Marker; 1,800 reads 149 votes.

AN; I apologize that this chapter is kind of short! It is also boring so sorry about that.

When we reached the stone entrance, we paused at the top of the stone steps that lead downwards. The steps themselves were shrouded in inky blackness, but at the end of them, a faint green light glowed. Mr. Walters flashed his light down them. Seemingly satisfied by what he saw, or rather didn't see, he reached up and unclogged his ears of the wax.

"You know, if you're immune to my gaze, you're most likely immune to my voice too," I told him while I watched him slip them into the pocket of his yellow raincoat.

"Well Miss Oceans," he replied, "Maybe I wouldn't have to worry if it was one your sisters singing, but your voice is a lot stronger than your eyes, and you are supposedly the strongest of all the king's daughters, and I'm not confident that I could totally resist your melody. Especially if you were to sing the song of the abyss.I don't suggest trying it with me, though. If it doesn't work than I can assure you the punishment from your father would be severe once I have told him," he said, and I shivered slightly at his words. I believed him.

"Who is your love?" I asked, hoping I could prove my theory that he was in love wish Tim's Aunt Laura.

"Nice try Miss Oceans," he replied dryly, "Now come on, your father is not a patient man, and neither am I," he said and began to descend the steps.

I looked after him reluctantly, before I began to trail behind him. I did not want to be here. I did not want to see father, for every time we meet something bad always followed.

All I wanted was just to slip quietly into the sea and disappear, and if I ever got my tail back, that's what I was going to do. No matter how much I had like to explore the land, a place that had once been full of happiness and love for me had turned into a living nightmare full of big empty dry houses and men like Mr. Walters. But who was I kidding? Father would tear apart the sea stone by stone until he found me. He needed me too badly, and that's why he was doing this to me.

When we reached the foot of the stairs, we stopped and stood in front of a pool of water in front of us. Mr. Walter began to move his light around the faintly glowing expansive cravenness space that greeted us. The bottom half of the cave's floors were made up of a deep pool of glowing green water and littered stones. Some of the black rocks were big enough to be considered islands, while others were no bigger than a sea turtle. On the walls here were inscription carved into the wall just like the one on the stone doorway above, except a faint green light, emitted from them, the same green light that lit the entire cave. My eyes drifted around the cave. I hadn't been in this part of the cavernous spaces, that ran for miles within the sea cliffs above us, in over fifty years and I certainly hadn't come here the way Mr. Walters and I had entered.

My eyes continued to roam the space until they landed on a small house one of the stone islands that was bigger than the rest. The house was made of cheep white wood and rusty nails. Its roof had long since caved in, and one of its walls had collapsed, but if I closed my eyes, I could picture what had used to look like all lit up by lanterns.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Walters reach into his pocket of his rain jacket again and pull something out of it. I knew what it was, even before he drew his arm back slightly and threw it into the water with a small splash.

It had to of been a summoning stone. He would not be able to call my father by any other means. He couldn't call to him with song, like me and my sisters could.

No sooner had the stone touched the water than a dark shape appear under the surface

"Greetings, father," I said in the language of our people and awaited for him to emerge. But he remained submerged under the water but I could still feel his eyes drilling holes in me. Then, without warning his shapes disappeared."

I turned to Mr. Waters. "I thought father wanted to talk to me?"

"Father did want to talk, but he was so angry when he he heard about your scheme with the boy that he thought he might kill you if he faced you. So, he sent us instead to deal with you " Ray's voice, one of my other sister's, voice floated up on from the darkness of the water and I raised my head to see that all six of my sisters' heads were now sticking out of the water, including Delphine's.

Though Delphine and I resembled each other very closely, with our straight black hair and pale skin, the same could not be said for the rest of the sisters that now emerged from the waters in front of me. The only thing we all shared was our father's gray-green eyes. Celeste had light blond hair and dark tan skin, while Isla had light blonde hair and pale skin. Orca had flaming red hair and pale skin covered in a hundred freckles, Ray had light brown skin and curly hair, and Urchin had very dark skin and curly hair that she wore in braids. We had all come from four different mothers, which accounted for our different looks. Our tails were were different shades of blue, green, purple.

