December 23rd | Eight days until NYE

I fidgeted with my hand, spotting the new scar across my finger. I'd peeled potatoes and caught my hand a few weeks ago, but the scar was now a permanent part of my body. The pads of my fingers trailed over my knuckles and the newest edition to my hands yet my mind was elsewhere.

Leah and I were packing up our bags to get ready to head back home for Christmas. As I stared at my open duffel bag, the assortment of attire scattered within, I couldn't put into words how much I didn't want to go.

I didn't want to leave Henry alone at Siren Bay.

New fears whispered in my dreams. Seeing Winnie, perfectly normal, and glimpsing Henry's glowing tail fending off their demon – was it a literal demon? – it was jarring to say the least. I was no longer thinking about how they came to be mermaids, I was wondering who they were fighting, and what it was.

I thought I knew monsters, I'd met enough people that were monstrous in some way, but this...this was my first actual monster. What were Henry and the others fighting? What were they up against?

What secret were they keeping?

I couldn't help but scoff at the irony. I, the famed secret keeper, wanted to know what their secret was. I shoved the last of my things in my bag but as I zipped it up, sitting on it so everything fit, I hesitated. I still didn't want to leave – I still wanted answers.

Leah walked into the living room to see me sitting on my bag with a frown on my face. "What did you do?"

"What?"

"You look like you've seen some shit." Leah sat herself down and stared at me, her dark eyes open and accepting for whatever nonsense I'd found myself in. "What happened?"

I looked at my fidgeting hands as I told her what happened last night when I tried to go to Siren Bay to see Henry, only for Winnie to throw me into the sea and spit me out away from harm, away from Henry. "I'm just...I'm worried."

Leah raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to tell your parents about your phone being dead?"

"I told them I broke it," I shrugged. "I technically did, in a way."

Leah smiled and nodded slowly as she thought over what I'd told her. I could see her brows bunch together in puzzlement, her eyes dart around the floor like she was collecting the right words. "If you're worried for him why aren't you down there?"

"I don't know if I'll get the chance until after Christmas, I mean, my parents are picking me up in an hour." I had to call them from Benji's phone to let them know about my broken one, which they weren't pleased about already, but I didn't have time to get to Siren Bay and wait for Henry to explain what happened and back before they arrived – it wasn't even sunset yet, and the mermaids didn't emerge until past dusk.

"Are you –" Leah paused as Benji bounced into the room and plonked himself down next to Leah, looking between us.

"What's the tea?"

"Sylvia and mermaids," Leah answered.

"Brilliant. What's up?"

A little sigh left Leah's mouth as she looked at me again. "Are you worried about anything else?"

This time I couldn't avoid the thought that'd plagued me since coming back last night. "I'm afraid they won't be there anymore."

Benji blinked. "There's only one way to find out, Sylvia. You have to go down there – if you're worried for someone, and you only think about them and don't act on it, then you're just going to be stewing in 'what if' for ages."

Leah nodded along to Benji. "You have to go down there."

"I don't have time though, it's not night time yet, and my parents will be here soon." I twisted my back to see out the window, where the sun barely touching the horizon. It was still a few hours until Henry would normally be at Siren Bay.

I'd run out of time.

"Then we make time," Benji declared and snatched Leah's phone from her back pocket. "I'm gonna text your dad and tell him we're watching a movie before we return you home, all three of us."

"What? Will they believe that?" Leah asked, tapping her black-polished nails on the floor seeing someone else touch her phone. "Why don't you text her mum?"

I smiled. "Yeah, Benj', why don't you text my sweet, darling mother?"

Benji glared at me as he furiously typed. "I'd rather face your ten-foot, brickhouse-built father than your mum."

"What's wrong with Mrs Okenji? She's lovely!"

"She sees my soul Leah," Benji's eyes were wide as he recalled the last time he saw my mum. "She knows things."

"She knows you're a freaking weirdo, like the rest of us," Leah waved to our trio, "and what she's doing is listening to you and giving you attention."

Benji shivered. "Nope. She stills scares me, it's her eyes."

I pointed at my face. "Benji, I have the same eyes."

"Have I ever told you I find you terrifying?"

