Starving for Love (4 page)

Panic was beginning to set in despite Kristian's desire to go out bravely. He closed his eyes and concentrated on counting, but once he reached one hundred, his eyes flew open, and he read the gauge. Only one hundred pounds left.

In a way, he was happy to go out here. He was always the happiest when in the water.

Not because of the water, though. Because of her.

Thinking of Sirena reenergized him. Although he knew it was futile, he brushed the long leaves of the plant away from him and at last freed himself. All the while, he kept thinking about how much he wanted to see her one last time, that she be the last sight he see.

Kristian allowed the still strong current to guide his body, too tired and sore to fight it or attempt to reach the surface.

Fifty pounds.

All kinds of fish, in many different colors and sizes, swam around him. The current lessened some here, and he swam by some plankton. A swirl of blue surrounded him. A majestic sight, but not the one he longed to see.

Forty pounds.

His body started to feel heavy. Whether this was because of his body reacting to the pressure of being this far beneath the surface or whether it was mental, he didn't know for certain. A large fish swam toward him, and he almost wished it was a hungry shark, so he could be put out of his misery.

Thirty pounds.

The current relinquished its hold on him. In the far distance, he could see large shapes. Fish? Sharks? After staring at them for a moment, he realized they were too still to be living creatures. Buildings, perhaps? They were much too far away for him to explore.

Wherever Sirena was, it wasn't here at the ocean's bottom. Maybe she was in one of the buildings. No, he didn't think that probable. Mayhap she was looking for him. He accepted his death, knew there was no saving him, but if he could somehow find her before he died… If he could just see her again…

His strong arms pulled him up, his legs kicking, propelling him upward. It was possible they had missed each other. If he was going to die, he would die trying to see her.

Twenty pounds.

It would not be much longer now until he breathed his last.

Sirena swam with the speed of a starving marine predator. She asked every fish she passed if they had seen him, but none had. Her panic worked against her, making her fin tremble, hindering her ability to swim fast.

Something foreign caught her eye. She bent down and picked it up. The object was surprisingly heavy. Could it be the weight belt Blaise had mentioned? Sirena hoped so for it meant Kristian was near.

She spied a cave and hesitated. Would he have had a reason to go inside? No. Sirena jolted beyond it then halted. For what reason had he come down here in the first place?

To find her. There could be no other reason.

Did that mean he knew she was a mermaid?

A slow-moving fish swam up toward her.

No, not a fish.

Kristian!

She darted forward and was by his side a few moments later. "Kristian. Kristian! Can you hear me?"

He sluggishly shifted his head to face her and nodded.

Something was wrong. Normally, he was so full of life, so energetic.

"I'm going to save you. I promise you. Do you understand?"

He nodded a few times before his head drooped and stayed down.

She wrapped his arms around her and tore toward the surface, longing to return Kristian to his world as soon as possible.

His grasp slackened.

"Hold on, Kristian, we're almost there." She risked a glance down and saw his face — swollen, ashen gray, his lips blue, purple-red dots around his eyes.

His glassy lifeless eyes.

He wasn't breathing.

Sirena choked back a sob. In her heart, she knew it was too late.

She'd broken her promise.

Weeping as if her heart had broken, which it had, she removed his facial mask and ran her fingers down his face. His hair felt softer than she had expected. She leaned closer and gave him a tender kiss, hoping for some reason that this would bring him back.

Of course it didn't.

This was the closest they had ever been, and yet they were farther apart than ever before. Death separated them. He had abandoned her to a place she was not yet willing to go.

She brushed his hair back from his forehead and kissed it. To touch him like this, to kiss him, was so bittersweet.

There was nothing
she
could do. But maybe someone else could.

****

Sirena tugged him along. Kristian's body felt heavier to her even though she had already detached his weight belt. Ten minutes later, they reached their destination: the large cave of the sea witch Merlinasea.

