Written For:
QLFC / Round 6: Captain - Cult Classics: Use the film, The Lost Boys, as inspiration for your story.
Word Count: 2,913
oOo
It was almost nightfall in the small town that Regulus and Sirius had moved to in order to live with their Uncle Alphard. They had only been here a few weeks so far, and Regulus already despised it.
He was used to London, to the rushing lights of the big city and the sound of traffic in the busy streets. Oddly, he found all the noise on the roads below their apartment calming. He liked knowing there were people bustling around in the city below, at all times of day.
The seaside town they had moved to had no traffic. There was only one road in and out of the village, and visitors rarely came by. The town was set in the centre of a large bay, so it seemed like the town was utterly surrounded by the ocean. Even with such a vast horizon, Regulus couldn't help but feel trapped. There were hardly ever any people milling around on the pier—though tonight was a different story.
It was the one night of the year where the pier came alive with people. The locals called it The Mermaid Festival, and it was a huge party of sorts. Having only been in town for a few weeks, Regulus didn't really know much about the festival, but he had seen locals lugging huge mermaid figures made from straw and burlap sacks, and sitting them around a large pile of firewood that had been building over the past few days.
From what he had heard, the party consisted of the locals burning their mermaids on the fire, eating cooked fish and drinking spiced tea from stalls, and dancing to a jazz band that were setting up stage on the pier.
"Legend has it that the mermaids can walk on land, only on this day, every year," a gruff, northern voice spoke from beside Regulus suddenly, making him flinch. An old, rotund man had sidled up beside him, a pipe hanging out of his mouth. He squinted with one eye as he stared out at the darkening ocean. "So, you'd better have your wits about you, new boy."
Regulus laughed a little too haughtily. "Even if mermaids were real, what's so scary about them?" His mind flashed back to storybooks from his childhood. Beautiful, glossy-haired women with ivory skin and shimmery fishtails, who wore shell-cup bikini tops and talked to fish and lobsters.
The old man seemed to know what Regulus was thinking. "Only fools think that the creatures of the bay are friendly," he said warningly. "Mer are more sinister than sharks, and twice as deadly." He gave Regulus a nudge with his shoulder, and then walked slowly to the other end of the pier, towards the growing crowds of the festival.
Regulus rolled his eyes at the ocean. Crazy old coot.
oOo
"Don't you want to come join the party?"
The voice distracted Regulus from the ocean that he was still staring out at, now pitch black. The dark waves glittered with watery reflections of the stars above. He turned around to face the person who had disturbed him; a pale young man with dark blond hair and a slightly gangly frame. His dark brown eyes seemed to glimmer with the same intensity of the stars that Regulus had been looking out at.
"I don't know. Parties aren't really my thing," Regulus replied. "I'm happy just to watch from here." He looked over the blond's shoulder at the bustling crowd on the pier. The bonfire was controlled, and he could see the melting straw of a mermaid scarecrow withering on the top of the fire.
"I don't recognise you."
"I'm new," Regulus explained. "I only moved here with my brother the other week."
Barty's eyes sparkled. "You really should come and join the party," he insisted.
"Okay, okay." Regulus rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night. He was sure he was starting to get eye strain. "What's your name?"
"Barty," the strange boy replied. "Let's go." He looped his arm around Regulus's and dragged him into the crowd.
oOo
After an hour, Regulus couldn't deny that he was having fun. Barty showed him every bit of the festival that was to experience there; from the saxophone player who was performing a jazz solo at the end of the pier, to the dancers who were spinning elegantly around the burning mermaid. He watched with a smile as Regulus gulped down battered fish and mushy peas, and he winced when Regulus suggested having a go at one of the arcade games: shooting the ceramic fishtail off a mermaid ornament with a paintball gun, in order to try and win a prize.
"Thanks for convincing me to come join the festival," Regulus told Barty as he sat on a bench at one side of the pier. "I'm surprised to say that I've had a really good time."
Barty was standing at the railing, looking out at the ocean in the same way that Regulus had done only a few hours earlier. He smiled as he watched Barty pace back and forth, wobbling slightly on his skinny legs.
Regulus had noticed many peculiarities about Barty during the few hours that they'd spent at the festival. He didn't eat with Regulus when he bought food from the stall, though he watched every mouthful he took with a wide smile. He had grimaced at the burning mermaid on the fire, but he didn't explain why. His legs were like awkward attachments to his body, as though he had never learned how to walk properly, and as the night wore on, Regulus could swear that there was an odd, greenish tinge to his skin.
