Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

P aige struggled to prevent herself from taking a breath, her panic building as she sought to find air but failed. A hand reached for her, lacing its fingers with hers.

"Paige," a muffled voice called.

She shot a frightened glance toward Drucinda.

"Breathe."

She shook her head. She couldn't breathe underwater. She'd drown.

"Take a breath!" Drucinda shouted, bubbles pouring from her mouth.

Paige pressed her lips together, shaking her head again. She couldn't breathe, but soon, her lungs would force her to gulp in water. Then she'd drown. Fear twisted her insides as she struggled until she could no longer stand the pain.

She finally gulped in a breath, feeling instant relief. Her brows pinched together as she tried again, sucking in another tentative breath. A grin spread across her features.

"I can breathe!" she shouted .

"Of course, you can," Drucinda answered. "It's an underwater realm. Quite safe for humans."

Paige breathed a sigh of relief as she swished the water around her and scanned the underwater kingdom. "This is nice."

Sandcastles and colorful fish dotted the new landscape. "Where would Dewey be?"

Eyva fluttered past, her dress splayed out in the water. "Probably the castle. That's where we went last night."

"Let's check there," Paige answered as she kicked her feet, sending her floating toward the sand structure.

Paige barrel-rolled through the water with a grin, pleased at her newfound freedom in the sea. She floated above the grand castle for a moment before she dove toward it as Drucinda passed her.

"It's fun here," she said with a grin, sliding through the opening and into the castle's main chamber.

Drucinda screwed up her face at the words. A second later, Paige discovered the reason.

A large merman floated toward them, a trident in one hand. He jabbed a finger at them with a scowl on his face. "You again?"

"Oops," Eyva said. "Sorry, just passing through in search of a friend."

"Your friend isn't here. And if he was, I'd have put him in the dungeon. Like I'm about to do to you."

"What?" Paige exclaimed. "There must be some sort of mistake. We're really nice people."

"Oh, are you?" The merman floated closer, his eyes narrowing. "You weren't last night."

"Yeah, about that…" Paige winced as she shrugged. "Really funny story. We were sort of high. Someone drugged us. So, if we were behaving oddly, that's why. "

He glared at her. "Behaving oddly? Is that what you'd call it."

"Isn't that what happened?"

"No!" The merman raised his pitchfork in the air.

"O-okay, what happened then?"

He gritted his teeth as he snarled at her. "You came here and knocked down our entire town. We're still rebuilding. You humans and your amusement with smashing sandcastles."

He rocked back, grabbing his belly as he faked a laugh. "Oh, hahaha, look I kicked another one down. Hohoho, so funny."

"That doesn't sound like us," Paige said.

"Doesn't it? Well, it was. You and her." He poked a finger at Drucinda.

"I'm not human, so I'm allowed to be mean."

He grimaced at her. "I don't care what you are. You have no right to destroy a civilization and laugh about it."

Paige curled her fingers into fists. "Look, I don't believe we did that."

"Don't you? Well, here's some proof." He grabbed what looked like a phone and twisted it toward them.

Paige tugged a corner of her lips back as she watched herself knock over a small building before she covered her lips with laughter. "Oh man. I really never should get high."

"No, you shouldn't. Now that I've proven it. You're going to the dungeon." He poked the trident at them.

"Okay, umm, I think we can work something out here. Maybe some community service."

"Or maybe you can be eaten by a shark."

"Or we could help you rebuild," Paige shot back. "I'm pretty handy with a shovel and pail. I'll bet we could have your town restored in no time. "

The merman rubbed his chin. "All right, fine. You'll help build the town while I think about what to do with you."

"Deal," Paige said with a nod. "Just point us in the right direction."

He shoved his trident toward them. Paige floated back away from it, driven out of the door. She glanced around, her lips tugging back into a wince as she spotted the ruined part of town.

Several manner of sea creatures milled around as they worked to restore their homes and businesses.

"Wow, we were real jerks last night."

"Get going," the merman shouted. "Go, go."

"Okay, okay. We're really sorry about this," Paige answered. "We'll build it up again in no time."

She kicked her feet and swam over toward the dilapidated section of town.

Eyes grew wide as they approached. Several of the sea creatures raced for cover as they approached. One poor crab stood frozen in the middle of the street, his eyes wide as he stared at them, trembling in fear.

