Under the Ocean Waves

As Vic’s eyes closed, he could feel the ocean of bed sheets practically pulling him down under and covering his entire body. His mind was drifting away out to see and the smell of salt water filled his nose. The sensation of his limbs floating and finally sinking consumed him as a strange, unexpected warmth spread throughout him. Was this what drowning felt like? Images of waves and water appeared, but he was beneath them, looking out at the top of water which seemed to be the sky of the ocean. Suddenly he felt arms wrapping around his back that were icy cold and the water went frigid. Everything was getting so dark and he started thrashing around, trying to get back to the surface.

“Where are you?”

A chilling voice rang through the water oddly, sending shivers down Vic’s back.

“Where did you go?!”

The voice was so achingly familiar but no matter how hard Vic tried to put his finger on it, he couldn’t pin it down. It was so distant and so muffled that he couldn’t make it out to be anything, and yet it haunted him and made goosebumps crawl up his skin.

“I can’t find you…”

Vic wanted to cry out, to tell the speaker that he was there, but water filled his mouth, disabling his ability to talk. It poured down his throat, burning his neck and suddenly everything was painful and just as he heard a scream from the distant voice, his eyes opened.

He was lying in bed, the sheets thrown off of him. He took a long, deep breath trying to get rid of the ember of fear that had been burning in his throat for God knows how long. “Good God,” he whispered, sitting up and looking out the window. Early morning light. It had all been a dream. A dark, terrible dream - but still, that voice still haunted his ears in his waking. Sighing, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood, cracking his back in the process as he tried to shake the feeling of the vivid nightmare. A crick in his neck had came in the night, starting off Vic’s already awful-feeling morning that would continue its awfulness as he went to the bathroom to start getting ready for work at the local music shop he worked at.

Mike and Jaime, his brother and friend and also room mates were still asleep by the time Vic was pulling out of their driveway. Along the way he had to go somewhat near the beach; but Vic changed his route so that he could drive directly past it and look out at the water. Kellin was out there somewhere - he’s strange, freaky new friend. Do Sirens sleep? Do they eat? And where does he live? Everything was so strange and weird sounding to Vic and he found himself wanting to know absolutely everything that he could and that was why his job was going to take for-fucking-ever today.

—

Of course, Kellin had no way of keeping track of the time other than the shafts of light that stabbed their way under the surface of the water. So he waited until the sun had traveled behind him and then went closer to the surface to watch for Vic from where he was. “Going to see him again?” came a voice behind him. Kellin turned silently and nodded at Matty, swimming closer with his arms crossed. “Just be careful.”

“I will,” Kellin said, returning his eyes to the beach. “Not like we ever leave the shore anyways. I’ll be safe. I just hope he’s quick, seeing as I can’t stay out past night.”

Matty snorted a little at Kellin’s last remark, earning him an angry glare. “You’re so resentful of that pendent when really you should be thanking it,” Matty chuckled.

“I suppose.”

“That’s better.” The red-headed siren placed an arm around his friend’s shoulders. His eyes were fixed on the shiny necklace placed between Kellin’s collarbones and once again his mind wondered in the direction it had since he’d given it away - and that was why he was enabling his best friend to get in some sort of trouble, which was definitely what would result. But, he wanted Kellin to be happy. And its not like he was ever going to use it anyways.

“There he is,” Kellin whispered, his eyes widening with excitement. He turned to smile at Matty as he rushed forward, going towards the beach. Vic was a lone figure standing on the sand with his arms crossed, looking at the horizon with one hand shading his eyes. “Bye Matty!”

A little smirk crept up Matty’s face as he waved goodbye to his friend. “Wow, Kels. I didn’t think you could be that cute when you had a little crush.”

“Shush,” said Kellin, swimming away out of ear shot with excitement bubbling in his tummy. The water was getting shallower and shallower until finally he couldn’t swim anymore. And that was when the whole world seemed to spin around him and when it came back in to focus, his tail was gone, replaced with a pair of legs. “Vic!” Kellin called, waving his friend over as he stepped out of the water. The Mexican spotted him instantly and started over at a jog.

“Hey,” he said as he got closer. Kellin smiled at him, unsure of what to say. He was dripping wet from the ocean. “What’s up?”

“Uh… well, the sky is up…” answered Kellin, cocking an eyebrow at him.

Vic chuckled and shook his head, slapping a hand to his face. “No, I mean - you know what, never mind. How are you today?”

“Good,” said Kellin, still confused about his earlier question. He figured it must be a ‘human’ thing and disregarded it. “So you were busy all day today?”

Vic nodded and widened his eyes. It had actually been one of the busiest days at work he’d ever had, not that Kellin would really understand much of that. “Yeah. I’m exhausted. See uh, I don’t know if you guys have like, jobs down there or something, but up here we have to work.”

A frown formed on Kellin’s face. “Work?” he said. In the ocean, no one really ‘worked’ per say, but they did work together at times. “I don’t know… I don’t think anyone really calls it ‘work’… I mean… I guess we kind of have jobs.” Curiosity flashed in Vic’s eyes and nodded, motioning for Kellin to keep going. As the Siren was speaking they walked over to the rocks where they had met, crawling on top of one of the smaller ones that was just big enough so that Vic had to stand on his toes to see over the top of. “Well, I don’t really know how to explain it because its so normal to me and not to you, apparently.”

