Whispers of the Damned

As Theo said, we won't be leaving, and we'll be spending the weekend in Los Angeles-in Malibu, to be precise.

I woke up directly facing a glass wall that showed the beach. People were walking on the beach, playing volleyball, or even just sunbathing. The beach was crowded in 8 a.m because it was Sunday.

I groaned, feeling a little relieved that I could sleep well thanks to the herbal tea Theo had given me after we spent some time watching crime dramas at twelve o'clock at night.

I sat on the bed, tied my hair up, and got off the bed. My cell phone rang, and I picked it up. It was my mom.

"Hola, Mama." I greeted as I walked out of the room and went to the kitchen.

"Hola, Mi cariño. Papa said you and Theo are in Los Angeles? With Abraham?"

"Yes," I replied softly, sitting on the bar stool, watching Abraham, who was busy cooking. "I'm at Abraham's house. In Malibu."

"Didn't you say you were living with your boyfriend?" she asked.

"I used to. It was boring. I thought vacationing with my brothers would be more fun." I replied with a roll of my eyes while Abraham's serious face relaxed into a faint smile at me. I took the apple and ate it without washing it. Abraham shook his head and decided to refocus on his cooking.

"Oh, Mis dulces bebés. All of you do need to spend more time together." she said, "I wish I were there. It would be more fun. Unfortunately, your Papa can't leave his work." "Just come alone."

"Well, he'll whine like a child."

I laughed, but then Mama asked to switch the call to Facetime. I accepted and set the camera back, showing her eldest son cooking.

"Abby!" my mom exclaims excitedly. I laugh while Abraham chuckles. He never liked that nickname. "What are you cooking?"

"Sancocho." Abraham replied in a flat voice. "And stop calling me that. I'm a thirty-two year old grown man."

"I'll probably stop doing it if you get married." Mama said. My laugh came out loud because of that, not caring about Abraham who was looking at me sharply at the moment.

I pressed the front camera button, and my mom smiled at me. "How are you, Dannie? You didn't pick up my calls yesterday,"

"I've been busy, Mama." I took a big bite of my apple.

"You have to understand her, Mama. She has a job now." Damien's voice comes from behind me.

I turn around in surprise at him. "When did you arrive?"

"Two a.m," He replied, his face looking like he had just woken up.

"Why did you come here?" I asked.

"I'm going on vacation, too," he replied. He picked up my phone and take my apple that I had bitten. He moved away while talking to Mama.

I shook my head and took an apple again, but Abraham took it, washed it, and handed it to me. "Thank you. You're the best." I said. "Where's Theo?"

"Gym."

My three brothers did have different morning habits. Abraham would cook breakfast, Theo would work out: gym or running, while Damien would sleep and wake up at breakfast time. As for me, I'm like Damien. I'll sleep until Mama wakes me up.

When Damien returned, and they had finished talking, I grabbed a drink of water. "I've saved you. Again and again."

"What?"

"Mama says that she still doesn't want you to work. If you still talk with her, I'm sure that you'll argue again. So I've saved you by getting her to talk about something else."

I finished my drink and kissed his cheek. "Thank you so much, you're the best."

He laughed amusedly. "You should treat me later."

I frowned.

"Breakfast is ready. Call Theo." Abraham said, stopping my grumbling.

****

"Come on."

"I don't want to come if you guys are surfing." I shook my head, still sitting on my beach chair in my oversized black t-shirt. I bend my knees and choose to eat the Arepas I made with Abraham earlier. Damien grunted, already standing in his tight, long-sleeved swimsuit. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"I said I don't want to surf," I reply, looking at Abraham, who passes us. He's carrying his surfboard.

"It's a jet ski. It'll be fun." He replied.

I frowned, looking at the people passing by on the water on their jet skis at a horrible speed. Theo was doing it, too. He had been going by himself since earlier. The others were taken a little way out of the surf zone to the nearshore, and then the man driving stopped suddenly, sending the woman wearing the life vest behind him into the water. I winced, but the woman laughed after she surfaced. The activity was fun but terrifying. "There's a shark over there."

