He really did not like this, and with good reason.

His red eyes watched with pure dread the figure that floated in between the derelict pillars. The shadows around him were ominous, towering, one more than the rest.

She was facing the walls; her face was unseen in the darkness. He did not know if it was a good thing or not. The entire chamber was covered in black and red, pulsing. It made him question how much fear he would feel once she acknowledged his presence. During the time he was gone, she had… redecorated; the mass was bigger.

Iara only needed to whisper faintly to make him shiver.

“Done?”

A single word implied many things, echoing firmly. It demanded confirmation, regarding a human’s death. As well, it questioned if freedom was finally viable. It hinted remembrance, his past failures. Most importantly, it required an answer, which would determine if she would kill him or not.

He could not lie; he could not go anywhere else but here. He had to warn her, admit his mistakes. Or risk invoking a rage far worse than the one he would see now.

“We might have more complications.”

His voice had tried to be calm. But his sways were anything but it. The evidence could not be hidden in his voice. Iara remained silent for a moment, seeming to ponder his words. She seemed to answer more calmly than expected.

“Both of them are still alive.”

There was a trace of consideration in her words. It was as if their prolonged existence was only a minor issue. Maybe there was even wonder in her tone. And so, the shark gulped, not finding words, too fearful of her. Vines were moving; he knew that the tunnels behind him were now sealed. She could hold and hide well her emotions. He bowed his head when she finally turned around, giving him a raise of eyebrow. She took her time to near him, with sure and proud sways. They were inches away when she interrogated him more.

“Their hearts still beat, out there. So why are you here?”

She knew already. Still, she gave him one last chance; one in which he had already failed. She wanted to hear it, whoever.

“T-they know about these ruins.”

There was a loud thud. His vision flickered black and red for a few seconds. Her hand lowered slowly while she towered over him, proudly. She watched him tremble, shaking as he dared brush his face, struck strongly. He expected stabs, cuts. Yet the minutes passed and there was only silence, her shadow just loomed. He finally dared to meet her cold gaze. She was pondering, looking at him, analyzing.

“You at least had the guts to come back and warn me, I suppose…”

The shark tried to hide his next relieved sigh. Her eyes hinted that she still found him useful, an idea for sure in her mind. Her hand moved again, and her eyes did not miss how he flinched. She only chuckled, brushing her sharp vines fondly.

“Now, tell me.” Her tail swayed sideways, her long dress drifting with her movement. “What else do they know?”

She saw them both not long ago, and neither seemed to know about the deal. Now they did, however; the shark let her know that.

“They know you found help, that you are more than before.” She was not pleased to hear it. So he grinned nervously, muffling the facts with his words. “B-but they have no fucking clue how to divide you now! You are safe in that sense.”

She rolled her eyes, because the shark leaned and pointed towards the tunnels, smiling like a fool. He was trying to bargain.

“You just have to leave this place! Wait somewhere until I manage to kill him! If they can’t find you, they can’t-!”

“Let them come.”

The shark blinked.

“What?“

She glared with a smile, her vines seeming to tremble. She had little patience left, for everyone.

“I will wait for their arrival. Let them find me.”

It was a risky move.

“B-but that-! They could-!”

She cut him off, not needing to raise her voice to make him wince and whimper like an idiot.

“They don’t know.” The merman cowered, because her hands glinted, both in azure and red hues. Due to that light, her expression was clear in the darkness, only for a moment. “I’m tired of leaving the matter in your hands. If one wants something done… they must do it themselves.”

We’ll kill them.

The mass of seaweed seemed anxious now. It was shivering all around, convulsing slowly; its moves almost sounded like pained moans, echoing all through the ruins. A shark did not dare flee, staying, seeing her command with her gaze.

As much as the parasite wished to avoid the risk, it was tired and exasperated. It wanted this to end, be free already. It could feel how its host wished to face them, see them; they needed to unleash the awful emotions tangling inside her heart. There was still resentment; it only made their shared thoughts feel more united. Each day they were more emotionless and cold.

Deep inside, she wanted to see them, feel something resembling warmth again. There was still a trace of her deep inside, vulnerability. But it was too faint by now. She had regained her own thoughts, but they were altered. She wanted to see what she reached for again… to push it away, without doubt, never to be felt again. She did not wish for it now. Her mind was set, her heart bound. The two were finally one.

All the warmth she needed was the one of blood. Nothing else could compare.

—————

 

He carefully nudged him closer. Matthew only a let out a discomforted snarl when Alon pulled at his arm, to prevent him of drifting against the adjacent walls. Something he was grateful for, even if annoyed.

