Marker; 1619 reads and 1894 votes!
Published 6/9/2020

AN,So sorry this chapter took so long. It was literally so hard for my to write for no reason. I had to change it so many times. Anyways hope at least a few people get to enjoy it -Sam
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Summer Present

"No," I replied. No way I wanted to go and look around Elizabeth's house, not 50 years ago, and certainly not now. And certainly not with Tim.

"Alright guess it's just you and me mate," Arther said from his seat.

"Actually... I'll go!" said abruptly. If Author was still thinking about killing Tim, an abandoned house would be the perfect place to do it.

"Great," Tim said, pointing to me. "No way," he said pointing to Author.

"Why?" Author shot back.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but you're all over the news, everyone is looking for you. Apparently, you are the son of a multimillionaire and they found the wreckage of your yacht and your crew, but nobody knows where you are. Ran into a buddy of mine at the grocery store, and he told me all about it. Surprised I didn't hear about it sooner actually, I try to keep up to date on mysterious disappearances at sea that seem like mermaids may be involved. Which raises the question, how did a millionaire like you get caught up with the mermaids exactly?" He took a step towards him, "I want to know how you got caught up with the mermaids."

"It's my fault actually," I spoke up. "Mr. Walters lured him in with the promise of a business deal but in reality, he was planning on sacrificing him to the mermaids after stealing his wealth. I tried to warn him. But they found out,  so they tried to get rid of him."

"And how did you save him from a bunch of mermaids?"

"I didn't save him," I replied, "I just helped get him get to safety. The mermaids trust me since I work for them."

That much was true. I hadn't saved him, my sister Delphine had.

"Helped who?" Tim asked. "Are there others like me who know about the mermaids?"

"No," I said

"Yes," Arthur said at the same time.

My eyes flew to him, what did he think we was doing?

Tim folded his arms, his blue eyes glared at us from under his floppy hat. "No more secrets!" Tim said angrily. "If one of you doesn't tell me the truth you can both get out. And neither of you come back or..." Tim trailed off and without a word, crossed the room and opens drawers of the desk under the articles he had pinned to the wall. He took something out, but his back prevented me from seeing just what it was.

"Or what?" Arthur said from his seat at the table.

Tim joined Arthur at the table and in his hands he had a roll of block cloth that he began to wrap around his knuckles. When I lived in Brazil there was a man that lived next to us. He used to fight for a living. He decided to teach me how to tight. We moved shorty after but not before he taught me how to throw a punch. A punch that you felt all to well ,Arthur, when you attacked me when I walked into the church this morning. And as for you," his eyes flickered to me. "If I kick him out of here, you won't come back, you don't want to be here. Meeting with me makes you nervous, but you need me to protect your friend until you don't."

I gazed back at him without responding until he finally looked away.

"If she isn't going to say anything I will" Arthur sighed. "Marina here.... is actually from a family of mermaid hunters. And some of the members have been helping us."

"What?" Tim said staring me down.

"Yeah..it's true," I said.

"That's how and why the mermaids have my family. And now I'm forced to work for Mr. Walters." The lie flowed  out of me like a river going out to sea. I was surprise by how fast and easily it had come out. I wasn't a bad liar but I wasn't particularly a good one either.

"But why didn't you tell me that when I revealed what I was doing?" Tim asked and motioned to the wall of papers behind him.

"Mr. Walters has tried to trick me in the past before, by testing me. I was afraid it was another one of those. Especially since you were the nephew of his lover."

"Alright..." Tim said slowly and stood up from the table. "If you are truly from the mermaid  hunting family, that's even more of a reason I want you to come with me. You'll know what to look for if there something of value still there."

He turned to Arther "I still want you to wait here," he said."That  is unless you want to reveal to the world that you are actually alive."

"No, I'm good..." Arthur replied "Better to let them bury  me for now."

"Might have to wait ten years for that," Time replied.

Arthur gave him a questioning look.

"Takes ten years for you to be declared legally dead if you are lost at sea," Tim replied to the question that was written on Arthur's face.

Without another  word he stepped out of the church into the sunlight  and I followed behind him.

"You still have your wrist wrapped," I said the second the green chipped doors of the church swung closed behind us, pushed by the wind now slicing through the air.

Tim nodded in acknowledgement.  "Do you have your mermaid scale?" he asked. "I'm not saying we will run into anything, but just to be safe..."

I felt in the pocket of my green cardigan for it. My fingers briefly brushed up against the vial containing the potion that Delphine had given me, the one that would have allowed me to return to the sea at least temporarily. I  gently moved it aside and dug deeper until my fingers brushed against itIt sparkles red in the sunlight.

"Really wish you would just wear that instead of keeping it I your pocket."

"Can't let Mr. Walters see it," I said and slipped the scale back into my cardigan.

I began to follow Tim down the trail. The wind picked up my hair and flung it around my face, obscuring my view of the path in front of me.

"Stop," Tim said abruptly.

