Chapter 2

…

"Helen's Antiques" shop was always punctual in its closing and today was no exception. Helen closed the doors promptly flipped the sign from "Open" to "Close" right at 7 pm. Ryn was taking in some air and would be by later to help with inventory and restocking the shelves but for now, the older woman had the place to herself.

Thank goodness I had a busy day. Customers had been few and far between and the older woman appreciated every chance she got to sell her merchandise. Now that she seemed to be supporting a mermaid lodger, funds were more essential than ever. Ryn required food, a lot of seafood in fact, and Helen was not about to be stingy. Not with what the poor thing is going through. She put on her reading glasses and got ready to do the Monday evening paperwork.

The overhead bells on the door jingled signaling the appearance of a customer. Helen did not look up from her paperwork but did call out, "Sorry we're closed."

No answer. Only then did Helen glance up and what she saw chilled her to her old bones.

My God, it's another one!

What seemed like a skinny teenage girl had just walked into her shop but Helen was not fooled. The girl was dressed only in an awkwardly-buttoned plaid jacket and ripped yoga pants; no shoes to be had, and certainly no shirt. Even if Helen had not seen how huge her eyes were or that they were a startling-blue/grey some preternatural instinct told her…mermaid!

She removed her glasses, trying to stay calm. "What do you want?" she asked, putting on a show of bravado. The last time these things came into my shop they almost strangled me, sure as hell not going to take that chance again. Her right hand strayed casually to the flare she kept under the cash-register counter ever since that last encounter. The light would blind and scare the creature away.

The girl had not answered her question. She just stood there at the front of the store, her head slightly cocked and her huge blue eyes looking right at Helen

Helen's fingers closed around the flare, ready to ignite it at a moment's notice. "You're not supposed to be here," she addressed the girl again. "What do you want?"

Still no answer.

Ryn will be back any minute. Helen thought. Maybe she can fight it off?

The young mermaid still made no move towards her but seemed to be sniffing the air of the shop, her head swiveling round and round as if she was trying to hone in on a particular scent. She was smaller and skinnier even than Ryn and seemed to be hurt; there were scratches on her lips and a healing bruise on her right cheek. Had the girl been human, Helen would have guessed her to be in her mid-to late teens.

The mermaid now looked back at Helen, her expression was still rather intense. She made a step towards Helen and the older woman was about to ignite the flare when the backdoor of the shop opened.

"Helen, we found the—"

Both Maddie and Ryn walked through the backdoor. Helen was momentarily distracted and did not pull the end off of the flare. She was also even more uneasy now. She had not counted on Maddie coming and placing herself in danger. What if there's more of them outside? What if we're ambushed?

At the sight of the stranger both human and mermaid froze. The mermaid recovered quicker. Ryn hissed and snapped her teeth. She stepped in front of Maddie, blocking her from a direct assault by the strange mermaid. Her body posture was straight and rigid, an alpha female and she was ready for a fight if it would come to that.

Not my family! Ryn's thoughts were furious. She could smell right away that the other mermaid was a stranger, from another pod and that could mean only one thing—a challenge. Mer never stray into other's territories unless it was to engage in a battle for food, take over territory, or kill potential mates. No one kill my family!

Surprisingly the other female did not seem to want to fight. If anything, at the sound of Ryn's hiss, the stranger seemed to cower back a bit in fright.

Hele raised her eyebrows. That was unexpected. She could sense rather than guess that the stranger was not from Ryn's colony; something about the way Ryn immediately went on guard and her enlarged sense of empathy made her realize this. She came out from behind the counter, standing next to Ryn and Maddie. It felt safer to be closer to them. Better chances in numbers I suppose.

Ryn also made a movement, but in the wrong direction, towards the stranger.

"Ryn wait!" Maddie seized her arm, gently, but enough to stop the mermaid in her tracks.

"She hurt," Ryn answered. Maddie then looked more carefully at the stranger and noticed her beaten face and the lesions on her shoulder and neck. It was not like the skin condition that Ryn got when she was out of the water for too long; this looked worse. An inflammation with nasty redness and open wounds. Like some sort of rash.

The girl drew nearer slowly, almost trembling with her fear. Had Maddie not known that she was a mermaid she would have been wrought with sympathy for the pitiful-looking thing. As it was, her guard could not help but be lowered by the way the mermaid looked. The girl lowered her head, eyes focused solely on the floor, and shoulders slumped. She continued to slowly move forward.

Maddie's eye widened. She recognized the posture as almost exact to how Ryn approached Donna in Helen's apartment, after the two had had their fight over Ben.

Helen was watching with eyes as wide as Maddie's. "I'll be damned. She's acknowledging Ryn's dominancy."

"What does that mean?" Maddie whispered, almost afraid to speak too loudly.

