The following evening Calum had desperately tried to sneak his way back down to the lake to see 'her' but he continuously failed, due to his friends becoming too nosey and wanting him to play ridiculous games with them.
It was Ashton's idea to play a particular game in which an inflatable ball, which he brought with him to the cabin, gets passed around to each person, by thrusting. The aim was to keep the ball of the ground and to touch it with nothing else other than their 'hips' as it may be preferably said.
It was a game that the boys use to play all the time together, they called it 'Derpball'. Now with Kendall being the only girl there and unwilling to thrust in front of the four boys she lay down on Luke's bed and watched, whilst also texting her friends on her phone.
Though he was not so keen on it, Calum played along soon giving up on the idea of seeing his mermaid by the lake, deciding instead that he would go early in the late am when everyone was sleeping.
But that didn't end up happening, because everyone stayed awake until three thirty in the morning, snacking and talking about anything and everything. Calum tried to pretend he was sleeping, hoping everyone would copy so he could just leave, but again failed when his best friends decided to tickle him and lay down on top of him, deliberately trying to get under his skin, as some friends do.
*
*
When everyone had eventually fallen asleep, so had Calum who was unable to wake at all for that matter, too tired out.
But at around five thirteen in the morning a loud screech had awoken him, as well as Michael and Kendall. It was loud, but still managed to sound quiet. The noise itself sounded like that of a fox crying, but then again also managed to sound like a screaming bird.
"What the hell is that?" Michael groaned, rolling onto his right side and covering his head with a pillow.
"Someone shut it up." Kendall yawned, pulling the covers further over her head, the poor girl still laying on the inflatable mattress on the floor.
"Maybe it's hurt." Calum spoke up, sitting up on the bed.
"Yeah, go see." Michael mumbled
"Wh-why me?"
"Because you're awake and I'm not." He groaned, snatching the covers off his best friend and submerging his head beneath them.
"Well i'm not going on my own, what if it attacks me?"
"Take something to beat it up with." Still during their conversation, the screech could be heard. It was perfectly timed at every four seconds.
"Dude."
"Just go Calum, you're awake. I'll buy you breakfast at the diner or something."
"Ugh fine." The brown haired boy groaned, rubbing his eyes and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, searching the room for a shirt and shoes, deciding to leave his lounger pants on.
"Usingashtonscard."
"What?"
"Nothing just go." And so he did, taking with him, his own personal choice of weapons....a large umbrella, finding it to be the only useful material at that moment.
He lazily trudged through the forest in the faint early morning light, noticing a small glimpse of the sun approaching beyond the horizon. As he got closer, the noise grew louder and he found himself nervously shaking the umbrella in his grasp.
On making it towards the lake, his heart beat began rapidly increasing, all the way at the end of it, where the fishermen would usually sit, he heard splashing by the water, in the exact same place where the noise was coming from.
Taking a deep breath in he decided to walk slowly, hoping not to scare the creature in case it decided to attack him. Of course it was located behind a bush, as if keeping itself hidden. It scared him even more, wondering if it was just going to leap out and bite his face off. So at first, he stood a fare few feet away and started to poke the bush with the end of the umbrella, alerting whatever it was that he was there.
When he felt it touch the object in his hand, the screech grew louder as if it became more terrified. At that very moment he wanted to just leave it and run, but then he saw that it must have been hurt, because on pulling the umbrella back towards him, he saw blood.
Taking another breath in and swallowing hard, he decided to approach it, walking carefully around the bush with his arms up in defence, trying to show 'it' that he was not there to hurt him.
Then he saw it and a look of relief and worry crossed over his face. She looked up at him fearfully, but on realising it was Calum seemed to look up at him pleadingly. Blood covered her fingers and the continuous screech still left her lips as she looked down to her tail and his gaze followed, noticing the large shard of glass sticking out from her scales. It was a piece of a broken wine bottle, one of many things that people disposed of in the lake, not caring about the innocent creatures and wildlife it would be harming.
The sight of her mermaid body left him speechless, he had never seen her out of the water and just seemed to stare, until of course another screech escaped her lips.
Tears were falling from her eyes and Calum could see just how scared she was. Her whole body was laying on land, just the end of her tail splashing in and out of the water at a quick pace.
She had pulled herself onto land, hoping to come across Calum, unaware of the fact that she was in fact in the fisherman's spot and if it was not for her cries of pain, who knows what may have happened.
"Okay, alright um-" he stuttered, dropping the umbrella to the ground and crouching down beside her, observing the glass stuck in her scales.
She cried out again but he calmed her down, reassuring her that he was not going to hurt her.
He needed to pull it out, and so removed his shirt, wrapping it around his hands so he did not get cut and placed it over the piece of glass.
"I'm gonna take it out okay?" She nodded, placing one of her bloodied hands on his shoulder, furrowing her eyebrows at the markings on his skin, not knowing what they were.
He swallowed hard again, hoping not to cause her anymore pain than she was already in. He steadied his hands and in one quick movement, pulled out the shard of glass, hearing a loud yelp leave her lips as well as feeling a very sharp pain on his shoulder, where her nails dug into his skin.
This left both of them groaning in pain as blood emerged from her wound. Though the crescent moon shapes on his shoulders began drawing blood to the surface from her inhuman strength and his flesh felt as though it was burning, he kept quiet, knowing that she was in much more pain.
Shaking the piece of glass out from under his shirt, he folded the material over and went to place it over her wound, noticing her wince when it came into contact with her 'skin'.
Looking up at her, he noticed her gaze on his, a blank expression on her face.
"A-are you okay?" He stuttered, still noticing tears falling down her face. She nodded slowly, her chest now rising and falling at a calm pace.
"Okay. Good." He mumbled, nodding his head.
This time it was his turn to wince, when her hand made contact with the markings she left on his skin, noticing that she had hurt him. He looked at her and she looked back with sorrow in her eyes.
"It's okay, don't worry about it. It doesn't even hurt." He lied, biting back the pain so she would not blame herself.
Of course she could tell he was lying and so gently, she took ahold of his hand, bringing him closer to her since she struggled to move on land and when he got close enough, wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him closer.
He was unsure of what she was doing, but thought it would end in a kiss. He wasn't wrong, she did kiss him but on the skin of his shoulder where she had caused him harm.
And within a matter of seconds, his skin had healed right before his eyes.
*
But though she could heal him, she could not heal herself.
*
Neither of them understood why...
*
~~~~~~~~
I THINK IT'S BEEN A WHILE BUT IM NOT SURE WHOOPS.
ANYWHO...MIGHT GET ANOTHER UPDATE UP SOON :)
THANKS FOR READING ILY
-S