Marker: 10,789 reads and 985votes

(Published 3-16-2019)
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Summer Present

"You think we should off him?" I repeated his words back to him, while I stared down at him from his place on the steps of the church.

"You know, as in kill, murder, those sort of things."

"I know what it means," I crossed my arms over my chest. "But why do you think we should kill Tim? He's helping; in fact, he just left to go buy you your human food."

"Bloody hell Marina, he's a mermaid hunter! He's got all kinds of nasty things plastered to the walls of his little mermaid murder church. Have you seen what he has up on those walls? He's s danger to you and...your sister. No wonder you told me not to tell him you're a mermaid."

He was still referring to Ray as "my sister," instead of by her name.

"Trust me he poses very little danger to us. He has no intention of killing a mermaid. In fact, he is not trained at all. He just found a box full of mermaid hunting equipment from his dad. He doesn't know what he is doing, something he repeatedly likes to tell me for your knowledge!"

"I say we don't risk it. Bugger could be pretending that he isn't one and then wham!" Arthur pounded his fists on his palm. "Your sister is dead, you're dead, and I'm dead because I went after the git because he murdered the both of you, and then he kills me! You're lying about what you are, so what's to say he isn't lying about what he is?"

"Okay so say he is a mermaid hunter," I began, "they are some of the most highly trained fighters in the world. They start training the second they are brought into this world on how to kill and not be killed themselves. How would you kill him, unless you are also a secret mermaid hunter, that's when you might have a chance."

"No secret mermaid hunter here, or I would've offed your sister a long time ago."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked and took a step back from him. Maybe his relationship with my sister wasn't what it appeared at all. Maybe it was a good thing that she had abandoned him on land and went swimming back to father.

Author rolled his eyes at me, "I meant that I had lots of opportunities that I could've killed her. Your sister is a daredevil. I'll tell you that. Not to mention when we were in bed-"

"You don't need to finish that," I said cutting him off. "I don't know if it's the same for your humans, but I rather not have what my sister does with you described to me. There are just some things you don't want to picture your siblings doing, and that's one of them."

"Well anyways, back to this murder business. We would have the perfect set up right here, right now if we wanted to kill him. All you have to do is be like. I think I saw a mermaid in the water. Come over to the cliffs, I want you to see it too. He goes over to the cliffs, we give him a shove and we're done with it!"

"We aren't killing him," I said firmly. "If you don't agree, you can find another abandoned church to hide out in and another one of my sisters to take care of you, because I will not harm anyone else if I can help it!"

I turned and began to storm away from him, but I only got a few steps away, before he grabbed my arm.

"Marina," he said softly, "I didn't mean to upset you, I just want to make sure that you and your sister are safe. Please sit."

I let him lead me back to the church where we both took a spot on one of the wooden steps. We sat in silence for what felt like forever, before he finally spoke.

"I'll make a deal with you. If he proves that he can kill a mermaid, and I'm not talking about accidentally shooting or one falling on your knife..."

"Guns can't kill us unless it's a silver bullet, but it needs to hit us directly in the heart."

Arthur cocked his head to the side and made a face like he was thinking of something deep and said, "A little off topic, but are werewolves also real, because can't you kill one with a silver bullet too?"

"Yeah they exist, but you can shoot them anywhere on the body and it could kill them."

"Wait so werewolves do exist?"

"Yep, and so do fairies, leprechauns, vampires, and dragons, although dragons do reside in a different realm than ours, and they rarely cross over. Didn't Ray tell you any of this?"

Arthur shook his head, "Like I said before, she would always change the topic every time I brought up the more magical side of her. So do things like aliens exist too?" I open my mouth to answer him, but he quickly shook his head at me. "Besides the point, if he ends up discovering how to officially kill a mermaid than we off him. Arther stood up and held out his hand to me.

I stared at his hand for what felt like forever. "Okay," I said quietly but did not take his hand. After a while of him standing there with his arm extended, he finally lowered it to his side.

I slowly climbed to my feet and slipped inside the church. All the chairs were where they were the last time, except the one Arthur had fallen asleep on. That one had been knocked on its side.

I walked over to the desk to were there was plenty of pieces of paper pinned up on the wall. Unlike last night, I stopped and began to examine the assortment of paper.

There was a bunch of newspaper clipping of people claiming to have seen a mermaid. There was also a map of Portmore beside these clippings covered in numerous red dots. My eyes lingered on the map before they moved back to the clippings.

One of them caught my eye. It was a newspaper article, but it was not printed out on the same kind of paper as the others. This looked to be printed on a different type of paper, like the kind of paper that humans put into their contractions that printed out words and pictures. It was an article from June 17, 1970. With a sinking feeling, I began to read the article.

Mysterious circumstances still surround the brutal attack on two boys vacationing from out of state. Robert Samson, aged 16, was pronounced dead early this morning at St. August hospital after battling for his life for four days. Michael Herms, 16, was able to recover from his injures to give a statement to the police later yesterday afternoon. He confirmed that James Genson, age 17, who was pronounced dead at the scene from a self-inflicted knife wound, was, in fact, the attacker as originally believed by the police.