"I won't throw you like that guy." Damien gave his smile.

I frowned.

"Come on," Damien coaxed again.

I sighed, putting the half-cut arepas into my mouth. He laughed happily, then put a life vest on me. The lifeguard, whom I don't recognize, drags Damine's jet ski towards the beach. I followed Damien, climbing in behind him as he climbed before me. I held tight to his waist and screamed as he carried me at such a high speed. He made such a sharp maneuver it almost sent me tumbling into the water. But I held on tightly and decided to take him into the water when he did that again.

He laughed loudly, occasionally doing dangerous scenes by crashing into the waves and making us jump. I screamed because something in my chest seemed to be urging it to come out. It was out of excitement and mixed with fear of the megalodon shark that might appear.

He led me towards the nearshore, maneuvered once more, and then walked straight into the waves of the surf zone, making a leap and making my grip on him lose control. I was thrown into the water, my eyes closing as I felt the seawater pierce my body as I went down almost to the shoreline since we were in a shallow surf zone.

My eyes opened, staring at the beautiful coral reefs, the green and blue colors of the sun, and the few fish that moved away from the ripples as my body was thrown towards them before the buoy I was using brought me to the water's surface quickly. I ran my hands through my hair and face, taking in oxygen quickly and gazing in all directions. Finding Damien, who stopped in the distance, looking at me with a laugh. I narrowed my eyes at him and I gave him the middle finger and yelled, "Fuck you," at him.

Theo approached me on his jet ski. I offered my hand, and he pulled me along. I sat behind him, and he carried me around until I was away from the surf zone. I hugged him tighter and was terrified of the blue ocean below us. He stopped in deep water that seemed out of the safety zone and turned off the engine.

"Don't even think about dumping me here." I said sharply. "I will die eaten by Leviathan and I will haunt you all forever." I continued.

I have somewhat different tastes than my three older brother. I love the beach but I am less obsessed than they are. I prefer the jungle. At the beach, I might just be swimming and snorkeling, but they were always doing things at the beach like it was second nature.

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They often surf, fish in the middle of the ocean, or use transparent kayaks until they're on the far part of the beach, sail with our yachts, or go around in circles on jetskis that only God knows where.

They often do that together. Theo said it was a stress reliever. I used to freak out about what if.. somehow, their boat sank or the jet ski engine died in the middle of the sea, leaving them nowhere to go but stuck, and then drowning in the sea and then being eaten by sharks.

Thankfully they always come back safely. Yet, I'm still a little scared if that happens. Man is not the master of everything. I'm afraid that God has other plans for them and is using the sea as an extension of his hand.

Theo chuckled. "There is no Leviathan, Princessa."

"We've only explored five percent of the sea. You're saying things that are unfounded." I retorted. "Let's get out of here. I'm already nauseous."

"I want to dive." He said.

"No!" I replied. "Come on, Theo."

"Just a minute. He's usually here," Theo mumbled.

"Who?"

"My friend."

"Are you out of your mind?"

He laughed softly and started the engine, but it died. Theo turned the key again, and it died again. The blood drained from my face. “Theo”

"This can't be,"

“Theo...”

"I think we should swim."

"You're insane. It's not funny, Theo."

"The engine's not running, Danny." He said.

I was about to cry when he turned to me over his shoulder. Looking at me worriedly. My heart was already beating fearfully inside my chest.

The water was surging slightly, coming from a little further ahead of us. Somethin was coming.

I hugged Theo's waist, who was interested in staring ahead. "What is it?" I whispered.

"Look at it. It's going to be so beautiful."

My heart was beating loudly as we continued to watch the movement of the water ahead, but then a torrent of water came into view, and I gaped as the surface of the blue whale came. Its body parts took turns on the surface, and then finally, its tail, which it moved with such force that it made the water splash.

