A Mermaid's Heart

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Evangeline.

‘I’m here’ a male voice whispered into my ear, pulling me from my slumber by its echo that resonated throughout my mind. My eyes adjusted to the cobble stone wall covered in dust and radiating an icy chill. Where was I? Why was I there? I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees and glanced back at the room surrounding me. It was a small cottage, abandoned, dirty and lived in with a fire that was starting to flicker out in its fireplace and a small dining table pushed up against one of the walls with a carved, wooden stool the only other form of furniture that could be seen despite the bed that I was in. I pealed the wolf and dear skins from my bare legs and placed the soles of my feet onto the flooring that was covered in dirt and dried hay. Where is he? I thought, eyes searching the emptiness around me, void of any presence except for my own. Had I imagined his voice calling out to me? Had it been just a sick illusion created by my own subconscious? ‘Come to me’ my eyes shot open wide when the familiar sentence, the familiar voice speaking it once more radiated in the back of my mind like a flicker of hope after all hope had seemed to be lost and despair had managed to set in ‘Neptune’ I breathed in the back of my mind, my body moving on its own, drawing me onto my feet and toward the cottage door, beyond it, past the frost covered grass and toward the banks of the vast lake that stretched on for miles, past the horizon. It was there on the rocky beach that a man stood with his back directed toward me, his pale flesh much like my own but the color of his hair was the polar opposite of mine. He was staring at the water, his hands loosely dangling at his sides while his shoulders rose and fell with the breath that escaped his nostrils, turning a stark white like smoke dancing among the icy cool air. My steps had slowed when my gaze had found him but they never completely stopped, giving into the pull of his flesh, the call of his silence and the bond that his heart had forged with mine. His hands clenched when I neared, my feet stepping into the shallow water crashing around me, my hand reaching to touch him, any part of him as long as it was him. He turned his head, sapphire eyes meeting mine a split second before he turned to grip the wrist of my extended arm, pulling me into him, into his nude form, into his intense passion and desire. His free hand moved to grip the back of my neck, forcing my head back when he lowered his so that his lips could hover over mine for the briefest of moments. My eyes drooped, savoring the feel of his touch, the peaceful feeling of finally being where I belonged, in his embrace, surrounded by his smell, his essence but they widened when it felt like I was falling to find that he was no longer there, my feet moving to catch myself when I had leaned into nothing but air. I stared down at the waters, panting heavily from the shock of having him torn away from me so swiftly, so suddenly. My hands trembled as I examined them, wondering if they ad willed him to leave, whether their touch had sent him away when images of him being impaled by the blade of a sword flickered past my foggy gaze. I had killed him, my own hands had been the cause of the pain and longing that I felt in that moment. No. He couldn’t be gone, he couldn’t leave. Please, no don’t- ‘Please, don’t go!’ I whirled around at the sound of his voice coming from behind me, the same hope that had been lost mere moments before returning stronger than ever but my heart stopped at the sight of a woman standing directly in front of me, her back to the former sea god with her emotionless grey eyes staring straight through me, as if I wasn’t really there, as if she couldn’t see me. My gaze trailed past her familiar features to the man stood behind her, his features younger and his eyes filled with desperation when he called out to her, to Selacia ‘Stay-.’ that single word made my chest ache wince it was directed to her and not me. Her body turned sideways to look back at him, hair dangling down to her calves, straight and ivory, some of it dangling over her exposed breasts and down in between her legs like a dress made from the strands of her hair, clinging to her figure and wrapping around her legs and arms. She looked like a goddess with black shells decorating the crown of her head and small black jewels lining her cheek bones. Her ears looked similar to mine when I would transform in the water and her nails were black claws like those of Aurella, a stark contrast to her pearl white skin ‘I cannot abandon the sea’ she moved to turn her back to him, her voice slightly deeper than my own, void of emotion and carrying only one tone throughout, never changing. She looked like a puppet, controlled by the very waters that I now controlled. Neptune shot forward to grab for her, his hand like a serpent eager and longing when its mouth snapped onto her wrist, diffing its fangs into her flesh and drawing her eyes back onto him. I blinked to find them wrapped in each other’s embrace on the beach beneath the stars, their bodies hot and glistening with sweat and the water that lapped at their nude figures. He held her to him like a boy would cling to his first love, a mess and shaking while she seemed almost unaffected by what was happening. This shell, this ghost was what my movements and actions reminded him of? Was I really that empty and cold? It was then that I saw it, the glimmer he had seen in her all along. Her eyebrows furrowed together and a small but pleasurable moan escaped her pale pink lips, her hands reaching for him in a moment during which she appeared almost human. My mind screamed at me to tear my eyes away from