13 Years Later
Nala hated the town square. It wasn't so much the thud of the butcher block or the plopping sound as the fish heads hit the bucket, nor the hustle and bustle of the villagers that threatened to run a person over if you weren't fast enough. No, it was more the actual people that Nala couldn't stand. It was the laughing of the men as they talked about their annoying wives or the big fish they caught today. It was the women with their nauseating giggling while their children ran amok, crying and screaming. How irritating.
If possible her sister made it all worse by daring to actual enjoy going to the town square. Indeed, Ula was in her element as she smiled so prettily at the meat man and got this week's provisions discounted. Nala could never do that, the smile wouldn't reach her eyes and she was more likely to advise the man that if he gave every pretty girl a discount he would soon be selling the shop.
"Honestly Nala if you keep scowling like that you are going to scare someone! Probably one of the children" Ula chided. She looped her arm through Nala's and dragged the reluctant sister deeper into the square. They came to stop in front of a stall with bows of all different colors laid out for young girls to see and drop everything in their haste to grab one. Nala never did understand the fascination with wrapping some string in your hair and pulling the strands in every which way to make it 'prettier'. Ula, on the other hand, jumped at the chance to buy a new ribbon, no doubt why she was so keen on getting the discounted price on their food.
There was already a group of girls in front of the stall, faces caked in powder, bright colored dresses draped on their bodies. They all had high pitched laughs that had to be fake and that drove Nala crazy, however their dresses were the only spots of color in this horrible town and even she grew tired of the gray little village so she withstood the urge to tip the stall over and waited a little ways away while Ula talked to them. There's that smile again, thought Nala as she watched her sister charm yet another person. She studied the smile on her sister's face, it stared with a slight twitch of her lips to the side, then a giggle, and then bloomed into a full smile. Nala touched a finger to her lips, one side twitched...
"There are those half girls again. Did you hear what happened to their father? Heard the poor man got bewitched by that woman...ended up dead for it too."
It was a whisper, most likely not meant to be heard by anyone except her companion.
"A shame too. I heard he was good looking to boot. A shame he was wasted on that witch."
Nala heard the roar of waves falling and clogging her eardrums, blocking every noise expect for those words and the giggles that followed. How she hated the sound. Half girls, that is what they called the twins. Half a person, half a mind, half a heart. Unnatural.
"Come away now Nala" Ula grabbed her sister's arm and tried pulling her away from the area. Babbling about some other stall with some other pretty thing she prayed would grab Nala's attention but it was far too late.
"My mother was no witch! And my father would have rather crawled across sharp stones on his bare hands and feet than lie with you old gossiping bags of brittle bones!" The scream erupted out of Nala's throat and silenced everyone around them. The enraged girl was far too busy focusing on her anger to notice anything, let alone the fisherman who was carrying fishing gear that he had most likely taken from his boat to get cleaned. Or sharpened. She didn't notice when his hand slowly curled around his harpoon. But Ula did.
"Forgive my sister! She has not been feeling well. It must be the excitement of the town market."
Ula grinned at the silent townsfolk, all the while pulling and pulling at her sister trying to get her away from the man and the weapon and the crowds. Although the girls had been safe after the burning of their mother no one in town ever forgot whose daughter's they were and no amount of smiles and pretty words would ever get the town to accept the half girls.
"Come come Nala, grandfather will be waiting for us" Ula stated, all so cheerfully.
With that said she hauled her sister away, that petrified grin frozen on Ula's face until she got away from the crowds. They walked past the lines of small homes and cottages belonging to various townsfolk and didn't talk until the houses became meadows and they passed the first hill and the trail of stones, the second hill and the field of flowers, which is where the silence finally broke.
"I won't apologize for defending our parents. Unlike you I have no interest in becoming friends with the people who let our mother burn!" Nala hissed the words, wanting them to hurt. The words did their job, hitting Ula in the chest and opening up an old wound that never healed properly. She simply watched as Nala in all her fury turned away and continued up the third hill where their house was, taking the moment to pull herself back together before following. The twin's house was nothing special and far away enough from the village that there was no one around to judge the porch that was the falling apart, the old green paint that was peeling and turning an ugly yellow color, nor the strange shape of the house which started as a circular shape before coming up to a sharp point, like a dagger pointing up at the sky challenging the clouds to a duel. The little house was supposed to be a sanctuary away from the cruel village and even crueler people. At least that is what the twin' s grandfather had said when he built it after their parents had gone. To Nala it was simply a reminder of what happened, the reason they were on the outskirts of the town and so close to the cliffs where everything had gone wrong. The girls trudge into the house with Nala grumbling a hello to their grandfather and Ula dropping a kiss on his cheek and lying about the wonderful time they had in the town.
"Bah! Those townsfolk wouldn't know a good time, let alone a wonderful one." Grandfather spat out before returning his gaze to the window that he had been looking out of before the twins arrival. He mumbled under his breath as always, never quiet. Even in his sleep the elderly man never quieted down, it was a miracle he got any sleep.
"You girls can't listen to those villagers. They won't even listen to reason, hunting fish they do. They should be hunting the Deep Ones, cutting their heads clean off! No, no. They hunt the little tailed ones. The wrong ones." Nala rolled her eyes, annoyed with the same old story.
"Grandfather! Enough! Honestly, there are no such things as the deep ones."
The old man eyebrows rose all the way to the top of his bald scalp and his brown eyes just about about popped out of his head. "No such thing? Why, don't you remember what happened to your parents? Stupid girls, those nonsense people got into your heads!"
