Chapter 2.

The

Clashing

Of

Waves;

Act I,

Part I

"How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb . . .

Without a soul
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold;
Until you find it there and lead it back home . . .

Wake me up inside,
Wake me up inside,
Call my name and save me from the dark!

Bid my blood to run,
Before I come undone,
Save me from the nothing I've become . . .

"Bring me to Life" by Evanescence

~X~

Riley Luck was bored. Royally bored. Royally bored and hungry. And that was never a good combination. He gave a low groan and turned in his seat. "Tuff, are you sure you don't feel a bite on the line?"

Tuff Luck, his identical twin/older-by-five-frikin'-minutes-brother, gave him an annoyed sideways glance. "Riley, for the millionth time, no! Fishing takes a great deal of patience and time; especially if you're part shark and the fish could smell that from a mile away, just give me some time."

Riley couldn't help giving him a deadpan glare. "Tuff! We've been out here ever since ten o'clock this morning!" He swung his arms out in gesture towards the small cove that their small, rickety boat was currently afloat in. "It's now, like, what, two in the afternoon?! I'm so hungry; I think my stomach's about to eat my stomach!"

Tuff rolled his eyes at him. "That's a physical impossibility, Riley, even in our case."

Riley crossed his arms somewhat indignantly. "That's not the point. Anyways, why don't we just dive in and grab some fish! We can get food a lot quicker than just fishing with a silly stick."

"You would lose a lot of money on that bet." Tuff adjusted the fishing pole in his hands placidly. "You'll scare more fish than you'll actually catch and then we'll never get anything to eat."

"Rub it in, why don'tcha?" Riley pouted somewhat. Fed up with sitting, he scooted in the far side of his bench, making the boat rock for a moment and earning an annoyed glance from Tuff, lay himself down his back and propped one of his feet on the side of the boat and his arms behind his head in an effort to relax. "Ahh, whatever, just, erf, let me know when you actually do catch something and can't pull it out on your own . . ." He sighed.

Tuff rolled his eyes at his brother yet again and simply returned his attention back to his line. Surely something would bite the line soon. He gave a silent chuckle. Maybe when he did catch something, it would jump out of the water and smack Riley full in the face.

Tuff's face fell. Then again, Riley would actually enjoy that; going as far as catching the fish with his bare teeth and eating it raw, never minding the fact he could catch food poisoning or even salmonella. Then he would have to undergo the rather arduous task of finding and catching food for him and his sick twin brother.

Tuff grimaced. The last time that had happened, it had not been a pleasant memory. He loved his brother and all, but even identical twins have to have their limits. Anyone who said otherwise was probably selling something.

He sighed. To think, all this could've been avoided if Riley could just learn to control his hormones. Of course, the task itself was as impossible as wanting to light fire in the deepest of water. Simply ridiculous.

Like any sane person, they had voted to go a restaurant. They had the money for it and it was a wonderful change of pace from the "living-off-the-land" routine that they've been forced to endure for past three weeks. And everything was going spectacularly . . . Until the rather uncomfortably voluptuous blonde waitress came over to take their order.

As Tuff predicted, each and every time that an attractive woman wandered into the picture, Riley immediately started to hit on her with a large toothy grin and sappy pick-up lines. The waitress was eager to respond to his advances, batting her eyelashes and smiling flirtatiously and the like, much to Tuff's chagrin. He tried to blissfully ignore it as he looked over the menu's contents.

He had been ready to order the special of the day when the waitress's large, extremely well-built, very short-tempered boyfriend then cast a shadow over his shoulder.

Needless to say, they weren't able to get lunch.

So here they were, floating in a boat on the cove that was in a comfortably far distance from town, waiting haplessly for something that was dim enough to bite on his line. Obviously, nothing so far had come up.

. . .. . Maybe it wasn't too late to actually consider Riley's plan.

"Whoa, Tuff!" Riley sounded surprised. "What'd you do? Catch an octopus again?"

Tuff instantly felt his face drop in horror. He only took one look at the water, the second he caught sight of something clouding the water's surface, before dropping the fishing pole like it was on fire and scuttling madly to the opposite side of it. "Oh dear god, I hope not."

Riley rolled his eyes at his brother's paranoid expression. "Oh, calm down, it's probably dead by now, judging by all this ink." To emphasize his point, he leaned over and stuck his hand in the water to gather some of it in his hand.

"That's what you said last time before it attacked me!" Tuff glowered at him.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know that –" Riley started but stopped when he brought his hand back. His hand was now coated in blue liquid but something about it felt . . . Off. "Hey, hey, wait a minute . . ." He mumbled.

Tuff heard him and asked, "Riley, what's wrong?"

