Under The Sea Romance

A World Apart

Summary: A brutal experiment has left Raven in pain and hopeless deep under the sea. Can a friendly merman help him give a reason to live?

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Chapter 1 – Lost Experiment

The moss moved around me, suffocated, destroying me. The more I struggled, the less I could move. The dark, slimy substance moved around my neck, tightening. I struggled and kicked. I opened my mouth to scream, but only a strange, inhuman sound formed. The darkness was taking over. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t move. My hands grabbed onto the slippery plant and pulled, but I was only wrapped up tighter, away from civilization, away from anything living. It was too much for me. I had struggled too long. I would die. I would die here underwater. I would suffocate and die. Bubbles escaped from my nose and I finally passed out. I didn’t want to live in this world anyway.

I dreamed of the kidnapping—of the torture. I remember everything so vividly in my dreams, but I yearned to forget those weeks. I would never forget the drugs and the painful transformation into this inhuman form. I was only a specimen, an experiment to them. Even worse, I was an experiment gone wrong.

Faintly I could remember the ship. The ship that brought me here—forced me under the water. I feared I couldn’t breath. I struggled under the water. I remember their faces, all of them angry. I was supposed to have been able to breathe normally, but it had gone wrong. No longer could I breathe out of the water. I remember chocking and sobbing and suffocating. I didn’t understand how to use my gills. My brain went on shut down as I struggled in the weeds in the foreign ocean. It was the most frightening experience of my life.

I awoke a short time later. My mind was foggy and I was surprised that I was so calm. I could feel the plant around my body. My eyes opened wide and I stared into the dark ocean. Water moved into my nostrils and into my lungs, yet I didn’t suffocate. It must have all been in my mind. I felt my gills on my neck move as the current gently moved through the water. I felt calm for a brief second, before realizing I was still trapped. Instead of jumping to a conclusion, like I had earlier, I tried to rationalize.

Before I had pulled and yanked on the plant like my life depended on it. Now that I knew I wouldn’t suffocate, I took my time. It was like unraveling a necklace. The long leaves were around my arms and my neck and my…tail? I hadn’t even gotten a good chance to look at myself, yet. I was too concerned with escaping. After a long, stressful amount of time, I eventually freed myself. The moment seemed almost unbelievable. I had been wrapped up in those weeds for who knows how long. Finally I was free. I floated away from the plant that would have taken my life.

My body was sore, aching, not only from trying to escape from the plant, but also from the painstaking transformation. It had lasted for days. I had shrieked and yelled, kicked and screamed, but none of them cared. They watched eagerly, nevertheless. I had been laid out on a table for their viewing and records. I remember my legs being fused together by the drug and the foreign, painful stinging in my neck from the gills.

I moved with the current lost in thought. I hadn’t been hungry for hours. I was too concerned with getting away and trying to sort things out. Now I felt the rumbling in my stomach. What the hell would I eat? Why would they do this to me? Why didn’t they just kill me, instead of leaving me to suffer like this?

Swimming was new to me. Moving my tail in one motion seemed odd, but I found that it was the easiest, fastest way to move. But where would I go? It was dark, so very dark and I was so scared. Everything seemed so big. I could see only shadows on the ocean floor. I was cold, too. I had nothing to protect me. Nothing to would keep me away from predators.

My stomach offered a low rumbling once again and I placed my palm over it. I floated in the deep water and tried to think. What could I eat? I didn’t dare go back to those plants that had me trapped only hours ago. It was so dark and I couldn’t see much the way it was. I wondered it was nighttime or day. Surely it wouldn’t be this dark during the day, would it? I let my tail graze the ocean floor and I felt to my hands. With my head down I picked the sand between my thin fingers and felt along the dark floor for anything edible. Plants? Small animals? Nothing sounded even remotely good. Everything was inedible. As I moved forward I came across a warm spring in the water and lounged in the small area for a short period of time. It was long enough for me to get my thoughts together.

I would eat. It didn’t matter what it was. I needed food if I was going to survive. Did I really want to survive? No, but I could try. I had to try.

I rested my hand on my lap and finally looked down. My muscular, long fin was a neon blue color—bright and shiny, but still scaly like a fish. I moved my hand down further until I felt the end of the tail where it fanned out on all sides into a heart shape. What did they make me into? My baby cousin would say I was a “pwetty mer-may” but in my eyes I was just an abomination—a freak.

Again I felt the hollowness in my stomach and realized I had closed my eyes briefly. Why did I have to start thinking on family? I was stupid. I had been the one walking around those factories in the middle of the night. I thought I was tuff and strong. Little did I know I would get kidnapped and never see my parents or three brothers again.

I shook off the feeling and finally opened my eyes. I decided I needed to move and find some food. I couldn’t just keep putting it off, but I was scared. I moved up a bit and let myself float and eventually slowly swim in one direction. It seemed the least harrowing of all directions, even though they were all cold, dark and desolate.

I reached my hand out at one point and came upon a plant floating nearby. It was long and I immediately thought it had been a similar plant to the one I had been trapped in earlier. Only, it wasn’t slimy and even in the dark, it seemed to be a lighter color. I ran my hand over the wide leaf and felt the soft skin of the moss plant. I cracked off a corner and without further ado, stuffed a corner in my mouth. Immediately I wrinkled up my nose in disgust. I was eating moss. How very pathetic.

I tried to ignore the taste and force the plant down. After eating an entire leaf I felt my stomach settle a bit and almost laughed out loud wondering if I should drink some water. It may have seemed stupid at the time, but did I need to actually drink the water, or does it going in and out of my mouth count as enough?

After a while my mind started to become tired. The night had been long. I swam for a while before finally coming to another warm spring and settling right down in the middle of the ocean floor on top of it. I pulled myself into a fetal position and tried to relax, but the only thing that resulted was high pitched wailing for most of the night.