Traitor's Song

2. Rebirth

'Jimin, come here.'

Jimin stood lingering outside his childhood bedroom door. His mother stood at the end of the hallway by the front door. He didn't realize how much he longed for that sight until that moment. He took a few steps forward down the hall in an attempt to get closer to her. However, the more steps he took forward, the further away she seemed. He took yet another step forward, feeling himself fall flat on his face. Water ran over the floorboards of the hallway, running into his mouth and over his face. He tried to push himself up, but every time he did, the water caused his hands to slip right out from under him.

'Jimin, come here.'

He wanted to reply but the water ran into his mouth before he could. His hands couldn't even get any sort of grip against the floor now. His legs were even more useless. He couldn't feel them.

'Jimin...'

When he turned his head, it felt like his cheek was glued to the floor by the water. He finally managed to angle his head so he could look towards where his mother had been standing. His mother was replaced with a glow. It was a glow that caused him to squint his eyes so that all he could experience in terms of sensation was the burning of light in his eyes and the flow of water down his throat. It was enough to clog his windpipe until he was choking on it. Gasping for breath...

Jimin's eyes flew open as he turned his head to the side, expelling the water from his lungs. He threw up a good dose of seawater before laying down on his back. His chest rose and fell quickly as he gazed up at the sunny sky; a pair of seagulls circling in the air above him. He blinked his eyes a few times, bringing up a hand to wipe the sand away from his face so it wouldn't get in his eyes. Turning his head to the side, he saw that he had washed up on the shore of some sort of beach. He was hidden amongst a small sandy strip surrounded by rocks. The waves hit up against the rocks, causing sprays of water to hit his face.

Jimin didn't understand how he was alive. He sat up slowly. It felt like his whole body was on fire. As he sat up, his eyes widened in shock. His legs. Where were his legs? What was this scaly aqua tail he now had? When he tried to move his lower region, the tail moved too; scales winking in the sunlight. He screwed his eyes shut, keeping them closed tightly.

'I have to be hallucinating,' Jimin thought. 'There is no way this is real. Maybe I actually died...Maybe this is what death is like. Do people spend death as different...things? Creatures?'

Commanding himself to cut his panic driven thoughts short, he took a few slow breaths before opening his eyes again. The tail still stared back at him instead of his legs. It was long and took up the length of where his legs would be, coming to an end at his waist. His white t-shirt was tattered but still clinging to his damp skin. When he leaned forward to try to adjust himself, he caught sight of his warped reflection in the water's surface. His black hair had turned the same shade of aqua as his newfound tail.

As he panicked once more, he pinched his arm. Nope. The pain was there which meant this was real. Somehow it was real.

He felt a pain in his tail as the water started to recede. He used his hands to scoot his tail down closer to the water which gave relief to the burning sensation he was feeling.

It was then that he heard a rock clattering free behind him. It was a small pebble that tinkled its way down until it came to rest against the side of his hand.

He turned his head to look at the rocks behind him to notice a woman ducking her head quickly out of sight behind a larger rock. A few of her dirty blonde strands were caught in the breeze as if still waving to him where her hiding place was.

"I can see you," he said; worrying at the fact that he had been spotted in this state by someone else.

'Maybe this is a good thing though,' thought Jimin. 'Maybe I'm just badly injured to the point of being delusional, and she doesn't see what I see.'

"Come out," he said. "Please. I need to know if this is real."

The strands of hair waved at him for a moment or two more before a face popped into view. Her cinnamon sugar gaze looked over the sight before her. She had a camera about her neck that dangled down over her sky blue t-shirt. An army green hoodie was tired about her waist that matched the pants she was sporting. Jimin watched as she stared at him for a moment before trying to make her slippery descent down the rocks towards him. He watched her black and white converse lose traction several times, causing her to land on her bottom before she'd get up again. Within a few minutes, she was by his side, tucking a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear.

"Can you see what I see?" He asked her as he nodded at his tail.

She looked down at his tail before looking up at him.

"I do," she said, but she didn't seem shocked by it like he did.

"And..." he said as he looked at her.

"And, while I've never actually seen a mer person before, I have heard they exist in these waters. It's a sign when they appear and I..."

He watched as she tightened her lips together into a line, silencing the babble that was coming from them.

"Are you telling me you believe in this stuff?" asked Jimin as he gestured at his tail.

The woman remained silent as she looked over his tail again. Unspoken stories lingered in the flecks of green hidden within her irises.

"I'm telling you," she said as she locked her eyes directly on his, "That I believe you being here with me right now is a sign of something yet to come."