Falling in Deep Collection Box Set

by Pauline Creeden

  She handed it to me, and I took it in both hands. I couldn’t tell if it weighed more than I expected or if I could feel how important it was, but it felt heavy.

  “I can do it,” I told her.

  Nereia wagged her finger. “One more thing, since you’re going to be back on human legs again.” She flitted away and swam up towards a shelf on the ceiling. She pulled out a shimmering cloth that rippled like a rainbow as she brought it down to me. The cloth was longer than her arm span and just as tall.

  “That’s beautiful,” I murmured, entranced.

  Nereia grinned at me. “This…” She threw it around me and secured it around my waist like a sarong one would wear to the beach. “This is for good luck. We can’t have you walking around naked and expect no one to notice you.”

  I blushed as I felt the material between my fingers. I guess once I got my legs back, I would have been naked from the waist down. I didn’t have the heart to tell Nereia that I would still draw attention like this, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that it wouldn’t matter. I was going to be at an aquarium close to the ocean; I’d even seen some people at the aquarium in swimsuits before.

  I’d be fine.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Let’s get going,” Nereia said. “You don’t have much longer until Levi’s deadline is up, and we can’t have that.”

  I nodded, dumbfounded.

  ***

  The plan was to deposit me on a beach near the aquarium. I hated to admit it, but unlike Finn, I didn’t have the body strength to climb up the side of the cliff to Kai’s tank. I had to go in another way, and this was the easiest. Good thing I’d be human the entire time, and that I knew the aquarium. I had gone over everything with Nereia.

  It all made sense, and everything had been worked through. I was confident that I would be able to get to Kai. The rest of it was iffy.

  A small group of mermaids and sea creatures followed me towards the shore. Finn, of course, led the way as we raced to get to the shore. I clutched the package to my chest, fearing that I could accidentally drop it at any time. The potion was the most precious thing I’d ever held.

  Levi and Nadia were out in the bay by the tanks, ready to greet Kai when he flew out of the water. Nadia had been a nervous wreck before we parted ways, and I couldn’t blame her. This was the second attempt to rescue her son and the first one hadn’t gone very well.

  Well, it did do something right. I looked to Finn. If everything went according to plan, I was seriously going to have to sit down and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

  When we neared the shore, the water got murkier and darker, and there were fewer creatures here. Pollution from the boats and the land dwellers? I hadn’t even noticed it when I dove into the water yesterday, probably because I wasn’t used to how clear and clean the ocean water near Thalassa could be.

  I coughed at the water, making Finn turn back to me. His face was stricken, obviously wanting to take over, but he respected my decision enough not to try and sway me.

  “Here’s where you’ll have to go on alone,” he said, his voice hoarse. “If we get any closer, we could be spotted.” He hesitated as he looked at me. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Yes,” I said honestly.

  “Stay safe,” he whispered, leaning into me.

  “You too.”

  I was painfully reminded that we weren’t alone when Ponce bounced into me. Luckily, it wasn’t hard enough for me to drop the potion. I would have sashimied him otherwise.

  “You gonna be all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I told him. “Protect Finn for me, will you?”

  His eyes bulged. I laughed and hugged him. “Stay safe, Ponce.” I looked at my little caravan of sea creatures, from dolphins, crabs, and fish, to even tiny little octopods and jellyfish that looked like little bouncy balls. I addressed them from the bottom of my heart. “Thank you for being here,” I said. “I’ll have Prince Kai back before the deadline.”

  I turned to leave, and Finn caught my hand. I turned back to him and his soft lips met mine for one more fleeting moment before I had to break away. Despite all the eyes watching us, I got swept up in it. They didn’t even know what we were doing anyways.

  “Come back to me,” Finn said.

  “I promise.” I meant it.

  I started for the shore.

  ***

  I washed up on the shore on my stomach. The shallower the water got, the less my mermaid tail helped. I had to claw my way up the sand with my free hand, grasping the precious kelp package in my other hand. My mermaid skills helped me swim farther and faster than I did before. My upper body, however, was still pathetically human.

