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Seashells & Withcraft’s down by the Seashore.
A Life is Strange Witch X Mermaid AU by TheFatDrunkDragon
Inspired by a Prompt by Anthony Gramuglia
Max remembered the first time that she had met Chloe. It was the start of her new life in Los Angeles, trying to make it as an artist first and a witch second. It wasn’t until a nice lady at the grocery store noticed one of her charms and, after explaining its purpose to the lady, that Max decided to run a little business on the side.
Charms can be beneficial sometimes. Maybe not to grant super powers or summon demons but they always helped to influence the universe in subtle ways. Some charms can nudge you into finding a good friend (maybe even a lover), others are meant to protect your soul from potential demon deals, and others just bring a good night's sleep. Max had been re-reading through her old coven’s rune creation book back and forth, highlighting and bookmarking recipes as best as she could so that she doesn’t mess up and write somekind of bad luck rune or worse. The recipes were a bit pricey but for every dollar she had spent getting them, she was getting extra cash in her pocket, which meant she had enough for rent and groceries.
By the time she had sold off a few runes (aswell as avoiding any harassment from the LAPD or worse), the apartment started to smell weird, mostly due to the ingredients it requires to make ruins (Feathers from a pregnant Chicken, Toad Saliva, dung beatle wings, Etc.). She couldn’t enjoy reading her latest romantasy series without the place smelling rank. It would only be a matter of time before her landlord started to bug her about it and report the scent to the police.
“Why not exorcise it?” asked Warren, her neighbor and local monsters scholar.
“Do you exorcise your bathroom whenever you use it?” She said, sniffing her clothes.
“No.”
“Exactly! Besides, even if I could use an air freshener, it doesn’t remove the smell. Only hide it for a bit.”
“Well why not get like a magical air freshener?
He must’ve been joking. She looked into Warren’s face and his expression remain the same. He was either bullshitting or not.
“Why don’t you focus on your night hunts?”
“No no, I know this guy- Girl! Woman!” He shook off the mistake and continued “She’s managed to make a few magical air fresheners and it helps to make the room smell fantastic.”
She didn’t want to ask why he needed magical air fresheners but he did provide a number and a name “Chloe”. Max considered the idea, as strange as it sounded to buy a magical air freshener, and then decided to put it to the test. She called the number, expecting perhaps an elderly witch or-
“Yo.” Said the voice on the other line, sounding nothing like an elderly witch but a woman in her mid 20s. “Who sent you?”
“Uhhh… Warren. Warren Henderson.”
There was silence on the other end, before the voice returned once again with “What do you think of Dagon?”
“Uhhhh who?”
“Aight, close enough. I’m currently hosting a small sale on seaweed hemp and Deep One Ocean Jelly! If you ever wanted to have a substitute Js for your PBs then I recommend that.”
“Warren said that you can make “magical air fresheners” Max didn’t know why she did the whole air quotes gesture on the phone but she had to hold back the chuckle at the absurdity while Chloe was on the other end listening.
“You some kind of scholar or-?”
“No, I’m a witch.”
“OOOOOOOhh A witch!” There was the faint sound of something thumping in the background. “Are you a spooky witch or a wicked witch?”
She really really hated that stereotype, no witch can enjoy a brief moment of piece without someone asking if they’re some kind of hag eating bugs, flying brooms and living with a single cat. But she had to be nice, atleast until she gets her air fresheners and never calls her again.
“Just a basic witch.” She answered, as standard as she can be.
“Basic Witch? So no broom or hat.”
“I got a hat.”
“Is it big?” Max could feel Chloe’s eyebrows going up and down as she said that.
“It’s serviceable.”
“BOooo!”
“Can you get me some magical air fresheners or not.”
There wasn’t any chatter from the phone, just thumping and splashing noises, followed by the occasional curse before Chloe quickly got back on the phone and said “How smelly is it?”
“It’s hard to eat.”
“Yeech” there was more ruffling on the other line. “Okay, I think I might have a nice little candle bottle that can help get rid of the weirdness. It’s my last one too so-”
“How much?”
There was only a sound of something tapping at a medium pace, Chloe was probably thinking of some new way to fleece her or something
“Can I see your hat?”
“What?”
“I just wanna see how big it is.”
“WHY?!”
“Because I hear Witch hats are big and I wanna see if it’s true!”
Max was weirded out by the request, returning to chloe with “I’ll send you a picture on text.”
“Not good enough!” A small splash on the other end, “I wanna see it for myself. Meet me at the Santa Monica Pier at around… 4pm.”
“What if My hat’s not big enough.”
“We’ll work out a different deal. Don’t be late.” Chloe was making an evil little witch voice, more stereotyping of the witch lifestyle! Max wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet someone like this but the option was to waste money on a febreeze or else…
By the time she had arrived at Santa Monica, she had about a minute to spare and when she walked to the pier at 4pm, she wasn’t there. Nor was she there at 4:05. Or 4:15. By the time Max had considered walking away, she had heard the splashing of water and found the source of the sound near the dock.
“AHOY!” Chloe did her best pirate voice as she was spitting out sea water. The mermaid was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and carrying a navy blue napsack over her shoulder. She brushed her blue hair away to look up at Max. Her eyes were transfixed on Max’s hat, which was wide enough to serve as a mini umbrella with it’s pointy top drooping to the side. She could see a little autumn leaf tied with a rubber band around the hat. Chloe dragged herself out of the water as she examined Max and her hat very carefully, hmm-ing along the way. Max was transfixed by the iridescent color of the tail, soft blues with the odd peach read spots here and there. Both women were transfixed by their own little unique qualities before Max had interrupted it with “What? Not big enough for you?”
“I guess I was expecting you’d live in it.” Chloe snarked, “But I think it’s big enough. Does it help with rain?”
“All the time.” Max tilted the hat out of a habit, making sure it was pointing Chloe’s direction. “Except when it’s blowing my way.”
“Why not tilt it” Chloe tilted her head to the side.
“Why does a mermaid even need to make air fresheners?” Max quizzes back at her.
“OH I See, a Mermaid can’t have her a niche side hustle for all of her needs. huh? You speciest!”
This left Max dumbfounded because it was just a genuine question but Chloe just laughed it off, waving away all the concern as she pulled over the knapsack, opened it up and revealed a small Bottle with a pirate ship.
“Oh.” Max got close, letting her converse get wet as she examined the bottle carefully, it carried with it a strange blueish-green hewe that permeated inside, like a painting caught in time. Max pointed to the bottle and asked if it was normal.
“That’s the scent! It’s meant to smell like a fresh pirate ship.”
“Oh…” Max could just imagine the awful stench of waste, dead fish and rank body odor. Chloe had to emphasis that it would be fresh as if “Fresh off some carpenters house”.
This peaked Max’s curiosity to open the bottle but, just as her fingers were wrapped around the bottle cap, she was stopped by Chloe’s strong webbed hands
“You wanna open this at home to make sure it doesn’t go away.”
“Got it.” But Max really had to ask, “How do you do it?”