The two mermen frowned with disgust, barely seeing the black seaweed around them. All the mass was crooked and drifting up; it latched on the edges of the chaotic chasm they sunk into. It was an abyss in which they could barely see. They would surely collide and tangle with the seaweed, were not for the small light below them.

Diya bit her lip, reminding herself to swim slowly. She looked all around, not having been in the chasm before. She had always lurked above it, never having dared venture down. Something they had been doing for a day. As she pondered in which direction they should dive… a complaint echoed.

“I’m fucking starving…”

Only Alon acknowledged Matthew’s sullen grumble. He had complained about another thing hours before, having had to pull his tail off some seaweed that he failed to dodge. A lot of curses had echoed, none taken well by the mermaid. Those silver eyes now looked sadly at the brunet, who was glaring down at the darkness. Both knew there was nothing to eat; nothing pleasant at least. All fish had gone away; they had been hanging on with small mussels, little to be found. But now, there was only seaweed. Not something they liked much.

Matthew hugged himself a little, shaking his fins in exasperation.

“It’s all black.”

“I know…”

Alon brushed the back of his neck, raising an eyebrow at the seaweed, worriedly. He debated if it was edible, but it did not look like it. He opened his mouth with a nervous smile, quick to try to cheer up Matthew.

“W-we can hang on for a couple of days more; I mean, we merfolk can go a lot of time without-!”

The smile on Alon’s face faded quickly, catching something. Those hazel eyes were filling with doubt; a very reasonable doubt, brought by a very important thought. His sight was not as good as theirs. He was a merman now, yet he still shared some human traits.

Can he stand that much time without food like them?

Worry gripped Alon, because he heard another grumble from Matthew’s stomach. However, before he could say anything, the brunet looked up and dismissed the matter with a forced grin.

“It has only been a day.” Matthew laughed, and Alon knew it was faked. “I can stand this. I’m not eating those things.”

Alon fumbled with his hands, bowing his head with a snarl.

“R-right… We might reach those ruins soon anyway.”

He did not miss how those translucent fins shook for a second. He did not know if reaching that place would be a good thing. Neither did. Their apprehension only grew when the mermaid exclaimed, with her usual lack of delicacy.

“Might? No, we will reach it soon.” Diya rolled around herself to frown at them, her lure leaning in a tired and exasperated motion. “I’m doing a great job leading the way in this chasm, you know? I don’t quite know how your friend managed to make her way through without my guidance. We are indeed close to the ruins, I hate it.”

She really did loathe it. She was grateful that she did not have to lead the dolphin like the shark suggested. Now, however, she had ended up doing it, for two, not one. She did not know if to laugh or shake her head. So she ended up doing both, seeing the two mermen exchange nervous looks.

“You two want to find her so much, and yet you still seem reluctant. You could be swimming faster.”

Alon was the one to argue, Matthew grateful for it, able to hide his fear.

“Well, even while swimming slowly, we have had to kick off some seaweed off our fins. And you are still bandaged up for-“

Diya waved an upper fin at him.

“That’s because you’re too clumsy! And my wounds don’t hurt that bad.” She turned around again, flinging her fins proudly. “Anyway, let’s just stop wasting time. I can’t wait to part ways! I really want to leave this place. Soon I will be able to.”

She moved faster, her lure flickering brighter somehow, not looking back at them. Matthew had to squint, because her fast moves made it more difficult for him to spot the rocks around him. Gratefully, Alon could see better, again grasping his arm gently. He helped him swim down at his side. His closeness did make him feel a faint trace of reassurance.

There was one fear that the three shared, which made them wary of every single move and sound around them. There was not a single time in which a black vine drifted close and they did not flinch. They kept thinking it could be a bloody thread, followed by the sight of red eyes.

Diya led them for another hour. Little was said, a noose in their throats. They eventually reached a big turn in the chasm. All was dressed in black past it, yet there was a faint colour in the water now. She did not feel something in the current. But Matthew certainly did. He trembled, his whole frame shivering, which made Alon look sideways at him. The waters got colder as they swam below a ridge, the last one.

Alon could almost swear the waters were as cold as the northern seas. The depths were always icy, but not this much. And they soon knew the cause. Both mermen halted dead on their tracks, their tails kicking to stop themselves, the end of the chasm finally coming to view.

