Marker 7, 031 reads and 450 votes (Published 12-26-2018)

An; I'm so happy to be writing a story that I actually like, so I wrote this entire chapter within two days. If you see mistakes, feel free to point them out to me! It is again short, but I think my other chapters will all end up being this length.
-Sam

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Summer Present

"Ray, no, you didn't!" I said, mortified. My eyes were still fixed to the woman, that stood just a little behind Arthur. The women looked to be a human who was in their sixties. She was dressed in an all red suit and wore a pair of dark sunglasses. The woman held what looked like to be a piece of driftwood in her hand, but I knew that the innocent looking stick was much more. Her long white hairs as  pinned into an intricate braid on her head. She caught my stare and grinned widely at me, and I felt that pufferfish in my stomach explode.

Was Ray now doomed to the same fate as me?

The rain was beginning to die down into nothing more than a drizzle, and a thick fog was rolling across the surface of the ocean, shrouding everything in a thick, white haze.

"We're in shallow water now, you should be fine swimming the rest of the way," Ray replied, without a comment about the woman in red. Sure enough, I could feel the wet sand under my bare feet. My shoes had been long lost, since my failed attempt at rescuing the boy back at the cave.

Ray let go of me like she promised, and swam the rest of the way to the shore gracefully. Every once in a while, her blue and green tail would puncture the surface, while she glided through the water. When she reached land, she let the waves push her the rest of the way onto the sand.

There was a bright beam of sunlight that appeared around Ray, and she stepped onto the shore, now in human form. Urchin and her were the only ones of the sisters that could instantly dry off using a spell. Their mother had witch's blood, which allowed Urchin and her to do some minor magic outside of the magic we naturally drew from the sea.

In her human form, she wore a tightly fitted long white dress on her curvy body. Her curly hair usually weighed down by water, layed in whispy feathers around her face.

In the meantime, I ungracefully paddled to the shore, where I flopped onto the land. My long skirt, which seemed to have retained all the water in the ocean, hampered my efforts, while I made my way towards the three waiting figures.

Before I reached them, I was surrounded by a warm beam of sunlight, and my hair and clothes instantly became dry.

"Thanks, Ray," I said, but Ray didn't give any indication that she heard me. Her eyes were currently on the agitated man, while he paced back and forth on the shore, waving his hands wildly in the air. His bare feet made footprints in the sand, which were promptly swept away with each new wave that came. He still had on the torn white shirt, and I saw he too wore a pair of green cargo shorts, which came to just above his knees.

I moved to stand just behind Ray, and listened to the man, while he ranted and raved at my sister.

"I don't know how I got here," he was saying. "or how I'm not dead, but here are the things that I do know." He finally stopped pacing and planted his feet firmly on the sand and turned to face my sister. "When you told me that you got engaged against your will.." he began "I didn't like it, but I was already falling in love with you so that it couldn't be helped. And sure, I was a little unnerved at first when I found out you weren't human, but I eventually accepted the mermaid thing. Arthur inhaled deeply, " BUT YOU NEVER MENTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR FAMILY DROWNING PEOPLE FOR SPORT. I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ON HOLIDAY WITH MY BEAUTIFUL GIRLFRIEND, NOT BEING DROWNED BY HER AND HER  SISTERS."

"I'm sorry, I couldn't let my father find out I love you, but I told you were going to be okay..."

"Yeah, it's going to be rather nice having dreams of drowning for the rest of one's life. Totally something an OKAY person has," he said sourly.

We normally don't drown people like that. This happened because Marina was being punished for not following our customs."

Arthur craned his neck around Ray to see me, "So I'm English, so I'm no stranger to tradition, they're a pain in the arse. But why would you bugger a tradition where the punishment is watching people drown!?" he asked.

"I'm buggering up the tradition that involves stealing people's souls, and then wearing them around our necks," I answered, and stepped around Ray to come to stand beside her. I pointed to the strand of pearls around Ray's neck.

Arthur's eyes widen, "Right, can understand why you might not want to follow that particular sort of tradition."

His eyes widen even more when they focused on Ray's necklace of pearls. " You don't say that those are...?"

"Souls, yes but it doesn't hurt the humans that we take them from, and we don't always have to kill them, they can still live on without their souls," Ray said quickly, practically stumbling over her own worlds in an attempt to get them out. "Most of my souls' owners are still alive. And our marks get their souls back as soon as we're joined in union with another more person."

"A lot of the humans do die though, and even those that survive, they can never feel true happiness until they get their souls back. A great majority of our marks die without getting their souls back if the mermaid does not marry in their lifetime."

Ray spun around and gave me a look that told me I better not say anything more on the subject.

"Then why do it!?" Arthur asked looking back and forth between us. "What's the point then!? This tradition sounds mad!"

"The more pearls a mermaid can get, the more powerful it shows she is," Ray explained, "But you have to understand, babe, it's just how we were raised. I didn't understand how wrong it was until I met you. Marina only has to get one soul, get married quickly, and release the soul back to its owner. Once she stops being so stubborn, my father will relax his watch over all of us sisters. You will never have to go through something like this again. I promise."

Ray opened her arms and took a step towards him like she was about to try and embrace him.

"Oi," he said, holding our hand to stop my sister from getting any closer to him.

Ray dropped her arms to her side, a defeated look on her face.

