The Fleet

Dinner was fairly painful.  Hardly anyone was talking through the entire duration of the meal, besides Mariellen and Isaac with their usual flirty banter.  The restaurant was nice and dark; sort of reminding me of Captain McGee’s back home, except this one was much more formal.  I chewed quietly on my Shrimp Scampi dinner, while the constant sound of clinking glasses and silverware, as well as civilized laughter and chatter from the restaurant surrounded our booth.

            Suddenly feeling a nudge to my left hip bone, I look over to see Owen was passing me a note written on his place mat.  When I unfolded it, I read: You + Me�"beach after?

            Butterflies filled my stomach right away.  He was taking a sip of his iced tea, but he glanced down at me and I nodded in approval.

 

After dinner, the big ball of orange that was the moon hovered over the ocean again, even though there was still a little left of the magenta and melon sky, slipping away into the indigo horizon.

            “So…” I smiled as we walked further towards the white wooden life guard chair.  “How’s it going?” How’s it going?  Did I seriously just ask that? I thought to myself in embarrassment.

            “Good, good,” he laughed a little more light-heartedly than he had been so far that day.  He ran a big hand distractedly through his chocolate brown, disheveled hair.

            The beach had a totally different vibe at night than during the day.  Much less people were there at this time, although there was a group of six or so teens running around the shore line, playfully teasing and screaming as they frolicked around.

            “I guess it’s not as peaceful as I originally thought it would be,” Owen admitted, starring off at the rowdy teens.

            “Oh, well, it’s okay.  It’s not like this is a private beach or anything,” I commented, tucking a few strands of my brown hair behind my ear as the sea breeze picked up around us.

            Owen was silent for a moment, kicking at someone’s forgotten sea shell collection on the sand.  He took a few steps away from me, closer to the shore.  There was a large drizzle castle someone had made out of wet sand beside us.  His gaze was focusing on the nearly full moon, huge and a brilliant, fiery orange in the sky, like a fruit you could just reach up and pluck for yourself.

            “Did you ever tell Brady…you know, like…the whole shebang?  Or…or did you just leave him with the small explanation my father gave him a few weeks ago?” Owen asked, still focusing his attention on the vibrant moon.  

            “No…I told you, Owen, I haven’t been talking to him at all,” I explained quickly, unbuckling my gladiator shoes and taking them off so the rushing waves could just graze over my bare feet.  It felt good. “I haven’t talked to him since I saw him in the hospital.”

            “Oh.” He reached for something inside his camouflage cargo shorts.  It was a note.  “Here, whenever you feel the time is right, you can explain everything to him with this.  I further explained the situation in greater detail.”

            With small disappointment�"I was hoping the letter was for me�"I took the note and folded it a few more times so it could fit in my cut off jean shorts’ pockets.  So far, this stroll along the moonlit beach had not been as romantic as I’d hope it would have been.

            Sighing deeply, I looked out onto the glistening dark water, and then turned back to Owen.  “If you hate Brady so much, why do you care that this is all explained to him?  I thought you would like it better if we just completely forgot about him?”

            “Trust me, I would like to,” Owen said with a disgruntled laugh. “But I don’t think we’re going to be able to just forget about him.  I have a feeling he’s going to make his presence very noticeable, very soon.”

            His voice trailed off, and then he continued. “Besides, I don’t trust him one bit with the information we gave him right now.  I don’t think he understands just how serious this all is�"if I can get the rest of this through his thick skull maybe then will he comprehend how important it is to keep our secret.” A coy little smile was spreading on his lips. “And how important it is to keep me from getting angry.”

            “Oh, you wouldn’t, Owen!” I laughed, pushing his right bicep, even though he didn’t move anywhere despite the force I inflicted on him.

            “Oh, wouldn’t I?” He teased back, grabbing each of my shoulders and playfully shaking me around, somehow still as gentle as ever. “You don’t think I’d ever get mad enough?”

            “Nope,” I said, fighting the swelling of my heart as he rocked me back and forth with that adorable white, crooked smile on his face. “I know you better than that!”

            “Well, unfortunately for him, my bite is worse than my bark,” Owen said, snapping at my face once with his teeth, still in a playful manor. “And my bark can be pretty horrible at times.”