I laughed, all of us cracking up, but I smiled as he continued to type on Leah's phone. "You know she thinks of you as the son she never had, right?"

Leah nodded in agreement. "I'm also the son she never had."

Benji snorted, though I noticed his eyes weren't as wide in fear anymore. He handed Leah's phone back. "All fear aside, your parents now believe the three of us are going to see the latest Star Wars film, curtesy of Leah's newfound obsession with the lead actress."

Leah blinked. "Pardon?"

"Yes, you've fallen head over heels with the actor and watched all her interviews, and you're so in love that you're dragging us to the film for one last get-together." Benji crossed his arms, rather pleased with himself. "Am I a genius, or am I a genius?"

Leah was still blinking at her phone as I leaned forward. "So, how long do we have now?"

"Well, the session we're technically at is in 45 minutes, and then the film is two-and-a-half hours, and then an hour after, your parents are going to pick you up, so about four hours comfortably, which brings us to 10pm." Benji counted the hours on his hand. "Is that enough time?"

I leaped off my duffel bag and tackled him in a hug, both of us falling to the ground as he squealed. Leah laughed and jumped on us. "Stacks on!" she shouted and I wheezed as her weight fell on my back.

"Leah!" Benji shrieked, trying to shove us both off him. "I'm literally dying, get off me!"

I laughed, Leah cackling as we hurled ourselves off our very lithe friend who clutched his chest dramatically. "You're alright?"

"I have no lungs."

Leah and I locked eyes, shrugging. "That sounds alright to me."

I held a hand out to Benji to haul him upright again, smiling at them both. "It's more than enough time."

Leah grasped my shoulder. "Time for you to swim with the fishes."

"Really?"

"Come on Sylvia I've been waiting days to use that, let me have it!" Leah said, beaming at the upturned mouth of Benji trying not to laugh. "Thank you! I'll count it."

"You're both ridiculous."

"You love it."

"I tolerate it," I smirked as Leah rolled her eyes, Benji snorted, both of them knowing that I loved them and I couldn't have done these past few weeks without them by my side.

Benji clapped his hands. "Anyway, let's get you swimming with the fishes."

"I hate you both."

Leah blew me a kiss as we made our way to the door, Benji pointedly taking his keys off the hook and winking at me. "I'll drive this time."

I winced with a smile. "Sorry?"

"Still love you, you bitch."

I snorted, shoving him out his front door. "Gran," Benji shouted out as Leah quickly ducked under the archway of frantic cobwebs leading to his car. "We're heading out!"

As I too ducked under the spiders, heading for Benji's bright red Swift named Taylor, I heard Maureen shout a quick goodbye, telling us not to have too much fun without her.

We all hurried into Taylor, Leah called shotgun, and I sat in the middle seat so I had a good view of where we were going, and so I could see my best friends' expressions clearly; from Benji's pursed lips, his nose scrunching up as he concentrated on driving, and Leah's dead-eyed disappointment.

"Leah stop thinking it's distracting me," Benji said as he slowly eased the car down the street.

"Sorry, didn't realise we were driving with an old lady," Leah scoffed, "you do realise that the speed limit is 40k's?"

"I am going the speed limit!" Benji cried as I laughed at them both.

"Are you?!"

I leaned forward to glimpse the speedometer. "He's going 24, Leah."

"Twenty four k's an hour?!" Leah shrieked.

"Well it has a four in it!"

"Step on it!" Leah encouraged, bouncing in her seat like it would make Taylor go faster. "By the time we get there it'll be midnight!"

Benji groaned and slowly eased his foot on the accelerator. I peered over and told Leah the newest speed; 28km/h.

"I could run faster than this," Leah groaned and put her hand on her forehead, elbow resting on the door, as she stared outside like she was in a music video.

"Well, you called shotgun," I teased. "Next time call to drive."

Leah laughed, and Benji laughed harder. "The last time Leah drove a car was, like, a year ago? And how did that go?"

"My dad hasn't let me forget it," Leah snickered. "It was only a write-off!"

"You drove it into a pool!"

"Well, the pool shouldn't have been there, okay?" Leah argued. "Who has a swimming pool in their front garden?"

"None of your neighbours if they have any sense."

