Dear Tempting

Alley Cat

School had been excruciatingly painful for Reid. Between all the stares, hushed voices and noticeable bashings, she felt like she had little room left to breathe.

Rebekah had shown her around the whole school, and to her dismay, it seemed like making nice with Rebekah, and her brother had welcomed more unwanted attention. It turns out that Rebekah and Daniel Richard were outsiders just as much as she was. Very noticeable outsiders.

Rebekah had met Reid between each class and walked her to the next one. Daniel sometimes accompanied them, but his mind was usually elsewhere. Rebekah chatted constantly, and most of the time Reid tried to ignore what she was saying. Most of their real conversations were about the school activates she might be interested in or Rebekah's family. They only talked about the Richards when Daniel wasn't around. Daniel preferred his secrets compared to his sister's social butterfly personality.

The first thing that Reid did when she got home was go for a swim. There was nothing like the healing and calming aspects of the ocean.

She had run straight out the back gate and all the way to the end of the dock where she propelled herself into the blue sea. Reid could feel her skin begin to tingle familiarly as the water covered her body.

Reid wasn't what she appeared to be by any means. If one were to see her in her natural habitat, they would instantly incline she was a mermaid. However, she was nothing like her sweet, gentle cousins of the deep.

She was a Siren.

Her emerald shimmering scaled tail swayed behind her as she dove deep. It sparkled in the light with its silvery sheen and Reid grinned at the royal color. Just like her eyes, the tail held flecks of silver and black. Her tail was almost twice as long as her human legs and even more powerful. The fin, however, is the one thing that sets her apart from all the other creatures in the sea.

Unlike a mermaid's flat fin that swims in a horizontal motion, her fin was vertical and swam side to side. It was like that of a shark. It most closely resembled the Short Fin Mako Shark, the fastest shark in the ocean. However, her kind was far faster. It wasn't a small appendage by any means. The top half of the fin was a tad bit longer than its lower counterpart.

Sharks like the Great White and the Bull Shark are notorious for the killings of humans as they are the only sea creatures' known that could be blamed. If the humans only knew of her existence, she wouldn't just be hunted by the sea dwellers, but by land dwellers as well.

The strength in her tail pushed her deeper. The side-to-side motion gave Reid a flat stomach and the muscles in her fin were only transferred into her human legs, leaving them toned and long.

Having her chest bare had never bothered her, only because she lived exposed like this for most of her childhood. Only her sisters and the mermaids below had seen her chest, and if a human had seen it, they didn't live to tell the tale.

Many mermaids did hide the skin of their breasts with shells or seaweed, but all of her kind relished in the freedom of being exposed. They were thrill seekers at best times.

She swam as deep as the bay she lived by would let her. It wasn't the depths she preferred, but this would have to do.

Her stomach lurched at the hunger she felt in her throat as she began to surface. It groaned in protest when she thought of holding off one more day but as her gums began to ache she knew one more day would not be a safe option.

Pulling herself up on the dock she waited for her body to dry off enough to transform back into her human legs. She knew she was safe to act recklessly like this as she made sure there wasn't another home for miles of her own. The late evening sun warmed her breasts and face, and she let her head roll back basking in the warmth. Her red hair clung to her torso, looking like blood dripping down her milky skin.