The Cave

Sol and Mira slowly shuffled along the beach. The sand swallowed their toes until the ocean’s luminescent water flowed over their feet, rendering them whole again in a lone playful, tag you're it, kind of way.

“I’m going to miss you when you leave for college,” Sol remarked, breaking the silence between them.

“We have been best friends since we were ten, and nothing will change that, not even the lore of the Blue Mermaid!” yelled Mira as she ran into the crashing small waves of the ocean. The brilliant blue of the bioluminescent water burst into the air and away from Mira as she thrashed into the sea.

“Mira! Stop! Come on. Our grandparents swear by that legend. You’re going too far.” Sol paced back and forth, hands on his hips, trying to contain his frustration.

The full moon beamed down on Mira, lighting a narrow, squiggly, moving path on part of the ocean’s surface. Mira was twirling around in circles, using her arms to spray this otherworldly luminescent blue into the moon’s glow.

Mira yelled to Sol, “Oh come on, they did that to keep us from drowning when we were young. Get in here! It’s amazing! Come on ‘Let’s dance. Let’s dance.”

Sol shook his head no but struggled to maintain the grin on his face. That was Mira, not afraid to live life on her terms, and brought Sol out of his protective shell more than once during their friendship. And Sol, well, more than once, he has bailed Mira out of trouble.

“Mira, you are too far out. I can barely see you!” yelled Sol, slightly panicked.

“Marco!”

“Oh my God,” Sol mumbled to himself. He placed his hands on his hips and took the stance.

“Okay, okay! I’m coming in.” Mira knew not to push Sol once he took the ‘I am not playing around” posture.

Sol was looking off to the right at the dark silhouettes of people staggering down the beach, singing loudly and off-tune, obviously drunk. He heard a yelp from Mira.

“Sol!”

He rushed into the ocean, a trail of electric blue swirl following him. He stopped knee-deep in the water, looking intently. Mira was silent and nowhere to be seen.

“Sol! It’s got me! Sol, help!” Mira was frantically fighting. She was further out, much farther out to the right. A blood-curdling scream dashed across the surface of the ocean. Mira thrashed in the water as Sol dove in and swam towards her. A man from the group on the beach also swam out to help.

Sol and the man reached each other and struggled to wade in place as small waves thrashed at them in an attempt to push them back to shore. The silence of Mira’s voice was unbearable for Sol. The ocean seemed thunderously louder and darker. The shimmers seen on the surface of the water seemed to be fading. Sol called out to Mira several times, but there was no response. Sol tried to swim further into the ocean, but the man stopped him, explaining, “We need to call the coastguard.”

Sol’s stomach turned, feeling sick and panicked. He knew the man was right. As they swam back towards the shore, a mournful, high-pitched sound intertwined with a terrifying scream echoed across the ocean. Both men stopped swimming and looked around, uncertain where the sounds came from. Brilliant electric blue ripples rushed past them as the rest of the sea fell into darkness.

Mira came to, choking and spitting up salty water. Shaking uncontrollably, she attempted to sit up and looked around in awe at the deep, royal blue strings of light hanging from the cave’s ceiling. Millions of glow worms spread over the rugged stones of the cave. Little gleaming blue speckles were scattered about the floor. She sat up to see a wide circle of ocean water near her feet. Surrounding the water were sharp jagged rocks. She looked around for openings, for a hint of light from the full moon, but was overwhelmed with the numerous glow worms and the soft light they cast within the cave.

A splash of water hit Mira’s backside, startling her. She turned towards the water, terror gripping her insides. She scraped her feet against the stone floor, desperately trying to get back from the thing crawling out of the water, staring intently at her. It grabbed her ankles with its webbed fingers. Its nails, sharp as claws, punctured her skin. The probing pain sent a shock wave through Mira’s body, forcing out the last bit of air her body held. The creature glared curiously as Mira silently screamed out. Mira looked back at the being, struggling to free her legs, but its grip was too solid. They stared at each other, the silence creating a searing tension.

