Megan woke with a start. For half a moment, she felt the hot dry crackle of a campfire on her face and the scorching grasp of the desert wind on her skin. Then she felt the comforting chill of the water around her and realized that she was still asleep in her home.
She got up, uncertain for the moment what was real and what wasn’t. Slowly as her fears faded, she started to think.
Clearly the dream was not a true dream to be forgotten. She’d had those and never had felt the same feelings of reality as she had felt this time. That left magic. Her mind went instantly to the connecting of Taryn’s magic and the pearl.
Megan nodded to herself. That had to be the answer. But what could she do? She couldn’t go to the desert! Could she?
Megan turned to find Cindy still sleeping on the bundle of reeds that made up the girl’s pillow. Megan felt a grin tug at the corners of her mouth. Their accommodations were certainly a far cry from the warm silk sheets and things she’d seen as a little girl in The Little Mermaid! There the merfolk had seemed to be pretty much human and living in human-like structures.
Deciding to let Cindy sleep a little longer, Megan quietly pushed herself up off the bottom and slowly swam up towards the surface of the lake, shining silvery dark way up there in the light. She glanced back and felt proud to notice that not only had Cindy not noticed her departure, there wasn’t any betraying cloud of silt stirred up by her tail.
At about a hundred feet her head breached the surface of the water and she took a careful look around. No one was about and the shore seemed far away. However, not too far off she spied a buoy that marked a wreck popular with local divers. Once, dive boats had come to the rock to explore the wreck and take pictures of the fish that lived there. Now none were allowed to dive there anymore. Which was just as well, she told herself. No need in having a diver stumble upon her home by accident! The wreck didn’t interest her nearly as much as the buoy: it offered a dry place to sit on and think outside the water.
As Megan hopped on the buoy, she found her thoughts turning away from Taryn and Sylvie and back towards Red Leaf. Today was the day she was going to one of the houses prepared for her and Cindy, to see her family again. It was the first time she had seen them since she had been changed, and she was nervous. She worried about what her family would think of her. Would they be angry? Disappointed? And what of her sister? She hadn’t seen little Melody in goodness knew how long now, and they had been tight. Megan wondered how old she was now, knowing the last time she had seen her Melody had been only nine years. As a mermaid, she couldn’t tell the day very well, and sometimes in the gloom of the deepest parts of the lake she had no idea if the sun had passed overhead or not.
How long have I been gone?
She tried to reason it out in her mind, but couldn’t. She just hoped her sister wasn’t angry with her.
I guess I will find out here soon.
Megan sighed. Her eyes tracked to the horizon, and the rapidly lightening sky. It would be dawn soon, and they had promised to meet their families by midmorning. That meant getting downriver to the new neighborhood for the changed, just beyond the waterfall. Getting down wasn’t much trouble, of course. The pool at the bottom was deep and the waterfall wasn’t that tall. It had been frightening the first time she had gone over but it had turned out all right in the end. Getting back involved someone else helping them or magic. That would take a while, and she wanted to get moving while everything was still fresh.
Diving back into the icy waters of Luna Lake, she spotted Cindy swimming in lazy circles waiting for her.
“Cindy!” She called down. “Cindy! Up here! Let’s get going!”
Cindy looked up and saw her. With a powerful swish of her tail the other mermaid swam swiftly up to her.
“There you are! Been looking for you!” Cindy said cheerfully as she paused a few feet away. “Where have you been?”
“Going over a dream from Taryn.” Megan said seriously.
“A dream from Taryn!” Cindy said in surprise.
“Yes. Listen.”
Quickly recapping what she had seen in her dream, she saw Cindy’s eyes widen and then narrow as she digested the news.
“Spider folk, eh? And old ones too. Can’t say as I like the sound of that…though I don’t see what they could do to us, or what we could do to them for that matter. They are in a desert, and we aren’t exactly made for going into deserts.” She added dryly.
“True.” Megan nodded. “I am just saying we should be careful. I don’t like the sound of this.”
Cindy nodded.
“On that we can agree on. But we should be thinking of happier things right now! We’re going to see our families again!”
Megan couldn’t help but grin, Cindy’s enthusiasm was infections.
“All right! Let’s go!”
House
It took them about an hour to get over the falls and down to the new construction. Cindy stared at the complex in awe.
“Can you believe this?” She asked. “That place must have cost millions to build!”
“I know.” Megan said slowly, stunned. She had known how much the government and the Golden Star Corporation were footing the bill for the changed, but even her wildest dreams had not included this place! It was massive.
