Chapter Fourteen: Echoes of a watery grave

The breath shot out of Calin, the cold shock of the water dug into his skin. All the sound around him seemed to disappear with the plunge into the coffin. He wanted out, but his clothes acted like snake vines commanded to keep him under.

Desperate for air, he fought the battle under the water, though he soon realized it was futile, his lungs strained with the meagre breath he had attempted to take before being forced under the water.

To his relief a pair of hands came around his sides and flipped him over. Calin shot out of the water for a breath, his lungs expanding with a loud gasp with the frantic intake of breath.

Before he could disentangle himself from the water, a pair of hands pressed hard against his chest. He only had time to see it was Tyas before his body was consumed by the watery grave once more. He is drowning me!

Dim light was shining through the dark water, beckoning him to his freedom. Though, all he was privy to at the moment was the echoes of his cold prison.

There in the haze of the water, a drum beat of thuds became prominent. It became louder in his ears and he realized it was the anxious contractions of his own heart; its beat was leading the way for him in the dark liquid.

Like iron shackles clinging to his flesh, the cold started to seep into his skin. Their only purpose was to break their captive of his will and lull him into his young demise.

The heck, I’m not going to die like this! He swung his arm up, but missed Tyas and before he could land his next swing, Jerry’s blurry face came up and his hand freed Calin’s face to gulp in the sweet oxygen that was entering his lungs.

He wanted to shout at the two, why did they push me under? But as he opened his mouth, Evany’s tiny hand slipped over his mouth.

“Shh,” She whispered. “They are right outside. Tyas said the water will mask your scent. Calin why are they after you?” As she was asking this, her face came into view, her features screamed her fear and her hazel eyes pleaded for answers, but Calin didn’t have any.

After her hand left his mouth, he whispered uncertainly to her. “I don’t know…”

Evany’s eyes were downcast with worry, but he didn’t know what to say at that moment.

Something slid underneath his neck and he gladly rested his head on the piece of wood for comfort, but also to think.

At that instant his mind was a muddled confused mess with everything that had been said. His ears dipped into the water and the slower beat of his heart soothed him to relax.

***

What time went by was lost on Calin as he jerked awake, having fallen asleep. While trying to sit up, he remembered what happened and stayed down. There was a lingering worry that his body was going numb from the constant cold. Not enough for hypothermia, though eventually it might lead to that. He didn’t know how long, but he wasn’t planning on finding out.

As he turned his head he could see Evany sitting behind an old couch, its colour was a dull maroon; it could have been red once.

Her shoulders were tense, and her brow furrowed while she wrote something on a sheet of paper.

“Evany … Come here.” Calin called in a low voice.

The startled girl jerked slightly, but relaxed as she looked at him. She lowered the pen and crawled closer and sat down.

“What?” She softly asked.

Calin tried to spot the other two, but couldn’t see them.

“Where are the others?”

“I’m not sure,” she said in a whisper, “Tyas went out back to do who knows what and he sent Jerry to spray the last of that awful smelling stuff around the windows and doors.”

With a nod, he tried again to see what was going on outside his cold prison. But then Evany’s piece of paper caught his attention. He raised an eyebrow in query as he asked, “What are you writing?”

Evany’s eyes flashed before looking away from him, but she said, “It’s a um… um It’s a letter for my parents that says I’m going away for a while and stuff.”

The statement made Calin sit up. But her hand on his shoulder stopped him and made him retreat back into the water. She had known he was going to react, that much was certain. With a frown and in all seriousness, he asked, “Going where?”

The girl coughed slightly.

Calin groaned the moment she did. But she held up her hand to keep him from speaking and then said, “Tyas said we are leaving in his truck as soon as possible out of town. So... I’m leaving a um … letter, to let my parents know I’m going where I’m going.”

“Evany…” Calin said in a warning tone.

“I know… but please. It’s not like we can’t come back!”

The battle raged inside of him, but somewhere deep inside he was certain it was important to her. He shrugged finally.

“Hmm, okay fine… but do me a favour then, write a letter for me and Jerry, to Misses Talsen, tell her that for her safety … hey! What did Tyas say−”

“I said that we must leave the town,” Tyas said in a low voice from the door, “As soon as we get a gap. Calin you should send your friends home, if they go with us, they won’t be able to find their way back. This is our struggle, not theirs.”

“Ha! We can speak for ourselves, thank you very much!” Evany huffed, “And I will not stand for you insulting Jerry or my intellect. We can find our way back.”

“Yes,” Tyas said testily, “I surmised as much, but you really don’t know what you are saying in this instance. Calin can’t vouch for me because he can’t remember and I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?” Jerry asked, unconvinced.

