This is probably one of my favourite fics I've written this month :D
Day 11
Theme: Just Keep Swimming
Prompt(s): adrift | drowning
Surfing was something that Gordon didn't get to do nearly as much as he wanted.
Sometimes he was too busy, and sometimes the water wasn't a good condition for surfing. But when the conditions were just right and Gordon had nothing on his plate, he loved to take his board out and ride the waves.
Today was one of those days. He had already been out there for a while, making the most of the chance whilst he had it. There were no rescues, the sun was shining, and it was only a little windy. It was the perfect time to surf.
He had just finished riding a wave, and had already turned back to paddle his way towards the next one. He dipped under the water as some smaller waves crashed over him, too low to be worth the effort.
Then, he saw a bigger wave building on the horizon. This one was going to be amazing if he could pull it off.
Gordon paddled a little harder to make sure he was in the right position in time. He spun around and got himself ready, throwing a glance over his shoulder to see how far away it was.
He guided the board forward, and as he felt the wave reach him and start to propel him forward, he pushed himself up onto his feet.
Now that he was riding it, he realised just how big the wave was. The water curved over his head as he surfed along it. A smile stretched across his face at the feeling it gave him. These were the moments he always liked best, when he could be out in the water he loved, just enjoying the moment with nothing to worry about.
But he was so caught up in the feeling, that he had gotten too distracted. His foot slipped on the board, and Gordon was unable to keep his balance before the force of the large wave knocked him off his board.
He slammed into the water as the wave crashed over him. He was only beneath the water for one disorientating moment before he pushed himself back up to the surface.
His head burst out of the water, and the last thing saw was his board flying towards him.
Gordon coughed the water from his lungs as he slowly opened his eyes. He was laying facedown on the sand, and he pushed himself up on unsteady arms to look around at his surroundings.
The beach wasn't one he recognised, so he wasn't back on the island. A quick glance around and he concluded that he must have washed up on one of the small neighbouring islands, as there was no sign of life anywhere.
Gordon fell onto his back and pushed his salty hair out of his face, taking a moment to breathe before he figured out what to do. The afternoon sun was beating down on his face, and Gordon closed his eyes to block the bright light out.
He felt a shadow fall over his face a couple of moments later, and Gordon frowned before he peeked one eye open to see what was blocking the sun.
What he saw had both his eyes blowing wide open.
"He's alive!" The beautiful figure above him yelled to someone else when she saw his eyes open. There were sounds of other voices, and soon more figures appeared above him.
Gordon blinked several times to see if he was imagining it, but the image above him didn't fade. It was real.
The faces of several women were floating above him. They all had long hair, each a different shade of colour that flowed down their shoulders. Each of them was wearing a bikini top made of seashells and seaweed.
Gordon sat up abruptly and they moved out of the way before they could hit heads. Gordon saw that where their legs should be, they all had tails covered in colourful scales that shimmered in the sunlight.
Gordon swallowed and turned to them one by one, trying to process what it was he was looking at. They were all sitting on the beach next to him, wide smiles on their faces as they watched him expectantly, seemingly unaware of his shock.
"You're…" Gordon's mouth suddenly felt very dry as he tried to utter out the words. "Mermaids."
"Of course we are!" The one who had first appeared above him spoke. She had dark, red hair with a white cockle shell pinning some of it back, as if it were a hairclip. She spoke as if this was completely normal, like he came across mermaids everyday.
"We're so happy that you're okay!" Another one spoke, this one with blue hair and a seaweed tiara. "When we saw you in the water, we feared the worst!"
"Wait, you rescued me?" Gordon looked back out at the water. Tracy Island was a small spec in the distance. It would make sense that they saved him if he made it all the way out here alive. Unless…
"Am I dead?" Gordon turned back to the women in front of him. It would be logical as to why he was sitting across from a group of mermaids. Maybe this was just his heaven.
"Of course not, silly!" The third and final mermaid laughed as she put a hand on his arm. The contact tickled against Gordon's skin and made him shiver, but it felt very much real. "We saw you were about to drown, so we rescued you and brought you here!"
"Drown?" Gordon thought back to what had happened in the water. His board had hit him and then the next thing he knew, he was waking up here. "My board!"
Gordon spun around to look at the beach around him, trying to find the object.
The women glanced over at something on the beach, sitting several metres away. Gordon followed their gaze, and found his board. It was in two pieces, snapped right through the middle.
