Jessica
For the next few days, I would look at the Atlantean device around my wrist...
Myra's signal had never pinged ever again. Somehow, she had disconnected me from the mermaid world; and now my connection to Atlantis was literally 'drying up' and breaking away, just like dried out seaweed.
Only the precious gem around my neck had remained untouched by Myra's sadness as it glowed even brighter in the darkness of my life.
When mom had learned of what was happening to me, she did not celebrate or blame Myra. She told me that I should not have lied to her about my true feelings. That I should have followed my heart, following her back into the deep ocean -- where I now belong.
She worried about what would become of my broken soul, especially once the mystical connection to Atlantis was completely severed and I returned back to being a normal transgender woman. The unknown had frightened her and she hated herself for starting the rift that drove both Myra and I apart.
I knew that moping around would not help things as I tried to move on.
Joshua and I continued to date, however, after breaking up with Myra, things began to become intense with him. To add injury to insult, a week after she had left, mom then slipped into a deep depression and stopped eating, entirely.
Then, one late night, I awakened to the alarming sound of her gasping for air as she could not breathe -- as if she was drowning!
However, the curse of denying Myra seemed to only intensify as during the night, we received a phone call from Walla Walla. It was the prison chaplain calling to let us know that dad had just died from respiratory arrest. Apparently, he was complaining of suffering from a 'drowning' sensation when he slept at night!
Whispers began to circulate around the family, that we were stricken with an aggressive version of 'Undine's Curse'. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews all fell one by one -- the drowning happening faster the further away from the ocean they dwelled. Only those closest to the ocean had survived the curse.
Death haunted my mother's every waking moment. She was fearful that she would be the next victim of Undine's Curse that had plagued our family. She'd begged the local doctor to heal her of the curse, but all they ever did was give her medicine to help with her anxiety.
A month before my graduation, and three months before I turned 18 years old, I returned home only to find my mother asleep in her bed. In her hand was a bottle of pain pills that she had overdosed on, taking her life before the curse could make her suffer.
The night before she had passed away, she stumbled to my room, coughing and wheezing as her last words spoken to me were:
"Honey...I think it is time that you go and find those mermaids and beg them for forgiveness! You and I are the last of our clan." Her words chilled me as the sickness seemed to spread across the world like a plague, affecting all families of every nation.
They called it an outbreak! A plague!
"You were not born for this world! You belong with them; you belong with her. And when you see her, please tell her that I am deeply sorry for all the pain that I might have caused!"
She had no pulse...no respiration!
I screamed for her to wake as instead of turning into water like all the others, she took the cowardly path and committed suicide! I immediately called for an ambulance, and they rushed her off to the Aberdeen hospital...but in the end, I was too late to save her...she was already long dead!
I collapsed into a puddle of my own tears as I was now all alone. The curse had consumed every member of my family, and every day, I could hear the cries of other people mourning their dead!
My teary eyes then caught the light glimmer upon my wrist as the implanted Atlantean device was soaking up my tears, repairing the device! I then rose from my knees and hurried off to the kitchen, grabbing the sea salt and making a saltwater bath inside a mixing bowl.
I then submerged the device into the icy cold water, watching the device surge back to life! The bluish-green energy flowed through the device as the organic shell began to heal, and the liquid display flickered back to life.
My phone then rang, making my jump as I walked over to answer it.
"Hullo?" I say, my voice still hoarse.
"Miss O'Neill?" the hospital doctor says as she seems excited. "It's your mother! She is still alive!"
"What!? How!?" as my eyes looked down at the Atlantean device healing and releasing a strange blue energy in the air. "It does not matter...I will be there as soon as possible!"
"Understood, just check in with the desk. Bye."
I called Joshua for help, as he had a car. Without much explanation and asking for many offers, I agreed and he reluctantly drove me over to the hospital at the other end of the harbor.
~~~
I rushed into mom's hospital room and wrapped my arms around her.
"I thought I had loss you!" I said as no one in this building understands just what had happened. Terry O'Neill, my mother, was dead for over four hours and was in the morgue when she came back to life. I did not care about the 'how', all I cared about was that she was alive and that was all that mattered! Joshua gave us some personal time as I stayed with mom.
