# Unnamed Mermaid Fiction



## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Yeah yeah....once again i know this should probably go in hobbies but i figure more peeps would read and hopefully comment on it here. No easy way to explain the idea except I came up with it on holiday in Fiji and hanging out with my BF's crazy Canadian family so yeah......enjoy 

Chapter 1

‘Oh come on! Now is not the time to join the mile high club,’ Zoe thought angrily, ’I’ve got to pee.’

Rocking back and forth from the balls of her feet to her toes and back again, Zoe Lawinsky stared up at the light indicating wether the toilets were engaged or not. They were. And had been for the last three years it seemed. Looking over her shoulder she wondered wether she could scramble over the seats or the food trolley that was preventing her from using the toilets at the back of the plane. They weren’t engaged. 

‘Maybe they’re smoking in there. Heck maybe they have done it and are now smoking in there,’ she thought to herself. 

In all fairness she hadn’t seen two people enter the toilets. Actually she hadn’t seen who the culprit that was now clogging the toilets and she would kill when he emerged was. It would be a he, of course it would. Women are so much more considerate than that. Unless it was that blonde air hostess with the bog boobs. In which case she would have a bit longer as she would have to reapply her make-up before showing her face again. 

So lets see. Do your thing would equal, ooh I dunno ten minutes. Maybe. Have a smoke, perhaps another five. Reapply makeup and arrange nonchalant expressions on faces, another ten maybe fifteen minutes. Exchange phone numbers that will be found by respective partners, another two minutes. So by Zoe’s calculations they should be out before they land in Honolulu where Zoe was changing flights to Las Angeles and then flying on to Detroit where she was attending college as an exchange student. 

‘Come on Zoe, think about something else,’ she thought desperately. ’Anything. Anything. Any- James Halford. Wow…dreamy James Halford. With his coal black hair, his black eyeliner and stud through his eyebrow. With those sky blue eyes that shine like the sky on a hot summers day. And his creamy white skin that makes Edward Cullen look like he has a tan. James ‘McDreamy’ Halford.’

James Halford had been in her year 12 class at school. He was the new kid in school, he got expelled from his last one. He was so bad it hurt. He smoked at the school gates, leaning against the fence with the cigarette hanging loosely between his pink lips. And those eyes. They simply glowed with contempt and loath which made his **** sexy. Around his pale neck hung a studded dog collar which matched the studded bracelet around his skinny wrist. He wore the school uniform, only because he had to but the second he was out of the gate he would pull on a torn old leather jacket and a helmet before scrambling behind his older brother on the Harley-Davidson road cruiser. 

The two brothers were in a band, The Death Peppers. James was the vocalist and Hanson, the older brother was the drummer. Zoe had seen their posters around town and they looked awesome, even more dolled up than he was at school, more leather and just way cool. He dyed his hair last Christmas holidays, Zoe’s parents said he looked like a skunk with its band of pale grey down the middle but Zoe didn’t care. He looked amazing. 

Then school ended and Zoe got a job. Just when she thought she would never see him again she did. Yeah ok it was in Snag-a-Bargain the cheesiest, tackiest, crappiest Discount Variety store since the dawn of mankind. Her uniform was canary yellow and scarlet, a mini-skirt with a polo shirt and she had to wear the cap. Didn’t matter if it gave her hat hair, she had to wear the cap. A smile, often, even when customers went off like Icelandic Volcanoes. 

Her only saving grace was lunchtimes when she would sit in the food court and James ‘McDreamy’ Halford would saunter out of guitar shop he worked in and buy his lunch. She would watch him everyday, he would dither between KFC and Subway. If he went to KFC he would get a Chicken Deluxe burger with extra mayo and a large coke. If he went to Subway he would get a 7 foot sub on a rye bread roll with olives, meatballs, extra cheese and jalapenos. She liked it when he would get subway because he would stand there with his back to her so she could stare at his taunt backside in those leather pants. Or dark stonewash jeans. But she preferred the leather pants. 

He even spoke to her once. Her usual seat was taken so she had to sit closer to the KFC stall. He had ordered subway but then as he was walking past her he looked down that hawks nose and stared into her eyes with those deep sky blue eyes. Zoe felt her heart pound out her control as she realized he was going to speak to her. He didn’t even speak to her at school. The moments felt like years as she watched his pink lips part slowly. 

“There’s mayonnaise on your chin,” he said, his voice bored and uninterested. 

By the time she had looked down, blushed, snatched up a serviette and wiped it off he was gone. ****. She remembered hoping that his next line would be ’here let me lick it off for you.’ But no, he was gone swaggering off through the crowd. 

After a year of working at Snag-a-Bargain Zoe had earned enough for her airfare to America. That had been the deal with her father, you save up for your airfare and I will pay your college fees. He was American, New Yorker actually which made him cool, and he wanted his only child to attend college in America. Her mother Danielle couldn’t understand why Zoe wanted to go all the way to America but she let her go nonetheless. 

Even though most daughters never thought their Dad’s were cool, Zoe did. Richard Lawinsky stood at almost six foot, with jet black hair and grey eyes. Zoe had inherited his height, his hair and his temperament. Richard oozed New Yorker grittiness and yet he was smoother than six year old scotch. Except for his accent which was Cockney New York. Zoe didn’t notice it and her mother loved it, but most people cringed at when he started talking. 

Danielle Lawinsky on the other hand was as Australian as they came. Blue eyes, blonde hair and a lithe tanned body. She had met Richard when he visited the Reptile park she worked at and he had passed out when she handed him a snake. Danielle never thought she would see him again but the next morning he was the first customer through the gates. And the next day and the day after that. Danielle knocked him back at first, New Yorker’s were bad news or so her friends told her. But eventually his persistence wore her down and she gave in. 

Six months later they were married and three years after that Zoe was born with her halo of coal black hair, glacier blue eyes like her mother and the birth mark on the inside of wrist. The new parents had fretted over the red mark that reminded them of a fishes tail but the doctors assured them it was perfectly normal. Over the years it had darkened but retained its shape. Zoe went through a stage of trying to hide it but in the end gave up. 

Zoe still wasn’t entirely sure where she wanted to direct her life. She kicked around ideas of graphic design, interior decorating and the like but none of them really stuck. Zoe always had been artistic, she loved blues and greens. Always. She wore black mostly in a hope James would notice her but always with electric blue or peacock green eyeliner or eye shadow. Or jewellery, she loved beads, bracelets, hair slides and huge cocktail rings, usually in silver with turquoise, ocean blues and forty shades of green. 

Even today as she stood waiting for the toilets to open, and they still hadn’t she wore bluey/green skinny jeans that complimented her toothpick legs, a black stretch top and a clique of beaded necklaces that had been designed and made by a boutique jeweller she knew. She loved the one off pieces that she found in markets or boutique stores. She loved the notion that no one else on earth could be wearing this piece. 

Her mother loved seeing her in blues and greens, she hated how her daughter wore black to fit in with the Goth crowd she kicked about with. ‘It isn’t you‘, she would say as Zoe walked out the door with her eyeliner and gelled up hair. Zoe didn’t care, she liked both sides, her Gothic side that could listen to Paramore, Evanescence, Green Day and such bands all day while drinking one‘s self silly. But then she would come home, slip into a silk dressing gown that looked like a peacocks tail, take the gel out of lions mane hair and listen to Taylor Swift and not feel even a bit guilty. Besides none of her friends came to her house or knew her well enough to know that the Goth Zoe was just a front. 

Zoe stared out the small window that had an orange strap across it and sighed. Friends. She hadn’t had too many of those. Sure she kicked around in a big group of similar, moody youths who drank, smoke, rode motorcycles and listened to hard music. But was there one she would turn to with a personal problem, one she could trust if she passed out somewhere not just leave her there? No. Not one. That had actually happened. They were all stumbling around a parking lot outside a night club when Zoe fell and bumped her head. She woke up in hospital and her parents nearly killed her. She wanted to kill the people she called her friends because it was a passing stranger not her friends who called the ambulance. 

But she still hung around them because they were the only friends she had. Oh and because they often came into contact with James and The Death Peppers.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Quite suddenly the light flicked off, the door latch clicked and the Captain stepped out. Alone. He eyed Zoe and the other three people now waiting before shrugging nonchalantly. Zoe glared at him icily as she dived into the toilet. 

‘Rotten Captain lucky he’s flying the plane or I would-,’

Zoe’s thoughts and movements were cut off a sudden lurch as the plane seemed to dive from the sky. For a few seconds they seemed to free fall, Zoe’s heart soaring into her throat as the other passengers screamed in terror when they regained altitude with a shudder. Zoe gripped the hand rails gasping for breath. What the heck was that? 

The intercom crackled to life. “Sorry about that ladies and Gentlemen. We ran into some unexpected turbulence and-,” Zoe had stopped listened as she could suddenly hear the engines. They had begun to shriek. Not whistle and certainly not the usual dull roar, but shriek like a banshee in a food blender.

The intercom died with a crackle as the plane began to list over, diving towards the ocean as it went. This time Zoe screamed as it began to roll over as she braced her legs against the door. She could hear crashes and thuds as suitcases, Duty Free and things in the overhead lockers soared out. The screams of the passengers filled her head as she clung on for dear life. 

An explosion shook the plane as the engines died at the precise moment the plane levelled out. Zoe stared at herself in the mirror, her face pale and her hair dishevelled. This wasn’t happening. It was a bad dream. These things only happened on Air Crash Investigations. She could feel the plane falling from the sky but she couldn’t do anything. She knew that she should go back to her seat but that was in Row 13. It would be carnage out there. And all the while she could hear the whistle of the wind as the air rushed past the falling plane and through the silent engines. 

Quiet suddenly there was a crash, for a moment Zoe thought they had found altitude when it was followed by another, a more violent crash that seemed to rip the world apart. Zoe could hear screams and a terrible dull groaning noise, like the plane was ripping itself apart. They had hit the ocean. For a moment she could hear nothing but water lapping against the side of the plane when distantly she heard a mammoth splash as if the rest of the plane had smashed into the water. 

Zoe suddenly felt dampness around her ankles as she stared down in horror at the water seeping through under the toilet door. She could feel the cubicle listing over backwards as she tried to pull her jeans up. Its strange what the human mind does under extreme stress, but Zoe could think of nothing except trying to wrangle back into her jeans despite the water now sloshing around her knees. 

Zoe unlatched the door but it refused to budge. She leaned against it but as more water gushed under the door, ocean water that she could taste the salt from, it built up pressure against the door and wouldn’t budge. Zoe screamed as the water rose higher and higher. If she didn’t get out she would drown. Panic overrode her mind as she fought feebly with the door. 

The water rushed over Zoe’s head as she stared through the blue veil trying so hard to bust the door open. As the curtains of darkness began to envelope her she felt herself falling. 

‘This is it Zoe. Your going to drown in a toilet in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,’ she thought. 

By the time the door opened she had blacked out so she never saw the arm reach through and pull her out towards the light.

**************
What did ya think


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Ok heres the second chapter, 20of you had viewed lets see how many can comment LOL



Chapter 2

In the depths of her unconsciousness Zoe became distantly aware that she was warm. Really warm. She could hear waves that slowly grew louder and the sound of sea birds calling out. She felt like she was being burnt. Was this hell? Were there waves and seabird in hell? She didn’t know. It didn’t make sense. Why should she go to hell, she did nothing wrong. 

Ok so there was the time she let the cane toads loose in the girls toilets at school. And then blamed someone else. Who got put on detention for three weeks. But was that a sin worthy of hell. Surely not. 

Painfully she blinked her eyes open into dazzling sunlight, azure blue skies and palm trees. She became aware of hot sand under her fingers and the sound of waves crashing on the shore. Her clothes felt damp but not wet like she had been lying here for awhile. 

‘What the hell? I should be dead. I was in a plane crash. I drowned. Maybe I am dead. Maybe I am in hell and this is just a screen saver…..or something,’ she thought. It made no sense. 

Slowly she pulled herself upright and sat crossed legged in the sand. The white sands along the beach were almost blinding as the sunlight dappled off the clear blue ocean. Waves crashed on the reef before rolling down and lapping just in front of her feet. Her throat felt dry and sore. Perhaps she had bumped it. In fact her whole body felt like it had been bumped and bruised. 

“Your awake!” A voice called out suddenly. 

Zoe whipped around and stared, her jaw dropping into the sand. 

There was another person on this island. Sorry correction. There was a guy on this beach. And he was naked. Very, very, very naked. 

He seemed oblivious of this as he swaggered towards her holding two coconuts in either hand, his long feet sinking in the sand. He was naked and judging by the deep, but not fake tan, had been for a very long time. He wasn’t overly muscular, he had definition and some decent pectoral muscles and biceps but he was what she would call buffed or muscular for that matter. He had long fingers that easily wrapped around the coconuts and as she looked high a very defined, but very sexy Adams apple. 

He had an unusual face, a snubbed nose and a very prominent, rounded chin. His eyes twinkled grey blue as he smiled show broad teeth with pointed but not vampire-ish canine teeth. As he drew closer she noticed his front teeth seemed a bit more sharper perhaps that usual. His blonde tufty hair fell in his eyes as he dropped onto his haunches before her and offered her the coconut. 

“You took quite a bump in that crash,” he grinned. 

“Your naked,” Zoe stammered. 

“You feeling alright?” he asked. 

“Your naked,” Zoe repeated. 

“Yes. I am aware of that,” he sighed. 

“Your-,” she began but he jumped in. 

“Cold? Hot? Hungry? Tired? Nauseous?” he asked sounding a bit annoyed. 

“Huh?” Zoe blinked. 

“Drink the coconut,” he sighed sitting down beside her. 

Zoe obeyed meekly, relishing the sweet, slightly fizzy fluid. He drank his seemingly in one gulp before nestling the coconut in the sand and regarding her closely. 

“What?” she asked. This still wasn’t making any sense. She was on a beach drinking coconuts with a naked guy when she should be floating down to Davey Jones locker in a water closet. It was impossible to make coherent thoughts when there was a naked guy sat right there.

“Now how do you feel?” he asked. 

“Ok I guess. Where am I?” she asked. 

“A small island about 120km off the coast of Fiji,” he responded promptly. 

“Ok,” she said. That made sense considering that they crashed about three or so hours after take off. “How did I get here?”

He grinned, his lips parting over surprisingly white, sharp looking teeth and his eyes glowing brightly. “Your mommy and daddy loved you very much and they wanted to-”

“Not that! I mean this island!” she snapped. 

He laughed, he had a silly, almost goosy laugh. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help it. What do you remember?”

Zoe blinked staring out to sea. “I remember trying to get the door of the toilet open as I sank into the ocean and then I blacked out.”

He looked down, the corner of his lips turning into a grin. He looked up at her, his tufty hair falling across the bridge of his nose. “So you don’t remember me pulling you out?”

Zoe shook her head and stared. “You couldn’t have! Were you on the plane? You couldn’t have been I have never seen you until now.”

He was still grinning at her. “Hows that bruise on your neck going?”

Zoe reached up and gasped lightly as she felt a bruise about halfway up her neck. That sat right on a main artery. Which was sore and had two scabs the size of peppercorns at the centre of them. She looked back and remembered his pointy canine teeth.

Zoe scuttled backwards through the sand, staring in horror making a strange gasping, choking noise. “You! You! How dare you! You’re a Vampire.”

