The Most Powerful (The Depths)

Chapter 10 (Hope)

Variety

I poured myself some fragrance and bath salts into the main bathroom at Carrie's place when everyone had cleared out for a while. I submerged into the water as much as possible, the touch of water making my tail form. It glimmered with a rainbow shine off of the scales, the sea blue/green colors colliding into a magical ombre.

I needed some sort of stress reliever, not that I could remember much, but Max and I had gotten drunk separately a couple of nights ago, which turned into a liquor-fueled night of hot sex. I only remembered him getting mopey and sad about being mistreated. And so being freak that I am when drunk, I tried to console him through affection. And so, one thing led to another. But Max told me the next morning that he still wanted nothing to do with me. I tried to avoid staying at Carrie's house because of him by staying with other men. I was used to it though. They gave me shelter, food, and other survival needs while I gave them sex.

Lately, it's been hard to resist the urge of drinking. It was the best way for me to escape, to forget those nights of loneliness when being surrounded by others. It made me forget who I really am, which was a bonus to me.

The Chosen Animals explained everything that was expected of us, and our fates. But I was literally petrified to look into a mirror after hearing that demons or tortured souls could be watching me on the other side. It took only a drop of my blood to open up the realm into this world.

The bathroom door suddenly jolted open, the lock popping outward when being unlocked. I screeched by instinct, covering up my bare top-half, the bottom surely an overwhelming sight. I probably looked like Ariel; the red auburn hair, the greenish mermaid tail. The face came into view, and all I could do was stare up in disbelief.

"Oh my God," Max mumbled to himself, looking at my freakish appearance. I forgot to mention the scientists paying me good money to experiment on me after I escaped my parents home. "You're a fish," he stated, obviously so bewildered he couldn't even process. "I fucked a fish!"

I simply looked away in embarrassment. I was never one to stand up for myself. It's not that I couldn't; it's that I shouldn't. But this was a fact that would never convince Max to treat me like a human being otherwise.

"I'll exploit you for money," he said, after gasping in astonishment of his new idea. I sat helplessly heavy and now cold in the bath water, struggling to gain the motivation to get out, defend myself for once. But I just couldn't muster up the energy to strive for myself.

Carmine

Micheal came home nights after I kissed him. And when he finally came home, I figured he'd not say a word or make eye contact, simply pretend as though I didn't even exist. But that wasn't the case.

He stumbled into the dark room in the middle of the night, head-over- heels drunk. When I got up to turn on the lamp near the bedside, he flinched away like he had never seen it. His flames were extremely dim from the intoxications he had taken. (Drugs as well.)

I gently took him by the arms to carefully sit him down, to which he roughly threw me off, falling onto the floor, his head hitting the wall with a big bang. I couldn't help but to just look down, thinking about how sad the situation is. His eyes suddenly flashed open, staring at me with a fear/rage.

"Fellel," he whispered, the name sharp on his tongue. He squirmed away from my touch when I tried to comfort him. He didn't come into realization that it was me any time soon. He curled into the wall for comfort, his right side and head leaned into it. I tried to touch him, to which he groped his hair and started screaming, "make it stop!" He bashed his head into the wall, striking a fear I haven't felt in a long time. I tried to cradle his head away from the wall, and he suddenly stopped, staring off as though paralyzed.