Life Under the Sea Ch. 03

As he is coughing and sputtering from the water, something crashes on top of him. This thing isn't a wave as the weight of it threatens to crush him. After he wipes the salty water out of his eyes, he stares directly into the horrified eyes of Jesse.

"Jesse?!" yells Damien. "Where the hell have you been?"

Damien gently slides her off of him and his eyes drift down to see her nakedness.

"Why are you naked out here?" asks Damien angrily. "Why won't you answer me?!"

Jesse doesn't say anything, mostly out of shock and fear. She didn't expect a strong wave to come from behind and push her onto land, on Damien no less. With a trembling hand, she points down to her tail. Damien looks at her curiously before following the command of her finger. He gasps and looks back at her face.

"You- you're- you're not Jesse!" exclaims Damien. "But you look almost exactly like her...."

Damien blinks his eyes a few times as if hoping it would magically make her tail disappear.

"I must be hallucinating... Mermaids aren't real, are they? I must be sick..."

"I'm real." whispers Jesse.

Damien looks back at her, thunderstruck. Her voice is almost the same as the Jesse he knew, except now it reeks of sensuality with every syllable. Her face is even more beautiful than he remembers, everything about her seems enchanting. He wants to make her his own but the very idea repulses him.

Jesse looks intently at her cousin. This was the very reason that she didn't want to make direct contact with him so suddenly. She knew the being a mermaid would form barriers between the two of them but she hadn't realized how strong of effect her new body would have on him. His arousal and repulsion are apparent in his eyes and in his gestures. One of hands looks like it wants to reach out and touch her while the other one is ready to slap it if it moves closer.

"What's your name?" asks Jesse.

"D- Da- Damien..."

"Are you sure you're not confusing me with someone else?"

Jesse tries to avoid the topic of her own name. She doesn't want to lose Damien's trust now that she knows that it truly is him. If she lied and later revealed who she truly was... she doesn't even want to think about what he might do.

"Everything about you reminds me of my cousin, Jesse. She disappeared around here not long ago. She also ran away from home two years before that. I think I wanted to see her again so badly that I just dreamed you up."

"I told you that I'm real. I'm not a dream, nor a hallucination."

Jesse reaches and pinches the skin of his forearm. Damien flinches and looks down to the slightly reddened area where the mermaid touched him. The pain was very real. Still, Damien gets up and starts to walk away.

"Where are you going?" asks Jesse.

"Inside the hut. There's a storm coming, by the looks of the weather."

"Can you help me into the water then?"

Damien looks back at her with these words. Even if she may be imaginary, it would be wrong to leave her on land. He looks at the sea, which is becoming increasingly violent. Damien strangely fears for the safety of the mermaid who looks like Jesse.

"It's too dangerous for you to be in the water right now, isn't it? If you don't mind, I can take you into the hut with me. I'll put you back in the water."

Jesse pauses. Being alone with him is probably something that she doesn't want, but Jesse feels that she can't just pass up the opportunity.

"I would like that." responds Jesse nervously.

Damien himself is nervous. Those words came out his mouth automatically and there was no taking them back. He slowly walks up to the mermaid on the sand, still unsure of whether or not she really is there in front of him. The sight of her obvious feminine charms is irresistible, but paired up with that familiar face become disgusting. Carefully, Damien bends down gets one arm around her back and another under her tail. She is surprisingly light and soon enough, he is on his feet with her cradled in his arms. He slowly makes his way towards the hut on the beach. Looking down to make sure the mermaid is comfortable enough, he is unnerved to see her smiling back at him strangely. It is a smile he has seen so many times in the past: Jesse's "I am so happy to see you" smile. It is scary to see a stranger who looks and sounds like her make that smile.

Jesse can't help but look at Damien. He was a scrawny sixteen-year old the last time she saw him. Now he is a just as scrawny eighteen-year old. However, now she appreciates what a man he has become in two years. She remembers how he used to cling to her side when they were growing up; it pains her now that she seemed to have forgotten his feelings when she left home. Did he hate her for it? As he approaches the hut and the storm begins to intensify, Jesse dreads the time about to be spent with her cousin.

