(OLD VER.) When Mermen Run From Their Demons

i snuck out lol #baddie

Tape #4 - i snuck out lol #baddie

     this man with his titles literally kill me 😭

Caleb

I tilted my head to the side. I always knew Kylie and daddy dearest had a rough relationship, but damn. This was intense. You're probably confused as to what his 'secret' was.

     Stay confused.

     You'll find out later, don't worry. I want you to speculate, just as I had to for fucking months before I found out. Believe me, it wasn't pretty. I want you to feel suspense. Anyway, he has a much bigger secret than the one even Kylie knew about.

     Kylie was right— though. About everything she was saying about mommy. I'll admit I still don't like the surface, but maybe it isn't that bad. I'm sure if I could find a way to control having a meltdown, then maybe I could have a bit of fun.

     Like Kylie said, I wanted to find the 'real' me. The me with feelings, the me with actual personality. The animated expressions that my sisters made were a bit too much, though.

     But, I want to experience this alone. I figured, that while the king is occupied, maybe I could try sneaking out for the first time. Before all this, I really had no real desire to.

     I quietly weaved through the pillars and statues, allowing them to mark and lead the way back to my chambers. I kept looking back, paranoid, as the voices have stopped. Great, he's not occupied now.

     But I didn't really care. My mind was already made up. I made it back to my room and grabbed the trident that had been previously resting on a pedestal. I looked down at it in my hand, and tranced my fingers along the marks and runes engraved in it. I was in a temporary trance for a moment, but snapped back to reality when a small fish came into view.

     I gave a slight grin at it— that's the second time so far that I've smiled. This is weird. Anyway. I looked at the window, almost hesitating before leaving through it. Not before closing the clamshell-bed to make it appear I was inside and sleeping.

     Making the trip to the surface felt slower this time. And I was actively fighting back second thoughts. I was actually doing this. There was some sort of thrill in doing something I knew I wasn't supposed to do. But there was also the nagging paranoia of being caught, of course.

     Finally, my head broke the surface again, this time I was more prepared. Except, some force was brushing against my head, it was somehow moving my dripping hair, and making me cold.

     It was the wind. I'm not going to pretend not to know what it is after living on land for the past year now. But at the time I didn't know what it was, and it was awful.

     I swam to the land, rising up and burrowing below the water like I'd seen dolphins do in the past. The chunk of sandy land was now nearly empty, only a few land dwellers on it now. I looked up at the sky, it was much darker now— almost black. It was sprinkled with little stars and two moons.

     Enchantia was different than the other inhabited realms in a way that instead of one moon, it was two. I also learned this through school. As soon as I reached the dry sand, I waved the trident over me and transformed. A few people stopped to look, but I pretended not to notice.

     The emotions came rushing back again, whatever that had dampened them before was gone now. I felt whole. The wind that was blowing on me felt nicer, and it was drying my hair faster.

     Then I realized something.

     What the Hell were all these people wearing? It wasn't armor, or shells or anything. It was some thin sheet that fell loosely and wrinkly on their bodies. I had heard of clothes and stuff because of the things sailors or pirates would wear and I'd find in shipwrecks, but whatever these people were wearing were slightly different.