Chapter 15: Chapter 14

HIIIIII!!!! Here's the chapter of the day! I declare to call Monday–Merday! (Since I update every monday :P )

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Meredith

I breathed before the door, calming my nerves before facing him.

Come'on, Red. Open the door.

Panic seized me and I stepped away from the door.

I can't face him. Not after what I done, feeling him up and breaking in front of him like a psycho when I got drenched. I ran a hand through my curls but then it got stuck. Flash of pain burned my scalp. That shook me out of the oncoming unwelcome thoughts.

Come'on, Meredtih.

Wait. There's one advantage to this situation, or at least the situation of the whole feeling him up. Tristen doesn't know that I know what it means. He doesn't know that Bodhi told me. I can pretend ignorance. I nodded to myself. Yeah, I can do that.

Just as I was about to open the door, I stopped.

Hold the door–No pun intended.

I just had a realization. I touched his tail because I didn't know what it meant, but he knew.

What the–

I recalled all the times Tristen could've said something or stopped me.

Anger burned within me. How did I not realize this side of the situation? I guess my embarrassment was so great that I couldn't see past it.

That–That merman!

I was just about to march in and question him–more like yell at him–but something stopped me once again.

My embarrassment.

If I go in there all angry, then Tristen will know that I know and... It'll become more embarrassing and awkward. I sighed in defeat. I decided to take the naive route–pretending I have no knowledge of the tail thing. In the end, between embarrassment and anger...

Embarrassment wins.

I twisted the knob once more and stepped into the room, holding my breath.

I closed the door behind me and stopped in track. Tristen was right there, sitting by the water–watching me emotionless. I read his body language. Shoulders was tensed and his lips were pursed. He was unsure.

Unsure of me.

I mentally chided myself, he probably thinks you're mad at him, considering how you recoiled from him like he was a pervert. At that moment, my stupid brain had to remind me that I basically felt him up when I touched his tail. I realized... that I was the perv. I wanted to run away from here and dig myself a hole.

But I stopped and took a breath. Stop it, Red. I exhaled, calming my racing heart. One advantage I have is that he doesn't know that I know about his tail.

It slowly became a mantra. I chanted to myself. He doesn't know that I know. He doesn't know that I know. He doesn't know that I know.

I gathered my courage and smiled at him.

His shoulders loosen and he smiled back.

My heart raced once more.

"Hi." I awkwardly wave back.

"Hi."

"I'm–" I started.

"I didn't–" He spoke at the same time.

We both stopped and quietly laughed. "You first." Tristen said.

I sighed and went over to sit near him. "I'm sorry for freaking out like that on you." And sorry for feeling you up. I silently apologized the latter to him. "I should have told you that I was uhm.. That I was..."

"No." Tristen shook his head. "You have nothing to apologize. I should've known." He waved at the large distance between the water opening and I. "I should've seen it sooner."

"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known."

"Well, I'm glad you came back." He smiled at me.

"Me too." I smiled back.

Then it got quiet. I could hear the filter whirring, cleaning the mer dome. Tristen's long tail dangled over the edge he was sitting, slowly swishing back and forth in the water.

"Can I ask how?" Tristen spoke.

I jolted. "What?"

"Why do you fear the water?"

"I–" I looked away. "I almost drowned... at sea." I strained the words from the dark corners of my mind.

"What happened?" His voice lowered.

My eyes trailed to the dark blue opening of the aquarium. My heart raced.

The giant blue beast rose before me, lightning cracked in the black sky–excitingly urging the beast to unleash its power and the wave gave one last final roar as it fell forward. To devour me.

I squint my eyes shut, breathing in my mouth and out my nose. "I... I don't think I'm ready to talk about it."

"Okay."

I opened my eyes, surprised by his response. Tristen smiled gently at me.

"You can tell me when you're ready. I'll be here." He said.

My parents had urged me to talk to them when the therapist didn't work. I couldn't talk about it to anyone much less to myself.

I was lost at sea...

For days.

I was only eight years old.

I'm so tired from swimming. I'm so hungry and thirsty. I ducked my head down to drink the water but spat it out when the salt burned my throat. So thirsty...

"Red." I felt a hand wrapped around mine and fire licked up my arm. I jolted back to life, escaping the clutches of my past.

What the hell?

I stared at him. He managed to pull me from the dark depths and return me to the living. Sometimes, I still feel like I'm still at the sea, lost. There will be times that I was stuck there. My parents would find me rocking in a corner when I was a child. Nobody could get me out of there but me. Only could I snapped myself out of it. It was hard but it was getting easier with time and learned techniques. Still, I have bad days.

