Chapter Text
Eddie… Actually has no idea what in his 21 years of life he did that ended him up on a boat in the middle of the sea with Jason Carver. He didn’t even like Jason all that much. Enough to be acquaintances but nothing close to being actual friends.
To be fair, in their youth they were… less than stellar towards each other. Jason was always so fun to rile up, and Eddie has gone through too many locker pushes and slung words to count.
Yet here they were, sitting on a boat together. Willingly. It was his uncle Wayne’s friend’s boat they were borrowing, Eddie leaning on the metal railing with a fishing pole in his hand.
Yeah, he was fishing, so what? Eddie’s fished ever since he first came to Wayne’s doorstep all those years ago, Wayne showing him how to keep the worm on the hook, how to tease the fish before cranking the reel as fast as his little hands could go to pull it up.
Back then they didn’t even have a boat. It was just him and his uncle on a dock, pulling up whatever was dumb enough to linger around.
The line tugs, Eddie jolting into action.
Jason, who was just nearby eating a mayo sandwich, sits up. “You finally got something freak?”
Eddie ignores him, still pulling up the fish. The rod tip was bending in a deep arc. It must be huge, whatever he caught. Once he got it on board he’ll toss it back. He’d feel bad being the end of such a huge fish that managed to even grow that size.
Jason leans over the side of the boat into the waters below.
“I don’t see anything,” He says.
Eddie grunts, straining at the force. “No way Watson, really?” He says sarcastically.
Jason rolls his eyes at him. “Don’t use that tone with me Munson.”
Eddie sticks his tongue out at him.
He still doesn’t see anything come up even after a good ten seconds. Eddie tugs the pole again. “Grab the net, Carver! Grab the net!”
Jason wraps his sandwich, if it could even be called a sandwich, in its paper before grabbing the large net that was propped next to him. He dunks it in the water, prepared to net whatever Eddie managed to pull close to the surface.
“I think I see it!” Eddie shouts, a glimmer of something catching his eyes beneath the normal blue of the ocean. “It looks huge!” He didn’t think he’d catch a huge fish, he wasn’t any kind of professional. The lure he was using was pretty basic as well, just some grey jelly thing with a floppy tail he got at the bait shop.
Eddie pulls back on the line once more, the shining scales under the water twinkling for a second. Jason leans forward more, trying to get the net to go around the catch.
“Uh, Munson?”
“What-” Eddie inquires, but he gets his answer soon enough when the boat began to violently rock back and forth. Jason steadies himself on the boat with a long ‘woah’, gripping the net pole by one hand and the boat rail with the other.
Eddie forces himself to rock with the boat as the tugging was getting worse and he didn’t want to lose the rod. He was borrowing it so losing it would be real bad. He pulls at the rod again, hoping that it was just the water rocking and not something like an orca coming to attack them for fun.
The boat continues to rock forcefully. It gets harder to even stand in place, much less keep ahold of the pole. He caught something too huge.
“Munson just cut your losses!” Jason shouts. “I don’t think you’re pulling it up anytime soon!”
Eddie’s arms were shaking by now. He thinks of his choices in a split second. Eddie releases the rod, watching it sail overboard into the water. The force of the rocking finally knocks him onto his back, Jason still clinging to the rails.
“You alright there?” He asks, Eddie nodding as he shoves an arm behind his head to keep it from smacking against the wall.
The boat eventually quells its rocking after what felt too long for the both of them. Eddie pushes himself up into a sitting position, feeling his head for any damage. He felt fine save for the light throbbing.
Jason drops the net and kneels in front of Eddie, worried. “Maybe we should head back to shore now. The weather must be getting worse or something.”
“I lost the rod…” Eddie mumbles.
“So? It wasn’t like you were pulling it up anyways.” Jason stands up, looking carefully over the edge. “It’s still sunny out, did we catch ourself in some ocean rip?” He questions.
“We’re too far from shore to be in a rip,” Eddie says as he pushes himself up to his feet. “Must have ran over some pod.”
“Pod? Like dolphins? Wouldn’t we have seen them?”
“Or an orca. Whatever it was, we might have caught its pod mate or something and it was retaliating.” Eddie shrugs, making something up. It could be plausible, he wasn’t a marine biologist or anything but he did understand that some sea animals were quite intelligent.
