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Summer Present

On what seas floor is he doing this!?" I asked. "You can't be expected to be married without proper preparations."

"Not on his sea floor, my fiancé's. He is the one that demanded it from father.  His reasoning is he can't stand to be parted from me for any longer. So father demanded that I fulfill his wishes."

"He didn't so bothered by the prospect of another couple years, heck fifty now I guess. So what changed?"

"I told my betrothed the truth about Arthur."

"You what!?" I said, and my heart sank to the depths of my chest.  She wanted me to keep him safe so she could place him in danger by telling the prince?

"I confessed to everything, except the deal I made with the sea witch because you know what would happen if I did.  But I promised to give up my love for Arthur and marry the prince in exchange for returning Arthur home.  And after that, I would be all his. But that's wasn't good enough, he needed more.  He needed assurance."

"Arthur is not going to take this well," I replied.

"Of course he isn't, he's going to be furious. He'll kill himself trying to stop it. And that's why he can't find out!"

"Ray, I am done with this game. How am I going to keep Arthur from finding out?"

"Simple, you don't tell him. Humans are loving but unaware creatures, he isn't going to know what goes on in the ocean. And even if he did, I was engaged when I met him, and he knew that this was always going to happen from the start."

"Did he know that would end with you leaving him forever?" I asked. "Because surely he hopped, in the end, you would be with him."

Ray didn't respond.

"Right, because you didn't discuss it like you didn't explain anything about our culture, and the part about harvesting human souls for sport.

"Well, at least I didn't fall for a human that  never loved me!" Ray snapped, and I went cold inside, and I began to retreat into myself.

Ray let out a long sigh from behind me, "I'm sorry Marina, I shouldn't have said that.  I never met that human, Ellie, Elizabeth, whatever her name was but the story you told, there must have been some part of her that loved you. At least I hope so because you gave up everything for her.  Even in death she still managed to curse you. Father lured you back on land with the news of her passing.

"Indeed," I replied.

"Well anyways, you can return home if you want. I have an antidote at least a temporary one, that will let your body return to the sea. At least for a short time, but it might take more of the sea from you than has already been taken when it has worn off."

"She held out her hand, and I saw it contained a glass vile with a green bubbling liquid inside."

"Here take it," she said and tossed it to me, and I caught it. Whatever the liquid was it was green and bubbled behind the glass."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a temporary antidote to turn human form to merperson. It will let you return to your original form until the next full moon."

"But what's in it?" I repeated.

"Something father had my mother brew for him. Who knows what's actually in it. But it does smell like starfish guts."

I made a face, "Well you know how I feel about potions brewed by witches," I replied dryly.  "I am not exactly thrilled by the notion of them. Especially now."

"Well take it or keep it, I thought you would like a chance to return home, even if it is only for a little while ."

"Since I never can return home due to the contract I made with the sea witch Athame? Because to return home, I must cultivate a pearl."

"But of course father may change his mind and allow you to come back home after all, even without a pearl..."

"But how many human deaths will he torture me with before he relents, because I'm not waiting till that happens. I know what I have to do."

"What do you have to do?" Ray asked. "Because I hope it isn't what I'm thinking."

"It isn't what you're thinking. I'm not that hopeless yet," I lied. "But I would have to consider taking the potion if it could worsen this curse because it's been getting worse recently all on its own, no potions involved. My hunger is getting worse, and your voices are getting louder each time you or one of the sisters call me.  And my eyesight isn't what it used to be at night."

Ray knitted her eyebrows together and gave me a worried frown.  "Have you told father of these recent symptoms?"

"I haven't spoken to him since he poisoned me, so no."

"I'll report these symptoms father myself then," Ray replied,  "and maybe he'll undo the poison for good, and you can return, for good and not just for a day."

"We both know that is unlikely," I replied.

"Right...But if you do decide to join me on my wedding day, do come here at the first brink of dawn, and call for the sisters. Mr. Walters has been instructed to let you have the day to do as you pleased."

"And after the wedding, I have one final request that you bring Arthur to me when I am a queen, and I will return him home, and after that no more requests sister.

I nodded, "Yes no more requests. There's only so many of you secret human lovers I can hide.

Ray let out a week laugh before she began to glide towards me. But instead of stopping when she reach me , she walked past me and into the ocean, before she dove beneath the waves.

With her gone, I stood at the edge of the water and watched the waves tumble over and over themselves in the ocean, for a brief moment, before I turned and began to head back in the direction of the church.  While I walked, I slipped the vile into the pocket of my cardigan with the mermaid scale.