But Tristen...

He only held my hand.

My heart thundered. I pulled my hand from his. "Ah, I'm fine." I feigned a smile. He won't be around the next time it happened. I shouldn't rely on anyone.

After all, It was me that had to swim home after... that storm.

He watched my closely. "Alright." Then he shook off the somber mood. "So how was your day yesterday?

My throat clogged at his unexpected answer and I cleared my throat. I laughed. My, my, my, where to begin? How do I tell him about the things I learned from Bodhi that past twenty-four hours? "Funny that you asked..." I looked around, but it was just us. "Is Gale near?"

"Why are you asking for Gale?" He leaned back, raising a brow.

I smirked. "I have one word for you." I leaned forward, feeling a slight bit more confident that I was no longer in the dark from his world. "Or really, one name." I braced myself. "Bodhi."

His eyes widened. "Shit." My eyes widened at the fact that he just swore. He never swore in front of me. I grinned, enjoying this side. Was he finally becoming more relaxed around me? Tristen was always held an air of class and elegance–and spoke as such. It kind of intimidated me the first time I spoke with him, but I got used to it. He grabbed my shoulders, his eyes accessing me. "Are you hurt anywhere? Any knife wounds? Did she force you to do something you didn't want to?"

I laughed. Oh, he definitely knew Bodhi.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked. "It's bad, isn't it?"

I laughed harder. "Oh, you know her so well." I patted his hands that were still on my shoulders, ignoring the sparks the fissured out from his hands. "I'm fine! She has... well, taken care of me would be a stretch– but she was there for me."

He sighed in relief as he withdrew his hands from me. "I didn't believe Gale when he said he felt Bodhi out there."

"They can feel each other?"

He nodded. "They can share thoughts, emotions and pain." He continued. "They're shi–" He stopped and then looked to me.

"Shi-amares, right?" I asked slowly, wondering why he wouldn't want to tell me.

He paused. "You know what shi-amares is?" He stopped and looked heavenward when he realized. "Bodhi."

I chuckled. "She told me about Gale and her relationship with him."

"How did she find you?"

I fingered the necklace, then paused. I reached around my neck and took it off. "This necklace wasn't a gift, right?" I looked at the pink pearl. "This is Bodhi's tears of happiness, isn't it?" I didn't want to take part as a pitiful girl, but I felt deceived. I wanted answers.

He cast his gaze down, guilty. "I didn't want to at first, but Gale persuaded me when he realized that Bodhi was out there. I didn't think it would work, but Bodhi found you somehow." He shook his head. "I shouldn't even be surprised that Bodhi managed to make it on land."

I scoffed. "That girl can probably break in a high security prison."

"More like break out of prison."

I laughed.

"I don't know if it'll mean anything to you, but I'm sorry if you felt used. I never want you to feel that way."

"No. Not at all." I looked that heart etched in the pearl. I ran my finger over it. "I understand why you did it."

"You do?"

"I know, Tristen." I swallowed. "That humans didn't capture you mers." I leaned forward and lowered my voice. "I know about the... fays and I know about the sidhe world and about glamours..." I trailed off when his face paled.

He ran a hand down his face. "Shit." With a sudden urgency, he reached out to grab my hand but stopped before he could. He looked questionly at his hand, but shook his head. He looked at me with such intensity that my heart stuttered. His deep blue eyes were tinged with an emerald ring. "I didn't mean for you to be dragged into my world. But it's not safe for you anymore now that you know."

I paused, taking in his concern. "I understand why you would think that, but I'm not any less safe than I was not knowing." I leaned closer. "I met Mr. Grey..." I whispered, like the dark fay would hear me uttering his name. "While remembering my trips here, I nearly told Mr. Grey that I... well, I had to pretend that I didn't remember. If I didn't know about everything, I would've been in danger."

He blinked at me. "You're... right." He nodded as I withdrew back. "It is better if you know." He asked, "So you know you have immunity?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Bodhi had me go through the doors a bunch of times and she said it's as if the glamour moves around me. I'm... untouchable."

"It moved around you?" He blinked at me in awe, "Wow." He pointed upward, toward the skylight. "Can you see the glamour?"

I looked up and beyond the glass. The blue sky greets me and that was all. "No, I can't see the glamour." I said. "I know I'm not a Clover."

"Jeez, Bodhi really told you everything."

I laughed. "Oh yeah. Yesterday was a long day for me."

He laughed. "I can only imagine what you went through."

"Only three nervous breakdowns and a hangover."