Jason frowns. “Poor orca. We just ran a creature of God over. And now its friend just has a hook in it.” He looks to Eddie. “You’re adding to the pollution to the environment.”
“Wh- You told me to let go!” Eddie exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air.
Jason shrugs, rounding the boat and getting behind the wheel. “Still contributing!” He starts it up and starts driving it back towards the docks.
Eddie rolls his eyes, taking a seat on the bench. “I could call mutiny if I wanted to. Throw you overboard and feed you to the fishes.”
“Yeah?” Jason looks over his shoulder. “Then who’s gonna drive the boat?”
Eddie squints. “I can learn.” Driving a boat couldn’t be too much different than driving a car, right?
Jason scoffs. “I don’t believe you. Besides, do you want to be charged a murderer when I suddenly disappear at sea? It’d sound suspicious, and with your whole… you know.” He waves a hand towards Eddie. “Nobody would prove it different.” Jason says.
Eddie kicks both of Jason’s shin. Jason shoots a glare over his shoulder in return. Eddie grins like a shark.
“Freak.”
“Normie.”
They coast over the water in silence after that, Eddie thinking about what he was going to say to his uncle about the rod. Wayne would forgive him, but Eddie had promised he’d take good care of it.
The boat suddenly rocks again. “What’d we hit this time?” Jason asks. Eddie looks around, but they were still in open waters. There was nothing they could have hit.
“I don’t-”
The boat rocks again, Eddie hearing the sound of something thudding into it from beneath.
Then it settles. The boat resumes gently swaying.
Jason looks around. “Huh, must’ve been a fluke.”
The sun above suddenly disappears, Eddie looking up. He jolts backwards in fear, grabbing onto the metal handles.
“What the hell is that?!” Jason screams, his attention also on the strange silhouette. “Is that a-”
The figure lands on the boat, making it bounce. It looked like a man from the waist up, the lower half covered in rich blue and red scales, the fin of its tail golden with black at the end of it. The fins on its back and sides were a vibrant blue with red splotches on it, a silver ring attached to the dorsal. The tail suddenly dissolves into two thick tanned legs, the man standing up with a wild grin. By pure luck, his hips were covered by shorts.
By sheer misfortune, they were the tightest pair of shorts Eddie has ever seen. He forces his eyes away from the shorts that left nothing to imagination to look up into eyes that were near neon blue.
“Hey.” The strange man greets, still smiling.
Jason is shocked into silence, but he still manages to raise a hand in greeting. Eddie gulps.
The man didn’t seem all that worried on manners, only stepping closer to the two humans. He was still wet, making his skin shiny in the sun. Eddie silently notices that the guy had blue stripes all along his shoulders and down his arm, and red ones on his torso. His legs were a blend of them, making him look almost tiger-like.
“So, you the two idiots that caught a hook in my husband’s back?” His voice goes deep and growly, his eyes narrowing. He’s still grinning despite it, though it felt more predatory.
“Well-” Eddie starts.
Jason, the snitch, immediately points to Eddie. “It was him! He was the one fishing! I had nothing to do with it!”
“Wh-” Eddie twists to stare at Jason, betrayed. “You-”
Jason was pale despite the redness of his cheeks and forehead from the sun, trembling. “So- So whatever you’re doing here do it to him, I had nothing to do with it!”
The man cackles. “Is that so…?” He looks between them, eyes glittering. “Though, I’m pretty sure my starfish told me there were two people hanging out over the side…”
Jason drops his arm. Eddie nervously laughs.
He can’t believe his first ever encounter with a mermaid would end up with being threatened. Didn’t even think they were real. Well, he could imagine them being real, but to actually see them in real life and prove their existence was an entirely different matter.
“Look, it was an accident. Really! So… So can we let bygones be bygones?” Jason clasps his hands together, begging the mermaid who just laughs at him.
“An accident? Hm, I don’t know about that, landie. All I know is that my Stevie was swimming and suddenly he’s gotten a hook to the ass and it’s just yanking him up! You know what that feels like?” He glares at them.
Eddie answers when the mermaid continues to look at them expectantly. “Like being stabbed?”
