Before

I don't remember the time before the ocean. I don't recall a time when the waves weren't tossing weights across my body threatening to pull me to the gentle foreboding of the earth's watery depths.

All I know now is hold on tight to the fragmented raft I was upon and pray for land. I don't remember who told me that though. I don't know how long I have been here, the sun comes and goes. I can't remember to remind myself to keep count of the sun.

Before... who was I before? My thoughts race and I feel my blistered lips. I can remember the feeling of fresh cool water traveling past my lips and splashing down my throat but I don't remember who I am. I can remember music but not the dances. I still hear it when the moon is reflected into the water, the reminiscing haunting sounds of the voices I once knew. If I ever even knew them. I pretend I do. It makes the exhaustion I feel in my bones easier to bear. My legs feel like they've become part of the ocean, my trousers no longer heavy on my body. Sometimes I feel something brush against me but I tell myself it's only fish. I can barely hold my head up anymore, my stomach stopped growling days ago. 

He gazes up at the poor soaked creature and wonders if it's injured. He would rise to the surface and brush against it to check for movement. Waiting until nightfall to push the creature to the rocky shoreline of where he called home. Home for as long as he could remember. There was a ship some moons ago, he watched it catch flame as the men with loud noises ripped it apart. He retreated further into his home and begged they would not come to his island. He stayed curled and trembling, hidden under the safety of the jagged shoreline and waited. Waiting for dawn was a winning game for someone with no memory and nothing to lose. After the sunlight spilled over the horizon and hit his bare skin he knew it was safe. Slipping himself out from between the rocks he braced himself against the waves and began swimming towards the cadaverous remains of the ship.  He took rope and tied together some remains, that was when he heard the crying. He swam tentatively towards the sound and saw them. A mess of wet brown curly hair and dark skin, the fabric of their shirt clinging to their body. 

Someone told him a story about salty tears and salty oceans but now he couldn't remember how it went as he swam closer. It was a person to be sure, so he ducked underwater and swam a bit closer. Long dark legs and ripped trousers and their shirt exposing their midriff floated along the top of the sea. The legs kicked when he reached a hand out and startled him away back to his cove. 

He waited a moon to return to the wreckage, and when he did he saw the person again. This time he decided that if it's still alive tomorrow he would drag it to shore and see what it did. He took back to the wreckage and perused about seeing what caught his interest. He took back his findings and waited until daylight the next day. He repeated his journey to the floating body and found it still kicked when he touched their legs. This settled it.

 He pulled down. 

Water burns. It burns in my lungs as it's all I consume as it envelops me. It burns in my chest and I reach for anything, kicking my legs, thrashing my arms and I know something is holding me. Water burns in an oxymoronic way that there are endless hours and the sweet sorrow of goodbyes. My head breaks the surface and I inhale the blinding atmosphere and then I'm plunged back into the sea. My hair swamps my face and I feel weaker and weaker. The weight of the water fills my body and I find myself thinking this isn't so bad. Then I feel the sand under my toes. 

Then my calves 

Then I'm thrown onto the soft sand. My eyes flutter open and shut and I see a face hovering over mine. A life giving kiss. They push air into my lungs and compress my chest until I feel the water backtrack out of my body and I lean over and throw up the ocean I had inhaled. Falling on my back, I see hair the color of the sand and eyes such a vivid color, I scramble my mind to remember the name. My vision spots out and my last thought before the darkness consumes me is: green. 

It's pretty, he mused. His fingertips grazing over the creature, their hair was coiled about their face in the sand like a halo. He hoped they would wake up. He dragged them up higher from the tide and left them in the shade of a tree. He waited. He dribbled coconut water on their blistered pink lips. Waiting would reward his curiosity in time, this he knew. 

I was awake by the time the sky was streaked with orange and pink. Sleep had never felt so delicious. I knew Green Eyes was next to me without opening my eyes, he pushed water through my lips and traced my face with his fingertips. A man. I felt him lower water to me again and I opened my eyes slowly. His green eyes freeze in fear and he scrambles away from me, dropping the water in the sand. I slowly push myself towards a seated position, resting on the base of a tree, my muscles unfamiliar with gravity from floating in the sea for who knows how long. My eyes readjust to the dimming light and I see him. He's close to the ground , his muscular arms holding him up. 

“Hello,” I croaked out, my voice unused. My body aches all over. I try a smile, but my head feels hazy. I close my eyes again. 

He pulls himself closer to me, I slump into his shoulder unwillingly, my body just gives out.  

It spoke! Their voice drier than the lips from which the greeting fell from, but they spoke! He pondered what to say to them when they awoke but decided to wait until the moment was right. He left them against the tree and retreated into the sea, his body was unexplainably hot from the person against him. He sinks into the sea hoping to quell his nerves. He hadn't spoken out loud in quite some time, he had sung of course, every night. He tasted the greeting in his mouth, he then remembered their mouth. The curl of their lashes. The way their nose sloped and the way their dark cheekbones were blushed with sunburn. He shook his head and looked towards shore. They were standing! He anxiously swam to shore and felt the waves roll against him softly. 

“ Hello! “ he called out to them, his voice resonating in his chest. He waved. He watches as the realization strikes on their face. He watches them stumble towards the shoreline and stand a few feet away. The sun is slowly sinking now, the same way they are as they fall into their knees. The sudden flashing memory of a woman comes across his mind, the heaving chest, the curve of her waist the way her hips filled his hands. He found these similarities in the person now staring at his posed form. The creature he saved was a woman. 

He pulled himself closer, so she pulled away. “Hello there,” he murmurs, a hidden melody dancing in his throat. Somewhere in him inching and her inching away, she stopped moving. He inched closer and closer and the sky covered them in a gentle blanket of inky blue. He pushed her onto her back and watched her brown skin grow hotter under his touch. 

He was almost on top of me. His strong arms caging me in and his green eyes peering into my soul. His tail pressed against my bare calf, and I could feel the cool wet scales dragging against me. His tail was so long it stretched beyond my feet. His tail. His tail. This is factual. His hand trails up my bare stomach and he pushes my hair out of the way. He lowers his head and places a single kiss on my collarbone, I stretch my neck exposing more skin for him. My eyes flutter up to the stars, they twinkle gently and unchanging. They are the last thing I see before I feel his teeth sink into my stupidly exposed neck and he kills me. 

Sirens.