Gordon slumped at the sight. He really liked that board and had had it for a while now.
"We're sorry, but it was broken when we found you," the redhead looked solemn as she said those words, which was odd to see as they had all been smiling since he had first seen them. However, the familiar grin was back on her face a second later. "At least you're safe! I don't know what we'd do if you were hurt!"
"Really? Because you only just met me." Gordon eyed them all up, finding it strange that they cared about whether he was dead or alive when they didn't even know him. To them, he was just another body in the ocean.
"We just don't like to see the sea take another life so soon. It makes us so sad." The one touching his arm walked her fingers over his shoulder until they reached his neck. Gordon shied away as she touched a ticklish spot near his collarbone.
"Well, thank you for saving me then." Gordon bit his lip as he thought about how he was going to get home, but then he remembered something else. He looked down at his ankle, and was happy to see that at least something from his board stayed intact.
"What are you doing?" One of the mermaids asked as Gordon reached down to the strap around his ankle.
"I have a tracker in my leash. My brothers should be able to find me," Gordon explained as he fiddled with the device. Brains had installed it just in case something like this happened. If Gordon got washed too far out or got hurt and needed help, he always had something on him to help his family find him. It also had a small beacon in it that he could activate to alert them so he didn't have to wait for them to realise something was wrong.
Gordon pulled the leash off his ankle and searched for the button to activate the beacon, but before he could, a hand appeared on his wrist.
"They'll find you." It was the blue-haired, seaweed tiara girl. She pulled the device from his hand and placed it on the beach next to her. "Just relax."
As she spoke, she placed her other hand on his chest and started to push him down to lay back on the sand. Gordon found he couldn't resist, and allowed her to guide him back down to the same position he had been in before; laying down with three mermaids hovering above him.
The hand stayed on his chest, and soon there were more on him. They rubbed across his chest, his arms. Their skin was smooth, but felt unreal, like it wasn't skin at all and was something else entirely.
The mermaids then laid down next to him, their arms still wrapped around him. He felt lips touch his neck, and that was what snapped him out of this trance and he realised what it was they were doing.
"I'm sorry ladies, but I'm taken." Gordon tried to push them off and sit up, already imagining what Penelope would say to him when she found out about this.
He couldn't let this go on any further, but he had only just sat up before he was pulled back down.
"We don't mind!" Redhead had her hand firmly on his chest, pushing him down into the sand. Although she had a smile stretched across her face, she was forceful and Gordon could feel her strength as she held him down.
"Well, I do." Gordon was starting to feel a little uncertain about this now. There was something off about these women, other than the fact that they were of a species that shouldn't exist. He tried to push them off again, but this time they were too strong and wouldn't move.
There was a sharp pain in the centre of his chest, and Gordon looked down to see that the mermaid's nails had dug into his skin, somehow breaking through the fabric of his rash guard. Now that he thought about it, they were less like nails and more like claws.
"I bet you taste amazing," he heard whispered in his ear, and Gordon began to panic, now understanding that this wasn't the fun, intriguing experience he thought it was.
"What?" Gordon grabbed the arm still clinging to his chest and forced it off of him, not worrying about being delicate now. The claws scraped across his skin, but he managed to get free, and he scrambled backwards to get away from them. "What are you saying?"
He really hoped that he was wrong or had misinterpreted them, but he soon found out that wasn't the case.
"You look like you'll be the best meal we've had in ages!" They were all still grinning at him, and slowly started to pull themselves towards him. "We're starving."
"What was all that about not wanting the sea to take another life?" Gordon scrambled further away from them as they got closer.
"Oh, well that's just because we like to take it ourselves! The bait always tastes better when it's fresh." They swiped their claws at him, and Gordon pushed himself up onto his feet to get out of their reach.
He took off down the beach, only thinking about how he needed to get away from them before they could eat him.
He felt something snag on his leg and he fell to the floor. Gordon looked back, and the mermaids had already caught up to him. They were impossibly fast with no legs.
Redhead had her claws wrapped around his leg, and Gordon felt them scratch against his skin as he tried to pull the appendage away. Her grip stayed firm on him, and she soon reached her other arm out towards him.
Gordon kicked his free leg at her and caught her chin. He managed to dislodge her, but soon the other two mermaids had their hands on him to keep him down.
They were all snarling as they loomed above him, their sharp teeth clear as day and their grins from before all but gone.
