The Mermaid

by Shane Scollins

  Wheeling the car out of the lot, he headed back to the house to pick up Ashley. She’d finally been cleared to go back into the house. She wasn’t going to stay, she was just packing up some things.

  A shudder of guilt crawled up his spine over Ridge. He didn’t know why, but it felt like his fault somehow. The fact it wasn’t likely an accident didn’t get past him for a split second.

  First Mike, and now Ridge. If you add in Cassie and Paul, he’d left a string of death in his wake that he was starting to feel sick about. The overwhelming sadness of that idea nearly brought him to tears, but he had a sinking feeling that made him push the gas pedal to the floor and his old Volkswagen to its limits.

  Taking corners at ridiculous speeds and screeching into Ashley’s neighborhood, the panic in him didn’t go away when he saw her car in the driveway.

  Skidding to a stop, he jumped out and ran to the house, through the door, and into the foyer, where he called for her. “Ashley?”

  There was no immediate answer, and he thought for sure his suspicions were confirmed. But then he heard her voice, “Help, help.”

  He ran around the corner into the kitchen. Her voice was there but she wasn’t. It was just her phone, sitting on the kitchen counter playing an audio file of her repeating the words, “Help, help. Help me please, Jake, help,” over and over again.

  But the tone was weird, there was no urgency in her voice. He picked up the phone and stopped the recording, bringing silence to the house. With one hand, he eased her phone into his pocket, with the other he eased out the pistol.

  He’d never held this gun with the concept of shooting anyone but himself, but right now he wanted to kill. If something happened to Ashley, he didn’t know if he could handle that. He didn’t even want to try.

  Creeping through the silent house behind the sights of the gun, he tried to control his breathing. His nervous tick of biting the inside of his cheek calmed him. He peered into the bedroom and saw some luggage, half filled with clothes. There were no signs of a struggle, which told him Ashley was playing it smart. It wasn’t because she lacked the toughness and instinct to fight back, because she knew better.

  After checking the last room, he hurried back down the steps and out to his car. He was about to call the police when Ashley’s phone rang. He answered, “Hello?”

  “Don’t call the cops or you’ll never see her again.”

  “If she dies, you die.”

  The man laughed. “I disappear for a living. You’ll never find a trace of me or her.”

  “Just let her go.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “What do you want from us?”

  “I don’t want anything from you. I’m just doing my job.”

  “Who’s paying you?”

  “That’s not important.”

  “It is to me.”

  “I don’t have time for this.”

  “Make time.”

  “If you want to see her again, you’ll do as I need you to do.”

  Jake was both angry and helpless at the same time. “What’s the point, you’re going to kill us both anyway. You’ve already killed two people.”

  There was silence on the other end until he replied, “What I’ve done is inconsequential compared to what I’ll do.”

  “I think it matters a little.”

  “No, it doesn’t. I do my job as contracted.”

  Jake paused then said, “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to drive down to Fort Fisher tonight at sundown. I think you know the place.” The call ended.

  Jake sat in the driveway, numb. He needed a plan and he needed it quickly.

  Chapter 28

  Ariel

  The stairs were harder to master than Ariel expected. She gave up trying to climb them on the crutches because she feared a devastating fall. They were long, concrete, and curved with sharp edges on each step. One false move could spell disaster. She decided the best course of action would be to get down on her belly and slither up the steps. It was neither pretty nor fast, but it was effective.

  At the top, pulling herself upright on the crutches, she surveyed the spacious room. She’d never seen this area before. She’d never been up the steps before. The only place she’d ever been was the medical office, which was off the pool area downstairs.

  This was a new world. The house was very nice, and very clean. Something moved and scared her before she realized it was just a fluffy white cat. She didn’t know Father had a cat. But there it was, clearly comfortable, but perhaps confused as to why a stranger was in the house.

  Spotting a small brown blanket on the piano bench, Ariel picked it up and managed to weave it around her body, tying it at her waist. The cat regarded her the entire time with curiosity but no real concern.

  “Hi there, kitty.” Ariel moved a few steps past the cat. It seemed wary of her clumsy gait.

  Looking through the front door filled her with more dread as another short series of stairs awaited her. But she quickly formulated a plan as she twisted the lock on the front door and shimmied her way across the threshold.

  At the top of the steps, she sank down to her backside and started to shuffle down the steps on her butt. It was much easier and more comfortable than it was going up, although these concrete steps were very coarse on the edges and dug into her hands with each slide down.

  Pulling herself upright again at the bottom, she eyed the large white fence that bordered the entire property. At first, this didn’t seem significant, but after a moment she didn’t see how she was going to get out.

  Approaching the gate, she eyed the lock, not sure how to open it. There was a keypad with eight numbers on it along with a red and a green button. Her only hope was that one of those buttons opened the gate at the end of the sidewalk.

