish you’d told me, but after finding out Lemuria was listening in on me, I’m glad you didn’t. I don’t know if it will be enough, but if Lemuria puts them on display again, it won’t be hard to verify. I’m sure a few of them would brave any consequences of confirming nosy suspicions about their sentience.”

“You know Riley would,” Lewis pointed out. “I’m sure she’d even have a little fun toying with both sides while she did it. You know as well as I do that she’s never had any respect for a presumed authority. Lemuria is going to have a hard time controlling her.”

Sophie’s bark of laughter at his comment echoed through the van. It was choked and broken, but at least she’d cracked a smile. “I hope she gives them hell,” she replied with a fond shake of her head. “I hope they all do. I don’t know if it will be enough, but it’s definitely worth a try; I can’t think of anything better we could try. I’m not exactly looking forward to a show and tell session with Roxanne about it, but I’ll call her as soon as we have secure access to a phone.”

Lewis took her hand in his and held it for a moment. She squeezed his fingers and flashed him a broken smile. It hurt to see her in so much pain, but at least they had some semblance of a plan now. He didn’t like fumbling around in the dark, especially with such high stakes involved. He pulled away to return both hands to the wheel and pressed a little harder on the gas. He wanted to get out of the immediate vicinity as soon as possible.

As he drove, he could hear Sophie muttering to herself under her breath and he couldn’t help a smile. He was scared to death for Katie and Riley and the others, and for Sophie and himself, but Sophie now had a plan to focus on and she’d fixate on it, rather than their loss, for a few hours at least as she worked out as many details in her head as she could. It made him feel a little better to at least know she was distracted enough to no longer be on the brink of a meltdown. Her stress was too high to be healthy and she needed some proper rest that she wouldn’t get if she continued to fret as much as she had been.

There wasn’t much to look at on the dusty backroad they were driving down, and Lewis pulled the visor down to block the worst of the sun’s glare from his eyes, but he’d rather things be dull and calm than have anything happen. Thankfully, they were practically alone on the road. There was only one other vehicle behind them. A sleek black pickup that had turned onto the road at the last junction. It was moving pretty fast and nearly riding Lewis’ bumper, so he pulled closer to the shoulder of the road to let it pass. It would have plenty of room to go around him and no oncoming traffic to hinder the process. It was probably just some car-proud driver looking to rev the engine on an abandoned road.

“What are you doing?” Sophie inquired. She’d probably noticed him slowing down a bit.

“Just letting this truck pass us,” Lewis replied. He slowed a bit more to encourage the truck to take the opening. He didn’t like having someone on his bumper in a cargo van with reduced visibility.

It took a moment and one obnoxious beep of the truck’s horn before the driver finally took the opening Lewis had given him. It swerved out into the opposite lane and began driving alongside the van. Lewis slowed a little more. Even if there was no other traffic, it was dangerous to just be driving on the wrong side of the road, so he wanted to make certain the truck could get by as quickly as possible.

The truck started to pull ahead and then veered suddenly towards them so that the side of the passenger door bumped Lewis’ front tire. He jerked the wheel away, but they were already too close to the side of the road and the van’s opposite tires slipped off the edge. With the change in traction, the van spun and then skidded off the road entirely.

“Lewis!” Sophie cried in alarm.

Lewis slammed on the brakes reactively, but it was too late. They were off the road and sliding down the ravine on the far side, and all braking had done was throw the bulky vehicle further off balance. Lewis tried to yank the wheel, but the van flipped and he was slammed back against his seat as it began rolling down the rest of the bumpy hill. He threw an arm up to brace against the glass of his window as the world spun. Pain lanced up and down his body and he heard Sophie cry out, cutting off her previous shriek, and then she fell silent.

When the van finally thudded down, it was lying on the passenger side and Lewis’ ears were ringing. His vision was clouded over and his entire body ached. He found himself slumped sideways in his seat, barely being held in place by the seatbelt when his vision finally cleared. He groaned and shook his head before looking around.

“Sophie?” he called shakily. He glanced down. They were sideways, so she was below him. Her eyes were closed and her posture limp. There was blood sprayed over the passenger window in a grizzly spatter that made Lewis’ heart squeeze. “Sophie!” he called louder.

Panic set in when she didn’t stir. She’d hit her head and they had no phone and no way to call for help. That truck had run them off the road and Lewis didn’t anticipate the driver stopping to help them.

Lewis fumbled around trying to find the latch to his seatbelt. He had to get to her and make sure she was alright, that she didn’t have severe head trauma and that she wasn’t bleeding out. He hoped she was just knocked cold by the blow. White-hot pain shot up his one arm as he moved it and his head was spinning like a top as he fumbled, but he didn’t have time to waste on his own injuries. “Soph, please,” he begged through gritted teeth. His hands were shaking and he couldn’t release his seatbelt.

He let his head fall limp for a second as he sipped air and tried to steady his vision. He needed to check on her, and then he needed to get them some help, so he knew he had to pull himself together.

He clenched his jaw and lurched for his buckle again. He fought through the agonizing pain rushing through his arm as he did. It was already beginning to swell and he suspected he’d broken or fractured the bone. As he wrestled with the life-saving strap now holding him hostage, Lewis thought he heard the squeal of tires above. There were voices and crunching footsteps, and he hoped perhaps someone else driving by had seen their downed van. It looked like there was smoke rising from the engine, so maybe they had been noticed.

“H-help!” he called as loud as he could manage before breaking into a round of weak coughs. He was so dizzy and the dull ringing in his ears refused to dissipate. He could hear footsteps crunching closer, but before he could find out who it was, his vision clouded over, his head spun, and he passed out.