Don't Let Them Catch You

9? Serenity

The moving dot in the distance grew closer, aiming straight in her direction. The nearer it came the more evident its glow was, the dot developing into a pretty face with limbs. And as a soft blue humming a low frequency radiated from its body, Aura felt her limbs relax.

The mermaid smiled at the angel, and the angel smiled back.

It danced circles around Aura as she loosened her coiled body, straightening her legs so that they could swim together.

Hand in hand the mermaid tugged her upwards, the dark water growing brighter and brighter until they broke the surface and breathed air.

She had taken Aura towards the waters edge where they could both sit down. Aura gracefully pulled her body onto the flat rock and held her arms out to help the mermaid. They settled silently beside each other and stared into the horizon where the sun was beginning to set, the sky looked like the work of an artist melting from sapphire to vermillion and all the colours inbetween.

"You're quiet today" said the mermaid.

A small smile cracked on the angels lips.

"I'm always quiet."

"Ah but your soul feels moreso than usual. Your essence is almost silent compared to the undiluted rage Im so used to feeling."

Aura didn't even ask.

Compared to all the people she had met since coming to earth, after Markus, she considered this kind gentle creature to be the only person she allowed herself to get close to. Every time Aura felt the need to clear her mind the creature would appear beneath the water as if she had been silently called.

Always there for her.

Mermaids were either ruthless savages, or peaceful souls. It depended on which ancestor they were descended from as one was cursed and the other isn't.

Like angels, it wasn't in their nature to lie, and all possessed an otherworldly sort of beauty.

"You love to speak in riddles mermaid," Aura implored, eyes wandering to the waning moon, "It reminds me of someone."

"I'm speaking quite plainly, you just don't like to listen properly." The blue girl smiled. While her skin was the colour of a summer sky, it reflected light the way metal does.

The mermaid wiggled her luminescent tail in the water like an infant child, creating ripples while stretching her arms as Aura watched curiously.

"Land dwellers should really take a moment every day to appreciate... well... land." She sighed. "You have so much to look at and touch. Most of the sea is just dark, save for the city."

"I guess." Aura replied, looking towards the sky with a yearning. Her heart aching for something she would never see again.

The mermaid followed her gaze, and looked back at her as if she could stare into her soul and strip it apart.

Aura briefly noticed her edge closer towards her, felt the feeling of her smooth arms wrap around her torso, metallic chin settling on her shoulder.

They said nothing and sat in a warm silence for a while. It was as if the mermaid could read her mind, and lifted a hand to stroke away a tear before it even fell with one of her webbed fingers.

Aura felt Amos sit on her other side, her right hand swallowed by the warmth of his hand.

They stayed like this for a while, content in each other's company. This gentle, serene moment a striking contrast to the violence Aura was used to everyday.

Sometimes she wondered how much of the innocence she had before was lost in this world over the years. If she had hardened too much...

They didn't know how much time had passed, as they all sat and watched the sun begin to disappear beyond the horizon.

The angel felt her blue friend beginning to slip away from her so that she could return to the water. Ready to go home. "If you ever want to get away from this awful place and see the blue city, it would be a pleasure to take you."

Aura smiled, feeling Amos' warmth replace the mermaids.

"I've heard whispers of the monsters coming closer to this land territory."

Aura stiffened, her gaze fixed now on the nameless girl. "The spells aren't working?"

Water droplets reflected in the moonlight,  gently splashing around the mermaid as she shook her head. Her curtain of black hair weighing heavily on her shoulders until the strands touched the sea. "They are... they're in tact."

"But how—"

All that work Markus put into clearing the forest of vampires over the years, and getting witches to extend the barrier that dissuades intruders... it couldn't have been for nothing?

There was no way they could even see base.

The magic protecting the people made it so that any unwanted beast heading their way would only see more tree in the clearing, feel dissuaded and turn back.

"They know there's something to look for." The mermaid explained. "They had to have been told."

Aura gulped.

"How long?"

"There's no telling. It's no army, rather more like scouts are being sent. They're so discreet if they hadn't been disrupting the water I wouldn't even know about it." she mused. "They leave a stain like no other, they do."

Her eyes had glazed in disgust as if recalling the memory of what the water tasted like after a demon had been there.

She snapped out of her trance and hurried in front of Aura, latching onto her hands, unknowingly removing one from Amos' grasp.

"This is only the start. They send in one scout and then two and then three and then they pillage and settle as if they're in search of God knows what. Even if the first one found nothing, it doesn't mean he won't come back. I'd give it a couple of months to a year at most before they infect the area like cockroach."

"What are you suggesting?" Aura asked warily.

"You are more powerful than you realise Aura. Tell your leader everything I have told you tonight. This isn't another pest problem that can be dealt with like the vampires, every man woman and child in that building is in serious danger." She urged. Her paper white eyes glowed, tensing as if considering a piece of important information. Rather than choosing to speak on it, she gulped and let go of Aura's hands and retreated further into the water. "I don't want the sea stained with children blood."

The angel was stunned to silence. Unable to even decipher a response.

The mermaid looked back towards the sky, at the moon, as her head bobbed above the water, glowing around her shoulders. "He watches you everyday you know."

Aura stilled.

"What?"

But the mermaid was gone.

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