December 16th | Fifteen Days Until NYE

My eyes fluttered open when Leah rolled onto her other side, brushing my shoulder and waking me up in the process. I blinked rapidly at the darkness once again, Leah's warm body pressing against my own.

Fatigue prickled my scalp as I shifted, my hair brushing the sides of my sleeping bag. Just as my dreams began dragging me back to sleep my phone's alarm vibrated beneath me.

Jolting awake completely, I quickly rushed to turn off my alarm, freezing in place afterwards when I heard Benji's light snoring. I slowly turned to Leah. I couldn't see her face, whether her lashes fluttered from dreaming or if she was wide-eyed and angry from being awoken before noon.

A moment's silence. My strong pulse ran in my ears before I sighed heavily. Gently, as carefully as I could with Leah pressed against me, I moved out of my thin sleeping bag again. The night was cooler so Benji hadn't put on the air-conditioning. My body twisted and turned, my pyjamas wriggling around me, but I burst free for the second night in a row.

Quickly glancing at my best friends, sighing at Benji's light snoring and Leah's sleeping solemn face, I quietly rushed into the same routine as the night before.

Throwing on a jumper over my pyjamas again, I decided to leave my hair in the two braids I'd put them before I fell asleep - I knew I'd come back from Siren Bay and forget to braid my hair again, and then Leah would notice in the morning - she was awfully perceptive.

I barely convinced my two friends yesterday that I had slept soundly. Hiding my yawning and concealing the dark circles over my eyes, having coffee instead of water; I hoped I was a good enough actor for them to believe me.

I wasn't particularly good at Drama in school but I enjoyed it regardless. My talent was in sports. I'd been a champion swimmer and participated in national tournaments all through school, but sailing was my calling. My grandparents taught my dad, who taught me, and the fond memories I had growing up camping by vast lakes and gliding across the water in swift boats were the happiest I'd been.

As I left Benji's home, gently wedging the door so it didn't shut completely, I jumped on the Smith's bike and quietly rode it onto the road, just missing Leah's own motorbike. As soon as the tires hit the tarmac, I hauled down to Siren Bay.

Six months away from what made me happy, but I wasn't heading to the water to leap into the waves once more.

The two days at sea on my eighteenth changed everything for me. As I rode around the banks in the road, I remembered the sand beneath my bare, grazed feet when I wept in Siren Bay.

Pulling up to the car park of Whale Beach and hauling the bike next to the playground as I'd done last night, I remembered lifting my head and seeing a pair of glistening eyes staring at me in sorrow.

As I ran across the beach again, my mind replayed the events of six months ago. With my feet leaping across the first trench in the rocks after the ocean pool, my past self grabbed the outstretched hand and allowed myself to be pulled closer.

I walked carefully to the second trench containing my Siren Bay. The other hand had grabbed my ankle then, after they'd heard my name shouted across the sea, and dragged me beneath the waves. My family and friends, the locals and the police, wouldn't have seen me for two more days, when I'd crawled ashore in my sparkling birthday dress and covered in salt and sea.

Placing my feet back on the sand of Siren Bay once more, I sighed, my breath wavering. The night was warmer, the moon a little brighter, so I could see the shadow in the water before. The familiar hand back on the rocks. My breath hitched.

The glistening dark eyes watched carefully as I sat down, taking off my shoes to let my feet brush the water.

My toes curled as the cool sea enveloped them. My eyes never left the creature in front of me. "I knew it," I whispered, the desperate itch beneath my skin calming as the dark-eyed creature stared back.

A hand gently grasped the rocks in the alcove, the gateway from Siren Bay to the ocean beyond. It was so utterly human, the knuckles and the nails, with a gentle shimmer across the tanned skin like sweat. It seemed male with the sharp jaw and the black straight hair fanning out across his scalp, but no hand came up to shift it.

As another hand emerged on the other side of the rocks, it hauled itself out of the water to gently swim towards me. My eyes followed the bare chest, the shimmering gleam of skin smoothing out any trace of muscle, as tanned human skin merged to a deep brown tail. The tail cut through the water like a snake or an eel, side to side as it bundled up beneath the surface. My heart began to race as the creature stopped before me under the moonlight, no longer hidden in shadow nor memory.

"Hi," I breathed, watching his every movement. Mermaid was the term that came to mind, but in books, shows, and films they were depicted with a scaled tail, a horizontal fin like a dolphin or a whale, and shimmering blue scales. "I remember you."

He, it was definitely a he, raised an eyebrow. He seemed so human if you forgot the eel-like tail churning the water behind him. I leaned forward, my toes curling into the sand as the water lapped at my feet. "I think you remember me too, or you wouldn't be here."

