Thanks for the reviews, guys! I hope everybody likes this chapter.
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Chapter 2
On second thoughts, I had made a rash decision. Perhaps I could have explained myself and then could have just been punished severely, but it was too late now. I was on the shore, as the witch said – I could feel the roughness of the sand on my skin. That must mean I was... naked. I blushed to the roots of my hair, but it would be a few more minutes until I could move again to find some clothes. I just hoped that no humans had ventured down. It must have been late morning, because the sun had risen as I opened my eyes and peered around, though it wasn't the nicest of days.
I had come up here often, but I had never lain on the sand or walked upon it. I realised, with a thrill, that now I could run, jump or skip across the sand, and do whatever I pleased. I was free! The words made me delirious and afraid all at once. How was I supposed to live? I had no money and I had learnt that all humans had money so they could buy things for themselves, like food, drink and shelter. I shivered in the cold. It was an odd sensation because I had never felt cold before. The sea was always cold.
I panicked as I heard human voices coming towards me. I could still not move my limbs, though I could manage to wiggle my fingers and new-found toes. Luckily, my hair was shielding most of my body. It was waist-length, which was almost short underwater. Mermaids almost never cut their hair, though mermen always did. I knew I looked a state, like a girl washed up from a shipwreck. How was I meant to explain myself?
"Oh, goodness!" a woman's voice cried in horror. She crouched down beside me, and I acted dazed, eyes blinking frantically. She was speaking an unknown language, luckily one I had learnt underwater. "What happened, dear? Were you attacked? Are you hurt? Dave, call an ambulance!"
Her questions were a muddle in my brain. I used my voice for the first time since becoming a half-human, and I was relieved to find it was still my old melodic mermaid voice. "I don't know," I whispered, with tears – real human tears! – leaking out. "I can't remember anything."
"Don't worry, sweetheart," the woman said, tucking her long black coat around me. "We'll find out what's wrong." She sat and consoled me, until the human contraption that her husband had dialled for arrived. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen.
It appeared to be a huge box on wheels, which was flashing a light and making a strange noise. I shrank back, startled by the 'ambulance'. Two people climbed from the back of the box and gently lifted me onto a 'stretcher', another wrapping a warm blanket around me. I shivered again, in the cold. My stretcher was placed into the back of the ambulance, and I instinctively let out a cry of fear as the vehicle started up. I received some odd looks from the ambulance staff, and one said, "Never been in an ambulance before, honey?" I innocently decided to try my luck with asking some questions.
"Where are we?" I said. "Like what country?" I still wasn't sure what language we were speaking. I knew it deep down, but I couldn't remember. The potion must have misplaced some of my memories, I realised.
The ambulance staff exchanged worried glances. "Italy, love," one answered. "What did you say you were called?"
"Serena," I told them. I was pleased enough to remember my own name. Also, the fact that I was a fish, but I refrained from telling them that or I might go to a lunatic asylum instead of the hospital.
"Serena, how did you end up on the beach?" one interrogated me. I shook my head and shrugged.
"I really can't remember."
They terminated the conversation after that.
The ambulance arrived at the hospital five minutes later. A hospital, I learnt, was just like underwater, only humans seemed to get a lot more sick than merfolk did. I saw a multitude of different patients – some old, some young, with broken bones, colds and diseases. I was wheeled down the corridor, still shivering. I squeezed my eyes shut to get rid of this nightmare. I imagined I was back underwater, swimming around with Lynnie and Imogene, and that I had listened to them and never gone to look at that ship. I was put on to a hospital bed in a little side room.
"The doctor will be in momentarily to check you over," a nurse said. "Do you have any questions? Does anything hurt at all?"
"Can I have some clothes?" I asked hurriedly. "And, no," I added as she handed me some underwear, jeans, a t-shirt, flat shoes and a cardigan, which I changed quickly into once she left the room. I grinned as I stood up to put on my jeans. I shimmied into them with a flourish, and a moment later the doctor wandered into the room.
He was an old man, which was something I didn't see much of underwater. Every merfolk was basically young and gorgeous, even great grandmers who were sometimes thousands of years old. The doctor had twinkling eyes and I decided I liked him. He had a clipboard in his hand and his pen was poised to write down anything I told him. It was a shame I didn't have much, just a huge amount of questions to ask.
"Hi, there," he said. "You're Serena, I take it?" I nodded, smiling.
"The ambulance staff said you seemed a little confused, Serena," he commented. "Is there any reason for this?"
I shrugged and tried to appear innocent. "No," I said. "I guess I was just a little dazed when I woke up, that's all."
He fixed me with a hard stare, but jotted down onto his clipboard. He spoke as wrote. "Ah, yes," he said, "why were you on the beach, Serena?"
I thought back to the shore again, and I decided on a probable story. "I was on a friend's boat which I had borrowed for fishing," I said casually, in what I hoped was a convincing manner. "And I had sailed out to the deeper parts, when I sailed into some rocks and the boat began sinking." I forced some tears out to add some depth to my story, because the doctor was looking rather doubtful. "I tried swimming but I'm not good at it, and I clung to a floating piece of debris from the boat until I washed up on shore, I guess. I don't feel any pain anywhere, so I think I'm fine and not injured."
The doctor was nodding and making sympathetic noises. Then he placed his clipboard down and looked over me in a quick check-up. He must have been confident that I had no injuries because he was smiling at me. I got up slowly – new legs took time to master – and I stumbled slightly. The doctor's face seemed alarmed, and he put a hand on me shoulder to steady. I laughed reassuringly. "I'm always clumsy," I said by way of explanation, and he nodded.
"I suggest going home and resting for a few days," he told her. "Take it easy. If you don't feel right at all, come back to here and we'll check you over."