"It's okay, buddy. We won't hurt you. We were just…high last night." Paige shook her head. "I still can't believe we did that. It really doesn't sound like me."

Eyva rubbed her chin as she studied the carnage. "I don't remember doing this either. And it certainly doesn't sound like me."

Their eyes slid to Drucinda. Her jaw unhinged. "Don't look at me. I'm sort of bitchy, but I'm not a destroyer of civilizations."

"Then…who did this?"

"You did," the merman shouted from behind them. "A redhead, a brunette, a silver-haired vixen, and a tiny dragon."

"Why, thank you, sir," Eyva said with a sly grin. "You're not so bad yourself. "

"Please stop flirting with everyone," Paige said with a shake of her head. "This is serious."

"Indeed, it is," Eyva said as she floated closer to the merman. "Which is why I cannot believe we did this no matter what drugs were in our systems. It's simply not in our nature. There must be something else afoot here."

"What?" he asked as he studied her.

She raised her eyebrows. "I don't know. But I think we should find out before it happens again. I'll leave my granddaughter and her friend to help with the restoration. I propose you and I discuss other possibilities and do a bit of digging."

He studied her, his eyes roaming up and down her form. "All right."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Leave it to grandmother to manage to get out of physical labor," Drucinda said as they floated away, arm in arm. She shoved a shovel and sand form toward Paige. "Here. We may as well start."

"Thanks. I'll start over here with the apartment building and work my way back."

Drucinda nodded as she swam toward a crushed factory. Paige settled on the sea floor in a cross-legged seat and began to fill her form.

The terrified crab inched closer, peering around the side of a wrecked building at her.

"Hi, you don't need to be afraid. I won't hurt you."

"That's not what happened last night," he said.

Paige packed the sand down with her hand before she leveled it off. "Yeah, I'm not quite sure what happened last night, but if I did do something bad here, I'm sorry."

The crab crept a little closer, tugging a bucket behind him. "I guess that's something."

He plopped down next to her and began to fill his mold with sand. His fleshy eyebrows furrowed as he stared at her. "You have very pretty eyes. I hadn't noticed last night. They looked black."

"Black?" Paige asked with a wrinkled nose as she laid the foundation for the apartment building. Was a different eye color a side effect of the drug?

"Yep, black as coal. Other than that, you looked just like you do now. Well, you looked a lot meaner. Especially when you stomped on my house."

Paige tugged her lips back into a wince. "Oh, man. I'm so sorry. I usually don't do anything like this. I know it's no excuse, but…I was on drugs last night. Not by choice. Someone drugged me."

"Oh," the little crab said, "well, that's not an excuse, but at least it explains some of what happened."

Paige's mind spun as she laid another brick for the building. She tried to search the depths of her mind for anything that remotely resembled her poor behavior last night, but she found nothing.

She gave up, assuming that she'd never remember anything from her bachelorette party. She'd nearly finished her work on the apartment building when Eyva emerged from the castle with the merman.

She floated toward Drucinda first, who set her shovel down and exchanged a few words with the woman. After a moment, Drucinda shook her head and waved her away.

Eyva moved on, swimming over to Paige. "Almost done with the apartment building."

"Wonderful. I'm certain the residents will appreciate it, though Thor and I have come to the conclusion that we didn't, in fact, destroy this town."

"We didn't?" Paige asked. "But he said he recognized us."

"Yes. He recognized us but with black eyes. "

"Oh, yeah," Paige said with a nod. "The crab said that, too."

"The crab," Thor grumbled, "has a name. It's Sebastian."

"Right. Sorry. Sebastian said I had black eyes. Is that a side effect of the drugs?"

"No. But it is characteristic of a mimic."

Paige sat her shovel down as she snapped her gaze to Eyva. "A what?"

"A mimic. A form of mermaid that can change her appearance to mimic others. The only thing that does not change is the eyes. When they mimic, they are black. Even their tails disappear."

"Evil mermaids?"

Eyva nodded. "Yes. Evil mermaids. Led here by our visit. So, in addition to building back the town, we should also help by seeking them out and destroying them."

"What? Seriously? We don't have time–"

"Dut, dut, dut, dut, dut," Eyva scolded with a wag of her finger. "We have enough time to help these poor people who will be terrorized by these mermaids now that they have been exposed to them."

Paige heaved a sigh as she nodded. "Fine. We'll destroy the mermaids, too."

