Water of Hell

Chapter Eight - The Sneakout

ღNaidaღ

As I was laying in my bed wondering what they meant by shifting, I heard the front door open and close. I sat up to investigate and I glanced over at my alarm clock, it was well after nine o’clock at night. Had someone left the house? I got out of bed and slowly opened my door, sticking my head out, I called out to my father and got no answer. I waited a moment and then I did the same for my mother and again, no answer. Frowning, I went into Dylan’s room, but he was fast asleep. Did that mean it was my parents that had left? I went back into my room and hurried over to the window and looked out. Their car was still parked in its spot. Now, where on earth could they have gone at this time of night on foot? I decided that since I was up and basically home alone, I could indulge in a cup of hot chocolate. I went downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a cup from the cupboard and milk from the fridge. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure I was in fact alone, before pouring milk into the cup and placing it in the microwave. As I waited for the milk to heat up, I thought about how odd my parents were acting. First, they talked weirdly about shifting, and now they had snuck out of the house, to go who knows where. As far as I knew, they didn’t do this kind of thing, but then again, I could be wrong. The microwave made the beeping sound, and I carefully removed my cup with the hot milk and added some hot chocolate powder and sugar. After stirring it through, I placed the spoon in the basin, and with my cup, I headed back upstairs. Sitting at my desk, I tried to distract myself with homework. I was somewhat behind but I couldn’t concentrate as I kept thinking back to my parents and their weird actions. Sipping on my hot drink, I decided to leave my homework for later. I finished off my drink and headed back to bed. It was well after ten and still, my parents had not returned. Closing my eyes, I tried my best to rest my mind and get some sleep. I would question my parents in the morning. I felt as if I had just closed my eyes when I heard the front door opening and closing once again. It was actually a bit loud as everything was so quiet around me in the dead of the night. I glanced over at the alarm clock and saw that it was past one in the morning. Curiously, I got up and softly went out of my room to spy on my parents. I headed to the staircase railing and got down on my knees. My mother came into view and I listened closely to hear what they were talking about.

“Well, let's just hope this does not come to term, otherwise we are going to have problems on our hands,” Talia said, and I frowned. What the hell?

“The spell is supposed to last a lifetime,” I heard my father say just as he came into view and I felt like confronting them right then and there. I was so confused by all of this. Shifting, spells, and something coming to term?! I did not understand any of it.

“We can talk about it tomorrow, right now, I just want to go to bed,” my mother said, and I knew that they would be coming up the stairs. I quickly crawled back to my room, making sure to close my door as quietly as possible. I got back into bed and closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep. I wasn’t surprised to hear my door opening and then my mother’s soft whisper:’ “Let’s hope for the best,” before the door closed once again.

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The alarm went off and I opened my eyes, reaching out to switch off the annoying sound. I was still feeling tired as I did not get much sleep. The events of yesterday were too weird, and it kept me up most of the night. I lazily got up and without making up my bed, I headed to the bathroom. I could hear Dylan singing and I sighed, this was going to be a long morning and a longer day. Normally if he is in the bathroom before me, it takes longer for him to finish. He is like a girl in that sense, I think. I on the other hand am completely the opposite.

I decided to go downstairs and get some coffee and breakfast to pass the time as I waited for him to finish in the bathroom. I could hear my parent's hushed voices and as I entered the kitchen, they stopped talking. Interesting.

“Morning honey,” Talia greeted with what looked like a fake smile. I knew that they were hiding something from me, and I needed to find out what that was.

“Morning,” I greeted them as I used the same tactic and threw them a fake smile.

“Come, sit,” my mother said, all too happy about something. “I’ve made pancakes and bacon,” I went over to the table and sat down as she placed a plate in front of me. I picked up a piece of bacon and chewed on it thoughtfully as I watched my parents. How long have they been this weird?

“Mom, Dad I know I am grounded, but I need to do some work at the library this afternoon after school. I have a project I need to research,” I said seriously.

“Since it is for school…” my father said as he looked over at my mother for confirmation, when she nodded, he turned back to me. “It’s fine,” he finished, and I nodded as we continued eating breakfast in this weird atmosphere. I felt as if I was sitting with two strangers and that I didn’t really know my parents at all. When I heard Dylan coming down the stairs, I shoved in the last bit of pancake in my mouth and rushed upstairs to get done. After a quick shower, I got dressed and ready for school.

“Ok, I’m off!” I shouted out as I left the house. I spotted Abby coming up the driveway and I sighed. I did not want to deal with her today. She was the reason that I basically got grounded. I put on another fake smile and waved.

