Deep Waters

Dean had managed to pass yet another year, and considering he’d almost failed last year, he felt like he'd finally returned to a somewhat normal state in his life. He used to be one of the guys who partied every weekend, but he'd only been at a few this year, trying his best to focus his time on studies and work. However, this party was one few wanted to miss out on. It was a place for old students to celebrate the end of the school year, while new students were invited to get to know each other before it started in September. Dean had remembered the first time he'd been invited to this party, coming all the way from Spain to study at the academy. He’d found some of his best friends at that party. He left the group of friends he’d arrived with to walk towards the beach bar, smiling briefly at the cheesy colored lights that they’d decorated it with before he ordered a beer, and as he waited for the bartender, he turned his dark brown eyes to the crowd, seeing the many happy faces singing along to the music and conversing with a drink in their hand. There were even a couple of people who’d decided to go for a swim in the ocean, obviously drunk enough to not get chilled by it. His gaze then found a girl who looked to be by herself, deciding to order another beer for her before he walked up to her, carrying two red cups in his hands. “Hey,” he greeted with a smile, handing one of the beers to her. His accent sounding slightly Spanish despite the many years he'd spent in England. “Are you one of the new students?” he asked, taking a sip of his own beer as he looked at her.

“Yeah. I’m about to start my fifth and final year in September... so if you ever need someone to show you around the academy, I'm your man,” he said, widening his smile as he looked from her to the people sitting on rocks by the bonfire. He still didn’t know what he wanted to be when he graduated. He just knew that he didn’t want to be in a job where he had to sit still all day. Of course, his father expected him to become a lawyer like himself, although he’d told him time and time again that he wouldn't be able to become that, just like he’d told him what a failure of an alpha he’d make. And despite him being gone, not being able to see where Dean was now, he still wanted to do everything not to become like him. Yet he’d still found himself drawn to alcohol as his father had been, drinking it on a daily basis whenever he felt depressed. He glanced at his beer, reminding himself that he’d changed since then and that a few beers weren’t going to hurt him. Although he knew very well that he shouldn't be drinking at all. He forget his thoughts as he returned his eyes to the girl. “I’m Dean,” he introduced himself. “So, what’s your story? You sound like you’re from Ireland,” he said, raising his voice a bit as the music had gotten louder.

It'd be easy to hold him up on that offer. He’d even signed up for one of the groups to show new students around, so perhaps he’d see her there. Dean hadn’t recognized her scent, which meant she was either a mix that he hadn’t encountered before or something new entirely. Either way, he didn’t care much for it. After all, he was considered a monster by most humans. “You too,” he said as she’d introduced herself. Wondering if she was the Persephone he’d read about in Greek Mythology, but then again, she probably wouldn’t be starting at the academy at this time if she was. He chuckled briefly at her comment about her story. “Well, I’ve got time for complicated,” he said, looking into her brown eyes for a moment, wondering how bad it could really be. But as she asked her next question he couldn’t look into her eyes and instead he focused his gaze on the beer, not answering her question, which made her apologize. “It’s okay,” he said. Clearly, he’d not been able to hide his thoughts from her. “I did have trouble with it,” he said in a low voice, unsure of whether he still did. “My father was an alcoholic, and… well let’s just say he wasn’t deserving any dad of the year awards,” he said, taking another sip of his beer, as if that would drown the memories that he had of him. “And you don’t have to apologize… it seems like you’re good at reading people. I’m like that myself. I can feel other people’s emotions with my touch,” he revealed as he looked at her. He was usually fairly honest and he knew that many people wanted to know that specific ability of his before they they touched him.