Leah turned in her seat to look at me after my quip, and shrugged. "This is why I have my motorbike, you can't drive motorbikes into pools."

"Somehow, I think you'll be the exception to that," I said as Benji turned down the long winding road to Whale Beach. He was going even slower than before as he took the sharp turns looping the cliff side like snake down a tree trunk.

"Well, it was better than your first time driving," Leah said to Benji. "What was it your driving instructor said to you? About the birds?"

"Stop slowing down for birds," Benji slowed for another corner, "he told me about nine times in one driving lesson."

Leah cackled. "That was it!"

"In my defense, we were driving around here and there are so many birds!"

I leaned forward and checked how much time we had. The sun was just touching the horizon now, and I knew that if Henry was going to be there, we didn't have long to wait. By the time Benji got us down there though, the beach would be pitch-black and the only glow of light would be from the moon.

Nerves buzzed through my body. Would the mermaids be there? Did they win that fight last night with the 'demon'? "How far out are we?" I asked.

"Not far, few minutes," Benji said.

"About an hour at this rate."

"You know, if you wanna get out and walk, you can," Benji joked. "See if you can beat me there!"

Leah snorted. "I know I can, that's not a challenge."

Benji locked eyes with me through the rear-view mirror. "Damn, was worth a try."

I eased back in the seat as I watched us drive down and down to the sea, closer and closer to Siren Bay and any answers I could receive from Henry and whatever he was facing.

"Do you think he'll be there?" I said quietly, bringing silence to the car.

No one said anything for a while, not until we reached the round-a-bout and saw the carparks either side, the large expanse of sand greeting us like a red carpet before the shallows. As Benji pulled into an empty spot, the engine ticking low as he turned the key, Leah eventually spoke. "He'll be there, Syl', you have to trust he'll be there."

"But what if he's not? What if no one is? What if that's the last we'll see of them and we won't have any answers as to who they were or what they were going through?" My nerves sizzled. "What if...that's it?"

Benji twisted in his seat and squeezed my knee tightly. "And what if he's there? Sylvia, what if he is there?"

I released a haggard breath. I was so focused on if he wasn't there, I hadn't even thought of what to say if he was. What if everything was okay? What if I was just overthinking everything and they were all alright?

"Come on, only one way to find out." Leah opened her door and left Taylor, Benji and I followed suit. I could taste the salt in the air as Benji locked his car and we all walked beyond the pines to the sands. The sand was cooler, the weather turning miserable in the lead up to one of the most celebrated holidays – the inside would be warm and festive, but the outside world would rage and roar.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I lead the way to Siren Bay, the sand tickling my toes, the cliff cool to touch as I walked over the trenches. The beach was completely empty, all the surfers already gone because the tide was low and waves were minimal. It wasn't a day of fun, the weather was working against us, and I pointed it out when we sat down before the shallows of Siren Bay.

"This weather's gonna turn," I shook my head. "Probably a storm or something."

Leah withdrew a book from her bag, a copy of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. "We'll wait as long as we can. We've got time, a few hours at least."

I sighed, tucking my feet under me. There were grey clouds smudging the horizon, the sea was still, and all I could hear was Benji tapping on his phone, scrolling through whatever was trending, and Leah quietly turn the pages of her book.

"Why are you reading mermaid books all of a sudden?" I asked, peering over her shoulder to read with her.

"Well, I thought I'd learn as much as I can, you know?" Leah shrugged. "In case we need to defend ourselves."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'd pay to see you try and fight a mermaid."

"It would be the Oscar-winning biopic," Benji chimed in.

"Look, I'm just saying, that if it were you guys against a mermaid in a fight, or me, I would bet on me," Leah tapped her book. "I have studied the Mer folk! I have an advantage."

"'The Mer folk'?" I blinked at her. "What are you on about?"

"Well," Leah adjusted how she was sitting so she faced us both. "The term 'Mer' is given to mermaids, or mermen, to signify the half-fish half-human folk from fairytale. They're often mixed with Sirens, which are depicted as beautiful, with hypnotic voices and songs, but mermaids are kind of the 'killer vicious' kind."

"...Killer vicious?" I wondered, thinking back on Henry's gentle touch around my waist as he hauled me to the surface after Winnie's attack. How shy he was when he first saw me, how careful and afraid of having someone see him and his tail for the first time. "That doesn't seem right."

