A/N: I have this same story in just a note.

3

I dreamed that night. And I don't think it was a good dream.

I was swimming in the water, no, more like drowning and trying to swim my way to the surface. The water surrounding me was boiling; it made me want to scream out from the pain inside of me, the pressure in the water even though I was only fifteen feet under.

Come. A voice said. Come to where you belong.

I tried my best to ignore the voice; it sent me chills as it repeated itself over and over again.

Come.

My insides were giving out, my heart slowing its pounding, my lungs screaming for air, my vision turning dark. And all the while there was that voice.

But I kept on trying with all my will to make it to the top, swimming faster than ever. Trying so hard I felt as if I was going to give up, but I kept swimming, hoping that I would make it.

I didn't.

I gasped and sat straight up in bed as I woke from my nightmare. I was breathing hard and I felt sweat drop down my forehead.

I wondered what the dream meant. My grandmother used to say that dreams did come true. But I never believed her, because it never happened to me.

But two days ago I was drowning, much like my dream, but I don't think there was boiling water and that voice.

My breathing returned to normal and I kept on telling myself it was just a dream, and nothing more.

I rubbed my forehead, and wiped the sweat away. It disturbed me so much that the dream felt so real.

I shivered, it wasn't a comforting thought.

I looked at my right to see if my sister was still fast asleep, she wasn't. I looked over at my alarm clock, it read 9:15. A bit late to come down for breakfast.

I got up from bed and looked through my dresser trying to see if there was anything good to wear. I mostly had dresses and skirts, unlike most girls who like to wear pants most of the time.

I picked out a blue dress since it was my favorite and put it on. I walked over to a large mirror I had hanging behind a door. I stared back at my reflection. Plain brown hair and eyes, high cheeks bones, but nothing special. I was pretty, but not beautiful.

I gazed down at my dress and seemed satisfied by the look. I grabbed my small bag and quietly left the room.

I made my way into the kitchen and saw mom preparing lunch already.

"Morning mom." I called over to her. She continued cooking not really paying any attention to me.

I saw waffles on the kitchen table for breakfast, so I sat down. I decided to make a conversation with my mom while I ate.

"So where's dad?"

Mom managed to look over to me. "Went off to work like every other day."

"But today's a Saturday, he's not supposed to work."

"The more he works the more money we get." Was her simple answer.

I frowned; my dad's job wasn't exactly the best and sometimes took days for him to get home. He was a truck driver, and he had to travel all the way from Oregon to Seattle.

I sighed, "He said he was going fishing with me today." But he told me that a week ago, he could've changed his mind.

Mom just laughed. "Oh please, what's more important? Some lousy boat ride in the ocean getting some stupid fish or the money?"

My eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you liked to eat the fish."

"I used to Coral, now I'm better off with beef." My mom answered.

I looked down at my waffles and suddenly wasn't in the mood to eat. "But mom, you know dad's supposed to rest on Saturday's since it's the only day he doesn't work." I say. But sometimes he would forget about resting and just go fishing with me.

I saw mom roll her eyes. "Like I care?"

I stared angrily at her, "Why don't you care? I thought dad was worth a lot to you! You made him go off to his work, didn't you? You wanted him out of the house just so your boyfriend could come along!" The moment I said that, I regretted it. But I knew my mother was cheating on my dad, I'd seen what she does when her boyfriend comes over to our house. My mom didn't care if we saw, just that we don't tell our father about it.

Mom turned angrily at me. "Exactly! And I love him more than your father! I never loved your father for one second! I only married him because it was the only way to leave my mother's house!" mom yelled, "and don't you even think about telling your father, or I'll kill you."

I stopped and looked back at my waffles. I hated my mom for what she did to my father. Dad deserved better.

I knew my mom always acted kind towards my dad, but it was a lie.

I couldn't stand being in the same room as my mom, so I got up and left.

"Wait Coral!" I recognized as my sister's voice.

I stopped and turned before heading out the door, "What?"

"Can I come with you?"

"No." I opened the door and left, but my sister followed.

"Please Coral! I promise I won't do anything you wouldn't like!" My sister pleaded.

I gave an exasperate sigh and looked back at my sister. "Mina just stay in the house and play with your dolls."

"But I wanna go fishing with you."

"I'm not going fishing."

"Then can I come with you at the beach?" She asked. I suddenly noticed she was wearing a bathing suit under her clothes.

I shook my head, "I'm going over to Sara's." Sara was a friend of mine, and my only friend. We knew each other since we were six.

"Can I come?"

"No!" I turned and walked off ignoring my sister's pleads. I took long strides, but my sister followed me wherever I went.

