Under The Sea Romance

Thank you guys for the encouraging reviews. I had a hard time writing this chapter. I had the story pre-written up to this point. So, today, for the first time in about a year I added another chapter! I kind of debated on whether to wrap wrap up the story or continue it, but all of your uplifting reviews helped me decide to continue. I hadn't decided exactly where this is going, but apparently it's going somewhere. Enjoy!

Chapter 8

I was a bit unsure about visiting Logan’s dead lover’s gravesite. I could tell he still loved him. It was the way he talked about him, the many memories still apparent in their cave. It was just amazing to me how they lived out in these cold, vacant waters for so long.

“We had each other,” He said, glancing over at me like he could read my mind as he casually swam around the backside of the cave, where we hadn’t been before, “And that was all that mattered.”

I nodded and managed to keep up. Bubbles blew in and out of my nose as we rounded past a patch of strange plants to a pile of…rocks.

“This is it,” He explained and I watched his dark hair move with the water, “It doesn’t look like much, but it was the best I could do.”

We were both silent for a moment, taking a moment. The more I looked at it, the more it did look like a grave site. Logan must have placed some type of red flowering plant on top of the grave site and a rather awkward looking cross was put near the side. It seemed like a very solemn resting site to be placed.

Logan sniffled a bit and wiped at his eyes, “I miss him a lot.”

“I’m sorry about what happened, Logan,” I said, “I still don’t know how you did it. First with him, and then alone.”

“Being alone was the worst part, but once I had somebody, it was a hundred percent better. You’ll see,” He said with a watery grin.

He swam over to me and wrapped an arm around my waist. I leaned into the embrace and allowed him to hold me. It felt warm. It felt comfortable. It felt right.

“But what now?” I asked, shrugging slightly, still in his arms, “What happens now?”

“What do you want to happen?” He asked, his hand moving forward to cup my cheek.

“I just…I don’t know if I can do this like you have,” I explained and immediately received a startled expression from Logan, “No-no. I don’t mean I want to die. I just mean I can’t stay here. I have to try to fix this. I have to try and find some help.”

Logan sighed and shook his head, “Nobody is going to help us. We’re just freaks to them. I can’t risk going to the circus. Maybe I’m afraid of what will be out there. Maybe I should be.”

“I just can’t help but think that they worked so hard to make us and they would just leave us out here. It doesn’t make sense.”

“You think they have other intentions besides leaving us down here?”

“Maybe they wanted to see how we would fare by ourselves. And all that experimenting they did…maybe we were implanted with some kind of tracking device,” I said, getting all sorts of ideas in my head.

“I don’t know if that’s an opportunistic idea or a terrifying one. I don’t want to be found again. I just want to stay here—with you and live whatever life I have left,” He replied and added, “Besides, I’ve been down here for so long and haven’t seen any other signs of life besides that girl. I haven’t seen any divers. I haven’t seen any underwater machines. Nothing.”

I thought about that for a moment. He had been down here for a long time, but still. There must be some reason why they would do this. I just don’t see some kind of scientific corporation putting thousands, maybe millions, of dollars into creating us and then spitting us out like waste disposal. There must be a reason.

“Maybe that girl hides the key as to why we were chosen to do this.”

“You think?”

I paused and thought about what I had known about her. She was wild, untamed. Logan said she was crazy, but what if there was more to it than that?

“Are you sure she was an experiment?” I asked.

He shrugged, “I just assumed. She looks like us so…”

“Well, what if she’s not? Maybe she’s real. Maybe she’s like a real live mermaid.”

“Sounds like a fantasy,” Logan replied.

“What do I look like to you?”

I raised my arm up slightly and floated around for a moment or two. More bubbles escaped from my gills and his gaze settled upon my long, neon blue tail. It was bright in the morning light and the scales glistened brilliantly. He just gave a sideways nod and swam over to me.

“I guess I just never thought about it like that. The first time I met her she had just been so angry and almost…scary. I just avoided her from then on out. She doesn’t speak, anyway.”

“Are you sure? She made some weird noises when she hit me with that thing. I don’t know if a crazy person could have such good aim, either.”
“Well, no. I’m not sure.”

“Maybe she was just defending herself. Maybe she thought of me as a threat for some reason.”

My mind started revolving around all of these possible scenarios including this mermaid. What if she was a real mermaid? What if she hadn’t been genetically altered to represent a merperson? What if she was a merperson? What if there was a reason that I ran into her? What if there were-

“Logan, what if there are more of her around? What if you’ve there are more merpeople around?”

He wilted slightly and shrugged.

“Don’t you want to find out?”

He sighed, “Only if you do.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I-I’ve just lived with Aron and then with you and I don’t know if I need anything else.”

“Are you afraid?”

“I’m not afraid in a sense of meeting people. I’m afraid of what might happen. What good could come of this? Even if we do find more, we’re just aliens to them. They’re not going to accept us.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

He turned slightly, looking back at the grave site and then at me. He seemed caught between two specific ideas.

“What if they can help us?” I urged, taking a step towards him and laying my hand on his exposed shoulder.

“She attacked you. How do you think they’re going to help?”

I got agitated and my voice rose a few octaves. My fingers slipped off his shoulder and I threw both hands in the air, “I don’t know, Logan. But, we have to do something. We can’t just live out here in the cold and eat raw fish for the rest of our lives. We have to think of the future.”

“Well I’m sorry if I’ve been living out here for a fucking year. That’s all I had and I made do better than most people could have. What if she attacks us again? What if she aims better this time and opens a vein? What if sharks come, attracted by the smell of our blood? Then what? Then I’ll be alone all over again. I can’t handle that!”

“That won’t happen,” I said, softer this time, understanding where his fear was coming from, “But I can’t handle living like this. I need something to hold onto.”

“You have me,” He said firmly, pressing his hand against his chest.

“I know and I’m thankful, but what if there’s a whole other world we’re missing out on? What if they can help us?”

“Then how do you plan to approach her? She obviously doesn’t speak our language. I don’t know if she even has a language.”

I began swimming back to the cave, talking while he followed closely behind me, “I don’t know. Maybe we could give her some gifts, some food or something. Maybe something from the shipwreck would interest her.”

I went into the cave and began moving his things around, searching among the sleeping sealights for something that might be of interest to the strange mermaid. Logan had coins, hairbrushes, silverware, and a variety of other things. I felt his presence behind me and he did nothing to stop me from going through his items. I suddenly felt his hand rest on my shoulder.

“I know,” He said softly, settling beside me and pulling out something underneath a stack of aging cans and cups, “What do you think about this?”

He pulled out what appeared to be a jewelry box. It was old, an antique obviously. It had faded from a dark mauve color to a lighter pink and had washed out paintings of ballerinas on the side. He sniffled slightly and looked at me, his honey brown eyes showing his uncertainty. He lifted the lid of the jewelry box and the ballerina in the center began to revolve around. A faint melody of “It’s a Small World” could be heard echoing off the walls.

“That’s perfect,” I said, nodding and looking into his expressive eyes