"I am so sorry sweetie!" mom cried as the machines were recording her vitals. They were still weak, but she was alive for right now. "I had no right to interfere with your love...and I feel I have scarred you for life!" She looks at my Atlantean bracelet, seeing that it was renewed "Sweetie, I had a strange dream when I was dead! A mermaid told me that all our lives are intertwined with that device...you need to make amends with Atlantis and find her and be honest with her!"
"It is too late...she severed the connection!" I say as I still do not see her signal. Mom, however, grabs me by the shirt and pulls me down.
"It is never too late!" She scolds me. "Do you love her?"
I nod, out of fear of what mom will do to me. I loved Myra with all my heart, mind, and soul.
"Then you find a way to apologize and find her! And when you do find her, you tell her that you love her." Mom releases me as I know what I must do...but how do I find her when she does not want to be found? I look at the device as the beacon begins to shine like a bright star as a signal had awakened on land!
"What was her name again?" I heard my mother say "Princess Myra?"
"She's returned!" I cried out, stunned as it seemed for almost a moment that it was my mother who had brought my lover back.
"Go...I'll be fine!" she says as I do not entirely believe her...she just did try to commit suicide, but I feel that it was due to the Atlantean device...this 'Undine curse!' I kissed mom as I let her know that I love her and left quickly and found Joshua.
"Joshua..." I say as he takes me aside.
"I have no problem taking you to see your old lady...but you owe me!" he says.
"Can we do this later!" I say as I look at the signal remaining near the Cove. Joshua grumbles as we walk to the car as I watch the device as he glances at it.
"You know that there are many other things to look at!" he says with a smirk as I do not approve.
With Myra back, I do not tolerate his foul mouth. He tried to joke about death, but his jokes fail flat and were insensitive. His comforting touches felt too coarse and advantageous. At times, he would ask if I was interested in sex...but I refused him every time.
He was a pig! How could someone think of sex in a moment like this! My mom was alive and I was visibly distraught and he thought he could use this to get into my pants!?
My device pinged again...she was calling me back.
'Why did she come back?'
It didn't matter, I wanted to tell her how I felt, leave this godless land, and commit my life to only her. As far as Joshua and I were concerned, we were through! Still ten minutes away from the Cove, he tried again.
"We could go home...mom makes a killer meatloaf!"
"You really do not know anything about me, don't ya?" I asked as he looked puzzled. "I only eat fish, I cannot digest beef, bird, or any land animals!"
"That is because you haven't had my mom's meatloaf, you'd love it!" he says, totally clueless.
"Take me to Damon State Park, please." I say as he just huffs.
"This feels kind of only one sided!" he grumbles as his free hand rests on my leg as I look at it. If I knew it was appropriate, I would break his hand with every water molecule in his body!
Slowly his hand would creep downward toward my crotch as I would push it away. Even though genetically I was male, my body was female, and I was certainly at risk of being raped. It made me very uncomfortable! I was trapped by my own making! Joshua was advancing on me in ways that were clearly sexual harassment.
He tried again as I looked at him sharply, slamming my Atlantean device down onto his hand.
"Stop it, Joshua! I am not in the mood for your disrespect!" He slammed on the brakes as I jerked forward hard.
"O'Neill, you owe me! Either pay me fifty in gas money or pay me in sex; it's up to you, babe!"
I could not fight back; I had played the role of female so much that I had lost any stupidity and or quick temper to fight him off. The spark of sexual prowess for my male genes were quite dead.
His eyes were no longer compassionate...he had the sight of a sexual predator.
He bent over and forced himself upon me and he tried kissing me, only licking the salty residue off of my neck as I shivered from the experience. I shoved him away and he returned, striking me across the face as I watched the Atlantean device go from glowing blue to bright red.
"Stop! Before you set it off!" I warned him, for the last time it had turned red, I had accidentally fried the electrical grid of Ocean City, Copalis and most of Ocean Shores with it.
"Well, what is it going to be my little whore!?" Joshua barked, too arrogant to realize the great danger he was in. I needed time to reach the door unlocking mechanism on his side as I gave him an answer.
"Hold me." speaking the words, but only thinking of my sweet Myra. He huffed at the idea. He was well beyond the moment of cuddling...he wanted action.
"I know it was you that ruined my football career! And now you're going to pay!" he says as it now made since as to why he even dated me in the first place!
This was all about revenge.
He tried to arouse me, touching the location that has been modified as the traitorous sensations had made me sick to the stomach.
