III

Keith began to walk across the shore of Lake Pontchartrain as he gathered rocks to hurl them into the water, in a vain attempt to release his pent-up rage. He was frustrated with himself, but he couldn't longer free himself against Lance or Hunk and remain annoying as a small child. This time, Keith had to admit that he was wrong and give a proper apology once he calmed down.

It was the third time in an hour that they were circling the coast where supposedly, Keith had been during the morning, without finding any trace of what he saw the first time he was there. No strange animal, a person in danger or a supernatural creature.

The water stayed as calm on the surface as if no living thing was interfering with its calm.

''This would be much easier if you admit that you were wrong.'' Lance had got bored as soon as time passed. Lying on the rocks while hugging to protect from the cold breeze. ''But no, you have to be a stubborn bastard and kill us cold because you don't want to admit that you were seeing things that don't exist.''

''Could you shut up for a second? I already told you that you can go home if you want, I'll stay.'' Keith returned to the water, watching it with distrust as if at any moment something would appear on the surface.

''Nah-ah. Mom will be upset with me if she finds out that I left you on the shore of the lake all night long. The next day we'll find you frozen with nothing but your stupid, messy mullet. And I don't even know who I have to call in case you decide to die. Do you know how dangerous it is to be here at this hour?''

''Could they assault us?'' Hunk stood up alert.

''Or have an accident. Some animals aren't very peaceful, much less at night.''

''I know I saw something!'' Keith demanded tired, sitting on the stones, Hunk and Lance approached him to accompany him in silence once he calmed down. Keith sighed loudly. ''It is just that…''

''I know, you cannot explain it and you don't have enough evidence. I believe you, Keith.'' Keith looked up surprised, the words of Lance despite having an authoritative tone, they were sincere. ''In New Orleans, strange things happen all the time, many of which have no explanation. That's why I didn't want you to put that in your head for a long time.'' He looked away distressed towards the lake, Keith could see some affection and concern in his eyes for a few seconds. For a moment, it seems that his friend was struggling with a past memory.

''Lance?''

''You have to understand, that it is dangerous to look for them on your own, and many people have died trying to discover them. You don't know what you can be getting into.''

For a moment, Keith felt that Lance was speaking with a double speech that only he could understand. As if he had rummaged through his brain and discovered his real intentions.

He shifted nervously when Lance turned his gaze to the water again. For a few seconds, he felt exposed.

''Listen to Lance, buddy. You are putting yourself in danger for something that perhaps is not worth it.'' Hunk rested his arm on his shoulder as consolation. Keith lowered his face, defeated. ''Besides, it may have really been a fish jumping around.''

''Maybe you're right, guys.'' He smiled softly. Keith knew they were doing it for their sake. Hunk patted him on the back with enough force to make him cough.

''Maybe in the future, you may find strange things in the water. Like giant squid, ghost ships ...''

''A mermaid…''

''Yes! Why not? A mermaid too.''

Hunk laughed at Keith's idea that came out with just a sigh between his lips. But as soon as he saw his friends get up in a hurry towards the shore, he turned disoriented towards where they will go.

There, on a flat rock of good size a few meters from its location, a naked person was resting on it, who breathed with great difficulty while doing his best not to fall back into the water.

''Holy crap, Keith found a mermaid!''

''Help us Hunk!''

Keith came over the water to reach her and take her in his arms, where a deep cut on her lower back bled, staining the water that surrounded her, which worried him even more. Gently, he placed it on his shoulder to take his weight correctly and slowly approached his friends, careful not to trip over the moss that grew on the stones. Lance took off his jacket to put it between his shoulders when he noticed that she wasn't wearing anything. The girl was completely naked.

''Oh my god, it's just a girl!''

''Hunk take it easy; you have to calm down or make things worse! ''Lance took him by his shoulders to shake him a couple of times, trying to get his friend back to the composure they needed at that moment. ''We need to help her, not scare us!''

''Y-yes, of course! You're right, you're right ... Injuries! Maybe she has some serious injury!''

''That's my man, you're thinking well. ''Lance encouraged him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith could see that among her abundant hair that hit her face with discomfort, transparent fins moved erratically, and her neck had openings on his skin that vibrated quickly as she took a breath.

Gills

The girl had gills and fins. Adrenaline channeled his veins so fast that he felt faint on his own feet. His heart began to pound his chest at the thought of having found, really, a mermaid stranded in the lake.

But without tails or scales?

As he left the water a thought stopped him for a moment, taking his legs hard. What would happen if his friends saw what Keith was seeing? But his concern quickly disappeared as soon as he realized that her hair and Lance's jacket were doing a good job of hiding those details as soon as his friends paid more attention to his body, in search of another wound or fatal cut.

''We have to take her to the hospital! Maybe she was kidnapped and thrown into the lake to kill her before we reached the shore! Maybe we had been involved in something? Will they make us sleep with the fishes to us now that we find her?''

''Calm down, Hunk!'' Keith and Lance shouted at the same time.

''Don't tell me to calm down! We just found a girl on the lake!''

''It doesn't seem that the cut of his back is deep, it will be better to take her home, first of all. There we can deal with it more easily.''

''I agree.'' Hunk groaned audibly as they walked in the opposite direction.

''This doesn't seem like a good idea.''

Keith chose not to listen when he handed the girl to Lance to jump the fence that divided them from the suburbs.

