The dark waters| ✓

35. THE DARK WATERS

I stand in front of the mirror, looking at myself in the red dress that my father gave to me. It is much like any other red dress in the human world except for the fact that it had delicate embroidery on its upper half, with gems intricately woven in it that glowed with its own light. It was subtle but enough to indicate that I was royalty . Though there was no point of being subtle now when announcing my relation to the current king was anything but it.

The way back home had been beautiful yet scary. Marinus was a beautiful place. It was a visual treat. The tall buildings there had parts made of glass that had the thick shiny liquid that filled most of the lights here. The building itself glowed in soft purple or blue lights. Some of the houses also had the holographic thick liquid passing throgh their transparent glass parts for decoration. It moved slowly and lazily which made you want to wait there and just look at it for a while.

We were going to the club I had seen that day, the half globe. Apparently, it was called The Evadere. Which literally meant the escape.

"Looks like someone loves flexing their royalty." Lee says from behind me. He is wearing a simple black tuxedo that looks good on him. He has one of the glowing flowers in his  pocket. I turn around to face him.

"someone's looking hot." I say raising my eyebrows. He always looked good even though he never put efforts into grooming himself. But now it looked like he tried to look good. His hair is plastered back with some gel, which makes him look really serious, which is very much deceptive.

"I bet it has something to do with a particularly stubborn mermaid named Nerida." I say smiling.

"Really Leah? Now I can't even take care of myself."He says. Anyone else would have taken this to be genuine, but I knew him too well.

"Seriously Lee? Self care? You?"

"Okay fine." He says rolling his eyes. "Can we drop the topic and leave? Everyone is waiting for us."

"Sure let's go." I say as I move out of the door. The dress seems comfortable enough for me to dance in. We walk down the stairs and we see everyone waiting for us.

"We've been waiting for you guys. Let's go party." Alun says.

Together we come out of the house.
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"Where's Lee and Nerida?" Alun asks shouting over the loud the loud music coming out of the white dome. It looked like an amphitheater from the outside all white dome shaped. The only difference was that there was a hole in the roof through which multi coloured lights came out.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting." Lee says as he came towards us looking flushed. I notice him holding hands with Nerida and raise my eyebrows. He smiles and winks at me. When Nerida removes her hand to go and talk to Noelani and Dylan, I take the opportunity and go talk to him.

"Guess the hairstyle worked out just fine." I say.

"You bet it did. She kissed me." He says smiling.

"What!? How? When?" I say surprised. 

"We were right behind you guys, going towards the pub, when she pulled me to the side and it just happened." He says.

"Okay wow. Neridas knows what she wants all right." I say smiling. "At least someone had there kiss in a magical place with the perfect person."

"Leah, he's not worth it okay. Look around you. There are so many decent guys here. And I'm sure anyone would die to date you." Lee says.

"Aww thanks Lee" I say surprised.

"Because you are the kings daughter." He says smirking.

I punch him on his arm and face him,"And here I thought Liam Anderson was being sweet to me."

"But seriously, don't waste your time on him. He's not worth it. Do you want me to set you up with some merman here?" He says looking around.

"NO PLEASE LEE. You will end the meagre chance of me finding someone here."

"Let's go in guys I got the passes." Alun says moving towards us with some gold tokens in his hand. He gives one to each and we move through the crowd to the entry. There are mermaids all around me, some wearing light pastel dresses, some wearing glowing gowns that have jelly fishes around them. I hear them whisper and chuckle as we skip the line and move towards the entry. Three bouncers stand near the door, all of them in golden armour that had scales on it. All three of them looked intimidating. When I hand my token to one them, he eyes me suspiciously for a few seconds but then opens the door with a smile.

We walk into the Evadere and it feels like we have entered another world. Everything around is in shades of violet, blue and black. The sound of laughter and music echoes through the circular walls. Everything is a contrast of light and dark, violet and blue. A bunch of multicoloured spotlight dances randomly around the globe. Several tables line the periphery of the globe. We quickly catch one for ourselves and settle there.

"You should see the dance floor. It's a treat." Alun says moving forward. We walk through the gaps between many tables and reach the centre where the dance floor lies.

If it can be called a dance floor.

The floor stops abruptly dipping into a deep pit that ends in a bright floor having disco lights and huge speakers on it. All around the walls of the pit are lights, violet, dark blue, teal and white all dancing together away and merging above. The merfolk dance above the pit, floating around and moving to the beats.
"This is the best pub I've have ever been to, even though I've just been to one before." I say moving forward. I look around and in the crowd I see Dylan dancing with Noelani among the other mermen. I feel something snap inside me and I close my eyes to calm down.

He's not worth it.

I put on a smile on my face and stop right near the centre of the pit. I swim further deep into it, nearer to the music and stop there. I allow the beats to fill me in I start moving to the music. I feel a tap on my back and I turn around to see Lee dancing behind me.
"Don't you have a girl to escort?" I ask.

"Nah she doesn't really like couple dancing not very big on PDA. Also she's too good a dancer and you are my dancing partner. I can't abandon you." Lee says smiling.

"Oh my god Anderson that was almost sweet. Anyways, I'm too good a dancer for you anyways but I don't leave my weak students behind." I say smirking.

"Yes ma'am" he says bowing.

"Now dance."

I do a backflip and swirl around close my eyes. When I open them, I feel blinded by the swirl of lights and all I see is Lee's pathetic dance and wonderful smile against it. The lights paint his face white, blue and violet.

And somehow dancing there among the multicoloured disco lights with Lee, I know that everything's going be alright.

Or at least, I hope so.

Because all we can ever do is hope.
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*T H E   E N D*

Or the beginning.

Whatever you may like to call it.