“Now that’s a bit harsh. I didn’t drink your blood,” he said, sounding wounded as he got up. “That would be very ick.”

“Stay away from me!” she gasped holding up two pieces of driftwood and trying to form a cross as he swaggered towards her. 

“Can Vampires swim?” he asked. 

“What?” she asked. 

“Can vampires swim?” he repeated slower. 

“How should I know! What am I saying? They don’t even exist,” Zoe stammered. She was beginning to question her sanity. 

“Ding, ding, ding! Your exactly right. They don’t, but Mermaids do,” he stated. 

Zoe stared before bursting into laughter. “Nice try. That’s like a Yeti saying Big foot doesn’t exist.”

“Actually both do they just come from different parts of the world,” he said more to himself than to Zoe. 

Zoe thought for a moment. He had rescued her but he hadn’t been on the plane. He had the tan of someone who constantly naked or at least topless and his eyes were the most amazing blue. She shook her head. No. Its not possible. 

“What? No. No. Your not a mermaid. You’re a dude for starters!” she stammered. 

Shaking his head, he stalked down the beach and dived into the waves. He surfaced a few seconds later, hair wet but no tail. 

“Ha! See-,” she began when he almost lazily lifted his tail out of the water. And waved at her with it.

Zoe stared wide eyed. The shape of his fin reminded Zoe of a whales tail but it was translucent and spiny like most ocean fish she had seen in Aquariums. His skin that slid from the base of his tail to his waist looked smooth like skin but she could tell by the way the sunlight glimmered off it that it was made up of thousands of tiny scales. The predominant colour was a rich, almost iridescent peacock green but along the back of his tail ran a row of small dots that eventually faded into his spine that were fluorescent yellow. He had a dorsal fin along the back of his tail that rose up, spiny and beautiful. 

Zoe stood slowly and walked over to the waters edge, not for a second taking her eyes off the mermaid, or perhaps merman was the better term. With a lazy flick he propelled himself onto the sand at her feet and rolled onto his back staring up at her. 

“I had to bite you otherwise you would drown. By biting you I bestowed you with the gift of transforming into a mermaid like I can. It is a gift that only natural mer-folk can bestow only once in their life,” he explained softly. 

Zoe stared at him. Her day was just getting weirder. “Are you saying I can do that?” 

A larger than usual wave crashed onto the shore, foaming around his tail and frothing at her feet. Almost immediately she felt pins and needles coursing through her feet. As the waves receded she could see her skin begin to pimple as scales began to appear along her skin. 

“Give me your hand,” he said, his eyes glowing up at her. 

With a single flick of his powerful, peacock green tail he hauled her into the water with a squeal. She managed to gasp a breath before he pulled her under the surface where the currents pulled them towards the open ocean. Zoe could feel her lungs screaming for breath as she tried to kick to pull away from him. Tried being the operative word as she suddenly realized that her legs felt as though they had been fused together. Wrenching her hand away from him she turned upside down in the water. She had a tail. 

It wasn’t as pretty as his, it was a deep maroon with lighter coloured fins. She stared at it, feeling the long, spiny flukes in her fingers. She could actually feel her hands on her tail, like she had nerves in there. It felt real, like it belonged to her. She flicked it cautiously, curving through the water, twisting and diving. She began to laugh when she suddenly realized that she could also breath under water to, through her nose or mouth and then out gills that had slit staring just below her ear-lobe and down past her jaw. She also realized with a slight squeal she was naked, well topless to be precise, her pale breasts hanging loosely.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

he looked over at him as he seemed to hang just below the surface with the biggest grin on his face. She didn’t know if that was because she was a mermaid like him or because she was topless. “Don’t worry. Its only people that mess around wearing clothes. We mer-folk are very open with nudity.”

Zoe gasped a trail of bubbles. “You can hear my thoughts?”

His goosy laugh rang lightly in her head. “I have been listening to them all morning but I figured you had enough on your mind.” 

“How come I cant hear your thoughts?” she asked. She could hear the current stirring through the sand and the waves pounding on the reef but she couldn’t hear him thinking. He could hear his voice in her head but not actual thoughts. 

“Practice. Natural mer-folk are born with the gift but you will just have to practice,” he responded. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

Zoe took his hand as he led her to a gap under the reef. He explained he could jump the reef but she hadn’t been swimming enough. Plus this way was safer. He led her into the deeper water, passing schools of fish that skittered out of the way. Here the water glowed blue, but comforting blue. She noted that he only had to flick his tail occasionally but she had to constantly bat hers simply to keep up. Again he explained that she would develop those muscles in her fins with strength. 

After swimming along the sandy bottom they came to another reef. They skimmed just under the surface, dodging the columns of coral that rose up around them in every colour of the spectrum. Fish too darted between the coral, anemones waved in the currents and even Manta rays soared about. Zoe stared about herself in disbelief. Only a few hours ago she was a person, on a flight, headed to college and then she crashed and her life was turned on its head. No actually it was thrown out the window. She then remembered he could hear her thoughts but decided to ignore the grin on his face. 

A sudden rift in the ocean floor appeared the corals growing either side. With a powerful flick he dragged Zoe deep into the canyon. The water was cooler down here as they dived deeper and deeper into the rift as everything went darker around them. Zoe could feel the crushing pressure of the water but she could still breath easily. Almost near the bottom he stopped near a small hole. 

“Ladies first,” he grinned. 

“What’s in there?” Zoe asked staring cautiously into what she supposed was a black hole in the side of canyon. 

“Just trust me,” he said patiently. 

“That’s the point. I don’t. You bit me and changed me into a mermaid without my consent. I mean is there even an age of consent for being bitten by a mermaid?” she said swimming into the narrow hole. 

She could hear his silly laugh as he followed her into the hole. The narrow tube suddenly widened as it opened into a cave. The white sand at the bottom was illuminated by the light filtering through the rainbow spectrum of coral high above their heads. There were Angler fish in here too, the lights on their head glowing like living chandeliers. Zoe stared about her in awe as he swam over and sat on a trunk nestled in the white sand. 

“Its amazing!” she gasped. 

“Yeah this is my hideout. When I want to get away from things I come here. I was in here when I heard your plane hit the water. That’s why I swam over,” he explained. 

Zoe swam over to him. “I suppose I owe you a thank you. You did save my life and you gave me something that you can only give once.”

He seemed to blush slightly. “Why?” Zoe asked. 

“Why what?” he stared at her blankly. 

“Why rescue me?” 

“Why not.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He shook his head. “Come I will show you the crash.”

Zoe followed him out of the cave and back up towards the surface. To her surprise the beginning of the crash site wasn’t that far from the edge of the reef. Like she had seen so many times on telly, bits of plane were littered across the ocean floor. As they swam through it she discovered that the plane had been torn into two pieces, the nose section which included the toilets and then the rest of the plane. The remainder of the fuselage was badly mangled and Zoe could feel the sticky aviation fluid against her skin. 

To see the plane lying at the bottom of the ocean; luggage, bits of fuselage, metal, the food trolley, all scattered about filled Zoe with sadness. By the looks of things she was the only survivor and then again that was by default. 

“Can we go now?” his voice asked. 

“Why?” she said looking around. 

“There’s fuel or something in the water and its making my skin feel itchy,” he said looking decidedly uncomfortable. 

“Maybe your allergic to it,” she reasoned. “I don’t mind, I feel tired anyway.”

He took her hand as they swam away from the crash. He glanced at her and grinned slightly. “I’m not surprised all this swimming and at depth too.”

By the time they reached the reef that guarded the island, Zoe was exhausted. She wrapped her arm around his and stopped swimming letting him toe her to the shore. He looked down at her smiled broadly. He was all smiles this one. Riding in on a wave and with a single flick they slithered up onto the shore, Zoe rolling into his arms. 

High above them, the moon glowed through the palm trees and the stars shone brightly. Zoe stared up into his wide blue eyes as he brushed some of her hair from her eyes. She could feel his powerful tail sweep under hers as his long arms wrapped around her. 

“I don’t even know what your name is,” she whispered. 

“Josiah,” he smiled softly. 

“Zoe,” she murmured just before he leaned down and kissed her.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

No one? No one is going to comment????


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## saint3meg3rlfc (May 16, 2009)

I quite like it. But I think having all of the vampire references takes away from it a bit. Kind of like you're pushing the idea too far that "vampires are cool"

It took me a while to get interested, but once I did it wasn't half bad.

Just watch your pacing, you seem to be moving things very fast. Think how the human mind would react to a certain situation. If she'd just crashed on the island she wouldn't be thinking clearly. 

Also, in the first chapter you spent a lot of time talking about James, it feels weird that in the next chapter you have her kissing a random bloke who she's only just met.

Watch your descriptions, you seem to have made everyone really perfect. (Blonde hair, blue eyes, really skinny) Of course, there are people who look like this, but to have all of your characters have this awe makes it seem a bit unrealistic.
Can't wait to see where you take it


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Thanks  
Things get explained a fair bit more later on....with James and stuff. And no Im not pushing Vampires are cool LOL Im the biggest Twilight hater out there 
Anyways glad you enjoyed it......I shall post the next chapter shall I??


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Chapter 3

Zoe woke higher up on the beach, with legs. It seemed that once her skin dried her fins changed back to legs which would come in handy she supposed. And she was alone. 

The sun had just crested over the horizon, the orange and reds bathing her pale naked skin. Zoe could see the smooth patch in the sand where Josiah had slept beside her and she couldn’t help but smile. She had spent the whole night lying in the arms of a merman but then she realized now that from the second her plane crashed into the ocean, her life was never going to be the same. So somehow spending the night with a merman didn’t seem so weird after all. 

Getting up she followed the only set of footprints along the beach. They turned abruptly in land where she lost them. The interior was cool and shady, the breeze stirring through the palm fronds that clashed together like distant maracas. Her feet swished through the earthy smelling leaf litter as she suddenly spotted Josiah. 

He was naked of course, not that she cared any more but he was up a tree which she thought could get painful. It was a mango tree she realized as he hopped between branches looking for fruit. 

“Hey,” she called out. 

Josiah looked around. “Hey! Your awake. I thought you might fancy some mangos. I couldn’t be bothered hunting up some lobsters.”

Within a few seconds he was back on the ground with two mangos which he handed to Zoe. After examining it for a few seconds, Zoe sank her teeth into the bitter skin ane began to pull the flesh off. The insides were soft and juicy. Josiah made short work of his mango, throwing the pip over one shoulder and wiping the juice from his chin. 

Zoe was about to bite into the flesh again when she realized he was looking at her, his eyes wide and a steady smile creasing across his lips. With a flash of cheekiness he dipped his head and kissed her, Zoe tossing aside her half eaten mango and throwing her arms around his neck. They kissed for a few moments when laughter broke out through the dawn. 

Josiah pulled away and groaned as Zoe looked around to see two women, naked stood a few meters away splitting their sides laughing. Both had black, dead straight hair that swept to their waists and blue eyes that were the same hue as Josiah’s but was the most unusual shape. Both had lithe figures although the shorter and she supposed younger one had a much thinner figure than the other one. Both wore a mass of beads, bracelets and trinkets. 

Zoe supposed by the fact they were butt naked and because she had heard no boats that they too must be mermaids. “Uhh hi,” she grinned. 

“I cant believe you just kissed him and didn’t upchuck,” the younger one laughed. 

Zoe stared blankly from the two girls who were obviously sisters to Josiah. “Uhh do you know these two?” she asked him.

He nodded sheepishly. “They’re my sisters.”

“Son! There you are! We swam the seven seas trying to find you,” a shorter, older woman rushed in. She had tufty, dark blonde almost brown hair that fell to the middle of her back and plenty of beads as well. And yes, she was naked too. Zoe had never remembered seeing quite this many nude people in one spot. 

“Hey, he’s over here we found him!” yelled a male barrelling through the hedges. He had dark hair, dark blue eyes and stood taller and broader than Josiah. He didn’t appear to be related by blood to Josiah but she could tell by the way he roughed Josiah up that he was somehow related.

“He is! Holy smokes!” the last to barrel in was clearly the patriarch of the bunch. He entered from the opposite direction to everyone else as Zoe turned and eyed him. He had grey hair that slicked back over his head, sagging skin and grey eyes that eyed Zoe with suspicion. He stalked up to her, looked her in the eye and then at Josiah who looked sheepish. The others had fallen quiet. “Who is that?” he directed at Josiah. 

“That’s Zoe,” he chuckled nervously. 

“I didn’t ask you what her name was,” he said sharply. Zoe backed away a step, this dude did not seem happy. 

Josiah winced and came over. “I….well she was going to drown and I knew I couldn’t get her to surface in time to save her so I bit her.”

There was an outbreak of contempt as the younger sister rolled her eyes, the older called him an idiot, the other male groaned and his mother she supposed he was merely gave him a look. The older male who she guessed was his father rounded on Josiah and folded his arms. 

“You didn’t,” he said flatly. Josiah managed a grin and nodded with a humorous shrug. 

“I don’t get it? He saved my life,” Zoe broke in. 

“The only way for Mer-folk to attain immortality is to bite a human,” his mother explained patiently. 

Zoe looked around at Josiah who grinned sheepishly. “He probably only did it because you was an easy target,” his older sister snorted. 

“That’s not true!” Josiah broke in angrily. 

“Oh right like you love her or something,” the older sister retorted. 

“I do!” Josiah bit at the same precise moment Zoe said “He does.”

“Stay out of this land dweller,” his father said not even looking at her. “She is a person. She may have a tail and she may breath underwater but she is not one of us. You will take her to the fifth reef, the people are there looking at the crash. They will take her back to her people.”

Zoe blinked in horror and Josiah gasped. “No. She is one of us now she cant-”

“Son. I don’t want to banish you. Your young and your stupid, most of the time. She can survive out of water but you cant. But that doesn’t mean I wont banish you to the land if you push me there,” he said, his eyes dark and his voice deadly calm. 

“You cant make me take her back. She‘s the chos-,” Josiah raged, his blue eyes flashing. 

Zoe grabbed his arm. “No. He’s right.”

The whole group seemed to stare at her in surprise as Josiah looked down at her. Zoe nodded. “I will return to the land and I promise not to say anything about what I have seen.”

His father looked surprised and somewhat smug. “A wise land dweller. There’s a change,” he mused. He then turned to his seemingly errant son. “You will take her back immediately.”

Josiah nodded in defeat and took Zoe’s hand. Zoe cast a glance over her shoulder at his family stood on the beach watching them leave before looking back at the ocean. The sun had risen into the clear blue sky as Josiah dived in. Zoe followed him and swam hurriedly after him as he led her to the gap in the reef. They swam in silence past his hideout and beyond that reef. Instead of veering to the right where the crash site stood they followed the currents off to the left where one would naturally float to.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

After swimming for ages they came to the reef. It soared out of the ocean bed, the waves foaming and crashing above them. The water was clear and blue, schools of silvery fish darting and wheeling through the water. Josiah stopped swimming and looked back at her. 

“Why? Why did you let them send you back? We could have done so much together,” his voice echoed in her head, the sadness profound in his eyes. 

Zoe shrugged, staring down at his hand. “Maybe they are right. We are two different species and I am from the land.”