Nala had had more than enough reminders about her dead parents and declared that she was going upstairs to nap before dinner, leaving Ula to do all the work. She welcomed the quiet actually, with her sister napping and her grandfather occupied she was able to get a moment alone. Ula got to work on dinner hoping there was salt and some herbs or else it would all taste horrible, while she worked she couldn't help but gaze at her grandfather. The old man never seemed sad but constantly looked out that small window, as if waiting for someone to appear on the cliffside.
While Ula prepared dinner, Nala went upstairs and laid on her small bed, gazing up at the chipped ceiling. Deep Ones, she thought, a bunch of fables. Grandfather is losing his mind. There is no such thing. There was a time when Nala had lived for those stories and she would sit on his lap while he described these terrifying but beautiful underwater creatures who could make waves high enough to cover the sun and split the very sea apart. They were rulers of the deep sea and were very particular about what humans they allowed in their domain, although sometimes humans where chosen. Chosen to live with the sea creatures. Nala spent a good amount of her childhood pretending she had been chosen and that the fishes were her friends and escorts to the underwater world.
That was all before she was yanked out of her dream world and thrust into the real world. It wasn't when her father had disappeared or when her mother was burned alive, no she was foolish enough to ask one of the villagers about the Deep Ones. Her grandfather had grown sick for a week and unable to tell her stories so Nala had escaped the house when her parents were too busy taking care of the old man. Surely, if one old person knew about the Deep Ones then they all did. Nala had run all over town until she came across an old woman in a rocking chair sewing some type of clothing. She had never cared for sewing but she thought if she didn't mention that little fact the woman would be more inclined to talk to her.
Nala had sat at the old woman's feet with a big smile on her little face and to her relief the lady was nice enough at first. That all changed the minute the words 'Deep Ones' left Nala's mouth. The old woman's face had changed as if a malevolent creature had been waiting under her skin to strike out at the first person to utter those words.
That is exactly what she did.
The hag had grabbed little Nala and spanked her until her bottom burned all the while yelling to never ask about those disgusting evil creatures again. Nala had screamed and begged the woman to stop but she didn't, not until Nala had no more tears left and then pushed the little girl off her lap. The woman picked up her needles and continued to sew as if nothing had happened and no one around them stopped to help Nala off the dirty floor, then again they hadn't helped when she was begging and being beaten either. Nala limped home that day and told her parents she had slipped and slid down a rough dirt path. Her grandfather tried telling her stories again after that but she never listened and her dreams were swept away by the hatred that had settled in her like a heavy stone.
"Nala", the door squeaked open and Ula appeared, "dinner is ready, won't you come down?"
"I'll be down in a minute."
Nala tucked the memory into her mind and went downstairs. Dinner was never a lively affair and today was no different. After they ate the girls washed the bowls, bathed their grandfather and then put him to bed before retiring to their shared room. The girls brushed their hair in front of the one mirror they had and identical faces stared back at them, not their own reflections but each others. It was the same heart shaped face, the same red lips, dark brown hair and matching dark eyes. The exact same face and yet Ula was seen as the pretty one, perhaps even worthy of being married despite her background according to the village gossip. Nala was a menace that no amount of powder, pretty dresses, or ribbons was ever going to make beautiful. The girls changed into their nightgowns, their naked bodies barely visible in the dark but Nala knew that while her sister's body was smooth, hers was covered in bruises and scars from her many scraps and tumbles.
"Goodnight Nala, you'll see that tomorrow will be a better day." Ula whispered sweetly.
"A better day if only by some miracle we appear far far away from this town."
With that Nala turned away from her sister and went to sleep. One sister slept like the dead that night. No nightmares and barely moved at all. The other sister was not so lucky. She turned this way and that, trying to get comfortable but not being able to. When she did fall asleep it felt as though only a minute or two had passed before something woke her up and she was back to turning round and round in her bed. It took hours for her to finally settle and only seconds before she was thrown into a nightmare.
It was so very dark and it took a couple of minutes for her to notice that her feet were not touching the floor, no part of her was touching anything. It was like she was floating in midair but she could sense something all around her. Something shifted as she moved her palm back and forth. She was in water, completely submerged. Instinctively she held her breath and tried swimming up to the surface but she was too far, too deep. Her lungs screamed for air and the pressure inside her became a storm until she couldn't hold it in anymore and took in a deep breath. She expected to die in seconds and feel the water rush through her mouth and nose until it drowned her from the inside out. But...nothing happened. She was breathing underwater. Taking a deep breath to calm the panic of being anywhere near water she tried to think, but it was too much. This is where her father had disappeared to, his body never even recovered.
Focus stupid girl! Before you die here!
Desperately squinting her eyes, trying to catch sight of anything in the dark she turned her body, needing to find an exit, a way out.
A strange noise startled her, it was a deep sound that she was sure she had heard before but couldn't be sure where. There it was again. Suddenly she could see a cliffside, a mother and father with their twin daughters all laughing and pointing out to the sea where whales were surfacing and singing their songs. It was a whale, that's what was coming, the panic started anew. She started to swim again, frantically kicking out her legs and moving her arms until she grew too tired to continue. There was a light coming towards her...it was purple and...shimmery. Something grabbed her arms...they felt like hands, it must be her sister here to help her. She looked up and screamed.
The scream woke her up and she jerked up just in time to see a wave coming right towards her. She tore herself away from where she had been lying, there was her house, and here she was lying at the very edge of the cliff where both her parents had fallen. She had been in her bed so how had she gotten out here? A wave slammed into the cliffside as if demanding she come back. She took deep labored breaths, calming the panic in her.
Ula looked out to the sea. It's song still ringing in her mind. In her body.