Blood Runs Thicker than Water

Scales on her back. A mysterious aquatic being that watched over her since childhood. Storm fantastized it was a mermaid, but it’s so much more.

*this has echoes of The Shape of Water in it, but it isn’t quite a fanfic. The creature’s design belongs to Guillermo Del Toro, but the individual characters and storyline belongs to me.*

Chapter one
I opened my eyes, panting and sweating. I look around my small room, scanning my surroundings. A small desk in the corner, a modern desk lamp perched on the wooden surface. Papers scattered messily and as always, unorganized. Posters hanging on the walls, not of boy bands or brands as other girls may have left over from their teenage years, but of high definition photos of jellyfish, sharks, and other beautiful creatures to decorate my walls.
I groan, sitting up in bed, still sweating. What a nightmare. I haven’t had one of those in a very long time. I still remember his hands grabbing my arms, whispers of demon hissing in my ear. I shake my head, gritting my teeth. That was a long time ago. He wasn’t here. He could never take my dignity or harm me again.
Deciding that sleep has definitely fled me tonight, I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and walk over to my desk, legs still leaden with sleep. I yawn and wince as I flip on the lamp light. Once I adjust to the lighting, I check my watch that I always slept with. 2:17 AM. Great, I thought. Well, at least it was summer break.
I plop into the slightly uncomfortable metal chair and scoot up to the edge of my desk. Buried under my mess of papers is a dusty, worn journal. It hasn’t been written in for a very long time. I pick it up, fingering the ancient pages. I’ve had this thing since I was seven years old. I sigh, smiling slightly as I turn the pages back to the very beginning.
I didn’t have anything better to do. So it was time to remember.
June 5th, 1997.
Today was a good day. Mommy took me out to my favorite spot in the river. There were a lot of ducks today on the river. They were really pretty. I went over to the lily pads . . .

The sun was beaming down on my face, bathing me in its beautiful warmth. Today Mommy decided to take me out to the river, to enjoy the day. There weren’t any people in my favorite spot today, which I liked. Mommy laid down a blanket on the grassy bank and sat down, opening a book to read. I knew then that I could go exploring. Maybe my mermaid had a gift for me today!
Giggling, I ran over to a grove of lily pads, and stopped to admire the creamy white and blush pink petals on top. I stifled a gasp of delight when a mother duck paddled out from behind a semi submerged bush, a trail of ducklings lined up behind her. I had to be really quiet, or else I would disturb them. I quietly tiptoed through the muddy grass, going over to my secret cove. It looked at first like a wall of bushes and reeds, but if you parted the cattails in a certain area, there was a space behind them. I had discovered this hideout by accident, when I was trying to follow a school of minnows, and I was pretty sure I was the only one who had found it. Well, other than my guardian mermaid.
I crept into the cove. It was a magical nook, a little niche in the brushes that the water seeped into, creating a lagoon of sorts. It was too muddy in most places there to sit down, but there was my favorite birch log that I liked to sit on, and if I didn’t want to get my boots too muddy, I made it an adventure by carefully walking on the log.
Little fish darted away from my boots as I waded through the marshes in my lagoon. I smiled, loving the wildlife here. An eastern bluebird chirped in the trees, and I observed it flit from branch to branch, before it noticed my presence and took off.
I let out an “oohh” of sheer delight when I saw the gift my mermaid had left for me resting on the end of my birch log. This time, it was a crown of braided reeds, but not gross muddy reeds. They were cleaned, smooth and beautiful. But not only that. Weaved into the vines of the reeds were lilies, the same ones that I had admired from the shoreline. I didn’t understand how the flowers were woven into the crown so intricately, but I didn’t think about it long. I examined the crown in my hands. The rough outer layer of the reeds had been carefully scraped away, so that the soft inner twine wouldn’t scratch my skin. I laughed in happiness, bouncing up and down.
“Thank you, friend!” I called into the lagoon. Like always, my mermaid didn’t respond. But that’s ok. I had a feeling in my gut that she had heard me. I rested the crown on my head. It fit perfectly. I spun around in my cove, giggling. I was a forest nymph, a fairy princess!
I had received other gifts from my mermaid, ever since I could understand what that meant. I hoped someday to meet her, and give her a big hug. I had gotten little carved fish, necklaces of reeds and iridescent bird feathers. But this was the best.
“I love you so much, mermaid!” I squealed into the air.
When I had run back to tell mommy, she never believed me. “It’s beautiful, honey,” she always said while kissing my cheek. “You’re so talented.”
“No, my mermaid made it!” I would protest.
She would chuckle. “Well then, your mermaid is quite a lovely artist.” But I could tell she wasn’t serious. I wondered if she would ever believe me.
Well, when I met my mermaid, I could prove she was real.

