Ari and Zac

Chapter 38: Leg to Leg, Mouth to Mouth

Chapter 38: Leg to Leg, Mouth to Mouth

Ari struggled beneath the surface, pulled downward by the ocean's merciless grip, and faced with the terrifying realization that her story had come to an end. She had drawn her final breath. The air that remained in her lungs would be the last air that ever reached them. She'd be dead already if she hadn't trained and practiced to stay underwater for minutes at a time, but she was rapidly reaching her limit. Only one thing could save her now.

Only the transformation.

That was how it always went in her visualization exercises. It was always at the last possible instant, when she was so deep beneath the waves that no light penetrated. The point of no return. That was when it happened—when her legs dissolved beneath her and re-materialized as something else...

Maybe it wasn't a fantasy. Maybe it was her only hope.

A calmness settled over her, despite the burning in her lungs. Ari closed her eyes, gathering her strength. Her legs ceased their useless scissor-kick. They drew together. Thigh to thigh. Knee to knee. Ankle to ankle. In her mind, Ari visualized the gap between them shrink, then shimmer, and then, at last, disappear. She felt the change. It was too dark to see beneath the water, but she could sense it inside her head. She knew with total certainty that she had nothing more to fear. It was happening. At last.

She kicked then, but not her normal kick. Her legs snapped together in perfect unison, propelling her body upward. It was the same movement she used to do inside the aquarium, when her legs were bound together by a rubber tail. But not the same. More forceful and more fluid. A wave of movement, perfectly in tune with the rhythm of the water's current. Stronger than she'd ever kicked in her whole life.

It was that powerful two-legged dolphin kick that saved her. The water slackened its grasp, and she shot to the surface like a cork.

Of course, she hadn't really changed into a mermaid. It was only in her head. Her legs came apart again as soon as she refilled her lungs with air. But for that one fleeting moment, she'd believed it. She'd believed in the fantasy with every fiber of her being. In her mind, her legs had been replaced by dolphin's tail. And the human mind could be a powerful force indeed...

More powerful than the body. More powerful than the sea itself.

Ari treaded for a moment, pulling in the air in ragged gasps. The wind had slackened, and the sea seemed calmer now than it had at the height of the storm. Ari strained in the darkness to make out her position. How far out to sea had the current dragged her? As she turned in the water, a new sound reached her ears. A voice carried to her on the dying wind... A faint, gurgling cry. In the split-second illumination of a lightning bolt, she saw where it was coming from, a few yards off from where she'd surfaced.

A hand waved desperately back and forth. She couldn't see his face, lost beneath the ocean's rolling surface, but she knew who that hand belonged to.

Zac? Out here?

It couldn't be. She'd texted him that wretched song from her sister's phone—intended as a slap in his face, but not a death blow. It had never occurred to her that he might come into the water after her... that she might drag him down as well.

Ari didn't pause to think before she swam. She reached him just as he was sucked beneath the waves. He didn't fight or thrash around as she hauled him back to the surface. He'd fallen unconscious. All the fight had left him. Nothing remained but dead weight.

They both would have drowned then, if not for the pier. With a terrifying groan, the wooden structure gave way. The tide, in its relentless fury, had ripped it limb from limb. Now the remnants drifted in Ari's direction. She spotted a few slats in the water and hoisted Zac's body on top. With her last remnants of strength, Ari pushed the makeshift raft in front of herself and swam for shore.