Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

either of them get away this time.”
    Fin shot me a agonizing look before his handler pulled him unwillingly underwater.
    “ No!” Tatiana screamed as she disappeared, too, the liquid silencing her cry.
    I waited for a moment to hear “You’re on candid camera,” but the water became eerily silent.
    Wake up, Ashlyn. You’re just having a bad dream.
    When I didn’t wake up, the reality hit me that Fin and Tatchi were pulled underwater and never came back up, I screamed out their names into the night.
    “ Ashlyn!” Dad called from the house. “Ashlyn!”
    I looked up through watery eyes at my father’s distorted image, running down the path towards me. I couldn’t stop sobbing.
    “ Fin . . . Tatchi . . . They were here . . . They’re in trouble!” I yelled out between broken gasps.
    “ Ashlyn, honey,” Dad said, fear in his voice as he glanced at my bloodied pajama’s. “It’s okay. You’re going to be just fine.” He lifted me off the ground and cradled me in his arms. I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes, wanting the insanity to stop.
    “ Ashlyn?” my mother called from the doorway. “Oh, no! What happened?”
    “ She was outside on the beach,” Dad said softly as he carried me past her into the house. “I think it’s PTS. Karen, get me a blanket.”
    Dad laid me on the couch and covered me up before he redressed my wound. I tried to make sense of what happened but nothing coherent formed in my brain, let alone would come out of my mouth. I just felt dread washing over me like I should have done more—dove in after them to stop the abduction at least. Where did they all go? Were the bad fish-men taking them away to that place? To Natatoria? But the biggest shock, the thing that kept echoing over and over in my mind was: forget Tessie, mermaids were real and lived in our lake.
    I was surely going crazy.

39
FIN

    Tatch’s scream both in my head and in the water shot adrenaline straight into my muscles. I wasn’t about to be taken home like a captured fugitive. This is the moment Badger had groomed me for—the moment to prove who I was and what I could do.
    I popped my shoulder back into Chauncey’s arm and felt him momentarily loosen his grip. With a quick flip of my tail, I slid out of his grasp and circled around, piercing a barb filled with poison into his chest. He groaned and tried to hit me with his spear, but the direct shot took affect quickly and pumped into his body. I snagged his spear as he slipped into a daze and floated in the current.
    Tatch took advantage of the attack and bit Colin in the arm. He yelled and released her. “You filthy little—”
    I smacked Colin across the face with my tail before he could finish. “Don’t you dare insult my sister.” Before he could recover, I spun around and hit him again. “And that’s for taking my Jeep without permission.”
    Colin shook his head and held his bleeding nose. I prepared to whack him again for wearing my clothes when Blanchard got between us with a spear, pointed directly at my chest.
    “ Enough,” Azor yelled.
    Tatch floated behind me, nails bared. “Stay back,” she said, followed with a hiss.
    I held my spear and pointed it towards anyone who moved.
    “ Don’t do anything stupid,” Azor replied, keeping his distance and his cool.
    “ Where are we going to go?” Tatch asked.
    “ I don’t know yet. Just watch my back.”
    We mad-dogged Azor and his goons, and waited for someone to make a move. I had no idea how long this stand-off would last or how we’d escape and hide without being seen, but we had to try. We weren’t letting them take us back to Natatoria without a fight.
    “ Like I said earlier, we don’t mean anyone any harm,” I said and slowly swam away from the group. “All we want is to leave peaceably and I suggest you don’t follow us.”
    “ Or you’ll what?” Azor asked mockingly. “You can’t possibly think you’ll be able to hide in the lake tonight. You can run, but we’ll find you. You’ll be returning to Natatoria—both of you. It’s your choice whether or not it’s peaceable .”
    “ I’ll never go anywhere with you!” Tatch growled at Azor.
    The group let out a collective “oooh.” He turned and silenced them with a glare.
    For the most part, Azor was right. But there was one place we could hide that no one would consider looking—the upstairs bathtub of our house. We could escape through the hatch and crawl upstairs while everyone