When I finally returned I found both boys were preoccupied. Arthur sat at the table shoving a particularly large sandwich into his mouth, while Tim sat in one of the many chairs looking through a couple of pieces of paper. His floppy hat obscured most of his face.

They both looked up when I walked in.

"Told you she should be back," Arthur said, mouth full of sandwich.  He pointed to where I  stood in the door frame.

"Sorry I had to go to the bathroom," I said, while I avoided meeting Arthur's gaze. If  he only knew...

Tim shuffled the pieces of paper in his hand leaned back into the chair.  "Good because I wanted to say something to her when she got back. Say something to you both."

Arthur and I both exchanged looks before focusing our attention back onto Tim.

"So back in July of 1970 I believe there were s group of people that knew about the mermaids.  I think that they were experts on them. Their last name was Luce." 

My heart skipped a beat in my chest. The Luces as in Elizabeth, Thomas, Gabe, Jed, and River Luce? 

Arthur beckoned for us to join him at the chairs. Sandwich in had Arthur moved to sit at his left while I moved to sit at his right.

"What makes after their seeming departure,  the attacks, or at least what I believe are mermaid attacks, went back up again. Not to the same levels, they were when before Elizabeth's disappearance, but, much higher than when the Luces were in the area. It seems after Elizabeth was found, they packed up everything and left. Something that the police weren't too thrilled about because they wanted to at least take her statement.

"Well that's strange, and all mate, but do you might think it's a coincidence that the mermaids stopped coming around after her disappearance? I mean, I'm sure there were search parties in the water looking for Elizabeth, I'm sure they would cv be less inclined to try and snatch some fellows when all eyes are on the sea."

"No, search parties don't deter the mermaids.   Pretty sure some would-be-rescuers were lured to their dooms.  There's reports of whole search parties not returning. There were several more disappearances in Portmore before this, but the attacks didn't stop. They continued. Not all of these attacks ended in disappearances though.  For example, there is a higher number of boys were being committed to state hospitals, than the national average. Madness and depression to the point of being a suicide is a common symptom of survivors of mermaid attacks.  Cases of "madness" spiked June 1970, there were all these reports of people just acting  off the walls, but these reports became less frequent in the newspapers after Elizabeth came back."

"So you saying this girl satisfied whatever was causing these number to spike...?" I asked

Tim's eyes wandered over towards me, and he gave me a curious look. Before he focused his blue eyes onto Arthur.

"But what makes make you think it was her family in particular." Arthur asked.

"I have a list of hunter family names and Luce was one of them."

"Still not buying it mate," Arthur replied. Luce is not the most uncommon last name in the world.

Tim shrugged and walked over to the wall and added the newspaper article to the other papers on the wall.

"Marina are you working tomorrow?" he asked.

"No, Mr. Walters is giving me a day off."

"Okay tomorrow, you and I are going to the Luce's."

"But the Luce family aren't here they left after Elizabeth came back."

"Well there house they lived in is still here, but how did you know they never came back?"

"I assumed since you said that they left town after Elizabeth, that they wouldn't want to come back to a town with such horrible memories. I was only guessing!" I said hurriedly.

Tim gave me a reassuring smile.  "I'm only asking because I was wondering if Mr. Walters ever said anything about the Luces to you.  The would only confirm my suspicion that they are, in fact, mermaid hunters.

"Say.."Arthur said and turned towards me.

I quickly shook my head at him, afraid he was about the mention the cave and his near-drowning experience.

He must have been about to, because his eyes widened, and he clamped his mouth firmly shut.

Tim jumped up from his seat abruptly and turned to face us with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Okay, what's going on?

"Huh?" Arthur and I said in unison.

"The looks that the two of you keep exchanging."

My eyes began to shift towards Arthur before I realized that maybe it wouldn't be the best idea at this moment.

"Well mate, we're exchanging looks because the things you say are a bit off."

"We're talking about mermaids here. Of course, all the things I say are going to sound off!"

"Well," Arthur wobbled back and forth in his seat. "The thing about hunters is a little far out there, even in a world of mermaids."

"So...you can accept the fact that mermaids exist, but not the fact that mermaid hunters exist?

Arthur shrugged, "I mean, have you seen those monsters?  How could a mere human hunt them?  Unless you were able to kill one yourself."

"Not even close. That's what I'm trying to figure out, how to defeat them.  Anyways back to the topic at hand. I think that if we go to the Luce's old place, we may be able to uncover a little about the mermaids. At least it won't hurt to look around a bit.

"But it's been fifty years. You really think that there would be anything left in that house?" I asked.

"It couldn't hurt," Tim replied, "So are you in or not?"