  With some trepidation, she pushed the green button. The gate opened.

  All the excitement she’d considered wasn’t even close to what she was feeling as she edged off the sidewalk and onto the street. She stopped to adjust the brown blanket wrapped around her body like a dress, making sure it was not going to fall off.

  A shock of disorientation hit her as a car sped up the street toward her. The motion was hard to understand. It was fast, dizzying, and confusing. Colors of sky and grass soared through her vision. She stumbled and fell backwards, falling hard on her backside, hitting her head on the grassy area near the property.

  In a bit of a swirled daze, she heard someone get out of the car and shuffle over to her. A man exclaimed, “Holy shit!”

  She started to freak out, thinking he saw her tail. She looked up. “Jake?”

  “Ariel?” He hovered over her, but didn’t move right away. He seemed as shocked as she felt. With a shake of his head, he quickly bent over to help her up. “What’re you doing?”

  She steadied herself when he handed her the last crutch. “I’m running away.”

  He laughed.

  “Don’t laugh at me, Jake.”

  “I’m sorry. I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

  “What’re you doing here?”

  His face turned more serious. “I came here to beat the hell out of your father and force him to tell me who has Ashley and where.”

  “Huh?”

  “The man who tried to kill us—he’s got Ashley. He’s going to kill her, and probably me too, eventually.”

  Ariel nodded. “I believe you.”

  Jake nodded his head up at the house. “When’s he coming home?”

  “Not for hours.”

  “I’m going in.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because there’re secrets in there, there has to be.”

  Ariel hadn’t considered anything like that. She just wanted to get out and get away. “I never considered it.”

  “I have.” He started toward the gate, then turned and looked back at her.

  He walked over. “Hold those crutches.” He then swooped her off her feet and carried her t
hrough the gate, up the sidewalk, and into the house, where he put her back down standing, waiting for her to get the crutches situated.

  “Thanks.” It took her a moment to regain the breath he stole from her. There was something electric in his touch and something intoxicating in his smell that the water must have hidden.

  He immediately started looking around, searching for something. She didn’t know what to look for, or where to look, but she moved toward the desk and saw the pile of mail. It didn’t look that interesting, so she just moved on to a notepad with some things sketched out in a language she didn’t understand.

  Jake had gone downstairs, and she was starting to feel a little weird. No one but Father or his colleagues had ever been down there, and for some reason it bothered her that Jake was down there without her. Not that there was anything down there that no one could see, it was just odd. She’d never felt anything like it before.

  She was just about to move on from the desk when something caught her eye. It didn’t look like much at first—it was just a sketch of a mermaid tail on a piece of tan paper. To the untrained eye, it wouldn’t mean much, but to her it was interesting because it wasn’t the same kind of tail she had. It had a different shape. The fin was more robust. For some reason she wished she had that tail. It looked like it might cut through the water with more thrust, more speed. She couldn’t stop staring at it.

  * * *

  Jake

  Jake stepped into a clean room the likes of which he’d never seen outside a hospital. It was what one might expect to see in a typical operating room. But as he approached the rear of the large space, something hanging on a rack caught his eye.

  He approached the piece of material and touched it. It was grayish blue, heavy, and thick. It resembled dolphin skin. It looked like Ariel’s tail, only slightly grayer. It felt odd in his hands, like skin but also like rubber. It was just a foot long piece, perhaps six inches wide.

  He moved on, looking through a few other hanging samples of similarly constructed materials. He didn’t know what to make of any of this. Perhaps they were patches in case Ariel was hurt. She did say she’d been injured before and needed surgery. Perhaps this was some sort of skin-graft material.

  When he swung open a tall steel cabinet in the corner, he saw something even more confusing. Complete mermaid tails of various sizes and conditions. They were all similar but not quite identical. There was always some slight variation in each one. Exactly what this meant, he didn’t know. Maybe they were like cocoons. Maybe as Ariel grew she shed her tail, like a snakeskin.

  No matter how much he tried to rationalize what he was seeing in this room, something in his innermost being knew it was all wrong. But as he slid the drawer open on the tall blue filing cabinet, he didn’t expect to see what he did.

  * * *

  Ariel

  Ariel combed through the drawers of the desk and didn’t find anything interesting. It just seemed like everyday stuff, bills, mail, and a flier about a charity dinner at the Starfish Lounge.

  She looked up at the clock and didn’t realize so much time had lapsed. But when Jake came running up the steps, she turned to face him. “What is it?”

  He didn’t hesitate. “We gotta go now.”

  He just scooped her up in his arms and started taking her out of the house. She was barely able to hold onto the crutches as he hurried through the door and down the sidewalk.

