Mermaid in a Bottle

Chapter 8 ~ The Invasion

(Will's P.O.V.)

I sighed as I watched the clock tick by the seconds. This was taking too damn long. Where the hell was my sister? I propped my chin on my hands and my elbows on the table. How long did it take to pick up a human? That was her job wasn't it? Bringing humans worthy enough to a life in the sea. I honestly thought the job was stupid and pointless. We survived well enough without them. Although I sometimes adored the human race, bringing them down here to the sea just wasn't appealing to me.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to say something. This was completely abnormal and I wasn't really all too patient. Back in my hometown I didn't have to be patient. Everyone was scared to be late and face the consequences.

"Mom don't you think it's a little odd?"

"What is?"

"That MerLissa still hasn't returned. I mean, come on, it's already the next day and we haven't heard any words from her yet. What if she's in danger?"

My mother rolled her eyes. "There you go again, always assuming the worst."

I shrugged. "It's the first thing we learn back in Darkville."

She laughed. "Darkville? How cliché."

I scoffed under my breath. That didn't sound all too cliché to me. In Darkville we learned to call things as we saw them, thus making the name of our town Darkville. It was completely logical. I decided to not respond to that offensive comment and got back on topic.

"Come on mom. Tell me there isn't anything weird about it."

My mom began to put some thought into my words. "Well I guess it is kind of weird. Usually she would have been here by now. Or if she wouldn't, she has her shellphone. She would have at least tried to contact me."

Shellphone? That must have been the thing that was making that awful ringing noise.

"Well we should do something about it." I began to stand, but she pushed me back into my seat.

"Now hold your seahorses! That doesn't mean that something awful happened. We can't just assume things."

"I'd rather assume something and follow my instinct and be right than not pursue it and find MerLissa's body floating around the city. Where did she go to pick up this human anyway?"

"I don't know. She never really tells me anything about her job." I can hear a trace of sadness in her tone. "You can find out at The Halls though. It's where she works. It's located in the center of the town."

I nodded and stood up again, faster this time so she couldn't catch me and push me down. "Okay mom. Bye! I'm off!"

"What? You're leaving now? Can't you wait a little longer until we've confirmed that something's wrong?"

"Like I said earlier, I don't want to see MerLissa's body floating around town. If she was in danger, just a few more seconds could give her extra time to save herself."

Before my mom could say anything else or try to stop me, I raced to the front door and opened it. Momentarily, I became blinded by the sun's rays hitting the water. Back in Darkville, there was no sunlight. The whole town was in a cave, so the light was blocked out by rocks. I blinked a few times to get used to it and closed the door before going on my way.

As I swam, I realized something was different about the town. I hadn't been out here since yesterday, but I could see a slight transformation. Although the sun was out, everything seemed a bit darker. The people I swam by seemed to be more panicked. No one was as carefree as they were yesterday. I wondered what was going on.