Lena knew how to party, and so did her friends. As soon as the Sirena took to the open ocean, the surround-sound speakers blasted a party mix that shook the floor and that was when the drinks came out. It was then that I realized that unlike my sister, I was not the kind of girl who liked parties.

She'd disappeared into the floor when the music started, in the center of a sea of people. She shone like the full moon overhead, with that same kind of magnetic attraction. My parents called it vanity, or arrogance, but I always saw it as charisma. Something about her just drew you in, made you admire her in spite of all the reasons not to. She was the life of the party, and I was just the same old wallflower. 

I had no idea where to even begin. Everyone here seemed to know everyone else, which left no room for someone like me who didn't know anyone. They were caught up in their own half-shouted conversations over the music, or something more intimate in the sea of bodies. 

Besides, what would I even talk to them about? As soon as I even thought I saw a straggler to talk to, I'd just think of something to say, some witty one-liner stolen from a book, and then the words would just die in my throat. These weren't the kind of people who read fantasy books or watched rom-coms on Netflix or wrote 750k fanfics about their OTPs. I knew they weren't because they were doing this.

And Lena had abandoned me not ten minutes in because she was having fun. 

That was fine, I decided. I'd have fun of my own. 

I left the dance floor and the bar and headed to one of the side-decks of the yacht, where there were less people. I stuck to one of the soda cans stowed away in one of the mini-fridges, mainly because I was pretty sure my parents would actually kill me if they figured out I'd been to a real rager. 

Then again, maybe they'd kill Lena first for bringing me. But given that she was trying to help me out and all, it would kind of suck if she got in trouble for it. 

I leaned up against the railing, taking in the relative quiet of the side-deck and the darkness of the open ocean at night. The moon was full, a scattering of the stars too bright to be drowned out like the rest from the lights of Wilmington. 

I never should have come. 

When Lena had invited me to a friend's boat party, I'd thought it would be a fun pontoon cruise, nothing too major and with people who I at least vaguely recognized their faces from my high school's graduating class. That was the kind of party our parents thought I was going to as well, the kind that they approved.

The Sirena was way bigger than either of us had imagined and it overwhelmed me. 

As I was standing there, watching the night pass me by and feeling sorry for myself and my own inability to change, I saw a strange light in the water. 

It wasn't the reflection of the moon or the stars, or the city's glare spread among the wave-caps. It was a bright sea-green, pulsing like a heartbeat. I leaned forward to get a better look. Pinpricks of light like stars or bioluminescent algae we'd studied once in my Biology class danced on the water—but it was that same sea green and not the usual blue or white I saw in photographs, strangely bright against the darkness. 

I started to climb up onto the railing to get an even closer look when the boat jostled.

Screams from the dance floor—the night sky rushing around me in free fall and then—

I screamed a thousand bubbles as the cold pervaded my skin and clothes. I was disoriented—it was so dark down there, I couldn't tell down from up. I kicked wildly and clawed at the water, trying to propel myself up—or was it even up—

The green light pulsed out again, illuminating the depths for just a moment—enough for me to realize the danger I was in.

That was when I saw her.

Beautiful and terrible, she was like every story about a naiad or a mermaid. A lady with flowing dark hair past her waist, gleaming black pearls and glowing blue-green crystals on golden wires were strung all through her hair, dripping from an intricate, delicate-looking diadem. Her gown of sea-green silk flowed out into the ocean, the hem of her skirt seamlessly fading into the shifting depths of the ocean. Shadows gathered all around her like a train.

Embedded at the base of her neck was a pulsing crystal—the source of all the light. 

Her face was beautiful, serene—blank, even. As if she were in a daydream, and weren't aware of everything sinister and dark around her. 

A shadow from her train wrapped around my waist, pulling me down into the depths of the ocean. 

My heart hammered against my ribs in futility as the grim, certain dread took ahold of me.

I was going to die.

No—I couldn't die, not here, not when I'd never even had a silly summer romance or fallen in love yet!

I pounded my fists on the tentacle wrapped around my waist, as it drew me closer to the dark lady. But the tentacle held tight. As it pulled me toward the light, I heard this voice. Not a voice, really—an entire chorus, a primeval choir. They sang in an ancient language, like Latin maybe, or older, but full of emotion, overflowing with it. 

I heard it, and it stirred something inside of me. It had always been there, familiar in its dormancy. But with my life in danger, it finally had reason to wake.

This glow came from my chest, where my heart was. It was a soft pink, almost purplish in color. The light grew, spreading over my skin. It was warm, like the waterside sun. Pleasant, but with the promise of danger if it stayed too long. My fingers and toes tinged, as the feeling rushed through me. 

Then I was a star in the sea, as bright as the sun, the pink light causing the monster to wither away from me. But it could not escape my light.

For a moment, I was blinded—and then, all was dark again.

That's when I realized—I was breathing. Underwater. 

I looked around for the dark lady. No sign of her, no shifting shadows or aqua-green light. 

Instead, a pair of glowing teal-green eyes met me. 

As they drew closer, my vision adjusted. The eyes belonged to a boy about my age, with sun-tanned skin and dark hair streaked with green. Pale aquamarine markings almost like scales shimmered around his eyes, cutting through the darkness of the water and illuminating his delicate features. But not as brightly as those eyes though. 

As I took him in, my eyes drifted down to see. . . 

A tail?
I squinted, unable to make sense of any of this. 

He didn't seem to notice my inner crisis, however. Instead, he reached his hands out towards my waist and tilted his head—a clear ask for consent.

I nodded—might as well, if this was some kind of dying hallucination or dream.

He nodded back, and placed his hands on the sides of my waist. 

I remember then the pull, up, up—

I broke the surface spluttering for air.

"Mika! MIKA!"

I looked up to see Lena screaming hysterically over the main deck's rail as two of her friends held her back.

"Hang on!" One of the boys on the deck called as he grabbed a life-preserver. "We'll pull you up!"

I nodded. Everything still felt strange, dreamlike to me. I looked around me, but the boy who saved me was gone. Not even ripples on the water were left behind.