Serene Of The Sea

49. Running

Grey light found its way through the threadbare curtains. My old fraying sheets remained slightly askew from when I last lay in them.
Why hadn't it changed? I expected it to have been turned upside down, yet the entire house was exactly as I had left it. The dirty dishes told me that he still lived here.

The splintered floorboards couldn't penetrate my hardened feet. 
The familiar clanging of the rusted pipelines echoes through the empty house. I listened for signs I had been followed. I was under no impressions I'd lost her. She was out there, waiting.

"Little mermaid?" The mocking voice drifted over the sounds of the rickety house as if in answer to my inner monologue, "Where are you sweet tanner? Shall I beat you just like your father used to?"

Placing my palms against the chest of drawers, I held my breath, ensuring to make little noise.

"Did the little weaver run all the way home? I can't believe you used to live in this place. It's a little pathetic. Just like you," Aella continues as her footfalls trigger the delicate creaking of the floorboards, telling me exactly where she was.

I'm ready. I'm ready. I told myself with every sound of her steps.

"I can almost smell your fear 72. You know they never cared about you right?
Not your father.
Not your Mother.
Not Kai.
No one.
Who are you fighting for? You're all alone."

That last one elicited a response deep inside me. My greatest fear.
I pushed the emotion from my mind.

"Ahhh, there you are," Aella's voice sighs from just beyond the door, "Just let me in. I can make the pain stop."

"Your mother is using you. And you know it. You don't have to do what she says you know. You can be your own person," I try, knowing my effort is wasted.

"Don't bring my mother into this," Aella growls behind the wooden barrier.
I make sure to keep a good enough distance, in case her weapon finds its way through the grain.

I let my power drain out, linking to my attackers raw primal instincts. Images of a broken little girl come flashing through the connection.
"Mama didn't care about her little girl. She wanted a boy. You tried so hard to fill those shoes, but nothing you ever did was good enough. And nothing you do ever will be," I taunt, feeling her emotions getting fuelled.

"Shut up tanner. You're just a lost little girl who doesn't belong to either world. You are nothing," She seethes, trying to gain back the upper ground.

"But my army chose to follow me. I didn't have to blackmail anyone. Even the humans rallied behind me when I evacuated them," I point out.

"You revealed yourself to the humans?" Aella scoffs, laughing out loud, "Then you've doomed yourself! Even if you win today they will come to destroy all of Siren kind. You started the war all by yourself! We didn't even have to lift a finger!" She continues to guffaw.

"At least I will be remembered."

Then an axe imbedded itself in the door, the tip just poking through, little splinters littering the room. I duck behind the drawers to avoid the debris.
Watching the tip of the axle wiggle as Aella pulls it out for another whack. Her burgundy eye pushes against the hole, "Enough chat. Let's play," She utters darkly.

My breath regulates, my training kicking in as I move away from the drawers.
"Come and get me," I reply, a little too smugly.

For a moment nothing happens, and I wonder if she might be trying the window, which would ruin my plans.

Then the drawers go flying, I duck to avoid the flying mass, which slams into the wall behind me, smashing into a thousand pieces that skitter across the ground.