Hiding Boys

Emma jolts awake, feeling sticky sweat coat her body. It's an uncanny feeling to be awake at 2 am- hallways in her house seem unnaturally dark and her body continues to perspire even as she shivers from the cold. A small breeze blows against her bare calves from the sliver of her unopened window. She always keeps her window a crack open since she gets hot easily and almost never freezes. 

A soft rap from her window scares her. She becomes uncomfortably aware that only she is awake, and she feels scarily alone. Adjusting her pajama top, she peers out her window to see a boy around her age staring at her. Fear jolts through her and she recoils back out of sight.

“Hey,” his soft voice surprises her before it breaks on the next word, “please come back. I really need help.”

When she still doesn’t return, he increases his volume, “Please, please…” He’s only slightly above a whisper, but she can feel the desperation leaking from each syllable. She gives in to him and returns to her window. He’s still there; his sharp silhouette contrasting the bank of the Great Lake. Normally when she can’t sleep, she stares at the gorgeous landmark outside, but right now, she can’t draw her eyes away from this figure.

“I just need a place to stay for a while,” he says. He seems more scared than her, and she instantly realizes he must be from one of those group families. It’s unusual to see a Grouper here, though. After all, her neighborhood is on the safer outskirts of town while most intense grouping families live downtown.

“You’re not from this part of town, are you?” she asks. The boy flinches but shakes his head.

“No, no, no. I’m in the Marlinos, but I’m going to be tithed soon. I-I swear I just need a couple of days. Just- just a couple of days,” he stammers. Horror fills her lungs- she had only heard rumors of Groups tithing their children. Seeing the physical proof of it ignited makes her stomach sick.

When she still doesn’t respond to him, however, he tries explaining more, “I risked getting eaten by the Loukenaid just to see if rural folk would help me. Rumor says y’all aren’t as Group-crazy.” 

“We don’t believe in groups at all,” she responds, “Plus, the Loukenaids are bound to water. They can’t eat you as long as you stay on land.” His funny accent intrigues her- she never thought the posh downtown kids would say “y’all.”

He looks like he wants to object to something she said, but he holds his tongue. Instead, he accepts her answer and stares at her pleadingly, seeming to have run out of words. Emma wants to decline him and forget about this, but her curiosity makes her act foolishly instead. 

“You can stay here for 3 days but no more than that,” she declares, and she doesn’t miss how his pretty teal eyes glow with hope.  

She guides him to her room, and the instant she closes her door, he asks, “Back down there you said that Loukenaid can’t come on land, how do you know?”

“It’s from the myth. Everyone’s always saying it- the Loukenaid are ancient sailors from the Great Lake whose flesh have rotted off their cursed bones. They wander the seas and kelp wraps onto their bones, giving them slimy bodies.” The boy’s teal eyes gleam with interest as he listens to her story, and he tells Emma that he has never heard that version of the story.

Emma wants to hear the town-version, but she instead tells him that they have to sleep. He chooses to sleep in her walk-in closet, and Emma soon hears his breathing slow. She sets her alarm to 6:15, fifteen minutes earlier than normal, so she can hide him properly and drifts to sleep.

At 6:30, Emma’s mom wakes her. Emma groans and tries to snuggle back down into the cozy depths of her dream. All of a sudden, she remembers the boy from last night, and panic wakes her. Her mom is still bustling around the room, and Emma shoos her out.

Emma runs over to the closet and opens the door to find a slip of paper where the boy was. It reads, “Thank you so much for letting me stay. I’m going to stay around the ocean caves during the day in case police search homes, but I’ll be back at 2 pm. I’ll be in your bedroom when you come home from school.”

That day, school passes quickly due to the half-day. It’s Group Day which rural schools disdainfully “celebrate,” and Emma carpools with her friend to get back home since her parents both have office jobs. She waits by her window staring at the direction she thinks the boy came from. The glistening waters push and pull, lulling her into a trance. She aimlessly stares through the gaps of her shutters for an hour before movement catches her eye, but it’s from the ocean. 

A pale white hand emerges from the ocean, but it’s only bones. They move slowly, almost painfully. Arms emerge as well as a spiny back bone. Emma silently shrieks but forces herself to watch. Muscles start growing across the bones. She watches lean tendons form and spread down the body. Skin grows, covering the spine, and a head finally emerges. Hair sprouts from the scalp and grows to a familiar length. A length she saw last night. The fully developed hands grip drag through sand, gradually pulling its lanky body from the sea. Emma is standing at her window with her stomach at her feet and her throat has never felt so dry.

She continues peering through the cracks of her blinds, watching the creature step onto the bank. It raises its head, and shining teal eyes stare directly at her. She screams, slams her window shut, and closes her eyes. She saw those eyes last night, in a face she hadn't remembered to connect a name to.