Chapter Text
There was something in amongst the rocks, curled up as if nesting within an oyster. It looked like a naked human woman, her arms loosely wrapped around herself. In her years as a lighthouse keeper on the Irish coast, Moira had never seen a corpse wash up on the shore, and frankly started to panic. She’d never been told what to do if a corpse washed up. Was she meant to call the police? Was she meant to move it inside? What if it’s diseased and she’s not meant to touch it? It was almost certainly not there yesterday. Moira knew first aid, however she was uncertain whether her skills would be sufficient in this situation.
The sound of the waves brought her back from her thoughts. Rationality was needed in this situation. It may be life or death for this woman.
So she took a deep breath before taking a deeper look. There was no visible signs of injury, and it wasn’t contorted in any odd, broken bones kind of way, that was a hopeful sign. Very slowly, she approached the woman and carefully held her fingers under her nostrils. She waited a second, then sighed in relief as she felt a soft breath leave the body and hit her hand. So she’s alive and breathing, that’s great. What next? If she did nothing, the tide would come in and carry the body away with it, and the mystery would be gone. Maybe that’s what should happen, let nature take its course and pretend nothing ever happened. But Moira knew she couldn’t just leave a nude woman in the rocks, even if barely anyone came around here. And she wanted to know why there was an unharmed naked woman hiding in the rocks. So she made her next, rational decision.
…
She descended the rocks in her boots and carefully slipped her arms under the woman to lift her up. Her arms were not bare, and Moira felt a light layer of golden body hair. The sudden change of weight distribution and the consequent attempt of her unconscious to right herself tipped Moira backwards and she landed leaning against a jagged boulder, holding the body close to her own and feeling grateful to the rock formations for preventing a fall. She cautiously stepped out of the rocks and carried the body into her cottage. Moira glanced around, realising she hadn’t thought far ahead enough to know where to keep the body. It would be pretty cool if she filled up the bathtub and let the body sit and wait till she became a mermaid, but she pushed the thought aside as childish. Her bed was unmade from the morning and she decided to lay the woman in the bed. Her arms were placed by her sides, and Moira pulled the blanket up to her chest before straightening her hair and moving to sit at the kitchen table.
Moira observed the body in her bed from her seat. She looked as if she was resting peacefully, long brown eyelashes and pink lips on a pale face. She had the breasts and hips Moira had heard acquaintances wish for as adolescents, as well as strong, shaped shoulders that she herself had been picked on for. Her hair was beginning to dry into soft blond waves that ended just past her shoulders and framed her round face. She was undeniably beautiful, almost like a goddess from the sea.
Unsure of what to do next, Moira decided to leave the woman tucked into bed. She pulled out her laptop and figured that the best thing to do to avoid freaking out over the situation further was to immediately plunge herself into her emails. So that’s exactly what she did with a cup of lukewarm coffee.
There’s only a limited amount of time Moira can make herself read through her emails before she feels like she’s melting. Saved by a short call from a wife asking about her husband’s whereabouts, Moira leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, retouching the idea of the body in her bed. She described herself as a realist, and although she told herself it couldn’t be a mystical being from the ocean, the stories told at family gatherings bounced around her head. Tales of fairies who can shapeshift into animals, seals who could shed their skin and reveal a human body underneath, old women who cried out when someone was going to die. This lady did not have black hair, nor did she look old or come with extra skin, and she’d been absolutely silent since Moira took her in.
That was until she heard a glass shatter, followed by a gargled scream come from her bedroom.