Mermaid

Chapter 54

"Erika!" Alison slid on her knees in the sand when she got closer to her friend, panic rushing through her like a storm as her grey eyes looked at Erika's face. "Please be okay..."

Erika let out a slight groan as her hair turned back to dark brown; she opened her lavender eyes and looked to Alison in almost a semiconscious state. "Alison, you... you shouldn't be here it's... it's not safe."

"Well it doesn't look to be any safer for you as it does for me." Alison said as she helped Erika sit up. "You don't look so good Erika..."

Erika gasped for breath as she felt her throat become tight, her stomach cramping for something that Erika did not want, her eye teeth were sharpening along with her nails.

"Erika?"

Erika shook her head as her vision began to blur. "I need... to stop him..." she forced herself to stand only to stager and fall back down, she felt so dizzy that she fell back on her hands and keens. What's happening to me?

"Your body cannot handle this kind of prolonged stress Erika." her mermaid persona spoke softly. "If this keeps up you'll collapse, or worse your body will lose control and eat something close by to sustain you."

Don't you mean someone? She thought with dread while glancing at Alison who was the closest person here. Isn't their another way?

Her mermaid-self gave a prolonged pause. "There is but..."

But what?

"It would mean that you and I... would finally have to merge together."

Wouldn't that also mean that you'd...

"It's fine." She said quickly. "Remember Erika, I only exist to retain all of the information from the previous mermaid that is all I am here for. You've heard Adrian say that he accepted it instantly, all of our kind has done it while you are one of those rare anomalies that tries to defy what you really are."

I know what I am! She thought with anger before her eyes shifted away. I know I'm not human, not anymore. But... if merging with you is really the only way to beat this then... I guess I don't have much of a choice.

"Erika?"

Erika looked at her friend and smiled before forcing herself to stand. "Alison, I'm going to need you to take a couple steps back from me." When Alison merely looked confused Erika then asked her. "If I were to physically change would you ever hate me for it?"

"Now why would I hate you for something like that? You're my best friend Erika; you know I could never truly hate you, no matter what you became."

Tears fell from her eyes as she continued to smile; the water from the ocean began to creep closer to them. "You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that..."

Before Alison had the chance to ask why Erika was saying such things the water slowly wrapped around Erika's body, like a large cocoon of a butterfly. Erika continued to smile and look at her friend the whole time as the water enveloped her until she could no longer see anything but deep blue darkness that slowly began to turn red.

"Erika!?" Alison reached for the water that was now rushing around Erika, turning into a large oval, at fast speeds, only to have Takashi grab her hand to stop her from touching it.

"Don't Alison, you have no idea what that water will do to you if you touch it."

"But Erika is... she's in there!" she said in a panic as tears began to cloud her vision. "I can't just leave her like that! We need to do something or else Adrian might...!"
Takashi looked out the body of water to the tall rock formation that Adrian stood on. "I don't think we'll have to worry about that."