He turned, one dark eye on the ocean behind him, before looking at me again. I held my breath as he took in my pyjamas, jumper, braided hair, the stray curls that had escaped in my run across the beach. My wide eyes hadn't left his face.

"Six months ago you took me from here," I frowned, doubt creeping in. "Do you remember? Can you...can you talk?"

"I thought you wouldn't come back." His deep voice was hoarse from lack of use. I blinked at the fierce Australian accent like my own. Questions started to fill my mind, threatening to burst out like a firework.

"I would have sooner except I was grounded until New Year's," I licked my lips and tasted the salt from the roaring ocean. "I'm not allowed to go near the water."

He cocked his head to the side, his hair shifting as it began to dry in the warm night air. "It's New Year's Eve today?"

"No, in a couple of weeks. I, uh, snuck out." I admitted coyly. "I tried to visit yesterday-"

"I know."

"You were there?"

He smiled softly. "I've been waiting every night since we met, Sylvia."

A warmth pooled in my chest, I couldn't hide the wide smile on my face. "You remember my name?"

He nodded, moving closer in the water. I heard the sound of his tail cut through the water but I remained fixated on his eyes. He was only a metre away from me, I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to. My hands dug into the sand either side of me in an effort to keep them still.

"You never told me your name." I said, taking in the details of his face. He looked about my age, Asian, and with his Australian accent I was sure I would know him. Yet, there was nothing familiar about his face except I'd seen it six months ago on the night of my eighteenth birthday.

He froze. The water stilled as his tail stopped moving. Wide-eyed in panic, I quickly thought how I could calm him down so he wouldn't flee, before he broke the silence.

"Henry," he admitted.

"Henry?"

"Yeah." He eased back into the water, as though he was seeking comfort in having his exit to the ocean closer to him.

I didn't want to startle him so I didn't move towards him. "It's nice to meet you, Henry." I said, gently reaching out for a handshake. My hand remained in the air between us as Henry stared at my outstretched fingers.

The rumbling of a distant engine cut through the air and Henry shrunk back to the gateway, his body flush against the rocks with his tail swiping the water between them. I jolted, getting on my knees like I was going to leap after him, as Henry's wide eyes looked in the direction of the beach.

"Don't leave!" I whispered, my hand outstretched still, but no longer to shake his. It was like I was trying to hold him in place, or I hoped so. I'd just found him, just found Henry, and I needed answers. I needed to know more. "Henry, it was probably someone just coming home late, please."

He looked back at me. "You're the only human that knows," Henry said 'human' with a harsh bite, a stab of envy. "No one else can know, it's too risky Sylvia."

"I haven't told anyone," I said truthfully. "I haven't said anything to anyone, I promise you. You might not know me well but I'm honest, and I can keep a secret to the grave. You can trust me Henry."

Henry's shoulders relaxed, the wild gaze calming. He began to pull away from the rocks and back towards her when a loud whistle rung low across the water. I jumped, the high sound spreading goosebumps across my skin, but Henry's reaction was more alarming.

His tail shimmered under the water and I watched, utterly captivated, as his tail began to glow. The dorsal fin that followed the length of his spine, and the other fin on the underside, shifted from deep brown to a faded hue of pale green. The light from his tail let me see its shape more clearly: that instead of a broad fin at the end like a dolphin or whale, or a typical mermaid, it formed a sharp point.

The jade-lit tail swivelled back and forth as Henry looked between myself and Whale Beach beyond the rocks. "Someone's coming," he whispered urgently, scrambling for the gateway in the shallow water.

I didn't ask how he knew. "Henry-"

"I need to go, Sylvia." His voice was raspy, harsh, as he hurried to haul his body through the gateway and drag his long, glowing tail with him.

"When will I see you next?" I stood, walking towards him, towards the ocean doorway that he peered through with dark, glistening eyes. "I...Please, there's still so much for me to say, that I need to say!"

Henry's gaze softened for a moment as he hesitated. My heart stammered as he backed away into the ocean. "Meet me out on the water," was the last thing he said before diving beneath the surf. The shadow of his tail left, the light fading, leaving me standing in the dark alone.

Until a bright white light shone in my eyes. I flinched, shielding my gaze. "Sorry, I was just-I, I was..." My words jammed in my throat as the torch shut off and the moon lit up the person standing over me on the rocks.

Leah's dark purple hair was askew from sleep. "Sylvia Nancy Okenji, you are a fucking idiot."

~

We're going to have a bit of swearing in this book, we are set in Australia, after all! Meet Henry - my take on a realistic mermaid/man. 

Joke of the day; A Roman Legionnaire walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says, "Five beers, please!" 

Let me know what you think, as always!