Helen nodded towards the stranger. "She's not going to fight. Just watch."

Breathlessly, Maddie forced herself to stand still and do just that.

Ryn was also observing the younger mermaid approach, but with a more critical eye. It felt odd to have one of her kind approach with the kind of submission that she herself had been so used to giving in her past life. But she was now the 'dominant female' as Helen had once said and such behavior was expected of lower-ranking members of the pod, especially young ones. As such, she knew she had to follow strict decorum in her own behavior and not show anything but cold, calm aloofness as the lower-ranker colony members approached her.

The young one made it to Ryn's front, head still bowed and eyes lowered meekly. She reached up and pushed her thick dark hair to one side of her head, exposing her long throat, before gently placing her forehead on Ryn's shoulder. To Maddie it seemed to be a display of submission; her throat was completely exposed to Ryn and she was vulnerable to an attack from the superior mermaid from another pod. It was within the leader's power to kill her on site for daring enter her territory and she knew it; she welcomed it if it gave her a chance to save her pod.

Ryn could not take it. She knew she should maintain the cold detachment of an alpha female but she could feel the young one trembling against her body. Another outcome of her spending so much time with humans seemed to be that her sense of compassion had increased dramatically. She could smell the wounds on the girl's shoulders and see the scrapes on her cheeks and lips. They hurt her. She knew other mermaids had done this; none but another of their kind could have made those marks. Why? Why they hurt you? She was infuriated but right now she needed to make sure the younger mermaid knew she would not hurt her. Would not punish her further.

Ryn reached up and attempted to stroke the hair of the teenager but even that small movement caused the girl to startle in fright. She back up a step and bowed even further, bending from her waist and covering her face with her arms, whimpering slightly as if expecting pain.

"Is okay," Ryn spoke in a soothing voice. "You okay."

She came slowly forward, her hand stretched out. The girl glanced up at her from beneath her crossed arms, her eyes wild with fright. The moment was so tense. Maddie was torn between wanting to see what would happen and wanting to yank Ryn back and away from the strange mermaid, out of harm's way.

She never got the chance.

There was a crash and a bang as the door from the backroom swung open and someone came barreling in.

"Maddie look out!"

Of all times for Xander to be here! Maddie's idea of a worst-case scenario for this situation was confirmed when she turned and saw Xander behind her, a rifle firmly set in his arms.

"It's another one of them!" Xander angled the gun upward and pointed it directly at the skinny teenager girl that had been cowering before Ryn just a second ago.

"Xander stop!" Maddie yelled on pure instinct. Xander's rifle was angled dangerously at Ryn and the stranger.

If Maddie's yell was loud, the screech that the younger mermaid made was deafening. While shrieking and hissing defensively she backed up into a display case, knocking down several glass merchandise and knick-knacks. The clamor caused further disruption and chaos. The mermaid shot out of the shop, shoving the front door open so hard the glass cracked, and then bolted out into the middle of the street.

"No!" Ryn called out and ran after her.

"Ryn!" Maddie yelled after the mermaid, running after her. If Xander tried to call after her Maddie didn't know; she didn't wait to find out.

The strange mermaid shot straight into oncoming traffic. A sedan screeched to a stop just in the nick of time; it did not hit her but the momentum was such that the mermaid was pushed over the hood a bit. She braced her hands and pushed right back, bending the hood of the car a little with her strength. Then she ran.

Ryn tried to follow but more cars were coming and Maddie yanked her out of the street.

"Ryn! Stop!" Maddie yelled over the sound of the passing semi-truck that missed Ryn by barely an inch.

Ryn did not seem to hear her, did not even look up at Maddie. She was still looking across the street towards the disappearing figure. The girl was heading to the edge of town.

"She hurt!" she said loudly to Maddie while struggling to get out of her grip. She did not use her mermaid strength because she did not want to hurt Maddie but the situation was urgent. "She need my help."

"I know Ryn, and we'll find her," Maddie reassured her mermaid companion. "But you can't get yourself killed while doing it." She tugged at Ryn's sleeve. "Come on, we'll take my car."

As the two women bolted for Maddie's beat-up red Jeep the younger mermaid ran further and further into town. Other pedestrians shouted annoyances when she barreled right through them but she did not slow down. Not until she was far away. Not until the human monsters would not find her.

And her colony's leader. The one she had traveled so far to find. The only one who might be able to save the pod.

Back at the shop all hell was still breaking loose. "For God's sake, you had to come in like that?!" Helen was yelling at Xander.

"I saw her walking down the street and followed her. When she ducked into your store I figured you were in danger. Come on, it was another one of those monsters; they're dangerous and you and Maddie could have been killed—"

"She was submitting! She was not here to fight and now she's probably long gone," Helen yelled right back. She shook her head with disgust. "You humans and your 'kill first, ask questions later' policy."

