The Mafia Boss's Mermaid

I HAVE NEVER BEEN like the rest of them. I was never bound to the ocean. I was never a slave to my mother. And I have never thought of rotting in our pod without experiencing the places beyond that crooked place. Although I loved the feeling of the ocean current on my tail and the coldness of water on my bluish skin, I also longed for the warmth of the sun; which was an odd thing for a mermaid who survives in the cold water. "Still no sign of the goblin sharks," Kresa said in Agualis tongue, her high-pitched voice echoing throughout the deep ocean. Above water, our voice may sound like a whale's pulsed calls, but if one listened underwater, they'd hear a sound ever so pleasing, like a melody humming through your soul. "Why are the sharks so far from our pod this year?" I asked, matching the speed of her silver tail as we journeyed to the sharks' territory. "I heard that some of the mermaids are missing too." Kresa didn't seem to care and answered in a casual manner, "Maybe the sharks ate them and swam away from our pod." I breathed in a mouthful of water. That has a high possibility of happening, especially to weak mermaids who can't defeat a whale shark. "That's awful." Mermaids getting eaten by other sea creatures are rare, but I doubt any of my kind would care if that were to happen regularly. Mermaids, compared to humans, are heartless creatures. We care for our hunt more than our kin, at least that was what I was supposed to be. I may be one of them, but I don't adhere to any of the mermaids' traditions. "This is the farthest we can go," Kresa announced, snapping me out of my train of thought. Kresa dove down the trench, her grey hair flowing straight behind her back as she sped up. I stared at her tail, watching as her scales glimmered from the reflection of the light. I loved how the color of the other mermaid's hair color matched their tails. It looked majestic underwater. On the other hand, I and my mother are the only ones different. With pitch-black hair that matches the abyss’s color, we stood out from the rest of them, a trait that symbolizes we’re the ones meant to rule the pod. Kresa and I weren't that far from the surface of the trench yet, but the water was already chilly. I slowed down to feel the water's vibration on my skin. The place felt odd and now that I've gotten here, I'm now sure of one thing. "Kresa wait," I called out to her in the quietest way possible. She turned around to face me and I swam towards her. From afar, I sighted a human wearing a skin they called a ‘suit’ and a turtle-like shell on its back. I think that thing is called a tank. Apparently, they use it to breathe underwater, but I don’t know how. Humans are baffling creatures. They could create several things on land that could aid them in doing tasks beyond their capabilities. They drown without those things on. “Someone is also here.” I pointed to the human using my tail. Kresa's cerulean eyes narrowed in that direction. It didn’t take long for her to recognize what it was. She snarled, baring her fangs at the land creature. Her claws sharpened, and I instantly knew she was going to attack. Every movement of hers was ferocious, like the warrior she was raised to be. “What are they doing here?” Her face showed her pure animosity that even the hatred slipped past her tone. “Shh! What if it hears us?” “Then we’ll kill the human!” “Mother forbade that we show ourselves to humans.” “Says the one who often visits humans. Besides, they won’t remember us once they’re dead.” A light flashed in our direction. The human was already looking our way. I doubt that he sees us from that far, but there was something odd about the way he looked. The trench was massive and its depth was greater compared to the other trenches I’ve been to. The goggles the humans wear and the little light they wield aren’t enough to see us from this distance. “Something’s down here,” the human said in English. His voice was muffled due to what he was wearing, but I still understood it. Unlike other mermaids, I’ve learned how to speak the human tongue. My kind wasn’t interested in sullying their mouths with anything related to humans, which was why they never bothered learning their language. My mother and I were the only exemptions. I never knew the reason why she learned it, and even if I asked, I’m certain she’ll never tell me. My stomach churned as I caught the smell of something metallic. Even the sound of the water current is different from the last time I came here. Before she could get near the human, I grabbed her tail and swam in the opposite direction. Her strength was greater than mine and if my skin was tender like a human's, I'd be bleeding by now. “Kresa, let’s go!” I urged, flapping my silver tail harder to pull her back, but my words were useless. Something about the place seems wrong. “No, I won’t go until that human’s blood becomes one with the ocean! How dare he trespass on our territory!” “Danger. I can sense it.” She stopped. Compared to the other mermaids, I am more