PART 1

Max and Kenny are on their honeymoon, when the unthinkable happens and Max is ripped away from the man she thought she would love forever. Thrust into a brand new world, she struggles to adjust to a world of changes and Kenny does everything he can to save his wife before she fully embraces her new life.

KENNY & MAX

"One more?" she teased, wading out into the waist deep crystal clear water. "Oh, come on, it's beautiful here."

She's gorgeous, Kenny thought, how did I get her to marry me? Sexy, smart, smiling at me in a red thong bikini, her short blonde hair slicked back. "It's getting late."

She jumped over the wave. "No one but us."

The beach is deserted, he thought, just me and my sexy wife…Max who had been wearing nothing but these little bikinis since we got here…when she isn't naked in bed with me. Max…who I didn't know had such an affinity for the beach. Hearing her cry out before swearing. "Max?"

I love it here, she thought, jumping over the waves and how Kenny is looking at me. God, I married him, the man I've loved longer than I can remember. We were dumb, we wasted a whole year being mad at each other…and I'll dye my hair back for him when get home and tell him first. I kind of miss my red hair…Do we have to leave this place? I could live here…be a beach bum.

"Damn it!"

She jumped again, feeling woozy for a long moment as blood poured out of her foot. Frowning at what looked like a hand wrapped around her ankle, she didn't have time to scream as a wave knocked her down and she felt something dragging her along the bottom as her lungs threatened to burst. Kicking against whatever had a hold of her, she burst to the surface as Kenny charged into the water and reached for her. "I got you. Max! Stop fighting me."

Screaming again, it pulled her under, as she struggled and fought. Shark, she thought vaguely, oh god I'm going to die. Unable to breathe or see, she heard Kenny screaming for her, as she burst to the surface briefly before being pulled under again.

"Don't fight me."

Max shoved against it, refusing to give up as it bit her on her thigh and her world went black. I'm dying…

KENNY

Numb, he thought, Max… "She was…she screamed…"

"Sharks."

"No, she's," Kenny started. "She's okay. She…no."

Not sharks, the police chief thought, they've been patient, waiting for one… she had the mark. Let him think his wife was killed by a shark. It's the only way.

MAX

She opened her eyes, unsure of where she was or how she got there. Feeling the sand on her face and the water washing over her legs, she pushed herself up and felt her jaw drop. "What the hell?"

Looking around the deserted beach that only stretched about 10 yards in either direction from her, she stood up shakily, her legs feeling like jello and itching like hell. How did I get here? "KEnny! Are you here? Kenny! Anyone?"

Stumbling out of the shallows, her feet stung and legs felt like they were being stabbed by thousands of needles as she hit the hot sand. Falling forward, she caught herself on her hands, as the sand continued to burn her. "Kenny!"

Every inch of her exposed skin felt like it was going to burst into flames as she crawled back toward the shallows. Sinking her aching body into it brought immediate relief, as she realized she was very naked. What is happening to me? "Kenny!"

KENNY

He couldn't think, feel or move as he sat in their hotel room. Max…search party, they found blood, her bathing suit…I saw their faces, they think she's dead. Shark food.

MAX

Alone, Max thought, sitting on the bed of seaweed she put on the water's edge, fidgeting a bit as she dried. Shuddering at the idea of building a fire, I should stay in the water…swim…no. I'll drown, I don't know where to go. Just sit here? Wait for rescue? To die? Itching her leg again, she winced at her wounds, looking darker and red, infected as she hugged her legs to her chest. I don't want to die here. Her stomach rumbling, I'll starve to death if I don't eat, drink…there is nothing here. I can barely walk, these cuts are infected…oh the water feels so good. No, I can't drink salt water, it'll dehydrate me. Max continued to stare at the waves, crashing out on the reef making it impossible to swim for it, though shallows were calm and welcoming for her aching body.

Standing in knee deep water, it soothing her leg wounds despite her legs feeling like jello, she walked slowly through the water. I can do this, I'll be okay here…Kenny won't give up on me. He loves me. It is pretty here…if I wasn't an injured castaway.

Scooping on the seaweed, Max felt her mouth watering, before stuffing it in her mouth, the salty and slimy texture making her moan in pleasure, filling and hydrating her as she ate more. Sinking to her knees, she greedily drank the ocean water despite everything, the salt quenching her thirst, just as it relieved her wounds.

