Eva awoke to a loud bang. The total darkness around her only confused her sleep-muddled brain. Hands held her firmly, a gesture that would be terrifying if they were not so familiar.

 

“Light is gone again,” Viola said.

 

“Shit,”  Eva muttered, slipping her arms around Viola. The darkness was no less frightening the second time, they could only wait and hope light returned. Viola clicked and rolled, pulling Eva on top of her rather than half on the ground.

 

Something groaned in the dark, a creaking low sound. Eva’s grip on Viola tightened. That had not happened last time. It almost sounded like a creature. Like there was something large approaching in the darkness. She was only heightening her own fears by picturing the monsters that could look in the dark but she couldn't help herself. Her only blanket to hide beneath was Viola’s presence.

 

“We are ok,” Viola assured.

 

“H-how can you know?”

“I see with… sound. Do not need light.”

 

That was probably the most reassuring explanation Viola could have given. Eva normally didn't consider herself scared of the dark but there was certainly an eerie factor that made her hurry to bed after turning out the lights. However, she had no qualms about admitting she was scared of being swallowed up by the vast darkness of the ocean and she was far too close to that for comfort.

 

Still, Eva didn't relax her grip until something beeped and the low lights flicked back on. It was still the middle of the night but this artificial night had a few dim lights which made a world of difference.

“We’re going to die down here,” Eva breathed.

 

Viola took a powerful breath but said nothing. Instead rubbing slow circles in Eva’s back.

 

“Felisha is going to obsess over my disappearance for the rest of their life. I don’t even think my mom can survive without me… I don’t think my father would care,” Eva continued shakily.

 

“My sister is old, she wanted me to… lead but I refuse. Our pod will fall apart if I cannot return to take her place,” Viola added in solidarity.

 

“I’m scared.”

 

“Me too.”

 

Eva took a shaky breath, there was something cathartic about saying these things out loud. She was scared to close her eyes, that at any moment this place could collapse and she wouldn't get the chance to say goodbye. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to say goodbye, she doubted she ever could. Despite her worry, exhaustion quickly overtook her.

Eva stretched out the knot in her back. She didn’t feel particularly well rested. They had been here a few days now and it had quickly lost what little charm it had.

 

She had run through their options over and over and over. All she had come up with was to tell Talbot they would give him what he wanted if he brought them up. Except that required him to check in and he hadn’t. What was the point of offering her that deal if she had no way to fulfil it?

 

She downed the rest of her water and refilled it, she felt stuck and she hated it. She had just rolled over and let Talbot put Viola and her in this place. It was far too late to walk away, not only because she couldn't but because she wouldn’t. She cared too much, she couldn’t walk away without Viola even if given the chance.

 

She wouldn’t deny his offer had originally been tempting but that had been fantasy. She had a real connection with Viola, that was worth more than anything. If she could just get them out of here… then she had no idea.

 

She had a life she needed to go back to, she had some friends, a degree to get, and a mother to care for. But no matter how she twisted it she didn’t see how Viola could fit into that. 

 

As horrible as this was, it had brought her closer to Viola. There would be no falling asleep together in her landlocked house. No playing in the water together on the busy beaches. Orca were migratory, Viola was migratory, she had a pod. Eva couldn't expect her to stay. Their worlds were literally opposites. But after all this… she couldn’t go back to the old normal. Phillip was dead, her job presumably gone. Everything was so different.

 

Her original desire to just go home seemed… empty now. Going back to her old life seemed something to want out of duty rather than desire.

 

Getting out of here meant the end of her and Viola but she was better than Talbot. If you love something you let it go, isn't that the saying? Oh god, do I love Viola?

 

She brought the water bottle to her lips and immediately recoiled. The salty water made her gag as her body rejected it. A coughing fit overtook her as she tried to get every trace of salt off her tongue.

 

The tap had poured out salt water. I.e.. she had no fresh water to drink. This was really bad.

 

A whistle cut through the air from a distance. “Ay-Va!” Viola called for her. Still trying to clear her throat she went in the direction Viola had called from. It was strange for Viola to call for her, especially since she had gone out to find food. She rounded the corner and stepped into the shallow water of the ramp.

 

“Viola?” She called, her voice scratchy.

 

“Here!” Viola was in the corner against the dome itself. Her voice wavered and her eyes were wide as she traced a long crack in the glass with her hand.

 

Fear shot up Eva’s spine as she took the crack in. It was over a meter tall, spider-webbing out from the main break. It hadn’t broken yet, but she had no doubt it wouldn’t hold.

 

“Bad, fall apart,” Viola mumbled, swimming away and closer to Eva. “If breaks… water squish us.”

 

Eva nodded dumbly, numbness quickly sweeping through the rest of her body. This was even worse. The dome was in critical condition. The water being salty could have been a small break or malfunction but this… this entire place was going to collapse sooner or later. And they were trapped, forced to wait for that to happen.

