The Mermaid Who Cried Wolf

Chapter Sixteen: The Cure and Human Interference

Disorientated, Pearl hobbled around the cave, hitting her head against the hard stone roof.

She splashed into the bottom, where the water came up to her nose and breathed slowly. The Enchantress had not mentioned the side-affects of the potion used to turn her back to mermaid. 

Pearl drew her hands along the cure for the flu. The writing was blurred and she couldn't focus on it for long. 

For a second, her eyes caught two words. 

Full moon.

What was the date? Full moon was three days ago. They couldn't wait, by the next full moon the entire mermaid race could be dead. 

"And it won't be long until the werewolves die out as well." She whispered.

Pearl fell again, hitting her fist against a cold, hard rock. The pain brought her senses back and she turned to the wall.

At a full moon drain the blood of five recent deceased flu victims.

Soak the blood in a barrel of salt water, Javergue Extract, Kisma Weeds and the heart of a Ulisma Jellyfish. Take all the alive victims of the flu and place them around the barrel, each holding a Crusegma Stone.

Within five hours, the flu will be dead and the victims cured.

"That's it?" Pearl asked no one. "That's the cure?" 

The words were edged onto cave wall, cut by Mergetyi healers. 

Pearl took a sharp rock and cut her flesh, rubbing the blood over her palm. Then she tore a piece of her shirt. She rubbed the blood against the cure and then covered it with the cloth, imprinting the words upon it in blood.

Pearl then scanned the translated walls of the cave for more. A teleportation charm. Perfect.

Step 1: A Piece of the place you want to go to.

Pearl scratched mud from her hair and put it on a rock.

Step 2: Face the direction you want to go.

Pearl turned.

Step 3: Chant the words: 'Isla Gotum' and then say the name of a person in the place three times.

"Isla Gotum Stanley. Isla Gotum Stanley. Isla Gotum Stanley." She coughed into her palms, looking up she saw blood on them, and more dripping from her mouth. Then she vanished.

Stanley stood next to Kayleighs bed, a young girl with the Flu. She vomited blood into a bucket next to her bed, shivering in her bed clothes.

Her eyes pleaded to Stanley, unable to speak for the flu. Her teeth chattering.

Stanley made soft circles on her palm, watching her.

All too soon, the girl gave in to the disease and her head hit the pillow, eyes staring at the roof, unseeing.

Stanley got up, leaving the girls hand dangling at the side of the mattress. 

Peter stood outside the room."Sir, three dead in the East Wing and Stanley?" 

Stanley nodded at him, "Yes?" 

"A visitor." Paul stood aside, revealing a shivering, Pearl.

"Nice for you to finally show up." Stanley grunted, then he turned, walking away.

"You know Stanley," Pearl started running up to him,"I have no idea what to think of your mood swings, they're seriously wearing me out, one minutes you seem like you're gonna break down and cry and the next you look like you're about to rip my head off." 

"I have my own problems." Stanley said.

"Like what?" 

"Like a bunch of human police showing up questioning me about the red sea." 

"Where are they now?" Pearl asked.

"Tied up in the basement." 

"Stanley..." 

"They called military forces Pearl!" He cried out, punching at a wall. "They saw, they saw the mermaid bodies, they saw me morphing!"

He leaned against the hallway. "If we don't do something and do something fast, our entire race, the whole underground courts, mermaids, werewolves, Trolls, fairies, Vampires, we're all going to be dead, or tied up in some human lab!" 

"Have the vampires attacked?" Pearl asked.

Stanley looked at his feet. "This must be one hell of a flu, Pearl, it is the only thing known to kill a vampire."  

"Are the Enchantresses here?" 

Stanley nodded. Pearl held out the piece of cloth with the cure on it. "Take this to them. They'll know what to do." 

"Why can' t you..." Stanley began.

"Because I'm dying stanley!" Pearl yelled. "I have the flu but it' s not just that, I... I... I became mermaid again, and on doing that my systems can' t adapt to enviroments anymore, they' re confused, there is no cure for what I' ve got! I don' t know what I am Stanley... I have about three days and I' m dead."  She coughed, water and blood fell to the floor. " See that, Stanley, I can't breathe underwater and I' m struggling to breathe on land." 

Stanley nodded. "The Enchantresses can, Pearl, I' ll..." 

" NO!" Pearl screamed.  " Don' t you see Stanley? I don't care if I live or die, and in the end, no matter how close we' ve gotten or whatever I intented, the whole reason my race is dying, why your race is dying is because of you, and I'm going to die and you know what this will prove?" 

" What?"  Stanley asked.

"That you don' t control us. We do what we want. No one. Not Neptune, Not vampires, not werewolves. And you, you must learn that our aims were always out of your reach. You mess with us, everyone will fall. Remember that." 

Then she turned and left, leaving Stanley crushed, for the first time not knowing what to do next.

The Enchantress summoned a full moon easily using the Elchs power of the elements and the Moon Rises Ceremony.

The herbs they gathered from their personal store and managed to get all the victims of the flu together. 

"All accept Pearl." An Enchantress told Stanley.

"She won' t come."  Stanley said. 

The Enchantress nodded.

For five hours. Stanley stood watching. 

After five hours, the victims fell to the ground as the virus left their bodies. Tears of joy and relief, falling down their cheeks but the vampires, cured, slipped into the shadows.

Stanley wondered where Pearl was, hiding away, maybe dead by now.

Suddenly, the survivors were inturrupted as lights shone through the forest.

Humans.

"RUN!"  Stanley shouted to the pack. "RUN EVERYBODY RUN!" 

He ran after the pack, then, something stung him in his back and he stopped, the forest before him blurred, unable to see or hear, he fell to the ground. 

Men in white coats ran up to him and dragged him into a vehicle as more werewolves were shot down, as soon as the darts hit them, the morphed wolves changed into humans and were carted away.

A few hours later, Stanley woke in a room.

Surrounded by humans.