Life Under the Sea Ch. 03

"Sorry about that." says the man as he helps Damien up.

"It's nothing." mutters Damien before walking past the man.

However before he gets far, Damien feels someone grab him by the shoulder. Instinctively turning around with his guard raised, he is surprised to see the same man who ran into him.

"What's wrong?" asks Damien.

"You remind me of that missing American woman everyone is looking for..." says the man.

"I'm her cousin, Damien." says Damien as he brushes the man's hand off his shoulder. "Do you know anything about what happened to her?"

"You're in luck then. I was looking for you." says the man. "Follow me."

Damien just stands there as the man turns around and walks off. Dozens of thoughts and theories surge in his mind with each passing second, each more unbelievable than the next. Still, this is the only clue he has. If he runs to get someone, he'll lose sight of the man. The idea that this is also a trap also looks him in the face. He wonders if this is how Jesse disappeared. Damien makes up his mind and follows the man, with every intention of coming back alive no matter what.

The man leads Damien out of the town. It's still broad daylight but Damien looks around for anyone hiding in the shadows. He looks at the man walking before him, searching his body for any hidden weapons or suspicious movements. Then the man addresses him again.

"If you want to know, I did see Jesse the day she disappeared." says the man. "I was probably the second to last person to see her."

Suddenly, Damien tackles the man. He lands facedown on the ground, which is luckily made of soft sand. Damien sits on the man back holding his wrists behind him.

"Ow! What are you doing?" he asks.

"You had something to do with this, didn't you?" asks Damien angrily.

"I... I won't deny that this is part of my fault. I did help her."

"What do you mean?"

"Your cousin was preoccupied with strange things that happened on this island and went asking around for clues. I volunteered to help her since she didn't speak Greek."

"What kind of strange things?"

"She just wanted strange in general. I think along the lines or paranormal. In the end, we went to this hut on the beach where this eccentric young man lived. He knew English well from what I heard so I left. That was the last I saw of her."

"Where is this man?"

"I was about to take you to him before you rudely tackled me."

"Ah. Yeah. Sorry then." says Damien before getting off.

The two of them continue walking until they are at the doorstep of the hut. Damien knocks strongly on the door and waits. The door opens slowly and the inquisitive face of Nikos looks both of them.

"Well... this is a surprise...." says Nikos."The name's Nikos. How can I help you?"

"I'm Damien. I was told by this man that you were the last person to see a woman named Jesse. She has long blonde hair and amber eyes. She's also pretty tall. About six feet." says Damien. "Do you know where she is?"

"Yes. I probably was the last to see her. In fact, she disappeared before my very eyes." says Nikos as if remembering an interesting daydream. "I was looking right at her and then that woman was gone. I can't really explain how she disappeared. I'm sorry."

Damien looks straight into Nikos' eyes. He can't tell if this stranger is lying or otherwise misleading him. The man who had led Damien here looks back and forth between the other two before quietly leaving the awkward situation.

"Do you mind if I come back tomorrow, Nikos? I have more questions to ask you about Jesse."

"By all means." replies Nikos.

Under the silent waves, Varon is swimming out of the chasm hiding the village of Okeanos. In the distance, he sees a mermaid floating in the middle of nowhere. She is looking at him with her dark blue eyes with her long brown hair dancing around her. Varon slows down a bit as he approaches her. Even knowing her for most of his life couldn't have prepared him for how beautiful she looks right now. He stops right before her and forgets to say hello.

"You look happy to see me." says Lily sweetly.

"I- I- I am." stutters Varon. "Wha- what's the occasion? You just told me to meet you out here to show me something."

Lily does a slow, graceful spin in the water before turning to look at Varon again.

"I wanted to show you how I looked before any humans have a chance to." says Lily silkily.

Varon takes a few more moments to look over Lily. This must have to do with the errands she swam out to do the day before. Everything about her seems to glow. He sees the little things she had done to make herself look more beautiful: an orchid in her hair, just poking out from above her ear; a pair of silver rings strung on a silver chain around her neck; and a gold bracelet on her wrist. Varon barely even noticed these things at first since the mermaid's natural beauty seems to outshine everything around her.

