Fins: A New Beginning

Chapter Five

      Bella called for me in the hallway.
      "Come on Dimi! I wanna have a lot of time at the beach!"
      "Bella we're gonna be here for a week, you'll have plenty of time to swim." I grabbed my beach towel and headed out the door. Bella was already halfway down the hallway. She turned to look at me and tripped. She fell on the newly cleaned carpet, and busted her knee open. She hit the ground with a thump and slid forward from her running momentum. She sat up, and started to cry. I rushed to her side and took a look at her knee. She had a small cut, and a little rug burn.
       Our parents were already outside, so I went to the bathroom and cleaned up the blood with a dry piece of toilet paper.
      "Once you get into the water, your cut will heal, but the salt will burn a little." I helped her up from the floor and we walked outside. My mother looked directly at Bella's knees.
      "What happened? Are you alright?" She walked over and knelt down in front of her.
     "I'm ok mom, I just fell in the hallway." Bella once again had an eager grin on her face. "Let's go! I wanna go swimming and collect shells!" We get into the hot car and head towards the beach. I leaned against the warm window. The glass was so comfortable that I fell asleep.
I woke up to my mother tapping me.
       "Dimitri, wake up. We're at the beach now." I stirred and pried my face off the window. My face had been baking on the window the entire ride. We made our way to the sand and set up our towels and cooler. My mother packed us different drinks for the trip.
      "Come on Dimi! Let's go into the water!" Bella started to tug on my arm.
       "I don't know Bella. I just wanna sit in the sun for a bit." She let go of my arm and started to pout.
      "Come on Bell, I'll take you to the water." My mother took Bella's hand and led her into the water. I sat in the sand, longing for contact with the water. I could feel the oceans waves coursing through my blood. I could hear all the creatures beckoning me to the water in my head. I looked around and spotted a cave a little way off the shore. I guess I could get there and hang out alone.
I went to the closest point to the cave at the edge of the water. I stepped in, and made a quick dive down. I could feel the transformation happening, but I kept swimming. By the time I reached the cave, I had my tail.
         The cave was always mostly dark and humid. There was a small hole at the top just big enough to see the sun shine in. The sun lit up the pool of water inside the cave, causing the water to shine and glisten. I leaned against the side of the pool and took a long look at my tail. For the first time, I noticed I had more than two fins at the bottom. I had four fins, overlapping each other. Don't normal mermen have two fins? I don't know. I guess it's different in real life.
I decided to test something. I wanted to see how fast I could swim. I left the cave through a small hole. The hole led me out into the ocean. The ocean was so beautiful. There were schools of fish and unique looking corrals.
          I started to swim as fast as I could, and in about three minutes, I made it to another island. I swam up to the island, and it looked deserted. I beached myself up in the sand and looked for the coast. All I could see was the ocean. I must have made it far away from the beach.
The hot sun dried my tail and I explored the island. The island had fruit and plants that I'd never seen before. It also had animals that are not seen where I'm from. There were monkeys and lizards all over the island. They didn't seem to be threatened or afraid of me. They greeted me with gifts and led me to their homes.
          This is weird. Normally animals are afraid of humans and attack them. Well, I guess I'm not entirely human, but I still look human.
I stayed on this island for a long time. It started to get dark. Crap, my mother is going to kill me. I said my goodbyes to the animals and made my way back to the sand of the island. I got into the water and swam as fast as I could, back to the cave. I couldn't let anyone see me, or else bad things could happen.
      It was really dark out now. The moon showed itself through the small hole in the top of the cave. The whole cave shined bright with blue light from the reflection of the water.
I looked at the beach. Not a soul was still there, not even my family. I decided that the coast was clear, and swam to shore. My things were moved closer to the water, but I didn't put them there.
I have no clue how my clothes got here, but I thought little of it. Whomever moved my clothes here is not here now. I beached myself on shore again and began to dry off. Shortly, my legs returned to normal.
      I put on my shirt and shoes and began to journey back to the hotel. It wasn't far from here and I knew my way around.
The streets seemed completely empty, and covered in yellow lights. I have no idea what time it is, but it's probably very late. The buildings were all 12 stories high, and a mixture of lights were turned on in the windows.
         I arrived at the hotel a few minutes later, the staff still up and working, and a few late night partiers roaming around. I made my way up to my family's room to find them all asleep, except for my mother.
         She stared at me for a few minutes. Oh God I'm in trouble now. She continued to stare at me, but as soon as I made my way towards the bathroom, she spoke.

[AUTHORS NOTE: Thank you guys for being so patient with me and my remake of this story! I hope you like it so far and PLEASE feel free to express yourself in the comments!]