A Mermaid’s Destiny (Part VIII)

Chapters: I. Conquest // II. Mermaid Ball // III. To Be a Mermaid // IV. Mother Mermaid // V. Lonely Mermaid // VI. The Captain & The Mermaid // VII. Oceana Paradise

Fuchsia cried the entire night, after the captain had left her… once again!

She returned to work and tried her very best to stay strong, but she was so depressed. She stared out the window constantly, watching the people walk down the boardwalk, hoping he was there. Every time a man came near her, she shooed him away, in hopes he would shapeshift into the captain like before and he could see that she was trustworthy. Many, many men tried talking to her yet she always refused.

It had now been months — what felt like years — since she began working for Madame psychic. And still, Madame refused to let her do anything other than janitorial duties. Fuchsia’s impatience was on fire.

“You know that stereotype about fortune tellers being evil,” Fuchsia remarked, “well I’m starting to think it’s true. You’ve been torturing me for no good reason!”

Immediately after blurting it out, Fuchsia was overcome with regret. How could she be so disrespectful to someone who was basically saving her life? She was just so darn frustrated.

Luckily, Madame responded calmly, “there is a very good reason why I’m not letting you tell fortunes right now.”

“Then, why?” Fuchsia whined, “you’re threatened I’ll be better at it than you, cause I’m a mermaid.”

Madame softly giggled, shaking her head with amusement.

“This isn’t funny!” Fuchsia cried, “I lost my family, I lost my home, I lost my tail… and most importantly, I lost my one true love!”

“I know you’re suffering, the whole world is suffering,” Madame rolled her eyes.

“Just tell me why! Please! Why can’t I tell fortunes? Why can’t you start teaching me?”

“It’s because — you have no defense, young girl. You have no boundaries. You take on the energy of whoever you’re dealing with, and you absorb it like a sponge. When you give someone a psychic reading, you have to really embrace yourself in their energy. And yes, you’re great at that! However, you can’t draw that line between yourself and another. If you were to give readings, you would absorb so much negative energy, you’d swallow it whole, and it would make you terribly sick, it could even kill you.”

“Untrue!” Fuchsia denied. “I’ve been turning down every man who asks me on a date. You’ve seen it. A lot of your customers.”

“It’s not enough. It’s your energy. Every person you exchange energy with, it always leaves you feeling drained, while the other person feels renewed.”

“Well then can you teach me how to protect myself, energetically?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes!”

“First lesson is very simple. Using your mind, imagine a protective bubble around you. See it. Project it.”

“Okay,” Fuchsia nodded.

“Keep working on it, and I’ll let you know when I see the results. Do not, I repeat, do not ask me if you’ve succeeded. I will know, and I will let you know.”

More weeks passed by and Fuchsia tried her best to practice her new mind technique, but she could not focus. All she could think about was the captain.

Every time a customer would come in, she’d wonder, was it him? Was he shapeshifting still?

But no, none of them had strong enough energy to be him. And yet she continued to wonder.

Fuchsia would walk along the boardwalk, aimlessly. Every face that passed her by — could it be him?

She stood at the edge of the pier, staring off into the distance. Every ship that sailed by — the captain? …No.

Fuchsia wrote poems and stories for him, reading them out loud, hoping he was hiding somewhere and could hear her. No response.

One night as Fuchsia was getting ready for bed, she heard loud meowing outside. Opening her window, she saw a stray black cat yowling at her. She grabbed leftover fish sticks from her mini fridge and it outside the window. “Aww,” she smiled as the cat graciously gobbled up the treat.

And then, the cat climbed up the window and jumped inside! The stray looked clean and healthy, so she scratched behind its ears and gave it a few pets. It purred, and then jumped back out the window and slithered its way down to the ground. “How sweet,” she had never seen such a ninja-like cat before.

The next day, Fuchsia found it especially difficult to get her work done. At lunchtime, she slugged back to her room and plopped herself on her bed for a short nap.

“You’re sick,” Madame walked in, “you need to take a sick day, it’s throwing off the energy of my readings.”

“I’m fine,” Fuchsia placed her hand on her forehead, checking her temperature, “I’m just sad. I miss the captain.”

“No, you’re spiritually sick,” she handed over a cup of herbal tea and placed some crystals on her lap,” drink this, it will help you vomit.”

“I don’t need to throw up,” Fuchsia furrowed her eyebrows and rubbed her stomach, “my tum is fine.”

