Beneath The Lies (bxb)

Wrong Time, Wrong Place

(Content warning)

-Oliver-

We should have seen him coming. Well, technically we did, but Hice was pretty damn fast underwater. I soon figured out that orca mers weren't faster, either. Hice's skeleton was probably made much lighter and possibly even out of cartilage.

God, what I would do to be able to study a few samples from him.

Too bad I had to live in order to get to that part. At the moment, I was at a loss when it came to that, though. Ocar was darting around, trying to avoid any serious hits from Hice's claws or teeth, but that just left me floating in the current, trying to get above water every few seconds in order to get a mouthful of air. I knew Ocar had to let me go in order to stand a chance against Hice, but swimming with one leg wasn't my strong point and I soon found myself being dragged farther and farther down each time I went under. The last time I managed to get to the surface, I figured I was done for. My energy was drained, and even as I pulled in one last breath, I could tell that it wasn't doing much for my oxygen-deprived body.

Moments after I found myself back under, I was suddenly yanked upward and onto a hard surface. My body was numb and darkness began to encroach on my vision when my mind realized I could finally breathe and the adrenaline began to drain. Something then pressed against my cheek that felt like rubber. A shoe?

"Are you sure we need to keep him? They wanted him dead last time," a ruff voice said as what I had to assume was a boat motor began to rev up. I felt the slight pull of the action against my body, but there was no way I was moving anywhere they didn't want me to go.

"They changed their minds. He's one of the best oceanic surgeons there are, no doubt he'd be an asset if we could just get him to see things our way."

The gruff-voiced man laughed as the boat turned, making me think that he was the one steering.

"Yeah, like that would happen. Bet he was screwin' the smaller mer before we shot it, just like his friends are with theirs. Idiots. They're the ones contributing to their extinction by keeping those two males in a human house."

A grunt of agreement sounded over the boat engine right before it was cut off and the vessel began drifting.

"Hice!" the gruff man's voice shouted as the other one walked over to me and knelt down. "Sorry 'bout this, but I hope you'll see our side sooner rather than later. Till then..."

Cold metal slipped around one of my wrists and clicked shut tightly, then the man grabbed my other hand and brought it around my back, cuffing them both together. I doubted I'd ever come around to their disgusting way of doing things, but I didn't get much time to think about it because the darkness that had been nudging at the edge of my mind took over, sweeping me into a deep sleep.

"He's coming around."

I felt a nudge against the side of my head and winced. A headache was going strong, likely having started up from nearly drowning.

Makes about as much sense as everything else. Wait. It makes a lot more sense than everything else.

Not feeling all that friendly, I tried to lift my hand to smack the woman's foot away, assuming the voice that had spoken was the one connected to the shoe, but of course, my hand couldn't move.

Stupid handcuffs.

I probably should have just let her know that I wasn't very happy with her foot on my head, but instead I just growled out, "Fuck off." It got the point across, though, because the pressure from the shoe vanished, even as someone else laughed as I heard people begin walking over. It was a male's voice and sounded slightly familiar, but hell if I cared who it actually was.