My fingers hurt as my hand hits the wooden door outside of Gage's house. Sammy and I stood in the same spot we had stood last night. My ear was pressed to the door, listening for any sound on the other side. There was nothing. I took a step back, the anger boiling in my body. Staring up at the lanterns hanging from the front porch, they swung slowly in the breeze of the cold frosty morning.

"What do you think we should do?" Sammy seemed confused as well. She still held the note in her hand. Reading over it once more she took a few steps backward, looking up at the house in front of us. "There are no lights on, and we don't even know if he came home last night. Where is the rest of his family?"

"No, he didn't come home last night." I corrected her, though we had no physical proof he didn't return, something in my gut told me that I was right. There was no sign of anyone leaving or entering. I stomped down the stairs heading for the back of the house through the trees. From the beach, we would have better access.

Sammy trudged along behind me, our footsteps the only noise echoing off the street. Everyone has already left for work, the entire neighborhood looking as if the homes were empty. The sand was harder to walk in, the thicker it got before it finally shallows into gravel. Sammy and I are now behind the house under the balcony by the garage door. I closed the distance placing my hand on the knob before Sammy lightly taps my shoulder.

"We can't just go in..." Her once bright emerald green eyes seemed dull, the stress fading them away. I shook my head ripping the note out of her hand.

"As long as we have this note, I'm entering the house. We need to know if Asada actually took Gage." I snarl, my shoulder throbbing, my blood pumping faster through my veins. Sammy grabbed my wrist spinning me around one more time before I could fully open the door.

"How do you know it was Asada who wrote the note? What if this is more serious and we need to call the cops." She was right, this was serious, but the one thing she was missing was the cops wouldn't help us. Asada and I had a battle underwater and I really didn't know why. Why did she want me gone so badly? My mind was racing thinking back to every encounter we had together. The time in the grocery store, every time I've seen her at the restaurant. She thinks she knows all this information but she knew nothing. At least, I thought she knew nothing.

Asada was the pink mermaid, and I was so stupid for not figuring this out before. Her fin was majestic, her hair cut perfectly for a swim. The way her eyes shine in the light like they are permanently under water. Asada was the enemy.

"Sammy, she attacked me. Where do you think I got this wound from? Her fingers turned into long claws like daggers and she attacked me. She tried to get me killed, sharks were chasing me. Why do you think I came out of the water so fast?" My heart was racing. I needed to sit down and reconnect with Sammy, we were on completely different pages with this mermaid situation.

I pulled my hand away from her before turning and flinging the door open. As we entered the house my nerves seemed to heat up before frying themselves. My body shaking with fear at what we would find around each corner, and in this house, there were a lot of them. We entered the hallway that led from the garage to the kitchen, the first room Sammy and I had ever seen. The pictures on the wall seemed to stare at us as we walk further into the mystery.

Once we rounded the corner and into the large open kitchen I hear Sammy gasp from behind me. Things were thrown everywhere, lamps shattered against the floor, plates pulled from their cupboards with fragments missing. The curtains were ripped off the walls, the couch flipped over as well as all the chairs around the dining table. Something had happened.

"Shit..." I mumble under my breath. My eyes felt heavy, the tears welling up inside them. I wanted to just collapse on the floor and cry, my heart racing, my mind trying to put all the pieces together. I wasn't sure how to find him, but this proved our suspicions to be true. Asada had taken Gage.

Taking my eyes off the mess was hard, but I turn to look out the window. The waves crashed on the shore like that had always done, and like they always will, and at that moment I felt weak, and I felt small. Like a single drop of water.

"We have to find him," My eyes never left the sea, my words soft, injured. I knew Sammy was looking at me, my hair unbrushed, my pajamas ruffled from sleep. My appearance was just as messy as my life.

"How you expect us to do that?" I shrug my shoulders when Sammy speaks. How was I supposed to know what to do? I could hear her feet against the wooden floor. She traveled through the rooms like she was searching for a hidden treasure. Maybe she was. My shoulders sunk like the weight of my head was too much to hold.

How insane and controlling did one person have to be, to kidnap someone right out of their own home for no apparent reason? All for what, because she wanted me to leave? Well, I'm gone, as soon as Gage is returned to him home, I will leave. There is nothing for me in this town, the ocean spans for miles down the coast, Sammy and I can move.

My heart sank at the thought of leaving Gage, leaving these waves, the rocks, the sunset, the home Sammy and I moved into. This town, as strange as it was, had a hold on me.

"Oly, I found something!"