Everblue

Chapter 42 - Ash

ASH

 

Somehow, I managed to pick up the pieces of my sanity before Mom ordered the guys with the white coats to come and take me away. Of course, that wasn't before she arranged an appointment with a psychologist. I could only imagine the doctor's reaction if I explained the truth about what was really making me batty.

My little bout of hysteria kept me from school another day and Mom later apologized for pushing too soon for me to return. I'd retreated back to my room, away from the whispers of my family and decided to keep a watchful eye on the lake through the window. I had an eerie sense something bad was about to happen and that Fin and Tatchi needed my prayers.

Questions swirled in my head as I replayed the events of the abduction yet again. Little by little the pieces fell together. Unlike the old eighties movie Splash, water didn't necessarily make them merpeople. Then what did? Tatchi was never out past sunset, complaining her parents enforced a curfew. Did the sun have something to do with it? Was that why she couldn't spend the night at my house way back then? I gasped. That had to be it—the big secret her dad busted the cabinet over. Of course. They were merpeople only at night and they couldn't control it.

Criminy! How many had I come across and didn't even know it? Like their cousin Colin. Was the entire family merpeople? Were they born this way? Have they always lived in the lake? How have they kept it a secret for so long?

Then it hit me.

This whole time I believed an angel saved me from drowning when that wasn't what happened at all. I'd heard Fin's voice and saw his face right before I fell unconscious, but thought it was a dream. Had it really been him after all? My head ached in confusion.

As a merman he would obviously have been able to endure the frigid temperature of the water. But that was during the daytime. Could he will his tail in and out of existence? Then how did he get me to the Ranger station and why didn't the Ranger see him?

"Oh," I whispered as my lips suddenly tingled, a memory of Fin's lips touching mine.

He did. He carried me. It was his warm body next to mine, his voice that told me to fight, to live. My heart swelled. I no longer cared the facts didn't make sense. All that mattered was Fin. He was the one I'd been dreaming about this whole time. The one I wished for. The one I'd fallen in love with. The one taken from me.

Then I remembered all the horrible things I'd said, the way I'd overreacted when he came to my door. Was he about to tell me? Was my refusal to help why he was captured? My gut clenched. I'd turned him away and now he was gone, pulled under the waves by evil mermen to a place called Natatoria. Why didn't he make me listen? Was he afraid I wouldn't understand? Am I that stubborn he wouldn't even try?

Heartsick, I moved to the window and touched the glass, desperate to touch his beautiful face instead, wanting to beg for forgiveness. He had to come back. If he never returned, the longing would slowly chip away at my soul, robbing me of my sanity.

 "Fin," I whispered as I brought my fists to my face, wiping my tears with my sleeves. "I'm so sorry. Please come home."

I couldn't stop the dread. I'd failed him.