Shallow Secrets (A Robbie Kay/ Peter Pan FanFic)

A Lucky Tragedy

     

"Father are you hearing yourself?! This is ridiculous!" I scream, dodging his hands trying to grab me.

"The crew has decided it is final." His voice deep and sludgy, and his breath reeks of alcohol.

"Throwing me off a boat will not help anything!" I plead. 

"No! Geezer says you have to go, or we will have bad luck for years and never reach the land of gold!"

An old, dirty pirate appears in the cabin door. Geezer. My blood boils with hate for this man. 

He grins slyly at me, his golden tooth gleaming in the ship's lantern light.

"He isn't even a real fortune teller! The land of gold doesn't even exist!" I yell at Father, dodging his arm and running towards the cabin door. I almost reach the deck, but I slam into Geezer. 

He is very fast for his age, and before I can even kick him, my legs and wrists are bound. He pulls me up by my hair and the motion shoots pain through my skull. He yanks my hair so hard  I rise off the ground and cry out in pain. 

"So long, girly." He rasps. 

I bring my knee up sharply and knee him hard in the crotch. He drops me in surprise and I fall onto the hard deck, the breath knocked out of me. 

"Get rid of her!" Geezer moans from the floor, inches from me.

I hear heavy footsteps and I squirm as four pairs of boots come into view. Two men grab my arms; the other two snatch my legs. Kicking and clawing, I try desperately to escape, but they are stronger and I've been weakened by the lack of food on the ship and the fact none of the crew would let me out of my room for weeks because they thought it would be bad luck. 

The man carry me over to the edge of the boat and one man makes sure the ropes around my hands and feet are tight. 

"No!" I scream.  But it does nothing. My voice goes completely unheard...as always. The men let go of me at the same time, and I fly towards the water. The last face I saw was Father's. His stern expression fading in my mind as I hit the water.

It is quiet underwater.

Deathly quiet. 

I'm drowning. 

My muscles instinctively writhe, trying desperately to free my limbs from the ropes. My lungs burn and I watch the moonlight stream through the dark depths as I sink. 

Then, just as I am about to blackout, I feel something. It is strange, unlike anything I've felt before. My mouth opens and I breathe. 

My eyes start itching and I cry out with the discomfort. Then, I open my eyes and the water is clear. I can see every fish around me, the layers of color, I can feel the tempature of the water as if it is my own skin.  

Suddenly, a sharp pain shoots through my neck as little slits begin to open up just below my jaw. 

What is happening? 

My heart beats so fast I can't keep up with it. A burning sensation quickly spreads through my body, from my neck to my toes. Tiny blue bumps begin to form all over my arms and my blue dress rips around my feet. Taking a breath of water feels completely normal.

My dress starts to drift away from my body and I scream, which sounds like a bunch of bubbles with a slow screeching sound, but feels completely normal.  I gaze with shock upon a large, blue, fish-like tail where my feet just were. My skin burns so furiously that my eyes want to cry, but they can't. 

Blue metallic scales cover my body from my fishtail at my feet, to just below my armpits. The ropes slip off me effortlessly and sink into the depths. My long dirty blonde hair streams out behind me and I flap my tail.

  "How did this happen?" I moan. My voice sounds strangely hollow and eerie underwater.

The shock of this is too much. The burning takes over me and my eyes refuse to cry. 

I can't see. I can't hear. I can't feel. I am numb. And then, everything goes black.

                                                                                       ~~~~~

Heat. 

It's the first thing I feel. 

Salty water laps up onto my sunburned skin. 

I open my eyes, then squint them shut again. They are full of sand, and I realize I'm crying.

      Suddenly, I sit up and I cough up water. Then I go limp and just lay there, burning in the sun. The weeks in confinement have made my skin very susceptible to the sun and every move I make sends shock waves of pain throughout my body.  Forcing my eyes open again, I notice through a foggy view, that I'm wearing my blue dress! 

Suddenly, all of the memories come flooding back to me.

The pain. The sparkling tail. The gills. It must have been a hallucination driven by shock and fear. 

But how are the ropes off me now? How am I alive?

I shudder, despite the heat, and try to sit up. Slowly, with shaky arms, I push myself into a sitting position, my back to the water. When I look up, I notice something move. 

I'm facing a forest, and in the tree closest to me, I see something. 

"Hello?" I call. My voice is raspy and my throat burns. 

There is no answer. 

"Please, I just need some water..." I start to shake violently and I collapse again onto the sand. My forehead feels hot, my hands are hot...

 "I will get you water. But then, you have to leave."

A male voice startles me and I look up. 

A boy looks down on me. His blonde hair is framed by the sunlight and his face is smudged with dirt. He looks about my age, sixteen or seventeen. 

My head suddenly collapses onto the sand again; I am too weak to hold my head up.  

"I'm sorry," I whisper, "I can't move."

Suddenly, I'm off the ground. He picks me up effortlessly and brings one of my lifeless arms around his neck for stability. 

I can feel us moving; I open my eyes a bit and notice he is carrying me across the sand towards a jungle-like forest in the distance. 

 "Who are you and where did you come from?" The boy grunts.

My head hurts from confusion and heat. Where am I? Who is this mysterious boy? Am I really a mermaid? What had actually happened? 

But the most I could manage was,
   

  "Pearl." My voice sounds scratchy and weak.

After a few moments, I feel a cool feeling all over my body, and the sun isn't burning my eyes anymore. Opening my eyes again, I note that we are in the shady forest. Not a bone in my body wants to trust his boy. He could be taking me to a slave camp, or another pirate ship. But not a bone in my body has the ability to move. And despite myself, I soon fall asleep.