“No, you need to vomit your emotions — they’re bubbling up inside of you and draining you. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I feel like I hardly know him, and yet I’ve known him forever,” Fuchsia moaned, “I feel so disconnected from him, and yet so connected to him. Everything I see reminds me of him, but nothing is actually him.”

“It’s because you’re disconnected on the 3-D plane, but connected on the 5-D plane. When two souls have been together many lifetimes, it takes even longer for them to come back together. With every lifetime that you grew, you leveled up, and with each higher level comes tougher challenges. This may be your final lifetime together, and if you can make it through and find each other, you will complete the final level and break the cycle of reincarnation. Instead of going back and forth to one another in a constant cycle, you will break free and be together in eternal peace. However the final level comes with the most challenges because it takes the strongest minds and strongest hearts to make it.”

Fuchsia paused and took a moment to take it all in.

More time went on, and she continued to think about what Madame had told her.

One day, Fuchsia felt a strong energy. She felt it growing stronger and stronger. Someone close to her heart was near. She felt them coming nearer… and nearer… until…

The door swung open! Fuchsia looked up with hope — and there it was!

It wasn’t the captain, no — it was her sisters!

“Amber! Turquoise! Emerald!” Fuchsia called out their names in shock.

“We found you!” They shouted with relief.

Madame looked over, “can I help you?”

“Mind if I go on break for five minutes?” Fuchsia pleaded.

“Of course,” Madame nodded.

And the four sisters gathered outside around the back of the building where there was privacy.

“Where have you been?” They demanded.

“Where have you been?” Fuchsia responded.

“Mother Mermaid,” Amber began, “she has had the three of us locked up. She told us about her plans to make you the new Mother Mermaid, and when she saw our resistance, she held us hostage.”

“We knew it was not your responsibility to take,” Torquiose added, “we knew it would just destroy you. “

“So she stopped us,” Emerald said, “but we finally managed to escape.”

Fuchsia looked back at her sisters with suspicion and weariness, “Mother Mermaid is benevolent, she would never do that.”

“Just because she’s most powerful of them all, does not mean she uses her power for good,” Amber barked back.

“Don’t you trust your own sisters?” Emerald asked with innocence.

Fuchsia paused… “I’m… not sure…”

“She’s been a human for far too long, she’s lost her head,” Turqoise commented, “come on, Fuchsia, come home with us.”

“I’m not going back to the sea,” Fuchsia stood her ground. “I’m waiting here for the captain.”

“Fuchsia, we need you!” Emerald begged, “Mother Mermaid is going to come after us again!”

Fuchsia had no idea what to believe. Adjusting to human life was difficult, but she was making true progress. Madame was days away from letting her do psychic work, she could feel it.

Life as a mermaid had been fun, but there was no growth, no challenges, nothing to work for — just party, party, party every day. That type of lifestyle is captivating at first, however ends up rotting the soul. It was no wonder that a mermaid’s lifespan was far shorter now than it ever was in the olden days.

“Stay here,” Fuchsia offered, “Madame might let you work for her. If not, there’s so many shops here, I’m sure you could get a job somewhere. My bedroom is small, but we can all fit, like a sleepover every night!” She beamed with hope. It was true, Fuchsia had missed her sisters so badly.

But the three sisters stubbornly refused, continuing to insist that Fuchsia needed to come back with them.

“Fine,” Fuchsia finally gave in, “I’ll visit, but that’s all.”

And so, Fuchsia asked Madame for a short vacation, promising to return within a few days. Madame was a very cold, almost heartless person. As an energy worker, she learned how to detach herself from other people’s emotions as a method of self-preservation. Yet, Madame had a weak spot for Fuchsia for some strange reason. So she accepted her request.

The three sisters lead Fuchsia back to sea.

“I must have been gone for longer than I thought, because I don’t recognize any of this,” Fuchsia observed. The water was much darker than she remembered.

And there they arrived — straight to Mother Mermaid.

“What’s going on?” Fuchsia asked, “why are you taking me back to Mother Mermaid? I thought we were going home?”

And then, that’s when Fuchsia saw — all three of her sisters locked up in a cage that looked like a jail cell.

Dumbfounded, Fuchsia looked back at her sisters who she was just swimming with and watched them dissolve into thin air.

“Sisters?!” Fuchsia panicked.

“HELP!!!” they screamed from the cage.

“So, those ‘sisters’ of mine were fake?” Fuchsia cried in absolute fear, “and these are my real sisters here, locked up?!”

