Allan woke around midnight, immediately rushing down to the beach and hiding behind the rock where he had been sitting before. He saw the stars twinkle above him, and the moon shone its bright light down onto the ocean below it. The American smiled a bit, looking at the picturesque scene before him before he heard a splash and turned the other way. It was back.
He carefully crept over, trying to get himself into a spot that was closer to the mystical creature before him. He saw it flip its sea foam green tail up out of the water periodically, showing the scales covering it shimmering in the pale moonlight. Speaking of pale, the same went for that beautiful mermaid (or merman) that was glancing off the coast. While it was distracted, Allan made his move and grabbed the creature by its wrist.
It shrieked, thrashing around and inadvertently pulling Allan down and into the water with it. It tried to get out of the drowning human's grip, but to no avail, as Allan eventually made it up onto shore, dragging the creature up a bit with him, careful to keep its lower half into the water.
"LET ME GO!!!" It shrieked, its voice sounding feminine. "LET ME GO, YOU MONSTER!!"
"Hey!!"
It stopped, starting at him. For the first time, Allan could see its eyes. Bright ocean blue, like the place it lived in. It greatly contrasted Allan's blood red eyes that he had gotten from no identified source. The creature made some kind of noise suddenly, indicating that it was trying to speak, but that it couldn't, as its words had gotten lost on the way to its mouth and could simply not figure out that they were taking the wrong trail.
Allan smiled gently. "We'll start with words. I'm Allan Jones."
"O- Oliver."
Allan smiled brighter. A merman. "Cute name."
Oliver blushed. "I like yours, too." He was quiet for a minute. "Why did you grab me?"
"Because I wanted to see if you were real. If you weren't just a figment of my own imagination."
"No. I'm quite real, my good man. And so are you."
"Yea. Can we... chat?"
"Will you let go of my wrist?"
"Will you run away?"
They both stared into each other's eye for a long while. Oliver's ocean blue eyes staring into Allan's blood red ones. A still ocean staring at pouring blood. Crashing waves forming on a Red Sea. They began to see the other's eyes within their own. It was truly as described. Oliver's eyes were waves, and Allan's made them into a Red Sea.
"You're beautiful," Allan said.
"What? What did you say?"
"I called you beautiful."
"Do you really mean it?!"
"Yea. You're beautiful, Oliver."
Oliver smiled, tears quickly forming and beginning to roll down his cheeks. "That's the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me since Mother!!"
Allan laughed heartily at the same time that Oliver sighed dreamily. "Allan? It's late. I scarcely ever see humans walking out here at midnight. Why are you here?"
He didn't really have to think to tell him what he said next. "I needed to see you again." He sighed. "If it was actually true that you existed and that you weren't some strange figment of my imagination, I needed to see you again with my own eyes. The little glimpse I caught of you before you disappeared back into the ocean told me that this was something to see for a second time. So I did what I told myself to do: get a second look."
Oliver blushed deeply, his face going from pale with ginger freckles to a plain dark crimson. "Allan!"
"Hey, doll. Can't tell a lie!"
Oliver blushed an even deeper crimson, to the point where Allan thought he was going to turn some strange shade of black if he blushed any harder. "Allan!!"
As he said it lovingly, another much deeper voice shouted Allan's name with some sort of anger or hatred. Allan looked up above the banks of the rock wall that stood almost ten feet higher than the sandy beach and ocean below. Tracing from the light tide up from the clear sandy beach, going up to the crusty rocks with the occasional sand particle on them and grass growing on top, Allan saw his brother yelling for him, obviously concerned. Allan gasped.
"Ollie, that's my brother. I've got to go."
Oliver sighed. "Can I see you again?"
"Afternoon. When the sun's starting to set, I'll be here." He ran out of the ocean, his clothes and every bit of him soaking wet.
James gasped upon seeing him, running to the side barefoot and running down the cobblestone staircase, meeting Allan at the part of the beach where the waves met sand. "ALLAN!!!" He hugged him tightly, throwing his arms around his shoulders.
Allan choked a bit, mostly from embarrassment at being caught and hugged in a public location along with being soaking wet in the beach at midnight. He gasped as James suddenly shook him back and forth,
"James, what the hell?!"
"I thought I was going to have to call the cops! Your stuff was still there and your bed was a mess, your stuff was still arranged the way you left it and the car was still in the driveway, and your nightclothes were the only thing missing and..." James was out of breath at this point, hyperventilating as he held Allan close.
"I'm fine, bro."
"Don't do that to me!! What the hell were you doing out here, anyway?!"
"What the hell are you doing up so late?!"
"ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!!!"
Allan was quiet for a few seconds. "I saw a mermaid."
James stared at him like he had lost it. "What?"
"I saw a mermaid, James."
"No, no. Don't even try that one on me, Allan. Stop lying and tell me the truth."
"I'm not lying! I really saw it! It was a mermaid!! Well, merman. His name was Oliver!"
"Allan..."
"I grabbed him by the wrist! He pulled me under and I dragged him back up! We talked, James!! We set a time to talk tomorrow!!"
He looked at his brother, whose face seemed to carry a horrified expression. "Allan... let's go home."
"You think I'm crazy, don't you?"
"No. I think you just need to sleep. You need the rest."
Allan sneezed. "Maybe you're right. Could I get some medicine?"
"Of course. Now, let's get you back to the hotel."
"Thanks, James."
"Don't mention it, little bro."