Partway down the riverbed she saw something large, round, and clearly not-natural. Megan and Cindy swam down to look closer at it.
“This must be the mermaid tunnel.” Megan said, studying the heavy, armored doors that stood in front of a reinforced concrete tunnel.
“Will you look at this thing?” Cindy asked, shaking her head. “It looks like it could survive a nuclear attack!”
“Hopefully at least a magical one.” Megan said.
They took a look around and spotted two other tunnels. One of which had a concealed entrance in the form of a large rock. However, no rock in the world had such a straight, vertical crack in it.
“We should plant some water weeds here.” Megan suggested. “So as to better hide it.”
“I think someone else had the same idea.” Cindy pointed towards a series of green plants that had been set in neat rows at the base of the boulder.
Megan noticed.
Leaving the hidden stone behind, they went back to the main entrance. Megan noticed a keypad set into the wall on the right hand side. The two mermaids stared at it, stumped.
“What is the code?” Cindy asked.
“I guess we will have to go up and get it.” Megan said, slightly annoyed. “I don’t think anyone has told us what this code is.”
Cindy frowned, wondering. She looked up at the surface of the water, then back at the keypad, then down to her bag where the Pearl was hidden.
“We don’t have to, if we don’t want to.” She said, quietly.
Megan glanced at her.
“It probably isn’t necessary, with our magic.” She agreed. “But on the other hand, perhaps some things are best kept quiet about. We don’t know when having such secrets will be useful.” She pointed out.
Cindy thought about it for a minute before nodding.
Reluctantly, the two mermaids went up to the surface to look around.
The near shore had one wall of the compound right up against the water, the plain concrete extending for several feet up before it was topped by razor wire. A shadow on the backside baffled Megan for a minute until she realized that it was bits of stone. She guessed that the inside of the wall was given a riverstone facade to make the neighborhood seem less of a prison or fortress. Megan wondered how well that worked.
At one point the wall had an observation post facing the river, one at the bottom of the wall and one at the top. The one at the bottom had very narrow slits with heavy steel shutters yawning open on either side and a half-moon shape cut out of them. It took Megan only a moment to realize that the opening was for a gun barrel and a sight, and that the metal shutters would slam close around a gun barrel sticking out, making it impossible to shoot anyone standing inside. It would make for a formidable defense to any attacking force, she knew.
For the moment the shutters were wide, and someone could be seen just inside peering out with his binoculars scanning the far side of the river with deliberate caution. Megan was certain that another man sat on the top and did the same thing along with the hundreds of security cameras that she could see.
"Do you think they will see us?" Cindy asked sarcastically as she slowly waved her arm over her head.
"Probably not." Megan said with a tight grin. "We might have to shout."
A rope ladder was hurled over the wall and down scrambled a young soldier in combat fatigues. As soon as her booted feet hit the ground she raced over and came to a quick stop in front of them.
“Mermaids!” She said in amazement. Then she shook herself and got down to business.
“Your code to enter the doors is written on this diving slate.” She said seriously, handing Megan a scuba diver’s slate board. on it was written a six-digit code.
“Once you have entered this code, place your hand on the palm scanner next to the keypad. This code will alert the command center and we will activate the program. Hold your hand there for ten seconds so the computer can get an accurate reading and put your palm into the system. Then the doors will open.”
“I see.” Megan said, glancing at Cindy.
She remembered seeing such a setup once before, in the main office of the paranoid Mr. Garret Parks, a powerful lawyer with years of experience in law courts and dealing with hardened criminals who said he was looking to “get away from it all”. The firm had been excited to have such a heavy hitter working for them, until his paranoia started to get out of control. He had his doors and files locked with palm scanners, at his own expense, and his room’s glass had been changed out at his own insistence to bullet-proof plastic. He hadn’t kept a secretary and maintained an aloof distance from the rest of the office, worried that they might be spies or turncoats sent by those he had put away. He’d made the rest of the office jumpy and pretty soon the firm had to let him go, despite his excellent record of wins.
She pulled herself out of the daydream and turned her attention back to the soldier, but it seemed she had said all she was going to. The soldier saluted and scurried back to the rope ladder and hauled herself up fairly quickly.
Megan and Cindy watched her progress for a few minutes before diving back under the water. Swimming easily, they punched in the code an placed their palms on the scanner. It wasn’t long before they heard a warning buzz and the huge doors began to retract.
