Marker 16,023 reads and 1,676 votes
(Published 9-23-19)

AN; Sorry about the late update. I'm currently struggling through my doctoral program, and been supper busy.

———————————————————-

Summer 1970
"Come on! Take me to this hospital!" I yelled. It felt like I had been standing for an eternity inside this house while I waited for Mr. Walters to use the human contraption called a phone.

Mr. Walters turned to look over his shoulder at me with a phone pressed against his ear, and I thought that I could almost recognize a look of loathing, but real or imagined the look was quickly swept away with a smile.

"I love to oblige you my lady, but I'm afraid I cannot do that until we get in contact with our associates. We had a plan in place for how we might have gotten to the boy, which will be able to be completed much easier with your help. We were planning to executing it tomorrow, but now we will be doing it today."

"Then contact them!" I demanded.

"That's what I'm doing now!...I mean with all due respect, humans aren't as superior as merpeople We need time to plan and organize."

"Ahhh I almost forgot that, I was expecting something superior out of the inferior. Go on, I will wait."

I watched while Mr. Walters fiddled with the human contraction.

"Hello?" a woman said from the other end.

"I would like to speak to Natasha Marques," he replied.

"One moment please," the woman replied.

There was a click on the other end and the voice of a different woman buzzed to life on the other side.

"What is it?" the woman's voice came out cool and crisp from the other side.

"I need you to go to Uncle Augusto's and pick up Janet today."

"So she decided not to stay the extra day?

"She decide she wanted to leave today, but I have dinner party at my boss's  house at 7, and it is a half hour drive."

"I see, was it a last minute invitation?"

"Indeed it was, but I was thinking you and Janet can take your youngest to the seashore."

"Sure, some time at the ocean could do her wonders," the woman said and there was a click from the other side of the phone.

"Why does this Janet person have to leave your house so soon?" I demanded.

"There is no Janet, I was letting Natasha know that we were going to execute the plan today at the hospital. And that we now have you in attendance."

"You should have just told her yourself!" I snapped.

"You never know who's listening," Mr.Walters replied.

"Now can we go to da hospital?"

"We need to wait for her and to arrive," he replied.

"Okay I will wait here, and you will go get the supplies."

"With all due respect my mistress, I need to be there to carry out this task."

"Did you just tell me no!?"

Mr. Walters turned around slowly, his small beady brown eyes held a glint of fear in them, or maybe something else.

I let my shark teeth slide down into my mouth. "It's been a while since I ripped a throat of a human, I would love to do it again soon.."

Mr. Walters gently replaced the phone back on the hook, "I know you could easily kill me mistress, but at the same time you must understand our priority. Yes I will help you build a shelter for your prisoner, but right now that isn't the most important thing. The most important thing is silencing this boy, before the mermaid hysteria sets in or worst, hunters come to our town. They are rare but still.."

"The hunters are already here, my prisoner is one of them!" I replied and retracted my teeth. It was rather hard to talk with them when they were out. If was very easy to bite ones tongue.

My Walters' eyes widened. "Why did you not tell me you and your sisters had a prisoner like that?  You are lucky she hasn't escaped yet and murdered all of you!"

"Me and my sisters are perfectly fine keeping her captive. She is under our spell, so escape is unlikely."

Mr. Walters scoffed at me, "Don't be too sure my lady. Love spells can't be enough to keep a hunter under control. There is a reason the king is terrified of hunters and that terrifies me. Since your father is the thing I love and fear most in this world."

"If my father is da thing you love most den you've lived a very sad life, but at least you are not stupid since you do fear him. But dats interesting dat you say da king is afraid of them. When he talks of dem I only see anger, not the fear."

"Perhaps I'm mistaken my lady. A creature such of yourself that lived so much longer than me must understand the complexity of emotion much better than I could ever could. Especially that of a merperson, whom are so much more advanced than us human. Maybe it is just anger.

"But you should be afraid even if your father is not, if I'm not mistake, you and your sisters were born no more than 250 years ago. I know your kind does not keep track of such things such as age, but by than the hunters were in the beginnings of decline. Especially those whose main prize were mermaids."

"And your point?" I asked.

"Nothing just the mumbling of a human, who's only purpose is to serve you."

I turned around when from behind me, the door creaked open and the light in the room seemed to dim ever so slightly.

