Second Chance
Allister watched the seaboard town from his place in the sea. He had been waiting off the coast for hours looking for the girl with brown hair. As he watched the town he could hear the chatter of humans eating at a restaurant that overlooked the beach. From where he was positioned he could not see the people eating thanks to a large boulder obstructing the view. He took extra caution by only keeping only his head above the water, but this proved to be uncomfortable due to the water being shallow and his tail scraping against the sand.
Allister’s annoyance was high. His commander told him to come and to wait for the girl with brown hair. This was the spot he was given, so where was she? He looked to the sky. The moon wasn’t high yet, but he knew he had been here for a half day.
“This shouldn’t be taking this long,” he sighed. In situations like this it was possible that the human changed their mind. This instance didn’t happen often, and it never happened to Allister before in his decades of recruitment. With this said, he knew anything was possible. He started to wiggle back and forth, from sitting in the shallow water his tail had become buried in the muck. Finally, he managed to break free and turned around. He knew that a human changing their destiny was few and far between but it looked like the girl with the brown hair had picked a different path.
Allister began to slowly make his way farther out to sea, where the sandbank dropped off into a bottomless pit. He went under the salty water and looked around. The drop off wasn't far off. He could see where the light blue water turned into ominous darkness. He popped his head above the water one last time so he could move his tail easily, but something stopped him. This time above the chattering and laughter of the humans he heard sobs, and they were getting closer to the water. He picked up his tail and pivoted himself to face the shore. To his surprise, he saw the girl with the brown hair.
He observed her as she walked towards the water. She was holding her hands up to her chest. With every agonizing step she would release a hand from her chest and try to cover her shoulders with the garment that didn’t want to stay. Her brown hair was a mess, half in a braid the other half falling over bare shoulders. He could hear her sobbing and see her small body shake with each one.
As she approached the water line she quickly took a hand and wiped her cheeks, “Not anymore,” she said to herself and finally let the dress release from her grasp. As the dress fell to the sandy shore Allister took in her human form. Her porcelain legs were long and thin and held such beauty to them. Allister stared in amazement as she took her foot and placed it in the water. He studied her feet, the two things that helped her walk on the solid earth, and envied her.
She was now waist high in the sea and her sobs had turned into small tears pouring down her cheeks. She turned to look at the seaboard town one last time. Allister turned his attention towards the humans eating at the costal restaurant. He heard nothing that signaled that they noticed the girl, or if they did none of them wanted to get involved. He turned his attention back to the girl and watched as she turned back his way. Slowly the girl began to slip under the black water. She made no sound as the sea swallowed her whole. Allister watched as air bubbles came to the surface and popped as they expired. Within one minute the bubbles stopped, within four Allister knew the time had come to do his job.
He swam back into the shallow water and saw her body floating on the water’s surface. Her porcelain white body laid face down on the black surface, her arms were outstretched as if she was hugging her killer. As Allister approached her he took in how peaceful she looked, how happy she seemed compared to the sobbing girl on the beach. He gently grabbed her body and began to swim with her to the end of the sand bar.
Allister stopped swimming a few feet from the drop off. He laid the girls body face up next to him and grabbed the shell that hung around his neck. Before he fed the philter to her he looked back to see if he was far away from the town. He did not see the lights of the restaurant or hear the chatter of those dining. With that he put his hand beneath her neck and tilted it back. He brought her close to his chest and put the shell on her lips. Slowly, the green and gold liquid poured into her mouth and over her bottom lip. When the shell emptied he pushed her away and waited for the liquid to take effect.
As he waited for her to wake up he studied her face, she was a young girl, maybe eighteen, with fair skin. She had full lips and a tiny nose. Allister blushed at the thought of her being pretty, but didn’t have time to think on it because her dark brown eyes shot open. She turned upright in the deep water and gasped for air. She quickly looked around and spotted Allister an arms length away.
“What the hell,” she said and turned to face the merman, “Who are you?”
Allister smiled, “Why, I’m your recruiter, nice to meet you, call me Allister.”
The girl eyed him and began laughing, “Oh my god, this is heaven? I’m swimming with a hot guy. I knew drowning would be the best way to go out,” She put her hand on Allister’s bare shoulder “I’m now swimming with you, are you a model? You have to be, just look at your chest! You are built!”
Allister felt a slight blush on his cheeks but knew he couldn’t let the compliment go to his head; he had to tell this girl about her new life. “No, I’m not a model, I’m a Merman, and you are a Merwoman.”
The girl, who was already laughing, began to laugh harder, “This is too much, am I on drugs? Did someone find me and now I’m at the hospital on drugs?”
Allister found this girl to be a bit annoying now. Seeing her laugh was better then seeing her cry but he also wanted to do his job and move on with his night. “Listen to me. I watched you walk into the ocean and drown yourself. It took exactly one minute and a half for your air to stop coming to the surface and a few more minutes later I recovered your body. When you were walking into the sea you were sobbing and told yourself ‘not anymore’.”
The girl stopped laughing and stared at Allister, “Who are you?”
Allister could see tears coming back to the girl’s eyes. He thought if he could keep her talking he wouldn’t have to deal with a sobbing mess, “I’m Allister, I’m a recruiter for new Merfolk from the Norta community.
“You expect me to believe that we are Mermaids?”
“Mermaid is a touchy term, I wouldn’t use that, the men don’t really like it, says it’s bad for their masculinity. Everyone actually prefers to be called Merfolk, more neutral. But, back to what you were asking, yeah, I do. If you don’t believe me lift your legs out of the water. “
The girl did so in a slow manner, as if she still thought this was all a joke. Then, she lifted her tail up high enough to see the fin. Allister studied her fin, it was a mix of purple and gold, a tail he had never seen before. Usually tails were one color that were a variation of blue, green or orange. One time he even came across a purple tail, but ones like that were rare and meant that Merperson had a story to tell.
