Kai had read somewhere that, in near-death experiences, people suffered from unexplainable and profound psychological events with mystical elements. Some people reported seeing a light at the end of a tunnel, while others saw loved ones. So, in other words, hallucinating in his current predicament was not out of the question.

But he wasn't hallucinating a tunnel or his mother, he was hallucinating a merman.

Kai blinked multiple times. Still, he was there.

He'd first mistaken the creature for a man, but it soon became apparent when he saw a large tail trailing behind him that he was, in fact, a merman. And it wasn't your Disney variety merman either. No, not even close. The merman he was hallucinating had a shimmering, scaly golden tail that was longer than Kai was tall, illustrious golden skin, long, golden hair, and a pair of piercing, golden, cat-like eyes, as if he'd been spray painted gold entirely, save for the whites of his eyes.

He could only watch from where he was pathetically floating midst the forest of kelp, helpless and dying, as the golden merman swam -or more like glided through water- toward him. The creature's amber eyes were unwaveringly fixated on him. The merman had unusually-long hair that floated around him like a cape, the envy of any girl, and when it caught the light from the surface just right, it looked as if it were on fire. As he neared, Kai saw that he had an unusually-handsome, chiseled face as well.

He was the most beautiful creature Kai had ever laid eyes on, and he was going to be the last thing he saw before he succumbed to death.

Kai had never given much thought or credit to mythical creatures like mermaids and mermen before, so why was he imagining one now in his final, precious moments?

When the merman floated but a feet away, he reached out a large hand to touch Kai. Kai would have flinched away if he had any strength left in him, but alas he didn't, so there was nothing he could do when the merman touched his left cheek with a surprisingly-rough hand. Glancing down at the hand caressing his cheek, he saw shimmering scales where skin would be in a human. Strangely enough, he was not disgusted by its fish-like stickiness.

"Have you finally called to me, my Prince?" Although he heard a sultry voice that could only be the merman's, he didn't see him open his mouth. It was as if the melodic voice had echoed right in the recesses of his mind, filling it.

Great, his hallucination could talk in ventriloquism, and what it was saying did not make any sense. Unless the merman was flirting with him, Kai was no prince.

He wanted to ask what the merman meant, but only bubbles escaped his mouth. By now, he could feel his lungs swelling with the water he'd swallowed, ceasing to work. Renewed fear seized him. At the sight of the merman, he'd momentarily forgotten the wretched, wretched fear of death.

"My poor half-blood Prince. You do not know how to breathe underwater, do you?" The merman purred in his mind.

Do not know? It's not a skill I can learn!

"Oh, but it is. For you."

Kai felt as if a presence now occupied his head, reading his every thought like he was... possessed. An alarming chill gripped his spine and he gasped at the very thought of something other than his own consciousness residing in his mind. The merman was inside his head! He opened his mouth to tell it to get the fuck out, but the result was more bubbles.

A thought occurred to him, then. The merman was the making of his own mind, his own hallucination, so was there any wonder that it could read his mind?

"Would you like to be able to breathe underwater as well as above it, my Prince?" The merman asked, swimming a full circle around him, stirring bubbles and kelp in his wake.

Yes, he'd love it if he could breathe underwater, but it wasn't like he could...

The merman kissed him, effectively silencing whatever thought had been going through his mind. Stunned at first, he quickly recovered and began to shake his head in an effort to dislodge the lips that had latched on to his, but the merman held Kai in place by his neck. When the merman pushed something into his mouth, he stilled. His tongue?! No, something else.

The merman blew a gust of cold air into his mouth and down his lungs, filling them, causing them to expand painfully. It was as if life slammed back into his body with the force of a sledgehammer and he arched in the water, letting out a bloodcurdling scream when a bolt of excruciating pain speared him. He'd never felt such pain in his life, the kind that made his nerves go numb, his eyes water and his chest burn. But once the pain passed, a revelation came to him: he was inhaling and exhaling!

He was breathing underwater!

"How-?" He slapped a hand against his mouth. Shell-shocked, he gaped at the smiling merman.

"Yes, my Prince, you can now breatheand speak underwater."

Kai couldn't believe what he was hearing. But he was breathing underwater, so was it so far-fetched that he could now speak in water as well?

"Oh, I'm dead, aren't I?"

The merman laughed, the sound reverberating in his head. "You've only just begun living, my Prince."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows. Then again, he was dead so it didn't really matter what he called him.

The merman reached for the blasted kelp wrapped around Kai's leg. He but touched it and the algae evaporated into thin air, as if it were never there. He was free.

"I call you that because that is who you are. A prince."

"No, I'm not-"

The golden merman suddenly whirled around, effectively interrupting him. He stared into the darkness that was the Black Sea. Nervously, Kai followed his line of vision, but he didn't see whatever it was the merman was staring at. But the way he was so... alert filled him with renewed fear. The expression on his face and his tense form spoke of a horror unseen. A sudden shudder raked Kai's body like an icy hand; his sixth sense told him that he was right to fear whatever it was that made this majestic creature alert.

"What is it?" he demanded, feeling his heart begin to thump painfully against his chest.

Dead or not, it seemed that he could still feel the potent grip of fear.

"Is it a shark? Is it a giant octopus? Wait, are there any giant octopuses in the Black Sea? What is it?"

"You must go, my Prince. It seems that your awakening has exposed your existence. The sea knows now."

"I don't understand-"

"Go, now, before they come for you. Go!"

Everything in his being told him to do as the golden merman commanded. Kai didn't wait to be told twice and kicked his feet upward as hard as he could. When he broke the surface, he instinctively swallowed a deep, deep breath of air. That was when he felt something change... within. It was as if his lungs suddenly changed gears.

He swam to the fifty-meter rope ladder resting against the cliff. He'd made it years ago to make climbing to the house much faster than having to swim to the nearest shore. He quickly made his way up the ladder. When he was halfway up, he stopped, looked down and searched for a trace of gold in the water.

The merman was gone, if he'd ever been there in the first place.

When he finally made it to the top of the cliff, he found his mother waiting for him. He was about to tell her what had transpired when he saw her face. Her horror-stricken, wide-eyed expression gave him pause. His heart squeezed in his chest. She looked absolutely terrified. He had never seen her like that in all his life.

Had she seen the merman too?!

Was he not hallucinating?!

But before he could ask her, she breathed in a shaking voice, "My son, what have you done?"