“Yes but you could learn. I could teach you so much about the sea,” he said. “Or I could follow you to land and you-”

“Your Dad said you wouldn’t survive,” Zoe pointed out. 

“Ok I should explain that. Mermaids do live out of water, we just have to soak our skin for at least an hour a day otherwise we dry up and they die. We have to keep really hydrated but we can and do live out of water,” Josiah explained. 

“So I could have a mermaid as a neighbour?” Zoe blinked. 

Josiah managed a vague chuckle but he still looked sad. “You wouldn’t know any different unless they told you.” 

“Will I have to remain hydrated and soak my fins?” she asked. 

Josiah shrugged. “Not as much as a true mermaid. You could probably go a few days without having to soak and you would be fine.”

Zoe nodded softly, watching a clownfish behind Josiah dive in and out his purple anemone home. She wanted to stay and learn. But more than anything she wanted to be with him, to wake up on a deserted island in the arms of a mermaid. She sighed. His father had a point though. She wasn’t from here. And she didn’t want to make trouble for him. 

“Once you get up on that rock, your fins will dry and people have been coming through here for the last few days. They will see you and take you-,” he paused, trying to spit out the last word. “Home.”

“Yeah,” Zoe nodded dully. 

Zoe looked at him sadly and then threw her arms around him. He tightly wrapped his arms around her waist as she curled her tail around his. She could feel his heart hammering in his chest as the current rocked them gently. She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay in his arms like this forever. Slowly he pulled away and stared down at her, unwinding one arm from around his neck. Gently he ran a thumb over her birth mark, the fishes tail on the inside of her wrist. 

“I will always remember you by this,” he said softly. 

Zoe leaned up and kissed him passionately. After a few moments she pulled away and despite himself he was smiling. “Forget the birthmark, I will remember you by that night on the beach.”

His silly, goosy laugh rang in her head as he grinned slyly. “Ok. Remember me by that then.”

Underwater, sound carries a long way so they both heard the boat long before it would appear on the horizon. “Theres my boat,” Zoe sighed. 

“I’ll give you a push,” he said. 

They both popped out of the water just as the boat appeared on the horizon. It was a search boat Zoe noted as Josiah pushed her onto the single rock that jutted out of the water. She could feel the sun hit her maroon fin as the pins and needles spread through her fin. Within a couple of minutes she had her legs back as Josiah stared at her from the water. Zoe rubbed the last vestiges of scales from her calves just as she heard a splash. She didn’t know if it was the wind but she heard a voice say ‘I love you’ just as she spotted his peacock green tail vanish through the water. 

Zoe looked up, the boat drawing ever closer. Pulling herself up she waved her arms frantically as the boat slowed. As they drew closer she could see the disbelief on their faces, maybe because they thought there was no survivors or because she was naked. On a rock. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She didn’t know. 

She was hurriedly pulled on board, wrapped in towels and given a corn beef sandwich, the only food they had on board. One of the men on board who had a first aid course checked her over and then an hour later checked her over again. They were all in awe as she told them that she had survived only because she was inside the dunny. But instead of telling them she was rescued by a mermaid because she couldn’t get the door undone she simply told them the door had ripped off with the impact and she swam out, clinging to a piece of wreckage until she came to this rock. They couldn’t believe her condition. No dehydration, no injuries and not even starved. 

Very soon her miraculous story reached land. The only survivor of the doomed flight who had survived inside the dunny. It was a bit nerve racking flying back to Australia but her parents were at the airport waiting for her, tears streaming down their faces. They embraced her wildly. They thought she was dead. 

But that night as she crawled into her own bed she spotted a mermaid snow globe that had been given to her one Christmas and it all came back. Picking it up, she shook the snow inside and felt tears sting the back of her eyes. Josiah. Was he thinking of her? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she missed him. Terribly.


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## LauraKate (Jan 9, 2010)

Kiki, you are scaring me. Your story is... Well... Not exactly G rated. Far from it. Plus, I have never heard of mermaids (or, mermen) biting. There has to be some other way. Seriously. Vampires do not belong in a mermaid story. Nor dose nudity find its place on a public forum. I don't intend to be mean, but this just isn't right.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Ok Im sorry if I have caused offence, that wasnt the idea and Im sorry if people are squeamish about nudity....
As for the biting business, I couldn't think of any other way for Josiah to revive Zoe and to gain immortality. They are not vampires (they dont suck blood) they are mermaids.....


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Chapter 4
Eleven years later

“You rat,” Zoe Lawinsky-Hayden thought with a sleepy grin. 

He knew the sun crested right over the hedge out the front of their apartment and straight into her room. He knew she hated being woken up by anything before 8am. Just like he knew that she hated him using her coffee mug, or leaving his underwear on the bathroom floor or putting shark ornaments in her tropical fish aquarium in the living room because it scared the fish. He wouldn’t know that but she could hear their little voices squealing as they swam around the opposite side of the tank. He couldn’t hear it but she could. 

Zoe rolled out of bed, ticked the day off on the calendar and blew a kiss to the framed photo of herself and Daniel Hayden, her fiancée that stood on the beside table. “Only six more weeks you rat and we’ll be married.”

He merely grinned out of the photo frame his brown curls tumbling in his dazzling green eyes. He was a general surgeon, gentle and caring, hoping to get into treating children’s cancer later on. She loved him, madly even, from the first moment she met him. She had gone clubbing with her girlfriends and he had gone clubbing with his mates. The two groups ran into one another at a bar in Brisbane’s centre and the pair had clicked right there and then. 

Her mother loved him and her Dad thought he was ’a good sort’. And he was. They had dated for six months before he moved into the flat she owned. At New Years last year he had proposed. 

Zoe stepped into the bathroom, running water into huge two person bath tub. After she had saved for the deposit for her own home she went house hunting. All the houses and apartments she came across were too old, too bog, too small or just wrong. And then she found this one, saw the two person bath and bought it. Ok, so she never actually shared the bath with Daniel for obvious reasons. Zoe rifled through the clutter of towels and pulled out a bag of rock salt and scattered it into the water. 

Looking up in the mirror she told herself that she hadn’t told him her secret for his own good. He didn’t need to know. Thankfully he wasn’t the ‘save water, shower with a friend’ type anyway, despite the drought. Zoe unclipped her hair and let it fall well past her waist. Since her time on the island she had never cut her hair, or dyed it for that matter. She couldn’t do it, it felt wrong and dye seemed to stop sticking to her hair. Even permanent dyes washed straight out like her hair was waterproof or at least dye proof. 

Stepping into the bath she felt the pins and needles course through her veins as the maroon scales rippled along her legs. With a deep sigh she slipped under water and let her tail hang over the edge of the bath tub, gladly breathing in the salty water. She could breath tap water but it felt odd, perhaps due to the chlorine. So she added salt, lots of salt. She hadn’t soaked in a couple of days because she had been so busy with wedding plans and work, so as usual it felt wonderful just to let her skin soak up the fluid. Sort of like moisturiser for mermaids. She had tried that, moisturising instead of soaking but her skin reacted in large red rashes to that idea. Daniel said he saw it often in new babies, their skin which was used to being in a fluid environment didn’t adjust well to moisturizer. Zoe said nothing, glad he didn’t follow that thought any further. 

After an hour and a half soaking, Zoe rolled out onto the bath mat and rubbed her fins dry. Once they had changed back to legs she got up and found some clothes before ambling downstairs. Flicking the light on, she glanced over and rolled her eyes. No matter how many times she told him that her tropical fish didn’t like shark figurines in the tank he still did it to annoy her. Dipping her arm in, she fished it out and watched as they cautiously swam back over to that side of the tank. “All gone guys,” she said, deciding to chuck the shark out before Daniel got home. 

“Thank you, thank you,” their voices chorused in her head. 

“He’s a meanie,” piped up one of her Trigger fish. 

“He just doesn’t know any better,” Zoe tried to explain. 

“He’s a big smelly meanie,” retorted another. Trigger fish, trigger happy. Always going off at the mouth. 

Zoe ignored them, as they continued to natter on in the back ground, their high squeaky voices dimmed out by the coffee machine. She got used to that, Daniel of course wouldn’t know but the fish in her tank never shut up. Or the dolphins at Sea-World. That was a touch unpleasant, Daniel by their third date had ascertained that she had an affinity with the sea so he took her to Sea-World and booked a private dolphin feeding session.

The dolphins saw her coming and not for the first time Zoe wanted to know how sea-creatures knew that she was a mermaid. They went nuts, as captive bred dolphins they had heard about but never seen a mermaid. The four dolphins dived and splashed begging her to join them in the water. The trainers were stunned, they had never seen the dolphins take to anyone like her but of course they wouldn’t know why. It took every inch of will power not to dive in with them. She had of course completely forgot about Daniel who stood back and watched this all. She apologized for ignoring him but he hugged her, kissed the top of her head and old her that this was the happiest he had ever seen her. 

After coffee and toast, Zoe hopped into her Nissan Micra and headed off to her latest assignment. Two days ago, Zarifa Gorman, the new wife of Australia’s highest selling Author swept into her office with her wavy mass of black hair that fell to her waist and her deep ocean blue eyes. Zoe remembered a chill running down her spine as she gripped her manicured hand but she couldn’t explain why. Zarifa was stunningly beautiful, sweet and lovely. But as Zoe drove to the rundown mansion she wanted her to redecorate, she couldn’t help but feel there was something more. 

Zoe loved her job. She was aware very few people could truly say that they loved their job, but she did. She was an interior designer and arguably the best in Brisbane despite being only 25. She had already won a swag of awards for her firm for her cool, relaxing interiors that everyone said made them feel calm. And living in the city there were few places that made people feel calm.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

When her current project was built it was known as Marlin House, intended for a former prime minister but hardly ever, if ever got used. So it was sold to a mining magnate who also hardly lived in it. From there it had a handful of owners, none who knew the meaning of upkeep or maintenance let alone re-vamp. Then Zarifa’s husband bought it and his new wife set to work with Zoe. 

She was stood on the front steps, her black hair held loosely in pony tail and her eyes rimmed in black eye liner. Zoe still couldn’t shake that feeling but smiled as Zarifa hopped down the steps bubbling with enthusiasm. She was tall and lean, wearing tight red skinny jeans and a floaty white top. 

“I like it. Its big but not over the top,” Zoe commented as she stepped from her car. 

“You have to see the inside,” Zarifa said taking her arm and toeing her to the front door. 

Inside the paint was peeling and cracked. The tiles needed replacing and an air of general decay hung in the rooms as Zoe followed Zarifa about. The only room that was decent was the kitchen, even though the tiles like in the entry/foyer area were cracked and chipped. And yet Zoe could see what Zarifa could. Potential and loads of it. 

The two women sat at the bench with the stacks of magazines, portfolios and files that Zoe had brought, drinking coffee and laughing about possible asbestos in the wall lining. Zoe knew the house was about ten years to young to worry about that but that didn’t stop the dust bunnies from floating about. 

“Oh that’s amazing!” Zarifa oozed suddenly. 

Zoe leaned over and smiled at the sample picture of the black marble studded with fossils of trilobites. “I know isn’t it.”

“I wonder if I could convince Russ into making a kitchen bench at least from it,” she grinned before taking a deep swig of water from the bottle that she had carried all through the house. 

“I saw a bathroom done with it once, amazing stuff. Cost a small fortune mind you,” Zoe added. 

Zarifa flicked through a few more things before looking at Zoe closely. “So what plans do you have?”

“This is your house not mine,” Zoe pointed out. 

“Oh yes I know, but you’re a pro. I saw that house you did in Manly. Loved it darling, loved it,” she grinned. 

That house had been a pest but Zoe took the beach and brought it inside but in a non-tacky way. It felt like a beach house when in fact it was the family’s 24/7 house. She had loved that house by the time she finished with it even if she had hated its boxy shape when she first saw it. Zoe nodded. 

“I have a few ideas but I will get back to you within a week about the prelim plans ok?” 

Zarifa put her water bottle down after another swig. “Of course. Take all the time you need.”

Half an hour later, Zoe pulled away from the mansion, her mind spinning with ideas and possibilities. That house had so much potential and Zarifa had given her virtual free-rein. That entrance particularly. She could do so much with that. 

A sudden trilling made Zoe look down. Her phone had been quiet this morning, taking one hand off the steering wheel she found her ear-piece and answered. 

“Hi,” drawled Madelyn her assistant. She was a nasally, bottle blonde who was just a bit too good at her job to sack. Besides Zoe was virtually never in the office anyway. 

“What’s up?” Zoe asked, merging into the next lane. ‘Ooh look there’s a McDonalds ahead. I could do with food,’ she thought. 

“There’s a guy waiting for you in your office, says its urgent,” she said. 

“Who is he? Wedding related? Work related? Friend? Foe?” Zoe asked. Madelyn could be very vague at times like this. 

“He wont say. Says he’s a friend. He’s a real spunk too,” Madelyn dropped her voice slyly. 

Zoe rolled her eyes. Madelyn dated tossers, so if she thought he was a spunk he was probably a sleazy, greasy gambling addict or something. “Ok tell him I’ll be there shortly.”

‘More work‘, she thought hanging up. ‘Like I don’t need more. I still haven’t sorted out a caterer for the wedding. And the flowers. And the bridesmaid dresses. Hell lets hang the bridesmaids. Not literally, just in the no more bridesmaids sense. One was Daniel‘s sister who nominated herself for the job and wouldn’t go away and the other was Jess, her half cousin who she also didn’t like that much.‘

The drive from the mansion back to the office took only half an hour and soon enough she was striding through the glass doors, nodding at work colleagues, eyeing of the food cart and thinking about coffee. Madelyn handed her a stack of portfolios she had requested as she strode towards her office. She had completely forgotten about the visitor by the time she stepped into her air conditioned office. 

But the second the high backed chair swung around, Zoe felt her heart stop. There, staring at her, with his pink lips turned up in the corners, his grey blue eyes shining and his tufty blonde hair was Josiah. With legs. Dressed in stonewash jeans and a singlet. Very un-naked but it was him alright.

“Hello Zoe,” he grinned. 

With a gasp Zoe collapsed, blacking out as Josiah dived and caught her.


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## saint3meg3rlfc (May 16, 2009)

I haven't had time to read your current chapter. I'll do so in a minute.

I think what people are getting at with the "vampire" thing, is that it takes away from your story as being original. Instead of asking if He was a vampire, she simply could have regarded in shock the fact that she was bitten.

It's not a major plot point/issue, but if you're seriously considering moving forward with this story, it's something you should consider  Also, again I think your plot is developing rather quickly. One minute Zoe is kissing someone on the beach, and the next she's back with her parents in her bead. It makes it harder to read because it disrups the flow of the story

You've inspired me to pick up my story again. I might try posting some of it up here


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## saint3meg3rlfc (May 16, 2009)

Just another note

When you relate Zoe's bite to her being attacked by a vampire, you could avoid it by saying she simply could have been in shock the fact that she was bitten. If she responded by spluttering about how she had been bitten it shows she is unable, at the moment, to make connections with her thoughts. I understand you want people to make the connection between being bitten and being immortal, but you could have added a scene between Zoe and Josiah where he explained to her what it means to be a mermaid.


