Descendant of the Deep (Siren Song: Book One)

Chapter One: The Call of the Sea

Pale moonlight streamed through the thick blue curtains hanging from my window, shaking me from my sleep. I pulled my covers over my head in a defiant attempt to go back to sleep, but it did no good. I glanced sideways at my bedside table in search of a clock. My eyes rested on a rigid black box nestled behind my many textbooks and homework sheets. 1:02.
I groaned softly. It was still early in the night, and the bright light invading my room prevented me from getting any sleep. I sat up slowly, sheets tumbling off of my body.
And that's when I felt it. The call.
My legs began to feel prickly and uncomfortable, a feeling that resembled pins and needles. My feet felt rubbery and numb. I rolled my toes on the floor in a pitiful attempt to make the strange feeling disappear, but it was no use. I would be swimming tonight.
I rolled out of bed and crept to my dresser, careful not to make a sound. I slowly pulled some sweatpants on and began my way to the window. My first floor bedroom was ideal for sneaking out, as it was so close to the ground and the fact that the rest of the bedrooms were upstairs. The likelihood of somebody in the quiet house hearing me was very small.
I slid the window open masterfully, the panes not even making a sound due to do much use. I had done this several times before.
I jumped out of the small window with a burst of energy, landing softly on the cool soil. My bare feet felt the tickle of the grass blades, and I began to walk.
I peeked around the corner to make sure that nobody was out at this hour, and sure enough, the coast was clear. Jogging steadily, I made my way down the dark street, the cool night air rustling my hair. I took a sharp right onto McCord street, the growing smell of salt filling my nostrils. The Hilton Harbor lighthouse shined in the distance, it's blinding light beam penetrating the darkness. Longing started to build up inside of me, longing to plunge into the waves below and end the unnatural feeling in my legs. I assured myself that I was almost there, but it did nothing to ease my instincts.
I broke into a run when the rocky cliffs came into my sight. I could hear the crashing waves on the other side, making my heart skip a beat. I made my way to the pier, where the ground gave way to the ocean and the hardest part of my mission began: the climb down. My instincts told me to jump into the water right now, but my common sense contradicted it, armed with the knowledge that I could kill myself. So I began the long climb down. My body knew where to go after so much practice, but it was still nerve racking to scale the incredibly high cliff. My stomach always felt queasy when I made the decent, but I had to do this in order to reach the sea. I moved nimbly between notches and ledges until I was five feet from the surface. The Call was so deafening now that I leapt off of the face of the cliff and into the sea.
Immediately, there was silence. The shockingly cold water swished all around me, enveloping me in a wet void. The sensation in my legs had subsided, replaced by a new warm feeling. I quickly undressed from the waist down and swam into a more secluded area in anticipation of what was about to happen.
Almost instantaneously, I began to transform. My legs started to fuse together, flesh melding into flesh. My feet began to grow and fan out until they became fins. The air felt heavy and thick, forcing me underwater, where slits slashed into my throat, forming gills. Water rushed into my body, sending oxygen to my brain. The feeling of the water becoming part of me made me feel connected to something, almost as if I was part of the ocean itself. Such a feeling was rare in my life, as I had no idea where I came from or even who my real parents were. I'd spent most of my life living with my foster mother Ruby, but we were so different from each other that bonding with each other was a hard thing to do.
I glanced down at my lower half, which was now covered in silvery scales that crawled up my torso. The scales made up a long tail that plumed into a translucent fin at the end.
I was a mermaid.
Every time I transformed, I was filled with a sense of... Well, magic. It was almost like I could pretend to be a beautiful mythological creature for a few hours that didn't have a care in the world. I could nearly forget the tensions I had with Ruby over our differing personalities and my unwillingness to touch any form of water when she was present, forget that I had no close friendships in my social life, and most of all... Forget that my birth mother gave me up. The second I was born, my mother handed me over to a foster service with nothing but a baby blanket to remember her by. I didn't know why she abandoned me, but she did, and it destroyed me to think about it. And now that I was a teenager, adoption was not likely. Nobody wants an older kid.
I flexed my fins out in front of me, taking in the strangeness of my transformation. No matter how many times I changed, it still shocked me every time. My tail was strong and flexible, and I had long since discovered that it allowed me to spin and turn in the water in ways legs would have never allowed. My grace and beauty did nothing, however, to hide what I really was: a freak of nature. If anyone ever found out about my abilities, I didn't know what would happen to me. I could be shipped off to some awful place to be experimented on, or worse. I wanted nothing to do with my mermaid self. The only thing I wanted was a normal life. And as long as I kept my powers a secret, I hoped to maintain just that.