Alex Jones's Story

Reyton was sitting on a rock near the water, sipping her coffee. No one else was awake yet, and she was alone to sit on the beach and watch the sun rise. Reyton always loved watching the sun rise, and she usually tried to do it alone. Not that the island was hectic or over run with people, but it was small. Reyton didn’t usually mind that, but usually it had been bugging her. She wanted her personal space, and that wasn’t really an option.

Reyton looked back at the house, a large structure that both families lived in. It was large enough for them all, and she liked that they were all in the same structure, but it was the laboratory that really interested her. She had patented an underwater breather that her parents had invented that they usually used for swimming, but Reyton had recently almost drowned and they weren’t allowed to use it anymore.

As Reyton looked back toward the sun, she looked down at the water. A pod of dolphins were swimming around in the shallows, and she tossed them a few pieces of fish that she had brought for them this morning. Reyton looked down, and thought she saw something that…wasn’t a dolphin. She thought she was the only one up, but it definitely had hair…
Reyton shook her head, laughing at herself. She had merely stayed up to late and gotten up to early. Once she got into the water and swam and surfed and ate, she’d be back to normal. She stood, turning back to the house, and went inside.

“Hey!” She called, looking for her brother. “Alex! You little snot! Why don’t you tell me when you wake up instead of swimming with the dolphins without me?” She yelled, going into the kitchen to find something for breakfast. As she was fixing her breakfast, she called again. “Alex, come on, why do you have to mess with me this early in the morning?” She asked, buttering her toast. Oddly enough, Alex wasn’t admitting to messing with her, and as a little brother, he usually did.

Reyton sighed, taking her toast outside, and sitting on the porch. As she munched on the toast, she waited for the other teens to wake up and then she could go swim, because they had a buddy rule. Of course, Reyton didn’t usually obey this rule, but if Alex was up, she had to, or he’d rat her out to their parents. As a little brother, Rey assumed that was his job, but it still bugged the living hell out of her. Alex did it for her own good, but Rey thought she was old enough to make her own decisions and do her own thing...obviously other people didn't quite agree with her, but she never let that stop her from doing anything. She was considering just going swimming...but she'd be in major trouble if she did that.

Rey looked around, and after not seeing Alex, took off her long t-shirt revealing her blue bikini, and grabbed the breather she stole from her parents and dove into the water. As she swam over to the pod of dolphins, she saw a shark off the reef, but it didn't worry her. She was used to sharks, as was everyone else on the island.

(Just an FYI, the breather is a small piece of metal that goes into their mouths and changes H2O to just O2, and that way they can breathe under water. Just thought that was important for you all to know! :D also, sorry it's so long, but I had to get in some stuff!)

Alex woke up, bleary-eyed, at the sound of his sister. "...you little snot!" he heard, "Why don't you tell me when you wake up instead of swimming with the dolphins without me?"

Groggily he reached for his alarm clock. It didn't even read 7:00! What was her problem?? He pulled the covers back over his head.

After about 30 minutes of staring at the dark space in front of him, Alex grumbled and threw the blanket off, too awake to sleep. With a sigh, he pulled on his clothes and stumbled out of his room. It was a wonder she hadn't woken anyone up with her screaming. He thumped down the stairs barefooted, the smell of breakfast growing stronger as he neared the kitchen. "FYI, I wasn't swimming," he called out as he poured his cereal, "Maybe instead of waking the whole house up, you should check my room beforehand." He munched on the Cheerios, staring at the fridge. Baby pictures of him and his sister were held up by magnets, surrounded by a few more family photos of their years on the beach, along with a few of Nora's family. He studied the face of his long-time crush. Ever since he was a kid, he had liked her, but as they grew up his affections had fluctuated. They were still friends, but Alex had a suspicion that she just saw him as Reyton's nerdy little brother. As if 16 was little...

He was almost done with his breakfast, and he still hadn't heard Reyton's response. Usually she was quick with those. "Reyton?" he called out again, finishing the bowl. He placed it in the sink and walked towards the door, calling again: "Rey?"

