Ocean Song Beneath the Waves
*UPDATED* Chapter 10: Lost Again

“RODION!”

Serena watches, excitedly, as Rodion turns his gaze towards her. A smile spread across her face as she readies herself to call out again.

“Ro—mmph!” A hand clamps over her mouth. She’s abruptly dragged beneath the surface of the water and pulled back towards the seawall.

Serena struggles against the arms imprisoning her, but they’re much too strong.

“Enough of your squirming!” They hiss into her ear, and she stops all movement. She doesn’t need to look back to know that it’s Prince Oceanus hauling her down the seawall. And obviously, he’s pissed.

But why did he come to get her himself? He could’ve just as easily sent along some guards or something to retrieve her.

It only takes him three minutes to five down the wall and come to a halt. He releases her from his grip—maintain a hold of her wrist.

“What did you mean to do?” He growls out. His expression indicates that he’s seething, and Serena replaces herself shocked into silence. She’s never seen an angry Prince Oceanus—annoyed, yes, but angry, no. He looks about ready to strangle the life out of her.

“Oceanus, I—”

“Do not dare address me so casually,” he says sharply.

She bites her tongue to keep a rude comment from escaping. She reflexively looks down at the distant sea floor.

Prince Oceanus continues, “What did you intend to do by revealing yourself to that human?” There’s a frigid malice to his tone that causes her to involuntarily shudder.

But she quietly replies, “I just wanted to see my brother.” She doesn’t try to meet Prince Oceanus’s scrutinizing gaze—clutching her hands to her sides tightly to control the onslaught of emotions raging through her.

“...We are returning to the palace. I will make sure that there is a guard with you at all times seeing as you cannot do as you are told.”

She flinches at his tone. His hand becomes a little tighter around her wrist as he pulls her along at a rapid pace back towards the palace.

She glances back longingly, wishing that she had had a few more seconds. A few more seconds and she would’ve connected gazes with her brother.

By the time they return, it’s quite late and the palace is in an uproar over her disappearance. King Neptune was none too pleased by the day’s developments and she was promptly assigned a guard.

He basically became her shadow. She couldn’t even sneeze without him being right there at her back. It’s absolutely infuriating!

Now that she has a chaperone, she’s been granted more freedom to move about the palace. A worthless consolation in the face of having one’s every move watched all day, every day. She sighs as she mindlessly looks about the garden’s roman-themed gazebo.

“Serena?”

She looks up upon hearing Princess Arcelia’s voice and murmurs, “Princess…”

Princess Arcelia smiles as she comes closer. “I insist you call me Arcelia! I shall not have my friend addressing so formally!”

A light smile plays across Serena’s lips. Truly, Arcelia is the more agreeable of the royal siblings. Without even noticing it, Serena’s mood lightens and the previous day’s exchange with the prince and king fade from her mind.

All the tension drains from her body as Arcelia seats herself beside her on the bench. Meanwhile, Serena’s chaperone has stationed himself at the gazebo’s entrance—ever vigilant.

Arcelia glances at the guard with a helpless smile, turning back to Serena with an inquiring gaze. “What is it? Surely your sentry isn’t cause for such a solemn expression?”

Serena cracks a humorless smile as she sighs. “No, but I take it you caught wind of my earlier actions?”

Arcelia nods, a smile on her lips as her eyes shine with mischief. “Indeed! You had the whole palace in an uproar! Quite entertaining,” she chuckles. Yet, Serena doesn’t share that laughter and she notices. “But come, tell me what troubles you.”

At Arcelia’s prompting, Serena divulges every detail pertaining to her earlier venture from Aquaria. Arcelia listens quietly and attentively, offering small commentary when she deems it necessary.

When Serena finishes her explanation, Arcelia asks, “And do you still wish to go see this brother of yours?”

Serena nods fervently, but then deflates. “But how am I supposed to do that? I can’t so much as twitch my finger without him being close by,” she murmurs softly to avoid the guard hearing her words.

Arcelia glances at him with a nod. Her lips form a thin line as she appears thoughtful for a moment. A smile forms on her lips a moment later. “I have an idea. Just stay close beside me.”

Serena, not knowing what to expect, just nods her head and goes along with it.

Arcelia rises from her seat and leaves the gazebo for the gardens with Serena beside her. The guard easily takes up position behind them. Arcelia briefly glances back at him and looks to Serena after.

“Quicken your pace,” she whispers before abruptly moving faster.

Serena quickly follows, the guard—caught off guard—struggling to keep up. The gardens almost seem like a maze, each twist and turn helping to further loose the guard.

Eventually, he begins to call out to him. Serena feels guilty about it for only a moment, but Arcelia quickly takes her hand and rushes them out a servant entrance.

Yet they maintain their pace, even as they leave the boundaries of Aquaria’s veil—heading straight for the seawall making up California’s coast.

During the ascent up the seawall, Arcelia is still attempting to recover from her adrenaline rush. She just about laughed the entire way, continuously going over how fun and easy it was to lose the guard.

Serena joined in the first few chuckles, but eventually she relaxed into a sort of calm.

And once again, she hears the song. Sorrowful and pained. Arcelia doesn’t show any signs of hearing the song—either that or she doesn’t care that much to show interest.

Instead, her face has become rather pensive. Her gaze remains stuck on the surface, that grows closer and closer as they enter shallower waters.

