Deep Blue (The Mermaid Chronicles Book 1) (12 page)

             
"That's enough primping, mom! Jeez, you'd think I was on my way to my first homecoming or something!"

             
"Don't they usually have up-dos at prom?" Ron commented from his position on the couch.

             
"Show them!" her mom said excitedly. Alice awkwardly tugged at the hem of her dress, the impulsive purchase from a few days before. She had argued with her mom about which one to wear, and her mother thought the midnight blue one looked better for a fancy party than the halter dress. It was gorgeous on her. It was the shortest thing Alice had worn in many years. The spaghetti strap dress was knee-length, low in front and lower in back, with a slit up one side. It made Alice uncomfortable, especially with her cleavage being so very exposed. Tastefully pinned to one side was a tiny little snowflake pin.

             
"Well at least it's snowing somewhere, huh?" David said bitterly from the couch. He hadn’t forgiven her. The look he gave her frightened her. If he said something about the knife, she didn’t know what she’d do.

             
"You look gorgeous, honey," her dad said, rising to plant a soft kiss on her cheek. There were some flowers in her hair, but it was down, not an up-do.

             
"Fit for a millionaire's party, I think," her mother said. Her mom looked so very proud of herself. She had applied the make-up, she had done her daughter's hair. Alice had grudgingly let her do everything, even though it made her feel more and more exposed every second. There was, thankfully, a knock on the door before her mother could fawn over her anymore.

             
Her dad opened the door and greeted Adam while her mother touched up an out-of-place hair. Her smile was enough to make Alice want to disappear. It was the first time Alice had even had the mild courage to wear make-up, and the red in her cheeks said everything as Adam looked her up and down. He smiled approvingly. He hadn't seen this dress.

             
"I'm sorry we don't have time to chat. We're running a little late." Adam said guardedly.

             
"Oh well, then, hurry out, honey." Her mother handed her the little handbag Alice was borrowing and threw a black wrap over her bare shoulders. Little did her mother know that inside the purse was a knife as well as her I.D. and invitation. Not that she even needed that. Everyone in town knew who she was by now, especially since her impromptu make-over.  It was still strange to her that she needed a knife to go to a fancy millionaire’s party. She got into the car with Adam as quickly as she could on heels.

             
"We're not late," she said as he started the car. It would be a three-minute drive.

             
"No, it's a trick. Parents never pay attention to time when their child is dressed to the nines. I just didn't want to stand there feeling like a high-schooler while your mother fawned over you." Alice laughed, then suddenly got serious again.

             
"I have to talk to Brassila." The car screeched to a halt.

             
"What?" he asked, trying to recover from the shock.

             
"You know, a week ago when I met you on the boat asking about my family...well, David found the knife. He wants to know what's going on. I told him that I’d tell him on his birthday, which is only a week away. I had to say something." For a moment, Adam looked like he was really fond of the idea of beating his head against the steering wheel.

             
"You couldn't have told me about this when I took you shopping? In fact, I want to know how you can stay away from people as much as you do and still cause as many problems as you do."

             
"I'm gifted at attracting trouble," she said, that dead sound creeping back into her voice. Adam didn't answer; he wasn't about to touch that one, he still didn't know exactly what had happened to her. He knew she had to have been raped; the way she reacted to certain things was typical of rape victims. Then there were other things, like the knife, and her grandmother. She always tried to keep the knife as far from her as possible. He wasn’t stupid; he could put a few things together without her telling him the details.

             
“David…”

             
“Didn’t tell our parents, but he’s not stupid either. He knows there’s something weird about the knife, that it’s not normal.”

             
Adam sighed, pulling his car slowly onto the beach. He was tense. He watched shadows crawling from the surf like monsters in a cheesy creature feature. The guests were arriving. He was attending a
fish party
and he was likely the only human; this couldn’t possibly go wrong. He turned off the ignition and put earplugs in his ears.

             
"What are those for?" Alice asked.

             
"Remember the whole thing about singing I told you?"

             
"Yeah?"

             
"This deadens the sound enough so that it won't affect me and I can still keep some semblance of a rational mind. Noise-cancelling. It works, I swear."

             
She looked up at him terrified, "There's going to be singing?"

             
"
Everyone sings at a fish
party—except, of course, me,” he smiled. Alice didn’t return his smile. She knew it was coming before the words came out of his mouth: she would have to sing. He ignored her fear as he stepped out and walked around the car to open Alice's door. For a second, Alice didn’t move, she just stared ahead at the ghostly figures. She took a deep breath, then took his proffered hand.

Adam led her into the party, where they were properly announced as they came in from the beach entrance. "Local Doctor, Adam Carson, and the transform, Alice Bailey." Every head within hearing distance turned to stare directly at her. There was the “transform” word again. She hardly recognized a single face. Plus, bringing a human to the party certainly wasn’t common. No one hid their stares, nor did they hide their guarded whispers. Alice felt like running for the beach screaming at the top of her lungs.

             
"Don't worry, it's going to get worse," Adam said, applying pressure to her hand. She stared at him angrily as he escorted her to the floor where people were dancing. It was a wide open, classic ballroom, with one wall lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrors that looked out over the ocean. It was beautiful.

