Sirenas en Invierno

Prequel

“Hey! Mitchell, Jason, we are going down to the lake for a walk. We‘ll be back in an hour.” I told our boyfriends.

“Ok I’ll see you when you get back.” Mitchell leaned over to kiss my cheek.

“Gimme a hug!” Alex said playfully as she held out her arms to Jason. He walked over and gave her a hug, and said,

“Hurry back, I’ll miss you.”

We left the clearing and the boys set out to go fishing. We had heard that there was supposed to be snow up here in the Rocky Mountains, but we didn’t realize what lied ahead.


Part One:
The Girls


It was the day before winter. It was only supposed to be a walk by the lake, but it turned into something more. We checked the sky again, to see how long we had before it reached us. It looked far away but we knew that it was closer than our eyes were telling us. It was clear that it was dangerous but we didn’t know that it was deadly. It had been a long hike over and, though we hurried, even longer back. We were tired and the water, ice, and air were
“hypothermia cold”.

“I don’t think we can get back in time!” I shouted.

I had to yell through the wind, which was piercing my skin like needles. In response I heard a scream, “Amy!!”
I spun around to see Alex awkwardly sitting on top of the rocks pulling on her leg. I dropped my walking stick and jumped to the rock in front of her.

“What happened?”

“I slipped on that rock,” she pointed to the rock behind her, “and the next thing I knew my foot was under this one. I can’t feel it, I think it’s broken.”



I moved around her to see where the best spot was to try to pull the rock off of her foot. I wedged my hand under a space in the rock and pulled.
“Oooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!” she screamed.
“Sorry, but, oh my god, this rock is heavy!”
“Duh!”
“Look if you want me to help you then no smart-alike comments.”
“Sorry. I’m just in a ton of pain here.”
“Well I realize that but there is not much I can do.” Now we were both getting frustrated.
“Let me see if I can find something to pry the rock to the side with,” I said.
“What about that one over there?” She said, pointing to my left at a broken tree branch.
“That might work” I jumped over the rocks to the stick. I grabbed it and jumped back to Alex. After wedging the stick under the rock I pushed hard on the other end and finally got the rock off of her foot just enough for her to pull it out.
“I don’t know if we can make it back with my ankle in this condition. I might just slow you down, so just go ahead, leave me here till morning.” She said glumly. I could see her eyes filling with tears.
“What are you talking about!? I am NOT leaving you here! Look at the sky; you won’t survive till morning out here by yourself with no food or water!”
“Yeah, maybe, but we’re not make it anyway at the rate I am going. Plus I would rather have just one of us die then both.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, she was usually so positive. So I replied, “Well I don’t care what you think, if you are not going to continue then I won’t either.”
I sat down hard on the rock next to her, being just as stubborn as she was. I could tell that she was getting annoyed so I turned to her and said, “Do you want to see if we can make it the rest of the way, or are we going just sit here and argue until we freeze to death?”
“Fine, I guess you have a point. Let’s just go.” I could tell it was killing her to admit she was wrong but she had done it anyway.
“That’s my girl!” I replied with more enthusiasm then I actually felt, and I pulled her to her feet.
“Okay just put your arm around my shoulder and we will work like we are one person with three legs.”
“Alright, so do I just hop along the rest of the way?”
“Yeah but use me as support.”
So we went on like this for about fifteen minutes before we both had to rest because of how bad our feet hurt, Alex turned to me with a confused expression and asked, “Is it normal to not feel my toes?”
I replied as best as I could, “I suppose it is, because I can’t feel mine either.”
I looked up at the sky for the first time since Alex fell, it looked really scary, the clouds were rolling in at an astonishing speed. For as far as I could see it was just dark, black, sky.
I wasn’t sure if we could make it or not but I was doubtful, and since Alex was the one in pain I thought she should decide if we went on or not. She said that she didn’t think that she could make it and we might be able to make or find a shelter in all of the dead trees around us. She managed to spot a huge tree that had fallen over part way, so we gathered branches and built mini walls around the tree. We crawled inside and huddled together for warmth. Alex went right to sleep but I just couldn’t. I went to find wood to try and make a fire, to at least keep us a little warmer. It was starting to snow a little bit but I knew if I didn’t hurry I would get caught in the blizzard. As I was walking I realized how tired I was. If I was so tired, then how come I couldn’t sleep? I just kept walking trying to find dome good wood, and that’s when it all went bad. I started feeling really tired and it started snowing hard, I thought that if I hurried I could sleep back at the tree, so I turned around and everything went black.

