The Pearl

-Chapter 20-

Marker 12,513 reads and 1,412 votes
(Published 5-23-19)
An; Sorry for the long wait. Please comment!  It means the world to me to hear your thoughts and feelings on my books:')
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Summer 1970

My heart pounded in my chest while Elizabeth learned over me. Her brown hair was pulled into a high ponytail, while my dark hair was the only thing that covered my chest. She looked so beautiful in the soft blue light of the pool that I wanted to reach up and trace every inch of her face.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said softly, while I stared up into her brown eyes.

"Ow!" I yelled while the gray stone blade pierced the skin of my right arm.

"Ow!" my voice echoed back to me off the ceiling of the cave. 

"Get ready," Elizabeth muttered, while she raised the knife and plunged it into my arm again. When she withdrew the knife, there was blood on the blade, but my skin remained mark free.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" the cave repeated back to me.

"Okay just two more," Elizabeth soothed.

"Not in da arm! Somewhere else, please!" I moaned. "Curse this poison and its crazy healing methods. Why did I need to be savaged five times by your blade for an entire moon cycle!?"

"We already established that your arm is the best place to stab because it hurts the least," Elizabeth replied. "If you can't stand the pain anyone, we can always do the other arm. And don't ask me, ask that merman that was copping a feel on you. You know, that guy with white hair."

"I would if he would talk to me, too bad I'm not in his chosen few. But I can't take it in arm again, and I can't! Stab me in da, what do you call call it?" I said pointing down at my lower half. My mind was still scrambling for the pain I had to endure, that I couldn't think of the human word for it."

"Legs?"

"No further...the eh...the eh fit!"

"You mean feet?"

"Yes!"

"Oh trust me that's going to hurt way worst," she replied.

"No it-"

She jabbed the knife into my foot, and my jaw clenched so tightly in pain, that I couldn't even make a sound.

"Do you want the next one to be in the foot again?" Elizabeth asked; her lips turned up into a smile.

I glared at her and held out my arm to her.

"Yeah that's what I thought," she replied. "But first, are you sure you don't want to try your eye?"

"Just do it."

"Alright fine," Elizabeth replied and hovered the knife right above my face.

"Enough jokes!" I spat angrily and swatted the knife away, only for her to swing it back around and jab it into my arm again.

"Owwww!" I screamed.

"Owwww!" The cave repeated.

"Three days down and just twenty-four more days of you, me, and your low tolerance for pain."

"You not funny, try getting stabbed and you'll see just how painless it is!" I growled and quickly sat up, and Elizabeth let out a short laugh and scooted back to give me my space.

As she did so, I examined myself quickly, and sure enough, there were once again no stab wounds were present. I'm not sure why I expected them to be there, they hadn't the last few days we had completed my "treatment," but Elizabeth hadn't been acting like a regular person under a mermaid's spell. Most humans that were drawn under my magic acted mindlessly, but not her. She was very much still there even after going under my spell, which for me the most powerful of the seven sisters, was something new and foreign to me.  But did I really want to?