The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 7

Cam woke on Sunday morning when his Dad came into wake him. It had been a rough night the night before.

As they walked in an awkward silence to the shore he had plenty of time to think of the events of the previous night.

His dad had dragged him to a Jengu water spirit on the waterfront. They are powerful Undine healers originally from Cameroon. They take many forms according to who visits them. This time the Jengu looked like a beautiful raven haired mermaid. She came to them at the shore when his father called to her.

She walked out of the water guileless and naked as the day she was born. Cam just sighed and thought yeah for shifters. She walked right up to Cam, took his face in her tiny hands, and looked into his eyes for a long period of time, before she announced.

"There is nothing to be done."

Her words were an actual psychical manifestation. Cam felt like he had been hit with one of those wrecking balls right to the gut.

His father was speechless. He just stood in front of him his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Cam wanted to reassure him, but what could he say?

Hey don't worry it'll be fine, but would it really?

Malcolm's seal gray eyes held such guilt as they locked on his son's.

P-p-erhaps t-there is someone else we may visit oh wise one?" his father sputtered.

"There is no one I can recommend."

The Jengu kissed Cam then right on the lips and said mournfully, 'Oh my sweet child the sea will lose a valuable resource soon."

His dad never shut up the entire drive home. He insisted they could see this legendary creature or that. He mentioned some old ceremony that might help, but he knew he was just grasping at straws, he could feel it in his bones.

The thought made Cam laugh out loud until he cried and his father rubbed his back soothingly the rest of the way home.

Once home, Cam went straight to bed exhausted by the events of the day, but sleep wouldn't come.

He just stared fixedly out his sliding door to the sea feeling empty. And for once nothing was running through his head. It was like he couldn't even form a thought. The thing he had dreaded was at his throat. He'd been running from it for three long years ever since his father told him it could be a possibility, and it was weird, but the knowing actually made him feel better.

Once he acknowledged that feeling all the others got shelved for the moment. The worry for everyone else at this time took a back burner for once. He would take Megan sailing tomorrow but from now on, every waking moment of his free time would be spent in the lab trying to find a solution.

He'd go to George and ask for advice about medicinal herbs that might forestall the inevitable. And he'd focus on the Molecular Modification Brew. He could start trials tomorrow night.

Once he had a plan in motion sleep came, but not a very restful one. He dreamt that the sea was a vengeful lover that wanted nothing more than to drown him in her embrace, over and over and over again.

When his father and he took to the water his father never left his side. He swam like a mirror image of his son. And Cam could cry all over again when he realized why. His father was worried that he'd reject the skin underwater and the sea would claim its prize.

He knew in that moment his father would lock him up and throw away the key to keep him from swimming to his death, but that reality was a gruesome one at best. It would be like living each day in a medieval torture device, his father knew it, and he was telling him with his actions that he'd never let him go.