Chapter Twenty

There was a muffled voice yelling, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. It was like they yelled into a pillow several feet away. My surroundings were dark and there were no fish or plants. Just complete darkness. To my left, I could see a dim light in the distance.

"Hello?" My voice echoed as if I was in a box. I approached the light, seeing a blonde woman with green eyes. "Who are you?" She wore some kind of clothing that made her look like a large, zombie, angler fish. She only smiled at me.

"My sweet daughter." She beamed, the light behind her becoming brighter. The water around me seemed to shake, the yelling from before seeming louder and closer. Her smile faded and her expression became serious. "You need to wake up."

"What?"

"Wake up!" She yelled. "You have to wake up!" Her became low and croaked as if she were some kind of frog. The sound made me tense up. Her face started to rapidly degenerate and rot, the skin peeling away and the bone underneath developing holes.

"Wake up! WAKE UP!"

*~~*~~*~~*

I gasped, sitting up swiftly. I coughed up water as something touched my back heavily. I gasped, turning as my eyes burned. Jason sat next to me, patting my back as someone else coughed. I looked to the sound to see my aunt.

"What happened?" I took a shaky breath.

"You were doing something to your aunt and a whirlpool appeared. It pushed the boat away and storm clouds materialized. The whirlpool was electrocuted and everything went white." Jason explained. "When I found you, you were unresponsive. You and your aunt were and you both came back at the same time."

"Came back?" I attempted to stand only to collapse back to the sand.

"Be careful. You're-" I ignored Jason and crawled to my aunt's side. Her face was pale as if she had seen a ghost.

"What is it, Aunt?" I nearly whispered, afraid that I had hurt her.

"I saw her." Her lips trembled.

"My mother?" I studied her as her eyes widened. She looked to me and nodded. "I did, too. Everything was black, though. I couldn't see anything else."

"Poseidon's Trident. Paradise Land." She replied softly.

"That's in the Mariana Trench." Jason looked to my uncle who sat with my aunt's head in his lap. "No living creature lives there."

"She's alive." My aunt's body was shaking. I feared that she was cold. I looked to her legs as the soft waves licked her skin. We were behind a large gray boulder, far from the beach.

"Can you walk?" I looked at her. Her eyes flickered to me as if she was distracted and disoriented. "Come on." I stood, wobbling slightly. Carefully, I pulled her up than lead her into the water until we were waist deep. Jason and my uncle watched as our tails overtook our legs. She yelped as she began to fall, pulling me with her. We fell into the shallow water, my head going under. When I pushed myself up so that I sat, she gasped. I looked at her pink tail as she moved it.

"You fixed it! You fixed me!" She laughed. "Oh, Honey! Thank you!" She hugged me, kissing all over my face. I still felt drained and when she released me, I let myself fall back into the shallow water. I could still hear her excitement, but I was too weak to resurface even in the little bit of water. I heard splashes then saw Jason standing in front of me. He placed a hand under my back and the other under my tail where my knees were, lifting me out of the water. My head automatically rested against his chest as he walked out of the water. I closed my eyes, exhausted.