Mira couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was a woman whose skin was textured with scales like a fish. Her hair was fiery, strawberry blonde, and dry. The lips and nose are small but the eyes are large, almond-shaped, and completely jet black, no white of the eye is seen. A slapping sound from the water led Mira’s eyes to the creature’s waist. The shape of legs pressed together was wrapped in a shiny, scaly, ivory color and ended with a fish's tail lined with thicker scales and tinged with radiant greens and ivory hues. Mira’s senses finally came back as her body adjusted to the pain around her ankles. She felt her right hand resting on a rounded stone vibrating from her quivering hand. She picked up the large stone and hurled it at the mermaid’s face. The mermaid screeched, letting go of the legs, and threw herself back into the water. She stared at Mira, her black eyes vexed. She turned around and dove into the water slapping her tail against the surface causing a small wave to slap into Mira.

Mira stared at the water as the chaotic ripples settled down. The mermaid did not resurface. Her eyes settled on the strange-looking rock, the stone she hurled at the mermaid's face. She picked it up, turned it around, and screamed. The skull was coated in reddish brown slime, pieces missing, and partial tissue remained where the eyes once were. Mira dropped the skull. It rolled into the water and disappeared.

Looking around her and climbing up higher on the rugged stone of the cavern, she noticed the smell of the cave, a mix of salty sea water, metallic fruity aroma, and rotting meat. The cave floor and stone crevices were littered with bones in varying stages of decay. Keeping what little she had left in her stomach down, she continued to climb further away from the water. Her mind raced as she tried to plan her escape. She couldn’t remember a cave on the island. The older locals talked of a hidden cave under the ocean’s surface. A cave that many warned never to go looking for. She couldn’t remember how she got there and if she could hold her breath long enough or even see underwater to get out.

A pop of pink color behind a boulder caught her attention. She pulled it out, discovering it was a small purse. Inside was a college ID of an American woman, Scarlet, fair-skinned, with large blue eyes and fiery, strawberry blonde hair. Mira cried as she rummaged through the bag. “It can’t be,” she mumbled in disbelief. “Sol,” she whispered to herself. Sol told her of the missing American tourist a couple of months back. A local fisherman had spread the word, an American woman had been taken by a merman. The news stated a snorkeling accident. Mira had laughed at Sol for believing the local’s superstitions.

A chaotic plashing of water interrupted her thoughts. Startled, Mira looked at the disturbed water and scanned the surface for the mermaid. She clutched her chest as her heart beat violently. A soft, circular ripple formed in the middle of the pool and spread towards the edges of the cave floor. The fiery red hair slowly rose above the surface, revealing the soft, shiny, lustrous ivory scales, then the jet-black glaring eyes. Mira held up the pink purse and whispered, “Scarlet.” The mermaid’s eyes pierced tightly. She flew straight out of the water up in the air and screamed at an unbearable high pitch. Mira slapped her hands to her ears and screamed right along with her. Distraught and breathing heavily, she opened her eyes and saw that the mermaid was gone.

She continued to crawl and slip over the stones of the cave hoping to find an opening. Mira struggled to get around the rock formations. Skulls, thigh bones, pelvis bones, ribs speckled with bioluminescent worms, or human decay made the trek nearly impossible along with the blood that continued to slowly pool over her feet from the puncture wounds around her ankles.

Mira frustratingly screamed and threw whatever her hands could find, rocks, bones, a man’s shoe. She cried while lying against a large stone, her thoughts spinning out of control. She didn’t know what to do.

A silver glimmer caught her eye. To her left, near the bottom of the cave, she saw a black bundle and something shiny. She climbed down the rocks to discover it was a pile of clothes; black pants and a blazer, a white button-down shirt, and a black belt with a silver buckle. The clothes looked shredded by claw marks and spotted with dark blood stains, only partially dry. The white shirt was soaked with blood. The breast pocket contained a wallet. Mira opened it and saw the ID of a local businessman, Alano Colon, a young lawyer the local news had been airing recently. He had gone missing from a beachside restaurant after celebrating making partner, at a law firm. Coworkers feared he had drowned.

