Dark brown hair and green eyes emerged from the water. The eyes blinked a few times to bring the scene above water into focus, and when they found nothing out of the ordinary, they dipped back underwater.
The mermaid pushed herself onto the beach within the high-walled cove. The jagged opening at the top of the rocky dome cast the sunlight onto the beach, and she stretched her body in the warmth of the light. The blue markings across her back glimmered like the water that gently lapped against the faded lilac of her tail fluke.
A sharp breath was followed by a cough that echoed through the cove.
She leapt at the sound, and she found a man rousing from sleep in the sand near one of the rocky walls.
The cove had been a safe place ever since uniformed men pulled yellow tape around its openings and the people stopped going inside. The tall dome was almost completely cut off from the rest of the beach as it straddled the shoreline, with only a shallow archway granting her access from the ocean.
So, how did this one get in? He wasn’t too far from the beachside opening of the cave, but it was no longer a straight-shot due to rocks caving in around it.
The man’s eyes opened as he processed his surroundings. He could smell the salt in the air and heard the gulls crying overhead. He groaned as he rolled to his side and got to his knees, and he glanced around the cove. He must have truly been exhausted if he couldn’t even remember how he got inside.
A strong wave splashed into the rocky archway.
He turned his head toward the sound, and he saw her.
Her eyes were as wide was his own as they froze in varying states of shock and confusion.
The mermaid was holding herself up by her arms with her hips and tail resting in the sand, and she appeared to glow in the beams of warm sunlight. Blue markings colored her eyelids and streaked across her cheeks. The marks continued to her arms and down her torso, joining into the blue of her tail. Her tail was split with two smaller fins just above her smooth, whale-like fluke. Gills laid flat against her neck. The strip of cloth she wore around her chest was adorned with shells and bits of netting. Her hair was wet, sandy, and hung in wavy strands around her face. Her eyes were an even clearer shade of green.
She seemed to be studying him just as intently, though he feared she would be severely more unimpressed with his current state. He was dressed in an old cotton shirt and tan shorts, and his bare feet were caked in sand. His hair was tangled and his beard was much less kept. His blue-green eyes were dimmed from a lack of sleep, but when her own eyes locked upon them, she was unable to look away.
A smile widened on his face.
His hand moved ever so slightly.
She pushed against the sand and started to scramble backward.
“Wait!” He shouted, tripping over his own feet after her. “Liana—I mean—wait! Please, don’t go!”
He staggered forward and collapsed into the sand as she pulled into the water. He broke down as he began to cough. “Please, I beg you—you don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you!”
He slumped forward, supporting his weight with trembling arms. He grit his teeth and tried to catch his breath. Completely downtrodden, he raised his eyes to survey the empty cove in which he had been left.
She sat in the water near the strands of caution tape at the cove’s opening, rocking back and forth slightly as the waves drew in and out around her shoulders.
Relief washed over him in a similar fashion. “Please... I... I promise; I’ll stay right here.” He held up his hands in defeat as he sunk back to a seated position. “I’m not here to hurt you or anything... I’m just...”
“Why are you looking for me?”
Her voice took his breath away—more so because he wasn’t expecting to hear her speak. He was unable to find words to answer her, but the impatient look she was throwing his way made him look harder.
“This may sound strange... but I knew you before... before you were made to be a mermaid.”
At once, her face turned blank, and her voice lost its accusatory tone. “...How do you know?”
“I read the news when they raided the laboratory and discovered what they were doing to women like you.”
She broke eye contact and turned away.
“I just want to try to... connect with you again,” he paused, “and maybe help you—if you want to know anything.”
“I don’t.”
She had completely turned around at this point, but she was making no effort to swim away.
“That’s fine.”
A passing gull and the gentle lapping of the waves filled the empty space that had formed between them.
Her tail curled out of the water idly. “So, are you just going to sit there?”
“Are you?”
She shot him an incredulous expression.
He shrugged, clearing his throat again.
She huffed and pushed herself back onto the beach to return to the sunspot.
He bit his lip. “I’m Luis, by the way.”
“I haven’t had the best track record with humans,” she replied bluntly.
Luis frowned. “I understand.”
“And I don’t remember you.”
Her words cut through him more than he was expecting them to. “...I know.”
They reverted to a painful silence that not even the gulls could fill. Luis finally broke it with a series of coughs and a quiet apology. He looked over at her, still lying quietly in the sand. He began to wonder how long he could sit in the cove with her before she grew tired of him and swam away. His heart instantly fluttered with anxiety. If she left now, would she ever return?
The mermaid huffed and began to pick at a tangled strand of fishing wire wrapped tightly around one of her wrists.
Luis noticed, and his brows arched in concern. “Is that stuck on your arm?”
She continued picking, though it was clearly in vain. “It’s none of your business.”
“It’s just... I can cut it off, if you’d like.”