There stood a dark haired woman, wearing a long white dress, that hung loosely off her slender frame. She held a cigarette in her hand. She pulled it to her lips, while her intense blue eyes, looked us up and down.

"Ah Natasha. Prompt as always!" Mr. Walters said cheerfully.

The women let the white stick fall from her hand and onto the ground, before promptly snuffing it out with her foot on the carpeted floor. "I'm in a bad mood, and really need to cause some chaos. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come."

"Well I still appreciate you coming on such short notice. And Natasha, I would like you to meet your mistress, Marina. I know you have yet to meet any of the sisters, since as a land servant, you rarely come in contact with the royal family."

"I guessed I should be honored, then, right?"Natasha said. Her eyes focused on me and a feeling of dread tickled my skin.

I looked over at Mr. Walters, whose eyes were glued to Natasha. This human, she disrespects me when she talks," Mr. Walters looked over at me.

"Actually it's this witch that disrespects you when she talks," Natasha replied. "I'm a witch, not a human."

"Ah so you're the witch that couldn't get close to da hospital without fainting."

"Less like fainting, more like intense seizures," she replied drily. She turned to Mr. Walters. "So how do you want to execute our plan now, or do I have to stand with her royal fishiness all day?"
—————————————
A red faced Mr. Walters slid into the stormy sea blue car, which was parked a distance away from St. Lukes's hospital behind a cluster of trees. He panted heavily while he clutched at his chest.

"I planted those three bombs, but this guy saw me, and I had to knock him out, and drag him behind some bushes."

Natasha let out a small chuckle, "You're absolutely insane man...I like it."

A small smile crept across Mr. Walter's face, but I was not sharing their feelings of glee.

"You took to long, you should move faster."

"Apologizes my lady." Mr Walters said turning towards me and bowing ever so slightly, before turning back to Natasha.  "

"How powerful of an explosion will those um...magical bombs cause?" Mr. Walters asked. "I tried to place them in places were there were the least amount of people. The less casualties we cause, the better."

"Oh, no they won't actually blow people up to the heavens, but it will blow something else up. Nothing fatal though, but not pleasant."

Mr. Walters gave her a questioning look but did not say anything.

"I thought the plan was to.. the word.. bomb  people outside, so I could go in and kill the boy on the inside while the human healers are busy tending to the wounde outside?"

Natasha shook her head , "Come on now, just because I'm a witch doesn't mean I don't have a conscious. But trust me, this will cause a lot of need for "healers" she said, and gestured to the ear."

"So you wouldn't kill for me, land servant?" I asked.

"Not unless I absolutely had to mistress....Now, does anyone have a light?" Natasha asked and removed from her bag what appeared to be a human ear dipped in green wax with a wick at the top. At the same time, she removed another cigarette from her bag and popped it into her mouth. "This is the fuse that will set off those clay balls that you just planted, and make them explode."

"I have one!" Mr. Walters said and stuck his sausage like fingers into his pocket and produced a box. He flipped the box open and out of it, a little flame appeared.

He held it towards the ear and she shook her head and with the hand not holding the ear, she pointed towards the white stick between her mouth.

My Walter shrugged and lit it, before he moved and lit the wick at the end of the ear.

"You didn't anything to light da ear? You're lucky that Mr.Walters had his flame box, or da plan would have been ruined!" I said angrily, pointing to the box that Mr. Walters was now tucking away.

Smoke curled out of the lit cigaret in between her lips," It's called a lighter," she said while the cigarette bounced  between her lips.  She snapped her fingers and a flame appeared at the her finger tips. "And I could always light it, but I wanted someone else to. It's called dramatic effect. Now get moving your highness, you don't want to be outside when the flame finds  this ear. Especially since your hearing is a little stronger than mortals."

I spared a nervous glance at the burning ear candle, before I reached for the car handle and quickly hurried outside into the bright sunlight. 

"Marine!" Mr. Walter yelled after me and stuck his head outside the car. "Don't forget what you're supposed to do."

I whirled back around to face him, "Of course I won't forget da plan!" I yelled and stormed towards the looming building  in front of me .

The St. Luke's was made of brick with a slopping green roof, and rows, upon rows of windows.  The line of trees we were hidden behind bordered  a lone black road that that rounded its front, and lead to the back.  Outside, a couple men and women  dressed in white stood smoking cigarettes.

