"I know that man… Mr. Claton… he hurt you," I said bitterly, the anger boiling just beneath the surface. "He gave you so much pain. I saw it. I felt it. But why, Mom? Why didn't you think about me?"
Tears blurred my vision again, and I gripped the bottle tighter, taking another long swig. It didn't help. Nothing did.
"You could've taken me with you," I choked out. "You didn't have to go alone."
The words hung in the air, heavy with grief. I broke down completely then, crying like a child not caring who saw or how pathetic I must've looked. In that moment, I wasn't a man. I was just a broken son, desperate for the love of a mother who had vanished from his world.
Somewhere between the sobs and the drinking, I lifted my eyes again and that's when I saw her.
There, standing in the water under the moonlight, was a figure. Feminine. Still. Familiar.
My heart skipped.
"Mom?" I murmured.
She didn't say anything. She just stood there, her silhouette soft and glowing. Her arms were open, as if waiting for me.
"Mom… you're here… Mom…"
I staggered to my feet, dropping the bottle in the sand. I rubbed my eyes furiously, trying to see her more clearly. It had to be her. It was her. She had come back for me. My legs moved on their own, dragging me toward the shoreline.
The cold water lapped at my ankles, then my knees. She was still there just a little further. I walked deeper, calling out to her again and again, each step heavier than the last.
But the more I moved forward, the further away she seemed to drift.
"Wait… Mom… please!"
She didn't answer. She just kept moving, always a few steps ahead, just out of reach. My panic rose. My heart pounded in my chest. I was losing her again.
I didn't realize how deep I had gone until the ground disappeared beneath my feet.
The ocean swallowed me.
In a split second, I was underwater, flailing. The cold hit me like a wall. My head spun. My body felt heavy, like I was sinking in cement. I tried to move my arms, my legs but they wouldn't cooperate. My muscles were too slow, too numb from the alcohol.
"Mom…" I gasped, surfacing for just a second before another wave crashed over me.
I coughed and choked, saltwater burning my throat. I couldn't tell where the sky ended and the sea began. Everything spun around me in a dizzying blur. The shimmering image of my mother had vanished.
"Where are you…" I whispered into the darkness, my voice lost in the wind.
I fought to stay afloat, but the sea was relentless. It pulled at me like unseen hands, dragging me down. My chest burned. My lungs begged for air. I sank again, deeper this time. I tried to scream, but only bubbles escaped.
Then as the pressure grew and my vision dimmed I saw something.
A light.
Faint at first. Then brighter. It shimmered beneath the waves like a star had fallen into the sea.
I squinted through the water, desperate to make sense of it. The light moved closer. It wasn't just light it was a figure. Graceful, glowing, and familiar.
Her.
She was coming to me.
Relief washed over me, even as my body sank further. Maybe she had come back after all. Maybe I was finally going where she had gone. Maybe I wouldn't have to be alone anymore.
My eyelids grew heavy. My limbs floated uselessly at my sides. I tried to reach out, but I couldn't move. The last thing I saw was her face or the illusion of it just before the darkness swallowed me completely.
And then, nothing.
[Chapter 2]
Celix's POV:
The Next Day,
The soft hum of medical equipment and the faint scent of antiseptic greeted me as I slowly blinked open my eyes. For a moment, I couldn't quite place where I was. The ceiling above looked familiar, and the sheets beneath me smelled like home, but something felt off. My head was heavy, my body ached, and my thoughts were tangled.
I was in my room.
But how?
Before I could process it, a nurse stepped into view. I recognized her she was the one who had treated me before, though I couldn't remember when or why. Her eyes lit up when she saw me stir, but her tone was firm.
"You shouldn't be moving just yet," she said, walking over. "You need rest."
"How… how did I get here?" I asked, my voice raspier than I expected. "Who brought me back?"
Before she could respond, the door creaked open. Maxim and Ren, my two closest friends, entered the room. Their expressions were a mix of concern and relief.
"We brought you back," Maxim said, arms crossed. "You seriously don't remember anything from yesterday?"
I shook my head slowly. "No. Nothing."
Ren stepped forward, looking more shaken than I'd ever seen him. "You have no idea how scared we were, man. When we couldn't find you, we thought the worst. Honestly, we thought… we thought you were dead."
I sat up slightly, the weight of their words pressing down on me. "But… I was at the beach. How did you find me?"
Maxim exhaled sharply, like he'd been holding it in. "We knew something was off with you. You've been distant lately. And we're not the kind of friends who just sit back when something's wrong. So we came to your place last night, figured we'd check in, maybe drag you out if needed."
"Your dad said you'd gone out," Ren added. "So we started looking. And we know you well enough to guess where you might go. But when we found you…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Maxim continued, his voice quieter now. "You were lying there on the beach,
soaked and barely breathing. You looked… gone."
I felt a chill run through me. I wasn't surprised by what they said some part of me knew something had happened. Something real. Or maybe something I couldn't quite explain. Memories stirred in the corners of my mind, hazy and fragmented like pieces of a dream that didn't quite belong to me.
I remembered the sea. The crashing waves, the wind. I remembered seeing her.
My mother.
At least… I thought it was her. She was standing in the water, just beyond the waves, her arms outstretched. I had called to her, stepped into the surf, walking deeper and deeper until I couldn't feel the sand beneath my feet.
But it wasn't her. It couldn't have been. She was gone.
I remembered the moment I realized that just before the current pulled me under. Panic, darkness, and then… hands. Not strong or rough, but gentle. And eyes. Bright, unnatural eyes. Emerald green, glowing like gems in the moonlight. I had never seen eyes like that before, not in anyone.
Was she real?
"Hey!" Ren's voice cut through my thoughts like a blade. "Are you even listening to us?"
I blinked and turned to him. "Huh? Sorry, what were you saying?"
Ren narrowed his eyes. "Unbelievable. We've been talking this whole time and you didn't hear a word, did you?"
I rubbed my temple, feeling the lingering fog in my mind. "I'm sorry. It's just… I keep remembering things. Bits and pieces. It's hard to explain."
Maxim sat down on the edge of the bed. "Try us. Maybe it'll make more sense if you talk it out."
I hesitated, unsure if what I saw or thought I saw was something I could even put into words. Would they believe me if I told them about the girl in the water? About the emerald eyes and the feeling of being watched, protected, even when I was drowning?
No. Not yet. I wasn't ready.
"I thought I saw someone," I said instead. "At the beach. Before everything went black."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Someone? Like who?"
"I don't know. I thought it was my mom at first." I looked down at my hands. "But it wasn't. It couldn't have been."
There was a long pause, the kind that feels heavier than words.
Maxim finally broke it. "Whatever it was, whoever it was… you're lucky to be alive, Celix. Just take it easy for now, okay?"
I nodded, though my thoughts were still far from the room. There was something I needed to understand about the beach, about what I saw. About her.
Those eyes. They haunted me now, more than the memory of drowning.
Who was she?