He pushed the door open and looked out at the beach. Where was she? Walking out onto the sand, still barefoot, he called her name. Still no response.

A flash of blond stood out in the water, and he neared it, his back to a pod of dolphins frolicking with a new friend.

That must be her, he thought, Swimming alone, as usual. He called out: "Hey, Manta Ray! Why'd you wake me up for?"

At the sound of his words, the blond suddenly disappeared, off into the deep blue. Perplexed at her actions--he had expected her to splash him or something--he contemplated going after her. Normally, you needed another person with you to go swimming, just in case something happened. But, Rey was already in the water, so it would be the two of them anyways. He made up his mind and tentatively waded in after her.

Soon he was waist deep, his cargo shorts drenched, and Rey nowhere to be seen. He began to panic a little. Where had she gone? Had a shark gotten her? He couldn't help noting the irony. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called out loudly: "REYYYYTOOON!"

"REYYYYTOOON!"

Gil paused in his tracks at the loud yelling of a strange name he hadn't heard before. Reeeyyyytooon? That's a long name... Gilidian looked around curiously at the source of the noise, before seeing the dolphins seeming to retreat from the surface at the loudness of it. To him it wasn't exactly that loud, but he himself was far away from the source. Gil waited. And waited. And waited...

He began to twitch, twiddling his thumbs together to try and distract himself before he let out a distressed sigh. Oh Screw it! Gil cautiously lifted up higher and higher to the roof of the ocean, swallowing a gulp in slight fear before his eyes peered up out of the water, looking in the distance to see closer to the shore, there seemed to be a boy... with odd materials on his body. Does he realize how dangerous it is to be that close to the shore? Even I know that's pushing it... Gil lowered slightly, heading towards him, but then instead of seeing a tail below him, he saw... Gil's eyes widened and he fell back holding a hand to his mouth. "No... surely not... I must just be half-asleep still... that's all it is..." All the same, Gilidian hovered there, tail swaying side to side gently as he stared wide eyed at the boys two fleshy and rock hard tentacles. It was bizarre. Something he had never seen before. His stomach was twisting and turning. What if the stories about them are true? The thought merely made his interests grow.

Rey swam around, and at hearing her brother, dove deeper into the water. She swam up next to the dolphins, swimming around them, eyes wide open. She saw a flash of blonde, hiding behind some coral, and swam toward it. Then, she heard her name being screamed. She broke the surface, pulling herself up on one of the rocks out a bit further.

"There you are you little snot! Why did you swim past me this morning? I didn't even think you knew what 'before 9 am' was, Aly boy!" She joked, flipping her long, soaking wet hair over her shoulder. "Hey, do I look like Ariel from the little mermaid?" She asked at a seemingly perfect time as a wave crashed behind her.

"We should wake up Liam and Nora, there's something weird down here. The dolphins are being funny again. Like, staying in as shallow water as possible," Rey said, reaching back and fish tail braiding her hair quickly.

Alex narrowed his eyes at his sister. "Obviously I know what's before 9 am," he retorted it, "I just prefer not to experience it."

He crossed his arms, "And for your previous statement, I could ask the same to you as well!"

He rolled his eyes at her mermaid comment, though he had to admit the timing was perfect. If he had his camera, he would have taken the picture. "Why did you wake me up anyways? If you wanted to know where I was, you could have just gone up to my room instead of waking the whole crew up. Or you could just think about the situation. Honestly, when was the last time I went swimming early in the morning? Also," he gestured to his upper body, "This isn't wet."

And I thought I was the one without common sense...

He took her word for it that something was up. He didn't feel like arguing otherwise, not to mention he had no reason too. He didn't particularly care for dolphins or their habits, but if she said they were acting funny, then who was he to say they weren't? "Fine," he agreed, and started for the beach, "Oh, and don't think I won't tell mom and dad about you swimming out here alone," he called over his shoulder.