"I knew you'd agree," Eyva said with a clap of her hands. "Now, finish up with that building, and let's seek out these evil mermaids and dispatch them."

"Dispatch them? Aren't we going to have to basically…kill them?"

"No," Thor answered. "I want them brought back here alive. We shall put them on trial for what they've done."

"Oh, just drag them back here. Okay," Paige said as she laid the final brick. "That should be simple enough. Do you have another one of those pitchforks and maybe a set of handcuffs? "

Thor narrowed his eyes at her as she dusted off her hands.

"Right, of course, you don't. That's okay. We'll just bring them back with our bare hands. How hard can this be?"

"I don't remember much about last night, but I believe these evil mermaids came from that direction," Eyva said, pointing through the water.

"That would make sense if they destroyed this part of town. I guess we'll go explore and see what we can find." Paige sucked in a breath as she stared into the dark, murky water beyond the town.

"Ready?" Drucinda asked.

"I think so," she answered.

"Let's go kick some mermaid butt," Drucinda said with a kick of her foot.

Paige swam behind her, leaving the underwater kingdom behind as they set off into unknown territory. "How are we going to find them? We could be swimming around for hours."

"Evil mermaids tend to lurk in sea caves. We should search for something like that," Drucinda answered.

"Right. Hey, aren't we being a little judgy calling them evil mermaids?"

"No, that's what they are," Eyva said. "Evil mermaids."

"Are there non-evil mermaids?" Paige questioned as she scanned the area for caves.

Drucinda nodded. "Yes. There are all sorts of mermaids. Evil ones happen to be…evil."

"Of course, we'd run into the evil ones." Paige shifted her gaze to the right, peering into the darkness. "Hey, I think there's a cave over here. The darkness looks…darker."

"That's a ridiculous statement. How does darkness look darker?" Drucinda asked .

"Well, look," Paige said, swishing her hand through the water at the inky black spot. "It's like…really dark."

"It's a cave," Eyva reported as she swam closer. "Let's explore it and see if we can find our nefarious friends lurking inside."

Paige wrinkled her nose. "Wow, the way you say that makes me really not want to go in there."

"Too bad," Drucinda answered as she latched onto her arm and pulled her forward. "This has somehow fallen to us thanks to our stupidity last night."

"I really hope this never happens again," Paige lamented as the cave's walls filled in around them. "It's creepy in here. Even creepier than this place is to begin with."

"It's not creepy," Eyva said. "It's just…different."

Paige ground to a halt as she peered into the darkness surrounding them. Sets of red eyes stared back from the blackness. "No, it's creepy. What are those red things?"

"Eyes. Looks like we found our little mermaid friends." Eyva sneered at them. "Let's go you evil mermaids. Time to pay for what you've done."

"I don't think so," a warbly chipmunk voice answered.

"I do. You ruined a town last night and all while impersonating us. I won't stand for it. And don't think you're toying with just anyone here. I'm a full-blooded Valkyrie." Eyva set her hands on her hips and raised her chin.

"I don't care what you are, old woman, we're going to kill the lot of you and eat you for lunch."

Paige's jaw unhinged at the words. "Oh, come on, that's a little harsh."

"And we're going to start with you!" the voice said before a rush of bubbles burst from the blackness.

Three figures raced toward them, sending the water churning as they darted around. Paige whipped around in a desperate attempt to track one of the mermaids and capture her.

She reeled as she came face to face with a nasty-looking version of herself. "Yikes!"

"Yikes is right," mean mermaid Paige answered as she reached for Paige with long talon-like fingernails.

"Get away from me!" Paige shouted. She kicked to propel herself backward through the water.

"I think not," mermaid Paige answered. She sneered, showcasing a mouthful of pointed, triangle-shaped teeth.

Paige tried to grab hold of her mermaid counterpart's wrists but failed. The mermaid sliced a hand through the water, drawing blood from Paige's arm. The red floated through the water as her wounds stung from the salt water.

"Ouch!" Paige shouted as she stared down at the scratches. A second later, they were the least of her concerns. An arm clamped around her neck and tugged her backward.

She gasped as she clawed at it, trying to free herself.

"Time to say goodbye!" the high-pitched voice whispered in her ear with a giggle.

The corners of her vision began to turn dark as she fought to escape. The iron grip around her neck made it nearly impossible. As she struggled to breathe, she came to one terrifying conclusion. She likely wouldn't survive this encounter.