One Thousand Tears
A Dystopian Mermaid Tale
Pauline Creeden
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
About the Author
Read More from Pauline Creeden
One Thousand Tears © 2018 Pauline Creeden
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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One Thousand Tears
Among mermaids and humans, cruelty has many faces.
One secret Adelaide has kept for as long as she can remember—her love for Jonas. She is the daughter of the clan’s elder; he is a bottom feeder. As Mer, they can never be together. But as humans, it might be possible.
When Jonas’s reckoning comes, he must go to land during the cycle of the full moon. But when the next cycle comes around, he doesn’t return. Fearing what might have become of him, Adelaide follows and gains legs for herself. But living life as a human is much more difficult than she imagined. And finding Jonas is just as hard. To follow him to the underwater city, she must endure the Initiate’s Trial. Her strength and resolve will be tested, if she wants to find Jonas and survive.
Adelaide must prove she’s more than just a mermaid princess.
1
"Bottom Feeder,” a voice called out, laughing.
"Waste of oxygen," another one of the Mer yelled as he slapped his tail across Jonas's chest.
Adelaide clutched the clam shell of medicine she held to her chest and winced as one of the Mer struck Jonas across the face. She stayed hidden where she was, not wanting to see, but finding it nearly impossible to look away. Her heart sank toward her stomach.
Sunlight filtered down on the submerged port city the humans used to call New York. The waters only completely submerged the city in the summer months, but through the winter the land was exposed. She peered between two of the buildings and watched from the shadows.
Jonas took their abuse silently, his eyes downcast—as the bottom feeder's gaze should always be directed, according to custom. The Long Island clan of Mer had chosen the bottom feeder nearly from birth. There had never been a time that Adelaide could remember where the moniker hadn't stuck to Jonas like a barnacle.
But still, Adelaide longed to call out to the abusers and make them stop. It was impossible, she knew, as her station would never allow such a declaration. No one was allowed to defend a bottom feeder for fear that he or she would be chosen as the next target for persecution.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight and clutched the clam shell tighter with her fingers. Pain shot up her arm. "Ouch."
The corner of the shell had been sharp enough to cause the smallest of cuts to form on her finger. Red blood trickled from the tiny wound, creating a cloud around her hand. She blinked at it. Blood. The bullies harassing Jonas would scatter if sharks made their way this direction. And they were making enough of a flurry in the waters to mimic the struggling of prey. But this amount of blood wouldn't be enough. She needed more if she wanted to call the predators near.
Taking the sharp end of the clam shell to her palm, she pushed it into her skin and dragged it across. Tears stung the back of her eyes, and she couldn't help the whimper that struggled to escape. She bit down on her lip and held her breath. The shell wasn't sharp enough to cut deep into her palm and create the amount of blood she needed. She had to do it again. Determination fueling her, Adelaide raked the shell across her palm twice more until finally, the blood created a cloud around her whole body.
Menacing laughter met her from above the wrecked cars on the street of Madison Avenue. She peeked out their direction and found them still deep in their joyful torment of her dear friend. She swished her hand back and forth, and then swam away from the commotion in the street of the city and rose a bit closer to the surface, spreading the blood as much as possible and in every direction.
Then she felt the familiar electric current in the waters. The sharks were coming—three of them. She clenched her fist, her heart fluttering in her chest with both her success and her fear. She needed to find somewhere to hide, and quickly. Just before she ducked into a building, she glanced back toward the Mer who had Jonas surrounded. They were still so busy with their torture they hadn't recognized the current in the waters yet. Adelaide shook her head.
Perfect. She wanted them to feel a bit of fear and maybe even shame for what they were doing. If one of them even became superstitious about behaving this way again and thought twice about it next time, she'd consider that a win.
She ducked through the broken glass on the fourth floor of the submerged building and then swam further into the darkness. She pulled a piece of cloth off the bedding she found and ripped it into a strip to wrap around the wound on her hand. If she'd had some poultice, she'd have used it, but this would have to do for now. Then she slid open a closet door and slipped within the small space. After sliding the door shut behind her, she left a small gap so that she would not be in complete darkness.
Her heart pounded within her tightened chest. She hated darkness and shadows, but right now it was necessary to succumb to its grip on her to save Jonas and keep herself safe from the sharks.
A large, sleek body darted past the window, then another. She felt the electricity in the current. Five. There were now five sharks heading in this direction. Her chest tightened more, making her feel like she was going to die if she didn't escape the closet soon. She hadn't expected so many sharks to respond to the scent of her blood. Inwardly, she prayed that she hadn't put the Mer in too much danger. She didn't want any of them to be hurt, she only wanted to scare them and put a stop to the torture.