Tattling on his sister was kind of childish, but it was one of the only blackmails he had on her.

lThere's two?! Oh holy cod... he spotted the two legs that were facing the legs distantly and bit his lip. Were they... Were they actuall humans? It was simply a myth, wasn't it? Like everyone else believed, humans don't exist, just appear in fairytales. But this is no fairytale... They don't even have tails!

Gilidian turned and realised that the dolphins were staying quite close to him in a more shallower area of the water. The one human didn't seem to be harming them, so they must've met them before. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" Gil asked a dolphin that pressed its nose against his hand. It started making loud squeaking noises in response and Gil quickly held its mouth together, looking up to the humans but not wanting to take any chances. He began to swim further from the shore, a little bit, the dolphin's following quite close behind, but then Gil stopped and took another look at the human legs. "I must be dreaming..." some of the dolphins stayed next to him, but Gil's attention was stuck on the two legs in the water.

Liam was awoken by the sounds of people shouting and moving about the house. He made a soft groaning noise as he rolled over, it seemed as though the people in this house had no idea what sleeping in was. He wasn't one of those people who were overly grumpy in the mornings, but he much preferred to sleep in a bit. He was used to it by now, so being woken up in the mornings didn't exactly surprise him any more. He dragged himself out of bed and pulled some clothes from his dresser. He put on a simple t-shirt and a pair of dark coloured swimming trunks.

He then walked downstairs, hearing his sister in the kitchen. He followed the sounds, taking a bowl and spoon to the island. He pulled out the milk, placing it on the counter top. He slid the box of cereal across the counter and poured some into his own bowl. After the milk was added he dug the spoon in and took a bite of the chocolatey goodness. Of course they could have chosen to eat healthier cereals, but the chocolate kind and the ones with the little marshmallows had always been his favourite.

Once he was done, he left his bowl in the sink after rinsing it out quickly. "Come on, lets go see what the commotion out there is." He figured that the other two had probably just gotten into one of there usual spats about something silly again. He headed out the door of their home and crossed the sand. "Must you two shout at each other every morning? Couldn't you at least try to play nicely for once?" He called out smirking a bit. He wasn't entirely serious about it, and was saying it more to bug them than anything else. He knew that the pair had always had some difficulty getting along together and were always getting on each others nerves. He could tell, as he approached that they were having some kind of discussion, and that Rey seemed to think it was far more serious than Alex did. He brushed it off, assuming that she was probably just making a big deal about fish swimming away from her or something like that. She was always getting worked up over the behaviour of fish, sharks, dolphins, sea urchins and basically anything that she thought was behaving oddly.

Rey swam to shore, running up to each of them. "Either Alex can be in two places at once or our government supply ship decided to send someone to play a little trick on us. I saw something in the water, I swear!" She said, looking at all three of them in turn. "Something....I don't know how to even say this without sounding completely crazy....something with a human torso and a tail," She looked at her friends, the people she had grown up with, and waited for them to mock her.

"Before you mock me, the dolphins were acting funny, again. They were following something, and I'm prepared to find out what. Join me if you want to," She lowered her voice in case on of the parents were awake. "I stole 4 of the breathing devices. They're inside my pillow. You guys really have to see this. I mean, I saw a ship on the horizon yesterday morning, but it was still way to far off to have gotten here today," She looked at them again.

"I'm not crazy," Rey said, looking back to the water. "Something is out there,"

Alex stopped when he heard what Rey said. What she was describing....the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them: "You...you saw a mermaid??"

Could it be true? Alex knew it wasn't impossible. They were still lots of mysteries about the ocean and exactly what lived in it. But still, a possibility wasn't affirmative, and it was very improbable.

Rey suggested that they look for it. For once, he agreed with her. There were four people out here, enough to count as swimming buddies. He wasn't sure about the breathing devices--they weren't completely fool-proof, as Rey herself knew--but, he supposed they were better than nothing.

He grew excited. Supposing they did find a mermaid? Imagine the breakthroughs in science! Biology would take a turn, humanity would be reconsidered, mysteries solved. And he, of course, would snap the first picture verifying it.

