I still remember it like yesterday...it's a cliche, but darn it if it isn't true. I can still hear the waves crashing against the shore. I can still feel the sand beneath my feet. I can still smell the iron-y blood mixing with the salty water.

The mermaid was dying. A deep, ugly gash in her tail, down to the bone. I'm still not sure what caused it--a blade of some sort to be sure, but whether it was poachers or moonshiners or smugglers or just sheer dumb luck off a rotor, I couldn't tell you.

"Take my treasure...my precious treasure...don't let it come to harm..."

She pushed the treasure to me. It was an orb, about the size of a soccer ball. It was dark blue, streaked with yellow lightning.

"I...I...."

I wasn't sure what to say. I stammer when I'm nervous and who wouldn't be nervous?

I took the orb in my hands and it vibrated slightly, as if it had a heartbeat. I turned back to the mermaid...just as she turned into sea foam...

xxxx

The treasure was an egg. It hatched in less than two days after its mother turned into sea foam.

It was a girl.

She was small and wrinkly and she was perfect.

xxxx

I may come back to this.

“What the hell are we supposed to do?” Ian gapes at the precious iridescent egg in my arms.

“I don’t know, but we’ve got to go now.” I whisper as my body begins to quiver with my slowing adrenaline. His eyes widen as he finally takes in the whole scene. Blood drips from my nose, my back is ripped to shreds, my clothes are soaked with sea water and stained a dark silver.

“Holy shit Matt, what happened?” he hisses as he rustles through the trash in the back of his jeep coming up with a dirty towel under his scuba gear. He gingerly takes the egg and wraps it gently before placing it in his empty beer cooler on the passenger seat. My vision blurs and I slide down the side of the car to the sandy pavement, my raw back now screaming from the salt, hot metal, and something much worse.

Ian crouches down and slaps my face, “What the hell happened?” I point towards the hundreds of dark serpentine outlines throwing themselves on the beach with each wave, then coalescing, twisting themselves into an erect sinewy structure which lurches towards us. “The Rifka,” Ian breathes. In one motion, he jolts me upright and into the back seat of the jeep. He throws the car into gear and guns the accelerator.

“I swore to keep it safe.” I gasp as the searing pain overwhelms me.

The mermaid lay motionless on the shore, sick and pallid. I approached her carefully; she was handing me something, a small yellow egg in her cupped hands.

“Take it,” she rasped. “Raise her well.”

I shook my head. “I can get you back in the water, now.”

The beached mermaid shook her head. “Too… late… take my… daughter.” She spoke like every word was an effort, which it probably was. My heart went out for her as I gently took the egg from her hands, smoothing her hair back from her sweaty forehead.

“Okay,” I crooned, letting my hand fall to my side. She stirred, whimpered. I sat with her, brushing back her hair, letting her hold my hand. She whimpered once more, shuddering, then went completely still.

I pulled back gently, cupping the tiny egg with care. It quivered in my grasp, as slowly I saw small limbs begin to form, to push out, until I was holding a baby in my arms.

The mermaid’s baby, who I would now raise.

“Samara!” His voice echoed around the empty beachfront, “Samara, where are you?!”

He was growing concerned. Ever since the day he met her, he was able to return to this very spot at the same time every day and she was always here. He knew she liked to surface for an hour a day to feel the sun that didn’t make it all the way into her bioluminescent kingdom below. Not one day in the past two years had she not been near enough to answer his call.

“Samara!” He cupped his hands around his mouth, hoping she’d hear him. A crash of thunder sounded, drawing his attention to the horizon line. Along the crest, a storm was moving in. He could see the water growing violent where the winds were most active. His gut told him that something was wrong. Very wrong.

“Samara!” He gave one final call, looking up and down the empty expanse of beach. He finally heard a strained response. “M-at-t,” she croaked, “I’m-H-er-e.”

He whipped his head around, finally spotting the reflective purple scales of his friend, shining against the sun. He stepped closer, finding that she was amidst several rocks, in what appeared to be a tide pool, and a ways down the beach compared to where he normally found her. He was concerned.

Rightfully so, he soon realized, as when he stepped closer, he realized she had gashes torn all over her body. Her tail stained red, and unable to move, her breath shaky. Blood dripped from her mouth, and stained her platinum hair. “Samara,” he called out, rushing over to her. He dropped to his knees at her side, “What happened?”

