"We loved with a love that was more than love.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."

-Edgar Allen Poe

Chapter One: Waters of Despair

It was all my fault.

It was my fault the fire started, and the one person who cared about me the most perished in the odd watery fire. A fire I somehow started late into the already chaotic night on the outskirts of upper Manhattan.

The police put me in the back of his cruiser, my hands bound by to tight metal cuffs. I did nothing to protest. killed my mother. . . But I was doing it to save her. If I had known what was going to happen that night I would have taken my mom and gotten far away. I will get back to this in a minute, first let me tell you what happened.

Since I was fifteen I have been seeing monsters of all kinds. Two years later the monsters started noticing me back. I taught myself how to defend and fight back in secret. My mother, She never believed me since she couldn't see them. Or rather she didn't want to notice them herself. So it was all up to me to protect us.

Tonight started like any normal night. Pizza and movies while sitting on the sofa, my mom and I laughing at the cheesy romance comedy. Like I said, normal. However, the hair on my arms stood on end and there was a chill in the air. I know that meant there was some kind of spirit hanging around.

After excusing myself and walking quietly to my room where I stashed my meager hunting supplies. Nothing fancy, just some stakes, knifes of varying sizes, and powders of all sorts. For a spirit though I would use the powders. Such a mistake that was.

A blood curdling scream rang out from the living room. Quickly I grabbed a large vial of teal looking powder, a short black crystal hilted knife, and ran to my mom. Blood was rushing in my ears, my breath was short. I got this, its just a small spirit. I've killed those before.

No matter how much I trained, or how cautious I was, nothing prepared me for what I saw next.

Surrounding my mother were three shimmering green and grey spirits; sea bringers. If they weren't so deadly by themselves, I would have thought them beautiful. A low type of Fae, similar to mermaids, underneath thin translucent pearl hard skin rippled colors of the sea, greens and blues throughout, hair like seaweed. Eyes black as the depths, teeth sharp enough to rip their prey apart. They controlled the salty waters within to suffocate. Rare that they come to land, hard to kill, and a thing I've only heard about in passing by the docks on evening runs.

Standing around my mother, the sea bringers encased her in a sphere of swirling of dark water where she struggled. The look in her eyes was pure terror when she saw me. She kicked and punched at her trap, but it only made her panic more.

"Mom? No!" I stuttered eyes tearing up, blurring my vision. I.. I don't know what to do. I've never heard of someone killing one before. My trembling hand tightened around the knife, giving me a wave of strength. "Just hold on okay? Just hold on."

A plan grew in my head as I started forward to the closest sea bringer. Opening the vial, I poured a handful, and quickly dragged the blade across my other palm, blood mixing it with the powder and sticking to the weapon. "This better work." I muttered as I barreled into the Fae, slamming my knife into its neck as it shrieked and broke away from the group.

A bright glow like sunlight shone from where I stabbed it, making the water and skin bubble and hiss before it burst into steaming drops all around me. Well that's…new. I never added my blood to the powders before so it was just a strong guess to try. I quickly made work of the two after that.

As the last drop evaporated I turned to my mom, expecting her to be free. Instead she was still inside, little air bubbles slipping through tightly pressed lips. "No, this cant be happening. I don't understand! Mom!" I shouted as I banged my fists on the barrier. Something wasn't right, this didn't make sense. I looked around seeing if I missed something. There was nothing else out of the ordinary.

Out of desperation I ran back to my room to grab a bright silver, red, and violet powder hastily, taking the tops off between my teeth. In my mind, I thought if I mixed all these together it would cause some type of weak spot since they were usually used to melt through glamour's and other magical barriers of the special rare kind.

Back to were my mom was, I saw her let out the rest of her air, unable to take the burning in her lungs. My time was out. Shaking powder after powder out, I watched it mix inside and cloud the water, there was a slight tremor throughout, and tiny bubbles formed. Maybe if I added my blood, I could make it more powerful.

What happened next I will always remember for the rest of my life. As soon as my bloody hand touched the sphere there was a scorching heat that radiated from the inside out. Making eye contact with my mom, I knew I had just made a mistake. I watched as she gave silent scream after another, the liquid inside burning her. Shock, maybe that's what I was in as my hand slipped away and my feet took slow sluggish steps backward towards the door.

It was the cracking that brought me back to speed. Sounds like breaking glass, the barrier was broken finally but it was to late. The damage was done, my mother was dead. The liquid that spilt across the floor gleamed like oil. As it spread, it steamed and gave off an odor of a sea breeze mixed with a hint of tar. What have I done? Mom… my brain couldn't process what happened even as I stared at her body on the floor.

As I started to take a step forward, the liquid suddenly caught fire and burned with heat so strong I had to take a few steps back again. I stared in disbelief as the living room and everything in it started going up in orange and yellow flames.

Panic took over my body as I ran out the door, down the hall and stairwell that led to the bottom floor. People opened their doors to see what was going on, once realizing that there was a fire, they started running outside.

Once my feet touched the grass outside in front of the building, I collapsed in a heap of sobs and muffled sobs as I pressed my hand against my mouth. No one stood by me, instead they surrounded me, oblivious to the fact that my mother wasn't here, but they could guess what happened in their minds, see the pain written all over my face.

Sirens were heard in the distance. A couple minutes passed and a strong arm pulled me up, wrapping me in a warm blanket as I was led to the backseat of a cop car where cuffs were placed.

We drove for what seemed longer than necessary, but it gave my hazy brain time to process what I did. I tried to swallow down the giggle that fought to come up. But as I looked up and caught the officers eyes in the rearview mirror, I couldn't help the dark laughter that came out as I noticed his eyes shine emerald green before they went back to normal.

What has my life become now?