Deep, blue secrets

Chapter 2

A/N Warning for younger readers: some swearing up ahead

A fog seemed to cloud my head when I woke up; everything felt heavy: my arms, my legs, my head. I could've sworn I hadn't drank that much last night. Muffled sounds drifted through my cloudy haze.
"Shit, shit, shit!"
"Calm the fuck down Antonio just shut her up! Now!" They seemed very angry but I was too sleepy to deal with that now. Antonio's hulking figure at the door was the last thing I saw before my eyes drooped shut.

Icy water struck my naked skin, jolting me awake. I opened my mouth to scream but  salty liquid rushed in, making me choke. I started to thrash around, desperate to get back to the surface but I could do nothing - I looked down and saw my hands and feet bound. My eyes darted around, desperately seeking anything to help. Everything was near black except the weak light directly above me. Just as I sunk out of view, I saw to figures swing a limp body over the side and dump it into the ocean.

The fog on my brain slowly began to clear and it dawned on me - Rachel. It was Rachel! "Rachel?" My scream came out as a garbled mess. I began to choke more and continued to writhe in a futile attempt to get back to the surface. My lungs were burning like I had never felt before and I was starting to feel light headed from oxygen deprivation. I felt my movements becoming slower and slower until, eventually, I gave up and was pulled into the deep, dark sea.

Searing pain shot through my rib cage as my skin and flesh tore open. My bones cracked and groaned sending branches of burning hot agony through my legs. I was choking and drowning until suddenly, I wasn't. The pain in my side was subsiding into a dull ache. I took a breath. And then another, feeling my head gradually lose its heavy feeling. Although, somehow, I could breathe now, I still needed to get out. I looked down at my hands but lost my interest very suddenly when I caught sight of my legs, which no longer were, well, legs. A translucent membrane had formed between them, joining them, melting them together. As I watched, it became thicker and thicker, beginning to take on a chocolatey hue. I followed my eyes down to my feet which were now encompassed by vast fins. This too was brown, catching what little light there was on its golden flecks. I was speechless. I was pulled from my daze when a flash of red drift past me. I snapped my eyes to it, following its trail to Rachel's naked body; her face was ashen, a large gash above her eye socket. "Rachel!" With jolted, uncoordinated movements I swam to her. I latched onto her tied wrists "Rachel?" I shook her "Rachel! Please, please wake up!"  He face stayed completely placid "No! No, please, no" I cried. I let out a sob and it wracked my body " Rachel please," I whispered, closing my eyes to cry. I felt a swell, pushing me into Rachel's body, snapping me from my sorrow. In the darkness, I caught the glimpse of a tail flicking this way and that. I spun round, as an eery feeling settled in my stomach. I felt my heart thudding in my chest as though it might burst. A streak of grey flashed by me and I turned to get a better look at it. I gasped. It's pointed nose, sharp fin only meant one thing. My breath hitched in my throat as I tried to decide what to do next. Another flash of grey and then another came into view. Around Rachel's head was a halo of red: red hair and red blood, bobbing with the ebb and flow of the sea. They began circling, closer and closer, some taking snaps at us. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

I heard a commotion and looked up; black, gold, red and brown flickers broke through the wall of grey surrounding me. They broke through the coiling mass of sharks, revealing 4 men, not so much men but fish. Long tails extended from their torsos much like mine that flicked side to side in a wholly unnatural movement for a human form. This couldn't be real. 

"Come with us," the blonde one spoke. His voice was calm and soothing but equally commanding "We won't hurt you, we just want to help."

"What about my friend?" I stuttered back, too confused and bewildered to approach the glaring questions. 

"You need to leave her; sharks are usually non predatory towards us but that has its limits; getting between them and their prey can be fatal. Let's go now." He said it with finality but I couldn't. I couldn't leave my best friend to the sharks. "She's already dead, it's too late!" another one moved forward as he said this. I snapped an angry gaze unto him, taking in his dark hair and pale skin, stretched across his bulging muscles. His tail, like his hair was obsidian and flicked one way to the other, like a tapping foot. Another shark took a snap at Rachel's limp body making me jump. 

"Okay!" I yelped "Please, get me out of here." The blonde man came forward while the others held the sharks back and cut the rope tying my hands "Thank you," I said weakly. He simply nodded and turned back to the men who were waiting. "Lets go," the obsidian man snapped. He shot one last look at me as I struggled to get used to my tail, a look of disdain in his eyes, before he took it upon himself to grab me and drag me behind him. I let out an indignant huff but allowed him to lead me away, knowing my chances were better with them than alone. As soon as we broke free of the sharks, they whipped into a frenzy and I forced myself to look away, only imagining what was happening to Rachel's body.