A Beginning at the End

Opened Eyes

She's trembling from cold and fear - but they didn't notice. Speaking in a harsh foreign language she didn't understand, they were sneering and jeering at her. She expected some sympathy and kindness shown to her like to her brother. Alex was of better luck, but whenever Alex tried to share, they were pulled apart. As she saw tears forming in Alex’s eyes, she blinked hers away. She needs to be strong for him.

Alex and Sierra lived in a small, cozy cottage by the sea. They were both children of a fisherman. When their father fell sick a month ago, they had to continue his work to get food. Their mother could not be of much help as she was weak of old age. For numerous times, she forbade Sierra from setting out to the sea with Alex. But like the daredevil Sierra is, she goes just in spite.

It was raining that morning. Alex, being the responsible elder brother, was worried about the weather in contrast to Sierra, who got more enthusiastic as the rain got heavier. She spent the whole afternoon sweet-talking Alex into setting sail, for when else will they ever get to go on a crazy adventure. Eventually Alex subsided to the annoyingness of having someone whispering excitedly about the thrills of a stormy day. He rolled his eyes as he prepared his father's old fishing boat to sail, wondering where did the streak of adventure and enthusiasm in Sierra came from.

They left the house like thieves to avoid disturbing their mother’s nap and set sail. Alex crossed his fingers that the rain won’t became a storm. But little did he know, it was all to happen in good time. When they reached the middle of the sea, the rain turned into a storm. Waves crashed, thundered cracked, and their ship couldn’t make it due to old age. It was ruined and the siblings could only cling onto a piece of the boat for dear life.

They drifted for ages, at least to Sierra. Their throats were never as parched and hunger never as wrenching. They almost lost all hope for no ship ever passed for a few days. Every now and then, Alex would jokingly flash Sierra a ‘I-told-you-we-should-never-sail’ look, leading to her pouting and splashing him with the waves. And the two of them would laugh together. They were worried, but at least they have each other. They would survive on a few fish that Alex manage to grab under the sea. He could not dive too long nor too deep, for the salt stings even his closed eyes.

A loud horn had their eyes opened wide and enthusiasm regained. They never thought that they would hear something so relieving. They bobbed up and down as they screamed and flailed their hands for attention. The sailors on the boat were rather surprised to see them and hurriedly lifted them up to the boat. They mumbled their thanks gratefully through parched throats as they were let up.

Up there, they were given different places. Alex was given dry clothes and hot soup with a nice, thick blanket to warm himself up. Sierra on the other hand, had a very different fate. She was given nothing but a small cup of water to sip. She wanted to ask for more but they never really listened to her words. She trembled as the chilly wind caressed her in her dripping wet clothes, wishing she never stepped foot out of their warm cottage by the sea. Whenever Alex attempted to give her some food or to just edge over to her, they pulled him away, saying ‘retroceder o nada para ti’. She could not understand anything (for they spoke too quickly), but as she saw tears forming in Alex’s eyes, she knew it wasn’t pleasant.

They spoke in Spanish with a thick and rough foreign accent, she recognized after listening closely to one of their conversations. Sierra never went to school, for her parents never saw the point of it,as she would be a housewife in the end. She tried to understand but she didn’t got much of a vocabulary to compare with Alex. She could only make out ‘mala suerte’ as bad luck and ‘asqueroso’ as disgusting when they were sneering at her. She was about to signal Alex to tell her what they meant when Alex was pulled away by the sailors. She could only assume that they were disgusted by the very presence of hers. It was nighttime already. So she guessed Alex was given a room.

'At least my brother need not suffer with me’, she thought as she slowly drifted to the land of dreams accompanied by the coldness of the night and the pain of hunger.

She scrambled up abruptly as she was splashed with a bucket of cold water. They pulled her up roughly. As the weight dragging her legs from feel unbearably huge, she looked down. She was surprised to see rocks tied to her feet and even more as she saw a sailor cupping a crying Alex’s mouth.

'Why is Alex crying? What did they do to him?’ A million questions shot through her head.

She broke free of the sailor’s strong grip on her hands as she made a run for her dear, beloved brother. She didn’t make it far, for at the midst of the moment, Sierra forgot the whole ship was filled with sailors. Her head was jerked backwards as one of them pulled her long, blonde hair. She let out a heart-wrenching scream as it hurts so much. Sympathy might have flashed through the eyes of the sailors at the sound of her scream, but the flash remained a flash.

He dragged her to the side of the boat, disregarding Alex’s begging and Sierra’s cries.

“Por favor, no ella,” begged Alex, crying.“Ella es mi todo, el único que tengo aquí. Ella no es mala suerte, ella no está. Por favor, te lo ruego”.

She could not make out most of his words but she know he was begging for her safety, telling them that she is not bad luck. It was as if time stopped for her as she could finally put the pieces together.

‘They were about to throw me to the sea for i am seen as bad luck’, she thought.

Horrified, she realized that saving her yesterday was merely a courtesy bestowed onto her brother. The talk and sneering during dinner yesterday, she assumed, was a discussion as to whether or not her life was worth sparing. She never thought that Alex’s tears was for her then.

She screamed and bit the sailor, but not only did it didn’t free her, it resulted in his anger. He slapped her there and then, leading to her bleeding lips. Without any signs of pity or hesitation, he raised and threw her off the ship.

Sierra barely got the chance to take a deep breath before making contact with the seawater. The rocks pulled her down, and despite the narrow possibilities, she struggled with all her might underwater to open the ties. It was a dead knot, and you can really trust sailors to tie a complex one.

Slowly, she started losing air. She gasped as saltwater enter her lungs. She thought the punch Alex threw at her two years back was the most painful thing, but this easily won it over. The surface seem so near, but why was it so hard to reach Sierra never knew. Slowly the surface fades into darkness.

Her eyes jerked open although her lungs almost stopped working as she was pulled by a pair of webbed hands.

The being signalled for her to try breathing. Sierra was reluctant, but did so anyway. It was as if every bit of her lungs were pricked by needles, but she could survive. It turns out the being was a mermaid, as she swished her tail with might to guide Sierra along. Sierra was brought to a ruined ship. There, mermaids roamed free. Sierra was given seaweed and a heartbreaking story to consume.

“ Women are considered bad luck here, in Spain. The sailors you’ve met were considered merciful, my dear. I was slitted everywhere before thrown into the sea,” explained the mermaid who brought her there as she showed Sierra her scars. “Fret not, for you will go through changes like the rest of us after eating the seaweed. The sailors, they worry so much about women being sirens and killers of men that they throw us into the sea. They know not, that they created us to be their killers. We lure them underwater with our voices and sometimes, surfacing is quite a good idea”

Sierra smiled underwater.

As her gills and tail emerged, so has her desire for revenge.