"Well done boys. You made it farther than I thought."
I sit in shock, utter confusion. I take in my surroundings quickly. George and I are sitting on a white couch with decorative pillows. I'm still clutching his wrist like it's an anchor to the real world. I swiftly switch to his hand and he squeezes it. The woman in front of us is beautiful, with long dark hair and a coral pink dress that contrasts with the marble flooring and her glossy white shoes. She has gold and silver jewelry across her arms and on her neck. Her smile is as white as her shoes. The only accent color in her blinding white house is her dress and the occasional seaweed green.
The woman drops her hands to her hips and smiles. "I just wish you didn't have to be so smart and ruin all the fun."
I frown at her. "You're the Mermaid Queen aren't you?"
"That is me dear." She has a hint of an English accent that I barely catch onto.
George gasps. "You can help us with this prophecy thing?"
She nods her head. "Anything you wish to know."
I look over at George's excited face then back to the Mermaid Queen. "What was that all about then? The falling into different realities and such?"
The Mermaid Queen moves to sit on a white lounge chair and crosses her legs, adjusting her dress. "It's a precaution for anyone who enters my presence. I show them their worst fears, give them a chance to redo something important in their lives." She folds her arms across her chest. "Of course I had to split you two up at the end there, otherwise it would've been too easy. It ended up being too easy anyway."
I shoot a confused look at her.
"I really enjoyed watching you make decisions love," she points at George and he shrinks in his seat, a blush rising to his cheeks. He avoids my eyes.
"You on the other hand," she moves her finger to me. "You figured out much too quickly. Didn't even give me a chance to rewrite the past."
My lips part silently. George and I weren't in the same vision at the end there? It makes me wonder what he had to make a choice about.
"Well, we passed right?" I ask.
She nods curtly. "That's why you're here love."
She reaches out and a woman dressed in all white rushes by to hand her a drink before scurrying off down the hall. The Mermaid Queen takes a sip.
"What is it you want to know then?"
"Well, first," I start, "can you see everything? Like, have you been watching us?"
She smiles. "I see everything that goes on in my ocean."
"Then you know about The Seer and what he told us."
George squeezes my hand, reminding me that he is there, and that he still has a hold of my hand. I squeeze back.
"I do."
"Then we need answers. We need to know how to break the prophecy. We need to know how to become human again, and what he meant when he said, 'beware your time limit. Three days from now you will remain in the form you wear.'"
The woman nods thoughtfully.
George speaks up. "Also, what's your name?"
Her thoughtful face quickly morphs into amusement and she laughs loudly, almost scaring me.
Between chuckles she says, "Oh I really like you. You are my favorite."
I look over at George and he shrugs. "I was just being polite."
She finally calms down and states, "I'm Nerissa."
"And you're not a mermaid?" George questions.
She laughs again, but for not quite as long. "I am a mermaid. Just not right now. You know about the changing don't you?"
George shakes his head. "The changing?"
"It's how us mer-people reproduce. We get legs and come on land to have children before returning to the sea."
"Oh," George mutters. "Right."
"Because I'm on land, I have my legs. But whenever I return to the ocean I get my tail again."
"That makes sense."
Nerissa turns to me. "As for your questions; I know what The Seer was talking about." She shifts in her seat, switching her crossed legs and taking another sip from her drink.
"The Seer was the one who first spouted the prophecy about you two, the blue and green. I worked very hard to try and decipher it, but even I don't know everything. I don't know if I really have more information for you about the first prophecy. If you continue the path you are on now, you will eventually become the most powerful of them all. Even more so than me."
She pauses and lets it sink in.
"If we continue...?" I question.
"Yes. Visiting your friends in the ocean, eating magic potions that only make the prophecy closer to being fulfilled. These things will help bring you closer to total domination of the mer-world. From what I've seen you don't really want that do you?"
George and I shake our heads vigorously. I did not want to destroy anything or anyone. I didn't hate being a merman, but I knew George did.
"I don't really want that either," Nerissa continues. "Now, this three day time limit most likely came about because of your hesitancy to truly fulfill the prophecy. It means that whether you are in your merman form of human form when your time expires, you will stay that way until the prophecy is fulfilled."
"Does that mean if we stay human the prophecy will never be fulfilled?" I ask.
She nods her head. "Technically yes, but as you have seen, it never really turns out well when you fight fate."
I sigh. "Why was that even an option then? And what even happens if we stay mermen instead?"
She nods thoughtfully. "I can't say. I assume the prophecy will continue forward if you remain mermen."
George interrupts. "But we can't stay mermen. We have lives, school, families. We can't just leave that behind because of some stupid prophecy."
She smiles sadly. "I'm afraid the prophecy doesn't care much. I will say, after much studying of the lines in the prophecy, one stands out. 'Only the strength of their hearts will keep them from destroying it all.' This could mean multiple things, but after witnessing the choices you made in the dream sequences before entering my house, it's been made clear that the two of you are the only ones who would be able to resist the powerful urge to become the most powerful of them all."
"What does that mean?"
"You need to strengthen your connection, your relationship. Together you have to avoid the temptations of destruction. Together you must conquer the prophecy and turn back into full humans."
Georges fingers grip mine and I swallow thickly.
"What if we can't?"
Nerissa sighs. "Then you will destroy everything and wipe mer-people from existence."
I dip my head down and scan my shoes. I tap my toes together subconsciously.
George moves his hand in mine and I look up. The Mermaid Queen tilts her head and her eyes glaze over with white.
She whispers, "Your time is up. See you in three days."
"Three days-?"
I don't have enough time to finish my question before the couch disappears from underneath us and George and I fall, splashing into water causing us to change before we slip through the ground. My grip on George's hand tightens and we collapse into my bathroom. The both of us lie in the bathtub on top of each other, limbs tangled together. The shower head spurts onto us, drenching our hair and shirts, as if our collision with the tub made it turn on for a split second.
I realize we are cheek to cheek. George is fully on top of me, arms trapped under my back. One of my arms is pinned between our chests and the other around George's lower back.
George shifts, trying to free his arm. I try moving to sit up but just end up colliding with George's trapped arm. He breathes heavily as he frees one hand and levels above me. We stare, eye to eye, cheeks blazing cherry red.
"I'm sorry," George breathes across my face as he continues to try and free himself.
My elbow catches the bottom of the tub and I move to sit up. George collapses into my chest.
"Sorry," I mutter.
Now he was basically sitting on my lap, but both of his hands were free now. He pushes himself up, using the sides of the bath and sits face to face with me on my lap. My hair drips onto my shirt. George's hair is askew as well.
At this point my face is on fire.
What a horrible situation to be in with your best friend that you made out with one time.
He looks at me with his big brown eyes and doesn't attempt to move.
"Geor-?"
His face shoots forward and he kisses me.
What?! What have I done? How could I do this?
I am EVIL! Have unexpected romance. It's around every corner. You can never see it coming!
-maniacal laughter in the distance-
Not me reading this later to edit and being shocked at the last sentence lol. 😅
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