“Correct,” Mother Mermaid spoke with a voice so loud and strong that it echoed.

“So you tricked me into coming back to sea…” Fuchsia gulped, “I knew something was off.” And then she turned to Mother Mermaid, “how could you? How could you be so evil? Set my sisters free!”

“Listen,” Mother Mermaid responded, “this was my last resort. I need you to save the mermaid species. You are the only one who can do this. You continue to live on land, and your species will die out as soon as I whither away — which is very, very soon.”

“There has to be someone else who can take your place,” Fuchsia huffed, “you saw me try being queen for a day, it was absolute madness. I belong on the land with my captain. He told me the truth, he explained how toxic this type of power is.”

“I need the two of you to rule together.”

“What about my sisters? They can’t do it?”

“No.”

“Well, why not?”

“I’m working on bringing the captain back, and you two shall rule together.”

Suddenly, Fuchsia changed her mind. The thought of the captain coming back made her glow.

“You’d really bring him back?”

“I have to. To save the mermaid species.”

“But you’ve been doing it alone, no Father Merman.”

“There was — long, long ago, before your time. And if he was still here today, I wouldn’t be dying, and I wouldn’t need anyone else to take over. Don’t you know merpeople are immortal — the only death we are suseptable to is death of a broken heart.”

“Then I will help you find Father Merman,” Fuchsia offered, “you two can rule again, and I can continue my new life on land.”

“He’s dead!” Mother Mermaid bursted, “and very soon, I’ll be too! Time is precious!”

“Did you break his heart…?” Fuchsia couldn’t help wonder.

“Do you want to save your species? Do you want to unite with the captain? Or do you want to continue living selfishly?”

“Excuse me,” Fuchsia defended herself, “I’m working hard and I’m waiting for the captain. You’re the one being selfish, using me like a pawn,” as soon as the words escaped her mouth, she immediately backtracked, “with all due respect!”

“Fuchsia!” Amber desperately called out from behind bars, “just do what she says, so she sets us free!”

With sympathy for her sisters, Fuchsia accepted Mother Mermaid’s wishes. And so, Mother Mermaid set the sisters free and transported them back to their home, while Fuchsia remained standing there alone.

“Come closer,” Mother Mermaid demanded, and Fuchsia followed. “When I say time is running out for me… I mean now… I mean, I have no more than a few minutes left to live.”

“What?” Fuchsia panicked.

“I have been trying so hard to summon the captain but he is absolutely impossible. However I know that with your magic, I’ll be able to bring him here instantly. And I’ll honor you two as Mother and Father of the sea and pass on my power as I depart from my body. All I need is permission to use your magic.”

“I let you use my magic, and you bring him back to me?”

“Yes! Hurry, time is precious!”

“I can’t,” Fuchsia shook her head, “I can’t force him to be here. He has already told me before that he is not interested in this power, that he has been king before, that he knows it brings corruption. And I’m sorry to say Mother Mermaid, you have proved to me that you are also corrupted with power — bribing me, kidnapping me, locking up my sisters, using magic for evil.”

Mother Mermaid placed her hands on Fuchsia and explained, “in just a few seconds, I am going to perish. My power will be transferred to you. The next man you kiss on the lips will share this power. I highly suggest you share your power, because love grants immortality, otherwise you will be forced to find a new mermaid to take over before you perish. Now, in this final moment that I am still alive, are you sure you do not want to use our combined power to bring the captain back to you?”

“I’m sure!” Fuchsia nodded.

“Be the new Mother Mermaid — not for me, but for the survival of our entire species!” were Mother Mermaid’s final words, as her body disintegrated into dust and swirled around Fuchsia’s body a few times before absorbing into her skin.

Completely moved, tears were running down Fuchsia’s face. The next thing she knew, she was once again standing on top of a large boulder standing before her merpeople — the same location where Mother Mermaid had first asked to give a speech.

“The queen is back!” someone announced.

“My merpeople,” Fuchsia announced, “Mother Mermaid is no longer with us. She left me with her power.”

Gasps and shouts dispersed throughout the crowd.

“My first order as queen — I want you to be free! Continue living your lives with joy and pleasure! I will be returning to land, where I belong!”

“Who will we turn to for spiritual guidance?” someone asked.

“Just look within.”

Fuchsia transported back to her true home — beach town Oceana Paradise. It had only been less than a day she was gone, yet the heaviness of it made it seem like so much longer. As she tucked herself into bed, the stray cat returned, jumping into her arms and purring loudly.