Kairos

Chapter 4

After spending a few minutes discussing where and when to meet up with Trista for clothes, paying back Aaron for my drink (I'm a southerner don't judge me), prying poor Marigold out of Seafoam's arms, and getting lost twice, I was finally opening the door to my dorm.

Opening the door I took a long breath and stepped into the threshold.

"Hello."

Yeah, I jumped a good foot.

Startled I looked at the source of the noise and saw a person about my age perched on the edge of their bed by the window. They had apparently pushed it all the way to the window and had placed her bookshelf onto it to resemble something like a perch.

I stared at them for a few seconds.

They looked like Samantha.

They had the same feathered ears, winged arms, and birdlike legs, all the same except they were green and red feathers. They had long brown hair, which had been swept into an extremely messy bun. Like Samantha they also had silver chains around their "ears", hers, however, was just a chain, no diamonds or anything else.

"Are you gonna keep staring at me or am I going to have to like, guess your name." they said, an annoyed look set on their tan, freckled face.

"I-I'm sorry," I blushed with embarrassment, "my name's Claire."

"Claire, what?" they raised an eyebrow.

"Claire Smith." I finally burst out.

"And her?" they said, beckoning their head in Seafoam's direction. Seafoam was currently poking at one of my shoes.

"Her name's Seafoam," I said, staring at the mermaid with slight embarrassment.

"I'm Kiera." the harpy said their face changing to a more friendly look. I shifted my attention back to them.

After looking at them for a few more seconds, I had a terrible idea.

Shocker right.

"I know this is probably gonna sound mean or sumethin, and if I'm wrong I mean no disrespect." I started to ask, "but ya wouldn't happena be related to Samantha Bluestone would ye?"

They narrowed their eyes at me and warning alarms immediately went off in my brain.

"How do you know my sister?" Kiera asked.

I opened my mouth to explain when *CRASH*,

Seafoam had accidentally knocked a bunch of stuff off my desk.

She looked up at me blushing blue.

"What is she?" Kiera said, an almost worried tone edging her voice.

"I um..." I looked at Seafoam and then back to Kiera.

I took a breath.

"I think she's a mermaid?"

Kiera's eyes widened and in a blink of an eye, they were off the bed and gripping my arms.

"How could you be so irresponsible and stupid to bring a mermaid out in broad daylight," they exclaimed, "do you realize how much danger you put her into!"

I blinked confused.

Finally, I made a face and said, "What danger? Who on earth would want to hurt a mermaid." I said rolling my eyes.

Kiera glowered at me.

"You have no idea do you?"

I think my stomach hit my toes.

Kiera took a deep breath.

"Mermaids are rare. Extremely rare." she started.

"Seeing a mermaid is once a blue moon. Capturing a mermaid? Nearly impossible."

"Capture?" I questioned.

"Fisherman, scientists, average joe's," they continued, "they dedicate their entire lives just to filming one, but capturing one?" she raised her eyebrows, turning her gaze to Seafoam.

The harpy gave me a knowing look.

I gulped.

"That's the allure of it Claire," they said, "Mermaids were so rare they were practically myths, the last time..."

They stopped, looking down at the floor.

Their feathers ruffled and she took a breath.

"The last time someone captured a mermaid, my parents were little kids," they looked back at me.

"What happened..." my stomach was rolling with anxiety.

"Some random fisherman found it washed up off the African coast. It was big news. Worldwide coverage, the greatest discovery of our time." they spoke with a sinisterly sarcastic tone.

"And?" I asked, fearfully.

"They took it too far."

They put the poor thing on display in some aquarium in Belgium, treated it like it was a fucking animal, kept it drugged so that it wouldn't act up."

Months of being treated like an animal and that poor mermaid finally killed itself."

I felt myself choke on tears.

"How?"

Kiera looked at me with sad eyes.

"One of the people that worked there was tossing in some fish. It swam up and grabbed the worker, tore the guy apart. It killed itself with one of the man's ribs."

I swallowed back tears.

"They didn't even stop there." Kiera said, anger dripping in their voice.

"Some scientists scooped it out of the water and ran tests on the body. They mutilated it so much that when they released pictures of it you couldn't even tell what the damn thing was in the first place."

"Just a mystical trying to survive in this world and it ended up butchered and tormented, and not even given the god damn decency of a fucking name! They didn't even publicize whether it was male or female, they just called them "It".

Kieras feathers smoothed out again and they stood up straighter.

"The mermaid scared Mysticals. It showed how far humans were willing to go, and how little they thought of us at the time."

Kiera gestured to Seafoam and whispered,

"Keep her safe, keep her hidden. If anyone asks she's an old friend of mine from Greece and she's a saltwater nymph."

I nodded and turned to face Seafoam.

She was on her stomach kicking her webbed feet examining one of my snow globes.

How anyone could even think of hurting something so innocent I would never even hope to understand.

"I'm gonna keep 'er safe. No matter what."