"Are you feeling sick?" Regulus asked as Barty leaned over the bars. The boy spun around to face Regulus, and his friendly grin was gone. He looked almost mournful, and Regulus raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I'm sorry," Barty said suddenly. "I didn't expect that I would start to like you after a few hours." He paused, and glanced back out to the ocean again. "You have to get out of here. Go home, before...before…"
"Before what, Bartemius?" a smooth voice cut through the air behind Regulus. The remaining colour drained from Barty's face, and Regulus spun around to face the person who had interrupted them.
Three men stood behind the bench where Regulus had sat. One was burly and short, with a scar running through his left eye and cropped dark hair. Another looked similar to the first, though he was taller and slightly slimmer, and his dark hair was a little longer, the fringe hanging over his eyes. But it was the man in the middle who was the most menacing, Regulus thought.
He was slender and tall, with eerily pale skin that seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. His long hair was just as pale and blond, almost white, and was slicked back; exposing every angled feature of his sharp face. Piercing, crystal blue eyes glittered like strange little bugs out of his face, and his thin mouth was warped into a sneer.
"It's time to return," the blond man continued, his gaze flickering to the moon. "I take it that this is the dinner you promised us?"
Regulus blanched. What is he talking about?
"No," Barty murmured nervously, stepping closer to Regulus. "I made a mistake. This isn't the one."
A pointed little tongue swept across the blond's lips. "I think he looks rather delicious. Why don't you introduce your friend to us, Bartemius?"
Barty really did look physically sick this time, and Regulus was starting to feel it. His skin was beginning to perspire, and he wanted nothing more than to run away from the pier. However, his feet seemed to be rooted in place.
"This is Regulus," Barty practically whispered, his voice being easily swept away by the waves and the noise from the festival. "Regulus, this is Lucius," he gestured to the blond, and then to the two cronies that flanked him. "And Rodolphus, and Rabastan."
Regulus nodded slowly.
"No need to be rude, Regulus," sneered Rodolphus.
"Aren't you going to say hello to us?" queried Rabastan, wearing a dangerous smirk.
"It's nice to meet you," Regulus breathed. "I...I really should be getting back home now." For some reason, the image of the old local was flashing behind his eyes. You'd better have your wits about you, new boy.
"Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen," Lucius spoke in his syrupy voice. He walked forward and placed a long-fingered hand on Regulus's shoulder. "You're coming home with us."
oOo
Two Days Later
Sirius paced through the comic book store where his two friends, James and Remus, worked. "I'm ready to accept that it might be…" he paused, resisting the urge to curl his lip. "It might be what you said."
"We've been telling you since you came in here saying your brother was missing," James threw a rolled up comic book at Sirius, and he caught it with both hands. "Teenagers go missing from this town every week, but more so during the Mermaid Festival."
"I know, because that's the only time they walk on land," Sirius muttered sarcastically. "I'd never normally entertain this nonsense, but I've run out of leads."
"You've wasted too much time, my friend," James slapped Sirius on the back. "But don't worry too much. Remains of the recently kidnapped usually show up on the beach a few days after someone has been taken."
"We've been scouring the shore every day, like we always do," Remus said gently. "I promise you, we haven't seen anyone that bears any resemblance to your brother."
Sirius leaned back against the counter and unrolled the comic book. It featured a graphic cartoon of a fearsome creature, with a long, scaled fishtail and the upper body of a woman. But she wasn't beautiful, like the paintings from the Mermaid Festival would suggest. Her skin was grey and shredded with scars; her long hair was green and floated around her head in tendrils; and her mouth was split into a menacing grin, with pointed teeth stained with blood. "Why do they only walk on land one day of the year?" Sirius asked, flipping through the gruesome comic.
"Legend has it that Neptune allows the mer to walk on land for one day in order to find his daughter, who ran away with a human being," Remus explained. "But that's just a myth. We may never know why they really can leave the ocean."
"I can't believe you're convincing me that mermaids kidnapped my brother," Sirius sighed. "But I suppose I don't have anything else to lose."
oOo
Sirius, James and Remus had only been walking on the beach for an hour when Sirius suddenly charged off into the sea, having spotted a dark shape lying in the shallow waves. He screamed back to his friends as he dragged the body out of the ocean, pulling him onto the dry sand.
"Is he…?" Remus gasped as he helped Sirius pull the boy onto his back. It was without a doubt Regulus Black; even though Remus and James had only seen him a handful of times, his resemblance to Sirius was uncanny.
"No, he's breathing," Sirius insisted, but he didn't sound too convinced. He turned Regulus's head to the side and started to pump his hands on his chest. "Come on, Reg…"
Suddenly, Regulus's dark eyes fluttered open, and he coughed up a generous amount of water onto the sand. James helped him sit up, and patted his back as he spluttered. Just as Regulus opened his mouth to speak, his body lurched, and he was violently sick over himself.
