Luna wrang her fingers and chewed her lip as she flicked her fin and paced the tunnels through the house. She had done the same thing now for days, pacing and twitching. She knew if she stopped, she would plunge back into the dark thoughts as she stressed about Katie. It had nearly been half a moon now since she had left for her dive. Though she had promised to be back in plenty of time for dinner, the sun had set and the world began to darken without her return. At that point, Luna had begun to fret and her anxiety had awoken like a starved creature within her.
She had never totally understood the human concept of time, but she did know that the numbers were climbing too high into the evening for her to continue telling herself that everything was fine. She had dragged herself from the water and hauled herself up onto a chair to reach the phone on the counter. She hated the phone. Hated trying to use it, hated the hissing static that came through the line and ached in her ears, and especially despised the piercing wail when it rang, but she had been thankful for it in that moment. Despite her dislike of the device, Sophie had made her memorize a few number sequences, just in case there was ever an emergency. She had dialed out that number and endured the ringing until Sophie had answered.
The woman had seemed to know instantly that something was amiss, asking what was wrong almost instantly after Luna spoke. It did not surprise her; Sophie knew Luna would never use the phone unless she had to, unless Katie could not. Luna had choked on her words. Admitting that Katie had not come home made it real, and Sophie responded with equal concern. She and Lewis had come home right away, had begun making calls of their own. Katie was not answering her cell phone, and a call to the harbor had revealed that there were no boats or dive equipment rented, no events at all scheduled that met the description Katie had initially provided for Sophie.
It was all very scary as Katie always gave all the details to Sophie as a precaution. If there was ever an accident out in the water, she never wanted Sophie to have to hunt for the information.
At that point - with tears in her eyes and deep frown lines creasing her face - Sophie had called the police. Luna had hidden in the walls and they had put covers over the pools that allowed her access to the rest of the home while the police had shown up and spoken with Sophie and Lewis. Law enforcement was something Luna did understand. At least, the way that they explained it to her was that there were specific humans trained to help people in an emergency and also to handle and punish people who did bad things. It was a little intimidating, but it was not hard to grasp, and she hoped that they would be able to help find out what happened to Katie. She had been terribly worried about her sister that night.
That worry only grew as the days passed without any change. Katie did not come home, did not answer her phone, and the police did not find any clues about her disappearance. The weather had been calm, so there was no chance a storm had overtaken them, and she clearly had not gone on the excursion anyways. Katie always signed in at a register at the harbor Sophie had said, so that the log could be tracked. There were lots of safety precautions when humans dived because it could be so risky to them. Katie had not signed in.
Then, four turns after Katie had disappeared, Sophie had come home fuming. She was furious, but the tears in her eyes told more of devastation. When Luna had inquired, Sophie had told her that with no new leads, they were labelling Katie a runaway. But Luna could not understand that. Katie never would have run off. Katie loved her family too much, and she was always so cautious, so careful, whenever she went out or on a dive. It was her tendency, rather than anything Sophie enforced. She could not have just run off with no warning….right?
It was the uncertainty, mixed with the guilt that perhaps something she had done had driven Katie away, and the worry that she could be hurt that kept Luna pacing through the water. If she stopped, she would think about it too hard, so she would swim herself in circles until she was dizzy and exhausted, just to get a little rest and do it all again. She wished there was more she could do. She begged Sophie to let her go out into the ocean to search, but Sophie always refused. Whatever had happened, Sophie suspected it took place on land, not out in the water, and she argued that Luna was not well fitted to survive out in the ocean on her own, and did not want to risk them both.
Luna understood the logic, and would normally accept it, but now she despised how awful and useless it made her feel.
She abruptly stopped swimming, nearly slamming her face against the glass wall of the tunnel she was in as she heard the front door open. She watched as Sophie entered the home. The woman’s fiery red curls were frizzing around her head in an unkept mess, and her normally tanned skin had paled significantly. Luna frowned, her heart seizing in her chest as she watched the woman who had raised her shuffle in as if in a daze. Her normally bright green eyes were bloodshot, and when she dropped her purse at the door, Luna knew things had gotten worse. The bag had tipped over, spilling its contents onto the floor, but Sophie did not even acknowledge the mess. While she was not strict about it, Sophie preferred things tidy and well-kept.