"What?" His jaw clenched. "She got you drunk?" He groaned as he rubbed his forehead. "Did she make you drink and are you ok?"

I waved my hands in assurance. I really don't want Tristen to kick Bodhi's ass and the way he kept grinding his teeth like that led me to believe that he would. "She didn't force me to drink." I continued. "Uhm, I'm ok. Well, I'm still digesting all of this–" I waved my hand around, indicating all of this. "But I'll be okay." I smiled to placate him. "I mean, I just woke up one morning and won a ticket for here. I wasn't expecting to find a whole new world and that the world that I was living in was just a mask."

He stilled. "You won a trip here?"

I stopped. "Huh, I just realized that I never told you how I first came here." I leaned back, slightly shocked. "Wow, it just slipped my mind."

"How did you win a trip here? Dark fays are not known for their kindness much less offer something for free." He frowned.

Now registering his concern, a chill went up my spine. I answered slowly. "I won an art contest for a painting I did for class, then I got rewarded with a plaque and a ticket to here." I shook my head. "No, it can't be the dark fay's doing... I mean–humans work here too. Maybe one thought it would be good advertisement?"

"No. I don't believe in coincidence. You, of all people wins a trip here and you have immunity. Something doesn't add up."

"Hmm, if you really believed that, then wouldn't they have done something to me already?" I indicated to myself. "I wouldn't be sitting here now."

He pinched his nose bridge. "Gale needs to hear this.

I nodded meekly. My stomach roiled when I realized that I may no longer be safe here anymore.

Tristen ducked in the water to return with Gale a moment later.

"Hey Red!" Gale grinned as he emerged from the water. "Glad we didn't scare you off... yet."

I weakly smiled at him. "Hey."

He frowned, sensing the somber mood. "What's going on here?"

Tristen filled him in, how I won the trip here and Gale listened with a serious expression that did nothing for my nerve. Tristen continued explaining to Gale of my knowledge of the sidhe world which I learned from Bodhi.

Gale's face lit up and turned to me, "Bodhi found you?"

I grinned. "Oh, she found me alright."

"Gale, focused."

"Right." Gale pondered. "Yeah, that doesn't sound like the dark fay's doing either." Gale waved a hand over me. "She's here talking and appears fine." Gale crossed his arms. "This isn't the first time humans have done something like this. I overheard a conversation from a pair human workers. They were saying that they did a birthday raffle shit for the kids at the mall and a 'lucky' kid would win a free birthday party here." Gale shrugged. "It must have worked, since more tourists arrived."

"But they shouldn't have remembered being here to return." Tristen said bitingly. I stared at Tristen, I never seen him this way, stressed and an air of command wrapped around him.

"Perhaps a dark scum is controlling who remembers what for humans to return here. Otherwise, if nobody remembers, the dark fay would never make their damn profit." Gale reasoned.

Tristen looked away in defeat. "Still, something doesn't feel right here."

"Uh, yeah. Us being captive by the dark fays."

Tristen shot him a warning glare. "You know what I mean."

Gale cast his gaze down. "Apologies, my pri–" He stopped.

"Gale." Tristen warned.

I stopped.

My pri–?

"You're right. You would give our prin– I mean, our sweet poor Tristen a heart attack." Bodhi had said something similar to what Gale said. When Bodhi suggested that I wear the red dress for Tristen and I refused.

Tristen had always held himself with confidence and always spoke with elegance. He felt failure harshly which I learned when he was telling me about how he tried to help Nixie. "If I tried harder or fought back more..." He ran his hand through his hair, "Or even noticed that mers were going missing." Also, why should he have noticed that mers were disappearing? It wasn't his job...

Unless he was a soldier, sworn to protect.

I looked at Tristen's bare torso.

I noted almost majority of the adult mermen and a merwomen had tattoos and scars. Tristen had told me that– "... tattoos are only inked in honor and they must be earned. They're not viewed as decorations. Each tattoo means something."  Tristen had none. I looked at Gale, littered in scars. Just like Bodhi. Why didn't Tristen not have a single tattoo or scars on his skin where nearly all the mers here did, except mothers and young teens? Even the elderly had some withered tattoos and ancient scars. Then I knew.

Tristen was not a soldier.

I recalled the moment when Bodhi told me about the glamour over the city, "This prevents word getting to the sea king, Neptune."

I stopped.

I spoke and the mers stilled.

"You're the son of Neptune, the king of the seven seas." I said to Tristen.

Tristen's eyes widened and Gale stilled. I continued, speaking with an eerie calm that was privy to me. "You're a prince."

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