Secrets Down Below

02

(photo of Kai)
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I awoke to the sound of a soft knock at the door. Who the hell was knocking on our door at 7 in the morning?

I sat up slowly while rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. And then I sat. An sat. And sat. Finally, I got out of bed and made my way towards the front door. Whoever was at the door knocked again, but a bit harder.

"I'm coming!" I shouted with annoyance in my voice.

I swung the door open right as the person was about to start knocking again. The person behind my early awakening was our neighbor, Mrs. Ledford. She was a small woman with a soft smile always placed on her face.

"Hi, Mrs. Ledford. Can I help you?" I asked.

"Hello, Thoe. I was wondering if I could borrow some milk? My grandkids are here for the weekend and I wanted to make them some pancakes," Mrs. Ledford explained.

"Of course!" I said as nicely as I could. "Come in."

She smiled thankfully and stepped inside of the house. I led her to the kitchen and was about to open the refrigerator door wide open until I remembered something that we keep in there. The blood bags!
My brother and I keep blood bags in here for when we don't feel like going out and getting it fresh. Technically we could live off of the blood in the bags, but fresh blood gives us more energy.

"Actually Mrs. Ledford, I forgot we don't have any milk," I said nervously.

"But, I thought I just saw some on the side of the door," She said.

"No, we ran out of it last week," I said quickly.

"I just need a little, I promise I won't take much." The old lady said. She reached her hand out to open the fridge door, but I held it closed.

"I said, we don't have anymore," I said slowly.

"What are you hiding in there?" She asked out of the blue.

"Nothing, I have no idea what you're talking about." I said smoothly.

"Then why won't you let me get some milk out of there?" She asked.

"Because I said we don't have anymore!" Our voices were raising quite a bit and by now we were practically shouting at each other.

"You and your brother are some strange kids," Mrs. Ledford snapped. "You don't go to school, you never leave the house, and you two are clearly hiding something!" She snapped. She went on and on about how we were probably hiding drugs or something and I just continued to deny her accusations.

"We're not hiding anything!" I lied. "I'm sorry, but we don't have any milk. Now I'm going to have to ask you to leave before I call the cops," I said. I mean, this lady was practically harassing me over something so silly!

"Fine. But I'll find out what you two are up to and you will get what you deserve for having drugs in your house!" The crazy lady shouted before going out of the door and slamming it.

"Holy shot," I whispered, running a hand through my hair. What if she happened to get the fridge open and see all of the blood?

"What the hell was that?" Kai asked. He came out from around the corner and sat down at the counter.

"So now you decide to show up? Mrs. Ledford was harassing me about milk and accusing us for having drugs or something!" I explained to him.

"Yeah, she's a little weird," Kai said.

"More than a little weird," I added. She was so annoying! Now I'm all annoyed.

"I need to go for a swim," Kai and I said at the same time.

We stared at each other before smirking.

"Last one to the dock is a rotten tuna!" I shouted. I sprinted out of the door and towards the dock with Kai right behind me. At the last second, he ran ahead of me and dove off of the dock.

"I fucking hate you!" I screamed before canon balling into the water. As soon as I touched it, I felt my legs fusing into one and then I saw my tail. My tail was a dark navy blue that almost looks black, but when the sun hits my tail, it looks navy blue. Kai's tail was a deep maroon. We didn't have traditional mermaid tails that were bright blue or a beautiful orange. That's because we're different than them. We're darker than them.

Being a mermaid has its perks. Like you can swim super fast. I could probably swim from California to Australia in about two hours at the most. Which means my brother and I caught up to where the boy was last night pretty quick. I motioned for him to come up above the water and then I swam up to meet him.

"I'll catch up with you later. I'm going to swim around here for a while," I told Kai.

"Okay, I'll see you later." Kai said before diving back under the water. a before I knew it, he was a far distance away and I turned towards the boys house. I was a far distance away so if he happened to look out of a window, he wouldn't be able to see me. But with my vision, I could see just fine.

It was a while before I saw him again. He was coming towards the dock and was looking straight in my direction. I lowered myself down some more and stared at him. He looked away from my direction before he sat down on the edge of the dock. He lit a cigarette and puffed some smoke from his mouth. He seemed to be in deep thought, which meant this could be a perfect opportunity to snatch him from off the dock. I inhaled his sweet scent before swimming a bit closer. He still didn't see me. I then dipped my head under the water and swam until I was underneath his dock. The water was cloudy today so I knew he couldn't see me. This was my chance.

I popped my head above the water and slowly inched towards the boy silently. I was about to grab his feet before he pulled them up into the deck. Had he heard me? I lowered myself down into the water more as I heard a huge splash. What the hell?

My senses tingled as I realized he was in the water. This was easier than I thought.

I went underwater again and saw the boy was just treading water by the dock. His back was facing me so he couldn't see the deadly creature that I was inching towards him, seconds before his death. I was about to lunge for him before avoided popped into my head.

I can't do this.

I couldn't do this. My body physically wouldn't let me. It's like all the muscles in my body froze, restricting me from moving. What is wrong with me?

His scent was driving me mad. I couldn't think straight. It was like the smell of freshly baked cookies, but you couldn't have them. I wanted that boy so bad. There was something about him that intrigued me. Why was he so different? Why won't I let myself kill him?

My thoughts were interrupted when he turned around. "Hello?" He asked.

With quick thinking, I flicked my tail on the bottom of the river, creating a cloud of mud so he couldn't see me. Then I swam away as fast as I could, away from the sweet smelling creature.

What is up with him?

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When I got home, I flicked on the tv and the first thing that popped up on the news station was a report about new bodies being found around the coast.

I smirked to myself, knowing I was the cause of it. They sure were tasty.

I went to the kitchen to get a blood bag. since I haven't had any blood today. I grabbed a bag out of the fridge and popped it into the microwave. Just as I was about to plunge my fangs into a warm bag, a loud bang came from the front door.

"Thoe? Kai?"

Mrs. Ledford.

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