"Stop it, Joshua!" I say as I move away from him.
I looked at the door, thinking it was about time to break the glass. Joshua was turning out to be more of a monster than Myra!
"I thought you loved me?" I cried as he just scuffed and rolled his eyes. He never even loved me...I was just a prize that the other boys said could not be won.
He glanced at me, his eyes flickering with rage. He slapped me across the face again as the force slammed my head against the glass of the window. If I would not mate, then I would be broken. I feel bruised skin as he moved on top of me.
"I said stop it!" I screamed as he was taking off his belt.
I managed to knee him in the gut, sending him rolling painfully on his side of the car as my shirt was ripped from his attempted rape. I reached over and pushed the button, unlocking the doors as I staggered for the handle, shaking as he began to snap out of the pain.
Seeing me fiddle with the door, he grabs my hair, slamming my head into the dash. I returned, dazed, thrashing at him with my nails, slicing him across the face with something that could be classified as 'claws'.
I reached for the door and opened it as he wrapped his arm around my neck.
"This is going to be slow and miserable; and you are not going to enjoy this!" he says as I look at the puddle of water shimmering.
'Please forgive me, Myra!'
With a snap of my wrist, I contort my fingers as the water forms into tentacles and they flow into the car as he does not see them, far too enraged. With a snap of my fingers, the water turned to ice and shot at Joshua like a thousand darts as they riddled his body like bullets, shoving him back and releasing me.
With Joshua stunned, he looked at me, terrified. His eyes were dead focused on my hands as I looked down and saw them glowing with an eerie blue mist! Red blood began to seep out of his many wounds, staining him red.
I escaped the car as he screamed at me, bleeding out.
"Jess! I am sorry!"
I began running as fast as I could as I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me. I quickened my pace and rushed down the sidewalk before he could catch me. I did not know where to go. I could not go home as Joshua knew where I lived, so I just jumped onto the bus. The driver who knew me well waved the fare as she was shocked by my appearance.
I was bruised and battered. My clothes were ripped and torn. My skin was black-and-blue, and swollen.
"My God Jess! What happened to you?" the driver finally asked, knowing me very well as she has driven me so many times out to the state park at the southernmost point of Ocean Shores. Tears fall from my eyes as I look frantically around for my attacker.
"Please, just drive!" I beg as I watch the houses and see the car that I was almost raped in. My silvery-blue eyes stared deadly cold at the lunatic who was running to catch the bus. The driver sees him and cusses as she punches the gas, uncertain if he was armed. I sat in the seat and cried, feeling like my last piece of humanity had just died.
I was treated like an animal, and an animal I had become. I was no longer a human! I was something lesser, like a demi-human or monster.
"I will take you to the police station..."
"His dad is the chief...it isn't safe there!" I say as she nods...corruption runs deep here.
"Then where to sweetie?" the driver asks as I look over the seat with a black-n-blue face from where I was hit. The driver was mortified as she does not wait, she called 911 and asked for the state police to meet her at the metro hub.
I did not know where to go. I can't go home; I can't stay with friends or family...I was homeless because mom was in the hospital, and Joshua was free. I am a liability to him and his dad.
I looked at my device and saw only one light still blinking at the Cove...but soon the whole Ocean Shore community had lit up as the ocean and land were alive! Hundreds...then thousands as they are were swarming towards my location. My device's light had turned from blood red to raven black...
'That can't be good!'
A new sense of concern then creeped into my mind.
'Myra might have felt all of this...I am telepathically linked to her...' as I touched the bruises and looked at the lights moving onto land. The bus moves quickly as we leave Ocean Shores as the driver headed back to base...a safe place for me.
"I called the police; they will meet us at the hub." she says as I worry for everyone.
"Please! I do not want to get anyone in trouble, miss." I say as the driver feels deep remorse for me. Not only was I beaten, and an attempted rape victim! I was now clearly in denial and slipping into victimhood.
If it wasn't for my magic that Myra had taught me in the Cove, I probably would have been raped and murdered.
Pulling into the hub at Hogan's Corner, there was a police car waiting for us. I was terrified and embarrassed. I allowed this to happen to me. I wondered what would have happened if I just had let him have his way with me. I would probably be at the Cove with Myra, feeling dirty and broken...but free and safe.
