Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. This is my first real story so I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to write it so I kept changing the story from First Person to Third Person which caused me to have to keep rewriting the chapter. I did delete my other story because it wasn't coming out the way I had hoped it would when I first posted it, so all my attention will be focused on this story to get you guys faster updates.

Also, just wanted to give you guys some information so the story makes a bit more sense before you read.

I did go back in the last chapter and changed a few things so if this chapter doesn't make sense you might want to read the first chapter again. I won't do that anymore for the remainder of the story, I just had to fix a few things.

The story takes place in 1868 and Arthur is 18 years old. He lives with his grandfather in a small village on the cape of Massachusetts. Everything about his parents and other family members will be explained later in the story, don't want to give too much away just yet ;)

Now on with the story!

Chapter 2

Knock Knock

Arthur awoke to rasping at his bedroom door. The covers of his bed had been harshly tugged and kicked and were now laying in a heap on the floor.

"Arthur? Supper is almost ready, dear." Martha's voice was a bit muffled through the door but Arthur could still hear it.

"Okay, let me freshen up a bit first then I'll be down." He stood up and yawned, looking at his pocket watch. He had only been asleep for 20 minutes, it had felt like so much longer...

Outside the sky was dark and stars were beginning to peek out. The window was still open and the green curtains were flapping around from the cool breeze blowing in. When Arthur went to close the window he was a bit reluctant, imagining whatever was outside before to still be watching him from the water.

Arthur scolded himself for being childish, but when he went to close the window and curtains he poked his head out and scanned the water to make sure whatever was out there from before was truly gone. The water was dark and only things he could make out were a few large rocks near the beach. There was no mysterious figure stalking him or eyes glowing from under the waves.

"Just as I thought, nothing." Arthur mumbled as he stood back to close the window.

With the window closed and the drapes pulled, he felt a bit safer. Though, that was just his mind making him think so. Arthur was just as safe with the window open.

The teen blinked in the almost entirely dark room and lit a few candles sitting on his desk so he could see. Making his way over to the wooden wardrobe, he opened one of the doors to look at his sleepy reflection in the floor-length mirror.

Arthur's hair was ruffled up from the pillow, his clothes were wrinkled, and his eyes were still half-lidded from sleep. He stripped out of the wrinkled garments and got a clean button up shirt and black slacks from the wardrobe. James would have a fit if he came to the table with wrinkled clothes or sleep attire on. He ran a comb through his unruly blonde locks a few times in attempt to tame it and glanced at the mirror again, satisfied with his appearance.

He blew out the candles and left the room, walking down the hall to the stairs. Arthur avoided all the windows he passed even though a part of him wanted to look out across the dark water again.

The teen hurried down the stairs and over to the front door where he slipped on his spare pair of shoes as his normal pair had been swept into the ocean earlier that day. James required shoes at the dinning table but not in any other room in the house. It was strange that he had to wear shoes just to eat supper but whatever kept the old git happy.

James was sitting at the head of the dining room table like usual when Arthur walked in. He took a seat next to his grandfather and smiled at Martha as she set a plate of beef on the table before closing the door that led to the kitchen so the two could dine in private.

Martha had been their housemaid since Arthur's father, Ezra, was born. She had been like a mother to Arthur since his real mother had died when he was born. Despite how close they were, James still insisted Arthur call her Miss. Willamar. Martha was a short, plump woman with grayish blonde hair always pulled up into a tight bun. She was the complete utter opposite of James and quite possibly the best cook on he whole cape.

The two filled their plates with the meat and vegetables set on the table and ate in silence after Martha left. The only noise in the room coming from their knives scraping against the china plates and glasses clinking against the table. Arthur could feel his grandfather's eyes watching him but continued to give his undivided attention to the plate set in front of him.

"Arthur, I am tired of your childish antics. You're the only heir to the company and I'll be damned if I leave it to you while you're in this stage of yours." Now Arthur could really feel the other's eyes burning into his head, his face felt a bit hot.

The way he said stage irritated Arthur greatly. This was no 'stage in his life', the water was the only place he could be himself. The only place that really felt like home to him. The only thing that brought him closure in this mad world.

"It's not childish, grandfather, it's a real branch of o-"

He snorted and waved his fork around in the air, a piece of meat stuck in its prongs. "Last time I checked, running about the beach was children's play."

"I don't run around the beach and there is so much waiting to be discovered out there! How can it not capture your thoughts? The world is so big, and the ocean is even bigger! Just waiting to be dis-" Again Arthur was cut off.

