Breathless

Chapter 9: Fish

I didn't want to believe that what Emily had said was true. It couldn't have been true. But if it wasn't, why was I laying in bed with my eyes wide open at three o'clock in the morning? Why did her words keep echoing in my head?

We're mermaids, Terra. We're fish.

The long sleeves of my shirt had been rolled up and I rubbed the patches of scales on my arms nervously. There was no way for me to get any sleep like this. I turned on the lamp that sat on my nightstand, filling my bedroom with light.

It was too hot. I threw my polka dotted comforter off of my body and walked to my closet to try and find something to wear that was a little bit cooler. After throwing open the white doors, I saw that everything I had in mind was in the wash. The only clothing left hanging in my closet left were shorts and tank tops. There was no way I would wear that. I flung the doors closed again and left my bedroom.

I made my way down the stairs and walked towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water. The light switch was on my right and I flipped it on. I tried to make all of my movements quietly so that I wouldn't wake up the rest of my sleeping family.

"Terra," I heard a small voice whisper from the living room as I held my cup under the faucet. Normally, I would have been scared, but I knew this voice by now.

"Anna," I whispered back with my eyes closed. I turned towards the living room, and, sure enough, a small girl with long black hair sat on my couch. Her legs were twisted pretzel-style, making her look even more like a child. But I knew better than that.

"So you've figured it out after three years." Anna's eyes were kept on the blank TV screen in front of her. She didn't even glance at me.

I didn't have to ask what she was talking about. "Mermaids aren't real, Anna."

That was when her head snapped towards me. There was a strange look in her eye, and for a second I thought they changed color. She threw herself off of the couch and ran towards me. I didn't even have time to react before her small hands were wrapped tightly around my wrist.

"Then how are you here?" she whispered into my ear with a touch of agression in her voice.

I shook my head. The answer was easy. "I'm human."

Anna pulled my hand towards her heart with a strength I didn't know such a small girl could possess. "No, you're not. You and your sister, you were made for this."

I opened my mouth to say something back, but then water poured into it. A cough tried to surface, but nothing would come out. My clothes became light and seemed to float around my body. That was when I looked around. I knew this place. This was the place in my dream, the one where I drowned. Anna had taken me there.

"Through your gills this time, Terra!" she said as she floated in front of me.

The memory of water pouring into my lungs overtook me, so I kept the air into my lungs and refused to breathe. I could never let myself drown again.

That was when I remembered Emily's part of the dream. She told me that I didn't drown; that I used the weird flaps in my neck. My gills.

A pod of dolphins swam above me, and I heard weird ticking noises. I learned in marine biology the year before that dolphins used those noises as echolocation. I had also learned that they breathed air. Just like me.

I began to kick my legs so that I would be able to get to the surface, but then I realized that air was too far away. There was no way for me to breathe.

"Come on!" Anna pleaded.

I turned my eye towards her. It should have been impossible for me to see underwater, especially since it was full of salt. Yet, somehow, her face was clear in front of me. This had to be a dream. There was no way a little girl could have transported me from my kitchen to the bottom of a coral reef.