Forest of Imagination

Drowning and Capture (Maybe)

"Cool, I'm Delilah," the girl nodded, seemingly calm from just encountering a mermaid and all.

"Ooh, lucky! I've always wanted to have that name," I pouted, wistfully thinking about my name being Delilah. Melody was a nice name, for sure, but Delilah was the prime name that everyone wanted at Marina Academy. Coincidentally, the most popular girl there was named Delilah, and I'm starting to wonder if she was popular because she was nice and everything, or if it was because of her prime name.

"Well, Melody is a pretty good fit for you," Delilah observed, gesturing to my T-shirt saying, "Music is My Life!"

"Eh, my sister Tara picked it out randomly because she thought it would look good on me," I shrugged.

"It does," Delilah gasped. "I mean, sorry for asking, but is this fabric, you know, pure silk from...?"

"Yeah," I answered, feeling a little self-conscious now.

"Alright then, why don't you tell me why this girl over here"--she gestured to McKenzie--"is a mermaid?"

"Um...she was in a lab accident and hydrogen peroxide spilled on her legs, which made a tail?" I replied, not even convincing myself. But even though Mr. Angelo, my chemistry teacher, taught me about H2O2, aka hydrogen peroxide, I don't even know WHAT THE HECK it was.

"Actually, heated hydrogen peroxide that is spilled on one's legs can cause serious damage, and I should know because I am a chemistry professor's daughter at New York University," Delilah said seriously, and then I realized we were in New York City. Or rather, floating in the ocean near it.

"Ah, you should know," I nodded slowly.

Delilah blushed and said quickly, "I mean, I'm not that smart or anything, it's just that everyone knows heated hydrogen peroxide equals poison--OR DID DAD LIE? Ugh, see what I have to deal with when I got a nerdy scientist let inside my house all because of a simple 'I do'?"

"Yes, your dad did lie, because I don't even know that, Delilah," I commented, rather unhelpfully.

"But he's not the only one." Delilah's attention turned to me, and I cringed under her gaze. "What really happened?"

"Hard to explain," I said, and Delilah seemed to get the point, thankfully. She reluctantly let the subject go.

"You can call me Deals, by the way. My best friend Grace calls me that, and so do my other friends, so you should be able to too," Delilah offered, and I accepted it before anything happened to make her change her mind.

"Yeah, and you can call me Mel," I said.

"Mel and Deals... Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" Delilah smiled, fingers pressed to lips.

"Hi, I'm Katie," Katie introduced herself, smirking at me while butting rudely into our conversation. "And I don't know if you know mermaids have names, but that one there's named McKenzie. Nice to meet you too, Delilah," Katie added after a still moment of silence.

"Yep," Delilah nodded slowly, then turned back to me (HA, take that, you annoying Katie!).

"Yeah, those are all our names," I sighed, and Delilah burst out laughing.

"So, do you want to go back to the beach and meet my maniacal family and not-so-hot older brother Luke?" Delilah asked, rolling her eyes. "I mean, Grace says he's super cute, but he's so annoying when you've lived with him all your life. I swear to God I will get revenge on him for putting that spider in my mango smoothie and having the nerve to laugh when I screamed."

"Ooh, that must have been hilarious," I laughed, not helping Delilah's distressed mood at all.

"Oh, yeah, would you like a mango smoothie, my dear?" Delilah smirked innocently, and I glared at her.

"I meant, it must have been hilarious for Luke," I snorted with laughter, splashing saltwater on Katie.

"Hey!" Katie complained, and I sighed.

"Why am I best friends with a toddler?" I asked Delilah with sad puppy dog eyes, making her laugh.

"Eh," Delilah shrugged, making want to STRANGLE her.

"I am twelve years old, which is half a year older than you, Ms. Russell," Katie warned me, which made me gasp in mock fright. I didn't know what was making me so fun-loving all of a sudden, but I liked it this way.

Or not.

"Melody, stop being so immature," McKenzie ordered me.

"I'm not," I retort. Or maybe I am, but who cares? Being immature is more fun anyways. Now, that sounds really immature.

"Tell me about your species," Delilah says, and I feel my heart sinking quicker and quicker. So the only topic that Delilah wanted to talk about was mermaids? Why not something else less, um, touchy?

"Species?" I ask like an idiot.

"Yeah, mermaids," she said.

"Um, we have tails and live in normal houses? We like going seahorse-back riding? Jelly-fishing? We have a queen, Queen Aster?" I answered, even though it came out more in questions. The last "question" hit a little too close to home, both for Delilah and McKenzie. McKenzie especially, who coughed.

"Aster? You mean, as in, Queen Aster?" Delilah asked, her body dropping deeper and deeper into the waves as Delilah stayed in shock for the sake of Disbelief. I didn't know what was so surprising, but when I saw Delilah struggling to come up, I knew I had to save her. And her blood.

Was that all I needed her for? Her royal mermaid blood, which somehow had bits of Trident floating around in liquefied form? It was the seventh piece, after all. I tried to convince myself that we were friends as well, but we'd only just met. How were we supposed to be friends, then?

I struggled to get into mermaid form, and somehow couldn't do it. I wondered how Delilah was keeping mermaid magic at bay, then realized she was doing it on accident. Unfortunately, this magic - or rather, magic-blocking - would affect the entire Atlantic Ocean. Which meant sailors would experience strangely clear weather, and lose their precautions, and when they least expected it - the ship blows up, with catastrophe everywhere!

I felt myself sinking too, and tried swimming to the surface, but the pressure was too hard on me. I couldn't make an air bubble in human form, either, so I just sank deeper and deeper and deeper into the sea. Drowning. 

McKenzie was swimming towards me, her tail strong, but suddenly her face got red and she struggled to swim back to the surface. Luckily, with her awesome tail swim-power and mermaid features, she made it. I felt a body under me: Delilah. I saw Katie's face, wide with terror and being too shocked to do anything, holding onto a piece of coral. And I truly didn't blame her. I would be scared to death too if one of my best friends freaking drowned in the ocean with a girl she only met for five minutes, yet desperately tried to save.

I saw Katie saying something, and somehow my eyesight stayed clear. We have to get help, she mouthed, or it could've been He has two cat-kelp. If a cat-kelp was really a thing, and if it was possible to get two of those at the market. Also, if Katie was so confused that she thought I was a boy.

Yep, definitely the second one.

JUST KIDDING, guys. Of course Katie said the first one, or else McKenzie would've brought her to a mental hospital immediately. Because there is no such thing as cat-kelp (or is there?).

Seriously, is there?

Anyways, I sank deeper. Delilah was struggling under me, her oxygen tank apparently out of oxygen.

I touched a piece of kelp (cat-kelp?) and laughed to myself at the thought of CK (cat-kelp). I bumped into Delilah, who'd obviously fallen onto a sea-cliff. Suddenly, another scuba diver saw us, and triumphantly threw a net over us instead of saving us heroically like I thought.

Or maybe this was just part of his plan.

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A/N: This is dedicated to SocialyAwkwardWriter for being so nice and awesome and a fabulous Wattpad pen pal! Yes, that is a thing.

--Cam