The Mermaid That's Sweetest

33] A Sad Monster

33] A Sad Monster

"I am not my mother," I tell Eros, he's hauling me with him towards the Rough sea from the Ruin rock pool, after he's poked my supposed fangs – I didn't have fangs, yet my sharp tooth cut his finger. So many questions were burning through my brain.

"Better keep saying it, because until I believe it..." Eros whispers, under his breath, as we head towards a drop to the ocean swell together, "...I will not stop tormenting you, Lily, until you prove it."

Of course that's his answer.

Eros drags me to the edge then halts with me. We now stand above the swell, upon a rock ledge, and Eros stares into the raging water below us. He's summoning the sea to meet us, or he will, any moment. Eros slowly glances up and to the side, towards me, his towering form in the last veil of night is both represented of perfect malice, full of dark twisted thoughts and mixed with amusement.... I find it strangely... attractive.

Because it is strange. Because I am a Mermaid. It's the only reason.

Argh. Definitely not because I knew he fucked well and put me through all kinds of euphoric highs back in his Castle bed. Mmmm... probably not the time for these kind of thoughts.

Or maybe it was? Isn't that what mates did, even in hard times? Fuck away their problems?

My blood warms and Eros' hand slowly slips from my elbow to my hand, his eyes stilling upon mine, watching my expression. I blush, because I think he knows... what I'm thinking.

Seconds ago, I had been terrified by Eros and his anger when I awoke with him standing above me. Then witnessing his tears... a moment of clarity in his eyes. It wasn't something I was expecting to see. Eros' explanation about Fantasia killing his Clan – the mother I never knew, a murderer... like me... was not very helpful to my sense of anxiety.

For a moment, I thought he might even kill me in retribution. But no, he didn't rip my throat out.

To top it off, my Orca Necklace was gone and I didn't understand past the point of Eros being unhinged from the talk with his dead mother, after clearly harnessing his newly acquired Drift Pendants while I napped... so he must have thrown my necklace into the sea. No big deal, little Merka and Mermaids did shit like that in a fit of rage to betray their friends. A child's game. Whatever. I'd find it eventually. Stupid shark. I'd have a reason to laugh at that, but Eros was watching me with the kind of passion, I liked to believe, perhaps foolishly, that you know comes from a good place, overall, a place of soul.

By this stage, I already knew all Erebos were violently aggressive, predatory and cruelly inclined. However, it all stemmed from their selfish feelings. Some warped sense of expression ensued.

I put on a brave face now, because the last thing on my mind? Was one more important detail. Eros described my mother as a half-breed and I couldn't ignore it.

Half Mermaid. Half Erebos? Hmm. Strange. Although not entirely impossible. And that would explain him playing with my 'puny little fang'.

Eros rises the Rough sea, and a rather gentle wave, out of the unlikely current, washes us in and precisely pulls us past the boulders and past the shallows.

I keep my head above water while Eros' hand slips from mine as he shifts into his tail, going wherever he goes.

I drift by the surface, looking up at the horizon. It was slowly turning from night black to a faded dawn orange.

I wait for Eros to pull me down.

Instead, he doesn't show.

Eventually, I look down myself.