She gulped before entering. Her father would be so displeased if he should ever learn about his, but she wasn't about to ask him for help. After all, Kristian's death was on his hands. If Sirena had kept her original promise and not been late…

It wasn't fair to blame her father. Had she never met Kristian, he would still be alive.

Her heart skipped a beat, still burning with love for the man in her arms, just as she knew it always would.

Steeling her nerve, she swam inside, careful to avoid the rows of sharp rocks reminding her of shark teeth at the entrance.

No bioluminescent plankton was in sight or any glowing fish. Strange plants she didn't recognize covered the walls. Their long leaves reached toward her, and she rearranged Kristian in front of her so neither of them touched the plants.

Maybe this isn't the best of ideas.

A sudden glow brightened the cave.

"Hallo, and who do we have here?"

Sirena lifted her head as the sea witch appeared from the faraway darkness. Merlinasea was in her primitive form — that of a massive sea dragon with mossy green and dark blue scales, yellow underbelly, and white eyes. The eerie unnaturalness to the sea witch dragon made Sirena shiver.

Before she could respond, the sea witch crackled. "Oh, if it isn't Tritonion's youngest girl. Sirena, isn't it?"

Sirena nodded, almost hypnotized by the large creature. Most fishes communicated telepathically with mermaids, but the sea witch opened her mammoth mouth to talk as if in a humanoid form, her words vocalized, the sound bouncing off the cave walls.

"I take it you already know my name." Despite the crammed quarter, Merlinasea circled around her at a slow swim.

Sirena kept still although her arms burned from holding Kristian's dead weight.

Merlinasea's shiny scales glistened and glowed as her form altered. The sea witch now had a human-like head and torso, just like Sirena, but instead of a tail, she had squid-like appendages, one of which stretched out toward Kristian.

"Who is this?" the sea witch asked, her green hair floating forward and covering her chest. When Sirena didn't answer, Merlinasea rolled her white eyes. "Your father did teach you how to speak, did he not?"

Sirena narrowed her eyes. "Yes. I want you to save him." She lifted Kristian toward the sea witch.

Merlinasea's long bony finger hovered above his chest, and his diving gear melted away. "He's dead."

"I know. I was hoping…"

The sea witch glanced from Kristian to Sirena and back to Kristian again. "You love him, don't you?"

The lump in her throat prevented Sirena from answering with her voice. She nodded.

"It will not be easy to bring him back," the sea witch warned.

Hope flared within her chest. "You mean you can?"

"Of course I can. You brought him to me for a reason. I can deliver what you want—"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"For a price." Merlinasea again transformed. This time, she became more like a jellyfish, eyes, nose, and a mouth floating in the gelatinous bell. The sea witch wrapped two tentacles around Kristian and lowered him onto a bed of seaweed.

Sirena wrung her hands together. "I have a golden comb I can offer."

"I care not for human items." Her mouth moved closer to Sirena as she scowled, her eyes moving around the gel with apparent ease.

She gulped. Mermaids used fish bones to untangle their hair. Sirena did not know if any other marine creature used a comb.

With nothing else to offer, Sirena kept silent and prayed the price would not be too steep and one she could acquire. She was willing to give anything so Kristian might breathe again.

"No, what I require is your memory."

The mermaid backed up until the strange plants wrapped their leaves around her. Hot yet slimy, the leaves held her in place.

Merlinasea reverted to her sea dragon form, for intimidation purposes if Sirena had to guess. "I will save him if you will agree to lose your memories. Of him." The sea dragon nodded her huge head toward Kristian's deathly still form.

Tears streamed down Sirena's face. She didn't bother to free herself from the plant. "Why?" she choked out. "What do you have against love?"

"Love is for fools," Merlinasea snapped, her white eyes turning cloudy. She shook her head. "Believe me, girlie, I'm doing you a favor." The sea witch floated over to Kristian, her long tail caressing the side of his face. "It's up to you. Are your memories so precious that you would rather he remain dead?"

"Of course not!" Sirena snapped.

