Originally Published in 2012
New chapter!!! Woop-woop!! Okay, so Song: Because of You by Kelly Clarkson (I give a lot of flash backs in this chapter about Tara and Ridge) / Picture: Another one of Luke Mitchell shirtless (because why not? haha) Hope I got your attention, now read on! Vote and comment :)
Chapter 15
I just killed my dad, the realisation hit me like a slap straight to the face. I just murdered my own father! Well, he had after all jumped off a bridge, he was going to kill himself anyway, and I just made things go faster. Right, so technically I did him a favour, right? Right!
I watched as my father's now lifeless body sink down to the bottom of the ocean into the deep. What was done was done; I couldn't really change that now. I started to feel chocked up and overwhelmed by emotion, so I decided to swim back up so I can calm down and recollect my thoughts; my normal, non-murderous thoughts. I was having such a horrible day.
"Okay Tara, focus and breathe." I told myself out loud once my head breached the surface, still in my mermaid form. "You'll get through this, just breathe."
What in the world was I supposed to do now? I can't go back to the castle because there was absolutely no way that I was going to talk, or look at Taiven after shouting that I hated him earlier. And right now, to me Dakaina and Sabian were traitors for even thinking of summoning Taiven to come and get me, and we all know how that turned out. I wasn't allowed going to see Ridge no matter how much I wanted to; I had no one left to turn to. I wanted my brother. I needed my mom.
After awhile, I dove back under water and continued to swim around for awhile so I could clear my head. I thought of random things like the stray dog that my brother and I had found and kept only a year before our mom's death. It was a black retriever, and to us it was the cutest thing in the world. It was more Ridge's dog than mine because he took care of it more often then I did, I was after all eight at the time and he was twelve. I week after my mom had passed away, our dad "accidentally" ran over our dog with his car. Even at my young age I had been able to tell that it was on purpose, but what I had not been able to tell was that he was drunk. Ridge had been so heart broken for close to a month; I remembered that I was bringing home stray cats in hope to make him feel better.
"I don't want a stupid cat" He'd mumbled the final time that I had attempted.
"Why do you want?" My eight year old self then asked him.
"Mom."
Maybe he was feeling what I was right now; with no one to turn to. I obviously couldn't have been of much help because I was only eight, dad had started drinking, and my brother was avoiding his friends. I now saw how much of a tough time it had been for him.
My thoughts then drifted to the night where he ran away. "Tara" My brother had whispered to me trying to get me to wake up. I was twelve and he was sixteen, it was in November and it must have been about one in the morning.
"What are you doing up? Leave me alone and go to bed." I'd snapped. This was around the time that I was finding my "attitude" as most people called it.
He'd grabbed my pillow and hit me with it so I wouldn't fall back asleep. Once he was sure I was awake and paying attention he continued talking. "I'm leaving" He said to me. That had been when I noticed the duffel bag that he was carrying on his back. "For good."
Ridge had left the house a few times before, but only for a day or two. But I had always doubted, and feared the moment were he would leave me behind forever.
"Ridge, I wanna come to." I had replied, now completely awake.
"Tara I can't—" He has tried to say before I had interrupted him.
"Please, please, please bring me." I'd begged. "Don't leave me alone with him; he hurts me and kisses me and I don't like it! Please Ridge, please don't leave me." I'd started crying.
"Tara I can't." He had replied, tossing his bag to the floor. He sat down on my bed and pulled me into his arms so that I was on his lap, as if we were kids again. "I want to bring you, you have no idea, but I can't. I don't know if I'll be able to keep you fed, or clean, or warm or even safe." I felt him crying too. "But I promise, when I'll be able to give you what you need, I'm getting you the hell out of this house."
"Promise?"
"I promise." He swore.
He had stayed with me in that position on my bed until I had fallen asleep. When I had woken up the next morning, he was gone. I didn't see my brother after that for a good two years later. I had started working at Shellie's and Fish and he was getting arrested in front of the restaurant.
I could have continued on to think about my brother, but I felt a sudden shot of pain go through the end of my tail. "Ouch! What the hell?" I exclaimed as I stopped swimming.
I examined my tail, some weird small looking fish was caught into it. But it actually looked too weird. It was actually fishing lure, and the hook was caught in my tail. Damn. Just before I was about t attempt to remove it, the fisherman on the other side of the line had started pulling; immediately it started hurting and I couldn't help but scream. The hook had gotten in deep. I tried pulling back, but it only mad it worse, the pain and my situation. I had started to see blood—my blood—appear in the water. Great, so how was I going to get myself out of this one?
Ridge
He was determined to get rid of everything in his surroundings that reminded him of his sister. This was in his own, way an attempt to move on, even thought so far it wasn't working out too well. He had been at it for a good two hours when someone knocked on his door. At first he ignored it, but the person on the other side seemed determined to be heard.
"Hey Ridgie, open them door up" The voice of Patch was sounded, his think country accent made it easy to recognize. "I gotta use the John and stayin' out heres ain't gonna help any of our sitiations. Unless if you's wants me to tinkle in fronts of your door."
Ridge sighed and went to go unlock the door for his friend, who stepped into the room immediately looking rather proud of him. "I was lyin'" Patch said with a grin on his face, displaying his two missing front teeth. "I ain't got no need to use the loo, I just needed you's to open 'em door." His friend let out a small retarded laugh. "I got me here some actin' talents."
