Serendipity's Interlude (Sequel to The Call)

Once there was a woman

“Once there was a woman. A sister like us, but in a different time. This sister found her way onto the surface,” The story always starts. Ocean Mother tells us these stories frequently. “And on the surface, she found a man.”

I lazily swim around the coral, watching the fish flit about their day as the cool salt water flows in and out of my lungs. As I swim to nowhere in particular, I spot an octopus on the ocean floor with his tentacles all tangled together, and dive deeper to aid him.

“What have you gotten into now, George?” I murmur under my breath as I start untangling him. George here has a talent for getting into trouble, and I see him so often that I give him a name as the humans do. At the center of his tentacles, there is a plastic ring. I shake my head and run my hands through the sand until I find a sharp rock, and I use it to cut through the plastic.

“Alright, off you go, George,” I say once I have his arms freed. George inks slightly in gratitude and starts squelching away, as octopi do. I turn to scan the reef again as a swift current sweeps by, spinning me around and dumping me a few feet away.

“Cora!” I cry, pulling the curtain of blue hair away from my face. The current halts to reveal a sister with a deep green tail tumbling about on the other side of the reef. Cora is the youngest of us, and she still hasn’t quite mastered her tail. Ingrid came a few years before her, in the 1940s, but she got the hang of the tail much quicker.

“Madeline! Madeline, Madeline, oh my gosh!” She practically shrieks, zipping over and taking my hands. I tilt my head with a sigh. This sister is full of energy, regardless of the time. Cora takes in a deep breath of salt water and smooths down the strips of braids in her short purple hair.

“There’s another ship!” She says breathlessly.

“A cruise?” I say hopefully. Tourists are harmless, we just have to avoid the area for a few days. Cora shakes her head.

“Military.” She says seriously. My heart drops into my stomach.

“Another one?” I whisper. Cora nods. “But there was one less than half a moon ago!” I cry.

“I know, but they’re coming. Ingrid is scouting already,”

I bite the inside of my cheek, the wheels in my mind turning. After this we’ll have to run again. We sank the last ship that came through and sent the remains ashore, but if a second ship sinks they’ll know something is up. But we can’t just not sink it!

“Have you spoken with Ocean Mother?” I ask and tighten my jaw. Cora shakes her head.

“No, but you know what she’ll say,”

“Humans are dangerous, and self defense is necessary,” We say in sync. Cora’s right. We have to deal with this.

“Once it’s dealt with, we need to speak with her,” I say seriously. As the oldest sister for this half of the earth, I’ve had to take up a general sort of role. This is war, and we cannot lose another sister. After the sister, one from almost a hundred years ago, one that none of us ever met- was killed, the surface started questioning things. Investigating. Poking their noses where they don’t belong.

“Of course, but they’re almost above the cove!” Cora quickly says. My eyes widen. If they find the cove… it won’t be good. The cove is our home. A headquarters, if you will. It has all of our belongings, our nests, and lists of locations of the other sisters’ homes as well. I nod to Cora and take off, the water slipping around my body as we glide through the water. I take a breath and push myself, every ounce of energy going straight into my tail, but Cora still passes me. I shake my head and continue on, watching the small dot on the horizon grow until it’s a few meters from my face.

I signal to Cora to circle around to one side of the boat, and nod to Ingrid as she appears from behind a rock; telling her to take the back side. I press my ear against the hull and make out human voices from inside. They’re yelling, but I can’t tell what they’re saying. It sounds important. I hear metal clashing. Guns. Lots of them. I slide away from the boat and silently outstretch an arm to the water, calling upon the waters to allow me their strength.

I feel the water start to swirl around us, and I know that if I open my eyes I’ll see the boat rocking back and forth. I feel Cora and Ingrid reaching to the waters as well, and the ocean wraps around the boat, gripping it so tightly the hull starts to crack. I lift up my voice in song and center my mind, focusing only on the water. I slowly open my eyes and stare at the boat, watching the water swirl around us as the waves grow taller.

All at once, everything goes still.

And we rip the boat to the bottom of the ocean.

It makes a crater in the sand, and the hull starts taking in water. Cora’s unsteady movements zip around the reefs near us- she’s telling the ocean life to leave. I nod to Ingrid from where we stand on opposite sides of the boat as the divers start leaking out. I swim to the first man I get my eyes on. He looks to be a man of around 20 years, but that is not my focus. I grab his neck and pull him flush against me, kissing him passionately, using it as a distraction to suck the air out of his lungs. When he finally realizes what’s happening and starts to reciprocate, I release him into the water and watch with a satisfied smirk as he realizes he’s too far from the surface.

As he starts to take on water, I move towards a small group of them that are wielding guns, my song begging them to stay in the water, telling them it’s all they’ll ever need. For a moment, they shake their heads and try to fire at me, but I watch as they start to relent and swim towards the ocean floor. Ingrid sends a ripple through the water, knocking one of them so hard against the ship that a cloud of blood appears next to him. The chaos spreads as a larger group comes out. I watch in slow motion as they aim at Ingrid, whose back is turned and is so far away that I can’t move the water in time. I reflexively scream, and they all buckle and cover their ears. Ingrid whips around and pushes them into a chaotic bubble of churning water. A few of them start to regroup, but Cora comes crashing straight through them and knocks them apart.

I notice that the water has quieted down and the writhing bodies have turned cold. Ingrid and Cora hold the last few under until they’ve taken their first breath of water, and then we all dive into the ship to make sure we got everyone.

I round the first corner and come face-to-face with a female diver huddling in a corner with a diving helmet locked over her shoulders. I shake my head and slap it with my tail, cracking the glass and knocking her out. We continue on, Cora by my side and Ingrid watching our backs. We circle through most of the ship before going below deck. I push open a door and some sort of laser flies past me, but striking Cora right in the center of her tail. The sizzling sickens me.

“Ingrid, take her!” I shout as I propel myself forward and rip the gun out of the last man’s hands. As he struggles, I manage to pry the breather out of his mouth. His eyes widen in panic as he realizes he’s 12,000 feet underwater, facing what he believed to be only a myth, and has no source of oxygen. He frantically tries to swim up, but I call to the water and keep him in place. He stares at me in shock for several moments-

Until his lungs start to contract and force in his first breath of water. The bubbles pour out of his mouth and he struggles more, but he keeps taking on water. I watch as his eyes grow foggy before releasing him.

“Don’t touch my sisters.” I venomously hiss at him before turning and going to find Cora and Ingrid.