The Mermaid's Kiss

Zoe sat in the back of her parent's car, staring out of the window and bored out of her mind. Next to her was her younger sister Maddie, and at the front were her parents Diane and Joe: the two most hapless parents in the universe. Mom and Dad were talking about house prices or something and Maddie was messing around with her Nintendo Switch. Only Zoe really looked out at the world as it went by, the urban landscape disappearing into swathes of countryside and mowed-down forest, like a giant combine harvester had gone to town on nature just to make sure that it was equally as dull as the world they were leaving. What the world needed more of was motorways, she sighed. This summer vacation was gonna suck.

Zoe had just turned 18, but if you'd asked anyone at school that they wouldn't have known. In fact you'd be hard-pressed to find students who knew she existed. She'd treated the whole school-thing like it was solitary confinement, keeping herself to herself and hoping no one would notice her as she quietly studied and passed her grades. She'd had enough trouble with bullies at middle school that the habit of avoiding everyone had stuck right into senior year. Her parents had despaired of course, but what did they know? They were from some stupid pre-internet generation that didn't know how smart phones worked. In the end they'd given up on the moody one and focussed all their attention on the rambunctious little pumpkin Maddie; the 14-year-old cheerleader and social butterfly. Zoe looked over at her sister, who was working hard at building her Animal Crossing house. She hoped the little booger got astigmatism.

Seriously! I get straight As and they barely even notice, but she does one stupid cartwheel at a slutty dance contest and she gets to be the "good one"? Not that Zoe was bitter or anything; she'd chosen the loner lifestyle ever since her best friend Thalia had gone away. Thalia had been awesome: tough, outgoing, rule-breaking. Everything Zoe had wanted to be but had never had the guts to try. When Thalia had got busted for spray-painting "I like little girls" on the principal's car (he totally did, by the way!), she'd been expelled and her family moved away. After that, Zoe had been bullied for hanging out with the troublemaker so honestly? Screw them all! She'd just focussed on surviving school and getting into a good college. Sorry if everyone else obsessed over boys and slutty clothes and makeup!

Oh God, Dad had just put on the country music channel. Were Dads hormonally pre-disposed to be cringe or something? Maddie seemed to like it, humming the music to herself. Probably a cheerleading song she was working on. Ugh. Zoe looked out the window and saw a farm full of cows. Please let them stampede onto the road, I can't take another second with these guys,

"How're you doing girls?" Mom turned back to ask. She got a noncommittal "eh" from Zoe and a perky "All good!" from Maddie. This was the typical interaction. Diane sighed. She was actually disappointed that Zoe was even coming on this trip. Everyone else her age had made plans to vacation together, or they were going to their summer houses for crazy teenage excursions. Even the more responsible ones were out working their summer jobs, but Zoe hadn't managed to get anything like that. All the customer service jobs had rejected her for not being enthusiastic enough! She'd looked around for office jobs, hoping she could find something that wasn't customer-facing,

"You know they do have these work-from-home jobs now? You could try something like that?"

In response, Zoe had said, "It's not the pandemic anymore Mom, no one does that anymore."

Diane wished she could blame the pandemic for Zoe's sudden introversion, but really it had been a problem before that. Ever since that little troublemaker had been expelled. She'd hoped that Zoe would eventually move on and find new friends, but she'd just seemed to curl up into her shell even more as the time went by. Honestly, she'd flourished during the lockdown because she'd had an excuse not to talk to anyone! When she'd got back to High School it had been a nightmare, constantly getting reports of Zoe's negative attitude and active anti-socialising from teachers.

"Maybe she's gay?! Or trans and still in the closet?!" she'd mentioned the idea to Joe in passing, "you never know with kids now!" He'd just replied,

"Sweetie, if she starts wearing my clothes I'll let you know. And being gay would require her to interact with literally any girls at the moment, which she doesn't do either!"

Joe and Diane had managed to schedule a week off work together for the summer break, and they'd figured it would be nice to do one last attempt at family-bonding before Zoe packed up for College. They'd rented a nice little summer house in a beautiful coastal town, thinking it would be a perfect place for Maddie to run around and enjoy the beach and sun, but they had given some Zoe some consideration too: there was a Cartography Museum!

Okay, they hoped she would go swimming so they could avoid the Museum, but whatever got her out of the house was key.