He nodded as he seemed to not want to tell her story. He respected that. There were many things he wouldn’t voluntarily tell other people as well. Yet he’d already admitted to his problem regarding alcohol, and for some reason, she’d chosen to stay with him despite that. “I take it you haven’t had the best father either,” he said, as she said she knew a candidate for the shittiest father herself. But she was right, he hadn’t deserved what was put on him. Yet, he still missed his father. Besides his grandparents, he was the only family he’d ever known. He nodded when she talked of her uncle being a poker player, understanding that she’d been taught how to hide her true intentions. Not that her intentions would ever get past him if she ever was to touch him. “It is hard, but it also enhances every emotion trifold,” he explained, seeing how his emotions often got mixed with the one he touched. It was indescribable to feel other's emotions, regarding himself or others. “Have you ever been in love?” he then asked as he looked at her, wondering if she’d truly felt love in that way. He'd fallen in love for the first time around her age, only to lose her to death a year after, but still, he could imagine that she felt attracted to someone that was present tonight.

He nodded as she explained her father was in prison before he moved his gaze to the ocean. “So, you’ve never met him?” he asked, wondering what he was sitting in jail for, but knew better than to ask. He took a sip of his beer when she said there was good and bad to each ability, just like there was to most things. He frowned slightly as she said that love wasn’t going to function with her. “What makes you say that?” he asked, returning his gaze to her. “Did someone break your heart?” he asked, not thinking there were many other reasons for why she'd view love that way. But perhaps that was because love was all he'd ever chased after and the only times he considered giving up on it was when he’d been heartbroken. He chuckled at her next sentence. He had been with his fair share of women, but he was also pretty sure that Persephone could get whoever she wanted. It would be a shame if she decided to give up on love already. “Yeah, and I'm lucky enough to be with the one I'm in love with,” he said, wanting to make sure she didn't think he was coming on to her for talking about love. It was just one of the strongest emotions he'd felt with his ability and he found it interesting to hear people's point of view on it. He then looked towards the sea again, at the lights by the docks in the distance before he saw some of his friends heading towards them. “There’s this after-party on a yacht that I’m invited to. Would you like to come with me?” he asked as he returned his eyes to her. He'd understand it if she declined. After all, her family might not allow her to stay out and there were still many people on the beach that she could talk to.

He had the feeling that she didn’t really care about meeting him, so he just nodded. He’d do about anything for a single conversation with his mother whom he’d never met, wanting to make sure that her soul rested peacefully. “Yeah, and perhaps you’ll change your mind once you feel it for the first time,” he said. It was hard to grasp the idea of love until you experienced it yourself. Even if it was depicted everywhere in books, movies, and songs. He scoffed quietly at her next comment. He would be happy for himself too, if it wasn’t for the fact that Enid was promised to the prince of the underworld, and even if they managed to break that deal, then who was to say what her mother would do next? Of course, he couldn’t know. He’d never met the woman. But her reputation told him not to keep his hopes up.
His smile widened as she accepted his invitation. “Great,” he said, drowning his beer before he threw the empty cup inside a nearby trashcan. “It's this way,” he said before he walked towards the docks. “So, have you met anyone else who studies at the academy?” he asked, seeing that he knew most of the students, he probably knew whoever she'd met by name at the least. But since was from Ireland, she might not know that many in Gaia. They walked down one of the first docks, leading them to a yacht blasting loud music. “That’s it,” he pointed out before he walked up to a few guys smoking on the dock. They were all older students, the youngest being on his third year. “Hey guys, this is Persephone. Is it okay if I bring her along?” he asked, looking at a blonde-haired guy. His name was Eric and his parents were the ones owning the yacht. Dean wasn't that close with him, but they'd shared a few classes over the years and been too many parties together. Some of the guys greeted her with a hello before Eric replied to his question with a smile: “Yeah, of course.” Eric glanced briefly at Dean before his gaze stayed with Persephone, clearly checking her out. Dean jumped onto the boat before he raised his hand out to help her on board as well.

