The Mermaid's Touch - Part 2 (The Kiss of Death)

The Mermaid's Touch - The Kiss of Death (flash fiction)

"Mira! Wake up Mira! Mira can you hear us? For the love of Poseidon please wake up now". Urgent shouting and pleading dimly penetrated Mira's deep, uneasy slumber. She tried to answer, but her mouth had stopped working; her lips couldn't move and no sound escaped from between them. Mira struggled to sit up, to rise from her kelp bed, but her limbs refused to budge. She slipped back into the murky depths of her uneasy sleep.

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Gradually, Mira began to wake. Her eyelids fluttered open, reluctantly, the dim light almost blinding her. She quickly closed them again. Mira groaned. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she had never felt like this before. Mira did not feel rested at all. Obviously healing that Human had come at a huge cost to her. When he had forcibly kissed her, she could feel her energy fading, and the swim home had used up the remainder of her energy. Mira had reached the threshold of her homely sea cavern, when she had collapsed from sheer exhaustion. She had been found in that state by her sisters; they carried her inside and put her to bed, where they took turns to watch over her. After three days they had tried unsuccessfully to rouse her.

Mira slowly opened her eyes again, wincing at the pain caused by the dim light. That the light had that effect on her left her deeply puzzled. Had she injured her eyes somehow? Perhaps some of the Human's blood had been flicked into her eyes while she was attending to his wounds.

"Mira, my dear sister, would you like some assistance?" Her sister, Coralia, asked gently, concern tingeing her voice.

Mira nodded carefully. Coralia carefully helped Mira from her bed. Mira gestured to the large mirror taking up one of the walls in her room.

"Do you think that you are ready to see yourself yet?" Coralia asked. "You do not look like yourself, at the moment."

"Yes, please," Mira whispered, unable to make her vocal cords co-operate.

Coralia was right. Mira sobbed uncontrollably. Her appearance would have made Medusa herself scream in fright. Mira's skin no longer resembled the inside of an oyster shell, but instead was now the purplish-gray of a dead groper. Her normally luscious burnished copper hair was now mossy green, and it was falling out in giant clumps.

Mira briefly closed her eyes, as the dim light began to affect them once more. As she opened them again, she peered closely at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were heavily bloodshot, and her irises were black. She swallowed another sob.

As she moved away from the mirror, Mira noticed the trail of dull rusty coloured scales lying on the floor. She peered at her tail and this time she couldn't stop the sob from coming out. Her cries could be heard by her neighbours. Her beautiful golden tail was now patchy, from the loss of so many of her scales.

"I need to rest some more. But not here. I need to rest on my favourite rock. Could you please escort me there?" Coralia nodded, knowing better than to argue with her sister, in her current condition.

Sometime later Mira was basking in the moon's light once more. Her spirits perked up a little, but she was far from healed. Never had she been this ill before. Thinking back to that night, a plan started to unfold in Mira's head, and she laughed; a dull, croaky laugh.

Early the next morning Mira's sisters were sprawled provocatively on the rocks close to a heavily populated section of the beach; their giggles and play full games caught the attention of an early morning jogger. He jogged over to their rock, a leering smile plastered over his face. The sisters beckoned him to come closer; smiling, flicking their hair around and looking alluring.

He eagerly came closer, and sat down in the space, in the middle of the sisters. Mira slipped out from behind the rock that had obscured her from view, and silently approached her sisters; they pinned the Human male down, flirting with him all the while. Mira pounced quickly, before he could react; catching his mouth with hers, she kissed him deeply, feeling his energy leaving his body and entering hers. With each breath, she could feel her health returning.

"Mira! Stop now. You're killing him!" Coralia pulled Mira away from the Human. Checking to see that he still lived, Mira and her sisters returned to the ocean; laughing and chasing one another.

Mira did not know if she was healed permanently; but Mira did know that there were plenty of Human males that would be eager to be caught in a Mermaid's net, if ever her energy waned again.