When Dad knocks on my door the next morning, I don't budge. I sit in my room half asleep and surrounded by flowered wallpaper and a horrendous green-colored carpet. A pile of clothes sits unbothered in the corner of my room.
"Sydney? Hey, come out of there." He raps on the door again.
I pull a floral patterned sheet over me—the only thing on my mattress because it's too hot to have a cover—and curl to my side. "I'm tired." I say loud enough for him to hear. I'd been avoiding him really ever since the whole mermaid scene. Not because I don't want to talk about it—I do, but not with him.
"Sydney, please. We need to talk about this. You can't just avoid it forever, sweetheart."
Watch me, I think to myself. I listen as rain droplets gently drum against the my window, staring at the colorful glow star stickers clumsily placed on my ceiling. Dad and I had put them up when I was young, and even though most of them don't glow anymore I've never felt the need to take them down. After multiple minutes of silence I hear his solemn foot steps as he walks back into the kitchen.
I reach for my phone on my nightstand, sitting up. I try to occupy myself, losing myself in the world of social media for only a moment before feeling my cheeks burn with emotion. I sit up, crossing my legs. I bring the phone closer, biting at my trembling lip. The phone screen blurs as my eyes brim with tears. I let them flow, watching as they slide down my face and plop onto my bare legs. One scale, glinting even in the dim, grey light seeping through the foggy window, appears on my leg where a drop lands. I cry even more, my back lurching.
"Why?" I mutter, curling into a ball. "Why, why, why..."
I think back to yesterday and how fun it was. How could a day like that, lead to a morning like this?
Maybe I'm just about to start my period, or maybe I'm so just emotional because I literally transformed into a half fish not even a week ago. Both reasons seem pretty understandable.
Why did this have to happen to me? Sure, when I was a kid I dreamt of being a mermaid, but those days are long gone. I just wanted a normal summer. What more is there to ask?
My phone buzzes. My heart beat quickens. Ollie's name lights my screen.
Was wondering if you're down to come to the beach with me tomorrow ?
Just him? Like a... date? No, probably not. I'm sure he means Rue, too.
I look out the window, the rain becoming even more rapid and forceful. Thunder groans in the distance. I close my phone, unable to reply. I'd reply with a thumbs up in a heart beat if I didn't have all this going on, but I've already taken enough chances. Last time I almost blew it when the dog knocked me down. This time who knows what'll happen.
"Couldn't it have been someone else? Literally anyone else?" I groan, throwing my phone back onto the mattress. I turn to my side, staring out the window. I blink, the tears diminishing and leaving only a stuffed nose and bleary eyes. "I don't want this, I don't want any of it."
Something in the corner catches my eye. It's on my dresser, near the door. It's blue, almost turquoise, and blinking rapidly. I gulp. I left the necklace on the counter after my encounter with my mother—praying that it was all just a bad dream, but knowing it wasn't. Dad must have brought it in here when I wasn't around. I sigh, hugging the blanket closer. "No, no, no. I'm not..." but the necklace blinks more rapidly in protest. My head begins to pound just as rapidly. I get up, dragging the sheet along with me. "I don't want..." the charm starts blinking faster and faster. I try to look away, out the window at the grey clouds but the charm draws me back. I walk closer, sheet trailing behind. The blinking gets more frantic. A bag of Skittles Claire and I had shared before any of this—on one of our many movie\gossip nights—sits uneaten beside it. I grab the corner, the bag crinkling. "I—" the blinking only protest more and before I know it I've grabbed the necklace, the charm cold in my palm.
My ankles and feet tingle. It's suddenly damp and wet. The air is thick and clammy. Water drops from little formations on the ceiling.
Plop, plop, plop.
"Sydney? Is that you?" A frail, small voice calls from the corner—a sad and forgotten song. "Oh, Sydney." The water swishes and she comes into view. Thin red hair, bony, and thin. A translucent tail—looking closer I see small veins and organs through the scales—that barely move without her wincing. "Are those... Skittles?"
I look down at my hand, noticing the bag hanging limply from my fingers. The bed sheet wraps around me, but doesn't protect me from the cold. "Oh, yeah. I—" her stomach growls, sounding like a dying whale. "Do you... want some?" She swims up to me and I realize that there's more water than before, filling the whole pool instead of just the center. I look down at my feet, submerged and buzzing. I furrow my brows as I watch them flatten into fins, growing longer and longer. I lose balance, falling into the water with a thud. "I thought I was a hologram? Why..."
My mother comes closer, examine my scaly legs with wide eyes. "Gold." She says it again, this time questioning. "Gold?" She looks up at me, pale blue sunken eyes wide and popping. "You're her. You're..." she blinks, cocking her head to the side. Her waste length ratted hair falls limply to the side. She digs into the bag, plopping a handful of colorful candies into her mouth.
"Huh?" I watch her every motion. The way her brittle fingers curl around the candies like they're treasure. The way she eats it like it's her last and first meal all at the same time. The way her lips perch and then the way she smiles slightly—a Mona Lisa smile just like my own. The only difference is that hers is much less lively.
