The Girl and the Shark

Thirteen - Blade

Thirteen

Blade

"Don't go yet.."

My heart was practically beating in my throat at this point. What the hell was I thinking?
Of course she was terrified. She was almost drowned and eaten by a school of sharks, leaving her with some sort of trauma most likely, and here I am. Just swimming up like this is an every day deal for a human to go through.
Despite every single tiny voice in my head screaming at me, and telling me to get myself out of there... I couldn't do it.
I was finally face to face with her. I had finally managed to work up the courage to see this girl again, to speak to her.
I wasn't about to back away now. Not unless she ran out of the marina screaming. Which I wouldn't blame her for doing.

It did come as an honest surprise to me when the girl didn't run. Even with the initial shock to us both and the shared scream. The human slowly edged towards me. As much as it was terrifying, I felt excitement. Like my chest was fluttering. Maybe it was my heart about to break through my ribcage, but nevertheless... it was exhilarating to finally talk to this girl.

"Y-you... you're real..."

I had sometimes pictured what her voice might sound like. I had heard tiny, distant snippets of it, whenever she spoke to her blonde friend who visited the marina with her once in a while. But to hear it so close... it only added to the feeling in my chest.
Was this all a crazy adrenaline rush? I'll just chalk it up to that.
Her spoken realisation, her wide golden eyes made me smile.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you."

I did my best to stop my voice from shaking when I spoke again. I hoped, prayed she wouldn't be able to tell how nervous I was.
Nervous or insanely high on the adrenaline now replacing the blood in my body...
I reminded myself what I was here for. My reason, or rather excuse for doing the one thing most of my kind was against. I raised my hand once more, to place the small pocket knife with the metallic red casing in front of her on the jetty wood. Her eyes pulled downwards towards it, realisation seemed to flicker over her features when she set her sights on the tool.

"You saved my life."

She looked at me with her huge, bright orbs. They were beautiful, each like tiny ambers which shimmered whenever the sunlight caught her face.
Was that all I could say? She did saved my life, it wasn't some shallow line I had decided to use when giving back her knife. If this girl hadn't come along when she did...I might still be in that net. I might have never made it out, alive that is.
It was funny in a way... she returned the favour, even if she may not have realised it. A part of me hoped she would.
The girl leaned closer to me, closer than I've been to a human for a very long time. I would have moved back, on instinct, but I was frozen. It was like the water around me had turned to ice, and I couldn't move an inch. Either way, I don't think I wanted to.

I didn't expect her to suddenly grab my face in her hands. The sudden touch sent shivers through my entire body.
The last time I had any sort of physical contact with... any other living thing was when Brunn tried to kill me. My last and only contact with another soul ended with me being trapped in that damn net like a fat, helpless sardine. It left me with gashes and open wounds which stung in the salt water as a constant reminder.
This was so...so different.
Maybe that's the reason my face got so hot I panicked to the thought of her realising I was now the shade of her scarlet pocket knife. Though honestly, she was so preoccupied in studying my face. My stare picked up her every movement, where her eyes flickered to.

"Help yourself then..."

I mustered the courage to stumble over those words with a nervous laugh. Was she trying to figure out if I wasn't some ghost, or hallucination? Was she trying to figure out if what she was seeing something corporeal?
The feeling of her hands carefully exploring my face and jaw had me entranced the same exact way. It was only broken by the moment her touch snagged one of the gills lining my neck.