Under The Sea Romance

Chapter 2 – Fight or Flight



I didn’t know how long I had slept. I rarely cry, but all of last night I kept myself up sobbing. Eventually I had fallen into a deep sleep out of exhaustion. I felt warmer than before. I looked up and could actually see the sun shining down into the water. That gave me a little bit of hope. I looked around the area where I had been sleeping and spotted the plant I had been eating. It didn’t look half bad—sort of like those big elephant ear plants, but only in white. I didn’t feel sick, which I was thankful for.



I finally had the chance to get a good look at my surroundings. Schools of colorful fish moved around the ocean floor. There were hills and canyons surrounding me. It was like the earth had been enveloped in water. It was beautiful, in a way. I pulled myself into a sitting position and then slowly swam over to where that plant had been last night. I pulled off part of a leaf and munched on it. My nerves were on high end. I could sense things moving around me—fish, underwater plants, and other sea life.



Eventually I off another part of the leaf and took it with me as I swam around. There were large rocks and caves off to the side. Afraid to go anywhere near the caves, I headed around them and swam off to another direction. The ocean was endless to me. It was hard telling where I had been and where I wanted to go. I needed to find some cover, some sort of protection.



An odd feeling began to creep up my naked spine and I swung my head around to eye my environment. The small schools of fish were gone and I felt that something wasn’t right. I continued to swim away, but faster this time. The itchy feeling didn’t leave, but only continued. I looked around again and my mouth opened in shock when I saw a shark hunting me down and high on my trail. I did the only thing I knew how to do—I swam away as fast as my tail would let me.



I was no match for a shark. He was huge, agile, and a predator. I was coming close to a cave and as much as I didn’t want to go in, I felt I had no choice. The cave was small and I shoved myself as far into it as possible. The shark was quick on my trail, sniffing me out, and quickly found my hiding spot.



I spent hours in that cave. I lost track of time so long ago. The shark remained at the cave door, yapping and trying to get closer. The opening was too small for him. After half a day he eventually gave up and found smaller pray. I released a long, relieved sigh after spending an extra few hours in the cave, making sure he was gone. As a child I had dreamed of finding treasure in a cave, but as I look backwards in the cave, all I see is darkness as the cave gets smaller. I didn’t dare look for treasure that day.



I lost track of days soon after. Days became nights became days. The cycle was endless. I found plants to eat and swam around most of the time. I tried to stay away from any large underwater creatures and tried to stay close to the small schools of fish, but even they seemed frightened of me.



One evening it was getting close to sundown. It would get dark soon, and cold. I had to find a place to spend the night. I saw a flash of light to my side and whirled around quickly. Was it another shark? A whale? A stingray? What the hell had that been?



It was then that I saw her. Long white hair fell around her shoulders, but did nothing to conceal her ample breasts. Her eyes were wide and animal-like. I must have looked relieved to see her, but she raised some kind of handmaid weapon and fired an arrow at me. It grazed my left cheek and I jumped back.



I tried speaking to her, but my voice was gone and resulted in strange toned sounds.



“Who are you?”



Her eyes were on fire and she tried to hit me again and failed. She screamed into the water and hit me again, this time with a wooden knife. I must have looked flabbergasted when the knife punctured my shoulder. I yelled and then began to swim away. The girl didn’t try to follow. What was wrong with her?



I swam away quickly at first, but eventually let the current carry me wherever it pleased. The girl was nowhere in sight. At first I had been so relieved to see another one of the lab’s experiments, or was she an experiment? Maybe I had been genetically enhanced to become one of them? I didn’t know. I was full of unanswerable questions at that time.



My arm was bleeding freely and I knew it wasn’t good. At least I knew my blood was still red. What was I supposed to do? Where should I go? I thought someone like me would embrace the chance to have me, to see me and have the recognition of knowing they weren’t alone. I had been wrong, deathly wrong. At first I thought it had been a mistake—she thought I was a shark, an animal, anything. Yet, the look she gave me was full of hatred and wildness. She had been like an animal herself.



Maybe she didn’t understand me when I questioned her. Maybe it was my own fault. I sunk down to the ground, which was a large, plateaued stone and covered my face in my hands. Maybe all this was my fault.



I curled up and fell asleep on that cold rock. The night was dark and scary, but I didn’t really care anymore. I almost wished something would come and get me. Put me out of my misery.



However, in the morning I didn’t wake up on my own. I felt a slight shaking motion and opened my eyes slowly. I blinked against the bright sunlight filtering through the water and stared with a shocked expression into the honey colored eyes of another man just like me.



He jumped up and floated just above my still form. My mouth formed an O and I couldn’t take my eyes off his lean, muscular frame and long, hunter green tail. We only stared at each other for a few awkward seconds before I finally put my hands onto the ground and scooted away quickly.



He opened his mouth and I swear he said something to me, but I must have been hearing things again…



“It’s okay,” He repeated and I knew he said something this time.



It wasn’t English and it wasn’t like I normally spoke. It was a in a series of odd tones, but for some reason I understood.



“W-what?” was all my foggy brain could produce.



“You’re like me,” He said with one firm nod, still staring at me.



I shook my head slightly and looked down at my arm, which had clotted and stopped bleeding during the night.



“You’re like me,” He said again, awaiting a response.



Finally I put my head on straight and asked a reasonable question, “Are there more?”



He shrugged slightly, “Not that I know of. I’ve never met one of us before…well, except for the crazy girl.”



“Crazy girl?”



He came down a bit and leaned forward, “She was here before me. An experiment gone terribly wrong. They did something to her…something to her brain. Now she’s crazy.”



I raised both eyebrows and stared. Crazy? Was he serious? Was I serious? Was I seeing things now?



“What happened to your arm?”



“It was her,” I said, still dumbstruck at seeing him and talking to him.



He was a fucking merman for Christ’s sakes!



“I can take you to my dwelling and fix you up,” He said, nodding at my shoulder, “Looks painful.”



I nodded dumbly and he offered a hand. I stared at it for a minute or two before finally accepting and he pulled me off the ground. He wasn’t the savior I had expected, but was better than nothing.