None of them seem to notice me while I broke through the trees, and traveled along the road, until  I stood in front of the glass doors.  I adjusted  the
uncomfortable orange jumpsuit, before going inside.

The room was empty, with the exception of  a wirery man sitting behind a desk furiously scribbling on a peace of paper. Just behind him was another glass door, and behind it, a hallway.

I approached the man. 

"Hello,"I said.

The man glanced up at me briefly before going back to whatever he was doing. "Honey, this is a back entrance, you need to go around to the parking lot for the main one."

"But isn't dat door I walked in da main entrance?"  I asked, pointing behind me.

Why has Mr. Walters told me to come here and pretend I was injured if this wasn't the main entrance?

"No."

"Look at me," I commanded.

The man glanced up at me, and a smile slid across my lips.

"Do you think dat you could make exception for me? I'm unwell and need da medicine."

"Why? Because you're pretty? Honey, I'm from LA. You're a dim a dozen there. Go around the front like the rest of us or leave my hospital!"

Suddenly, the glass behind me cracked loudly . And I turned to see the once clear and smooth surface was now riddled with lines.

"Agh!" I cried, while my ears were filled with a painful ringing. Something warm was running down the side of my face. I touched whatever it was with my fingers and when I pulled away, I saw that my fingers were now covered in blood.

"Jesus, what was that!?" the man yelled and stood up from the desk. Beside looking completely terrified, the man looked fine. No blood leaked from his ears.  "Are you okay miss?" he asked.

"No I am not!" I snapped. "I bleed, look!"

From behind me, I head a heard a moan. I turned around once again in time to see the men and women in white, all trying to stumble through the door.  Like me, their ears bleed, but unlike me they seemed to be having trouble keeping their balance.

"Jesus! What is is happening here!" the man behind the desk yelled. His voice shook with every word he spoke.

Suddenly a man with sandy blonde hair, came barreling through the doors behind the desk.  He had on a white shirt with a black tie and a long white coat.

"Dr.Arren!" the desk man exclaimed, "I think there must have been some kind of explosion."

But Dr. Arren didn't seem to be paying the desk man much attention, as he moved towards me. His eyes were on my ears.

"Look at me," I said. And the man's gaze shifted towards my eyes, and he immediately froze and got a far away look in his eyes. 

"Take me through the door and heal me,"
I said. From behind me, there was a thump when one of the woman in white
fell over just inside the door.

"Terry."

"Yes Dr. Arren, the desk man said."

"Help Julia, Jennifer, Dr. Higgins, Dr. Frisk, and the others inside. I'm taking this one up for treatment, she looks to be the most critical."

"Dr.Arren?" the man said, but Dr. Arren was already walking through the door behind the desk, with his arm around my shoulder. My ears still rang painfully, and the pain had put me in an especially poor mood.

"Where's the boy that thinks he saw the mermaids?" I asked him once the door had closed behind us. "Do you know?" I struggled his arm off me.

"Third floor, room 327."

"Take me, pretend you are taking me to heal my wounds."

The man nodded.

The man stepped over her, and lead me to a set of stairs that we climbed up until we reached the top.

"It's  right there," the blonde man said and pointed to a door three doors down from where we stood.

"Groovy, now go and end your life," I said.

"But why?" the man asked.

"Because I can't have you around with your memories of taking me here."

"I see," the blonde man said and walked across the hall to a tray containing several sharp silver objects. He picked one up. "I going to sever my pulmonary vein," he said. "I should bleed out in minutes."

"Sounds like an excellent way to end a life."

"Alright but why am I doing this?"

"Because you are madly in love with me."

"But we just met, how are we madly in love?"

"I didn't I love with you!" I replied, annoyance pricking my brain.

"How do we know each other?" again.

"Do we really need to know each other?"

"Yes I think we do, or otherwise I'm not sure why I'm slicing open my neck for no reason."

"Find a reason, human!" I snapped and gasped in surprise when a hand suddenly appeared behind the sandy man and promptly swung downward to strike him on the head. With a loud crack, the Doctor collapsed to the ground

In his place, stood a dark haired man with a beard. He was dressed in strange green and brown clothes.  He held a very old looking bone knife in his hand, that was raised in the air.

"Hello, Marina." The dark eyed man's voice was soft and deadly like a lunar tide. "We haven't met yet, but I believe you've met my daughter, Elizabeth."