Mermaids

PART TWO -- Dealing

SHE SHOOK HER HEAD, HER SOAKED RED CURLS SWAYING LIKE SEAWEED. “I should go. My parents will be worried.”

Gods. Why did she have to do this? “So will your dad! And he’s down here!”

She started to sob, and I knew this was it. She’d leave me, all alone in a village we had tried to save. And obviously, that wasn’t enough for her. Would we ever see each other again?

“B-bye, Ryan.” And she turned to a door and wiped her tears away, then swam out. So that was it. Our friendship, our relationship, it was all for nothing. I pounded my fist on the green tail I had. How could I be so stupid, to actually like her? Girls were unpredictable. Everyone ends up leaving at some point.

I swam out a different door then Holly had, minutes ago. I couldn’t talk to anyone right now. She had left me. I had done so much for her. But I couldn’t be mad. She had a life, right? But I was selfish. I thought we had something. I figured that we’d both stay here in the underwater village until we got old. Maybe I’d been so stupid to actually think we had a life together. I guess I was wrong.

I swam faster and faster, pushing my powerful tail in rhythmic strokes. One, two, three. I swam farther out to see than I had ever dared to go. And that was good, right? Maybe by some chance I’d forget about Holly.

Two, two, three. Okay, so she’d never actually said that we’d never see each other again, right? But what if something happened to her? What if she moved and we never saw each other again?

Three, two, three. I passed a colorful coral reef, filled with all sorts of red fish. Ahg. Holly’s red hair. Why couldn’t I just forget?

I swam for who knows how long, just trying to escape. Soon I’d be filled with stress of holding the village together. I knew it was a big responsibility, being the magic keeper and all, and having to solve everyone’s problems. That was part of the job description after all, and living undersea in this “magical” world and everything. I suppose I could solve everyone’s problems but my own.

And that was my problem. I swam to a stop and looked around. Holy cow. The bottom of the ocean was about five feet from the air above. Which meant that I was on shore. I resurfaced, and controled some magic and forced it to make human lungs. I had swam past California long ago. So where was I?

I surveyed the area to check for people. It was evening, so nobody was out. Except one girl, but she was far away. The shoreline definitely didn’t look like America. There weren’t English signs, but instead signs that had strange characters on them. What on earth?

I turned away and got ready to submerge again, but then I got stopped by a voice.

“Hiya!” It was an accented girl’s voice, too perky for my comfort. She couldn’t see me! Plus, I thought that she was farther away.

What was I going to do? She couldn’t see my tail, at least. I’d be in trouble. I turned around to face her.

“Hi.” I said, kind of coldly. She was Asian, with dark black hair and slanted eyes. Too bad my type was redheads.