Part of Your Nightmare

by Vera Strange

  Enrique tossed some fish to the dolphins, who gathered in excitement. He patted Lil’ Mermy on the head when he swam up to the side. “Good boy,” he said as the dolphin squeaked and snatched another fish out of the air.

  “He is,” Shelly said, forgetting her worries for a moment. The dolphins had that effect on her. And as much as she hated to admit it, so did Enrique. She could still remember when Lil’ Mermy was born that spring in the aquarium. It was a big deal to have a newborn in captivity. The tiny dolphin baby had grown up and was basically a mischievous teenager now. Well, the dolphin equivalent, anyway.

  “Remember when he stole my brother’s hat?” Enrique said, tossing another fish.

  Shelly giggled. “Oh, I heard about that. He snatched it right off his head, then dragged it through the exhibit to show off his new find.”

  Enrique smiled. “Yeah, my brother wasn’t thrilled about that. He still had the original stickers on it.”

  “Hazards of working at an aquarium,” she said, smiling at the dolphin pod happily munching on their fish snacks. “You know, sometimes I think they’re smarter than us. And they’re definitely more sensitive,” she said, patting Lil’ Mermy. “Just look in their eyes.”

  The dolphin purred and squeaked in appreciation.

  Enrique looked at her. Their eyes met. “That’s so weird,” he said with a lopsided grin. “Thought I was the only one who believed that.”

  “Ha, same,” she said with a smile.

  When Enrique finished feeding them, Shelly led him over to the catwalk that crossed above the tanks, where they sat with their feet dangling over the dolphin exhibit. She looked down at the gloves hiding her webbed fingers. The scarf remained wrapped firmly around her neck.

  He nudged her shoulder. “Hey, really, it can’t be that bad.”

  She sighed. “You have no idea.”

  “Try me,” he said, nudging her again. “Promise I won’t judge. Is it about your parents?”

  She shook her head. “You’ll just call me nerd or fish lover, like everyone else.”

  “Well, I like nerds. Especially ones who are into marine biology.”

  Shelly hesitated. Kendall’s sneering face in the locker room flashed through her head.

  But then she looked at Enrique—his kind eyes, the prominent dimples in his cheeks. He wasn’t like the other kids. Neither of them was. It was refreshing. She felt like he might understand. It seemed worth it to take a chance. Besides, carrying this secret around was making her even more anxious. What made problems unbearable, she decided, was dealing with them alone. That made everything a million times worse. She took a deep breath, feeling her gills flare.

  Her stomach churned with fear, but she forced the words out anyway. “Okay then,” she said, fiddling with her scarf. “I did see something, but it wasn’t a ghost.”

  “Not a ghost?” he asked. “Well, that’s good.”

  “No, it was a witch,” she said. “And not just any witch. It was a sea witch.”

  She waited for him to laugh, call her crazy, or taunt her with names.

  But he didn’t. His eyes met hers. “Wow, a real sea witch? Did she grant you a wish?”

  Shelly’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Wait, how do you know about that?”

  “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the old fairy tales,” he said.

  “Fairy tales?” she asked.

  “Listen, my family goes back a long way in Triton Bay. My grandfather used to tell us all sorts of colorful stories before bedtime when we were kids. He was a fisherman,” Enrique said.

  “And some had to do with a sea witch?” Shelly guessed.

  He nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t realize she was real.”

  “Oh, she’s real, all right,” Shelly said with a shudder. “And she did grant me a wish. It sounds stupid, but I wanted to become the fastest swimmer.” Reflexively, she glanced at the ocean in the distance. It churned with blue-black waves. Was Ursula listening in?

  “That day you fell in the ocean . . . is that when it happened?” he asked.

  She nodded, took a deep breath to still her nerves, then pulled off her scarf, revealing her gills in all their glory. She expected him to recoil in disgust like Kendall had when she’d seen her hand.