Benji nodded. "I agree, Jason and the others seem more siren than mermaid."

"Well, none of them have existed until now," Leah pointed out. "I'm trying to read as much as I can and find out what exactly mermaids can be, you know?"

I inched closer, peering at her book. "Does it mention anything about glowing tails?"

"No," sighed Leah, "I can only find examples where they have scaled tails, horizontal fins like a whale, nothing like the ones we know."

"It's like, here me out, mermaids aren't real." Benji looked up from his phone with a shrug. "I mean, they mentioned loosely that this happened to them last year, right?"

I paused, remembering their half-answers to our questions and how they so quickly avoided the topic of their glowing tails. "We'll just have to wait and ask them again."

We stopped talking, listening to the sounds of Siren Bay and the shallows of the sea, salt in the air setting in my black ringlets as I sighed. Waiting wasn't my strongest attribute. I wasn't good at just idly sitting around and waiting for things to happen. I went after the truth with a club and clutched the secrets close.

"I spy," Benji broke the silence as the sun set below the horizon, the last blue light dancing across the ocean, "with my little eye, something beginning with 's'."

"Sand?"

"Yup!" Benji cheered, and started again. "I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with...'s'."

"Sky?" Leah answered with time.

"Yeah! I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 's'."

"If the answer's sea I'm gonna throw you in," Leah said, her book shutting with a snap of her hand.

Benji's uncontrollable grin answered for her, and he giggled as Leah put her book in her bag and stood up. "Leah!" He shrieked as Leah grabbed under his arms and hauled him into the shallows. "Leah! It-it was salt! It was salt!"

"You can't see salt!" I shouted back as Leah's feet brushed the ripples of the tide.

"But," Benji raised a finger, "there is sea salt!"

Leah didn't hesitate. I groaned from his joke but Leah decided to hurl him into the shallows. Benji squealed, laughing as the water enveloped his body, just managing to keep his head above the water. Leah crossed her arms, attempting to appear threatening but she had a small smile on her face as Benji cackled at his own joke.

"Are you done?" Leah said, laughter coiling up her throat.

"Sea salt," Benji snorted, sitting up. The water settled around his torso. "I'm hilarious."

"You're delusional," Leah shook her head.

He held up a hand to her and she grasped it, hauling him out of the shallows. "I win!"

Leah turned to me as they walked back onto the sand. "We're never playing I Spy again."

I agreed with her, especially as Benji dived for me and hugged me, his wet clothes soaking into mine like I was his personal towel. "No! Nope, Benj', get off!" I couldn't help laughing at his antics. "Are you having a sugar rush?"

"No, I promise!" Benji settled back where he was before, stretching out to dry off. The water was warm but the summer air was still stifling and he would dry by the time we headed back. "I've been a good boy."

Leah let out a curt laugh as she plopped back on the sand, shaking off the salt water on her shoes. She removed them, placing her boots next to her bag as she drudged up her book from her bag and began reading again.

I smiled as he ran his hands through his hair, shaking the water out, and sighed. The blue hour cushioned the harsh night quickly approaching. I could only wait and hope for Henry to arrive. Maybe he'd arrive soon, knowing the weather was too dismal for any locals to be out in the water, or still sunbathing on the sand. The light of the sun, however, faded slowly and soon Leah had to use her phone as a light so she could still read.

The gateway of Siren Bay leading to the ocean was still empty when Benji nudged my arm. I squinted at the brightness of his phone as he showed me the time. "We have about an hour left before we need to head back."

I pursed my lips. Hope faded with the light. I was only sitting here quietly accepting no one was going to come. "Can we wait a bit longer?" I said quietly.

Leah rubbed my back. "We can wait the hour, Syl'."

I let out a breath, listening to the quiet waves ripple. I stretched out my legs, removing my shoes so the shallow sea kissed my toes. The south wind was cooling the night quickly, goosebumps beginning to form on Benji's lean arms. I could glimpse his battery running low, and Leah's was too from holding the torch in place.

Henry wasn't coming.

I sat up. "Come on, let's go."

