When Michael felt someone lean against him, he shoved Mandy away, and she fell onto the built-in seat on the side of the boat. "This is all your fault!" he yelled over the engine. "If I never see my son again, I'll kick you over the edge, and the Thalassic Freaks can get you!"

Michael had the boat light on full blast, as well as a big torch in his hand, pointing it ahead. He was almost at the Shroud Island, clinging onto hope that his son somehow got away and dragged himself to safety. Thoughts of Rowan struggling for his life underwater made Michael sick to his stomach. He was ready to heave the content of his stomach overboard, but he wouldn't stop searching until they found Rowan, dead or alive.

"They had been hunting us. I didn't know-" Mandy stopped when Michael looked at her with a sharp stare, glazed in bitterness.

"You forced him to go. Don't you dare try and make excuses!" Michael growled and turned off the engine when he saw the seaweed coated island. "ROWAN?" he roared loud and deep. His voice echoed across the water, but nothing moved for miles. "ROWAN!"

Mandy couldn't stand for long without support and picked up a flashlight and a spear, just in case.

They searched the tiny island, and agonising sorrow started to form in Michael's stomach. He had said to Rowan to go on the hunt for his mother's sake. He should have listened to what his son really wanted. If Rowan didn't turn up alive, they were both to blame.

"He's not here!" Michael said with a hand on his head, looking around desperately.

Mandy heard the strain of grief in his voice. She knew her son wouldn't make it back alive, so she had already started searching the water for a body. Mandy's insides turned stale. She felt like a robot and looked like one. She had stopped crying and pushed her emotions to a place she couldn't reach until she was alone.

"He might have been able to reach the cliffs. Let's look there," Mandy said, not daring to speak about the odds of their son turning up alive. Michael knew in his heart that he wouldn't see Rowan alive again. His brain refused to believe it.

"Good idea." Michael turned the engine back on and steered away, being extra careful to scan the ocean all around him in case he saw someone in the water.

When it reached 2 am, Michael and Mandy were searching the beach by Mandy's home and Michael went back to the house to check if their son had returned too. Rowan hadn't. Mandy had at least hoped that they would find his body by now.

She hated herself for thinking so negatively, but she had watched the Thalassic Mortal stick his black nails into her son before dragging him off the boat. Rowan would be paralysed like the poison paralysed her. If the creature did let him go, Rowan would have most likely drowned.

Mandy wished that she could be as optimistic as Michael, but her mind was too rational. She had lost hope, and a hole formed inside of her, the one she had filled when she gave birth to her only son.

* * * * *

The rise of the sun seemed to reach Mandy and Michael too quickly. The longer they looked without finding anything, the more the sorrow festered within them.

"We'll find him," Michael muttered to himself. "He's a smart boy. He knows how to look after himself."

Every time Michael said something about their son, Mandy's lip quivered. Michael was overly positive. It was evident that he tried to cover up the part of him that was losing hope.

"Heard anything from Wez?" Michael asked, wiping a hand down his face. His skin was wet with the splash of the sea water every time the boat went over a wave.

"No," Mandy said, switching off her torch. The sun had risen enough for them to see. A few hours ago, Michael forced her to make Wez send out a search party too. The more people who looked, the better the chances of finding Rowan. Waiting for a call over the radio was Mandy's worst nightmare. She knew it wouldn't be good news.

After a while of speeding across the top of the water, Mandy suggested looking back at Shroud island in case they missed something last time. Michael nodded and turned the boat west. He set off along the cliffs. For hours, his eyes had focused and remained alert. He refused to lose his concentration. His ears had listened to every squawk of a seagull, just in case he could hear his son shouting him.

Mandy's radio beeped, and her heart almost exploded. She yanked it from her belt as Michael turned and watched her answer. "Wez?" she shouted over the engine. "Got anything?"

"Yeah." Wez's voice came through loud. He sounded anything but hopeful. Even over a cheap radio, his voice was full of sadness. "There's a body washed up on Gill shore. Mandy, I'm-"

Mandy dropped the radio when Michael spun the boat so fast, it nearly capsized. As quickly as the little engine would get them, they sped past the white cliffs and towards Gill shore which was the beach to the right of the beach that their house faced.

Waiting to move around the cliffs was like waiting for a pulse. As soon as the cliffs cleared, Mandy and Michael would have a full view of the beach, and the body that had been reported to Wez.

Mandy stood by Michael at the front of the boat. They both stared, wondering if their lives were now changed forever, and wondering if they would live the rest of their days without their beautiful son.

They eventually passed the cliffs, and Gull shore loomed before them. The sky was dull and full of sullen clouds. As their eyes scanned the sand, the sky started spitting cold raindrops.

"Over there!" Mandy yelled, pointing to where the sand first met the rocks at the very left of the beach. Michael headed there straight away, both squinting their eyes to see if the body looked like their son.

As they neared the rocks, Mandy dug her nails into her palm to stop the lump in her throat from rising. It was Rowan. She knew it was him. The body lay in the wet sand, lying face down as the shore washed over their legs, but the body didn't move to show signs of life.

Michael thought it was the hunter Bo until they got close enough to jump off the boat. "My son," he whispered and thrust Mandy out of the way so that he could get to him first. "Rowan!" Michael yelled, not caring that the water went up to his waist. He weaved through it as fast as he could until collapsing next to his boy.

The first thing he noticed was Rowan's veins on the side of his neck. They were black with poison. Michael turned Rowan over onto his back. His lips were blue, poison-filled veins covered his face, and his eyes were open.

"Rowan!" Michael cried and placed fingers on the cold skin of his neck, searching for a pulse.

Mandy stood back, and the tears fell. She stared into her son's perfect light green eyes until they blinked and- they blinked.

"Rowan?" she said and hurried to his side. She cupped Rowan's face as he coughed and wheezed.

"Oh my god!" Michael said in disbelief. He shoved Mandy away and scooped Rowan up in his arms, hugging him tightly. "Get the cure!" he yelled and rocked his son back and forth.

The boat had washed up on the sand, so Mandy didn't have to trudge back through the water to get to it.

"It's alright, it's alright now," Michael soothed, hearing the pain in his son's splutters. "You're going to be alright." Michael kissed Rowan's forehead. His skin was like ice.

The rain was heavy now, and Michael leaned over his son to shield his face. Rowan's head rested on his father's lap. His breathing was incredibly wheezy. Rowan was barely alive.

"Hurry!" Michael yelled and looked up, just in time to see a face staring at them from the rocks. The head quickly dipped back underwater, and Michael saw the splash of a tail. He didn't think more about whether that was the creature who tried to kill his son because Mandy returned.

She didn't struggle to find a vein to inject the cure, and Mandy did it as quickly as possible. She winced when her son made a low noise in the back of his throat. He was distressed and clinging onto life. Rowan had been fighting against his last breath for hours and hours.

"We need to get him home," Michael said and stood up, struggling to hold his heavy son. "He's freezing."

Mandy observed Michael while he lowered their son into the boat and covered him with his jacket. She climbed in after them. Mandy knew she would be the one to drive them home when Michael sat on the floor, running a hand through Rowan's soaked hair. Before Mandy turned the engine on, she checked the back of Rowan's hand. His veins where she had injected the antidote already turned back to normal.

"I've never known anyone to last this long with poison in them," she said, looking at Michael. "He should have died hours ago. How is he still alive?"

"I don't know," Michael said, "and I don't care. Just get him home before the cold kills him." Michael looked back to where he saw the face in the water. The head had returned, watching them from the rocks. Michael didn't react. All that mattered to him was Rowan. Though his eyes lingered on the Thalassic Mortal until they moved around the cliffs and out of sight.