Diane looked at Zoe through the rear-view mirror. She was actually such a pretty girl if she'd just take her long hair out of her face. She knew she shouldn't say anything because teenagers had a right to how they wanted their appearance and she'd just take it badly, but still; would it really be so hard for her to go out and meet new people? The baggy hoodie she almost always wore over her head didn't help.

They would be getting to the house by nightfall, so Diane figured they could try and pass the time with some conversation,

"So Zoe..." she attempted, "Anything cool online at the moment?" (Zoe spent most of her evenings on her laptop),

"Nothing to report Mom..." Zoe responded sullenly,

Maddie lifted her face up from the Switch with a devilish smile on her face,

"Zoe likes reading smut off the internet!"

"Oh my God shut up!" Zoe's usually pale face turned bright-red,

"Is this true?" Diane asked, surprised,

"No it's total bullshit, Mom!"

"Language girls," Joe said nonchalantly, focussed on the road. Maddie giggled,

"I totally saw her reading stories on one of those smut sites!"

"She's lying Mom! Seriously!"

"She writes some of it too!"

"Shut up you little insect!"

"Okay guys stop it!" Diane tried not to raise her voice too much, "You've been writing, Zoe?"

"Yeah she writes big smutty stories about her sleeping with all the boys at school!"

"Oh my God I will break your face, Cheerleader!"

"Zoe! Be nice to your sister! Maddie, quiet down!" Diane tried again, "so you've been writing?"

"Only a little Mom, God leave me alone!"

"This is good though, Zoe! We'd always hoped you were finding an outlet somewhere!"

"I got an A in English Mom..."

"I know that! But is this creative writing? Could you maybe...do it...professionally?"

There was a pause, then Zoe said,

"I'm not talking about it Mom."

Diane threw her hands into the air,

"Alright! Alright I'll drop it!"

She was happy though. She'd always assumed Zoe was just wasting time on social media or worse, going down some horrible political conspiracy theorist rabbit-hole. She hadn't known that she was actually writing! She breathed a sigh of relief at the thought that her daughter was finding some actual good use for her brain.

Zoe's mind was less peaceful. Oh My God I Am Going To Brain That Little Twerp, she thought angrily, glancing over at her bitch sister, who had obliviously returned to her Animal Crossing like nothing had ever happened. Zoe could swear there was a smirk curled up on Maddie's face, although that irritating expression seemed to be a permanent fixture. Ughhhh. Zoe stared out of the window to hide her still-reddened face.

How had the little creep even found that out? They didn't share a room and Zoe always kept her laptop password-protected. She must have been spying on her! God she could just die of embarrassment right here and now! It was absolutely true that she had been reading and writing her own "smutty" stories on the laptop. She liked to think of them as romances, but sure, she'd found a "creative outlet". God she wanted to puke at the thought of being so ordinary. So like, I'm just another moody teenager that writes sad stories and cries into bed every night? Fuck that!

It had been Thalia who'd gotten her into it. Her old friend had come out with all sorts of awesome stories seemingly out of the blue, telling tales of epic heroines fighting bad guys in volcanoes! Or badass Amazons punching creepy douchebag men in the face! Her stories always leaned into the action side, but then Zoe started coming up with romance stories in response. She liked imagining these rich stories of love affairs in times of political intrigue, or lost loves at times of war. Thalia always had just one note on her work, and one note only. Sex It Up! No one will take you seriously if you just write cute lovey dovey stories! They want to see boobs and muscles and chicks in chains!

So that's what Zoe had done, even after Thalia had disappeared from her life. She'd written sexy stories and lost herself in the worlds she created, dreaming of far off fantasy kingdoms and beloved men (and sometimes women) that she would fall into the arms of, because there was definitely nothing like that in her own boring life!

She felt ill that Maddie knew her secret. What if she'd read one of her stories?! Oh God that would be the end of her! She'd burn the house down before anyone read her stuff!

It's okay, Zoe told herself, we're going to the beach. You can drown Maddie somewhere and pretend the currents took her.

The night drew on, and the whole family had gone quiet as Joe drove peacefully into the night. It was late when they finally turned into the little seaside town: Anchor's Hope. It was a former fishing port that had since become a popular tourist destination for its long sandy beaches and calm but surfable tides. As Diane had said (multiple times) it was a very "cute" place and they'd found a "perfect" spot right next to it! Driving along an old dirt road they came across their home for the week: an old wooden beach house,

"Well, here we are!" Joe announced, feeling ready for one of the beers he'd packed in the trunk,

"It looks dilapidated," Zoe groaned,

"It's rustic, Sweetie," was Diane's inevitable retort. She would not be having any negativity this summer vacation, thank you very much.

