summer nights.

content warning: rape

I: The Love Story

The mermaid had seen him before, kayaking through the mangrove swamps or on the shore with other humans, speaking gently but enthusiastically. She listened on occasion—he spoke of habitat encroachment and pollution and how nature was not a toy. Once she watched him administer medical care to a manatee that had been struck by a boat propeller. The creature still perished, but he tried so hard and wept over the creature’s body when it was done. He was as good as a human could be, which was more good than her tribe would give them credit for.

Her tribe was one of the last holdouts—sticking to the safety and hiddenness of the wilderness rather than risking the novelty of the surface world. Humans were danger, more so than any barracuda or hurricane they might face on their own. But still, she slowly fell in love, watching him from afar. Later she would realize she too felt the call of the surface world and had centered all her desires in one man to make it seem reasonable, or at least containable. But, back then, the only word she knew for the feeling was love.

One night, she lay with him and to her surprise, found herself with child, despite considering herself too old for such a thing. This was horrifying, at first—the shame that would come to her for bearing an abomination—but then she thought of her lover and how happy he’d be at such news. Besides, she belonged to an extremely isolated tribe, one that shunned undersea society just as much as they themselves were shunned.

She’d loved all of her children so far and this one, a freak though it was, would be no different. The mermaid desperately tried to return to him, but he fled at the sight of her, at least until she showed him the child they had made—a perfect, unholy mix of water and land.

II: The Discovery

Growing up, Stevie’s father was overprotective of tem, never letting tem swim in the ocean, despite the fact that it was the only thing tey wanted to do. The waves called to tem and the water seemed like home. He quit his job as a park ranger, and they moved to Miami where he became an aquarist. He said it was because there were better schools in the city but every once in a while, late at night, when he had had too much to drink, he cried about how much he feared losing tem and Stevie knew it was about the sea.

As a teenager, tey was constantly sneaking out and getting into trouble. Tir father supported tem most of the time as tir grades were good and tey was a star on the school’s track team (he had said no when tey had asked to be a swimmer). Despite being popular, Stevie felt never felt quite like tey belonged. During the waking hours, tey assumed it was just part of being closeted about tir sexuality, but when the sky was dark and the moon was full tey knew it was because tey belonged in the sea.

When tey helped tir school win the state track championship the team celebrated with a bonfire party on the beach. Tey brought two cases of beer and, soon enough, most of the party-goers were drunk and tey could finally—finally!—slip away. Tey waded out into the ocean and it felt right. A massive wave pushed tem underwater and, though tey struggled to hold tir breath, tey found tey somehow didn’t have to.

More miraculously, tey wasn’t alone. A school of beautiful women wish fish tails surrounded tem, offering tem friendship and, best of all, understanding. Stevie took their hands and was led off into an underwater paradise where tey learned about who tey was and how dearly tir other family had missed tem. It didn’t matter that tey was a freak—and now tey knew what kind of a freak tey was—so long as tey had the chance to explore. Tey didn’t surface for two months.

III: The Truth

When tey returned to the surface tey found that the war had come to Florida and any hope tey had of a normal life was crushed. Tir father was relieved and delighted to see tem, so much so that he couldn’t bring himself to be angry at tir disappearance. Instead he begged tem to run away a second time, to go deep into the interior, be it the forest, the desert, or the mountains. Anywhere away from here; tey could pass as a human so long as they stayed away from the sea. Stevie argued that he should come to the ocean, that there were beautiful limestone caves with air pockets large enough to live in, that tir mother still loved him. At that last declaration, he broke.

The pain and fear he had so diligently hidden from his child rushed out of him and he told Stevie that whatever story tir mother had told tem wasn’t true, that she had attacked him and while Stevie was the best thing in his life, that night was the worst. How angry he was that one night had taken the everglades, his favorite place in the world, and turned it into the stuff of nightmares. That he never dated women anymore because he could still see piece of tir mother—his attacker—in everything they did. That, while humanity had done more than its fair share of damage to the world and that he wished for a peaceful coexistence, he still felt a sharp crack of joy every time he saw a dead finfolk on TV.

Stevie held tir father than night, being his little girl one last time. As much as tey loved him, tey couldn’t deny what tey was, but tey didn’t tell him that. Best to have one last night before he went to Arizona and tey returned to the sea.

IV: The Tragedy

When tey returned to tir ocean family, tey found that most of tir tribe had scattered and tir mother was dead. A shiver of sirens had attacked them, resenting their pacifistic nature, their neutrality in the war for control. and, worst of all, the harboring of a hybrid. Tir mother stood strong, singing praises of tir father and that they should give humanity the care and love he had shown the natural world. She was killed for that, as was most of their tribe. Stevie mourned tir new friends but, after hearing the story of tir birth, couldn’t bring temself to grieve for tir mother.

Only one of tir family tribe was still there, tir youngest sister, the weakest one, the one tey had grown closest to. She had hidden when the sirens came, and has waited—not for Stevie in particular, but for something. Tey had the solution—tey and tir sister would move into tir father’s apartment and be human or mermaids, depending on who was in power. Tey had gone fifteen years believing tey was human, certainly tir sister could manage it just for a little while. Aside, tir father’s apartment had enough nooks and crannies for them to hide in if someone came a-knocking.

They lived like the teenagers they were, messy and indulgent despite the war. The two were happy, despite their grief, and Stevie was delighted to show tir sister the wonders of city life just as she had shown tem the majesty of the ocean. The good times didn’t last, however, and when a gang of drunk humans broke in an ransacked their apartment for the second time, they fled to the ocean—they might not be so lucky the next time and tensions were rising. 

V: The Wandering

Life in the sea without a tribe or family to rely on was difficult. They kept to the shallows, hiding away from known mermaid hunting grounds and close enough to the shore that Stevie could run aground and pick up supplies when things got desperate. Tey saw how badly tir sister was doing, but tey could never manage to persuade tem to either pick out a new life on shore or to travel deeper, where the best food was. The first refusal is because she feared for her life. The second was because she was ashamed of Stevie.

Tir sister begged to go to Firebrand. She said it would be safe and that even slavery would be more comfortable than the life they were living. Stevie doubted that, but tir sister was the only family tey had left. The only person tey had left. Eventually, inevitably, Stevie gave in. Tir plan was for tem to pose as tir sister’s human friend. After all, tey was good at passing. Tey’d done it for years and, as long as tey stayed dry, tey didn’t think tey’d be discovered. It was a foolish hope, but one tir sister unscrupulously encouraged.

When they reached the gates, Stevie appreciated how brave her sister had been, coming to Miami with tem after the deaths of almost everyone she knew. Tey’d never love her more than in that moment… especially as, immediately after they arrived, tir sister abandoned tem. Tey said tey understood and some days tey really did. Stevie’s hybrid status was found out immediately and, even with the collar on, people could tell.