Under the Ocean Waves

Shock reverberated throughout the entire room, and no one really knew what to say. Besides the sound of the entire room going up in smoke, they could hear Danny laughing in the background.

“Matty, is this true?! What did you know?” Kellin whipped around to stare at his friend, who looked just as shocked as they others.

“Y-You… You never mentioned that you thought that Spencer was after you… He was the one protecting you from Danny because I asked him too! I didn’t want you to worry!” Matty’s eyes were wide as more and more of what was happening made sense to him.

The others were about to answer, but a sudden blast of heat and flame came from behind them and everyone hit the ground with a startled cry as Danny attacked again. “You’re a fool, Matty, you always have been,” Danny taunted. “Thinking you can shield your little friend from everything. Well, Kellin, here’s the truth - Sirens and humans simply don’t belong together, and humans shouldn’t know as much as you do,” he said, looking at Vic. “Hence the near-death experiences that that asshole kept thwarting.”

“I-I don’t…” Vic stuttered, clutching Kellin’s hand.

“Shut up,” Danny spat, blasting them all again with a blaze of fire that Spencer once again blocked.

“You’re going to have to get through me if you want to get to them,” said Spencer, moving forward. Vic noticed he was floating; it appeared as if a cloud of fire was carrying him over towards the other warlock.

Just then Vic felt Matty’s hand on his shoulder and saw him put his other hand on Kellin’s. “Stay down, they’re going to fight it out and I don’t know if you noticed but we can’t exactly run,” he said, glancing towards the fire circling the room.

“I think you have a lot of explaining to do, Matty,” said Kellin, frowning at his best friend and reaching out to take Vic’s hand again. “Why is Danny doing this?”

“Because he fucking hates humans. Where do you think Alaina got the necklaces hanging around your necks that I gave you?” Matty snarled, frowning as a blue fireball flew overhead.

When neither of them answered he continued, “Warlocks. And Warlocks talk to each other.”

Vic frowned and shook his head; this was too much for him to comprehend! Just how many non-human beings were there in the world? After all the time he’d spent with Kellin he wasn’t going to not believe what he was hearing. Understanding, however, was a different story. Why would someone have a problem with humans? What the hell had they ever done?

He was about to ask, but the booming of the battling Warlocks was growing louder. It was as if their powers were completely matched. They could hardly see the two bodies fighting it out through the blaze of blue and orange.

“Is there any way we can help?!” Vic asked, turning his head to Matty. The red-headed siren shrugged and shook his head, looking at the battle with fear in his eyes. Sirens, which were creatures of the sea, were obviously a lot less comfortable around fire. Vic quickly turned to look at Kellin, who looked horrified and began to shake as another blast of fire went over his head, nearly hitting the group laying on the floor.

It was probably one of the more scarier moments of any of their lives, save for Spencer and Danny who made it seem like they had fighting each other down to a science. They spat insults and taunts at each other every which way, letting Vic know that they were very familiar with each other.

Suddenly Danny let out a scream, and all thoughts of anything but safety left Vic’s mind. A blast that could of engulfed the entire town erupted from the Warlock’s hands. Spencer raised his arms and contained the flames with that same sort of orange shield; but it was clear to them that it took tons of effort on his part.

“Matty,” Spencer muttered through gritted teeth. “I’m going to open up a wall in his fence. Take them, and get the fuck out of here.”

Matty nodded and moved to get up. Once his attack had ended, Danny relaxed his body and glared at all of them through angry eyes. He was breathing heavily, as was Spencer. Vic felt Matty grab the back of his shirt and knew he was grabbing Kellin the same way because the next second he felt himself being tugged away.

“No!” Danny shouted when he saw what Matty was trying to do, but it was too late. Spance stood in front of him and for a moment, the orange flames were parted by a guard of blue, creating a gap that the three skinny bodies quickly slipped through.

Now that they were out of direct contact with the flames, Vic noticed how much cooler it was in the main room of the store than the back. He took a deep breath and looked back, but he was dragged away from the scene.

“Come on!” Matty yelled at him, tugging the human and the other siren out of the building completely.

“Matty, what the fuck is going on?!” Kellin shouted once they were out of the store. They could steal hear the blasts and bangs from inside, making them all glance around in fear to see if any other humans had noticed the ruckus.

The last thing they needed was the police showing up; although Vic wasn’t sure of the exact power that the warlocks held. He recalled the time he was nearly hit by a car - the driver was completely disoriented, and now, Vic knew, that was because of whatever Danny had done to him.