KENNY

He flipped through the pictures on his phone, years of them…we wasted so much time. I should have told her when I met her, it hit me like lightning and I knew we'd be together. That I'd marry her. She's a part of me, I can't….she can't be gone. She's too stubborn to give up, she'd fight that…that shark? Oh, god, Max…

MAX

The sand was still burning her as she lay her hand on it, she frowned, it can't be that hot. Fever from this infection, she thought, looking at the dark red wounds on her legs. They itch, she thought, when I took them out of the water. I can barely move when I'm not wet…I feel weird.

"Max…"

She jerked her head up. "Hello? Is someone here? Help! I'm here!"

"Ssh…just me. Don't be afraid."

I'm a crazy person, she thought, hearing voices. Could I be in a coma? Some crazy dream?

"Not a dream, Max."

She gulped. I'm hearing things…weird…that doesn't sound right in my head, but I understand it? Hungry, hot, dehydrated, I shouldn't have drunk salt water.

"Drink all you want. You need to."

Forcing herself to stand in the shallows, avoiding the sand that burned her, she tried to ignore her shaking and weak legs, wincing at how the infection had spread, more patches of itchy red skin and the rest of her legs felt slick, coated with oil almost.

Don't be afraid, Max. You'll be with me soon.

KENNY

Forty eight hours, he thought, they called it off. I can't move, think…Max. We could have gone anywhere, but she saw this place years ago and thought it would be perfect. Secluded, private, I never knew she liked the beach so much…she liked the legends and myths. She jumped me the minute we got to the hotel, despite us being jet lagged and tired. What am I going to do without her?

MAX

Not hearing the voice, she munched on the seaweed and drank the ocean water, both calming her and filling her. No sign of anything, she thought, thinking of her slowly walking around the shallows of the atoll. No trees, food, shelter, just this little place, me, the voice in my head. Something attacked me, a shark? I must have fought it off, washed up here? I can't be that far…

Screaming as fire erupted throughout her body, she convulsed on the sand burning her again as she screamed in agony as it felt like something was pulling her apart. Her legs on fire, the itching burning her from the inside out, feeling like her flesh was bubbling, cracking as the dark red spots began to ooze and bleed as her legs moved next to each other and wouldn't budge not matter how much she squirmed. Her flesh moving and bubbling, she screamed again as all her bones below her waist seemed to break at once, causing her to see blinding white as she felt more things moving inside of her as he legs began to merge together. Struggling to sit up, Max thrashed on the beach, trying to run in front of the pain as her legs began to reshape into something new. Unable to scream or breathe anymore, Max lay in stunned silence as the pain retreated and she panted in exhaustion at what had just overwhelmed her body.

Sitting up, her jaw dropped as she stared at her much changed lower half. Her legs were gone, merged and changed into a long and tapered form, which looked vaguely ridiculous with her human feet attached to it. A tail? No, I can't have a tial…Closing her eyes, she counted to 10, it's a heat stroke, I'm dreaming, I'm losing my mind. Opening them, she could only stare at it, covered with slime and the red spots pulsing and spreading. Oh, god…I can't…Like a fish?

Lovely.

Her head shot up, not seeing anyone, but senseing them.

Soon, Max…

The shock hitting her, she passed out.

KENNY

"Not a shark."

He looked up from his phone, unable to make the calls to tell people about Max. "What?"

"Your wife wasn't killed by a shark. She isn't dead," the man said. "Put the phone down and I'll tell you how you can find her."

MAX

Not a nightmare, she thought, opening her eyes the next morning, seeing that thing still attached to her. Numb, she thought, I can't walk, swim, with this dead weight… Rolling on her stomach, she crawled toward the shallows, sinking down and inhaling the salt water,before picking up some seaweed.. Looking at her tail as she chewed, and it is a tail, she admitted, even with my feet…it's here, I sense it. Watching and waiting for me to be like it. I'm a freak, monster…Kenny…god, what does he think happened to me? He dumped me when I dyed my hair, what would he think of my tail…and whatever I'm turning into?

