27 Days: The First Five Chapters

Chapter Three

August 4rd, 2013

I close my eyes as I try to focus. In two days it’s all supposed to go down. I will see the new burning lines in my skin. I will achieve my goal. Ducking back under water, I head for the coast. The summer temperatures are palpable here in Scilla, and it's clear when I set foot on the stroke of wet sand. When there was no one outside a couple of weeks ago, tonight the beach and neighbouring restaurants and cafés are overwhelmed with daughters and sons of Gaea. Those strange humans, as they call themselves, always seem to look at me. It's like they've never seen a girl in a tattered dress come out of the Mediterranean. I do my best to ignore them and look for a spot to start my search. This may sound weird, but somehow I can almost feel his presence on this stroke of land. Looking at my right, I see my goal. On the very edge of the beach, there seems to be a little celebration for whatnot going on. I try to come up with a plan as quickly as possible, then dive back into the sea.

I swim to where it seems fitting to come out of the sea. Looking up, I see them gathering around an unstable wooden fence. Everyone is screaming at each other, which creates an enormous chaos. Eventually the noise dies when a young boy, around the age of sixteen, motions his friends to help him get up on the fence. Whatever they're going to do, I'm pretty sure I don't want to know. Still staggering on the fence, the boy throws his arms up in the air and receives an intense roar from the crowd. I can't hold in my laughter when he motions at a friend to help him turn around. Just when the noise dies down, the boy dives into the sea and creates a splash which makes the crowd go wild again. Everyone applauds and yells, although I don’t know why. Since when is it a brave thing to jump into the sea? The one who jumped off already breaks through the surface and yells back at his friends. Although it's not the perfect sacrifice I had in mind, this type of human will do.

Walking out of the sea, I hear a few whistles. I don't bother to look up, wring out my hair, swing it over my shoulders and walk towards the group. Reaching them, I see a couple of boys standing there. All of these guys had a little too much to drink. All of them would be a perfect sacrifice, yet I want to make it a little game. To see who's dumb enough to walk into their own death. I change my course and walk towards a little cliff. I settle myself down and smoothen out my dress. I want to look behind me, to see who's interested enough. I shake the thought off and keep staring in front of me. Keeping myself here would be the best option for now. Anytime soon would be great. 

I guess I lost track of time because suddenly there’s a son of Gaea sitting next to me. I jerk back from the shock, forgetting I'm sitting on a cliff. The next thing I know is that I'm holding onto the edge, stifling a scream. My feet are hanging in the open air, desperate for something to hold onto. This can't be happening. This never happened before. Where was I with my thoughts? I want to scream but my throat feels throttled and words are stuck. The son who scared me bends over and looks my straight into the eyes. Instead of actually helping me, he's just looking at me, as if to figure out what he's going to do next.

"Giving me a hand is the best thing to do right now", I yell at him. "It's not like I'm going to be here forever!"

My fingers are slowly giving up. Every motion I make with my legs makes it harder for me to hold on. The son finally seems to wake up from his daydream. Just in time, a hand reaches for me and manages to pull me on solid ground. I roll over, trying to get as far away from that stupid cliff as I can. My eyes look for the boy who helped me. Even though he's worth nothing, I'll say something to let him see I appreciated his action. 

"Hey, I just-"

"No, let me talk first", he interrupts. The nerve this guy has, and I'm not even speaking about the thick accent. "I was going to say I'm surprised you've been there for the past ten minutes." He wipes off the sand of his hands, and as his hands are still shaking, he clearly hasn’t already forgotten what just happened. "Saying something out of the blue is usually a good conversation starter." He grins and takes a slug from a flask beer that has been lying a bit further.

Leaning on his hands in that so-called relaxed position of his, he arches an eyebrow as if asking why I haven’t said anything back yet. “You're the clumpy one of the family, aren't you?” My lips from a straight line, and I look him straight in the eye. He knows nothing about family, not the way I do. He chuckles at my response. “Who are you, anyway?”, he asks and looks at me from head to toe. “It’s not like I’ve seen you before.” He laughs at his own words, and adds: “Of course not.” To be honest, I don’t know what to say to this drunk. This is ridiculous.

As I manage to get up, the boy suddenly starts snapping his fingers. "A mermaid!" He sighs with relief and lets himself fall on his back. "You're a mermaid."

Maybe I should tell him there’s a big difference between a mermaid, a fairy tale made up by mad fishermen in their search for love, and what I am. A sea nymph, raised by the mother she loves so dearly. If he then has the nerve to ask for more, I would have to tell the story of my life. By telling him about the eras of sacrificing young souls, I wouldn’t be finished in a few hours. I take a deep breath to gain focus again. I wonder how I ever got tangled up in this mess. I can never seem to ask for something so simple as a sacrifice without it bringing along trouble.

The boy lets himself fall on his back with a hard thud, and just lays there. Eventually, after a full minute or two, he starts talking again. "I knew it, it's so obvious." I instantly feel the need to laugh, but supress it before he notices my smile. His ignorance is laughable, that’s for sure.

 “No”, I say. “You’re close. Try again.”

I should agree that that was the stupidest thing I’ve said all evening. For hours he kept summing up all sorts of sea animals. Now that I think about it, a mermaid might be the closest thing he guessed, even though he still wrong about the tail, let alone any scales. Eventually I walked away in misery. If this would all be over, I would have considered to go home. I can’t give up. The day after tomorrow is the last sacrifice.

Éna sýmvolo aristerà.