He wondered about telling his parents about this, but pushed it aside. If he did, they'd just assume all responsibility, probably thanking him, but no doubt taking all the credit for themselves. Adults were frustrating like that. No, he'd wait till after he got a picture, and then share the good news.

"I'll come," Alex said, "But first I need to get my camera."

He ran to the house, opening the door quietly and tiptoeing to his room. Changing out of his wet shorts, he changed into his swim trunks and grabbed his underwater camera. After checking to make sure the film was set, he returned back to the beach. "I'm not saying we'll see anything," he said. Despite his hopefulness, he didn't want to give Rey too much credit to what she said. He had been disappointed several times, and it wasn't exactly the first time his sister had set him on a wild goose chase. "But it wouldn't hurt to take some pictures." He snapped a shot of Rey unexpectedly to prove his point. Looking at the photo, he snickered. "Nice face," he said, referring to the Derpy look he had captured.

Nora~

Nora smirked as she watched her brother eat the chocolate cereal. Sure, no one in the house was as obsessed with sugar like herself, but it was still nice to know she and her brother had something in common.

As she followed Liam out there, she noticed Rey and Alex in the water, their words silented by the waves around them. As they both came up to the shore, Nora ran to catch up to Liam. When Rey began to speak of her sighting, then thought of a mermaid popped into her mind. She had always believed they existed, but never really expected to find one..

Before she could say anything, Alex, of all people spoke up. She was surprised and gave him a slight smile, then turned to Rey, her friend, more like sister, since childhood. "Hey, it's worth a shot." She snickered. "And even if we don't see anything, atleast it's something interesting to do instead of sitting around here doing the same damn thing, as usual. But I agree, we can't let our parents find out, just if say, by chance, there is something..or someone, out there."

Liam groaned. "Seriously Rey, this is just your body's way of punishing you for being up until one and being up again at six. There is nothing out there, no mermaids, no Atlantis, none of the sea creatures the movies claim are in oceans." He told her shaking his head. He knew that there was no possible way that there could be anything but fish living down there. Their parents had studied every inch of this island for their research and there was no way that there could be any kind of mermaid or anything remotely like that down there.

When she told them about the breathing devices he grinned slightly. "You stole them? And they say I'm the bad one." He said. To be entirely honest, he was actually somewhat proud of her for it. He was surprised when Alex, of all people, was the first to agree to the explorational dive. When his sister soon agreed as well he made another groaning noise. Now he had to go, his parents would have killed him if they knew he let them go off alone. "Fine, we can go. But just to be clear, I think you have all drunken far too much of this water recently and are officially going insane. "

"There is not something, let alone someone out there!" He told them again. He thought they were being silly and childish and it was going to get them all in trouble.

Rey looked at Liam, and shrugged. "Believe whatever you want, but you are coming with," She winked. "Weather it be to find something, or just see my ass in a bikini, I'm not sure. But you're coming," She punched his arm playfully, smiling.

"Okay, you three wait here. I'm going to get the breathers. And if anyone catches me...well we all know I'll be grounded from swimming for a month for stealing these, so just come back up," She ran up the sand toward the house, sneaking up to her room, and grabbing a hooded jacket, shoved the other three breathers into the front pocket. As she ran back down the stairs, she ran into her mother.

"Oh...Hi mom. Um...we're going swimming, so don't worry about breakfast, we've already eaten," She hugged her mom, kissing her cheek. "Love you, have fun in the lab today!" As she attempted to walk away as cool and nonchalantly as possible, she knew her mom thought something was up.

As she reached her friends again, she handed out the breathers. She took off the jacket, putting her breather into her mouth, and jumping off a cliff like structure and diving down, deep into the reef, breathing through her invention (which her parents had taken credit for) and swimming with her eyes open. She looked up, waiting for the others to follow her into the water.

Nora~

Nora could feel the water push against her. She closed her eyed for a long while, then slowly but surely removed the breather from her mouth. It felt uncomfortable. She had never liked the things, but had worn them only to satisfy her parents, and now Rey. But seeing that no one could see her under, she removed it, then contined to swim around a moment more, before rising to the top for air.

