The Mer Prince

Chapter 37

XY's POV

The setting sun barely showed over the horizon when the sea-witch and I arrived. The air around us had currents just like in the sea, but these cold gusts were not as friendly or welcome as the water had been. In fewer words: It was fucking cold. Cold enough to make my chest bumpy.

"Stabby, quit feeling your man-boobs and come over here." Ursula told me. "Do you see where you need to go now?" She asked as we looked down at the building. The whole structure was almost sea-level, and we were above. The little blue door we had discussed, was closed.

I nodded and crossed my arms like she did. She continued to talk, "Just run through that building and give Charley the pearl. Have him crush it, pull him out of the water, and run back through the gate. Head for this hill." She pointed at the ground. "Come back to this spot with Charley and you will both be safe."

"I think I got the idea." I told her, nodding my head.

"You'd better have the idea...." She looked at me with a frown of discontent. "I'm putting a lot of faith in you."

"I will do my part." I told her firmly. I was going to get my Charley.

"I know you will. Here." She took a weed from a bag she carried and wrapped it around my neck. "Abra-ca-magic, let's start this."

My gaze dropped to my hands, not finding them, or my body for that matter. Invisibility, a word that translated well. "Not Visible", that's what I was.

Ursula ran across the green to the other side of the building as I headed for the blue door. The paint on it was cracked and I could find no handle, only a device on the wall with a mouth and two little eyes.

A great blasting noise came from where Ursula had ran off to. A ringing followed that, loud and painful on my ears. The blue door was thrown open as people ran out- the door smacking me in the chest since I had stood too close. I grabbed it firmly and rushed in as the people in white rushed out, talking about the explosion.

Inside was eerie. Open on one side, rooms lining the other. In the open space I walked into, there were four massive tanks. I ran to them and checked, but they were all empty, besides a few piles if dead fish and scraps of clothes and scales. I started checking the rooms next.

The first room I looked in was too dark to see, the next one being lit, with a body peeled open before me. Vile rose in my throat- those sick fucks cut open an octi, and each organ laid down was labelled with a name and number.

I moved on before I could puke, finding the next few rooms familiar. In one was just a lot of boxes, likely with every piece of another poor creature inside it. The table was still orangeish from blood.

Running on with urgency, I knew Charley was still alive. Charely had to be alive. If he wasn't... there would be no fucking reason to be here.

There were big doors. The kind that go upward. Garage doors. They lead outside and I ran to them, looking for buttons to push. I found a little panel with the buttons on them. They worked, thankfully, and I was blinking in the artificial light that shone down on the pools before me.

People were out here with nets. They were scared by the loud noises, and another explosion echoed from across the grey concrete. I could see the red plumes, before my attention was directed to the pools.

The pools were like boxes with rounded corners. Straight rows. Narrow. Ugly. Confining. Filled with water that stank so badly, my stomach churned. Someone was yelling, "Get the stew turtles! Hurry, hurry!"

I started running along the pools, looking in as many as I could. A glimmer of gold-orange caught my gaze, and brown hair. Far from me, his head barely out of the water, was my Charley.