Beyond the Shallow Waters ★ Maylor

Chapter 17

Here's the new chapter early because I couldn't wait to share it! Enjoy!
———
Brian felt like his soul left his body watching the scenes unfold in front of him. As the gem broke, both Rog and Freddie cried out. That necklace was the only thing keeping him human. A green light swirled out from it and with a matter of a second, Roger's body was forming back. First, it was his teeth and nails, then his gills, then his tail. His jeans shredded as his legs were now gone. His pink converse laid askew on the wooden ground.

All the panic arose as he strangled to get from Prenter's arms.

"I know it all along. I'll make sure you don't get away from me this time." Prenter snarled, causing the anger to arise in Brian. He was about to rush over and beat the living daylights out of the villainous man. Though, Prenter next words changed that.

"Sic 'em." Without a second to react, the four of them were all hit in the back of the head and knocked out cold. Roger watched in horror as his friends fell to the ground. His face running with tears, he feared for his life.
    
"And grab the black-haired one, he knows something. More than the others." One of Prenter's men grabbed Freddie and threw him over his shoulder.
    
"Let me go!" Roger cried but Prenter's grasp on him only tightened.
    
"No, I've waited for all my life to discover your kind and I've finally done it. Tonight, we're on our way to London." No, no, no. He had to be dreaming. He bared his teeth, read to bite but he was tossed to a stronger man.
    
"Take them to the truck." Roger was thrown upside down over the man's shoulder. The man was gripping hard on his tail which was extremely painful considering merpeople tail were extremely delicate. He couldn't see where they were heading, only where'd they'd been. He watched as Brian's unconscious body grew smaller in the distance. He was never going to see him again, never feel his arms around him, never get to tell him how much he meant to him.
    
Roger was thrown into the back a truck beside Freddie. The door slammed throwing them into darkness. It was freezing and his tail felt dry. It needs water.
    
He heard the truck roar to life and the engine rumble. He couldn't tell how long he'd been in the truck when it pulled over and stopped. The backdoor opened and Prenter stood on the other side.
    
"Good, you're still alive. You and your friend are being transferred to another truck just on the safe side." Roger snarled at him, wanting so bad to lunge at him and rip his vocal cords out.
    
"If you want to keep me alive, I suggest you get me water because my tail is starting to dry up and it's painful." Roger growled, being pulled out of the truck and carried to the other one.
    
"Get him a bucket of water, I can't have my greatest discovery die on me." Paul gave a fake smile, one of his henchmen fetching for a bucket.

Freddie's unconsciousness body was thrown in beside him and in slid the bucket.

"Use that sparely because we have a long while to travel." The doors slammed, engulfing them in darkness once more. Merpeople could see in the dark, kinda like cats. His vision was blurred due to tears though.

He pulled off the t-shirt that he had been wearing. He dunked it into the full bucket of water and brought it back to his tail. He figured it would be easier to save the water. He wetted his tail the best he could. It wasn't good enough but it would have to do.
    
Roger leaned over to Freddie, unhooking his watch from his wrist. He was so glad it was digital and lit up. He started the stopwatch feature to keep up with time.
    
20 minutes past, 40, 1 hour
    
There was nothing Roger could do yet think. He thought how happy a life he could have been if he was truly born human. He thought about how happy of a life he could have had with Brian.
     
1 hour and a half later, Freddie began to come around. He let out a groan, alerting Roger that was becoming conscious.
    
"Freddie?" He sniffled.
    
"Roger? Where-Where are we?" Freddie's head throbbed, making him slightly nauseous.
    
"In the back of a truck. Prenter's got us." Roger watched as Freddie jumped up, stumbling as he did so. He tried to stand up to help Freddie but he remembered he couldn't do that.

"Fuck, I can't see a thing." Freddie stabled himself, leaning against the wall of the truck.

"I can." Roger watched Freddie pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Of course you fucking can. You can see in the dark." Freddie carefully walked over to sit beside the blonde. He placed his back to the wall and slid down.

"Are you okay?" Freddie nodded.

"Besides this damn headache, yeah. I'm fine, darling." Roger rested his head on Freddie's shoulder, Fred resting his head on Roger's.

"I'm sorry." Freddie whispered.

"For what?"

"For bringing you into this mess. I shouldn't have brought us up to the surface, we should have stayed in the kingdom like loyal children." Freddie was hurt, all of this was his fault he believed.

