Anya Reyes

Night came, but I couldn't sleep.

I’d been lying in bed for an hour, staring at the ceiling, and all I could think about was Kaelen’s voice.

By the time I realized I’d been replaying the moment for the hundredth time, my chest felt tight and restless. I needed air.

The dorm was quiet when I slipped out. The streets near campus were mostly empty, but the bubble tea place on the corner still had its lights on. I went in and grabbed my usual drink.

On the way back, I told myself I’d head straight to the dorm and get to bed. But halfway down the path, a faint prickle stirred at the base of my neck, and my thoughts drifted to the salt pool.

It wasn’t far, just a few minutes away, and though it was off-limits at this hour, that had never stopped me before. Without thinking, my feet carried me toward the water.

“I’m just looking,” I muttered to myself. “Five minutes. Then I’m back.”

The salt pool always looked different at night. In the day, it was all bright blue tiles and sun glare. Now it was silver-black under the moonlight.

It should’ve been peaceful. But something was… off.

I stood at the edge, telling myself I was imagining it. But then, the surface rippled with movement.

Wait... What is that? I frowned and took a step closer.

The ripples stilled, then came again. And that’s when I saw it: a faint light like bioluminescence. It shimmered for a moment, then blinked out.

I waited, heart ticking faster. A second later, the glow flared again, stronger this time, moving as if it belonged to something alive.

The glow swept toward the deeper side of the pool, near where the barrier met the open ocean. The water bulged slightly, like whatever it was had brushed the surface from below.

I told myself to back up. Instead, I leaned in.

And then, all of a sudden, something cold and hard clamped around my wrist.

I didn’t even have time to scream before I was yanked off my feet. My milk tea flew, and then the pool swallowed me whole.

The water hit me like ice, knocking the air from my lungs. My eyes burned, my ears filled, and before I could even process what had happened, I saw them.

They were almost human. Scaled skin caught the moonlight in slick, dark flashes. Their faces were too sharp, and their mouths were lined with rows of needle-like teeth. And their eyes… black, completely black. No whites, no pupils. Just endless, cold voids that locked on me as they dragged me deeper.

Oh my god! What the hell are these things?

Panic roared up in me. I kicked hard, trying to twist free, but their grip didn’t budge. It was like trying to fight a wall. The water burned my throat as I screamed, bubbles shredding my voice into nothing.

The monsters were dragging me toward the far end of the pool, toward the place where it opened into the sea. I thrashed harder, my lungs already starting to ache.

No. I wasn’t letting this happen.

I clawed at the nearest one’s arm, nails scraping over the slick, scaled surface. It didn’t even flinch. The second one tightened its grip on my ankle, spinning me so I was face-first toward the dark beyond the barrier.

It wasn’t just dark—it was endless. The ocean at night was a black hole, and they were shoving me straight into it.

I’m going to die. The thought hit me like a punch.

I kicked again, desperate, my chest screaming for air. My limbs were starting to feel slow and heavy, like they weren’t mine anymore. I tried to pull my wrist free, but the one holding me just bared its teeth, lips peeling back in something that wasn’t a smile.

Saltwater poured into my mouth when I tried to yell. My throat convulsed. I coughed, choked, and still they dragged me farther. The pool floor dropped away beneath us, and the barrier to the ocean loomed closer, the open black yawning like it was waiting for me.

My vision started to blur. My thoughts scattered, slippery as the water rushing past my ears. My body wanted to give in and just let it happen.

And then, through the muffled roar of my pulse, I remembered Kaelen’s voice: Stay away from the ocean.

I should have listened to him.

I tried one last time to fight. I thrashed my free leg, twisted my shoulders, and even bit down on the scaled wrist holding me. Metallic-tasting water flooded my mouth again, and I coughed so hard I saw spots.

The barrier was right there now. They were taking me into the open sea.

My lungs gave up before my brain did. The burn in my chest almost exploded, and my body went limp. The last of my air slipped from me in a stream of bubbles.

Just before the dark swallowed me whole, I saw movement cutting through the water toward me. Then, arms locked around my waist, dragging me away from the sea monsters.

We shot upward in a blur, bubbles and moonlight smearing together until the surface shattered above us. Air slammed into my lungs, and I gasped like I’d never breathe again.

“Stay right here!” my savior yelled as he hauled me onto the ledge.

Kaelen?

My shaking hands found the pool’s ledge, and I dragged myself out, coughing so hard I nearly went right back in. My knees hit the tiles. My soaked clothes clung like a second skin.

When I looked back, he was still in the water.

And that’s when I saw it.

Instead of two legs, Kaelen had a tail. Long, sleek, and scaled in dark silver, edges fanning out into a perfect fin.

For a second, my brain refused to process it. No. That wasn’t possible. My pulse pounded so hard I could barely hear over it, my breath coming in sharp bursts. Was I hallucinating? Dying? Losing my mind?

My reverie was broken as the sea monsters returned.

At once, Kaelen moved faster than I’d thought possible. One second, he was at the surface, the next, he was beneath it, crashing into the first attacker with enough force to make the water shudder. They grappled, twisting, Kaelen’s tail whipping through the pool with brutal precision.

The second one lunged at him from the side, teeth bared. Kaelen met it head-on, shoving it back with a burst of motion that sent white spray flying. They came at him together after that, and I couldn’t see everything, just flashes of scales, sharp fins slicing the water, the glint of teeth.

Then, just as suddenly, it was over. The attackers vanished into the deep end, slipping over the edge toward the open ocean like shadows being swallowed.

Kaelen surfaced, his chest rising and falling hard, water streaming down his face. His eyes found mine again.

A hundred questions burned on my tongue. What the hell are you? What were those things? Why did you save me?—but none of them made it out.

Kaelen didn’t give me the chance.

Without a word, he dove under and disappeared into the sea.

What the hell just happened?