I sighed at this memory, turning the page to look further into slightly more recent times. There were little times I didn’t long for the innocence of that age, the joy of receiving gifts from my “imaginary” friend. Who knew something so beautiful in childhood could grow into something consuming in adulthood.
Pushing this thought away for now, I continued in the journal, skipping the happy-go-lucky years of my younger youth and spreading open the pages of my teenage years. I didn’t look back at those with nearly as much fondness. I had a boyfriend, Rick, who I truly believed was the love of my life.
September 12, 2004,
Rick seems to be losing interest in me. He’s always on his phone, and while he tells me not to worry about Sahara, I can’t help but feel a stabbing knife of jealousy every time I see him with her at school. He always parts from her to hang out with me, but I just get the feeling that he has secret affection for her, and is waiting for the right time to break up with me. My heart is breaking before any actual breakup has happened, but for some reason this growing dread is worse.

If only I had followed my gut feeling then. Maybe then I wouldn’t have given myself away to him in a desperate attempt to get him to stay. But his true nature was revealed around the same time mine was, sadly a little too late.
December 2, 2004,
It has been a while since I have last thought about my childhood friend, my mermaid. But today, my life changed forever, and naturally, I visited the old cove I used to visit with mom when I was a child. I’m honestly freaking out right now and I don’t know how to grasp the words to write this down. But I’ll try to capture exactly what happened to me today . . .

Today was becoming painfully long.
School days were always long, of course. I mean, it was school. That should say enough right there. And I’m not even including the usual drama. But today was an especially weird one.
Rick was being his distant self, as usual. Him and Sahara were both in the same chemistry class before lunch, so they were always walking out of class together when I saw them. It made my heart groan with irritation and barely checked jealousy. Rick said some kind of joke, or maybe it was the funny way he spontaneously swished his chestnut brown hair. Whatever it was, it made Sahara giggle and jostle his arm, and simultaneously made my head spin with anger. This had been going on for so long, this unsaid love triangle, so one would think I would be used to it, but I definitely wasn’t.
Instead of usually parting ways to go to their different friend groups, Rick to me and Sahara to her gaggle of girlfriends, they both made their way over to me. Rick sat down next to me and Sahara seated herself on the seat across the table from me. She looked especially nice today, which bothered me even more. Her teal blue tank top flattered her ebony skin and drew attention to her sculpted collarbones.
“Hello, beautiful,” Rick said to me, ruffling my hair with his hand. It seemed too absentminded to be genuine, though.
“Hey,” I muttered grumpily. I eyed Sahara. “What brings you to our table?” I tried to ask nicely, but it came out more like a threatening growl.
“Oh, I just decided I wanted to get to know you more,” Sahara said cheerily, flashing a blindingly white smile and tossing her beaded cornrows. “We haven’t talked much, y’know?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said between gritted teeth.
That’s when the odd things started to happen.
A fiery itch seared through my right shoulder blade, on the upper plane of my back. It was so sudden I barely stifled a grunt of surprise and discomfort. I reached my left arm over my shoulder to itch it, but it seemed like it wouldn’t go away no matter how much I scratched. I excused myself from the tense table, and marched over to the ladies room to see what this was all about.
The white light of the bathroom made me look painfully ugly, as always. Even though the reason I came into the room was to inspect my itchy back, I couldn’t help but take a few seconds to wipe the mascara smudges out from under my eyes, throw my mousy brown hair up into a messy ponytail (I had forgotten to brush it this morning), and grimace at the fresh pimples sprouting cheerfully under my cheeks. Then I turned around, pulling the back of my shirt down to see my back properly.
Ever since I could remember, I had a strange birthmark on my back, precisely where the itch was now. It almost looked like sprayed droplets of water carelessly flung across my back, except in the form of random amounts of extra melanin. But now, my birthmark had risen to enlarged, swollen bumps.

