Free Poseidia by J.L. Imhoff

people would love to know about. Change your perception. Stop fighting it. Embrace it.
    “You have to go back. Poseidia is your home now. You’re now a part of the sea. Without it you’ll die.” He settled his weight back onto his feet, his toes disappearing into the sand.
    “What do you mean?” I paled at the understanding. I’ll die? I wanted to argue, but my heart knew he spoke the truth. “You mentioned before about Mer. I guess that confirms I’m some sort of… mermaid, right?”
    “Was it not clear?” He chuckled, “Do you doubt what you see?”
    “I’ve doubted everything since I woke up in a new body, in a strange city beneath the ocean. Wouldn’t you?”
    He resumed his place behind me, but he didn’t have to—I was warm now, all the way through. Still, I didn’t object as he buried his face in my hair.
    “I was human once, too,” he confessed, as if he’d never uttered the words to another living soul.
    “So , you’re the other one Lucas told me about?” I guessed. “You were… a human? I can tell you’re different, but I didn’t know to what extent.”
    “All I wanted for years was to go back to my human life.” He rolled onto his back , away from me, placing his hands under his head.
    “You understand… I need to return to my old life.” I tried to sit up, but the pain forced me back down.
    “I did return, but after two days, I started to die all over again. If we’re out of the ocean for any extended length of time, we dehydrate… and then…” He moved back onto his side.
    “No, maybe it’s different for me,” I reasoned, almost pleading for it to be true, for me to be the exception.
    “It won’t be different —it’ll be agony. What do you have on land that is worth your life? A husband? Children?”
    “I don’t have a husband or… children.” Not anymore. “ I had my life. A job. I had a boyfriend.”
    “That’s what you want to go back to? A… boyfriend?” he scoffed.
    “You don’t understand,” I accused.
    “I understand more than you think,” he whispered, lowering his voice. “You want rev enge.”
    A long pause echoed in my brain as I absorbed the truth. “It’s not for… revenge. I have this locket… my mother gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday and I’ve never been without it since… until now.”
    “You would risk your life for a piece of jewelry?”
    “You don’t understand… my mother died a year and a half ago. Within days of her passing, my father discarded everything she owned… including every photo of her and me when I was a child. Until you’ve been through something like that, you’ll never understand the sentimental value of a single object can be worth more than all the money in the world. It’s literally the only photo I own of her and me, because as soon as I was old enough I moved out to get away from my father and didn’t have as much contact as I should have. Then she got sick… and was gone before I knew what I was losing. The vacuum… I filled it with the locket. I know you probably think it’s silly…”
    “No, I understand more than you know. I would give anything for a photo of… I understand, but is it worth your life?”
    “Why do I have to choose between life and my locket? Why can’t I have both? If I have to start a new life here, I need it. There’s a chance it’s still with my things, unless David was like my father. But I have to know. If it’s gone then I’ll have to accept it, but if there is even the slightest chance I can find it, I have to try. Let me leave now, tonight… I can find my way, somehow. I’ll come back, I promise.” My eyes wandered to the mouth of the cave—the fire was dying.
    “I’ll help you retrieve your locket,” he assured. “But now is not the time. You’re wounded and they expect us back.”
    “When? The longer I’m dead to the world, the more chances of it being lost forever.”
    “I’ll let you know. Now, rest . We’ll wait until the beach