Trapped

14.

After things calmed down between Angela and Jason we all started getting ready for the long journey to 'the pearl'. Zac informed us that he was not going to join us because he wasn't ready to leave his home forever and we didn't expect him to. He gave me a map and a compass and explained some important things that we should look out for.

He warned us that it was a long swim since we would have to cross over into the ocean and he said that it would take several days. I sighed at the thought, since we still hadn't found Megan and Erin. Every day we lost is a day that they could possibly die out there, not that finding them would better their chances at survival.

Zac then spoke privately with Jason, which worried me because I did not really trust either of them at this point. While they were talking, the rest of us packed what we would need to survive for a few days and got ready to leave.

Later on some guards showed up and said that the queen urgently needed to speak to him and with that we all said our goodbyes to Zac and went our separate ways.

We made our way through the tunnels and out of the boulder in complete silence. The tension in atmosphere was so thick you could cut it with a knife and it was all because of this morning's events.

We were swimming through the underwater forrest when a hand came through the kelp, grabbed my arm and another hand was slapped over my mouth. I could not see who the hands belonged to because I was positioned with my back towards the person that grabbed me.

The person whispered for me to keep quiet and I was able to figure out that it was a female, her voice sounded very familiar. I struggled to free myself from her grip but she whispered some strange words and suddenly I was unable to keep my eyes open and I drifted off into darkness.

***

I woke up in a dark room, again. Something cold was clenched around my wrists that held my arms behind to my sides. My back was against a cool wall, but we were still under water and my tail was flipping around below me, keeping me upright.

A tiny sliver of light squeezed through a small crack in the wall on my right hand side, making just enough light for me to see that I was in a cell. The water around me was cold and it was clearly a place nobody would like to be, but for some reason I felt very calm.

I looked around me, there was a wooden plank bolted to the wall with a pillow and one of those scratchy blankets on it and a loose steel pole held it in place, I assumed that that's where I was supposed to sleep. I noticed that my other friends were not with me and yet again I was all alone. They were probably looking for me in the underwater forest since it's the last place I remember being or maybe they weren't looking for me at all.

I wanted to get out of this place, but I had no idea who I was dealing with, some part of me believed that maybe this was what Zac and Jason were talking about, maybe they were behind this. I shrugged it off, I didn't trust either of them but I convinced myself that they would not do something like this.

There was a noise somewhere on the opposite side of the room and then there was a clicking sound. A door on the far end of the room creaked open slowly and behind it was a shadowy figure of another mermaid. She was wearing a hooded cloak and therefore I could not see her face, but what I could see shook me to the core. She had the most beautiful rainbow coloured tail and her hair was a dark red colour, exactly like the woman in my dream.

She swam closer to the cell doors and placed her hands on the bars and then she spoke:
"Hello, my dearest Luna"