The rest of the day passed slowly, as my back was itching tremendously. But when I finally got home and was able to undress to get into the shower, I discovered a whole new horror.
The skin on my bumps had peeled away from so much itching, and underneath the puffy, ripped flesh was a flicker of aqua green.
I held my breath. I couldn’t imagine what this was. I picked carefully at the deadening flesh, peeling it away, ignoring the pain.
Scales. Underneath the skin, were four glistening scales. Not fishlike, overlapping semi-circles. But rough, pointed scales.
And that marked when my life changed forever.

Chapter 2
I shut the journal, not caring to read any more. I knew the tragic story of my life. How not much later, in a wild act of sheer desperation, I gave myself away to Rick, only to have him find extreme disgust in the scales on my back. He dumped me then, saying he couldn’t be with someone only partially human, and partially something, but I have always known he was looking for some excuse all along. He didn’t exactly treat me well in the end, and left me behind with nightmares that haunt me to this day. Demon.
I shake the memory away, focusing on the now. I decided that I was hungry, at three in the morning, and went to the tiny kitchenette of my apartment and fixed myself a fine bowl of cereal. I sat myself down on the worn leather couch in front of the TV, and grabbed the notebook I had lying open on the coffee table. In it, was all of my recordings of my “mermaid”.
Finding this being, I must admit, had become my life’s obsession. Because of this I pursued marine biology, to perhaps find understanding of what was happening to both me and whatever this creature was, and to in the meantime find a purpose in life. Studying the mating habits of great white sharks was indeed fascinating, but tracking down the denizen that had watched over me since childbirth was more driving.
I flipped through the notebook, reminiscing over my experiences and findings. As much as this creature seemed to enjoy in delighting me with gifts and trinkets from the rivers and marshes, it never bothered to make itself known to me. This had nearly driven me mad, especially around the age of sixteen, when Rick dumped me and my scales had fully driven out of my skin. I remember sobbing in my cove, desperate for a sign that my mermaid I had believed in so fully had answers for me now. It answered me with silence.
But one day I did find something. Three glistening scales, marbled deep turquoise and forest green in an artistic swirl of iridescent glass. I had them taped in the pages of my notebook now, and I took them out to examine them.
They had the same shape and texture of my own, but despite no longer being attached to a living creature, as mine were, they still outmatched mine in brilliance and luster. Light seemed to shatter on them like a prism, dancing across their surface in flitting rivers of every color, washing over oceans of glittering teal and green. Mine were just a solid, matte shamrock green and specks of black.
Long ago, or perhaps not so long ago, I had come to accept that I was something other than human. This realization didn’t hit home for a while, but when it did, I could barely breathe. Human was the only form of being that possessed true sentience in all of history. Hundreds of books, throughout all of history, recording and analyzing everything odd and spectacular. There were the myths of mermaids, of course, but those were all shown to be sea cows. Through the mist, sailors thought they saw humanlike figures lounging on rocks, but in reality they turned out to be a lumbering sea mammal nothing like a human.
The fact that I was possibly the only one of my kind just didn’t settle with me. There had to be a scientific explanation for this. Scales that didn’t quite resemble fish or reptilian scales, didn’t show up embedded in the skin of a very mammalian human being for no reason. But the reason I was seeking escaped me. It just wasn’t possible.
But the impossible screamed at me every time I looked in the mirror.
The longing to find this creature that had been so involved with me in my childhood completely consumed me from the moment I saw the scales. One time, as I sat crying in my cove, just wanting this being to show itself to me, I found a stick with some peculiar markings in it. Upon closer examination, I saw my name carved crudely into the softened wood. STORM.
Whatever this creature was, it knew my name, and it knew how to write.
There were many times I thought this was some massive, elaborate prank someone was playing on me. Trying to drive me crazy. Maybe what had started as a prank when I was younger, drove me to insanity and I hallucinated the scales on my shoulder blade. But when I tugged one of the scales, an intense pain shot through my body, and it was through tears and gritted teeth that I realized this was no hallucination.
I didn’t know what I was. Maybe I was insane. Or maybe I was alone in this world.

