The Mermaid Man and Me, His Mermaid Mate

The Mermaid Man and Me, His Mermaid Mate - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Today was the first day of the Easter vacation.

I lay a towel down on the squishy sand and plopped myself down, the wisps of my hair flying wildly in the wind. I heard the seagulls calling, the waves washing upon the sand as they crept closer, the wind singing in my ear. I smelled the salty fresh air tickle my nose and run up my tongue, the taste making my mouth water. The sun stung into my shoulders as I looked out towards the horizon.

The sun glimmered off the sea, lightening the dark, vivid blue/green. I could see a boat far out, catching fish. I turned my head and saw a group of kids cliff diving and laughing with each other. I looked back out to sea, and for god-only-knows-how-many-times, I had an urge of longing. I didn't belong here. I belonged in the ocean where I was free to do as I pleased. I could be free of exams. I could swim away from my annoying foster parents who made it quite clear I was a burden to them. I could be free of the funny looks I got at college. I could be free to be who I really was. No more pretending to be an ordinary girl.

Just thinking about the sea made my legs ache and the clothes I wore itch as though I had millions of ants biting at my skin. I so badly wanted to be free.

NO! I shouted to myself, shaking the thoughts away from me. I am normal. I've worked so hard to deny what I am. I will not turn back now!

Still, every birthday I blew out the candles on my cake always wishing to be normal.

I got myself comfortable in the sand and began revising for my exams. I felt the sun blazing on my shoulders as I heard the snickers of girls pass me. "She's so wierd" "She's not even that pretty" "Have you seen how wierd her eyes are?".... The insults went on and on.

I understood that my eyes were wierd. My eyes were literally the colour of silver, shimmering like mirrors. My eyes were too big and bright and if you looked in my eyes for longer than a few seconds, you'd be hooked and I'd be able to hear your every thought, dream, whisper or lie. Once you were hooked, you'd be forced to see the memories I'm seeing through my eyes, whether they good or bad or evil.

My eyes never lied.

"Hmm, have you ever thought about getting a personality change?" I asked the red haired girl that hissed the last insult. "I mean, you and your Mum's had so much cosmetic surgery done, it's hard to see what's real and what's fake. Like that fake thing you call a personality, for example." I retorted, venom seeping out my voice.

The red haired looked abashed and quickly walked away, hoping nobody heard what I said. I snickered and continued to study.

I waited until the beach was deserted before I stripped, hid my clothes, and dove into the water. My skin opened up and the nagging feeling in me dissapeared. It took a minute for my body cells to notice this was the sea.

Slowly my legs started to meld together until I had a shimmering silver tail there. My eyes adjusted so I could see the under the water perfectly. Silver scales covered my breasts, and my fins had a ice blue tint to them.

It was amazing in the sea. I felt free and alive.

I swam further and further out, startling fish as my powerful tail pushed me gracefully through the water, my long blonde hair flowing freely and wildly. I laughed to myself and lay down on the smooth sand, looking up at how the light caught the ocean.

I took a deep breath of the sea water, the salty water now as my oxygen, and sighed. I loved coming here to think, or release my anger, or even just to relax and get away from the foster parents for a while.

After all, they loved to nag me for silly reasons. Say, for example, I have a ten-thirty pm curfew and I'm one second late, I get a lecture on time keeping and get forced to do chores as a punishment. Though, their son Jake is fifteen and they don't mind him coming in an hour after his curfew, always drunk and on god knows what else.

The ocean was my refuge. It was my hell. It was my bliss. It was heaven. This was my future. This is my freedom. This is my secret. This was my life. This was... This is me.

A freak of nature.

When I surfaced from the water the sky was dark and the moon shimmered along the water. I swam till my tail touched the rippled sand and felt the magic start to take over as I dragged myself onto the dry sand. My fins ripped up into feet, then eventually long, tanned legs. My lungs coughed up the water in my lungs and replaced it with mouthfulls of air.

I wheezed and coughed until all of the water was replaced by air. I hated the choking feeling. I brought me back to that fateful day...

I shoved the thought out of my head and quickly dried myself off on the sandy towel, dressed, and tied my hair up.

My cell clock told me it was only half eight so instead of rushing back home, I had a slow walk back along the beach, inhaling the salty air that started to call for me to go back already.

One day, I feared I'd just jump in the ocean and never return, never look back at the land I was leaving, the foster parents that wouldn't remember me anyway, and the parents that didn't want me because of what I became.

****

"Where have you been all day?" My foster mother, Lisa, growled as I came through the door.

Lisa was standing at the kitchen door with a cigarette in her hand. She had a mouse-brown bob hair cut, muddy brown eyes, wrinkles that you got when you were around sixty, a hook nose, and a stubborn chin that had a small black wart on the left side of it.

"I was studying on the beach and then I went for a walk," I replied tiredly.

"Well, because of you I've had to come home from a hard days work to do the dishes, vaccum the floor and do the laundry." Her face scrunched up as though she'd just sucked a lemon, creasing her face even more than usual.

I sighed, "I did the laundry and I vaccumed this morning. I also did the dishes and put them away. Nobody's probably been in enough to put more than two plates and a little cutlery in the sink."

Lisa took a draw of her cigerette, "It's football night, Rylee. Jake has the boys over and order a take out."

"He's old enough to clean up after himself, then." I replied icily. "He's fifteen for Christ's sake."

"Don't you use that tone with me you little freak," Lisa snarled, pointing her yellowed fingers at me. "You should be greatful we even fostered you. Nobody else would. With your strange, freaky eyes and your loner personality. I mean come on, you're seventeen and you have no friends. Nobody wants to be your friend, Rylee, because they have common sense. Your parents didn't even want you. What does that say? Hmm?"

"Shut up!" I cried, feeling a tear slip down my cheek. "Just shut up! I don't need friends. I don't need my parents. And I most certainly don't need you. As soon as I turn eighteen I'm gone. I hate you all! You're the freaks! Your cousin is in prison for attempted murder! That's messed up in the head!"

I turned on my heels and ran up to my little room. I threw myself on the sky coloured bedspread and buried my face into the pillow, sobbing into it hard.

I couldn't wait to leave. I wanted out.

I hated everyone and I especially hated that merman that did this to me somehow!

I fell asleep thinking about the ocean and how I wished the tide would just take me away so I could never find my way back to this god-for-saken place.

So, thats chapter 1. Small I know but chapter 2 will be longer. I just wanted to show Rylee's life and what she has to cope with in the 1st chapter so people understood her better.

Rate and comment plz so I know if im going in the right direction with this.