The car door slammed behind Cassandra as she turned to glare at her little brother, who had the audacity to snatch her phone while her arms were full of beach supplies. “You ugly little cabbage!” She cried, gaining the attention of her mother, who was still unloading the car. “Give me that!” Dropping the beach chairs she had been struggling to hold, Cassie chased after her brother, who had broken into a run once he’d gotten the reaction he wanted.
“Cass,” her mom growled, hands on her hips. It was too late for intervention, though, since the two kids were almost at the edge of the water.
Unfortunately for Cassandra, her brother had gotten there first, and was now holding her phone over the tide like a hostage.
“Tyrell, don’t you dare,” she shrieked, grabbing for her phone as the six-year-old giggled like the villain he was. Luckily, their dad, who was already nearby, scooped up the little terror and snatched the phone from his hand and passed it to Cassie.
“You’d better put that somewhere safe,” he said as Tyrell squirmed violently. Cassandra just rolled her eyes and walked away.
This family was going to drive here insane.
Really, it was a miracle she hadn’t committed a murder yet, and she patted herself on the back for not resorting to criminal activity as she hid her phone in the beaten-up vehicle her parents called a car. All of her illegally downloaded episodes of Pokémon were on there, and she would probably stab someone if she had to go through all the viruses again that the site she’d used had given it. Still, family was family. No matter how much she disliked certain members of hers, Cassandra decided she would not be the source of their demise.
The moment Cassie finished, though, her mother called her over, and she almost reconsidered her decision.
She hated setting up that damn umbrella.
The moment she was finished beating the thing into submission, which had been very intent on staying closed, Cassandra tromped off to the water. The sand grinded between her toes in a way that left her quite irritated- although the beach was her family’s go-to vacation spot, it was one of Cassie’s least favorite places. She couldn’t use her phone because of the poor reception, her books got filled with sand every time she brought them, and she always ended up bringing home half the beach in her swimsuit.
In other words, Cassie and the coast? They were mortal enemies.
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The water, being the least of many evils, lapped at her kickboard as she rested it on the waves. The salt stung her eyes, and she closed them with a sigh. Her legs took her deeper into the ocean’s embrace, grip tightening on her only means of flotation- yes, she could swim, but she wasn’t good at it, so some precautions were necessary. Cassie’s ears could barely pick up the sounds of her younger siblings chasing each other over the wind, and she shook her head. The two miniature annoyances’ shrieks were the background music of her life. Eventually, though, the sea overwhelmed any other sound as Cassandra ventured further.
When the waves started to reach up and touch her shoulders, she stopped, fighting to remain upright as they smacked against her chest. Her locs were already crisp with salt, the sensation of them framing her face making her wince. She reached up to adjust them but froze when she heard a low whine over the baying wind. It was unlike anything she’d heard before: a mixture of music and otherworldly noise.
What the hell?
Cassie chewed on her lower lip, scanning the ocean for any sign of what the source might be, but the only thing she saw was a small swell in the distance. Scratch that, a large swell that was closing the distance between her and itself terrifyingly quickly. Her eyes widened and she backed away before turning and running for the shore. Her heartbeat roared in her ears as the water retracted from the sand at a speed that she’d never seen before, and a shriek ripped from her throat as the torrent dragged her backwards and closer to the massive wall of water. The ocean writhed around her, climbing first to her waist, then her shoulders, and finally leaving her struggling to stay afloat as her feet left the seabed. Adrenaline flared in her body as her breath quickened. She was tossed around, but, miraculously, kept her head above the water long enough to see just how far away the beach was now, her family becoming antlike dots against the sand. As Cassandra opened her mouth to scream for help, water flowed into her throat.
No coherent thoughts remained in her head, and every waking moment was a struggle for survival when she was yanked beneath the water.
Her open eyes were bitten by the salt in the water, but the pain was barely registered as she forced her muscles to move, to swim. No matter how far she went, though, Cassie could not find the surface, and as her lungs begged for air, she made the mistake that would cost her the very life she was fighting to keep.
She sucked in a breath of water.
And, in her effort to get the seawater out of her lungs, she sucked in another.
Her muscles stopped responding to her commands. She stopped panicking. Her fear, while still at the back of her mind, was no longer what drove her. Instead, she wondered if the huge, spherical whale she saw before her had been the one to make the noise.
It was absolutely massive compared to her fifteen-year-old body and, unlike the average whale, it was completely round save for two fins on its side. The thing trilled at her, and in the confusion of near-death, she thought it seemed almost mournful.
Cassandra looked at it until the darkness at the edge of her vision covered it wholly. She listened to its funny sounds until the feeling of water in her ears faded away, along with everything else, and the last thing she thought before the connection between body and soul was severed was that the whale looked oddly similar to a creature from her favorite franchise.