The Mermaid's Revenge Page 19

  “Maybe two wasn't quite enough,” he continues, clearly struggling to get the bullets into the chamber. “I'm going to give myself four and -”

  Suddenly the barrel of the gun is yanked back with such force that the wheelchair topples over. Mr. Flemyng cries out as he falls, and then again as he lands hard against the ground. At that moment, something hits the chair hard and sends it crashing into the far wall, where it smashes into a painting and then falls to the floor. Mr. Flemyng shouts something, but the wind is too strong and I can't make out any of his words. Instead, I turn and watch as he starts crawling toward the spot where his gun fell.

  And then I see her.

  A dark figure, barely visible in the shadows, steps around Mr. Flemyng before reaching down to him. I hear him cry out, but my gaze is fixed on the figure as she starts hauling him up. I can't make out her features at all, but I can just about see that her head is bald and that her legs looks almost human. She's standing a little awkwardly, as if she's not used to them, but it's clear that she can get about without dragging herself.

  “Make it hurt!” Mr. Flemyng gurgles. “Give me the violent death that was taken from me in Africa! Give me -”

  Suddenly he cries out, and I watch as blood sprays from his throat. A moment later he falls forward, landing on his hands and knees, and he starts making a choking sound as he tries to crawl forward. Too scared to move, too scared to even make a sound, I watch in horror as he finally rolls onto his side and lets out a choking, gurgled rasp. In the darkness, I can just about see that he's clutching at his throat, and his agonized writing continues for another minute or so before he finally falls still.

  Rain is still being blown through the broken window, and a moment later a flash of lightning briefly illuminates the room. In that split second, I see not only Mr. Flemyng's body on the floor, but also a naked, bloodied female figure standing over him and staring straight at me.

  “The key,” I stammer, resuming my frantic search. “I have to -”

  Suddenly my fingers brush against something, and I realize that by some miracle I've actually managed to find the key.

  Fumbling slightly, I take the key and stumble across the room, taking care to keep well away from the center until I reach the cabinet. My hands are shaking as I slide the key into the lock, but finally I get the door open and I take out the vial containing the eggs. I'm so, so careful as I turn and look across the room, and now I can just about make out the silhouette of the mermaid as she stands with the broken window behind her.

  “I'm so sorry,” I tell her, trembling with fear but forcing myself to step forward. “They'll be okay. He said they'll be okay. They're not destroyed or anything.”

  I wait, but she doesn't reply.

  “Aren't you going to take them?” I ask.

  Again, she says nothing.

  The sky behind her rumbles with thunder, but I can still only see her silhouette. Looking down, I see that her legs – though a normal length – look mis-shapen somehow, with fat thighs and very narrow knees.

  “Please take them,” I say after a moment.

  This time, when she doesn't reply, I realize that I have to do more than simply hold the eggs out. I'm terrified and trembling, and still soaking wet from the freezing rain, and I'm worried my knees will buckle. Finally, however, I take a step forward, and then another, and another, and -

  Suddenly I hear a faint, purring hiss come from her mouth.

  “Please,” I stammer, “I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to let you down.”

  I wait, but I suppose I have to keep going.

  Taking a deep breath, I step forward again, and this time I keep going until I'm close enough to reach out and present the vial of eggs to her.

  Slowly, she takes hold of the vial. I wait until I'm sure she's holding it firmly, and then I let go before stepping back.

  “They're alive,” I explain. “I think so, anyway. You can... I don't know what you do with them, but they should be okay. They should -”

  Before I can finish, a flash of lightning fills the room and I see the mermaid in all her fullness, standing naked before me with bloodied, sinewy legs. She's holding the vial in her hands, but her cold, furious eyes are staring straight at me with such force that I can almost still see them after the room goes dark again.

  I take another step back.

  All I can hear is the storm outside, and the howl of the wind as it blasts the island, but then a moment later I hear a familiar voice whispering in my head:

  “You told them about my eggs,” she says calmly. “You put them in danger. That's why I've saved the last of my barbs for you.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  “They sedated me,” she says, stepping toward me across the dark room, “and held me down. When I woke up, I knew immediately that they were gone. They'd been scraped from my body. Some of them are in this vial, maybe half. The rest were destroyed in the process. And all of that was your fault. I showed you the eggs because I thought you might help me, and instead you went straight to the others and told them.”

  “No!”

  I step away, and now I can feel rain and wind blasting against my back through the broken window.

  “For that,” she continues, “you have to pay the ultimate price. All of you.”

  “No!” I shout. “Stop! Please don't hurt me!”

  “The way you hurt my children?”

  “I didn't know!”

  “I don't care. You have to face the consequences of what you did. Besides, you're dying anyway. I can sense it in you, just as I sensed it in your mother. Your body is consuming itself, the way human bodies are wont to do.”

  “You don't know anything about my mother!” I whimper, as I step back and bump against the frame of the broken window. “She didn't mean to hurt you! She never would have hurt you, not if she'd stayed alive!”

  “She could have left me in the sea.”

  “I don't want to die!” I scream. “Please don't kill me! Don't -”

  Suddenly she steps closer, and I see her eyes again.

