I didn’t want to disappoint Bobby, but I needed to see what the hell Sean wanted. Or else it would eat at me all night just like Bobby said.

“There’s something that I have to do,” I confessed. Then I added, “It’ll be fast, I promise.”

Like always, Bobby was cool and mature about it. 

“No worries.” He waved his hand. “I’ll be sitting right over here, waiting for you.”

Bobby walked over to a low wall overrun with fronds and took a seat. He agreed to watch my bag as well as the flowers he brought me.

On the way to the food court restrooms, I noticed that my heart rate had increased a little. I knew that I wanted to give Sean a piece of my mind when I got there, but I didn’t know what I would say.

Why are you paging me when you know I’m working? Who do you think you are? You’re the one who pushed me away, remember?

Not to mention there was that whole incident on the bench the other day. I was still so embarrassed about that. I decided that I wasn’t going to bring it up and I hoped that he wouldn’t either.

The dim glow from the neon restaurant signs gently beckoned me as I rounded the corner. I was almost there.

Maybe he’s scared that you’ll tell people about how the old man really died.

That made me stop in my tracks. Was Sean just trying to get me alone so that he could intimidate me? Hurt me?

I shook my head at the thought and kept walking towards the bathrooms. Sean was a lot of things, but I couldn’t see him turning on me like that. If that was the case, wouldn’t he have done so already.

Besides…

My thoughts took me back to that moment. When I held Sean’s phone and witnessed the Mall reach out with an invisible force in order to rip out an old man’s heart. Sean had been there. He was trying to help that poor person. It was killing him just seeing someone getting hurt.

If Sean was doing everything he could to stop the Mall from taking a complete stranger from him, then there’s no way he would try to bring me into harm’s way.

Was this my brain trying to tell me that even after everything, Sean still cared about me? That I was someone important to him and deep down, I knew that’s why he was paging me?

But those numbers… Why would he send me those awful numbers?

I came before the crossroads to the women’s and men’s restrooms. 

“Sean?”

There was no answer from either direction. But I did hear running water coming from somewhere. I edged towards the women’s side and the sound got softer. So I turned the other way.

Hoping Sean was the only person in there, I pushed in the heavy bathroom door.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, Sean,” I growled as I entered and closed the door behind me.

“Help me.”

Sean’s voice was barely audible over the rush of water. The lights went out, but only for a moment. 

When they came back on, all the toilets were simultaneously overflowing. The water spilling out onto the tile wasn’t what you would expect. It was too dark. It smelled of salt that was so overpowering that it stung my eyes. Knots of golden seaweed sloshed about my ankles.

“Aqua.”

The room went black again.

I glanced up, wondering how the giant dark mass in the center of the floor hadn’t captured my attention before.

Another orca. But this one was real.

Oh my God. 

I was too stunned to speak the words aloud. I blinked my eyes against the sting of saltwater clinging to the air. 

Sean had his back pressed up against the orca’s side, as if he’d been trying to support it. His hair was plastered to his face from hours of effort.

“She’s only a baby, Aqua” he said, sounding even more desperate and exhausted than he looked.

The juvenile killer whale helplessly flapped her fluke and blew air through her blowhole. It was then that I realized how badly I was holding my breath.

This wasn’t a dream.

There was a beached whale in the food court bathroom. I could tell by the look in Sean Mori’s eyes that if we didn’t do something and do it fast, this baby was going to suffocate and die.