The sand was toxic.
Grey grains clung to Elara's skin like funeral ash, remnants of the Ancient Volcano's eruption that buried half the village ten years ago. She stood on the cursed beach's edge, where fishermen only dared tread when the sun hung directly overhead. The morning wind whipped through her tangled black hair, carrying the stench of rotting salt and decaying crab meat.
*This is where Mother vanished*, her memory hissed.
"Elara!"
She didn't need to turn. Mira stood three paces behind her, breath ragged, knuckles white where they gripped her backpack straps. "We promised. Never here again."
Elara let the words drown in the crashing waves. Her eyes scanned the horizon. This dawn was different. The sea churned in unnatural spirals, vomiting black foam.
"Rip current," Mira whispered bitterly. "Worse than yesterday."
But Elara stepped forward. Water kissed her ankles. Cold stabbed like coral knives.
"Stop! Your wound..."
"Left calf. I remember." Elara touched the jagged scar. A souvenir from her *accident* three years ago, when she'd recklessly searched for her mother near the eastern reefs. *Accident*. An empty word from frightened fishermen.
She waded deeper. Waves slapped her thighs. In the distance, something glimmered.
Not light.
A shadow.
An electric blue mass pulsed beneath the surface, a sleeping jellyfish the size of a house. Elara knew it. The nightmare that had haunted her since her mother's disappearance.
"GET OUT!" Mira's scream shattered the air.
But Elara's body moved on its own. Water slammed against her waist. Cold stole her breath.
A jolt.
Not the current. *Fingers of ice* crept from the depths, seizing her ankles. She was dragged under.
Saltwater choked her throat. Coral gashed her back. Her blood crystallized in the brine. At the edge of darkness, the blue shadow approached, its form now clear: a woman with seaweed hair and pupil-less eyes.
The shadow's mouth moved:
"The door is cracked."
---
Elara vomited sand.
Mira pressed both hands on her chest, panic-stricken, tears mingling with snot. "Breathe! Inhale!"
Something sharp bit Elara's palm. A rough blue stone, the size of a tamarind seed. Its surface pulsed. *Thu-thump. Thu-thump.* Like a misplaced heart.
"Throw it away!" Mira shrieked, clawing at her hand. "It's part of *her*!"
But Elara clutched it tighter. The stone radiated warmth. Vibrations whispered a familiar scent: *jasmine perfume, her mother's signature fragrance.*
---
Orion's shack reeked of kerosene and smoked fish. The old fisherman sat on bamboo flooring, mending a torn net. His eyes, clouded amber, fixed on the blue stone.
"You brought home a sea serpent," he muttered. His rope knife stilled.
Mira bared her teeth. "A curse, Orion! We should..."
"Curse?" Orion grinned toothlessly. "Or an invitation?" His tobacco-stained hand grabbed the stone. Instantly, blue veins bulged across his wrist. "It's hungry," he rasped. Cold sweat beaded his temples.
"Hungry for what?" Elara leaned against the doorway, her arm still trembling.
"Buried stories." Orion tossed the stone back. The table shook. "This ocean is a leviathan's belly. It swallows ships, corpses, secrets..." His gaze speared Elara. "...and your mother."
Dusk bled through wall cracks. The blue stone pulsed faster.
---
Night.
Mira slept on a woven mat. Orion kept watch outside, his cigarette smoke forming ghosts in the air.
Elara sat beneath the window. The stone burned her palm.
*Thu-thump. Thu-thump.*
Then:
"Elara..."
The whisper crawled from her tailbone.
"The world's roots rot."
"The door needs a key."
The stone hissed. Blue smoke coiled, forming three concentric circles, the same symbol engraved on her mother's gold necklace.
A woman's silhouette materialized at the center. Seaweed hair slithered like living serpents.
"Your blood opens the path," her voice vibrated inside Elara's skull.
Blue sparks erupted. The scent of ozone filled the room.
---
Dawn.
Mira opened her eyes. "Going home?"
Elara nodded. The blue stone thrummed in sync with her heartbeat.
She knew:
The grey sand was just a veil.
The ocean had opened its eyes.
And she would dig deeper,
armed with a cursed stone,
a scar on her calf,
and her mother's name etched on the sea's tongue.