nyctophilia
(n). love of darkness or night. finding relaxation or comfort in the darkness.
"The feeling of darkness starts to creep,
warmth and serenity begins to thrive.
at night when most people are sound asleep,
it's the time when I feel most ali...
"Mermaids." I whispered in amazement, mostly to myself. My mouth was dangling open, my eyes were getting wider and my body was unconsciously moving towards the miraculous glowing lake. I raised my hand forward slowly, struck by her indescribable beauty.
A few mermaids came out of the water and sat surrounding the lake, flopping their fins up and down gracefully while humming and making strange sounds. One of the mermaid with red hair and greenish-yellow tail reached out her hand for me. I stared right into her eyes, it was sad and shallow, I so badly wanted to be with her.
Then a hand gripped my arm and pulled me back, also pulling me out of my strange trance. I had totally forgotten about Keith for a second. "We need to keep our distance. They're dangerous." He warned me, still pulling me backwards. "Also, try not to look at them in the eyes for too long." He glanced at me once we were out of the mermaid's view, hiding behind a large rock far enough from the lake.
"Oh my god. Did you just see that?! How are you so calm - they're mermaids!" I cheered. My mouth was immediately covered by Keith's large hand while I received deathly glares from him. "Yes, I have eyes. But I definitely was not expecting mermaids in this cave. Now, I don't know much about mermaids or sirens, but I do know that they're manipulative, and they can control water. Don't get too close to the water, they can pull you in and drown you to death in a matter of seconds." He whispered, shock all over his face.
"Why are we here in the first place? Don't blame me, you're the one who was too lazy to tell me anything!" I shout-whispered. "Right, sorry." He mumbled. "We're here for the cure to heal your sickness. I read a book about this place. There's supposed to be a cure for a sickness like yours in this cave. There will be obstacles of course, and any person with bad intentions will never come out of here alive." He sighed.
"And what is that cure supposed to look like?" I asked. "I- um, that's the problem, I have no idea.. I didn't read the book that far yet." He looked down in embarrassment. "But we're so close, I'm sure we can figure this out." I assured him and pulled both of us out from our hiding spot. There were no mermaids on land, so quiet. We took the time to fully observe our surroundings. This part of the cave was larger than I expected, I couldn't see the end of the cave because of the mist limiting our view. There was something far away from us, on the other side of the lake. We both squinted our eyes, but all we could see was a tiny part of land and rocks. We couldn't get there because of the lake separating the land, unless if we could swim all the way to the other side without getting killed by the deathly water creatures hiding beneath.
Fortunately, I saw a small boat a few meters away from us. I elbowed Keith and pointed my finger to the distance. "See? There's hope. Maybe this is our lucky day, now come on!" I ran towards the boat while dragging Keith with me.
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