Their eyes stared wide at the huge stony arc, a pulsing current emanating from it. The tunnels past it glowed in red, the pulse and the hues making them look like veins. The ruins almost looked like the insides of a gigantic beast, waiting to consume anything that dared sink into it.

If this were somewhere on land, Matthew was sure that there would be a million warning signs besides it, there to make any fool nearby reconsider going in. He couldn’t understand how Iara thought venturing was a good idea. Alon was looking down into it, with an unreadable astounded gaze. It took a minute, but he eventually spoke up firmly, his whole body tensed valiantly.

“Let’s go in.”

Matthew blinked, hearing him say that with ease. He couldn’t fathom how Alon thought it was a good idea either. He could swear on his life that he had not expected this when he heard the parasite hid in some ruins. Honestly, he did not know what he expected. This place was something right out of myth, for sure. He could not explain why the water was so red, tangling almost like blood. As well, there was no evident reason for the water to be this cold, like if a spirit haunted it.

Something did haunt it, but they knew it was very corporeal.

“Alon, do you really think that she is in there?” Alon looked down, noticing how Matthew had swayed closer, his voice faint. “I mean, she is scary and all, but come on, even she has standards! Even that parasite must have them! This place is fucked up! Like, look at it, it’s freezing, ugly as hell and-“

“She is in there.”

Matthew gave him a look, shaking his head with a scoff.

“Yeah, right, because you are psychic and you can see through-“

Alon cut him off, frowning at him, his tail kicking in the water.

“I know she is. I have a feeling in my guts.”

Matthew outright squirmed, shuddering in an exaggerated manner for his words.

“Don’t say guts! Not here, not when I’m thinking of her murdering capabilities!”

“It was only a saying!”

A mermaid floated there frozen, staring into the ruins in a trance. She was ignoring the two mermen arguing; one was trying to calm down the other, who was too shaken and troubled. Their voices echoed loudly.

“Don’t say anything that might bring bad luck! We are going to need all the luck we can get, because things can always get worse!”

“Things can’t get worse, only better! We are finally near, she’s there, I will save her, I will-“

“Alon stop fucking trying to jinx this!”

“I’m not trying to!”

“Yes, you are! You don’t know it, but you totally are! I am usually unlucky, and I know that you should never tempt fate by-!“

Matthew halted. There was a fast dash near them, something bolting. Both stared dazedly while Diya swam away, not even saying a word. Her light flickered off when she took off for higher waters, leaving as fast as she could. Had they been paying attention, they would have seen the haunted look in her eyes and her trembling fins. Fear was tearing her inside.

Matthew and Alon finally stopped arguing in vain. They watched for a full minute the outlines of her figure, slowly disappearing into the dark above. She could not handle the sight of the ruins. A sight they slowly turned to face again, reluctantly. Only the faint glow of the tunnels allowed them to see, hers gone.

The ruins did not look inviting at all. But they were almost taunting them to enter.

Matthew was the one to break the long silence, hugging his own tail, both due to his fear and cold.

“We are really going in, aren’t we?” Alon only nodded slowly, causing him to let out a shaky sigh. “W-what will we even do?”

“I don’t know.”

Again, how he hated those words. He brushed his hair, growling.

“We have argued this already, yet I don’t feel like it has helped any.”

Iara had shown dread when he neared. There had to be something he could do. Yet they didn’t have a fucking clue.

“We won’t accomplish anything floating here.” They exchanged glances, the eerie calmness of the tunnels calling like a siren. “We can only try to reach her, and see what we can do.”

Matthew did not manage to jest well this time.

“Die, maybe…”

Alon took a moment, looking up in thought with his eyes narrowed. He affirmed next, with his fists clenched.

“You won’t. I will protect you.”

The words were let out surely; he could see unfaltering will in those silver eyes, which almost glinted in the dark. So he smiled sadly, looking down at his own tail, barely able to see it.

“We are here to save her. Focus on that.”

Alon smiled too, seeing care in his hazel eyes. Matthew now knew that she had not wanted any of this to happen. She did not mean to hurt him. All the suffering they went through was due to her being controlled; she was being used and turned into something she was not. As much as he feared that something, he could not let it go.

Both mermen tensed and smiled nervously, staring at the arc. Alon could not avoid snorting when Matthew dared to joke a little, by bowing and leaning his arm forward.

“Whales first.”

Alon gladly swam ahead with a calm nod, letting Matthew follow closely at his side, slightly behind. They both felt the cold currents of the ruins brush them while they submerged into them. Their figures faded in their pulsing red waters, venturing deeper into their flow.

It was nothing like the warm tides above.