The abyss

The world is not what it seems. Life can be fragile and mortality is just an afterthought. I didn't know that choosing that path would change me.

I was walking down the embankment in the late summer heat. I was alone trying to find a good spot to read before the sunset and the moon rising. I was reading for a while listening to the sounds of buzzing bees and dragonflies zipping in the air, birds whispering in the breeze, and watching as the river near me crashed against the sides.

I placed my novel down, slowly saving my page with a leaf for a bookmark as I heard my name be called. I looked up to see my friend, walking down the embankment towards me waving like a mad man.

He ran down as he caught his breath. I slid my book in the back and slowly got up.

"What's the matter, Alex?" I asked trying to have him calm down.

"Nothing just saw that you were out. What are you doing out here?" He asked stopping to catch his breath. 

"Was reading till you rudely interrupted, why are you out anyway? I thought you were at camp with your brother." I chided looking him up and down at his scraggly look. 

"We got out yesterday and we should go on an adventure, come on we haven't done anything together this summer." He said poking my arm with the puppy dog look.

I rolled my eyes at him, smirking at his benevolence. He smiled playfully punching my arm as I collected my shoulder bag draping it over me as I dusted my knees off. We started to walk away from the meadow towards the beach. My hometown was in between meadows and forests at the edge of a long coastal beach line. It was beautiful during the summer, hearing the waves crash and the birds chirping in the distance. It was a peaceful little town.

We walked for a few minutes when we stopped for a minute to catch our breaths.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked leaning against a solid oak tree that looked over the large cliff to the beach down below.

"The Abyss." He said rather nonchalantly, smacking a mosquito away. 

"Why the abyss, no one has come out of that cave, alive," I whispered staring down at the cavernous fortress down below.

"Come on, I think that is poppycock Kae." He said dragging me down the stairs on the side of the cliff.

I was not pleased as we started our adventure down the beach. We headed down past the shacks selling waters, the lifeguards who were gorgeous spectacles that 16 years old I watched, and past the restrooms that always stunk. We hit the edge of sand that met into the rocky cavernous structure that met with brutal waves.

Our little town is nicknamed 'The Abyss' for many reasons. It was scary, pitch black, and had a demonic feel to it. But not only that no one returned from going inside of there. And I mean no one. There are missing people still not recovered from over fifty years ago. There is also a legend about the caves. That a mermaid lives here. But I think that is just poppycock.

"You ready?" He asked as I gulped in the harsh salty sea air.

"Yes, but I am going to complain the whole way!" I grumpily added, walking slowly into the dark disturbing cave.

"And I will be ignoring you. Dang, it is cold." He said slowly grabbing for my hand as we could see our breaths in the cold dark cave, illuminating as I took out my phone for the flashlight. It dimmed quickly.

"It is almost like ice," I whispered touching the walls as they sprang to live, bioluminescent algae slowly illuminating to life, guiding us towards the end of the cave.  

I said shivering as our feet got soaked from walking in the waves that pulled in and out of focus. I could feel my heart pounding as I saw a locket with a unique shape. It was in the shape of a mermaid perched on a star. There was a dark opal gem on it with a matching twin. 

"Look what I found Alex," I said holding it up to the glowing algae.

"Looks like a locket?" He asked as I nodded to him.

"Yeah it is pretty, and it has a twin, a merman's locket," I said handing him the twin locket.

He took it begrudgingly of course as I helped him and he helped me put on the twin lockets. 

"You just want me to wear it because we're friends." He remarked stupidly as I flicked him. He was not pleased.

"Oh, you know me so well." He sarcastically admitted. "Hay Kae have those doors always been there?"

I looked up to see two glistening doors embedded into the side of the wall. We slowly moved a couple of inches forward. The doors were the same height with brass knobs except for the pictures on the doors. One had a serpent dragon-like creature, and the other had a mermaid on it.

"What the hell, I know for sure they were not here two seconds ago,"  I said looking back and forth from the two doors that magically appeared before us. 

"Why don't we pop one of these suckers open and see what's inside." He said stepping forward as I grabbed his arm swinging him back a bit.

"Your unimaginable, don't you see?" I said pointing between the two doors. 

"What?" He said grabbing his arm back.

"This is how those people disappeared." I pointed out as if it was obvious.

"You're just being a baby, come on Kae." He whispered as he grabbed for one of the brass doorknobs to our right, the mermaid type one.

"Fine, if it will shut you up we will go in one of the doors. I said walking as I stared at it, trying to read it. 

"Which one?" He asked looking between both. 

"I say the mermaid one because serpents are bad omens," I said having remembered reading it from somewhere.

We slowly pulled on the mermaid's door, it opened easily. We both stepped forward falling into a pool of water.

I lost sight of Alex in the pitch dark waters as I thrashed to get to the service, but waves kept on crashing over me as I slowly fell downwards. Suddenly, as if by magic the locket illuminated disappearing in the waves making the world turn dark.

I awoke catching my breath with Alex next to me snoring away. I got up, my head was pounding and I had scratches all over me. It was pitch black outside as I realized we were on my couch. I side sitting back down not knowing how we got home, especially being in my house.

I slowly got up, trying not to disturb Alex as I went to the restroom to wash the seawater off of me. I opened the door and turned on the shower as I slowly sang to myself, the water hitting the ground as it splashed me. I sighed as I undressed and slowly went into the shower closing the curtain behind me when I fell forward dragging the shower curtain down with me. 

"Ow," I bellowed loudly as I stared at the shiniest scaliest tail in the world. It was opal, dark with shimmering colors and a matching top. 

Alex ran in as he looked at me.

"You okay?" He asked staring at the tail for a couple of seconds.

"Does it look like I am okay? What did the hell happen?" I said looking at it as it glistened in the dimmed light.

"We can't let your folks see you like this." He whispered as he stepped over me trying to get to the shower to turn it off. 

"They are thankfully out of town," I remarked huffing. 

He turned off the water scrambling to dry me when he soon popped a similar tail, minus the top. His was green, matching the locket he had on earlier. It was something out of the twilight zone, spooky and weird. 

"What the fibber-flabbier?" He remarked falling on his butt staring at me.

"Flubber-flabbier? What?" I said giggling a bit. 

"Is this really the time to question my cussing." He said trying to grab something.

"Right, well i suppose we need to dry off but how," I said looking around us.

"THis is like that hsow we used to watch." He remarked softly trying to think of what to do.

"THen should we have powers?" I said remembering the mermaids from the show.

"Maybe?" He replied finally grabbing the hairdryer that didn't work properly.

"Well, why not something." I proposed trying to do something with my hands.

I said as I clenched my hands into fists, nothing happened other than my tail started to get wrapped in ivy. Alex held his hand out as hot air blasted at us. He smiled as our human legs came back to us.

He adverted his eyes handing me a towel as he left the room not looking at my naked body that reappeared in its mortal form. I came out once I was all dressed. We slowly turned on the light to my bedroom, grabbing two chairs and for the rest of the night did not speak.