She always had a sad feeling when leaving the underwater world. It just felt so nice, so perfect. If mermaids did exist, she had decided long ago, that they were extremely lucky. Her eyes lay on the group now, looking for any sort of clue as to what to do next.

Alex reluctantly took one of the breathing devices, too excited to argue otherwise, and he followed after his sister. Unlike her, he went underwater unaided, camera in hand. He shot a couple pictures of the marine life, just to make sure the camera was still functioning well.

He noticed that Rey had ventured further than they were supposed to, and he held back. He began to wonder if she was just trying to get him into trouble. Dragging him into the deep end, then promptly abandoning him to go tell their mom seemed viable. Curiosity tugged at him, though, and he tread his feet underwater, unsure what decision to make in this dilemma.

Finally, he came upon a solution. Holding the camera up to his face, he zoomed in to where Rey was. It was a good thing he still had his telephoto lens in. Even though he was several yards away, the view on the camera matched what it would have been if he was right next to his sister. Grinning behind the breathing apparatus, he ventured just a little closer, floating in between what was permissible and what wasn't. He snapped a couple embarrassing pictures of his sister before moving the camera around, trying to get a better look of what he was seeing. Suddenly, he saw a flash of bright color. He snapped a picture and drew back. It was a tail...an unusual tail. Biggest fish tail he had ever seen. Hey, maybe if it wasn't mermaids, perhaps they'd discover a new fish! That was rewarding enough, and he returned his eye to the lens, keeping his camera locked on the tail as he went trigger happy with the capture button.

Damn. The tail moved away.

He pulled the camera down and glared at his sister. No doubt they were scaring the fish away. Stealth wasn't exactly their forte.

He wanted to yell at her to back up, but at the this distance she wouldn't have even noticed a wave. They need to invent breathers that allow you to talk... he thought sorely.

A bit bummed at the setback, he decided to browse through the pictures he had already taken. Those tails were really odd...was it really a fish? They way the fins were positioned led him to believe that the fish--if it really was one--actually swam like a dolphin, with up-and-down motions, versus side-to-side. Then again, perhaps it was the distortion of the water, or just the way he took the picture.

As he switched to the next picture, something caught his eye and he squinted, his nose almost touching the screen. His eyes widened and he zoomed in further, perplexed.

Were those fingers??

But...whose? It couldn't be Rey...he zoomed out of the picture just to verify. Rey was too far away, as was Nora. Was there another human there? No...they'd probably approach them. Maybe a pair of dismembered fingers? That was just creepy...

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed the scenery underneath his feet had changed. Looking up, he realized he had unknowingly drifted sideways and farther out, floating above a sand bank rather than the reef from before. A slight inconvenience, he was about to swim back when he noticed an ominous shape in the water. When he realized what it was, he froze, eyes wide, almost dropping his camera.

There was a large tiger shark coming straight for him!

Gil looked down to her tail when she sucked it closer to her body and then looked up, seeing a couple of extremely bright flashes coming from behind the bolder. He flinched back and then cringed, face crinkling up in pain as he began rubbing at his eyes and his vision got very blurry. He'd seen a lot of bright things in his life under the water, but nothing as bright as that. He opened his eyes as another bright light flashed and involuntarily let out a grunt, his eyes seriously straining and hurting now. However, he started to hear Marina's worried words and felt her move shakily. "That's it. We are going to die." Gilidian's eyes widened at once at this and he squeezed her hand, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes quickly. Although things were still a little blurry, he saw the dolphins swimming above them and clung onto Rina's small delicate hand. He was determined that Rina wouldn't get harmed. She was only here because of him anyway. If she got hurt, it was his fault. Oh why did he have to be so needy about seeing these god damned humans? "We're not gonna die." Gil replied to her, pulling back a little, pressing himself against the bolder before swimming up towards the dolphins, clinging onto Rina's hand and bringing her among them so that they were surrounded by grey blubber. He looked back to the humans and then looked to Rina. "I'd like to see it flash that thingamabob at us while we're in here..." He murmured, before pulling her along, glancing back to the humans.

