The Secrets My Mother Kept

Alexander wasn't confused anymore. He had panicked at first trying to find the surface of the water.

He floated in this space between spaces, where the water felt like silk against his skin and breathing came as naturally as it did on land. The darkness had given way to a soft, blue-green glow that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Dasha inca kalohm a voice whispered, its words rippling through the water like music. Finally, you've found your way here.

Alexander turned slowly in the water, trying to locate the source of the voice. It seemed to come from all directions, ancient and familiar at the same time. Like a lullaby he'd forgotten he knew.

"Where am I?" His own voice surprised him.

Soft laughter echoed through the depths.

Memories flickered through Alexander's mind: his mother singing strange songs at the lake's edge, water dancing in impossible ways during his baths as a child, the pearl necklace glowing beneath his fingertips when he found it hidden away.

"Lochlehm," he said, the name tasting like salt on his tongue.

Nedri inca Dasha Kalohm.

Names have power, little one. And you speak mine so sweetly. The water began to take shape before him, forming into something almost human, but not quite.

In the distance, Alexander thought he heard someone calling his name. His aunt's voice? His father's? But they seemed so far away now, muffled by the gentle current of this in-between place where water obeyed his thoughts and breathing came as naturally as dreaming.

Alexander looked down at his hands, watching as the water around them began to swirl and dance, responding to his slightest thought. It felt right. It felt...

"Alex!" The distant voice was stronger now, tinged with desperation. "Baby, please!"

~ ☆☆☆ ~

"What's out?" Sydney demanded, her voice barely above a whisper. The papers around them seemed to rustle without wind. "What happened to Alex?"

Syn stepped forward into the dim glow of the laptop screen, his face haunted. "I thought I could protect him from all this. From what happened to Airi. But he found her research, didn't he?" His hands were shaking as he reached for one of the papers on the coffee table. "Just like she knew he would."

"You knew about the notebooks?" Sydney felt anger rising in her chest. "Alex is in the hospital right now, he looks like he drowned." Sydney continued on.

"The pearl," Syn said suddenly, his eyes snapping to hers. "Did he find the pearl?"

"It's a key," he interrupted, moving to the map on the wall. His finger traced one of the red strings, following it from the lake to a point marked in the middle of nowhere. "Airi discovered our boy's gift in the bathtub when he was one. Found it in the notebook the week she passed…” Alexander's dad, Syn crossed the room to the coffee table and pulled up a crinkled page with seraded edges from the pile of paperwork that had been sprawled across the table.

Sydney leaned forward to look at the page, her brother's hands trembling as he smoothed out the wrinkled paper. Airi's familiar handwriting sprawled across the page in hurried strokes:

March 15th

A. is different.

Today while I was giving him his bath, I noticed. The water rose around him but never touched his skin. Like it knew. Like it was waiting. He laughed, reaching for something I couldn't see. When I pulled him out, the water followed his hands, dancing in the air like ribbons. My beautiful boy. My gifted, cursed boy.

“I don't understand.” Sydney said softly. “Alex can control water?” She asked.

“I believe so.” Syn nodded. “Airi had a hidden gift too, but we never really talked about why she sang.” He hesitated.

"What do you mean, when she sang?" Sydney felt a chill run down her spine, remembering how Airi used to hum lullabies to Alex, songs in languages Sydney had never recognized.

Syn's eyes grew distant. "The first time I noticed was at the beach. We were dating, just kids really. She was singing to herself while collecting shells, and I watched..." he swallowed hard. "I watched the tide change direction. Just that small stretch of beach, mind you. The waves were flowing backward, leaving perfect shells at her feet. She didn't even realize she was doing it."

"That's impossible," Sydney whispered, but even as she said it, she remembered other things. The way storms would quiet when Airi sang Alex to sleep. How the lake always seemed calmer near their house, even on windy days.

"She thought it was beautiful at first, what she could do. What Alex could do." Syn's finger traced the writing on the page. "Until she found out why. Until she learned about Lochlehm."

Thunder cracked outside, and the lights flickered. “Lochlehm?” Sydney asked, Syn nodded.