I didn't want my sister to come along, something always bad happened when she did. One time I went to Sara's house and Mina had broken an expensive china set her mom had bought in Paris.

I stopped and turned back around angrily at my sister. "Fine! Come along, but you better not do anything stupid!"

I stalked off and my sister ran to catch up with me.

After I had arrived at Sara's house, her mom grew worried when she noticed my sister came. Sara had suggested we go to the beach and play volleyball with her two twin brothers. I knew why, so my sister won't stay in the house and break anything. Her mom seemed delighted by the idea.

Her brother's were two years younger than her, but weren't a trouble maker like Mina. Once they heard about our plan, they agreed since they had nothing else to do but watch TV.

So now here we were playing volleyball at the beach, and luckily we found a net we could play with. There were only two at the beach and always occupied by older teenager's.

It was me and Sara verses her two brothers'. My sister was off to have a swim in the ocean.

"Coral your turn!" Sara threw the ball at me.

I grabbed at it and served the ball over the net. The boys hit it and were busy hitting the ball to each other trying to spike it.

They hit it over the net causing the ball to come back to me. I was about to hit it, but missed. It was the boys turn to serve.

We continued playing volleyball and I hadn't noticed my sister was swimming too far in the ocean. I was having such a good time I totally forgot about her.

After about an hour of playing, we heard a shrill scream coming from the ocean.

Oh no, please don't let it me Mina! I silently begged. I turned to look over at the ocean trying to spot Mina.

"Hey Coral is that your sister?" Sara said. She pointed to the left side of the sea.

I looked at her direction and saw my sister flailing her arms as if she was drowning.

"Coral help!" She shouted.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back.

I ran down the soft sand trying to get to my sister. I was having trouble since it was difficult to run in these sands.

"Coral, please help me!" Mina continued to shout.

By now I was in the water and frantically trying to swim my way through the waves trying to get to my sister. Sara was close behind along with her brothers.

I saw my sister's head disappear beneath the water. I dived under trying to spot my sister.

I searched frantically with my eyes open, even if the salt stung my eyes. At last I saw my sister not too far from me, but she wasn't alone. There was a creature that had trapped her under his strong arms. He stared at me with two cold black eyes.

I had never seen anything like it. He appeared to be human from the top, and something else. He had no legs, instead fins. Black ones and so long and powerful there was no way I could free my sister from that thing. It looked like a merman, but not any I had ever seen before in books.

He stared at me a little while longer and then noticed Sara swim up behind me and he turned and swam off letting go of my sister. I quickly went to grab her before she drowned.

I brought my sister up to the surface and she breathed in large gulps of air.

"Did you see that Sara?" I asked when she came up behind me along with her brothers.

"See what?"

"That thing!"

"What thing?"

"That thing with long black fins with a body of a man!"

"A thing with a what?"

"Never mind."

Obviously she hadn't saw what I had seen. It sent me chills when I pictured it in my head.

I swam back to the sea shore holding on to my sister. She was coughing pretty hard and I wonder if she was going to vomit.

I dragged my sister on the wet dirt since she was still busy coughing. Sara pounded on her back hard and that seemed to stop the coughing, for now.

"You idiot!" I shrieked, "You could've gotten killed!"

Mina looked at the ground and didn't say anything.

"I told you not to do anything stupid, and you did! What made you think to go and swim that far?"

"Hey Coral calm down alright? You know your sister won't understand no matter how many times you tell her." Sara said.

I calmed down. Sara did have a point, sometimes I forgot my sister had a problem in her head.

"I'm sorry Coral." Mina muttered.

I sighed. "It's okay Mina, I understand." But she didn't. She'll never know about the problem she has in her head. She won't understand anyway.

"Okay I'm going home, I can't play volleyball in these wet clothes." One of Sara's brothers admitted.

"Yeah me too, we should all go home. Maybe some other time we'll play again." Sara acquired.

So we all headed home and Mina never talked the rest of the way. I wonder if she did see that creature as well.

"Mina?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Did you see anything when you drowned? Something strange?" I asked.

"No, my eyes were closed." She said.

That figures. I did notice the creature did cover Mina's eyes. But I thought about what it could've been. Maybe it was a merman, but in all the books I've read they were kind, not evil.

But even if it was a merman, they didn't exist. It was just a bunch of fairy tale and myth.

But whatever I saw was true, I knew I wasn't imagining it. Maybe that was the creature who tried to drown me twice?

No it couldn't be, I thought, that was my fault, and no way could he have made me drown.

But maybe it was, and as I entered in the house, I never knew what surprise I was just about to meet.

Review please.