Deadly Tides
Chapter 4
Grace is gathering up her cap and gown when she hears her mother and grandmother arguing. Rushing down the stairs she tells them, “Whatever this is about, it can wait. This is my day and I don’t want my two favorite women to spend it fighting.”
“Of course, you’re right sweetie. Your grandmother and I shouldn’t be doing this today, or any day. I’m sorry mom,” Dana says.
Nodding her head, her mother says, “You’re forgiven dear, now let’s go watch our little girl graduate.”
Turning to Matt once their mother is out of earshot, Dana says, “Forgiven my ass. I didn’t do anything wrong. She’s the one! Making me feel like a fool for believing what my heart tells me… I know David and Lilith are still alive…I just know it. Ice or no ice, they are alive.”
Wishing he could share her conviction, the best Matt can do is reassure her he is on her side, as he has always been. He had been there when his little sister was raped by her high school boyfriend. He made sure the jerk had gotten what he deserved and Matt ended up in jail for it. He hadn’t understood why their father, a policeman, refused to let Dana press charges against the rapist. It was many years before the truth came out that their father was afraid of the family secrets being exposed.
Matt had been there for Dana when she made the choice to stay in Newfoundland to raise Grace. He had cared for his niece as he had always cared for his sister. Looking at her now, his eyes see a grown woman ready to begin a new life, but his heart sees the tiny baby Dana had placed in his arms, saying, “Take care of her please…in case I don’t make it back.”
Dana had never fully made it back from the horror of that trip, the trip that ended with the loss of David and Lilith, but the three of them had made a good life together. Now, it was time to turn the page again.
Thankfully, Matt’s car is too small to hold all of them so Elliot offers to give Charlie and Judy a lift to the school. Hugging him, Dana whispers a thank you.
“It’s my pleasure. I know how your mother gets under your skin. I don’t want anything to spoil this moment for you,” he tells her.
“I love you,” Dana says.
“I love you too,” he answers.
Lilith watches them as they all get into their cars and drive away. Her senses are buzzing as she takes in the smells, sights and sounds of freedom.
“Eighteen years as a prisoner in that icy hell and I awaken to find my happy little family going on as if nothing ever happened,” she thinks.
Entering the house, she can feel her sister’s essence everywhere. Looking at the photos of her twin at various stages of life, she feels an uncharacteristic sense of longing. The last photo on the mantle is Grace’s graduation portrait. Lilith doesn’t need a mirror to know the two are identical, except for the eyes. Lilith’s eyes betray the fact she is not quite human. They radiate all the colors of the rainbow. Grace’s eyes are the deepest shade of blue, bordering on black.
Climbing the stairs, she can sense something alive. She reaches the upper landing and crouches down, ready to meet her adversary. Einstein creeps out of Grace’s room and warily eyes the intruder. He can’t understand the scent he is picking up, the scent of the ocean on a stormy day.
Lilith tells the dog there is no reason to be afraid of her but he tucks his tail between his legs and scurries back into Grace’s room anyway, not quite believing the stranger.
“Go on then,” she says. “I don’t want to have anything to do with you either.”
Bypassing her sister’s room, Lilith walks to the end of the hall and opens the door to her mother’s room. It’s immediately apparent why she had chosen this room in this house. There is a large picture window that looks out over the water.
“Those ice pillars were the first thing she saw very morning and the last thing every night,” Lilith thinks. “Could she have known David and I were still alive?”
Staring out the window, she notices someone asleep on the bench at the top of the hill. Her mind reaches out and touches her uncle. She finds his thoughts incoherent; random. He doesn’t know where he is, or where he has been.
She has no sympathy for the man who had believed, all those years ago, he was saving her from certain death when, in fact, he was destroying her plans and sentencing her to 18 years in a frigid prison. If he hadn’t interfered at the last minute, the swarm of murderous jellyfish would have become her army. Instead, they, like she, had become trapped; unable to do anything but wait.
Finally, the changing climate of the planet had warmed the waters enough to melt the ice. She was free. Her army was free as well, but, they hadn’t been idle during their long slumber. The jellyfish had evolved and only she knew and understood what they had become.
Do you want to see how it all began?