A Mermaid's Cry

Epilogue

Ares

The muffled cries of dying men and Corintha's bellows of rage, are instantly muffled the moment I go under the water's surface. Fresh pain blooms thought my body, emanating from the salt attacking the brand marks on my skin and the bullet lodged into my shoulder. I bite down hard on my tongue when another bolt of fire erupts through my flesh, the cloth trousers tearing with a ferocity as my legs knit together into my tail. Once I return to the surface, I no longer hear the cries of men being hacked into by my mate, but her unholy screaming that chills my blood and sends the hair on my arms on end.

"Corintha!" I roar, making to lunge back towards the ship, just as I'm stopped by two familiar pairs of hands. "Let me go you rat bastards!"

"Shut the help Ares!" Zola furisoly snarls at me, while the sound of oars splashing into the water emanates from behind us. "Get in the damn boat before more of your blood gets in the water."

"Fuck you," I sneer, almost freeing myself from my friends' hold, if not for the fiery shriek of agony lancing up from the bullet wound. "Do you not hear what they are doing to her? Do you not fucking care that she is all alone and in pain?"

"Of course we do Ares," Arcus hisses furiously in my ear, joining Zola in tugging me towards the afore mentioned boat. "But right now we are outmatched, outgunned, and you are a fucking signal for all the sharks nearby that it's time for dinner."

"I don't give a shit!" I snarl, twisting my head in vain, trying to skin my fangs into his arm. "She doesn't deserve anymore pain, she doesn't deserve to be treated like a prized animal in a cage!"

I struggle and roar as Corintha's screams fade away, awakening the beast that I have kept at bay while imprisoned by Nox and Norzem. The silence riles me, driving me mad as Zola and Arcus try to wrench me up and out of the water, but I keep fighting. I keep screaming, hollering as two smaller pairs of hands hoist me up by my armpits. All four of my mangy friends struggle to pull me out of the water before finally dropping me onto the floor of the small boat. I make to stand up as my legs peel apart, but I'm abruptly stopped by a firm wack to the head.

"Sorry, Ares," I hear Adila faintly utter, as I fall back onto the floor of the boat, my eyes closing ever so slowly as the boat rocks and wavers. "But Corintha would kill me if I let you get captured by those beasts again."
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I wake to the sound of screeching gulls, their peircing cries sending a bone splitting pain through my skull. Squinting slightly against the bright light of the sun, I find myself back in a very familiar room. My assigned room of course, the dark sturdy wood furniture offset by nautical decor, the uniform gray curtains, and the sheets thrown across my body. I sit up slowly, wincing in pain as I find a stream of bandages and bits of ointment wound around my torso, shoulders, chest, and arms.

"Damn," I mutter, daring a look under the covers, finding a pair of cotton sleep shorts, and my legs wrapped up in the exact same disturbing way as the rest of my body. "They have me wrapped up like I'm ready for burial."

Somehow, irony befalls my dry attempt at humor. Immediately, the door to the room opens with a thunderous bang. "You slimy jackass!" Lucas hollers, making to lunge at me from the doorway right as Arcus manages to get his arms around the young Mer. "Let me kill him, let me kill him. He got my sister taken away!"

Lucas's words plow straight into my heart, aching pain blossoming throughout my chest as I gaze into his eyes filled with angry frightened tears. The very sight of them, has me feeling the phantom agony of an arrow rendering through muscle, bone, and blood. Yet again, I have failed, and in doing so I have sewn another trail of pain and suffering. With this thought, a ghostly howl pierces through my mind, the snap of a whip echoing along with the squelching sound of tearing flesh.