He paused as he noticed the one with the flashing object seeming to go tense and then noticed the shape approaching him. He for some reason became frozen in his tracks and bit down on his lip. "Rina." He said, still looking down at the human and going tense. Sure, the thing probably wanted to eat him, but... well, did he really want it to get eaten by a giant tiger fish? Of course not. "Rina, he's gonna get himself hurt..." He glanced over to her, a sign of asking for help and a word of advice crossing his face. Advice on what however? Whether or not he should try and help the strange creature which was about to get struck by a fish which, even he, wouldn't be able to stop, but maybe distract...

Alex was hyperventilating.

He didn't know if the shark was planning one eating him, or if it was just swimming around, but it didn't matter either way.

There was a shark.

That was all that mattered.

He started to panic. He didn't know whether to stay still or move around. Out of the corner of his eye he searched frantically for his sister. Where was she when he needed her most??

The shark came too close for comfort, and Alex lost it. Kicking upwards, he breached the surface of the water, gasping for unfiltered air as he searched around him. What seemed like a good idea quickly faded. Now he had no idea where the shark was. Was it under him? Had it swum away? Did he attract its attention, and it was zooming up to the surface, mouth wide, like the movie poster???

He was shaking, and when he tried to rinse the breathing apparatus, it slipped from his fingers. Crap. Fear of punishment temporarily trumped fear of sharks, and he dove back in, holding his breath.

The shark had passed him, and he blew out a stream of bubbles in relief. Reaching the sand bar, he searched with his fingers, eyes squinted against the salty water. Where did it fall??

His relief was not long-lived. The shark had turned, quickening its pace, and Alex noticed it.

This time he was literally frozen in fear. His muscles seized up, and his mind went blank as the shark drew nearer and nearer.

Rey swam toward Alex, kicking as hard as she could, and pushing Alex toward the surface of the water. She looked the shark in the face, swimming toward it and punching it in the nose as she had been taught it do if one ever came after her.

Unfortunately for her, it didn't work. The shark swam around her, circling her and eyeing her. Yet another thing dad was wrong about, she thought to herself, sighing. Alex was already swimming toward the beech, and she hoped he was okay. Right now, though, she had to worry about this shark. She held her ground, as much as she could under water, watching the shark.

As it came toward her, she closed her eyes, and waited for the bite to come. She was ready to protect her brother, and if that meant getting attacked by a shark, so be it. He best know how much I care about him, she thought to herself, still anticipating her attack from the shark.

Gilidian panicked, eyes going wide as he shook violently. How to distract a shark, or any sea creature in fact. Tug hard on its tail. Without really thinking about it, Gil dived down, tail flapping violently as he went straight to the tail and as hard as he could, tugged at the sharks tail. "Come on you big lug, leave them alone." He said to the overgrown fish, tugging at its tail and then swimming forwards and flicking the sharks fin. The shark spun around quickly, looking to Gil and showing off its sharp white teeth. Gil's face dropped and he simply clung onto its tail. He laughed a little nervously, before being spun around by the shark chasing its own tail, trying to shake him off. Gil sucked in a breath, hands slipping from the tail and he closed his eyes, thinking a moment before his eyes opened and he jumped forwards and held his hand over the sharks sides, just where his gills were. He gathered that cutting off his breathing point slightly would calm the shark down, and it did exactly that.

Eventually, Gilidian was holding onto a calmly breathing shark and he pulled his hands away, gently rubbing the top of his head. "Sorry..." He mumbled to the creature quietly, his tail swaying side to side slightly as he tried to apologize to the sleepy shark. Gil slowly lowered from the sharks back to it's eyes. It was such a beautiful creature. He sincerely wished that he didn't have to be so brutal to it. "I-I really am sorry... I guess it's just defenses." He told the creature, before glancing up to where Rina was, hoping she was okay among the dolphins. He was a little shaky and tired after that, and he had gone significantly paler from the fright of it all. He rubbed at his eyes and then rubbed at the sharks skin again.