“Ancient Mermaid secret!” Chloe just put her finger to her lips before looking at the charm that was hanging off of Max’s shirt. She was transfixed by it, feeling the texture and design of the symbols.
“Careful! Smudge a letter and it might dampen the magic. Or worse.” Max exclaimed, catching Chloe’s attention as she let the amulet back in its place.
“How do you make those?”
“Ancient Witch Secret!” Max echoed the mermaid's gesture, which gave her an immense amount of smug satisfaction, much to Chloe’s annoyance.
“Just take it and have a nice day, you speciest.”
“No money?” Max watched as the mermaid shook her head. Normally, this wouldn’t be much of an issue but there was a sense that she probably needed the money.
“Are you sure you don’t need the money?” Max was drawing her purse out to check for the wallet. “I got a bit of cash too. I could even give you something I brewed up!”
“You trying to come up on my surf? Selling Witch weed on my pier?” Chloe clearly didn’t mean it, she played around it. Too bad Max didn’t get it.
“OH NONONONO! I meant like a Rune for the day-”
“Dude, I’m fucking with you. Relax!” Chloe waved it off but as soon as she saw the rune come out of Max’s pocket, her curiosity got the better of her. Unlike the one over Max’s neck, which was clearly a bottlecap with a few sticks forming a letter in green wax, the rune in Max’s hand was made of tinfoil wrap and other plastic pieces, it had blue ink to write it’s symbol rather than the makeshift articles as words.
“They help give people a good day.” Max made sure that Chloe could look at it, studying the design carefully.
“Really?” The Mermaid spoke as she delivered the rune back to the witch, sat back in the sand with a bit of curiosity in her eyes. “Tell me more!”
From there, Max had given Chloe an abridged version of her life story, avoiding any details on making runes and other artifacts. Chloe was interested in the small personal details, asking about Max’s family, her origins, what inspired her to come here. It was nice to have someone seem interested in her life. Even if she had a small grasp on the whole concept of witches. After a while, Chloe had checked a phone, which was wrapped in plastic, as an alarm started to play out.
“Shit, I got a Youtube Video to watch soon.” Chloe put it back on her phone, “It’s a video that talks about music and shit.”
“Cool…” Max put the bottle in her pocket before looking to Chloe “You sure you don’t want any money?”
“Keep it. It’s a freebie.” Chloe explained as she started to drag herself back to the water, her tail trying (and failing) to push her into the ocean.
“Do you need help?”
Chloe waved her off, saying “It’s cool! I do this all the time!” before reaching into the water and rolling on the sand and waters. The mermaid looked back at Max and gave her a nice smile. “It was cool meeting you!”
“If you're interested, maybe we can hang out sometime?”
“Oh I don’t know…” Chloe looked away, “I got a lot of stuff to do because of my duties as a princess.”
“Princess?”
“Oh yeah!” Chloe nodded, “Daughter of Triton! I gotta worry about becoming the next ruler of the undersea kingdom and avoid the evil sea witch that lives nearby who wants my voice for evil purposes."
Max wasn’t buying this shit, giving Chloe the mother of all glares before the mermaid smiled back and laughed.
“I was really hoping you’d buy it!” The mermaid laughed, wiping away the seawater before clearing her throat. “Yeah, Sure! Just say when!”
Both women bid their farewells and went their separate ways. Never to fully lay out their plans to hang out, like most people in their 20s or 30s would.
****
That was until next week.
Max was just sitting in her apartment, resting from working on making a rune for some sixteen year old’s birthday (Her father had commissioned it), and catching up with her reading when she received a call from Chloe. She hadn’t talked to the mermaid in a while but she didn’t pass up an opportunity to talk to someone (Except maybe Warren but he wasn’t as available as he should due to his “Chupacabra Quest”).
“Hello?” Max answered the phone.
“Yo” Chloe said on the otherline, “How you doing?”
“Good.”
“Cool.” There was silence on the other end, only briefly interrupted by the faint sound of
something creaking, “Watcha up to?”
“Oh, just catching up on reading.” Max answered, “Been putting this book off for a while.”
“Cool! A new witch spell book?”
“Nope. Just the new romantasy novel from Shaenah Fisco.”
Max could hear gagging on the other line of the phone. She rolled her eyes, she had expected this from other people. Romantasy gets a bum wrap but it’s a guilty pleasure, she always liked the semi fantastical elements of the story with a bit of spice on the side, even if the plots are stupid the other guy is way better than the lead love interest and the stories sometimes feel a bit repetitive. Some people should at least respect that. Chloe continued on the otherline.
“Is it good?”
“It’s… Basic.” Max wouldn’t say that outloud, not in polite company anyway. “The protagonist flips from badass to helpless, the guy borders on abusive when he isn’t trying to love bomb her and the sex is described more than its world building.”
“So it sucks. I knew it.”
“It sucks. But I love it.”
“Ah.” More silence on the other line.
“Is there any reason you’re calling me?” Max prodded, “Is the scent you gave me cursed or something?”
“Oh No nonono! That’s not it.” Max could just imagine Chloe nervously shaking her head on the other line as she added those no’s. She had to smile a bit at the mental image before Chloe answered. “I was just calling to see what’s up. To talk a bit?”
“Oh? Is that right” Max decided to close up the book, a Bowl of Roses and Cheese, and focus all her attention on the phone call. “Then what are you doing?”
“Oh Me? I’m just… Well… Vibing.” Chloe answered back, “Just living life like a boss by the seas.”
“That right?” Max raised an eyebrow. “Doing what?”
“Ummm just… sun bathing! Gotta get that pretty tan for the customers.”
“How so?”
“Dunno… Maybe customers like getting cool shit from Tan Mermaids instead of ones that look like shut ins.”
“I think people will buy anything from a Mermaid.” Max answered.
“Right right… Silly me.” Chloe’s nervous laughter came after the comment.
“Anything else you want to add?”
“How busy are you tomorrow?”
Despite the business of creating sellable Ruins taking a lot of time and energy, Max wasn’t someone who had a completely stacked amount of work days. That isn’t to say she hangs out all the time, just on a few days when she didn’t wanted to stay at home. She atleast gave Chloe a ‘not too busy’ for an answer.
“I was gonna have some Brunch with a friend but he flaked so I thought… Wanna come over for brunch?”
“In Atlantis?” Max snarked… At least a part of her was snarking, the other half was just genuinely curious.
“What? No. There’s a place near the pier where I usually get my breakfast.”
“How the hell do you even go to the surface?” That wasn’t even intended as a question, Max was just voicing her confusion out loud and realized too late Chloe had heard it. “I mean, you kinda struggle with even crawling on sand.”
“I have my ways.” Chloe didn’t seem too annoyed in her response, “So you think you got some time for some brunch.”
It felt tempting: Brunch with a mermaid. She has had night coffee hangouts with the vampire friends of Warren, or the odd Taco Bell dinner but they were all with “normal” human-like people. She just had to imagine Chloe just flopping out from the ocean, dragging herself from the sand before just arriving with a dozen eyes staring at her. Her curiosity truly peaked.
“Well, I thought I had a busy week but I think I’m free for Brunch.” Max answered.