I thanked him and wandered down the corridors until I located the exit. I really wasn't sure what to do now because I had no money and nowhere to go. The street outside was busy – more vehicles were trundling along, people were strolling up and down the street and there were loads of shops and places to eat. I felt my stomach growl. I wanted some fish or something salty, but humans didn't drink salty water like we did. I found it rather peculiar that they just drank unsalted, plain water but I guessed I would have to drink it as well, to fit in more. Feeling overwhelmed and suddenly exhausted, I headed across the road into a little park area where there were loads of benches. This day had been so surreal and strange – one second I had been on the beach, next at a hospital, and now I was a homeless person on a bench.
I collapsed into the seat and watched the people passing by. This seemed to be the main area where the town's teenagers gathered, because almost all the benches were taken up with them. I watched them in utter fascination. They were content to sit and talk. I noticed all of them drank something called 'Coca Cola'. Some of them were sipping diet versions. I had never been on a diet, but most of the mermaids in my school class had. You sort of did need to look good when you mostly wore bikini tops, I supposed.
In the midst of my thinking, a guy had come up to me. He was my age, seventeen, and quite good-looking for a human, though not as beautiful as the mermen were. "Hey," he said, a cocky grin on his face. "I'm Robert. Wanna hang with us?" He nodded his head towards a group of three girls and two boys who were lounging around.
"I'm Serena," I said. "And sure, why not?"
The other two boys were called Mario and Leo, the girls being Sasha, Zoe and Andrea. I found myself instinctively liking Zoe's unobtrusive personality. She was interested in me, but she knew when I was uncomfortable to answer some of the others questions. They all found the need to ask me awkward things about myself which I invented answers for. I think it was the mer vibes I gave off – the same ones which made my tail glow when I was feeling good. They seemed to attract humans to me.
By the end, they had gathered that I was an English student staying out here with my boyfriend to practice my – perfectly fluent, I might add – Italian. (I thanked the teachers for teaching that language. I had no idea I even lived near Italy.) Throughout this I was growing depressingly more hungry. I crossed my arms over my stomach with a grimace. I knew it was wrong to steal, but I was desperate, and I hadn't eaten for a day. The sky was growing increasingly darker and glancing at a clock tower in the square, I saw it was almost seven. I heard, at that moment, the ominous jingle of my shell phone.
"Sorry," I apologised. "I should get this."
I pulled the phone out. It was shell shaped, decorated by my design student sister with little crystals from the sea floor. The girls were staring at the phone with awe etched on their faces. I knew human teenagers had phones, so I wondered why they thought it was so cool.
"Wow!" Sashaa said. "Did someone design that for you?"
"Um, yeah," I replied in confusion. "My sister."
I put the phone to my ear and covered the other one, because the street was busy. I felt a funny twist of nerves in my stomach, a sensation I had never experienced before. I could feel my face break out into a cold sweat, my hands go clammy and the acrid taste of bile rising in my throat.
"Hello?" I said in a quaking voice.
"Oh, my GOD, Serena!" Lynnie's voice cried. "Where the HELL are you? Everyone's out of it with worry! I am so mad at myself! We shouldn't have left you! Have you been attacked by a shark? Tell us where you are! Why didn't you call!"
I wasn't expecting the tirade from her. They didn't know. I felt a wash of relief, then guilt at my revelation to them. So my human almost-friends wouldn't hear, I nodded at them apologetically and moved away a little. They looked at me worriedly. Why were they so worried?
"I'm on the surface," I whispered quietly.
"No, you're not! We're on the surface! Please, don't lie, Serena. Are you in trouble?"
"Not that surface. On the land. I went to the witch," I gushed. "The ship's people saw me."
I heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end. To my horror, I heard the phone's dialling tone and I knew instantly that she had hung up. I thought she'd be there for me, my best friend. But she wasn't. Hot tears of shame flooded down my face and I realised, with embarrassment, that I was crying audibly. I had nowhere to turn to now. I was a shameful disgrace.
"Serena!" I heard Nick say from behind me, and I turned abruptly, wiping my face.
"I'm fine!" I snapped, sounding terribly rude. "Sorry," I snuffled, brushing my tears away with the back of my hand. "It's been a long day." More tears slipped down my cheeks.
Robert looked me hard in the eye, then said softly. "Is it... your boyfriend?"
I was surprised to say the least, but maybe I was too distraught to do anything other than go along with his claim. I averted my eyes downward, still sniffing, and nodded.
"Is he always like this?" More nodding from me.
"Does he force you to do things you don't want to?" Yes.
He slipped an arm around my shoulders, in a friendly way, and steered me back to the group. I had just told them I had an abusive boyfriend, I suddenly noted with some shock. The rest of them had obviously heard, because they looked horrified. Sasha went so far as to fling her arms around me in a tight hug. It was strangely comforting, being hugged by a virtual stranger, especially when I had been dumped by my best friend when I needed her.
"Oh, goodness!" Sasha cried. "You can't go back to your flat!"
"I can't go anywhere else," I explained sadly.
"Come stay with me!" she begged. "I'm staying alone in my parent's holiday house! I'd love a housemate!"
This was too good an offer to pass up and I suddenly felt a rush of affection for this human girl. I found myself squeezing her back until we released each other. I was still sobbing – why could I not stop this absurd crying? "Thank you," I howled, and that could never explain the gratefulness I felt towards her.
"Why don't we get something to eat?" Mario suggested. He looked at me. "You look hungry."
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I don't have any money."
"It's on me," Sasha said firmly, and before I could protest against this, she was firmly steering me towards a restaurant across the road, with the others following behind.
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The vampires will come in very soon, I can assure you. Keep reviewing and once again, thank you to those that have! You make me very happy. :)