The Death's Game

31. Game of Underwater Kingdom

Blake kept silent throughout their way back to the point where they saw Kyle for the last time. Percy didn't want to challenge him for talking about his ex-girlfriend. Seeing her, leaving her, it must've been like a nightmare. One of the cruelest things that The Game could've done.

Give hope and then crush it, since it wasn't the real Bianca.

That was for the better though. Percy doubted whether Blake would've wanted Bianca to be trapped in whatever The Game was.

She was swimming beside him, glancing at him obliquely when he wasn't looking. She understood that what he wanted most now was to be alone with his thoughts. She also understood how much he loved the girl who died before his eyes. She couldn't imagine the burden though. How hard it must have been for him to carry those memories with him.

They came back to the supernatural underwater city too soon to come to terms with what had happened, but there wasn't a sign of Kyle and honestly, neither of them had an idea what to do next. Percy didn't want Blake to worry about that too. She thought that the best thing to do was probably to enter the underwater city that was made of the same gold that the well was made of. All kinds of it.

Blake quietly swam behind her as she approached the big gate that was kept open as if it was waiting for them to enter. Nevertheless, the city was abandoned. Just as if nothing, except for the fish, lived here. And even fish seemed to be afraid of their presence. Percy felt it. They were uninvited strangers here.

She started getting nervous, not knowing what to do, when suddenly a sound of the whistleblower came through the underwater surface. She tried to locate the source of the sound, and then, from behind one of the buildings, Kyle emerged with a whistleblower.

Or rather with a friend that was blowing this whistle.

A friend that was, this time indeed, a mermaid. However, this was not the beautiful mermaid that Percy would have imagined in fairy tales and stories. No, this mermaid certainly did not resemble Ariel. She was very far from being called "gorgeous" or even "pretty." At the same time, Percy would not have called her a monster, because she had nothing monstrous about her that would make her want to run away and hide under a rock.

No, this mermaid had a tail full of shimmering scales in the water, which was split in half, like two legs, only in the form of flipper tails. The scales encircled her entire body, including her torso and arms. Her hair was cut short but kept in quite a stylish underwater style. In her eyes, Percy saw no pupils, only a colorful iris that moved when the mermaid looked in another direction. It was a little creepy, but because of the rainbow sheen, it was pretty at the same time.

"Hi Kyle, I see you... found yourself... a friend," started Percy timidly, realizing how unexpectedly it sounded.

Kyle? Making friends? Does his big ego even allow a place for friends?

Even Blake was impressed that someone lasted with Kyle for more than a few minutes.

"There are very few friends you have down here," the mermaid said, giving Kyle the whistleblower back. "We do not like strangers. You are strangers. You are invading our space."

"We haven't seen many of others like you," Blake stated and to emphasize his words he looked around. There was no other mermaid that they could see.

"As I said, we do not like strangers. Interactions with strangers are a burden. But we want you gone, so we will help you. You are looking for things belonging to the Keeper. What the Keeper wants, must be delivered."

So, the lifeguard was called a Keeper down here. But why did the mermaids and other things that lived in these waters didn't bring him what he wanted? Do those things never surface?