“Cool!” there was a faint smack of water on the otherline, her tail probably, as she continued. “I’ll meet you at the same spot at like 10:15am. Don’t be late! Oh, and brign a towel!”
When the next day came, Chloe had arrived at 10:35. She had sent a text informing Max about the situation, hoping her new friend wouldn’t cancel at the last minute. It only served to sour her perception of Chloe a lot more. When Chloe had arrived, she was a blue hoodie and a black shirt.
“I’m so sorry for being late!” Chloe begged, “I didn’t think it would take me too long!”
If she had known that her whole day was sitting under a pier all day, waiting for a Mermaid just to brunch, she would’ve decided to go home and get back to her reading.
As Chloe dragged herself up, she pointed to one of the pillars of the Pier. “Behind that Pier is a Wheelchair. Think you can get it for me?”
Max was surprised to have found a pristine wheelchair behind the pillar, one that had Chloe’s name sown into the back rest. The witch had helped the Mermaid onto the seat, making sure that she was getting comfy or not falling out of the seat.
“I don’t think this will help.” Max, once again, saying something that she probably should’ve kept to herself.
“Don’t worry about it.” Chloe waved it away, “Got me a family trick that I use for these kinds of things. Got the Towel?”
Max had pulled out one of her big towels for Chloe and helped to dry her friend up while Chloe dug out something from her pockets, A blue rune covered in barnacles, took a deep breath and spoke something in a voice that sounded drowned with water. Max was expecting some kind of flashing light or a poof of smoke. But then… Nothing happened. When Chloe put the rune back inside her pockets, wrapping herself in a towel, and started to roll herself out of the beach.
“Letsa go! Brunch awaits!”
“Wait, What was supposed to happen?” Max exclaimed as she followed her friend and helped her up the pier ramp. Her fish tail was still sticking out like a sore thumb but, as Max continued along with her friend, nobody was paying attention to them. It was as if there wasn’t a mermaid bound to a wheelchair, being followed by a woman with a witch hat. Granted, LA was always full of weirdos, so nobody would’ve fully questioned the Witch hat. Atleast, locals wouldn’t. Tourists would be annoying about it but Max had to shake those thoughts out of her head as her friend pointed to a Diner near the pier, Tarantinos.
Once they were seated, both women got their menus and started to have a talk.
“So, how’s the freshener working for ya?” Chloe asked as she flipped through the menu.
The Air Freshener had been a wonder. Sure, there was the weird sound of a ship pushing through perilous waves and the faint sound of seagulls coming out of the bottle but the room had a scent that felt new, her mind thinking of a freshly built ship that was out to sea on a beautiful unnamed shore.
“Glad to hear it’s been working wonders!” Chloe said, “It’s a bitch to make em but the smell it makes is worth it.”
“Will you ever explain how you make it?” Max was pushing it, but she was hoping she would catch the mermaid in a good mood.
“Hmmmmm Dunno… wouldn’t want you to run the opps on me.” Chloe stared over her menu.
“I make good luck charms! I’m not planning on expanding my business into other ventures.” Max explained, she wouldn’t even know where to expand her business. Dream Catchers? Magical Potions? Curses? Okay those last twos are not exactly perfect but… Maybe one day…
“How about this: The day you ever need to ‘expand your business’” Chloe made sure to add those quote gestures into that possibility, “I’ll ask that we not only team up but I get 60 percent of your cut.”
“If you take as long as you do meeting with people, I expect a 60 percent from you!”
Chloe was laughing off such an idea. Max joined in, not fully annoyed by the reaction. But she is still being honest about the charge.
“I promise, I’m not always late when it comes to my deliveries. Ya know?”
“Really?” Damn right Max wasn’t going to believe that shit. But Chloe was just making the gesture of “crossing her heart and hoping to die” that Max had to hand her the benefit of the doubt.
When the waitress finally showed up, they both made their orders (Waffles for Max and a “Breakfast Burger” for Chloe).
“Never tried a Breakfast Burger. What’s that like?”
“You never tried like the Grandslam or the McGriddle from McDonalds?”
Max was pretty sure Chloe was just making up new words that should probably sound real but didn’t. The confusion caught Chloe hard enough to shake her head and laugh.
“Oh My god, you poor autumn child!” Chloe quickly tried to call for the waitress, asking them to change the order into a Breakfast Burger.
“I still don’t understand what’s the big deal with a Breakfast Burger? What, is it like a burger made of pancakes or something?”
“Better: Eggs, cheese and bacon all wrapped in two deliciously flipped Pancakes made into perfection.”
Max winced at such a description, wishing she had stopped Chloe from changing her order. Needless to say, the Mermaid wasn’t going to let it slide as she insisted that it actually tasted pretty good and she should give it a chance! When the plates finally came over, she could smell the eggs and pancakes on it, She ended up checking of her sandwich had Maple Syrup instead of ketchup. When she looked up, Chloe was taking bites out and smiling as if it was delivered to her by the gods.
“Oh my god, Max you gotta try it!”
“No thanks, I think I’ll stick with the mini hash browns.”
“Come ooooooooon!” Chloe had to push her burger to Max just for emphasis, “Just a taste! Trust me! And if you don’t like it then… Well I can eat em and I’ll donate my Hashbrowns to you.”
Max wasn’t too thrilled about the prospect of either eating the food or seeing Chloe down two of those burgers… but she did like the prospect of extra hashbrowns. Picking it up in a napkin to avoid the grease of the pancakes, Max looked down at the burger and felt all these conflicting feelings about the breakfast she had been given. Instincts told her to drop the burger and ask for something else but she watched as her friend was insistent in trying out something new. She took a quick bite from her burger, the mermaid looking on with such curiosity as Max chewed on it for a bit… and found herself in a brief moment of joy.
This kind of combination shouldn’t work but she just smiled at the delicious mix of salt and sweet, and chewed it with gusto.
“Oh my god…” she swallowed the first bite and looked down at the sandwich, “You were right.”
“I FUCKING TOLD YOU!” She had exclaimed as she joined her friend on this pancake wrapped journey of new flavor. “I mean, Don’t witches eat like a bunch of weird stuff too?”
This snapped the witch out of her Breakfast Burger stupor as she glared back at Chloe.
“And, pray tell, what do you think a Witch eats? Bugs? Bats? Humans? Huh? Let me know! I am curious!” She didn’t mean for it to sound so angry but stereotypes really get under her hair and she had to atleast confront Chloe about it.
“I…” The mermaid looked away in shame before sighing and looking down at her table “I just… I didn’t mean to push your buttons… It’s just-”
“You haven’t met a Witch Before.” She remembered having a similar experience when she met Warren. Back in his “Monster Hunter” days, he was always assuming the worse about her because of the pointy had and the weird runes and charms she had to make. It took them a small moment of tea just to get him on her side. Seeing Chloe’s disappointment made her realize how hard she was reacting to it.
“I’m sorry.” Max said, “I just… I didn’t mean to blow up on you. I just don’t like it when people stereotype my people. Like, yeah, we practice magic and we’re a bit weird but we’re still people. We still gotta go to work, we still gotta watch tv or read a book… We just have a different kinda life to yours.”