“Where were you yesterday?” she questioned with concern and I decided to play this cool for now as I hopped into my jeep. Abby followed suit but didn’t take her eyes off me.

“I went to the beach and completely lost track of time, sorry,” as those words came out of my mouth, I felt the urge to jump on her and strangle her. I so desperately wanted to tell her exactly what I thought of her and Triton’s little giggle fest at the café, but I kept it cool and kept it to myself. Abby seemed to accept my explanation and then decided to tell me all about her day. Yet, she had conveniently forgotten to mention her little date with the guy I was crushing on. The drive to school didn’t take long and when I parked the jeep, I couldn’t get out fast enough.

“I’ll see you at lunchtime,” Abby yelled at me and I nodded in agreement as we went our separate ways. However, when lunchtime came, I decided not to go to lunch. Instead, I went to the school library to see if I couldn’t find out anything interesting about shifters or spells. I was burning with curiosity. Since most of the students were at lunch at the cafeteria, all the computers were available. That was a big bonus and I sat down at one of them. I did a search on spells and got a load of websites that did not help me a lot and then I started a new search on the strange cut I had gotten. I stopped as it just gave me horror images on the search, and I did not want to do this anymore. I decided I would rather go old school and look things up in books. I headed over to the bookcases and found a few books on magic. Taking them back with me to the table, I sat down and started reading. I was so caught up in what I was reading, that I did not hear anybody coming in.

“Well, hello there,” I let out a loud scream as I had gotten a fright and looked up to see a beautiful woman standing on the other side of the table. “Oh, I am sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” she said with an apologetic smile.

“No, it's fine,” I said quickly as I glanced back down at the book I had been reading. “I was just into this,”

“Why aren’t you at lunch with your friends?” she asked as she casually looked at the book. I blushed as I tried to cover it up.

“I just wanted to have some quiet time, you know, catch up on some light reading,” I explained, trying my best not to be rude.

“Aright, well, I’ll leave you to it then,” she said, and I watched her curiously as she headed over to the bookcases. Who was that? Shaking my head, I went back to reading. I realized that as interesting as this all was, the books weren’t giving me any answers. I sighed as I closed the book and picked up another one. It would seem that I wasn’t going to get anything from these school library books and that I would have to go to the city hall library and try there. When the bell rang, indicating that lunch was over, I quickly gathered up the books and placed them back where I had found them. I should’ve been in a hurry, but I wasn’t all too eager to get back to classes. Remembering that my phone had been taken away, I sighed out in frustration as I realized I couldn’t check the time. Then again, I was relieved not to have my phone as I am fairly sure Abby would have been messaging me like crazy, especially since I hadn’t shown up for lunch.

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When the final bell rang, I made a mad dash to my jeep. I could only hope that Abby wouldn’t be waiting for me. I didn’t want to speak to her, and I didn’t want to explain why I was going to the library. I got into the jeep and started the engine as I frantically looked around to see if I could spot my so-called friend. I giggled with relief as I headed to the library. I didn’t want to think about how she was going to get home. I didn’t want to think that she may ask Triton for a lift. Maybe I should’ve taken her home. It was too late now, and I parked the jeep in front of the large building. Heading inside, I started looking for books about spells. I found a few books that were interesting and headed over to one of the tables and sat down. I had found a rather interesting one about mermaid magic. I don’t know why I was drawn to it, but I was. I took my time reading through it as I read about the human spell. A spell that could transform a mermaid into a human for a limited amount of time or even permanently. I knew it was crazy and absurd, but I kept reading. It was so interesting, and I didn’t have any other leads, so I kept reading. Even though I knew that mermaids didn’t exist, I had always thought that if you just dried a mermaids tail, then she would have legs and if she got wet again, she would go back to having a tail. As I continued reading, a part about a cut on a leg, caught my attention and I zoomed in on that paragraph. It was so similar to what I had that it was starting to get freaky. A mermaid that was turned from birth or at an incredibly young age into a human, using the spell could potentially regain her tail. I frowned as I continued reading. According to whoever wrote this old book, it starts with a cut, and then more cuts appear over time and each cut disappears. I looked up and quickly slammed the book closed. There was no way in hell that I could be a mermaid. I shook my head as I left the books on the table and ran out. I was starting to lose my mind if I thought I was a mermaid from some old book. As I reached the last step outside the library, I stopped and took a deep breath. I was overreacting and I knew it. I decided that I was being over dramatic and went back inside to finish reading. However, as I went back to the table I had been sitting at, I noticed another book laying on top of the one I had been reading.