Chapter 15

Caroline POV:

Riding the elevator down the space needle was just as fun as going up. We didn't mention… whatever it was we had at the top. After we got our fill of the city skyline, we went back down to explore more. On the way down, Stefan pointed out a couple of things to me.

"That's Mount Rainier over there," he showed me. "And the water here is the Puget Sound."

"I knew that already."

"Okay," he smirked at me. "Congrats." I rolled my eyes.

"Isn't the first Starbucks around here somewhere?"

"It is but it's really small so you can't see it from up here."

"Huh." I crossed my arms, trying to think of other places. But the elevator was fast so we weren't up there for a long time. "That was really fun, thanks for showing me. Wanna go see the flying fish now?"

"Are you planning on getting a fish? Because if you want to do anything else, we should do that first."

I thought about what we had seen at the top. "What about the Ferris wheel?" I pointed in the direction of the giant ride.

"That sounds great."

We drove to the pier where the wheel was. It looked even bigger in person, almost intimidating. "You're not scared of heights, are you?" he joked.

"Nah, let's do this." The line wasn't very long, thankfully, so we only waited for a couple of minutes. The ride was more expensive than I had expected, but I tried not to think about it. "Here we go," I said as the wheel started to spin slowly. The cage swung side to side and I gripped on to the wall so I wouldn't fall over. Once we were at the top, I was completely amazed by the view. Unlike the space needle, it felt so much more real since there was no glass in between us and outside. Stefan seemed much more interested in looking around this time as if he hadn't seen the city when we were in the Space Needle.

"This is the highest Ferris wheel I've ever been on," I commented.

"It's the tallest one on the West Coast," he told me. "I think it's over a hundred fifty feet, but I'm not sure."

"Really? How do you know stuff like this?"

He shrugged. "I guess I heard it somewhere." The gondola lurched suddenly and I fell forward. Stefan grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back. "Wonder why that happened?"

"That was scary." I nervously readjusted back in my seat after he let go of me. But because we were so high in the air, I wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea that the wheel had malfunctioned. So I scooted closer to Stefan, pressing myself against his side. Not that that made it any safer but it sure felt like it. He didn't seem to mind.

After we got off the Ferris wheel, the man running it apologized for the issues. We left to see the fish. When we got to the market, he led me through the various stands to the fish. On the way there, I was distracted by a stand selling jewelry. It wasn't the necklaces and earrings that had me interested, but the sign displayed behind the counter.

"Want anything? I can buy you something if you'd like," Stefan offered.

"No thanks, I brought some money," I declined, still staring. He followed my gaze to the picture of the boy on the sign.

"Isn't that…"

"Yeah, it is." Missing, the sign read. Riley Biers age 18. Below that, was the contact information. He had been the one at Victoria's side that Angela had set on fire. The picture was blurry but I could make out the blond boy in the hastily taken selfie. In the picture, he wore a smile and looked younger than when I had encountered him so I assumed that there weren't that many pictures to choose from. My eyes filled with water as I realized that whoever put up this sign had no idea of what had happened. At the time, I had wanted him dead. But seeing that there were people that cared to search for him made me feel uneasy.

"Come on," I motioned for Stefan to keep moving. "I wanna get to the fish."

He agreed and we moved through the crowd. I heard some shouting and then I saw it; two men were throwing fish across the aisle to each other. I watched a woman hand money to the man at the counter. He yelled to the other man standing next to the fish on the ice display. A fish was hurled across to him where he caught it and wrapped it up for her. As she walked away, she pulled her kid off of the metal statue of a pig that was at the side. This market is weird.

"Why do they do that?" I questioned Stefan.

"Well, they only throw the fish if you buy it. People buy fish so that they can see the show. It's pretty smart."

"Then we'll have to buy one," I concluded. He chuckled and we walked up to the stand. I approached with complete confidence. "One fish, please," I said excitedly.

"What type of fish would you like?" he asked. I hesitated and looked at Stefan for help. He shrugged and continued to watch me make a fool out of myself.

"A… salmon," I said the first fish I thought of.

"And what type of salmon?"

"A big one." What am I doing? Stefan was standing next to me trying to contain his laughter. I glared at him.

"I'll get you a king salmon, is that okay?" His tone suggested that I wasn't the first one to order a fish without actually wanting one.

"Sounds good," I agreed, not really knowing how a king salmon was any different from any other salmon. He called my order out to the other worker who picked up the salmon. I realized my mistake as soon as I saw the fish I had chosen. It was at least two feet long and chunkier than any of the fish that Charlie had ever brought home. The audience that had formed around the stand moved closer to see the monster of a fish that he was holding and he spun it around, showing it off. Then, he tossed it to the guy at the counter and it was like a game started; they threw it back and forth a couple of times as if they were trying to outdo each other with each spin of the fish. Finally, the salmon was wrapped up and I paid for it.

"What do I do with this?" I asked Stefan as I walked with the fish in my arms.

"You're the one who bought it, figure it out yourself." He snickered while he watched me struggle to comfortably carry it.

"I guess I'll just bring this with me the rest of the day." I settled for holding it over my shoulder like you would a child, no longer caring about how my clothes would smell.

"Caroline, look at this." Stefan pointed to another stand which sold different handmade bags.

"What?"

He pulled out his wallet and said to the woman running the stand, "I'll take that blue backpack."

"That'll be $24.47."

"Great, thanks." He took the bag from her hands and ran back to me. "Here," he said as he took the fish from my arms. "Put this on." I complied and slipped the backpack on around my shoulders.

"Thanks, but you really didn't have to buy me anything." I admired the bag; it was simple without any patterns but the blue was a pretty color. He smiled mischievously at me before placing the entire fish in it.

"Stefan!" I yelled. The fish's head was sticking out of the top. "What is this?"

"It'll be easier to carry this way," he explained.

"But- I-" I sputtered, not knowing how to respond to this ridiculous method of fish carrying. "People are going to stare!"

"They'll stare anyways if you're carrying that around, might as well make it easier for yourself." He put a hand on my shoulder.

"My hair is going to smell like fish."

"Good thing it's short now. What are you going to name it?"

At this point, I was so confused that it didn't even seem like a strange question. "Uh, what about Fsh?"

"Fsh? Am I pronouncing that right? Why Fsh?"

"Because he doesn't have any eyes." I pointed to the empty sockets on the head. I couldn't help but laugh at my stupid joke. He stared at me blankly. Before we left, we bought a bag of ice so that Fsh wouldn't spoil.

Ugh, the reviews are so sweet! I love it! Hope you liked the chapter! Also, not completely sure if I got all the Seattle details right because I haven't been in a while.