Page 70 of Midnightsong
“Yeah, I know.” Sympathy glazed her jiejie’s eyes. “Hear me out a minute?”
Angie’s shoulders jerked into a nonchalant shrug. “Go ahead.”
Mia looked down to tend to Jack when he waddled onscreen, pulling on her pants leg and pointing at something on the table. Mia reached for a crumbly almond cookie, breaking it in half and handing it to him. “No more after this, okay?” Jack nodded his small head and left, holding the half cookie in his hand. The sight of her nephew brought a heartwarming smile to Angie’s face. “All right. So, you don’t have to forgive him before you’re ready. But do you think you could try to understand where he’s coming from? Have an open and honest conversation with him?”
“I don’t know if I’m ready.” Angie stared at her hands and let go of her sweatpants’ fabric she hadn’t realized she was gripping. “Guess I’ll consider it.”
“And you know I’m here for you no matter what, right? I can only imagine how frustrated you are with him. I wish I could give you a hug.” Mia put her hand to her heart and Angie did the same.
“I appreciate you. Thanks for checking in. I’ll talk to you later?”
“Of course. Anytime.” Mia waved goodbye and they ended their call.
A notification popped up on the bottom of her laptop screen with an incoming email and she clicked it open.
It was a ‘tip’ about Serapha’s death and her potential perpetrators. They had been coming in steadily since she asked, over two weeks ago, but most of them led nowhere. There was a handful of hate mail about why she was still on the mer’s side after the destruction they wrought in Creston two years ago, threatening that they hoped she met the same fate as the people the mer killed back then. Angie’s blood boiled at those, and she sent them straight to the trash and marked the addresses as junk mail.
She had been saving them in a separate document and sending them off to Reesa, Leo, and Dr. Williams, and she prepared to copy and paste the one she just got.
She paused, blood rushing to her temples, and she wanted nothing more than to reach through the screen and throttle the person who sent it.
It was a racially charged message mocking her for being a ‘fish-lover’ and asking why she protected the mer when she could eat them instead, because isn’t that what Asian people did? Signed off with only a crying-laughing emoji. There was no name and the email address was a nonsensical jumble of letters and numbers that clearly came from a third-party site.
She cursed the person out in her mind.
Angie blocked the sender and deleted it, her hands shaking. The message brought her back to the jeers Nick fired at her in the later parts of the war, and she stood, grabbed the closest couch pillow and screamed into it.
When she removed the pillow, Lulu had emerged from wherever she was hiding, staring at her guardian from across the room. Her tail was lifted high and twitching, her lips partially open and showing off a single fang.
“Sorry girl.” Angie put the couch pillow back, and Lulu approached her, nuzzling her ankle.
Two weeks, fifty responses, and she had nothing.
She couldn’t exactly go back to find a mer in the Northern Queendom and ask them about Serapha’s death now.
Another ding in her email inbox, and Angie clenched her fists. If this was another mocking email or death threat, she was going to throw her laptop across the room in sheer frustration.
With a deep breath, she clicked it open.
Hey Angie,
What if someone whose loved one was killed by the mer was out for revenge? It makes the most sense to me.
There was something she could go on. She replied to the sender, the only time she answered, and thanked them, before saving their mail into her document and sending it to her friends and Dr. Williams.
The day and evening came and went, and Angie found herself in her lecture hall after Dr. Williams’ class, where Reesa and Leo also stayed after.
Dr. Williams was reading over the document with leads that Angie sent them.
Reesa was sitting and doing ankle circles for the joint she’d broken during soccer practice months ago, and Leo was going over class notes.
It reminded her that midterms were a week away and Angie had done exactly zero studying. She hated to cram, but she was going to have to pull a few all-nighters to pass her exams.
“Well. Angie, I’m guessing you’re taking the lead on the last point,” Dr. Williams said, putting the paper down and adjusting his glasses. “You’re the only one out of the four of us who was there when the last war happened.”
“I know some of the people who lost their lives. But I’ll get a full list from my dad.” Angie pulled out her phone and texted Bàba, waiting until the message was marked ‘delivered’.
“I mean, it might not even be a person who lost their loved one,” Reesa piped up. “It might be someone who was against the war in the first place. I don’t know. Just throwing things out there. Or could be someone who hates merfolk.”