"What the fuck." I whispered and saw how the whale dived like a dolphin before going entirely back into the sea.

Then, the whale appeared to leap out of the water, showing half of its body before returning to the water with a powerful movement that made the water crackle vigorously.

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"I'm also happy to see you again, Bud," Theo said with a smile in his voice.

"It was beautiful." I said even though we were shaken by the waves that the blue whale gave us.

"Agreed," Theo's voice was also full of admiration. Then he started the engine, and this time, it started smoothly. There was no more dead engine drama. "His name is Franky."

"Franky? You named a whale, bud?" I asked with his nonsensical words.

He steered the jet ski slowly back to shore. "Yeah. I found him when I was diving here. He got hurt from a fishing hook, so I took it off him, and he's been my friend ever since. He knows when I come, and he always accompanies me when I fish here or just stay with the boat. So I named him Franky. He's my friend at sea."

"That's really unexpected." His story didn't make sense, but I knew that it wasn't made up. He was a lover of nature, especially the sea. "You're fit to be aquaman."

"Many unexpected things can happen." He said before he picked up speed.

I laughed and screamed as he jumped against the waves.

***

After accompanying Theo to meet his whale friend named Franky and snorkeling for two hours with Damien and Abraham, I rested on the balcony protected by a waist-high glass railing.

I sat on the soft sofa bed, relaxing while watching a movie with snacks and viewing the coastal horizon in the beautiful afternoon. There were two messages from Jason, asking how Joanna was, to which I replied that she was okay. After that, I didn't respond to his messages anymore. I replied to a message sent by Joanna about her wanting to go to Malibu too, but her work was taking up a lot of time.

I replied that we could take a trip to the beaches in Colombia that are just as beautiful as Malibu on the second of August because it was my mom's birthday and my parent's wedding anniversary.

We always had a small dinner party with my family and a few of my parents' best friends. Joanna had come to the party every year in the five years we'd been out of Mexico. It made her feel so accepted by my parents, considering her parents were still trapped in Mexico, and we were still trying to get them out of there.

I gazed out at the calm ocean.

Even though Joanna's parents were in Mexico City, I couldn't rest easy with that. Papa had guaranteed their safety but was still trying to bring them here because of certain things.

The tension between the Mexican cartel and the Colombian cartel was terrible and more complicated than I thought. They could track Joanna's parents and keep them trapped there for as long as possible. They can do anything, and they will track down anyone who tries to help Joanna's family. Even Joanna had to send money to her family through James, her friend from wokr.

Because, all of our official documents use our real last names, so we could be traced for seconds if we sent the money through an international bank.

It would have been fine if Carlos Garcia had sent his henchmen to kill me in my family's domain, but... it would have been a severe risk to Joanna's family there. They could be victimized, they could be blackmailed, and they could be poorly used by Garcia.

The risk is unbearable and heavy. Joanna could have lost her family if we hadn't been careful or underestimated the risk. Now, we are still trying. My three brothers did, too. They helped Joanna sincerely all this time. They already consider Joanna as their other sister.

I sighed and pressed the pause button on my laptop as I wanted to focus more on the beautiful Pacific Ocean. There were only a few people on the beach, enjoying the sunset by sitting on the sand, just walking around, or surfing like my three brother were doing. Yeah, their morning's depleted energy has been replenished by lunch and a two-hour nap. Now, they will probably continue surfing until midnight. I didn't doubt it because I knew how weird they were. No wonder why they were brothers.

I grabbed my phone and took a picture of them with the sunset horizon in the distance.

Beautiful.

Smiling, I stared at the photo for a long time.

I want to feel this peace continuously. Surrounded by my family, and my lifelong bestfriends. Surrounded by people who love me without any danger lurking in our lives. Without the darkness waiting to pounce on us. When will that happen in the future? I don't know. But I believe that it will come.

Well, maybe I just have to try to survive and enjoy every pain that comes and face all my fears and darkness.

The peace..Yes, it will come.