Vengeful seaspirit

The last thing I can remember was being surrounded by water and struggling for air against chains as I sank deeper and deeper into the ocean and my conscious slowly fading to black.

When I open my eyes, I expect some sort of afterlife or even naively, a beach, instead find myself surrounded by kelp and my previously worn chains. I start to breathe rapidly and panic. Everything feels wrong, my throat is scratchy, my face is slimy…and I’m not drowning.

Then someone jumps at me. I don’t have enough energy to be startled. “You’re finally awake,” the woman said. Her brown hair flows all around her. A scar on her brow draws me to her dark eyes.

I wait for an explanation but I get none so I ask with a weak voice,” Huh?”

“Shh.” The lady holds my head and softly pats it, “Everything will be alright. You’ll understand in a second.” My muscles tense up at the sudden contact.

While I try to wiggle my way out of the woman’s grip, I realize I’m gulping in water like air and then I look down and see two large fishtails connected to our bodies. I push her away to look more at myself. What the hell?

Weak blue scales are forming on my skin and my nails have turned black. Something is coming out of my arm and I don’t know what it is. It’s like I’m a half-transformed butterfly.

I thought these creatures were just rumours to scare away the young, new sailors from the sea.

“What happened to me?” I’m convinced I’m beached up in some shore having a fever dream.

The mermaid holds my shoulders and whispers into my ears, “You’ve been wronged in some way and now you have a chance to set those wrongs right.”

I try to move away but I don’t know how to operate this body, “And how does being a fish exactly do that?”

The mermaid shows some semblance of humanity when she rolls her eyes, “You’re not a fish. We’re more like sea spirits. Fish can’t talk and their singing doesn’t lull people to sleep.” We stare at each other for a moment. “There’s someplace cosy we can go to and talk. Come on.”

This is all too much, too fast. “I don’t want to go with you,” I protest.

“Well, you don’t really have anywhere else to go, do you?”

I don’t respond.

“Then let’s go.”

I watch the other mermaid and I try to emulate her movements. I feel like a toddler taking his first steps as I slowly move my tail left to right and back, unsure of how to move my muscles correctly.

She sees me struggling and comes over, “Keep your arms to the side. You’re cutting through the water so you can move. By the way, my name is Onyx.”

“Mine’s Minerva. Wish my mom named something as cool as that.”

“Who said you have to keep your name? This is a new life.”

I sigh.

“Look, I know you’re confused but I assure you all this is real.”

I’m just tired is what I want to tell her but I don’t.

“We’ve been reborn to get justice and protect those who are going through injustices, at least at sea.”

A sudden wave of anger hits me. “How much of that do you actually do? You didn’t protect me.” The fog in my mind clears and I become sure that this is the reality.

Onyx quickly turns around, “I’m sorry, I really am sorry. The ocean is vast and we aren’t able to save everyone but we’ve saved many.” She continued swimming on, “We’re trying to do better though.”

After we finally reach our destination, every single muscle in my body is sore. That is immediately forgotten when I see the ship below.

It is a huge vessel with most of its paint chipped; those areas are replaced with the beginnings of rot. It was not hard to imagine the ship back in its glory days, especially when it seemed that those days weren’t that far in the past.

The ship seems to be emanating its own light and the surrounding darkness of the ocean sends a chill down my spine. I wonder how many people died, trapped inside the ship as it sank. Probably not. I am probably just projecting.

We enter the inside which seemed mostly uninteresting, thankfully there were no skeletons or bodies. The interesting part of it is what I think might’ve been the captain’s room or some rich aristocrat.

Ruby and sapphire gems float around the room. Papers which were surely once important documents are shredded. There are no desks or chairs, but instead in the middle of the room, a purple carpet is draped over pillows. The room seemed to shine with its own light despite looming darkness outside.

Onyx pads the carpeted seat, “Come on, you must be tired.”

I gladly lay on it; the pillows are uneven but anything was welcome on extremely sore muscles.

“So, is this your special little place?” I question Onyx out loud.

“Not just mine. There are others, you know? They come here if they ever need a break.”

“How many of them are natural mermaids? How many are just dead people?”

“None of us are born mermaids,” she states simply.

I sit up, “But why?”

“I…I don’t know, to be honest. But if I’d wager it’s probably a curse.”

A curse. Curses in my childhood were fabled things. Witches who claimed to perform magics, things as simple as tonics that could cure a cold or a way to make things float, were often feared because if they’d cursed someone, it could last generations.

That was supposed to be just a scary story.

“So, this is our curse. To not stay dead after all the hardship.”

Onyx rolls her eyes, “Not our curse. The people that drowned us’ curse.”

I sigh at that and lay back down.

“So, what happened to you?”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I say softly and close my eyes.