Mermaid

Chapter 35

Erika opened up her eyes to find herself back in the same place as to where she had been taken by her mother. But in her right hand she could feel the vial that her mother had given her, looking down at it she stared at the red jelly-like liquid.

So at some point I'm going to have to take this, preferably before anything else changes in my body. Mom did say it was of high concentration so only a little bit should be enough. She then returned it to her pocket. But not now, I'll do it when I return home.

Heading back to the inn, Erika was once again nearly tackled by Alison when she entered the front entrance. "You're back!"

Erika had to steady herself so she wouldn't fall down like before. "I... yeah I am. Are you okay Alison?"

Alison pulled away, her grey eyes filled with anger as they began to brim up with tears. "I've looked everywhere for you!" she started to shake her friend by the shoulders. "Do you have any idea how worried all of us were? Again!?"

"Um... sorry...?"

"That's right you should be sorry!" she continued to shake Erika. "Do you even know what time it is now? I thought at first when I couldn't find you that maybe: "Alright maybe she just wants some time alone before we head back home." But then minutes and then hours started to pass and there still wasn't any sign from you! Do you have any idea how close I was to calling out a search squad!?"

"I... said... I... was... sorry..." Erika managed in between shakes.

When Alison finally stopped shaking her, she then hugged Erika tightly, fighting off the urge to break down and cry. "Next time tell us where you're going okay...?"

Erika felt a slight twinge of guilt towards her friend; she didn't mean to worry Alison and the others, but to be fair she was talking with her mother. Wrapping her arms around Alison's back she hugged her. "Sorry."

Later that evening, after a small party that involved alcohol and a Japanese styled barbeque called Yakitori, which involved beef, chicken, ginger and soy sauce. Erika was fine with it since it didn't involve fish, and it was fun, something Erika hadn't had in a while. But she found herself to be unable to sleep, she needed to, she just couldn't.

She found herself staring at her mother's necklace, looking at the tear drop stone with a mix of pale blue and white.

"When your mermaid's blood reacts from ether a great deal of stress, fear and such the stone's color of the necklace will change from how it normally is to this." Yara closed her eyes as if concentrating intensely, when she opened them her eyes were a dark red color, the necklace that she held soon turned to a red color as well, like water mixed with blood that continued to swirl around and around. "You see? The more you use your mermaid's blood, the more this will be red, until you've fully become one this will continue."

So in other words I'll remain switching back and forth until I'm fully completed. "This is so complicated..."

But then much of it was still complicated to her, even after her mother explained and answered many of her questions she still felt incomplete. That something was missing, could it have been the part of herself that she was afraid of?

The next morning came faster than Erika expected, the reason for this is that she hadn't been able to get a decent night's sleep. And yet she didn't even feel tired, but then her mind was racing, the only thing that kept nagging at her was one thing, when she finished this whole physical change what would she do then? What could she do then? it wasn't like she could pretend to be a normal human being, at least for a while, there were probably a tone of other mythical creatures that did that besides her mother whom had succeeded and would have continued to do so if Sherrie's mother hadn't stolen her mother's necklace.