The Mermaids' Pearl: Semi-Sequel to Emmett's Jeanie

Chapter 8

Maddy's POV:

I was sitting quietly staring out onto the busy human street, wondering how they could be so loud at times when all I wanted was silence to think. I could see Jeanie still pacing out of the corner of my eye, her lover sitting in the sofa still, his head following her as she paced. I saw her come into view before she kneeled down in front of me.

"Maddy, you have to think this through. Dark witches do not always keep their word, she could have us sign that blasted contract and next thing you know I'm chained to the bottle again and your nothing but a pile of sea foam!" (J)

I flinched back a bit at her yelling, seeing even her lover do the same before he tried to reach out and comfort her. She only shook his hand off and started pacing again and mumbling under breath in what sounded like ancient Egyptian. I took a deep breath, knowing that arguing with her would be worse than with my own mother, before I looked towards her.

"Jeanie I know what the consequen-" (Mad)

"Don't say you know the consequences! Don't you dare! Milania said the same thing and look where it got her! Turned into sea foam all because her pearl was already married to another and it broke her heart into a million pieces!" (J)

"I'm not Milania Jeanie! I know what I'm doing more so than she did!" (Mad)

"You don't get to say you know what you're doing! You're not even as old as she was so how dare you assume you know better than she did when you're chasing the same goal!" (J)

"It is my life, my tail, my voice, and my choice Jeanie. I love you and respect you much like an aunt but it is my decision not yours. I know what I'm doing." (Mad)

"No you don't! Besides even if you do know what you're doing, you aren't the one that will have to watch your end should it go badly!" (J)

I saw a few tears start to fall from her face before she turned away from me and looked out the other window overlooking the busy street. I heard her let out a shaky breath before she turned back to face me with a grim look on her face and tears still falling down her face.

"Milania was a great friend to me Madeline, much like you are. You're so much like her and I can only guess it's because you're related. When her deal with Welustia was completed she was not on the winning end of it as you well know. I watched as my friend dissolved into sea foam in my arms after her heart was broken." (J)

I watched in silence as she looked away again as her voice broke. I knew that she had been great friends with my great aunt when she was alive, my mother telling me she had met Jeanie several times before my aunt passed. My mother herself was very young when she first met Jeanie, only five or six at the most. Jeanie and Milanie were not friends for very long, only a few years, but they were apparently close to one another.

"You've been told I'm sure that it took three hundred years after that for her soul to find peace and ascend into the afterlife. Something I didn't even find out about until I was freed from my bottle after Master Smith." (J)

I well-remembered the day she found out about Great Aunt Milania ascending into the afterlife. It was the first time I had met her, and I was barely over a 100 but I knew the stories of her from my mother. I remember how she sobbed into my mother's arms when she learned that.

And now as I watch her cry now, I felt a fear tears slip down my own face as I saw the pain that the memories of my relative's deal and death still brought to her. I saw her shake her head at me before turning away again, looking at the bare wall that was in front of her instead of meeting my stare any longer.

"I still remember the day she failed in her deal and I had to go to your mother's family and tell them the news. I had to tell your mother that her aunt wasn't coming home because 'She had been changed into sea foam to roam the ocean until her soul finds peace.' That was the only way that I could think to break to her, she was just so young." (J)

I watched as Jeanie turned back towards me for a moment, the tears still falling from her eyes and now mine. I watched her shake her head before she turned to face the window again, neither of breaking the silence in the room yet. I finally went to break the silence but stayed silent when she broke it first.

"The look of heartbreak that was on your mother's face that day was the deepest I think I have ever seen. I will never utter those words again to anyone, especially not your mother. I will not witness the death of yet another friend in such a way as that for it is something I do not think I would wish on even my greatest of enemies." (J)

I watched as her lover stood from his seat and slowly walked over to her before taking her gently into his arms and holding her close to him. I felt my own heart ache for the same comfort and love that my pearl could bring if I could only find him.

"Jeanie, if you had known about Emmett before meeting him but was told you couldn't have him. What would you have been willing to risk to be with him, or even just to meet him?" (Mad)

"Madeline it's not the same thing!" (J)

"It is though, please you must understand. Surely if you had to risk your life in order to have found Emmett you would have, wouldn't you?!?" (Mad)

I watched as she turned to respond before Emmett's hand caught her face. His hand gently tracing her cheek as they stared into each other's eyes. I felt a blush creep up my face as it felt as if I was intruding on a private moment and I forced myself to look away for a few moments. When I turned back to face her she was leaning into his chest with her eyes closed and taking deep breaths.

"Jeanie......I will become sea foam anyway after being forced into a loveless marriage." (Mad)

"You would do that to your mother? Choose death in that way?" (J)

"Being forced into a relationship with someone other than your pearl kills you on the inside, I would simply complete the process and kill the outside as well." (Mad)

"What could this deal possibly do for you if your pearl already another as Milania's did?" (J)

"If this deal allows me to at least meet my pearl, see if he is happy even if it is not with me, then it will give me peace before I meet my end." (Mad)

"And the pain of the transformations should you get wet and have to be changed back by me?" (J)

"I can handle it. Jeanie, please I know I'm asking more than you want to give. But please, I.......I just want to meet my pearl before I am forced into an unwanted marriage and meet my death in that way." (Mad)

I watched as Emmett gently pulled her face up to look at his own, a silent conversation seeming to pass between the two, before she let out a tired sounding sigh. She pulled away from Emmett and walked back over to me with a few tears still in both of our eyes.

"Promise me that will succeed." (J)

"Jeanie, that is not fair. You know I can't promise that." (Mad)

"I don't care if it's a lie. Just promise me." (J)

"I promise Jeanie." (Mad)

"Then I promise to help you and bear witness to the deal should you agree to it. But I have conditions of my own, you follow my rules and show no one what species you are. Pearl or no pearl until we know that they can be trusted. Understood?" (J)

"I will agree to that Jeanie, I trust you're judgement." (Mad)

I saw her nod before sticking out her hand to shake to seal our own deal, and a slight smile crossed my face as I remembered her teaching me the 'proper' way to shake hands when I turned 116. I saw her look at the clock on the wall, it was reading 2:20 am, before she sighed and looked back at me with a mournful expression on her face.

"Well if you're sure, it's better to agree to the deal sooner rather than later. Especially since she could change her mind before the dead-line she gave us. Are you sure you want to do this Maddy?" (J)

"I'm sure Jeanie. I've never been more sure than I am right now." (Mad)

"Well Emmett, let's get this over with so we can go home and rest before we have to find her pearl." (J)