Part Two
The Boys

“I feel like we shouldn’t have turned back, we should have kept looking for them.” Mitchell said to Jason.
“Dude, it was starting to blizzard, we had no choice.” Jason replied.
“Yeah but what if something happened to them, I don’t want anything to happen to them.”
“I’m sure they are fine they’re probably on their way back now.”
“In a blizzard, at 11:30pm?!”
“Oh relax, I’m sure they are fine.” He was only trying to calm Mitchell’s nerves but he was just as worried.
“Mitchell?”
“Mmm-hmm?”
“Try and get some sleep, ok? I’ll stay up and we can go look when the weather clears up, alright?”
“Ok, thanks man.”
“No problem.”
Jason was nervously pacing around the camper for about an hour before he sat down. He just sat there, staring into space for another two before the snow died down enough for them to go out. He woke up Mitchell and they set out toward the lake.
“Alex, Amy!” the boys shouted together.
“I don’t see them,” Mitchell said, “or hear them.”
“NOW I am getting worried.” Jason answered.
“What is that?” Mitchell asked curiously.
“What are you looking at, and where?
“Over there,” he pointed up ahead where his flashlight was catching the light of something, “don’t you see that shiny thing?”
“Yeah I see it now, what is that?
“I don’t know. Let’s go check it out.”
“Ok.”
They crept closer to it and suddenly Mitchell recognized it, “It’s Amy’s favorite necklace! She never takes it off, something must’ve happened!” he cried.
“Ok well, if this is here than they must be nearby.”
Mitchell cradled the necklace as they walked a farther and that’s when they found me, laying in the rocks covered in bruises a cut on my head, like I had gotten beat up.
“Oh my god, Amy.” Mitchell leaned over my motionless body, hoping that I was just out cold and not dead.
“Amy please wake up.” he whispered in my ear as he started to cry.
Meanwhile Jason had continued to search for Alex, screaming her name out in despair. Finally, about twenty yards from where they found me, Jason found her, weak and barely awake in our little fort. He carried her back to Mitchell and they started back to the camper, with us in their arms. When they got back Mitchell asked Jason if he thought I was still alive, he grabbed my wrist and checked for a pulse.
“Yeah, she is but maybe not for long.”
“We have to get to a hospital,” Mitchell cried to Jason, “they look critical!”
“Ok. Load them into the truck, I’ll drive you stay with them, in the back.”
“Ok.” He replied shakily.
They drove for fifteen minutes before having cell phone service and Jason, having been there before, knew that the only hospital was hours away, back in the town where the four of us lived.



Part 3
At the hospital

“Oh my god what happened?!?!?!”My sister Cali shrieked.
“I’m not sure we found them in the forest unconscious and in bad condition. Amy looks like she was beat up and Alex broke her ankle.” Jason replied.
“Why were they alone, why weren’t you two with them?!”
“They went on a walk while we went fishing, when they didn’t come back we went looking for them but there was a blizzard, and it was hours before it was safe to go out again, we had no choice or we would all be dead.”
“Wait, they’re dead, oh my god, I-I can’t...”
“No, no, no, no, no, that’s not what I meant.”
“Oh my god you just about gave me a heart attack!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to .”
“It’s ok, but where are they?”
“They were rushed to the E.R. as a high priority case.”
“Well are they going to be ok?”
“We’ll know more in a while but they need to take care of the girls right now.”
“Yeah ok,” Cali tried to act calm and remain positive, “I’m sure they will be ok.”
“Yeah try telling him that.” He nodded at Mitchell who had been sitting in the E.R. waiting room chair staring at the wall across the room since they had gotten to the hospital. Cali looked down at her phone once more knowing that her husband Luke would be there any second to join them.
Just then the doctor came over to us, Mitchell shot up and ran over to see what the doctor had to say.
“I have some good and some bad news,” the doctor started, “which would you like me to start with?”
“Bad” Mitchell automatically replied. The doctor looked around to the rest of them and they all nodded.
“They both have hypothermia, but not bad. You may want to sit down for the really bad news,” the doctor paused to let them take his advice, everyone sat down, “Amy is in a coma and needs life-saving surgery. She had some sort of reaction that shut her body down and the cold just made it worse.” Cali started sobbing, and Mitchell hit his knees and was quietly crying as he prayed that I would be ok and that there was something he could do to help.


Part 4
The Coma



I had passed out in the snowy woods but woke up in a totally different land. I looked around; I could see fish, coral, and a sunken ship in the distance. I looked up, the sun was wavering, and I suddenly realized that I was underwater. I started to panic I’m drowning! I thought. Then it came to me that I had been breathing fine since I woke up, how am I breathing? I looked down at myself I was only wearing a bikini, how did I change? I steadied myself on a rock and looked up again, something was coming towards me at an astonishing speed. I tried to move behind the rock but was not quick enough, I cowered, hiding from whatever was coming at me. When I realized nothing was happening to me I peeked over my arm, surprised to find a face peering back at me.

“Hi! I’m Elassandra, but you can call me Ela! Who are you?”

“Um, I’m Amy. Where am I?”

“Why, you’re in the ocean, silly!”

I looked at the girl, she guessed she was maybe about 15 or so. I took in the girl’s looks she was" pretty with a good fig—she has a tail!

“Are you a mermaid?!”I blurted.

“Yes of course. Aren’t you?”

I looked down at my legs, “No,” she came out from behind the rock, “I’m not.”

Elassandra gasped, “are you a- a human?”

I let out a little laugh “ yes, last I checked I was.”

“Wow! I’ve never seen a human before, I thought you couldn’t breathe underwater.”

“I thought so too. I don’t know how I am. Are there more of you?”