“And what do you think my life is?” Chloe asked.
It was worth a shot to get to know her a bit more. So Max chipped in her questions: “What do mermaids like to do in their off time? what can Mermaids eat? How magical are they compared to her?” so and so forth.
****
As time went on, Chloe and Max started to frequently meet up here and there. Somedays they would go to just have a small breakfast or lunch, other days they had spent a day to do a little coffee shop hangout (where Max could comfortably check out her Romantasy novel while Chloe kept teasing her for it, despite spending half of her time reading a book on a tablet). Pretty soon, it was becoming a habit for them to hang out more and more, until the day where Chloe had asked Max to do a Karaoke Night. Max didn’t like the idea at first, not being a big fan of the whole “Karaoke club scene” but Chloe hasn’t steered her wrong once, so she had (reluctantly) accepted. They would meet at the same place at 7:25pm. Which was a lie.
When Max arrived at the spot, the sun had sunken far into the distance, painting the skies in a white purple and dotting the coming darkness with the shining stars. As always, Chloe was still not at the exact time she was at but she wasn’t going to get too upset about it. The waves of the pier helped to make this lonely looking pier feel like home. She would probably stick her feet in there to let them breathe, but it would be tempting fate if she let Chloe have a chance at jumpscare her.
Just as she thought about her, Chloe popped out of the ocean and waved at her from the pier. Max smiled as she waited for the mermaid to get closer to the shore.
“And here I just thought I was too early.” Max shouted as the mermaid crawled towards the frothing shores.
“Pretty sure you’re late?”
“How am I late?” Max laughed, “I’m not the one who said 7:25 when it’s 7:34!”
Chloe shrugged. “You gonna help me up?”
“Help yourself.”
“GASP! Max, how could you? I can’t believe your so fish-ablelist!”
“I’m not fish abelist, but I’m tired and carry your big tail out of the water!.”
“And now your saying I’m fat?! Say it ain’t so!” Chloe had to make such a dramatic pose saying that as she slunk into the water, letting her green tail flip out into the water before sinking back down. Max smiled as she watched Chloe rushed back into the surface and tried to push off the water.
“You done?” Max snarked.
“Wait…” She had to contemplate the idea for a second before looking back to her annoyed witchy friend. “Yeah, I’m done. Help me up, please?”
“Sure.” Max grabbed on to her friend’s arms as she tried to pull her out of the water. Chloe wasn’t really that heavy, mostly because the tail helped to push her into the chair no problem. After setting the mermaid on the wheelchair, both women were out in the LA night, watching passing tourist and residents out on the prowl.
“So where’s this Karaoke place?”
“Are you familiar with a place called Bentos?” Chloe looked up to Max as her tail moved a bit in excitement.
Max was familiar with Bentos, it was a Karaoke and Sushi Bar she went with Warren that one time on his birthday where she chose to sit back and listen to him and his werewolf friends sing a lot of songs (They were all terrible but nobody truly seemed to mind, not even Max). It wasn’t too far from where they were.
“Never thought a Mermaid would love to sing at a Karaoke place?”
“You kidding? How do you expect me to lure Kayakers to their dooooom?”
“I just assume you just…” Max had to stop herself there, she didn’t wanted to say it outloud as it was just a dumb image that played in her head.
An Image Chloe had to complete with the comment “Flashed my tits out at someone? Come on, I know Mermaids get a lot of stereotypes but we aren’t all that desperate!”
“I’m sorry!”
“Oh Don’t be. I guess it’s fair that someone else gets to stereotype me instead of the other way around.” Chloe chuckled, feeling a bit of that Karma as they made their way towards the Karaoke and Sushi place.
Once inside, they picked their booth, ordered their sushi and got settled. Chloe took the entire sofa while Max was flipping through the book of song choices on the floor.
“Hmmmmmmmm…” Max was having a hard time, she flipped through a lot of the options just to make sure there was atleast one option Chloe would like. “What about Mariana and the Diamonds?”
“OH! Find the Robot Song!”
What good luck that “I am not a Robot” was the one song that was on the top of the list. She went to the computer and found it quickly. The microphones were still hanging from the hooks. Chloe had picked it up while Max sat down.
“You’re not gonna sing?” Chloe puzzled as her finger hovered over the mouse.
“Oh, I’m not the singing type…” Max shook her head as she sat back.
“Come on! It’s not a Karaoke night if I’m the only one singing!”
“It’s fine.”
“Come on! Pleaaaaaase?” Chloe was really trying to put on her best puppy dog eyes while Max had to look away in embarrassment. Instinct kept telling her to sit down and not sing but the more she looked into the mermaid's eyes, the more the thoughts switched into an invitation to go ahead and sing.
“Fine.” Max got up and picked up the Microphone from the hook. “But Only once!”
“Aight, sure!” Chloe clicked on the song and the screen came to life with the song title.
As the song started, both got into singing it. Chloe had a great singing voice (no doubt because of her mermaid heritage). Meanwhile, Max wasn’t the best singer, not in her coven or anywhere else, but she was trying her best to keep up with her friends singing. Both were having a little bit of fun with it until the song ended.
“What was that?” Chloe asked as she turned to Max. The witch was expecting a laugh or a sarcastic ribbing but the shock on the mermaid’s face seemed genuine. “When were you gonna tell me you could sing good!?!”
Max thought that must be an exaggeration. There is no way in hell anyone thinks her singing was actually that good. Decent, sure, especially how Max hears it. But Chloe was laughing, absolutely surprised by the talent her friend had kept hidden. Not a lot of people have reacted to that whenever Max was offered a chance to sing in her Coven’s usual get togethers. Most of them just simply gave some small scattered applauses or simply took the microphone away from them.
“I know you said just one song but…” Chloe flipped through the pages of the song selections “One more!”
“No! I’m not gonna-”
“And you’re not gonna hide away like that! Come on! One more!”
“I don’t think I can do this one justice.”
“Oh yee of little faith, Max. How about we do a little singing practice?”
“I thought we were having fun?”
“We are. We can fuck up all we want and we’ll probably sing half as better as we did last time.” The mermaid flipped through the pages before pointing to the next selection “How about some Chapelle Roan?”
Max… hated to admit it but she did like listening to a bit of Chapelle Roan, and the fact that the mermaid's fingers were hovering over her favorite song to sing in the bathroom was almost a scary coincidence. Pretty soon, the song was chosen and they started to sing. Max got a taste of the mermaid as a voice coach, constantly stopping the song to tell her how to get the voice to sound perfect.
“A little trick I learned when singing is that the best tone comes from out of the heart.” The mermaid tapped her heart just for emphasis. “So, Maxine, I need you to close your eyes and imagine the person you most want to impress.”
The amount of people the witch would consider “Friends worthy of keeping” can only be counted on five fingers. But even then, those were just people she would brush by or be swept into some kind of fun activity with. She tried to think about it until she looked into Chloes eyes. Every comment she heard from the mermaid made all those feelings of not being good enough be worth it. When Max was ready, the song came back on and, this time, her heart and focus was set on the one person that she wanted to impress the most.