Xander glared angrily at her. "What the hell do you mean 'you humans'?"

Helen shook her head irritably. "Never you mind, just get out of my shop." She glared at the rifle in his arms. "And take that horrible thing with you."

Xander made a 'humph' sound then stormed out the way he came.

Meanwhile, Helen reached for her cell phone. Maddie was not going to like what she was about to do but they needed to find that young mermaid, and fast. She looked desperately thin and sick. She had to have risked a lot to come out of the water in her condition, we need to find out why and then get her back home. She hit speed dial and then held the receiver to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Ben, it's Helen," she quickly said. "We need your help with something."

…

All she could do was run, for as long as she was running they would not kill her. She sprinted out of the human road and fled head-long and heedless though a city park, across a long empty law, and into the woods. She could not think clearly, the only fragment of thought was that the dominant female wanted her dead now.

As she ran further into the woods branches tore at her face and arms, small hills seemed like mountains, and a sinister darkness seemed to encompass her. It was as if the very forest in this wretched dry land was trying to entrap her. She stumbled over seemingly-innocent looking twigs and needles, feeling the pain of her cut feet with every step. She swiped at the branches and leaves with a wild strength but nothing she did stopped them from smacking her cheeks, making the pain worsen.

Get away. Get away. Human. Bad. Get away. Her thoughts were starting to incorporate the human words and all she could use them for was the same idea: run, hide, get away from the humans.

Finally, she could go no further and collapsed onto her knees. She lay on the ground, gasping for breath in great, aching lung-fulls as she struggled to draw oxygen into her brand-new lungs. Once settled she realized her back and shoulders felt as if they were getting worse, the human clothing was rubbing against it and making the pain worse. She hurt all over, with deep scratches and bruises everywhere, but her back was most noticeable. She tore off her upper human covering, not without a loud shriek of pain, and gently traced the wounds on her shoulder as best she could. Her touch confirmed it was getting worse. Like many in her colony it had originally appeared to be nothing more than a mild irritant, making one claw at your own body. Then it would worsened, with swelling and illness, and then the pulsating pain came and eventually…

The mermaid hissed and pounded on the ground with her fist. There was nothing she could do. She tried to save her colony and she was chased away. Another thought, a bleak one this time. Hurt bad, maybe die.

She was so exhausted. Months of starvation and sickness had weakened her to a breaking point and she dropped fully to the forest floor, curling up into as small a space as she best could. She was cold but she felt as if she did not have the strength to put the human covering back on. She knew her energy was spent and all she wanted to do was rest for a moment. Unaware of the dangers of the dropping temperatures as the sun disappeared over the horizon she decided she would get up and try to find her way back home after she rested.

Just to lie down and rest for a moment…

…

"You mean there's another one?" Ben was still finding it hard to process. After months of quiet, after Ryn had specifically told her pod members to stay away and never come back, one had showed up.

Helen glanced over at him. She had been gazing out the car window, trying to see if she could spot the wayward mermaid. "Yes, she's from another colony and she did not look well," she answered.

Ben could not help but ask. "Is that why you called me and Maddie did not?"

The older woman gave him a critical look. "Look I know you two have had your problems since the night Donna died but this is important. And we need all the help we can get." She looked out the window again. "Besides, it seems that every time one of these things comes ashore chaos ensues. We need to get her back."

Ben kept an eye on the road but also on Helen. She might display a tough exterior but Ben could also see the apprehension in her eyes, the way her mouth was a set line, and how she kept looking out the window. She's worried about this mermaid. He heaved a sigh and had to ask the next question. "Is Ryn alright?"

Helen turned and glanced at him again. She knew it was a loaded question. "She's worried; she was trying to talk to her when Xander scared her off."

Ben nodded and put his eyes back on the road. He had suffered stoically the past few weeks since Ryn had said she would stay away, for his own sake. At first he could not bear it but then, oddly enough, slowly things began to get better. He still thought about her often enough but also thought about Maddie and how much he missed them both. Sometimes the Siren song would come into his head but then, he would think of Ryn and how kind and brave and good she was. He knew her, on a deeper level than that Decker guy ever thought he knew Donna, and he trusted her. She did not mean to hurt me. The song no longer haunted him, but he was still cautious around the ocean. Never letting his guard down, least he hear it and get sucked into the water again.

"Stop here," Helen's voice drew him out of his musings.

Ben quickly guided his truck into a parking lot set for a trailhead into the woods. He switched of the car lights and the dark woods seemed to envelop them.

Helen unbuckled her safety belt and reached for the flashlights she had managed to swipe out of her shop. "This feels right," she said as she climbed out of the car. "She's around here somewhere."

