I ran away with no care to whether she was chasing me. I had but one goal, to get far away from the woman that flustered me like this!
I skidded around corners making a dash, even with my lungs not well geared for land. On my hand the crescent mark burned intensely. I looked down on it, feeling the heat rise from my hand up to my heart.
This was no fun mark; if this was what I thought it was, this was more of a curse than the fun things people fantasize about in werewolf stories, vampires and other sorts of bonds.
This was more like a mark of prey. Something that slowly consumes you until you become theirs. We had tales of caution about these creatures. When they drink the blood they can mark you with a crescent shape. I studied the mythology around me with a fervor. I thought they needed to be in their panther forms to do it, though.
I sped up my sprint, wishing I could run away from this feeling. Finally I reached the sea, now diving in as fast as I could. I held my breath following my long held instincts. Whatever hybrid being I was, I couldn't breathe the water properly. My gills hardly formed. Instead I found it easier to hold my breath for long periods of time, more than that of an average human.
I could breathe like a stuffy nose and filter water through gills on my neck, inner nose, behind my ears if I strongly concentrated.
I had no reference of what others of my species would look like. I was alone in the world of humans. At most my experience crossing over with other land dwelling unusual creatures was once in a blue moon, and only because I sought them out.
In the water bubbles swirled around me as if rejoicing in my return, having almost a life of its own. I believed that to be the case. I felt not only were the plants and creatures alive, I often felt the water was. That perhaps even the water was a being, a person, trapped or controlling the water.
The light from the sky shone as I let my form change. I read many fairytales about magickal transformations, but mine, mine was excruciating. It felt as if you had to pull out every bone in your body and reassemble it with the parts of the ocean.
It was as if there lay within another creature and you had to fold me like inverting an origami to see the true form.
I had to resist breathing in yet, fearing it would hurt more when I was not fully transformed. Then slowly it happened, parts of coral and sand, essences of water, started to swirl and wrap me around like a cloak, their energy covering and entering my legs. Parts of rocks or shells scraped off and seemed to form a harder exterior around the mist that had surrounded me.
Finally, I looked down at myself, I was a coastal bright species of whatever I was. My tail was like a coral mirage, colors and bright hues of my kind. It was probably mostly bright blue with bright pink, red, purple, orange, a whole splash of color. Within my scales lay a shimmering white iridescent hue. It looked like the moonlight itself shone on me.
Around my skin swished bioluminescent bacteria that glowed with every movement. My fingers had woven into a webbed hand kind of sorts, my nails matching my vibrant tail.
Maybe because I was not fully siren or mermaid or whatever I was, I didn't ever seem to fully form, keeping some human traits like my nose and ears. Yet my ears had taken on a much more shimmery fin like shape.
Only when I had dragged my mirror in did I learn that my eyes shone a haunting watery blue that had no pupil or iris. It filled my entire cornea, it seemed sad even, but seductive in its own way.
I had a very strange tail, not that of a whale nor a dolphin. I was some sort of fish I couldn't identify, I had more than one fin, it seemed wispy and trailed around me. I can't say it was the fastest tail, I was probably not the best at blending in unlike others of my kind. Surely there were others.
Nonetheless, it was clear I did not pass as human down here. I swam as fast as I could muster now, finding one of my secret caves. It was perfect for me because it was where divers refused to go, and there was what I would consider an underwater pool.
I was scared of the ocean, honestly. Even if it called me. I knew it was ironic, but much of the ocean was terrifying. The depths and the darker waters scared me the most, so I preferred the lighter clear waters.
Unfortunately, so did most humans, the very people I needed to avoid. It was tricky. I was spotted by some before, I had to try to tell them it was just special effects makeup and a silicone tail. I hoped putting distance between me and them would suffice.
However there was this one cave, this one escape. It was gorgeous. It had bioluminescent glowing walls that I helped grow myself to light it up more, it was pretty shallow, it merely looked like it had no entrance. Truthfully that is because it has no entrance.
It was in an area full of tiger sharks, bull sharks, and hammerhead sharks. People said it was 'infested' but really, it was just their natural home. The sharks never attacked me. I felt at home with them.
I now patted the underbelly of one, they loved scratches. This one had an old mark on it, so I could recognize this one as Raya.
"Hi girl, how are you doing today!" I could see her usual companions of remoras, a fish that has a symbiotic relationship with tiger sharks. I wondered when she'd have a baby shark, as her belly seemed very pregnant right now.
I swam past the hammerheads, straight to what just looked like more mountainous underwater rock terrain, with sand.
I now concentrated my mind hard, focusing all my powers, and was able to shift the rock and sand in the area, creating a small opening for myself. I had discovered it by accident, testing my powers, when I realized I could make an opening and there was space within there.
Slowly over time, I brought more items and instruments to use down here. Some semblance of a backup home, even though I wasn't that good at staying down here longer than a few hours or a max of 12.
Even sleeping down here for the night was a struggle, as I had tried often.
Finally within my safe space, where no panthers, no vampires can reach me. I loved that there was a long trapped pocket of air at the top of my dwelling. It wasn't super large, but it was enough to get a breather. I had carved out a small rest I could perch my arms on up there to breathe comfortably.
I swam over to my makeshift bed, my water doohickis, and finally let myself relax.
I looked over and realized the crescent mark had finally faded to a dull throb. Did she even intend to mark me? I somehow had doubted so. My mind still wandering to how that made me feel inside...
My skin remembered her touch long after she was gone. Every pulse beneath the crescent seemed to beat in time with the memory. The ocean pressed closer, warm and conspiratorial, as if it wanted to keep me near that scent, that brush of danger and want. I imagined her slow and deliberate, the way her fingers might trace the arc of the mark, the heat of her mouth close to mine as she murmured ownership in a voice that both warned and invited. The thought made my breath catch, a delicious ache that was part fear, part need. I told myself it was only curiosity, a scientist's obsession, but my body kept insisting on a different truth.
It was a hot and heavy sort of feeling, I was coming of age soon, for witches that was important, but with this mark, what would happen?
I tried to rest, sleep maybe to get my mind off it, at least shortly. Except my mind kept tracing back to her, her hair, her body, her smell. I groaned, how was I supposed to get her out of my mind like this? Wasn't she supposed to be the enemy?
People like her are dangerous, they use people to get what they want. Just like my father...
Yet some part of me wanted to get to know exactly how dangerous that was. Even as I briefly drifted off, I feverishly dreamed of them biting me again, but longer, further.
I wanted to know what lay behind those shadows covering her face. Who was she, what was her involvement. I was now determined to find out. For science! For science..... Not for any kind of personal reason. Definitely not because that ache was replaced by a different kind of ache wanting a proximity to someone I felt had cursed me.
That would be preposterous.