Vi woke up to the sound of seagulls crying and people talking. So much noise. Was death supposed to be so loud? She was laying somewhere soft yet moisturized. She slowly opened her eyes, only to shut them off again as she was blinded by the light. She waited another moment before she attempted to open them again. Meanwhile, the voices were becoming more clear each moment as she regained consciousness. She was almost certain she was in hell when the first thing she saw was Ezreal's and Jayce's concerned faces.

"Vi? Oh, thank God!" The blond man cried out and Vi winced.

"Goddammit, Ezreal," Vi groaned as she tried to sit up.

"Back off. Give her space to breathe," Jayce commanded. "How are you feeling?" He asked, addressing Vi.

How was she feeling? She honestly had no idea. She just felt exhausted. "Just tired," she shrugged.

"We will have to take her to the hospital, for precautionary reasons," another voice that Vi didn't recognize said. It was probably one of the rescuers. It was unlikely that the two men were by themselves.

"Sounds good," Jayce agreed. "Can you stand?"

With the help of both Ezreal and Jayce, Vi managed to get on her feet. The storm had ceased, but it was still cold and the sand was wet. "Anyone care to explain to me what the fuck happen? How did you find me?" She asked. The last thing she was able to recall was her fighting against the waves before the sea devoured her.

"When the port guard reached Zack, he told them what happened and they sent a search team, but the storm was too strong so they had to retreat," Ezreal explained as they helped her walk to the ambulance. "The next day, they went out again, but they couldn't find you. We thought of the worst…" He trailed off.

"Ezreal and I were doing rounds near the coast in case you managed to get out somehow," Jayce continued. "Which you did, apparently."

Vi frowned. It didn't make sense. How had she ended up washed up on the beach? It was impossible she had swum all the way there or that she had been drifted away by the water without drowning. Her memory was jogged and was unable to provide her with a satisfactory answer. She decided not to tell the two men anything yet until she figured it out. It was better if they believed she had swum all the way back to the beach where she passed out due to the exhaustion.

The drive to the hospital was uneventful. One of the rescuers that were with her on the back of the ambulance made sure to give Vi plenty of water until they got there. Vi remained at New Meadow's hospital for at least three hours, where the doctors made her undergo several examinations to make sure that she hadn't swallowed too much sea water and that she didn't bear any serious injuries. She was released afterwards with the advice to make sure to drink some water since she was severely dehydrated.

Upon her release, her first thought was to get a cab back home. However, much to Vi's surprise, she took notice of Jayce waiting for her with his white SUV. He was talking with one of the practitioners that worked at the hospital before he waved at her. Vi approached apprehensively, not knowing what to make of this behavior. Jayce bid his friend goodbye before he turned to her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Seen better days, but I will survive," Vi shrugged. Her eyes lingered on the white SUV. "Is this your way of proving to me you are a better driver?"

Jayce had the decency to look embarrassed. "I can leave if you want me to."

"Gosh, learn how to take a joke," Vi groaned, but she managed a smile. "Shall we?"

Jayce nodded before hopping into the driver's seat. Vi walked all the way around and got in from the other side. The drive was awkward at best. Vi wondered why Ezreal hadn't come to pick her up instead. Jayce looked uncomfortable, tapping his fingers nervously on the wheel. Vi had the chance to observe him better since the first time they met. He was definitely older than her, perhaps in his early thirties, and he was fairly handsome. That statement meant a lot, considering that Vi held no particular attraction towards men. He probably suffered from some kind of superiority complex, but if she wanted to be honest, he wasn't that bad. She had met people far worse than Jayce, that was for sure.

"You need to relax," Vi spoke first. "I'm not holding any grudges, especially for something as insignificant as this."

Jayce avoided eye contact, focusing on the road. "Still, that was no way of me to behave. I apologize."

"Apology accepted. Now stop looking like a sad dog." This time Jayce couldn't help it but smile. Vi smirked. "That's better."

"No wonder the kids like you so much," he mused.

"How are they?" Vi asked, the smile disappearing

from her face as the image of a terrified Zack flashed in her mind.

"Shocked, but otherwise well," Jayce replied. "They were worried about the lighthouse too."

"Oh yeah," Vi said, as if she had just remembered that. "What happened with that?"