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Her legs appeared to be shaking as she stumbled forward and dropped down into the first available seat - one of the dining room chairs - and buried her face in her hands. Luna flicked her fin and darted down through the tunnels woven through the house. She knew each route perfectly after swimming them for years, and it only took her a few seconds to poke her head out of the basin nearest to the distraught woman. In the time it had taken her to traverse the distance, Sophie had broken down into heavy sobs.
Before Luna could call out to her, her attention was pulled away as the door burst open once more. It slammed noisily as Lewis shut it a bit too hard. His clothes were rumbled and his dark skin laced with sweat as if he had been in a desperate rush. He swept a hand through his messy black coils of hair and hurried over to Sophie without bothering to shed his shoes.
He dropped to his knees beside her chair and reached up to wrap his arms around her. Sophie leaned to the side and collapsed out of the chair onto the floor and into his arms. Her sobs only grew louder. There was moisture brimming in Lewis’ eyes too as he hugged her tightly and rubbed a hand up her back. “I know,” he whispered. He spoke softly, murmuring to Sophie, but Luna’s sharp hearing allowed her to catch the words easily. “I know. I’m here.”
“I just...I can’t believe she’s really…” Sophie trailed off as another sob choked her. “I should never have let her go.”
Lewis shook his head. “No, hey, this is not your fault. She’s gone on so many dives, Soph. She was a good, smart kid. Cautious enough, knew what she was doing. No one could have anticipated something like this.”
When Sophie did not immediately reply, Luna’s horrified curiosity got the better of her and she pulled herself up out of the basin. “Sophie? Lewis?” she inquired softly. Sophie jerked in Lewis’ grasp in order to turn and meet Luna’s gaze. It broke Luna’s heart to see her eyes fill with more tears as she did.
Sophie opened her arms and jerked her head. “Come here, Luna,” she said.
Heeding the suggestion, Luna dragged herself across the floor towards them. Though she was still sopping wet, the moment she was close enough, Sophie pulled her close against her. The two humans hugged her tightly and stole a soft squeak from her, since she was not expecting to have been so tightly embraced so quickly.
After a moment, Luna shifted so she could look up at Sophie. “Did you find anything?” she begged. “Is she coming home soon?”
The tears leaking from Sophie’s eyes gave Luna her answer, but it was confirmed when she shook her head. “No,” Sophie whispered. “She’s not coming home, Luna. I’m sorry, but she won’t ever be coming back.”
The strangle in Sophie’s tone made it all the more difficult to hear the words, and Luna closed her eyes as she felt the stinging sensation of tears begin to well behind the lids. She bit her lip and sucked a breath in through her nose while curling her fingers into tight fists. “What happened?” she whimpered. Part of her did not wish to know, did not want to hear the confirmation that her sister was dead, but she felt that Katie deserved that at least; for the truth to be heard.
“It was a drunk driver,” Lewis replied. “She never made it to the beach.”
“Drunk?” Luna echoed the word in confusion.
Lewis shook his head and waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter,” he murmured. “At least it was quick. It might have even been for the best; there was no booked excursion for today and I suspect even if she had made it safely, she might have run into problems.”
Luna leaned deeper into Sophie’s embrace as the woman clung to her. She was aware that her wet skin and dripping hair were soaking through Sophie’s clothes, and normally she would feel bad about it; but she was just as desperate for affection as Sophie seemed to be, so she pushed that worry aside.
Hot tears began to roll down Luna’s cheeks and her shoulders sagged. She could not imagine the world without her sister, her very best friend. Now it seemed they would all have to learn to live without Katie’s smile and her cheery attitude.
“She promised she would be back soon,” Luna muttered. She was not angry with Katie, she knew it was not the older girl’s fault, but it still cracked her soul inside to know that promise would never be upheld. She wished it would. Katie always kept her promises. Always. Luna could not remember a time when Katie had gone back on her word - even accidentally - if she said she was going to do or not do something, Luna could always trust that to be followed through. She wanted to believe that it would be no different now. That Katie would walk in through the door tired and sweaty, and probably a little frightened but unharmed, with profuse apologies for whatever had held her up. Luna would give anything to hug her sister and feel assured that everything was alright. But it was not. And it never would be again.
As she was hugged tightly between Sophie and Lewis, the heartbreaking reality dawned on Luna. Without Katie, a family of four was down to three, and none of them knew quite how to cope with that.
Her sister was gone, and admitting it finally broke the dam within Luna and she began to wail as waves of sorrow crashed over her. And they were not waves she shared alone. What was left of her family crumbled with her on the floor in an emotional heap.