“And yanked on. You’re lucky it was such a tiny little thing. I’d be a raging barracuda if it tore up his pretty little tail.” He lifts his hair up, and Eddie can see the hook sitting pretty around the part where the ear met the head. The man takes it off, the silver lure still hanging off of it. “Ah, so you recognise this?” He shakes the hook.
“I’m sorry,” Eddie apologises, even though he’s not sure if it would be well received. “But it was an accident- It was! Cross my heart hope to die.”
“Hm, whatever.” The man tosses the hook aside, the lure making it bounce around on the boat. “All I care ‘bout is a little bit of…”
The man suddenly lunges forward, Jason and Eddie scattering in opposite directions. The man stares at them both with a slow turn of his head, laughing lowly. His hands were held like claws, and Eddie’s pretty sure there were sharp nails on them.
“’s just you and me out here, sailor. Open ocean, and the only way out is down. And trust me.” The man sneers. “That isn’t gonna save ya.”
Eddie feels a chill run down his spine. This mermaid meant business, he’s certain of it. He was an okay swimmer, but this was an aquatic creature. It can swim.
He’ll lose the moment he touches the water, he’s certain of it.
The mermaid looks between them again, eyes sharp.
He then lunges for Jason, who screams and sidesteps. The man smashes into the railing, Jason running around the boat and towards Eddie.
The mermaid spins around, licking his teeth and charging once more.
Eddie runs away, Jason right behind him. The man doesn’t seem all that able to take turns easily on the boat. It was their only advantage here.
They keep going back and forth, the mermaid only getting angrier and angrier.
Eddie can’t help but laughs, sticking his tongue out at the mermaid.
He wasn’t watching where he was going though, his foot landing on Jason’s mayo sandwich. Eddie screams as he loses his balance, falling over.
Arms wrap around him, and suddenly he’s airborne again.
Cold water envelops his body as he crashes into the ocean, Eddie sinking downwards. He tries to turn, but the glimpse of something shiny catches his attention.
Something grabs at him. Eddie panics, kicking and flailing desperately to get away from whatever just touched him. It only causes whatever was holding onto him to grip deeper, pain shooting up his arms.
Above him, the water break again with another shadow diving in.
Eddie screams as the swaying lights above him suddenly gets farther away from him much too fast, his head pounding. The other shadow follows after, Eddie getting a glimpse of what could be blond hair.
Bubbles escape past his lips, drifting upwards. Saltwater fills his mouth, Eddie choking on it.
He’s drowning. Eddie wriggles on last desperate time, trying to free himself.
All he hears before it goes dark is amused laughter.
Eddie sits up, panting for breath.
He coughs a few times, wheezing in between.
He felt like he was drowning.
Eddie takes a few more deep breaths, squeezing his eyes shut. It was just a dream, it was just a-
Eddie freezes in place, lifting his head up and looking around.
This was…
This wasn’t his room.
Eddie looks around wildly, looking at the walls that looked like he was staring at the inside of an oyster. It was pearlescent, the wall mostly white with layers of sandy brown and soft blue. The bed he was on was unfamiliar, more a bowl with something spongy in it. He was covered in what looked like seaweed woven together, like this was all some weird ocean themed hotel room. Everything was lit up, but Eddie didn’t see a lightbulb above him at all.
Eddie throws the seaweed aside, wiping his hand on his pants and crawling out of the strange bed. The ground was sand, actual honest to goodness sand.
His shoes were missing, he notices mutely.
Eddie squishes the sand between his toes. It was quite soft. He felt okay to walk along it, looking around the bare room. There was really nothing of note in the room save for the weird bed and the walls, so he goes to what seemed to be the door to leave.
Except there was no knob. Eddie stares at the door, but there was nothing but smooth grain. He runs his hand across the surface, just staring at it.
“I’m dreaming. I’m still dreaming.” Eddie says under his breath. “This is just a weird dream.”
He grabs his side and pinches it hard.
Eddie yelps, letting go. No, this was real.
He was locked in.
Eddie takes a shaky breath in, still petting the door.
“I’m trapped. I’m. Am I dead? Oh I am so definitely dead. I died and my hell is ocean themed.” Eddie takes a couple shaky steps back, grabbing at his hair and tugging. “I’m dead and trapped in ocean purgatory.”