Also, I found the scene where she met Josiah's family a bit strange. How did Zoe know that they were related? She'd never met a mermaid before. for all she knew they could all look alike


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Hmmmmm thats an intresting idea....about perhaps having a dialouge more about being a mermaid etc......
As for the plot, part of me dosnt want the reader to get bored with details but at the same time I feel bad that its moving too fast and my readers are having a hard time keeping up. This is just a rough draft of course so I may think of way to slow the plot down just a touch or something......


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## saint3meg3rlfc (May 16, 2009)

Kiki said:


> Hmmmmm thats an intresting idea....about perhaps having a dialouge more about being a mermaid etc......
> As for the plot, part of me dosnt want the reader to get bored with details but at the same time I feel bad that its moving too fast and my readers are having a hard time keeping up. This is just a rough draft of course so I may think of way to slow the plot down just a touch or something......


I think the dialogue would really help. I don't think you have to worry about it being "boring" because it's moving at a slower pace. I as a reader found that I wanted it to be explained at certain points.

I look forward to your update


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Oh ok.....well now Im stuck LOL...do I continue writing or do I fix these chapters first LOL Hmmmmm
xD


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Heres the next chapter. Enjoy 

Chapter 5

Six months after she returned from the crash, Zoe had pushed herself too hard on a night out. Since becoming a mermaid she had her suspicions at the origins of the saying ‘drinking like a fish’ because it took double the amount alcohol of what most her friends drank to even get her tipsy. So usually by the time her friends were tripping over things and throwing themselves at random strangers, she was just starting to wind up. But this one particular night she had been drinking since 2pm at a friends place so by midnight she was hammered. Normally she remembered her trusty water bottle, as alcohol dehydrates which is of course deadly to mermaids. But this time she hadn’t remembered to bring it or lost it in the chaos. Zoe woke up in hospital, on a drip and with all the nurses staring at her in awe. 

They were hooking her up to her fifteenth drip bag. 

But she remembered the sensation of waking up, the world swimming in black and white and everything rocking like she was underwater. It felt the same except Josiah’s face was looming in her vision. Oh and Madelyn’s. ****. 

“Its ok, I’ve got her,” he said gently propping her upright. 

Madelyn looked panicky but after a few moments when she realized that her boss wasn’t going to die, she left them be. By then Zoe was sitting up on her own and drinking greedily from the water bottle. She shouldn’t be dehydrated but Josiah was insisting she drink. As soon as the door clicked shut, Zoe looked across at him before pegging the water bottle at him. Josiah burst out laughing, that same, silly goosy laugh that Zoe remembered from that brief flash in time on the island. 

“How dare you walk in my life now! What are you even doing here?” Zoe gasped. 

Josiah tried to help her up but she ignored his hand pulling herself up on the edge of the table. He watched her sit shakily in the chair before sitting back down in the one opposite. “I always promised myself I would come find you.”

“And thank me for giving you immortality,” Zoe said dryly.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Josiah coughed slightly. “Its not like that.”

Zoe leaned back, folding her arms and fixing him with a glare. She looked older, more mature but apart from the stronger line around his jaw and filling out a bit, he hadn’t changed. Still that boyish. “Oh really. I haven’t heard a blip from you in I dunno, ten years and you suddenly swan or should I say swim back into my life,” she said frostily. 

“Eleven years actually,” he corrected. 

“No matter. You could have called or something,” she continued. 

“Skype doesn’t work so good underwater and message in a bottle is so unreliable,” he grinned. 

Zoe merely glared but she could feel herself weakening. That smile and the way his lips tuned up in the corners and his hair fell in those eyes which twinkled with mischief. Suddenly her eyes fell on the picture of Daniel. Snap. Daniel. He wouldn’t like this, not that she had told him obviously but you couldn’t hide Josiah under a mountain and the two would run into one another sooner or later. Sooner knowing her luck.

“That’s a nice ring,” Josiah said casually motioning at the rock that Zoe wore on the appropriate finger. 

“Stop reading my mind,” Zoe glared. 

“I cant help it. Besides it explains the burning smell is this room,” he chuckled. 

“Ha, ha, ha,” Zoe laughed dryly. 

“Hows the fins working for you?” he leaned forward, dropping his chin into one hand and grinning at her. 

“They’re a nuisance. I want my money back,” she replied. 

“Well your not having my immortality.”

“How does that even work? I mean what if you get injured or something?”

Josiah shrugged. “Don’t really know. I’m the first mer-folk to attain immortality in 200 years.”

“Gee I wonder why,” Zoe said dryly. 

They regarded one another for a few moments, Zoe’s mind involuntarily slipping back to that night on the beach. Quickly she quashed that thought but not before Josiah grinned smugly at her. ****, she hated that he could hear her thoughts. At least Daniel couldn’t do that. 

“_Daniel is it. Hmm I have a cousin Daniel, as gay as a nudibranch_,” Josiah grinned, his voice echoing in her head. 

“_Leave. My. Thoughts. Alone_,” Zoe glared across the table at him. 

“I bet you haven’t told him your half fish. Wow, there’s a wedding night confession ‘Darl there’s no easy way of saying it but I’m a mermaid,” Josiah said before trailing off in hysterics. 

“I might as well say I’m a mermaid whose had a sex change and be done with it,” Zoe grumbled despite herself. 

Josiah laughed. “No only molluscs can do that.”

Zoe sighed deeply. “Really what are you doing here? I’m getting married in a month so if its to sweep me back to that island, forget it.”

Josiah suddenly looked serious. “I…well we need your help.”

“We?” Zoe asked. 

“My family, well all Mer-folk I fear,” Josiah said, suddenly grim. “I fear you’re the only one who can help us.”


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Ok so heres the latest chapter. Please post comments  

Chapter 6
“Let me get this straight,” Zoe began, her mind ticking over. “You want me to come with you to the underwater head quarters of all Mer-folk to talk to the King.”
Josiah nodded. “As I said, you are the first person who has been changed in 2000 years and we need an agent above the surface. We Mer-folk can live above land but we have to remain near the coast. You on the other hand can go anywhere.”
Zoe stared at him. “I’m getting married in a soon, I have caterers to hire, florists to talk to, bridesmaid dresses to sort out and then there’s this new house I’m decorating for Zarifa. I cant just drop everything to go meet the king of Mer-Folk and have cucumber sandwiches.”
“Sea cucumbers don’t go well in sandwiches,” Josiah said, clearly ignoring her dilemma. “Oh and the bread goes all-”
“Are you not listening! I cant do it! Go bite someone else!” Zoe raged. 
Josiah laughed. “A mer-person can only bite one person ever.”
“Well get your sister or someone, anyone to grab a random stranger,” Zoe continued, shuffling papers and pretending to be busy. 
Josiah leaned across the table and placed a hand on top of hers, the warmth immediately zapping down her veins like wildfire. Her hands froze, as slowly she looked up meeting the gaze that sent her stomach whizzing into butterflies. Zoe felt her heart begin to hammer. Those twinkling, blue grey eyes that were now silently imploring her. Zoe tried to breath but it suddenly became impossible. His hands were so warm as they slowly closed around hers. 
“Zoe. I want you,” he breathed. 
The door suddenly flew open as Daniel burst in with a wide grin on his face that melted as soon as he saw Josiah. Josiah jumped back into his chair as the papers Zoe had been shuffling came to life and scattered across the floor. 
“Whose this?” Daniel said cautiously eyeing Josiah. 
“I’m from the Undersea Decorating Corp, we were discussing a switch over for Zoe to our company,” Josiah lied smoothly getting out of his chair to shake Daniel’s hand. Zoe could tell that Daniel didn’t’t really buy that as he looked back at Zoe. 
“I thought you was happy with this firm?” he said puzzled. 
“Oh I am. That’s why Mr. Josiah here is just leaving,” she glared. 
“I am not leaving until you agree to come with me,” Josiah retorted firmly. 
“Hey, hey bub. If my _fiancée_,” Zoe flinched at the way Daniel emphasized that term, “ doesn’t want to come with you she wont.”
“Oh and who are you? Her husband,” Josiah said, his eyes glittering wickedly. 
“Well I don’t know who you think you are but I might as well be,”’ Daniel spat back. 
“Ooh only her first love that she wouldn’t’t have told you about,” Josiah grinned evilly. 
Zoe leapt up as it looked like Daniel was going to take a swing at him and wedged herself between the two men. Sorry man and fish out of water. ‘_When did my life become a mills and boons novel_,’ she thought. “Break it up you two,” she yelled. 
The two men glanced down at her, Zoe suddenly aware of the fact that Josiah seemed taller than she remembered. He was even fractionally taller than Daniel. Daniel glared sedately at Josiah. “I think you should leave.”
“I’m not leaving until Zoe comes with me, her use is far greater than your silly wedding,” Josiah stated firmly. 
Daniel gasped and even Zoe felt the sting of that one. “How can a decorating firm be more important than holy matrimony,” Daniel gaped.
“Because that’s not why he’s here,” Zoe sighed. Daniel stared blankly whereas Josiah began to shake his head, giving Zoe a very firm ‘don’t you dare look‘. Zoe looked up at her husband-to-be. ‘_Although probably for not longer_,’ she thought dully. “There’s stuff about me you don’t know.”
　
*******
With a thump, Zoe rolled out of the bath at Daniels feet, her fiancée’s eyes wide but his mouth firmly shut as he stared at her long maroon tail. Zoe knew that no amount of explaining would make sense, so she left Josiah in the living room downstairs, eating croissants and talking to her aquarium fish which freaked Daniel out no end. Upstairs, Zoe began undressing Daniel staring at her as though she had lost her mind, they had a guest, her ex to be precise downstairs. Who was talking to the aquarium fish. But then he said nothing as she slipped into the bath and grew a tail. 
Zoe shook her head dismally as she reached for a towel that hung on the rack just out of reach. Daniel leant over pulled it off the rack for her before crouching beside her. He hesitated for a moment before beginning to dry her tail, within a minute or so her legs returned. 
“Why didn’t’t you tell me?” he asked softly.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Zoe shrugged. “Lots of reasons. I swore not to when I left the island. I wasn’t sure how you would take it, I didn’t’t want you running to the media telling them your fiancée is a fish and I mean how do you tell your fiancée that your half fish?” 
Daniel managed a wry smile. “I guess so.”
Zoe got up and pulled her clothes back on as Daniel watched quietly. She didn’t dare ask about the wedding, whether he still wanted to marry a fish. She guessed he would need a lot of time to mull it over. He had a steady thoughtful look pasted on his face, the one he wore when he sat at the coffee table with MRI scans and X-rays trying to figure out a tricky case. Like she did then, Zoe just left him alone to think. 
Josiah looked up brightly as they traipsed silently down the stairs. “So am I invited to the wedding?”
“Drop dead,” Zoe glared. “That’s it. You have screwed my life up enough, what are you doing here?”
Josiah nodded before seating himself on the couch. Zoe wandered over and sat in front of him, her feet resting on the coffee table as Daniel stood behind her. “I guess I will just have to trust you,” he directed at Daniel. 
“I guess you will just have to,” Daniel retorted as Zoe rolled her eyes. 
“Ok,” Josiah said, “From what I gather, humans are very sceptical about out existence right?”
Zoe nodded. “Up until twenty seconds ago,” Daniel said darkly. 
Josiah ignored that comment. “So they would be unaware that the pollutants they have been pumping into the ocean has been slowly killing us. Our hope is that somehow you can convince them to stop.”
“Pollutants?” Zoe echoed. She wasn’t surprised, but she wanted something more specific. 
Josiah shrugged. “There always has been a presence of chemicals in the ocean but this is new. At first we didn’t know what was causing the slow death of mer-folk.”
“Where are these chemicals more prevalent?” Daniel suddenly sounded interested. 
“The Black sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the top end of Australia are the worst places, we have ordered all mer-folk to leave those areas,” Josiah said. 
By now Daniel had his notepad out. “Symptoms if you please.”
Josiah looked surprised. “Ok…rashes, dorsal fins start dropping off and the main flukes start disintegrating. A few times mer-folk have been killed by sharks and Orca because it hampers their swimming. If they survive that then trouble breathing in oxygen from the water follows so they have to surface which of course is very dangerous.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Daniel held a hand up. “Your not a mammal?”
Josiah looked at Zoe questioningly. Zoe guessed that he must be familiar with that term. “Not exactly. Like fish we draw water through our noses or mouths and out gills but we can breath air from the surface when we come up to land. I thought you would have noticed that.”
“Sorry, too busy looking at the tail,” Daniel mumbled, scribbling furiously in his notepad. “Go on.”
“If they don’t get killed by passing boats or jet skis when they have to surface, paralysis followed by suffocation follows. There have been cases of madness, psychotic behaviour but suffocation is more common,” Josiah said grimly. 
“Ick,” Zoe cringed. ‘_What a way to go_‘.
“Yeah,” Josiah said sadly. “It’s a terrible way to go.”
Zoe glared frostily but of course Daniel was oblivious. “How do you know its chemicals?”
Josiah shrugged. “We don’t really but there are a number of oil drilling platforms in those areas so we presume that they are dumping something they shouldn’t or aren’t aware of the effect it is having.”
“Does it affect just mer-folk?” Zoe asked suddenly. 
Josiah thought for a moment. “Yes. Actually it does.”
‘_Odd. Mind you if it affected more well known species Green peace would have been all over it like a rash- Uhh sorry barnacle_,’ Zoe thought as it was Josiah’s turn to glare. “Look symptoms are all well and good but I would need to do a post mortem to really get an idea,” Daniel said. 
“What’s that?” Josiah asked wide eyed. 
Zoe sighed. This wasn’t going to be pretty. “Post mortem means getting a dead person, mer-folk, whatever and cutting them open and examining the-” Daniel began.
Josiah was on his feet, eyes flashing dangerously. “You! You monster! How dare you!”
“Steady on! I’m not eating them I’m merely examining the cause of death,” Daniel looked surprised. 
“Really. It is a precise operation just so they can examine the internal organs and stuff,” Zoe explained. Daniel had a point. 
Josiah sat down slowly and as the silence hung in the air. Zoe could hear her aquarium fish carrying on in the background. Zoe looked at Josiah and pleaded silently with him. After awhile he sighed. “Its not up to me, the king has to make the decision. I know he wont like it, but perhaps if you argue it,” he looked at Zoe. 
Zoe nodded, suddenly convinced that she had to do something. “Ok. I will try my best.”


