The Ocean's Call: Part One | ✔

Part Twelve

"I'm serious. What if the blonde mermaid was just helping you become...you, a mermaid."

I laugh, shaking my head. I push off the boat, swimming away. "You've lost the plot."

"I think it sounds like a reasonable theory, Isla."

I stop swimming and turn to find her hot on my tail. Tail. Ugh, wrong choice of words. "Your theory has a huge hole in it. I'm not a mermaid, Emily."

"How do you really know though?"

I shake my head. "Last time I checked I have legs and not a tail. I can't breathe underwater."

"Maybe you can change into one, like a shapeshifter. Or maybe its like H2O, the TV show. They changed into mermaids when they...touched water...ugh, that's a bad example but my theory still stands."

I roll my eyes. "Emily, I'm not a mermaid. I think I would know if I was a mermaid."

She shrugs. "Do you have any idea how cool it would be if you were? I could very well be best friends with a mermaid!"

I ignore her, diving under the water. I let out an air bubble, sinking to the ocean floor to cross my legs and sit down. I grab one of the rocks nearby and put it in my lap. The unmistakable horrible feeling I felt when I entered the water hasn't gone away, it's sitting in my stomach as a constant reminder.

I can hear water swishing nearby something swimming through the water fast. I look up to the surface but it's not Emily making the noise, she's just floating there. I look around, wondering if maybe it's just a fish. The swishing stops suddenly.

I look out into the vast openness of the ocean, the shadow of the boat moving through the water blocking some of the sunlight beaming down on the water. I can't see anything beyond that. I remind myself I shouldn't be able to see at all right now but here I am, my eyes wide open under the salt water with no repercussions.

A tiny ringing noise comes from behind me. I turn to look over my shoulder and find Emily diving under the water. She dives to the ocean floor, her hands searching along the ground looking for something. The fast swishing from before starts again. I turn and find something big moving towards me fast from the shadow of the boat.

The sunlight beaming into the ocean highlights the blonde hair of the thing swimming towards me. My eyes widen as I realise it's the blonde mermaid that tried to drown me. The very same mermaid I've dreamed about. I gasp, letting the last of my air out. I pull the heavy rock out of my lap and turn towards Emily.

She's pushing off the ground to return to the surface. I spy a small silver cylinder piece in her hand, one that looks incredibly like the two pieces I found and joined together. How are there pieces of that so far away from the family beach?

A quick look over my shoulder tells me the blonde mermaid is closing the distance between us. I resurface, gasping for air and look around for Emily. She's checking out the silver piece she's found. "Look what I found."

"She's in the water...the blonde mermaid." I tell her, pulling her by her arm as I swim pass her. We need to get back to the boat.

Emily stiffens under my grasp. "Fucking what?"

She slips out of my grasp. I turn, panicked the blonde mermaid has grabbed her. Emily is looking in the water for the mermaid. I swim back towards her, tugging her by her arm. "Emily!"

"Oh, my fucking god. It's real. She's real. The...oh my fucking god Isla!" Emily gasp, her big wide eyes telling me she can see the mermaid. She can see the blonde mermaid that had been haunting my dreams, the very same mermaid that tried to pull me under the water is most definitely real.

I'm glad I'm not dumbstruck like Emily, my gut is telling me to get out of the water immediately. Emily can see her. It's not just a figment of my imagination. I look around to realise we're closer to the beach then the boat right now. We need to get onto land, mermaids don't have legs so the blonde mermaid racing towards us won't be able to reach us there.

Finally, Emily snaps into action swimming in the opposite direction of the blonde mermaid still racing towards us. I swim alongside her until I can reach the ocean floor with my feet. I turn to pull Emily over, but she's gone.

I spin around in the water, but I can't see her. Emily has vanished into thin air. I drop under the water, looking under there. Something moving in the corner of my eye catches my attention. The blonde mermaid is pulling Emily away from the shore. Shit.

I push off the ground and try to swim after them. I am nowhere near as fast as the mermaid. Despite trying to gain on her she almost doubles our distance in a matter of moments. They are disappearing under the shadow of the boat before I know what's happening. I swim as fast as I can, pushing myself even when my arms beg to let up. I ignore the ache's growing.

I almost reach the boat when a soul piercing ring echoes around me. I slam my hands over my ears in an attempt to dull the high piercing ring. I scream, letting out all the air from my lungs but the pain is nothing like the ringing pounding into my head. I feel like my skin is crawling, my every nerve ending is on fire.

I push my hands into my head as hard as I can, but it does absolutely nothing to block the sound. I gasp, taking in a big gulp of water. The ringing finally begins to dissipate, drowning out until I can't hear it anymore. I try to expel the water but end up trading it for more water. I wiggle my legs to find the ground so I can push off it.

I resurface, the water pouring out of my mouth. I gasp, coughing, trying to catch my breath. I need to catch my breath and get back under the water to find Emily. I need to find Emily.

"Give me your hand."

I turn around to find Emily holding her hand out for me, she's kneeling on the back end of the boat. I grab her hand and let her pull me onto the boat. I roll over onto my back, still trying to catch my breath.

"Holy shit." Emily grabs something nearby, lifting it up.

I squint through the bright sunlight to find she's still holding the silver piece she found in the water. I pull myself up into a sitting position, taking in deep breathes. "What happened? She had you."

Emily shakes the silver piece in my face. "I hit this on the boat by accident and she let me go. She started shrieking and scrabbling away from me. This must omit a frequency that she can hear but it hurt her...kind of like those dog whistles you know."

I blink, staring at her. I heard the frequency she's talking about. "Emily..."

"I reckon we can join this with the other piece to make it bigger, I wonder if it might actually hurt her if it is completed." She pushes off the deck, standing to her full height.

What does this mean? That noise I heard in the water made me feel like my head was going to explode. I would do anything in the whole world if it meant I never have to hear that sound again. My mind flashes back to finding the second piece yesterday, when I clinked them together. The sound it omitted was nothing like what I experienced under the water.

Perhaps the sound is amplified under water. What the hell am I talking about?

"Emily, I heard it." I pull myself to my feet.

Emily turns to face me frowning. "What do you mean you heard it?"

I point to the silver piece in her hand. "It felt like my head was going to explode."

She stares at me for a beat before turning her gaze to the silver piece in her hand. "You heard this?"

"That's what I'm telling you."

"How is that possible?" she gasps, her eyes going wide. "OH MY GOD!"

**