Beneath the Courage

Power

(Sorry this will be short. The hurricane has my mind all messed up this week and since it turned toward me, I don't see myself having power soon to finish this, so I'm splitting the chapter so you guys at least get something.)

Callem-Half chapter-

Coming to work with Parker the next morning felt odd, as I wasn't very interested in being in the giant building where I used to be locked away in it all day. I needed to speak with Ocar again, however, and that was the only way I could meet with him. Thankfully, Parker was very busy in the morning, and then had to get ready for a thing he called a check-up, with Ocar in the afternoon. I wasn't sure what he meant by it, but he said that it was nothing big and would just be a few doctors checking on him to make sure he was doing well. I didn't like the idea of other fish doctors being around him, so I decided to stay the entire day just in case and to be sure that I had enough time to speak with him. 

I followed Parker around for a short while before he was permitted to let me in to see Ocar. He was one of the head doctors, but he still needed permission because they considered Ocar to be dangerous. I couldn't argue that. If I hadn't been released so soon after being captured, I would have been very dangerous. 

"Wait by the door when you'd like to be let out, alright Cal? If anything bad happens, people will come in," Parker said as he unlocked the door to Ocar's pool and allowed me to step inside. 

I turned and smiled at him, leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips before leaning back and nodding. "okay, and I will." 

He smiled and shut the door, the electronic lock clicking into place loudly in the quiet that surrounded me. Feeling eyes on me, I turned to see Ocar at the other side of the pool, floating easily as he watched me with narrowed eyes. 

"Hello, Ocar." I greeted with a cautious smile. 

Being alone in his territory without Parker made me be far more careful. I wasn't going to approach his pool or try to be too friendly. He was cornered and caged. 

"I wanted to speak with you, if you'd allow me some of your time." 

It probably sounded dumb phrasing my words like I did, but he could just as easily sink to the bottom of his pool and ignore me. He might be trapped, but he didn't have to accept my company. 

When he ducked under the water, I held my breath. Because of the glare from the lights having been turned on above us, I couldn't see his form beneath the water very well. When he surfaced by the edge of the pool a short distance away, I straightened. 

"Do you know someone named Micah from when you were at Cal-Waves?" I asked, needing to cut straight to the point in case he lost his patience and dove back underwater. 

His eyes widened by a fraction, but silence stretched on between us without a response. I waited, still, seeing his mind working behind his eyes. "Yes." He finally said, allowing me to relax a small amount. If he hadn't answered, I would have considered our conversation likely to have ended there. It was a relief that he seemed to be considering speaking with me. 

I took a calming breath and stepped a little closer, then sat down on the hard tile floor, crossing my legs to try and get comfortable. "We went to check on Fri at the hospital and Micah came to help, saying he was doing it for Hice. He left after a short time, then I heard singing. We found Hice and Micah up on the roof..."

My hope was that he'd have something to add to what I'd said, but when he stayed silent, I sighed and continued. "Do you know anything about the two of them together? Are they mates?" 

That got a laugh from him as he pushed off the wall to drift backward in the water. "Don't get confused, dolphin. You know as well as I do that we sing for more than that." 

Licking the sudden dryness from my lips, I felt my stomach turn uncomfortably at his words. "He's controlling him, then?" I asked. 

He dove for a moment, only to surface at the edge a few feet in front of me. After setting one arm on the edge of the pool, he leaned forward and smirked. "Does it matter? Let them do what they want. It has nothing to do with us." 

Beneath his dark eyes I saw a hatred that I had rarely seen in other mers besides my brother. I know that he doesn't care for Hice, but is his anger toward him, or both of them? I hadn't seen Micah do anything bad, but just belonging to Cal-Waves was enough to make me dislike him, even if it did seem to help Fri. 

"Stop overthinking this. Whether they are mates or not doesn't matter. Hice can and will sing to control people, just like I've heard your brother can. We all can, technically, but some are more gifted than others. If he wants to use that gift to further his own goals, I don't care." 

"He's hurting him!" I said without thinking, immediately wanting to take the words back after I'd spoken. I just, it was hard to sit back and watch someone suffer, even if that person wasn't good. 

My words were funny to him, it seemed, because Ocar gave out quite an uncomfortable laugh before he leaned a little further over the tile. "Hurting him? Do you have any idea what poor Micah has done to me and the other mers that were captured by Cal-Waves? What he did to Fri!" 

My heart felt like it had stopped, yet at the same time I could feel it beating a hole in my chest. His sneer grew into a full snarl as he bared his teeth at me in anger. "That disgusting piece of trash was one of the head scientists. He ordered the tests. He ordered the rapes! He ordered them to all-but kill Fri!" 

Ocar had climbed out of the water but I didn't dare move as he closed in on me, teeth still bared as his fury rose. "You think that I would ever care about that filthy human enough to try and help him after what I've seen him do?" He yelled down at me. "I hope Hice is his mate. I hope he's using him. I hope he breaks him. Then I hope he murders him and leaves his body for the fish to devour!" 

 My blood ran cold as I fought to stay still. When he finally turned and stalked back to dive into the water, I inched my way backward until I was by the door. It opened moments later and I hurried out, panting to try and keep myself from shaking too badly. That had not been the information I had wanted to hear, and somehow, I was still conflicted about Micah. 

Perhaps I am just far too nice, like Parker has told me. I thought as I followed the two people who had let me out toward where I figured Parker was. They still had the exam to do, and I would stay for him even after our tense conversation, but I had quite a lot of thinking to do when I got home.