It all happened at once, I hadn't even begun to process what was even happening. One moment I was sitting at the edge of the pool. The next, I was underwater. Regret and fear flooded my mind as water filled my lungs.
My scream was drowned under the reflective surface. All I could see was the dim light of the glow sticks piercing through the thick darkness that laid underneath the water.
I finally managed to process the urgency of my situation. I struggled to reach the surface to fill my lungs with fresh air. But, I did not get far due to the mermaid suddenly appearing before me pulling me down into the dark depths further away from the light above.
I squirmed struggling as my vision faded. But her grip was ironclad and my strength was failing me. Then my back hit the bottom of the pool with a silent thud. I laid there completely at her mercy. She moved towards my face with deft movement.
I tried to turn and close my eyes but she gripped my face. Shutting my eyes I accepted my fate. My vision was almost completely gone. I felt myself fading into unconsciousness. My hands fell from their place on her arms.
As I fell into darkness I was sure that I was going to die. Either from drowning or mercilessly eaten alive. All this at the hands of the creature I had foolishly trusted.
Before I completely lost all sense of the situation I felt something. But not the violent and vicious tearing of my flesh against razor-sharp teeth. It was something else. Something different. a sudden soft feeling against my lips and a force opening my mouth. Suddenly, like a jolt of lightning air rushed into my lungs replacing the water.
My eyes snapped open as my senses flooded back, my vision still dark. But due to the mermaid's figure above me and not the loss of consciousness. The first thing I saw was her orange hair haloing around her glowing softly above me.
She had pulled away from me with a smile, her eyes twinkling with mirth. I stared at her unable to understand what just happened. She let out a laugh that sounded closer to an actual human underwater. She then pulled me up from my laying position upon the pool floor. Sand fluttered a bit as I sat up.
This was so hard to even process, I was able to breathe... Somehow? But it wasn't air. My arms floated helplessly in the water as the mermaid swam around me in a flowing circle before stopping in front of me and spinning around with her laughter ringing in the water.
If I had to describe what that sounded like to someone. The best way I could manage was it was as sweet as the sound of laughter of your first crush. But twice as magical as the ringing of wind chimes on a summer day.
As the mermaid spun and spun her orange hair wrapped around her body as she came to a stop. She struggled a bit, earning a chuckle from me as she freed her arms from her long hair. She shot me a sheepish look before making her way back over to me. Hovering in the water at eye level with me, she grabbed my face.
I froze unsure what was going to happen next. I didn't make any movements to swim away. I seriously doubted that I would've done much good anyway. After all, I was on her turf now and if she was as fast as she was on land. I stood no chance in the water.
In the brief seconds I pondered this over to myself, the mermaid gave me a smile and settled herself down onto my lap. Her webbed hands still upon my cheeks. She smiled and said something, in what now sounded like a language I didn't understand and less like the strange animal sounds I had heard come out of her previously.
I gave her a confused look and tried to tell her I couldn't understand what she said. But before anything of that nature could come out of my mouth. The mermaid's hands moved away from my cheeks to the back of my head getting lost in the mess of hair floating aimlessly in the water.
Gently, she pulled me towards her as she closed the gap between the two of us. Inching slowly closer, she tilted her head in all too familiar movement. Slowly as this was happening, it dawned on me just as a sensation that I had felt once before made it's way back onto my lips.
The true intentions of the mermaid hit me like a truck. She hadn't pulled me down here to eat me or drown me. Oh no, she pulled me down here for a completely different reason. Something that I would've never of guessed. Not in a million years, would I would've thought this would happen to anyone. Especially me, of all people.
I waved my arms trying to get free. But the mermaid caught them in her hands. Our fingers intertwined, I felt myself relax. She softly pushed me down onto the floor of the pool. Unlike before, she did not hover above me. This time her weight rested upon me as we became tangled with one another. Osculation and caresses were exchanged between the two of us.
Some things happened that I would normally expound upon in all of the juiciest of details. But I would rather leave much of that to the imagination for privacy's sake. After all, I was never one to kiss and tell. At least not everything.
