Lost in the Deep Blue Sea
09.

“Pan, what is it with you and this beach? Don’t you have Hangman’s Tree to go to if you need time to yourself?” a blonde boy asked Mr. Pan.

I hid behind a rock, watching Mr. Pan as he looked at his lost boy. “A beach is always a good place to clear your head.”

“This is not just any beach. This is Mermaid Lagoon. I’m surprised the mermaids aren’t here.” The boy took slow steps as he eyed the beach suspiciously.

“Turns out the mermaids are afraid of me. There are rumors that I am a ruthless leader,” Mr. Pan replied. He was playing it off well and his lying was on point.

“Ah, so you talk to the mermaids now? How would you know what they think of you if you haven’t come across them?” The boy stopped and looked at Mr. Pan.

“Felix, what I do in the different locations of this island is not your business. You’re my second in command. You are not my parent,” he warned.

Felix scoffed and shook his head. “We aren’t trying to parent you. We only worry because you know how bad mermaids are. They’re evil. They use men and despise anything that doesn’t benefit them. We are human males. There’s a reason as to why we avoid this location.”

“Ah, so you think you know better? Have you ever met a mermaid?”

Felix kept his mouth shut as he knew he hadn’t.

“That’s exactly what I thought. Don’t make assumptions if you have no evidence to back up your claims.” Mr. Pan shooed him away.

Felix glared at his leader before he left the beach.

I came from my hiding spot and looked at Mr. Pan. “Well, they don’t like mermaids.” I kept a safe distance between me and the shore in case the boy came back.

“I told you. They have this idea that mermaids are evil. Boys need some kind of a legend to tell around a campfire and that happens to be one of them. I can’t exactly tell them to stop telling stories.” He sighed and cane a bit closer to the water.

“I understand. You can only do so much. It seems we both have work to do. You have to try to persuade your lost boys that the mermaids aren’t bad and I have to try to tell my mermaids that there’s no reason to hate romance or love.” I moved my tail through the water, keeping myself afloat.

I moved back, widening my eyes as figures appeared out of the trees. The lost boys came closer to the water. Felix smirked. “So you are in good with the mermaids? Is this their queen or something?”

Mr. Pan pushed him back from the water. “It’s none of your business. I run this island.”

“You aren’t doing a good job. You’re abandoning us and letting them fool you.”

“That would require the mermaids to support their queen. It can’t be considered all of them if only one of them is willing to interact with me,” Mr. Pan told him.

“Oh, Raina, what have you done?” I heard Cora say behind me.

I turned to look at her. The other mermaids waited behind her, watching everything go down. As far as the lost boys and the mermaids knew, Mr. Pan and I were just interacting. They had no idea we were involved in a romantic relationship and I intended to keep it that way until the two worlds could come together.

Mr. Pan and I would be sure to make our two kingdoms accept each other because I wasn’t going to accept anything less.

Viviane came forward, taking place next to me. She crossed her arms. “We must inform you that this won’t be continuing. Our queen is not in her right mind.” She put her hand on my shoulder.

I tensed at the contact between her hand and my shoulder. I was one hundred percent in my right mind. She only said that to make me look a bit better. They didn’t want the lost boys to know their queen was going against laws of her own kind on purpose.

“I can speak for myself, Viviane.” I gave her a side-eye.

The mermaids started to whisper among themselves, beginning to start rumors about me and Viviane.

Viviane looked at me and narrowed her eyes. “I wasn’t aware you could speak for yourself. You’re so damn quiet all the time.”

“It’s called a personality. Not everyone is a loud-mouth.” The insults poured from me and I couldn’t stop them.

Even Mr. Pan was surprised by my sudden confidence. I wanted to be with him and I was going to fight to get what I wanted.

Viviane shook her head. “Watch your mouth, Raina. We can banish you within an instant.”

“Why? Because I was forced into a life I did not ask for. I don’t want to be used as a baby maker. I should get to chose my own path. We all should. We have human in us which means we also deserve the free will they get. This is not living. This is a horrible life. It’s as if I’m a queen controlled solely by her people. I have no say in anything. You have controlled me and put me down my whole life. You are pushing me into a life I do not want. If I’m a queen, I sure as hell don’t feel like one. I’m treated as a slave,” I finished.

Viviane looked at Mr. Pan. “I apologize for our queen. She’s been a burden. We’ll take her off your hands now.”

“No!” I yelled.

A few mermaids swam forward and grabbed my arms. “It’s time to go, Raina. We are going to make sure everything ends up okay.”