Once inside the hut, Damien lays Jesse on the mattress and sits down beside her. He looks at her as if he could never get tired of doing so. When she catches his eye, he quickly turns away and apologizes. She just laughs at his embarrassment, remembering how shy she used to be about her exposed body. Still, it wasn't helping in terms of conversation right now, so she moves her long blonde hair to obscure the sight of her breasts. She also folds her hands over her loins to divert any stray glances. This was her flesh and blood, so she didn't want to get off on the bad foot with him. When Damien sees that she had covered herself somewhat, he opens his mouth to speak.

"I still can't believe I'm in a room with a mermaid, especially one that looks like my cousin..."

"Why can't you believe it?" asks Jesse.

"Well, the strange thing is... I accept that you're a mermaid..."

"And?"

"I can't accept who you look like. That's why this whole thing is unbelievable."

"This is what I look like, Damien. No part of me is an illusion."

Damien pauses again at the sound of her saying his name. It is just as familiar as any part of her, at least the human half. Part of him believes that this is Jesse, though the tail is messing up with his logic. It can't be either heat or hunger that's causing him to see what's there, he's sure of it. However for reasons unknown to him, he wants this moment to last forever. He slowly moves his hand closer to her face, just to touch her again, to remind himself that he is awake and that she really isn't an illusion. The mermaid looks closely at his hand and doesn't protest. Taking this as permission to bring his hand closer, Damien makes contact with her cheek. He caresses her soft skin while quietly studying her.

When her cousin touches her cheek, Jesse closes her eyes. Right now, his hand feeling her skin is the only real thing in this world. She is taking pleasure in this, a lot of pleasure in fact. Just like the feeling she gets from being with Riley, this too is something she has craved for a while. Without any hesitation, Jesse throws herself at Damien. She has completely forgotten that she is a mermaid.

Damien just lies there with his mouth wide open. The mermaid had just thrown herself bodily onto him. Her arms are wrapped around his torso. He can feel his heart pumping strongly in his chest. Not even his clothing can block out her raw sensual aura. As soon as Damien finds his voice he opens his mouth to scold her, but then he stops. The mermaid had just started sobbing on his chest.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" cries Jesse into Damien's shirt.

"We just met. What is there for you to be sorry for?" asks Damien.

"It's me."

"What about you?"

"It's me. I'm sorry. It's me!"

"I... I don't understand what...." says Damien, his mind racing for answers.

"I... I'm Jesse, your cousin...."

Damien just stops and freezes, in both mind and body. So many things want to come out his mouth, but they're all stuck in one lump in the back of his throat. His eyes continue to look at Jesse, examining her tail, comparing it to her human half, and vice-versa.

"You- you're Jesse?!"

Jesse lifts her head off his chest only to nod at him. Damien gulps and all those words stuck in his throat disappear. As a last resort, he tries to think of a question Jesse would know and not some random mermaid who happens to look like her would think of. Jesse is trembling on top of her cousin. She is fearful of his reaction to her new life. She can't just swim away from Damien and she can't outrun her problems with a fish tail.

"Jesse." says Damien.

"Ye- yes?" says the mermaid between sobs.

"What did you do for my sixteenth birthday?"

Jesse's sobbing slowly stops as she meets his eyes. They stare back intently and intensely back at her; there was no backing out of this question, but her human past seemed so far away, quickly overshadowed by new memories. With each passing second, Jesse can feel Damien's doubt grow. Driven by this last chance, a vision comes to her mind, as clear as day.

"I... I forgot your birthday two years ago." says Jesse, wiping a tear from her eye. "I was out with my friends the entire day and came back the next day."

Damien looks at Jesse silently without saying a word nor making a move. Jesse takes this as a cue to continue talking.