He didn't think it was a good idea to take someone who was not really human. But they couldn't leave her there.

When they return into the house, Keith began to treat the wound that bounded the contour of his lower back in the armchair of the room, grateful that it wasn't deep enough to kill her for the loss of blood and be shallow enough to be treated with antiseptics and gauze.

Lance had decided to wake his sister to help him find some clothes, while Hunk had gone to the bathroom in search of towels and a hairdryer.

Keith could see that her wound had a clean-cut, almost as if her skin had been divided by a scalpel instead of a hunting knife or something similar. What it gave him to suppose wasn't an accident, as Lance suggested once they could see it carefully.

While there was the box of gauze, the memory of seeing gills and fins on her head stopped him completely. He looked over his neck, which was hidden by a lot of hair, his fingers moved to slide on her side as he would have passed to her exposed neck, hoping to find something that could give him answers.

Nothing.

Her neck had three slight cuts around her. With delicacy, he turned her head to the other side, noting that on the opposite side he had the same cuts, they had been scarring for a long time, so his intervention was not necessary. Had she been part of a sadistic joke before throwing it into the lake? When he looked over her head, Keith found nothing that looked like transparent fins as he had observed after taking her out of the water, finding her little ears in all the chaos of her tattered hair.

Perhaps it had been his imagination before the shock of seeing her hurt and abandoned to her fate?

Maybe the idea of finding a mermaid had clouded his judgment completely.

Keith growled at the damage they had caused her once he tried the cut on her back again, there was no doubt that they tried to kill her by throwing her into the lake, and because of their own mistake, she had enough strength and speed to swim towards the lake. shore before they found her. His insides burned at that idea. Perhaps how long he was suffering this ordeal before finding firm ground.

Who would be able to hurt such a small girl?

Her face expressed a strong pain as Keith disinfected around her lacerations, was scared and surely immersed in a bad dream, but even so, Keith could see a unique tenderness between her features. Her body was small, slight, so delicate that it hardly weighed while he carried her in his arms.

And her hair was a mess because she was so messy but once dry, it would surely complement wonderfully on her pretty face.

Keith stopped for a moment as his thoughts hit him. Was he feeling attracted to a dying girl? He swallowed as he walked around the cut with the gauze, thanking internally for taking the consideration of placing Lance's jacket around her hip so as not to show off her body more than necessary. Or that would have been much more difficult with his emotions exposed.

As soon as Keith finished, he stood straight looking at a fixed-point avoiding embarrassment, until Lance and his sister came to the room. While Lance was drying her hair and Rachel was putting a pair of clothes that could be left, he sent Keith to the kitchen with the excuse that it was enough for a man to touch her body without consent.

Keith nodded, heading to the kitchen listening to Hunk snooping on the shelves, at opportune moments Lance used to be quite polite and sympathetic to women.

He sat next to Hunk once a cup of tea had been served, to calm his nerves and wait for everything to be well in the room. Hunk was the first to break the silence, with a grunt that caught Keith's attention.

''Do you think she'll be okay? I don't understand why Lance said that we didn't have to take her to a hospital, surely her family is worried.''

''We don't know if someone is looking for it, it's dangerous. For the moment it is better than she tells us what happened as soon as she wakes up. Then we will go with the authorities.''

''And what happens if she doesn't wake up? I mean, you saw her in the morning and we found her until late at night. Maybe she even had more than a day in the lake ... She may not survive.'' Keith looked away from his teacup at Hunk's words, hesitant. She was stable, but she was certainly too weak to continue without adequate help. ''I hope she hasn't been in serious trouble, she's just a girl...''

''Well, everyone has their own reasons, buddy.'' Hunk smiled in understanding at the comment.

''You were in trouble, Keith?''

''What?'' He looked up confused. ''No, you know that I only go to the university and my work when I'm not in my room.''

''I don't mean now ... But ... Before? Before us, of course. When were you, alone?''

Keith didn't know if he had been more surprised by Hunk's insinuation that he had got into legal trouble, or the direct way he was inquiring into his past.

It's not like he doesn't want to talk about it, at least most of the time. They had been considerably respectful of him about the things Keith didn't want to talk about. So, with a slight smile, he thought that perhaps the extraordinary situation had given Hunk a little more confidence to ask him something he might have wanted to do so long ago.

It didn't cost him to be a little honest from time to time, he was his friend.

''Not really, there was a time that I joined into a band when I was sixteen.''

''Seriously?'' Keith smiled at Hunk's interest, thinking that maybe he was imagining a group of bad guys like they used to show in movies.

''Yeah, we drank and got into trouble, but never dangerous. I knew that they were doing things that could take me to jail, but they never included me in that so as not to stain my papers. I guess that was the first time someone saw a future in my life.''

''They were good people then.'' Keith nodded silently. ''Are you still in contact with them?''

''Not really, after meeting my legal tutor, I left the streets and focused completely on the studies to enter the university. The last thing I knew was that they had gone to New York after they tried to rob a bank.''

''What!? I didn't know you have a tutor who takes care of you!'' Keith thought he hadn't seen Hunk more astonished in all the time he had known him.

''I had it. He ... He left Dallas several years ago when I entered college, I haven't heard from him since.''

''Hey ...'' Lance entered the kitchen with the towels in his arms and his jacket soaked, stained with blood around his sides. They could see the concern framed in his gaze. ''The girl is not well.''