Mira looked around at his belongings. The rocks were smeared in blood with fragments of stank skin and shimmering taupe scales. The pit of her stomach contracted so tightly that she almost fainted. She moved away from Alano’s belongings. Exhausted and in pain, she settled into some large stones, eerily shaped like a chair worthy of a king, and fell asleep.

Startled awake by a high-pitched screech, Mira sat upright, tense, struggling to breathe. She looked at the pool of water and saw rippling upon the surface. Where was the mermaid?

Movement behind a large boulder down below on the floor caught her eye. With eyes wide and barely breathing, she sat still. A head of dark hair peeked out from behind the rock. Mira couldn’t make out a face. A man’s hand slipped around the rock, revealing more of the dark, curly hair. “Alano!” Mira cautiously whispered. She said his name; again, loudly, and in a strained voice, a man yelled, “Help me.” Mira quickly climbed down the rocks.

“I’m coming. Hold on, Alano.”

She ran towards the boulder and grabbed Alano's hand. Terror exploded in Mira’s body as Alano grabbed Mira by the shoulders, and with great strength, tossed her into the water. Mira thought she saw the mermaid beyond the bubbles around her. She kicked her legs to resurface, but claws grabbed her ankles and yanked her down further. Salt water rushed into her airways. As Mira fought for air, bright strawberry-blonde hair wisped across her face as if to taunt her. Bare arms wrapped around her and brought her swiftly to the surface. She floated against a body that held her as she gasped for air. The mermaid slowly rose to the surface opposite Mira. The red hair spread across the surface of the water. The ivory scales shimmered, and her large black eyes, her eyes, seemed to be smiling at Mira, almost mockingly.

Mira yelled and struggled out of the arms that held her. It was Alano. Dark, curly hair, shimmering taupe scales scattered amongst bloody patches of skin, eyes brown with black seeping over the white of the eyes.

Mira tried to swim to the rocks but was struck by something large and flat, pushing her underwater. She turned her body around underwater and kicked away from Alano’s tail.

Alano watched Mira resurface. “Alano, please. Get me out of here…”

Alano, struggling to speak with a raspy, strained voice accompanied by dull, base-like tones and hostile eyes said, “I won’t be alone.” He grabbed Mira’s arm, pulling her to him, and opened his mouth lined with stunted, sharp teeth and bit into her clavicle, breaking the bone in two. Piercing pain shot through her skull, rendering her motionless. Mira slowly slipped beneath the surface. Alano gracefully dove into the water, waving his merman tail gently, following Mira as she sank to the deep depths of the ocean.

Mira saw the bottom of the cave beneath the water getting smaller and smaller. She couldn’t move and was not struggling to breathe as she gently sunk further into the depths of the ocean, which felt like a silky, cool covering wrapped around her body. Alano followed, his eyes turning completely black. Darkness surrounded Mira. She could not discern whether her eyes had gone black too, or she was near the ocean floor. A memory of her and Sol picking up snails when they were ten filled her mind. Her heart ached as she remembered how they would find snails on the sidewalk and place them in the grass to keep them safe from being stepped on by people passing by.

“Sir, I’m sorry, but we are heading back to shore now. We will try again tomorrow.”

Sol nodded in agreement with the coast guard and gazed at the boat's floor. The vessel’s engine roared, over the noise of the choppy waves it created. Sol turned his head towards the sunset, puzzled by an unfamiliar sound. He heard it again. He walked to the back of the boat and watched the sunset. A hauntingly, pleasant sound called in the distance, almost like a siren’s call. His gaze fell to the surface of the ocean.

He glanced over the gold shimmers, cast by the sun, dancing upon the watery surface looking for the source of the song. Something emerged out of the water just a few feet from the boat. It seemed to be following at a swift speed. Just a couple of feet away from the vessel, she emerged. Sol's stomach turned as black flowing hair, mesmerizing green eyes, patches of skin, and glistening scales came into view. It was Mira. Grief overcame Sol. They held each other's gaze, saying all they needed to without words. Mira's eyes were bright, smiling, as she turned away from Sol and dove back into the ocean.