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

No comments booooooo LOL!!! heres chapter 7

Chapter 7
The moon hung covered by a veil of dark clouds that promised rain. The wind blew steadily through the trees as Daniel, Josiah and Zoe drove through the darkness to a small pier she knew stood further up the coast away from the boats and late night revellers. Daniel drove steadily and flicked his lights off 200m before the turn off, turning onto the bush track and melting through the trees. Luckily Daniel had a 4WD which easily handled the rough, sandy track. It was highly unlikely that they were being followed, but Josiah felt edgy he claimed so Daniel did what he said. 
After bounding in silence for another few kilometres, the bush suddenly melted away revealing a deserted beach. Zoe stepped into the cool darkness, feeling the steady breeze brush against her skin, listening to the steady roll of the waves crashing onto the shore. Daniel turned the engine off as Josiah hopped out, eagerly making a bee-line for the dock shedding his clothes as he went. Daniel watched the completely naked Josiah take a running leap before diving off the edge of the dock and vanishing into the inky waves. 
Zoe took his hand as he looked back to her. He hesitated for a moment, sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes. “Do you love me?” he asked. 
Zoe blinked. She had been expecting this question for awhile now. Daniel had been very quiet over the takeaway dinner, reading through the notes he had made and seemingly ignoring Josiah‘s constant chattering. “Of course I do!” she exclaimed.
“Well as long as you love me, I will stay your fiancée, but if you want to run of with-,” he began. 
“I don’t. I still want to marry you, don’t be ridiculous,” Zoe cut him off firmly. 
Daniel nodded. “Ok. Its just his handsome, charming and did I mention butt naked?”
Zoe whacked him on the arm but felt glad to see that twinkle in his eye that had been absent until now. They shared a kiss that was cut off by Josiah. 
“Hey! Are you coming or what?” he yelled from the water.
Zoe broke away and sighed. “I gotta go.” 
“You will do good, you always do when you set your mind to stuff,” Daniel said taking her clothes as she stripped out of them at the foot of the dock. 
Zoe nodded. “I hope so. I will see if I can get you a post mortem victim, I mean patient.” 
Daniel nodded enthusiastically, ignoring her poor taste in joke. “Please do I want to-”
“Come on! Time and tide waits for no one!” Josiah yelled out. 
Zoe rolled her eyes, hugged Daniel and then turned and began running. At the foot of the dock she got ready to dive into the choppy water when she put her foot on some slime and felt her feet slide out from under her. With a squeal she landed on her bottom, slid across the remainder of dock and went head over tail into the water. 
Righting herself, her tail already formed she spotted Josiah rolling around in some loose kelp nearly hyperventilating with laughter. She didn’t realize it was possible to hyperventilate under water. Apparently so. “_I wanna see that again_!” Josiah managed between hoots of laughter. 
Zoe glared and began swimming out to sea. Josiah followed, giggling to himself for ages. Just when she thought he had gotten over it, she would look back, he would look at her and then it would start all over again. Zoe ignored him, instead focusing on the scenery which very quick soared into rising sea mounts encrusted in coral and swarming with life. The currents were strong here as they swirled around the sea mounts, Zoe and Josiah swimming hard against them until they hit a band of current that pushed them north westerly towards Fiji. From there they simply had to hang in the currents which pushed them along at a steady rate, similar to how a highway funnels traffic in a certain direction. 
“_Have you got a girlfriend_?” Zoe asked matter-of-factly, wanting to distract him from laughing at her. 
Josiah cleared his throat and after a moment shrugged. “_Not really. You offering_.”
Zoe rolled her eyes and pretended to watch a big old turtle that swum above them, nearer to the surface. Turtles were so ancient and beautiful. “_In your dreams_,” Zoe retorted._ “Not really. What’s that supposed to mean_?”
Josiah stared ahead. “_I had a few but the moment they heard I had gained immortality, they dropped off. Mer-folk can live to over 300 but if your going to live forever…_.”
Zoe shrugged. “_If it bothers them that much why don’t they go bite a human? I mean wouldn’t they want to be immortal too?_”
Josiah laughed shortly. “_I don’t know I never asked. They both decided to move to the Barbados._”
Zoe paused. “_Both_?”
Josiah looked down and grinned impishly. “_Twin sisters, Scotia and Mandy._”
Zoe stared wide eyed. “_You rat. You dirty, stinking rat_,” she backed this up by trying to throw some seaweed at him but it just floated off. 
Josiah laughed, clearly enjoying himself. “_The worst part was I couldn’t tell the difference between them. If they were side by side I could but apart? I had no chance so I kind of had to date both of them otherwise I would have cheated the other for sure!_”
Zoe shook her head. Somehow this didn’t surprise her. “_And they were fine with this_?”
“_Oh sure those two did everything together. My sisters went nuts when they found out, I had to pay them to stop them from not telling my parents_,” Josiah grinned. 
Zoe stared at him sideways. “_Wait, do I want to know how your sisters found out?_”
Josiah coughed. “_No. No you don’t._”
Zoe shook her head. Quite suddenly Josiah grabbed her hand, flicking his tail powerfully dragged them from the currents. Zoe looked over her shoulder as they entered calmer waters, watching the currents they had ridden on rush in the opposite direction. They seemed to have entered a plain of some sort, the water deep and silty. The sunlight barely filtered through, at least a few hundred meters above their heads and dropped into a grey darkness far below them. 
“_You can let go of my hand now_,” Zoe said pointedly. 
“_What if I don’t want to?_” he smirked.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Zoe smiled, lifted his hand up and quickly sunk her teeth into his wrist. Josiah yelped dragging his hand away and gaping at the bite marks. Zoe didn’t have the teeth of a true mer-person with their razor sharp front teeth pointed canines with the venom glands behind them, but she still left a reasonable red mark.
“_That’s not very nice_,” he said, rubbing his hand. 
Zoe curved through the tall, witches hat like columns of coral and glared. _“You gain immortality through me, take advantage of me when I was suffering from shock-_”
“_Ahh I clearly remember you enjoying that_,” he retorted. 
“_You drop me off at a reef. You leave me with these pesky fins. I hear nothing of you for eleven years and then you force me to tell Daniel about my secret which did I mention is your fault_,” Zoe continued. 
“_How could you not tell him you was a mermaid. I mean you were marrying him. What about love, honour and no secrets._”
“_AM! Josiah AM marrying Daniel_!_ And don’t you dare start with that Mr. I-date-twins-because-I-cant-tell-them-apart_,” Zoe raged. A school of silvery fish darted away from her, squealing and chattering about rude mer-folk. 
“_Why because I’m right,”_ Josiah stated. 
Zoe glared and said nothing. After she said nothing, Josiah grinned smugly, clearly believing he had won the argument. He hadn’t, she would get him later. 
“_Where are we going anyways_?” she asked briskly. 
“_The Royal Palace in Lartangya_,” Josiah replied. 
“_Lar-What??” _Zoe asked. She had expected Atlantis or something. 
“_Lartangya is the centre for Mer-folk. The Palace is there, the people gather there if they have a problem that they bring before the king, a lot of Mer-folk live there_,” Josiah explain. 
“_Ok where is that_?” Zoe asked. 
Josiah looked thoughtful for a moment. “_The nearest landmass is Tonga, but Lartangya is on a ridge just above the final drop off into the Tonga Trench_. _Its about 5000 meters below sea level so we‘re pretty safe._”
Zoe looked surprised. “_Ok so where are we now_?” 
“_The South Fiji Basin. We have to swim over one range of sea mountains and then over a valley and then we will be on the outskirts of Lartangya_.”
Zoe stared at him wide eyed. “_How can you find your way? Its looked exactly the same for ages, just flat endless sea plains and the water is really silty.”
_Josiah stopped for a moment. “_It normally isn’t this bad. Ok, you see in the distance those three peaks?_”
Zoe stared through the silty water and nodded. Just visible, like mountains smothered in smog were three peaks. “_That’s the three King Peaks. Now we go over those to get to the Tonga Trench. If we were to go North-west we would end up where all the Geo-thermal vents are. Due north we would end up on the coast of Fiji and South you would eventually hit New Zealand. With practice you learn how to navigate by the sea mounts, the currents and other things._”
“_So you don’t use echolocation or whatever like whales?_” Zoe asked. 
“_CAAAAAN YOOOOOOOOOU HEEEAAAARRRRRRR MEEEEEE!” _Josiah pulled a stupid face and did a passable imitation of Dory from the kid movie Finding Nemo.
Despite herself, Zoe laughed as did Josiah. “_No_,” he grinned shortly. “_Come on we’re nearly there._”
Zoe broached the surface just on sunset, the seamounts just below her that pitched into the depths of the Tonga Trench. Her arms and fins were aching painfully but the sunset made her forget it for a second. The ocean waves rose and fell around her, the radioactive orange sunset spanning out over the water. No matter how far she looked she could see no land, just water, endless spanning water. She had been swimming for almost a full day and had never been this exhausted, ever. As mer-folk went, she guessed she must be really out of shape.
Josiah popped up beside her and shook the water from his hair like a dog, before grinning at her. “Wow that’s some sunset,” he said. 
“I’m exhausted,” Zoe groaned. 
“Come on, I know somewhere where you can stay,” he said taking her hand.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Well its now got a name.....Undertow....like it? loath it? please tell me 　
　
　
Chapter 8
As her consciousness slowly emerged from the darkness of her sleep, Zoe became aware of an arm wrapped around her midriff and a head nuzzled under against her neck. Zoe smiled sleepily, running a hand up the arm wrapped around her waist. 
_Daniel is so cute, he acts all macho and stuff but he loves nothing more than a…..wait…Daniel dosnt snuggle. Daniel…Crap!!_
Zoe recoiled out of bed, as Josiah bumped his head on the wrought iron bed head. Muttering he rubbed his blonde hair and stared up at her as she hovered on the edge of the bed. This was a first, waking up in bed, underwater with a merman. In a room that had clearly been decorated with the furniture from a sunken ship. _Wait a minute, this is a sunken ship_, she thought realizing that the walls were curved and that the window above the bed matched the shape she had seen on old ships like the rebuild of the _Pandora_ and _Endeavour_. 
_“Yes, it’s a sunken ship. I thought you was awake when we arrived here_,” he mumbled, dropping his head on the pillow. 
“_NO! Would I have let you snuggle me into bed if I was!_” she raged. 
“_Shhh_,” he shushed, waving his hands. 
“_Don’t you shush me!_” Zoe raged just as the door flew open. 
It only took Zoe a matter of seconds to recognize the two mermaids who swam into the room. Both had the same jet black hair and unusual shaped grey-blue eyes. The current stirred through their hair and the clique of beads, pearls and necklaces that dangled about their necks. Josiah’s sisters. The older one gave her brother the ‘you dirty rat’ look but the younger one tilted her head and then grinned. Zoe remembered that he had to pay them not to squeal about his relationship with the twins, so she hurriedly shifted off the bed and stood back against the wall trying to look innocent.
“_Hey look its that human he bit on the island_!” the younger one bubbled suddenly. 
The older one stared for a minute and then back to her brother. “_Why have you brought her back?”_
Zoe looked around at Josiah. “_He wants me to talk to the king about the mer-folk that have been dying_.” 
Both sisters gasped and then the older one glared furiously. “_You idiot! You brought a human here to solve problems that the king-_,” by now she had dived for him with something she had picked up near the doorway, which Zoe realized was a late 1800’s fire poker and Josiah darted away. “-_will sort out without your interference!!”_
Zoe dived out the way as Josiah swam in circles around the room trying to get away from his sister and the poker. The younger sister grinned at her. She had twinkly blue eyes, like Josiah’s but with jet black hair like the older sister. “_Are they always like this_?” Zoe asked. 
The younger sister flinched as Josiah knocked a table over with a loud crash. “_Worse usually. I’m Shyma and that’s Mai_.” 
“_Zoe_,” she nodded. 
Another head poked around the corner as she recognized the other guy from the island. He immediately started laughing as he joined Zoe and Shyma, but seemed unaware of her presence. He opened his mouth likely to yell support when he stopped and looked at Zoe with wide eyes. He had very expressive dark brown eyes as he tilted his head, as if trying to figure out where he had seen her before.
“_Yes Kade it is who you think it is_,” Shyma said. 
Kade looked at Zoe and then as Josiah who had finally stopped swimming around in circles. Instead he had gotten himself pinned in a corner, yelping as he tried to protect himself from his sister and the poker. “_Oh-oh what has he done this time_.”
“_He brought Zoe back to help with the mer-folk that have been dying_,” Shyma explained. 
Kade blinked with wide brown eyes. “_Your kidding. You idiot what were you thinking!?!”_
By now Zoe realized that as convincing as Josiah had been, no-one had the slightest clue about his plans. Typical. Zoe suddenly felt very uncomfortable, like she was intruding on them. But as she realized she was stuck, there was no way she could find her way home without him. Great, just great. Zoe suddenly felt inclined to steal the poker off Mai and give the errant merman a thrashing herself. 
“_If everyone would stop trying to hit me I would explain!”_ Josiah yelled. 
“_What on earth is going on! You can hear you lot in the North sea!”_ exclaimed the last mer-folk to enter, Josiah’s mum. 
Mai swung around with the poker, glaring and pointed at Zoe at the precise moment Josiah dived away and hid behind his Mum. Zoe grinned awkwardly and waved. His mother turned and looked at Josiah who grinned at her sheepishly. “_Son. Would you care to explain?”_
“_I have been trying to but Mai keeps trying to stab me with that thing_,” Josiah stated sulkily. “_The problem is clearly coming from the surface and we need someone who knows what is going on up there._”
“_She is human! She knows nothing about mer-culture!”_ Mai raged still swinging the poker. 
“_Yes and she stands out like a sore thumb as a human because she has no dorsal patterning_,” Kade added. 
Josiah’s Mum held up a small hand which had a huge silver bangle wrapped around her wrist and immediately everyone fell silent. She turned and glanced calmly at her son and then across at Zoe. “_I know this is the King’s issue to resolve but do you have any ideas what may be causing this…I didn’t catch your name sorry?_”
“_Zoe_,” she repeated. His mother nodded. “_Well my fiancée who is a Doctor has a few ideas, possibly pollutants or such that are being dumped from oilrigs_.” Zoe decided she would broach the topic of autopsy when everyone was calmer. Oh and when Mai put the poker down.
“_Fiancée?_,” both sisters intoned in a way that made Zoe nervous. She couldn’t’t explain why though. 
His mother ignored this and nodded. “_Perhaps she should speak to the king._”
“_What!_” Mai gasped. “_He will go nuts!_”
Once again she held up her hand. “_Its not our decision to make and we have been going no where fast for so long with this disease.”_
_“See_,” Josiah poked his tongue out at Mai who merely sneered.
“_That saying you have been very foolish bringing her back when you know exactly what your father ordered_,” his mother added. To Zoe’s surprise, Josiah nodded in agreement and said nothing more. “_Come on lets have some food before we do anything_.”

One by one Josiah’s family filed out of the room, Josiah motioning for Zoe to go ahead of him out the door. Zoe glared and whacked him on the arm. 

“_Yeah I guess I deserve that, but its not what you think_.” Despite being mad at him, she couldn’t help but melt at the way he grinned impishly at her.

“_Deserve? You drag me over here under the assumption that I am to help and what do I find_?” Zoe hissed. 

“_That my brother is a lying rat. What else is new_,” Mai yelled back down the hallway. 

Zoe said nothing as she swam up the hallway and pretended she didn’t see the hurt look on Josiah’s face. Yes, she agreed with Mai and she was annoyed at coming all this way and discovering what she had, but at the same time she did think Mai was a bit harsh on her younger brother.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

The wooden timbers of their galleon home stood dark from being under water for so long, barnacles and moss scattered along the walls. But just when Zoe thought the house would have furniture and decorations to match the old galleon, she passed a shop mannequin propped limply in the hallway. Then a poster of Taylor Swift. Followed by an antique dresser. The hallway then spanned into the living room and kitchen. An enormous wooden dining table, possibly French by Zoe’s guess, took up a good portion of the floor in between the Kitchen and Living room. The living room had a number of couches, all of different ages, some antique some from the fifties and a velvet black chaise. Shyma immediately crashed onto the chaise in the same way a cat finds the comfiest spot and claims it. 