"What?" Leah blinked. "Sylvia, come on–"

"Leah, let's face it. We've been here for hours, it's night time. Henry's normally here by now, he's late, and it's not fair on us to keep waiting."

Benji clicked his phone off, putting it away. "I thought you wanted answers, Syl'."

"I want answers," I admitted, "and I want to see Henry. I want to know if he's okay, if all of them are okay. I want to know what happened last night, I want to know why their tails glow, and I want to get to know them! I want them to celebrate Christmas and see New Year, I want them to be able to go home to see their families." I sniffled as emotion clogged my throat, my eyes welled. "I want a lot of things Benji, but it seems the world has other ideas."

Leah nudged my arm. "Sylvia–"

"No, Leah, this isn't fair–"

Leah shoved me and pointed at the gateway. "No, Sylvia, look!"

I immediately looked to the arch of stone between me and the sea, to find a pair of glowing eyes staring back at me. Slowly, a hand crept forward, dark fingers curling over the stone, before a swift motion let the human torso curl into the Bay and their sleek tail following, twisting beneath them so it was hidden beneath the surface with the rest of the ocean's secrets.

"You're not Henry," Benji whispered, quietly grabbing my arm. His fingers dug into my skin as a chill echoed through my body at the sight of the mermaid now wallowing in the shallows.

"No," she said, her brown eyes looking over us all. "I'm Winnie."

Leah put her book down. "You're the mermaid who tried to kill us."

Winnie winced. She looked distraught, especially with her thick, straight black hair plastered over her body. "It...it's complicated. I'm sorry about what happened."

"The blonde one said that it wasn't you, that you weren't yourself." Leah raised an eyebrow.

"Caspar," Winnie smiled as she said his name. "He's right. I wasn't myself."

"And are you now?" I watched her carefully as she shifted her grip on her hands, and nodded. Her dark eyes were wide, and she moved her hair in front of her body as she rose up, adjusting her weight and tail so she could almost sit and watch the three of us. "Where's Henry?"

"He's fine," Winnie said, looking at each of us in turn. "He knew you'd want answers after what happened yesterday."

Benji inched forward. "Then why are you here? Sylvia said it was him who was in a fight."

Winnie's brows pinched together. "We all were fighting yesterday, but the answer to what had to come from me, and Henry knew that."

"Why you?"

The mermaid stared at me. "Because it's my fault."

Leah's blink was the only sign of her surprise. "How?"

I nudged her. "I think Winnie's getting to that now."

Leah nudged me back and Winnie smiled at the interaction. Her eyes settled on the quiet water, glistening with the pale light of the moon. "How much have the boys told you?" she asked.

"Somehow, everything yet nothing all at once," Benji smiled. "I remember Jason joking around, and that Trent said that six earthquakes last year resulted in your tails."

"Trent said that you've all stayed by the coastline since," I recalled, watching the mermaid's expression. "But he didn't answer why your tails all glow, or why you don't look like typical mermaids, or how exactly you became them either."

Winnie smiled softly. "Trent's always been good with his words. He answers without answering, drove me nuts when we first met in school."

Leah perked up. "You all went to school together? Did you go to the same school as Caspar?"

"He arrived later, in Year 10," Winnie frowned slightly. "Why?"

"We knew that six teens suddenly going missing was bound to bring up something in the news," I said, as Leah grabbed her phone to show Winnie the article of Caspar's disappearance. "Yet all we could find was Caspar, not the rest of you."

Winnie peered as Leah's phone; Leah stretched out as close as she dared, and Winnie merely leaned over, her tail staying beneath the waves. "He was so young," she whispered, her expression softening at the sight of Caspar's Year 12 picture headlining the page.

As Leah drew back, Winnie sighed. "We all met in high school. Trent and I became best friends in Year 7, along with my sister, and as the years went on we all found each other. Henry joined the group through all our shared classes, and next year the twins joined, and then Caspar arrived in Year 10."

"Twins?" Benji asked. "Jason and Daniel?"

Winnie nodded. "They're brothers, fraternal twins."

Benji hummed at the new information and Winnie took it as a cue to continue telling her tale. "We were all really close, but when we reached our final year, my sister started acting differently. She...wasn't herself anymore."