Eddie shakes his head, pacing around the room. “What kind of sick joke is this? Hey, Jesus if you’re listening uh, what the hell man?” He says to the ceiling.
Eddie kicks at the sand. He takes another shaky breath, walking over to the sponge bed and sitting down.
At least hell was soft. That was something.
Eddie groans, folding over and holding his hand in his hands. He knew it, the moment he hit the water he was dead.
They killed him, he’s probably being eaten by them right now. That’s how it went, right? Mermaids dragged their victims down and made a meal out of them. Stories of entire ships disappearing into the waves and hundreds of sailors drowning in the waves below.
And now he was the most recent victim. Him and-
Jason. Was Jason okay? Did he get out alright? He couldn’t tell.
Eddie hopes he did. He didn’t particularly want Jason’s death on his conscience as well.
As he sits there thinking, he hears the sound of sand being pushed.
“Oh, the prisoner’s awake~”
Eddie jerks his head up, looking in the direction of the door. Standing there was a rather short man with freckles littering his body. He was dressed similar to the mermaid Eddie had encountered, though his shorts were a yellow-brown with strange ringed spots on it instead of the vibrant red and blue of the other one.
This must be another mermaid then.
The other mermaid leans against the doorframe, eyes travelling over him. “So, you’re the one that hit Stevie?”
Word travels fast it seems.
The mermaid holds eye contact with him, frowning slightly. “You know, you’re lucky he found you and your friend kind of cute. Otherwise the pod would have been celebrating with fresh dinner.”
Eddie gulps. So it was all true.
His mind soon catches up to him, and Eddie flushes. “Excuse me?”
The man smiles, though it seemed mocking. “You heard me, prisoner. Steve found you cute, so made us put you two in some rooms to recuperate.”
Eddie blinks a few times, mouth hanging open. “So… So I’m not dead?” He asks.
The comment makes the man laugh. “What? I wish you were. But no, you’re just in some underwater cave. Alive. Breathing.” He waves a hand. “You’re like the dolphins and the whales.”
“Underwater?” Eddie repeats. He’s underwater?
The man nods, grinning like a shark. “Yeah. So even if you try to leave, you can’t. Not unless you’re good at ascending from the deep ocean.” The man laughs.
There goes all hope of escape. He’s dead meat either way by the looks of it.
“Oh, don’t look so glum. Steve ain’t mean if he likes you. Bleeding heart, makes him soft sometimes.” The man rolls his eyes. “Don’t know what he sees in you. You’re not particularly pretty to me. But what Stevie says, goes.” The man closer, grabbing Eddie’s hand. “Now come on, the King is waiting.”
Eddie lets out an undignified yelp as he’s suddenly pulled up. Even though the mermaid was shorter than him he still yanked him up with ease, dragging him out of the room. Out of the room it was clear it really was just some cave, Eddie surrounded by rocks. He turns his head to look behind him, balking at the sheer wall covered in rocky outcroppings, shiny white doors plastered at even intervals. It almost looked like a prison of sorts.
His brain again catches up to him. “Hold on, did you say-?”
“Are you deaf? I can’t keep repeating for you forever, prisoner. Now come on, my boy gets cranky if he has to wait any longer.”
Eddie clamps his mouth shut.
They approach the end of the cave, which dips into a large pool of water. Eddie can’t even see into it. He plants his feet into the rough rock.
“Uh-uh, you’re not dragging me down there. No way, no how. No.”
“Ugh, you’re impossible.” The mermaid rolls his eyes. “Fine, if you’re gonna pussyfoot then I’ll ease your fears, ‘kay?” He grabs Eddie’s face.
Suddenly lips smash into his. Eddie freezes, but instead of feeling a kiss he feels warm air suddenly blow into his mouth instead. It tastes heavily of fish. Eddie could gag, but manages to stop himself from throwing up in the other guy’s mouth.
The mermaid pulls away with a sneer, then yanks his arm, Eddie falling forward into the water.
He screams as he hits the freezing cold water, and something grabs at his arm. Something angrily chirps in his ear, Eddie barely able to see in the water before he’s being yanked forward.