the sight but I couldn’t look away, I wanted it imprinted into my memory, the way they moved, the way she sat atop him, moving against his body in a steady, slow rhythm. For all I knew it would be the only time that I would ever see him so frantic, so flustered and impulsive, so consumed by pleasure that he could hardly contain himself. He was so different from the composed, fierce and dominant god I had come to know that it fascinated me to experience such a fragile, vulnerable side to him. She traced the skin of his chest and threw her head back, crying out when her muscles tensed and her entire body combusted in a cluster of heat and pleasure. Her eyes were wide, staring up at the millions of blinking lights overhead. I blinked, the image disappearing all together, the grey gloomy heavens once again glaring down at me when something caught my attention from out of the corner of my eyes. My head turned to the side to find thousands of people abandoning the sea, dragging themselves from the waves that could be found all across the world. The beaches were of white sand, brown, covered in rocks and littered with shells. The people were of all races, of all cultural backgrounds of all shapes and sizes as they returned to the land, to their loved ones. Hearts. That was what they were, the Hearts of Neptune freed from their imprisonment with their memories having returned and their desire to be reunited with their families driving them to leave the waters. An army, my army released from their shackles and urged to be free. The sight was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes, the beatings of thousands of hearts ringing in my ears, their memories playing out before my very eyes along with the raw emotions of each. A mother who had been torn from her ten-year old daughter was reunited with her but the daughter had aged over the years into an elderly woman who had children of her own yet there was still so much love there that it overwhelmed me. The daughter had recognized her mother despite being frail and weak, close to death and they would relish in their final meeting, a meeting that both of them were grateful for. At least she had gotten to see her daughter one last time before she had passed on. I had been the cause of it, the cause of a father meeting his little boy for the first time since he had been taken by the sea before the boy was even born, a woman healing her broken and lost husband who had destroyed himself since her ‘passing’. The stories went on, the tales of lives having been lost and the grief that surrounded them then the immense joy of them being returned to where they belonged. A man now knew his great, great grandchildren and a little girl met her little sister who had been born many years after her passing yet they were of the same age “You are welcome” I whispered to the wind that whipped past me at the overwhelming sense of gratitude from each of them that consumed my heart. The regret I had for causing Neptune’s death began to slowly fade since if it meant doing it all over again meant setting the Hearts free to live their lives, to return to the land, I would gladly go through with it for a second time but even that realization did little to ease the pain that my heart felt, squeezing in my chest with a need to be with Neptune, to stand in his presence and feel his lips on mine. A tear dripped down into the waters at my feet causing an unrest among the shallow waves that could be felt vibrating through the liquid as far out as the farthest corners of the Earth. That single pulse was what would lead Caleb straight to me but he was the farthest thing from my mind when I moved to take in the sea, my legs pushing through the water to make a path for me to follow. My body froze at the sight of a man stood on top of the water, his eyes scanning my form, seeing me, acknowledging me. I began moving toward him, the resistance of the water against my legs fading until I was walking on top of the liquid, each step felt as effortless as if I was walking on land, my gaze glowing from the power that radiated through me. With every step there was a ripple in the waters beneath me, with every step I could see the fish and marine life moving below me more clearly. My breaths condensed in puffs of white smoke and the grey heavens above rumbled in the distance, the winds combing through my hair and caressing my features much like I desired for his hands to caress them but they weren’t his hands and he was still so far away from my reach. My body stopped, my muscles tensing and the world around me became still as if time had been frozen when his lips parted and words trickled from them ‘I could never hate you’ his voice was like a brick wall, preventing me from going any further when the guilt struck me for what I had done. A large, gaping hole began to form in the center of his chest, seeping blood that was a stark contrast to his pale, untainted skin. He fell to his knees on the water’s surface, his eyes rolling back into his skull, leaving stark, white orbs in their usually sapphire wake. His lips were parted as if he was going to cry out in agony but no sound would escape him, only blood pooled from the corners of his mouth and trickled down from his jaw to his neck. I tried moving, wanting desperately to get to him, to offer him my blood, to heal him and hold him for fear of losing him but before I could manage a step, the water beneath me gave way and I was consumed by the freezing liquid that closed above me. I gasped, the air in my lungs giving way to the substance as I clawed at the necklace dangling from my throat. When the necklace wouldn’t unclasp, I tried to swim upward, my claws and fangs extending, my legs glittering with silver scales and my toes webbing