Parked, the police come aboard as the driver shows them to the back. I look up at the two lady officers as one sits beside me.
"You are safe now, sweetie." The officer says as she examines my bruises and swollen face, tsking with a click of her tongue.
"I am not safe! I can't go home...he'll find me there!" I cried as the officer wanted to know who my attacker was. They were ready to arrest the perk...he still had to be in town and there was only one way out of this town by car.
"Who did this to you, sweetheart?" the officer asked.
"Please, tell them Jess...or I will." The driver says as the officer looks up at the driver. The officer only sees terror in my eyes...terror of what had happened and what was about to happen. Something tells me that Atlantis wasn't making a social visit to Ocean Shores.
"Joshua Cole." I say as the other officer heads back to her car to call it in. "He tried to rape me. He beat me..." I touched my sore neck "Tried to...murder me." the officer swabs for DNA, taking a few of his hairs.
"And this?" the officer asks as she lightly touches the rash that had somehow developed on my skin. It looked like a nasty burn. "Did he burn you?"
My eyes wandered down to the device around my wrist as it still continued to glow and shimmer black. The screen shows a thousand lights returning back to the Pacific, a few have remained on land...
"Did he do this to you?" the officer asked again as she touched the device, noticing an odd rash originating near the strange technology...flakey itchy skin.
I look at the ocean filled with lights; I fear that they are here because of what had just happened to me.
"No, this was a gift from a friend." I noticed that in the area that I am sitting in, three more lights had lingered next to me...they were not outside, but on the bus! I slowly look up at the bus driver and officers as our eyes all meet.
The driver walks over to me and asks for the officer's seat as she sits beside me.
"There is nothing to fear...we are here to help you." as I saw the same device on the driver's wrist and glanced at the officer as she rolled up her shirt sleeve and showed her own Atlantean device.
"Are you friends of Myra?" I asked as the driver and officers both nodded their heads.
"Do not worry about Joshua," the officer says as she has confirmation of his whereabouts. "He will harm no one else! Take her to the duine's hotel just down the road...we will keep a watch over her."
The driver acknowledges. The police head back into Ocean Shores to pay Joshua a visit as the metro driver heads to the Resort and walks me in and immediately the staff take me upstairs to a private room.
The staff member, who does not have an Atlantean device around her wrist, seems to know a great deal about what was going on. She was Native American, her raven black hair decorated in beads. She ushers me in as she adds.
"Here, take this..." as she hands me a card "...it is good for three meals downstairs and to access the facilities. You have nothing to fear...you are safe here, Jessica."
~~~
I stood by the window watching the ocean roll in as tears flowed down my cheeks in an endless stream. I loved Myra and treated her the same way Joshua had treated me. I had hoped that Joshua had changed over the years, matured somewhat into a gentleman, but he was like all the other humans I have ever known...cruel!
Every time I closed my eyes, I could hear his bloodcurdling voice screaming at me. I opened my eyes as the voice then vanished and I walked onward to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face.
Standing before the mirror, toweling off, I looked mortified at what I saw. My face was black-and-blue, my left eye socket was terribly swollen and grey. My clothes were ripped into tatters as the host then brought in a new change of clothes from the gift shop, for me to change into.
I undressed and stared at my feminized body. Life would have been so much easier if my mom and dad had not interfered with my gender, and been normal parents!
Dad was now dead and mom was in serious condition; and I had chased away the only person that had truly loved me, unconditionally. No one ever said that life would be easy.
I scrubbed myself over and over as I tried to clean off the sinful reminders of the evening; but it just would not come off! I then dressed and walked downstairs as the host saw me and hurried over to me as I broke down on the floor, crying, unable to keep up the brave act.
"Miss!?" she came running over as I was already getting back up on my feet.
"I am fine...I am just going for a walk on the beach to clear my head." I say as the host lets me leave as a few women rise and follow me out, keeping their distance. It was nice that they were trying to give me room to breathe, but nevertheless, keeping a watchful eye on me.
I kept thinking of Myra. Was she out there in the thousands of lights? I did not have much hope! I had broken Myra's heart, refusing to be honest with her.
It was already pitch-black outside as I made my way down to the pounding surf, unable to see the ocean's waves. Everything was jet black this night...no moon to light my path. The only light had come from behind me...from the hotels flood lights illuminating the dunes.
