“Cut,” someone called, then the lights went dim.
I stood in the darkness, the stars twinkling overhead. The crowd cheered the students and professor for their discovery. My family, my friends, my Kadan. I took a step toward the crowd. What would—what could—I say? This was sacrilege. They would go there and dig up the ghosts that haunted me. What would they find in the remains? What other clues would the clever young archeologist uncover? She looked at the bracelet, her eyes full of wonder. I wondered how she would feel if I told her that I was the one who’d made it. It had been a gift for my sister, Merlilium, whose diseased body I’d burned after gently crossing her hands on her chest, adjusting the bracelet so it shimmered in the sunlight. It amazed me to think the bracelet had withstood the fire, but that was the gift of mer metalworking, ores mined from the deep and crafted with skill. My kind had once been masters of the craft.
I stood in the darkness and debated. My past had collided with the present. Would the bodies yield the secrets of the deep? Did I have a duty to protect them? If so, what could I do? But more so, my mind bent on the here and now. Cooper was in the hospital. He was real and alive and near as I could tell, alone.
I took a deep breath and turned down the beach.
Chapter 11: Cooper
“Are you certain, Cooper? I can admit you to residential care. You’d have someone with you twenty-four hours a day. In the very least, let us arrange for hospice to visit you. There is a very good, supportive team of people in Chancellor,” Doctor Asher said.
I lay in the hospital bed staring at the television. The local news had just aired a report of archeological finds on an island in Lake Erie just off the coast from Chancellor. When I was a child, I’d found a cave in the cliff side down shore. Within, there had been evidence that the place had been inhabited long ago. There were paintings on the walls of the cave, spirals and images of creatures that looked something like mermaids…no, lumpeguin, as Kate had called them. I clicked off the TV.
“No residential care,” I said.
“The hospice? Please? For me?”
“Fine.”
“I’ll have the nurses draw up some papers before you go,” Doctor Asher said then paused. “It’s time to start being careful,” he said, setting his hand on mine. His blue eyes looked sorrowfully at me. He shook his head. “It’s coming,” he whispered. “Your white blood cell count is dangerously low. Stay close to home. Start saying your good-byes.”
To whom? I wondered, but the image of Kate laughing, her golden hair shimmering, danced through my mind.
“Go ahead and get dressed. They’ll bring you up a wheelchair. Someone at the nurses’ station already called you a taxi.”
“Thank you.”
Doctor Asher shook his head. “Are you certain about the DNR?” he asked, looking down at the papers I’d signed. If I stopped breathing, if my heart stopped, it would be over. I didn’t want to prolong my body’s torture.
“Yes,” I said absently then gazed out the window. The moon was a sliver in the sky. How beautiful it looked against the dark blue tapestry of the night.
Doctor Asher nodded. “Please call the on-call number if you need anything.”
“I will. Thank you, doctor.”
He nodded slowly then stopped at the door. He turned back and looked at me. “Good-bye, Cooper.”
I smiled at him. “Good-bye, doctor. Thank you for everything.”
He inclined his head then left.
* * *
“And they put broccoli in the goulash, can you believe that? They called it primavera something or other. Nasty,” a chatty nurse’s aide was saying as she pushed me to the curb where the taxi waited. Taking me by the arm, like I was some kind of invalid, she helped me into the taxi. “Have a great night,” she called, slamming the door shut behind me.
I sat in silence as the diver guided the car into the night. Titus Medical was located in the business district of the nearby town of Waterville. Chancellor was just a short drive away.
The cab driver, sensing I was in no mood to talk, kept his eyes on the road and his mouth shut as we drove toward the lakeshore. The land surrounding Chancellor was covered in vineyards. There was a microclimate formed by lake-effect weather that created the perfect condition for growing grapes. The Chancellor wine industry was huge. The college even had a program in their culinary department for future wine-makers, funded by the Moore family and their massive estate, the Blushing Grape vineyards. In the autumn, when the grapes were ripe for harvest, the air all around Chancellor was perfumed with the smell of grapes. I had missed that smell, missed autumn in Chancellor. Now, it seemed, I would never see another fall.