"I don't know." Riley frowned. Rubbing his thumb across his fingers and palm, he furrowed his eyebrows at the texture his finger felt under his touch. ". . . This ink is kinda weird. It's not cold at all; it's actually kind of warm and . . . its color way lighter than usual, instead of black, it's like navy blue and . . . And . . ." He brought the hand up to his nose, taking a tentative sniff.

An iron, coppery smell filled his nostrils. His sharky instinct suddenly sprung out at him; demanding him to delve deeper into the smell, to taste its source, devour the meat underneath it until nothing but bones was left to greet him –

Riley promptly snapped his hand out and way from him, snorting loudly. "Maker, gah!" Tuff jumped at his exclamation. "Geez, whatever this stuff is, it's smells . . Just like . . ." He turned his head towards his brother, his face clearly portraying fear at finishing his sentence.

Tuff didn't respond to that right away; instead, he leaned over, dipped his finger into the small dark pool and, with great reluctance and tentativeness, brought it to his mouth and carefully licked the tip. He immediately spit the contents right back out and into the water, using the cuff of his sleeve to dry off his tongue with a fury. His heart dropped as he looked back at Riley. "Blood."

They looked at the dark pool that was now growing suspiciously larger each minute. "Uh . . ." Riley started uncertainly, gripping the side of the boat with tight fingers. "You don't suppose . . . ?"

"Oh, yes," Tuff answered. "Yes, I do. Bottoms up!"

Riley didn't need to be told twice; the twins bent themselves at the waist over the side of the small boat, never minding the fear of it being flipped over from the sudden increase of weight on one side, and dunked their heads into the sea water until they were up to the bottom of their shoulder blades. Bubbles flitted to the surface as they bobbed in place for a few moments, the boat rocking somewhat; a minute later, they both retracted from the water with a gasp.

Both their heads were soaked, their hair dripping wet and dripping goblets of water down both the back and front of their shirts and their faces flushed from the cold temperature of the water below them. They paid no mind to it, instead, they both looked at each other and easily knew the answer to the unspoken question; "DEEPER!"

With that, they both stood up and jumped, plunging into the water with a fervent pair of splashes. The abandoned boat swung violently in their wake, moving up and down from the ripples of their exit before slowly coming to a halt.

To no one's knowledge, the string on the fishing pole, the one Tuff claimed would eventually catch something, was then yanked straight out of the boat and into the water, pole and all.

The large obese turtle that had done the yanking was happy for the new chew toy it then received.

~X~

It was cold. It was dark. And she was scared.

She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She barely felt alive. She wasn't even sure she was dead.

Water moved all around her, the salt stinging like fire in her side and the air in her throat coming out in multiple sizes. Her mind was trapped into a haze of pain and numbness and she was frozen, unable to do anything to help herself.

She could just barely see the light filtering in from the water's surface far above her; she could also barely make out the dark blue essence flowing out of her side and her mouth(?) as though it was water itself.

She didn't even know how long she had been here. Everything was a blur. She could be anywhere; probably in the middle of the big blue, for all she knew.

Despite the fear of hearing her own heart slowing down in its beat in her ears, the fear of her blood running cold from the dangerous lack of warmth and the fear of her sight dimming ever half minute from the dizziness that just wouldn't go away . . .

. . . She was calm. Totally and completely calm.

Like what was happening to her wasn't terrifying at all. If anything, it actually felt really . . . Peaceful and . . . Relaxing . . .

. . . She felt weightless and so, so tired. She could fall asleep right here . . . Sleep and never have to wake up . . . That would be nice . . .

She could maybe meet up with Vince later . . . For now, she could take a nice . . . Long rest . . .

Swish, swish, swish . . .

". . . WHOA! Riley, are you seeing this?!"

"Yeah, I'm seeing it, Tuff, but I don't believe it . . ."

. . . Huh? . . . Who was that? . . . Were there people here?

"It's a girl! . . . God, she's so blue, is she dead?"

. . . She felt something soft but firm press against either side of her neck. What were they doing . . . ? . . . Couldn't they see that she was tired . . . ?

". . . No, no, I got a pulse and . . . She's smells alive, barely . . ."

Alive? She was still alive . . . ? Was this what alive was supposed to feel like . . . ? She couldn't remember . . .

"C'mon, we gotta get her to land before she drowns!"

"Drowns" . . . ? Was she drowning? How did they know - ?

All of a sudden, something grabbed her shoulders and yanked her body forward. She choked on the water that flooded down her throat when a new explosion of fire and cold came out of her side.

Ow! What were they doing?! That hurt! Didn't they see that she was hurt?! Why didn't they just leave her alone?!

"Riley! Be careful! She's bleeding like crazy!"