“Do you guys have like, money down there?” asked Vic, turning his head to look at Kellin, who just frowned and shook his head. “That’s so… weird. Up here we have money to pay for things… nothing is for free. And you have to work to get it. And oh God there is literally never enough of it.”

Kellin bit his bottom lip, trying to imagine having to actually work for things. The only job he’d ever had in his life was when he was with his mother, before she’d left. And all he’d had to do was care for the baby sea turtles they had found. “We all kind of… support ourselves and each other, I guess. Sometimes its a team effort? I don’t know. Me and my best friend Matty work together a lot I guess.”

The thought of there being more people like Kellin hadn’t really struck Vic’s mind before, but now that he thought of it he was imagining a whole society of Sirens. It made him even more curious than he was before, if that were possible. “Do you have like.. Siren towns? Or communities?” he asked, chuckling a little.

“I think.. communities is more like it. I don’t know how to explain it,” said Kellin. “I have friends but for the most part everyone is really reserved and secluded. The only person I ever talk to is Matty; and well, you too now. He’s the one that gave me this necklace, actually.”

Vic nodded with understanding. He knew what it felt like to be at a loss for words and Kellin seemed to be especially bad at talking about things. Deep down he wished he could have seen where Kellin lived himself; but that just wasn’t possible considering the fact that he was only human. “On land its so different. Maybe one day you’ll see for yourself.” An idea formed inside Vic’s mind just as the words left his mouth. “Actually, if you want to, we can totally do that one day!”

“um,” said Kellin awkwardly. “I don’t think I’d really um, fit in out there.”

But a grin was already spreading across Vic’s face. “No, you totally can! My next day off, this Saturday - oh, I guess you don’t have names for the days of the week… well, in three days - I’ll come here and get you. You can borrow some clothes from me and everything and I’ll show you what its like up here!” He could picture it in his mind - how fun it would be to spend the day, off the beach, with Kellin. And how interesting it would be to see his reactions to what life was like past the waves and the sand. “It’ll be so fun!”

“I don’t know I mean… It’s… dangerous,” Kellin mumbled, looking down at the rock. The sun was starting to get lower in the sky now; how long had they been talking?

“You’ll be with me. I’ll keep you safe, I promise,” Vic assured him, offering up a smile that he quickly returned. Slowly Kellin nodded, showing his agreement. “This will be so much fun. Even if you can’t show me your world, I’ll show you mine.”

“I guess it’ll be cool,” said Kellin thoughtfully. He sighed deeply. The beach was so quiet this time of day. He looked down it and noted that there was only two people, a couple going for a stroll, and they were already walking off the beach. “So um, what do you do for word?” he asked.

“I work at a music shop,” answered Vic as he stared off at the horizon, even though the sun was getting in his eyes. “We sell mostly guitars and a bunch of other random instruments and on the upper level of the building there are teachers that give guitar lessons.”

He turned his head to look at Kellin, who was staring back at him with a massive frown on his face and wide eyes. “What the fuck is a guitar?”

Vic couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the question. “Oh man. I guess you don’t have music? Well, it um.. you know, I’ll show you on Saturday.”

Kellin hesitated in responding and Vic could instantly tell that he didn’t understand. “Teach me the names of the days that you have,” Kellin said before he could try to explain what he’d said. A smile formed on Vic’s lips.

The tanner boy reached in to his pocket and pulled out his phone, bringing up the calender on it to help him. “We measure times through a lot different things, if that makes sense. A ‘week’ is really seven days. Today is Wednesday, tomorrow is Thursday, and then its Friday. After that is Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday, then Tuesday, and then back to Wednesday.” Kellin frowned, there were so many names! But he wanted to understand.

So Vic sat with him on the rock, explaining weeks, months, and years to him. As he taught he learned, as well. Sirens didn’t have holidays, but they did count the number of years that went by to keep track of their ages. Kellin was born in the Spring, so he knew when the water started to get warmer and flowers on the beach started to bloom and more people came to the beach that he was another year older. The conversation was actually interesting for them both, until, of course, the sun went down. Kellin saw as the last of it disappeared and braced himself for what surely was to come, only this time he managed to fall right off the rock he and Vic had been sitting on on to the sand below.

“You alright?” asked Vic, hopping down to his side.

“Yeah,” said Kellin, rubbing the back of his head and trying to sit up. “I’m fine.”

Vic exhaled a sigh of relief. He wondered how often or how even Sirens got hurt down in the ocean. He figured they were a lot safer down there than they were up here, which was probably why Kellin was so hesitant in agreeing to come up for a day with Vic. “Maybe this is out of line, but you’re tail is just… I don’t know, its pretty.”

A soft chuckle escaped Kellin’s lips as he flicked the fishy half of his body upwards. “Thanks, I guess. Its not different than anyone else’s.”

“Everyone there is as beautiful looking as you?” asked Vic lightly. Suddenly Kellin felt weird - like a fluttery sort of feeling in his tummy that almost made him feel sick, but at the same time it was… nice. A little nerve-wracking but… just nice. He’d never felt it before in his life.

“Um, I-I guess,” said Kellin as he felt his face grow hot.

Vic took note of the fact that he was blushing. He couldn’t help but to compliment him though; everything about him just screamed attractive - fish tail or not.