  Screaming, I turn and scramble out through the broken window, out onto the viewing platform that overlooks the helipad. Rain is crashing down as I start running, but almost immediately I slip and fall, landing hard and crying out as the shard of glass cuts through my hand. For a moment I'm too terrified to get up, so I start crawling forward as rain hisses against the ground all around me. I don't even know where I'm going, but I have to get out of that house and all I can think is that maybe Mr. Randall will come back to get me after all.

  Maybe he'll realize he was wrong to leave me here.

  Another flash of lightning streaks across the sky, allowing me to briefly see the far end of the platform.

  If I can get there, maybe I can climb down onto the helipad, and then maybe I can find a way to get out of here. I keep crawling forward, although the glass in my hand drags several time against the ground. Finally, however, I get to the far end of the platform and squeeze through the railings, and then I look down and see the helipad maybe twenty feet below. That's much further than I thought, but it's not like I have any other option, so I grab hold of the slippery wet railing and start trying to lower myself down.

  As I do so, I see the mermaid coming out through the broken window and following me. She's carrying something large in her hands now, not the vial but something else, and a moment later another flash of lightning allows me to see the anger in her eyes.

  Gasping, I let go of the railing and try to slither down to the helipad.

  I fall and I fall and I fall, and then I scream as I land and my ankles shatter.

  Slumping down against the tarmac, I roll onto my side and start sobbing wildly. There's so much rain, I think I could just open my mouth to the sky and drown, but instead I roll over and try to get up. I can feel broken bones scraping in my ankles, and the pain drops me back onto my hands and knees. I wait, breathless and terrified, before realizing that I still have a chance to get ou
t of here. I start crawling forward, across the helipad, heading toward the far end where I think maybe there's a ladder that leads down to the beach. I don't remember for sure, but it's my only hope.

  When I finally get to the end of the helipad, I peer over the edge, but all I see below are rocks. Waves are crashing so hard, I feel spray against my face, and then I turn just in time to see that the mermaid is standing at the edge of the viewing platform, watching me as rain continues to pour down.

  “I didn't mean to do it!” I scream, although I don't even know whether she can hear me as the storm continues. “I gave them back to you! I'm sorry!”

  Turning, I look down at the rocks again, and then I spot the ladder a little further away. I start crawling around the edge of the helipad, trying to ignore the burning pain in my ankles, but I'm starting to feel myself getting weaker and weaker. All I can think is that I want someone to come and save me, whether that's Mr. Randall or even Mother. I just want someone to take me away from here, and by the time I reach the top of the ladder I can feel the desperation bursting through my body.

  Looking back, I'm horrified to see the mermaid walking this way. A flash of lightning lets me see her again, and I'm mesmerized by the sight of her bloodied flesh. She's carrying something in one arm, but I don't know what. After a moment I start trying to clamber over onto the ladder, but my ankles are hurting too much and I'm starting to tremble as the pain pulses through my body.

  “Where do you think you're going?” the mermaid's voice asks, echoing through my mind. “There's nothing down there.”

  “I'm going home!” I sob.

  “That's not your home.”

  “I want to go home!” I scream, and then I let out an agonized cry as I try to set my right foot against the ladder's top rung.

  There's no way I can climb down like this, but I know I have to try. Turning, I look down at the waves as they continue to crash against the rocks, and then I look forward again. I can't see the mermaid, not in this darkness, but I know she must be close.

  “Please just let me go,” I whimper, even though I know there's no way she can hear me now. “I didn't mean to do anything wrong!”

  “My children will be free,” she replies, “despite you.”

  “I didn't mean it!”

  “And you will pay the price for what you did.”

  “No!”

  “I've waited long enough.”

  Suddenly there's another flash of lightning, and I'm horrified to see that the mermaid is just inches away, leaning at me. Too scared to stay close, I fall backward, and as I do so the mermaid opens her mouth and shoots a barb at me. I try to twist out of the way, but I've already lost my grip on the ladder and as I tumble into the darkness I feel the barb slicing into my left hand.

  I scream, and then I fall and I fall and I fall and I fall and I fall I fall and I -

  Smashing down against the rocks, I feel my chest crack open. I roll down into a pool of seawater, and I scream in the darkness as I try and fail to get up. My body is broken, I can't use my legs at all, and I can barely even breathe. And then, a moment later, I realize there's a sharp pain in my left hand, and I look just in time to see the mermaid's barb poking out from one of my fingers. Grabbing the barb, I quickly pull it out and toss it aside, but then I watch in horror as the black lines start slowly spreading to my wrist.

  “No!” I scream, feeling the pain of black bubbles bursts through my flesh. “I don't want to die! Please don't let me die!”

  I try to get up, but the pain is too much and I fall onto my back. A moment later, a huge wave breaks over me, and for a few seconds I can't even breathe. When the water finally recedes, I stare up into the darkness and see the mermaid standing over me.

  “I didn't mean to hurt you!” I sob, as the pain from the barb continues to spread up my arm. “I made a mistake!”

  She doesn't reply, not even in my head.

  “I'm sorry,” I whimper, and now the pain is so strong that I can feel myself losing consciousness. “I was wrong.”