"I took care of it," Jayce reassured her. "But gosh, this thing is a legit fossil."

"You tell me," Vi huffed. "But at least it gets the job done. For the time being."

Jayce nodded. "Yeah, but it could definitely use an upgrade. It would cost less to upgrade the old lighthouse instead of building a new one."

"I'm surprised it remained intact," Vi admitted. "A building as old as that should have collapsed."

"Now that you mentioned it, yeah," Jayce agreed. "To be honest, these kinds of miracles are what we need right now as a community…" he trailed off.

Vi remained silent. Of course, she was unable to understand the pain and the loss of these people who lost everything in a couple of minutes, seconds even. She was an outsider, and the fact that they had gone out of their way to save her spoke volumes. This was a weird feeling tingling in her heart.

"And I suppose that people look for these "miracles", or for the people responsible for them, right?" Vi inquired after several moments of silence.

Jayce pressed his lips into a thin line. "People definitely have expectations, especially if you have already proven yourself."

"And these expectations weigh on you so bad sometimes that it makes you act like an asshole, I presume."

Jayce chuckled. "Exactly," but his smile soon faded away.

Vi wondered if she had been wrong about him. Maybe it wasn't a superiority complex rather than the expectations of people that looked up to him and his own willingness to help that stressed him out. At the end of the day, he was still human, not God. Maybe that was something that he needed to learn.

The drive back to Owl Point Reef Light was quiet, but at least not uncomfortable. Jayce drove all the way across the dusty road, catching Vi off guard who thought that he wouldn't want to get his car all dirty. Instead, he pulled over right outside the enormous lighthouse.

"Thanks for the drive," Vi thanked him as he exited the vehicle.

"No problem," he responded. "By the way, here's my phone number. You know, just in case-"

"Yeah, yeah got it," Vi cut him off as she took the piece of paper from his hand. "I'll see you around, yeah?"

"As long as you don't become fish food," Jayce joked. "Too soon?"

Vi rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot. Get out of here."

Vi watched him as he drove off, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. It was at this moment when she stood by herself that she realized how hungry and tired she actually was. All she wanted to do was eat and sleep. Or sleep and eat. Whatever. She would decide along the way.

The very same night, after she had made sure to switch on the lighthouse projectors, she had a very weird dream. Somehow, she had ended up in this deep tub of water with no visible way out. She struggled to keep her face above the water, but to no avail. Her body felt way too heavy as she was slowly dragged down by an unseen force. And then, just as she had lost all hope, a woman appeared. A woman with the most angelic face she had ever seen, with sparkling blue eyes like sapphires and a green tail covered in scales, reached out to her and grabbed her by the hands, pulling her out of the water…

Vi woke up gasping, clenching her flannel that was covered in her sweat. It was around 5 a.m. and the sun would soon rise. But what a dream. It felt so real. What a way to deal with the fact that she had almost drowned, she thought. She hated her brain. She rubbed her eyes and walked to her kitchen to grab a glass of water. She probably wasn't going to sleep again, despite the fact that her body desperately needed rest. Vi stood by the window and watched as the sun ascended behind the mountains before she finally decided to get to work. She needed to turn off the projectors and do some cleaning around the lighthouse too.

The sun reached the top of the sky and Vi had almost finished sweeping the lower floor of the lighthouse when she heard bells ringing. She popped her head out of the door to see four bikes coming to the lighthouse. Vi placed the broomstick near the wall and went out to greet the kids. Vi beamed at them, forgetting her exhaustion. She was glad to see them, but she was happier to see Zack riding ahead of everyone else, safe and healthy. The boy dropped his bike and ran to her, followed by the others. What Vi didn't expect was Zack to hug her. He barely reached her chest, but he still wrapped his arms around her much larger body.

"Hey there," Vi said, who wasn't used to these shows of endearment from him.

"You're okay," Zack said, choking on his own breath.

"Hey, hey it's alright, it's alright," Vi cooed, falling on her knees to be on the same level as him. "No need to cry. I'm fine, you see?"

Zack nodded, wiping his tears away. "I'm sorry. If I hadn't gone to the shipwreck-"

Vi's heart ached. Was this why he was so upset?

"It wasn't your fault, Zack." Vi reassured him. "It was just a bad moment. It could have happened to everyone."