sensitive when it comes to the ocean. That’s why my kind never doubted me when I said anything related to the ocean. “What about that creature could be dangerous? It’s all alone. And humans have no match for us underwater.” My body instinctively moved on its own when it sensed an unexpected motion coming from beneath the trench. The metallic smell I’d picked up from earlier grew stronger. A big metal object came out from under the trench, light flashing from its sides. It was smaller than an adult whale but bigger than a dozen mermaids combined. It was another one of the human vessels and I am certain there was one of them inside. The human was still looking in our direction. And now I am certain that he knows we’re here. “Swim! They saw us!” I announced. “What?” A huge metal-like net that came from the huge metal vessel, 30 feet away from us, darted our way. I was fast enough to evade it, but Kresa, despite her strength, was instantly caught. “Eeeeeek!” For an unknown reason, Kresa started wailing in pain the moment the net touched her skin. It was loud enough to reach our pod. She tried to unruffle the net from her body by thrashing around but it only seemed to have worsened her situation. Blue blood mixed with the water and an acrid smell of burning flesh filled my senses. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to go back to Kresa, but my tail wouldn’t obey me. My body instinctively hid in the darkest part of the trench. The terrible foreboding feeling rendered me helpless. I reached out to the dyke behind me and hummed the morphing song in haste. Blue waves of light that only I could see filled my vision. It was everywhere, present in every living thing under the ocean. I closed my eyes to embrace the ocean energy as my body shifted to match my surroundings. My skin tingled as the ocean energy danced around my body. It was a lovely feeling that I didn’t have the privilege to enjoy because my attention was solely focused on Kresa and the humans. Her scream continued for a minute until it stopped. I can’t do anything but be frozen from shock. Every second felt like an eternity as I watched her suffer. When she was not moving anymore, the human in a suit swam towards her. He took out a sharp object that contained a red liquid and stabbed it into Kressa’s skin. A mermaid’s skin cannot be penetrated so easily but I was frightened when the whole blade sank into her neck. I wanted to do something to help her, but my instincts were telling me not to move from where I am now. The red liquid drained quickly as it transferred from the object to Kresa’s body. This has been the only time I was terrified by something other than my mother. I’ve been near humans and their inventions many times than I can count. I’ve seen the things they could do with their unique inventions and those things have invoked a sense of amazement and fear inside me. But this has been the only time I felt threatened by them. Now that I had the time to look at it properly, I saw that the front of the big human vessel was transparent. Inside, there were three people in white. “Odd. A few seconds ago, the echolocator detected a creature nearby. I could have sworn there were two of them. Where’s the other one?” “I saw it too. I guess it has already escaped. It’s a good thing we caught this one.” The human in a suit signaled the ones inside and they nodded at him in return. It felt like my whole body was being drained of all liquids when they attached a hook to the net that was trapping Kresa. Probably unconscious, Kresa remained still, her eyes closed as the huge vessel dragged her body to the surface. I wanted to follow them to try and rescue Kresa, or even use the human in a suit to bargain with the humans but more of the vessels came even before I could go near him. I can’t risk being seen by them at this point. There are a lot of uncertainties. I don’t know what the humans are capable of doing at this moment. I trailed after them, but the moment I got nearly 60 feet below the surface of the water, the ocean’s power started wearing off. If only I was as powerful as my mother, then I could have rescued Kresa before they dragged her here. Based on their previous conversation, they were using a device that could detect us. I think the reason they couldn’t detect me until now is that I'd become one with the ocean the moment I used its power. But at this point, I don’t have enough strength to use it again. There were several ships above water and several vessels surrounding the one with Kresa’s body. If I try rescuing her now, there’s a high possibility that both of us will be captured instead. Besides, I can’t use the ocean’s power anymore. I have no choice but to retreat. Right now, the best decision is to notify my mother about what happened. She’s the most powerful among our kind and I’m certain that she’s the one who could rescue Kresa. That’s right. That’s the best thing I can do right now. Despite my hesitation to leave Kresa alone with the humans, my body was already rapidly swimming toward our pod.