Finally free from her grip, my common sense came flooding back and I quickly made my way towards the surface. But, still weak from almost drowning, the efforts were mostly fruitless. Seeing my struggle, the mermaid swam behind me lifting me up through the water and into the surface.
Gasping for air, I felt two spots on my neck close up. But I logged that information away for later as I clutched the edge of the water coughing and hacking. Now above water, my previously cotton filled brain came to terms with what happened under the water. My eyes widened in shock, I looked over at the mermaid who was floating behind me. She smiled brightly giving me a quick wave. I laughed nervously waving back.
Dear sweet merciful God. What the hell did I just do?
Pushing my hair away back away from my face. I slowly looked around the cave. My things laid nearby the pool next to my boots. There was a strange rustling in my bag. Narrowing my eyes I lean towards it just as there was a loud screech and flying out of my bag was the seagull from before.
Landing in front of my face with a thud the seagull spotted me and instantly tried to snap its little grubby beak over my nose. Jerking away with a cry of surprise. I moved back from the edge where the seagull stood and into the arms of the mermaid.
Her arms wrapped around me instantly and her chin rested upon my shoulder. I guess she noticed that I was too weak to tread the water by myself. Something I was grateful for, but at the same time, her breath on my bare wet neck put me on edge.
It was a little too much for my system to process along with everything that had happened. But I tried to catch my breath as the seagull shot daggers at me. The mermaid let out what sounded like a disapproving noise and the seagull began gagging up something. As if her scolding was going to make the thing throw up.
"Uh..." I could only manage to mutter out a confused sound, I was concerned and confused. Was the seagull dying...? Or was it going to throw up on me? These questions swirled in my mind as whatever the seagull was hacking up finally came out.
In a disgusting glob on the cave floor, a starfish wiggled to life. I wretched at the disgusting sight. The mermaid, on the other hand, was delighted, she let out a cry of joy.
She let go of me, causing me to suddenly dip into the water. I struggled for a moment before managing to swim over to a nearby edge and lean there to rest. The mermaid didn't seem to notice my momentary struggle and picked up the starfish with clear delight. She reached over and scratched the top of the seagull's head clearly pleased with its work.
Because of this, a thought occurred to me.
"Wait a second." I choked out, my eyes narrowing due to a headache forming. "Did you send him after me?" I asked pointing to the mermaid and then to the seagull who was now perched upon a higher sitting rock formation near the water. The mermaid with starfish in hand looked over at the seagull and then me before nodding with a smile on her face.
My eye twitched at this information. I opened my mouth to say something before wincing. A sharp stabbing pain formed in my side. I think my lungs were still getting used to breathing air again. Also almost drowning exhausted me, so deciding to shelf that information for now. I attempted to get out of the water.
Which was immediately a failure. My hands slid on the slick smooth rock causing me to fall once more back into the pool. The mermaid was beside me in a matter of seconds, she seemed to put two and two together and easily helped me out of the pool.
Flopping on shore, I rolled over on to my back and wheezed, pushing some stray hairs that had made their way back into my eyes away. I looked over at the mermaid, "Next time don't pull me under without a warning." I hissed lowly shooting as much of glare as I could in her direction.
The mermaid lowered herself in the water to hide her mouth, acting as if she was sorry about what she did. But from the way her eyes were crinkling, it was obvious she'd do it again if given the chance. Especially considering she had been 'rewarded' for this bad behavior anyway.
Huffing at this, I slowly sat up. I was freezing and exhausted. I looked over to my bag of supplies, wondering if my work out clothes were still in the bag. It had been a few months since I had been to the gym due to the move and previous book tour. But I don't remember removing them from that bag.
Ambling my way over I started digging around in the bag. Pulling out the sandwiches from earlier got the attention of not only the mermaid but the seagull as well. Too tired to fight either, I handed the mermaid hers and set aside half of the sandwich for the seagull.
The bird and the mermaid immediately started tearing into the food as I dug around the large bag. Notebooks, flashlights, bandages, rope, tangled up earbuds, layer by layer I carefully sat out different items in search of my goal. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of digging, I finally felt something fabric.
