The Island Curse

Molly

Tara, Niko, and I huddled around the dining room table, our eyelids drooping down and snapping back up every few seconds. Staying up to catch Molly coming in the house had seemed like a good idea in the daylight hours, but with every tick of the clock, I grew closer to giving up. I'd take a permanent tail if it meant a soft pillow and a good night's sleep right now.

"This feel likes we're trying to catch Santa Claus," I whispered.

"Never did that,"Niko said. Dark circles surrounded her eyes, mostly makeup from where she'd rubbed her face trying to stay awake.

"What?"

The girl shrugged before taking a sip of coffee. We were about to finish our third pot, and with no sign of Molly, there was a good chance a fourth would be made.

"It's a human holiday. We only really know about it because of tourists."

"That's disappointing," I said, adding it to the list of reasons why being a mermaid was going to suck. Christmas was my favorite holiday.

"We have our own holidays," Tara said. "Though we can't celebrate them the way they're supposed to be celebrated since most of our men are stuck on dry land. The best is EvenTide. It's celebrated on the winter solstice. You feast and dance through the night, and when the longest night of the year ends, we swim out to greet the dawn, celebrating the end of the darkness."

Niko's smile was full of dreams as Tara talked. "My great-grandmother told stories of the years they could celebrate beneath the ocean waves. They would coat their tails in a substance that would make them glow, and swim to a nearby sea cave. She said it would look like swirls of light in the black as everyone danced."

I let my thoughts wander, imagining my friends dancing beneath the ocean, their glittering tails glowing in the dark. What was already beautiful became breathtaking, and for a moment, I felt a keen longing to experience that world. It was part of me no matter how I denied it, but I pushed the dangerous emotion away. As long as I had no choice in the matter, I wanted no part of it. I couldn't want a part of it.

"Tell me again why we didn't just go to bed and get up when Molly arrives?"

Tara's irritated voice pulled me out of my reveries. "Because, I don't know when she gets here, but I bet it's super early. She's always gone when I get up, and breakfast is made. The house is clean. She has to have been here for hours. I think she's avoiding me. Heck, I honestly thought she was someone my dad made up until you said her name this morning."

"What are the chances she actually knows something helpful?" Niko asked, looking at me, then Tara when I shrugged.

"I'd say pretty good. From what I know, Molly has served the Hallorans for generations. She arrived with Ian and Fiona. Was possibly a nanny to Jamie."

The very idea of meeting a woman who'd lived with every generation of my family was both awe inspiring and weird. But I was intrigued. What stories could she tell? What things had she seen?

"Shhh," I hissed, my ears picking up the soft creaking of the front door. Dylan was asleep upstairs. This had to be Molly.

The three of us went silent, holding our breath as whoever was at the door took her time putting down her belongings. Shuffling steps, the flick of a switch, and the room flooded with light. If it wasn't for the nearly black hair and eyes, I might've thought the woman standing in the doorway was Branna Goode. She took one look at us and fled.

"Well if that doesn't scream guilty, I don't know what does," Tara said, jumping to her feet and chasing after her.

Niko and I followed, barreling out the door. Gravel crunched beneath my boots, but we didn't stay on the driveway for long as Molly took a sharp turning, heading toward the ocean. If she reached the water, only Niko and Tara could continue the pursuit.