but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t breach the surface. Neptune’s pained, distorted and bloody features flashed past my line of sight as fuel to push myself harder for his sake. I had to get to him but something was holding me in place, an unknown force that refused to release me from its grasp. That is until I finally gave in and allowed the waters to fill my burning lungs in one large gasp. I was floating, captured in the current, about to submit to the darkness that was slowly starting to creep its way into the back of my mind, causing my heartrate to slow down when the world around me shifted from the icy blue waters to images of men and women, of ships and battle. Shadows and dark figures danced across my glowing irises in that lake until all I could see was a large vessel donning a British flag but the ship was on fire. Men fell off the side as cannons were shot, shattering the thick outer layer of the ship and forcing it to take on water. The opposing ship was one with red sails but the Captain who stood on the bow wasn’t Darkheart, it was a young man, a man who had come centuries before his time but the ship was without a doubt the Grey Ghost. One of the men who had been tossed into the sea caught my attention as he thrashed about, his arms flailing and beating until his body went still. I could see every inch of him, the British symbol on his chest, the way the veins on his arms protruded from the strain of fighting the ocean, his eyes slowly draining of life as he drifted further down into the cold depths. He wasn’t special by any means, not to his country, not to his Captain and certainly not to his fellow crewmembers but he was special to the mermaid who swam to him in those threatening moments, death nipping at his heels. She resembled me in every way, from her mismatched eyes to the color of her hair, the silver of her tail and the violet shimmer that could be caught from it in the flicker of the fires overhead, consuming the British ship. I watched her give him her breath, placing her lips over his to breathe air into his lungs before she swam him to shore, leaving him on the sand but not before she caressed his face and whispered sweet nothings to him. The setting sunlight illuminated her while he faded in and out of consciousness, making him believe that what he was glimpsing was an angel, a creature far from human. He was right to some extent, she wasn’t human but she was no angel as the man had continued to believe even long after the crew had found him and the fight had subsided. The man had returned to the sea some months later, serving under his ruler in a battle both against Scotland and piracy. He stood lookout on the deck in the dead of night when he heard her singing, a voice more captivating than any he had ever had the pleasure of hearing. His feet dragged him to the side of the ship where he peered over the edge to catch a glimpse of a silver tail before the mermaid dove deep into the black water. The man told whoever would listen about the angel that guarded him, who had saved him but they all thought him mad, so much so that they hardly trusted him on British soil so when they docked, he was told to remain behind to tend to the ship and see that it is guarded. It was then that he saw her for the first time with clear eyes, a woman with skin as pale as snow, hair even whiter and eyes that were never before seen, eyes unlike any other. She stood bare before him on the deck of the ship, her steps shaky as she struggled to walk on two legs and around her throat hung an anchor necklace, laced with a spell that none other than Aurella had placed upon it to grant her legs on land as long as it dangled from her neck. More and more they would see of each other as time passed until her father caught wind of their love, the love between a human and a mermaid. Of course she had already borne the man a daughter by then, a daughter who was human like her father but her heart was that of the sea. Neptune, enraged attempted to kill the man but Nereida fought with her father, refusing to lose the man she loved only to be killed alongside him by the hands of the man who had helped create her. Neptune sought out his granddaughter but could not find her on land, among the humans. He took Nereida’s body and asked his fellow gods to turn her to stone so that she may reside beneath the waves where she belonged, casting the necklace to the current in the hopes of it being lost forever but Aurella plotted differently. I could sense the sadness in the waters around me, the tears that would turn to pearls that escaped Nereida’s stone eyes. Such grief, such sadness and agony surrounded her with the body of her lover fed off of by the sharks that circled his corpse. Their daughter would grow to have children of her own and her children would bore children. The cycle would continue until the birth of my mother would come to pass and ultimately the day of my birth would follow. Were human’s truly the monsters or were the gods whom they worshipped the true demons that lurked in the night? Why feel guilt for killing a man who had slaughtered his own daughter? I gasped for air when the sea spat me out onto the rocky shore, my lips trembling and eyes foggy with the world around me having succumbed to the darkness that the moon brought. Why love a man capable of such things?  

Author's Note.

I've been gone for some time and here is why: I am currently studying education and had a five week practical at a local school. That along with work in the afternoons and my studies have kept me rather busy. I have read all of your comments and am grateful for those who will continue to support my story despite the long absence. I will continue to update as regularly as possible. 

Much love and many thanks.

Chane.