"I'll stand over here, and you stand over there, while we discuss how you are wearing people's souls as a necklace. I'm also guessing you were planning to make me part of that necklace at one point or another."

"You have to understand. It is part of our customs. But I would never do it to you Arthur, not now at least."

"Pardon me," the women in red's voice came out like the gentlest current at low tide. We all looked towards her, well all except Arthur, who looked around with a perplexed expression. Humans couldn't see sea witches unless they let them see them.

"Bloody hell, who said that!?" Arthur asked finally, after a few more seconds of fruitless searching.

"Me mortal, the sea witch Athame. A pleasure to meet you but the pleasure is only mine, and none of yours," she said and waved her stick in a circular motion

Arthur, finally able to see that someone was standing just feet from us, jumped and immediately went to stand protectively in front of Ray. It appeared that he had, at least momentarily, forgot his dilemma with her.

"Ray," he said softly, but not soft enough that my ears didn't catch it. "Who is that? Do they work for your father?"

"No, far from it. They don't like each other. They really hate one another."

"Than why are you associating yourself with her?" he asked. "Actually, why aren't I associating myself with her. I hate your father now too."

"Miss Oceans," she addressed my sister. "As pretty as you are, I am done standing here staring at you. Come to me and pay the price, do not make me wait," she extended the hand not wrapped around the stick towards my sister.

"Remember how you were wondering why you were still alive?" Ray said as a reply to Arthur's earlier inquiry, while she temporarily ignored the witch. "It's because I made a deal with the sea witch, Athame, to bring you back, in case what happened to Marina, happened to us and I wasn't wrong. But there was a price I have to pay, and I pay it by taking the witch's hand and accepting whatever contract that comes with that."

" What is the price?" Arthur asked, and spared a glance behind his shoulder at Ray.

"I'm don't know, only Marina knows the price, because she paid it before. She isn't allowed to tell those who haven't made the bargain what the price is, but how bad could it be? She was fine for the last fifty years ago until her father instructed our sister Delphine to give her a special poison. Now, she can't return to human form until she gets one pearl. The South Atlantic kingdom demands it, or she will not be able to marry their prince."

"What is your family dynamic? I mean, my mum nearly ended us with spoiled brie cheese once, but that poisoning wasn't intentional."

"Ray Oceans," Athame, said but this time her voice did not sound like the gentlest tide. It sounded rather annoyed, "Give me your hand. It isn't that hard, you will receive the same contract as Marina."

"No, don't Ray!" I said and stepped between the witch, Arthur, and Ray. "Don't do it! You don't understand!"

"Ray darling, maybe you aren't getting a bargain," Arthur said, his voice saturated with nerves. "Your sister seems so against you taking this deal, and she does know what the deal is."

The witch abruptly dropped her extended hand and looked at Arthur. "If you don't agree that having your life savaged is a bargain, I will not argue with you. I'll dissolve the deal right now." The sea witch waved her stick in the air.

Arthur gasped tumbled to his knees, while he clutched his throat.

In a flash, Ray was beside him with her arm around his shoulder. "Arthur, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice rose in panic. Meanwhile, I continued to stare at the witch and only took my eyes off her to spare a glance or two at Arthur and Ray.

Ray was trying to get Arthur to speak to her, but he seemed to be unable to and kept shaking his head at her.

The witch turned and began to walk towards the dense thicket of woods that laid just beyond the beach.

"Arthur what's wrong?" Ray began repeating over and over again.

Arthur didn't reply. Instead, he made another chocking sound and water began to spew from his mouth in a continuous stream. Alarmed I bent down to join Ray at his side.

"Ray, he's dying," I whispered, while I watched Arthur attempt to take another breath, only for another gush of water to pour out of his mouth.

"No!" Ray howled and in a flash, I watched while she gave chase to the witch. She wrapped herself around Athame's red-clothed arms. "I'll take the deal! I'll take the deal!"

"Alright," Athame said and yanked her arm free from her grasp, which caused Ray to tumble onto the ground.

Ray went to scramble back to her feet but froze. Athame had extended her hand towards her. Ray took one final glance towards Arthur before she grasped the sea witch's hand. Arthur coughed and wheezed deeply as air finally filled his lungs.

The witch pulled Ray to her feet, "Ray Oceans, I have saved the human, Arthur Barnes after he was drowned by you and your sisters in the sea cave. The price for this is this contract, which our touch now binds you to. This contract cannot be broken by anyone but me, and rules of the contract are as follows."

One, one another human's soul is harvested by you, whether it is intentional or not, then your sea-bound body and soul shall become my possession.

Two, you may not speak of the terms and conditions of this contract to anyone, who is not already familiar with them, or your sea-bound body and soul shall become my possession.

Three, you may only reveal the nature of this contract, and that you cannot reveal the terms in conditions unless she or he is already aware of them. If she or he guesses the terms and conditions, you must deny the accuracy, or your sea-bound body and soul belong to me.

"Do you understand, or do you need me to elaborate on anything?

Ray now looked like the entire weight of a wave had crashed itself on her head. Her whole body was shaking, but she shook her head no.

Athame smiled, revealing dazzling white teeth that been concealed behind her lips. Somewhere between when she had turned her back on us, she had aged backward into her late thirties but still retained her white hair.

"Pleasure to do business with you," she said gleefully. The sand rose up around her until her entire body was concealed, and then she was gone.