Dean was fairly sure that there wouldn’t be other first-year students at the after-party, so for a moment, he reconsidered his offer. But then again, it wasn’t every day that one got to party on a yacht, and she’d have plenty of opportunity to get to know more students once she started at the academy. He looked around the yacht as she said it was gorgeous. “Yeah, Eric’s family is loaded,” he said before he walked towards the end of the yacht, seeing a few students standing or sitting in a lounge area with a drink in their hand. He then looked out on the water, at the moonlight reflecting itself in it when the yacht slowly moved away from the shore. He greeted a couple of people as he walked towards the self-serve bar. “What drink would you like?” he asked, taking out a glass to make himself a gin and tonic and whatever drink she asked for as well. They had a wide assortment of alcohol and sodas. “Cheers to summer and new friends,” he said, raising his glass as he looked at her with a smile on his lips. Hoping that he'd found a new friend in her. It didn’t take long before Eric came towards them with one of his friends, stopping close to Persephone. “So, what is the alpha and the beautiful new girl up to?” he asked, shifting his dark blue eyes between Dean and Persephone. By the sound of his voice, he’d already had way too much to drink, so when Dean noticed him pour himself a glass of whiskey on the rocks, he raised a brow. Doubting that drinking more was a wise choice. “We were about to play some games with Jen and the others,” he replied his question, looking towards a table where some of his friends were playing a card game. Then he noticed Eric place a hand on Persephone’s lower back. “What do you say, I show you around on the boat first?” he asked as he looked at her, clearly excluding Dean from the tour.

He made her a fruity drink with gin, knowing that a lot of girls liked the taste of something sweet. And by the expression on her face, she seemed to like it better than the beer. However, as he looked back at Eric, he had a more serious expression on his face. It was a well-known fact that older guys tried to get laid with new girls, but there was something about the way he tightened his grip around her that made him worried. However, he simply nodded as she accepted his tour, hoping that she’d meet him afterward. “Alright, I'll be right here,” he said as he looked at Persephone before he joined his friends by the table. Making sure to listen closely to their conversation as they disappeared from his view.
Eric sent her a smile as she said yes to his tour. “Yeah and one day it will be mine,” he said, looking proudly at the yacht before he guided her towards a more secluded area near an open doorframe, revealing the interior as the rest of the boat had sun tinted windows. He walked inside to look around the living area and kitchen. There was nobody in there except for them which made him move his hand to her ass. “This is where we spend most of our time when it's too cold to stay outside,” he explained, taking a large sip of the whiskey before he placed it on a nearby table. He turned to face her, wrapping both of his arms around her body so they'd stand closer to each other. “Would you like to see my bedroom?” he asked, mostly due to the alcohol in his blood and the attraction he had for her. His one hand was still placed on her ass while the other moved up to the skin on her back where the dress was open.

He looked into her eyes with a darker expression as she told him no. As if nobody ever said that to him. “You can go back after we have a bit of fun,” he said, still with his grip tightened around her before he leaned in to kiss her lips, clearly not taking a no for an answer. Dean overheard their conversation, hearing Persephone say that she wanted Eric to let go, so he excused himself from his friends to find them. He quickly appeared in the doorway as he saw them together, forcefully pulling Eric away from her. “Leave her alone,” he snarled at him, grabbing a hold of his shirt with his fist. Eric looked into Dean’s eyes with an angry glare before he kicked him out towards the railing. Dean groaned as he hit the metal post on a sharp edge, cutting a wound into his back. “Nobody tells me what to do on my property,” Eric said before he turned his gaze to Persephone. He moved behind her with a supernatural speed and threw her towards the railing as well, except this time she didn’t hit it, she went overboard as he'd underestimated her weight. It was clear to tell on his expression that he hadn’t meant for that to happen. “Shit,” he cursed, but then he went towards Dean, for a moment contemplating whether he would tell on him or perhaps if he should try to save Persephone. Dean had pulled himself up to his feet to look at Persephone in the water. Shocked at his cruelty. “You're a psychopath,” he said while his eyes turned bright red but before he could jump Eric, a large object was thrown his way, forcing him off the railing and into the water. Now, there was no one to tell the story. Dean felt like he fell for a long time before the water hit his wounded back. He sank for a moment before he got up to the surface, trying to ignore the pain as survival overtook that place in his mind. “Persephone!” he called out, but it was hard to hear anything from the music and his own heartbeat. He was in a state of panic. And his hydrophobia only made it worse, making it almost impossible for him to swim through the sheer anxiety. However, he tried his best to swim to see if he could spot Persephone anywhere. Then he turned his gaze towards the yacht that had sped up as if they tried to hurry away before anyone saw them in the water, leaving them with no boat in sight. All he could think about at that moment was that he was going to drown. This was his certain death. A few tears escaped his eyes as his anxiety shadowed every other thought, only being able to think of the feeling of him drowning like he had in the past. Besides that, he was terrified of the sirens getting to him first. Then a firm hand gripped a hold of his shin, dragging him underwater and he knew that this was it. The death he'd magically avoided once. Surely, fate hadn't been pleased with that. He tried moving his foot frantically to get out of his grip when he saw Persephone fighting another siren. He finally kicked the siren in the head with his other foot and swam towards her, hoping that he somehow could get them both to the surface.

