Fantasy Tales Series: Rise of The Merfolk

Chapter Twenty-Three- Edited

I wrinkled my nose in disgust when I saw where Kalum lived. He didn't  deserve a nice place that I was secretly jealous of. 

It was a decent house- and that's what irked me. I imagined a broken down shack with a peeling paint job and rusty tool strewn everywhere but apparently he had used his Mermen hoarded treasure to fix the place up for himself. Why did the hell did the evil man get a nice place to live in? That wasn't how this story was supposed to work. He was supposed to live in a dump so I could at least feel some sympathy for him. 

'Nice place.' Sophia muttered. She was staring at the well groomed garden that  flourished out the front of his house. It was filled with black pebbles, blooming flowers of deep blues, lavender purples and dusty pinks (I think they were Pansies?) as well as a few garden gnomes popping up here and there. I briefly wondered if he had hired someone to tend to it or whether Kalum had himself a hobby. 

'I can't wait to burn it down to the ground.' I muttered out loud thinking no one would pay attention to me.

'Aqua we're not burning down anything!' Sophia snapped. 'We're just going to give him a wake -up call.'

I scoffed, I knew that. 

'I don't know, I kind of like the burning down idea.' Naomi chuckled humorlessly. I was selfishly relieved that she didn't seem to know my secret, perhaps that was a good thing but I also knew that a part of me still wanted to tell her. I was torn on the subject, ripped apart by logic and emotion fighting over what I should do. 

Lila adjusted her glasses. 'I don't see why violence is necessary here, we can probably chew him out with a strongly worded-,'

'Weren't you just on board for an ass kicking a moment ago?' I asked in confusion.

She shrugged. 'I calmed myself down and thought it through. I don't want to suffer consequences, what if he reported us for assault or  sued us or something?'

I wished I could tell her that it wasn't an issue since he wasn't from this world and probably not living here legally- that call to the police would probably only serve to avenge Naomi more by getting Kalum fined. 

'I can't believe we ever tried to like that guy.' Sophia said. 'We went out to sushi with that ass hat! He was in our dining room eating food Aqua cooked. It was wasted on him.'

'We did it for Naomi.' Lila reminded gently.

'You guys are the best friends ever. I caused so much grief and I -,'

'Naomi, we forgive you.' Sophia interrupted sternly. 'We all make mistakes, we're human.'

Sort of, I thought to myself. 

'We're just glad to have you back.' Lila reached forward from her position in the backseat and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

'Let's go.' Naomi said confidently and stepped out of the parked car. While  Naomi had reassured us that Kalum had never physically hurt her, he had manipulated her while she was under the spell to isolate her from us. If he had it his way, Naomi would have suffered friendless and alone before she died. I was happy that nobody else knew about how close she had been to death though, it would have been a disturbing wake up call. 

Sophia and I got out to follow her and Lila hesitated before Sophia glared at her and she followed. To be fair, I completely understood not wanting to get involved. I also understood the need for justice and I was too invested to look back on our actions-  he could have killed Naomi.

Naomi pounded on the door loudly and we stood behind her. I saw her face flush red with anger and her fists were clenched tightly. I knew she was also still upset at herself for falling for him. Kalum answered the door a moment later with a stupid smirk on his face- like he was expecting us this whole time. His hair was tousled and droopy. He was wearing swimming shorts and a raggedy grey shirt that looked like it had been clawed by bears.