  Instead, he studied her neck in fascination. His eyes roved over the slits, and he watched as they flared open when she breathed. He didn’t say anything for a long moment. She began to regret showing him.

  Finally, he spoke up. “I knew you were looking a little green around the gills, but . . .” Shelly rolled her eyes. His voice trailed off, but then his eyes lit up. “Are those what I think they are?”

  “Yup,” Shelly said.

  “Do they . . . work?” he asked.

  “Uh, yeah,” she said, feeling self-conscious. “I can breathe underwater. I found out at swim practice. I still raise my head like everyone else. But I don’t really have to anymore.”

  “This is amazing! You have an actual superpower. That’s so rad!”

  “Yeah, I guess I didn’t think of it that way. And that’s not all.” Shelly pulled off her gloves, then slipped off her shoes and socks. She splayed out her fingers and toes, showing him the delicate webbing that stretched between her digits.

  His eyes widened. “Wow, you weren’t kidding.” Then he grinned and did something unexpected: he ran to the catwalk and dove into the ocean, letting out a joyous yelp as he plunged below the surface.

  Remembering how the wave swept her out to sea the last time she’d been out there, Shelly ran to the catwalk and peered into the frothy waves. There was no sign of Enrique. Her heart hammered. What if he never came up? But then he suddenly broke through the surface.

  “I love nature!” He plunged back under the water and popped up again. “Come on, fish girl!” he called out, splashing water toward her. “Let’s see what you can do!”

  Shelly hesitated. The last time she fell off the catwalk, she’d almost drowned. But that had been due to a big wave. An unnatural one, she realized now. And back then, she didn’t have special superpowers, as Enrique called them. She dove into the water, feeling the brisk crack of the surface breaking around her, then the reassuring touch of seawater on her skin and in her gills. Nothing felt better—or more natural—to her. She swam down deep, then aimed for the surface. She broke through it, almost like a dolphin, leaping out of the water, then diving back down. A wild pod of dolphins swam by and joined her in her underwater revelry, swimming around her and nudging her on. Enrique watched in awe.

  She stayed under for a long time, then surprised him by surfacing behind him. “Boo!”

  He startled, then grinned. “Watching you swim like that—well, it’s incredible.”

  “So you’re not freaked out?” she said. “You don’t think that I’m totally disgusting?”

  “Okay, to be honest,” he said, bobbing in the water beside her, “I am a little freaked out. It’s not like you meet a half-fish, half-human every day, right? But disgusted? Not at all!”

  “Really?” she said.

  He nodded. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Ugh, more like a horrible nightmare,” she snorted.

  “Nightmare? You can breathe underwater. And probably swim faster, too.”

  “Yup, I crushed the other swimmers at the last swim meet and broke the official record.”

  “No joke?”

  She nodded, remembering her victory and feeling excited about it for the first time.

  “When I dove into the pool, it felt like I belonged there. It was the most incredible feeling in the world. . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  “I’m guessing there’s a catch?”

  “It’s a long story,” she said. “Basically, if I don’t help the sea witch steal the trident from the main exhibit, then this will all become permanent. I’ll turn into a fish for all eternity.”

  He blinked at her, taking that in. “Wait . . . the trident? Why would she want that old thing
? You’d better tell me the whole story. Start from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out.”

  They waded out of the ocean, onto the beach, and walked back toward the aquarium, and Shelly told him everything from the beginning: Dropping the cup in the ocean. The nautilus and the nightmare. Making her wish and signing the contract, then waking up with gills. When she finished, he studied her.

  “Wow, that is some story.”

  “You don’t believe me,” she said.

  “Oh no, I believe you,” he said, pointing to her gills. “Anyway, that’s too crazy to make up. Plus, like I said, I’ve heard of the sea witch. I just didn’t realize the stories were real.”

  “Wait, that’s it!” Shelly said excitedly. “Maybe the old stories can help us.”

  “Right, there’s an old myth about her. My grandfather used to talk about it. Something about her haunting sailors who got lost in storms . . .”

