Chapter 9
Chilling Reactions
The next morning came about, and Amelia knew she was running out of time with her cousins about the situation they are faced with. She realized that the day after tomorrow was when she and her family would be heading back home to Lewes. Meredith had already fully transformed into a mermaid while she and Lyn were in the process of transitioning themselves.
"You can't leave, Amelia. You can't leave us with what is going on among us three,"
"I don't have much choice in the matter, Lyn. I have to go back sometime."
"Why so you can be back with your boyfriend? What will he do when he finds out that you're part fish!?" Lynae replied harshly.
"I don't know! But I also can't say to mom and dad, 'hey I change my mind, I want to stay here a bit longer'. Those tickets are round trip, and I doubt they could cancel one of them for me."
"But school is about to begin for us, what happens if we encounter with water in public? How are we supposed to hide that?" Meredith asked worryingly.
"Again, I don't know. What I do know is we shouldn't prolong our transition. Otherwise our parents will find us unconscious and drive us to the hospital. Then the worst case scenario will play on from there."
"Do you think it will hurt us?"
"I'm not sure, Meredith wouldn't know since she was unconscious while that was taking place at the time. But I'll go first to keep your mind at ease," Amelia said while looking down at the tub and turned on the water.
"Yeah I don't even recollect getting into the tub or the bathroom for that matter," Meredith added.
The tub was full of lukewarm water and Amelia took a deep breath before climbing in the tub. She hesitantly climbed in shaking and then sat herself down in the tub. She waited while looking at her feet impatiently.
"How do you feel?" Lynae asked.
"I don't feel anything, my skin stopped itching once I got in the water, but I didn't change yet."
"Well, maybe like our symptoms, our transition times vary. Maybe you might take a little longer,"
"I know one thing, it feels really good, like my body just wants to melt with the water,"
"Oookayyyy," Lynae said while looking at her cousin weirdly.
Amelia then submerged her head underwater and stayed there for a long time. Lynae grew concerned but she was scared of touching the water.
"Mia, come on, quit scaring me, get out,"
"Mia?" Meredith tried calling to her.
"Amelia! Get out!"
"Drag her out before she drowns!" Meredith pleaded her sister.
"And what if something happens to me when I touch the water?!"
"And risk that over your drowning relative?! If you won't, I will!" Meredith began trying to pull her out but Lynae stopped her.
"Stop, stop, okay, I'll do it, we don't need you going back to your tail,"
Lynae dipped her hand and arms to cradle Amelia's head to place it on the edge of the tub. She started sweating after getting into contact with the water. Amelia stared blankly at Lynae as she was being repositioned in the tub. Then all of a sudden, Lynae started to wheeze while trying to breathe.
"Lyn, what's wrong?" Meredith asked.
"I...can't...breathe..."
Lynae then collapsed on the floor clutching to her chest.
"Lyn? LYN!"
Meredith got Amelia out of the tub switched Lynae into it. After she got in contact with the water again, she turned back into a mermaid. She struggled to push her sister in the tub while repositioning semi-shocked Amelia on the bathroom floor.
"You guys are going to be the death of me," Meredith mumbled.
Lynae's breathing pattern became normal after she got some of the bath water into her mouth, but she was starting to transition. Her legs fused together and realigned to become a tail. The tail was different from Meredith's. It was icy blue with shimmers of darker blue on it. The end of the tail was forked but only midway. Her scales on her body was hard to see as they were nearly clear or white.
Lynae started coughing out the bath water snapping out of being somewhat unconscious. When Lynae saw her tail, she gave a light screech and then the water surrounding her froze over leaving everything but above the shoulders stuck with the ice. She started shivering.
"W-w-what is th-this?" Lynae tried speaking.
"Ice"
"I-I c-can see that, b-but why is it h-here?" Lynae tried speaking.
"My guess is the same way how that earthquake was triggered when I freaked out about this as well,"
"G-g-get me out of this,"
"No can do, you got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out of it,"
"You l-l-little..."
"You told me to calm down to stop the earthquake, now I'm telling you to calm yourself down to melt the ice, now chill out... wait..." Meredith caught herself.
"I'm m-m-a going t-t-to kill you,"
"You c-c-can't if y-y-you are still in a popsicle now can you?" Meredith mocked her.
Lynae calmed herself down and the ice slowly melted away into water. Then she tried grabbing Meredith by the neck.
"You're dead"
"Hey I was trying to help you out!"
Lynae lunged out of the tub and started wrangling Meredith by the neck, but after a while of wrestling each other, they were reminded that Amelia still needed help.
"Dry yourself up, and I'll help you get her in next," Lynae instructed Meredith.
Meredith nodded and dried herself back to having legs again. Both helped Amelia in the tub, but Lynae handled her this time when she had to get in contact with the water. The girls worried because nothing was happening and Amelia was still unresponsive.
Hours have passed, and Amelia began transforming as she began to wake up.
"Mia?" Lynae tried getting her attention.
"L-lyn, Mere, what's going on?"
"You passed out when you submerged underwater, and from the looks of it, you're finally transforming,"
"Finally?" Amelia jumped at that word.
"Yeah, we thought you were going to transition just how I did when I got into contact with the water, but you took longer," Meredith explained.
"And instead of you transitioning first, I did," Lynae said showing her tail.
"I'm sorry you guys, dragging you all in this situation all because of these stupid visions,"
"Honestly, I'd be disturbed if I was told to go to a certain spot at a certain time in my head as well," Meredith reassured her.
"Did anything happen to me while I was out?"
"No, but from the looks of it, your tail is trying to come in. Look" Lynae pointed out the obvious.
Amelia's legs fused together and changed colors. Her tail ended up being purple with gold trimmings. Her tail fin was very light in a fan shaped figure. The colors were different from purple to gold at the ends of her tail fin. On her base she had golden markings in random places.
"Dang, if that doesn't say majestic, I don't know what does," Meredith gawked at her tail.
Amelia just stared at the tail. She began trying to lift it up and lift it back down.
"Well you're taking this more delicately than we did," Lyn scoffed.
"So what's your secret power?" Meredith asked.
"Excuse me?" Amelia was confused at the question.
"She's wanting to know what happens when you – you know, go berserk" Lynae clarified.
"Did something happen to you, Lyn?"
"Yeah, I ended up freezing the tub along myself with it,"
"Okay, okay, hang on, let me think," Amelia tried concentrating and a flash of purple light went towards the lotion bottle and tipped it over.
Amelia shrieked when she saw it.
"That's freaky," Meredith commented.
"Okay, okay, I have ice powers, Mere can move the ground, and Mia can somehow move inanimate objects. Is this what that sea witch meant about finding more about our true selves?"
"I don't know," Amelia pondered on that idea.
Lyn pulled the drain plug and helped get Amelia out of the tub. Both of them dried off to go back into their human forms. After they all dried up and cleaned the mess in the bathroom, they headed downstairs to see what's going on with the rest of the family.