"How do you know?" Ben could not help but ask then, immediately, thought better of it. Helen fixed him with a raised eyebrow that clearly said "Really" and then shook her head as she plunged into the forest. Ben trailed after her, berating himself for forgetting Helen's mermaid ancestry.

"You think she went back into the water?" Ben asked as they hiked along the trail, keeping their torches aimed at the foliage and looking for any signs of the wayward mermaid.

"Not in the condition she was," Helen answered. She glanced up at the receding light of the sun and shivered a little. "We need to find her before it gets too dark. In these temperatures she's likely to freeze to death."

…

Maddie was having a very hard time keeping up with Ryn's fast strides; the mermaid shot into the woods like a bolt. Maddie herself kept stumbling over rocks and fallen trees that she could not see. She had not thought to bring any source of light when they had arrived at the edge of the forest in her Jeep.

"Ryn wait!" Maddie called out.

The mermaid finally stopped and turned around, hissing a little in her frustration. "We find her!" she declared loudly to Maddie. "Now!"

"I know Ryn but we're going on a wild goose chase," Maddie wheezed a little as she clutched a stitch in her side. They had been practically running through the woods for more than an hour and it was getting dark and cold.

It was then that Ryn's eyes softened. She had not realized how much it was hurting Maddie to follow her. Her voice was less harsh now. "You go back. I look."

"No, I am not leaving you here alone," Maddie was adamant. "We'll look together but we need to figure out a way to do it." She heaved in more breath and a thought came to her. "Can you call her? Send out a sound?"

Ryn shook her head. "She will not sound back. Not my family. She is—" the mermaid paused, a very distressed expression on her face "—afraid."

Maddie saw the troubled look in Ryn's eyes. She stepped closer, her voice gentle. "Is she afraid…of you?"

Ryn's answer was unwavering. "Yes." She let out a frustrated hiss and turned away. She loved Maddie and Ben but neither one of them could understand this. It troubled her, upset her even, to know that one of the young members of her people was afraid of her. Such feelings were reserved for only the savage, fiercest members of the pod and she was not that…was she?

I almost kill the other, the thought was haunting to her. She had not thought of it for weeks, not since the death of her sister but that night, when sister was hurt, she had done something drastic. She had forced the alpha into submission. Almost beaten her to death. Something that she had never even dreamed of doing. Is that why the young one afraid? Am I…bad?

"Ryn?" Maddie's voice covered her thoughts. "Are you alright?"

Ryn blinked and came back. "Yes…Maddie." She turned and scanned the forest with her blue orbs. "We look, now."

…

Helen and Ben continued along the path, slowly scanning the grounds with their torches. Helen was the one who found her.

"Over here!" she called out and Ben quickly came running. Helen was in a small indent on the forest floor, surrounding by ferns and fallen trees. If she had not known where to look they would have missed the mermaid entirely.

Ben knelt next to the girl. She was curled up in a fetal position on the forest floor, her eyes closed and her limbs wound tightly against her thin body. Is she breathing? He could not even tell; she did not seem to be moving. For a moment he panicked, thinking her to be dead then he saw the gradual rise and fall of her thin chest. Thank God she's still alive. But it did not look like for much longer.

"We have to get her out of here, get her warm," Helen said.

Ben quickly stripped off his outer jacket shell and wrapped it around the girl. She was naked from the waist up and her shoulders, upper arms, and back seemed to be covered in some sort of rash. Something oddly familiar but he would have to muse on that later. Right now she needed help.

He reached down and tried to pick her up, to carry her back to the car, but his arms and back were too surprised by the weight and he stumbled a little. She looked like a skinny, light teenager but she seemed to weigh much more.

"Come on," Helen whispered. "Hurry up!"

Ben quickly readjusted his legs and back for redistribution of greater weight. "Sorry!" he managed to get out as he strained to pick up the very heavy, skinny mermaid. He should have realized. Ryn weighed almost two-hundred pounds and yet she certainly did not look it. As he carried the sick mermaid a thought occurred to him, That's the first time I've thought of Ryn in a while. The concern for the mermaid and Helen's involvement seemed to drive him to a distraction and his thoughts were no longer obsessed with Ryn. I wonder what that means.

Helen spoke up. "It's late; let's get her back to town."

Ben nodded and increased his stride on the forest floor to keep up with Helen. At the mention of town his mind inevitable wandered to the research center and then another thought occurred to him about the unconscious mermaid in his arms. Those lesions, I think I've seen it on some of the otters and dolphins at the center. He glanced at the girl in his arms, looking closely at one of her exposed bare shoulders. His eyes widened. No freakin' way!

He stopped mid-stride. "Oh no," he said out loud.

Helen also stopped, turning around with a look of concern on her face. "What? What is it?"

Ben looked up, his face aghast. "I know why she's sick." He hitched her up higher in his arms. "She needs treatment, now!"

…