  “Anything else?” she said.

  Maybe he knew about a way to help Shelly that didn’t involve the trident at all.

  He shook his head. “It was a long time ago. I’m sorry. I don’t remember very much.”

  “Right,” she said, feeling crushed. “Thanks anyway.”

  “But I have an idea,” he said, perking up. “There’s a special library at the private college with a lot of history about Triton Bay. Old books, original documents. My brother told me about it. Maybe we can do some research.”

  “That’s so nerdy,” she said, nudging him. “And so awesome at the same time.”

  “Totally is,” he said with a thumbs-up.

  She bit her lip. “Maybe we can find out more about the sea witch—she said her name was Ursula—and why she wants that trident so badly. I don’t trust her. Not one bit.”

  He nodded. “And maybe we can find a way to stop this fish transformation from happening to you. I mean, I do love fish and all, but you make a pretty great human—”

  Suddenly, the wind whipped up. A bolt of lightning struck the sea. It flashed with bright emerald light—unnatural light. Shelly waited for the deep rumble of thunder that always accompanied lightning. But instead, cackling rose from the waves. The laughter grew louder.

  “Did you hear that?” Enrique said, casting his gaze out to the ocean. “What was that?”

  Shelly swallowed hard against the sick feeling in her stomach. “That’s the sea witch. She must have been listening to us.”

  They backed away from the water. The laughter died down, drifting away. But it had been unmistakable. And for the first time, Shelly had a witness. That meant something important.

  She wasn’t dreaming.

  This was real.

  “We have to do something,” Enrique said, looking afraid.

  “Yeah.” Shelly studied her hands. “And whatever we do, we have to act fast.”

  “You get it?” Shelly asked Enrique as he appeared by the bike rack at the aquarium the next morning.

  Feeling jittery and scared, she had raced as fast as she could to meet Enrique. When she’d woken up that morning, she’d noticed her skin had started to take on a greenish sheen. Scales had also started to appear on her arms, delicate and smooth like those of a fish. She wore long sleeves to hide them and kept them pulled down over her hands. She didn’t have much time. She felt tense. If Enrique had failed at what he’d set out to do, she didn’t know what else they could try.

  But he winked at her. “Mission accomplished,” he said with a grin, pulling the card out of his back pocket. He handed it over. The ID card showed the pimply face of his brother, Miguel. Uneven bangs flopped into his brown eyes. STUDENT was printed over the crest for Triton Bay College, which featured a trident and a mermaid. “It’s our ticket into the science library at the college, with the special Triton Bay archives,” Enrique went on. “But we need to hurry before my brother notices I took it.”

  “Wait, you didn’t tell him?” asked Shelly.

  “Uh, that I needed to borrow it for my friend who’s turning into a fish because she made a bad deal with a sea witch? Figured the less he knew, the better.”

  Shelly smiled. “Point taken.”

  “Look, he’s working here for a few more hours. So the sooner we get back, the better.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” They got on their bikes, and Enrique took off. Shelly was about to pedal after him when two other figures on bikes appeared in the distance, careering down the path. A minute later, they skidded to a halt next to her, kicking up sand. Shelly stared in shock.

  “Attina? Alana? What’re you doing here?” she asked.

  The twins exchanged conspiratorial glances.

  “Well, you’ve been acting so weird lately,” Alana said with a smirk. “Like how you ran into the locker room all freaked out after the last race. And Kendall said something, too.”

  “Yeah, about you cheating,” Attina added. “Oh, and that maybe you’re turning into a fish.”

  “Yeah, she told us about the webbing on your hands. Which would explain your super swim powers,” Alana added. “It doesn’t take a marine biologist to put it together. I mean, something has to be going on, right?”

  “So we decided to follow you,” Attina said, sharing a guilty look with her twin sister. “I mean, we were worried about you. You’re our friend, right?”

  “But . . . w-what about Kendall?” Shelly stammered. “She hates me now.”

