Oceantide

by Everly Taylor

  I pulled a fun little song from my memory, one about girls from California, wherever that was, and sang it to pass the time. The thoughts that flashed through my mind made me smile despite my less than stellar circumstances. Memories of the big bonfires, where flames rose high into the air, the smoke and heat reaching me even in my hiding spot. The humans as they played a game with a net and a ball, one I now knew was called volleyball. The laughter that rang out from the humans had always made my heart all mushy and I wanted to be one of them for the longest time.

  That is until I actually had to be one. Being here, away from the salty waters, I was nothing more than a human. My beautiful tail was gone, replaced by legs that I hated so much. They were weak and wobbly, where my tail had been powerful and strong. The showers of plain fresh water were a constant reminder of home, and how much I missed their salty embrace.

  I suppose being a human wouldn’t have been so bad if I were not a prisoner, but the homesickness overwhelmed me at times. I even missed my father and my sisters, the ones that sent me to this hell hole in the first place. I laughed derisively. If that wasn’t fucked up, I didn’t know what was.

  Jet was the one person that gave me a little bit of the comfort of my home. He was a part of my world, though we had grown up in very different circumstances. I grew up in an underwater castle filled with light and beauty, while he grew up in the darkest depths of the ocean where the light never reached. He was widely unknown as a species, an offspring of the mythical wannabe goddess, Cthulhu.

  From what he described, she was scary as fuck and creepy to match. He had no warmth for her, but then again, he had told me he thought his mother was incapable of love. I wondered how he ended up not only being so nice, considering where he came from, but looking so human given his description of her. His only feature that showed he was a creature of the water were the gills on his neck. Every other part of him was all man. And I mean every part of him.

  Jet was a man that had everything a woman like me could want. A big dick, one he knew how to use, and a quiet nature that let me be my loud ass self. We really went together, yet I felt like I was missing something.

  Maybe it was just seeing Eva with her four men and being jealous of all the dicks she got to play with. Or maybe it was just that my kind were meant to be with more than one mate. I had heard stories about how some of us searched for years, feeling incomplete until they found all of those to make them feel whole again. I didn’t think I would find it here and had hoped that getting out would be my chance to find the more that I was looking for.

  I had talked to Jet about it before, knowing my feelings for him were growing, and he was perfectly fine with me having more than one as his own kind were the same. I didn’t know that I would’ve gotten so serious with him if he only wanted me for himself. As much as I liked, hell even loved him now, I knew that part of me would never feel complete without finding those others that filled that extra void inside me.

  There was one guy that had caught my attention, Beck, a water fae. He was sexy as fuck but never paid attention to me. Though, pretty much no one paid attention to me before Eva came to this hellhole, so that was no surprise.

  I kept to myself before she came, but somehow she wormed her way into my heart and made me want more than the lonely life I had grown accustomed to here. I made friends not just with her, but with all of our group that hung out together. She brought that out in all of us and I needed to embrace her way. Protective of myself, yet open to new relationships. I couldn’t let this place stop me from living as it had before. No, it was time for me to live, really live. Time to be the best I could so I was ready when it was time to get the fuck out of here.

  As soon as I got out of whatever punishment the headmaster had in store for me, maybe I would try flirting with Beck. See how it went, and if the attraction was really there, or if it was just that he looked so sexy flinging his water around the way he did.

  Even if Frost let me out of solitary I had more to contend with than just his fury. Alayna, Eva’s evil sister, and her harpy girlfriend, Carmen. Those two would have it out for me once they learned that Eva escaped and they had lost their person to torture. It was a good thing I was a badass mermaid that wouldn’t take shit from anyone, though they didn’t need to know that for now.

  Alayna’s electricity didn’t scare me at all. I had water and I was willing to use it to put that bitch in her place. You know what happens when electricity meets water? Yeah, not a pretty picture. I didn’t necessarily want to display anymore than I already had. The more I thought about it, the more I was certain Frost blamed the water thing on Eva. I would find out soon enough when he started questioning me, that was for sure.

  I cackled as I thought of Alayna, her red hair standing on end and black soot covering her face as she was electrocuted by our powers colliding. I might get caught up in the same collision, but it would be so worth it. I’d even make a drawing of how she looked afterward and put it in my escape pack so I could show Eva when she came back for me. As much as it seemed hopeless now, I knew that Eva would never go back on her promise. That hope would keep me going and I would find a way out.

  Chapter 2 - Una

  Headmaster Frost came back, his anger radiating off him. If I hadn’t been stuck in a block of ice, I would have taken a step back from the force of it. I steeled myself to show no fear as he raged, “Where the fuck is she?”

  “Interesting,” I tilted my head to the side and looked at him with a grin. “The esteemed Headmaster Frost losing his cool and swearing like a commoner,” I tsk’ed at him, refusing to be intimidated.

  He rushed to me and gripped my chin with his hand, his fingers digging painfully into my skin as he jerked my jaw upward. “Don’t play games with me, Princess Una. You will tell me everything you know, or you will regret it. I have ways of getting the truth out of you.”