Eddie holds his breath as long as he can.
Something smacks the back of his head. He takes a breath in shock. He expects the feeling of drowning again but-
But he’s breathing.
“What?” Eddie says in the water, which sounded like nothing, bubbles rushing out of his mouth and past his face.
There was a rapid clicking noise next to him, like someone was laughing.
Eddie glares into the darkness. He can barely see anything, but he can still make out a silhouette of the mermaid.
Water whips around him, and Eddie just has to trust the mermaid that it wasn’t about to leave him for dead.
In the distance, he sees a strange miracle. It was light, actual light. It looked almost like a castle underwater, lighting up the entire ocean floor. It was surrounded by coral and seaweed that shot up to the sky, Eddie marvelling at the sight.
The closer they got to it, the better Eddie could see his own surroundings. The freckles mermaid was still dragging him along, the spots that Eddie saw on his shorts now covering his shoulders like pads. Up close, the mermaid had orange eyes, vibrant and almost glowing in the darkness.
They soon reach the actual castle , Eddie staring in awe at the size and beauty. He could have never imagined something as grand as this, the castle clearly holding an oceanic theme. There was large bubbles of anemones at the front gate, the mermaid looking at him. He makes another chirping noise that Eddie doesn’t understand before he looks away, mouth just hanging open.
The gate suddenly began drifting down, opening. The mermaid doesn’t even wait for it to open completely, yanking Eddie up and into the gap.
There were so many mermaids. They all gape at the pair, especially at Eddie. Eddie ignores their gazes, the mermaid still dragging him along.
Two mermaids dressed in shell armour nod at him before stepping away from a large double door. For mermaids Eddie’s pretty impressed that everything felt almost human. The mermaid shoves at the door, which swings open and reveals the inside. It led straight into a corridor, but further in Eddie could see a mimicry of stairs, fashioned almost like a mansion on the surface.
Either way, Eddie hasn’t been in something this fancy ever. The mermaid leaves him right at the door, swimming away.
Eddie paddles his way into following. The guards were definitely staring at him funny.
He marvels at the interior. It really was something out of a fairytale, everything an ocean version of what Eddie expected the inside of a real castle would be like.
The mermaid swims to be in front of him, gesturing him to follow. Eddie almost wants to disobey.
Eddie follows the mermaid anyways. He didn’t want to get in trouble. He doesn’t know what the consequence is, and he’d rather not tempt the beasts.
The mermaid guides him through another hall until he stopped in front of another set of doors, pushing it open.
Eddie blinks as he’s shoved into the room, and the water suddenly ceases to exists. Eddie falls over, landing on the ground. Someone laughs, Eddie jerking his head up.
Laying on an absurdly large clam shell was that mermaid who attacked him and Jason, tail draped over the edge.
“Come on, don’t make a fool of yourself in front of the king!” The mermaid shouts, Eddie pushing himself up. He glances behind them, the water cut off like a barrier behind him.
The mermaid that brought him here was floating in mid-air. Eddie is in shock at the sight. He looks at Eddie, smirking.
“Hey, eyes forward, prisoner.” He points his finger back towards the front, Eddie turning around.
The opposite end of the room was set up just like what Eddie expected of a throne room, with a platform raised higher than the floor. There was no stairs nor chairs, the ‘thrones’ replaced by those large clam shells and the platform cut off suddenly at the edge.
There was another mermaid there, staring right at Eddie with a tight expression. His brow was wrapped in gold, shaped like branching coral with shells decorating the right side. His tail was draped over the edge of the shell seat just like the other one.
“Come closer, human.” The king mermaid says, lifting a hand and crooking his finger at him.
Eddie takes a few steps closer. The freckled mermaid follows him, swimming in the air.
The king mermaid leans over the edge of the shell, looking him over. “Seems like you got here fine. Thank you Tommy.”
The freckled mermaid smiles. “You’re welcome Stevie.”
Stevie smiles back at Tommy, which disappears upon looking at Eddie again. “You know why you’re here?”
Eddie shakes his head, though he kind of knows why. Stevie smirks, sitting up more. “Well, I don’t know about you, but my back knows full well why.” He reaches for something in the clam shell before throwing it at Eddie.
