Chapter 37: Always a Monster

8pm...

"Can I talk to you?" Linda asked Oma coming into her room

"Geez, when do you ever need permission to talk to me?" Oma asked

"Just trying to be careful because you easily pick offense now" Linda said to her

"Are you being serious right now?" Oma asked her

"You might not notice it but i do, you have changed ever since you started spending time with Erica" Linda responded

"I am a grownup now Linda and that's not because of Erica, you have changed too; you look like the only daughter of a president" Oma said

"Stop teasing me, you are trying to change the topic" Linda said to her

"Am not, i am just telling you the truth" Oma told her

"I know Erica is not your sister like you told me" Linda said to her

"This is about Erica again?" Oma asked

"Yes, i am not just comfortable with her around you; I think she is just taking advantage of you" Linda said to her

"We have talked about this Linda; you just don't know Erica enough the way i do; you are just being insecure about me and I like you for that" Oma told her

"I talked to Erica at launch..."

"You talked to Erica at launch?" Oma quickly interrupted

"Yes, and she almost ripped me apart with her eye" Linda responded

"Oh my God Linda, that's not right, you are going to make her feel uncomfortable staying here" Oma told her

"I just told you that she wanted to rip me apart with her eye and all you care about was her?" Linda asked

"Don't say that Linda, I am trying to tell you something" Oma told her

"Where is Erica right now?" Linda asked her almost sounding cold

"She went outside for a walk" Oma replied

"Exactly, who goes for a walk outside at night? especially the fact that there are rumors of the so-called creatures killing people in the city" Linda told her

"Do you really believe there are monsters out there?" Oma asked her

"Maybe, I don't care; all that matters is that you should be careful of her, she could be a danger to you" Linda told her

"Okay, I have heard what you said Linda and I appreciate you looking out for me" Oma told her.

(At a riverbank somewhere in the city)

Erica swims around the river in joy, she had so much missed the feelings of being a mermaid; it's been three months now and she has no idea of what is going on at the sea kingdoms

" Did I really made the right decision to leave the queen unprotected at the sea?" She asked herself when she had sat on the shallow side of the river with her tails still on water.

She flashed back to Oma's last words to her ...

"What if there are more stories than you know? there are always two side to every story. You were sent out of the sea to find solution and now there is a sea witch here on land trying to kill you and your mother is here too dead on land, something might be happening at the sea" Oma told her.

" I can't go back to the sea knowing fully well that the sea-witch is wandering about on land; it's something I have to take care of" she thought to herself even though she knew deep down inside of her that she doesn't want to leave Oma and Lava behind.

Erica's ears were suddenly drawn to the siren song that strangely came across the water...

" A Siren" she questioned herself in curiosity " show yourself, who is there?" She asked looking across the waters but there was no response. She quickly swims in to look for whatever it was that made that sound, getting close to the middle of the waters; she saw the siren's message stones floating on the water, it was tied together with symbols written on each one of them, she looked around to see if there was anyone before she picks up the message stone to read it.

" It's time you make preparation to come back to the sea, there will be war soon; we need your presence to make some of this right"

Erica was lost in her own thoughts after reading the message " This means the queen has been keeping an eye on me and she needs my help" she thought to herself as it gave her an assurance that the queen still has her in heart; now it's time for her to make sure that she drags Olga back to the sea as soon as she can and have the queen punish her for what she has done.

* * *

After much hesitation, Lava finally decided to come downstairs and have a talk with her father as he had demanded few minutes ago

" Am here now, what do you want to talk about?" He asked his dad

" You must really hate me after what I did to your little monster friend?" Mr. Hansel asked

" So, we don't have anything to talk about? Goodnight father" he said turning back to leave.

" Did you know she murdered Kelvin?" Mr. Hansel asked him

" I don't want to hear your lies father" Lava said angrily to her

" When she fought us for her freedom at the laboratory, she wasn't the human you fell in love with; she fought with the instinct to kill, she took a human girl hostage" Mr. Hansel told him

" If you are trying to get on my head with this, it's not going to work" Lava told his father

" Why don't you ask her yourself? A monster will always be a monster no matter how you want to make it human; only if you can see my good intentions and the big future for the city. This is an opportunity you don't want to miss for the growth of the business" His father said to him, with that he left the sitting room.

Even though Lava tried not to care, he found himself wanting to prove his father wrong.

Few minutes to Oma's bed time, her phone rang bearing Lava's name in front of it

" What is it rich guy?" She asked on picking the call

" I didn't think you will be awake this time to pickup calls" he told her

" Am about to go to bed?" She told him

" What about Erica? Is she asleep?" He asked her

" I wish she is but she isn't back yet" she told him

" She went outside by this time?" Lava asked her

" Yes, your little girlfriend went outside hours ago, you shouldn't worry about her because she is a freaking ticking bomb herself; she is the most dangerous person out there right now" Oma teased causing Lava to laugh

" Okay, I don't have to worry about her" he silently said

" If you don't have anything else to say; I will say my goodnight then because it seems to me Erica is the person you want to talk with" Oma said to him

" Wait!" Lava quickly said stopping her from ending their call

" What now?" Oma asked

" Erica didn't kill kelvin, right?" He quickly asked after almost hesitating.

Oma was calm as that wasn't what she had expected him to ask.

" She did it and you knew that, none of you both told me and I have to hear it from my father " he said with his voice almost breaking.

"It was a self-defense" Oma finally responded

" She killed a person anyway" Lava said ending the call before Oma could even say something.

"Oh, my goodness" Oma said with a heavy sign.