  I shrugged my one shoulder that was free. “Do all you want, sir. I have no information that would help you,” I ground out between gritted teeth, the force of his grip making my eyes water. He glared at me as he shoved my chin from his hand, my head jerking to the side.

  I straightened and met his gaze, “I may be her best friend, but I have no idea where they were going. I’ve been stuck here for hours. I don’t even know who went with her.”

  “You fool, my son is missing along with Professor Sebastian, Calex, and Blade. It seems they decided they didn’t care what kind of pain they would endure when they were caught. A pretty face and they lost all their senses. Such a shame and a waste,” he seethed.

  I knew his son leaving had to be the utmost betrayal. To people like him, image was everything, and if word got out that his own son escaped this so-called reformatory, there would be no hiding the shit that went on behind these walls.

  “I did hear the pussy was worth it,” I quipped.

  He lunged at me, stopping the moment before his hand struck me. “You best consider yourself lucky that I have other things to deal with other than the likes of a tossed-aside princess,” he snapped out. “Guards!” he barked. This time two responded, coming to his side.

  “Yes, headmaster?” one of his lackeys asked eagerly.

  “See that this one is placed in solitary. I’ll deal with her later,” he turned to leave as I laughed, making him spin around again.

  “Again, with the laughter? You will learn to control yourself,” he snapped.

  “It’s just, being tossed in solitary is good and all, but they kind of can’t,” I smirked. Damn I hoped I was getting under his skin just a little bit. At least enough to make him stay and give Eva that much more time to get away if she needed it.

  “They can, and they will,” he barked motioning to the guards. They looked at him dumbfounded as they stayed in place. “What do you think you’re doing? Take her now,” he ordered, his fury building.

  “Sir, we can’t,” the first guard spoke up hesitantly.

  “Please, enlighten me,” he snarled at the shaking guard
.

  “She’s kind of frozen in place,” he grimaced, clearly worried the headmaster would lash out at him.

  I gave him a smug look, one that said ‘I told you so’ and ‘fuck you’ all at the same time. He waved his hand and I braced for whatever was coming, but instead of pain the ice simply melted away from me into a puddle at my feet. I stumbled forward from the sudden lack of support, my legs tingling from being still so long. “You better think while you’re down there, Una. It would be in your best interest to come clean,” he stated before he turned and left without a backward glance.

  The second guard stepped forward and held out a set of iron shackles, and I flinched back. “Look guys, I don’t think that’s going to be necessary.”

  “Orders are orders,” he growled as he reached for me, the other ones hand going to the taser at his belt.

  “Yeah, but don’t you think you can let it slide, just this once? I’ll go without any trouble,” I assured him.

  “Then what happens when we get down there and you decide to pull some funny business and set people free?” he asked. “Shackles or taser. Your choice,” the corner of his lip lifted in a snarl and I knew these two were not going to give. Damn it.

  “Shackles it is boys. Always did like a pretty bracelet,” I held my arms out and braced for the pain I knew was going to follow.

  Roughly, he took my wrists and snapped the iron in place, the burning against my skin instant as it scorched my flesh. I bit my lower lip hard, willing myself not to cry out as the pain radiated through my body. “Shall we?” I gritted out, motioning to the door I knew led to the caves. The sooner we got there the sooner they would remove the chains. I was already extremely weak from using my power and I had no idea how much longer I could stand the searing pain before I collapsed.

  They led me down the long corridor as we moved further under the school. The air grew damp and chilled as the sounds of people shouting reached me. I had never been down here personally, but I had heard the stories. It looked like I was about to find out if there was any truth behind them or not.

  The light down here was dim, and the air dank and musty as we passed several iron doors. A shrill scream echoed through the caverns and sent chills racing over my spine as the guards chuckled. “That’s gonna be you soon if you don’t give him what he wants,” the guard sneered.

  “Dick,” I bit out as we stopped next to a door.

  “As a matter of fact,” a lewd grin crossed his face. “You want those shackles off? You can suck mine.” He gripped his dick through his pants and I threw up a little in my mouth.

  “I’d rather rot in hell than have your pathetic, limp dick touch me,” I spit out. There was no fucking way I was sucking him off, not even to stop this pain.

  “Have it your way. Who knows when the headmaster will make his way down here again,” he shrugged as they both laughed menacingly together.

  “Guess I’ll have to make do.” I jerked my hands from his grip and passed through the door. I was surprised to find that it was only one of the caves that had existed here originally instead of an actual room. The stone walls were dark with nothing on their surface, though I could tell they had some sort of iron ore in them. One dim light hung on the wall, and a pile of moldy hay was pushed in the corner.

  Behind me the door slammed shut. “We’ll be back. Shout if you want to change your mind,” he called through the iron bars with a laugh.

  I didn’t give them the satisfaction of a response and as the sound of their footsteps faded away I collapsed onto the thin pile of hay.

  The iron burned into my skin, but no matter what I did the pain would not recede so I shifted to put as little pressure on them as possible and leaned my head against the wall. The thick smell of mold and mildew enveloped me as I sat on the hay, making the deep breaths I attempted to take difficult as I tried to control the tremors that had started. My magic was trying to recover itself, heal as best it could, but it was slow and excruciating as the iron slowed its progress and caused further pain.