"I'm not blind, Tuff, I can see that! My sharky senses are going nuts just holding her!"

Sharky? Wait, these two are sharks?! Oh, not good. Definitely not good!

Without thinking, she used practically all her strength, what little was left of it anyway, and swung her tail mindlessly. It hit its target with amazing precision, earning a dull "thwap!" and yelp of surprise from one of the voices.

"Ow! What just – What the hell– Wait, is this a tail?! She has a tail?!" So that was the one holding her so roughly. That was "Riley".

"Focus, Riley, we need to move now!" That must be "Tuff". The one that thought she was dead. Which she probably was . . . Or rather, going to be . . .

The water was pushing against her face; she was going against the current but she wasn't even moving at all . . . Oh, wait . . . Riley must still be holding her . . . That explains it . . .

Her other side felt warm . . . Really warm . . . Did he have an arm around her or something . . . . ? Come to think of it . . . . She could swear that she could hear a . . . . a heartbeat . . . . ?

It felt nice . . . . This felt like a nice place . . . . To take a . . . . . a nap . . . . .

. . . . . . A nice . . . . . . . long . . . . . . . . nap . . . . . . . .

~X~

Tuff broke the surface with a gasp. A second later, Riley and the girl whose skin was now a very serious pale shade of blue in his arms, shot up beside him with a gasp of his own. The girl remained silent as her head lolled to her chest.

"What do we do now?" Riley asked Tuff, carefully adjusting his grip on the girl.

Tuff frowned, he could tell his brother was trying desperately hard not to make mind of the large dark blue puddle that was rising out of the woman's side and to the surface surrounding their boat. He absently grabbed the side of it and said, "Okay, here's what we'll do; I'll climb up into the boat and you hand her to me."

"Why don't I climb up and you hand her to me?" Riley questioned.

Tuff deadpanned at him. "You're the stronger out of the both of us. You'll be able to lift her up easier than I can; anyways, this isn't the time to argue about this, we need to hurry or we're gonna have a dead girl on our hands! And considering the rumors that are already circulating around half the species that we originate from, the last thing we need is having something like this," He gestured briefly to the prone girl. "To explain to the local morgue," He put all his weight on his arms and heaved himself up into the boat. Once his feet touched the wooden floor, he swiftly turned himself around and held his arms out towards his brother. "Now, hand her to me before she gets drained like an orange!"

Riley didn't question him again. Quickly but gently, he adjusted his hand hold on the girl's torso so they were positioned right underneath her arms. He took only a minute to ready himself – This girl was heavier than she looked! – Before lifting her over his head with a hefty grunt, his body sinking until the water's surface touched his chin from the abrupt shift in densities. Tuff quickly looped his arms around the girl's chest, easily relieving Riley of the weight and pulled her against him and into the boat.

He tried not to shudder at how cold she felt. She nearly felt like a beached fish. The vast amount of blood still spilling from her side wasn't helping anything either.

Tuff set her down as carefully as possible. Riley then joined him, trying hard not to shake the shanty little boat too much as he swung a leg over and nearly toppled into the bench across from the two. "Well, that was easy." Riley breathed, attempting to lighten the mood between them. Tuff tried hard not to crack a smile, diverting all his attention to the girl.

The girl's unusual skin color was in a shade that they both were, at the moment, assuming was unhealthy, they couldn't tell if she was conscious or not because her eyes were shut with bangs of short, pale golden blonde hair sticking to her cheeks; the right side of her stomach held a huge, bleeding gash that was the size of their heads most likely and was excreting handfuls of blood with each beat of their hearts.

All in all, the girl's condition was absolutely critical.

Riley was starting to straighten himself out when he saw something. Something big and yellow sticking out of the wound, clashing strongly with the deep blue color of her blood. "Hey," Tuff looked up at him. "Look at this," He pointed to the object. Tuff followed his finger and furrowed his eyebrows at the oddity; on instinct, he ignored the feel of hot blood gushing around his fingertips and pinched at it, pulling it out deftly and bringing it to his face to examine it.

It was a tooth; large enough so that it couldn't be confused with a human's, but still small enough to not be considered with any wild animals like Manticores or serpents. Its tip was soaked with blood and looked as though it had seen better days with the holes and gaping hole at its root. Tuff frowned thoughtfully. What the hell could've done damage to a girl with teeth like this?

"Uh, Tuff?" Riley said, somewhat nervously which immediately caught his attention. Tuff blinked at him. "Hate to interrupt your train of thought, but we got a really bleedy girl here and we're still stuck on a boat." Looking behind him, he then added as an afterthought, "That and I think something took your fishing pole."

"O-oh, right, sorry!" Tuff shoved the tooth into his vest pocket absently and returned his gaze back to the girl.