“It’s fine. It’s cool.
You can say that we ain’t nothing but you know the truth
Guess I’m the fool.
With her arms out like an angel through the car sun roof
I don’t wanna call it off,
But you don’t wanna call it love.
You only want to be the one, I call baby”
Her tone was on point, the mermaid was getting giddy watching her witchy friend get into it. Sure, it wouldn’t match Chappelle’s performance but it would be a pretty close comparison. When it finally ended, the mermaid had flopped towards the witch like a seal, giddy and excited while exclaiming “I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU YOU GOT THE TALENT!”
“Maybe I’ll be talented to steal your job?” Max said, the hopeful energy was so infections that it got Chloe to laugh it off. “Come on, I definitely have the charm to lure people to their dooms?”
“Don’t push your luck, that’s my job.” Chloe and Max laughed jumping back to the sofa before flipping through the list of songs they could sing.
A few shots of sake, sushi rolls, and karaoke beltings later, both women walked out to the streets of a calm LA night. Chloe may have taken a few more swigs than usual but Max was swimming just above the waters of drunkenness, she wouldn’t want to ruin this for nobody.
“Shit, my feet are killing me!” Chloe exclaimed, raising her tail up to rub off her flippers. Max could only just laugh, laugh while the world continued around her confused. Chloe looked up to Max, feeling like she wasn’t in pain a moment ago.
“So, Where to?”
Max wasn’t feeling the mood for another bar drive. She was feeling a bit tired, not tired enough to call it a night but…
“Wanna come by my place?” Max smiled, “I got like a couple of movies we could watch. We could make it a movie marathon.”
Chloe agreed. Pretty soon, the girls made a small trek towards Max’s apartment, partially singing new songs with made up lyrics. When they finally arrived, Max and Chloe watched Warren going out on a night job. They waved to each other before finally Max’s realization came in and saw the stairs.
“You don’t have elevators here, do you?” Chloe raised an eyebrow to Max.
Max stammered, quickly looking back and forth around the motel before realizing that the landlord did not make this place mermaid-accessible.
“Oh how wait for Global Warming…” Chloe shook a bit of the sobriety off as she was preparing to escape from her chair.
“We can go to a theater! I think there’s one that’s open 24 hours somewhere in-”
Chloe kept waving her off as she started to make a crawl above the stairs. Max went to help, trying to make sure her tail didn’t get scratched up from the scraping she had to endure. Both managed to make it up the apartment room without missing even a single scale. When they stepped inside, Chloe was greeted with a messy little living room that had a couple of books, romantasy and witch handbooks, that were overlooking a new rune project.
“SHIT!” Max put her near the floor, almost running back to the mermaid before going back to the books and the rune before leaving two on the table, which peaked the her curiosity. When the witch returned to the entrance, Chloe had made her way to the sofa and was looking over a book, an epic fantasy warren had given to Max as a gift.
“MISSED ONE! And… This is a good one… A fantasy with some cooking instructions! Much better than one you were reading about with the Snake woman and her Shadow Fae daddy.”
Max ignored the dig at “The Hissing Queen” and let the fish lady enjoy looking over the book while she had run off to the kitchen to get whatever snacks were left. Now that Chloe had a nicer spot, she was able to relax on the spot.
When Max finally came back, I found her switching the epic fantasy for one of the art books Max had carelessly left on the table. Her stomach sunk deeper as she watched Chloe look over her sketches and finished artwork, eyes focused on tracing every small detail of her handiwork.
“Do you take commissions?”
“Uhhh… I Uuhhhh…” Max did but she was slightly embarrassed to admit what it mostly was dedicated towards. And the fact that Chloe got a good look at the scraps and sketches gave her a clear idea of what it may or may not be.
“You’re self conscious.” Chloe closed the book and put it back on the table, “Sorry. I just… Saw the notebook and…”
There was a silence between the two that felt eternal but it was quickly disrupted with Chloe gesturing to her book, adding “You got a real talent for detail.”
“T-thanks…” Max knows that Chloe meant well and was probably being honest but it felt weird to have someone look over her sketches and be impressed by it. She didn’t push the matter further as she set the bag of chips on to table and sat down while the mermaid tried to look over other details of the apartment.
Aside from the dining table behind them, the place had that nice scent from the magic air freshner Max bought from Chloe. There were also a few pictures that seemed to have the witch as a child, wearing the same big ass hat she was wearing since they met, surrounded by (what Chloe presumes to be) her Coven. Then there were some other pictures of her home, some of a town party and other things.
“Where did you say you were from again?” Chloe looked over the pictures, seeing a picture of a dock that gave her a sense of deja vu.
“Eugene, Oregon.”
“Really?”
Max nodded while Chloe clicked her tongue.
“Well I’m from Oregon and I never heard of any witch covens there.” Chloe thought out loud.
“We like to keep to ourselves. Close knit community.”
“The Introverted Witches Club.” Chloe smirked, “Could be a cool band title.”
“What part of Oregon were you from?” Max looked over, which the mermaid just shrugged.
“
Max quickly got up, pulled out all the DVDs under her TV and put them on the table for the mermaids perusal. When Chloe met Max, she had just assumed she had a love for silly witch things like Wicked or The Coven or whatever. She was surprised by the actual selections: The entire Resident Evil film collection (Sans Welcome to Raccoon City), Pitch Perfects 1 and 2, Inside Out, The Little Mermaid 2, The Last Jedi, Chasing Amy, Anaconda, Bride of Chucky, etc.
“You uhhh… got some weird taste there Miss Maxine.” Chloe grabbed the Little Mermaid 2, “Surprised you're a fan of my future daughter’s autobiography.” Max couldn’t hold back the laugh, which was joined by Chloe’s.
As the Mermaid continued to flip over the collection, she was caught by a familiar case. One she had only seen once when her mother had come home from work to watch it with her family. Chloe looked to Max, making sure she would pay attention. She wasn’t. She quickly pulled the dvd disk up for her to see.
“Who the fuck watches this?” Chloe picked up the one option that shocked her the most: Final Fantasy Spirits Within. Max could only give a smile and a half shrugged while Chloe kept waving the dvd case as if she just found her porn collection. “I can forgive half of the weird shit you have in your collection, Hell I was willing to forgive you for Resident Evil but… WHY?! Why this one?”
“I just like the plot. Alien ghost and the world spirits.”
“Oh I see, you’re favorite god’s represented in this one.”
“My patron god isn’t Gaia.”
“Sure, and I’m pretty sure it’s not a Peter named Pan.”
“Don’t diss the great nature god.”
“I didn’t even know he was REAL!”
“We could call it a night if my film choices offend you.”
“Don’t you have Netflix?”
“What's Netflix?” The smug smile Max gave to Chloe almost made the mermaid wanna throw Final Fantasy right at her. Realizing her options were limited, she looked down at the collection one more time, hoping to find an alternative that wouldn’t have been a sequel to the Little Mermaid.
“You present me with a three prong road. All of them lead to HELL.”
“Choose wisely” Max was enjoying doing the little deep voice retort to the mermaid before Chloe, defeated, sighed to herself and pointed to Final Fantasy.
