Chapter 574

The sun bore down on Oistin's Town, Barbados, baking the colorful buildings and turning the sand into glass. Kai, fourteen, squinted against the glare, pushing back the brim of his worn baseball cap. Another scorcher. Another day closer to the end of the month.

He kicked at a loose stone, sending it skittering across the cracked pavement. The salt air usually soothed him, but now it carried a strange, almost mournful undercurrent, a premonition that sat heavy in his gut.

"Kai! You gone deaf, boy?"

He turned to see Mrs. Brewster, her face tight as she hurried toward him, her floral dress doing little to soften her severity. "What you doing out here so late? You know what tomorrow is."

"I was just heading home, ma'am."

She folded her arms, her dark eyes narrow. "See that you do. You don't want to be like poor old Mr. Harding, now do you?"

Kai shivered, though the sun was anything but kind. Mr. Harding, a stubborn old fisherman, hadn't taken the warning seriously last month. No one had seen him since. Vanished. Just like so many others.

"No, ma'am."

"Good. Now get along."

He nodded and started toward his house, a small, weathered chattel house his family had called home for generations. The Whispering Waves.

Every town along the coast had its share of scary maritime stories, from giant Krakens to ghostly pirate ships, but the Whispering Waves were different, they preyed on everyone when the moon was at its smallest. They didn't crash or roar.

They called, luring people to their doom on the last night of each month. Those who weren't home before nightfall never had a tomorrows.

The closer he got to his house, the quieter the town became. Doors slammed shut. Windows were bolted. It was a practiced retreat, born of generations of fear.

His mother waited for him on the porch, her brow furrowed with worry. "Kai, where were you? You know better than to stay out so long today."

"I'm sorry, Mama. I just lost track of time."

She sighed and pulled him inside. His younger sister, Aisha, was already huddled in a corner, clutching her favorite doll, her eyes wide with a fear Kai understood all too well.

"Everything will be alright," Mama said, but her shaky voice betrayed her doubts.

The night descended slowly, an oppressive blanket stifling any joy. Kai tried to distract Aisha with a game of dominoes, but her heart wasn't in it. He watched her fidget, and he remembered other nights like this one, nights punctuated by distant whispers that somehow found their way even through the closed windows and bolted doors.

"Mama, tell us the story of the Whispering Waves," Aisha asked, her voice barely audible.

Mama hesitated. "Not tonight, sweetheart."

"Please? I want to be brave."

Mama sat down beside her, pulling her close. She started the story, her voice calm, a counterpoint to the dread that filled the room. "Long ago, before this town even existed, there were beautiful women who had angered the all, he punished them and they were transformed into siren like entities, trapped between the land and the celestial waters," she began.

"They crave to return but they can only emerge during the smallest moon. This month in particular is powerful. If any were to hear their cries, it is a promise to lure people to the sea where they have long since demised and no more humans roam this realm.

As she'd warned, any foolish people will be lost and taken, or those sirens can never escape their cruel existence, for it's like a parasite."

Kai listened intently, even though he'd heard the story countless times. He tried to glean some new piece of information, some hidden meaning that might help them survive. He stole gazes to his mom, noticing her frail self starting to show in these moments.

As the night deepened, the whispers began.

At first, they were barely audible, a gentle sighing carried on the air thick with salty brine. Then they grew stronger, clearer, taking on the sound of human voices, sweet and alluring.

"Kai... Kai..."

Aisha whimpered, burying her face in Mama's lap.

"Ignore them," Mama said, her voice stronger now, projecting absolute faith she didn't have. "Don't listen. They can't hurt you if you don't listen."

But Kai did listen. He couldn't help it. The voices called to him, promising him escape, promising him a life free from fear, the same promises told throughout story.

He heard his name again, carried on the mournful wind. It was then when it dawned on him, that his father must of succumbed and the waves speak as him.

"Come home, Kai...we miss you, please…"

He tried to block his ears, but the voices resonated in his skull, worming their way into his mind.

