There was a crash and a long, eerie screech. The ship jolted, and all was silent for but a moment, before the alarms sounded. That was what woke Kate at around 2:00 AM.
There was a lack of screaming that she appreciated; if anyone from her school had been present, everyone would be temporarily deafened. Still, there was enough screaming that made her question whether adults, who often liked to think themselves sophisticated, were really less dignified than children.
Out of bed in a flash, and rousing her younger brother, Charlie, a thirteen year old ball of too much energy and too little anger management, from his deep sleep, Kate quickly slipped on her water shoes. She figured that if something had happened to make the boat go down, she'd better have shoes that could get wet and not give her feet blisters.
Charlie woke with a start. "Wha- what's going on?" He asked blearily, his voice half-indignant and half-terrified.
"Shut up and get these on," Kate retorted, shoving him his own water shoes.
Mom and Dad appeared in the doorway dividing their room from Kate and Charlie's.
"Come on," Dad said, snatching the shoes out of Charlie's hands and shoving them onto his feet. "Gotta go now."
Kate instinctively linked arms with her father, tugging his arm. "Kay then," she snapped. "Let's go!"
Mom was looking seasick already, despite having taken motion-sick medicine every single day they'd been on the boat. So was Charlie, for that matter. Kate couldn't empathize; she was able to spin and spin and spin and not get sick, and it was irritating to her that they couldn't handle something as simple as movement.
Dad grabbed Charlie by the shoulders and sent him off in the direction of the exit, dragging Kate and Mom behind him. They awkwardly squeezed through the door and burst into the hallway, almost losing each other in the crowd for an instant. Kate grabbed the back of Charlie's shirt and he yelped, half-choked. She yanked him back to her mom, who grabbed him, while clinging to her dad with one arm.
The flood of people swept them down the hall, through the lobby, and out onto the deck in a flash. Somehow they all managed to stay together, until a particularly large, rather fat man slammed into Kate and her father. She let out a scream of surprise. The man disappeared into the crowd.
"Kate?" She heard her father shout.
"I'm fine!" She hollered back, her unusually loud voice raising above the clamor of the crowd. "I'll find you later!"
She felt her throat constrict, her chest tightening, and her face growing hot. NO! She thought, desperate. I absolutely cannot have some stupid asthma-panic attack hybrid at this moment. She forced herself to take slow, deep breaths, and closed her watering eyes whenever she could. It didn't do her any good to have them open anyways; her eyesight was terrible enough without her eyes watering so much, and she had forgotten to grab her glasses in the rush.
Suddenly, Kate noticed that the traffic had slowed. Standing on tiptoe and squinting, she saw over the wall of people. It was so concentrated she hadn't even realized that she was five feet from the edge of the boat, where the lifeboats were.
Feeling another wave of panic come over her, she managed to take a hitched breath before closing her eyes again and sensing the heat of the paniced people around her. It'll be fine, she comforted herself. I'll find Dad eventually... As long as he doesn't drown... She gave herself a mental shake, blinking back tears. Of course he'll be fine. And I will be too.
A soft voice broke into her thoughts. "Are you okay?" The inquirer was a dark-tan-skinned girl with beautiful flowing black hair. She looked no older than fifteen, and almost as nervous as Kate.
Kate sniffed, trying to twist her mouth into a grateful smile. "I will be, thanks," she replied. "I-" her voice wavered. "Sorry. I've got asthma and anxiety, and I'm only seventeen, and I don't know-" She bit her tongue, hard, to stop the oncoming sob, then took a deep, shuddering breath. "I don't know where my family is."
The girl smiled compassionately. "I do not know where my family is, either," she comforted. "We should stick together until we find them."
Kate grinned through the tears. "What's your name?" She asked, wiping some of the hot tears off her face.
"Hileni," she replied, running her fingers through a lock of her hair continuously. It was a nervous tick that Kate recognized, and one that she did subconsciously every time she met new people or was in a new situation.
"Wow, that's such a pretty name," Kate admired, wiping her nose. "More exotic than mine. I'm Kate."
Someone pushed the two girls forward. Hileni stumbled, and Kate ran into the person in front of them, muttering a quick apology.
"Well," Hileni smiled, though shaken, "It's very nice to meet you, Kate."
