Arthur was cut off abruptly when they experienced a giant blue light quickly engulfing them. They were momentarily blinded, but once their eyes adjusted they shielded their eyes and looked up. They saw a giant spaceship, shaped like the head of an elephant, hovering about a hundred feet overhead. Suddenly, the beam narrowed and it focused on Arthur. Arthur shielded his eyes to protect them from the intensity of the lighting, which to him was like a burning sun right in his face. And then, right before the eyes of Elizabeth and Aaron, Arthur was beamed up into the spaceship.
"Jump off this boat, Elizabeth," Aaron ordered.
"What?"
"Breaking your promise to be obedient to me so soon? Jump off this boat and I will free you in close to two months. Stay and you can ask the space aliens when they plan on releasing you."
Fearlessly, Elizabeth got up and dove off the boat. She had no clue what that giant spaceship wanted with Arthur or the boat she had been sitting in, but she wasn't going to stick around to find out. And then she saw a large dolphin-like creature swimming at her from under the water. She swam up to the surface and breathed in deeply.
"Elizabeth," Aaron called. "The sea creature you see is a vampire named Kyla. Grab onto her dorsal fin, and she will take you back to the island. I'll fly nearby."
Elizabeth gulped. This was no fluke. Her dream of the giant sea dragon that looked just like Joe was no coincidence. And now that name, Kyla, was being uttered. She hoped that when this creature morphed back into human form she would not be the Kyla of her dreams. Because if the first two dreams were accurate, then she didn't even want to think about what they would most likely mean about the third one.
The dolphin creature swam up beside Elizabeth with a smile on its face. It looked like a mutated version of Flipper. In fact there wasn't too much that separated it from regular dolphins. Its tail fin was vertical rather than horizontal, and made the animal look part shark. The beady, black snake eyes combined with the dirty green scales and brown stripes, gave a reptilian appearance to the animal that made it seem prehistoric. She grabbed hold of its fin, pulled herself up onto its back, and rode it back to the island. She looked back and saw the little motorboat stranded in the ocean. Joe lifted his head from the water, made eye contact with her, and then he was swimming off into the distance.
As she was being taken back to the island, Elizabeth looked up and saw Aaron flying overhead. As she watched him flying, she had a sudden realization that shocked her. She didn't want to leave him. That was why she agreed to his deal so quickly. It wasn't just to save Arthur, though he was more than deserving of being saved. Never had she been in a relationship with so much feeling and intimacy in it than the one she had with Aaron. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself, but now she recognized her feelings for what they were. There is a fine line between love and hate, and she was in love with Aaron. He was her first true love. And now she was worried. Now that she knew she didn't really want to leave him, how could she find a way to stay with him? Their deal was that she would leave at the end of next month. She needed to get that plan nixed.
Once she was close enough to the island that she could walk back, Kyla stopped and Elizabeth took this as her cue to get off. Kyla morphed into her normal self, and Elizabeth saw that this was indeed the Kyla from her dream. She was tan, bow legged, and had a deep brow ridge. Kyla looked at her, with her shaggy mane of red Neanderthal hair, and said, "I don't know what you've done to Ayro, but I'm loving it!" she said with a laugh. "He--"
"That's enough, Kyla,” Aaron cut her off. He was up ahead on the beach and had morphed back into his usual self. Kyla laughed, dove back into the ocean, swam for a little bit, and then morphed back into the prehistoric sea creature from before.
Elizabeth walked up to Aaron and they walked back to the cabin together. Aaron opened the door for her but did not enter.
"I could have lost you tonight, Elizabeth. You have no idea how dangerous it was for you to do what you did tonight. If vampires besides Joe or Kyla had found you...."Aaron looked more upset that Elizabeth had ever seen him. "Your plan put Arthur in very serious danger! I know he didn't think this up. He only went with you because he loves you. That's why I chose him to take care of you. Because he would follow you to the ends of the earth. But then, I guess you knew he would put you first when you asked him to set sail." There was a pause of tense silence before Aaron said curtly, "I'll see you tomorrow." And then he shut the door and left.
For once, Elizabeth wished he would have stayed.
Part 3: All Grown Up
Chapter 15: First Date