Broken Tides

Chapter Eight

My aunt's bathroom was bigger than mine, and it had a full tub so I could actually get it- and out- on my own. When my mom was pregnant with me my dad installed a railing to help her get in and out herself. I filled in the tub, and after taking off my clothes got in.

I preferred colder baths and showers, but something about today made the water feel so nice. I was exceedingly tired and the cold water cradled me. I almost didn't want to wash myself- just sit in the still water and breathe. But I also wanted to try out this sugar scrub goop. It said to use on clean skin, so I went ahead and scrubbed myself down and rinsed off. The new bar of soap Kat bought was also from this place. The bar smelled nice, and lathered up well but it had this weird slimy effect- oh well?

After that I opened the jar. It didn't smell like much, and it just felt like wet chunky sand. I rubbed it on my arms and on some of the dry patches on my legs. As I started rubbing, 'exfoliating' as the jar said, my skin started tingling. I felt the most in my legs, not quite a prick, and not painful. When I rinsed the thick green mess off my arms, it turned soapy in the water.

But i was less focused on that and more the dry areas of my skin. They weren't dry and patchy any more, but they looked like thick patches of dead skin, and started peeling quickly. I peeled back the layer of skin, and behind that my arm was a blueish green.

I stared, and peeled more off on my arms and legs. The skin had this crisscross pattern and what alarmed me about it, was that I had seen this before. I thought my arm was itchy from being in cast, and the rest from sitting in chair, but not because my skin was turning into scale-less fish skin. It was smooth, and I could feel when I touched it- even on my legs, the sensation was clear as day. On my hands I noticed that some of the skin when peeled left a slight webbing in my fingers- it was mostly see through, but still had the same bluey green color too it.

I don't know why it took me so long but I started to panic- I called for aunt Kat and flung myself out of the tub, sitting on the floor with my towel over my lap. "Kat! KAT!" my breath hitched, I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. "KAT GET IN HERE!"

She burst open the door with her hand over her eyes. "You covered? Are you okay? what's going on?" She peeked through her hands and gasped, dropping her hands to her mouth. "Oh my god what the fuck." she said under her breath, bug-eyed. She kneeled down next to me, and grabbed my arm, carefully looking it over and gently touching it. "Does it hurt?"

"No." I said through breathy sobs. "No- no but the- my" I couldn't really think coherently. "The part where it was itchy." I started sobbing harder than I think I ever had before. I don't know why, but it scared me so bad. I had no idea what was happening to me.

Kat shushed me, tears streaming down her face as well. She pulled me into her shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around her and cried into her shoulder. "Marlowe I'm not sure what this is, but we-" She shakily breathed, stroking my hair and rocking me "we will figure this out."

We stayed like that for a solid few minutes before she left so I could get changed, and she grabbed my bed stuff from upstairs so I could sleep on the couch. I struggled to dry off and get dressed, but I noticed more movement in my legs. Not a lot but enough that in the midst of my panic I stopped to note it.

Eventually I was sitting on the couch, cross legged for the first time in a while, with my blanket and a cup of tea aunt Kat had given me, I wasn't much of a tea person but Kat says tea calms her down, she sat on the couch next to me and handed me a small box. "Here."

"What's this?" I opened it. It was a small purple and blue vape pen.

"I know you like your cigarettes, but I figured this would be maybe better for you I don't know." She shrugged and lifted her cup to her face. "They also don't smell bad." she eyed me from over the brim of her cup as she took a sip.