"Why?" I asked trying to remove my hair from my view.

He grabbed my hand and pressed something into it. "It's supposed to be windy today, I always check the weather so I can get Sarah ready for the day. You may want to tie up your hair. I took the tie in my hand. It's your choice, but I imagine you won't like your hair in your face all day.

"Thanks..."I said and gathered up the strands of my long black hair and began to try and fit all into the stretch black ring, without tumbling off the cliff.

A flash of color in the otherwise colorless cliff path caught the edge off my eye. But it was gone before I have a chance to turn and find it's exact location. It was probably just some plastic bag someone carelessly tossed in the ground and was picked up by the wind.

I followed Tim around the back of his yellow house, down the cliff path, instead of going back into town we walked along the lonely road that divided the town from the sea cliffs

"I think it should be right up here..." Tim said. We were standing at the mouth of a dirt path that wound its way into a dense forest.

I knew of course that this was the place. I come here after the Luce's has fled this place. I had wanted to find something of Elizabeth's to keep. I had walked down this same path all those years ago, stood in front of the white wooden house, and had immediately turned back. Seeing where she had lived had just been too painful.

The ocean voice became louder, calling me to it.  Almost frantically now, calling me towards it and away from something..

"Marina?"

"Huh?" I mumbled.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just growing with the sickness."

"Growing with the sickness?" Tim repeated back to me.

"Getting sick," I corrected myself. 
I had gotten much better at speaking the human dialect of English, since the days I had walked the land as an enemy to all human men. But from time to time, I had my slip up in sayings. The English language was vastly complex and even after living among humans. I still couldn't grasp it perfectly.

"Should we come back another day, I hate to admit it but this place gives me the creeps, and I don't want to go back by myself."

"Why, it isn't that dangerous. It's just a house?"

Tim took a few steps into the dirt path, before he stopped  and looked at me.
"Are you coming? It might be a house, but it's a creepy house," he said with a smile and resumed walking.

"So you've been here before?" I asked, trying to distract myself from the growing sense of dread I felt with every step I took. It was just a human house, why was I feeling this way. It had been over 50 years...this shouldn't be this painful.

"Yeah and I turned around, because...you'll see in a second. There's some weird stuff outside of it.

I didn't  have to see, I already knew that house was not a place I wanted to be.

"So you think I'm going to protect you from the house?"

"Well you see if I'm with you ,I'll have to pretend to be brave. And actually go inside the scary house, instead of chickening out and not going inside the scary house."

"Why?"

"Because I can't act like a wimp around anyone, especially you. I need to impressed you."

I was confused. Why did he feel like he needed to impress me? Then I remembered how human men behaved under my spell, and my heart begin to sink. Maybe he wasn't as immune to my gaze as I thought.

"Tim,"I said abruptly and stopped walking down the trail I hadn't even noticed I've been moving down. He turned around to face me."Don't begin to start to fall in love with me," I said firmly.

Tim's face turned red and I realized I had made a mistake.

Tim opened him mouth, " I wasn't trying to apply anything by  trying to impress you that...since you were a family of mermaid hunters and I'm trying to be a hunter... But don't worry, I don't plan to-."

"I didn't mean it to come out like that," I said hurriedly.

I yelped suddenly when Tim rushed towards me and shoved me behind him

"Who's there!?" he called out,

It was than that my ears picked up the sounds of faint laughter. How had Tim heard it before me? First my vision and now my hearing? Why were my senses fading so abruptly ? I was suddenly very acutely aware of the vial that Delphine had given me in my pocket. Was there a reason my father wanted me to take it besides attending Ray's marriage?

"Whose there?" Tim asked. "I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it!

"You have a gun!?" I whispered.

"No, " Tim replied, "But they don't need to know that."

There was the sound of movement and out step Arthur from from behind the tree with his arms raised above his head , "Relax cowboy, its only me!" he said and the second his eyes landed on us he fell into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Sorry that was so awkward which was what made it so rich ," Arnold said between gasping breaths. 

"Come on, it wasn't that funny," Tim said "And why are you out in daylight and why are you following us?"

"I wasn't following you, I was following whoever was following you. I hope you weren't lying about actually having a gun, you may need to use it."

"Who was following us?" Tim asked his voice raised in alarm.

I don't know they were too far away and I lost track of them once they ran into the woods. They were wearing a yellow shirt and they had brown eyes. I saw them follow you from the church. The pop out at the bottom of the path, but I lost them when you guys reach the path. They slipped into the woods and I couldn't find them.

It was then I remembered the brief flash of color I had seen out of the corner of my eye. Had that been the mysterious person Arthur had seen following us?"

Arthur stepped onto the path. "So back to the topic of the gun..."

"Don't have one, never used one. So actually back to the topic of the person following us, because that's the thing I'm worried about the most."

"You're missing out if you never used a gun," Arthur replied, "But that might not be the thing we should be worrying about the most right now. Look at her, Arthur said and pointed to me."