Mermaid

Chapter 26

"Lawrence?" the old woman repeated. "Did you just say your last name was Lawrence?"

"I did."

Before Erika could react, the old woman tossed out a knife that she had hidden in her robes, the blade cut Erika's left cheek only slightly, as blood trickled down her face. It took a moment for her to feel the slight pain of the cut as her hand reached up to touch the wound. Pulling her hand away she saw the blood dripping down her index and middle finger, she just stared at it saying nothing.

"Well you still bleed like a human being." The old woman said before going back to the parchment. "Go home girl, I have no intention in talking to the likes of you."

Erika narrowed her eyes on the woman. "I won't."

"What did you say?"

"I said I won't." Erika repeated calmly.

"Leave."

"I won't!" the woman glared at Erika, in which Erika refused to move. "I will not leave until you tell me what you know about my mother. You called my mother a being of water. What did you mean by that, and why did you say that she was cursed?"

"If you're so interested then why not ask your parents?"

"They died a number of years ago, besides don't you think I already would have if I could?"

"She has a point." Yukari said, but when her mother glared at her she became quite.

The old woman looked back to Erika. "I have no interest in talking to a person such as you. If I had to guess your body had already gone through changes, certain changes in which you know what you really are. Whether I tell you or not, it won't make any difference even if you do stay here."

"So you won't tell me." when the woman said nothing in return Erika let out a breath. "Fine then, but I will not leave this country until you tell me what you know."

The old woman laughed lowly in her throat. "You sound so arrogant, your mother, that freak of a being that could never be called human, said she'd never forgive me for what I said to your good for nothing father."

Erika said nothing, hearing this wasn't new to her, she heard it so much from Alison's parents to the point of it being a broken record. "I'll come back another time then. Excuse me." she bowed her head slightly and left the main hall. And right when she closed the doors she heard yelling between Yukari and her mother.

"You lied to me about that child!"

"Oh like I haven't done that before..." Yukari shot back. "You know as well as I do that what she's going through isn't her fault, Yara told Suzuki something like this might happen, we need to tell her!"

"No we will not! Her kind cannot be trusted after what happened to our family!"

"That was almost over a hundred years ago!"

Erika's attention drifted from the shouting match over to the far right, someone was watching her intently, turning her head to the right she found that feeling to be true. At the end of the hall a handsome man with long black hair and wearing a kimono watched her, raised his hand telling her to follow him in silence. But what caught her off guard was his eyes, though he was indeed of Japanese descent, his eyes were that of a light blue mixed with grey, like storm clouds brewing in the blue sky.

She wasn't sure if she should follow him, he might know something that the old woman refused to speak of, it'd be better than heading to an empty room to sleep or listening to more yelling. Going around the corner she saw that the man was waiting near one of the many exits of the mansion. Man this guy can walk fast. Erika thought before realizing that there was no one else in the hallway but the two of them.