Megan stared in amazement: the door had to be over two feet thick of stainless steel! She wondered if they had stolen them right off the gates of Fort Knox itself. It took almost a full minute for the door to open, exposing a narrow cavity.
Just beyond the door the tunnel became tiled. Megan swam closer to look at the murals and realized the level of effort and meticulous planning that had gone into the project. The figures were all of sunny, tropical shores and sunning mermaids on rocks. Megan smiled with Cindy. Someone was quite the talented artist, she thought. The entire fresco reminded her of the old images of Pompeii and Ancient Rome.
“Neat.” Cindy commented. “I wonder if they realize that we can see the camera lenses in the eyes, though.”
Megan laughed. She had noticed the strange reflections in the eyes. Suddenly, an underwater speaker crackled to life.
“...bzzzt...The camera system we installed in case someone is able to penetrate the outermost doors for any reason.” The voice said. It was feminine, Cindy thought, but the acoustics were terrible and much of the inflection was lost. “If necessary, the houses will each lock themselves and sound a tone, alerting you that there are strangers outside in the tunnel. Their doors can really only be opened from the inside of the house, not from the tunnel. Er, I mean to say that you can switch off the outside lock so it doesn’t have any power. You should be safe enough in there, if we come under siege.”
“I don’t know if that’s supposed to make me feel better or not.” Megan said, conflicted. She wasn’t sure if not being able to get out and maneuver in the river was a blessing or a curse.
Not to mention that I am sure the doors are meant to lock us up in a gilded prison if they wanted to keep us.
Megan sighed. Nothing could ever be easy around here.
Still there wasn’t a thing she could do about it right at the moment. So after a quick glance at the fresco again, she went further up the tunnel. Smaller branches went off right and left, each of them sealed off with another heavy door.
These doors had small nameplates on them that were illuminated by LED lights. All the ones she saw were marked “Unoccupied”.
“Hey! I found mine!” Cindy called, watching the doors on the right-hand side. At the same moment, Megan saw on the left-hand side, directly across, a door marked “Megan Laslow” with a small palm scanner set in the exact middle of the door.
Placing her palm on the scanner, she moved back as the heavy steel door swung open exposing a plain tunnel that led to what looked like a tiled swimming pool basin.
“This should be...interesting.” Cindy said nervously.
Megan nodded. Taking her friend’s hand, she smiled as reassuringly as she could and, with a deep breath, swam into her own tunnel, leaving Cindy to do the same.
The doors shut automatically behind them, and now Megan could see a large switchbox set into one wall that had labelled buttons marking “Camera”, “Power” and “Open”.
Nodding appreciatively, Megan went in a little further until the tunnel opened up immeasurably. She looked around, amazed.
The entrance tunnel had connected to a massive underground pool set with concrete columns to support the upper floors. Each support had been grafted with various nooks for plants and fish to take root and thrive, granting a kaleidoscope of color to her pool. Megan took a deep breath and smiled the delicate fragrances in the water, like a person working in a city dump might breathe and smile at the clean air of a mountain meadow. The sound of water splashing in one corner proved to be a waterfall slide worked to look like natural stone extending up two stories and filled with smaller pools and falls along one side, acting like a fish ladder straight to the top. Human handgrips had been thoughtfully added and living plants like ferns and tropical flowers gave the impression that one had landed in Hawaii. A small ledge and poolside housed stairs, a TV and lounge area, a sauna and a small kitchen, also looking straight off the set of Jurassic Park. Much of the house had been themed as such, Megan could see, with lots of bamboo and fake grass facades to give it a tropical resort feel. The bottom floor was made of heavy glass and supported by the columns, which made sense. It let her see what was happening and interact with the people there. The upper floor was opaque, and she could only reach it via the waterfall stair, which also made sense and would no doubt house her family’s sleeping quarters.
Megan hardly noticed any of the other details, for standing in the living room, staring down through the glass floor, was her family.
“Melody!” Megan cried, seeing her sister for the first time since she did not know when. With a powerful surge of her tail, she rocketed for the pool bottom and then surged up the waterfall. She cleared the first story easily and landed neatly in the pool that arced into the glass floor.
She turned and beheld their stunned faces. She couldn’t help but giggle a little at seeing their slack jaws.
Her little sister shook the spell off first and ran up to the pool.
“Megan!” she cried, launching herself into Megan, making her scramble to catch the child. She absorbed the impact and only just kept both of them from being toppled into the water.