Tyas’s eyes seemed wild for a moment before the man slumped his shoulders.

Calin didn’t know what to say either, but then Tyas said, “I just can’t… You won’t understand.”

While floating there in the water, something in his gut understood what Tyas was saying, but he didn’t know where to place it. In the end, he splashed his hand in the water to get their attention.

“Hey! Everybody relax, we are all in this together now. Let’s think about what we should do. So when we leave with your truck, where to then?”

Relief shone on Tyas’ features and he said, “I have a small cabin not far from here, but we have to cross the river at a bridge forty kilometres from here. Maybe even go towards Drave’s town for supplies, though I’m still thinking about that. That is unless you guys are up for it to go through Mesa Versee.”

“NO!” Calin exclaimed.

He didn’t want go anywhere near the ruins at that moment. Tyas raised an eyebrow at him and Calin just shook his head, not wanting to talk about what had happened there.

“Can we leave for the bridge soon?” He asked in an effort to divert the sudden interest in the ruins. Tyas glanced to the window and back at him, but his features betrayed his feelings and Calin wanted to groan as Tyas said, “No, not you, I think they are close by somewhere. I can slip out with the others, but the moment they catch your scent it’s going to be the same story all over again. I’m not going to risk that.”

Tyas leaned against the wall and continued. “I don’t want to take chances. My mom wouldn’t have been so desperate to tell me, if there wasn’t a very good reason that you in the hands of the enemy could have bad consequences. I’m thinking they might use you for blackmail or something, though, I’m really not certain. Just so I know, are you in a hurry to leave?”

Calin shot Tyas a glance, hoping he would interpret it as ‘Yes, dumbass’ but he answered anyway in a flat voice.

“What do you think? There are creatures out there who would cause town-wide panic, and they are sniffing about after me for who knows what reason... I’m starting to think there is some cruel joke in the whole situation.”

He almost sat up in his frustration, but remained down as he continued, “Not to mention, I’ve been running about all night. And the people I care for are in danger because of me it seems. On top of all that, I can’t feel my extremities anymore. It’s bloody cold in here. So think about your question again, carefully.”

The faces of the others were all turned to him. At the sight of Jerry’s mouth hanging open, Calin glared. They won’t understand.

He took a deep breath and said, “Do what you have to do, but get me out of here as soon as possible."

Strangely enough, Evany was first to speak next to him, “Calin, it will be alright.”

Calin scoffed at that, but she silenced him and said, “Shush! Stop it. It will be alright if I have anything to say about it, and if you three don’t mind, I’m going to finish those letters. Jerry Jake, you are going to help me, if you like it or not!”

“What?!” Jerry yelped as Evany grabbed his arm with force.

Even in his grim mood, Calin tried to suppress a chuckle, but finally a smile tugged at his lips as the girl dragged a complaining Jerry off to the next room.

To his surprise, Tyas stayed behind and sat down on the stone floor with his back against the casket. The man rubbed his hand through his black hair and lowered his head between his arms.

Calin lifted his head a bit to look at Tyas. There was something about the man that seemed out of place. Tyas didn’t act or speak like any other person Calin had ever seen before. He must be from overseas. My family must have done something to anger some foreign mafia or something. I wonder how he got caught up in this. The thought made him wonder what conspiracies were hidden in the world of 2020. Small villages never get the full gist of what’s going on.

Then, Calin took a breath and asked. “Do we really have to leave?”

After a few moments of silence, Tyas sighed.

“Yes,” He said, “And when I said you should send your friends home, I really mean it. Calin... We are different you and I. We don’t belong here, we never did. That’s why we need to leave, and the dangers we face now are just part of the reason. I wish you could remember, because if you did, you would make sure your friends let us go on alone.”

Calin clenched the side of his wet clothes, perplexed at the riddles of the man. He wanted to tongue lash Tyas, but something about how he had said it made Calin say, “I don’t understand what you mean? I am perfectl− I was perfectly happy in this town before those things showed up and crashed my world.”

Tyas scoffed and turned to him, gripping the wooden edge, Calin glared.

“You would say that,” Tyas said, “But argue with me, something in you always was curious what life would have been like had your parents not disappeared?”

His shoulders twitched at the words, and he desperately tried to hide those exact feelings, but something must have showed on his face as Tyas said,

“Don’t deny it. I see it clearly on your face. Let me be perfectly honest with you, I’m helping you only because my Mom begged me to, and because together we can find our true families.”

