Ocean & Moon (N.S)

24 » memories

apologising in advance for some weird and confusing ass shit happening in this chapter

» NIALL »

They reach the end of the long corridor, coming to a stop right outside a cell, a rather big one. Niall looks inside the cell, rows of wooden planks nailed to the rocks, lined with rows of glass bottles which are filled with colourful liquid ranging from a neon blue, to hot pink, yellow, lime green and even black.

Niall's eyes widen when he realises whose cell this is. The sea enchantress'.

Bobby nods at the guards guarding her cell, signalling for them to leave them be. They do as instructed.

"My, my, Mr Horan, fancy seeing you down here." Niall hears a female voice, surprisingly calm and soothing and not... 'evil-like'.

From the shadows, out comes a slim mermaid, about middle aged, long, royal blue hair which reaches the middle of her back, swaying gracefully in the water. Her skin is porcelain-like, her tail a light baby blue which matches perfectly with her icy blue eyes.

"Althea." Bobby nods stiffly in greeting.

"Well, to what do I owe this pleasure?" She asks, swimming and making her way closer to the gates, hands holding the bars as she looks at Bobby. Her icy eyes then land on Niall's ocean blue ones. Unconsciously, Niall moves back and away from her.

She raises a perfectly shaped brow up at the younger merman, and Niall flushes slightly under her intense and rather intimidating scrutiny.

"Is this him?" She asks, glancing over to Bobby, before her eyes land back on Niall's just a second later.

"Yeah..." Bobby answers softly, his hardened and guarded features softening slightly.

"A work of art, ain't he?" She smiles smugly. "How long has it been? 15? 20 years?" She asks, her eyes still not leaving Niall's, whose, unlike hers, daren't meet hers.

Bobby simply nods stiffly. "20."

"Well, what do you need then? I'm a busy woman, locked up in here, you know?" She states, and Niall can't tell if she's joking or not.

"Show him everything." His father simply says, nodding his head towards his son. He then surprises Niall by unlocking the gates, and it lifts.

The sea enchantress, or Althea, gestures for Niall to come closer. He doesn't.

She chuckles softly. "I won't bite." She says. Niall gulps, and eventually does, moving closer till he's inside his cell, with his dad just behind.

Althea goes over to the shelves, her eyes roaming the endless supply of potion bottles. She finally picks one, a turquoise coloured one, popping the cork off before taking a sniff. How the gallows does the liquid stay in the bottle instead of flowing out, since... you know, they're underwater?

She turns to face Niall once more, bringing the bottle up to his face, who immediately backs away.

"Woah.. w-what's that?" He asks warily.

"Something to help you see everything." She says, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Dad?" Niall turns to his father with worried eyes.

"Don't worry, son. It's perfectly safe. I just wanna let you see a memory of mine. About your mum and I." His father reassures.

Niall nods hesitantly, and the sea enchantress smiles lightly, before bringing the bottle closer to his nose.