"Ah-hah!" I cried in victory, pulling out a large rolling stones shirt, a sports bra, and a pair of yoga pants tangled up at the bottom. They weren't clean by any measure and smelt terrible. But they were dry and that was what was important right now.
Stuffing the other less desired objects into the bag I then got to work pilling off my soaked clothes. I was halfway through pulling off my pants when a thought occurred to me. Glancing behind me I looked over to see the mermaid sitting there staring at me changing. Her face was becoming increasingly red at the sight of my state of undress.
Never being one to feel shame for my nudity. Especially since I spent my college years paying for school as a life drawing model. I laughed and asked, "Enjoying the show?" The mermaid's eyes widened as she had suddenly realized she had been caught staring. Her face turned dark red and she covered her face with her hands for just a few moments before peeking out of the crack of her fingers to see if I was still watching.
I decided to continue changing despite the audience. My shirt and bra flopped to the ground with a wet plop that reminded me of the sound of a cup hitting the surface of the water.
Moving to pull the dry sports bra on I looked over at the mermaid briefly noticing she was still watching. But poorly highing the fact that she was. I then glanced over at the seagull who was pecking at a flashlight trying to get to the shiny metal on the inside.
With a snap, the sports bra fell into place on my body. I then moved to remove my pants. They too soon joined the wet pile of clothes on the cave floor.
Pulling up the yoga pants and slipping on the t-shirt, I let out a sigh of relief feeling some warmth return to my body. My limbs felt like rubber hoses as I made my way over towards the mermaid.
Playing dumb I said, "It's safe to look now." Slowly the mermaid removed her hands. Her cheeks were bright red matching her hair. I snorted at this giving her a smug look.
"Good to know you enjoyed the show." I teased, her eyes widened and she gave me an offended look before slashing some water at me. "Hey!" I shouted barely being able to keep myself mostly dry from the attack. She turned her nose at me and went to dive underwater to pout.
But just as her tail surfaced, I remembered what I came to do. "Hey wait!" I called, unlike so many times before. She stopped this time. I crouched near the water, "Your tail," I said sticking my hand in the water near her tail. She didn't flinch or try to move away from my touch. "It's hurt isn't it?" I asked motioning over towards the swollen gash.
She flinched, a burst of water brushed up against it. "Sorry." I apologized noticing this. Taking a few beats I then spoke up, "You know, I could probably get whatever is stuck in there out so it can heal." I offered. She seemed unsure, she chewed on her bottom lip just a little. She then made a move to nod and I spoke up again.
"I will warn you. It's going to hurt when I do that." I added, she froze not liking the sound of that. "But it will get better when it's over. So you're going to have to trust me." I spoke holding my hand out to her.
There were at least three minutes of dead air that hung between us. She seemed scared of the thought it was going to hurt. But after a moment she nodded and grabbed my hand. I helped her up onto the cave floor.
Feeling a second wind come over me. I walked over to my supplies and pulled out my sizable first aid kit. The kit itself was only dwarfed in size by kits presented to first responders. But the materials inside let the person who possessed the kit perform some basic procedures if they knew what they were doing.
Prepping myself properly and my supplies I looked over to see the mermaid fidget at the sight of the sharp instruments I had laid out before her. Understanding her nervousness I walked over to the wet pile of clothes and pulled my belt from my pants. The thick leather should serve as a good object for her to bite down on.
While it was a shame to lose such a good belt. My eyes wandered to my bandaged arm. It was better the belt than me again. After a few minutes of prep work, I was finally ready. I approached the mermaid with a can of disinfectant and the belt. She was frightened at the sight, but I shushed her softly. She calmed down some but looked unsure.
I handed her the belt "Bite down on this when it hurts." I ordered holding it to her mouth. Her brows knotted, she looked at me holding the belt. "I'll try to be quick," I said, she slipped the belt in her mouth silently.
I positioned myself across her lap, the wound was in such a way it would've been hard to work from the side. Looking behind I saw her shaking with fear with tears pricking from her eyes.
"Do you... trust me?" I asked I didn't want to force this. It would be dangerous for us both. She froze before nodding, taking a deep breath I turned around and began working.
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