I jolted awake. Harsh sunbeams filtered through my thin curtains, assaulting my face and rudely shaking me awake. I blinked uncomfortably in the painful light, rubbing my eyes and nearly splitting my jaw open with a very long yawn. My notebook was open in my lap, and my neck was very sore. I had fallen asleep in the middle of my nostalgia, and my neck suffered from that.
I numbly shuffled to my feet, the carpet squishing beneath my toes with moisture. I looked down, and groaned when I realized I had spilled the milk from my cereal all over the carpet. When I had cleaned that mess up, I checked my phone, and shock jolted through me when I realized I had made plans with Josie.
So glad it’s such a beautiful day for fishing! Her text read. We’re still meeting at the marina for fishing at nine, right?
I hastily checked the time. 8:30. Ugh, so little time. But we had planned this trip for a while. I couldn’t call it off just because of poor decisions last night. I quickly texted her back.
Ofc. U bringing lunch or me?
She texted back lightning fast. I already have it packed. I can’t wait to see you! It’s been too long girl.
That was the thing with Josie. She actually bothered to text with proper grammar and punctuation. Who had the time for things like that? Not me. Or maybe it was just patience that I lacked.
Josie had been my best friend since high school. I’m sorry to say my relationship with Rick had tampered with that a bit more than I liked, but we both tried to forget about that. We had decided to go to the same college and everything. School had driven us a bit apart once more, but now that we were on summer break, I could finally catch up with her again.
I hurried to my room to pick out some clothes. I threw on a mustard yellow tank top, light wash shorts and flip flops. A few swipes of mascara to try and bring out my washed out aqua eyes, and some lip gloss was all the makeup I needed. I grabbed my phone and out the door I was.
My parchment white skin soaked up every beam of sun it could get, and today that was a lot. Not one cloud was in the sky, and a pleasant breeze tickled my skin and rippled through my hair. Deciduous trees were at their full glory, crowns of leafy green stretching towards the sun, casting a vibrant neon glow on the walkways below. I walked to the communal parking space and hopped in my tiny Ford Fiesta.
Josie was all smiles at the marina. She was a sweet, bubbly, short girl, with hazel eyes, splatterings of freckles all over her face, and caramel brown hair.
“Hey!” She squealed, embracing me in a nearly painful hug. I squeezed her, happy to be with her after so long. We had some small talk about the beautiful weather we were having, and then got into her little fishing boat. That was one thing she definitely loved to do, was fish. I had never met someone who had caught so many fish. The girl basically lived off it.
The boat took us out some ways into the water. While Josie drove, I peered into the rushing depths of the ocean, wondering what mysteries it held. Besides my own personal mystery, that was another reason I was so driven to become a marine biologist. There was so much more to be discovered about the ocean and its multitude of secrets. Land has already had every stone overturned. But no one has completely disemboweled the ocean.
We slowed the boat to a slow chug, letting the lure on the end of the line flicker in the depths below. Josie gestured for me to sit, all while keeping a close eye on the line.
“So Storm, how are the scales doing? They giving you any more trouble?” She asked me. Josie was the only living soul who knew about my scales, except Rick, unfortunately. The reason she asked a question like this was because at one point, I had gotten disgusting scale mites from swimming in a river. They took forever to get rid of, and from then on I took extremely tedious care of my scales.
“No stowaways that I’ve seen,” I said.
We continued small talk about meaningless things in life, already so tired of talking about the stresses that we just avoid that. Josie and I haven’t exactly had the upbringing of princesses.
Right in the middle of gossiping about a cute barista who seemed interested in her, Josie’s eyes flashed to the line. She leapt out of the chair, and began reeling. The pole bent nearly in half, but it didn’t seem to be bobbing up and down, or like the fish was putting up much of a fight. When Josie finally hauled up her prize, she gasped in delight.
“It’s an Atlantic sturgeon!” She cried. “Quick, get the net!”
I grabbed the net, and hurried over as fast as I could. For being such a large, impressively sized fish, it wasn’t moving much, but Josie didn’t seem to have noticed. I scooped the animal up with ease and hauled it onboard.
When Josie unwrapped the fish like a Christmas present, she gasped again, but this time in shock.
“Look, Storm!” She cried. “Its side!”
I did indeed notice. Running along the massive fish’s side, were three long, wicked gashes. They were deep, and not clean, with bits of flesh peeling away. That meant the claws that inflicted this were barbed. Ribs stuck out of the gashes, some of them were even broken. As I looked closer, the fish gave one final spasm, and died. No wonder the poor thing hadn’t put up a fight at all. That was its last meal.
“Whatever inflicted this had immense power,” I observed. “The ribs are broken in some areas, and the gashes run very deep. I’m surprised the fish made it this far.”
As Josie inspected the animal to see if she could get any meat off it, I walked over to the pole. Something drove me to hold it, to wonder what was down there that had caused such a thing.
A flash caught my eye. I squinted my eyes into the waves, sure I had seen something shimmering flick by.
There it was again! A shimmering, seemingly of phosphorescent scales, flashing by.
And with one deliberate tug, the pole was ripped out of my hands, not by some powerful fish wanting a meal, but by some deliberate and strong will. One tug, and the pole crashed into the waves.