Merlinasea's lips twisted wickedly. "I knew you would listen to reason." The point of her tail touched Sirena's forehead. A cool sensation washed over the mermaid's body. Against her will, she lost consciousness.

****

Sirena lay in bed, her eyes closed. She could hear someone enter the room, but she didn't stir.

"Come on, Sirena, get up."

She recognized Marilla's lilting voice.

"You never show up for my dancing lessons anymore."

That was Ula.

"Enough. Up. Now."

Sirena's eyes flew open as Cordula bodily yanked her up.

"Now I don't know what's going on with you," Cordula continued, "but I'm tired of it. It's been over a month, and you didn't ask any of us to—"

"I'm tired." Sirena opened her mouth and faked a yawn.

"All you do is sleep." Marilla crossed her arms. Although she was the gentlest of the sisters, today even she appeared bothered.

Cordula nodded at Ula, and they grabbed onto Sirena's arms. "You're coming with us."

"Where to?" Sirena asked even though she didn't care.

They didn't answer, not that she had expected them to, and the quartet swam together in a tight group. Soon, Sirena realized they were heading for the surface. She thought about arguing with them since she didn't want to get in trouble with Father but said nothing. No one listened to her so what was the point?

Her sisters were talking, but she didn't bother to pay attention to them and only caught a few words of their conversation: "Must have had a fight… never sings anymore… flips… dances… not the same… over a month…"

A few feet from the surface, Cordula and Ula stopped, forcing Sirena to as well.

"Go on up," Cordula said. "We'll be right here, waiting for you. Come back when you're ready."

"But I don't—"

"It's all right, Sirena," Ula said.

"We know how much this means to you. Go ahead." Marilla's emphatic nods caused her short hair to dance.

Sirena sighed and decided to placate her sisters. Why they wanted her to go to the surface, she didn't know.

The air chilled her damp skin. No one was on the beach, which suited Sirena fine. Was it too soon to return to her sisters? Just what did they want her to do?

A quiet sound reached her ears. At first she ignored it, but it remained a constant hum in her ears, and she pushed herself toward it. Someone was crying desperately, the wailing that belongs to someone whose heart had been broken and would never be whole again.

Sirena couldn't handle hearing such suffering and was ready to dive underwater when the sobbing ceased. She glanced toward the beach and saw a little boy staring at her.

"Why were you crying?" she asked after a long moment.

The boy appeared ready to start wailing again. "Are you a monster?"

Sirena glanced down. The water was so shallow here the boy could see her tail. She shook her head.

"You aren't?" he asked again.

"No."

The boy lowered his head. The sunlight made his blond curls look golden. He said something.

"I can't hear you."

"A monster…"

"A monster what?" Sirena prompted. The boy didn't answer. "If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine."

"A monster ate my family," the boy said in a rush. His chest began to heave up and down.

To prevent him from crying again, Sirena said, "Don't worry. I'll help you."

"You will?" Light — hope — shone from his eyes.

"Yes." She hesitated for a moment then added, "I promise."

The corners of the little boy's lips curled ever so slightly. He clapped his hands before running away.

Something stirred within Sirena. For the first time in weeks, she didn't feel hollow. Instead she felt anger. This monster, whatever it was, was going to pay. Eating people was barbaric. And to leave a poor boy all by himself after devouring its family… that was beyond cruel. Family was all that mattered. She winced, knowing that she hadn't been the best family member as of late, and now she would have to leave them behind in order to help the boy.

Sirena didn't make promises lightly. She had every intention of keeping this one.

Hunger. All he knew was hunger. An all-consuming hunger.

Nothing satisfied him. Not completely. Not for long. His stomach was a large pit that could never be filled.

He ate everything he came across. Most things tasted bitter. But some things … some things tasted delicious.

Flesh. He craved it.

The screams, though. They bothered him. At first a lot, but now, only a little bit. He heard them constantly. Even when he slept.

Hunger. Food.

Time to eat again.

Always time to eat.

Where could he find more food?