  I grunted, getting a mouthful of sand as I pulled myself along. How long would it take for my tail to turn back into legs? Movies made it look almost instantaneous.

  Once I was finally out of the wet, hard clumps of sand and onto dry, soft sand, I could feel my legs itching.

  I glanced down, seeing my scales retract before my eyes. A crease formed down the middle of my tail, bisecting it into two legs. My toes sprouted forth, then the thin fin curled in on itself and hardened into feet.

  I flopped onto my back, breathing heavily. That was a lot harder than I had expected. And to think that Finn had pulled himself up on the rocks and scaled the walls with only his arms to move him. I had a lot more respect for him now.

  Thankfully, my skirt had survived my army crawl, so I had something to cover up my bottom half.

  It felt odd standing again, like gravity suddenly remembered to include me. My legs gave out initially and had to catch myself with one hand.

  “Come on, Tara,” I gritted. “You don’t have time to be a wuss.”

  I totally wish I did though.

  I forced myself to my feet again and steeled myself to make sure they were planted properly. My knees shook, but they held. I remembered reading that astronauts had trouble getting re-accustomed to Earth gravity; apparently having your legs be turned into a mermaid tail and back again was a similar experience.

  I held the package with two hands, because I was going to be battling walking while trying to hold onto my precious cargo.

  I took a step, tentative at first. I didn’t fall. I took another, quicker step. After a few tries of this, I broke out into a jog towards the main entrance of the Aquarium. I didn’t have my temporary swipe card to get in the side entrance, and with a limited amount of time, I couldn’t waste a second.

  They weren’t busy in the evening, yet I got weird looks at the way I was dressed from the people standing in line. Their curiosity turned to irritation when I went straight to the front of the line and pushed my way in to talk to the ticket vendor.

  “Hey, uh…” I recognized the girl behind the counter, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember her name. She gave me an unimpressed look, and I realized that she wasn’t happy with me skipping the lines. “I’m Tara Porter, one of the performing mermaids from Neptune’s Aquarium.”

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t have my swipe card to go in the back. Could you call Neptune or Christine? They’ll vouch for me.”

  The girl raised an eyebrow. “I’ll have to speak to my manager.” She got up and disappeared. Minutes ticked by, and I found myself drumming my fingers on the counter.

  Finally she came back. Without addressing me, she wrote a note on a pad of paper, tore off the top, and handed it to me.

  “Take this to Jerry,” she said. “He’s at the entrance. He’ll let you in.”

  I grasped it and nodded. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  I practically ran to the entrance, where a burly security guard who I guessed was Jerry took the note, glanced at it, then at me, and let me in. I ran past the tourists who were snapping photos at the aquarium tunnel entrance, ignoring the fish voices that spoke to me through the glass as I passed.

  After the tunnel, I emerged into the foyer where I’d conduct
ed my meet and greet two days before. Christine was storming out there to meet me. I could tell from her expression that she was pissed. Rightfully so, but I didn’t have time to stop and talk to her.

  “Tara!” she demanded, nearly shouting. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you!”

  I held up the hand that wasn’t holding the satchel. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  “I don’t have time. Trust me.”

  I started jogging again, heading towards the dolphin tanks.

  “What? Tara, WAIT!” Christine yelled after me.

  I ignored her, continuing my jog. I passed by Jordyn and Alaina, who were heading out to the foyer after Christine.

  “Tara!” Jordyn exclaimed. “Where were you?”

  I shook my head as I sped by. “No time to explain. I’m sorry!”

  Then, the worst of it, I had to bypass Neptune who also looked like he was as angry as Christine, if not more so.

  “No time, Neptune. Please trust me,” I pleaded.

