Dark Waters

Chapter 8

(Avalon's POV)

"No!" I scream, "I won't go. You can't make me." I say defiantly to my grandmother.

"Yes you will, and yes I can." She says slowly, trying to decide my fate. Little does she know, I have recently become more powerful. But my parents told me to keep my new powers a secret, as to not attract attention to myself. 

I agreed, but this? This was definitely not part of the deal.

According to the Treaty of Transference, parents are not permitted to make decisions on the behalf of their children when it comes to location or placement of living situation. Therefore, when a child of merfolk blood is at the age of 16, they must spend time in the other habitat. 

A family member that lives in the other placement is supposed to take you there for one week, and after that you decide where you want to stay. You can stay where you originated, or transfer to the other habitat. Parents are not allowed to make any influence on your decision.

The Treaty of Transference is the peace treaty signed at the end of the small war that took place when some of the mermaids wished to live on land, and the royal family and their followers were not going to allow it. 

Half of the mermaid population was lost in this bloody battle, and eventually, the now 'Natives' resigned, but they added a catch. 

And that catch was the that in order to give everyone an equal chance, and choice, every child that has reached the age of 16, has to undergo one week in the other living situation. And since my birthday recently passed, I have to complete that week now. That is why my grandmother is here.

-24 hours earlier-

The door flew open. Guess Kaitlyn didn't lock it correctly.

As the steam clears, I can see faces appearing. I need to make the steam disappear, but with all these people who don't know watching? 

No. Too dangerous. And just in case you were confused, by 'all these people', I mean Ben, Kaitlyn's mother, Kaitlyn's father and her little sister Natalie.

I turn my back so nobody can see. I created more steam than I would've liked, as my powers have just increased, and I'm not used to handling them yet. Every time you get a new power, it means that your skill level has heightened, and your other powers that you already obtain increase.

I waft my hand slowly side to side, clearing the steam. I am not going quickly, because that would be bad; it would probably just make the steam vanish, and that would raise suspicions. I can see the fog around me start to fade off slowly, naturally. This gesture looks like a slow wave of the hand.

When it's almost completely cleared I stop, so the room is still coated in a small layer of thick steam. As I turn back around, I see that they have all sat down or knelt, as the steam had made them light headed.

I figure that could be an easy way out of this, them passing out. I make a fist, not too quickly, so I don't pass out. I stop when they fall unconscious. I know that this won't harm them; I've had to do it before, and play it off as if I too had passed out.

Lying down, I wait for the first to wake. It takes about 10 minutes until someone gasps, relishing the now mostly cleared air. I close my eyes, and take small breaths. They need to believe that I, too passed out.

I can hear shuffling, as whomever awoke moves across the carpeted floor. 

"What the..." I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that they either see the leftover steam, or they have noticed that everyone is unconscious.