Tides Of Silent Ashes

The night the ocean turned black was the same night Arin Reed realized he could no longer outrun the truth he had buried since childhood. In the small coastal town of Halverin the streets were quiet except for the distant hum of the tide rolling over jagged rocks. Arin stood alone on the pier gripping the wooden rail as the cold air pressed against his skin. His breath fogged the darkness and sank quickly as though the night itself was swallowing it.

Arin had returned to Halverin for the first time in twelve years but the town was not the one he remembered. Windows were boarded shut. Fishermen refused to take their boats out. Every few hours a distant siren rang through the fog. His boots echoed across the empty boards as he stared at the horizon where a faint glow pulsed beneath the water like a heartbeat.

He tightened his coat and walked off the pier heading toward the only place still lit at this hour. The Lantern House Inn. The sign flickered as he approached the door and stepped inside. The warmth of the room wrapped around him. Oil lamps glowed on each table casting slow trembling shadows on the walls. Behind the counter stood Mira Hale with hair tied in a loose knot and dark circles beneath her eyes.

She froze when she saw him.

Arin Reed you are the last person I expected to see in this cursed place she whispered.

I did not have a choice he answered keeping his voice low. I heard the rumors about the water about the disappearances. I need to know if it is connected to what happened years ago.

She stared at him for a long moment then motioned for him to sit. She poured him a cup of tea though her hands trembled slightly. No one talks about the past now Arin. Not after the way the sea changed. People vanish without screams without ripples. Just gone.

Arin looked into the cup letting the steam wash over him. Ever since he was a child he had felt a pull toward the ocean. He heard things no one else did a faint humming beneath the waves. When his parents disappeared during a storm the only thing the rescue team found was the ruined boat drifting without sound. Since then he had convinced himself it was just tragedy. Nothing more. But now that same hum had returned sharper louder and spreading.

He lifted his eyes. Mira I need to ask you something. The night the ocean turned black you were the one on watch at the lighthouse right.

Her lips pressed together. Yes. But I wish I had never seen what I saw.

Tell me.

She glanced around the room as if afraid someone else might hear. The sea rose higher than the rocks Arin. Not like a wave. More like something pushing from underneath. And there was light inside it pale green twisting like it was alive. Then it fell silent and everything went dark. Since then the water has taken people. Not the current. Not drowning. It chooses them.

Arin felt a chill trickle down his spine. The humming in his mind rose. He had not told Mira that he felt it returning stronger each hour like a voice waiting for him to answer.

Before he could speak the door of the inn swung open. A man stepped inside dripping wet as though he had climbed straight out of the sea. His clothes clung to his skin and his eyes were vacant glazed over with a ghostly sheen.

Help me he whispered.

Mira rushed forward but Arin grabbed her arm stopping her. Something is wrong he said sharply. Do not touch him.

The man shuddered violently and collapsed onto the floor. His chest heaved as if he were trying to breathe without lungs. Arin knelt beside him keeping distance. What happened to you. Did something pull you under.

The man lifted a trembling hand and pointed toward the window that overlooked the dark ocean. It called to me he rasped. It called to all of us.

Arin felt the hum again this time stronger like fingers pressing against the inside of his skull. The man gasped suddenly arching his back. His skin rippled as though something underneath moved. Mira covered her mouth stifling a scream.

Arin leaned closer his voice calm but urgent. What is under the water. What is calling.

The man shook violently and whispered one final word.

Return.

His body went still.

Silence consumed the inn.

Mira backed away shaking. This is getting worse Arin. People walk straight into the waves like they are sleepwalking. Others vanish from their beds. The council thinks the storms brought something up from the deep trenches. Something that should never have surfaced.

Arin rose slowly. My parents heard it. I think they were called just like this man. I need to go to the lighthouse. It sits closest to the trenches. If there are answers they will be there.

Mira watched him with fear and something else a flicker of hope. Then I am coming with you she said. Someone has to stop you if you do something stupid.