  Attina rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. “Look, we never liked her that much, either. You’re not the only one she bullies and orders around, you know?”

  “And we’re sick of it.” Alana nodded.

  “Plus, we’re your friends,” Attina said. “Friends help friends.”

  Enrique circled back around, skidding up on his bike. He grinned when he saw Shelly with her friends. “Oh, so this is the holdup?” he asked.

  The twins grinned and batted their eyelashes at him.

  Shelly felt a surge of gratitude. “My friends . . . they came to help us.”

  “The more, the merrier,” he said. “We need all the help we can get.”

  * * *

  Triton Bay College was located across the bay from the aquarium, perched on a sheer cliff overlooking the water. Waves swelled up against the steep, rocky incline. Shelly got dizzy just looking down over the side. They parked their bikes, then circled up to brief Attina and Alana on the wild events. “An actual sea witch?” Attina said. “Like in the old stories?”

  “Yup, the old stories aren’t just stories,” Shelly said, pulling off her scarf to show them her gills. “Turns out they’re real.”

  The twins stared in shock, but their shock turned to fascination.

  “Wow, that is so cool,” Alana said. “This is way exciting. Beats swim practice.”

  College students milled around campus, clutching bags stuffed with books and laptops, while seagulls and pelicans swooped overhead, diving past the cliff to the sea in search of food. The college was famous for its marine biology department. Shelly had always dreamed of going there when she got older. Feeling a stab of anxiety, she pulled her sleeves down farther. Never in a million years had she imagined that her first trip to the science library would be . . . like this.

  Enrique glanced around to make sure nobody was watching. The students were too busy rushing to class to notice a few kids in hoodies who looked way too young to be enrolled there. They hurried across campus to the science library, a modern and sleek two-story building.

  Shelly turned to Attina and Alana. “You two wait out here and keep watch, okay?”

  “Text us if anybody gets suspicious,” Enrique added. “Or if you spot my brother. Hopefully he won’t notice that I swiped his ID card and come looking for me.”

  “We’re on it!” the twins said together, settling on a nearby bench. They pulled books from their backpacks and tried to blend in with the students around them.

  Satisfied that their lookouts were in place, Enrique swiped his brother’s ID through the scanner o
n the door. Shelly glanced out at the ocean, where it looked like a storm was brewing. She held her breath, praying the ID card worked. “Come on, unlock,” she said in a low voice, “before Ursula catches on to what we’re doing. She won’t like it.”

  After what seemed like an eternity, the scanner finally beeped and turned green.

  The door unlocked with a click.

  Enrique glanced back at the ocean. “Yeah, that storm doesn’t look natural.”

  “It’s her,” Shelly said ominously.

  “Let’s hurry.” Enrique yanked the door open, and they slipped inside. The artificial cold of air-conditioning hit them. The corridor was well lit, but that made it worse. They weren’t supposed to be in there.

  “This way,” Enrique said, taking her hand. Her scaly green skin was sensitive. A shiver ran up her spine at his touch. He pulled her down the hallway. Signs on the wall directed them toward the archives. They reached a door printed with a sign that read:

  RESTRICTED COLLEGE STUDENTS & STAFF ONLY

  Shelly felt a jolt when she read it. She glanced down the hallway, but it was deserted.

  “Here goes nothing,” Enrique said, swiping his brother’s ID in the scanner.

  It unlocked with a beep and admitted them into the library. They slipped inside, hurrying past the check-in desk before anyone could ask for IDs. Fortunately, the librarian was too busy checking in books to notice. The library was lit with pools of light spilling down from chandeliers overhead. Bay windows spanned the entire wall, overlooking the sea. It was a stunning room built from old wood paneling and filled with rows of shelves, stacked to the ceiling with books.

  A few students, absorbed in research, huddled over their laptops at desks that were piled high with messy stacks of books. A general hush seemed to envelop the room.

  It was eerie. Just the tap-tap-tap of fingers hitting keyboards.