The next day, I trudge home from my rainwater station tired and cold.
My "special" job is no longer needed.
Rei was put to work today; I saw them haul him over to help expand the wall, the rest of the workers steering clear and whispering among themselves like little children. They're about to finish this segment and expand it into the open waters, making the city larger once again. I don't even have the energy to laugh at the irony. Make our home bigger! Yours smaller! Yarr!
That's when I hear the shouting.
I peer down a nearby alley, listening. There are definitely people down there, those coming home from work on the wall. I silently wonder if Rei is one of them.
There's a cacophony of shouts and jeers, the sound of mud splattering the walls. Or something else.
I hunch down, creeping along the left side of the buildings and under drainage grates, trying to catch a view of the commotion. And through the bent-over bodies of two men, I catch sight of a snarling boy held back by three others. Another stands in the center of their haphazard circle, wiping his mouth, blood gushing from his nose.
"'Ooh wanth to go nexth?" he calls out maniacally, spreading his arms, voice nasally through the blood. "The beastie's all riled up-" And the one being held back lunges, teeth bared. A different opponent rises, and with a drop to my stomach, I now understand what's going on. They're wearing him down. And they will most definitely beat him to death, judging by their growling words. Things such as getting rid of vermin once and for all echo between them. Blue vermin.
I'm furious enough to stalk right up to the fight, shoving my way through.
"Hey!" I shout. All eyes turn to me. Normal eyes. Normal, not cursed, stares. A tattooed boy is being sat in the middle, scarlet liquid running from his eyebrow and mouth. This probably wasn't the best idea.
"Oh look, it's the half-fish!" jeers one, catcalls rising from the circle.
"I'm not a half-fish," I glare, urging Rei to get up with my telepathic powers. "At least I'm not the one beating up a boy for kicks."
"A boy?" barks the nasally man, hand over his face. "Thath wha you think thith... creathure is? A boy?"
"You're cursed, just like he is," grunts another. A boy kicks Rei with the heel of his boot, the Mer growling dangerously, hands curled on the cobblestones, the blue ink on his skin pulsing with shaky light.
At the rising threats, I feel them compressing around me, suffocating. I take a deep breath, the cold air tingling in my chest, a light rain beginning to fall.
"Look, he won't be able to help with the expanse if you beat him to death," I say as reasonably as I can, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
"We don't need the creature's help. This blasted thing is almost completely finished."
"Yeah! He hauled the blocks already! No use keeping a murderer around."
My fists clench, but on the inside, worry is eating up my words. There seemed to be fewer of them when they were in a wide circle. Now, there seems to be too many, sucking the air out of the alley. Lightning strikes above, plunging the world into blinding light and then darkness. In the chaos I rush forward, slamming into the boy on top of Rei. His cry is muffled by other shouts. We need to move quickly. I grab Rei's hand, trying to yank him up.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," I say through gritted teeth. He scrambles up, his hand freezing inside my own, clothes plastered with mud. There are a few hollers behind us, and I take off running as fast as I can.
I take the lead back to my apartment, splashing through brown water, and hear a crack of thunder overhead. Just another bout of ordinary weather. More lightning flashes across the sky as we run mostly blind through the pouring rain. I pound up the steps to the conveyor, Rei stumbling behind me inside as the shouting fades around a corner.
The quiet seems to descend upon us blanket-like, the only sounds the whir of the gears as we are lifted higher and higher.
Aunt Charla isn't in the apartment, but I squash down my worry. If the storm gets worse, she will be kept at the algae stations where she works. With a final jolt, the lift arrives and I lead the Merboy along the metal scaffolding to my home. Shucking off my rubber boots and jacket, I herd him into the bathroom where I twist the tub faucet knobs until icy water gushes from their rusty spouts. I'm given a strange, blank look in response.
"What?" I ask him over my shoulder as water splatters onto the tile. Rei shakes his head, wincing as he peels off his muddy shirt. I can't help the string of curses mumbled under my breath as I cover my eyes, my face turning as red as my hair.
*
"It's weird being in water now," Rei tells me, letting his hands float in the water palms up, scarlet swirls disappearing into the clearness.
"I thought you wanted to go into the ocean."
"Yeah. But I don't, you know," he gestures to the physical shell he's wearing, and I know what he means. What would you look like as a monster? But as my eyes trace the bruises over his eye, the blood running down his forehead, from his mouth, another deadly thought squirms its way into my brain. Who's the real monster, hm?
"Thanks, Shai."
He fumbles over the words, as if it costs him something to apologize to a human. To me.
"It wasn't your fault," I say sternly, but he shakes his head.
"You could've kept walking." He finally meets my eyes and doesn't look away, not me wondering why my pulse is going all weird. "You could have not gone to the prison, you could have not given me your disgusting sandy bread and you could have not taken me to the water out there and-" I slap a hand over his mouth, this tiny pleasurable fuzzy feeling in my brain going haywire.
"Don't," I whisper. "Thank me for basic human kindness." He doesn't blink, but eventually lowers his eyes, and I remove my hand.
"You finish up," I tell him. "I'll make something to eat."
When I finally shut the washroom door behind me and lean against it with a deep breath, my thoughts seem to orient themselves.
I have a Mer in my house. Mer. House.
I try to keep from screaming.
*
Raindrops lash against my window like the glass personally insulted them, an unrelenting barrage of missiles. Every now and then a massive boom will send the whole place vibrating like a jangle of teeth. I sit on my mattress with my back against the wall, a small bioluminescent lantern cupped in my hands. I stare at the glowing contents, unwilling to look across the room where a shadow sits opposite me.
"So," I begin as lightning splits the world in half outside. "Why haven't you killed me yet?"
There's complete silence disregarding the storm, and for an embarrassing moment, I think he might be asleep.
And then the Merboy lets out a very loud bark of laughter.
"I'm just waiting for the right moment," he muses, and I can't see his face in the dark so my heart thuds uncontrollably.
"What?"
And he laughs again and some part of me really likes that even if it's about my own murder.
"I'm kidding," Rei coughs out through more chuckles. There's more silence, and more darkness, and then he's in front of me and I scream when he says "boo".
"Bastard," I snap, smacking him with my pillow as he laughs and laughs. "Seriously though, you've had a million chances. I thought you all killed those..." I trail off as he gets quiet again, kneeling in front of me, face in shadow.
"Same reason you helped me," he says quietly. "Basic human decency." It's my turn to snort.
"Yeah, basic human decency isn't all that decent."
"Fine," the boy replies, leaning forward so that I can finally see his face in the bio glow. "Maybe it's because you have the mark of the people that I belong to, maybe it's because you have blue eyes and everyone in here thinks you did some ghastly thing because you're cursed. Maybe it's the fact that you have been the only person in this entire place that has shown me a shred of kindness. Or." He's very close, and I press back into the cold wall, unable to keep my eyes off his mouth, the curl of it, and the sharp glint of teeth within. "Maybe I'm not a monster," he whispers. "Maybe I don't just kill for the fun of it. Maybe," and his voice is very quiet now and his eyes can practically see into my soul. "The people in here are the monsters, and I'm just trying to survive."