She was still. Uncomfortably still. She hadn't moved even once. It was almost like she was –

Tuff then felt his heart drop in what could only be described as pure, morbid fear. He leaned forward quickly and put a hand to her throat, right under her chin where one of her veins should be. There was an extremely faint pulse; it almost felt like a breeze that rolled under her cold, pale skin.

That should've calmed him down. Except for one tiny detail.

". . . she's not breathing . . ." He whispered so faintly, Riley almost didn't hear him. Riley's eyes grew wide in horror as he repeated much more loudly, ". . . She's not breathing! SHE'S NOT BREATHING!"

This was horrible. This was like a nightmare – No, not like a nightmare, this was all too real. Tuff's mind went blank. This girl was dying. This girl was dying and he didn't know what to do . . .

Riley was the first to react; his fingers swiftly unbuttoned his shirt and he pulled it off like it was suffocating him. Before Tuff could even ask what he was doing, he gathered it up in his hands and pressed it hard into the wound. "This should stop it from bleeding for a couple of minutes, try giving her air!" Tuff just blinked at him, his mind a daze at what he said, causing him to snap, "Tuff, now, dammit, now! Before we lose her!"

Tuff broke out of his frightened stupor like Riley had just slapped him upside the head. That's right, what was he doing? He knew what to do!

He gave a flicker of a nod to Riley before looking at the girl's face. He spotted a trail of blood leaking from her mouth. It quickly vanished on the cuff of his sleeve as he wiped it away none too gently. For what he was about to do, he couldn't afford to have his shark side take control over one tiny drop of blood. He gently placed a hand on the back of the girl's head and lifted it up so her neck wasn't so bent back. With his free hand, he took two fingers and stuck it between her lips, prying them wide open easily; taking a deep breath, he pressed his mouth to hers without any further ado.

The angle of their mouths was awkward and her lips felt horribly cold against his warm ones. Not to mention he was using every ounce of his normally firm will-power to keep him from losing it over the taste of warm iron that caked her insides.

But that didn't matter right now, none of that did; his only concern was giving this woman, this complete stranger who Riley and he had just found floating in the water like a dead fish – He shuddered at the ill-timing of the pun – every breath of air that he had within him.

He had to. He couldn't let her die like this. She still seemed so young. He won't let her die like this.

He felt her chest rise up from her lungs filling with air as he started to lose his. Breaking away, he took his free hand and pressed it right over her heart, forgetting all about his normal shyness towards girls, pumping hard at it with each number he counted off, "One, two, three, four . . . !" It was a little hard considering his other hand was still occupying the back of her head but this wasn't the time to be juggle back and forth.

Slowly, a rhythm started; for each deep breath of air Tuff gave her, he gave her chest four presses with his hand. "One, two, three, four!" Breathe . . . "One, two, three, four!" Breathe . . . "One, two, three, four!" Breathe . . .

The girl's body almost fell over a couple of times but luckily, Riley caught her with one hand before she did, never taking his other hand off the shirt sponging up her blood, and held her place as his twin continued with his makeshift CPR. It was all Riley could do as he watched Tuff helplessly.

That didn't stop his own heart falling as minutes started to roll by and the girl hadn't shown one sign of movement.

Without warning, Tuff suddenly growled out in frustration. "Argh! Come on, breathe!" His hand started to press his hand even harder against her chest. "You need to breathe!"

Riley slowly frowned. The girl didn't even twitch at the sound of his voice and she was looker even paler than before. He didn't want to admit it, but . . . But it looked like she was gone. That there was nothing that they could do. She was lost.

Tuff was beginning to grow frantic, giving her desperate amounts of air and pressing his hand so hard against her chest that it was liable that she was going to get bruises. Slowly, as to not startle him, he took one of his hands of her side and pressed it to his shoulder, never minding the blood that had leaked through to his palm. "Tuff . . . I-I think she might be –"

"NO!" Tuff smacked his hand off, surprising him and the jolt making the boat rock. He knew what he was going to say but he didn't want to hear it . . . Not yet.

Tuff was manic with fright at this point; he cringed slightly as his hand practically pounding over her heart and making some of her ribs crack from the force but he didn't stop. He continued to give her air, slamming his mouth over hers and breathing hard.

He had to keep trying, just for a little while longer. He had to keep trying! He couldn't end like this. Not here! Not now! "Please . . . !" He almost shouted to her, a futile attempt to see if some part of her would hear his voice. "Please! You need to wake up! Breathe!"

If only she would breathe . . .

He gave one final push with all the strength he had in him, human-strength, shark-strength and all as he choked out with an inhuman roar, "Just BREATHE!"

COUGH!

ME: SHE LIVES! XD BTW, As per usual, I own NOTHING!