She shakes her head in disbelief, shoving her dripping wet hand back in the bag. "I should've known." Then she becomes all too serious. "Last time you said there was a woman—a Mer— who tried to kill you. Is that true?"
"In my dream, yes. You know I really—" I try to tell her that I need to get back home. I feel weird sitting here, scales climbing up my legs for the second time in my life. My feet flattened like pancakes. I feel exposed.
She buries her hand back in the bag, interrupting me. "If you see her again, tell me right away. She's bad, you hear? Very bad. Extremely." Then she switches topics, wrapping her wet fingers around the glowing charm. "This is more powerful than I could have ever imagined." It blinks, leaving us in complete and total darkness. She jumps back in surprise.
An idea sparks in my head. I rush to get it out before it's too late. "Hey, it might be able to bring you back. It brought the skittles and the blanket—"
"No, Sydney. I can't leave. She put a barrier around here—a spell. I'm stuck her until her spell is broken."
"Who's she?" She stares at me knowingly. "You mean..." I think back to my dream: the woman whose hair was just as white as her skin. The woman with the snake tail. It all slowly begins to come together. "She did this to you?" My eyes drift to her discolored tail—dead looking like my own in my dream.
"She took my essence—my being, basically. The part of me that made me what I am. And then left me here to rot." She explains sorrowfully, her eyes growing tired as if just talking to me is withering her away.
I stare down at her limp tail with new understanding. Her scales don't glint and sparkle like my own, rather darken in the light. "She took your mermaid." I conclude, my heart dropping as the charm dies out again. With a few anxious shakes it fades back on, much dimmer than before.
"You can put it like that." She actually laughs. It's throaty and painful, but it's a laugh. I smile back at her. "She's powerful, Sydney, but I know you are stronger. I just wish I was there with you. I wish I had more time to tell you what to do." She fades away as the light dies once again. I grab at her, hoping that maybe—just maybe—I can bring her back with me, but she's already gone.
Tear roll down my cheeks, adding to the puddle on the vomit green carpet the soggy sheet has already created. I lay on the floor, watching as my feet tingle back to their former selves and the scales fade back into my freckles. I sob, even more so than earlier. I curl up in the wet floor and cry until I can't anymore. I cry for my mother, trapped in her prison and slowly withering away to nothing. I cry for my dad, who'd lived the past 17 years lost in the memory of my mother, unable to move on. I cry for myself and how everything has gone haywire so quickly. I've lost my carefree summer.
Once I'm drained of tears I stand, picking up my phone and reading the time. 11:47 PM. Meaning I'd been with my mother all day into the night. It's completely dark outside, save for a few porch lights. An occasional flash of lightening lights my room, followed by rolling thunder. I open my door, walking to the kitchen. I'm surprised to see the light on, and even more surprised to see my dad sitting at the table, brown eyes staring at the wall, emotionless.
Once he notices my presence he jumps back, then smiles. "Oh, um, I couldn't sleep." He says, then furrows his eyebrows. "Are you... okay?" He takes in my soaking clothes and my puffy red face. "What's wrong, Sydney? Sit."
I sit. "I'm fine." I lie, it comes out squeaky and forced. My lip quivers.
"Your mom used to do that." He never really talked about my mother before. I didn't like it when he did, even as a kid. He talked about her so lovingly and I'd thought she'd left us for no good reason. Now that I know her and I've met her I realize I was completely wrong.
I fall into him, no more tears left to cry but still sobbing. "She's dying. We can't let her just die." I cry into his shoulder.
He tenses. "What?"
"She's in this cave, and-and she's so skinny and she told me she—"
"Your mom? She's alive?"
"Barely." I say, picturing her bony body and frail colorless tail. "The necklace brought me to her."
His eyes have something I've never seen in them. "Show me." He begins walking to my room, to the necklace.
"Hey, wait! I don't know how it works. I can't chose—"
He walks back to me, the necklace held tight in his strong hand. "Show me her." He commands again.
"I can't." I say again. "It lights up randomly. I don't know when—"
He's desperate. His arms are covered in goosebumps. "Try for me. Please. I need to see her." He puts the necklace in my hand.
I wrap my palm around it, eyeing it and willing it to do something. Please, for my dad. But it doesn't do a thing. I look back up at him after a drawn out minute. "I'm sorry. I don't know how..." I wait for him to say something but instead he just stares a me bleary eyed.
After a few moments, he blinks. "Okay." His eyes plant themselves on his feet. "Okay." He repeats, talking more to himself than to me. "I'm going to bed. I have to work tomorrow."
"Okay, me too. I'm sorry I couldn't—"
"No. Don't be sorry. There's nothing you could do." His voice sounds forced. I can't imagine what he's feeling. "I'm going to go to bed. I've got work." With that he heads to bed, his tall, lanky figure disappearing into the hall.
I stay up until early in the morning, unable to sleep. The tv drones on and I just stare the pictures zooming past the screen, trying to remember the details of my conversation with my mom and why she was so interested in the color of my tail.