Her eyes glanced back at him, squinting in the sun. She was either considering his offer, or merely staring at him to give him the impression of thought. Either way, she rolled to her side and muttered, “No, thank you.”
He noticed her softening tone and pressed his lips together with a twinge of hope. He didn’t have much of an upper hand, but he had one single thing he could offer her, and he intended to use it. “All right,” he said. “But... I’ll come back tomorrow... in case you change your mind.” He winced at his words, hoping his proposition would not fall onto deaf ears.
Her lack of an answer almost killed him. He took a shaky breath and despondently started climbing to his feet.
“If you must.” Her voice, at last, filled the silence.
His knees dropped back to the sand. “Oh!” He exclaimed.
“You can go now.” She stressed, turning her head in his direction.
“All right.”
Her eyes remained glued on him as he shuffled back to his feet, watching intently as he patted the sand from his clothes and wildly brushed his from his hair. When he stood upright with his hair sticking in multiple directions atop his head, she pressed her lips tightly together in an awkward frown.
He, too, frowned when he noticed her peculiar expression. It almost looked as if she were stifling a laugh. Then, he froze, brought a single hand to his head, and discovered his disheveled hair. His own lips broke into a sheepish grin. “What a fantastic first impression, huh?”
She awkwardly cleared her throat and hid her face against her shoulder.
With the mood lightened at last, he attempted a final question. “What name do you prefer?”
She turned up her eyes. “For who?”
“For you.”
“Sapphyre.”
“Okay. Thank you, Sapphyre.” He smiled lightly, “Like a gemstone.”
She hummed idly without moving.
A breath of life had returned to him. It was a start, thought he knew there was a great chance she would not return. She seemed distant and angry—though not with him in particular. It was going to be hard to get close to her, but if she truly returned, he could use the act of freeing her from the fishing line as a sign he could be trusted. He could at least be grateful for another moment to spend with her.
Luis turned around and found the narrow gap in the rocky walls that marked his way out. Huge chunks of rock and strands of yellow tape turned the once simple exit into a winding maze that was sure to ward off the casual beach-walker—which made his stumbling upon it in a half-asleep state even more impressive.
“Good luck getting out.”
He glanced behind embarrassedly and caught the very end of a smirk before Sapphyre turned away and returned to her sunbath.
Her grin was exactly he needed. He smiled and felt a warmth within him, and once he scaled the rocks, his trek back to the beach and his apartment was considerably brightened.
—
The moon was full overhead, long in its journey across the sky. The beam from the lighthouse shimmered over the surface of the water in its wide, circular pattern. Almost everything that dwelt on the surface and below the sea had hidden away for sleep.
All except Sapphyre.
She could not sleep. She could not go home. Not now.
She hung upside-down in the water, almost motionless. She was far enough from the surface to avoid being tossed by the waves but close enough for the moonlight to trickle down into faint, dancing beams around her.
She didn’t want to think about him.
She had been through all of this before. Nothing would be any different this time.
She should have been more careful; no, she should have avoided the surface altogether. But, how was she to know he would continue to find her, even if it did seem completely by chance?
She squinted her eyes shut. She was not ready for this again.
He could be different.
Her eyes opened. Moonlight shimmered in the empty ocean around her.
She held up her arm, wrapped tightly with fishing wire. Scrapes and bruises painted the skin beneath it from failed attempts to cut it with rocks and inadvertently pulling it tighter.
He had offered to help her.
She pressed her lips together in a scowl.
It didn’t matter if he could be different. She was not falling for this again. She was not going to be caught in it again. She was not going to be hurt again.
She had embraced the empty ocean. She enjoyed the solitude. She needed no one to help her, human or merkind. She needed no one to care about her.
Then why would his face not leave her thoughts? The look of longing and the embarrassed grin; the messy hair and the deep blue-green eyes...
Her tail flicked and she righted herself. Her own eyes caught the moonlight above.
She could end this now; she could never return to the surface. She could leave all of it behind. She could make a clean break from everything that had hurt her before.
But, he had offered to help her.
Why should that matter?
She took in a deep breath as the gills on her neck flared. Her eyes shut. As she let out the breath, her body again fell limp and began to drift aside.
Why should he matter?
—
The blue mermaid slipped silently into the cove beneath the weathered arch and strands of yellow tape that gated the entrance from the rest of the ocean. She drew her head out of the water and slid up to the beach.
Luis was dozing off with his head and elbows on his knees. Wiping away the wet hair that stuck to her cheeks, she tilted her head as she watched his body slowly drooping to one side.
“...Luis?”
He snorted as he shot upright, feeling his heart leaping into his throat.
“Oh!” He choked. He scrambled to steady himself with his hands in the sand as Sapphyre sat down a few feet before him. He let out a deep breath to release his anxiety and sheer surprise at how close she had come. “...Good morning!”
She held out her injured arm without saying another word.