“Excellent choice, my darling.” Max took the DVD from the case while the Mermaid sat down to look at the movie once again.
“Just kill me.”
2 Hours into the movie, the tone of the Mermaid had changed. No longer was she viewing the uncanny valley as an alternative punishment to the Mary Sue bastardization of Resident Evil, She was actually getting invested in the film, rooting for the heroes to stop the invasion, scared at all the freaky shit happening with, what Chloe charitably kept calling, Ghost Roaches. Both women couldn’t stop inserting their little commentaries in there, snarking and sometimes poking holes at the films weird plot choices. The most common gag was “Oh boy I can’t wait for Cloud Strife to show up and Strife all over the Ghost Roaches.”
As the film was finally reaching its climax, Max felt something on her shoulder. She looked over and saw Chloe’s head rest next to her. She could feel something warm in her heart, a feeling she probably hasn’t felt before. Without even thinking about it, she decided to lean her head on top of the mermaids too. Chloe quickly noticed, pulling away and brushing her hair in embarrassment.
“Sorry about that!”
Feeling the hand just slip away, it felt wrong. After the little hand thing, Max was starting to hope for Chloe to lean her head again, just to feel that warmth and need one more time. By the time the movie finished, both girls were sitting awkwardly, unsure on what to do next.
They had decided to spend the next few hours looking up funny videos on Max’s laptop, with Chloe constantly having to take it and write on the search drive, much to Max’s annoyance. Thankfully, all of it was saved by the shittiest comedy skits she had ever seen in her life. When the neighbors were banging on the walls (or floor) to shut them up, It was obvious that the fun times were over.
Max had wheeled Chloe from the apartments to the beach. Los Angeles felt a lot calmer than it normally was. Less drunks on the streets, lots of Homeless folks sleeping, and the Pier was completely dark, with nobody in sight. It made for a creepy atmosphere that was only alleviate by Chloe’s talking. When they arrive at the water, Chloe had finally jumped into it like it was just the pool.
“I had a lot of fun tonight.” Max said to her, which was met by the Mermaid’s smile.
“Did you think otherwise?” Chloe boasted as she was getting ready for a swim.
“Call back when you get home.” Max added.
“You too.”
After both women went back to their homes, they had received each other’s text and reacted accordingly… before starting a new conversation that would last until 5am.
****
Max was standing in front of Warren's apartment door after knocking on it. It’s a rare thing for her to always go to Warren’s for anything. The most the two have actually shared is either milk, honey or butter. She’s rarely been in his apartment, the same way he rarely went into hers, which was a decent way of handling each other’s own boundaries. However, her curiosity has led her here on a mission. She stuck her ear to the door, wandering if Warren was either asleep or probably not in his apartment. There was a faint sound on the other side of the door, as if he was talking. To who? Maybe he was on the phone with one of his Vampire friends or to the Institute he had started to work for.
Two knocks in and Max’s feelings went from curiosity to regret as she turned around, hoping to probably come back a little later when, suddenly, the door opened behind her. Warren definitely looked like he needed a long nights rest.
“Oh Hey Max!” Warren said as he pulled his phone out and dropped it back to his packers while ironing out his oversized t-shirt of any wrinkles. “What’s up?”
“Morning… You okay?”
Warren never lost his smile as he pointed to the bags under his eyes. “That’s the price I pay for seeing a Chupacabra in it’s natural habitat. It’s totally worth it though!”
Max was tempted to ask more about the Chupacabra but her focus was on the reason she had come by to the place.
“How well do you know Mermaids?” Max asked.
“Like… What do you want to know about em?” Warren raised an eyebrow, which was odd because he usually would start throwing in offers about what she wanted to know about them.
“Like… What is something that Mermaid’s really like?” Max’s question was about as subtle as firing a gun in a library.
Warren but his fingers on his chin as he tried to concentrate all of his extensive knowledge about Mermaids. “Well… Mermaids like a lot of things human like.”
Max frowned. What a lot of help he was.
“But I think they like shiny things.”
“Shiny things?” Max quizzed, “Like… Rings or Diamonds or…”
“I think they just stick to anything that has a pretty shine, like the ocean or stained glass or something like that.” Warren was picking up traction on his knowledge as he eyed Max suspiciously. “Why you asking?”
“Oh, no reason… Just… wanted to know.” Max needed to find a way to ask questions that any bright genius wouldn’t immedietly figure it out. It’s a good thing that Warren, despite his monster knowledge, wasn’t bright about figuring out people’s true intentions. Atleast, she understood it as so.
“Well… I guess if you want to look for something to get a mermaid to like you, I’d start with-”
The conversation was interrupted by a ping from his phone. He quickly dug it out of his pockets and read through it quickly while looking up at Max.
“Is everything okay?”
“Uhhh…” Warren looked nervous as he looked back to the text message. Max was curious about what the hell was making him nervous but he quickly snapped out of it with “I gotta go outa town a second! I think my aunt got ran over by a Werewolf!”
What?
“But Werewolves don’t-” But Warren had picked up his wallet and went rushing out of the building at high speed. Leaving Max alone to have to figure out what the hell she had to look for Chloe.
There were plenty of pawn shops around town, some she had visited for some of the ingredients she was looking for, and Max began to search these places for any potential mermaid gift. Chandeliers, glass vases, crystal statues… A lot of these things would be perfect for any kind of Mermaid but fatal for a poor witch’s salary. She had tried her best to haggle for some of them (poorly) and was met with a scoff or a snark. As the day went on and Max had reached the final stop to her journey, she was able to find something that seemed on the cheap layaway: A blue crystal dolphin that seemed to have a shine that reflected the face of the witch.
“Very pretty huh?” Max had turned around to spot the source of the voice, a woman close to Chloe’s age with a lot of ink tattoos and a butterfly earring. She seemed to be smiling as she walked around the witch and picked up the crystal dolphin. “It’s a pretty thing to for Grandma’s house… Provided, Grandma doesn’t have an issue with Dolphins.”
“Oh, this is for a friend. She’s a bit “nautical”, ya know?” Why did Max had to say that last part?
“I getcha.” The woman said as she picked up the dolphin and handed it to Max, “I used to know someone like that too.”
“Really? Like a… Like a Pirate or something?” Max had to stop.
“She was… a deep diver. Sortof.” The woman’s eyes kept looking at the dolphin, a twinkle in her eyes reflecting a past Max wasn’t fully grasping.
“Well, maybe she’ll like this! How much does it cost?” Max said, holding back the urge to grab the crystal dolphin.
“Oh this is on a sale. Like… $250.”
All the hope suddenly left Max as she looked back at the thing that was supposed to be in a layaway bin.
“But I thought this would be cheaper.”
“It is cheaper…” The tattooed girl said outloud and gave a small little smirk “Cheaper for Rich folks.”
“Nobody would even come here!” Max gestured to the entire pawn shop, “What makes you think I have that much cash on me?”
“I don’t. I just see it in your eyes.” The tattooed girl had to do the ‘be seeing you’ gesture when she said all of that.