I closed my eyes and tipped my head back against the seat. I had gone through all the stages they said I would experience…the grief, the rage, the denial, and now, the begrudged acceptance. Just because I’d accepted my end was coming didn’t mean I liked it. I would never have a wife. I would never have children. There would never be another person from my family to live on Juniper Lane. I was the last of us. And my time was nearly done.
A tear slid down my cheek.
I didn’t want to die.
* * *
I fumbled with my keys a few minutes only to discover that I’d actually left my house unlocked. Thankfully, Chancellor was a relatively safe town. When I clicked on the lights, I was surprised to see my backpack sitting inside the door. How had that gotten there?
Everything was just as I left it, my amber-colored medicine bottles lining the window ledge, my water cup sitting beside the oven. But then I noticed a piece of paper lying on the table. I sat down and picked it up. It was a note from Kate.
My hand trembled as I read it. I could only imagine the pain and frustration I had caused her when I hadn’t shown up. Clearly, she’d come by the house to see if I was there. Was she the one who’d left the backpack? Had she walked down the beach looking for me?
I crushed the note in my hand and pressed it against my forehead. My whole body shook with frustration. Such a beautiful woman, such a lovely spirit living inside her, and I had hurt her. I knew better. I’d just wanted something I couldn’t have.
I lay my head down on my arms and wept.
Chapter 12: Kate
I counted the room numbers as I walked down the hallway of the ICU. Twelve, eleven, ten, nine…there was eight. I took a deep breath and entered the room slowly, quietly, to find…no one.
“Oh, sorry, hun,” an aide told me as she stripped down the bed. “Are you looking for Mister McGuire?”
Was I? I didn’t even know his family name. His grandmother was a Pearl, but Cooper would have his father’s name. I didn’t even know what it was. “Cooper…”
“I took him down to the taxi a while ago,” she said then whispered, “the nurses are running behind tonight, slow about finishing up his discharge papers. They should have told you he’d already left.” She was about to say more but stopped abruptly when someone entered the room behind me.
“He’s gone already?” a woman.
“Sure is,” the aide said.
“But he’s still in the system. God, they’re so slow processing paperwork,” the woman behind me grumbled.
“Uh-huh,” the aide said in a know-it-all tone as she pulled the sheets off the bed.
“Are you a family member?” the woman asked me.
Feeling like my mind was pulling in a million different directions, I turned and looked at her. “Sorry?”
“Mister McGuire, are you a relative of his?”
I shook my head. “N-no, we’re friends.”
The woman tapped a manila envelope in the palm of her hand as she considered. “Well,” she said, looking at the envelope, “he was supposed to have these before he left. Seems like someone fouled up somewhere. I could mail them, but he should have them sooner. Will you be seeing him tomorrow? I know it’s late now.”
“I can take them to him,” I said. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew I w
asn’t angry anymore. All I wanted was to see Cooper, to make sure he was all right.
“It’s not exactly protocol,” the woman said then, “but you promise you’ll get it to him?”
I nodded.
“You didn’t hear that, Deloris,” the woman said to the aide.
“Hear what, hun?”
The woman smiled. “Thank you,” she said, then handed the envelope to me and turned and walked away.
I looked at the return address. It was stamped with an address for the local hospice.
“Have a good night,” I called to the aide.
“You too,” she called.
I turned and exited the room, clutching the envelope tightly against my chest. I walked down the narrow halls of the hospital, feeling like a zombie, and rode the elevator back to the ground floor. I slid into the driver’s seat of my car, closing the door behind me. I stared at the envelope. It wasn’t sealed. Mermaids were inherently curious, but something deeper drove me. I needed to know.
I opened the envelope.
Inside, I saw Cooper’s name assigned to a hospice worker and details documenting the care he could expect in the coming days.
I wasn’t the only one who was dying.
