Surface

Chapter 17 - The Outside World Is A Mess

“Okay, am I caught in an episode of The Twilight Zone because that was nuts?!” Shelby shouted crashing onto my bed. She was sprawled out and staring at the ceiling like she didn't know what to make of anything anymore.

“I feel the same way,” I said taking a seat at my window. It was open, sending a steady breeze into cool the room. In fact, it was the only steady thing in my life at the moment.

My grandmother had pretty much shut down after she blabbed about the alleged "research team". Her eyes glazed over and suddenly she wasn't even aware of our presence. I helped her to bed but I was far from reaching a peaceful sleep. She left me with so many questions.

If what she said was true then I could still be in potential danger. My mother must have found something significant for people to kill for it. Had she confirmed the existence of mermaids? If she did what did I have to do with it? Why had my mother been so resilient in handing the information over?

And if all this wasn’t true, did that mean her condition was getting worse?

I didn't know which reality I preferred.

Shelby sat up, her eyes traveling the room. It was her first time seeing it. “I’m no detective but from what she said I deducted that she may have involuntarily implied that your mother had discovered evidence of the existence of mermaids which leads to the conclusion that-”

“Woah that’s a lot of high-class vocabulary,” I interjected. It was rude to interrupt but Shelby was never one for professor talk - up until now that was. Her language was usually laid back and filled with slang.

“Let me finish!” She crossed her arms and her fishnetted legs. “I’m trying to tell you that it sounded like your mother didn't want the research team to read her journals because it would endanger you. Now, why would her research about mermaids put you in danger?”

I lifted my arms and dropped them dramatically. “Because I’m a mermaid?!”

She wore a dead serious expression.

I blinked. “I was kidding.”

“I’m not.”

She kept her gaze intense while I commenced questioning everything I knew about myself.

Then she broke out into hysterical laughter and fell back onto the bed. “Kidding! Mermaids don’t exist. You’re gran was probably messing with us.”

That idea didn’t make sense for an array of different reasons. One of those being my gran wouldn't joke about my parent's death. If what she said wasn’t true it was because of her disease.

I squeezed my eyes shut and let the breeze tussle my hair. “I don’t know.”

The wind started to blow stronger, causing the ballerina on my music box to spin without having been wined up. Unlike the typical music box, the dancer wasn't alone. A young man dressed equally as elegant was spinning her. It was ceramic and the base was a cylinder with storage space for jewelry. It uses to be my mother’s. When I received it on my seventeenth birthday it had come with some of my mother's jewelry as well.

Shelby and I were watching it move in silence, enjoying the simplistic performance. Then my phone buzzed on the counter, disrupting the dance.

A message from Helen.

Listen, I know ur trying to steer clear of Hannah and Norah but we need u tomm.

I groaned.

Why?

moral support. Going to visit Tori’s mom and Hannah’s cousin.

It made sense we were going to see Victoria’s mom. She was back in town and probably had questions about the suicide and would want her friends to comment on it.