Chapter 3
I’m completely shaken by what happened yesterday.
I didn’t let Josie see this, of course. To her, there was nothing abnormal about this happening. The fish had simply been injured by an animal, nothing more. She didn’t see the shimmer of something else in the deep, something watching me.
I didn’t have any excuse for the lost pole, however. I had stammered, saying I had simply walked over and the waves had wrenched the pole out of its stand. Josie raised an eyebrow at me for that, as the ocean was relatively calm and that pole was hard to destabilize. But there was no other logical explanation for her.
That was the thing with Josie. She didn’t think about logic much. In fact, she didn’t think much at all. Her life was in the now, never in the then or upcoming. Her friend has weird reptilian scales on her back? Eh, strange things happen. And that was that. Back to thinking about school and her stresses in her world.
Perhaps that was what made us such close friends. I overthink everything. She never contemplates anything. She is a calming person, kind of like a zen.
I sigh, running my hands through my knotted chocolate hair. I was getting sidetracked by my own thoughts, as usual. I was currently sitting on my couch, where I spent most of my life anyways. I wasn’t exactly a model college girl.
I flip through my poor, overused notebook. It seemed that over the years, whatever this creature was, it always tried to communicate with me. I never responded, except for crazily yelling back into the swamp. Perhaps it was time to take new steps in life. Because now I needed to know.
I whip out a pen and jotted down notes. Appears to be pearlescent. Capable of immense strength. Possibly clawed?
I didn’t know what else to write. I had so little information on this being, although it had such a large impact on my life. The gashes in the side of the fish were deep and vicious, but the necklaces and crowns I received were made with the utmost gentleness and care. I growl in frustration. How was I supposed to draw any conclusions from this?
This creature was obviously sentient. It was trying to be unnoticed, undiscovered. But if it was trying so hard, then why would it make baubles and trinkets for me?
So many questions, too little answers. It was time for a shower.
This day had passed uneventful. Josie had wanted to meet up again, but I got out of it, saying I had a small cold. A terrible excuse, but if I wanted to meet up with her again soon after, I could get away with it by saying my little cold had gone away already.
Really, I just needed the time to think and ponder over what could be done. The obsession over this creature was consuming me. It hadn’t in the longest time. When I was a teenager, the passion to find it stirred again, but it was soon lost to the overpowering drama of teen life. But now I was a lazy “adult” on summer break. What excuse did I have now? None.
As I waited for the water to heat, I inspected the scales on my back in my tiny bathroom. They stood out against my pale skin, that was for sure. And they weren’t like feeble fish scales. With fish, scales were shed as easily as hair. One pluck, or even rubbing a hand roughly down their flesh is enough to dislodge a whole palmful. But reptilian scales have a firm anchor, and cause the reptile great pain if they were to ever be forcefully removed. It was the same for me. Once I tried to pluck one of my four scales out to inspect it. Just trying to peel it away left me howling tears.
When I hopped in the shower, I sighed in pleasure as the warm water waterfalled over my skin. When my scales were covered, I reached my hand over my back to feel them. Their texture had changed a little. When they weren’t in water for more than a day, their green color faded, and they became scratchy and painful. But once they were back in the water, they became very smooth, soft almost. I sighed. There was a grand mystery to all of this, and I couldn’t help but feel like the being in the water was connected to my scales in some strange way. This was all so unreal.
When I ended my shower, twilight had settled, and the sky was turning a dark milky blue. Inspiration struck, and I decided that I would go down to the brackish river, near the spot we launched the boat yesterday. But this time, I would bring something that I could give to my creature.
I rummaged through my refrigerator, a bit confused, as I didn’t have any lead whatsoever on what this thing liked. But then I remembered the injured fish. If it was indeed the attacker of that animal, then perhaps it liked fish.
There was a small amount of salmon I had saved for myself, a little treat as I really loved fish, but I swallowed my disappointment in giving it away and threw it in a plastic bag. Hopefully it wouldn’t stink up the car in the drive to the river.