Zoe sat awkwardly on the edge of a sofa and watched as Josiah’s mum, whose name she picked up was Shilah swam around the kitchen dealing with breakfast. As an interior designer this house struck Zoe as all wrong and yet in the weirdest way all right. None of the furniture matched, the dining table was too big for the size of the room and made everything else feel cluttered and yet somehow it felt homey. Lived in. Loved. Outside the windows she could see darkness occasionally broken shadows of things swimming past. She vaguely remembered swimming into the trench the night before so she supposed that the galleon stood inside the tench.
“_It was Dad’s idea building the house inside the galleon before Mai was born_,” Shyma piped up.
After glancing around she noted that Mai, Josiah and Shyma all had similar coloured tails that ranged between Josiah’s iridescent peacock green to Mai’s tail which shimmered like the sun reflecting off the green ocean, like their mother’s. Shyma’s tail fitted somewhere in between both colours and all three kids had fluorescent yellow dorsal spots. Kade on the other hand had a deep red tail, not quite maroon like Zoe’s but a deep scarlet with navy blue dorsal streaks.
“_Yes we had the offer of somewhere nicer but we like the galleon better. It needed so much work, which reminds me Kade, be careful on that chair the legs wonky_,” Shilah said swimming about the kitchen. 
“_Oh ok_,” Kade grinned testing the chair that nearly rocked out from under him. 

Zoe looked up as Shilah placed a plate, an ancient blue and white delft, in front of her on the coffee table. “_Now I know your probably not used to our food so I went easy. That’s raw tuna, kelp and sea pearls_.”

“_Sea pearls_?” Zoe eyed the strand of green seaweed that she supposed looked vaguely like strands of green pearls. 

Shilah nodded. “_Its not really seaweed and has an almost sweet but salty flavour_.”

Zoe suddenly realized that the others were looking on expectantly, except Josiah who was tucking into a big steak of raw fish. Taking a deep breath Zoe picked up the Sea pearls and wincing, popped them into her mouth. The texture was odd, smooth, but then the bobbles popped when she chewed on them releasing a strange, sweet flavour but somehow salty at the same time. 

Zoe swallowed them and looked up at Shilah. “_That’s not bad_.”

Mai and Shyma plopped themselves on the other side of the coffee table with plates of similar fare and began munching steadily. “_So what do you do on the surface_?” Mai asked after awhile. 

“_You mean for work_?” Zoe asked to which Mai nodded. “_I’m an Interior Designer_.”

Shilah laughed. “_Don’t look too closely at our place then_.”

Zoe grinned. “_You do have interesting tastes_.”

“_We collect all kinds of stuff from wrecks and what gets dumped_,” Josiah grinned between mouthfuls. That certainly explained the odd collection of furniture and artefacts.
The group fell silent for a moment apart from the steady munching. Shilah disappeared back down the hallway as Kade seated himself at the dining table and began hoeing into the food. Despite the fact she had never been a fan of sushi; the raw tuna, kelp and sea pearls didn’t taste that bad. Or maybe it was just her tastes were changing. She didn’t know.

“_I spent five years on the surface_,” Mai said suddenly. “_Studying Advanced Marine Biology at James Cook University. I thought I may be able to come up with a solution to this disease_,” she paused and then glanced across at Kade. “_That’s where I met Kade_.”

Kade grinned. “_I was in the Air-force at the army base in Townsville_.”

Zoe stared. “_Wait….What_?”

“_Yeah I was an elite bomber pilot. When I was sixteen I got sick of being a Merman and went to live on land. I always had a thing for flying so I enlisted_,” Kade grinned as Zoe stared at him with wide eyes. First she discovers that Mai had gone to University, the diploma she suddenly spotted in vacuum seal on the wall and then that Kade had been a bomber pilot. 

“_Did you know that she was a Mer-folk when you met her_?” Zoe asked. 

“_Oh sure! You can spot Mer-folk out of water a mile off_,” Kade enthused. 

Zoe suddenly wondered if she had run into any on land and simply hadn’t looked hard enough. “_So what made you come back underwater_?”

Kade shrugged. “_Mai mostly. And I had heard whispers of something called the Iraq war brewing so I went AWOL_.”

Zoe laughed. “_They’ll never look for you here_.”

Mai took Zoe’s empty plate from her and handed it to Shyma who swam over and placed it on the bench. Shilah returned wearing some different jewellery, beaded necklaces and dangly earrings. Zoe had noted that all the girls wore loads of jewellery and even Kade wore a heavy leather cuff bracelet.

“_I make and design jewellery which I trade down here but occasionally sell above surface_,” Mai explained handing Zoe a necklace that was shimmering peacock green and made of thousands of tiny beads strung into strands. When Zoe looked closer she realized that it also had little silver charms, keys, bows and other things. “_Here wear this, it might stop them from realizing your human for a few seconds_.”

“_Thanks_,” Zoe said. She loved the colour and the detail was stunning. 

Zoe looked back at their house as they swam away from it, the galleon listing on a rock shelf, its tattered sails stirring in the currents. Sea ferns rose around it as large fish swam past lazily. The water was a deep navy blue, the sun on the surface only just breaking through. It made Zoe panic slightly, a natural response to looking up and seeing the surface so far off. 

As they swam on further they passed the homes of more Mer-folk, some were in caves others were in sunken ships, one was even in a rusty U-boat that sat on the rocky ledge. Zoe passed them, watching as they went about their business; some cleaning around the sponges and corals, others relaxing on deck chairs and some playing with their children. It reminded Zoe of driving through suburbia and watching total strangers enjoying the weekend except they were currently 100 hundred feet under water. Oh and they had fins. 

The ledge suddenly dropped off as Shilah led the group into deeper water. Kade and Mai had begun discussing something as Josiah suddenly dropped back to swim beside Zoe. 

“_The castle is at the very bottom of the trench_,” he explained as they dived into the deep black hole. 

Zoe was about to ask how they would see when she suddenly realized that her eyes were adjusting to the poor light, even as they dived into what would be pitch black water. Josiah explained that Mer-folk had fantastic eyesight, even above the water they could see in very poor lighting.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Quite suddenly two huge gates rose out of the darkness, glittering like gold and guarded by two beefy Mermen with spears. They wore heavy armour plates on their shoulders and chests. Zoe noted their tails were different to her own, long and instead of having flukes they formed a smooth fin like an eels tail. The guards nodded and the gates parted to let them through.

Zoe looked back. “_Why were their tails different_?”

“_You cant just ask why their tails were different_!” Josiah pretended to be outraged. He then grinned and Zoe realized he was just pulling her leg…or tail. “_They are from the North Sea and the Mer-folk in that area have different tails to us. The Mer-folk from the Indian Ocean have tails that are similar in shape to ours but almost translucent and the ones from the Artic, Antarctic and Baltic have very broad tails with thick skin and flukes like seals_.”

Zoe nodded, taking in this information wondering if Mai had applied her university studies to Mer-folk. From what Zoe remembered of Senior Biology class when they weren’t making up stupid commentaries for the David Attenborough documentaries or pretending to chat up the anatomical skeleton, she remembered that most species usually had sub-species. Zoe then guessed that Mer-folk as a specie had adapted to their surroundings to survive the different conditions. 

Due to the lack of light there were almost no corals, but there were sponges and those freaky deep sea fish with the lights built into their bodies or on their heads. Ahead of them she could see a castle rising out of the sandy floor its doors wide open. It soared into the inky water, its sandstone like walls nearly invisible under the layers of moss, deep sea coral, shellfish and clams. As Zoe drew closer she could see critters swimming about the castle; enormous red crabs, fang tooths with their oversized jaws full of teeth and almost translucent squid propelled about. 
The Guards nodded to them as they entered and swam down a corridor. The walls were smooth and free of from the critters that grew outside. As they swam further down the empty corridors, it seemed to get brighter and warmer. Shilah suddenly peeled off down a corridor on her own, as the rest of the continued ahead. But when Zoe asked where she had gone, no one replied so Zoe didn’t ask again.

Ahead more doors opened as bright light filtered through the water towards them. The room below them spanned deep and stepped, like a horse-show shaped amphitheatre. Zoe looked down watching the hundred or so mer-folk sitting along the steps. They were mostly quiet but she could hear the humming voices of a few as they conversed amongst themselves. The domed roof above them appeared to be made of turquoise and forest green glass that the light barely filtered through.
She looked ahead, admiring the throne that rose up on a narrow, tapering pedestal so that it seemed to float high above the green marble floor. Its seat reminded Zoe of the comb shells she had seen washed up on the beach, its back a row of smooth spikes. It had been hewn from stone but overlayed with paua shell so that it shone, even in the half-light in deep greens, blues and silvers.

“_This is the Lartangya parliament_,” Josiah explained under his breath. “_Pretty peaceful compared to the governments above surface right?_”

Zoe nodded in agreement and nearly replied when suddenly trumpets blared and a door at the bottom of the amphitheatre opened. Zoe stared as she recognized Shilah swimming on the arm of who could only be Josiah’s father. She would recognize the merman who had made Josiah return Zoe to the surface anywhere with his grey hair slicked back and stern face. They seated themselves on the throne when quite suddenly everything fell into place. 

“_All hail King Dasan and Queen Shilah_!” cried the parliament. 

Zoe turned to Josiah. “_Your parents are the King and Queen_!” she hissed.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Chapter 9

Josiah grinned sheepishly. “_I figured you had enough to worry about_.”　

Zoe grabbed his arm. “_Wait! So I’m to talk to_-”

“_Would the first case of the day come before the throne. Crown Prince Josiah and Zoe_,” boomed the speaker who stood at the foot of the throne.　

“_That’s us_,” Josiah took her hand.　

“_Wait…wait…Crown Prince_?” Zoe squeaked as Josiah toed her down the amphitheatre.　
Josiah shot her a look that clearly said ’shut up’ and brought her before the throne. Shilah smiled supportively as King Dasan, Josiah’s father looked down at the scroll and then at his son. “_This better be good son_,” he said so only they could hear. “_Present your case_.”

Josiah spanned his gaze over crowd and suddenly Zoe saw his transform from ratbag to Crown Prince in a heartbeat. “_Fellow Mer-folk. For so long we have watched as some of our very own have been cut down by this mystery illness. It’s a hideous disease that must be stopped. So much time and effort has been vested into diagnosing it. We have witnessed first hand as it as cut down some of our very own members of parliament. And now I propose a solution through Zoe_.”

Dasan glanced at her impassively. “_Well what is your solution_.”

Zoe took a deep breath to settle her nerves. She hated public speaking at the best of times but she had never done it before a parliament. When she had just woken up snuggled to their Crown Prince. Well it had been one of those days. “_Well I propose that this disease is being caused by pollutants that are being dumped off oil rigs, perhaps unintentionally. I feel that perhaps if we can talk to them we may be able to come to an agreement_.”

Dasan laughed shortly. “_People are less than reasonable. I know, I spent enough time among them myself_.”

Zoe pondered this for a second. “_Well yes some people are unreasonable but then some Mer-folk are too._”

Dasan glanced at her in surprise. “_Well yes. How do you propose to talk to them_?”

Zoe glanced at Josiah, digging for something to say. Clearly he didn’t recognize her otherwise he would have caught the barb in that last statement. “_We haven’t worked out the finer details on that one_,” Josiah butted in.　

“_Perhaps while you are up there you can make a magic bullet for this disease_,” Dasan said dryly, more at his son than Zoe which raised a smattering of laughs.　

“_My fiancée is a surgeon and he feels there may be a way of finding out_,” Zoe blurted out before she could stop herself.

“_Your fiancée? You have betrothed yourself in marriage to a person. You know the rules and the consequences of such actions. Banishment_,” Dasan suddenly glared as Josiah winced. The Parliament began muttering as Zoe glanced around. Obviously not everyone was observant as Kade and hadn’t spotted her lack of dorsal patterns. As Zoe looked back Dasan was eyeing her closely. “_You look familiar_.”

Zoe took a deep breath. This wasn’t going to end well. “_I am the human you banished from the ocean and that Josiah gained immortality through_.”


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

The gasp rippled through Parliament as Dasan’s eyebrows shot up. Josiah groaned and buried his head in one hand. Zoe held a firm eye contact with Dasan as he slid off the throne and glared her squarely in the eye.　

Shilah slithered off the end of the throne and wrapped a hand around his arm. “_Please just listen to her, she may be our only hope.”
_
“_I don’t need the help of a human_,” Dasan said darkly.　

“_Father, nothing we have done has made any difference. And technically she isn’t-_,” Josiah added pleadingly.　

“_Technically nothing_,“ Dasan glared. “_Parliament is adjourned until further notice_,” his voice boomed over their heads. “_Come with me_.”

Zoe followed them through the door that Dasan and Shilah had entered earlier. Mai, Kade and Shyma were already gathered in the hallway and swam over as Zoe and Josiah swam into the hall. Zoe noted the guards vanish from down the hall, leaving the hall empty.As soon as the door shut Dasan rounded on her.　

“_If I didn’t need an answer so **** badly I would kick you and my son back onto the shore and make sure you stay there_,” he glared threateningly. He then took a breath as if to calm himself and folded his arms. “_Now I’m not stupid, I know that the only way to find out how a disease has killed is to do an autopsy. Am I right_?”

Zoe shrugged and then nodded. “_Josiah has met Daniel, he’s trustworthy right_?”

Josiah looked up. “_Huh? Oh yeah right. Except he likes putting shark ornaments in the fish tank._”

Zoe rolled her eyes as Dasan looked back at her thoughtfully. “_I have a prisoner, he attempted to assassinate me. As punishment we forced him to live in the worst areas as a guinea pig until he began to show symptoms. He is now in the final stages. When he dies I shall bring him and the autopsy will only go ahead under my supervision or not at all_,” Dasan said with an air of finality.　

Zoe nodded eagerly. “_That’s all we need. Thank you_.”

“_I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for my people_,” he said shortly. 　

“_Your letting a human cut up a Mer-folk! That’s barbaric_!” Mai gasped in outrage.　

“_What and letting a Mer-folk deliberately catch a deadly disease and watch him die slowly isn’t_,” Zoe retorted before she could stop herself.　

Josiah sniggered slightly but stopped when Dasan glared at him. “_Agent Orange, Fat man and little Boy are humane_,” Dasan responded. Zoe though could tell he wasn’t actually mad at her anymore he was just simply stating a point. 
Zoe couldn’t’t help but feel surprised that Dasan knew those things. Clearly he had spent a fair amount of time on the surface.　“_Touché_,” Zoe conceded.　
“_You shall return to surface and wait. We shall come for you and your fiancee to preform the autopsy when the prisoner dies. Until then you say nothing and wait_,” Dasan ordered. He seemed to be very good at orders.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Chapter 10
*Four weeks later*

Zoe pulled up outside the mansion that overlooked the ocean, the moon shining brightly on the rippling waves. Looking back at the Mansion she smiled as Daniel got out of the passenger’s side of the car and grinned back at her.　

“I love that dress,” he said as she looped a hand under his arm.　

“You have said that three times tonight,” Zoe teased but felt glad. She loved the dress too, turquoise-green silk halter neck paired with a pearl necklace and silver five inch stilettos.　