Arcelia chooses to stop at a rock, giving Serena a small nod to keep going.

Serena turns back and continues, but when she surfaces, she replaces no one. Her gaze runs the length and width of the beach. Yet no one is there. Though the melody continues from nearby. She moves through the water, following the sound. It quickly leads her to the cliffs. The place she fell and where it all began.

She stares up at the cliff, only turning her gaze away when Arcelia’s hand lands on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

“Where is this brother of yours?” she asks curiously, gaze looking about the beach. She seems more relaxed, having been made aware of the lack of people on the shore.

Serena turns her gaze back to the cliffs in indication. “Up there,” she murmurs as the melody is carried down to her from above.

Arcelia looks at her strangely. “How are you to see him then?”

Serena doesn’t answer as she swims closer to the rocky outcrop and cups her hands around her mouth.

With a sharp intake of breath, she shouts, “RODION!”

“Hey Rodion!”

Rodion gives a low growl as he turns to Van. Obviously, he’s not in the mood to be bothered, but Van doesn’t understand that.

“What the fuck do you want?”

Van doesn’t seem bothered by his gruff tone in the least as he asks, “Where ya goin?” Van has a goofy grin on his face, and, somehow, it just rubs Rodion the wrong way for no good reason.

“None of your damn business. Now piss off.” And he continues walking down the street, picking up the pace to lose his baggage.

Van pauses in his steps, having enough sense not to follow after him any further.

Rodion’s thoughts turn back to the voice he heard yesterday as he walks along. He didn’t tell any of his brothers about it. No point in giving them any false hope over a possibility of their sister being alive. There’s enough grief without shattered hopes to top it off.

He doesn’t realize that he’s walking off the straight and onto the sand. He doesn’t even register the cries of gulls in the air or the brush of the ocean against the shore.

He just keeps walking until his feet come to a halt atop Serena’s perch—the damned cliff that started it all.

He blinks rapidly for a moment, taking a look around with a glare. A rough exhalation of breath is quickly followed by a guttural growl as he forces his gaze to stare out into the endless blue.

Without meaning to, he dredges up an old memory.

An 8 year old Serena stands before him—a 10 year old version of himself. She stares at him with the biggest blue eyes that have been the cause of all sorts of trouble back then.

“Rodion?” she had asked, hands clasped together with the biggest eyes she could muster.

He emitted a low groan—knowing full well what that look entailed. “No.”

Her lips had formed a pout as she puffed her cheeks in preparation for a tantrum.

“Please?”

“No Rena. You know dad doesn’t like us going there.” He had tried to keep his voice firm, even against the onslaught of those lethal puppy dog eyes.

A smile slips onto Rodion’s face at the memory. Her puppy dog eyes against a house of five men allowed her to get whatever she desired—most of the time anyway.

But that hadn’t stopped her. Eventually, she completely disregarded their warnings altogether. She’d sneak off to the beach all on her own, without breathing a word to them. That had been the cause of many a frantic search since she’d spend the entire day out here on this cliff.

A shuddering breath escapes him. His gaze has become distorted and he furiously wills the damned tears to go back. He’s not going to sit here and cry like a damned little kid. Those years are long since behind them.

It takes a few moments, but the choked feeling in his throat and the tears disperse.

He stares at the ocean below. Would it take him as well? Is that to be the fate of every member of their family? No. I can’t think like that. I don’t even know what happened to dad. He grimaces at the thought.

The police are completely half-assing their jobs and haven’t made the faintest bit of progress on either case. Then again, they shouldn’t put their faith into a bunch of deadbeat cops with nothing better to do than sit on their asses all day.

“You there, boy.”

Rodion nearly jumps out of his skin, abruptly turning his head to replace a person. It’s like they materialized out of thin air.

Rodion looks at the medieval cloak shrouding their body from view. He narrows his eyes. He can’t discern if this person is male or female, even their voice doesn’t give that information away—strange though it may be.

Rodion hesitates for a moment. “…What do you want?” He should at least figure out why they’re talking to him if nothing else.

“You have lost something precious, have you not?” There’s a smile in their voice that causes the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.

But he maintains a complacent expression as he asks, “What’s it to you?” This is just getting creepy at this point.

“I may be of some assistance in acquiring that which you lost.”

Rodion’s angry at the hopeful spark that dwells within him. Despite knowing that this could be a setup, a small part of him is willing to hold onto that fleeting speck of light.

But he might as well entertain this stranger. “And how are you going to do that?” he asks cynically. He watches the stranger’s movements intently—prepared for whatever they may do.

The stranger steps up to the edge of the cliff and turns their head towards it. “Does the ocean not entice you?”

What the fuck? Rodion makes a strange face. “What does that have anything to do with replaceing what I lost?” His patience is wearing thin and his irritation is on the rise. After all, there’s nothing enticing about a watery death trap that has already split his family apart.

“It has everything to do with it. Now I wish for you to sing. Sing and what you seek shall come back to you.” Now this is just getting ridiculous. Now they want him to sing to call his sister back? What the hell will that do?

He glares at the stranger for a moment, sighs and decides to continue playing this stupid game. So, he sings the lullaby like he always does.

After about three minutes, he hears a voice shout up at him from below.

“RODION!”

He moves closer to the edge, preparing to peer over the edge. “Rena?”

“Now fall…” Next thing he knows, he feels a pair of hands at his back forcing him forward.