Josey's Story

Prologue

For his entire life, Paul Marlow was an average guy expected to live an average life. Average height. Average face. Average guy. Paul would have been the perfect criminal, because no one would ever notice his face in a crowd. In fact, many who have met him would all agree that Paul Marlow is boring. That isn't to say that Paul isn't a nice guy. Paul was also kind and considerate. But sadly, never stood out. Not at home, where he was overshadowed by his football star brother and math genius sister. Not at school, where he worked his hardest but never surpassed a B+.

Even when he was given the opportunity to study in Hawaii, he was overshadowed by his brother's acceptance into law school and his sister winning prom queen. Paul already accepted that he wouldn't be anything to anybody other than average, boring Paul. But Paul didn't expect to meet Marina on the Hawaiian shores late one night.

Paul finally decided to see Hawaii and not just the inside of the university library. He set up a tent, built a fire, and went camping for the first time since boy scouts. The night went as expected, except for when a beautiful young woman came walking down the shoreline kicking at the water as it reached her feet. It was relatively dark, but Paul could see that her long curly hair was dark red and by her fair white skin that she wasn't a local. She was wearing a dark blue sundress that was clearly not made for camping.

"Hey, miss." Paul called out as he got up and jogged to her. "Are you lost?"

She stopped kicking the water and looked up at Paul and smiled a big toothy smile revealing her pearly white teeth. Whatever word of caution Paul was going to say got caught in his throat.

"I'm just exploring," her sweet voice answered back.

They ended up talking the entire night. Marina was fascinated with whatever Paul said. Even though he still believed his stories were dull and boring, Marina found them funny and interesting. They talked about their families. Paul told her how he always felt like nothing compared to his siblings, Thomas and Jennifer. Marina told him how she felt like she was drowning from her parents' constant disapproval. They told each other their dreams. Paul wanted to leave a mark in the world and Marina wanted to find a life away from home. They fell in love that night. Whether because it was meant to be or that they finally found someone to see them for as they were, they fell hard.

Even though they shared a lot, there was one big secret that Marina kept to herself. That secret was that she was in fact a mermaid.

This secret became increasingly harder to keep as time went on. Like dodging certain questions like 'Where are you from?' or 'Where do your parents live?' And having to steal new clothes every time she went to see him. The very hardest was staying dry on the nights there was no full moon. About a month before meeting Paul, Marina found an old book just by a small lagoon she visited in secret. It was obvious that it was human made. Meaning that a human had come here to her little lagoon, even though the small island was far off the coast. Marina was about to abandon her safe haven away from her kind when she saw the cover of the book had a mermaid.

Marina never told anyone, but she taught herself to understand the strange markings of humans. Taught herself to speak as well, being that mermaids used telepathy to communicate. This was something her kind would disapprove of greatly, but she was proud of her self for this large feat. She'd hide under the boats and listen to them talk and learn to pronounce the words. This, of course, she had to do in secret as well. It was absolutely forbidden to go to the surface without the permission of the highest of monarchy. But Marina was careful. Just like how she'd need to be careful of where she read and kept this book.

Marina grabbed the book and held it above water as best as she could while swimming towards a small group of rocks she enjoyed lying on. There laying the book on the smoothest rock did she read. This book knew more about her kind than she did. It held small bits of information that she already knew. Like the most common mermaids, the pure mermaids. Mermaids born from two merfolk, like herself. The most dreaded and feared mermaid, the mongrel mermaid. Humans turned mermaid by dark merfolk who practice black magic. The humans rarely survive and those who do could hardly be called a mermaid. Their creators would use the mongrels to commit heinous crimes. Mongrels were to be put to death immediately and the creators were to face trial.