"How do you mean?" I asked quietly, somehow dreading the rest of Winnie's story. The brightness of her eyes seemed to fade at the mention of her sister.

"She liked to escape to the sea; surf, swim, you name it," Winnie twisted a piece of her hair around her finger as she spoke. "In Year 12, she started doing it more, skipping classes, not hanging out with us, and she eventually dropped out two terms in.

"We carried on our studies, but Trent and I were concerned, but, well, she just wouldn't open up to us," Winnie's words hit me hard. I swallowed at the eerie similarity – I'd lived this story already. "And at the end of Year 12, after months of, well, nothing from her, she suddenly messaged us all to hang out."

"Out of the blue?" Leah asked what I'd been thinking, but my throat had closed up. I'd wanted answers, but somehow I didn't want to hear how this story ended. This...this was terrifying, the dead look of forgotten fear in Winnie's eyes scared me, and I had a very bad feeling.

The cool breeze brought us all to a shiver as Winnie nodded in answer. "We all went, taking Caspar's car because he was the only one who had one at the time, and we drove to Wilberforce, heading for a random bit of land she'd directed us to."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Benji said quietly and, this time, I gripped his arm to keep myself steady.

"You'd be wise," Winnie looked solemn. "None of us did, we were excited she was finally reaching out. We went. We went to that rickety farm and saw her moving in the house. We all walked in, Daniel only then had the sense to say that he didn't like this, that he thought something was really wrong, but we all walked in anyway."

She stopped talking for a moment. "Winnie?" I whispered, jolting her as she blinked.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to remember what happened next." I could see her eyes beginning to well up. "I remember her turning, looking at us all, and her eyes...something was wrong with her eyes, but before I could say anything the floor gave way and we all fell."

"What?" Leah said abruptly. "What do you mean you fell?"

"It caved in."

Benji snapped his fingers. "Trent said that there was an underwater cave system underground out west, that you all used it to get to the coast!"

Winnie's smile twisted at the edges. "We didn't know it was a system until after, when we were searching for a way out."

The mermaid was silent again before she launched into what, I knew, was the worst part. "I woke to us all in a large room of a cave, a cathedral of sorts. My hands were tied above my head and I'd been stripped down, my lower half submerged in water. I looked around me to see the others were the same, we were all tied to the edges of the room, but I was the only one awake."

Winnie silently held up her wrists, twisting them so the moon bounced off the faint scars, rope burns that roughened the joints of her hands. "My sister was standing on solid ground, staring at us, next to a pile of all our things. I...said a lot of swear words, but she ignored everything I said, everything I was, and just...looked at me with those wrong eyes, and told me the choice I had."

My heart cracked when Winnie finally looked up, a tear rolling down her cheek as she did so. "She said that in order to leave, in order for everyone to leave, I had to give up something."

I caught Leah swearing under her breath and Benji utterly bewildered at what Winnie was saying, but this was worse an answer than I'd been after. "What do you mean 'give up something'?"

Winnie paused. "I don't know why, I told her to have a lock of my hair, or for her to cut it all off, but she said it had to be our greatest sacrifice, and that each of us had to give something away in order to leave the cave."

My heart wouldn't stop pounding. "Sacrifice?"

"What did you give her?" Leah asked in a fierce whisper. She was angry, not at Winnie I realised, but at what they'd gone through. Being forced to give something up, to sacrifice...what had they been dwelling in for a year? What kind of pain had they experienced?

Winnie wiped the tear off her cheek. "We all learned later what we'd given her, over time, when we could finally talk about what my sister had done, but I...I always took the blame. She was my sister, and she did this to my friends, my closest friends."

"Winnie, you don't have to tell us if you don't–"

"I don't want to tell you, believe me I don't," Winnie forced out a laugh, "but you need to know. You deserve to know, after what you saw last night. Henry told me how you kept his existence secret, kept him safe for six whole months. I owe you, Sylvia."

Benji twisted his arm, my fingers had been digging in, and grabbed my hand in his. Leah did the same on my other side. All three of us braced for what Winnie was about to say.

"Daniel sacrificed his voice," Winnie started. "We found that out first. It's weird, not hearing him talk anymore; he had the most beautiful voice, a natural singer. He used to be louder than Jason you know, constantly practicing. Jason gave his dominant arm – he's the best athlete I know, he was in all the carnivals, all the tournaments, and he was always first place."

