Mermaid for a Day

14

My sarcastic attitude still seemed to survive the past few days of craziness pertaining to me and my family. I had been turned into a mermaid by a potion given to me by my aunt. I had found my soul mate in the water after leaving land. Then I didn't make it to land to undo the potion, which afterwards I found out my dad was the King of the ocean for crying out loud. Soon after, my aunt froze time to tell me about my crazy family history, which as a result left her weak and frail.

Right after that, I went on mission to bring my family to the ocean, but I instead was taken back on land where it appears that my mother had sawn off my tail fin. At last that leaves where I am now. In a my family bathroom tub with my brother holding my severed tail fin in front of me like a foam finger. What else could happen next? Does anyone have any guesses, because I don't?

My brother stared at me like I was a museum exhibit being displayed for last time ever, but his eyes over to my chopped off tail. He seemed puzzled as to why my legs weren't there like they should have been there without having to do anything this traumatic to me to get it to happen. Then mom came barging in through the bathroom door like she had figured out the cure to cancer.

She stared at Jacob, who was holding my tail fin close to my scarred appendage. Then her eyes went wild like someone was about to shoot the president or something of that nature. I could feel my tail fin still alive and well call to its fragmented end to bond as one until they were whole again. Fiber started to stretch between the two separate pieces of my body, and just as the feeling of the tail being a tethered part of me was returning, my mom pulled the fin out of my brothers had ripping the fibers from the tail and fin alike.

She held her finger out with a no not yet look in her eyes. She smiled seeing the torment in my eyes like it fed her ambition of delivering pain to me. I was crying now from her insensitivity to my feeling of wanting my tail fin back. Then she pasted her gaze to Jacob looking at him as if he was about to ruin everything for her. My mom pulled out a small cell phone that looked to be a dinosaur in comparison with my smartphone sitting on my dresser.

She opened it dialing a number with a strange area code from somewhere I couldn't identify. Holding the fin up as if to say don't interrupt or else I switched my focus to Jacob who was looking like he was going to beat himself up for not stopping her. Then I leaned ready myself to ask a question that I needed to know the answer to.

"What in the world is going on, Jacob?" I said barring my voice down so mom couldn't while she was on the phone.

"You don't want to know, Lily." he with a sincere soft whisper that to me was incredulous to me.

"Tell me." I hissed back not minding the fact that I seemed to scare him doing so.

"Mom is going to take you an aquarium basically until..." he paused not wanting to say anything further but not wanting to leave his little sister in the dark anymore.

"Until what?" I insisted with a slight snarl.

"Until you either lose the rest of your tail naturally and start get your legs back or..." He stammered feeling obligated to keep her from knowing the truth.

"Or until you die from not having it." He said not wanting her to know what they would do to her afterwards.

"Then what?" I asked with the desire to know for my own safety.

"Then they give it back and let you heal until..." he said making look like he was trying best to not let mom notice he was giving her this information, but with an intent to stall the situation.

"Until what, Jacob." I whispered with an edge in my voice in the near silence to it.

"Until they do it again." He said with a cold glare like you made me say it.

"So they keep doing it until I have legs again." I said looking at my brother with a sense of insanity in this scheme.

"Yes, Lily. They will." He retorted glancing to his ankles where a scar was ever evident. Mom did this to him.

"They do it for children born under our circumstances, Lily." he added with piercing tone in his voice.

I knew that we were different due to our bloodline, but I was even more so because I got my tail from a potion that couldn't be undone, at least until death. Who mom rather have me die than be a mermaid. How could my mother be so heartless to her own children? I stared at her now realizing how mad she had become from fear of returning to the ocean as I had planned. After a few seconds, she got off her phone and signaled with a glance to my brother that things were now ready.

A second later, a syringe dug into the vein in my arm sending me in a deep sleep. Everything around went out my view as I dreamt of being in the sea with Damien swimming with me enjoying every second of time spent together as a match made in the sea. It was lovely. Then a loud clank over my head woke me up. It was a hatch some sort of tank. I was stuck in a tank. A finless mermaid in a tank. Now this was just great.