“Oh – my – god,” she breathed. Then, with a swift motion she flung her beautiful tail back into the water sending a splash towards both of them.
“You have a very unique tail, the colors are something that really doesn’t happen to most –“
“I went into the water to end my life because I didn’t want to live this life anymore, and you... you bring me back to live a different life, why?” Tears now were falling down her cheeks, she didn’t understand, like most people didn’t understand.
Allister sighed, “See the problem with today’s human world is that they forgot about the agreement made with the Sea God. Say all you want about Gods being myths, but every myth has some truth to it right?” He let out a little smile but the young girl continued to pout, so he continued, “Many eons ago the Sea God made an exchange with the humans, he said he would let the humans have fish and sea creatures to eat if he was able to have humans to live with in the sea. Your kind didn’t take kindly to that, thinking the Sea God would just come up and take humans, but after a long debate they made an agreement. The agreement was that whenever a human died in the sea, by killing themselves or an accident, the Sea God could give them a second chance by becoming half human half fish. All of this was for the exchange that humans could take sea creatures to eat. Humans agreed and here we are eons later.”
The girl was just looking at him. Allister felt as if she was looking straight through him, he could tell she was thinking. Finally, after a moment of silence, she asked, “Why did the Sea God want humans to live with him?”
Allister laughed, “Oh no he didn’t want humans to live underwater so he created Merfolk. We can’t live on land and humans can’t live underwater, it’s a nice divide, and I guess he made us because everyone gets lonely.” Allister began to loose his annoyance with the girl, he now found her interesting. She had a very special tail and asked very interesting questions, ones he had never been asked by recruits before.
The girl nodded and pointed to the water beside Allister, “Okay show me yours, I showed you mine.” Allister lifted an eyebrow, this girl was very interesting indeed.
“Okay that’s only fair I guess.” He lifted his fin out of the water also. The vibrant orange of his fin stood out against the night.
The girl gasped, “Wow, that’s beautiful.”
“Honestly, it’s not as beautiful as yours, mine’s just orange. Okay so now we have to go over the rules and where you will be living and asking me any questions about --“
“What’s your story?”
“Excuse me?”
“What’s your story,” she asked again, “Like, from when you were a human. How did you end up here doing this?”
“Oh,” He put his finger to his chin and began to think, “You know what, I can’t really remember how I got here anymore, comes with the dull tail”
“What? You can’t remember how you got here?”
Allister shook his head, “No, it’s part of the transition. You begin to forget your human life as time goes on. It’s quick for certain people, slower for others, but it makes living as one of us easier because we can’t remember much.”
“Oh.” Is all she said and bent her head down to look at the water below.
Allister began to talk about the rules and regulations of the Merfolk. As he explained he could tell she wasn’t listening. At this point he felt as if he was saying the rules just to hear himself talk, so he decided to change the subject, “Why are you here?”
She perked up, her eyes looked at him with a certain sorrow. She sighed, “I used to be very popular. I was the girl in high school with the most friends, always the queen at dances, dating the guy in college,” She turned and winked at Allister, “I always had a special charm that made me the sweetheart of the town. But, despite all that shit, I was the mayor’s daughter. I lived in the shadow of a strict father, always sneaking out, getting caught, getting punished. When I graduated high school a year ago I thought it would be a great idea to move in with my college boyfriend.” She took a heavy sigh and continued with her story, “He had just turned twenty one when I started living with him. At first he would have a beer or two with the guys, then it turned to a six-pack at our house. I was fine with it at first but then he threw the first blow. I forgot to get dish soap at the store, it angered him so much that he hit me right here,” she pointed to right below her eye, “After that the beatings became regular, but around town I still walked around like I was that perfect high school girl with that nice charm, no one knew.”
She started shaking her head. Allister could see the tears beginning to fall into the water again. He lifted his hand slowly through the water, about to reach out and touch her, but he stopped because he realized the story wasn’t quite over yet. She cried for a few more minutes and then took a deep breath.
She smiled at Allister apologetically and then began continued, “There was a week where the beating stopped and I thought it was the end. So I got the courage to tell him I was leaving and moving back home. He was sober when I told him, he cried and apologized and said he understood. He left the apartment so I could pack my things, three hours later he busted in smelling of beer, slurring his words. He then threw me on the bed and told me I could never leave, and that’s when the rapes began.”
Allister clenched his fists. There was no reason for this beautiful girl to be treated in such a manner, at least he knew the Merfolk treated each other with respect and now she was in better hands, but he couldn’t help but feel anger for the way that human effected her. He watched her cry; he didn’t want to say anything until she broke the silence first.
Minutes later she whispered, “Thank you,” and moved closer to Allister. She threw her transformed body over his and embraced him, “I’ve never told anyone and it feels good to get it out, it feels good to have a new start.”
Allister let out a laugh, “No one has ever hugged me during a recruitment, but you’re welcome at least you can start anew right?”
The girl let go, “You’re right. I have a second chance and I’ve been thinking about what you said, how I will forget my human life, and I’m ready for that.”
She smiled at Allister, and this time he knew it was a genuine smile. He reached out in the dark water and found her hand, “Then let’s go start that new life of yours.” He was about to pull her into the depths of the sea when he paused, “Hey, you never mentioned your name and it was rude of me not to ask...”
The girl let out a chuckle and squeezed Allister’s hand, “It doesn’t matter at this point, I think I’ll pick a new one.”
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