The closer he got to her, the further she disappeared into the depths of the ocean, and the other siren was still after him, forcing him closer to the surface. Something his body automatically craved to get a breath of air. When he finally reached the surface, he took a deep breath in, almost swallowing a wave that came towards him. It was only a matter of time before his blood attracted more of them, and he could barely fight off one, rendering the mission of survival hopeless.
Michael had spent his evening in Southside, watching demons as they left a building when he heard someone pray to him. He glanced down as he focused on the voice, hearing it more clearly, but it wasn’t until he realized that it was Persephone and that she was in the middle of an ocean that he abandoned his position. He quickly ascended into the sky, manipulating the winds to make him fly faster to her location. Her calling him dad only made him more determined to save her, praying to his father that he’d reach her in time. Dean felt the winds get stronger, chilling him more than he already was, but as he looked up at the sky, he saw the shadow of a man with wings. He squinted his eyes at the light as he moved closer, wondering if this was the angel that would take him to his afterlife. However, as he hovered over the water in the distance, he knew that he wasn’t there for him. Dean couldn’t believe his eyes at the next thing he saw. The water shot up from its depths and flung the siren and Persephone up into the air. The siren lost its grip on Persephone due to this, and the angel swept in to wrap his arms around her, only letting the body of the siren hit the water again. He then neared Dean and grabbed his shirt with his free hand.
Michael teleported them to his bunker before he dropped the werewolf onto the floor rather harshly. He then placed Persephone more gently on the floor beside him, looking at her face with a worried expression as he felt for her pulse. There was none. "Come on, please wake up," he said before he started doing CPR on her, with 30 chest compressions and two rescue breaths, repeating the procedure until she’d wake up. Hoping to God that she would.

Dean groaned as he landed on the floor, feeling how his healing started to kick in, burning his back and legs in the process. However, he was slightly distracted from the pain by whatever this place was. He had never teleported anywhere before, although he had traveled in time once. The water pressure and wind still ringed in his ear as he sat there, panting for air. He tried his best to get a grasp of the situation and the fact that he somehow was rescued by an angel. He watched as he performed CPR on Persephone, reminding him of the time he’d done the same to Love. He couldn’t help but think that it was all related to him, and that he was a bad omen of some kind.
As she started coughing up the water, Michael stopped the CPR to grab her hand instead, hoping that it would help her calm down. Her words made him look to his side at the werewolf. He was sitting upright on the floor watching them. He quickly assessed if he needed a healer. The back of his shirt was covered in blood and the ripped pants revealed a couple of deep wounds, but it seemed that he’d be fine. “I’m okay,” he replied to her question, exhaling a deep breath as he knew it helped his anxiety to take deep breaths. “Tell me what happened,” he demanded from the werewolf, letting go of Persephone's hand to stand up. “We got thrown overboard by this guy… Eric. He threw us off his yacht at his party and just left us,” he replied, his speech getting faster as if it tried to match his rapid heart rate. “He left us to die,” he ended. Michael walked closer to Dean, towering over him as he sat on the floor. “Why would he throw you off?” he asked, trying to ignore the fact that Persephone should've known better than to get on board the boat in the first place. “He was acting inappropriate towards Persephone and he didn’t stop when she told him to, so I interfered and well... he lost his temper and got violent,” he answered. Michael clenched his jaw as he heard this, moving his eyes away from him as if he contemplated whether he should pay the yacht a visit. The werewolf had acted honorably, so for that, he at least ought to be grateful. He then turned his gaze to Persephone. “Is this true?” he asked, wanting to make sure this was her version of the story as well.
“How did you know where we were?” the werewolf then asked, looking up at him. “I heard her pray,” he replied, knowing that most people could go a whole life with unanswered prayers, but the werewolf seemed to be too exhausted to confront him with that, even if it was clear to tell by his expression that it was what he was thinking. “And she lives with me for the time being,” he added, explaining why he'd come to her rescue.