“Yes, there is a whole village down that way,” she pointed in the direction that she came from, “I’ll take you to them, maybe we can figure out why you are here.”

I was a strong believer in mermaids, is this real? I thought, could I really have stumbled upon a land of mermaids?

Elassandra held out her hand and I took it, Elassandra took off and we zipped through the ocean towards the village.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Knock, knock! Daddy, are you home?” Elassandra knocked on her front door.

“Can we hold on a second please?” my head was still reeling from the trip here, “I’ve never gone that fast before.”

Ela pushed her door open and motioned me inside, “you can lie down in here,” she offered.

“Thanks. How old are you?” I asked.

“I’m fourteen.” She replied cheerily.

I was pretty close with my initial guess, then. I thought.

“How old are you?” Ela tilted her head as if trying to guess.

“Nineteen.”

“Oh. What is your life like above water?” she asked, looking at me with big curious eyes.

“Well, I have a boyfriend named Mitchell, I—“

“Ooooo, what’s he like?”

“He’s sweet, he’s funny, and he’s such a gentleman...” I stared off into the distance picturing my life with him, I loved him so much, where was he now? Why isn’t he here with me?
“Amy?” Ela looked at me, a concerned expression on her face.
“Sorry, I was just wondering where he was.”
“What is the rest of your life like?”
“I also have my best friend and her boyfriend, they are


just-”
“ELLLAAAAAAAA!” the voice coming from the front of the house terrified me.
“Yes Daddy?” She sounded so innocent.
“That was your dad?” I whispered.
“Yeah, he’s kinda loud.”
“What’s this I hear about you running around with a human?!”
She peeked around the corner, “she’s not a bad human, come meet her, you’ll see.”
“You brought her into our home?!”
“Yes but she’s OK, just come see.”
“Hello sir.” I looked around the corner, my eyes grew wide, standing before me was the mighty Poseidon, God of the Sea.
I flipped around to look at Ela, “your dad is the God of the Sea?!”
“Um, yeah.”
“Oh, so you’ve heard of me.” He bellowed.
“Of course, I am a huge Greek mythology geek. You’re my favorite God.
“Why thank you,” he said proudly, “but don’t let my brethren hear you, you don’t want to feel their wrath. And they are not myths.” He turned to Ela, “Maybe SOME humans aren’t so bad. I like this one.” He motioned toward me.
I blushed, “Wow, thank you sir.”
“Please,” he said, “call me Poseidon.
“Ok.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We talked for hours, just the tree of us. After so much talking we felt like we had known each other for a lifetime. They learned all about my life as a human, and I learned what it was like to live in the sea. I found that a certain few people in the world had the ability to breathe underwater; apparently I was one of those few. I didn’t want to leave but I knew I should be getting back to dry land. I asked if I could return to the sea to visit, they said I could only return in the flesh on certain days, like the solstices of the equinoxes. I wasn’t very happy to hear that but they assured me that they could come to me in my dreams too that they would do so to say hi and chat for a bit. They made me promise not to tell anyone, but they allowed me to tell the five people I trust most, if I truly wanted to, I already knew who I was going to tell; Mitchell, Alex, Jason, Cali, and Luke, they were my closest friends and family I knew they’d share the same surprised excitement as I first did.

Ela and Poseidon told me how to get back to the beach. They also helped me go over a story to tell other people where I had gone, if I was asked. I said my goodbye and swam in the direction they pointed me to. When I got where I needed to go I started to swim up, the sun bright in my face. As I got farther up, the water and the sun started to blur. Almost to the surface of the water everything turned white.
Part 5
Waking up
I woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by my friends and family, Mitchell, Jason, Cali, and Luke.

“Where’s Alex?”

“I’m over here.” She smiled weakly and waved from the bed on the other side of the room from me.

“What happened?” I asked, thoroughly confused, “did I almost drown?”

“Drown? No sweetie, you nearly froze to death.” Mitchell replied, looking worried.

Cali leaned in and whispered something to the doctor; I later found out that she asked if something had happened to my memory. The doctor replied that, people who had gone through a traumatic experience like mine tend to wake up dazed and confused.

I looked at Mitchell, who smiled reassuringly. He sat down next to me and told me everything that had happened, the blizzard, finding Alex and me, the coma, and the surgery, everything until I had just woken up. I went along with it, but was convinced that my dream was real, I never told anyone about it, for fear of them thinking I was crazy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few months later on a trip to see my parents down in Hawaii, to tell them the news of mine and Mitchell’s engagement, Cali, Luke, Alex, Jason, Mitchell, and I took by dad’s boat out for a sail. We stopped far out to just enjoy the day when I heard some splashing near the boat; I turned to see the tip of a large green tail dip under the water. Not sure what I had seen I stared at the spot where the tail disappeared for a moment. Not far from that spot I heard another noise, I looked up, and couldn’t believe my eyes. There was Ela, in the flesh. She looked at me and waved, I waved back, no one noticed our little exchange. I turned to the sun and closed my eyes, this was my little secret, I looked at my friends and smiled, this is one thing they will never know.