Max had to look again and decided to pull out a last resort that she barely had considered. She dug into her bag and tried to find one of the many runes she made for herself. She eventually found it, a disk that was surrounded by ripped pieces of money and discarded glass diamonds. She showed it to the the tattooed girl and explained that it was a personal heirloom, a means for personal wealth to be protected by greedy hearts. Clearly it wasn’t working on the clerk but it had worked on Max plenty of times, especially when it came time to pay rent or negotiate terms with clients for a personalized good luck run or maybe even an art commission.
“You want to give me a Good Luck charm to pay for a glass dolphin?”
“I know it sounds stupid but…” It was stupid, it was something Max hadn’t exactly considered but a part of her told her to atleast try and get the clerk to see what it was all for “This girl means a lot to me. I want her to know how much.”
The woman chewed on all that information as she picked up the rune and studied it a bit carefully, admiring the craftsman ship while feeling a nice cool energy resonating from it. The clerk smiled and looked at Max one more time.
“If she really means that much to you…” She looked around the pawn shop just to be safe, making sure that there wouldn’t be nobody else to bug them. “I suppose this one can be considered a lost piece. Not the first thing I’ve ever lost in the store but certainly not the last.”
Max’s eyes open wide as she took the dolphin, careful to not break it as she looked up to the clerk and smiled.
“THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!” Max kept the crystal dolphin close to her heart, “You won’t regret it. I promise Miss…”
“Amber.” The clerk smiled as she put the necklace around her neck, “Rachel Amber. Go ahead and good luck with Miss Nautical!”
As Max stepped out of the store, she had gotten a text message from Warren that read:
“AUNTIE FINE! COME OVER TO TARANTINO, SHE INVITED US FOR DINNER!”
Max didn’t exactly have the heart to tell him that she already had plans but she also knew that she could probably deliver this tomorrow. So she accepted the invitation.
Upon arriving at the Tarantino, she was met with Warren and, Not his poor aunt who was supposedly ran over by a werewolf, but Chloe.
“Wha- What are you doing here?” Max had said.
“OH! I just happened to run into her and she wanted to join me and my aunt!” Warren had jumped in, forcing his best smile much to Chloe’s annoyance and Max’s confusion. She had looked around the booth and she noticed that there Chloe’s Sweater was taking up an entire spot on the seats.
“And where’s your aunt?” Max asked.
She watched as Warren had to looking away, trying to think of something when he noticed the bag on Max’s arm.
“What’s that?” Warren said outloud, managing to get Chloe to notice the bag on Max’s shoulder.
The witch was conflicted, she had wanted to surprise the mermaid with her nice little gift but she was hoping to do this at a point where no one else would ask the question. The cat was truly out of the bag now, she had to come clean.
Max had dugged into the bag and pulled out the shiny dolphin figurine to show it at Chloe. Both Warren and Chloe were glued to it, Chloe quickly reaching out to look over it and pay attention to it’s blue color and soft glassy surface.
“Holy shit” the mermaid exclaimed as she looked over it and to the witch, “Where- How did you get this?”
“Aaahh…” Max had thought about how to carefully answer it before going with the flow, “Ancient Witch Secret.”
“Fuck man…” Chloe was still in shock, taking the dolphin figure carefully while holding back what seemed to be tears. Max had expected Chloe to like the gift but the reaction she was getting seemed… deeper than that.
“A- are you okay?” Max’s concern was suddenly hitting Warren, causing him to grab a napkin and slide it to the mermaid. Chloe took it and started to brush out the tears while looking at Max.
“Yeah. It’s…” Chloe sniffed, blowing her nose into the napkin before crumpling it away. “I really love the gift.”
As Chloe put the figurine close to the side, she looked to the sweater and then back to Max, where she had finally decided to make her move.
“I got something for you too.” Chloe had carefully dug under the sweater and pulled out a brown thick bag which she had handed towards Max. The weight and shape of it made it obvious that it had been a book. As the witch opened the bag up, she was met with the title of the book she had only heard about and dreamed about getting when she had the cash and time for it: “Daughters of the Goddesses” by Mia Farrow. And it wasn’t just a copy of the book, it was a signed edition, with the authors signature and a little written message on the first page.
To Max Cauldfield, thank you for being a fan of my work. I hope you like where I take you on this one.
Max was shaking, every emotion hitting her at the exact same time. She had looked to Chloe and she fought to keep her cool under the shock.
“Warren told me about your favorite book series” Chloe smiled, “She was doing a book signing today at the Barnes & Noble down the street so, we went there and… the rest is history.”
“Also, I lied, My aunt didn’t get hit by a werewolf.” Warren finally gave himself that moment to breath, much to Chloe’s amusement.
“I think she knows that.” Chloe looked up to Max, “I really wanna hear your thoughts about this one… so I can steal it and read it for myself.”
The witch had quickly wrapped the mermaid into a tight hug, kissing her on the cheek while repeating the words “thank you” over and over and over again.
Meanwhile, Chloe had looked back at the gift that was left on the table, a former piece of a past Max may not have been familiar with. Whether it had been fate or luck, it probably wouldn’t have mattered as much.
This was the moment this evolved a friendship to perhaps something a lot more…
****
After a couple of Days of Chloe visiting Max’s apartment, it was the witches turn to ask the following question: “When are you gonna bring me to your place?”
“Oh you don’t want to go there.” has been Chloe’s go to response but Max was very persistent. Especially during their little date in Tarantinos (they were getting a Kahuna Burger special with milkshakes).
“I mean, It cant be as bad as my apartment. I can deal with an undersea cave if you give me some time to learn how to snorkel and-”
“Why do you think I live in a cave? Is this another speciest allegation?! And here I was just avoiding the witch stereotypes! And You stab me in the back! Fore shame!” Both women laughed at the little performance before the mermaid continued, “Ah but no. I live on a boat. A very big, very old, very rickety fish watcher boat.”
This caught Max offguard. She was so used to the idea that Chloe’s only experience on land was either being wheelchair bound or dragging her big tail into certain places. The idea of a mermaid living on a boat was… Well, Max couldn’t exactly imagine it.
“HOW!?!” Max insisted, “LIKE HOW DO YOU EVEN GET AROUND WHEN-”
“Look, the point is that you wouldn’t like it! It’s a boat that’s constantly moving left and right and-”
“I want to see it. I wanna know what your life is like constantly dragging yourself across the wood panel and you are not gonna stop me!”
Chloe eventually folded and set up a meeting for Max to go to the boat. When the day came, Chloe had to “borrow” a small motorboat for the trip. When the witch had ask if they were gonna give it back, Chloe just waved off the concerns.
The trip took about 10 minutes just driving past Santa Monica into an empty spot between, what Max charitably assumed was, Santa Monica and Topanga Beach. The boat has seen better days, the paint had already started to peel off a bit and there was a message that read “I assure you, I have a permit!” written on a big white towel. When they arrived, Max had watch Chloe grab on to the boats platform before pushing herself upwards to the ship. The floors of the ship were still a plastic green with the strong stench of fish.