             
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Alice whispered fiercely, ignoring the splendor that embraced her. She felt claustrophobic in the mass of people that surrounded her, stared at her as she danced with the doctor. There was a live band on stage and someone was singing with them, "Black Magic Woman." There was a karaoke-style setup, but apparently no one was bad. Some were better than others, but everyone could sing.

             
"It's a folk thing. Singing is always important, and, on land, dancing is equally important." He said, sending her into a twirl, admiring the way the dress fell around her. The song was changing and someone else was moving up to the stage. Alice saw a flash of blond hair.

             
"Finn?"

             
"Everyone sings. You'll be expected to sing, too." Alice looked up, cursing him in her mind. That was not something she really wanted to be reminded of. The footwork wasn't bad for Alice but Adam was having trouble as Finn broke into song. Alice looked up.

             
“Imagine me and you, I do, / I think about you day and night, it's only right.” So
many people were smiling at Finn. His voice filled the room with a charm that made the temperature rise. It was so unlike his personality. Behind the charm, Alice recognized an air of distaste in his voice. It was a romantic song, but he was putting no feeling into it whatsoever; to him, it was just a chore, though he made it sound convincing enough. As Adam spun her again, Alice found herself following Finn. He wasn’t looking at her; he wasn’t looking at anyone. That hidden sadness, Alice knew, was the emotion of losing yourself, put straight into song. It put her off guard to understand him so well. She knew that was how the language of the folk worked, but no one expressed that emotion but her. She looked around and could tell no one else heard it. They were just enjoying the song. Alice caught a flash of blond highlights in the crowd and noticed Ashley was near the stage, her eyes glowing, like she was certain he was singing just for her. There were glassy eyes everywhere, enjoying the song, not noticing the mournful undercurrents beneath.

             
"Finn's expected to dance with everyone tonight, including visitors. My guess is, he probably won't be easy to find after his song." As Adam spoke Alice almost jumped, then turned back to her date. "Alice, you should probably sing next."

             
"Um, Adam? I only sing in the shower. I would rather go dead last, after most everyone has left."

             
"Are you bad?"

             
"Well, I don't know, I guess. I've never sung in front of anyone! David always complained, but he's my little brother; he's required to."

             
"Come on, you'll go next." Alice bristled as he moved her into position.
             

             
"What do I sing?" she whispered fiercely. It was too late. Finn was turning to leave, going down the stairs on the opposite side of the stage. Others were ushering her up, and the band looked at her expectantly. They must know thousands of songs to have been able to do this with karaoke. She looked out at the audience; they was expecting her to open her mouth any moment. Ashley was suppressing giggles. She had found her friends among the crowd and they were, of course, laughing with her. It seemed like there were more of them than usual, one of them sporting a fresh scar across one of her eyes.

This was not what Alice had been expecting. As if the dress wasn’t bad enough, now she had to perform, too. The look that Ashley gave her made Alice’s blood run cold and wiped every song she possibly could have thought of from her mind, so Alice turned to the band and said the first song that came to her mind. The song that had introduced her to this extremely messed up town. “Mr. Sandman.”

A couple of people walked up to other mikes as her back-up singers. She caught sight of white-blond hair and suddenly Tommy was up on the stage between two women. This was not, this was not,
oh fuck.

             
“Mr. Sandman, b
ring me a dream,
/ M
ake him the cutest that I've ever seen.
”
Ashley's
face fell immediately. Several of the older people in the room were smiling at her. It was a pleasant change from the looks she had been getting after walking in with a human. She looked over at Tommy and saw his familiar smirk. He was dancing with the bassist, until he put in
that
“
Yes?
”
She
cringed but didn’t stop, she just looked away from Tommy’s piercing gaze. It seemed like he knew more than anyone else in the room.

She caught a glimpse of Finn trying to escape as carefully as he could. He didn't want people to notice that he was slipping away, and she was helping him. No one was looking at him. Everyone was transfixed on the transform, the newest transform that any of them had heard. It wasn't going badly; she could see Adam smiling up at her. So she began to get into it a little. It was almost fun.

“
And lots of wavy hair like Liberace!
”
She threw her head to the side, her hair bobbing along. It was adorable, endearing even. She was singing herself into the hearts of these people she didn’t want any part of. A chill ran up Adam’s spine as he watched her finish the song. Though she sang with all her heart, there was something he didn’t like in it, something that that made his skin crawl.

As the band segued into a filler song, Alice stared out over the smiling crowd. She awkwardly gave up the mic and got off the stage as quick as she could, managing to avoid the people trying to praise her as she stepped down. She slipped through the audience and disappeared as fast as she could. It wasn't just the embarrassment of having sung in front of an audience: she had to catch Finn. He had very adeptly used the distraction she had created, and she had to catch up with him. He was the only one who could take her to Brassila. He was outside already, peeling off his tux jacket, unbuttoning his pants, heading for the ocean.

             
"Finn! Wait."

He spun, furious. "What do you want?"

She almost turned away. He was so angry, so desperate to escape.

             
"How's your grandmother?" she asked sheepishly. He looked at her suspiciously, looking for some hint of sarcasm.

             
"She's alive still, hanging on."

             
"That makes her the clan leader right? I need to talk to her,” she paused as his eyes narrowed. “David, my little brother, found my knife. He wants to know what's going on." Finn's eyes flared. To most people, he would have said they were stupidly careless and deserved anything that they got for making such a big mistake. But he knew, like no one else, how Alice felt about knives.