  Closing my eyes, I feel the pain bursting through me as rain crashes down. I'm shivering violently, and all I can hope is that I die soon.

  And that maybe the mermaid will somehow be able to forgive me.

  Instead, after a moment, she leans down and grabs my arm, pulling me closer. For a moment I think she's going to whisper something into my ear, but instead she slides my hand and then my whole arm into her discarded skin. I'm shaking with pain now, and I can feel my skin popping all the way up to my shoulder and chest, but I'm powerless to resist as the mermaid starts wrapping her skin all around me. It's as if she's dressing me in the skin she no longer needs, and after a moment – just as I feel bubbles bursting through my face – she slips another part of the skin over my head like a hood. Then I feel her slipping my legs into the bottom section, before she picks me up in her arms.

  She's carrying me.

  The pain is intense, but I can feel her carrying me.

  Somehow I manage to open my eyes, and when I turn my head I'm horrified to see that she's holding me over the edge of the rocks, with the vast and wild sea several hundred feet below.

  “Don't be scared.”

  I'm terrified.

  “The poison will kill you if you stay like this. Maybe I was wrong too. Maybe you deserve a second chance, but you have to trust me.”

  The pain is killing me.

  “You're going to be just fine. But you'll never, ever be the same again.”

  I feel her kissing the skin that she placed over my forehead, and I hear her voice whispers two words in my mind:

  “Wake up.”

  Then she lets go of me, and I fall through the wind and rain, plummeting past the rocks and down the sea as the loosely-wrapped skin billows all around me and as I feel bubbles of poison bursting through my brain and I scream.

  And I fall and I fall and I fall and I fall and I fall and I -

  Epilogue

  Six years later

  I see it now. There's a light ahead, calling me. It's the only light left, the only light that could possibly break through the all-encompassing darkness that surrounds me. It's the only light in the world, and now I finally know what I have to do.

  I have to stop resisting.

  I have to stop being scared.

  I have to go into the light.

  So I start swimming, rising higher and higher into warmer water, rising toward the light that ripples above. I can see the surface so clearly now, and I know that it's time to break through. I can't deny that part of me is nervous, that part of me even wants to turn back, but I've waited too long for this moment. I just have to get it over with and then I can go back down, back to the place that has become my home.

  Still, I flinch slightly as I break the surface, and for a moment time seems to slow as the water falls away from my face. For the first time in years, I feel cool night air against my skin.

  Although I should be warmer now, I actually feel colder. My head and shoulders are above the water, and somehow I feel terribly exposed. For a moment I almost start to panic, but then I pull my thoughts back under control and force myself to look around.

  To see this world for the first time in six years.

  There's a party on the beach, a few hundred meters away at the bar resort. Loud music is thumping through the night air, and even at midnight the festivities seem to be still getting louder and more heated. Everyone seems to be having a good time, and there are regular cheers and whoops. It's the kind of party I saw on TV shows sometimes when I was a kid. They always looked like fun, but I used to wonder whether I'd ever fit in if I went to one when I got older. I guess that question got a little extra-complicated now.

  Closer to the old fishing dock, a rope keeps bucking against the wooden legs, caught in the gentle rise and fall of the sea's waves.

  I reach up and grab the rope, and then I hold tight and pull myself up. It's the first time I've come out of the water since I fell from Jason Fle
myng's house, and the sensation is startling. For a moment I worry that I've forgotten how to breathe up here, but I guess it's like a muscle memory. After a few seconds I take a lungful of air through my mouth, and I feel steady again.

  My tail is still in the water.

  I haul myself a little higher up the rope, until I can see over the top of the decking. As the party continues in the distance, I see a hunched man sitting with his back to me, and I immediately know that it's him. To be honest, I knew it was him even before I came up. I've been searching for him for a long, long time, and finally today I managed to zero in on his location. I thought I'd find him at the party, or maybe fishing, but instead he seems to be sitting in darkness, quietly contemplating the waves.

  I waited so long for this moment, but now I'm not sure what to say. I can feel the barbs in the back of my throat, and one of them is slightly pulsing, as if it's getting ready.

  As if it's waiting for its chance.

  First, though, I want him to see my face. I want him to know that I found him, that I tracked him down after all this time. That he didn't get away with what he did, not forever. I want to see the whites of his eyes as he dies.

  “Mr. Randall,” I say finally, speaking for the first time in six years. My voice actually sounds more grown-up. “It's me.”

  His head twitches slightly, and then slowly he turns. There's enough moonlight for me to see his face as he stares at me, silhouetted against the distant lights of the party, and I see a moment of confusion before his features shift slightly. I realize immediately that he recognizes me, and the protruding barb in my throat rises up slightly, brushing along the back of my tongue as it gets ready to fire.

  “It's me,” I say again.

  What else is there to say?

  I should have finished him off by now. He should be writhing in agony as the poison spreads through his system, as the bubbles burst through his flesh and up into his brain.

  I know that pain.

  “Sylvia?” he says after a moment, and I feel a flicker of pleasure as I hear the fear in his voice. “Sylvia, I...”