Sink With Me

“About two hours ago.”

“You’re not coming,” Sam says, catching both of us off guard.

“Make sure everything we’ve been working on is ready for her when she gets back. She can see in plain print everything she fucked up.” He continues with an eye roll when I shoot him a glare. None of us know what’s happening, so there’s no need to jump to conclusions until I have the facts.

I let go of Jasmine, making her fumble in the sand. Moe is so far ahead he barely looks like a spec. I don’t know what got into him, but I’ll worry about that later. We’re both in shock, so I know there’s no stopping either of us. I glance back at Sam to ensure he’s following as I take off at a stride to catch up to Moe. Sam leans into Jamine’s ear, before she nods and turns away.

Just as I get close enough to Moe for the back of his t-shirt to graze beneath my fingers the smell of smoke hits me. He smells it too because he takes off at a dead sprint towards a large fence and disappears behind a building.

“Moe!” I shout as I round the edifice, but he’s nowhere to be seen. The only sight in front of me is a toppled-over plane up in flames.

Sam sprints past me, but I can’t move when it feels like my world is burning with the cargo container. She wasn’t going to leave me. I was going to give her everything she ever wanted. The ash falls from the sky, making it look like it’s snowing just as it did when her ship blew but the heat coursing against my skin says otherwise.

I was going to make her want to stay.

Pressing my body weight on the structure beside me, I try to hold myself steady while I stumble towards the wreckage. I should’ve told her while she was in my reach with that stupid piece of toast. No matter how fast my head darts around, I can’t find a single body. The air is suffocating, filling my lungs with soot the closer I get.

“It’s not true if each breath you take feels like your lungs are filling with water…”

My little sirens’ words replay in my mind. I never knew what to think when she said them, but now I don’t have to. I can feel what she meant. Moe runs out from a lining of old rubble, darting his head around until he’s staring at the destruction.

Walking to him I do the only thing I know to and wrap my arms around his shoulders as I pull him back from the ruin that surrounds us. The yell he lets out is everything I’m feeling inside: rage, anguish, confusion. My grip tightens around his shoulders as he fights against me.

“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.” He mumbles into my shirt, his hands balled into a fist barely grazing the skin at my waist. I understand what he’s saying more than I’ll ever admit. The only difference is that I will do it. Whoever is leading this chaos took something that was not only important to me, but my little brother and they will pay for it.

Sam comes tumbling out of the plane, pulling the respirator from his face and shaking his head. A large black cloud surrounds him, following the flames licking at crates that had tumbled off the ramp. Pulling Moe behind my body, I focus on the look on Sam’s face. Just get it over with, tell me what I already know. Burn the rest of my world down with that sodding plane, just say–

“She’s not in there. There were bodies, but all men.” He coughs out the words flailing his hand in front of his face to wave off the lingering smoke around us, sending my stunned state into sobriety. I haven’t changed my mind, I’ll still burn every fucking building I come across if I get the slightest hint that a Bay member has been in it. Do they want war? What we were doing was child’s play. Now I’ll show them what a fucking battle is.

Where are you, little siren?

I straighten my shoulders and head towards the building. It’s eerily quiet. If anyone was in there, then there’s no way to know. Even worse, we’ve lost the element of surprise.

Just as I approach the door, I hear something clatter to the floor. As badly as I want to rush in and tear apart every person hiding, I can’t. If she’s still breathing, then I can’t risk it. Grasping Moes’ shoulders, I urged him towards the way we came.

“Go back to base, please.” I can’t lose him too. I hope my siren is still waiting for me, but he’s all I have left besides her. He nods once with a determined look in his eyes and turns away.

Sam is already surveying the structure forcing my attention to his hand raising towards the side where a small entrance is, and I follow the motion with my body. They come onto my territory, fucked with my sirens head, and have the audacity to try and hide? Sam’s close behind, sliding a pistol into his hand as I pull mine from its holster and load it.

Unlike Bay, I don’t like watching things sink, but I’ll gladly watch them burn when she’s back in my hands.

Date: 5-17-2024

Time: 0648

I kick at another chair that Karma tries to pin me in, making it topple over. It smells like piss and mold in here. Darkness threatens to obscure the sliver of light fighting to break through the top windows that line what looks like an observation walkway and boarded glass along the lower walls. I heard them; I know I did. As badly as Karma and Dutton want to keep me quiet it’s not going to happen.

It’d be easier if I still had Caspian’s knife, but as soon as the plane crashed, Dutton was dragging me out in a headlock, leaving it behind in some random soldier’s back.

Everything goes silent besides the creaking of melting metal outside and the light patter against the metal roof, but I feel it. The hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. I’ve always known when the tide was going to roll in, even if I didn’t recognize it before.

I smile at Dutton, who just stares with a look that could kill me. I knew he’d come for me and this time I’m willing to stay. The faint pulse in his wrist was all the motivation I needed and the gut-turning revelation that my fake best friend was my parents’ killer gave me a little nudge as well. Karma kicks the back of my leg forcing my body into the chair successfully this time.

“Wipe that fucking smile off your face.” Dutton spits out. His saliva shines at the corner of his mouth, encouraging my smile to widen.

“What’s your plan now?” I ask, tilting my head curiously but quickly pulling back when I feel sparks of pain spread through my shoulder. We had barely taken off when I knocked out the pilot so it was more of a bumpy tumble than a crash, but I can still feel it everywhere in my body.

“We can just kill you.” Karma exclaims excitedly. How rude, I thought we were friends. There’s a creaking somewhere behind us so I quickly speak up to cover it.