His eyes sharp went from his mother's face, to Aisha, looking at the shack. He knew the life that lay before him and they would perish. This cycle needed to perish, he decided with an iron fist to set the precedent and save everyone.

He needed to get to the beach to find a weapon or tool so powerful to reverse all these terrible acts. But he can't get caught on his way to the beach.

"I need some water," he said, his voice strange, distant even to himself.

"I'll get it for you," Mama said, but he was already up, walking toward the door.

"No, Mama. I need to do it."

He opened the door a crack, and the voices surged, almost pulling him out into the night. He slipped through, closing the door behind him, leaving his mother and sister in stunned silence.

The town was deserted, a ghost town swallowed by shadows. The only light came from the moon, a sliver in the black sky, not providing an adequate backdrop. The voices were all around him now, a chorus of enticements and threats.

He kept moving, drawn toward the beach, the sound of the waves growing stronger with each step. The sirens were waiting for him, he could feel them, he saw them ahead, he was sure it had the features of his dad but how it could be possible? How can they shape-shift like that?

As he walked closer to the sandy land, bodies arose from the sandy pits that appeared and it sent an absolute shiver up his spine, for how gruesome, raw, flesh wounds filled the air with pungent noxious gas. Some weren't in their whole form.

The women lured victims that they wanted and took him apart and it's like a play-dough figurine to remold. Kai gritted his teeth, his adrenaline starting to surge the end was closing.

The beach glowed, an unearthly light reflecting off the water. The bodies emerged and beckoned him closer. They reached for him with long, skeletal fingers, their faces twisted in grotesque smiles. Kai was unbothered, he was searching and his determination never fainted for even one second!

"Kai, come to us," they chanted, their voices melding into a single, seductive call. "Join us in the deep."

He ignored them, scanning the beach. He was searching the rocks when suddenly from out the corner, appeared this object that shot through to him to the top! It must've been a trident! And oh how conveniently. Cronies, they are nothing more than fools. Naïve to think their tactics worked.

It radiated an energy that he had dreamed of his whole existence, what it must feel to feel untouchable by these low-lives. Foolish how low creatures act in order to get back into this realm. This power felt holy superior celestial something that the siren can never reach.

"He is close! Stop him"

That didn't matter to Kai, they all came close!

Kai grasped it, and it zapped all the evil out the souls that were out to get him. What a great tool. Voila.

With the trident he felt an overwhelming wave of certainty of being able to send all the chaos to their doom, he didn't want anyone in town perishing. Ever. What he has will last all centuries. He wouldn't falter even for a second.

"Oh my you're serious, well that can't be the case. It shouldn't weigh heavily you have so much ahead." As sirens started incanting the end of the world

"Not, not when weighing of others!"

With one rapid motion, he jabbed the sand with that weapon and from the boundless expanse of this trident the most beautiful shield appeared around the town and shot to the seven celestial orbs. The racket from the creatures began to wane, some couldn't scream due to not knowing their way out as a spirit and a result they would perish and die for real.

Kai, started losing hope as it grew cold the trident was freezing all his feature, he looked for so long how bad things were when a reminder slapped right in front of his eyes sharp "I need to return home."

"It weighs heavily that you can never," boomed the siren from her face-looking father, "no one comes back for my torment for thousands of periods."

"I made a decisive choice! and what has is forever!" His steadfast determination never broke as that reminder of the existence of his town's well being gave his so much heat he can throw to his foe. "I said. What's. mine! IS Forever" he stabbed the ocean as the last and ultimate weapon and spell and now his strength has faded away

A light.

His mom came and it's just her looking down and all his sister did. What made sense for so long was a terrible waste and he sacrificed but he shouldn't had! The trident did the very opposite as his biggest fear and no ones know they should return!

"Maa, but- why?"

"They promised me. They had to do anything!" The shrill woman responded to him as what that meant by having the tool from above: all that was missing were the memories or those alive to bring her love back to his superior deity her foe, his own bloodline advisories, "oh sweet child, that trident brings absolution! So much freedom!"