  He stuffed her into the car so quickly she hit her head on the roof. Jake apologized several times, hurried back around the car, and tore away from the scene.

  Chapter 29

  Jake

  Jake wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible after realizing he’d probably tripped some sort of alarm when he kicked that door in.

  “What’s wrong?” Ariel asked. “Why’d we have to leave so fast? I think I’m getting sick.”

  He tossed a file onto her lap. “Ariel, it’s all fake.”

  “Huh?” She opened the file.

  “It’s all fake. You’re not a mermaid, you’re a human.”

  “What are you talking about?” She started looking through the files.

  Jake laughed. “It’s all a freaking joke. You’re just a person. You’re a regular person stuffed into a synthetic mermaid tail.”

  Though she was seeing the same thing he did, he could tell she was having trouble. She threw the file back at him, sending the papers flying all over the car. “Is this some sort of joke?”

  “Yes, Ariel, it’s all a joke. It’s a huge lie.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You saw it, it’s right there.”

  “That doesn’t prove anything. It’s just pictures of my tail.”

  “What? What more proof do you need?”

  He glanced away from the road to see the look on her face. It held a twisted expression of unimaginable confusion and grief. It was the look of finding out your entire existence was a lie.

  “Ariel, I know this is hard.”

  She picked up a few pieces of the file and started shuffling through the papers again. “You don’t know anything.”

  He pulled off the road and drove toward the water, pulling onto the sand under the pier. “You’re right, I don’t know how you feel. I can’t even imagine.”

  She started to cry. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “I don’t either. But they’re liars, and murderers, and probably kidnappers.”

  She looked up from the papers. “Kidnappers?”

  “Yes, Ariel. If you’re not a mermaid, that means you had a mother, and a father. And who the hell knows who these people are or how they got you, or what their game is. But rest assured, I’m going to find out.”

  She pulled the blanket off her tail and touched her skin. “I’m a monster.” The few tears in her eyes burst forth a huge flow.

  “Hey, you’re not a monster. Why would you say that?”

  “When I was a little girl I read a book called Frankenstein. I loved that book. I read so many different versions. Every one I could find. I’m a monster, just like the monster in the books.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  She punched her tail. “I was cooked up in a lab. I’m a freak.” She punched herself over and over until Jake reached across the seat and stopped her.

  He held her shaking wrist. “Ariel, look at me.” She reluctantly met his eyes. “You’re not a monster, you’re not a freak. You’re a human being and you know what that means.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

  “It means you don’t have to die.”

  She searched the dashboard of the car and placed her hand on her belly. “My baby.”

  “Yes, your baby.”

  She looked at him. “But if I’m just a person, how did I become pregnant?”

  “He must have done that in the lab too.”

  “I feel sick. I don’t even know who I am.”

  Jake thought out loud. “I wonder what your name is.”

  “Huh?”

  He looked at her. Her giant blue eyes looked so sad and glassy. “Your real name. It’s probably not Ariel.”

  She leaned back into the seat. “Everything about me is a lie. It shouldn’t surprise me that my name is fake too.” She shrugged. “Who am I?”

  “I don’t know.” He sighed. “But we need a plan. I have to get Ashley back somehow.”

  “What’re you going to do?”

  “Not me. We.”

  “What can I do?”

  He met her eyes. “I only have one thing they want.”

  Ariel shook her head. “No, I can’t go back there. If I go back, they’re going to kill me. They’re going to steal my baby and kill me.”

  He reached out and took her hand. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

  She sighed. “Please don’t.”

  “But you’re going to have to trust me.”

  She nodded slowly. “I do, I trust you.”

  “Okay then…now
let me come up with a plan.”

  Chapter 30

  Ashley

  Ashley had never been in restraints. When her parents died, she felt like she’d been mentally restrained, unable to break free of the pain that haunted her for a long time. She’d always thought it was because she was at such an impressionable age when it happened. She was not mentally equipped to deal with such a tragic event.

  There were so many what-ifs that day. She was supposed to go on that trip to New York with them. Her dad was just going on business, as he often did. He was a big executive with a pharmaceutical agency, so he often jetted around the world. This trip, like a few before it, he had the opportunity to take the entire family. They were going to see a Broadway show and visit the big museums. It was going to be great.

  In the days leading up to the trip, Ashley started to not feel well. There was a cold virus running around her school, her number came up at the most inopportune time. She wasn’t feeling well enough to travel, and they all agreed it was better for her to stay behind with her grandparents.

  While watching the chaos develop on television, it never occurred to her that death would come for her family. She was worried, but so was everyone else that day. Even at eleven, she knew the chances they were in that spot at that time were remote. She had no way of knowing that they had gone to Windows on the World for breakfast. It all started to unravel when Grandma Nelly could not get either of her parents on the phone…and Dad always had his phone on him for work.