            His face was now inches from my own, and I swore he could hear my poor little heart beating wildly out of control within my chest. “Oh, yes, I’ve experienced that myself!” I sputtered out a laugh as the tip of his nose touched my own, and he stared somewhat into my eyes, it looked like. I felt a pleasant little tingle in the tip of my nose, and then the nervous chattering took off. “But really, Owen, I don’t think you have it in you.  I don’t think you could ever kill Brady, I mean, what’s the worst he could do?  It couldn’t be bad enough for you to want to seriously hurt him, I mean, you’re so�"”

            Without warning he pulled back, starring off into the distance.         

“Do you smell that?” Owen suddenly asked, completely interrupting my blabbering.

“What?  No, I don’t smell anything,” I said in annoyance, wishing he wouldn’t have ever pulled away from me.  I failed to mention sarcastically that I smelled salty air, probably fish, and what I guessed could be sea gull droppings.  But Owen’s nostrils were flaring, like the smell was seriously bothering him.

“Hmm…” He said, his attention going straight to the group of teens again, where it rested for a minute, then came back to me. “Maybe we should head back to the house now…”

This assumption really seemed to bother me, because I wasn’t sure what he had smelled, but I obligingly left alongside him anyways.

 

By the next morning, things had blown way out of proportion, to a degree I don’t think any of us had expected.

            Well, except for me.

            When I first woke up after my dream, everything seemed too still, too silent.  However, I could hear the sound of the television coming from downstairs.  I bolted upright in bed, feeling the pain slash across my wrists once more, and ripped the covers back, flying out of my room with my black yoga pants and gray tank top still on.

 Passing Blaise and Amery’s room, I saw Blaise frantically cleaning out the drawers and closets, packing his and Amery’s things into their suitcases.  I stared for a minute in confusion, and then without saying a word, hurried the rest of the way down the stairs towards the front entrance, sprinting into the living room area.

Owen, Isaac, Mariellen, Tyler, and Amery were all sitting on the couch in the living room, starring blankly at the television screen, each looking as though they were going to jump at any minute and take off.

I listened to what the television was saying.

“Once again the victims’ names include 17-year-old Maggie Simmons, 18-year-old Ray Clark, 18-year-old Steve Burkett, 17-year-old Angie Williams, and the other two bodies have yet to be identified. The victims were discovered this morning at approximately 7:15 AM by a group of joggers running along the beach.”

The screen flashed to a middle aged woman with dark, sun tanned leathery looking skin and a yellow baseball cap which kept her hair tucked away.

“Oh, I was horrified.  At first Cathy and I believed they were victims of some freak shark attack, but looking closer, I realized these couldn’t have been wounds from a shark.  There were only two puncture wounds on each of their necks�"like bite marks, and that was mostly that.” The woman lifted her arms up as if to say, ‘I have no idea’.

The screen flashed back to the TV news broadcaster who said, “Stay with us for the latest on the Massacre at Moon Beach.”

My heart was in my throat again, and I was spacing out at the realization of what had just occurred.

“They followed us,” I gasped, starring blankly but knowing now just exactly what my dream the other night had meant.  I glanced down at my wrists, turning them over so I could see the bruises inflicted by human�"or rather vampire hands.

I must have been swaying and/or looking like I was about to pass out at any second, because Owen, knowing how prone I am to fainting, jumped up off the wicker couch and rushed to my side, grabbing my arms and setting me down at a stool by the kitchen island counter.

And then he snapped into future King Lycan mode.

“Mariellen, go pack up Tyler’s, Sophia’s and your things.  Now.  Amery, go help Blaise gather the rest of the luggage and pack it into the cars.  Isaac, you can help Mariellen, and make sure we don’t leave anything behind.  Tyler, I need you to stay here with Sophia while I get the cars all started.  We need to leave right now.”

At once, everyone ran to do their task, no questions asked.  The tiny gymnast was at my side at once, sitting at the counter with me on the stool beside me.

“I knew this was going to happen,” I declared weakly. “I just knew it.”

