Sea Stolen

Chapter 12: A Psychopath Comes to Town

Fang returned to flat he currently had to call home with a swing and a smile in his step. Find the mermaid – shouldn't be hard in this small area – deliver her to Charles and he would be out of exile and back in his maker's graces. Well, when he'd reported his findings back home that hadn't exactly been the situation laid out. Actually all he been told was to keep looking, then silence . . . But everything was looking brighter today, even the cheap peeling wall-paper of the building complex.

It wasn't the most up-market place but the people were nice. Mostly grad students or PhD candidates who lived inside books - either in their flats or at the nearby library. The interesting dye jobs, dreadlocks with bells on the ends, tattoos and protest stickers reminded him of Londoners. Only these people were as likely to be seen in pajamas as they were suits. How students had changed . . .

He reached his floor and passed by his neighbor's – a young couple of history students with the most beautifully painted door, then Amie the biologist-ballerina's door. He only knew her by name because she had knocked on his door and introduced herself the day he moved in. She'd brought him a cake and several flyers for her ballet pupils' dance show.

He went to turn the key in his door and found it was already open. All happiness evaporated.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside. Closing the door quietly behind him he checked the kitchen. Empty. He moved forward and stepped into the living room.

With a bloody smile Liam lounged back on an arm chair, one leg on the coffee table and the other resting beside his neighbor and the big puddle of blood spilling out around her neck.

In a blur he was by the little biologist-ballerina's side, hands pressed around her neck, desperately trying to stop the blood pouring out onto the carpet.

He tried to get her to move, a response, an intake of breath.

"So nice to see you, brother," said Liam, wiping up the excess blood on his lips.

He tried calling her name. She didn't move, didn't breath, didn't have a signal heartbeat. He kept calling, again and again.

"Are you talking to corpses now?" said Liam, "If I'd known Cornwall would make you mad I might have come from the start just to watch."

Byron flew at Liam, aiming for his eyes but happy to try and gouge anything he could grab.

Liam threw him across the room with ease before he could lay a finger on him.

"Why?!" Shouted Fang, eyes fixed back on his neighbor, voice catching in his throat, "Why . . . you didn't have to . . ."

"I thought I would give you a thank you gift for finding a real, live mermaid. A feet so extraordinary Charles sent me down here to help you catch her," said Liam, "Amazing really, just extraordinary." He finally smiled with all his teeth showing, eyes looking ready to tear him apart. "Especially since it wasn't Charles' mermaid you found, it was another one."

That was one of the few things that could have jerked him away from starring, eyes tearing at his neighbor, "What? What do you mean-"

"I mean there was one very specific mermaid that our father was looking for. And. You. Found. Another. One. Cheer up brother, the hunt is on tenfold. No one's seen a mermaid in a hundred years, and there's one right outside your doorstep."

"That's impos-"

"Exactly. Which means there must be a witch involved. And that elevates this whole scenario to dangerous levels of importance. So my expertise was needed," the way he said the last word could have broken glass.

"You mean Charles wanted someone so utterly insane they'd be unpredictable to a witch!" Fang shouted.

Liam stood up, straightening out a crease in his shirt sleeve. "I'll see myself out. We'll talk tomorrow, and then we will find this mermaid. By any means necessary".

He walked out the flat, leaving Fang alone with the most terrible of knew knowledge and the corpse of his recently deceased neighbor.