Gordon tried to struggle out of their grasp, but they had their hands all over him. His arms, his legs, pinning him to the ground.
Their teeth got closer to his skin as they leant down towards him. Gordon continued to try and pull away from them, but there was nowhere to go. He couldn't get away.
Then, a loud rumbling sound filled the air. The mermaids looked up towards the noise, but they blocked Gordon's view from where they were still above him.
But then abruptly, they shrieked and moved off of him. The high pitched noise they made caused Gordon's ears to ring, but they moved with inhuman speed towards the water.
With them gone, Gordon could get a clear view of what was in the sky. The sight that met him had him sagging in relief.
Thunderbird 1 was hovering above him in the sky. Sand was kicked up as the ship came in to land near him, and Gordon had to put a hand up to block any of it blowing into his eyes. The pilot seat was lowered, and out stepped his two big, earthbound brothers.
"Gordon!" They both called as they came running across the sand. Gordon had sat up, and rather than paying attention to them, he looked at the beach around him.
"You guys saw them right?" He asked them as they came to kneel next to him, his eyes not leaving the water that the mermaids had moved towards. There was no other sign of them. They had vanished in a flash.
"Saw what?" Scott frowned at him as Gordon finally turned to face him. Virgil was giving him a similar look.
"The mermaids!" Gordon pointed towards the ocean in the hope that that would be enough of an explanation.
They both followed his gaze towards the water, but then faced him again a moment later.
"There's no such thing as mermaids, Gordon." Virgil's brow furrowed in concern, and Gordon wanted to roll his eyes at him. He wasn't being crazy here, he knew what he saw!
"There were three of them! They had tails and colourful hair. I felt them, they were really here!" Gordon glanced between both of them, hoping that at least one of them would believe him. However, the looks that they were giving him said otherwise.
They both glanced at each other, having a silent conversation like they usually did when little brothers were around. They finally turned back to him, and then Scott placed his hand on the back of Gordon's head.
"He has a bump on his head," Scott said to Virgil, and Gordon winced as Scott touched the tender spot. He hadn't even realised his head hurt until now.
"Probably the cause of the hallucinations." Virgil had a small first aid box, and started to get some equipment out of it.
They were talking about him like he wasn't there, and Gordon felt himself start to grow annoyed. They weren't listening to him.
"I didn't hallucinate anything!" He pushed Virgil's hand out of the way as he shined a penlight into his eyes. "Look!"
He gestured down at his ripped rashguard and the cuts on his leg from where the mermaid had dug her claws into him. He couldn't make that up!
Virgil stopped what he was doing to take a look, and Gordon felt a sense of smugness that he had managed to prove the mermaids' existence. They had no choice but to believe him now.
But then Virgil sat back up, and his expression hadn't changed. Gordon had been expecting a look of disbelief with an apology for Gordon at the ready, but if anything, he just seemed more concerned.
"These might just be the cause of some sharp rocks from when you were in the water." His eyes moved to look directly at Gordon's, like he was searching for something else. "Are you okay?"
"Yes! I'm fine." Gordon pushed the worry-filled words away, although he was starting to feel doubtful himself. On further inspection, the scratches did look similar to those he had sustained many times in the past when he had swum into a rock hidden just beneath the surface. They absolutely looked just like claw marks too.
Virgil and Scott sent each other another silent look, before they started to pull Gordon to his feet.
"Come on," Scott wrapped an arm around him. "Let's get you home."
Gordon let them guide him back towards Thunderbird 1, but then another thought occurred to him.
"If there were no mermaids, then how did I get all the way out here?" Gordon had been unconscious the whole time, at least he thought he had been. If that was the case, he would have drowned out in the open ocean.
"Maybe you swam here yourself and just don't remember?" Virgil suggested as they reached the ship.
Gordon could see that being true. Of him flopped across his broken board as he tiredly kicked himself through the water until he reached a beach and passed out.
He didn't want that to be true, though. He looked out across the water for any sign that he hadn't made it all up, but there was nothing. No tails or hair of blue and red peeking up above the surface. Just the ocean that had so nearly taken him once again.
The water was the last thing he saw before his view was filled with the inside of Thunderbird 1. Virgil guided him over to a seat whilst Scott disappeared to grab his discarded board and tracker.
His brother tried to make him comfortable before they took off, but all Gordon could think of was his short time on the beach. It had all felt so real.
There was a chance that he hadn't imagined it all, but then maybe he had.
Whatever was real, he probably would never know.