“And you warned us that it would,” Tyler reminded me in her raspy little voice.  “You did your job.  You did what you were supposed to do, you did as much as you could.”

Blaise and Amery came flying down the entrance stairs, each carrying two heavy bags in each hand.  Blaise kicked open the front door and marched hastily out to the red Jeep Grand Cherokee Owen had just maneuvered to the front of the house.

“You want to go sit in the car?” Tyler asked. “We’ll probably be leaving in just a minute.”

“Well, I have my own car…remember?” I objected, thinking of my teal blue Mini Cooper, paid for by the wolf pack, which I affectionately called “Little Cooper”.

“And you don’t honestly think we’re going to let you drive home by yourself, do you?” She threw back at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“No, guess not,” I said, giving up right away.

Owen was back at the doorway in less than three seconds.  “Let’s go,” Owen directed to Tyler. “Sophia, you can either ride with Mariellen and Isaac in the Jeep, or with me in the Ranger.  Blaise, Amery, and Tyler are going in your Mini Cooper.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said at once.

Mariellen and Isaac were already rushing back down the stairs with the last of the luggage and things.

“That’s everything,” Isaac informed their leader.

“Alright, let’s move out,” Owen commanded.  Tyler had swung her arm around me so fast I barely had a second to realize what was going on.  And then Owen’s hand was around my own, and we were racing towards the black Ford Ranger running out front of the house.

Blaise, Amery, and Tyler were the first to pull out in my teal Mini Cooper, and then Owen and I followed, while Isaac and Mariellen played caboose.

It was so strange how mostly everywhere else seemed so normal, like the rest of the area was not affected the least bit by the attacks.  I didn’t want to think about it, but my mind strayed to the poor families of the teens who will no longer have children�"or sisters or brothers for that matter.

After a while of swift and speedy maneuvering through the beach town, we were on the highway heading home, and Owen turned on some music in between shifting gears, I think just to calm me down.  I recognized the band as Rage Against the Machine, but the fast paced rhythm of the guitars was doing the exact opposite of calming me down.

“So what does this mean for me?” I questioned numbly from the passenger seat of Owen’s truck.  “It can’t just go back to how things were.  That obviously wasn’t working too well for us.”

“I know,” Owen said darkly. “Which means, quite simply, that we’ll just have to resort to killing them one by one.”

I must have gasped, because my sharp inhale of breath caused Owen to quickly jolt his head in my direction.

“They’ve left us with no choice,” Owen justified his response. “If they aren’t going to play nice, then we’re not going to sit here and shake our fingers at them.  It’s time for punishment, Sophia.  If they come after you again, they’re going to wish they died rather than crawled into that pathetic life form they call existence.”

“Nice,” I heard Amery’s voice comment with appreciation.  I didn’t notice it before, but his phone was sitting in his cup holder, speaker phone turned on.

“That sounds dangerous to me,” I whispered, mostly to myself as I glared out the window at the blur of passing trees. “Much more dangerous than practical.”

“It doesn’t have to sound practical to you, dear,” Owen snapped bitingly.  “But that’s the way it’s going to be.”

I leaned my head back against the car seat and sighed in exasperation, as he continued shifting gears every few moments.  “I can’t believe this happened,” I said, shaking my head slowly.  “Six deaths.  Six.  For what?  Just to scare us?”

“It was probably a mistake,” Blaise inputted over the phone, his voice coming in a little crackly.  “I’m willing to bet anything.  I bet one of them slipped up and they drank a little too much.  I doubt this was done just to scare you.”

“You think so?” I replied.

“Sounds pretty reasonable,” Owen agreed, making a hard left, following Isaac and Mariellen.  “Don’t regret anything, Sophia,” Owen said, quickly glancing my way again.  “There was no way to prevent this.  Go to sleep.  I’ll wake you when we’re home.”

Home.  What was really home for me?  No matter where I went I was never really safe, so how could I ever truly feel comfortable living anywhere?  Anywhere safe enough for me was much too far away from Owen, and that just wouldn’t do it for me.

It wasn’t until then I realize I was still in my pajamas, so I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to drift off to sleep.  The last thing I remembered was feeling something gently stroke my cheek before I was out.