I hopped in my car and made the quick drive to the river. This evening was a little more chilly than the other summer nights, so there wasn’t any people. Besides, it wasn’t like the river was a luxury spot. There wasn’t any sand, just hard pebbles and stones.
I found a quiet spot by the bank of the river, enjoying the feeling of the cool water lapping at my toes. Setting the bag of fish down on a large rock, I decided to wade in a little bit, and enjoy the quiet.
Pebbles crunched underneath my feet as I waded knee-depth into the water. Small, brackish-water fish darted away, and tiny angry crabs tried to snap at my calloused feet. The sun had fully set, and the night had come. The first twinkling of stars peppered the vast blanket of the sky, and the smooth mirror the river water was reflected the heavens. I felt like I was walking among stars.
And then the water rippled in front of me.
It wasn’t a normal ripple, like a creature was disturbing it. It seemed as if the water itself was disturbing the creature, whatever it was, and it was being obliged to part.
Excitement drummed within me. I carefully waded back out, and set the salmon on a leaf, and waited.
The rippling stopped five feet away from the shore, as if contemplating what to do. It just stopped there, and didn’t come any further.
“Ugh, be like that,” I said, annoyed. I was so close, yet this thing wouldn’t come closer. I stepped into the water, determined to bring the salmon to it.
The ripples retreated, obviously not wanting to be near me. The way the water moved, I could tell whatever it was, was treading water just below the surface, patiently watching me. The thought made me grow irritated. Like it was fair that it was easily able to see me, while I still had no idea what on earth it was.
I slowly dipped my hand into the water, the salmon’s essence leaking into the waves. Perhaps that would entice whatever this was to actually come towards me.
The ripples slowly came towards me, and then faster than lightning, something swiped the salmon right out of my hand. I shrieked, falling backwards, striking the hard ground with my back. Water rushed over me, driving a chill into my bones. I sat up, thoroughly soaked.
“Ugh!” I yelled. “Just make yourself known!”
Then, an idea struck me.
I couldn’t shake the idea that the scales on my back and whatever was in this river, was connected. By some strange twist of the world, this was meant to be. And perhaps my scales were the key to unlocking some kind of door.
So I sat down in the water, making sure my back was fully submerged. The chill made me shiver, but I gritted my teeth and withstood it. This would make something happen. My gut told me so.
I dragged the back of my shirt down, exposing to whatever was behind me the scales on my shoulder blade. I waited with baited breath, wondering if the creature was sentient enough to even register what I was doing, or the significance of this.
Maybe it even thought that humans already had scales, and I was just being weird.
Out of nowhere, I felt a great and powerful presence behind me, and the water lapped over my shoulders. I froze, suddenly losing my confidence. I remembered the gashes on the fish that we had pulled up.
It was too late now. I gasped and lost all breath when something pressed against my back.
Something cool and massive pressed against the scales on my shoulder blade, at the same time covering my whole shoulder. It took me a moment to register that it felt like a huge hand. Smooth plating covered the palm of it, rubbing the scales on my back with the gentleness of a mother. I breathed faster when I felt the tiny pinpricks of powerful talons on my flesh, not penetrating skin, but nevertheless unnerving. A silky softness spread across my shoulder, and it took me a moment to realize that was the webbing between its finger-like structures. This was all from feeling through my back. I couldn’t see whatever it was, as it was directly behind me.
When the talons struck my scales, calmly caressing them, an electric blue light shone from all around behind me. The creature rumbled, in what I felt was happiness.
I had to see what was going on. I turned, but this startled whatever it was, and with a mighty splash it dove into the water.
“No...please,” I pleaded softly, dipping my hand into the water. Tears started to stream down my cheeks. I didn’t understand in the least bit what was happening, but now I had to know more. I just had to.
The creature seemed to understand my plea. And to my great astonishment, it rose out of the water, to stand right in front of me.

