The Sea Taketh (Alex Singer) (39 page)

We are talking in the kitchen when Frank and Maggie join us.

“Sven, what exactly are your intentions concerning my daughter?” Frank asks seriously while taking a seat.

“Dad, could you be any more embarrassing?” Jen says, her face going red.

“It’s my job to be embarrassing. I have every right to know how serious this thing is.”

“I’m going to marry her,” Sven answers, unashamed.

“After college? In ten years?”

“In June, as soon as she turns eighteen.”

“No, you won’t…” Maggie begins.

Frank holds up a hand. “I realize your family has some means, but an eighteen-year-old doesn’t make enough money to support himself and a wife. How do you suggest that you put food on the table without going to college?”

“I have gone to college, and I have a very stable and well-paying job,” Sven says. “Jen will be well cared for.”

Frank chuckles to himself. “I’m being serious.”

Sven looks at Jen. She nods.

“Mom, Dad, don’t freak out,” she says. “
But Sven is a lot older than me – and you.”

“Let me guess, he’s a vampire!”Frank starts laughing hysterically at his own joke. He stops when he realizes that he is the only one laughing.

“No, I’m a merman,” Sven lifts up one of his hands and takes off the glove. He opens his webbed fingers.

“Good one, Jen!” Frank pats his daughter’s back. “This is the best practical joke you’ve ever played.”

“It’s not a joke,” Gramps says from the corner. “Sven, Henrik, Christian, and Sonia are merfolk.  Sven, show him your feet.”

He complies and pulls off his shoes and socks.

Frank’s face pales. The visual evidence is compelling, but Gramps’ testimony is indisputable. He’s very well respected in the community and by the Marshes.

Maggie looks like she’s going to faint. Frank sits her on his lap.

“Mom and Dad, it’s not that big of deal,” Jen says. “Sven just swims really fast and eats tons of fish.”

“A merman wants to marry my daughter?” Maggie shakes her head. “Where would you live?”

“I suspect in the ocean,” Gramps answers.

“Yes, I have a very beautiful home in the Atlantic,” Sven says. “We would come for visits but live in the ocean.”

“But she’s human?”

“There are ways around that.”

“Jenifer, don’t tell me that you’re actually considering this?” Frank says to his daughter.

“Dad, I’m going to marry Sven.”

“But you’ll be alone!” Maggie says frantically.

“I’ll have Sven and our friends.”

“You’ll be the only human!”

“No, Alexandra will be there, also,” Christian says in his normal, tranquil voice. “She has agreed to become my wife.”

“And you’re actually allowing this?” Frank asks Gramps.

“Of course, Alex has found a guy that I respect. He can give her things I can only dream of, and, most importantly, I know they will make each other happy.”

“These girls aren’t even eighteen!” Maggie is bordering on hysteria.

“Because we’re immortal, our relationships are very different from yours,” Henrik inte
rjects. “Sonia and I were engaged for many years before we were married. Both Jen and Alex will have the time they need before they marry.”

“How can a merman earn the money necessary to care for a wife?”Frank shakes his head. “Jen doesn’t like seafood enough to eat it all the time.”

“I work in law enforcement,” Sven says. “And I will buy Jen whatever she wants to eat.”

“What exactly do you do?”Frank questioned.

Sven looks at Christian. Christian nods.

“I serve as a bodyguard to the Atlantic High Prince,” he answers.

“Who?” asks Maggie.

“Me,” Christian answers.

He takes off his gloves and holds his hands in front of his body, showing his webbed fingers.

“
Is there any leftover shrimp pizza?” Christian asks as he put his gloves back on.

“I’ll get you some.” Jen goes to the fridge.

Maggie and Frank are speechless.

Hypothesis #12
– The Marshes want to lock Jen in her room until she’s forty.

“It’s midnight in thirty seconds,” Gramps says from his corner.

The merfolk begin counting down. When the clock strikes midnight, Christian kisses me. I suspect the New Year will prove to be life-changing.

*     *     *

The merfolk wait for Gramps and I to go inside and lock the door before they cross the street to Marjory’s. Gramps crashes on his bed as I brush my teeth and wash my face. When I walk into my room, I immediately sense something isn’t right. I look around the room, and find nothing out of place other than my closet door is shut, and I usually keep it open for convenience sake. Thinking one of the workmen must have shut it while they installed the security system. I cross the room to open it, only I don’t remember it being closed while I was changing for the party. As I open the door, it takes a second for my mind to comprehend what my eyes are seeing.