He almost smiled. Some things never change.

They left the inn walking through dense fog thick enough to swallow sound. The dirt path twisted toward the cliffside where the lighthouse towered above them its light sweeping across the sea. The wind grew louder carrying a faint whisper Arin could feel vibrating in his bones.

Mira stopped halfway up the hill. Arin I hear something.

He turned to her. What do you hear.

It sounds like singing she whispered.

Arin swallowed hard. He feared that answer. He had heard that melody before when he was a child moments before the storm swallowed his parents. He grabbed her wrist. We have to keep moving. Do not listen to it.

They pushed forward until they reached the lighthouse door. Arin tried the handle but it resisted. Mira searched through a hook of keys near the frame. She unlocked it and they stepped inside. The spiral staircase stretched upward disappearing into shadow.

The humming grew stronger.

Halfway up Arin stumbled gripping the rail. Mira turned to him panic rising. Arin what is happening.

I think it is calling me he whispered breathlessly. The same voice from years ago.

She held his face forcing him to meet her eyes. Listen to me. You do not answer it. You fight it.

He nodded though every nerve in his body screamed to obey the call. They reached the top platform where the great lamp turned slowly casting long beams over the ocean. The water below churned unnaturally forming a wide dark circle.

Mira gasped. Arin that is not a tide pattern.

Arin stared wide eyed. It was a vortex spinning silently without wind. In the center a green glow shimmered like a massive eye opening below the surface.

The humming surged.

Arin dropped to his knees gripping his head. Mira knelt beside him shouting against the rising wind. Arin stay with me. Do not let it in.

But it was already too late. A memory flooded his mind. His parents on the boat. Their terrified faces as the water rose. A green glow circling them. A voice whispering return return return.

Arin roared pushing the memory back. He forced himself to his feet. We need to stop whatever is down there. If it feeds on people if it pulls them it must have a source.

Mira stared into the vortex trembling. How do we stop something we do not understand.

Arin looked at the lighthouse machinery then at the swirling glow. The light. It reaches miles out. If we amplify it focus it maybe we can disrupt the signal. Break the call.

Mira hesitated but nodded. Tell me what to do.

Together they worked with frantic urgency adjusting lenses turning dials redirecting beams. The lighthouse groaned as if resisting. Sparks flew. The glow below brightened as though sensing their defiance.

Wind slammed into the glass shattering half the windows. Mira shielded her face. Arin we do not have much time.

He yelled back Hold the stabilizer.

She did gripping it tightly while he forced the final lens into place.

The lighthouse beam concentrated into a single piercing pillar of white light shooting straight into the vortex.

The sea convulsed.

For a moment everything froze. The hum inside Arin s head dissolved into a violent screech. The green glow writhed like a living thing struck by fire.

Then the ocean erupted.

A massive geyser of black water shot upward shaking the lighthouse. Mira lost her balance. Arin lunged catching her before she fell off the platform. The vortex began collapsing inward dragging the darkness down with it.

The wind eased. The light steadied. The glow vanished.

Mira stared in disbelief. Did we do it.

Arin looked out over the now calm sea. The humming was gone. Completely gone. He allowed himself a shaky breath. I think so.

They descended the tower slowly exhausted from the fight. When they reached the path Mira touched his arm. Arin what now.

He looked back at the ocean no longer black but silver beneath the moon. I think Halverin will heal. And maybe I will too.

Mira smiled softly. Then stay. Dont run from the past anymore.

He nodded knowing she was right.

As they walked back toward the inn dawn broke over the horizon. For the first time in years the sea was silent. Peaceful. And Arin Reed no longer felt the call whispering from beneath the waves. Whatever had haunted his life since childhood had finally been forced back into the depths.

But he kept his gaze fixed on the horizon knowing some silences were not endings but warnings.

The ocean remembers.

And sometimes it waits.