"Listen to yourself, boy! You're turning into a looney just like your father! That shit is going to kill you just like it did him!" He growled at me as he placed the fork into his mouth.

"Don't you dare talk about my father like that." Arthur hissed at the other with a glare.

"I'll talk about him how I want because he was my son! He was a lunatic and a disgrace, and you're following the same path!"

When he said that, something inside Arthur seemed to snap.

"He wasn't a lunatic or a disgrace, he just didn't turn out the way you wanted him to! He didn't listen to you because he wanted to be free of you!" Arthur laughed a bit and pointed an accusing finger at the other.

"You forget how he died then, boy, drowned because of his infantile games."

"His death was an accident and you know that!" Arthur's eyes focused back on his plate. He hated talking about his father, and especially with James. His face felt terribly hot now and he was extremely embarrassed about how his voice had broke halfway through the outburst.

"Enough of this, I've had quite enough. You're coming to the office with me starting tomorrow. No more of this nonsense, I will not have a repeat of Ezra. This science business is absolute rubbish and I swear to God that this time tomorrow every book in this house having to do with the ocean will be gone." James looked at the younger Kirkland with his beady old eyes and waited for Arthur to say something.

Despite his hard-headedness Arthur clenched his jaw down hard and kept his eyes focused on the saucer in front of him.

"Fine. Take them away, see if I care." Arthur could put on an act, sure as hell wasn't about to give the other the satisfaction of seeing him miserable.

James sat silently and just looked at the other before continuing his meal. Arthur couldn't tell what his grandfather was thinking from his facial expression in the candlelight. He just looked like an old, tired man.

"May I be excused?" Arthur asked as he had suddenly lost his appetite. James nodded in response and Arthur stood up silently from the table.

"Goodnight, grandfather." The teen bowed his head to the other, pushed in his chair, and complimented Martha on the meal because he knew she was listening through the door.

Turning on his heel, Arthur left the dining room and retreated back upstairs to his room for the evening.

The clothes he had been wearing were still clean but James didn't like him wearing the same clothes twice.

Y'know what? To hell with James, Arthur thought as he hung the clothes over his desk chair to be worn the next day and dressed into his nightclothes. He washed his face and was about to get into bed before glancing over at his desk again and seeing his notebook lying near his stationary. If James was being serious, which Arthur knew he was, he would find a way to dispose of the journal.

James had seen Arthur carrying the book about with him on several occasions so he knew it had the teen's observations in it. Arthur walked over to the desk and rummaged through a drawer until he found another notebook that looked similar to the one on his desk. The book was mostly filled with old observations and mediocre drawings he had done when he first started researching the sea at 14. James didn't know that though, he would take the decoy notebook and think it was the real one. While the actual one would be hidden beneath a loose floorboard under his bed.

Arthur smiled at his plan and left the fake on the desk where the real one would've been and got into bed. He tossed and turned for a while until he found a comfortable position and fell asleep.

Unlike earlier, Arthur slept peacefully for a while until he was awoken by a strange flapping noise coming from the direction of the window. Arthur sat up and blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the darkness and when he turned his head he saw that the window had somehow opened sometime during the night and a strong wind was blowing the curtains around. Judging by the darkness of the room, it must've been sometime during the early morning hours.

Arthur was puzzled with how his sliding window could have opened in the middle of the night, but groggily stood up anyway to close the window so he could go back to sleep. He yawned and rubbed one of his eyes as he shuffled across the floor to the window, stopping dead in his tracks when he noticed something shining in the moonlight on the windowsill. Taking a closer look, Arthur realized it was a necklace. A golden heart-shaped locket on a matching gold chain. He picked it up and ran his thumb over the design engraved into the pendant before leaning out the window to see if someone had placed it there. That was impossible though, his bedroom was on the second floor and if someone were to have put the locket there then Arthur would have heard the noise of a ladder hitting against the house.

It was still very early in the morning so Arthur closed his window and curtains again and placed the necklace on his nightstand. He would examine it more closely in the morning.

Arthur got back into his bed and tried to fall asleep but found he couldn't with the strange necklace lying just an arms reach away. With a groan he sat up again and grabbed the locket. The teen walked to his desk where he lit a few candles so he could look at the locket.

The pendant was in the shape of a heart and now that he looked more closely he noticed swirled designs and patterns carved into the front. It looked to be quite old from the dull gold color and broken chain. Arthur turned to look at the back of the heart and noticed small letters etched into the gold surface. It was still too dark to make out the words and some of the letters had been worn away, but it had already peaked the young man's curiosity.