Chapter 4
There are certain things in life that become your goal, your obsession. Sometimes this game called life that every human being is thrown into, just doesn’t hold enough meaning. Because it is very difficult to find meaning in going to a cubicle every day, typing letters and numbers, or perhaps working away on a farm, the hot sun beating down on you. It is natural for every human to have the need to be part of something truly great. Not a limb for a grand company or harvesting vegetables to sell in the market. No, we all desire to be truly needed, to be important to something or someone. Perhaps that is why we throw ourselves away to the wrong people so heedlessly. We desire to change someone’s world so desperately that it doesn’t matter who’s world that is. All people have a sense of purpose, a grand drive to be part of something great, or for some people, to be that great thing.
I was driven from an early age, with the thought of a sentient being watching over me. It became my life’s purpose to find whatever this creature was.
But what does one do, when the pinnacle of their life’s achievements stands before you? Do you stand to watch your greatest goal be completed, or are you already considering what you’re going to do with your life now?
I was unable to answer that question for myself as this being rose out of the water in front of me. Moonlight sparkled off the descending water, the cascading droplets formed around what appears to be a distinctly humanoid body.
Once the water finally stopped rushing off the body of this marvelous being, I stepped back, trying to absorb it all in. What I saw brought tears to my eyes.
A beautiful creature, one undiscovered and untouched by any greedy human hands. His body (I knew from the moment it rose it was a “he”, so much for my dreams of a feminine mermaid) was thick with bands of muscle all around, with arms and legs that looked strong enough to snap me at a whim. Plated in a glorious mosaic of artistry around his body were thousands of tightly overlapping scales, swirled with the most dazzling palettes of blue. Turquoise, aqua, indigo, sky blue, they were all there, patterned as if some divine artist had dipped his brush into the mix of these colors, and swirled them in a piece of abstract art. His chest and abdomen were not as scaled, but were toughened with firm flesh, not quite human or reptilian. Accenting his elbows, back, neck, and other pointed places were fins, looking like they were composed of flexible rays. At the end of his arms were large hands, not paws or talons, they resembled human hands too much. Webs were spread between the fingers, and sharp hooked claws spread out where fingernails would be on a human.
I looked upwards, pretty far upwards, as he was a tall being indeed. His face was relatively flat, with a flat plated nose and curvaceous lips surrounded by a mixture of scales and hard flesh. Branching out from his forehead were plates of hard cartilaginous features, eventually turning from a tan color to a deep aquatic turquoise accented by sparkling sky blue. These colorful scales were layered and rose upwards, resembling a kind of crown. On his neck were pulsating, feathery gills, but as I saw his chest exhaling and inhaling, I realized he had more than one method of breathing. I noted this subconsciously. But I noticed his eyes the most. They were not the dull glass orbs of a reptile or cat. No, they were sparkling with soul behind them, regarding me now with the utmost gentleness and care. In those golden orbs I saw flickers of yellow, red, and blue, all coalescing into sparking flames of eyes.
I breathed heavily, unable to really comprehend what was right before me. The greatest achievement of my life, personified right here. And so not knowing what else to do, I decided to speak.
“Hello,” I said weakly. Basically the most generic and dumb thing I could’ve said.
He just regarded me silently. I had no idea if he was capable of human speech or not. This watchful secondary caretaker of mine, who made me gifts and watched over me ever since I was able to remember.
I saw kindness and warmth in those sparkling eyes, and he rose a massive webbed hand to my chest, right over my heartbeat. His hand was cool and smooth, and I held my breath, unsure of what he was doing. He then took his hand, and placed it over his own heartbeat. I stared at him, trying to comprehend. I knew he was trying to communicate. In the end, I decided to smile at him like an idiot.
He flared his gills in such a human presentation of annoyance, I almost laughed. His hand reached around my back, touching my scales there. Then pointed at his own scales on his arm. I leaned closer to observe. Tough, overlapping scales, pointed like a reptile’s, soft like fish’s. Just like mine.
Gasping, I stepped back. Some realization had hit me, a massive clue to this extraordinary puzzle, but I was unable to quite put it into place. There was something to my tiny patch of scales matching his that was extremely important. Could I be...no, that was impossible. Completely scientifically impossible.
But looking at this grand creature in front of me, holding himself like some kind of god, I realized that the scientifically impossible had already happened.
“Are you my...my . . .” I trailed off, tears flooding my stinging eyes. The notion was so ridiculous I couldn’t bring myself to think it. This was all hallucinatory, I was almost sure now. Out of desperation to find this thing, I hallucinated it, and it never existed in the first place.
But when he wrapped his powerful arms around me and brought me close to his chest, I knew this was no hallucination. Nor was I properly able to resist. Because the fact was, I felt safe and sure that he would cause no harm to me. I knew beyond any doubt this was the mysterious being that had delivered me gifts when I was young, watching over me silently to make sure I was ok. He had always been a part of my life, there was no reason at all to be remotely afraid now.
I pressed my cheek to his soft, leathery chest, listening to a strong heartbeat. His flesh smelled of salt and wild things, with an undertone of sweetness I couldn’t place.
His scales lit up, glowing a brilliant bioluminescence. First blue, then red, pink, violet, a prism of colors reflecting off the surface of the peaceful water.
I didn’t ever want to leave his arms. I had found what I never really felt I had.
Family. The scales on my back, the way he watched over me when I was little. This was my brother. I knew this fact beyond any sort of logical reasoning or fact. Scientifically impossible or no, there was no doubt in my mind.
I stepped back, out of his arms, and laughed in sheer joy, and saw the same joy reflected in those expressive eyes. “What is your name?” I asked.
He was silent, and I knew now that he was mute. “Brother,” I said softly.
I knew now that he completely understood what I was saying, as his eyes lit up in happiness and his scales exploded in flashing light. I grabbed his hands, which completely dwarfed my pitiful human ones. “I’ll come and visit you, I promise,” I whispered. I still wasn’t really able to comprehend what was happening. It all felt like a dream.
He nodded, obviously understanding, and sank back into the water without disturbing it in the slightest. Then he was gone.