"What do you want Patch?" Ridge asked going to his room to burn the remaining family photos.
"We's goin' fishin' today." Patch proudly announced. Ridge then noticed the fishing rods and the tackle box.
"I don't feel like going fishing today, or tomorrow, or the day after that." Ridge mumbled, avoiding looking at his friend.
"You's been in them depression of yours since 'em sister of yours gotty herself killed." Patch pointed out. Ridge only understood the words depression, sister and killed. "You's need to get outs more, so, we's going fishin" He raising the rods as if to prove it.
"Do you even know how to fish?" Ridge rudely snapped back, not caring if it was insulting.
"Oh, hell nah" Patch replied, oblivious to what Ridge had meant to say. "I's hopin' you's was gonna teach me."
Ridge had gone fishing once in his entire life, and that one time had been enough for him to decide that he didn't like it, not one bit. His mom had hated fishing, so he had gone with his dad, he might have been around ten at the time. Sure, they'd caught a few fish, but Ridge felt so bad for the poor things that every time that Kyle wasn't looking he was grab them (literally) and throw them back into the water. It had annoyed his dad to no end.
"I don't really know how to fish either." He pointed out to his friend after thinking about it.
"That's alright, we's gonna learn together as we go." Patch answered dragging Ridge out of his apartment. Even thought he still hadn't fully agreed to go yet, that didn't seem to matter to his friend. Clearly the word no didn't exist in the country bumpkin's vocabulary.
They got into Patch's dusty old green pick-up truck. Before Ridge used to be afraid of his friend behind the wheel, not to certain that it was the best idea to have him as the driver. But now he knew very well that if there was one thing Patch could do (and there wasn't many) was drive.
"We's gonna catchy ourselves some big fishies, you's just wait and see." And he put the car into drive.
.....
They'd been on the water for nearly two hours, and both of them had caught absolutely nothing. Ridge just felt like slapping his friend for this useless time waste.
"I'm gonna puts my line deepers." Patch announced his hopes still high. "That's where's 'em big fishies are."
Ridge rolled his eyes; this really was not his idea of fun. What was his idea of fun anyway? When he was younger, he and his sister use to make forts out of blankets; that had been pretty fun, he reminded himself.
"How long are we supposed to stay here?" He asked ten minutes later to his friend as he caste his line, again.
"T'il I gets me some fish" Patch answered. "I ain't got no money to spend on food, or anything stupid like that."
Ridge let out a frustrated sigh as he leaned his back on the side of the boat. It was an old thing that Patch had built in his earlier days, it was pretty solid enough, but Ridge still doubted that it could carry more then three people.
At least it's a nice day, he thought as he looked up, now hoping he hadn't jinxed the moment by thinking about it. The last thing he needed was for it to suddenly start raining.
"Oh" Patch suddenly exclaimed all exited. It reminded Ridge of some caveman discovering fire. "I thinks I just gots me a nibbler." Patch held his rod as if his life depended on it.
"You probably got more seaweed." Ridge told his friend, not bothering to sound optimistic. "That's what happens when you put your line too de—"
"Sweet Jesus!" Patch suddenly exclaimed as the other side of the line began pulling immensely. "I just gotty me a big one!"
Ridge thought he heard an echo of something screaming in the distance, screaming in pain. "Did you hear that?" He asked his friend who was pulling hard to reel in his line.
"No" Patch replied obvious not caring. He needed to concentrate on his task, and that demanded a lot out of him. "But looky here! I's goin' to be eating good for a whole month! Now, you's better get them net so we's don't lose 'em fish."
"I just hope for your sake that that thing doesn't break your line." Ridge pointed out grabbed the net. "You know it might be a shark."
"I don't give a damn about what kind of fishy it is Ridgie." Patch snapped, struggling to hold on to his rod. "I just wanna fire it up and eat the sucker! It's better than road kill any day. Sweet honey Marie it's under the boat!"
He was right about that. Ridge could feel whatever it was swimming right under them, and it was big. It could probably turn to boat over, and that was something that he absolutely did not want to see happening. The memory of the invisible force pulling him and his sister down into the water came back to his mind.
"Cut the line." He ordered his friend, doing his best to ignore the cry of pain that had gotten incredibly closer, and louder.
"Oh, hell nah!" Patch replied more determined than ever to not lose what he called a "fishy". "This might just be them catch of the years and I's the one who caughts it."
But at this point, Ridge didn't care what the country bumpkin had to say. He was able to feel the boat slowly tipping over, and no way was he going to let that happen. He took out his Swiss army knife that he always carried in his pocket, and before Patch's slow brain had the time to process what was going on, he cut the line. In fact, Patch had been so unprepared, that he fell into the water. Oops.
"Damn it!" Ridge exclaimed, looking over the side that his friend had fallen. Did he even know how to swim?
Finally after a few seconds, there were bubbles, and a head emerged out of the water. Only, it wasn't Patch's.
"Tara?"
"Ridge" She answered him looking as stupefied as he felt. "What are you—oh shit!" She suddenly exclaimed as if realising the gravity of the situation.
His sister quickly dove back under water, but Ridge did not miss the small splash from her purple tail. Tail?
"Tara!" He called out, but it was no use she was long gone, again.
Enjoying my work so far? I encourage you to check out my other stories such as The Way to Neverland: A Peter Pan Story and The Walkers Saga! Available on my profile!