The Destined

Chapter 23: Melissa

    Melissa    

The moon turned sanguine, the skies darkening as each of the stars seem to just turn off. It is almost like flipping a switch. What scares me the most is the lake, red as blood. Maybe it is blood, judging by the metallic smell. I look at the mermaids. Their bodies seem so twisted and gruesome, their eyes glowing eerily. I stare, my eyes widening as they swim towards each other. They rip off their arms or their heads and hand them to somebody else, and they slowly combine together. They form a huge head, then a long neck, and finally a large body with fins and legs and feet bigger than a house. The huge creature tilts its head to the sky, the blood slowly seeping into it, feeding it, until only the water – now dark and murky – is left. For a moment, it reminds me of a dinosaur. Like one of those long necked brachiosaurus. Except, I don't think it sticks to plants and leaves.

I don't feel myself shaking or sweating. I am frozen. Unmoving. It's almost like I am dead, but I feel my heart beating – rapidly – and my breath is still there, even if each gulp of air I take seems shallow.

"If we beat this," Anna's voice startles me. "Then we get out of here. We win." At first, I had no hope. Now, I am full of it. I definitely not feeling brave, but I do have courage. Isn't courage being afraid and conquering that fear anyways? Instead of sprinting back to the woods, I plant my feet firmly to the ground. I don't have my powers yet, nor do I have a weapon.

The sky suddenly goes bright. There's seems to be something like a flash, then a deep, loud boom. I turn around in horror. The woods are turning white, losing color Everything is starting to disappear. The sky above us, the ground, the plants, and the trees, everything. Everything is gone except the moon, the lake, and the shore, which is just a line of damp, rough sand surrounding the water.

I run up to the white emptiness, but it's like a wall has stopped me. My hands run over it. It is like it is there, but it isn't as well. I turn to Avani, who seems to understand about as much as I do, which is nothing. I turn to Anna, and I see she is ignoring all of this, and is instead focused at the monster. Her eyes are strained and angry. Her arm is shaking as she is pulling on the string of the bow as hard as she can. She has stringed the bow. She is aiming at the monster.

"No!" I yell out, but it is already very, very late. The arrow flies in a perfectly straight line. I close my eyes and turn around. I don't want to see this.

A few seconds later, I hear it. The sound is deafening. It causes the ground to shake, triggering something somewhere, blowing a strong gust of wind, and pushing me to the ground. I scrape my knees and elbows, but then I get back up. When I turn around, the monster is already taking giant leaps out of the water. It has transformed into something wild, something seeking revenge.

"Anna!" I scream. She takes out an arrow and aims again. I push her to the ground, taking the bow away from her. "You are aggravating it!"

"Guys, it's getting on to the shore," Avani yells. She's right. The ground rumbles as the monster jumps up on what is left on the shore, the remaining of its large body standing in the shallow parts of the water.

Anna gets up from under me, dashing into the other direction. Her hand trails along the white wall as she runs as if she is looking for some escape. The monster has no problem chasing us. It raises its upper body into the air like a horse does and then falls back down, its large round feet landing several yards in front of me. Avani and I run after Anna, who is already very far away from us. The lake is large, probably a mile or more if you were to run around it.

I duck down instinctively as the dark, tall shadow of the creature starts to loom above us, but I don't stop running. My heart beats wildly in my chest and shows no sign of slowing down. Suddenly, something hard slams in front of me, and I fall down before I can do anything else to react. And then I scream as I realize it is the foot of the monster, all scaly and wet and covered in seaweed from the water. I see the outline of the hands and the tails and the facial features of the mermaids. I try to get up, but I end up crawling out from under the monster. Its tail lashes at me, but I duck down just as it skims the top of my head.