It was the fishing rod, the line cut off at the end. Eddie takes a step back before it smacked against his feet.
“Look, uh- Your Highness. It was an accident! Really. I didn’t even think I would hook a mermaid…” Eddie tries to explain it again.
“Well, accident or not, it hurt. You kept tugging that infernal thing.” Stevie crosses his arms, pouting. It was oddly kind of cute, though Eddie says nothing. “Imagine if you had gotten my skin! I would have had you and your companion for dinner.”
Speaking of which- “Where is he?”
Stevie raises an eyebrow. “Where is who?”
“The guy that was with me! Jason.”
“Jason…” Stevie leans on the edge of the shell. “I’ll talk with him later.”
“So he’s alive?”
The king nods. Eddie can’t help but breath a sigh of relief at that.
He looks at the king, not sure whether he should bow or what. Eddie still has one burning question: His fate. “What are you gonna do with me?”
Stevie tilts his head, smiling.
“I think I’m gonna keep you.”
“Wh- What?!” Eddie sputters.
Stevie nods, and he finally comes off the seashell he was laying in, swimming in the air like it was water towards Eddie. His tail was long, like a lung dragon, the thin tail a sunset gold and orange with blue stripes running down closer to his stomach. There were leafy appendages coming off of his body as well, two large ones sprouting from his back.
Eddie is rooted to the ground as the mermaid circles him, one of the appendages tickling his skin.
“You have a cute face when you’re asleep and kind of drowning to death. I think you’d look nice by my side, don’t you think so Tommy?”
Tommy just shrugs in response. “It’s your decision, Stevie.”
“See? So I’m gonna keep you. Your friend too.” Stevie nods to himself, his hands grabbing Eddie’s shoulders. “Besides, it’s payment for hurting me with that nasty hook.”
Eddie is trembling in the mermaid’s grip, the mermaid smiling. “So what do you say, hm? I’ll give you the choice, you want to stay with me?”
Eddie opens his mouth, nervously asking, “What happens if I say no?”
Stevie hums, his hands tightening around Eddie’s shoulder as he leans in. “Then I’ll just eat you right here. Daddy’s awful hungry you know…”
Eddie yanks himself out of the mermaid’s grip, though he near trips himself over Stevie’s tail. “Ea- Then I accept! I’ll stay- Please don’t kill me. I don’t want to be eaten.” He sputters out, pleading for his life. He didn’t want to die by being eaten to death, it wasn’t a pretty thought.
“Mmm, good boy~” Stevie pats at his shoulder, smiling and swimming back towards the shell. “I knew you’d make the right choice. Tommy, take him away. Put him in one of the special rooms. Carol should be around with the other one.” Steve giggles, eyes like crescents. “Let’s hope your little friend says the same. I’d hate to separate friends. I’ll see you later, handsome~” He wiggles his fingers, Tommy grabbing his arms and dragging him backwards.
He’s plunged back into the water, Tommy releasing him just to take his wrist and drag him through.
They pass another mermaid, this one a female. Eddie jolting when he sees Jason being dragged by her. Jason stares back at Eddie in horror, but it was only for a brief moment before they’re separated, Jason disappearing into the strange throne room.
Tommy brings him to the second floor, opening a door. It led upwards, Tommy shoving Eddie in and pointing. Eddie just nods and swims upwards.
He gasps out as he hits open air, pulling himself out of the small pool. Looking around he finds himself in a small room quite similar to the one he woke up in, except there was more things inside. It looked just like a prison cell, now that Eddie looks around, finding a bowl of water that looked to be the toilet system for him in the corner. It was lit up by an unknown source of light as well, Eddie sitting down on the spongy bed.
He takes a shuddering breath in, then lets it all out, crying out.
Eddie was truly and utterly trapped now. He wasn’t getting out.
He already misses his uncle. His friends.
“I-I’m never g-gonna see them again,” Eddie gasps out, curling up.
He sobs some more, until he finally tires himself out.
It wouldn’t hurt to lay down a bit, would it?
Eddie sniffles, laying down on the soft bed.
He stares at the weird pearl walls before his eyes drift shut, unaware of the water entrance being disturbed, someone popping up out of the water.