Numb, she thought, I can't even feel…crawling through the shallows, cursing her lack of mobility. Floating out deeper, she rolled on her back, looking at it with her still human feet attached. Tail, she thought, looking at the fleshy thing. Whatever bit me…not a shark. Bit me, brought me here, and now I have a tail? Changing into something…a sea creature. No, this isn't possible.

Frowning, she dunked her head before swimming slowly toward where she could sit comfortably in the shallows. I read the myths, I liked them…it was part of the reason I wanted to come here, even if Kenny teased me. Magic, myths, I liked it…and he just wanted me in a bikini. I felt, when we landed…I felt at home? I wanted to hang out at the beach more than be with Kenny and he indulged me…now I'm stuck on a beach with a tail. They talked about how the people that had vanished become something new, protectors of the islands, Max thought, how they were chosen to be…how they used to be? She frowned, and it's stories, bullshit…I have a god damn tail.

"Oh, no," she breathed as her nerves began to tingle again before the fire burning through her raged again. Dunking underwater in a attempt to avoid it, she thrashed onte surface again, her head and tail aching and screaming as new nerves formed teaching her new body how her tail worked as her feet began to flatten and stretch and Max watched as they unfurled into a fin at the bottom of her tail, making her look more and more like what she didn't want to admit she was becoming. Feeling the new growth in her, as ribs formed slowly downward and new muscle filled her tail, getting her prepared for when she free of the atoll and fully changed. Feeling her upper body thin and toned as her organs shifted and settled into her new form, she signaled an ache all over as her body continued to change. The red spots bursting open, she wiped her salty tears as the red, orange, yellow and golden scales began to spread slowly at first before speeding up, covering her fleshy tail with them as her tail fin deepened to a dark red, leaving her sweaty and exhausted as her changes halted again.

Max stared at her tail, her scale covered tail, flipping the finny end a bit, seeing how it felt to have a tail. It's beautiful, she thought, if it wasn't…if I saw it on a fish and not me? Hesitantly, she touched her scales, running her fingers over them, exploring what was a very real part of her now. What she couldn't deny she was turning into as she ached to swim, to use her new tail, her new body, despite her horror at what she was rapidly turning into. What she couldn't deny anymore as she looked at herself. They're not real…a story…fantasy…and here I am.

KENNY

"This island is full of magic," Jack said. "The sea, the island, before humanity was even a thought."

This is insane, I should be looking for Max. No, she's gone, Kenny thought, his heart crushed at that. People need to know, her friends, family, I can't. "Uh, huh."

"Humans came, slaughtered the magic, they retreated. Some mated with humans, new lines were created, and the full bloods that survived swore they'd find their missing members again. This island," he smiled. "It calls to people. Your wife?"

Kenny nodded. "She's talked about coming here before."

"I saw her when you arrived. She had the look."

"My wife is dead. You're nuts."

"They sometimes get it wrong, we find bodies washed up of people who were not descendents, who lack the bloodline, so it's possible she could be dead," Jack continued. "But no, she looked like my wife, the same rapture when she came here, even if she didn't understand why. Your wife? The sea claimed her, one of them took her and she's about to be reborn."

MAX

"No," she moaned as the tingling started again and she felt more growth as thin red fins grew from her elbows to her wrists and out of the side of her tail. Feeling something happening on her rear she shifted slightly to see another fin running down the back of her tail before her short blonde hair fell out in clumps. FIns on my head, she thought? Gasping as her hair began to grow out, not the blonde she bleached it to, but a familiar red that brightened and thickened as it grew past her ears, shoulders, back until it hung in waves and curls and streaked with the same gold in her scales to the top of her tail. Can't be a bleached blonde anymore, Max thought, as her fingers tingle and thin gold webbing grew between them as her nipples darkened to the same gold and became surrounded by the same scales that covered her tail.

Unable to move as her body continued it's betrayal of her as it became more suited for her new life, taking more and more of humanity with each change.

KENNY

"I should go."

"Do you want to find her?" Jack said slowly. "Destroy those things that took her? I've been hunting them…you kill the one who infected her, she'll return to you."

"What?"

"I got my wife back."

MAX

"Almost."

Her head snapped up, that thing is watching what it did to me, she thought, me turning into... Try to communicate with it…Concentrating, it's not english, but I understand it. BEcause I'm one of them, almost one of them…I'm not human anymore for sure.