“Well I mean it, you look stunning,” Daniel kissed her lightly on the forehead as they walked towards the mansion.　
Zoe couldn’t help but feel glad. Even though they had postponed the wedding, much to her mother’s horror, Daniel still seemed happy to be with her. They had returned to their normal routine and so far had heard nothing from Dasan. In this time Zoe had finished working on Zarifa’s house, which they were now attending the house warming party for. 

Zarifa was waiting for them on the steps, her long black hair flowing freely and dressed in a black mini-dress and silver jewellery. She squealed before running down the steps and hugging Zoe and then kissing Daniel on the cheek. Zoe had gotten used to this now after four weeks of working with her, she could be a little over the top in the touchy feely department. But then again Zoe guessed she was just happy with what they had done with the house.
　
Glancing up, Zoe grinned at the enormous but not ostentatious chandelier they had installed in the entry way. After some scraping they discovered marble floor under a layer of hideous paint. After stripping that back, they changed the ancient balustrades, added some tasteful furniture and a couple of paintings to revive the foyer. Zoe followed Zarifa into the kitchen and smiled at her handy work. The kitchen didn’t need that much work, just a new bench top, some new cupboard doors, bar stools and down lights.

“Mother!” Zarifa suddenly squealed at the bent over figure who was peering into the fridge.

Whirling around, the short woman wiped the cream from her lips. “Just making sure it wasn’t poisoned.”

Zarifa rolled her eyes. “Zoe this is my mum, Ana. Mum this is the interior designer.”

Ana stood much shorter than her daughter with long, dirty brown hair which contrasted her almost white blonde fringe. She had shiny grey blue eyes and smiled as she shook Zoe and then Daniel’s hand. She had a stocky figure and dressed in a Barbie pink top and purple shorts which Zoe immediately decided she didn’t like.　

“You do excellent work darl,” she enthused before glancing over at Daniel. “You must be her dashing husband.”

Daniel coughed. “Fiancée actually.”　

Ana tutted. “Stop stalling and get on with it before she runs away.”

Zoe grinned. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Lucky boy. Or should I say silly boy,” Ana said thoughtfully.　

“Mum!” Zarifa hissed embarrassedly.　

Luckily for Zarifa more guests arrived, some of whom Daniel knew and quickly got caught up in conversation. Drinks and finger food filed past as Zoe chatted to Zarifa’s friends, some who were very interested in hiring her. _Great more work_, she thought. As house warming parties went, this one was pretty tame. Sure the music was a tad loud but so far no one had begun strip-teasing on a table. Or swinging off the chandelier. _Heaven help them if they do, I had to source that from France and it’s a one off. I‘ll kill them with my bare hands.
_
Zoe stepped back and looked around, champagne in hand, simply enjoying the party. Daniel had found some medical friends and grinned as he glanced over, before returning to the conversation. Zoe often did this at parties, she would stand back and flit between conversations. Very rarely people realized that she had the capacity to focus on more than one conversation until she repeated something that they had said across the room. This little trick had been heightened since becoming a mermaid, she didn’t know why though.　

“So what do you do for fun?” Ana suddenly appeared at her elbow and handed her another champagne.　

“Me? Oh…not much. Just relax mostly,” Zoe faltered. _What an odd question_, she then thought.

“Oh I thought you might be into swimming or something,” Ana shrugged.　

“Swimming?” Zoe repeated.　

Ana looked up at her. “Oh its just your hair darl. Split ends. You should really trim them out.”

Zoe blushed faintly. She knew she had split ends but since returning to the ocean with Josiah she had spent a lot of time simply swimming up and down the Gold Coast right up to Alexandra Heads, just building up her stamina. And she hadn’t had the chance to go to the hair dressers.　

“Oh well I do surf a bit,” Zoe lied.　
Ana nodded, wagging a finger, the depths of charcoal eyes glittering. “See I knew it.”
Zoe didn’t hear her as she suddenly noted what she first thought to be a bruise which she suddenly realized was a tattoo of a faded rose in the corner of her right eye. She hadn’t meant to stare but Ana must have noticed as she grinned. “It was a dig at an ex, he hated tattoo’s so I get it where he couldn’t miss it.”
“Sorry,” Zoe mumbled. Zoe still felt surprised that Ana had such an obvious gang tattoo.
Ana suddenly looked up at the balcony that over looked the foyer where two people were eyeing off the chandelier. “Anyways, I better go and drag those two down. We cant have then swinging off your French Chandelier. We don’t want bloodshed on our hands now.”


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Zoe laughed and the suddenly stopped as she wondered how Ana had known that. Taking a sip of the champagne she figured she must have told Zarifa who had then told her mother. Why, she didn’t’t know. Fluke, it had to be pure fluke.

Zoe felt her purse vibrate, her iPhone suddenly demanding attention. Putting the champagne flute down she dug it out, glancing at the unknown number before answering.　

“Zoe its me,” Josiah’s unmistakable voice said.　

“Josiah? Where are you?” Zoe said suddenly remembering Dasan’s instructions. She had been so busy she had mostly forgotten.

“I’m in a phone-box at a pier near Tweed Heads, Dad is with me and we have your patient. Come now,” Josiah said hurriedly. 　

“Now? I’m at a house warming party,” Zoe gasped. By now Daniel had spotted her and came over.　

“Forget it, Dad is edgy as it is,” Josiah hissed.　

Zoe looked up at Daniel. “Ok, ok. We’ll be there as soon as we can be.”

“Josiah?” Daniel asked as soon as she hung up.　

Zoe nodded. “He has your autopsy patient.”

Zoe couldn’t’t help but grin at the macabre way Daniel’s eyes lit up. “Really? Where are they?”

“Outside Tweed Heads,” Zoe said.　

“Something wrong guys?” Zarifa asked, suddenly appearing beside Daniel.　

Zoe choked. “Um yes. Family crisis…we um need to go. Great party.”

Zarifa looked stung. “Your leaving? I was hoping you would stay longer.”

Daniel kissed her on the cheek and took Zoe’s arm. “We wish we could. But Zoe’s mum has had a nervous break down and we really need to be there for her.”

“Well ok. I’ll be in touch,” Zarifa said before Zoe and Daniel hurried away.　

“Had to be my mum, couldn’t’t yours having the breakdown,” Zoe grinned as they got in the car.　

Daniel shook his head as they took off. Despite being twenty past ten, the roads were reasonably busy but they made it to Tweed heads soon enough. Zoe realized she hadn’t asked Josiah for exact directions as they drove along the mariner. There seemed to be hundreds of phone-boxes. Suddenly the shadow beside one shifted as Josiah stepped out into the moonlight. Zoe stamped on the brakes and flipped the ignition off. This part of the mariner seemed to be quiet she noted as Josiah stepped towards her.　

“You took your time,” he stated, dressed in Stonewash jeans with a black t-shirt.

“You gave me no warning,” Zoe responded shortly.　

“That dress is very sexy on you,” Josiah suddenly grinned lopsidedly.　

“Ahem,” Daniel coughed darkly as Zoe blushed.

Josiah nodded at Daniel but was still ogling Zoe. “Oh hi. Down there in the fishing container.”

Zoe followed Josiah down the creaky damp piers, the boats tugging gently at their mooring as they rose and fell on the inky ocean. Dasan was stood beside the door of the container dressed in jeans also but with a bright Hawaiian shirt, Cuban heel cowboy boots and a black Stetson hat. Zoe winced, she never did like Hawaiian shirts but with cowboy boots??　

Dasan eyed Daniel closely. “Hmm he seems trustworthy enough.”

“I’m a surgeon, generally that makes us pretty trustworthy,” Daniel responded sharply. He never did like being questioned.　

Dasan shrugged and held the door open where a single bulb hung above a rough wooden table. Zoe gulped and felt her stomach turn as she stared at the dead merman on the table. He still had his fins but they were tattered and torn, his dorsal fins almost completely missing. His scales were dull and his skin pallid and washed out. His eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling, the pupils covered with milky cataracts. The three stepped around the table and stared down at him, Daniel’s eyes wide with wonder. This, Zoe figured must be the medical equivalent of landing jackpot on Saturday night Lotto. 　

“I went through a sunken ship and found you some scalpels,” Josiah grinned handing him the tray.　

Daniel took his jacket off, accepted the tray and then handed Zoe his trusty notepad and pen. He then pulled out his phone, likely for the camera. “Take notes. Ok where to begin,” he said eagerly.　

**********
Zoe watched Daniel pace in the moonlight, as she sat between Josiah and Dasan on the cement gutter. Every so often she heard Daniel mutter under his breath as he paced across the tarmac. Poor guy, his mind must be doing back flips because as soon as the autopsy had finished three burly and naked mermen came to remove the body. Zoe realized they must be Palace guards who had likely been keeping watch.

“I feel like I have just preformed my first surgery,” Daniel explained. “That rush of seeing how all the human organs work in perfect sync for the first time. But that, that was something else,” he enthused.　

“That’s nice. We want answers not speeches,” Dasan said dryly.　

Daniel nodded and looked back down at his notepad. “The damage to the lungs is what interests me the most, almost like it’s a slow, progressive cancer of sorts that rots away the interior. And from there it seems to spread. Its amazing!”

“Can you tell us what caused it,” Dasan had begun to sound frustrated.　

Daniel shrugged, holding up the biopsy samples and a few other bits in zip-lock bags. “Not yet. I have to analyse these first. But as soon as I can I will send Zoe back with the results.”

Dasan shook his head. “It is too dangerous for someone who isn’t familiar with the territory to swim alone. My son will stay with you and escort her back.”

“What?” both Zoe exclaimed. Daniel merely glared.　

Dasan nodded. “He will make sure that Dr. Frankenstein here doesn’t’t try any monkey business with the samples.”

Daniel looked outraged. “Do you think I would go public when my own fiancée is one of you. No way.”　

“He’s not staying,” Zoe said firmly.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Wheres all the comments gone??? 

Chapter 11

“So where am I sleeping?” Josiah asked brightly as Daniel flipped the light to the apartment on.*

“In the office, we have a futon in there,” Zoe muttered dejectedly.

Josiah charged off and could be heard chattering gleefully to himself. The office wasn’t that great, Josiah was likely just happy to be away from his family for awhile and sleeping somewhere dry. Zoe began ferreting through the fridge for a late night snack as Daniel dropped himself on the other side of the island bench. He plonked the samples down before shooting Zoe an imploring look.

“Cant we send him to stay with your parents or something?” Daniel asked.*

Zoe opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly heard springs squeaking as Josiah began jumping on the futon. “Stop jumping on the bed!” she yelled.*

“Futon! it’s a futon la-la-la-la it’s a futon!” Josiah yelled back in a sing-song voice.*

Zoe groaned. “I wish. You heard Dasan, chances are we are being watched.”

Daniel nodded. “Well yes that seems likely, but him? Protect us? Why don’t I get you a Chihuahua it would be more handy.” *

“Yap-yap-yap-yap-yap,” Josiah yipped before laughing as he sat beside Daniel. “Coco pops! My favourite!” Zoe sighed as he snatched the box and began eating them dry by the handful.*

Daniel shook his head, snatched up his samples and stomped up the stairs. Zoe winced as she heard the door slam shut. Josiah grinned, munching through handfuls of Coco Pops. Zoe glared.*

“What?” Josiah asked, lightly spraying Zoe with half munched Coco pops.*

Zoe stuttered for words she was so mad at him. “Who let you into my life with the express purpose of screwing it up!”

Josiah laughed. “Oh you love it.”

“You drag me from a house warming party to a smelly pier. You tick my fiancée off, you annoy the crap out of me and then there is all the other stuff! Your impossible, everything you do goes crap,” Zoe raged.*

“Do you ever think about that night on the deserted island?” He said suddenly.*
“What?” Zoe gaped. “No! Never! Don’t changed the subject.” Even as she said it she could feel her face grow redder.

Josiah leaned across the table. “I do.”

Zoe suddenly found it hard to breath as she stared into those sparkly grey blue eyes. He stared back at her with a slow smile. Time suddenly lost its meaning, like it had on that island. She could have been there a week, a month, a year and she wouldn’t’t have know any different. That seemed to happen around Josiah, she forget where she was, who she was. He made her forget, everything. Time bled into itself, sunsets into horizons and sunrises into days. Slowly Josiah leaned over the bench and unwittingly Zoe felt herself being drawn almost magnetically forward.*

The door to the master bedroom suddenly slammed as Daniel stomped down the stairs in his leather jacket. He didn’t’t seem to notice as Zoe jerked away instead stuffing the samples in a paper bag. “I’m going to the lab to get started on these,” he muttered before glancing at Josiah. “I guess you will want to come with me?”

Josiah shook his head. “Nah that’s ok. I trust you.”

Daniel cocked an eyebrow. “What about Dasan?”

Josiah shrugged. “He doesn’t need to know does he.”

Daniel looked obviously relieved as he quickly rushed up gave Zoe a quick peck on the lips. “Ok I probably wont be back until tomorrow afternoon then.”

Zoe nodded and watched him leave. As soon as the door clicked shut she was aware of Josiah looking at her, intensely. She could feel the vibes from him across the table. He didn’t have to say it, or even whisper it in her mind, she knew what he wanted. Zoe gritted her teeth and forced herself to turn away. She loved Daniel. She did. It was just Josiah making it difficult.*

“I’m going to bed,” she muttered. “Help yourself to the Coco Pops, coffee…whatever.”

Josiah nodded. Zoe had made it halfway up the steps when he stopped her. “Thanks…for letting me stay,” his voice echoed in her mind.*

Zoe looked back and couldn’t’t help but melt slightly. “That’s ok. Goodnight.”
********

Despite all the promising conversations she had held with Zarifa’s friends, not just at the House warming party but over the last few weeks, Zoe had no upcoming projects in the next fortnight at least. Zoe should have felt relieved but suddenly that meant she found herself stuck at home with Josiah who proved to be a very tricky house guest for so many reasons.*

Turns out he got bored easily. Despite not having any upcoming projects, Zoe did have paperwork to finalize and she liked to keep abreast of the trends, so the last thing she needed was a pesky merman in her ear every three seconds. So she let him use her computer in the office. When she had left him, he was playing minesweeper and making his own sound effects. When she came back two hours later to tell him lunch was on, he had logged into the internet and was chatting to all friends pretending to be her. 
Mortified, Zoe dragged him away from the computer.*

“Your friends are really cool,” he grinned.*

Zoe just shook her head exasperated. It was like she had given birth without knowing and suddenly found herself in charge of the worlds most annoying child. Who was just a smidge under six foot and intent on ruining her engagement. And who was supposed to be protecting her from an unseen threat. Can my life get any weirder? She thought.*

“Oh sure it can,” Josiah grinned.*

Zoe plonked the steak sandwich down in front of him. “Is that a threat or a promise?”

Josiah grinned at her, that annoyingly charming grin. Zoe turned away to pick up her own sandwich when suddenly the door bell rang. Sighing she put it down, wondering who on earth could be after her. Unless of course Daniel had lost his keys, again. For a surgeon he could be very forgetful. Zoe always teased him that one day he would leave his scalpel in a patient or forget to close up. He didn’t’t like that.


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Zoe opened the door to Zarifa. “Zoe!” she cried.*

“Hi. What’s up?” Zoe asked, her mind immediately jumping to the conclusion that something had gone wrong with the house.*

Zarifa thrust a bottle of expensive French wine in her hand along with a box of Belgian liqueur filled chocolates. “I meant to give these to you at the party but you ran off so quickly.”