Finding a pile of slippery rocks, I made it to the rock pools and started to crawl over the rocks to avoid slipping into the salty water. At times, I took a misstep and my arm would plunge into the shallow pool suddenly. My shoes scrapped along the rocky surface as I noticed the dark water ahead, churning and splashing.
My heart raced. Holding the necklace with the stone that Myra had given me...it seemed to pull me onward to the ocean. I tried to convince myself that she would be out there, happy to see me; but I also feared that I had lost Myra forever.
'Why are the mermaids helping me?'
I laid there on the rocks, feeling the cold ocean breeze drench me with mist and sea spray. And though I should have been freezing, I wasn't. I just closed my eyes for a moment, sprawled out like a seal, listening to the melody that the ocean played for me.
I only opened my eyes as I felt the presence of many minds, all keeping their distance. But at the same time, they were carefully watching over me. Waiting...
I reached the very edge of the rocky surface as a wave washed over the rocks and all over me. All I could now hear were the waves of high tide lapping along the surface and slamming into the rocks. Then with all that I could muster, holding the gem in the palm of my hand, I screamed.
"Myra! I am sorry!" my voice piercing the waves. I then whispered, laying my head on the rock, crying "Please forgive me. I wish I could have been brave enough to tell you that I love you."
I choked on a salty wave as everything I'd been bottling up poured out, washed away with the tide as I curled myself up into a ball. I did not even care anymore if the water rushed over me like a blanket every few seconds. I just cried out all my frustrations and regrets. How stupid was I to think that Myra would want to return to me...I was a disgrace!
Neither a human nor a mermaid...I was like a newborn without an identity.
I closed my eyes, tired of my human life and willing myself to the mercy of the sea. If I drowned, it wouldn't be that bad! I felt a cold clammy hand caress my swollen face as I flinched, thinking it was a nightmare. I cried out in pain, flinching away from the intruder...my memory of Joshua's painful abuse returning, imprinted upon my soul.
"Jess...open your eyes! It's me!" a familiar soft voice lured me back to my senses.
I slowly opened my swollen eyes. Even in the darkness, I knew Myra by her bright milky-blue eyes when they glowed like spirit-lights in the deep.
"You?" I choked up as I cried. "Came back?"
Myra nodded, smiling as she gently cradled my sea-drenched head upon her scaly lap.
"B—ut I thought..." my mouth could hardly make coherent words as I was shocked, sadden and very cold.
She was partly angry with me, and yet, she missed me so much that she felt ashamed to feel this anger in her heart. Her slender webbed fingers brushed my hair back from the bruised skin as she looked terribly sorry for not claiming me when she last had the chance -- she blamed herself for my wounds.
"I told you that we would see one another again...before the end." her sweet voice softly spoke to me. She could smell the sea on my breath, my body was finally awakening to becoming a mermaid...the spell she had cast at the Cove had worked! Though, it took a hefty price to awaken me.
For the second time, I cried. I buried my face into Myra's chest and let out the pain and horror that I have experienced in these last few days. I cried so much that when my tears had all dried up, it felt like a year had gone by.
"What happened?" Myra asked. "The whole kingdom sensed a great sadness, pain, fear and death...so we all came."
"Everything has fallen apart!" I say, still sobbing. "Dad is dead, mom will be at a mental hospital probably for the rest of her life, and I was physically abused. Oh Myra, I honestly thought he had loved me...and then you went away...and..." Myra placed her finger on my lips.
"I never went away, Jess. After you told me about the earthquake and the missing land, I had to go home to tell my mom what you seen. We believe it was the portal to Atlantis, established over twelve thousand years ago." she then continues to the hurtful part "But I have to be honest with you, my darling. When you said that you and that Surface Dweller were getting back together, I could sense that you were having doubts about being a mermaid, yourself! I didn't want to say anything that might influence your heart."
"But why?" as I rub the tears and saltwater from my eyes.
"I did not want to be selfish, deceiving you to choose me over the land. I can be wrong about my feeling sometimes." she confesses.
"Selfish?" I choked up. "You could never be selfish, Myra!"
"Jess! I did not want to say this before because I feared that you would reject me. I like you greatly...I love you!"
"Oh, Myra, I could never reject you. I only think about you. I have only admiration and respect for you. You brought light back to my darkened soul."
Myra grimaces as I feel that I might have gone too far. She takes my hands as she looks at me sincerely.