“Right,” he nodded and slowly pushed onto his knees to scoot closer to her. He could feel her own anxiousness as her eyes followed his movements with a steely intensity. He gently cupped her hand in his palm to keep it steady, and, with his other hand, he reached into his pocket to retrieve a small, yellow-handled pocketknife. He held it at his side and flicked it open.
The speed of the movement and the glimmer of the blade sparked fear in the mermaid’s eyes. She shot backward, but Luis caught her by the arm.
“Wait—it’s just a pocket knife!”
“Let go of me!” She yelled, her tail fluke slapping against the beach.
“No—look!” Luis tried, squinting his eyes against the billowing sand. “See? I just need to slide it under the line to cut it. It won’t hurt you at all!” He grit his teeth, feeling the grit of the sand between them. “I promise I won’t hurt you. Please, just trust me.”
Sapphyre scowled at him, holding herself at her own arm’s length from him. “Let go.”
Luis released her and she tucked her arms against her chest.
“I know trust is a hard thing to ask,” Luis admitted softly. “But I can cut the line away and then—I’ll leave you alone.”
His words turned almost sorrowful; and, somehow, they managed to calm Sapphyre’s angry expression into a dull smolder.
After a moment of silence, Sapphyre released a controlled breath and held out her arm.
Luis carefully reached toward her, took her hand to keep her arm steady, and pressed the dull side of the knife’s blade against her wrist. Slowly and deliberately, he slid it forward. The lines snapped away almost instantly.
Sapphyre’s eyes widened, and soon, her arm was released, free and clear. She rubbed her fingers against the ribbed imprints still in her skin from the tight wire, and there wasn’t a single scratch from the knife, just as Luis had said. She rested her arms in her lap and looked up at him, wavering between apologetic and thankful.
The man attempted a smile. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, turning her gaze back to the sand.
He sat back in the sand and put away the knife. “I’m really sorry I scared you.”
“You did say cut it off,” she mumbled under her breath. “I’m not sure what I was expecting you to use.”
Luis shrugged. “Still, I should have said what I was doing.” He bit his lip. “And... I guess that means I’m done here.”
“Done?” Sapphyre looked up as he got to his feet.
“Uh... I mean,” Luis wavered on his feet. “I said I’d leave when I’m done... but I can stay, if, you know, you want me to.”
She tilted her head. “You’re... very odd.”
“I just don’t want to intrude if you need your space.” He looked around idly. “I’m sure you come here for your own reasons.”
She glanced out to the ocean beneath the arch. “Just to get some sun. It’s very uncommon for merkind, but, as you already know, I wasn’t born one.”
“Wait,” his brows lowered, “‘Merkind’—you mean there’s more?”
“...As far as you’re concerned, no.” She backpedaled.
Nevertheless, Luis’s eyes were wide with wonder as his mind processed the information. “So, mermaids did exist before you... I worried so much that you were all alone... Did you find them? Do they know about your past, or do they not care?”
“You’re asking an awful lot of questions about things you don’t need to know.” She crouched closer to the ground.
“All right, I’m sorry.” He sat back down on the beach, cleared his throat, and suppressed his curiosity as best as he could. “How about you ask me something?”
Sapphyre’s face narrowed quizzically. “How much do you know about me?”
His eyes grew distant as he wandered back into his thoughts. “I know all kinds of things. I know where you worked and where you lived. I know your favorite color, your favorite food...”
“What about the experiments?” She didn’t seem to be phased by his momentary journey through his memories.
He frowned. It still pained him to think about all she went through; but since she was not aware of just how much had happened, he told her all he had learned. He watched her expression fade more and more until she was visibly upset.
“...When Tanner went missing and his family called it in, they went into his apartment. That was where they found the journal that got the police into the lab to bust it.”
Sapphyre drew her tail closer and cradled her arms. “Did they ever find him?”
“Not that I saw.”
She slumped down a little further. “They probably killed him for what he did. He said they would. They followed him one night and got him while he was visiting me. They tried to get me too, but I got away.”
Luis frowned. “No wonder you don’t want to trust me.”
Sapphyre stretched out her tail again, gently resting her lilac fluke on the beach.
“So, am I the first human you’ve met since then?”
Luis’ question rose into the air and was left in the silence. Her eyes had strayed to the rocks, and her brows were lowered in irritation.
“...Right, let’s forget that one,” he pressed his lips together. “Anything else?”
She shook her head.
He nodded quietly, wondering if she was still upset from learning about the laboratory, or if his next comment about humans had turned off her desire to communicate.
Taking in a deep breath, he looked idly at his watch. His eyes widened as his lips stretched into a frown. “Eh, I guess I’d better get going anyway. I’m late for work... again.” He paused, watching her carefully. “But, can I see you again tomorrow?”
She looked over her shoulder. “If you must.”
His face brightened. “I must.”
She rolled her eyes with the smallest hint of a smile, rubbing her freed arm as Luis went on his way.