Thrust Into His Arms

GWENETH

In the actual story of the little mermaid,

she had turned to sea foam at the end because the human prince that she had fallen in love with and had gone to the surface for after meeting the sea witch to trade her tail and voice for legs did not fall in love with her within the specified three days.

As per the agreement she made with the sea witch, she turned into seafoam when the same was up.

Yeah I cried a river when I read it.

I felt so stupid for buying the crafted fairytale version of her getting the prince and they living happily ever after together.

How would it feel like to turn into seafoam? I have been thinking about it.

I say it would be quite better than being the wind and the sea itself. Then I should really become a seafoam.

I find myself wishing for it nowadays.

Now is no different.

Only a handful of people are left out of the hundreds that were here when the sun was out. I had come here before during the day. And through that, I now have a preference between day and night.

I prefer the night.

I love it because it comes with his own cover.

The daylight itself brings scrutiny.

You can’t help but be conscious on how to act and behave so as not to seem wierd.

But the night takes that away and replaces it with freedom.

Utter freedom.

There is no one around now to judge me for kicking my legs at the water or furl their brows because I’m flapping my hands and legs and doing the jellyfish move on the sand.

I see a big bonfire far on my left with a group of people seated around it. Many thanks to the beach for being so vast that it’s not intruding on my lonely time. The water is gradually starting to quieten.

I am staring up at the night sky and the moon that is starting to come out. It’s a little bigger than the crescent it was yesterday. I get my phone and turned it on to take a photo of it to upload on my Facebook. It is on the way to becoming a habitual thing as the thought came to be doing it as a sign to my parents that I’m okay.

They must be monitoring my social media since I always keep my phone turned off so as not to call and get a call from them either as they don’t like the fact that I left.

Mom especially.

Just as I had expected, she thinks that I overreacted and is mad about it.

She did not care to congratulate me and be properly happy when I had gotten the scholarship. And then she flips about me leaving like she has the right to.

Like she has any clue how my life had been for the past months. They know nothing. Only I know how it was and still is for me.

It has been twelve days now with me keeping my phone turned off so as not to get their calls.

And it’s going to be even longer because I know that the school must have long gotten to them and explained the damn video and brand me as a cheap whore. Meticulously leaving out the real truth and the person responsible for all of that.

Dad would be on my side since he knew most of it. But mom,

she would believe it and curse out a black streak on me.

I sit up, removing my gaze and attention from the night sky to the tranquil water. The sight of it never fails to keep me in a deep state of calm. A tranquil solitude in which I almost forget myself and feel more like a nonliving thing rather than a living one.

The sea breeze wraps over me in a warm rustle giving me the comfort of the evening. For some reason the waves has begin to roar loud again.

I drop my phone on the sand, just doing nothing but staring and feeling. I feel a presence besides me just then. I got so scared and immediately stand up with my tote bag in a defensive mood, grabbing out the first thing my hand met inside.

A can of pepper spray.

There is also a taser in there and a small fruit knife.

I had gotten them to protect myself as monsters and creeps are never out of the equation especially for a young girl like me who is here all alone.

This place is called a peaceful area with a very low crime rate. But who knows? You only hear and know of something that is not hidden.

I would bet my life that the sea creatures are not the only thing in the water.

It would be way too easy and convenient here; They’d rape and murder and then throw the body into the river as dinner for sharks.

Who would ever find out?

"Hey, hey calm down and don’t spray that it’s just me." Richard said,

the distant trail lights faintly illuminating his features. He is holding one hand up in surrender while the other is behind his back. I do relax because it’s him but I still did not put down the pepper spray.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. He puts his hands down and sits on the sand.

"You are always out here alone. I thought you could use some company today."

"You thought wrong. I come here because I want to be alone. You just ruined that."

"Why were you so defensive just now? You could’ve—" He abruptly stops. "I forgot. I’m sorry." His apology pisses me off than the earlier cut short statement. "Why do you make reference to that every time?"

"I’m sorry. I just—" He sighs, "I just wanted to apologize for earlier. Back at the shop. I shouldn’t have said that."