The Ocean's Call: Part One | ✔

Part Seventeen

Part Seventeen

I don't know what possess me to go into the ocean fully clothed, but I do. Shoes, socks, shirt, everything. No thinking I just do. I keep replaying him jumping out of the water, right there in front of me. He went from standing on the beach talking to me to being the thing from my dream. he's a merman.

I move through the water until I can't touch anymore and swim towards him, bewildered. "I can't believe that just happened."

He laughs. "You're fully clothed."

I look down at myself in the water, my shirt clinging to my chest uncomfortably. "I wasn't thinking."

"Clearly."

I swim closer to him, looking at the bumps on his neck. I move closer, watching the bumps vibrate gently. Gills. "Is that how you breathe underwater?" I ask, my hand lifting out of the water to touch them.

I clench my fingers into a fist, reminding myself I can't just touch him like that. "Yes. You can touch them." He tilts his head to the side exposing his neck even more.

I wiggle my fingers and inch closer to the gills on the side of his neck. They flutter under my touch, the movement making me flinch and pull my hand away. I want to do it. My entire body hums at the thought of the idea of me doing that. I wonder what it's like...to have a tail like that. To have the gills and to breathe under water.

"I want to do it."

He nods, his eyes shining as he turns to face me. "I'll show you." He holds a handout for me to grab and I don't think twice this time. I put my hand into his and let him pull me out further into deeper water.

He gives me no warning when he pulls me under the water. I keep my eyes open, watching him as he pulls me through the water. slightly bigger gills sit on his sides, just like the ones on his neck. The scales of his tail start around his hip, blending perfectly with his golden skin.

Water rushes around me as we move through the water until he lets my hand go. I slow, looking down at the ocean floor so far away. The sunlight glittering down on the water tells me the surface is some distance away too. He swims around in a circle before coming to a stop in front of me.

"You have to concentrate on becoming a mermaid. It will get easier over time but for now you have to focus heavily on it. Picture it and become it." I'm surprised his voice isn't warped by the water around us. He sounds like he does when we aren't in the water.

I release the last bit of air from lungs and smash my lips together to keep the water out. He must realise I've run out of air because he grabs my hips and pushes me up to the surface. I break the surface with a gasp, huffing to catch my breath.

"Picture yourself moving through the water as a mermaid." He says, appearing in my line of vision.

I chuckle. "So simply." I mutter sarcastically.

He grins, shrugging. "It's only hard until you're used to it. I barely have to think about now, it just happens."

"Show off." I mutter under my breath.

I close my eyes and do as he said. I try to picture myself as a mermaid, swimming through the water like I just watched him do so. I think about the conversation I had with Emily and nana on the boat, the one where Emily asked what colour tail I would choose to have.

I said blue and purple. I picture myself with a colourful mixture of blue and purple in place of my legs. I squeeze my eyes tighter, scrunching my nose as I try to will it, pushing the image of myself in my head out.

My shorts tighten on my legs until I feel the pressure snap suddenly. I barely have time to think what could be happening to them when my legs stick together. My thighs push together, my knees knock hard, and my ankles crack from the pressure of fusing together.