  I took a few more breaths and calmed myself. Hysteria would not help right now. I closed my eyes and pictured the warm waters of my home; recalled the way the waves caressed me like a lover as I hid in the rocky outcroppings and watched the humans. How I had longed to be a part of that. To escape my home, even for a short time. And how wrong I had been.

  It was that very same love for humans that had a pair of twig legs tossed on me and thrown into this hellhole. The morning I was sent away I had been in a nasty argument with one of my sisters. Mira was unhappy that our father kept comparing the two of us.

  Mira was in line for the throne and she hated not only that I wasn’t jealous of that, but that our father kept telling her that she needed to be more like me. It wasn’t my fault he saw her selfish and deceitful ways despite her beauty and manipulation.

  That morning she had been torturing a young pair of starfish, threatening to rip their arms off if they refused to be her earrings for the day. While we all knew their arms grew back, it was humiliating and extremely painful for them. I insisted that she take some of my coral instead, it was much brighter and would pop against her red hair.

  She wouldn’t hear any of it though so I stepped in and took them from her, using a current to send them on their way before she could strike out. Mira threatened to make me pay for it, but I had thought nothing of it at the time. Her threats were usually empty and short-lived.

  I said goodbye to our father, and swam out over the reef as I did every day and headed inland to watch the humans and their peculiar ways. I wanted to learn as much as I could about them and their thing-a-ma-jigs.

  A trio of seagulls landed next to me, crooning their excitement as I normally brought them treats. Today, though, I had been distracted and forgot. I laughed as one playfully nipped at my hair and stroked his soft feathers to get him to be still. The humans never paid much attention to the gulls, but I didn’t want to risk drawing attention to myself.

  It was as they settled that I heard the soft song of the mermaid coming from deep within the ocean. My eyes went wide as I realized it was Mira calling to the humans, and not just any song. This song was designed to cause a massacre.

  One by one, the humans stood and started walking toward the shoreline in a trance. The waves crashed into them as they blindly followed her call. In a panic I swam toward them, shouting that they turn around, demanding they cover their ears, but it was to no avail. My sister was too strong and too far away for me to do anything.

  Tears streamed down my face as the water started overtaking them, dragging them into their currents and out to sea. I knew I had to do something to save them. Something to stop Mira.

  Their bodies grew limp as they became unconscious from lack of oxygen and the water that filled their lungs. As the waves tossed their bodies around it gave me an idea. If they were unconscious, they wouldn’t be able to answer her call, and I could safely drop them on the beach without fear of them attempting again.

  My tail burned as I fought against the increasing currents my sister directed that way as I struggled to save each of them. Their bodies were heavy as I dragged them through the current onto the beach, rushing to help the next one.

  A tear slid down my cheek as I remembered the pain of that day. The pain my sister caused the humans and her betrayal to me.

  Twenty humans. Twenty was the number I was able to drop on the beach that day before she stopped. And none of it did any good.

  I pulled the last half unconscious human from the current, and he looked up at me with his bright green eyes full of appreciation. I knew in that moment I had done the right thing by saving them. I laid him on the beach with the others, pausing for a moment to push his soot black hair back from his forehead. He gave me a small smile before I flicked my tail and headed for deeper water. I floated in there watching the humans wake, coughing up water, confused as to how they had gotten there.

  The gulls dipped around me and I knew from their cries t
hat someone had joined me. I turned to find my sister, a smug grin on her face, and my father furious next to her, his grip white knuckled on his trident.

  She had told him I had attempted to take the humans' lives. Using my interest in them against me, saying it was why I wanted to learn more about them, so I could kill them.

  My protests didn’t matter, my father only saw what was right in front of him and arranged to have me sent to the reformatory that same evening. I vowed as I was taken away, and these legs forced on me, that I would find a way to make things right and reveal her for who she really was.

  I needed to get out of here first if I were to figure out how to fix what my sister had done and stop her madness. As I drifted off to sleep I realized that I had a new, very real problem to deal with first.

  Chapter 3 - Una

  I dozed on and off for a while, the pain in my wrists constantly pulling me from my sleep. At last I woke with a kink in my neck and my wrists burning. My mouth felt like dry seaweed and I needed water badly, of the salty variety preferably. I let out a groan as I shifted in the hay that uncomfortably poked at my ass. Fuck, this was uncomfortable.

  “Hey!” I croaked, my voice sounding hoarser than I was expecting as I hoped a guard would come. “I need to piss!”

  I waited for a moment and slumped back against the wall as I heard nothing. It seemed that the stories of solitary were true. They somehow cared even less down here than they did upstairs. It looked like I wasn’t going to get anything unless I sucked that filthy guard's dick, and there was no way in hell I would lower myself to that.

  I crossed my legs and looked around at my new accommodations. The dingy walls were dark and sparse, the single light casting eerie shadows across the stone floor, and the meager pile of nasty ass hay. Only the best for the students at Shadow Isle Reformatory. I shifted again and my bladder protested. “Hey, I really need to piss!” I tried to yell again, but my voice didn’t carry far.