"Fred, it's not your fault. I wanted to go. You didn't know there was going to be a psychopath out on those waters that night. Look what you've got out of this though. You got John, you got a lover."

"It is my fault though, I was the one who suggested we'd go. No, we didn't know but we should have been more careful. I know I have John now. I love him dearly, but what if I never get to see him again or you never get to see Brian again?" Freddie sobbed uncontrollably.

"You'll get to see him again. I don't think I'll ever see Brian again though. I love Brian, but this is the one thing I worried about. Turning back to a merman means I have to leave him. You, you're completely human now. You can't reverse that. You get to be with John. I have to go back and live without you all. Mina will not do the same as she did for you. I'll never be human again." Roger tried to remain calm. He didn't cry through one word he said because he didn't have any tears left to cry. Freddie dried his tears and wrapped his arms around the young boy.

"I love you, darling."

"I love you too, Fred."

—

Brian woke up, lying on the wooden floor of the pier. All the memories flooded back. Roger.

He jumped up, not before tripping and falling back down. He stood up against, seeing colors. He kept blinking until they went away. Freddie was gone when he looked around.

"John. John!" He shook the auburn until he woke up.

"What? What happened?" John groaned out. Brian helped him to sit up; John rubbed the back of his head where he'd been hit.

"Freddie and Roger are gone. They took both of them." John frantically looked around, searching for Freddie, not believing he was taken too.
    
"Freddie, no!" John breaks down into sobs. Brian pulled John into his arms and tried to comfort him.

"We'll get them back. I won't let Prenter get away with this. John, will you help me get Miami to the car?" John nodded, pulling back.

—

Another few hours past, Roger looked down at the watch. It had been 7 hours since they had been trapped in that truck. He'd watered his tail four times during those hours and was running out of water. The both of them were getting thirsty and hungry. They dared not drink the water from the bucket, not knowing where it came from.

"How much longer?!" Freddie whined, his stomach growling. Roger's stomach growled too. Why couldn't they have at least given them a damned granola bar?

In another 20 minutes, the truck stopped and the doors open. It was night now, but the lamp lights were bright.

"Oh Freddie, it's a pleasure you could join us." Exclaimed Prenter in a sarcastic manner.

"Go fuck yourself." Freddie hissed, flipping him off. Prenter only scoffed.

"Time to get on the plane boys." Once again, they were pulled out and dragged to the next prison to be thrown into. Once on the plane, they were taken to a cargo area/room and locked into it. Roger had been throw into a makeshift tank in the room which was full of chlorine water, irritating his tail and gills.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Prenter said, opening the door throwing some things in before locking the door again.
   
Oh, would you look at that, a granola bar, two in fact and a bottle of water. Freddie picked them up. He tossed one to Roger who had just finished coughing all the chemical water out of his lungs. Roger wanted nothing more than to eat all of it at once but decided it best to ration it. He ate 1/4 of it before giving it back to Freddie for safekeeping.

"Here." Freddie handed him the water bottle and he graciously took it. The water tasted so good despite just having this disgusting tank water down his throat.

"Thanks." He handed it back to Freddie as well. Roger decided they needed to rest, their forced journey to London was going to be a while.

—

Back at Miami's house, in the basement, Brian paced around on the floor. Miami leaned back in a chair, holding an ice pack to his head and John took another shot of Vodka.

"Brian, will you stop pacing?" John grimaced, blowing out his cigarette smoke.

"What else am I supposed to do John?! Drink and Chain-smoke like you?" John rolled his eyes, standing up a bit tipsy. He walked over to Brian, grabbed him by the arm, and lead him to the couch which he pushed him down on.

"There. Just sit there, you were getting on my nerves." Brian began to get mad.

"And you don't think you're not getting on my nerves?!" Their bickering was cut short by Jim.

"Shut it, both of you. You're annoying me by fussing. You're not helping my throbbing head." It sure shut them up, John going back to his stool at the home bar. Brian grabbed the tv remote turning it on. He flipped through channels, flipping over one that caught John's attention.
    
"Wait, go back!" Brian did as John asked and it was the news channel.
    
"Today, our crew got special news that Paul Prenter, myth-buster, has discovered to what he believes is the greatest discovery he's ever made. Having spent time in a small, coastal town in Florida, He is heading back to England as we speak to which his findings will be revealed in London." All three of them were on their feet now, speechless.
    
"Saddle up Boys, looks like we're heading home." Miami stated, break all the tension in the atmosphere.