Sea Spell

Chapter Six

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The screeching of gulls pounded her ears, sending a surge of pressure to her head. A mixture of salt water and sea weed rose in Lanakila's throat, spraying in all directions on the shore.
Scraps from buildings and garbage were strewn everywhere, and the unwavering midday sun beat down from above.
Gasping rather pathetically, she tried focusing her vision on an approaching sand crab. The world seemed to tilt on it's axis as everything blurred, then sharpened multiple times.
Breeze shifted a section of gnarled hair to lie across her cheek. Agitated, she tossed it backwards, noticing the state of her fingers. They were shredded and soft, the nail beds flooded with crescent moons of blue blood. Her chest felt entirely wrong, lighter, more protruding. In fact, everything felt wrong, from her head to her stomach to her-

TAIL?!

Lanakila wanted to scream, but no sound resulted, her mouth forming into a terrified "O". Beginning at her waist, an iridescent mermaid tail stretched easily six feet towards the ocean. It landed somewhere in between the colors of the Caribbean waters and the dark midnight sky, a turtle like almost green. Hundreds of waxen scales reflected sunlight towards her face, blinding her immensely. It was horribly, awfully hauntingly beautiful. She hated it at once.

That's it, Lana. You're officially insane. You're hallucinating. That's all, a voice echoed in her mind.

Right, another voice added, this isn't real. It can't be.

Lanakila felt even more out of mind now, chattering to herself like an old, lonely woman. But then again, nothing of this situation made any sense, so why would her thoughts?
Heaving as she pushed her body upright, it occurred to Lana exactly how fatigued she was. It would be best to walk around, see what part of Guadeloupe she'd washed up on and try to find help so that she could contact Mimi.
After propping herself slowly up, she felt a rush of gratitude at her satchel, lying a few feet away. Although it contained no survival necessities, it hopefully still clasped a few water-logged euros and photos of her family members.
Reassured, she began to stand up, only to receive a rushing dose of panic. Nausea consumed her stomach again, vomit flying all over her tail. Collapsing into a ball of tears, Lanakila cried for the second time in 24 hours. What was she supposed to do? Returning home was no longer an option, given her current appearance.
A seagull swooped down to the sand, pecking curiously at her tail. It's beak twisted like a driven nail into her scales, deriving copious amounts of the mysterious blue blood.
Lana waved her arms limply at the bird, shooing it away.

Her skin, which she hadn't paid attention to beforehand, was blistering and red from the sun. That's weird, she thought. Lanakila had never been sunburned in her life, until now. The reddening deepened in certain areas, swirling in strange patterns, like black ink from a tattooist's pen.
Resting her head in the damp, uncomfortable ground, she adjusted her neck until it felt at least a little less painful. Perhaps if she fell asleep, when she woke this would a be over.
Sleep didn't come effortlessly to Lanakila, and she could not remember a time when it had. As a baby, her parents had spent countless hours rocking her about, singing lullabies and trying to calm their wailing child. Now, she pinched her eyes shut and tried to relax, but she kept wandering back to Mimi and Anadia. Were they safe? Had they survived the storm?
After quite some time of worrying and dreading what was to come, she decided to give up on resting. It was pointless.
Through her blurred eyes, Lanakila could barely make out the chicken scrawl writing upon her left arm. The previous sunburn patterns had rearranged them selves, creating an eerie, carved message.
As she mumbled the first words, she almost fainted.

Sea Spell.
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Hey, readers! I just wanna say thank you so much for 400+ reads! I feel like I've came a long ways since I first created this book a few weeks ago.
Here's a bit of a shorter, filler-type chapter.
as always, thanks for reading.
xoxo
payton.