Matty let out a deep breath and hung his head, leaning against Vic’s car. He looked up when he heard a crash from inside, although it was muffled. “Danny wants you dead, Vic,” he admitted finally.

“Why?” Vic asked. What the hell could the scrawny human have done to piss off such a powerful creature? “What did I ever do to him?”

“Danny is old, isn’t he?” Kellin piped up quietly. He looked Matty dead in the eyes, and Vic figured he was about to have another history lesson.

As if reading Kellin’s thoughts, Matty nodded his head. “Yeah. He’s from those times. Spencer is a bit younger.”

“Care to explain?” Vic asked, crossing his arms and looking between both sirens with growing impatience. It was like he was shutting off his emotions. On the inside, he was freaking out. His friend was dead and the store that he’d worked at for years with said friend was being gutted as they spoke, by two magical beings, none the less.

Sighing deeply, Matty ran a hand through his hair. “A long ass mother fucking time ago, you humans actually knew about us. Like, hundreds of years ago, I guess. I don’t know. Sirens don’t live as long as other inhuman creatures. But you knew about warlocks and sirens and vampires and werewolves, and pixies and ghosts, and well.. whatever other creatures there are that I’ve forgotten about. You knew about them.”

“Why did we stop knowing about them?” asked Vic, cutting in to Matty’s explanation.

“Because you couldn’t accept us,” Kellin answered, not meeting his eyes. “Because humans couldn’t accept those that were different from them.”

It wasn’t very surprising to Vic. He could only think of the amount of racism and hate-crimes still found in the world. He nodded his head sadly, wondering what his kind had done in order to be dropped from this world of other creatures.

“So the warlocks and witches brainwashed everyone with a memory of us,” Matty continued. “Because of the peace that you had tried to break so many times, just because you didn’t like us, or were jealous, or well… we don’t even know. I don’t know, an old siren was the one that told me.”

An awful feeling sank in to the human’s chest as he heard Matty’s words. He’d never been so disgusted in his species in his entire life. The wonderfulness that they’d been blocked out of! He only considered himself even more lucky for having Kellin in his life now and he glanced over at the siren with nothing but admiration and affection in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Vic said finally, dipping his head to will Matty to continue speaking. “So is that why Danny is after me?”

“Yes,” answered Matty, nodding his head. “Danny was alive during all of that. Young, but alive, none the less. So I guess you could say he still harbors a lot of hatred towards your kind. Spencer on the other hand, is younger, and he doesn’t remember any of that. Really, most of us ‘mythical creatures’, as you would call us, don’t have much of an issue with humans… although we do remain in hiding from you.”

Kellin cleared his throat and stepped closer to Vic. “There are loads of us walking around that you don’t even notice. Although, we mostly have the ability to notice each other… but as you know, I guess its not always accurate.”

“Sirens are a more reserved species,” Matty continued on from Kellin’s outburst. “Mostly because we’re confined to the ocean all the time, except for one day a month, and most of us choose to stay under the water for that time as it is… unless, of course, you’ve got a necklace like the one hanging around your neck. And that, my friend, was made by a warlock. Alaina must have got her hands on it during a trip to the surface.”

Vic nodded and found himself reaching up his neck to wrap his fingers around the pendant - his key to always being with Kellin. He recalled Alaina’s name being mentioned a long time ago by Kellin or Matty, although he had never met her. She must be a curious character, however, if she was friends with warlocks that gave her things like this.

“So Danny hates me because I’m a human that knows about your lot,” Vic concluded. The other two nodded. “Well, that’s stupid,” Vic spat, staring at the ground and kicking some dust. It wasn’t fair; Danny was grouping him together with humans from hundreds of years ago!

“And Spencer is a friend of mine that happens to agree with that, which is why a lot of warlocks hate him. Regardless, he agreed to defend you from Danny,” said Matty.

Sighing, Vic reached over to take Kellin’s hand and squeeze it. He’d found a lot of comfort in just touching the siren lately today. It brought on a sort of calming effect inside of his heart. “Well,” he started, “What can we do to help him out inside then?”

Matty grinned and tilted his head up to stare at the sky. “Nothing, really. Unless you want to go through the struggle of finding other sirens or warlocks willing to side with you, which we clearly don’t have time for. And I don’t want either of you to fight… especially since sirens are no match for a warlock. Hence why there’s such a great peace between the two.”

Another huge, loud bang was heard inside, making the three of them jump. Whatever was going on in there, it sounded deep, and it sounded dangerous. Silently, however, with a single look, the human and the sirens all knew that they probably had to get involved one way or another.

Vic certainly wasn’t about to let someone else - namely, Spencer - get hurt because of him.