She locked eyes with me. "Henry...Henry told us what he'd sacrificed three months ago. Family means a lot to him, he loves his family, loves people. He gave up his ability to have kids – that was the biggest sacrifice he could make to my sister."

I started to cry and she wasn't even close to done. "Caspar's sacrifice was also one we found out quickly, because he gave up his memory of everyone besides those in the cavern that day – he only remembers snippets of his life, only remembers the six of us...and my sister. We've been slowly filling him in on the gaps but nothing jogs his memory. She took everything from him."

"I still don't know what Trent sacrificed," Winnie's fingers brushed her waist, where the smooth shimmering of her skin blended into a thick tail. "My sister knew me better than anyone – and she knew my greatest sacrifice would be giving my ability to love, so I would only feel hatred for her, and for myself."

Benji started shaking his head. "You...you can't just take someone's ability to love, you can't take emotion."

"Oh, you can." Winnie's laugh rang hollow in our ears. "She took emotion, memory, life, limbs, and song, and when we blacked out, our hands were still tied, she was gone with all our things, and we didn't have our fucking legs to stand on."

"How...how did you get out?" My voice was hoarse. I felt sick, I felt hollow, and that was only a fraction of what Winnie and the others must have felt. Oh Henry.

Winnie tapped her tail. "My sister always kept her word, no matter what. Her word was her law. She told us if we gave up something we could leave, but she never said it would be through the tunnels above ground."

Benji threw a hand up. "She, hang on, she turned you?"

"She did more than that," Winnie said, as her eyes glimmered gold, flecks in the depths of her brown eyes, and her tail shimmered beneath the sea. It was how I first saw her; a comet in the night, blazing her way furiously through the shadows.

"Your tail..." Leah lost her words as we stared, watching Winnie's golden tail fade once again, hidden from sight.

"I don't know how she got her abilities, when her eyes went from normal to wrong, but whatever happened to her she passed onto us when we gave up our greatest loves. She gave us something to help us survive in the ocean against predators, all things picked up from fishes." Winnie scoffed. "I think she enjoyed choosing what we'd all get."

"What..?"

Winnie took in our expressions. "I'm surprised you haven't pieced it together already, you saw us all in action a few days ago."

"We thought your tails just glowed, we didn't think–"

"Neither did we until Caspar snapped the bonds on his hands, something we'd been trying before my sister left, before she took everything, and we tried for hours." Winnie pointed at her tail. "They light up when we're using them."

"So what can everyone do?"

"Caspar's strong, really strong." Winnie paused, lost in memory for a moment. "Daniel's fast. Jason can camouflage. Trent has this Spider-Man grip and he can light up his tail like a torch. Henry's ability is sonar – it's why he always knew when you were here."

My mind was beginning to strain trying to take everything in. "Is...is that why yesterday happened the way it did?"

Winnie nodded. "We were all fighting and his sonar picked you up on the beach. He couldn't go to you without bringing her with us, so I went and got you out the way before she sensed you too."

"What can you do?" Leah asked.

"Jason jokes that it's mind-reading, but it's more pheromone sensing. I can tell what someone's going to do before they do it, what they're feeling before they act on it. It's helpful against ocean predators, but it's always thinking about eating."

"You didn't use it on me yesterday," I pointed out.

"No," Winnie said, "but it was used against you when we first met. That was out of my control."

Benji's grip turned white in my hand. "Wait...you said she, when you mentioned getting Sylvia to safety yesterday."

The mermaid could only stare as we pieced it together. "Shit," Leah said, "your sister's here?"

"We've been hiding from her for a year," Winnie's voice shook for the first time. It didn't waver when she spoke about what she'd gone through, what she'd given up, but only at the possibility of it happening again. "She hunted us, and now she's found us."

You only ever fear what's happened to you before, I realised, and if Winnie's story could be any more terrifying, it was knowing that the cause of it all was lurking in the sea, waiting like an ancient, patient predator for the perfect opportunity to strike.

~

Getting some answers now...what's your take on Winnie? Any thoughts on our misfit super-mermaid family?

Let me know what you think, as always! 

Libby x