It was the colour and consistency of blended seaweed, and smelt like the fishiest part of the ocean. James and Sirius covered their noses immediately, and Remus retched. "I'm sorry," Regulus croaked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"It's okay," Sirius pulled Regulus to his feet, and slung one arm over his shoulder. James took Regulus's other side, and they started to walk him across the beach. "Let's just get you home."
oOo
Regulus wouldn't speak about what had happened to him, but Sirius began to discover straight away that there was something seriously wrong with his brother.
As soon as they got back home, Regulus decided he needed to get in the shower. Sirius didn't question him, thinking it was just the sick and the salt water that he wanted to wash off, but when Regulus jumped back in the shower a further six times that day, he was a little bit confused.
The two brothers shared a bedroom, but when Sirius woke up in the middle of the night, he found Regulus's bed empty. He rushed to the bathroom straight away, breaking through the flimsy lock easily. His little brother was curled up in the bath, fully clothed, with his entire body beneath the surface of the overflowing tub.
All of sudden, nothing could satisfy his hunger. Regulus ate his way through the entire fridge, but when Uncle Alphard put a plate of fish and chips in front of him, he was sick all over again—the same dark green sludge that he had choked up on the beach.
Sirius wondered if he was sick. He certainly looked sick. Regulus and Sirius were both pale skinned, but Regulus had bypassed pale and looked almost green in the face. Three days after he was found on the beach, he spent more and more time in the bath, and then the impossible happened.
The house was ripped in two by an ear-splitting screech that Sirius didn't think was humanly possible. He tore out of bed and ran to the bathroom where he knew Regulus would be, throwing the door down. Regulus was naked in the bath, white as a sheet, and his legs were turning black.
His legs were turning black.
"What the hell?" cried Sirius, rushing forwards. At first glance, it looked as though Regulus's legs were dying, but he realised that it wasn't the case. They were stuck together firmly, and it appeared that the blackened skin was fusing together. "What did you do?"
"Sirius," Regulus choked in a strangled, high-pitched voice. "You need to take me to the sea, to Barty."
"What did they do to you?" roared Sirius, his voice making the bathroom mirror tremble.
"They aren't human," gasped Regulus, his eyes wide but unseeing. "They took me into the water, and made me eat...some kind of kelp. They forced it down my throat. I didn't think it would do anything to me…" tears were streaming down his face, and his featured were twisted with agony. "Sirius...the sea."
Sirius didn't say anything else. He threw a towel over his brother's naked body, hoisted him over his shoulder, and rushed downstairs and out of the back door. The seafront was just a stone's throw away from Uncle Alphard's back porch, so Sirius was easily able to rush down to the beach, where he slumped Regulus's writhing body into the high tide.
Relief seemed to pass over Regulus almost instantly, as soon as the water touched what remained of his legs. Sirius noticed that they no longer looked charred anymore, but there wasn't much left to suggest that he had ever had normal human legs before. His feet had vanished completely, and the dark skin was beginning to take a silvery shimmer to it. Like scales. "Mermaids," Sirius muttered automatically.
"No," Regulus murmured, his breathing becoming much more relaxed. "They're men. I haven't seen a female one."
"I don't understand," Sirius said, but before he could get a reply from Regulus, a head broke through the surface of the waves a few yards out. The figure swam close enough for Sirius to make out his face, but he didn't step out of the waves. Sirius realised, a little stupidly, that the man couldn't. He was one of them.
"Regulus?" he called out.
"What did you do to my brother?" growled Sirius, making to stamp out into the waves. Regulus grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "I'll kill you, you...you monster!"
"It wasn't him!" Regulus shouted. "Barty tried to help me. He tried."
"Not hard enough," Barty called out mournfully. "But I've been swimming by the shore every day since you were set free by Lucius. I want to help...with the transition."
"Help me get further into the water, Sirius," Regulus whispered. "This is the only way."
Fighting back tears, Sirius took his brother by the armpits and dragged him out into the water, until they were both waist-deep. Regulus was lying down, so only his head appeared above the sea, but Barty swam over and took Regulus's arms, helping him float easily into deeper sea. "What's going to happen?" he asked his brother and Barty.
"He's one of us now," Barty answered. He was trying to appear confident, but Barty could see the regret sparkling in his soft brown eyes. "I'll look after him."
Regulus didn't speak. He was looking better than he had in days, now that he was out in the saltwater.
"This isn't the end," Sirius spoke, as Barty and Regulus drifted further out into the ocean. "My friends know everything about mermaids and...men. I'll find a way to make you human again." He paused, pursing his lips as he spoke. "I won't rest until I do."
End