"Hello?"

"Very good, Max."

"Where are you?"

"You'll come to me soon. This atoll is for you to transition on. To become one of us."

Max looked at her transformed body, less like the human, wife, deputy she was a few days ago with each passing secondShe longed to get off this atoll, to see what her new body could do…to be with my pod, she thought, her thoughts terrifying her a bit. To give up my humanity. Who am I kidding? Nothing human about me left…

"How?"

He chuckled. "How what?"

She gestured to her body. "Uh, this?"

"I bit you. My venom activated your, well in your human terms, mermaid DNA."

Mermaid, Max thought, not wanting to say it, to make it more real. How could it be more real, just look at me. Mermaid…"My what?"

"You were meant to be one. Our venom kills if we bite the wrong person,but we bite ones that are meant to be one of us? We take them here, they change and join us. Just like you, Max. I felt you coming. I waited for you. Now just look at you. You're descended from us."

"I am not a mermaid."

He chuckled in her head. "Do you see yourself?"

She looked at her tail, fins, scales, knowing she looked very much like one now. "Change me back."

"Impossible. You're exactly how you're supposed to be now. Reborn into your true form, the one that humans stripped from your line, but still lingered. My venom would have killed you if you weren't one of us."

She flipped her tail fin again. Mermaid… "What?"

"You really are lovely. I'm glad you didn't die. You can't swim far yet, your gills need to open, but you shouldn't be in any more pain. Don't venture past the reef, you're not strong enough yet without your gills. Go, swim, Max, you're a mermaid, it's what you're meant to do."

Mermaid, she thought numbly, flipping her tail fin again, her body aching to swim, to do what it made for. Mermaid. "I don't feel human."

"What do you feel like?"

Say it, be it, she thought, admit what I am now…because it's not the human, woman, wife and deputy I was 48 hours ago. "Well, I certainly look like a mermaid with this tail and fins."

"You are a mermaid."

Max smiled despite her fears as she slipped into the water farther and rolled on her stomach. Flipping her tail gently, swimming with it for the first time, she giggled with delight at how effortlessly she glided through the shallows. Running her webbed fingers through the sand, she watched the small fish dart around her, the water feeling wonderful on her scales.

I'm really a mermaid, she thought, admitting it. A real mermaid.

KENNY

"She tried to kill me," Jack said. "Drown me in the ocean. They are loyal to their pod, my line slaughtered them in the past and she tried to drown me…but she's here with me now."

"Your mermaid wife?" Kenny asked dryly. Max is not a mermaid.

Jack led him to the pool and nodded. "See?"

Kenny felt his jaw drop as he looked at the blonde woman swimming slow circles in the built- in pool. A tail? Gills and looking like she wants to kill us. A mermaid…no, bullshit. It's a costume. They're insane.

MAX

She pulled herself up into the shallows, tired after her first swim. Easier when I have gills, Max thought, then I never have to be up here again. I can be underwater, never…freezing at the thought…never see Kenny again. Be me. My life…how…looking at her tail again. I'm a mermaid. I'm never going home again. No, I am home now, the ocean, my pod…I'm back to where I belong. A mermaid. Humans hunted us to extinction and I'm home again..

"Oh god!" she screamed out as blood poured from her neck and sides as her gills throbbed and split open, the air burning them before she ducked underwater, filling them with salt waterand breathing under water for the first time as her eyes adjusted and everything became clear as the last of her internal systems merged, her gills inhaling the water as Max sunk lower in the water as her new instincts and desires of a mermaid flooded her mind, preparing her for her new life in the sea. Her transformation complete, she took a fleeting back look at the atoll that let her transform in peace and swam out toward the reef.

KENNY

"I go in the sea and they come for me. Max will come for you. She won't be able to help herself. Let her."

Kenny stared at the mermaid, no way, Max…she can't be this. "Max isn't…no."

"We'll stop them from ever doing this again and once we kill the ones that did this to them? They'll return to their human forms."

Kenny nodded. If there is even a chance, if Max…she doesn't want to be a mermaid, she would never want that. Find her. Bring her home. "I'm in."

Part 2 - Max adapts to her life and the sea and Kenny gets pulled deeper into the supernatural hunt