             
I open my mouth and scream.

             
Gramps comes running. He swears when he sees the contents of the closet. Two large dogs and three cats are swinging from nooses made from my bikini tops. Each of the animals has been shot between the eyes, and their throats sliced. At the bottom of my closest is every bikini that I own, drenched in a pool of blood. Using that same blood, a message has written to me on the inside of the door. It says,

             
            
 
Alex, you’re next!
                          
 ♥
Phillip

            
 
“He’s been in her room!” Gramps screams into his cell phone. “The security system was on, and he got in any way!”

Refer to Fact #12
- Philip Baskle is a dangerous man.

             
Seconds later, the front door flies open and three furious mermen and one furious mermaid storm into the house. They take a look at Phillip’s message and immediately get to work. Henrik pulls out his phone and calls the F.B.I. Christian wraps his arms around me and directs me from the house. Sven and Sonia follow closely behind us as we cross the street to Marjory’s.

             
“Christian, he could have hurt Gramps,” I say still in shock as we go into the house.

             
“If he would have thought he could get close enough to you or Thomas, he would have done so. This little stunt is just a reminder to us that he’s still on the hunt,” Christian locks the door behind us.

             
“I can’t go back there,” I whisper, trembling. “First the kidnapping, and now this, he’s made me frightened of my own home.”

             
“I wouldn’t think of sending you back with the way things are. We have ample room here.” Christian directs me up the staircase and to the bedroom next to his. He opens the door.
“You will stay here until that fiend is caught. Thomas will be placed in the room next to you”

             
“I’ll ready the room,” Sonia says, following me into the bedroom.

             
“And I will find out what the FBI’s plans are. Sonia, don’t leave the house. We will turn on the security system as we leave.”

             
“But he outsmarted our system…” I begin to object.

             
“Yes, but yours is a human security system, ours isn’t. He can’t outsmart this one,” Sven says.

             
“Are you sure?” I ask.

             
He nods. “Only a handful of mermen know the code, and, if it’s triggered, an army of merfolk will come immediately here. Triggering the alarm would be the last thing Philip would ever do. Merfolk have a very low tolerance for murdering humans,” Sven spits.

*     *     *

It is nearly noon by the time the FBI clears out. Gramps looks exhausted as he slumps into a Victorian chair.

             
“Do they have any leads?”I ask.

             
“They know everything there is to know about Philip Baskle: where he grew up, his high school grades, even the name of his first girlfriend.”

             
“But they don’t know where he is,” I fill in.

             
He shakes his head. “As far as they’re concerned, he’s fallen off the face of the earth. His finger prints and DNA were all over your room, but they have no idea where he went afterward.”

             
Christian shoots Gramps a warning look as if he’s trying to protect me from the bad news. “Don’t worry, sooner or later, he’ll crawl out from under the rock he’s hiding under.”

15

Prey

Walking carefully on the icy sidewalk, I tightly hold onto the railing. March has brought wind and more snow. My boots slide around on the steps, but I hold tight, making it up the stairs. I shiver uncontrollably. Heaving open the door, I walk into the school. It’s still lunch hour, and students are loitering in the hallways.

             
“What did the doctor say?” Christian meets me at the door. I cover my face with my scarf.

             
“She has strep,” Gramps answers, walking into the school behind me. He shakes snow off his hat.

             
“Why are you two here when she should be in bed?” He moves my hat so that it covers my ears.

             
“I need to let the office know that Alex will be missing school, and she wanted to pick up her school books.”

             
“I’ll get the books,” Jen says, heading down the hall.

             
“And I will escort Alexandra to your truck.” Christian puts an arm around my shoulders and directs me to the door. Henrik and Sven follow closely behind him.

             
“I can’t wait until we’re married,” he says as we walk into the cold. “You will receive much better healthcare than you do here.”

             
A car door slams. Jackson storms by while glaring ominously at Christian.

             
“C -Christian,” I reprimand, shivering all the way to the truck. “You j-just announced our engagement to J-Jackson and insulted his f-family at the s-same t-time.”

             
“The human needs to learn to deal with the truth,” he says, pulling out a key and unlocks the truck. He immediately starts the engine and turns on the heater. His bodyguards wait outside.

