Page 15 of Halloween Haunting
She gestured over her shoulder. “The fountain, silly. Where else?”
Olivia was already running to the fountain, eagerly kicking off her pumps and raising the bottom of her dress. Anna looked to be the one to convince, but that was hardly the case. She swiftly followed at her heels, even though her face might’ve not shown it.
“Y-You’re insane!” Grace shook her head and stepped back, unable to stop her sharp laughter from following. They weren’t waiting as they dipped their toes into the quiet fountain with musical giggles. She inched toward them, her lips pressed together.
“Come on, Gracie.” Caroline teasingly curled her finger. “You know you want to!”
Grace wanted to look over her shoulder, to peer into the darkness and imagine that someone was watching, but it wouldall be a fake excuse for what she really wanted. Marrying Chuck was like stepping into a cage that had been made to look pretty. But as the masks deteriorated over the years, Grace realized that there were chains around her wrists, not bracelets. And the walls weren’t made of stone – they were of iron. In front of her were three women around her age who had found the meaning to their lives, and were living it to the fullest. They jumped into water fountains past midnight. They drank too much at dinner. They talked about things that didn’t make sense and trudged on afterward.
Grace kicked off her shoes and greedily picked up the ends of her purple dress.
That was all she ever wanted.
The next thing Grace knew, she was splashing water across the fountain, letting the sprays drench her nicest dress and drip down her long hair. All of their makeup was running, their clothes sticking unpleasantly, their hair stuck to the sides of their faces – but none of it mattered. There was only freedom, and they were grabbing it by the handful.
“This,” Grace breathed as she came up for air, the waves subsiding around her, “may be the greatest day of my life.”
Anna laughed a little too manically. “There’s the liquor!”
“Psst!” Caroline snapped her fingers above the water to get Anna’s attention. Her eyes darted toward Grace before landing on the other woman in the same breath, the corner of her lip twitching into a frown. But Anna wasn’t cooperating with her curt shakes and furrowed brow. Finally, with a bright red angry spot forming at the center of her forehead, Caroline stomped her foot beneath the water, splashing them all. “Show her, Anna.”
Anna’s shoulders fell as she shook her head for another time. “How can you think she’s ready, Care? It’s hardly been a day! I-I just don’t think she’s ready. And too much –”
“Too much is too plenty,” Caroline finished the rhyme with a dismissive wave. She waded through the water to put a reassuring hand over her friend’s shoulder. “You know me, Anna. I wouldn’t do this too soon. Sheisready.” Her attention turned to Olivia for a split second. “Right, Ollie?”
The red head twiddled her thumbs for a second as she eyed Grace. “Right,” she murmured. “I-I think.”
Grace held up her hands. “Alright now,” she snapped. “I think someone ought to just explain what’s going on.”
“Here goes nothing,” Anna whispered under her breath. “Tailornia!”
The word brought a rush of wind around them till Anna’s lower half was encircled by a harmless tunnel of air. Her hair whipped back and forth as she was lifted out the water, a shimmering of colors bouncing off her legs. The wind turbine gently brought her back down into the fountain, but she was no longer standing. As the wind drifted away and the color sank into the woman’s porcelain skin, Grace became aware of two very clear things at once.
First, Anna’s legs were, in fact, no longerlegs.Where slender and sleek limbs once extended out from her gentle curves, was suddenly something out of a children’s movie. Scales that caught the light and scattered it around in so many different colors made up Anna’s long tail. Fish tail.Fish tail.There was a short curve in it as it reached the end, probably to help her swim faster. Two smaller fins jutted out at the sharp end, in the same way that Grace remembered seeing mermaids in drawings or on film.Mermaids.
And the second thing was that Anna was currently swimming through the water fountain, just narrowly weaving around their legs. Grace felt the scaly texture of her tail brush up against her bare legs and jerked, her eyes wide. It reminded her of a time long ago, when her parents used to take her to the beach onspecial occasions and unpleasant fish rushed by her limbs as she swam deep into the ocean.
Grace’s chest heaved as she eyed Caroline and Olivia. She was doing a very good job at avoiding meeting Anna in the eye as she poked her head out from beneath the water. “H-How did you do it then?” she whispered.
Caroline squinted. “Do what?”
“The trick.” Grace motioned to the tail. “She looks like a mermaid. Y-You got me! How’d you do it?”
“It’s not a trick, Grace.”
Anna drew closer to her, till the tail was facing her. Grace leaned forward, her heart racing. She knew it wasn’t real. She knew it was fake, that it was mechanical, that it came from some shop. Grace knew with all her heart that they were playing a fun prank on her, one that would stay with her till she was on her deathbed. She knew that it was a prank – right up until she realized that it wasn’t.
Beneath her palm, the tail fidgeted and settled like a fully functioning muscle. Grace pressed down and the response was more natural than she expected. The tail swished and almost pushed back at her. A slimy residue was left behind on Grace’s skin as she pulled away, but there was something much more that Anna’s tail had given her.
This can’t be.
But…
“I don’t…” Grace slowly straightened back up, her legs trembling. “This can’t…this can’t be happening.”
Caroline extended her arms towards her, using a gentle voice. “Before you freak out, just look at me, okay? Look at me. There isn’t anything unusual about me, is there?”
Grace shook her head.
