Crystal Steele

"Crystal!" Kyle called out to her from his boat which moved up and down on the sea surface. "Crystal!"

Crystal didn't answer, but she did smile. She was lying naked with her back to the sea surface, and her gaze was to the blue sky. Her arms were spread out, her white hair danced like a thing alive to the current, and water burped against her ears.

"Come out, Crystal," Kyle said, apprehensive that she may drown.

Kyle shook his head. This wasn't going how he had planned for it to. His reason for rowing her out here was to profess his love to her. Crystal, however, had removed her clothes and dived into the sea for a swim, not minding the depth, not minding if there were sharks, or whatever it is that had made the government deem the sea dangerous.

"This is silly," Kyle said. "We are in the center of the sea." Nervous, he looked about, hoping to see if the sea was really clear of surprises.

But Kyle didn't know Crystal.

"It's okay, Kyle," Crystal finally said. "I am perfectly okay."

Kyle didn't believe her. "You will catch a chill," he said. "I didn't come with a blanket."

Crystal Steele was a dazzling, exquisite, and beautiful lady with a voluptuous body. Her fair skin made her a true vision to behold, and her cerulean blue eyes were the colour of the sea.

"You need not worry, Kyle," Crystal said. "Really, I am fine. What was it that you rowed me out here to tell me?"

Kyle hadn't revealed that piece of information. Had his face been that revealing? How had she seen past him?

A brief moment of silence passed between them. 

"I love you," Kyle said. "I love you."

Crystal seemed unfazed by this. She already knew. What she had been bothered with was how her sisters, Rose, Kathryn, Gold, and Violet would react to this, for she felt the same way for him. Could she tell him her secret? Would he believe her? 

"I am the sea," Crystal said.

Kyle who had been stealing glances at her naked tempting body, now stared fully at her.

"I am the sea," Crystal repeated.

Kyle smiled and said, "Nah. That can't be true. You look like a pretty regular lady to me."

He didn't believe her, then. If only she could tell him. But she couldn't. How would he react if she told him she was the scare of the sea? That she was still washing bodies and skeletons to the coasts of other nations? What would be his expression once she said she was responsible for the destruction of ships, and deaths on all the seas. It was her nature. She was a whisper last time she checked. And whispers barely were attracted to men. The only respect they had for men was their silence in both words and actions.

Rose, and her sisters wouldn't approve. Humans were the enemy. Maybe, not all humans were the same. She hadn't even told him she loved him in return. Well, he had exposed a secret she had known all along. She only thought it fair to say hers which she had thought more concealed.

"What do you mean by you're the sea?" Kyle asked with an air of seriousness and squinted gaze.

This body of water is my body, Crystal thought. Instead, she said, "I control this body of water." But still, she could sense his doubt.

Crystal had met Kyle a month after she and her sisters were released from the house of silence which was oddly enough also their body. She had remembered standing around lots of scattered human bones on the ground, and she couldn't believe she, or her sisters, had been that hungry. The bones had been satisfying, the blood pleasing, but to recover, the shadows of the Steeles had drifted to the sea to fully recuperate, and now, they were back to power.

Rose, her sister, had promised that no human will be spared until their jailers were found, and brought to book. The killings had begun as swiftly as Rose declared it. Even when Rose had discovered some Whites who lived and governed on Crest Hill, she hadn't stopped the commitment of her sisters with tasks on the sea, causing storms, and the destruction of ships. They made sure the lungs of all their victims were filled with water so they could float for their kind to find them on these coasts.

But Kyle had never come to the sea like the others. Crystal would have killed him if he dared. Instead, he would stay at the edge of the sea with his fish hook, hoping, praying, and singing to lure the fishes. Whatever made him believe fishes liked songs.

Of course, he had been unsuccessful for most parts of his first few tries, but because of his relentless visits to the sea every day, Crystal had decided to take pity on him. At every swing of his hook, he caught a fish. Soon, he didn't need traps for they just came like the hook was enough to attract, and ensnare them. Crystal didn't know what he did with the fishes, but she made sure to give him a steady supply every day.

One day, she had sat at the edge of the sea, waiting for him to show up, and as usual, he did come. She had walked up to him to make his acquaintance, and he had been so polite.

The first roasted fish he had given her. Crystal recalled the sweet taste of it. That had sealed their friendship since then. But as they kept seeing each other, friendship had turned to love, and love to lust. She usually saw it in his eyes. He usually did his best to resist. It always ended with a kiss, and nothing more, and all not to her disappointment. Just to her surprise.

Kyle had never asked where she was from, for he assumed she was from Crest Hill. What he knew was that he enjoyed her company, and she enjoyed his. They were a couple who never talked much, and they appreciated each other's silence. He was shy, and she was wild. It was a perfect combination, and she wasn't demanding.

Today being Kyle's first time in the sea after the government had placed a ban on ships sailing in the seas for fear of losing more ships, people, and sailors, he didn't expect to have gone this far into the sea. Kyle had been scared at first, but Crystal's wild nature had encouraged him that nothing will happen since he was with her. He didn't understand what that meant, and he didn't know that she was one of the causes of the deaths and mishaps on the sea.

"Come on the boat," Kyle said. "I don't want you to—"

A strong wave lifted Kyle's boat and flipped it, Kyle fell into the sea. The rows remained afloat, and his boat stayed upside down.

The water was heavy around Kyle, Crystal knew he couldn't swim.

"Stop trashing," Crystal said, and submerged her entire body inside the sea, she moved to him. Crystal surfaced next to him, and she smiled at his horrified expression. "You won't drown. Look at me."

Kyle locked his gaze on her.

"Relax."

And he relaxed.

"See. You won't drown." Not when I'm here, she thought, still not sure he believed her. Crystal moved a bit closer in reply to his declaration of love for her, and she met his lips with hers.

Kyle returned her kiss with such fervency, then Crystal broke the kiss.

"Are you really the sea?" Kyle asked.

He followed Crystal's gaze to his boat, and watched it turn. A watery hand came out of the sea before Kyle and caressed his cheek, it returned back into the sea.

"Yes," Crystal said.