The Golden Mermaid

𝒕𝒆𝒏

"So you know how powerful you are—what you have to do?" I've never seen Rue so serious. She's always being sarcastic or moody, nothing like this.

"What?"

She raises her eyebrows, her forehead creasing. "You don't know the prophecy?"

"What prophecy?" I question.

"Oh my God, you don't know." She says, dumbfounded. Her dark skin glows in the iridescent lights, and her lips form a concerned frown. "I can't believe you don't know."

"My mother told me it had something to do with the witch." I say, remembering how realistic my dreams were. Her pale hair and skin, and dark eyes.  

"You've seen her. You've seen the witch?" Her voice rises an octave, what I'm assuming is in fear.

I clench my fist, thinking of my last dream with her in it, how my mom was floating on the surface of the water, blue and bloated. Is that how it is now? Is Dad stuck there with my dead mother and the witch, completely helpless and in danger.

"Um... are you crying? I don't know how to deal with crying people." Rue mumbles.

But even as she says this, I can't stop the tears. I'd tried to hold it together for the past three days, knowing that it wouldn't solve anything. Now I just couldn't. "She has my parents." I sputter through my tears. "I don't know how to get them back."

She sits there for a moment, completely at a loss of what to do with me. "You mean the witch, right? She has your parents? Where?"

"Here," I point to my necklace, "in here."

"Oh my..." she reaches for it, leaning closer to examine the glass teardrop shaped charm. "That's a mermaids tear—a real one. That's—that's, like, legendary. I thought it was fake." She looks up into my eyes, trailing the tears falling down my cheeks. "How are your parents trapped in... there?" She ask, her voice hinted with concern at how crazy I'm acting.

I let the words spill out, wiping my eyes. "When it lights up it takes me to her and-and I took Dad with me, but I couldn't grab him before it was too late. She's dying and I don't know how long my dad has until—"

"Wow, wow, wow. Slow down," she squeezes my shoulder, awkwardly pulling away as if she's cringing at the fact that she actually cares. I have to agree, it's not an emotion I would have expected from her either. "Look, I really don't know how to help you. I don't much of anything about a mermaid's tear. I never had anyone to teach me, I had to learn it all on my own. There were some... full-blooded mermaids I met when I lived with my mother on the islands." She looks up at me, somewhat nervous at telling a secret that I'm sure she's never told anyone else. "They told me about the prophecy and all the other legends." She pauses, her fist clenching slightly. "Of course, I didn't get to know them well before my mom..."

We sit there for a moment in silence, Rue staring at the magnets lining our fridge. She begins talking again after getting her bearings. "I didn't think it was true, but I guess you're living proof that I was wrong, huh? You're her, you're the savior."

I shake my head, moving my fingers through my nappy ginger curls. "I really don't think I'm the right—"

"Don't even try. I've seen your scales. And that power surge you had with Ollie? No one has enough power to do that, only the witch." She looks at my hands, her eyes narrowing as if she's waiting for magic to seep from me onto the table.

I sit there for a moment, following her eyes to my own hands. I don't have much of an idea of what's happening—my world is crashing down all around me and all I can do is sit here and wonder how I'm supposed to fix it. I look up at Rue after a while, the questions I've been holding back leaking out. "How long have you..." I start, unable to say the words. My eyes brim with tears and I wipe them away quickly. "Everything is... it's so wrong. This can't be real."

"The question is how long has it been since your first transition? You are a wreck—you have been for a while. You're not very good at hiding it." She stands up, the stool screeching behind her. "This stool is so uncomfortable. And you've been standing there for like the past thirty minutes. Let's go sit down."

I follow her to the couch, plopping down beside her. I try to hold back the tears but they still fall. "It's been about a month since-since it happened. Everything's been so..."

"I understand." She pauses, picking at a lose string on the cushion. "When it first happened to me I didn't tell my mom. Looking back I should have never told her—it ruined her. But when she didn't know I was the most scared I'd ever been. It was the loneliest and scariest time. I mean, you don't just grow a tail and stay calm about it." I think back to a couple weeks ago, when I'd woken up in the tub to a tail. I'd screamed my lungs out—and they were already messed up from the drowning incident. "I can't imagine how you feel. You're supposed to save the world, and you've barely figured out what that all means."

I let out a saddened laugh, combing a shaky hand through my hair. "Really, what what does that mean? I'm supposed to fight against the witch? She'll win. She's... terrifying."

"You have to win. She has a hold of all the ocean. You've never seen it have you?"

"Huh?"

"Seen the ocean. It-it's dark. There's like this veil of darkness and sickness everywhere." She wounds the string from the couch around her finger, her lashes covering her eyes. "I don't really swim anymore. I've only been in the water here maybe three times. It feels so... so sick."

I've swam all the time, basically for most of the summer until this all happened. I'd spend days on the beach with Claire and the rest of our crew. I never felt anything wrong. But now? I might be more connected to it. I've never really thought of swimming in the ocean after I grew the tail. I mean, there's been so much on my plate. "I haven't seen it."

"I'll show you one day. You should see it, I mean you're the one who has to break it—the veil I mean." She checks her phone, pulling it out of her pocket for the first time since she came. "It's been an hour, I should be making it home. I have a long walk." She standing up, pulling her hair out of her eyes. Her dark skin glows in the sunlight, her small button nose scrunching as she shields her eyes. I never realized how beautiful she was before, I guess because her hair was always blocking her face from view.

I stand after her, "Thanks for showing up. It's nice knowing I have someone who..."

"Knows?" She smiles, nodding slightly. "It's nice for me too, if I'm being honest."

I laugh a little, my voice cracking. "Yeah, it's really nice." My parents are still resting in the back of my mind, thoughts of what may or may not be happening to them right at this moment.

She walks to the door and I follow after her. I don't want her to leave, I don't want to be alone with my thoughts. She stops right as she begins to turn the handle, facing me. "Sorry about your parents. I'm sure they're fine." But her face shows a different story. She walks out before I can say anything.

I watch her through the window, thinking back to when I first met her. The way she'd acted now was the exact opposite of the sarcastic girl I first met. She was nice, sweet and caring. I smile as her silhouette fades. Surprisingly she's been the brightest part of my whole week.