I struggled and tried to get their grips off me. I succeeded with no such effort. The mermaids dragged me from the beach and from Mr. Pan.

They pulled me back to our cave and threw me on the ledge. Viviane looked at the others. “I will need a way to keep her locked up here. Go. Go replace us something to keep her in place. We are going to have to brainwash her.” She looked at me and saw every bit of fear in my eyes.

I was no match against all these mermaids. I was never going to see Mr. Pan. I would never get the chance to fall in love.

The mermaids left to replace something to keep me locked here.

Viviane kept her eye on me to make sure I didn’t attempt an escape. This was what it had come down to. I was now a hostage in my own kingdom because of love. The mermaids really despised it.

I began to think back on what Felix told Mr. Pan. Was he right? Were mermaids evil? I couldn’t think of anything else to describe this. I was beginning to believe mermaids were evil and I was the exception.

I had been wrong. Mermaids were not just in the gray areas between good and evil. I believed a lie that we couldn’t be one or the other.

Mermaids had human DNA, and if humans could be good, evil, or anything in between, mermaids could work the same way.

They had pulled me from my own happy place. They took away the one thing I truly wanted. They were trying to lock me up in this cave for good. I would never replace myself in a happy state of mind here. I was stuck.

The mermaids came back. “We found this,” a blonde girl said. She showed Viviane a chain that had an anchor on one end.

The other mermaids helped her hold it as the weight was too much.

Viviane tapped her chin. “I like this. We chain her to the bottom of the sea. Good job, girls.” She looked at me. She swam closer and grabbed my fin.

I tried to get free but I couldn’t seem to get my slippery skin free of her tight grip.

She pulled me off the ledge and held my fin to the mermaids. “Chain her up. We will replace a place nearby to drop the anchor. She won’t be able to get free.”

A few mermaids came forward and grabbed the chain while the rest of them held the anchor up. They wrapped the chain around my tail, crossing multiple directions and trying to tangle it up. They tugged on it and the brunette smiled. “That’s good.”

Viviane wrapped her arms around my torso and led me out of the tunnel of our cave and the other mermaids following closely behind, carrying the anchor that was now attached to my tail.

She stopped right outside the cave tunnel and looked at the mermaids, giving them gestures and instructions. The mermaids looked at each other and let go of the anchor.

The anchor hit the bottom and Viviane let go of me as the anchor dragged me to the bottom of the sea floor. She waved at me with a big smile on her face. The mermaids swam back inside the cave and left me on my own.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to give up and let life take me down the worthless path.

I struggled again the chains and tried to get the chains undone but it was useless. The chains were being pulled down by the weight of the anchor and I couldn’t match that kind of strength.

I slowly sank myself to the bottom, right next to the anchor. I sat on the floor, letting the chains dig into the sand. It was the only comfort I would get while I sat on chains that pushed into my skin.

I grabbed some sand and looked at it before I threw it through the water. I continued to throw more sand, screaming into the blue abyss surrounding me. The sea silenced my pleas for help as if it was not on my side for once. The water was letting me drown in my own sorrow.

My hair floated all around me, getting caught in the crown that Mr. Pan made for me. My mind wandered back to Mr. Pan and everything he did for me. I wanted to get free and change the laws for him. I wanted to be strong and show him I was worthy to be a queen. I wanted to prove that I deserved this position given to me by birthright.

I looked in the direction of up and saw nothing but water for miles. I knew that the surface was too far up. It wasn’t as if I could suffocate by being chained to the floor. I was meant to breathe underwater. This was just more punishment than anything. It would be no different from tying a human to something on land.

I wanted to get free and defeat our old laws but I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to get this chain undone. I was never the strongest mermaid. I want only the faster because we were made to swim. Strength never served me a purpose before this moment.

I laid on the sand, too weak to try to keep an upright position with the weight of chains wrapped around my tail. I was exhausted from everything that had gone down today.

I closed my eyes, letting my mind fall into a dream state to refresh itself for tomorrow. I would need the rest so I could try and figure out a plan for tomorrows escape.

I felt the chains tighten around my tail and I shot up, looking at my tail. Hands were holding the chains, tugging them. I looked at the figure that the hands belonged to. Cora held a finger to her lips and struggled with the chains some more. They fell away from my tail and into the sand with ease.

I didn’t know how she had undone the chains but Cora was a genius. We quickly swam up to the surface and she grabbed my face. “I want you to change the laws. They’ll notice you’re gone soon. Now go get Peter Pan and never let him go.”