“That s-settles it, you are t-totally his golden boy,” I stutter. “I d-don’t even have a key to the F
-Ford.”

             
“Thomas thought it would be wise if someone else had a key to his truck,” says Christian, innocently, as he returns his arm around me.

             
“It’s probably not a good idea for you to hang around me. I’m very contagious.” I move away from him.

             
“Alexandra, I’m a merman. I can’t be infected by human illnesses.  Small pox, polio, and even the common cold are completely powerless against my immortality.”

             
I ask, “What about Sven and Henrik checking your food for poison?”

             
“Simply a precaution to help me avoid discomfort,” he answers. “I can swim with the most poisonous marine life and never have to worry about toxins.”

             
“Then why have you been avoiding me?”

He retakes his place next to me. “The only reason I’ve kept my distance the past couple days is because you don’t feel well, and I’ve been mediating a dispute between the Black and Aegean territories.”

              “Oh, I thought you were afraid of catching my cooties.”

             
He laughs and gently kisses my lips.

“Not at all,” he says.

              Gramps opens the driver’s side door.

             
“No school for the rest of the week,” Gramps says as he replaces Christian in the driver’s seat.

             
“I think I feel strep throat coming on,” Christian says.

             
“But I thought…?”

             
He laughs. “It’s the perfect excuse to take some time off from school. Everyone knows we are dating and wouldn’t suspect a thing if I were to come down with strep, too.”

             
“What about Sonia, Henrik, and Sven?”

             
“Nasty stomach bug, I’ve already been excused,” Sonia says, opening the door and sliding in next to me. “Christian will come down with strep after school and the guys will have the stomach bug before breakfast.”

             
“Poor Jen,” I say, shaking my head.

             
“Oh, she’s mad as a frenzying shark, but Sven promised her that she could drive the Hummer if she picks up our homework for the rest of the week.”

             
“Why can’t I drive the Hummer?” I ask, pulling my coat tighter.

             
“Because you have strep,” Gramps answers, bluntly.

*     *     *

Cool dew kisses my feet as I walk along an overgrown path. I carefully navigate the path, stepping over moss-covered logs. I look around the forest, surprised at the number of fallen trees. Once beautiful evergreens have been left to decay in peace, fertilizing a nonexistent forest. I lovingly caress the soft moss on each log as I walk. So consumed with honoring each tree, it takes me several minutes to notice the sole occupant of the forest, a small fir struggling to grow amid the fallen trees. I reach out my hand and stroke the soft needles. Immediately pulling back my hand, I scream. Blood streams from the little tree, having stained my hand. I continue screaming while blood drips from the fir’s branches.

             
I suck in several deep breaths, opening my eyes. The forest of death has disappeared, being replaced by a Victorian bedroom. I sit up, trying to calm myself. My dream has disturbed me because I know exactly what it was about. Instead of dreaming about my own death, I have dreamt about Christian’s. Evergreens symbolize immortality, and I realize Christian was the little fir tree, struggling for life in a world of mortality.

             
Ever since we returned from Denmark, fear of my own death has disappeared, being replaced by the fear of losing my loved ones. Instead of just dreaming about drowning in the ocean, I have vivid dreams about those that I love dying. I worry that Philip will go after Gramps, Christian, or Jen if he can’t reach me. It is a consuming, terrifying fear.

             
I take several more deep breaths to calm myself and notice a flurry of activity going on in the parlor beneath me. I hear raised voices but can’t discern what they’re saying through the thick floor. I wrap a thick blanket around myself and head out the door to find out what’s going on.

             
“I want all evidence of this erased before Alexandra is well,” Christian’s voice echoes from the parlor.

             
“That shouldn’t be a problem. It’ll be a few days before she’s well enough to go out,” answers Gramps. “The doctor said she will need complete bed rest for three days. She said that Alex is showing all the signs of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and that is the reason she is so run down and was susceptible to strep. I’m going to need your help.”

             
“You know I don’t like it when you guys talk about me like I’m your puppy,” I say as I walk into the parlor.

I gasp at what I see.

“WHAT HAPPENED?” I scream.

             
“It looks a lot worse than it actually is,” Christian reassures me from a chair. Marjory is stitching up a huge gash on his head. He’s covered in bruises and cuts. Henrik has the same sort of wounds all over his body. Sven, too, is covered in cuts and bruises, and his right leg is very swollen.