Michael shook his head as she apologized, blaming herself for the incident. “It wasn’t your fault,” he said, looking at her. He had tried to warn her about guys like him, of all dangers and evil that existed outside the bunker, making him slightly disappointed in the fact that she’d joined the boat party because as far as he knew, the party for students had been on the beach. However, this wasn’t the time to give her a lecture. And right now, he was just happy that she was okay “But you do realize it’s for the better that you stay home at night from now on,” he said in a serious tone as he looked at her. In other words, he grounded her for her own safety rather than because she’d done something wrong.
“Was the guy Eric Havemeyer?” he then asked, looking at the werewolf that nodded as a reply. The Havemeyers were powerful, meaning that he couldn’t exactly deal with their kid in the way he’d intended, but there was no way he’d let him get away with what he’d done. He also knew that this meant there most likely had been drugs at the party, and perhaps that was why he’d lost control and thrown them overboard. “Who are you?” he asked, getting the sense that he was a higher-ranking angel from the powers he’d demonstrated. “I’m an archangel,” he replied, studying the werewolf for a moment. The werewolf just stared at him, as if he realized something. “Dios mío” he said, never in his life thinking that he'd get to face an archangel. And although he was curious to know more about him and Heaven, he decided to let his questions rest for now. He figured that if Enid were close to any other angels, she would have told him about them by now. “And you are?” he asked. “Dean Alvarez,” he introduced himself, but he couldn’t quite get up to shake his hand as his legs still burned. He then moved his gaze to Persephone. “I’m so sorry for inviting you with me… I swear I haven’t seen him act like that before,” he apologized. Although, he had heard rumors of his drug and alcohol abuse, and that he’d fought a few guys because of it. But he’d never let her go with him on the yacht if he knew that he’d be capable of something like this.

He kept his gaze with Persephone, waiting for her to say that she understood his request, because so far, she’d showed a serious lack of adherence. She’d broken his rules and committed sins. As if nothing he said had mattered to her. But he didn’t understand why. After all, he’d given her much more than what her so-called family had. He then looked to Dean as he apologized for inviting her on the yacht, although none of them could have foreseen what happened afterward. “Listen, neither of you are at fault for this… and what matters is that you’re both safe now,” he said, shifting his gaze between them.
Dean felt slightly better when tried smiling at him, but truth was, the only thing that was okay, was that they'd miraculously survived. There was still the threat of what Eric would do to them in the future. “We won’t be safe for long… who knows what he’ll do to us when he realizes that we survived,” Dean said, looking from her to Michael. The angel looked into his eyes for a moment, as if he considered different scenarios. “I’ll try to wipe out his memories of the incident… give him a chance to repent of his sin,” he replied, knowing that it was what most angels would’ve chosen to do. “But if he does something like that to anyone ever again, you can be rest assured that it will be the last time,” he replied. Dean highly doubted that Eric would become a better person, but he wasn't exactly sure what he deemed the best solution to be himself. He most of all wanted to get revenge and make him suffer for what he'd done to them.
Michael disappeared out of the room and came back with two bath towels, tugging the first one around Persephone before he placed the other around Dean’s shoulders. Seeing that they were both soaked in water, it would do until they could get a warm bath and some dry clothes. “How are you feeling?” he asked as he kneeled down by Persephone, looking at her face with a hint of concern in his eyes.