Pearlshade

The ocean stretched along the coast of Pearlshade, beneath the late-night sky. Waves rolled toward the shore one after another, breaking over the rocks before pulling back into the water.

A few houses still had lights on, and the occasional car passed along the coastal road, but most of Pearlshade was asleep.

Not far from the water stood a small two-storey house, tucked between several others along the road. From the outside, there was nothing unusual about it. The downstairs lights were off, the front door was locked, and the curtains were drawn across most of the windows.

It was well past midnight, however, one bedroom still had a small lamp glowing beside the bed.

Upstairs, Talia slept.

Her bedroom was mostly dark, a pile of clothes sat on the chair beside her desk, and an open notebook rested on the floor where she’d left it earlier that evening.

For a while, she didn’t move.

Then her breathing changed.

It started slowly, her breaths becoming quicker and less even. She shifted beneath the sheets, turning onto her side before suddenly pulling the covers closer to herself.

Talia thrashed against her sheets, damp with sweat, her breath coming in short, panicked bursts. Her fingers gripped the mattress as if she could somehow hold herself in place. A low groan escaped her as her body arched, tense and caught between sleep and something deeper.

The room was quiet, but her breathing was loud.

She wasn’t awake yet.

The ocean was calling her, though there were no words. She could hear waves crashing somewhere around her, each one breaking in a steady rhythm that seemed to get closer.

She was underwater.

Talia floated just beneath the surface, surrounded by shifting blue and silver. She could see sunlight above her, broken up by the movement of the water. Her hair drifted around her face, and when she tried to move, her arms and legs felt heavy.

She looked around, trying to work out where she was.

There was nothing nearby.

Then something moved beneath her.

A shark passed through the water, its body disappearing into the darker blue below. Talia watched it go before another one appeared from the opposite direction. Soon there were several of them, slowly circling her.

She knew she should be scared, but for some reason she wasn’t. The sharks didn’t seem interested in her. They simply kept swimming around her, as if they were waiting for something.

Talia looked ahead and saw a woman floating several metres away. Her hair drifted around her face as she stared directly at Talia, and in both hands she held something that caught Talia’s attention immediately. A pearl, glowing softly beneath the water, bright enough that Talia could see it clearly despite how far away it was. With every pulse, the water around it seemed to shift.

Talia tried to swim toward the woman, pushing her arms through the water and kicking her legs as hard as she could, but she barely moved. It felt as though something was holding her in place, keeping her from getting any closer no matter how hard she tried.

The woman opened her mouth and said something, but Talia couldn’t hear her. She tried to answer, only to realise that she couldn’t make a sound either. She looked at the woman’s face, trying to work out what she was saying, when something behind her caught Talia’s attention.

At first, she couldn’t tell what it was. There was a dark shape moving slowly through the water, sinking farther below them. Talia turned her head to get a better look and realised that it was the remains of a ship disappearing into the depths.

Broken pieces of wood floated around it, while part of a torn sail moved slowly with the current, rusted metal was scattered across the seabed.

She stared at the wreck.

There was a crest carved into one of the broken pieces of wood: a moon cradled by waves.

Talia couldn’t explain why the crest felt familiar, but she couldn’t stop looking at it. She tried to move toward the wreck, but her arms and legs felt heavy, almost useless beneath the water.

When she looked back at the woman, she was sinking.

The woman reached toward her.

“Talia.”

The sound was faint at first, almost lost beneath the water, but Talia heard it.

She tried to move toward her.

“I can’t,” Talia tried to say, but her voice wouldn’t come out.

The woman reached for her again.

“Talia, help me.”

Talia kicked harder, fighting against whatever was holding her in place. She still couldn’t get any closer.

Then something happened.

The pearl was ripped from her grasp.

The woman disappeared into the darkness almost immediately afterward, leaving Talia staring at the empty space where she’d been.

The pearl remained suspended between them, slowly turning in the water. Talia watched it, unsure of what she was supposed to do, until its glow began to soften. Something about the way it moved made her feel as though it had noticed her. She lifted her hand cautiously, expecting nothing to happen, but the pearl began drifting toward her.

