Ariel's Daughter

Chapter 20

"Find Avery, now!" I yell towards Madilyn who seems to be in a trance of terror, but snaps out of it and ends up running across the beach. I don't pay much attention, and only hope that this woman won't get me killed. I notice my vision is still persisting, and step closer towards this woman who calls herself my aunt.

I see in the distance through the dark Madilyn running frantically around, desperately searching for Avery. I don't know if he is here, I just want to know what this woman wants with me, and I don't know if I want Madilyn to hear. Whatever this woman had to say, it wasn't good. It never was.

I plummet to the ground when she uses some kind of force to limit my access to my mother, who now is starting to fade into the water. I see as she swims and then reaches out with her hand to beckon me towards her. I stand up, and realize my muscles feel tight and heavy, just like I've just gotten a shot. The feeling is odd, but instead I try to ignore it and move in a fast pace towards the rough water. I step into the cold liquid and feel as if I was right to be here. I start to swim, and this time it is easier than when I first swam to save Avery. That time, I was blind, now I wasn't. I still found it weird to be able to see, and what the world looked like. It seemed so much more dangerous and confident in its nature, that I knew that my mind had pictured its beauty the same. Maybe it was just the situation I was in, that made the feel colder. I was shaky, and I knew that when you were nervous or anxious that you'd find yourself feeling an odd sensation of being chilly, except you aren't cold at all.

I swim towards my mother, and notice that as I do, my vision starts to clear even more than it had been. Maybe this was the only explanation of why my mother and father lied to me. Maybe it explains why I had always felt that Juneau, that the docks were my true home. Where the water was, was my home. Now I knew, that my father hadn't been lying to protect me from my aunt. My mother had lied so that I wouldn't get hurt, that her sister wouldn't know about me. They wanted to protect me, yet she still found me and tried to kill me. More than enough times, I think annoyed.

"Oh come on, you know so well that family reunions aren't always the best, Ariel." She says, and her laughs returns. It rings throughout the beach, and stings my ears with its maniacal sound.

"Ursula, please. It's not a big deal. You don't have to kill my daughter. She has done nothing wrong." My mother answers, and her voice is strong, yet strangled. I push myself towards her and feel something grab onto my skinny ankles and scream as I'm pulled under.

I struggle and try to get free, but it is no use. The water is too rough, the hands that grab my ankles are too strong. My head spins as I start to feel myself losing consciousness. Just like in my dreams. Yet again. I'm drowning, again. I think sadly, and here is my mother in real life, not doing anything to stop it. I want her to stop, I want to know why Ursula wants me dead so badly.

***

I wake up suspended in the water, breathing. I gasp, and only try to think about why I'm underwater. What happened? Then: I remember everything. Avery was probably still missing, and Madilyn is hopefully okay, and—oh yeah, Ursula tried to kill me again. I feel a tug at my leg and I freak out, thinking its Ursula coming to help me drown, but as I look down, I realize I can still see perfectly fine and see my own mother beckoning me towards her. I swim further under the cold surface and find I am not shivering. What other odd things can my mother do besides give me the ability to see?

We dive deeper and deeper into the channel, and then, as we come closer to the outlook towards the lake I gasp. There at the edge where the lake meets the channel is a cliff. Like something out of a storybook, and I stop completely, not sure if I should trust this woman. She smiles, as if she knows what I'm thinking instantly, and immediately pulls me closer and closer towards the underwater cliff. The very spot I feel as if I might find a deep underwater creature no one has yet discovered. I try to pull back, but she is stronger, the one that is used to swimming everywhere. I sigh, and have no choice but to follow.