Jake
Jake and Ashley waited on the rocks as the Fort Fisher breeze touched the shore. Jake could tell by the look on Ashley’s face she was angry and worried. She had every right to be.
“You seem like you want to say something,” he said.
“I’m just a little nervous.”
“About anything in particular?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe everything?”
“You’ve seen her before.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m still not freaked out.”
“That’s fair.” The sun was on its last few minutes before it sank into the horizon at their backs. Jake looked down, and as if by some miracle he saw it, the barrel of his gun. “Holy shit!” He got up.
“What is it?” Ashley stood at his urgency.
“It’s my gun.”
“What?”
Jake got down on his knees, and then slid onto his stomach to stretch his arm down into the deep fissure between the rocks. With just the tips of his two longest fingers, he was able to hook the trigger guard and coax the black pistol back to his hand.
He held it tight. It was more than a gun. It was a symbol of his despair. He had formed a relationship with it unlike anything he’d known before. He’d accepted that this was the device that would end his pain, his life. In a distant and hollow voice he said, “I found it.”
“You lost it?”
He nodded and smiled. “Yeah, the night I first met Ariel, I dropped it. I searched for hours the next day and couldn’t find it.”
Ashley touched his arm. “It’s still hard to believe you were really going to kill yourself.”
He looked off into the distance. “I just couldn’t get my head straight. I was really messed up.” He slid the pistol into his pocket, making sure the safety was on. “When she showed up here, all my problems just seemed so small. Even though I was positive she was a figment of my imagination. It woke me up. Just the shear idiocy of it all woke me up.”
“At least something did.”
“I guess sometimes burning down to the ashes is exactly what we need to find that phoenix inside every one of us.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m glad you did rise. I’m sorry I got so upset earlier.”
“It’s fine.” He leaned in and turned to face her. “You’ve played no small part in this, Ashley. You were real, even if she wasn’t. You made me realize there was something worth living for in this world, people who cared about me.”
She placed a palm to his cheek. “I do care about you, very much.”
The golden sky glow gave way to purple hues, darkening deeper with each passing minute. Jake looked down the beach, hoping the fishermen would pack up their stuff soon and head out.
“Do you think she’ll come?” Ashley asked.
“She always has before.”
“How does she know you’re here?”
“I don’t know. I think she just swims by and looks.”
“Or maybe she’s like some sort of psychic.”
“That’s funny, I asked her that.”
“The psychic mermaid,” she joked. “Coming to a theater near you.”
“I’m not psychic,” Ariel said from below them.
“Ariel.” Jake took a few quick steps toward her. “You came.”
“Of course. I always swim by this way at night.”
Jake looked at Ashley and smirked. “You don’t say.”
“You weren’t here last night,” Ariel pointed out.
“I know. We had an incident. Someone tried to kill us again.”
Ariel gasped. “I’m sorry.”
“Ariel, we need your help.”
“How can I help?”
“It’s your father who’s trying to kill us.”
“He’s not my father.”
“You call him father.”
“He’s my guardian. Mermaids don’t have fathers.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever. We think he’s the one trying to kill us.”
“It’s not possible. He’s a gentle soul.”
“He may be, but he could still hire someone.”
Ariel huffed, clearly getting upset. “You’re wrong. He wouldn’t do that.”
“Someone is. And no one knows we know about you.”
“Father doesn’t know, either.”
Ashley offered, “I know this would be hard to accept, Ariel, but—”
“But nothing!” she fired back. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Ashley squatted down to get closer, her face clearly fighting the urge to anger. “Not even to protect your secret?”
Ariel dunked half her face into the water, covering her mouth. After a long silence, she eased her face above the water. “It’s his job to protect me.”
“He told you that?” Ashley asked.
“Yes. All the guardians are chosen to serve and protect. It is their directive.”
Jake moved down closer, squatting next to Ashley. “Ariel, who chooses the guardians?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if the guardians have directives, who gives them those directives? If it’s a job, who’s paying them? Who’s their boss?”
Ariel shrugged and furled her brow. “That’s a lot of questions I never thought about—I just figured they were chosen by fate or destiny.”
Ashley rolled her eyes. “How simplistic.”
Ariel made the first mean face Jake had ever seen her make. “Well, I’m simplistic. I’ve led a simple life. I’m sorry if that offends you.”
“Hey,” Jake eased out the words. “We’re all on the same side here. Ariel, we just want to know what’s going on. You can understand how scared we are.”
Tears started to well up in Ariel’s big blue eyes. “We’re all scared. Life is scary and then it ends.” She started to gather herself. “I found out my time on this Earth is almost over.”
Jake frowned. “You mean…?”
She solemnly nodded. “Yes. Father informed me it was time.”
“How does he know before you?” Jake asked.
Ariel shrugged. “It’s one of the duties of the guardians. They know when it’s time for all things.”
“Ariel,” Ashley asked. “Are you sure you’re the only mermaid?”
“There is always only one.”
“Yes, but only as far as you know.”
Ariel looked confused. “I suppose that’s true. If there are others, I’ve never seen them.”
Jake stood upright. “It seems there’s a lot of things we don’t know.”
Ariel nodded. “This is always the case with my world. In your world too. Mystery is the lifeblood through which all discoveries are made.”
“How can we get into your house?” Jake asked.
Ariel searched the rocks with her eyes. “Why would you want to?”
“To find the truth.”
“I don’t understand what truth you seek. I’ve told you, Father is not the one trying to have you killed. He’s a gentle soul, he’d never hurt anyone. I promise you that.”
“Maybe so. But he knows who is.”
Ariel pushed away from the shore. “I shall ask him.” She sank under the waves and was gone.
Jake had never seen her so serious. He wondered if he’d done a bad thing. If he somehow put her in danger, he’d never forgive himself. But beyond that, he felt like he took away the one thing that made her so different from anyone he’d ever met. That one thing that made her so unique in a world full of hate and greed, it was her pure innocence. And he took that.
Ashley touched his arm. “We have to go get some clothes for tomorrow. We can’t show up to a funeral looking like we just left the boardwalk.”
Jake nodded. “I know.”