Swim Away (Mermaid)

Chapter Six

I walked into my house and collapsed onto the couch. Oh, how I've missed my home. School felt like an endless black hole. In class I would always watch the clock and those ticks were like torture. Slowly going around that clock, tick, tock, tick, tock. Could summer break come back already? "Uhhhhhh." I muttered onto my pillow. I sat up and put my hair in a ponytail. Then I heard the door.

"Oh good! You're home," Dad said.

"Yeah, can you believe it?" I replied, I was only by the ocean for less than an hour. At this time last year I'd still be at the beach, usually sitting and watching the waves.

"No, I think you're just in illusion. Oooooo." He moved his hands around to make it seem magical. I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, Lara can you go get my glasses? I forgot them today but I managed, asking everyone what some stuff said."

"Yes, father," I said robotically as a joke then laughed. I walked up to my dad's room and started looking around. I saw it on the floor and picked it up. I put it on my head and as I turned to leave his room something stopped me. The bathroom door was glowing? Glowing! Should I worry about all those glowing objects?! It was a blue tint. I backed up and was facing the door. I opened it and followed the glow into the bathroom. At the far end of the bathroom was a door to another room. Yeah, I know it was odd that the only access was through here. I used to go to that room when I was younger. All my toys were in there and once my Dad threw them all away I stopped going in there.

If I walked in there now, it'd be the first time I've gone in there in a long time. I went for the door and slowly opened it. I looked around at the room. It was empty except for a bunch of boxes. I closed the door and sat down in front of one of the boxes. There was nothing written on any of them. I opened this box and there were some smaller boxes filled with jewelry (my moms) and photos of my mom. Wow, she was so pretty. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes. In this picture she was standing at the edge of the ocean, her hair flowing, and she was looking at the camera smiling. I sighed, missing her. Missing when I was younger. I saw another where she was looking down, putting her hair behind her ear while her pink floral dress was flowing with the wind.

I put everything aside and I found a beaten up looking journal. I ran my hand on it feeling the blue bumpy pattern, kind of like a wave. I turned it to open it but it wouldn't budge, there wasn't even a key area. It felt like it was glued together but it wasn't.

"Lara!" I heard my dad shout. Ahhh! I put everything back inside except for the journal. I put it inside my jacket and quickly left. I ran out the room and was already down the stairs. I saw my dad sitting on the couch and I handed him the glasses. "Thank you," he said reading a book. I could see where I got my quiet, calm side from. But Dad never sat by the ocean and I never knew why. I did ask once but all he said was he had no time but I knew that wasn't the real reason.

I felt the book in my jacket and I went up the stairs to my room. I shut the door and took the book out of my jacket. I shook the book as if it was going to open or something. I knew this was the thing that was glowing, I knew it the second I touched it. Great another thing that wouldn't open.I found the bottle and the journal for a reason. They both glowed and didn't open.

There was definitely something missing. The key to both of these. I put them next to each other for now. The objects were glowing blue next to each other. It was kind of pretty. I moved the journal away and it stopped.

***

"Beep! Beep!" I turned my alarm clock off and got up for another day of hell...I mean prison...I mean school. Hell school...whoops...I meant high school. I put on a blue tank top, jeans, and a small white jacket. I looked over at the journal and bottle and grabbed them. I put them inside my backpack, just in case I found what I was looking for and I'd have them with me.