"You looks amazing, Lily...." says Varon softly.

"You're so sweet, Varon." says Lily as she wraps her arms around him.

He blushes as he comes in contact with her body. Lily is holding herself as tightly as possible against him. Varon can feel her soft bosom resting on his chest. He can feel her breathing as well as every movement her body makes. His throbbing shaft is uncomfortably squeezed between their two bodies. Lily smiles back at him, feeling its heat as it grows larger against her. She has him completely mesmerized and willing to do anything for her in exchange for release.

Lily pushes herself harder against him until they are floating horizontally with her on top. She then peels herself off of him and just floats inches above his body to survey his arousal. He is now bigger than she had ever seen him. In her mind, she wonders if this little moment gave him a growth spurt in the right place. With her body no longer pressing his manhood against his body, his flesh rises up stiff as though following her. Varon is now her plaything, a slave to his own intense desires. Still, she doesn't like to think of her boyfriend as a slave to her, though he does play the part rather well (and enthusiastically). She'd like him to take control once in a while even if she hasn't let him have a chance to yet. Seeing Varon now, she feels the need to tease before she allows him to have his way with her. One of Varon's hands moves in between their bodies and inches closer to Lily's breast. She sees this and immediately brushes his hand away.

"Why?" asks Varon.

Lily almost laughs. His tone was almost like that of a child denied his favorite treat.

"Me first..." says Lily gleefully.

Before Varon is able to respond to this, Lily kisses him on the lips, muffling any words he would have tried to make. Her hand glides down his body, brushing gently against his smooth skin until it reaches his chest. Her fingers flick and pinch his nipple while their tongues play with one another. Varon tries to bend his hips in her direction but her tail is pushing his lower body back down. He is desperate for another pleasurable touch from her on his stiff flesh, but he knows she wants him to wait. Her kiss is inexplicably passionate, drawing countless happy emotions, thoughts, and feelings from deep within his heart and flow throughout every cell of his body. Varon kisses her back with equal passion, causing her to pinch his nipple in excitement. Even the slight pain that he feels from this does not uproot thoughts that this is an incredibly invigorating and arousing dream even if this is real to him in every way possible.

Lily's hand suddenly loses interesting in playing with Varon's nipple and moves further down his body to rub the smooth muscles over his stomach. The merman becomes increasingly excited as it seems as she is slowly working towards a goal. Her mouth is still attached to his but he can't help but try to say how grateful he is for her in between breaths. Lily responds by releasing him from the hold of her kiss. She then floats away from his face until her head is directly above his chest. She moves her head down and takes his other nipple in between her teeth. Varon feels no pain, but a gentle pleasure. She looks up at him while he looks down to her. Lily is wearing a curious smile. He wonders what she is about to do before she takes his nipple between her lips and proceeds to suck on it.

"You... are... amazing... you... know... that...?" pants Varon.

Lily merely giggles and starts to playfully flick his stiff nipple with her tongue. Even without touching Varon's manhood, she can tell exactly how turned on Varon is. His shaft gives off such a strong heat that even the water around it seems to scorch her skin. Lily can even feel it pulse in sync with his pounding heart. Right now she feels to happy to have such a strong effect on a merman; she wonders if he knows how much of an effect he is having on her. Lily is currently fighting the need to touch her own body. Her skin is craving her touch as well as Varon's touch. There is a very strong tingling feeling in her breasts and her lower belly that she is finding increasingly hard to ignore.

Varon moans out loud as his mermaid's ever-curious hand travels further down the front of his body. His tail almost spasms when part of her forearm brushes against the side of his stiff length for a second. The touch of her hand stops just above the base of his manhood. It is smooth and hairless unlike a human's, something she noticed after she got too close once. She continues to rub his skin, causing stronger and stronger waves of pleasure to move across his body. Varon takes a deep breath; Lily's hand has started to move downward again.

"Please?" he groans.

Lily looks back up at her lover again. She removes her lips from his nipple.

"Just a little longer...." she says in a sweet, seductive voice.