  I increased my speed, sprinting down the hallways. The Houston Aquarium was massive, and I hadn’t realized how big it was until I had to run down the hallways. I didn’t dare turn back, to acknowledge them would probably delay me more, or they could keep me from ever reaching Kai’s pool, which I couldn’t allow to happen.

  I finally got to the dolphin tanks. My appearance set the other dolphins off in the big pool.

  “Whoa, she’s back dude!”

  “Couldn’t leave us alone?”

  “You came to see me, right?”

  “Hey fellas,” I said, grinning at them as I continued walking to the quarantine pool, careful not to slip and fall. “I’m here to see Kai,” I said, although if they wanted to leave at some point, I knew that I would help them.

  “Awww…”

  I glanced up, knowing that Christine, Neptune, and possibly some security guards weren’t far behind.

  “Do me a favor,” I said to them, “would you distract the other humans that are following me? Splash them, do something to keep them from getting to me. I need to talk to Kai, this is very important.”

  I turned away from them as the three of them clicked their happiness to oblige. At least that was taken care of.

  Kai’s back was to me as I knelt by the pool. Based on his position, his demeanor hadn’t improved at all. In fact, it had gotten worse.

  I gently splashed some water at the edge of his pool, trying to draw his attention.

  “Hey Kai,” I said. “I’m back.”

  The dolphin calf looked back at me, and the despite the fact that he was a dolphin, surprise registered on his features. He looked thinner than yesterday, and his color was greener too.

  His childish voice came to me, weak but happy. He surfaced and I stroked his beak. “You came back! I thought you would have stayed in the ocean.”

  “You know I couldn’t forget you, buddy. Not when you were so sad. You know who’s also sad? Your mommy and daddy.”

  His eyes widened. “You met Momma and Daddy? How are they?”

  “Not good,” I admitted. “They miss you. They want you back, and they’re ready to tear everything apart to get to you.”

  I heard commotion across the pools; we were about to have company.

  “That’s why I’m here,” I told him quickly. I pulled out my kelp-wrapped package “I’m going to set you free.”

  “How?” he asked, his voice no more than a whisper. “You’re not Finn.”

  “I’m Finn’s helper. If you eat this,” I said, waving the seaweed wrap, “you’ll be able to jump farther and swim faster than any dolphin out there. Even your daddy. You’ll be able to fly.”

  Kai giggled at the thought, which made my heart melt.

  I glanced up as my pursuers finally emerged into the afternoon light. Christine and Neptune entered, flanked by security guards. And—oh, no—Mr. Stevens, the aquarium president was there too, wearing his expensive suit and looking at me like I was the scum of the universe.

  He was definitely going to think that once I freed his new baby dolphin.

  “Tara!” Neptune shouted. “What are you doing?”

  I didn’t have time to answer him. Luckily, the other dolphins came to my defense. One gave a huge splash with his tail fluke, drenching Mr. Stevens. More splashes came and the dolphins were jumping and going crazy, threatening the humans, though I knew it wasn’t going to distract them long.

  “Listen, Kai, you need to eat this. And then you need to gain as much speed as possible and jump over that fence.” I pointed to the fence where I’d fallen over the edge two nights ago.

  Kai followed the direction that I indicated, then looked back at me. “I can’t make that…”

  “With this, you can,” I said, holding up the potion. “Please, Kai. It’s the only way you’ll be set free.”

  He gave me one more suspicious look, and then took the package from my hand. He chewed on it and then gagged.

  “It’s terrible!”

  “I don’t care, it’ll help you.” I glanced up, knowing that too much time was passing. If these humans didn’t get to me first, Kai’s reluctance to finish eating the package and then doing the jump would take far too long. The sun was nearly setting, meaning that Levi’s deadline was fast approaching.

  The aquarist Tim was jogging over towards me, shouting something about halting. At this point, I didn’t care what he was saying.

  “Do the jump, Kai,” I pleaded. “Please!”

  He submerged and then swam in a counterclockwise circle, trying to build up speed.

  “It’s…too far!”