They gradually brought their suitcases in, with Maddie not once looking up from her Switch. Her attention was immediately grabbed however, when the sisters learned about their sleeping arrangements,

"Seriously Mom?" the two exclaimed when they saw that their one singular bedroom only contained a double bed,

"We thought it would save money getting a place with just two bedrooms," Diane explained,

"But Mom! I need my space!" Zoe moaned bitterly, "I can't sleep in the same bed as this...tramp!"

"Zoe!"

"I actually agree with the emo for once, Mom!" Maddie piped in, "there's no way I'm sharing a bed with her!"

"I need my privacy, Mom!"

"Seriously, Mom!"

"Oh stop it you two! You're sisters! There's nothing you haven't got you haven't seen before!"

"I dunno Mom," Maddie sneered, "have Zoe's boobs developed yet, I can't tell!?"

"I will throw acid in your eye you little creep!"

"Zoe!"

A perfect start to the vacation, with Joe already drinking his second can, Zoe locking herself in the bathroom to sulk, Maddie continuing to play on her Switch and Diane feeling exasperated. When had this hostility started? She'd never seen it so bad before!

"Ahh it's just teenagers, Di," Joe reassured her, "they're always like this."

"I wasn't like this!"

"Well obviously you weren't, sweetheart..."

"Thanks dear," she kissed him affectionately,

"...You were an only child," Joe finished mischievously.

Diane really wasn't in the mood for his teasing, and grabbed one of his beers to drink.

Zoe had to leave the bathroom eventually, and after much exhausting deliberation, the two sisters were finally convinced into sharing the same bed together. The condition was that the two girls could do whatever they wanted the next day, completely separate from each other! So much for a family vacation, Diane sighed, but she told herself it would just be for the one day. She hoped against all hope that maybe, just maybe, the girls might find some common ground somehow.

That hope seemed pretty far off, with the teenagers kicking each other as they lay in bed,

"One more kick and I will throw you in the sea," Zoe whispered irritably,

"As if those puny arms could even pick up a tampax, let alone a girl!" Maddie giggled,

"Maybe not one as heavy as you," Zoe snapped back. Maddie kicked her in response, clearly annoyed, then turned around to finally try and sleep.

Zoe lay in bed with a smile on her face about her little victory, then felt the fatigue of travel overcome her, drifting gently to sleep.

She dreamed she was standing on the deck of a pirate ship, the wind whipping through her long, flowing hair. Looking over the side of the ship, she saw with amazement that they were flying several hundred feet in the air! This wasn't a regular pirate ship; this was a sky ship! She wore a long coat that seemed to fly as high as the sails above her, blustering about in the epic winds of the stratosphere. If she wasn't careful, she'd be blown overboard! Just as she began to fear for her life, she was grabbed and held in place by a pair of colossal arms. She spun around to see a dark, handsome man with a stubble and scar crossing his face. He was so beautiful. Zoe reached up and tenderly stroked the line coursing across his cheek. His hands were busy, falling about her body as she melted into his embrace. Despite the cold wind she felt incredibly hot and uncontrollable. God she needed this man to take her! She took his hand and clasped it onto her breast, letting him feel her nipple as it hardened. Just as he lent down to kiss her, she woke up in a sweat.

Zoe's eyes snapped open, shocked at this horrible intrusion to her fantasy. Trying to make sense of her confused thoughts, she noticed an odd sound. A sound almost like...laughing? Glancing at her side, she noticed that Maddie was sat upright with an open laptop in her lap, quietly giggling to herself.

Giggling...because it was Zoe's laptop! Oh my God the little creep actually had been reading her stories! She heard Maddie quietly whispering,

"...and then, his long sensuous fingers started to massage my trembling body, cupping my breasts and pinching at my nipples...I was scared, but exhilarated, melting like snow at his touch..."

Wait, Zoe thought, was she live-streaming this?! She shot straight up from her pillow, startling Maddie into instinctively slamming the laptop shut,

"What the actual fuck?!" Zoe shouted, already feeling her face going red from tears of humiliation,

"Oh hey Zoe..." Maddie shrunk away at her sister's furious expression, "...I was just reading..."