Lily's hand does continue moving father down his body and evades touching his aroused flesh as it closes on his pouch. It burns under her grip. Varon lets out a long moan as she continues to fondle with his maleness. His tail starts to thrash around uncontrollably but Lily quickly and deftly wraps her tail around his. She looks up to Varon again. He looks back at her without saying a word. Even in the middle of the open sea, it is unusually quiet. Lily can see clearly in his eyes that he is trying to plead with her. She wonders how much longer she can force him to last. Lily can tell that her body is pretty close to its limit of waiting. With a final squeeze of his pouch, her hand travels up and glides against the maddeningly hard flesh. Lily takes Varon's manhood in her firm grip and guides it towards her delicate spot.

Varon shudders when her soft hand wraps around his hard flesh. It is as though she had just sent an electric current through him. Lily gently pulls him closer to her body and teases the tip of his length by touching it to the opening without letting him in. Just then, the words he most wanted to hear come from her mouth enters his ears.

"All right... I'm yours...."

Varon quickly and excitedly moves his entire body closer to her own. Lily's hand lets go of him to avoid it being crushed between their two tiring bodies. The merman has no thought of teasing his lover as she had done to him. The two of them are already at their limits and neither can tell how much time had passed since the lust first set in. He can finally re-enter heaven.

The very next day at dawn, Damien wakes up alone in his hotel room. He looks at the wall across from his bed, behind the television. His aunt and uncle had been very quiet since they came back last night. The room behind him was empty, but he could hear traces of noisy children from the room beyond it. He remembered that they knocked to check up on him before they went to bed. Damien assumes that they did so just to make sure he didn't run away as well.

Something bothers Damien though: this is the second time that she has run away. She left home for unknown reasons and now the same thing has occurred. He hasn't seen nor heard from Jesse since she left the first time. His aunt, uncle and himself had been waiting for any word from her since she had left, but they only got the first message a couple days ago saying that Jesse had completely vanished with hardly a trace. This wasn't exactly the first message they wanted to hear but they rushed over to the place of her disappearance as soon as they could.

Damien gets up and gets ready for the new day. The first thing on his mind is to go to Nikos' house to find more answers. He quickly puts some clothes on and leaves the room. Once outside, he can see that only the local people are out, meaning no one who knows or would otherwise recognize him. He walks quickly past the market stalls and exits the village, looking left and right for signs of anyone familiar. Luckily he passes no one and continues unimpeded towards the hut by the beach.

Meanwhile, Jesse wakes up in Riley's arms again. It is just as pleasurable and uncomfortable as the first time, but she at least hasn't caused him to harden. She definitely does not want Lily to think bad of her since it would almost instantly ruin her chances of fitting in here. This place and all of the merpeople around here have become closer and closer to her heart. Still, she wonders of those that were once close to her heart: her mother, her father, and her little cousin. She remembers the day she left rather vividly, yet she does not want to think about it. However, she wants the guilt about leaving to be removed. She left without a word. Her parents didn't even look for her. Jesse was old enough to be out of the world on her own. They probably hoped that she would come back of her own accord. The thought of that makes Jesse feel even worse about the choices she had made. It's still early, but it's getting steadily brighter outside so Jesse decides to go out.

Riley's arm is still wrapped around her. She takes him by the wrist and tries to ease his hold on her. She is successful in not waking him up and silently swims out of the hammock. She approaches the window before looking back in the room then leaves. The first thing on her mind is to talk to someone. She wanted to talk to Lily but she's asleep right now with Varon. Seeing as they came back late last night, she doesn't want to wake either of them up this early. This leaves the only other person who knows her situation, Nikos.

Jesse swims as quickly as she can towards his hut. Up on the surface, she can see that the sun is still rising. I hope that he is awake at this moment. The sky is bright but she can see dark clouds in the distance. Detecting a possible storm, she moves even faster. If it is really bad, she is sure that Nikos will shelter her. Soon enough, she reaches the beach and calls out to Nikos, but he doesn't respond to her. If he is asleep in the hut again, Jesse feels that nothing more than violence will ensue. A tap on her shoulder forces a shriek out of her mouth.

