{LeviHan} What Hides Beneath...

Chapter 1: Escape

Levi's POV

"Where do you think you're going, Black-Tailed?" The royal officials scowled at me as they pinned me against the coral pillars. I felt the coral cut parts of my skin, but I didn't care. I tried to move my tail to get out of their grip, but they continued to push against me. "Escaping?"

"Get off me!" I cried, trying to push them off of me.

One of officials laughed at me as they clipped on some coral handcuffs. "Oh, why should we let a Black-Tailed like you go? Too bad a tail color like yours can't go unnoticed. You're a swimming black light, alerting all merfolk about yourself."

I scowled, feeling them pushing towards the prison I once escaped from. Its warden was waiting at the entrance with two other guards by his side. There was this grin on his face as he awaited for my arrival. The officials that captured me laid me in front of the warden.

"Got him back sir- right before His Majesty had noticed." One of the royal officials said, looking down at me. "Are you relaying this to His Majesty at all?"

The warden shook his head, signaling the guards by his side to get me. "Only telling His Majesty would agitate him. He'll get angry at us. Punish us even. I don't want to get to that. I don't understand how he escaped in the first place." The warden scowled as he continued to look down at me. "To prevent this, we're moving him into... those cells. Hopefully it'll hold him until we get him his own, personal cell." 

"Understood, Warden."

"Take him to those cells." The warden says as those two guards escorted me to the back.

I personally knew one of the guards- mostly because he was the one who tolerated my small-talk and trying to encourage me to a better merman. Honestly. I never knew that this guard, Erwin Smith, would listen and tell me certain ways so I can reduce my sentence. 

Seconds passed until I reached to the degrading section of the prison. Erwin opened the cell while the other guy threw me inside. I flailed a bit as I was spun off in the depths of its cold waters. I adjusted quickly to the different temperatures, but I spun back to face Erwin. The other guard already swam off, leaving Erwin here with me. 

He sighed, leaning against the bars. "Ackerman, you're doing this again. Why?"

"I don't deserve to be here, Erwin. You know this. I'm only being put into jail because I'm a Black-Tailed."

"That's... not true. You stole food and goods from many places with your... clique. Again, I'm terribly sorry about what happened to them-"

"You're not." I scowled with fury clawing my heart. I could never forget what happened with Isabel and Farlan. His Majesty claimed it was my fault that they died. My fault... that I was a Black-Tailed. Black-Tailed mermen... "You didn't try to stop their deaths. You were there. You have nothing to be sorry about."

Erwin sighed heavily, shaking his head. "His Majesty will be merciful on you if you changed your behavior. Just don't try to do anything funny again. Just do that for me, alright?"

I scoffed, swimming down to this cot on the sand-covered ground. Erwin soon left me alone in this rotting cell. I stuck my hand out of the cell, feeling it was enough to fit some of my arms and tail through. Not sure how well I can fit my whole body there. It was too thin. 

A couple of bangs of the coral bars, I felt them breaking apart. A small spark of hope appeared when I tried to reach outside of the bars for a rock. Hours seemed to have passed, yet I continued to break the coral bars- just enough for me to slip through. A few scratches here and there, and I broke free from its cage.

Swimming out in the empty sea, I swam as far as I could without passing out. Most of my energy was drained when I escaped earlier. Not just swimming in the depths of the water, I was swimming close to top. I poked my head up, seeing the sky practically dark. But there was some orange rays of light coming from behind me. Was that ball of bright light falling or rising? I don't know.

Pulling myself up to the top, all the strength in me just drained. My arms grew heavy as my tail slowly stopped moving. My eyes fell heavily as I was dragged into the darkness. Even when the cold tugged at me ever-so closely, warmth grew on my back. I just... fell asleep... I couldn't even move a muscle. What... happened to... me...?