  Strong hands grabbed at my shoulder. It wasn’t just Tim, it was two security guards too. They hoisted me up as I kicked and screamed.

  “What are you saying?” Tim hissed at me. “What language is that?”

  That’s right, I was speaking Mermish, so of course no one knew what I was saying.

  “Do it, Kai!” I gritted, still speaking in his tongue. “You’re not going to have another chance!”

  And I wasn’t going to have another chance to be back here ever again. I glanced back, seeing Christine looking absolutely shocked, as were the other mermaids. Neptune had a different expression. He was staring at me intensely.

  Kai kept swimming in that counterclockwise circle, building up more and more speed. Was that potion ever going to start working?

  Then I saw it. He was moving so fast, a whirlpool had started at the top, swirling to the bottom of the pool. Water sloshed around the sides, soaking everything around it. Kai was certainly swimming faster than any dolphin I’d ever seen.

  Please let this work.

  “Now!” I shrieked.

  At first, I didn’t think that Kai was going to do it, that maybe he was going to chicken out.

  Then, as if I was watching it in slow motion, he was flying. A full thirty feet up in the air, sailing towards the edge of the landing.

  Miraculously, he had judged the direction correctly and went over the edge of the fence and dived into the ocean below.

  Everyone was stunned, including myself. Seeing a dolphin fly like that tended to do that to you.

  The grip on my shoulders lessened enough to where I could push away from them. I half-stumbled, half-ran over to the fence and looked out, hoping that he had made it past the rocks and in the ocean. I didn’t see his broken body on the rocks, and off in the distance, I saw three dolphins breach, one enormous, one normal-sized, and the last a baby calf.

  Kai was back with his family. I looked at the horizon, seeing the sun hang over it. Just in time too. We wouldn’t have had much more time to meet Levi’s deadline.

  I closed my eyes and sighed in relief. When I opened them again, I saw a familiar figure in the ocean, far below and out of reach of the pull of the waves.

  Finn.

  He was looking at me, but other than knowing he was there, I couldn’t see his expression because
he was so far away.

  Go! I wanted to shout. I couldn’t have anyone seeing him.

  As if reading my mind, he submerged once again, disappearing from view.

  I let out a breath. They were all gone. Now that the adrenaline was leaving me, I wanted to lean against the fence and sob about everything that had happened. From talking to dolphins, to finding out about my heritage, to finally meeting a guy that I liked—and to be back where it all started. I wanted to lie there and cry.

  Someone put a hand on my shoulder, not in aggression like Tim or the security guards from before. This one was gentle, sympathetic. I looked up, surprised to see Neptune.

  “You met them,” he said, low so that no one else could hear him. “You met the mermaids.”

  I panicked. The secret was out, and that wondrous, magical world was going to be leaked all over the internet. They’d never have a normal day again. Their way of life would be obliterated in an instant.

  I looked at him, trying to plead with my eyes not to reveal it to anyone.

  “We’ll talk later,” he muttered.

  I didn’t know if there was going to be a later. After all, I had just effectively kidnapped a dolphin in front of Mr. Stevens’ eyes. I was sure that was a fireable offense, if not one that would land me in prison. And based on Mr. Stevens’ expression, he was determined to have me arrested, although I didn’t know if he truly was able to.

  “YOU!” he screeched, pointing a finger at me. His voice reached octaves that I never knew a man could make. “You stole my dolphin!” He flailed in a way that would have been comical had I not been terrified. “Arrest her!”

  The security guards, still stunned by what had happened, gaped at me.

  My mind went to fight or flight. I could jump over the fence into the water and rejoin that world, submerge myself and not be seen from above. I could live as a mermaid. I could be with Finn and Kai. The thought was tempting, as it seemed I was going to be suffering the consequences of what I did. However, I also had my mother here on land. I couldn’t leave her. Not yet.

  Neptune must have seen the indecision on my face, because he reached out and grabbed my hand while placing himself in between the aquarium president and me.