Talia held her breath as it came closer. It wasn’t moving quickly anymore. It almost seemed hesitant, stopping for a moment before continuing toward her outstretched hand. The glow reflected across her fingers as she reached for it, and Talia couldn’t help but stare at it. For the first time since the dream began, she felt like she might actually understand what was happening.

It came closer, almost cautiously, as though it was waiting to see what she would do. Talia reached out, her fingers slowly moving toward the glowing surface.

The pearl brightened.

Talia smiled without meaning to.

Then the light changed.

The glow suddenly intensified, spreading through the water until everything around Talia was washed in white. She raised her arm to shield her eyes, but she could still see something moving inside the light. At first, she couldn’t make out what it was. The shape twisted and grew larger, moving toward her as the brightness began to fade.

Talia lowered her arm.

The outline became clearer.

A fin appeared first, followed by the long shape of a body cutting through the water. Talia’s stomach dropped when she realised what she was looking at. The shark came straight out of the fading light, its jaws opening as it rushed toward her.

Talia screamed and threw her arms over her face, but there was nowhere for her to go. She tried to move backward, kicking against the water as the shark came closer.

She shot upright in bed, gasping for air, her hands gripping the sheets as she looked around the room, trying to figure out where she was. Her chest rose and fell quickly as she pushed the sheets away from her legs.

Her shirt was damp with sweat.

She wiped her forehead and sat there for a moment, listening.

Nothing.

Her room looked exactly as it always did. Her books were still stacked on the desk, her clothes were still sitting on the chair, and the curtains moved slightly in the breeze coming through the open window.

Talia looked toward it.

She could smell the ocean.

The house was close enough to the water that the smell of salt was normal, but tonight it seemed stronger. She got out of bed and walked over to the window. Outside, everything looked normal. The beach was dark, and the tide was slowly moving in.

Talia rested her hands against the windowsill.

She’d had the dream before. There had always been water, the sharks and the woman, but she’d never been able to see much more than that.

This time, she had seen the pearl. She had seen the ship, and she’d seen the crest. Talia looked down at her hands, rubbing them together as if she could still feel the chill of the water. The woman had looked entirely real—that was the part she couldn’t stop thinking about.

By the time Talia came downstairs, her hair was still damp from her shower and her eyes felt heavy from lack of sleep. Skyee was sitting at the kitchen table with Mum, both chatting while Mum finished up breakfast. Talia walked over to the cupboard to grab a mug.

“Did you knowWill.i.amis actually spelled William?” Skyee asked.

Mum glanced up from the stove. “Uh... yeah?”

Talia looked for a distraction as she poured hot water into her mug.

SKyee continued to talk about Will.I.Am “So if he dies, does he becomeWill.I.Was?”

Mum tried to hold back a laugh and ended up snorting into her tea, while Skyee stared innocently at Talia.

Talia shook her head. “You’re impossible.”

“I thought it was funny.”

“It was terrible.” Talia said locking eyes with Skyee.

“That’s what makes it funny,” Skyee smiled, though it quickly faded when she noticed how exhausted Talia looked. “You didn’t sleep, did you?”

Talia shook her head, wrapping both hands around her mug as she sat down. “I had the dream again.”

Skyee knew immediately. “The ocean?”

Mum looked over from the sink, frowning. “Again?”

“It was different this time,” Talia said, staring down into her tea. “There was a pearl, and this woman. She was underwater with me, and there was a shipwreck right behind her.”

“A shipwreck?” Skyee turned toward her.

“I saw the crest on it.” Remembering just in time, Talia reached into her bag, pulled out her notebook, and flipped it open on the table before she could forget the details.

Skyee leaned in. “A moon wave?”

“That’s what I saw.”

Mum glanced over at the drawing.

“Have you seen that somewhere before?” Skyee asked

“I don’t think so. At least, I don’t remember it.” Mum picked up the notebook to look closer. “What happened to the woman?”

“She started sinking. Then the pearl came toward me.” Talia hesitated, lowering her voice. “It said my name. The pearl told me to help.”

Nobody spoke for a moment. Mum looked concerned, but Skyee looked more intrigued than worried. “Okay, we need to look for that crest,” Skyee said, already reaching for her bag. “We can check the library. Old newspapers, maritime records, ship registries around here.”