“Melody! Be careful!” Megan scolded, enfolding her in a tight hug. “You almost went into the pool with me!”
“I missed you!”
Melody’s words cut instantly through anything else Megan might have said. Happiness, despair, empathy, joy, an overwhelming surge of emotion crested inside Megan and she found herself gripping her sister even tighter as tears cascaded down her cheeks, her face burying itself in her sister’s light-brown hair.
“I missed you too.” she whispered into Melody’s ear.
Then the two sisters were crying together in the pool for a long while.
Reunion
Megan felt other arms surround her and Melody. She looked up into her mother’s tear-filled eyes as the older woman hugged her children. Over her shoulder Megan saw her father standing there looking confused and a little angry. She sniffed and turned away, hoping against hope that the stupid man would shut up and keep from ruining this perfect moment. Unfortunately, that was not going to happen.
“What happened to you?” he demanded in a stern voice. “What did you get into?”
Megan flared.
“I did not “get into” anything, dad.” she snapped, still clutching her sister and mother close.
“You must have gotten into something, young lady.” he replied sternly. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.”
Megan deflated a little, recognizing that he did have a point.
“All right, I suppose you could say I did get into a mermaid costume.” she admitted. “But that was all.”
“A costume?” Her mother asked, arching an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well mom, it happened like this.” Megan began.
She told the entire story from start to finish, not omitting a single fact or event. She paused her tale so her family could get chairs and sit comfortably around the pool to listen, and another time so they could pull some soda out of the fridge for themselves. Megan shook her head when they offered her one, saying that she was fine at the moment.
When she finally finished, she was surprised to see how much time had actually passed, according to the clock.
“And there’s no hope?” Her mother asked, her eyes welling in tears as she looked at Megan’s tail.
“No mom.” Megan said gently. “I’m afraid it seems as if this transformation is permanent now.”
Her father sniffed.
“Well, I guess that is something.” he managed to say. He seemed to be having difficulty believing a word of what she’d said, though the proof lay in front of him. He did seem angry now.
“And there has been no sign of this Roland coming around your lake again?”
Surprised, Megan shook her head negatively.
“No Dad.”
He grunted but didn’t say anything more.
“What all can you do, sis?” Melody asked.
“Lots of things.” Megan laughed. “I can sing, I live in Luna Lake and can catch fish quick as thinking, I survive in both water and air...there are lots of things I can do.
She did not mention the Pearl. She knew from past experience that her father would try to take it and sell it.
“That’s so cool!” Melody squealed. “We can sing a duet!” she laughed.
Megan shook her head.
“That’s not exactly what I meant, sis.” she said. “Here, let me demonstrate.”
She took a deep breath. Her family leaned in, interested. Then Megan’s clear voice filled the house, so haunting and sweet that time itself seemed swept away.
Beneath the waves and ocean's grace,
Two hearts entwined, in time's embrace.
From coral caves to shimmering sands,
Sisters meet with outstretched hands.
Oh, the tides that pulled us far apart,
Have turned to bring us back to start.
With every wave, with every sea,
Together, forever, we shall be.
Through storms and calms, through ebb and flow,
Our sisterhood's a constant glow.
Reunited 'neath the moon's soft gleam,
Together, we'll chase the ocean's dream.
Oh, the tides that pulled us far apart,
Have turned to bring us back to start.
With every wave, with every sea,
Together, forever, we shall be.
Mermaid's song, a siren's call,
In harmony, it binds us all.
From sea's deep heart to surface light,
Our souls connect, our spirits bright.
Now hand in hand, with joy we sing,
For sisterhood's an endless ring.
In ocean's choir, our voices blend,
Sisters reunited, love without end.
Megan fell silent, the final chord echoing strangely. Melody was weeping, her eyes locked onto Megan’s as if she were the only person in the universe. Her mother sobbed openly into a hankie she’d pulled from her purse and even her father stared as if poleaxed.
“How.” he began and then stopped, unable to say anything more, his voice harsh and unlovely in the ringing silence that followed.
“It’s part of my being now.” Megan said. “Mine and Cindy. Our powers unite when we sing and we can stun entire crowds. You may have heard of our impromptu concerts up at the lake.” she said.
Her mother nodded before catching herself.
“I have.” she admitted. “Just before we were placed into Witness Protection.
She paused.
Megan, curious to know more, prompted her.
“They...didn’t tell us much at first.” her mother admitted. “They only said that you had faced some enemies who had threatened you and that you had gone into hiding."
She shivered.