Arthur thought for a few seconds before sliding the necklace into his shirt pocket and slipping outside of his room into the dark hallway. Carefully, he crept down the almost entirely pitch black hall to the stairs, feeling the wall so he didn't knock into anything. When he walked in front of his grandfather's room, he tried to stay calm but when he took his next step a loud creaking noise came from the board. Arthur waited for his grandfather to wake and him get caught, but the hall was still silent. He moved his foot again and another loud squeak echoed down the corridor. A light creak could be hear as the his grandfather shifted in his bed but he still didn't come out.

Quickly, Arthur walked down the hall ignoring all the squeaks and creaks that came from the floorboards and made it to the safety of the carpeted stairs. After that loud performance he was sure the other would come out but the house was just as dark and silent as it had been when he had left his room. The teen hurried down the stairs and across the dark foyer to James' study. Half of the room was dark like the rest of the house, but the other half was a ghostly white color from the moonlight that shone through the large bay windows. The drapes were still pulled back as they would be on any other day.

The wooden floor was very sturdy and not a sound came from the boards as Arthur walked to the oak desk in front of the windows. The moonlight cast a ghostly shadow across the stacks of papers and envelopes lying on the desk. Arthur rummaged around the desktop and drawers until he came across a small wooden box about the size of his forearm with the initials J.L.K engraved in the top.

Found it.

He picked up the box out and flipped open the lid. Inside was a silver letter opener with a crystal handle and a matching silver magnifying glass. Arthur had gotten it for James a year or so ago for the Christmas, he didn't really use the magnifying glass but kept it anyway because the 2 came as a set.

Arthur held the magnifying glass in one hand and pulled out the locket with his other. In the moonlight he could read the engraving without having to light a candle. Despite the few worn away letters, the teen could just barely make out what it said.

Lucille,

No matter how far away I am, you will be the only one to forever hold my heart.

All my love,

Charles

Charles? The name sounded oddly familiar but, judging by how old the locket was, he could't be sure. Arthur felt a slight tingle through his body as he repeated the words in his head. He lifted the pendent to his lips and held it there for a few seconds before closing his eyes and sighing. Outside the waves could be heard, lightly hitting against the sand. The more he listened the louder they got as if they were tempting him to enter the water. Louder and louder until Arthur couldn't take it.

Almost as if he was in a trance, the young man gazed out the window with wide eyes before placing the magnifying glass back on the desk and slipping the locket back in his pocket. Arthur walked out of the study to the front door of the house and didn't even bother putting on a pair of shoes or a coat before opening up the door and leaving the warmth of the house for the cold of night.

The gravel path felt uncomfortable beneath his feet but he continued to walk until he had gotten to the hedge separating him from his normal beach spot. Arthur pushed aside the foliage and picked his way carefully down the rocky beach. The sea was dark like the sky, but eerily beautiful. The reflection of the full moon rippled across the surface and the sound of the waves splashing against the beach made the teen smile as he walked down the the cliff of rocks. It was high tide so the water lightly slapped against the rocks as Arthur sat down on a large one close to the water and lowered his bare toes into the darkness below him. The ocean was freezing cold as normal but it calmed the young man in a way he couldn't explain.

Splash, splash, crash. Splash, splash, crash

His feet lightly kicked the water as he looked up at the stars twinkling in the raven sky. Something smooth touched Arthur's foot and he picked his feet out of the water confused. Not seeing anything in the water, Arthur guessed it was a bit of seaweed or some sort of fish. He put his feet back in the water and continued to look up at the sky. A splashing noise came from nearby but Arthur ignored it, just another fish or something.

Slowly, the teen began to drift off back to sleep as the sound of the ocean made him feel quite drowsy. The waves came a bit higher up to his shins but Arthur didn't notice in his now sleep-like state.

Splash, splash, crash. Splash, splash, crash

Arthur cracked one of his eyes open a bit as he felt something touch his foot again. He ignored it and started to fall back to sleep, enjoying the strange touch against his wet toes. It felt like a fish or something was swimming between his open feet, brushing against the pale skin.

His thoughts changed though when he felt two smooth, human-like hands grab his feet. Arthur's eyes opened wide and his mouth let out a loud gasp.

"Hello, Arthur. It's so great to finally meet you."

Starting to get to the good parts! I'm not sure how long this story will be but I have most of it planned out already.

I love seeing your reviews and I promise the next chapter will be out sooner than this one was. Probably around Christmas as the chapters are going to start to get longer. Also, sorry for any spelling mistakes, I try to catch them all but a few slip.

Until next time,

Toxicwaffles1000