"You wouldn't talk to me for a week no matter what I said. It was the longest fight we ever had. You finally said something after I promised to take you out to the club. We went out to the best place downtown and you had one of the best times of your life. You passed out towards early morning so I had to sneak you back home."

Jesse stops, unable to say anymore. She looks at Damien's face. It is expressionless. He isn't dumbfounded, just speechless; this is pretty much evidence that the mermaid before him is indeed Jesse. He wants to hug her, to tell her all she's missed in the past two years of his life, but she's changed so much. What if her physical changes mirrored similar psychological changes? Suddenly he wants to push her away and off of his body. Jesse senses this and tries to reason with him.

"Damien... I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't leave because I didn't like you or my parents. Believe me, please, Damien... I know it was wrong not to let you know. Please... please don't hate me, Damien... please?"

By this point, tears are streaming down Jesse's pretty face and dripping down onto Damien. He loses all resolve; he can't even explain what just happened here. He can't bring himself to become angry with Jesse for what she has done to him; let alone what she has become. His arms move by themselves towards Jesse's shaking body. It is as though he were watching his own body move from afar. Damien's two hands take the mermaid by the shoulders and a warm, gentle feeling enters and spreads throughout his entire body. Damien grips her shoulders tightly and pulls her up level with his face. Both of his hands let go of her shoulders; his right hand glides up to hold the back of her head while his left moves down to caress her back. The feeling seems to burn his nerves while sending chills down her spine. They have finally found comfort in each other after all this time.

"I missed you so much, Jesse..."

Just outside, Nikos is gently leaning against the side of the hut. His eyes are closed, but he's far from being asleep. Listening on what just happened inside the hut; he adopts a subtle smile and walks towards the surf. He is no longer interested in listening to what has been going on inside his house; something in the water has caught his attention. He wades out into the water and is not surprised to see a mermaid waiting for him there. However, this mermaid isn't Victoria. It's Lily.

"How... how dare you...." says Lily, fury clear as ice."You let a human take her up into your home! You're not even watching them to make sure Jesse's alright! And what if he takes her to see-"

"Hold it." says Nikos calmly. "I can assure you that she is in hands safer than my own right now. Damien won't hurt her."

"Bu- but..."

"This is odd, Lily. First time, you've taken a liking to someone who has fallen for Riley... But, I wonder... just who are you trying to protect?"

"Both of them." says Lily firmly. "Riley would be heartbroken if he lost her, even if he doesn't realize it yet. In addition, Jesse really impressed me when she told me she was once human. It takes real courage to admit something like that. I find that part of her intriguing. We're also friends now."

"I'm glad you care so deeply." says Nikos. "Especially about Riley. So I hope you understand when I say I can't bring you into the hut."

"And why's that?" she asks, her anger slowly creeping back. "Who is this Damien anyway?"

"Damien is one-hundred percent human... and Jesse's cousin by blood."

Lily looks back at Nikos at a loss for words, though all her previous anger seems to have drained away.

"In fact, they probably were as close to each other as you are with Riley. That's why you can't disturb them right now; this is a time of bonding for them."

".... You're right...." says Lily as she turns and gets ready to swim back.

"Stay." says Nikos sternly.

"What? I thought you wanted me to leave them alone?"

"I do, but I think you should let Jesse know that you know about Damien. It'll give you more to talk about."

"Exactly why should I let her know? This is personal stuff. I'm not going to act like I'm snooping around. I want her to trust me."

"And I want her to open up."

"What?"

"I don't want Jesse to keep her feelings to herself. She needs someone to talk to, namely you. If she doesn't open up, she'll only make herself feel more uncomfortable and alone. Lily, you have to be supportive of her since you know she's human. Okeanos rarely sees former-human visitors so the others may not be as benevolent as you are. If and when that secret does get out, I want you to stick by her."

Lily ponders what Nikos has been telling her. In her heart and her mind, she has been contemplating her feelings concerning Jesse. Nikos' statements only strengthen her conviction.

"Of course," she says,"I'll be there for her."