Beneath the Courage

Courage Lies Beneath

(Final Chap and Epi combined)

Callem-

My fingers twitched with nerves as Mellac and Hice began slowly moving opposite each other. The director watched them and his humans trained their guns on them, but besides that, they didn't react. Perhaps they were curious about what they were going to do, but I was just worried that their stunt was going to kill one of them... and while I didn't like Hice, I definitely didn't want my brother dead, either. 

There was a loud boom from overhead that sounded like thunder, then the lights flickered once. Mellac and Hice looked at each other once, then gave a faint nod before darting to the tank, giving themselves cover from the possibility of being shot. 

"If you continue to hide, I'll just have them shoot your friends, instead." The director said, drawing my attention back up to him as he raised his hand again and pointed straight at Parker and Ocar. 

I immediately placed myself in front of Parker, though he tried to fight me on it, I easily held him back. 

"Too bad we have no friends, right, Hice?" Mellac said from where he slowly moved around the edge of the large tank. 

"Correct." Hice agreed, drawing silence from the room before the lights flickered again. 

"Alright, shoot the mer shielding Parker." The director said right before the lights flickered again, then went out. 

Things happened in a blur from then. The loud sound of a splash came first. I could just barely make out that it had been Hice who had jumped into the tank full of sharks. My brother had disappeared, but I didn't waste time wondering where to as I grabbed Parker and bolted for the door behind us, only to find that it had been sealed shut. 

Grabbing the edge of the small window built into it, I yanked it as hard as I could, but the door didn't budge. "We need to find another way." Parker said as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the door. 

We found a wall to duck behind right as the lights flickered back on. 

"What the hell!" The director screamed, making Parker and I peak around the corner up at him. 

Noticing he was leaning over the rail, staring down toward the pull of sharks that Hice had jumped into, we lowered our gazes. 

"I can't say that I'm surprised, but wow." Parker whispered next to me as we stared at the dead or nearly-dead bodies of all the sharks littering the floor. 

But where's Mellac? 

The sound of a gun going off jerked my eyes back up toward the director. The sight they took in hurt my heart. Mellac stood before the two humans with guns. One of them was slowly dropping to the floor while the other, having just fired, was grabbed and his gun forced to point upward toward the ceiling. 

They shot him. 

Blood dripped from his risen left arm, but I couldn't see the bullet hole from behind. 

"Careful, Callem. Don't distract him. It doesn't look like a serious wound." Parker said, his voice grounding me enough to keep me from acting without thinking. 

The sound of people running and yelling stole my attention to the door we'd previously tried to leave out of. With the power back on, several chimes sounded from it, then it slid open. I shoved Parker against the wall, but humans easily saw us anyways. 

Four of them pinned us where we were with their guns while two more ran toward Mellac. I couldn't see him, as my attention was focused on the humans in front of us, but I heard several shots ring out, making my body grow cold at the thought of my brother lying dead above us.