Zoe stared at the gifts stunned. Most of her clients weren’t’t this happy with her work, not to track her down to give her wine and chocolates. “Thank you. We’re just having lunch, did you want to come in?”

“Oh sure! I’d love to see what you have done with your own house,” Zarifa gushed.*

Zoe led her down the hallway back towards the kitchen as Zarifa chattered about how much her husband loved the house. He had been away on his latest book tour for the last four months and only returned last night on a late flight from Las Angeles. It had been his insistence to buy Zoe the wine and chocolates. *

Josiah looked up from his steak sandwich, waved, looked down and the violently looked back up again. Zarifa slammed the brakes on and stared at Josiah with wide eyes. Zoe looked at Josiah and then back Zarifa.*

“You didn’t’t tell me you had a mermaid friend,” Josiah gaped at the same time Zarifa asked “Do you know who he is?”

Zoe blinked and looked at Zarifa. Of course she was a mermaid. That long black hair, her slim figure and her ever present bottle of water which she spied poking out of her handbag. Of course! How had she never noticed it? She then looked at Josiah.*

“I’m guessing you know him,” Zoe realized that as Crown Prince and Zarifa being a mermaid she must know of him at least.*

“Crown Prince Josiah, son of Queen Shilah and King Dasan,” Zarifa said in a really odd way. Almost cautiously.*

Josiah got down from the stool and kissed the back of her hand. “Its so nice to meet one of my own kind on the surface.”*

Zarifa blushed lightly. “What are you doing on the surface?”

“Trying to sort out this mystery disease that has been killing off Mer-folk. Her fiancée is running some tests,” Josiah explained.*

“Disease? Forgive me I have been living above the surface for a very long time now,” Zarifa asked, as Zoe put the bottle of wine in the fridge and opened the box of chocolates. 
Josiah seemed surprised by this but nodded. “Its mostly in the Gulf of Mexico and in places around the Top end of Australia where’s there is oil drilling. We don’t know exactly what’s happening but we think they are dumping chemicals that are poisoning Mer-folk.”

“Oh how terrible,” Zarifa exclaimed.*

Zoe nodded, thinking of the dead Mer-man that Daniel had preformed the autopsy on. She held out the box of chocolates. Zarifa shook her head. “No thanks, I’m allergic to chocolate.”

Zoe stared. “You poor thing.”

“I’m not!” Josiah cried gleefully tucking into the chocolates.*

“So why are you staying with a person?” Zarifa asked, watching as Josiah helped himself to the chocolates. Zoe leaned over and helped herself to a couple but let him finish the box. She didn’t really like liqueur centres and these ones tasted odd.*

“I’m not full human,” Zoe explained.*

Zarifa’s eyebrows shot up. “So one of your parents was a mer-folk?”

Zoe snorted. “I wish. He bit me.”

Now Zarifa looked really surprised as she glanced from Zoe to Josiah. “I see. So your-” she trailed off to Josiah.*

Josiah looked smug to say the least. “Immortal. Why yes. The first in 2000 years.”

Zarifa looked baffled as she fiddled with the ends of her hair. “I never would have picked you as a mer-folk Zoe.”

Zoe shrugged. “I don’t have dorsal patterns and I have only been one since I was eighteen.”

Zarifa nodded. “Oh ok. How did he-?”

“I was in a plane crash and died. He saved me from the wreckage and bit me to revive me. Or so I have been told, according to his sisters I was used,” Zoe responded.

To her surprise, Josiah said nothing, suddenly going very quiet. “Wow. That’s some story.”

Zoe nodded, she had never thought of it like that. “Yeah I suppose it is.”

Zarifa’s phone suddenly vibrated in her bag. Pulling it out she checked the screen. “Oh I gotta go, Mum cant work the coffee machine apparently and is panicking.”

Zoe laughed. “That’s ok. Here I will let see you out.”

As the front door clicked shut Zoe heard Josiah suddenly run to the bathroom. Zoe made to the kitchen just as she heard him throw up loudly. Zoe hurried to the downstairs bathroom and looked around the door as Josiah collapsed the wall, his face pale and sweat rolling down his neck.*

“I don’t feel so good,” he moaned.*


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

Still no comments :/.......where is everyone LOL. I know your reading it coz I see the views tally up each day so I know your out there 

Chapter 12

By the time Daniel returned from work late that afternoon, Josiah was in a bad way. He had thrown up several times and had weakened rapidly. Zoe had tried to convince him to go back on the futon in the office but he was simply too heavy for her to even help stumble back in there. Instead he remained curled up on the cool tiles, very quiet and pale. His quietness concerned Zoe the most, no more jokes, no more cheeky comments. Nothing. Zoe sat by him and brought him water but eventually he refused to drink at all because he kept throwing up.*

As soon as she heard the front door click open she rushed out to Daniel. “What’s wrong?” he asked immediately as he saw her pale, worried face.*

Zoe explained as Daniel hurried into the bathroom and knelt beside Josiah who weakly opened his eyes. Daniel checked his pulse and frowned. “His pulse is very low but then I don’t know what the average pulse of a mermaid is. Has he had much to drink?” Zoe shook her head and Daniel frowned again. “I don’t know. I have never treated a mermaid,” Daniel muttered.

“Now is a good time to start,” Josiah grumbled weakly.*

“Are you in pain?” Daniel asked.*

“No I just feel weak and sick,” Josiah replied, his eyes blinking shut.*

“Nauseous? Head aches? Stomach cramps? Muscle spasms?” Daniel asked.*

Josiah groaned before hauling himself against the bowl and throwing up again. Zoe caught his arm and helped him to lay back down again. His skin felt cold and clammy. Daniel leaned forward examined the contents in the bowl. He disappeared for a second before returning with a plastic bag and collecting some samples, most of which consisted of partially digested fish and seaweed.
*
“That’s disgusting,” Zoe said feeling her stomach turn.*

“No its called medical science. It could be Josiah is showing the first signs of this mystery disease but perhaps this only shows up on land. I will get these analysed as well, see if there is any similarities,” Daniel said.*

Zoe didn’t like the sound of that. “What do we do in the meantime?”

Daniel rubbed a hand against his chin. “My biggest worry is dehydration, even in people its very easy to get dehydrated in this situation but I imagine it would be even worse for him.”

Zoe nodded. “I went through fifteen drip bags once,” she said to which Daniel looked stunned.

“Put me back in the ocean,” Josiah groaned faintly.*

“What?” Daniel asked.*

“Put me back in the ocean, the salt water….I’ll feel better,” he said weakly.*

“We cant release you now, you will get eaten by a shark or something,” Zoe exclaimed.*

“Stop making me sound like a beached whale,” Josiah muttered.*

“Zoe, run the bath upstairs and put some salt in the water,” Daniel ordered in such a way she almost expected him to add STAT at the end of the order.*

Zoe nodded and ran up stairs. By the time Daniel had helped Josiah up the stairs she had filled the bath and had pulled the packet of sea salt from behind the towels. Daniel eyed her as she sprinkled the salt in and waved her hand through it, dissolving the coarse crystals. “I guess you have done that a few times.”

Zoe nodded guiltily as Daniel helped Josiah into the bathtub. Daniel stepped back and watched as he changed from person into Merman, his tail flopping over the edge of the tub, his head underwater. Zoe felt relieved to see his gills slowly opening and closing.
*
“What does this make me? Veterinarian or Surgeon?” Daniel asked under his breath with a faint grin.*

In response Josiah lifted a hand out of the water and flipped Daniel the finger before weakly letting his hand drop back. “Sound carries better underwater,” Zoe grinned. She felt slightly better that Josiah had enough energy to care about what Daniel said.*

Daniel’s phone suddenly trilled in his pocket. Answering, he walked back into the master bedroom, head bent voice serious. Zoe glanced back at Josiah before following Daniel out into the master bedroom. Daniel hung up and looked at her.
*
“One of my patients has gone down hill, I have to get back there and possibly open him up again. I think Josiah should be good as long as he stays underwater, try to get him to eat if you can, maybe raw fish or what ever he is used to,” Daniel ordered. “Hopefully I will be back before midnight. No promises.”

Zoe nodded and kissed Daniel goodbye. “Take care.”

Daniel nodded and moments later she heard the front door slam. Going back into the bathroom she looked at Josiah laying in the bath and wrapped her knuckles on the wall. “Do you want the light left on?”

Zoe saw Josiah shake his head but not open his eyes. He still looked weak. “Goodnight. Yell if you need anything.”

“Ok. I will,” Josiah’s voice whispered in her head.*

Zoe flipped the light off before pulling the door half shut. After scrambling into her pyjamas she snuggled into bed and tried not to think about Josiah in the bathtub. It made her stomach turn funny.*


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## Kiki (Feb 7, 2007)

***********

At about 3am Zoe had joined the upchuck club.*

Daniel still hadn’t come home when she raced into the bathroom, completely forgetting Josiah was there and threw up violently . Coughing and spluttering she sat beside the toilet and wiped the saliva from around her lips. It had come on so suddenly, her stomach churning uncomfortably, her head spinning and her guts feeling off to say the least. Groaning she opened her eyes and found herself eye to eye with Josiah who looked at her with concern.*

“You look terrible,” he said, the water dripping from his hair. *

“Yeah and you look so wonderful,” Zoe retorted weakly. Wriggling over she leaned on the edge of the bathtub. “Maybe we ate something that should have been chucked.”

Josiah sshrugged. “Maybe. I don’t think it’s the mystery disease unless its changed or something.”

“Same here. I mean it shouldn’t’t affect me if it is because technically I’m still a human,” Zoe added.

Josiah looked thoughtful. “I wouldn’t’t know. Salt water helps though. I haven’t been sick in hours.”

It took Zoe a few seconds to register what he meant before she laughed shortly. “Nice try. Daniel will come in and bust out butts for sure.”

Josiah wriggled over. “Don’t tell me you bought a house with a two-person bath for nothing.”

Zoe stared at him, her stomach churning before throwing caution to the wind. Flicking the light off she stepped out of her clothes, aware of Josiah’s keen night vision watching her before she walked over and sat on the edge of the bath. “Keep your hands and fin to yourself. Ok?”

Josiah grinned, his eyes lighting up for the first time since he had been sick. “Ok.”

With a splash, Zoe slid into the saltwater and under the surface. Josiah seemed to have a point, the salt water did make her feel better. Shutting her eyes very quickly she drifted off to sleep, despite Josiah sleeping right next to her.*

******

Zoe woke slowly, her head resting on Josiah’s shoulder and one hand tucked in the crook of his elbow. He was still asleep, or at least pretending, his gills slowly opening and closing letting out a steady stream of bubbles. As she became more aware she realized she did feel better, salt water seemed to have an effect on her that she didn’t’t realize. She knew salt had a lot of benefits but this was a new one.*

She couldn’t help but admire Josiah while he slept, even a girl with a guide dog could tell her that he was gorgeous. He wasn’t buffed or primped like a lot of metro-sexual city guys she knew, he had a natural tan and a healthy figure from being active but he didn’t go overboard, pardon the pun. He was just simply gorgeous. Oh sure he could be annoying and pesky but deep down-

But she loved Daniel, she forced herself to remember. Your engaged to be married.

‘That’s why your snuggled in the bath with me, Josiah’s voice mumbled in her head.*

Zoe basically chucked herself out of the bath, the force creating a tsunami in the tub, the water splashing on the tiles. Josiah sat up and stared at her as she grabbed a towel and began rubbing her fins off. “Why cant you leave my thoughts alone? I love Daniel I don’t need your interference.”

“If you loved him you wouldn’t’t need to keep reminding yourself,” he said simply.*

Zoe stood up and stalked into the master bedroom. “I love Daniel. I’m marrying him. That’s it, the end.”

Zoe heard a thump as Josiah pulled himself out of the tub as well. “Its not the end. Clearly you still love me.”

Zoe whirled around gagging for words as she stared at the Merman who sprawled across her bathroom floor, his iridescent peacock green tail stretched out full length. His grey blue eyes seem to peer straight into her soul, the water dripping from the strands of blonde hair. Zoe managed to get a grip before replying. “I loved you once. That night on the island, I loved you then. But your family forced us apart and I moved on. And so should you.”

Josiah looked visibly hurt. “I don’t want to move on.”

“Well I am and so should you,” she said coldly before turning and disappearing downstairs.*

Downstairs, Zoe began to ferret around for breakfast but her mind kept spinning in circles. She tried to assemble the contents of her fridge but nothing made sense. The anger and frustration fuddled her mind until eventually she slammed the door shut and rested her head against the stainless steel fridge door. Closing her eyes, feeling cool metal against her forehead, she tried to focus her mind but she could think of nothing but Josiah, stretched out across the bathroom tiles. That hurt look his eyes, the way his tail shimmered in the shards of light that split through the blinds and the way his wet hair fell in his eyes. 
She then thought of Daniel and how hurt he would be. But then she thought of that night on the island, the crashing waves, the sand between her fingers and the palm fronds clacking against one another. She then thought of the moment Daniel proposed, the fireworks erupting in the sky. But then Josiah returned once again. No matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn’t get him out of her head.
A few minutes later Josiah trudged down the stairs, the sadness and hurt written all over his face. Without hesitation he walked over as Zoe put the carton of juice down on the bench.
*
“I’m leaving you. Its not right I should stay here and be a bother on you. Daniel deserves you more that I do,” he said taking her hand. He rolled her wrist over and looked at her fishtail birth mark and sighed.*

Zoe couldn’t say anything. She hadn’t expected him to voluntarily walk away and stunned her beyond words. Zoe looked up at him as he sighed again. “Goodbye Zoe,” he whispered in her head, before leaning down and kissing her on the lips. Zoe didn’t’t fight him.*

Josiah pulled away and smiled faintly before brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. He dropped her hand and walked away, head down. Zoe heard the click of the door as she felt the tears spring to her eyes. Well this is what she wanted right? Wasn’t it?


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## Si Frost (May 28, 2011)

I have just spent the last few hours reading your fiction, have kids who love to interrupt me s it takes awhile lol

And I was reading the review you have had, and some of the down right negative points regarding the mermaid biting another. This is a refreshing change and I think you should be commended for it. 

If you look at other creatures such as, werewolf, vampire, werefoxes, and other lycanthropes in fiction they too give there blessing/cures via a bite.

Although towards the end of your fiction it seemed some what to loose its way, I figure that because you were not getting feedback. And speaking from a fiction write myself (fanfiction.net), when you write fiction you crave reviews, no matter if they be flamers (oh how we like those NOT) or positive reviews.

Hence the reason why I am writing to you know, to tell you how much I enjoyed the story, and it had some very unique points to it, and how I loved the start and the rescue by the hansom merman. 

I love the way his family were very dismissive of her, and I think that could be looked into a tad more.

If I were you, I would write it all out again, from scratch maybe change bits here and there. Once you are happy with it post it or get a beta reader to read it for you and send it back for you. Trust me they are a god send, they will see things you never will. Then once each chapter is ready post it, that would be my advice, I would say it would be best on fanfiction. There people will give you advice, help and reviews, most of the time. 

I'm in the middle of writing the first chapter of a trek/dragonage fanfiction, and your story has influenced me to use mermaids in the story at some point.

So take it easy, keep up the good work, and DONT let the ******s get you down.

Simon


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