“It’s fine,” Blake told him, reaching out to pet along the slick length of one of the tentacles that grew from Marin’s hip.Rings of blinking spots radiated out over the cool flesh, fading from dark to light in the beat of an erratic breath.“We’re fine.”
“I—I don’t know what’s happening,” Marin admitted, pressing a palm to his temple and shaking his head, as if trying to rid the state that had come over him.He looked over at Blake, his oblong pupils swollen with terror.“What’s happening to me?”
Blake twined his fingers around the thick end of a tentacle, hoping that the gesture was comforting to Marin.“I’ve got you.Take a deep breath.”
“I—” Marin sucked his lower lip, a violent shudder wracking his frame.“I’ve—I’ve never felt anything like this before, neverwantedanyone like this in such a—such a—”
Blake could tell that Marin’s words were failing him.He reached up and touched the sides of Marin’s cheeks with his fingertips, stroking down his face and along the sides of his neck.His fingers passed with ease over wet, flaring slats that had not been there before—Marin had developed gills.
“Shhh,” Blake soothed, stroking down Marin’s arms until he was able to ease the tension rippling under his skin.He pulled Marin in close, wiping gentle arcs over the crests of his cheeks, pressing chaste kisses into his hairline.“Just breathe.”
But despite Blake’s efforts, Marin was getting worse.His breaths came with heavy, exaggerated heaves of his shoulders, air expelled with terrified whimpers.
And then, the tension in his body snapped.
Throwing back his head, a hoarse shriek cracked through the air.Down below, Marin’s tail blossomed into six more tentacle limbs curling and undulating in the water, spilling into Blake’s lap.
With a terrified gasp, Marin shot backwards out of the grotto.
As Blake pursued him through the waterfall, Noel’s earlier warning washed up in his mind, far too late:
“Some merpeople can learn how to transform themselves into other sea life,” he’d said.“But in rare occasions, it can happen automatically, even if those tentacles are already out.Like when you’re feeling really scared or uh…”
Noel hadalsomentioned that staying in those forms could have very permanent side-effects—Blake recalled the other merman’s serrated grin.
Blake had no idea how long he had to get Marin to revert before the effects became irreversible.The last thing he wanted was for Marin to have part of his body stuck like this forever, or—God forbid—be trapped in this form permanently.
Shit, Blake thought, emerging from the grotto.ShitshitSHIT.
The sight that met him was less than encouraging.Marin had swum out into the middle of the pool, thrashing around in terror.Horror blossoming on his face like some awful flower, he began to unfurl his new limbs, raising them out of the water and extending them to their fullest capacity, as if attempting to stretch them as far away from his person as physically possible.He affixed his pleading gaze onto Blake’s eyes, reaching out to him with a helpless hand, fingertips atremble.
Blake advanced towards Marin, palms held up to the merman in a gesture of comfort.
He recalled the night that he had first brought the fiberglass merman to life—the way that he’d cradled Marin in his arms.He’d been so uncertain and frightened in that moment, but Marin had been content enough to trust Blake to carry him, even after having just met him.
Don’t worry, Marin,he thought.I’ll carry you again.
“Hey,” he greeted Marin.The merman dropped deeper into the water, his hair pooling out around him as he continued to scrabble backwards.He plastered his new limbs over the wall of the pool and he turned away from Blake, curling into himself with a soft, warped wail.
“It’s okay,” Blake insisted, pausing several meters away.“You’re okay, Marin.Keep breathing.I’m going to get out of the pool.”
“Don’t go!”Marin cried.His voice was so garbled that it didn’t quite resemble human speech, and Blake had to strain to understand him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he reassured, heading for the steps of the pool.“I’m going around the pool to help lift you out of the water, okay?”
Marin made a noise that could have been an affirmation, but sounded more akin to a trill.Keeping to his word, Blake rounded the side of the pool to where the merman had sequestered himself.Marin began to pull away, eyes dashing between Blake and the new tangle of tentacles that spilled from his lower half.
“Hey,” Blake repeated in a low, comforting tone.He extended a hand towards Marin’s cheek, allowing the merman to close the distance in his own time.“Look at me.You’re gonna be okay.”
Eyes trained on Blake’s outstretched fingers, Marin hesitantly lowered his cheek to his palm.As soon as his cool, wet skin made contact with Blake’s, he squeezed his eyes shut.Brows knitting, he sucked in a sharp breath and sighed it out with a tremulous waver of his new limbs.
“There you go,” Blake encouraged, rubbing his thumb upon the rise of Marin’s cheek.“You’re okay.”
Marin nodded, and one of the pale tentacles inched up through the water, almost shy, before petting the back of Blake’s hand.
“I’m gonna try to scoop you out, okay?”Blake let him know, reaching out with his other arm.Marin watched the hand with fearful eyes, although he didn’t shy away again.“I’m gonna grab you under your arms and pull you out of the water.”
Again, Marin nodded—if his earlier vocalizations were any indication, talking was beyond him by this point.Blake dropped his hand from Marin’s cheek, hooking his arms beneath Marin’s armpits and easing him through the water towards the ledge of the pool.