"I love you."
"You love me?" I say, I could not believe what I had just heard and wondered if the gulls flying overhead made me hear those words.
"Not the love of friendship." she elaborates "I love you unconditionally and consensually. I cannot thrive without you by my side."
At that moment it all clicked. The way she sat there, beautiful, yet modest. Embarrassed, yet graceful. Then there were the times when she was very intimate, the coy way she would look at me. She even admitted she wasn't into boys when we first met. I did not know if I should be embarrassed for not spotting the signs earlier.
"Love?" I muttered as Myra nodded sheepishly, yet ashamed.
"For years, I have wanted to tell you this, but I did not want to scare you away. I know that I am a mermaid, and you are a duine. And by all conventual wisdom, I should not love a person from the Surface world. But you treated me just like an individual person; you showed no fear of my 'other' half. I fell in love with you, Jess."
"Oh, Myra..." as my heart ached.
"When you told me about Joshua, I thought you had found your soulmate and I did not know what to feel." suddenly she sniffled. Her words got progressively labored as she tried not to wail. "I... I actually cried for two whole days; heartbroken. I was very angry at you, Jess! I wanted you to be my soulmate, not some Surface Dweller! But after talking to my mother, I then realized that I only wanted you to be happy. I was ashamed of myself..."
I thought back to the meeting and almost teared up once more. I realized the smile she'd been wearing was just a façade. Her voice wavered more and more as she revealed her true feelings, feeling unrequited.
"I just feel like the worst mermaid in the whole wide world, right now! I totally understand if you don't even like me now, I understand."
However, her moment of honesty also awakened something deep inside of me. For a long time, I'd been struggling with my own feelings. I knew that Myra was beautiful and kind, but I always treated her like a friend.
Yet, every time I was alone, I always missed her. Whenever I thought about her, she couldn't stay out of my mind. Even with my relationship with Joshua, she never went away. But now, I knew what it truly was.
"Myra..." I softly said, trying to force the unspoken word out.
She turned her head to face me. I leaned against her chest, pressing my lips against her own lips as I kissed her, much to her surprise. They were salty, just like the sea, but were also alluring and caressed my own. I feared for a second, feared that she would flinch, but soon she leaned in too and shared in the deep kiss, passing pheromones.
I opened my eyes slowly and saw Myra's own eyes glowing an ice blue in the darkness, reflecting my own softly glowing eyes. I did not need to say anything else, but as we came up for air, I allowed those forbidden words to leave my lips.
"I love you too, Myra! I'm so sorry that I did not say it before. But know that you have my heart, mind, and soul...they are yours, my love." I felt Myra's arms hug me in a loving embrace. She didn't say a word, but I knew that she had forgiven me.
"Myra." I said again as I looked at the sea and knew that it was time for its song was overwhelming within me "I want to go with you; to be with you forever. My life has always been at sea. Please, make me a mermaid too!" I heard Myra gasped, gently holding my face with her webbed hand, smiling.
"Really!?" I nodded, smiling.
"I really want to be with you. When you're not around, I feel so incomplete inside! And I have no one else that I can turn to, beside you. I might have been born of the land, but my soul is of the sea!"
Myra stared at me for the longest time as I shivered. I worried that she might talk me out of it, or that she did not want me as a mermaid any longer. Then, with not a single word, her lips turned upwards in a beaming smile.
"I have been waiting for so long to hear you to say those words, my love!"
Once more, we embraced in the tightest hug as our two souls intertwined. The pain was finally lifting off my tired soul. The last thread of my humanity had snapped, surrendering my soul to the sea.
The ocean seemed to come alive as faces popped out of the waves as women of all ages looked up at us, watching. The magic of the Cascadia Kingdom hasn't been practiced in many years as a woman wearing silver armor swims over into the shallows.
She was hauntingly beautiful; her tail was long and powerful. Her right wrist was also covered with the same technology that I wear as she held in her left webbed hand, a long silver trident.
Even though no words were spoken, I knew that this had to be Myra's mother, the Queen of Cascadia, who had granted our union and continuing friendship. I immediately bowed my head to her, not certain of the customs of greeting nobility at the bottom of the ocean.
"I have heard great things about you, Jessica O'Neill, of the Surface Dwellers. I look forward to welcoming you to our people...you are fulfilling an ancient role that has not happened in well over a century."
