The Mermaid Who Cried Wolf

Chapter Three: Kidnapping the Mermaid

Pearl lived in a cave in the outskirts of the city.

Inside you could hardly sense that anything was wrong, in fact it would seem at first...perfect.

Along the first passageway it was lined with coral, rocks and pictures in frames, beautiful mermaid artefacts and rare paintings.

You would enter a room, all underwater of course, filled with pots and pans shaped from shells, rocks, and pressed coral plants. Jars filled with preserved jellyfish slime,(very tasty with heated prawn bread) pickled lobsters, sea cucumber, sweetened fish cookies and other mermaid delicacies.

The next room was the dining room, a huge shell with four crystal legs is in the middle, all around are smaller shells with serve as chairs, shells the size of dinner plates are plates and silverware adorn the table.

The entire house had a sort of warmth to it, something that spoke home wherever you were, whoever you were. The kind of feeling that takes years to develop all here in this little cave.

 All around the dining room there were three more doors. One of them lead to Pearls room. Showing her obsession with pearls. They lined her walls, her bed coloured the same as pearl and her many necklaces laced with them.

Another door lead to the healer’s room. It was cloudy inside, mist floating through the water, jars of coral plants, healing methods and the book of healing passed down through generations in Pearls family.

But Pearl entered the third door. Inside lay her mother. 

Pearls mother had contracted a very severe flu, known as the 'red water sea flu'. This flu gets its name because the victim would cough up, when the flu was at its peak, a huge amount of blood, turning the water red. This flu was dangerous and there was no cure.

Many of the patients die of blood loss. It was not contagious, mermaids don't get contagious diseases. The only way the disease can pass on is when they die and the parasite that causes it multiplies and latches onto another.

The only thing anyone can do is pray.

''Mother?" Pearl asked, looking into the room. ''I got you some medicine. Do you want any?''

Pearls mother coughed, a small red cloud drifted into the water and then dissipated.

A small tear drifted down Pearls cheek and into the water when her mother shook her head and coughed again.

Pearl started to cry. She had moved away from the city to prevent it from getting worse, loud noises and the buzzing of mermaid cities only worsens the disease, causing the patient to grow nervous and that's where the flu grows.

Pearl quickly slipped on a dress, gathered her things and swam up to the surface. 

She grabbed a satchel full of food on the way out and sat down on a rock on the beach, crying.

She loved her mother, but now she was ill and could die. Would die. No one survives the disease. The only thing Pearl could do was make sure she lives longer. 

The parasite chokes your voice box and Pearls mother couldn't speak. 

But she knew that her mother wanted to tell her something, only, Pearl did not know what.

''I'm sorry mother.'' She said. "I'm so, so sorry,''

She watched the waves on the shoreline, how they moved. The constant rushing that was a part of her. A part of all Merfolk.

The circle of the sea, there since the dawn of time. Pearl was just a speck in everything. Her mother too, she couldn’t think that anyone would care about her, if it would make any difference in the big blue.

It wouldn’t. She was just another voice in a screaming abyss.

Just another grain of sand in a beach.

Then she cried. She cried often, on this spot, when the day was almost over. It was a ritual for Pearl, a way to cleanse herself of her worries, even if just for a few moments.

The tears drifted easily down her already wet face, the sound of her own cries distracted her from the splashing of a person behind her…

"Hello little fishie.'' A voice said.

"What?" Pearl asked. She turned and saw a boy, around sixteen with blonde hair wading in the water of the beach. There was a cold glint in his eyes that scared her immediately, but Pearl did not move.

''Surprise!" He said and chucked a brown sack over her head, then tied her legs together and stuck them in the bag. She screamed and kicked, trying not to believe what was happening.

She was kidnapped.