Disclaimer: I don't own Life with Derek

Title: Deep Blue Sea

Chapter 4

One hour?

I woke up from a harmonious laughter. I moaned.
"Keep it down will you" I mumbled into a pillow. The scent was that of the sea. The sea. I shot my eyes open. I looked around. This couldn't be the continuation of my dream It was all real. Casey still in her mermaid form was laughing with some other mermaids on a sofa.
I recognized two of them Adell and Nea. The other two that looked like twins with different hair color I didn't know. I hopped off the bed.
"Derek, you're finally awake." Casey said sweetly.
"Yea, how long was I out?"
"The whole night." I stared at her. The mermaids burst into laughter.
"Casey, we have to leave." I burst out. "Dad and Nora would be up and looking for us soon."
"Derek relax, its all under control."
"what's Casey?" asked one of Adell.
"Casey is my human name." she explained. "The name Leola, Ice Moon, or Viridans Ostia wouldn't go so well over there." The mermaids nodded.

Casey gave me a tour of the whole city. And I mean that literally.
"Can you tell me about this world?" I asked. We sat down on a rock and to my surprise it was comfortable.
"Over 2000 years ago, there was one species of mer-people. The stingers. When they had kids, more stingers were born. The only problem was that the stingers would accidently send out their poison when they were in a bad mood and many accidents occurred on the sea. One day one of the mermaids was sun bathing and a human saw her. The mer-people started to be hunted and they all had to leave. The young mermaid that started the problem, fell in love with the human that discovered her. They brought him in and talked with him. He agreed to become one of them. The mermaid took her nail and cut his arm, she put some of her poison in and within minutes a new species of mermaid was discovered. The new species they called was Oyster Harbour Leaper. When the human disappeared, the others thought that he got killed and feared for their lives. They stopped hunting us, so the ancients stayed. Over the years over 500 different species were made the same way. When we moved to this area about 500 years ago, the ancient Antidas decided to organize the kingdom. This place was a ruin of the lost city Atlantis. He kept the name. The mer-people built new buildings and homes. The castle is where the family of stingers live. Every specie is in their own area. The Leapers are the second largest family after the Stingers. If a stinger and stinger are married, a stinger is born. If a stinger and a leaper are married, some will be stingers and others will be leapers. But if a human and mermaid are married, the human will be turned into a mermaid causing a new species to form. Do you remember the two other mermaids I was talking to earlier aside from Adell and Nea? They are twins. Cleo and Cloe. Their mother was from the family of Breathers and father from the Swimmer family. Though they are twins, Cleo is now the Blue Estuary Breather while Cloe is the Kelp Tidal Swimmer. A lot of the mermaids here live on land, when they get pregnant, they need to come back here to have their child. It is impossible to bear children on land, it will kill her. Before they realized that, many of the mermaid died like this.

All of us have powers. We move things with our minds, we can transform a dead plant into a living plant. We can heal ourselves and others instantly. Our memory is good. Our IQs are above 2000. We are a very unique species. There are other mermaids out there. One in particular is our enemy. She is the only one of her kind. The Striped Tidal Seeker. Her name is Virgatus Aestus. That is the only name she has. She is the evil mermaid that enjoys to torture others. She aggravated the mermaids causing them to lose control. One such instance happened in the 1400s. The humans call this area the Bermuda Triangle. Our world is not visible to the human eye until you are permitted in. When ship wrecks and plane wrecks occur, they all get lost and sink into her kingdom. Thus nobody can ever find any traces of those crashes. She tortures those humans until they ask for death. She is the one that records are found of. When someone sights one, they see her, but they rarely live to tell the tale. If they do, no one believes them of course, because there is no evidence."

I listened attentively. This world also has its risks.
"Where does this mermaid live?"
"She lives near the Bermuda triangle. She only attacks if one of the mermaids trespasses her territory."

"Ice Moon!" male voice boomed. A male mermaid swam to us.
"Poletas." Casey said.
"Antidas is disappointed you haven't come to see him yet."
"I was about to go and visit him actually."
"Very good. Who is this?" He looked at me curiously.
"Derek. Let's go" I followed her glancing at the blond male.

We entered an ice throne room. A dark haired merman sat on the main throne.
"Ice Moon, it's so good to see you." the man said in a soothing voice.
"Likewise."
"I see you brought your brother with you."
"Step brother Antidas." she corrected him.
"Indeed." He looked at me. "Come this way human."
I shakily walked closer.
"What is your name?"
"Derek Venturi"
"Derek. What an interesting name."
"Thank you." I wasn't sure if it was a compliment.
"You must come and visit again soon."
"I'm sorry Antidas, I promised Demolia I'll visit her." Casey cut in.
"Please send her my regards."

We exited the palace and followed a small path to what looked like a club. We walked in. Sure enough, it was. Mermaids were eating, drinking, and dancing. Some had feet. I guess, dancing with a tail would be a little awkward. We walked to a booth and sat down. A mermaid swam up.
"Leola, you came"

"Hello Demolia, Antidas sends his regards." The mermaid blushed. Mermaids blush?
"Thanks. I don't know why he does this. I saw him seconds ago."
Casey laughed.

Time went by slowly. I wondered what Nora and Dad were thinking by now.

It felt like a week had past. We visited many other family members and friends. We partied and explored.

"Derek, it's time to go." Casey said.
"Why?"
"It won't be long before the effect will run out. You can die if you stay any longer." Yes, I forgot that I was still human. I forgot I had a whole different world out there to live. We said our good byes and left the city. When we resurfaced I gasped for air as if I was holding my breath the whole time. It was dark.

"Casey," I turned to her. She was already in her regular clothes pulling on her boots she left outside. "What are we going to tell them?" I wanted to get the story straight.
"Nothing." she said.
"But we've been gone for so long."
"Just a mere hour." she said walking toward the cabin. An hour? It felt like a week.

Chapter 5 coming soon. The links to the pictures will now be posted on my profile, because it gets messed up on here when I upload the file.