She then presents a vial of substance to Myra as she gladly takes it, looking at it. Inside was the same amniotic fluid that had turned her into a mermaid, so many years ago.
Soon, more mermaids had beached themselves as I grew worried.
"It is okay...they are here for you." Myra says as she hopes that she remembers the spell correctly. She needs time to be certain of her intentions.
"I need a day!" I say as I hope I do not disappoint the mermaids.
"And we need your dedication." Queen Sedna says as she ushers Myra to give me the drug.
"Jess." Myra utters as she lightly smiles as I grow worried. "It would seem that our paths have finally met...but I will grant you just one solar cycle...but you must drink this first! To promise and commit yourself to the Kingdom as one of our sisters." she says as I look at the vial.
It wasn't turning into a mermaid that scared me the most, it was the pain and suffering of others that I must leave behind, that scared me.
I nod, agreeing to the terms. I just need 24 hours to bring mom home and say my goodbyes to her. I would never feel right if I left home and did not say goodbye. I looked to the rising sun as the day was beginning. The mermaids fled back into the ocean as Queen Sedna and Myra and two other royals remain at the surface as the Queen gently takes my hand as she looks at my beaten face.
"My little darling, just look at what the duine have done to you! I promise that we will not interfere in your 24-hour cycle, but we will also not leave you." as she programs the Atlantean device and a forcefield of energy wraps around me. "This will keep you from accidentally getting wet and having the change begin prematurely, but once the sun rises tomorrow, this shield will fail and you will transform. Is that fair?" she asks as I nod.
"It is generous, your highness." I softly say, feeling the energetic shield preventing me from touching my skin. She smiles as the sun's rays dance off of her silver crown.
"Smile my child, your life is about to begin with a new purpose and reason. I will wait for you." as she looked at her daughter to give the drug.
"Jess, once you drink this, there is no going back!" as she lays a hand on my shoulder and looks into my eyes. "Are you sure you want this life?"
"I won't lie...I am scared, but I am certain! Yes!" She smiles and opens the vial.
"Are you ready" she asked as I nodded, scared. I have no idea what to expect. "You need to drink all of this! Whatever you do, do not spit it out! No matter how terrible it tastes!"
That did not give me any confidence as she took the eight ounces of fluid and swirled it around as the liquid glowed, much to my surprise. It glowed blue-green in the twilight as I plugged my nose, ready. I opened my mouth as Myra emptied the vial into my mouth, urging me to drink it.
I swallowed, feeling the viscous slime run down my throat! The taste was beyond horrible as I gagged and tried not to vomit! It was like a combination of salt water, squid's ink, and chunks of gelatinous jellyfish! I almost threw up once more, but Myra held my mouth shut.
"Swallow!" she said as some of the chunks of jelly were still in my mouth as she refills the vial with sea water and tells me to open as she pours the sea water into my mouth and looks at me as I gagged.
"Ough!" I felt sick.
"Swallow it, Jess." The taste was foul and salty...no one ever said becoming a mermaid was 'delicious and good tasting!' With the contents gone, I coughed and breathed as I felt nauseated. I leaned against Myra, trying to steady myself as I felt 'weird'.
"You can't believe just how bad that stuff is!"
"Oh, trust me," Myra says with a giggle "I know!"
It was the same fluid that she had drank in California, the same gross liquid which had turned her into a mermaid, herself. Except hers was filled with fecal and urine as she breathed inside the egg when it swallowed her and transfigured her into a hatchling so many years ago. Mine was just condensed, made from the ovum of the Queen.
I look at the bracelet...the timer was already counting down...I have much to do.
"Jess, do not forget! Time is short!"
"Thank you, Myra my love!" I hugged her as I glanced over at Sedna "And thank you, your highness, for trusting me and allowing me to join your people."
"I look forward to welcoming you home by the next sunrise. Until then, be safe my child." She kissed my face too, though, kissing the shield as she turned tail and dove back into the ocean with the others.
"Be safe, my love!" I heard Myra call out to me as I turned from racing up shore, waving to her.
"You too! I will see you soon."
I turned, running back to the hotel as I needed to find a ride back to Aberdeen. I had to work quickly as I was on borrowed time -- and though I wasn't a mermaid right now, I could feel my cells and blood already changing inside!