Finding Athena

The Mermaid and The Lake

I was at the water's edge again. No matter what I did to send myself to sleep, I still got the same dream. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't even an exciting landscape. There was nothing to look at apart from the water, and I had a constant plagued feeling that someone was watching me. Everything felt... off about this place, and the knot in my stomach grew bigger with ever second I stayed here. I looked out across the water again and sighed. I swore I could see movement under the surface, but it was doubtless just plants or fish. There was a flat rock sticking up from the middle of the lake that looked like it was big enough to sit on, so I decided to swim out to it. It beat staring at the water til I woke up. I hauled myself up on the rock, and just sat there, kicking my feet, listening to the waves hitting the rock and humming to myself. It was so peaceful, so calming.

Then a hand gripped my ankle. A cold, slimy hand. I screamed and kicked, but the hand's grip was firm. I looked down at it and sucked in a breath to scream again, but it got stuck in my throat when I saw the face that the hand belonged to. It was the single scariest thing I'd ever laid eyes on. And ugly too. My mind deduced 'mermaid', but I was too frozen in fear to react to this absurdity. Her seaweed green hair writhed around her, her eyes were a vibrant shade of red, and she had a full set of pointed teeth, bared in a grimace. "You're not going anywhere, Athena" she hissed, spitting the last word out in hatred, "you're joining us!" She started dragging me under the water with her in a slow and deliberate manner so that I knew she was going to kill me. I kicked and screamed again, clinging to the rock, but it was smooth and slippery, and the mermaid's grip never loosened.

I was almost submerged and about to give up all hope of coming out alive - or human - when a tremor blew through the water. It forced me up towards the surface and I broke free of the water, gasping for air and soaked to the bone. The mermaid re-emerged with me, her face contorted with rage.  "What are you doing here?!" she hissed at someone behind me, "I haven't given her the message, you shouldn't be here!" I twisted to see who was behind me, but the sun was rising behind the figure and all I could see was my saviour's silhouette as he replied.

"Let go of her mermaid, she is one of us. You have disrupted her safe passage, and as such you are hereby banished from Poseidon's Waters. You are trapped in this Lake in solitude for the rest of eternity."

The mermaid muttered something about not wanting to complete the 'Circle of Twelve'. It sent chills down my spine, but the glowing man couldn't hear her. I thought she was going to kill me anyway, for sheer spite, but the man's threat - and her impending banishment - seemed to have completely knocked the fight out of her. The cold death grip on my ankle loosened and I kicked away from the horrible creature as she slunk back into the water. I pulled myself back on the rock, sodden and shivering, but safe none the less. I turned to thank my saviour but he had already disappeared. I sat there, dazed and rather confused, wondering what was going to happen next.

I would  have to check myself into a mental hospital, that's for sure. Glowing men coming to rescue me from mermaids, who in turn were calling me by an Ancient Greek Goddess' name. I was definitely insane. I sighed and shook my head as my subconscious was dragged away from the lake and back into the land of the living.

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edited Feb 2015 in a valiant effort to gain inspiration for the rest of the book. Its should read better now!