The boys were longtime friends, according to Michael's mom, Betty Herms, who had taken the three boys and her younger son, Steve, on a trip to the beach to help her son, Michael, to cope with the death of his late father, George Herms, who passed the previous fall. Betty stated that she was shocked by James' actions, and grieves for Robert and his family, as well as for James' family.

However, it appears that this is not an open and shut case, nor a normal one at that. According to Michael, James' attack was influenced by a mysterious woman that came out of the sea. He stated that this woman wasn't human at all, but a mermaid! He also claimed that two other women were present at the scene during the attack. These two women have yet to be identified, but one appeared to be in league with the supposed mermaid. More on that as this story develops.

My eyes searched for the next newspaper article that told what I knew came next, but they did not find it. Instead, they found the most sensitive parts to cut a mermaid, to get information from her. Magic weapons of legend that were best for killing mermaids, along with how to poison a mermaid through her food supply. Tim had been doing his research, and it was horrifying what he found, because most of what he had found could and did work. I wondered how much of this information came from the leather bound book stitches together with mermaid hair...

"See what I mean!?" Arthur said from behind me. "This is some sick stuff!"

"I agree with you," I answered. "But remember that us mermaids aren't exactly the most saintly beings either. We have done some pretty sick stuff too. We've killed quite a few humans all for the sake of status."

"Like how your kind takes human souls to use for a necklace like the one Ray wore all the time,"Arther said softly.

"Yeah exactly, but once one becomes engaged, we no longer are supposed to collect pearls. But some of us, just can't retire from the hunt. They continue to do it as a pass time. I collected a lot of pearls back in the day, but  I released all the souls I collected a long time ago. And that's why I'm stuck here, because my father wants me to collect at least one pearl so he can marry me off."

"But surely other mermaids saw your collection and can back you up that you can collect pearls, so why do you have to collect one more?"

"My fiancé's, the prince of the North Atlantic, mother wants me to present one pearl before we're wed. We've been engaged for half a century but right when I became engaged, I had made my deal with the sea witch and had released all my pearls."

"Your sister has only been officially engaged to this prince of the South Atlantic for just a little over a year and a half, correct?" Arthur asked.

"Yes and no," I explained. "She was promised to that kingdom long before that, but father wanted to wait and see who would be the one to inherit the throne before the engagement was finalized."

"So before it was finalized she still had to collect these pearls? Is that why she approached me with the intent of making me her next pray?"

"Yes," I lied without turning to look at him.

Arthur sighed in relief, "Well that's a comfort," he said. "So I have been thinking about my next step in this whole I'm-supposed-to-be-dead-thing we got going."

"Go on," I said.

"First, I'm contacting my family that I'm in fact alive, and none of them are going to receive my inheritance. And then I'm going to go back to England. Being away from home during hard times make one realize how great it it to be somewhere familiar.

"Nobody can know that you are alive, at least yet, or my father will come after you!"

"Well the thing is Marina, your father doesn't know who the hell I am, and how would he find out if no one reports me missing because my body family knows I'm alive and well."

I shook my head at him, "Arthur, we have servants on land whose job is to clean up our messes. If I had to guess, one of them has probably sunken your boat already, and is now keeping an eye on your family ."

"They sunk the boat!" he shouted, which caused me to jump slightly since my back was still turned to him. "That was my family's boat, not mine, and that thing was worth millions!? What do you mean they sunk the boat??? What about the staff on board and the captain!?"

"Your captain and staff's memories were probably whipped clean if I had to venture a guess," I answered.

"So they are alright is what you are telling me?" he asked.

"As long as they aren't immune to the memory wiping potions and it was done right away, yes."

"And if they are immuned?"

"They are drowned."

"Bloody hell and it's all my fault if that happens, I was the one that brought your sister on that ship with me-"

The squeak of the floorboard caused us to turn towards the door in surprise. There in the doorway stood a tiny female child with her blonde hair in pigtails.

The girl, knowing she has just been caught, turned to run but Arthur was on her in a flash. He grabbed her arm and prevented her from escaping.

I hurried to the other side of the room to were the little girl had started shaking and sobbing hysterically.

I knelt down beside the girl. She looked vaguely familiar, and it only took my mind  only a moment to place her. Sarah, Tim's sister, she had been at the dock the day I had met Tim.

"Sarah," I said softly, and the girl looked up at me with watery blue eyes, "It's okay, we aren't going to hurt you."

"Why are you in Tim's secret clubhouse?" Sarah said between hiccupping sobs.

"We are Tim's friends, and he's going to be back here really soon so sit here and wait for him with us, and he'll explain everything? Okay?"

The girl nodded, and her breathing gradually became more even, while she calmed down.

I looked up at Arthur, and our eyes met, and I had a feeling we were both thinking the same thing. How much had she heard, and what were we going to do if she heard too much?"