I noticed my sisters all wore their string of pearls around their necks. No doubt, it was no accident that they all had worn their pearls. It was a strong statement directed at me.

"That is true very true, and she is too resilient, even after all that has been done to her," Orca said and looked up at me. "I can't understand how you can sacrifice the ocean for those abominations that inhabit the land and kill the seas with their wastes, Marina. Just do it and come home. I miss you."

I felt a small pang in my heart at her words; I missed them too. The sisters had always been close.

"I want to come home but they aren't abominations, not all of them at least. They think and feel like us, and therefore I can't hunt them. That's what I've believed for the last 50 years, and I will continue to stick t0."

"Even after being attacked by one?" Delphine said sarcastically, and all heads turned to her.

"She was attacked!" Celeste cried looking at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"No," Delphine said in a calm voice, "It was all fake, that's why father was mad. Marina tried to trick him. She hypnotized a human to jump in the water and attack her, so father would believe she was in danger on land and allow her to come home without finishing her duty."

"Wait a human was actually present during this event!?" Urchin spoke up. The cave became silent. Urchin rarely spoke so when she did, you listened.

"Yes, we already established this," Delphine said, her voice full of annoyance.

"Really? Marina, the human lover, putting a human in that much danger by staging a fake attack on herself," Tell me, was your visit to Marina during the day planned?" Urchin asked.

"No, but she refused to meet with me when I called her, so the second I heard her song I went to her."

"So Marina didn't know you were coming so even if she wasn't a human lover no matter how powerful she is, she couldn't have done it without you noticing! So she was attacked," Urchin eyes slid to me, "Which means that there is a human that knows of our existence of land. They all looked at me.

"What does he look like Marina?"

"I don't remember," I said lowered my eyes to the wet stones at my feet.

"Lies Orca hissed. Stop protecting every single human you meet. And it's not like you have to kill 100 of them, just like one."

" I refuse to end one more life of a creature that thinks and feels like me."

"They don't think like us!" Orca screamed, and pulled at her fiery red hair. They  value their own kind's life much less than you do. They end others' lives over  their women, possessions, ways of thinking, loving, and more than I can name. Even those who don't kill have wished for another to die. Surely creatures such of them deserve to be treated as lesser than ourselves. Our people would not dream of killing our own."

It was true. Our kind never killed one another. If death did occur at the hands of another mermaid, it was usually always by accident. Even during wars, we would only capture the enemy and made them into slaves or tortured m them, but death was always out of the question. That's part of the reason why merpeople saw humans as no more than beasts that could be hunted for sport. There were just like the sea creatures who would mindlessly kill each other.

"I am aware of that strong hatred that lies in man's heart, but I do not share it nor do I wish too. I do not hold that same hatred in my heart to wish for death on any of them,...even Mr. Walters," I added.

"You have still not recovered from all that misfortune years ago," Delphine said, he eyes filling. pity. I'm sorry you aren't going to like what we are about to do, but it's father's orders and it's for your own good," she said and all six heads of my sister's disappeared beneath the water.

I felt the puffer fish expand in my stomach. What did that mean?

Seven heads abruptly emerged from the water. Six belonged to my sisters and the seventh belonged to a man Ray held in her arms, "From now on, a human will die every three day until you take one soul, one pearl."

The man had dark brown hair that clung to his head in wet tuffs. His eyes flickered open, and I saw that his eyes were blue. The white shirt he had been wearing looked to be ripped in several places.

He coughed once, and water came spewing from his mouth. He looked around the room dazed.

"This is a man Ray pulled off a boat in the middle of the sea," Delphine said. "We are going to take his life now, and we will kill another every seven days until you take one life, one pearl." 

I watched, with great dread,  while all the sisters gathered around the man, before they pushed him under the water."