Mum laughed, leaning against the counter. “You’re skipping beach day for old newspapers?”

“It’s research.”

“You’re teenagers. You’re supposed to be at the beach.”

Skyee slung her bag over her shoulder. “We’ll go later. We’ll be back before dinner.”

As they headed out, Mum pointed a warning finger. “Don’t stay out all afternoon. And Talia? Try not to have another nightmare tonight.”

Talia offered a small smile. “I’ll do my best.”

The sun was already high by the time they reached the library. The walk there had taken longer than expected because Skyee had stopped twice to check something on her phone, only to decide she needed to look it up properly once they got inside.

The library was cooler than outside, and the change in temperature was enough to make Talia pull the sleeves of her hoodie over her hands. There were only a handful of people inside. Two students were working at the computers near the entrance, an older man sat in one of the armchairs with a newspaper spread across his lap, and the librarian was busy sorting returned books behind the desk.

Skyee barely glanced around before heading toward the shelves.

“Maritime records,” she said, looking along the signs above each section.

Talia followed her. “You actually know where you’re going?”

Skyee stopped and looked back at her.

“No.”

Talia laughed. “You were walking like you did.”

“I was trying to look confident.”

“Well, it worked.”

They eventually found what they were looking for in the local history section. There were books about the coastline, records of fishing boats, old maps of Pearlshade and several thick volumes containing newspaper clippings and ship registries.

Skyee pulled two books from the shelf, then another.

“Take these.”

Talia looked at the growing pile in her arms. “Why am I carrying all of them?”

“Because I already have a bag.”

“You brought a tiny bag.”

“I didn’t know we’d be investigating a hundred-year-old ship.”

Talia gave her a look but followed her to one of the tables.

They spread everything out between them and started searching.

Skyee went through the ship registries, checking names and dates while Talia worked through the maps and old newspaper clippings. Every few minutes, one of them would find something that sounded promising, only for it to turn out to be completely unrelated.

“1898,” Talia muttered, scanning down a dense column of print. “Just a fishing vessel. Nothing about the crest”

Skyee kept turning pages, her eyes burning from the fine print. “Found one.”

Talia looked up as Skyee tapped a finger against a grainy illustration. “It has a moon.”

Talia leaned across the table to squint at it, then let out a dry breath. “Skyee, that’s a lighthouse.”

“Oh.” Skyee slumped back in her chair, flipping the page to start over.

A few minutes later, Skyee found another vessel with a similar symbol, only to trace it back to a shipping company that had simply used a crescent moon as part of its corporate logo.

The longer they searched through the crumbling archives, the more Talia began to wonder if she’d imagined the whole thing or if the dream was just a dream after all.

After nearly an hour of squinting at endless columns of text, she dropped her pencil onto the table and leaned back in her chair with a groan. “We’re never going to find it.”

Skyee closed the heavy registry in front of her with a thud and reached for the next stack. “Then we keep looking.”

Talia let out a long breath, sliding her pencil back between her fingers. “Fine.”

A few tables away, Kai sat with her earbuds dangling around her neck, pretending to read a thick paperback while openly eavesdropping. When Talia mentioned the crest for the third time, Kai finally closed her book and drifted over.

“I’ve seen that before,” she said, nodding toward the open notebook.

Skyee sat up straight, her eyes narrowing with sudden intensity. “Where?”

Kai pulled out an empty chair, dropping into it with a casual shrug. “It’s from a ship calledThe Selene.”

“The Selene?” Talia echoed, looking from Kai’s face down to her own pencil sketch.

“My diving instructor mentioned it last year when we were poking around local wreck sites,” Kai explained. “It went down off the west coast.”

Skyee leaned across the table, closing the distance. “How far out?”

“About fifteen miles, give or take.”

“You’ve actually seen this crest?” Talia asked, still finding it hard to believe.

“In a photograph. Down in the back room.”

Skyee was already pushing her chair back, grabbing her bag by the strap. “Can you show us?”

Kai let out a short, surprised laugh, raising her hands. “You two don’t waste any time, do you?”

“No,” Skyee said simply, already heading for the aisle.