“They told us that we were also in danger and that, for our safety, we were going to be placed in Witness Protection and hidden.”
“They made us change our names!” Melody piped up. “They said that I had to go by Stephanie now!” she made a face. “Stephanie Lyons!”
Megan blinked, then chuckled weakly.
“And Mom?”
“Annabelle Lyons.” her mother admitted. “I told them I liked Kimberly, and that I was too old for name changes, but I was stuck with it.” she sighed. “And Sam was Gerald.”
Her father rolled his gray eyes skyward but said nothing.
“I’m glad that we aren’t having to hide anymore.” she said, looking down at Megan. “I mean, we are being given this house and the neighborhood seems safe enough.”
Megan hesitated, then nodded.
“It seems safe.” she temporized. “But I don’t know how much I like the fact that everyone knows where we are. Sylvie and Taryn had all this protection around them and more and still were taken by Tenebrae...er, the cult known as the Worshippers of Darkness.” she added on seeing her sister’s blank stare. “A lot of good people died.” Megan added sadly, thinking of all the agents that had lost their lives, and the pain their deaths had caused Sylvie and Taryn.
Her mother looked nervously out the windows at the high walls that surrounded the green lawn and the driveway. At their top were more security cameras and what looked like shining...what were they?
Megan took a closer look and saw that the tops of the walls were actually covered in broken glass bottles with the jagged edges pointed up and facing outwards, adding a strangely decorative defense to anyone simply looking to cross over the fence, and were those metal spikes mixed in with them? She couldn’t tell but was almost certain that was the case.
“This place is very secure, though," she said, trying to sound reassuring. "It's probably safe enough." She smiled. "At least for us to hang out and visit."
"You're not going to live here with us?" Melody asked, surprised. Her mother bit her tongue to stop herself from asking the same thing.
Megan hesitated.
"I actually have a home in Luna Lake that's pretty well...I...um...I need to talk to Cindy." She faltered, seeing her younger sister's quivering lip.
Truth to tell, she thought she would be happier living in Luna Lake, far from prying eyes and hidden by the lake’s remote depths. But how could she bring her family to see that?
“Well, I’m sure that will be no problem.” her mother said. “But for right now, it is getting on to dinner time. Would you girls like Macaroni and Hot Dogs?” she asked.
“Wow.” Megan said in surprise. It had been forever since she last had that!
“That sounds amazing, mom. Thanks!”
After dinner, Megan ascended to the upper level, leaping from pool to pool like a fish. She was astonished to find a small pond at the top of the waterfall, instead of a room. The pond resembled a hidden pool in a forest clearing. There were smooth rocks and some reeds, and concealed vents in the forest-y wallpaper created a gentle breeze like in a woodland. The water had a slight current as it was pumped up to circulate and then cascaded down to the lower pool.
Melody came bounding in.
“Your room is right next to mine!” she said gleefully. “Just like in our old house!”
Megan grinned at her enthusiasm.
“It’s more of a hangout, Melly.” Megan said fondly. “I think I would be more comfortable sleeping down in the main pond. But I can certainly hang out up here and chat with you before I go back down.” she added quickly.
Melody nodded and pulled out a pair of brushes. Megan felt her eyebrows shoot up, and then she remembered. Melody always loved having her hair brushed before bed, especially after a shower. Megan had done it herself, as a way for the two of them to connect better, as they didn’t share too many interests being so far apart in age.
Taking up the brush, Megan started to hum and then to sing.
In our garden of youth where the wildflowers sway,
We chased the sun, laughed, and played.
With crowns of daisies, oh so fair,
I remember braiding your auburn hair.
We spun tales of dragons, of queens, and of knights,
Adventures that turned days to nights.
In our realm, no mountain too steep,
We conquered worlds in our daring leap.
Do you recall the fortress we built from sheets,
Our giggles echoing in secret retreats?
Whispers of dreams, just you and I,
Under a canopy of azure sky.
Now as I brush through your locks of brownish hue,
Those memories are treasures too.
Sister, dear, with you by my side,
Forever we'll sail on childhood's tide.
Melody started to nod, and then as the last stroke went through her hair and the song ended, she promptly fell to sleep, falling back against Megan. Megan held her tenderly as she set the brush aside.
“Don’t worry, baby sister.” she whispered, “We’re together now. I’m with you. Forever.”
Finding a place where she could lay back as comfortably as she could, she let her sister slumber on her as together as her own eyelids closed and she fell asleep.