As soon as I was home, I whipped out my laptop and started typing away. I had to research what he was. If there was any information, of course. As I did so, I started to think of names for him. The first that came to my mind was Alpheus, which literally meant river god in Greek. It seemed appropriate for him. He sure held himself with a strong air of dignity.
“Alpheus,” I hummed to myself while I researched. “Perfect.”
I researched, ‘fish man legends’ in the laptop, and of course many results came up. Most of them were ridiculous, and were proven to be types of hoaxes later. But I came across one website, about South American mythology. I decided to give it a go, and it threw at me a cornucopia of information.
It talked about the “Gill-god” of the Amazon, which was revered and almost worshipped by the tribes there for hundreds of years. According to legends, there used to be many, but after habitat destruction and poisoning, it became that there was only one left. Legend says that they were capable of many magical abilities, including healing. The proper name for the creature is Deus Branquia.
The last recorded specimen was, according to rumors of the tribes and natives, captured by Americans and taken into custody during the Cold War era. It was never heard of again, save for unconfirmed reports of it seen in Chesapeake Bay.
I frowned. That didn’t make sense. If Alpheus was indeed related to me, where did I come into this story? I certainly wasn’t from the Amazon. I had a feeling Alpheus was not the Deus Branquia of the Amazon. No, he was something new.
I shut the laptop, too tired to think about this anymore. Hours had passed and dawn was beginning to break. I passed out the moment my body hit the couch.
(To be continued)

Author's Note

I just want to know your honest opinion. I would love kind words and comments of course, but constructive criticism would be helpful too. Just no rude remarks.