She swallowed past her constricted throat and leaned partway out of the closet. Somehow, being in the brighter, more open space gave her more comfort. If one of the sharks scented her, she could dart back into the closet. But the familiar electric currents seemed to be moving farther away. Perhaps they were chasing the prey she'd led them to. Or maybe because none of the boys were bleeding, they'd given up and left the area. Regardless, Adelaide had to force herself to move slowly toward the building's broken window. If she allowed her panic to rule her, she'd move in a jerky, struggling way, and the sharks would feel it in the blood-soaked water, even though the blood itself had been caught in the current and dispersed.
Outside the window, one tall tree stood, an evergreen. The tree would only be submerged for about a month before the waters would recede once more and allow the tree the air it needed to truly survive. Adelaide's gaze darted toward where she'd last seen the Mer, but they were long gone.
Continuing to move slowly, she slipped out of the broken window, careful to keep her tail free of the glass. The last thing
she needed was to bleed again with the Great Whites still near. She breathed a sigh of relief, the clam shell of medicine for her mother still in her hand, then she spun around and turned toward home. But instead of open sea, she nearly swam into a bare chest.
A squeal escaped her lips and she jumped back, her arms wrapping protectively around her body and her heart jumping into her throat. But when she looked up, she met the sapphire eyes of Jonas, looking at her with an arched eyebrow and a frown. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around the corner into the alleyway where they wouldn't be exposed and out in the open. "What are you doing here?"
She blinked up at him. "Nothing."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Somehow I don't believe that."
Suddenly conscious of his eyes searching her, she put both her hands behind her back.
"What is that?"
"A clam shell of medicine from the healer's cove."
He shook his head, his deep baritone tinged with a hint of accusation. "You know that's not what I'm talking about. Why is there human cloth wrapped around your hand? What did you do?"
She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and began to chew on it. Lies did not become her—her mother had always told her that it was better to say nothing than to be caught in a lie.
Jonas let out a deep sigh. "You called the sharks, didn't you?"
Adelaide shrugged, but still didn't answer. Her lip continued to get a chewing.
He shook his head again. "You shouldn't do that. Not only could you have been hurt, but if someone saw you get involved, you'd be tainted... by me. I can't have that. I won't."
He put his arms around Adelaide's shoulders and pulled her into him. Her cheek laid against his chest, and she could hear his strong heart beat a rhythm against his skin.
"I don't care. I don't care if I am tainted by being with you." Words finally made their way past her lips. Truth.
He squeezed harder. "I care. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I don't want you sent to shore or even the thought of doing it to run across anyone's mind. You're too precious to me, to the clan."
Suddenly the saltwater felt as though it were stinging Adelaide's eyes and she found her arms wrapping around Jonas's torso. The warmth of his body felt comforting and reminded her of her younger years when her father used to comfort her in the same way. That was before he became elder of their clan, and before she became an unwitting paragon among her kind. They had put her on a pedestal, and she would be an enormous disappointment to her father and to her clan if she wavered upon the seat. The weight of perfection burdened her beyond measure. She buried her head further into his chest. "I hate them all."
He released his grip on her and pushed her away from him, his hands upon her shoulders. "Don't say that. It's not true."
But it was true. At the moment she spoke the words, she utterly believed them. But he was right, because now that he'd admonished her, and she had a moment to consider if she really did hate her clan, she couldn't say the words again without feeling like it was a lie. She found herself chewing her lip once more.
He eyed her motion. "And you should stop that."
Adelaide released her lip and sighed. "Now you sound like my father."
"Your father is a good man... a good elder in our tribe. He does what is best for our clan. The clan is right as well. I know you hate the way that I'm treated, but it's tradition. It focuses the clan on a common goal and that keeps it united. It's for the greater good."
She shook her head. "Do you really believe that? Do you believe that the pain and suffering you go through is fine because it's for the greater good?"
He shrugged, but he didn't say it again. Maybe he had second thoughts about his statement, just like she'd had.
The electric currents on the waters had diminished entirely, so that it was clear there were no more sharks in the area. It meant that at any moment, they could be interrupted by Mer again. She sighed when he pulled his hands from her and resumed a more comfortable distance. His eyes said so many things to her. They mimicked her longing, her regret, her every desire and pain. Their love affair had a bittersweet flavor on her tongue. Though they wanted to be together, they couldn't. At least not until Jonas had completed his reckoning by succumbing to the claws of the clan, going to land on the full moon, and returning at its next cycle. Then they could be together freely.