 

“What can we even do?” She asked, desperation filling her voice.

 

Viola pulled herself up the ramp, her brow furrowed in thought. “I… I can choose you,” she finally said.

 

“What?”

 

Viola looked up at the dome and took a powerful breath. “I… was a little girl once. My… family took me to a… steamboat… that sunk. Mother saved me. Blackfish are not born, Eva. It is a gift.”

 

“W-what?” That was all Eva could repeat dumbly, trying to pay attention to Viola while her mind reeled at their impending doom.

 

“Mother warned of being lost, no air. She… did not warn of force maybe… I swim us to the surface.”

 

“W-were thousands of meters down, the air in our lungs would implode and kill us. If not y-you then certainly me,” Eva shook her head, her mind reeling and trying to keep up.

 

“I know,” Viola nodded. “I was weak, small child. You are strong as human… you would be strong blackfish. I may live, if you accept gift… maybe you live too.”

 

“B-become blackfish? Like… like grow a tail, become like you?”

 

“Yes,” Viola said simply.

 

Nothing was simple about this. Viola had been human? She could become a mermaid? What the fuck was going on?! 

 

Talbot wasn’t insane… Viola had even apologized because she wouldn’t give him what he wanted. This wasn’t fucking possible. Her heart urges her to say yes, who didn’t want to be a mermaid as a kid? 

 

But rationally… there would be no going back. She wouldn’t be able to go back to her old life. The price of survival was giving that up. No more Felisha, goodbye to three years of university… Goodbye Mom. Her heart ached at the notion, this was such an insane option she didn’t even know how to begin processing it.

 

But what other option did she have? And it was only her, Viola could survive these depths somehow. Yet she hadn’t bothered to try and escape, instead, she had ensured Eva survived and kept her company. She blinked back tears, grief and love and fear a tight ball inside her. Grieving a future she would never have.

 

The only future in front of her meant giving everything but Viola up. Worst of all, it didn’t seem so bad. As terrible as the cost was, living in the ocean sounded delightful. Able to live and swim with the orca. With Viola. 

 

Of course, things could fall apart, they always could. Eva and Viola had only known each other a few months, their entire relationship formed in captivity. It might not survive the wild.

 

Eva had been prepared to say goodbye to Viola if they ever got out of this place. Yet that had been flipped on its head out of nowhere. She wanted to accept, she wanted to live, but she was scared of the cost, scared of change, scared of what this new future she couldn’t predict held.

 

“Eva?” Viola asked.

 

“I don’t know,” she finally croaked.

 

“I should have said before,” Viola said, looking back at the breaking glass or maybe away from Eva. “It is… your choice, I hope you… agree.”

 

“I just… need a minute.” She needed to clear her head, for her thoughts to stop racing long enough to be coherent.

 

Viola nodded and pushed off of the ramp, sinking below the water and disappearing to give Eva some time. Time which they might not have, that was left unspoken. Eva certainly did not need the reminder.

 

Eva collapsed onto the group, letting her feet dangle from the platform in the water. Feet that she might not have for long. How was she supposed to prepare for this? How could anyone?

 

Viola had changed as a child, not having as much to give up on land. Eva was either going to die down here or possibly, maybe just be dead to the human world. Either way, she would never be going home. That she just had to accept.

 

She had little faith that Talbot would rescue them. This was the way out, the way forward but it also marked the end of something. A new beginning, a new life. One without almost everything that made her Eva. Not even her body.

 

A total rebirth into a creature of myth or death. In the end, it was strangely simple, curiosity and the desire for more won her over. Even if she ended up hating it, she couldn't just roll over and accept death. Not after everything, not after Viola. She had ensured that Viola had not given up so long ago, she could not allow herself to make the very same decision she had thwarted.

 

Whether she lived or died she would not return home, not gain the future she had planned, not be able to help her mother. Despite everything she put up with she still loved her mom, it was the kind of bond that could not be broken without great effort. And she had never been able to simply leave despite her mother’s faults. Either way, her mother would be on her own. 

 

This choice only affected how her story would continue or if it even continued. She didn't have the time to come to terms with everything. The minutes she had taken to consider everything already felt like an eternity in the face of imminent death.

 

“Viola!” she called. She couldn't refuse, so she had to accept. There was no place for hesitation. She could grieve later if they survived. She had followed the orca’s serenade, she was too far into the realm of fey to turn back. She could only go forward.

 

Viola surfaced only a few meters away, a smile crossing her face as she took Eva in, her decision unspoken in the air. Viola held out a hand beckoning her into the water, and like the call of a siren, she followed. Slipping into the water, pulling herself towards Viola. Out of her world and towards another. One of beauty, of freedom, of change and one without legs. Eva was still something uneasy about the last part specifically. Things were never going to be the same.