"That's my laptop you fucking bitch!"

"Yeah and I'm gonna be real, Zoe, you seriously need to come up with better passwords than your birthday!"

Blinded with rage, Zoe lunged at her sister, trying to grab the laptop from her hands. Like a girl possessed, Maddie held on tight,

"What is wrong with you!?" Zoe yelled, "Give it back!"

"I haven't finished reading it yet!" Maddie teased mercilessly, clearly enjoying the mini-meltdown she was witnessing.

With a furious yank, Zoe wrested the laptop from Maddie's hands, but she didn't have a firm enough grip on it! The laptop flew from her hands across the room, before smacking with a sickening crack against the wall. Zoe leapt from her bed in a frenzy, hoping against all hope that it was salvageable. Instead, she picked it up with shaking horror, each second feeling like an hour as she inspected the old laptop. Already she could see that the keyboard part was bent out of shape. Feeling the sting of tears in her eyes, she flicked it open, revealing a horrifying crack right across the screen. It didn't switch on when she opened it. She pushed the "on" button: nothing.

For what it was worth, Maddie looked horrified. Either because of the expensive piece of hardware she'd broken, or because of the apoplectic look of rage on Zoe's face. She looked like she was about to scream. Maddie felt sick, like a thick treacle had coated the room in tense silence. It built as the two sisters stared at one another, with Maddie terrified that she actually was very likely about to die.

Instead, Zoe chucked the laptop onto the bed, then left the room. She walked downstairs, put her shoes on and left the house, disappearing into the night.

Maddie was stunned. Zoe had looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel, then she just up and leaves? Realising very quickly that she needed to do something, she leapt out of bed and scrambled over to her parents' bedroom to alert them of Zoe's disappearance.

Zoe huffed and blew on her cold hands as she walked quickly into the darkness. It was like her mind had snapped; she couldn't focus on any one thing. My stories, my fucking stories, everything I've worked on, the only thing I've ever cared about, years of work, gone, fucking gone, that fucking little tramp, I want to strangle her, she deserves to die, God it's so fucking cold out here, these pyjamas are so fucking freezing, I should go back, fuck going back, I want to die, I can't stand this anymore, I want to die!

She stopped, noticing the softness of the sand as she traipsed forward. The soft spray of the night-time ocean waves emanated around her with a gentle breeze tickling her face. She felt the harshness of her tears as they flowed liberally down her cheeks, dripping from her chin in a miniature waterfall.

Those stories had been all she'd had of Thalia, she sobbed. Now she really was gone! All her stories just, she gulped, lost. When she reached the shoreline, she took off her shoes, and let her bare feet soak in the affectionate coolness of the ocean. How could she have been so stupid? She'd meant to post some of her stories online but she'd always been scared of anonymous comments making fun of her. Her writing had been her only comfort from the world and the idea of anyone laughing at it was...

Breathing deeply in and out, Zoe continued on, splashing her bare feet against the water as she travelled farther and farther down the beach. It wasn't so dark now. The moon shone brightly over the ocean, illuminating its vast magnanimity and creating a long, streaking silver road that glowed upon the surface.

Stopping suddenly, she gazed at that road, wondering somehow if she could cross it, as though it were a path to a new world or a new dimension. It was...tantalising, shimmering on the lapping waves like a beacon, telling her to walk across it like a bridge. Zoe felt a clarity seeing that light, a tangible transcendent beckoning for her to change things forever. Everything else just seemed to slip away into irrelevance: her stories, Maddie, Mom and Dad...all there was now was the road, and she had to see where it took her.

Absent-mindedly, she began to gingerly pull her pyjama top off. Breathing in the soft breeze that tickled her back and chest, she pulled down her bottoms to let the wind soothe her whole body. It was freeing, nurturing, standing there like a newborn with the waves on her feet and the night air on her bare skin. She looked out over the blackness, saw the silver road still beckoning, and knew she had to follow it. She had to know where it led. Taking one step into the rolling waves, then the next, she began to walk softly and silently into the sea.

It wasn't cold. In fact it was embracing. As the water reached further and further up her body, she allowed its lapping waves to splash and slap against her soft, clear skin. It combed through her long dark hair and gently stroked it like a lover, caressing her shoulders and undulating about her chest. It became more and more difficult to sift through the sandy clouds that burst up around her trudging feet, but still she persisted. The silver bridge went on forever.