             
“I’M GOING TO STRANGLE HIM!” Jen’s voice echoes in the foyer a moment before she strides into the room.

             
“Do you know what’s going on?” I ask her.

             
She inspects Sven, pursing her lips. “Yeah, I know what’s going on. Jackson
purposefully
crashed his father’s truck into them! He better go into hiding because not even the Witness Protection Agency will be able to stop me from kicking his butt!”

             
“Jackson has received his punishment,” Christian says, picking glass out of his sweater. “He broke both legs and ruptured his spleen. He’s going to be in a lot of pain and a wheelchair for a considerable amount of time.”

             
“And that’s before Bjorn gets a hold of him,” Henrik says while Sonia washes blood off his arm. “This is the straw that broke the camel’s back. There was a parking lot full of students who witnessed him speeding down the street, flipping us off before impact. He is in an enormous amount of trouble.”

             
“I think we should call Ana to check on you,” I say.

             
“No, we’ll be fine. We’re just glad none of our girls were with us at the time,” Sven says as he painfully moves his leg.

             
“Of course we weren’t with you.” Jen grabs a comb and begins combing the broken glass out of his hair. “He would never risk Alex’s life. He may be a total jerk, but he still loves her. I saw him leave school after Alex and Tom, but I never could have guessed that he would do something so stupid!”

             
“I’m afraid I pushed him too far this morning,” Christian says. “He overheard me talking about Alexandra’s and my engagement.”

             
I bite my tongue to keep from chewing him out. Christian has already been punished for his thoughtlessness.

             
Marjory finishes stitching up his head.

             
“Thank you, Marjory,” he says as he stands. “I believe Sven’s leg is the next priority.”

             
“Yes, yes,” she says, moving to inspect his leg.

             
“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” I comment, looking at Christian’s blood saturated locks.

             
“Head wounds always bleed profusely. I assure you, I’m perfectly fine,” he says.

             
“Yeah, you look fine,” I say, sarcastically. A large bruise is darkening on his shoulder where his seatbelt had been.

             
“I will look much better after a shower.” He kisses my forehead. “You are still very warm. You should go back to bed.”

             
He ascends the staircase and disappears into his room.

             
While Gramps, Jen, Marjory, Sonia, Henrik, and Sven are busy in the parlor, I quietly take the spare key to the convertible from a candy dish. I slip on my boots and coat before going out the door.

             
After my disturbing dreams of the past three months, seeing Christian covered in blood has jarred me. He may be immortal, but he’s not indestructible. This thought is scarier than anything Philip has done to me.

             
When I arrive at the scene of the accident, Officer Smith is overseeing a couple tow trucks. I park on the side of the road and watch as the Powers’ truck is towed away. The front end is totally smashed. Jackson must have been really speeding to inflict that kind of damage on the huge vehicle.

             
After the truck is moved, I get my first glance of the Hummer. What I see makes me nauseous. The car is completely smashed. The Hummer was crushed between Jackson’s truck and a telephone pole. I stare in disbelief. There is no way the guys should have survived the accident, let alone walk away from it. I hold tightly to the steering wheel to keep my hands from trembling.

             
A knock on my window makes me jump. Officer Smith gestures for me to roll it down.

“Am I in the way?” I ask

              “No, but I was told that you are sick?” he says.

             
“I have strep. I just came to see…” I point at the destroyed Hummer.

             
“The Pedersens are three very lucky guys. With their minor injuries, I thought they had been driving the truck. When I arrived on the scene, they were putting pressure on Jackson’s wounds.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know what in the hell that kid was thinking! I thought he’d learned his lesson the first time.”

             
“Is he going to be all right?”

             
He shrugs his shoulders. “He’s in surgery at the moment, and he’ll be there for several hours. With a couple compound fractures and internal bleeding, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him.”

*     *     *

Gramps is getting into his truck when I pull into Marjory’s garage. He sees me and slams the old Ford’s door. I wrap my coat tightly around my body as I get out of the car.

             
“Sonia and Jen are searching the village for you,” he says, gruffly.

             
“I had to see,” I answer.

             
“Alex, you can’t go off on your own like this. Philip is just waiting for his chance to find you alone, and you’re sick on top of everything else.”

             
“I know, I feel terrible, but I had to go…” My teeth are chattering. The world starts spinning around me. I struggle to stay upright. “Gramps, I’m think I’m going to faint.”