The archive room was tucked away at the back of the library, a cramped room stacked with cardboard boxes holding decades of local history.

Kai walked straight to one of the middle units, her fingers trailing along the handles. “I found the article here last summer.” She pulled a busted drawer open, the sliding drawer made a low scraping sound, and began sorting through the tabs.

“What were you even doing in here?” Talia asked, watching her flip past old municipal records.

“Researching local wrecks for a diving project.” Kai paused, sliding a thick manila folder from the row. “Here.”

She flipped it open, gently sliding a preserved plastic sleeve across the wooden table.

Skyee leaned over immediately, and Talia stepped in close beside her, holding her breath.

The aged newsprint headline:

MERCHANT VESSEL THE SELENE LOST AT SEA

NO SURVIVORS FOUND

Right beneath the bold lettering was a grainy, smudged illustration of the ship. Talia’s gaze locked onto the ship.

There it was.

The moon crest with the waves.

Her stomach tightened into a knot. “That’s it.”

Kai looked closely at the newsprint. “The Selene disappeared in 1903. Led by Captain Morgan Pelter across Pearlshade, when a storm emerged, the ship was never found again.”

Skyee began reading over the column. “No distress signal...” She traced her finger down the page. “No survivors...”

Talia leaned closer, her brow furrowing. “What happened to The Selene?”

“That’s the strange part,” Kai said. “Nobody knows what really happened.”

Talia looked at her, waiting.

“The ship disappeared. They searched for it, but they never found the actual wreck.” Kai pointed to a lower paragraph. “And there’s more.”

She read the text aloud. “The Selene was believed to be carrying a rare artifact, described as a pearl of unknown origin.”

Talia’s eyes stayed fixed on the page. “A pearl.”

Kai nodded. “Apparently, some people believed it came from a coastal temple.”

Skyee continued reading from where Kai left off. “Others believed the pearl was cursed and responsible for the ship’s disappearance.”

Talia swallowed hard. “The pearl in my dream...”

Neither Skyee nor Kai said anything, waiting for her to finish.

Talia looked up at them both. “It was glowing.”

Kai folded her arms across her chest. “There are stories about it.”

“What stories?” Talia asked.

Kai hesitated for a moment. “Local legends.”

“About the pearl? What did they say?”

Kai looked back down at the newspaper clipping. “That it calls to people.”

Skyee frowned, tilting her head. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Kai shrugged, looking just as unsettled as they were.

Talia couldn’t stop wondering about the dream, the pieces started to fit together for her to ignore. Everything from the recurring nightmare was tangled up in a ghost ship that had vanished over a century ago.

Talia looked across at Skyee. “We should find it.”

Skyee frowned, her eyebrows drawing together. “Find what now?”

“The Selene.”

Kai stared at her as if she had lost her mind. “The ship?”

“They never found it, Talia,” Kai said, shaking her head. “It’s been missing for more than a hundred years. How are we even supposed to look for something like that?”

Talia didn’t have a ready answer. She just looked back down at the grainy photograph in the file, tracing the edge of the paper. “We can start looking.”

“This girl has lost her fricking mind?” Kai said looking back and forth between the two sisters

Skyee gave Talia a long, searching look. “You’re actually serious about this.”

Talia nodded.

“You realize we’re talking about a vessel that disappeared off the coast before our grandparents were even born?” Kai crossed her arms defensively. “And you still want to search the open water for it?”

Talia looked past them toward the narrow door at the far end of the archive room. “Yes.”

For a long moment, the room was completely silent.

Then Skyee let out a slow, heavy breath “I want to know why you’re suddenly dreaming about a ship that vanished in 1903 just as clearly as if you were standing on its deck,” she admitted, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “So yeah. I’m in.”

Kai looked between them, her expression a mix of disbelief and resignation. “You’re actually agreeing to this?”

“I am,” Skyee said simply.

Kai let out a sharp sigh and grabbed her own bag from the floor. “Fine. But if we end up as shark bait out there, I’m blaming both of you from the bottom of the sea.”

Despite the grim reality of what they were proposing, a small, genuine laugh escaped Talia.

As they walked out of the archive room and back into the main library, the afternoon light was shifting outside, where the tide was steadily rolling back in toward the coast.