Chapter 1 #2
“A sturgeon!” This time, both Dean Harrington’s and Charlie’s laughs came through the speakers, making Maren grind her teeth behind her innocent smile.
Just as she was about to turn toward the control booth to give them a threatening look, a dark shadow in the water caught her eye.
Not in the water—on top of the water, so high that it was above the audience’s line of sight.
A shadow, floating at the surface near some rocks.
A slithering silhouette, tiny legs giving powerful, lazy kicks.
No. No, not again.
Maren acted on pure adrenaline. Nothing existed except that shadow and her two friends in the water.
There was no audience. There was no control booth.
There was no water—after all, swimming was second nature.
Right now, she had no awareness of the spring or the cold temperature against her skin.
All she did was fly toward Melissa and Kristen, her tail propelling her forward.
Grabbing Melissa’s hand, she shot forward, reaching out to Kristen.
Maren could see Melissa give the audience a mermaid wave as they flew toward the tunnel exit.
Their hands were tight on Maren’s, oblivious to the exact threat but concerned about Maren’s erratic behavior.
All three mermaids took large sips of air, then dove through the exit tunnel, darkness shrouding them.
A few seconds later, they breached the surface of the water in the pool house—the small building built to give the Sirens cover as they entered and exited the springs.
“What’s happening?” Kristen asked, breathless as she shook the water out of her hair.
Maren ran her hands over her eyes, wiping away the water and also probably most of her underwater stage makeup. “Get out of the water. Now.”
Kristen and Melissa exchanged concerned looks but didn’t argue.
Swimming to the side of the pool, they gripped the edge of the concrete deck and hauled themselves out of the water, flinging their tails behind them.
Normally, they would immediately shimmy out of their tails, eager to get the freezing spandex off of their goose-bumped bodies.
Instead, they stared at Maren as she followed suit, dragging herself onto the deck.
“Alligator,” Maren said, catching her breath. She was normally a little short of breath after the water-to-land transition, but this was definitely worse than usual. “On the surface. Stage left. I saw it.”
Kristen and Melissa exchanged another concerned look, and Maren immediately knew her day had gone from royally screwed to completely irredeemable.
“It was just hanging out on the surface?” Melissa asked. “I mean, it wasn’t, like, paying attention to us, right? And are you sure it wasn’t just a shadow?”
Maren didn’t respond. Instead, she stuck her thumbs in the waistband of her tail, rolling it down and off her body, ignoring the prickling feeling in her eyes.
Kristen tentatively piped up. “There’s no reason to be sca—”
“Stop,” Maren said. “Sorry for being concerned for our safety. And who knows what could’ve happened? It’s not like you two were paying attention. You were too distracted by D—”
“We were paying attention,” Kristen quickly said.
“It’s just, it doesn’t need to be that big of a deal.
I know you’re, you know…” Kristen trailed off before finishing the thought.
“What I’m saying is, they’re just part of the natural environment.
It’s been a long time since one of them actually, you know… bothered us.”
Maren knew exactly how long it had been—nine years and ten months, exactly as long as Maren had been working at Siren Springs—and Kristen should’ve known that Maren didn’t need the reminder, nor did she need to be told about what was and was not part of the natural environment of these springs.
Maren stood up, grabbing a towel from the box by the door. “Maybe next time you can pay more attention to your surroundings instead of giggling over boys who care more about flirtation than protocol. We’re supposed to leave the water if we see an alligator. Period.”
Wrapping the towel around her, Maren slipped on her flip-flops and grabbed her tote bag.
She opened the door forcefully, intending to make a dramatic exit.
Of course, because this day could not possibly get any worse, the two men responsible for the breach in protocol were standing on the other side of the door.
“Um,” Dean Harrington said, staring at her with wide eyes. “Hi?”
Maren had very limited interest in interacting with this man, but he was on her list of people to confront, and she had a lot of pent-up anger to get out.
“You were in the control room,” she said.
Dean Harrington gaped at her. She could probably have directed this question toward Charlie, who stood behind Dean Harrington looking mildly alarmed and vaguely guilty, but Charlie already knew he had broken a rule.
Dean Harrington didn’t even know there was a rule to break.
Even so, she hoped that anyone with eyes (especially bright blue ones like his, although that was perhaps less relevant) would have seen the gator paddling around the surface of the spring and would have told the performers to exit the water, regardless of whether they had known it was proper protocol.
“Um,” he said. He clutched his hands in front of him, like he had to go to the bathroom. “Yes? We were in the control room.”
“You were looking out at the water, then,” Maren said. “Did you not see the gator? In the far right corner of your view, by the rocks. Past where we were swimming. Or did you see it and decide it would be better to just keep making jokes instead of warning us?”
He stood frozen, seemingly afraid to even take a breath.
Maren didn’t find this particularly promising, in regard to getting an answer to her question and also in regard to this movie being successful enough to save Siren Springs from financial ruin.
Shouldn’t actors be good in social situations and know how to use words other than “um”?
“I…didn’t see anything,” Dean finally said, and Maren’s body temperature rose, a cruel combination of anger and embarrassment, only worsened when she saw Melissa snicker. “Maybe it was a trick of the light?” Dean asked.
Maren held up a hand to stop him.
Well, she meant to hold up a hand. Instead, what appeared was a finger.
And then she stalked off.