“Bienvenido a Chatau de Price! Make sure to keep your shoes on at all times, the place is wet and be sure to always look when putting your feet on water, I have two Bullsharks named Princess and Cupcake whom will kiss your toes with their teeth.” Chloe joked in between her drags towards the boats cabin.
“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to bring the wheelchair here?” Max climbed into the ship, feeling it move under the waves while keeping her balance.
“If you can feel it, you can understand why I didn’t.” Chloe said, opening the door
Inside the Cabin of what would’ve been the ships cabin, the Mermaid had found a way to turn the entire place into a private domain with a shelf full of pirate ship bottles, a computer that seemed like it was 7 years old, and a few photo stills of what seemed like Chloe and her family near the coast.
“My Dad’s from an Oregon Colony.” Chloe explained, “I moved here after I turned 18. Wanted to follow my own dreams, ya know?”
Max took all of this in, watching over the trinkets that she had collected over the years. Above the metal hood ornaments and ancient chalices, she had found a picture of a merman wearing a “Women want me, Men want to be me, Fishes fear me.” next to a human mother and their little fish daughter.
“Mom was a Marine Biologist for this school down in Rhode Island. The Miskatonic. Dad saved her when her ship capsized. After that, they started to meet more and more and… You know the rest.”
“Where’s your mom now?” Max had asked.
Chloe’s smile disappeared as she looked at the picture carefully.
“Oh.” She didn’t have to say anything else, the silence was only interrupted by the creaking of the boat and the washing of the waves. Max looked around to see if there was another way to get the spirits back on track. That’s when her eyes were caught on lumpy pieces of rocks under the shelves.
“What are those?” Max pointed.
The mermaid went to the tables and grabbed one of the lumpy rocks. Upon closer inspection, the witch could notice that the rocks weren’t lumpy: They had odd little shapes of tentacles and eyes and-
“This is my toy.”
The words began to click inside Max’s head as her eyes widened, mouth open in shock while Chloe’s smile widened. The shock quickly wore off with the sound of the mermaid's loud uproarious cackle.
“Real funny.” Max said flatly.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it! You should’ve seen that face! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH”
After the mermaid finally finished her laugh, and some careful convincing, Max took a closer look at the rocks to see what they truly were: “Sometimes I tend to find these little rocks with odd shapes and drawings. I brought it to Warren and he said they were worthless but then I had this crazy Idea: "What if I sold these as ancient old ones’ statues?”
“You’re kidding…”
“Like, sure, they probably don’t look exactly like the real thing but who’s to say what the old ones looked like? So, I got a computer, made an Ebay account and started to sell these special looking rocks on the internet. I sometimes had to get a bit creative and add some weird symbols or sculpt some extra tentacles out of clay and shit.”
“You sculpt?”
Chloe scratched the back of her head like she was so humble and modest. “If you ever need me to make a naked sculpture of you, all you need to do is ask.”
“How much would it cost me?”
“$3000 dollars.”
“With a friend discount?”
“That is the friend's discount.” It got a small laugh out of Max as the mermaid put away the rock. “I managed to get like $2000 dollars selling these stones to this one cult that was based in San Diego. They told me they wanted to wake up the old gods or some shit to ‘cleans the world of sin’ and I had to try my damndest not to laugh because I gave them this shape that I might’ve used before.”
This time, Max’s shock was met with the appropriate amount of laughter. Chloe kept telling the story.
“I don’t know if he ever figured it out. Maybe he’s still waiting for the old gods to come back again and do something.”
“‘Maybe he’s just not using it right’“ Max’s fake voice, getting the intended reaction from Chloe before wiping away the tears from their eyes.
“Oh god… Oh I hope he doesn’t actually come get you.” Max said, “Like, I’d be pissed too if that were me.”
“The guy was a hack. What’s he gonna do? Find my house in the middle of the ocean and send the fish people after me?” Chloe had to just wave away the thought, “Get real.”
“Do you and fish people hate each other?”
“No… We just don’t talk to each other. Different dialects and shit.”
“Warren said Deep One Language isn’t all that hard to grasp.”
“Warren’s a Monster nerd. Probably dated a few himself.”
Max could atleast attest to that accusation, granted it always seemed like some of these relationships never last too long. When the witch had met one of the Babadook’s at a Hot Topic, she had explained that they didn’t see much of a future in him. He didn’t do anything bad to them, he just wasn’t engaging.
“So what do you want to do now?” The Witch asked
“Now…” Chloe smiled as she crawled to the fridge and opened it up to reveal a bag of rice and fish, “Now we are making Sushi.”
Both girls got started on the ingredients, following the instructions that Chloe had found online to the letter (well, as close to the letter as they could). Inbetween all of this, Chloe had to ask the following: “So, what about you?”
“What about me?”
“You ever dated someone before?”
Max didn’t wanted to say it outloud but… well, Chloe was the only answer to that question. Granted, it was weird that neither she nor Max have fully said anything yet. This was date number she-forgot-after-a-couple-of-dates and…
“What about you?”
Chloe didn’t push it as she was carefully rolling up the rice and thinking about the answer real carefully. “I did once. She was… the coolest person I knew.”
“Oh really, cooler than me?”
“Oh, she wasn’t as invested into Romantasy and Magical gods like you! But she had that energy to her, the kind that said ‘I like you because I do. I don’t need you to be a mermaid or a human, all that matters is we like each other back.’ Like, true love shit.”
Max was feeling a bit jealous about this revelation but she tried not to let it get to her, especially since the conversation did start have a “once” in the paragraph. That should mean it’s not ongoing, right?
“What happened?”
“Well… We started having some disagreements. She wanted me to come with live with her on land but I wanted her to stay here. I guess true love only works if one compromises instead of both. And considering she worked at a Pawn Shop… I don’t think that gets you enough cash for a Mermaid lifestyle.”
All these details made Max’s brain do some calculations… Was she talking about that one woman she gave a fortune rune for the dolphin? Maybe it was best not to ask. She simply apologized for Chloe’s loss, which the mermaid didn’t seem all that bothered with.
“If i’m being honest… I think she missed out.”
“Oh really? So you’re not feeling too dizzy yourself?”
“Nah, It wears off after a while. Especially when I’m hanging around you and all this sushi.” Max had to raise her creation up to Chloe, seemed to be blushing at the gesture.
“I… really appreciate you.” Chloe said outloud.
“I appreciate you more.” Max returned the gesture back. “I even think you’re cute.”
“I think you’re cute even without the witch hat.”
“I love your tail, it compliments your hair.”
“I love it when you get to sing.”
“And I love your shitty Little Mermaid is my Biography jokes.”
“I love you!”
Chloe and Max stood there, chewing on that sentence carefully while the boat continued to rock back and forth. It was a sentence both of them were waiting for the other to say, something that took an eternity to finally hear from the both of them. As the witch looked down on the mermaid, she quickly wrapped her arms around her and planted her lips with Chloe’s. Both embraced each other and held on to that kiss as if it the moment they would spit, it would run away and it would never come back. And when they finally pulled away from each other, they were overcomed with a warmness that was electrifying. In the end, it was Max who had broken the silence with “Took you long enough…”