* * *
I pulled my car into my driveway and clicked off the lights. It was three o’clock in the morning. Cooper would be sleeping. I left the envelope on the seat of my car and headed down the boardwalk to the beach.
There, the lake waters lapped lazily against the shoreline. I gazed up at the moon. It hung in the sky like a gem. I pulled off my clothes. I felt detached from my movements. It was like I was watching myself from above. I took everything off and walked, naked, to the shoreline. I didn’t pause like I usually did, to let the waves kiss my toes and nothing more, but I pressed into the water. The lake was cool. I pressed forward until the waves engulfed me up to my chin. It had been nearly three hundred years since I’d transformed into what I truly was.
I dunked my head below the waves and felt the lake embrace me. It enveloped my hair, my ears, hugging me like a long-lost friend. I swam, stretching out my arms in the cool water, kicking my legs. A little more. A little more. Underwater, I opened my eyes, letting my human vision, which saw only the darkness of the deep, fade away. Slowly, my eyesight reformed into the vision of a mermaid’s. Light and color flashed so brightly that it nearly startled me. The black water crystalized into a haze of color and light. The massive lake fish swam close to me, curious to find me below the waves. The iridescent colors of their scales shimmered like rainbows.
I opened my mouth and inhaled deeply, letting the lake water filter into my lungs and with it, the oxygen that was the breath of life. The small gills behind my ears opened, and I inhaled and exhaled the water, becoming one with the lake once more.
I turned in the water then and looked at my legs. Kicking the long limbs one last time, I closed my eyes and felt the swirl of mana magic surround me. A soft caress, like my legs had been wound with a scarf, enveloped me. My legs tingled, a prickly—but not painful—feeling like electricity flooded the lower half of my body.
When I opened my eyes again, my legs were gone. In their place was my emerald-colored tail, the tips trimmed with glimmering gold.
I laughed, the sound bubbling upward. Overhead, the stars and glimmering moon looked distorted against the water’s surface, casting long shimmering streaks of silver. Wondrous.
I opened my arms wide, feeling the water surround me, then turned and dove deep, searching for the lake bottom. I’d forgotten how fast I was, my tail pushing me powerfully forward, driving me through the waves. I swam over rises and around boulders. I spotted a sunken ship in the distance, a remnant of the great war between the Europeans, now covered in algae and zebra mussels. I swam deep, the bottom of the lake calling me. There, long fingers of tall seaweed grew from the bottom of the lake. I darted around them, laughing as I passed a massive old turtle who looked surprised to see me. They, like us, had lives that spanned decades. Did he remember my kind? Was I the first mermaid he’d seen in years?
I swam toward the rocky crevice that ran just north of Chancellor. As I moved along, I saw the crevice was full of beach glass. Hundreds of shimmering pieces lay there waiting to be tossed up and washed to the rocky shoreline. There were heaps of pieces, blues, greens, purples, ambers, white, and more red than a jewelry maker could ever dream of. I swished my tail hard and passed it by, pushing out deeper into the lake, gliding toward the surface. I leapt out of the water, catapulted by my long tail. I danced with the waves, diving in and out of the water, as I moved quickly toward my destination.
It didn’t take me long to reach the island. As I neared the shore I slowed and looked, being careful to keep my body hidden under the waves. The island was quiet. It was clear that people had been there. The college had posted a sign at the head of the island declaring it theirs. There was some sort of plastic equipment shed near the sign. The brush had been mowed low. I circled the island, looking for any sign or sound of humans, but there was nothing.
Slowly, I swam toward shore. I stopped when my tail touched the rocky bottom of the lake then closed my eyes, willing myself back to human form. Again, I was treated with that same warm feeling. It didn’t take long before I felt the swish of water between my legs.
Having been human for so long, I was conscious of the fact that I was naked as I walked toward the shore. I hoped the professor and his crew hadn’t decided to camp out all night. They’d be in for quite a sight…and Alice would no doubt accuse me of throwing myself at her new mark. But there was no boat. There was no one.
