The Real Mermaid

~~~Five~~~

Nya turned her back towards the white houses and the silent road, kicking her shoes off in the spot where the asphalt morphed into shingle. She walked across the beach then, and hid under the pier-- the tall pillars rising from the water reflecting the shy light of the new day, adorned with multitude of dark, moist seashells, made her feel as if she entered a temple, a cathedral of the sea.

Here, she stood facing the heaving, endless expanse of water, watching it for the first time ever with a mixture of trepidation and fear. What had looked so tempting and easy when the Sea Witch spoke about it the day before now seemed so... dangerous. Final.

But it was too late for any misgivings, Nya thought, observing her hands. The webbing between her fingers had grown overnight just like the old man had promised. She could not see any other change on her body yet, but she was sure she would notice once she got into the water-- the call of the sea was stronger than ever, she could feel the rhythm of the waves in her very heartbeat. She removed her coat, letting it pool at her feet. Dressed only in her swimming suit, she allowed the cold air to caress her skin one last time, as she recalled the previous day.

Everything that happened after she left Doctor Stein's house felt like a dream. Her walk back home, when the fear of the deal she had made with the scientist finally hit her like a rip tide-- she knew well that she would never use that syringe he had given her in lieu of a return ticket; there would be no way back for her. Grandma's questions and the tears she didn't want Nya to see, but could not hide. Her decision to call Liam and tell him-- she didn't know what exactly, but she wanted to speak to him and try to explain-- but he never picked up his phone. The letter she finally wrote for him, explaining the whole truth, giving it to Grandma for when, or if, he turned up to look for her, leaving it up to him to believe what she had written or not. Somehow, she knew, though, that should she not return, he would prefer to think that she had drowned... People vanished in the sea often, without a trace... It would be easier to accept than the fact that his girlfriend turned into a mermaid and left him. She recalled how she had spent the sleepless night reading The Little Mermaid, then stole out of the house long before sunrise, before Grandma would wake up.

It was all in the past now, a dream of a previous life. You need to do this, Nya encouraged herself, stepping into the water. Taking a deep breath, she checked the leather thong tied around her neck. The oval glass case containing the small syringe hung there now instead of the potion-- a talisman making this step look less... irreversible. She pushed it under the fabric of her swimming suit, then, without looking back, walked into the waves. Following Doctor Stein's instructions, she swam far from the shore before she dived and sat on the seabed, feeling exhausted. The Sea Witch had said that it was pointless to look for them, that the merpeople would find her.

Nya had to wait, but it wasn't boring. The changes in her were happening fast now. The water that had always looked a little murky and void of fish suddenly seemed bright and crystal clear. She could see shoals of fish swimming around her, forests of incredibly colourful seaweed swaying in the currents. It was as if the sea was somehow illuminated from within, as if the very water around her glowed, as a proud mother, showing off forms of life Nya had never imagined before.

She laughed, emitting a soundless string of bubbles as a tiny snail crawled up her arm, tickling her, making her notice how sensitive her skin had become. A moving shadow passed over her, making her look up, towards the distant surface-- through a churning cloud of fish, she saw a boat crossing the surface. The sight left her stunned for a long while, and when she looked down again... she found a pair of silvery eyes watching from the algae grove.

From the way her heart skipped a beat then started to race, she knew it was him-- the merman who had saved her years ago-- even before he approached her.

Nya observed his lithe, muscular body, his face covered in grainy, green-grey skin matching his eyes, his shoulder-length, black hair, his two legs and arms ending with webbed fingers and toes, his large hand closed around a long spear. She noticed the clothes he wore, woven from some strange, glimmering material the colour of the algae-- a pair of short trousers and a loose tunic-- making her feel under-dressed in her swimming suit. These were all the details she had not noticed when they had first met. She liked them.

He reached her now and cupped her face in his cold hands, making her meet his smiling eyes. She thought he recognized her too when he took her hand and pointed to the surface, ready to escort her home. Then he noticed her fingers, confusion flickering in his eyes.

Nya smiled at him. I'm like you now, I'm here to stay, she tried to say but no sound left her lips, just more bubbles. Only now did she recall that she had lost her voice and realised how it would complicate everything... How was she to communicate with him when she couldn't produce a sound?!

Seeing her silent desperation, the merman cupped her face again, and this time, he pressed a soft kiss to her lips just like he had done years ago, letting her know that he really remembered. Pointing between them, then towards the forest of algae, he suggested that he would take her with him if she wanted. She nodded eagerly, letting him take her hand and lead her... home.

Soon they were swimming through the long ribbons of seaweed and when they emerged, they were instantly surrounded by a pod of excited, curious merpeople-- women clad in long, flowing, greenish-brown gowns, men dressed like her merman, all black-haired and grey-skinned, speaking to each other in sounds and a sign language she did not understand.

They are all so similar, Nya thought, smiling at the friendly, silver-eyed creatures. Except for one... She felt the pair of bright blue eyes, so different from those of the merpeople, watching her from a distance. He did not join the excited group crowding her, touching her white skin, caressing her long bright hair until her merman put his arms around her proprietarily, signing to the others to move back, before he continued to explain how he had found her, most likely.

The blue-eyed man-- Nya was sure that he was as much of a merman as she when she noticed his olive skin and his golden-brown hair-- smiled at her from where he stood by an entrance to one of several caves in a rock wall forming a semi-circle around them, even as her merman took her hand again and pulled her from what was most likely the centre of their village, towards an ancient shipwreck.

This was his home, she realised as he led her in, he lived here and offered her to stay with him. She nodded in agreement, smiling, seeing wonder fill his eyes as he watched the blush flood her cheeks when he kissed her again.

Nya fell asleep on a bed made of seaweed next to him, feeling too exhausted to think, confused, but happy. She found her merman... She thought... she... loved him.