But that, too, was bittersweet. Only one in four Mer ever returned from their reckoning. Would Jonas survive his? She hated that he needed to even try. He hated it but accepted it much more willingly than she did.
She hadn't noticed how he'd slowly been allowing the current to pull him away from her until the distance between them had grown to more than double the suitable amount. His eyes were telling her he had to leave but didn't want to go. And she knew her eyes were telling him that she wished things could be different and that he didn't have to. She pulled the clam shell and her cloth wrapped hand closer to her chest. Her heart beat so loudly in her own ears she could hear almost nothing else. Then Jonas spun around and left her alone. She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. She closed her eyes and pulled in several deep breaths of seawater. When her heart settled and the aching in her chest had diminished, she darted toward home.
Adelaide's mother lay small and broken-looking in her nesting, her pale skin looking worse than it had earlier when the waters were cooler. With the heat of the day, the sun shined into their home, but her mother's sickness caused her to eschew the sun and seek the shade. She claimed to be uncomfortable in the direct light.
The medicines in the clam shell would be enough to ease her pain, though the healer had said there was nothing he could do to help her mother. It was only a matter of waiting. Adelaide brought the medicine to her mother's side. "Here you are, mother."
Her eyelids were nearly translucent, every vein in them visible; the eyes themselves were sunken in. They fluttered open, revealing the icy blue underneath. A small smile spread across her thin lips. "Addy."
No, it wasn't a nickname Adelaide had lived with her whole life. It wasn't born of affection. Instead, it had become too difficult for her mother to say her full name, so she'd adopted the shortened form to keep from stumbling over it. Adelaide pulled her mother's hand into hers and set the medicine in her palm. "Take this."
Her mother's chin tucked a little toward her chest, but then stopped. Nodding took too much effort. But still, she managed to put her hand to her lips and take the medicine that Adelaide had given her. After a few moments, her mother began humming.
There was power in song. For thousands of years, mermaids had been closely related to sirens in their ability to wield magic through music and song, and Adelaide's mother had been one who could use this magic better than most. But the healing songs she'd sung had become humming songs, and still the cancer ate her mother from the inside and refused to let her go. Her mother couldn't hold down food without regurgitating it back up within a few hours of consumption. Her body had grown weaker and weaker from the lack of nutrients. It wouldn't be long before she starved to death.
The pain of that thought squeezed at Adelaide's heart. "I saw Jonas today..."
And she launched into telling her mother about her day. She loved the way her mother's eyes fixed on hers and grew wide when she told her about how she'd cut her hand to attract the sharks.
"It's already healing, though. I put salve on it once I got home." Adelaide unwrapped her hand to show her mother the gash she'd made across her palm. "But the important part was that the plan worked..."
She told her mother everything, and since her mother could no longer talk the way that she used to, she even told her mother about the feelings she had for Jonas and how much she wished that he didn't have to go through the reckoning.
She talked until her mother's eyes grew half-lidded. Her mother couldn't do much more than get restless, shallow sleep. The pain kept her from deep, restful sleep, but because she was so tired, she spent nearly all of her
time chasing sleep in any form she could muster.
Adelaide pulled herself into her mother's nesting with her and wrapped her arms around her mother's body. "I love you, mother. Like the way humans love one another."
Her mother's eyes grew wide again and a wrinkle appeared on her brow.
"I know I'm not supposed to feel these kinds of emotions, and that if the other Mer in our clan found out, I might become the next chosen bottom feeder, but it's true. I hate that you can't speak anymore, but at the same time, your condition has made me become more honest with you and more honest with myself."
Her mother's chin tucked a bit again as though she wished to nod, and her eyes were colored with affection.
Adelaide swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "Why do the Mer lie to themselves and to each other? Why is it so important to our kind that we all wear masks and pretend we're completely rational creatures and all emotions are to be avoided? Does it really make life easier for us to be this way?"
Her mother's worried eyes were fixed on hers, but no answer came.
"Don't concern yourself with me, mother. Just hum again. I'll hum with you. Maybe this time, God will hear our prayer and heal you." Her voice cracked a bit as she said it.
And her mother began to hum. The tune was so familiar, that it was easy to pick up the notes, and Adelaide began to hum too. It wasn't long before her mother's hum had ceased, and Adelaide hummed alone. But she continued humming for a long while as her mother slept.
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