When I reached the shoreline, I had to pause. It was the same place, but so many years had passed. The trees were taller, the banks eroded from so many hard winters. Taking a deep breath, I crossed the shore and walked up the narrow slope onto the island. A path to the old settlement had been cleared. It amused me to think that the scientists were following the exact path we’d used. It was almost like the island had told them where to go. I followed the path to its end.
The excavation site had been marked off. Moonlight cast enough glow that I could see opened graves which were covered with a tarp. The wind whipped across the island, chilling my skin as my wet hair dripped down my back. Shivering, I walked over to the unearthed grave and pulled the tarp back. They had uncovered two bodies.
From the way the arms were arranged, I recognized Merlilium’s body at once, her bracelet taken from her. To her side was the body of an orphaned mermaid, Kisla, who’d adored my sister. I’d laid her to rest at my sister’s side, wanting her to go into the afterlife with someone she loved. Still buried, on the other side of my sister, was Kadan.
Grief wracked me, and I fell to my knees. Tears threatened, but I drowned them. A terrible moan escaped my lips. It echoed into the night’s sky. I lay down on the earth, pressing my cheek against the dirt, imagining I was lying once more in my Kadan’s arms. I was supposed to die with them. I’d been meant to die with them. I shouldn’t have lived. I shouldn’t have survived. I dug my hands into the earth, clutching soil and grass as I moaned in heart-wrenching agony. I could die right then. I could end it all, let the last tear fall, let the spark of life leave me. I opened my eyes and looked at my sister’s skeleton. She was my younger sister, taken before she’d ever loved, or had children, or had even lived a life…much like Cooper.
I closed my eyes and listened to the waves lap onto the shore. I didn’t want to live anymore. I didn’t belong to this world. My world was long forgotten. With certainty in my heart, I knew it was time to end it.
But there was one thing I needed to do first.
I turned and kissed the earth, kissing my Kadan, then rose.
Walking back to the shore, I dove under the waves and headed toward Chancellor.
Chapter 13: Cooper
A knock on the door woke me. I hadn’t even bothered to crawl into bed. I’d crashed on Gran’s couch, too miserable to move. When I opened my eyes, waves of
nausea hit me.
There was a knock again.
I inhaled deeply, trying to push the sickness back inside me. It wasn’t even dawn yet. Who in the world could it be?
Rising on wobbling knees, I went to the door. In the dim light, I saw the silhouette of a woman standing there. I opened the door.
“Kate?” Her hair was dripping wet and she had an envelope clenched in her hand. She pushed the envelope toward me.
“I went to the hospital…” she began then paused. When she looked at me, the light in the kitchen caught the deep sapphire hues in her eyes. She looked sad. No, she looked something beyond sad. She had the strangest expression on her face. She looked at the envelope.
I took it from her, seeing the name of the hospice on the envelope. I slid the papers out, seeing what she, no doubt, had already discovered.
“Will you come with me?” she asked.
“You’re all wet,” I stammered.
She smiled, dug into her pocket, and pulled out something, handing it to me.
I opened my hand.
Placing her hand in mine, she set something in my palm.
I opened my hand to see that it was filled with red beach glass. “I thought you said it was rare,” I stammered stupidly.
“Not if you know where to look.”
I set the envelope and beach glass on the table. I turned to grab my jacket, but the nausea wracked me. Uncontrollably, I rushed to throw up into the sink. My hands clutched the side of the white porcelain basin as I wretched over and over again. If I hadn’t felt so miserable, I probably would have died from embarrassment.
With my eyes closed, I heard the refrigerator door open followed by a snap as she opened a can of soda. I then heard the cupboard.
“Here,” she said, after my vomiting had subsided.
I opened my eyes to see her standing with a glass of ginger ale in one hand and a napkin in the other. I took the soda from her and sipped slowly, wiping my mouth.
“Will any of these help?” she asked, picking up the medicine bottles.
Falling in Deep Collection Box Set Page 67