"You too," she answered, shooting a glare at the person who had shoved them. She opened her mouth to say something else when she heard- was that singing?
Confused, the girl strained to listen. It was absolutely... unearthly. Beautiful. Kate envied whomever was the lucky owner of the vocal chords which could produce such a wondrous sound. She ignored the people around her as they walked over the edge of the boat, and forgot about Hileni. She moved to the side, hanging onto the railing overlooking the ocean, and saw what looked like colorful... dolphins? No, their shape wasn't quite right.
Kate squinted, then gasped, her eyes wide. "No way," she breathed. Mermaids don't exist. Her mind had accepted that as fact. Somehow someone would know about them.
She reached out blindly behind her to grab Hileni, but remembered she'd left her behind with a gasp. Kate whirled around so quickly that she lost her balance, and fell over the railing into the ocean, screaming all the way down. Right before she hit the water, she saw Hileni dash to the railing and look over.
The water was absolutely freezing. Salt water rushed up her nose and into her mouth, and she coughed underwater. Pain filled her lungs, and she couldn't contain her panic anymore. Though an avid and strong swimmer, Kate couldn't fight the ocean currents as well as the panic, her asthma, and the water that had rushed into her lungs when she coughed. She absolutely hated the ocean and its unforgiving depth and strength.
Frozen with pain and terror, she squinted open an eye, but all she saw was a blur of deep, dark, blue. She blinked. There was a silver flash in front of her. She screamed, her legs suddenly able to work again, and kicked out, glancing what felt like scales. Anything but a bull-shark, she prayed. Or jellyfish.
Hands grabbed her arm and legs at the same time, and she thrashed, stopping when she saw Hileni holding onto her arm.
But who had grabbed her legs?
Kate looked down and almost screamed again, but she didn't have the will. She kicked against the thing holding her ankles, the impossible thing that was real. She just wanted air.
Her eyes stung so much, and her chest felt like it would burst. She kicked and tried to swim upwards, but the mermaid had a strong grip on her, and was more adept at swimming. The mermaid began to sing.
Kate let go of Hileni, who tried to snatch at her hand and pull her back up, but it resulted in the both of them being dragged down, deeper into the ocean.
Hileni was running out of air, and Kate was half-drowned. But the mermaid's song began to lull them, promising them peace and a new life.
Kate began to feel the lack of air less painfully, and Hileni was floating, her eyes closed, hand clutching Kate's arm. Neither of them noticed more mermaids surrounding them, or the bodies drifting down and down and out of sight. The mermaids' individual songs merged into one harmonious melody.
Hileni was roused a heartbeat after Kate, both startled by the silence and lack of pain.
Blinking, astounded, Kate stared at the mermaids surrounding them. They all had a shimmering complexion, tinted with one color or another to match their tails. Some of them even had matching clam-shell bras, like from the Disney movie The Little Mermaid.
Feeling exposed, Kate hugged her chest. She looked down at where her legs had been, and saw a shimmering, deep red tail. Figuring that her skin was also tinted red, she felt her face and was surprised by its texture; it felt smoother than ever, without so much as an acne scar. She could see farther than she'd ever been able to before, and she couldn't tell if it was because her eyesight had also been fixed, or if mermaids were more adapted to seeing in the dark ocean, or both.
She looked up, and saw that Hileni had a similar reaction. Hileni's fish-like tail was a deep, royal purple, just the hue to perfectly match her dark skin, which was tinted violet.
Flicking her tail, Kate darted upwards a little and abruptly stopped, shocked. This new tail had a lot of power and muscle. Kate blinked, staring again at the mermaids.
"How are you feeling?" One of them asked. Kate recognized her as the mermaid who'd dragged her and Hileni down- the one with the beautiful song. She was a brunette with long and shimmery hair, eyes that were sometimes golden, sometimes brown, and she was one of the most skinny people Kate had ever seen. Her skin was a shimmering cerulean, as was her tail. She had mother-of-pearl, iridescent blue clam-shells to match her tail, and her nails were solid shimmery shade of bluest blue as well.
"U-uh, fine, I guess," Kate stuttered, glancing at Hileni.
Hileni exhaled a little, and bubbles flitted about her face. "I'm fine," she said.
The blue mermaid grinned. "Good," she chirped. "Follow me, and you can ask any questions you have on our way back."