Tyas sighed loudly, the man looked away from Calin before continuing, “Or in my case just my father, but I have to say my mom’s dying wish was that I find you before those men and their creatures found you. She wouldn’t have made that request lightly, so I’ll honour it by trying to get you back to where we belong.”

The notion made Calin sink deeper into the water. Tyas was a very mysterious man and a lot of things bugged Calin, but there were clear signs that Tyas was honour bound.

Honour, not something people have these days. Calin pondered for a moment longer, before he shrugged.

“Thank you for helping me Tyas, I understand your loss. So I’m going to do all I can alongside you so we can find our families, I’ll even accompany you where you want to go, but I need to know why?”

Tyas looked at him questioningly for an instant, but then inclined his head at him, so Calin asked, “But tell me something, did my family anger someone high enough up that they decided to send those people and their creatures sniffing after me?”

The look on the face of Tyas was enough for Calin to know he couldn’t say anything or maybe didn’t know the answer. It was truly frustrating.

He wanted to disappear back into the water, but finally Tyas said, “Calin... I know what you’re thinking, but I think it’s more to do with something they want from your family. Your dad hid you away for a reason. That much I’m certain of.”

The answer was more like an evasion. With a glare at the man, Calin said,

“Seriously? Is that your answer? I’m an orphan, Tyas, as much as I want to believe my family hid me away with good intentions, they still left me, to fend for myself. There is nothing these other people can take from me that belongs to me, because I have nothing. All I have is my friends and if they think they can use me as leverage against my father. Well, I think you’d find that my family wouldn’t even recognize me.”

Half of those things were said out of anger, but he believed it at that moment.

The tension in the room became tangible. He looked away, angry at what he couldn’t really place, but angry nonetheless.

Then there came a resigned sigh from the man. “Calin... I know things might seem chaotic and unfair.”

Calin shot him a ‘you think’ look, but the man ignored him as he continued, “Try to understand, my hands are tied, I only know so much and all I want is to find my father, and yes I understand your being angry at being abandoned, but wouldn’t it bring you peace to go find your parents and discover the reasons we are where we are today?”

Calin made firsts under the water, heat flowing into his taut knuckles for a brief moment. It was hard for him to deny the fact even though he really wanted to, but in the end he nodded and his fists eased open.

The decision was made, and it brought him some calm even if just a little bit. He was leaving this town to go find that which was denied to him so long. Yet the guilt for thinking of leaving Misses Talsen started to tug at him. But what Tyas had alluded to was true. First, his presence in the town was endangering the people he loved. No, it was endangering the whole of Lamb’s Crest.

But it was more than that, something deep down had always felt out of place, like he was meant to be somewhere else.

But Calin shook it away as Tyas inclined his head at him. The man got up and moved to the door.

Just before leaving the room Tyas spoke over his shoulder.

“Stay in the water. I’m going to sneak out and see what is going on. And, seeing that your friend Evany is so obsessed with following us, I’ll take her to deliver the letters and maybe get some of her things from her house after. She is foolish, but I won’t say anything... yet.”

Before Calin could protest, Tyas stated, “Don’t forget. They are looking for you specifically. Me and your friends, well, they will keep to the shadows unless they spot you, if they do however, they will throw caution to the wind to take shots at you. So don’t do anything stupid. We will be back soon.”

With that, the man left.

Calin shot up onto his knees in the water, his clothes heavy on him as he tried to shout out after Tyas.

“Wait! Are you crazy?!”

But no reply was forthcoming and he flopped back into the water.

In the pressing silence, he tried to hum a song to calm his nerves, but it did everything but calm him as he imagined all the horrible ways the errand could go wrong.

So much for peace, He grumbled under his breath. “Doing something stupid? Ha! They are so thick! Who in their right minds would go out with things like that outside, not me oh no, but what does Calin know?”

A stormy mood settled over him again as the truck’s engine started out back. It rumbled away down the street until it faded away into the distant sound of breaking waves.

For a moment he wondered why they get to be so lucky to move about so freely with those creatures lurking about when he was stuck in a warmth forsaken casket.

The frustration of waiting for the others to return, if they would return, was gnawing on his nerves. It was because of it that he decided then and there that when they got back he was going to get out no matter what they say. He wanted to leave now.

After a bout of angry grumblings and trying to sabotage the casket, he started to wonder which continent housed his family. Were they across the Atlantic Ocean, or the Indian Ocean?

I’m going to find them.

With that in mind, he closed his eyes and imagined what he would do to find his parents.

After a while, the beat of his heart slowly started to lull him back to sleep. No matter what... the last thought formed before he drifted off.