"How did you get out, Vi?" Andy chided. "It was a pretty bad storm."

"What can I say? Maybe a mermaid helped me out." Vi winked at them. The kids gasped.

"I told you they were real!" Zack exclaimed triumphantly.

"What did she look like?" Nora asked enthusiastically.

Vi laughed in amusement. "Come in and I'll tell you all about it."

Vi wasn't the best story teller, but the kids didn't seem to care. In fact, they were more interested in the (non-factual) events rather than how the story was told. Vi herself was surprised by her ability to come up with such a silly story so quickly. That dream of hers had really inspired her, it seemed. At least that way she avoided telling them the dramatic details of her rescue. All they needed to know was that she was well. At the end of their little expedition, Vi sent the kids off with some cookies and a warning to be careful with their bikes, although they seemed way too excited too be listening to her. She watched them ride their bikes in the distance until they disappeared from her sight. In that moment, Vi wondered momentarily if hanging out with the children had triggered her own fantasy to create dreams like the one she had the previous night.

The following days the storm ceased and the sun became the prevailing element in the sky, but the wind remained just as chilly. Vi kept working around the lighthouse wrapped in a warm jacket, trying to erase the peculiar dream from her brain. That task itself was impossible, since she kept having the same dream almost every single night since the incident. It was something she couldn't understand, especially since she always woke up before that woman pulled her out of the water completely. It didn't make any sense. She wondered if she ought to see a doctor, but then again, what could a doctor provide her? She just had a traumatic experience and this was probably her brain's way of coping with the fact that she had almost died. All she needed was a distraction, and working kept her distracted long enough.

Jayce and Ezreal dropped by a few times to check in on her, to make sure she was alright and that she didn't need anything. She didn't mention the dream to them, because she didn't want to weird them out - or to be made fun of, Ezreal could be annoying when he wanted to be. Vi did enjoy their company though; it certainly helped keep her mind off things, plus it was nice having people around - adult people. She adored the children, but sometimes she needed to be around her peers.

When Vi wasn't busy around the lighthouse, she would take long walks on the beach, again. Although strolling by the very same element that had almost claimed her life days ago seemed counterproductive for her recovery, there was something soothing about the sea when it was calm, something Vi couldn't quite explain. Was it the sound of the weaves crushing on the sand? Was it the smell of salt in the air? She wasn't sure.

That day, she went down to the beach for her regular walk a little bit later than usual. She had to wear her leather jacket, as the cold wind wasn't messing around. She walked across the beach slowly, leaving her marks on the sand for the sea to erase later. Vi glanced at the shipwreck on the other side, standing frozen in time. She wondered how it had ended up there. She always forgot to ask Jayce and Ezreal about the story behind the shipwreck, or even the children. They certainly knew a lot of stories about their hometown. Was it an accident? Was it the storm? Or was it pirates that had driven it off the sea? The curiosity in her demanded satisfaction.

As she was walking with her hands deep in her pockets, Vi noticed in the distance what looked like a plastic bag that had been vomited by the ocean. She frowned. Humans in their ignorance destroyed their own home, but Mother Nature always paid back. But as she got closer, Vi realized it wasn't a plastic bag. It was actually a fishing net, a fishing net that had been successful in capturing its prey. By the looks of it, I was a very large fish that couldn't entirely be contained by the net. Its tail still splashed desperately on the water. With a closer look, Vi realized there was something wrong. Yes, there was indeed the tail and the scales, but there was something else. A human body? Behind the squirming tail? Or was it attached to the tail…

Vi stopped on her heels. She blinked several times, rubbed her eyes, then blinked again. This couldn't be it, right? There was no way. They weren't real. But how they weren't real if one of them was laying right in front of her very own eyes? No, she was certain her brain was messing with her. This was a hallucination. She had to make sure that was the case. Vi approached with careful steps the creature she assumed was a mermaid, to determine what it actually was. But as she came closer, the hands that were trying to rip the net off, the long, blue-ish hair that fell on her back, they all seemed too real. Vi didn't know what to think.

Suddenly, while trying to free itself - herself? - she turned around and came face to face with Vi and stopped her struggle. Vi froze too as she came across the same face, the same eyes that haunted her dreams.