“The kingdom,” she gasped, pressing a hand to a wound along her stomach, “It’s fallen.”

“What?” Matt asked. “The royal family was killed, they tried to take our children from us,” she croaked, straining for breath.

She sobbed, “My son, my dear husband, they were slaughtered like animals.”

“Samara, I have to get you somewhere safe,” Matt urged. “No!” She exclaimed, “No, it will do no good, I am already too far gone, i will become one with the sea soon.”

“Samara,” Matt pleaded, tears streaming down his cheeks. He’d been best friends with this woman since he was seventeen, she’d found him at the lowest point in his life. He never dreamed that he could lose her like this.

“I have lost everything, Matt, you must understand,” she gasped again, her hand shaking, “I have no reason to live any longer.”

Matt sobbed, placing a hand over his mouth. She raised her own, shakily placing it upon his arm in a comforting gesture. She gave a small smile, “I am at peace and I will soon rejoin my family, but first, I must ask something of you.”

“Anything,” Matt cried. “My last hope, the reason I fled,” she pulled it from her side, “My child.”

The object she held was a bright orange sphere, about the size of a small watermelon. It looked like what Matt knew of certain species of fish eggs.

“You must take this, Matt, and you must keep it safe,” she pleaded, “Within a week’s time, it will hatch and my daughter will be born, I’m begging you to keep her safe.”

“Yes,” he nodded, taking the egg from her hand, “I promise, Samara, I will do everything I can.”

“Take water from the sea and make her a home, she will soon outgrow it but you humans have always been the creative type,” she laughed, spitting blood onto the sand, “When she hatches, I ask that you raise her as your own.”

He grabbed her hand, “I will.”

“Thank you, dear friend,” she squeezed his hand back, closing her eyes. Matt closed his own, shaking with the sobs that cascaded through his body. He felt her hand disappear from his clutch, and when he opened his eyes, he found only sea foam where his closest friend had once laid. He watched the tide rise into the tide pool she had washed into, taking her out to sea.

He shed one final tear, knowing she had joined the family she had always told him about, the people she loved most in the world.

He looked down at the egg in his hand as rain began to fall and said, “I guess you’re my responsibility now.”

Since I was a child, I loved to walk along the beach to the dock and dangle my feet while smelling the sweet salty air.

If I was lucky, I could see teal and aquamarine scales glittering in the sea, just out of my reach. It wasn't until I was older that I learned what I saw was no fish.

Since I couldn't pronounce her name, I called her Maria. She blended into the ocean unless she wished to emerge. When I was around 10 or 11, she decided to make my acquaintance. At first, I thought she were just another girl. Just swimming. When I asked her to walk on the beach, she showed me her tail. The same teal and aquamarine scales I had seen many times before. Maria and I became quick friends.

I asked is mermaids could ever walk on land. Her answer was "I don't know." She wasn't supposed to interact with humans.

As the years passed, we found our own partners, though my love for her never faltered. We would always be friends, although in secret.

One day, there came a terrible storm. Boats from down the way came loose and rotors missing. When I came to check on Maria, she was on the pier. The scene that lay in front of me made me retch. Her beautiful teal and aquamarine tail was now run with crimson. Her hair chopped and matted with drying blood. The salty air smelled metallic. Yet she was holding something, as if her life depended on it. A blue orb, no bigger than a clamshell.

"My child... Take care... Will you?" She gasped when I reached her. "Of course, my dear Maria." I cried.

I held her as she slipped away. I wrapped her in seaweed and let her body rest in the depths of the sea.

The orb I carried home. My partner asked what it was. Why I left in a storm.

So I had to explain.

"How do we even raise a mermaid?" Otis exclaimed. "I am not sure." Was my defeated response.

So I went about how I always did.

I ran the tub with saltwater. I placed the orb in it. And watched it grow as we waited.

Eventually, a sweet child came from it.

"Maria! It is time to come in now." "But mommy! I want to swim some more!" "You can swim tomorrow. For now we walk along the beach back home." "Okay." The small child huffs.

"Why don't you ever swim with me, mommy?" "I am allergic to saltwater. I get a terrible rash." "Oh. Okay. Just once can you dip your toes?" "For you, my sweet, of course. But tomorrow."

I and Otis were enamored with our merchild.

We did not expect me to be one too.

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