When the mermaid turns around to see who or what is behind her, she sees Nikos with the most annoying, smug smile on his face. She fights the temptation to beat the smirk off his face, and resorts to just shoving him into the water. She drags the both of them underwater before letting go. Even with her sudden attack, Nikos still has that same smile on her face. As Nikos floats up to the surface, Jesse notices something before surfacing herself.

"Why are you naked?" asks Jesse.

"What? Does it bother you?" asks Nikos, laughing. "You swim around mermen all day. Humans should be a turn off for you by now."

"I... Nothing... I'm just used to seeing humans clothed. That's all."

"Well... to answer your question... I was just finishing with my morning swim."

"Butt naked?"

"You've been in my house. I don't recall having a shower or bathtub in there. Besides, this is cheaper and more convenient."

Just then, a form pops out of the surface of the water with a splash right next to Nikos. Wiping the water dripping off her face, Jesse sees a pretty woman next to him. However, the pink sparkle in the water tells her that this woman is a mermaid. She wraps her arms around Nikos and kisses him on the cheek.

"Oh? Who's this, Nikos? Seeing another mermaid?" asks the mermaid with a pouty look on her face.

"It's nothing like that, Victoria. This is my cousin, Jesse. She comes to see me every once in a while. She's new to Okeanos."

Jesse watches quietly as the mermaid looks her up and down.

"I believe I can see some sort of a resemblance." says Victoria as she extends her hand. "Hello, Jesse. I'm Victoria, Nikos' girlfriend. Pleased to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Victoria." says Jesse, extending her own hand and shakes Victoria's.

"Well, I'll leave you two to your business for now, honey." says Victoria before kissing Nikos on the cheek again.

Jesse gets a weird feeling watching Nikos waving his girlfriend good-bye. As soon as Victoria is out of sight, Nikos turns to looks at Jesse.

"So what did you come to me for this time?"

"I thought you could read minds? Don't you already know?"

"Just because I can doesn't mean I abuse the power to. Besides, it means a lot more when you tell me yourself."

"All right... All right... I'm feeling guilty about the life I left behind."

"What? You want to go back? I already told you that it's impossible at this point."

"I know, but I just want my family to know that I'm fine and to not go looking for me."

"I could do that for you, but it's too late for that."

"What do you mean?"

"They're here. On the island. At least, your parents and cousin are. You've been reported as missing by your friends a few days back apparently."

"What?!"

"In fact, your cousin, Damien, might pay me a visit within the next hour. I think he's very worried about you."

"What did you tell him?!" shrieks Jesse.

"I told him that I was probably the last one to see you. I didn't let on much more than that."

"I... What... You..." says Jesse, trembling.

"I suggest you at least talk to him before they give up any hope in you being alive."

Nikos starts swimming towards the beach and Jesse follows him. He gets out of the water while she stays in.

"I'm going to disappear for a bit." says Nikos. "When he comes back, try to communicate to him in some way. If you want to relieve yourself of some of the guilt, now should be your chance."

"You want me to talk to him?"

"I'd like that, but it's up to you. Let me just go now before he comes."

Nikos leaves without another word. Jesse can hardly find anything to say to him at this point. She just watches as his naked butt disappears in the distance. She guesses that he's going to be with his girlfriend again. Jesse sits in the water wondering what to do about Damien. This is probably the only chance she'll get to talk to him directly. Making up her mind, Jesse waits in the surf to hide as much of her body as she can.

Damien finally has the hut in his sights. He turns his head to look to make sure that no one had been following him out of the town. Then he jogs down to the hut and knocks on the door. Nothing. He knocks again, even louder. Still nothing. He calls out Nikos' name but with no luck. He came here to get some information on Jesse, but it appears the man has gone off somewhere. Damien looks around if Nikos is actually outside right now, but land and sea appear to be clear of anything of interest to him.

Not wanting to return to his aunt and uncle empty-handed, Damien figures that it's best to just wait here for Nikos to come back. It is highly unlikely that he left the island so quickly; he didn't seem like the person who could afford a ferry ride anyway. He walks towards the water and lets the waves splash his feet. Damien looks up at the sky as a cloud blocks out the sun. The area is soon darkened. It looks like a storm is here. Damien notices that it would take too long to go back now, but before he is able to think more, a wave crashes around him and pulls his legs out from under him.