I Am The Last Mermaid

Chapter 8 Who Knows?

Chapter 8
Who Knows?

I stood on the beach in fear, astonishment, and excitement.
I was getting off my island!
The Nixie said I would lose him. And she probably meant Jonathan, but I was leaving this island wether I lost something or not. That thought seemed to almost counter act the loss.
I was willing to sacrifice.
'How?' I thought.
This island had been my shelter, my home...
It was everything I had ever known.
'Domus mea' I thought longingly.
I had never seen the outside world, except for the things that washed up on shore after the ship wrecks, and what little I can remember from the mainland.
But that was all about to change!
I was leaving!
I felt sand suddenly touching my knees.
Had I fallen?
Then my cheeks were wet.
Was I crying?
But I want sad. Not at all.
Butterflies were building in my stomach and the world seemed off kilter.
Suddenly I was too happy to restrain myself.
"YES!"
I screamed.
"BY ALL THE OCEAN, YES!!!!"
I felt myself leap from the ground. I was giddy. What was this feeling?
It was strange and yet...so, so very wonderful.
Suddenly my feet were moving in some strange pattern on the sand, the white soft dryness going between my toes.
My dress was twirling around me and my arms were swinging.
Dancing
The thought came to me like a memory. I was dancing. I couldn't even remember dancing before and didn't know how I was doing it. I'd never seen dancing, and I had no memories of it.
Yet here it was, like a present
suddenly ripped from the wrapping.
I laughed again, feeling my legs and arms go in strange different patterns.
"Angelica!"
I froze and turned around, my purple eyes widening.
Jonathan.
He was running down the beach, kicking up white sand behind him.
His ocean blue eyes were dark with concern and his jaw was set. I could see a vein in his neck throbbing.
I backed up slowly, almost as if I was afraid of him, but I wasn't.
'Jonathan isn't someone you should fear, Angelica' I thought, but the anger and concern in his eyes was enough to make me shiver.
"Jonathan I-"
He reached me and grabbed me.
He had both his large, calloused hands on the sides of my face. He held it with strength but a gentleness that was almost alien to me.
"Don't" he whispered, his voice thick with concern and...something else.
"Don't ever scare me like that again, Angelica. Please."
His blue eyes were locked with mine, I saw the whole ocean within those eyes. I was lost in them. I could feel the tug of the tide, and the taste of salt on my tongue.
My mouth had gone dry.
What was he doing? Why was he touching me? Why was his face so close to mine? Why is my heart pounding? Why am I feeling sick?
Why is he making me feel like this?
"Okay."
Was all I said.
Jonathan closed his eyes, and his forehead fell against mine.
'What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?'
Thoughts were hitting me like sand on a windy day, sharp and painfully.
Where Jonathan's skin touched mine, I felt on fire. Every part of me was.
What is this?
What am I doing?
I heard him breathe in and then out. Deep and thoughtful as if we weren't in the situation we were in.
He opened his eyes, and I saw and felt the ocean again.
"Good " He said.
And Jonathan let me go.

}~~>•

My face turned red immediately.
My face burned with the strength of a thousand suns and the ferocity of a wild animal.
'What in all the ocean was that!?'
I thought. My brain was a soup of mixed up thoughts.
Why?
How?
For what reason?
And why did I not pull away?
"I liked your dancing" Jonathan said, and he smirked.
'Bastard!' I thought, but only blushed more.
"It was like nothing I'd ever seen before," he continued "it was beautiful."
'Oh by the ocean, make it stop.'
"T-than-thank you." I muttered.
I was too frazzled to think. The island was spinning. I could feel the ocean, but I could not see it.
Was this even real?
"You were smiling" Jonathan stated and he gave me a goofy little grin.
"Why?"
I, then, went entirely still.
The spinning in my head stopped and I could think straight again.
I turned towards Jonathan, a little of the embarrassment from earlier lifted off my shoulders. He was looking at me curiously.
"Jonathan" I said, his name tasted strange on my lips.
"I have been on this island for ten years. The world has changed, I'm sure, and I have changed. From what little I remember from the main land, I was hated, called a monster, and a shame to my family."
I turned towards the ocean, remembering.
"When I was six my parents took me on a boat, almost like the one you came on, and they left me here."
Jonathan took a step back , as if he had been struck my something. He was shocked.
"I was just a child, but it didn't matter, not to them."
I could feel everything around me. The scuttling of crabs, the crash of the waves against the shore, and even Jonathan's own breathing, mine even with his.
"I am a siren, Jonathan. A monster. I should be cursed to this island, never to leave.
"But that...thing you saw. It was not like me. It was a Nixie. A creature with knowledge of the future and the gift of prophecy.
It has come to me, and it has said,
'Soon you will leave this place for the one you love...
But you will lose him, just as every Mermaid does."
I turned towards Jonathan his blue eyes seemed deep in thought but also listening, to me. I felt a small smile move my lips.
"I want to believe that even though I might lose someone along the way...I'm going to leave this god forsaken island of mine and see the new world. The things I've missed as time has gone by."
A bigger smile widening on my face, and a little joy seeped back into my frozen body.
"I can finally be free."
I was smiling now, and my cheeks were hurting. Jonathan looked at me with his ocean blue eyes sparkling.
He was silent for a long time, just looking at me, then he spoke.
"Mermaid" he said
"The Nixie said you are a mermaid. If you trust her on this prophecy, don't you think you should trust her about what you are?"
I thought about his question. It was a cruel question. To tell me something like that, to ask if what I thought I was, wasn't actually what I am. What kind of creature can I be if I don't even know what I am?
"Siren." I said with fake certainty "I am a Siren. I have been told that since I was a child, and wether a Nixie or the ocean itself tells me, that's what I will believe. Mermaids aren't bad luck, Jonathan. If I was a mermaid, the ships wouldn't sink, and I could save people."
The image of the crying child struck me like a knife in the back. Painful and fast.
"You saved me." Jonathan whispered.
"Indeed, but you are one of thousands."
It came out crueler than I intended and Jonathan looked hurt for a second but composed himself. I wanted to apologize, but I would not, because it was the truth.
"Then I will help you, Angelica," he said, and his eyes shone with determination.
"You will be free of your curse."
I smiled.
"Thank you, my friend."

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I'VE GOT STUFF GOING ON IM SORRY BUT HERE AND I'LL WORK MORE
BUT
GUYS RUNNING THE MOTHER FLUFFING OCEAN IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS I MEAN SERIOUSLY
If one more effing fish comes to me complaining about the damn sharks I SWEAR....

Anywhoo.
Here yeah go.
Hopefully another will come sooner, my apologies again.
Tooda looo!

~The Last Mermaid